Embarrassing Army website removed from the web.

[Nlighten1]

This is from The Federation of American Scientists.

The Army has taken one of its popular web sites offline after the Washington Post reported on a critical account of U.S. intelligence posted on the site.

The web site of the Center for Army Lessons Learned
(call.army.mil) was promptly disabled following a Post story about an "unusually blunt" report on the inadequacies of U.S. military intelligence in Iraq.

"We're doing some maintenance" on the site, an Army spokeswoman at Fort Leavenworth told Secrecy News initially. She then acknowledged that the move was prompted by the Post story on October 25.

The web site should be back up by the end of the week, she said, but the report cited in the Post story "will not be available."

However, the report itself, on "Observations from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom," from the October 2003 CALL Newsletter, has been helpfully posted by the Washington Post here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/03-27.pdf

It was first reported in "Intelligence Problems in Iraq Are Detailed" by Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, October 25:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14278-2003Oct24.html

[PennyLane]

1. Holy Smoke!

No doubt whoever was responsible for putting that little tidbit of
info on the web, is probably in some serious hot water. But things
are going so well in Iraq.........aren't they?:thumbsdown:

[7th_Sephiroth]

5. he's probably

been shipped to F. Leavenworth, or iraq

[elfin]

10. Nah - Gitmo

obviously a traitor and probably a terrorist.

[NJCher]

2. role of constructive criticism

I scanned the file and read in detail some of the report and this publication appears to me to be a good attempt to assess where things are going wrong. It is good to see they are at least acknowledging the problems and making an attempt to solve them.

The statement about some of the field personnel having little or no analytic skill didn't surprise me. Today's students have to be taught from the ground up. Right now I am having trouble with a group of students who can't even do the basic analysis for a classification essay or a comparison and contrast. Once I sit down with them and show them, they're fine and they understand but is this a job for someone teaching college-level juniors?


Cher

[Nlighten1]

6. Well...

When I went to college I took several remedial Math and English courses to fill in the gaps of my public school education. I don't think it is the fault of your students more along the lines of the system they were brought up in. Perhaps you can add a tutorial on how you can do these assignments into your class. If they don't learn it from you where will they learn it from?

[NJCher]

13. I do teach it

Sheesh, what kind of a teacher am I if I let that go?

So far it's been sitting down with the student one-on-one. What is fun is to see how excited they get when they figure out how to do it.

Another tool I use is...are you ready for this? Click and Clack. They are great analytically. Just listen to them hone in on a problem.


Cher

[Paschall]

3. The report is also available at GlobalSecurity.org

You can view the PDF in HTML format here (Google).

Or download it from GlobalSecurity at this link:
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/03-27_call_op-outreach.pdf

[KharmaTrain]

4. Who's The Best Source For Real Iraq Military Info?

I'm very concerned about how exposed our troops are and the troubling reports that trickle out. I know Will Pitt is watching this closely as well as others and I wanted an idea of where others here are going to get info. I've been hitting hackworth.com regularly and the message board there is overflowing with worried families.

Thanks and cheers!

[Paschall]

7. Military Families Speak Out

http://www.mfso.org

Estripes (the online edition of the military mag Stars and Stripes also often runs very revealing and critical letters to the editor)
http://www.estripes.com

[OldSoldier]

9. Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper

It's a little tabloid-size paper that's published in two editions: the European Command's S&S, which is called "Stars and Stripes," and the Pacific Command's S&S, which is called "Pacific Stars and Stripes."

[teryang]

8. It's fun to be on the door kicking team/no linguists

<THTs rely on the rap port they gen er ate with the lo cal pop u la tion andthe abil ity to col lect in for ma tion. Putt ing them on a door kicker team ru ins that rap port andthere would be no ad van tage to them col lect ing in for ma tion. Be ing on a door kicker team can be fun, but with crit i cal short ages of HUMINT mil i tary oc cu pa tional spe cial ties (MOSs)through out the Army, es pe cially in Iraq, it would be more ben e fi cial to have them per form ingtheir mission after the site takedown.> Implications: (Training, Leadership.) <Soldiers must be used in rolesfor which they have been educated and trained. Mal-utilization of personnel can hamper mission effectiveness.>

<***Issue: Iraq/Afghanistan – Interpreters.Ob ser va tion: The lack of com pe tent in ter pret ers through out the the ater im peded op er a tions. When in ter pret ers were in te grated into op er a tions, they were not used to their full capability.Dis cus sion: Bot tom line, the U.S. Army does not have a frac tion of the lin guists re quired toop er ate in the Cen tral Com mand (CENTCOM) area of re spon si bil ity (AOR). We have to rely on con tract lin guists for Dari, Pashtun, and the nu mer ous di a lects of Arabic. This de vel ops into abig prob lem, be cause, not only do you have to have flu ent lin guists, but you also have to ob tainone that can com pre hend mil i tary terms and op er a tions. In most cases, the in ter pret ers also needsome de gree of phys i cal stam ina to sup port mil i tary op er a tions in a field en vi ron ment. Laugh ifyou will, but many of the lin guists with which I con versed were con ve nience store work ers andcab driv ers, most over the age of 40. None had any pre vi ous mil i tary ex pe ri ence. Most mil i tarylin guists work ing in Iraq and Af ghan i stan only pos sess, on the av er age, a 2/2 Forces Com mand(FORSCOM) rat ing (which ba si cally gives them the ability to tell the difference between a burro and a burrito).>

Great post, thanks. The proliferation of incompatible computer systems and software is also nothing new.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. i hope somebody grabbed it & saved it off the site before it was scrubbed!

and your first link is a pdf....can you post a hmtl if there is one?

[teryang]

12. Paschall's google link

...worked for me. You're right it should be saved.