ISIS Puts The "isis" in Crisis

With the terrorist extremist organization ISIS’ (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) growing transgressions it’s important to maintain knowledgeable of what’s occurring on and who’s responsible and why, to prevent unnecessary harm to the innocent and effectively solve a very real threat to the United States and the world.

During the Iraq War the United States conquered Iraq because of alleged affiliations with weapons of mass destruction and terrorist organizations after the September 11 attacks in 2001. After the United States overthrew the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, they turned the government to the Shias (a sect of Islam), this however resulted in the Shias oppressing the Sunni’s (another sect of Islam). This led to a gruesome Iraqi civil war in 2006 where the Sunni’s rebelled. Since then only more violence and destabilization in the region has occurred.

ISIS was one of many groups that came into Iraq during the civil war. ISIS is supplied and funded by Qatar an ally of the United States that we sell large amount of militarized equipment to. ISIS has well trained fanatical soldiers that are responsible for the recent Paris attacks (link to article) and many other atrocities around the world. Their goal is to destroy anything that differs from their extreme beliefs to create one super Islamic (Sunni) State which encompasses Syria and Iraq as of now. ISIS has demonstrated itself as the most fanatic and violent terrorist organization yet which is causing them to even lose support from other terrorist organizations but unfortunately they’ve already gained enough power to support and continue themselves.

Since then more world super powers have become involved in the region. This is causing things to escalate quickly. Countries like the United States and Russia are supporting opposing groups. Russia is now taking a bolder presence in Syria and attacking targets. BBC recently covered the incident that unfolded as Turkey downed a Russian war plane for flying allegedly Turkish airspace (link to article). Turkey being a NATO ally with the United States and an important economic partner with Russia really strains multiple relations after this incident. France after the Paris attacks are planning more targets to strategically bomb in Syria, BBC article here. With the various groups and world super powers becoming involved the situation is becoming more and more potent for global catastrophe (one of ISIS’ goals). Everyone is against ISIS, but there are many other groups within the conflict that have conflicting and crossing allegiances which makes the entire conflict a very sensitive and dangerous situation.

Guilty as...

Summer Stewart a colleague of mine posted recently an online article Refusing Justice on her blog We The People that discusses the horrible injustices of the United State’s justice system. These injustices coming from the lack of care for due process and cheating cases of a fair trial. It’s an important issue in the United States, because we need a system that’s responsible and accountable; we want criminals in jail not the innocent.

Stewart explains how the Department of Justice and the FBI have forwardly stated that forensic evidence can be faulty. She does a great job exposing this unacceptable truth of our system. What’s worse as she points out is that to prove your innocence becomes almost impossible, “…in Alabama, a defendant has to be able to prove there is no evidence connecting he/she to the crime. Even if the suspect is innocent, but evidence roves some connection, the have no opportunity to even suggest their case to be re-looked at.” Scary to imagine being innocent and accused of something you didn’t and being punished for it for the rest of your life.

Her article reminded of the incident that occurred two years ago that just astonished me. CNN covered the story about how Annie Dookhan an Ex-Massachusetts chemist who tampered over 40,000 cases, and falsified her academic records for the job. How can we have a system that allows something slip like that long enough to ruin over 40,000 lives. It’s atrocious that they let an unqualified person handle sensitive evidence that determined the lives of so many.

Another issue that wasn’t mentioned in Stewart’s article was the forging and or falsifying of forensic evidence from within or outside the system. As the technology has advanced this has become increasingly possible. In the article DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show, by Andrew Pollack, published in the New York Times  covers how scientists were successful in fabricating blood and saliva samples. They discussed how if they had a DNA data base at their disposal they could fabricate blood and saliva without having to obtain tissue or any other source of DNA; so even with the best forensic equipment someone could fake a crime scene and no one would know.

Stewart did a wonderful job covering this topic and I strongly agree with her that the FBI and Department of Justice become more accountable and responsible so the innocent are never “guilty” of something they didn’t do.

In the Dark

How safe do you feel in the U.S, in your city, in your neighborhood, with your finances and personal information? For many the answer is that they don’t. It’s because we live in a system that subdues the general public; either they are policed or the system gives them just enough to live comfortably and not revolt. We live in a society where we are raised to perceive war as big, explosive, and bluntly violent. The reality of war in this age is no longer that exposed.

The real war is in the shadows. War is about attaining and maintaining the power in an epoch through any and all effective and efficient means. We live in an age of abundant information and wondrous technology. It’s all very promising and has brought the world closer and more peacefully together but it all also happens to be exceptionally harmful. Before I continue here is quote from an ancient Chinese general to consider:

“The supreme art of war

 is to subdue the enemy

without fighting” –Sun Tzu

In the book Freakonomics Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt explain how gang leaders in the United States avoid violence and warring between one another because it’s bad for business (of course it still happens because the leaders aren’t the young men doing the work on the streets amped up and ready to fight). So how should this be any different from how the U.S and other countries conduct their affairs domestically and foreign.

Entities will use today’s technology to watch information and use it to subdue its enemies and even constituents without blunt force. Force will continue to be used but in more strategical ways such as we witness the militarization of the police in the United States. Homeland Security has already given technology called StingRay to Police across the United States which acts as if it were a cell tower so any phones in the area transmits and receives any data through it.

We have sensitive systems that run power plants, hospitals, banks, and more that can be hacked. The damage done can be amplified tenfold through these technologically advanced systems. Wars will be fought through crippling the enemies systems and using it and their information against them.

This is happening and it’s not just governments but people or other groups who doing this.  For example Edward Snowden who revealed sensitive government information on WikiLeaks and Anonymous who just allegedly hacked databased containing information of U.S senators involved with the KKK.

We will see informational and economic warfare much more prominently in this century.