DarkGovernment

EC-135, Looking Glass

A mark of America’s strategic excellence is its preeminent ability to command, control, and communicate with its nuclear forces. An essential element of that ability is the Airborne Command Post, also called “Looking Glass.”, which was retired from service on 01 October 1998. Its highly-trained crew and staff ensured there was always an aircraft ready to direct bombers and missiles from the air should ground-based command centers become inoperable. Looking Glass guaranteed that U.S. strategic forces would act only in the precise manner dictated by the President.

The now-deactivated Strategic Air Command (SAC) began the mission on February 3, 1961. It took the nickname Looking Glass because the mission mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications. From that date, a Looking Glass aircraft was in the air at all times 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for more than 29 years. On July 24, 1990, Looking Glass ceased continuous airborne alert, but it remained on ground or airborne alert 24 hours a day. Crews accumulated more than 281,000 accident-free flying hours.

The Looking Glass aircraft is an EC-135, a Boeing 707 airframe loaded with high-tech communication equipment. Its battle staff, when airborne, was under the command of a flag officer — an Air Force general officer or a Navy admiral. General and flag officers were from the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC), Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), Navy’s Commander, Submarine Group NINE, Pacific (COMSUBGRU NINE) and Commander, Submarine Group TEN, Atlantic (COMSUBGRU TEN).

Members of the battle staff formed seven operational teams and represented all branches of the armed services. The team chief was responsible for team training, cohesiveness and direction, and is also the head of the operational staff. The communications officer was responsible for all communications systems on the aircraft and saw to it that messages from the battle staff are handled in a timely manner.

The airborne launch control officer was the missile launch team leader and, along with the communications officer, operated the airborne launch control system. This system allowed Looking Glass to transmit launch codes to the intercontinental ballistic missiles in their underground silos should ground launch control centers become disabled. It qualified the aircraft as a weapon system even though Looking Glass itself cannot fire a bullet or drop a bomb.

The emergency actions non-commissioned officer was charged with knowing the formats, contents and appropriate wording for emergency action messages used to execute U S. war plans. The emergency actions non-commissioned officer and the team chief formed the emergency actions team. The force status non-commissioned officers were experts in force accounting procedures and account for and track every strategic weapon in the U.S inventory.

The single integrated operations plan advisor, the second in command, headed the planning staff and advised the Looking Glass commander of the war plans available to the President of the United States. The intelligence officer briefed the entire battle staff on current intelligence matters, developed threat assessments, and identified emerging threats to the United States. The logistics officer made sure that returning bomber and tanker forces had safe recovery bases to provide medical attention, food, and rest for the crew and expeditious repairs, refueling, and reloading for the aircraft.

The above battle staff personnel were part of the Combat Operations Staff under the deputy director of Operations and Logistics, USSTRATCOM. The crew and aircraft were from the 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, ACC, Offutt AFB, Nebraska.

The crew consisted of two pilots, a navigator, an airborne refueling systems operator, and communications systems operators.

After 46 years, SAC was deactivated on June 1, 1992, and USSTRATCOM was activated. Looking Glass became part of the new command. Activation of USSTRATCOM coincided with a change from a bi-polar world to a multi-polar world in the wake of a dissolving Soviet Union. It also marked a transition for Looking Glass from an Air Force operation to a joint military mission. The basic mission remained unchanged. Looking Glass provided an around-the-clock, survivable, alternate command post for the National Command Authority and the Commander in Chief of USSTRATCOM, guaranteeing the use of strategic forces during national emergencies.

Calling the Bush administration’s bluff

 

 

In the debate over Fisa, the Bush administration has long used the threat of terrorism as a cudgel against its opponents in Congress. Here’s what Bush said during his State of the Union address last month:

 

To protect America, we need to know who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they’re planning. Last year, Congress passed legislation to help us do that. Unfortunately, Congress set the legislation to expire on February the 1. That means if you don’t act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger.

Brian Beutler points out, however, that after Democrats refused to reauthorise the Protect America Act last week, the threat of terrorism has - shockingly - remained unchanged:

Here it is, six hours until the the Democrats’ high sign to bomb-toting terrorists goes into effect, and the Department of Homeland Security has responded by … keeping the threat advisory level exactly where it was yesterday.

In a smart op-ed in the Washington Examiner yesterday, Melanie Scarborough outlines the real reason for the Bush administration’s ardent support of the Protect America Act:

If Bush truly believed that “our country is now in more danger of an attack,” would he really jeopardize American lives merely to protect the telecom companies? Of course not. His purpose is to thwart lawsuits that would expose the extent to which the administration has spied on innocent Americans.

It’s as concise an explanation as I’ve seen about what’s really behind all the legislative wrangling.

Navy SEAL Dies From Parachute Fall

Navy SEAL killed in parachuting accident

U.S. Navy officials said a Virginia Beach, Va.-based special forces service member was killed Wednesday during a parachute jump in Casa Grande.

