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US Army’s John Doe Letter

The U.S. Army is apologizing to thousands of Army families who received letters beginning “Dear John Doe” after losing a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Some 7,000 letters were sent in late December to notify families of services or gifts surviving family members can receive from nonprofit organizations that help families of fallen soldiers, according to an Army statement Wednesday.

The letters also had improper address information at the top of the correspondence. Instead of the receiving family’s name and home address, the letters said “Army Long Term Case Management.”

The letters were printed by a contracting company and sent by the U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The center issued a formal apology Wednesday, according to the statement.

“There are no words to adequately apologize for this mistake or for the hurt it may have caused,” Brig. Gen. Reuben D. Jones, Army adjutant general, said in the statement. “It is important the original intent of the letter is not lost. The organizations mentioned are dedicated to honoring loved ones and recognizing their sacrifice and commitment,” the apology continued.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. is sending a personal letter to the thousands of families who received the improperly addressed letter, according to Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.

Merrilee Carlson, president of the veterans and family support group Families United, was told by the Army that families would be receiving one of these improperly addressed letters within the next few days.

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Actual John Doe letter (PDF)

“We want to let people know these letters are coming so they are not surprised when they open them,” she said.

Carlson is the mother of Sgt. Michael Carlson, who was killed in Iraq in 2005. She said the Army told her she was among those who would receive a letter on Wednesday.

“This was a tragic mistake, but I believe it was not done maliciously,” she said. “The Army would not do this intentionally to people.”

While there have not been 7,000 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army often sends letters to primary and secondary family members.

Tags: army, general casey, john doe, john doe letter, us army

U.S. Military Computers Infected by Worm

The Defense Department’s geeks are spooked by a rapidly spreading worm crawling across their networks. So they’ve suspended the use of so-called thumb drives, CDs, flash media cards, and all other removable data storage devices from their nets, to try to keep the worm from multiplying any further.

The ban comes from the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, according to an internal Army e-mail. It applies to both the secret SIPR and unclassified NIPR nets. The suspension, which includes everything from external hard drives to “floppy disks,” is supposed to take effect “immediately.” Similar notices went out to the other military services.

In some organizations, the ban would be only a minor inconvenience. But the military relies heavily on such drives to store information. Bandwidth is often scarce out in the field. Networks are often considered unreliable. Takeaway storage is used constantly as a substitute.

The problem, according to a second Army e-mail, was prompted by a “virus called Agent.btz.” That’s a variation of the “SillyFDC” worm, which spreads by copying itself to thumb drives and the like. When that drive or disk is plugged into a second computer, the worm replicates itself again — this time on the PC. “From there, it automatically downloads code from another location. And that code could be pretty much anything,” says Ryan Olson, director of rapid response for the iDefense computer security firm. SillyFDC has been around, in various forms, since July 2005. Worms that use a similar method of infection go back even further — to the early ’90s. “But at that time they relied on infecting floppy disks rather than USB drives,” Olson adds.

Servicemembers are supposed to “cease usage of all USB storage media until the USB devices are properly scanned and determined to be free of malware,” one e-mail notes. Eventually, some government-approved drives will be allowed back under certain “mission-critical,” but unclassified, circumstances. “Personally owned or non-authorized devices” are “prohibited” from here on out.

To make sure troops and military civilians are observing the suspension, government security teams “will be conducting daily scans and running custom scripts on NIPRNET and SIPRNET to ensure the commercial malware has not been introduced,” an e-mail says. “Any discovery of malware will result in the opening of a security incident report and will be referred to the appropriate security officer for action.”

“The USB ban should be effective in stopping the worm,” Olson says. Asked if such a wide-spread measure was a bit of over-kill, Olson responded, “I don’t know.”

“I know this [is an] inconvenience,” e-mails one Michigan Army National Guardsman. “This has been briefed to the CoS [Chief of Staff] of the ARMY. This is not just a problem for Michigan, and is effecting operations around the world. This is a very serious threat and should be treated as such. Please understand that this is a form of attack, and we need to have patience in dealing with this issue.”
The military relies heavily on the use of removable storage devices to store information since bandwidth is often scarce out in the field and networks are often considered unreliable.

What’s causing the problem?

It is speculated that a virus named Agent.btz is the culprit. It’s a variation of the “SillyFDC” worm which spreads by copying itself to thumb drives. When the drive or disk is plugged into a second computer, the worm replicates itself again — on the PC. Once installed it automatically downloads malicious software code from the Internet. (Source: f-secure.com)

Eventually, some government-approved drives will be allowed back under certain “mission-critical,” but unclassified circumstances.

See: US Military Report on Computer Threat

Tags: army, computer virus, cyber war, DOD, malware, Military, military computer, virus, worm

Military Organizing for Domestic Operations

In the next three years the military plans to activate and train an estimated 4,700 service members for specialized domestic operations, according to Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of U.S. Northern Command, which was created in 2002 for homeland defense missions. The comments, made at the annual National Homeland Defense and Security Symposium in Colorado Springs last week, reveal more details about the recent stationing of active military personnel inside United States borders for what officials say is a mission centering around responding to catastrophic emergencies. In September the Army Times reported that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team — a unit based in Fort Stewart, Ga., that most recently spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle gear — would be put under the control of Northern Command, located on Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Military representatives claim that the unit, now referred to as the Consequence Management Response Force, is only supposed to assist in responding to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, but that hasn’t stopped numerous civil liberties advocates from speculating just how closely the military will be involved with law enforcement issues falling under a state’s jurisdiction.

