Chaplain Tim

MIM #6 Map Reading

2013-10-02T03:09:00.000-05:00

Back in the Cold War days, we didn't have GPS units, computers (I did see a ruggedized 386 laptop once, it was the size of a modern microwave oven), or Google Earth. We had maps. Printed on paper with ink that was visible in red light (for night-time use), our maps were a very important tool during an interrogation.

Most people will look at a map, even a good military topographic map, and the only things they notice are the roads and the towns. If you're not intimately familiar with the area you're working in, a map of the area can give you more information than most local residents could. I taught the map reading portion of the two-week US Army Reserve interrogator training in the summers of '86 and '87 as well as follow-up training on weekends at my unit drills and here are some of the things that I taught.

The Legend. At the bottom or along the side of all good maps you'll find a "legend" or description of what the colors and lines on the map represent. A state highway map will use different thickness lines to differentiate between a two-lane blacktop road and a four-lane divided highway, for example. If you study the legend, you'll be able to tell at a glance what kind of roads are in your Area of Operations (AO). If you have access to military-issue or even USGS topo maps (www.usgs.gov), spend some time looking at the details given in the legend. Major landmarks are often given unique symbols so detailed that you can tell if a church has two steeples or just one.

Back-tracing. Once you have a prisoner (or a refugee, line-crosser, escapee, or whoever you're asking questions) talking it is often valuable to back- trace the route they took to their point of capture or surrender. What they saw along the way can be used to update your maps (bridges out, new construction since the map was printed, etc.) as well as giving you more information about life behind enemy lines. Start at the point of capture/surrender and talk them through the route going backwards. This is something that is easier to show than describe and may be fodder for a separate post.

Reading Terrain. Every soldier in the US Army used to be taught how to read a map at a basic level. I don't know how they train them now, other than it usually involves a Power Point presentation. Those squiggly brown lines on the map are elevation line and they represent the height above sea level for the land on the map. The distance between the lines will tell you how level or steep a piece of ground is. If you see elevation lines stacked up on top of each other it means that there is a sheer wall of dirt or rock at that location, but if they're spread far apart then you're looking at a level field. Read the legend to find out what the interval between lines is, because it may differ from map to map- 5 and 10 meters are normal intervals. That means that the ground at one line will be 5 (or 10) meters higher or lower than the ground at the next line. Look at the slightly thicker elevation lines (usually every fifth one) and they should have numbers giving you the elevation above sea level.

Grid Coordinates. With the wide use of GPS, I'm not sure if they still teach grids or not. Wikipedia does a better job describing it that I can, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system

More later- Out here.

2013-08-30T07:30:00.000-05:00

MIM- a side note

2013-05-12T06:37:00.001-05:00

All of the details that I am presenting can and should be used to explain what to expect if you are ever the subject of an interrogation. If you know the tricks that are going to be used on you, you may be able to avoid falling for them. "Forewarned is forearmed".
I believe they are still teaching these in SERE (Survival, Escape, Resistance, Evasion) courses to prepare people who may become prisoners of war for just this reason.

MIM #5- techniques

2013-05-12T06:33:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a multi-part post. The specific techniques or approaches used in an interrogation are the "role" that the interrogator will "play" while trying to "break" or get information from a source. We used to teach 13 approaches, here they are in no particular order. I will try to think up examples of each and post them as separate entries. I'm not a writer, so forgive my feeble attempts at creative fiction.

Everyone has heard of the "good cop-bad cop" approach used in Hollywood movies. The last I heard, the US Army is no longer teaching this method because it implies a threat of violence. The military has gone PC, and it is not a good thing. This method requires two interrogators, one plays the "good cop", who tries to convince the source that he is there to protect the source from the "bad cop" who is there to terrorize the source. The source will talk in order to avoid the implied or actual threat of violence.

Silence. Used on very nervous sources, or one that is agitated, the interrogator just sits and stares at the source until he starts to talk just to break the silence. This works well with children, too.

We know everything, AKA Dossier. Walk in with a thick file folder padded with anything you can put into it, and act like it is the file on the source's unit or recent activity. You'll see this one used in some of the CSI-type shows. The idea is to make the source believe that you are just looking for verification of data that you already had, and that he is not really giving up anything useful. Salting the file with actual information helps this approach work.

Fear up/Fear down. These two are related in that the interrogator will work on the fear already present in the source. Fear up is trying to instill fear of what is going to happen if the source refuses to talk. Fear down is calming the fears of a source that has (usually) just gone though a traumatic experience.

Ego up/Ego down. Ego up is the building up of a source's ego to get him to talk about things. Ego down is putting down a source in order to get him to justify his actions.

Direct approach. Simply talking and asking questions works on a large percentage of people. I talked to interrogators after they came back from Grenada, and they said this was the most useful method and that it worked about 90% of the time.