Authorities said the victim, a Navy SEAL whose name was not released, died after plunging to the ground near one of the holes at the Mission Royale Golf Club.

Golf course representatives declined to comment about the incident and referred all calls to local authorities.

Casa Grande police Cmdr. Scott Sjerven said the death came during a SEAL training exercise.

The military is handling the investigation into the death, which occurred about 7 a.m., he said.

Navy spokesman Lt. David Luckett said it would be at least 24 hours before the SEAL’s name would be released, pending notification of next of kin.

Luckett said the victim’s military job designation was as a special warfare operator assigned to the East Coast unit. He said the incident is under investigation.

Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV (Channel 10) reported the victim was from Virginia and had been participatingin a training exercise based in the Marana area, north of Tucson.

The Navy’s SEAL force, standing for Sea, Air, Land, was first commissioned by the maritime service in 1962.

Pregnancy Bomb

Terrorism Conducted By Women Wearing Loaded Pregnancy Suits

Get the Flash Player to see this player. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning against a new type of terrorism carried out by women who appear to be pregnant.

It may be the newest wave in suicide attacks: a prosthetic pregnant belly serving as a compartment for explosives. The belly opens up from the front and the explosives are placed inside.

“It’s not the first time we’ve had women involved before in one way or another,” says security expert Robert Strang.

Strang tells CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City he isn’t surprised at the new lows terrorists will stoop to — lows that include those with Down syndrome even carrying out suicide attacks in Baghdad.

“They’re recruiting anybody they can get to do those things that’s not going to inform law enforcement, that’s not going to be a threat to these organizations that can get the job done,” says Strang.

With terrorist training camps up and running in Pakistan, there are now fears Americans might one day be involved. Authorities are increasingly worried that al Qaeda is actively recruiting people who look like Americans and sound like Americans to carry out the next attack on America.

“Whether it’s Americans or whether it’s people who can launch from Europe, because they have visas or passports that allow them to travel to the United States, they are looking at people who can operate in the west,” says Philip Mudd of the FBI.

Authorities say there is “no specific, credible intelligence” that says terrorists are planning to use women and suicide bombers to attack, but the warning was sent to agencies across the country in the wake of recent attacks overseas.

Cyber Storm Attack on U.S. Coming this March

The AP described it as a really bad day, but that somewhat understates the magnitude of it all. It, of course, refers to the “Cyber Storm” war game that the US Government held early 2006, in an attempt to gauge the necessary reaction and requisite skills of the games participants.

In the middle of this biggest-ever “Cyber Storm” war game to test the nation’s hacker defenses, someone quietly targeted the very computers used to conduct the exercise.

The surprising perp? The players themselves, the same government and corporate experts responsible for detecting and fending off attacks against vital computer systems, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. Perplexed organizers sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked “IMPORTANT!” instructing them not to probe or attack the game’s control computers.

If anyone has seen the 1983 movie War Games starring a very young Matthew Broderick, then multiply that by 10 and you’ll begin to get close to just what it was the US Government sicked on to the willing participants. The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise to test the nation’s hacker defenses, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.

The “others” included government officials from the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and executives from leading technology and transportation companies.

The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. describes as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing a multimillion-dollar “Cyber Storm 2,” to take place in early March.

The simulated attacks consisted of everything imaginable: Washington’s metro trains being shut down. New York’s seaport computers going dark. Bloggers revealing the locations of secret railcars containing hazardous materials (it’s always the bloggers!). Airport control towers disrupted at Philadelphia and Chicago. A mysterious liquid found on London’s subway. Planes flying too close to the White House, and more.

In short, the test was to throw everything at the players to see what they could handle, in an attempt to simulate as much public panic as possible. “They point out where your expectations of your capabilities may be overstated,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP. “They may reveal to you things you haven’t thought about. It’s a good way of testing that you’re going to do the job the way you think you were. It’s the difference between doing drills and doing a scrimmage.”

“We want to stress these players,” said Jeffrey Wright, the former Cyber Storm director for the Homeland Security Department. “None of the players took 100 percent of the correct, right actions. If they had, we wouldn’t have done our job as planners.”

And the results aren’t overly encouraging to be honest. No one took home the 100% as mentioned, and companies and governments were said to have worked successfully only “in some cases.” But key players didn’t understand the role of the premier U.S. organization responsible for fending off major cyber attacks, called the National Cyber Response Coordination Group, and it didn’t have enough technical experts. Also, the sheer number of mock attacks complicated defensive efforts.

One last thing though, in proof that a geek’s ego is much bigger than anyone else you’ve ever met; the geek’s struck back! Or tried too at least. Apparently, according to the 328 heavily censored pages that were turned over to the AP, somebody or someone’s attacked the computers that was being used to conduct the exercise.

“Any time you get a group of (information technology) experts together, there’s always a desire, ‘Let’s show them what we can do,’” said George Foresman, a former senior Homeland Security official who oversaw Cyber Storm. “Whether its intent was embarrassment or a prank, we had to temper the enthusiasm of the players.”