“This isn’t a military police brigade or a civil affairs brigade. This is actually a combat brigade being assigned a domestic mission,” said Mike German, national security counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative office in Washington., D.C.

The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act Request last week with the Department of Justice and the Pentagon asking for records relating to the assignment of domestic forces to the Northern Command.

“One of our founding touchstones of democracy is that the military is not to be used against the American people. Over a hundred years ago that sentiment was put into law in the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibited the military from being involved in law enforcement functions,” German said. “Our hope is to find as much information as we can to challenge whether this is appropriate or not and to create some public awareness about what’s going on”

Now the commander of Northern Command claims that at least two more military units will be stationed inside the county in the next two years, contributing to an estimated total of 4,700 specially trained service members.

“It’s to help us manage the consequences of a large-scale event,” said Renuart. “We have one [unit] now trained and equipped and assigned to the Northern Command. We’ll grow a second one this calendar year of 2009 and a third one in the calender year 2010 so we can provide the nation three sets of capabilities that could respond to an event of the size of 9/11 or larger.”

According to Renuart, that means the units will have unique training in the logistics and medical fields.

“These are medical personnel, they’re chemical decontamination teams, they’re engineering teams, they’re logistics folks,” Renuart said. “It is really a force designed to respond to an event of catastrophic size. There have been some who say that this is designed as a law enforcement activity or that it will somehow be used to take away the authorities of a governor or a state, and that’s absolutely not the case.”

But German isn’t convinced.

“It’s fine for the general to say that,” the counter-terrorist operations specialist said. “But we want to know what the policies actually are, what the roles are and what the regulations are to see whether this is actually complying with the law.”

During the symposium Renuart admitted that the Northern Command has assisted regularly with law enforcement activities in the past.

“Here in Colorado every day we’re integrated with 45 other federal agencies in our headquarters planning for not only the natural disasters, but what would happen if a chemical attack was brought into our country by a terrorist organization,” Renuart said, emphasizing the command’s roles with intelligence and supporting anti-drug efforts.

“How do we track intelligence information that might identify networks of terrorists that might be around the world trying to get to us? How do we support law enforcement every day in the fight against narcotics entering illegally in our southwest borders? All of these things are part of the Northern Command mission.”

Said German, “It seems to be an incremental approach where the military is being used for narrow missions, but then more and more types of narrow missions until they all combine into one overarching mission.”

It is currently unknown what units may be assigned to domestic tasks in the next two years, but members of Northern Command will undergo a large-scale exercise this month simulating a destructive earthquake in southern California.

Tags: army, domestic operations, Military, Northern Command

U.S. Army Delta Force

The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (SFOD-D) is one of two units in the United States Armed Forces assigned primarily to combat terrorism. The other is the Navy’s ‘Dev Group.’ Delta members are experts at counterinsurgency, small unit tactics, and various infiltration techniques.

Many of them come from Ranger battalions or Special Forces (Green Berets) groups. They are well seasoned, well conditioned and are some of the most experienced soldiers in the service. But as Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, said, “They are professional soldiers who hate the army.” They are very independent warriors who like working in small teams and are very resilient.

While the military acknowledges the existence of special mission units like Delta Force, it does not specify what they are called or their locations, staffing or organizational structure. Unofficially, Delta Force is considered one of the U.S. military’s elite special operations units, its members drawn from all branches. Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its formal name is 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta.

Delta Force was created by Army Col. Charles Beckwith in the late 1970s and based on the British Special Air Service counter terrorism unit. Its members are known as “operators” and divided into three squadrons. Details of the composition, strength, abilities and operations of Delta Force remain a closely guarded secret. But the unit is thought to be equipped with the most advanced weaponry and equipment the U.S. military has to offer. Unit members undergo an extensive selection and assessment process before joining the unit.

As an officer in 1st SFOD-D, you will have added opportunities to command at the CPT, MAJ, and LTC levels. You may also serve as an Operations Officer.Afterservice with 1st SFOD-D there are a wide variety of staff positions availableto you at DOD, JCS, DA, USASOC, USSOCOM, and other joint headquarters becauseof your training and experience. In addition, there are interagency positionsavailable to you as well.

The prerequisites for an officer are:

Male Volunteer U.S. Citizen Pass a modified Class II Flight Physical Airborne qualified or volunteer for airborne training Pass a background security investigation and have at leasta secret clearance. Pass the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), FM 21-20,75points each event in the 22-26 age group, (55 pushups in two minutes,62situps in two minutes, and a 2 mile run in 15:06 or less), wearing yourunit PT uniform. Minimum of two years active service remaining upon selectionto the unit. Captain or Major (Branch Immaterial). Advance Course graduate. College graduate (BA or BS). Minimum of 12 months successful command (as a Captain). 1st SFOD-D conducts worldwide recruiting twice a year to process potential candidates for the Assessment and Selection Course. Processing for the March Course is from October through January. Processing for the September Course takes place April through July. Assignments with 1st SFOD-D provide realistic training and experiences that are both personally and professionally rewarding.

Tags: army, counter terrorism, delta force, Military