Incentive. Another one that is commonly used in the "justice" system, usually trading information for a lighter sentence. The cardinal rule was to never promise anything you can't deliver. Once trust is broken, it is broken forever. You'll have to pass the source off to another interrogator, who will have a hard time getting more out of him. Little things like a cigarette or cup of coffee can be an "ice-breaker" and get a person to start talking. Promises of better living conditions or early release are harder to fulfil, but may get a better response.

Futility. "Your part in this is over, we got you and we're going to win, so why not talk to me? I'm going to find out what I want to know anyway, why not from you?"

Rapid fire. Peppering a person with questions, without a chance to answer, may cause them to blurt out something they were trying to withhold.

Repetition. Asking the same small set of questions over and over. A good way to catch a liar, but it can cause extreme frustration.

Emotion up/emotion down AKA love/hate. Exploiting a source's love of country, friends, or cultural differences or hate of discrimination, working conditions, or commanders. This one require quite a bit of knowledge of the opposing side's culture and habits.

Here's a half-hour long Army training video on interrogations. Old, but the information is still good.
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DEO9vaVqhr38&sa=U&ei=T8V8UbvBNMaYqQH8hYD4Ag&ved=0CC8QtwIwBQ&sig2=YLst5cC07deO08HW9XKZ6A&usg=AFQjCNHRWQ9_EcCLs_XzYGHTY0QDTg2qwA

Here's the US Army manual.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/policy/army/fm/fm34-52/

More later- I'm trying to come up with illustrative examples.

MIM #4 When to ask questions.

2013-04-06T22:05:00.002-05:00

When can be as important as how as far as questions are concerned. Prisoner of war interrogations are used to obtain information of various types and for various purposes.

A "Field" interrogation is conducted as close to the point of capture as is prudent. The information sought will be of tactical use- where were you going, how many of you were there, what routes were you to take, etc. This data is very time-sensitive, since it will lose its value in a matter of hours at best. Field interrogations normally occur within an hour of capture.

"Primary" interrogations are done at a secure location as soon as possible. Transport times are the main delay. The data sought in Primary questioning is used to identify the POW and his/her utility as a source of information. Clues to useful techniques (we were taught more than they allow today) are often found at this stage. No more than a day after capture was the rule of thumb. Depending on the volume of prisoners, a "Processing" phase may be needed to weed out the ones likely to be a waste of time.

"Follow-up" interrogation can take place any time the POW is still available. Strategic data and Order-of-Battle (OOB) information are the goals. This is when you get a chance to learn more about the enemy, their logistics, and leadership. Unless you have the time, or are researching war crimes, be careful that this phase doesn't turn into a military history interview.

Part of the reason time plays a role is the psychology involved in asking questions. If a person has experienced a traumatic event, it is normal for them to want to talk it out as a way of mentally dealing with it. Once they start talking, it is fairly easy to keep them talking and lead them into divulging information they'd normally keep to themselves.

Sleep is another method of getting one's mind wrapped around a traumatic event, so try to start your questioning before the POW has had a good night's rest. Sleep deprivation is considered a form of torture, but if you can arrange an "interview" before they get bedded down you are not intentionally depriving them of sleep.

Questions are a normal part of any medical care. If your medic has a form to fill out, most people will answer the questions without reservation, or even thinking about it. Use of the Red Cross emblem on the forms crosses into the "War Crimes" gray area. Don't present yourself as a Red Cross official unless you want to answer hard questions when the fighting is over. Modern HIPPA rules don't apply in war, and (American) people have gotten used to every level of medical care asking intrusive questions.

Lawyers and Chaplains fall into a moral gray area that will need to be decided by each individual. They have rules concerning the confidentiality of information they receive from clients that I, personally, think should be honored. The saying that, "All's fair in love and war" is not strictly true. There are such things as war crimes, recognized by civilized people. The Geneva and Hague Conventions are a good place to start and will be covered in a post of their own.

More later...........

MIM #3- How to ask questions

2013-04-02T23:43:00.000-05:00

There is a right way and a wrong way to ask questions. If you are (or have been) a parent of teenagers, you already know this. If you have small children, these techniques can be used while raising them, but they may have unpredictable results. If you want to get the truth (and not just what they think you want to hear), you need to be able to ask good questions in a proper manner.

Step one: Never imply an answer in the question. "Did you and Billy go to the mall last night?" is not as good as "Where did you go and who were you with?"

Step two: Avoid asking a question that can be answered "yes" or "no". There are times when a yes/no answer is all you're going to get, or is sufficient for the needs. The majority of the time you are going to want to draw as much information as you can out of a subject, so simple answers should be avoided. Make them talk- it gives you more chances to catch them in lies and gives them more chances to let information slip out.

Step three: Never lose track of the question. I've been married for 26 years, I know how this game is played. If a question is worth asking, stick to it or make a note (literally- write yourself a note!) so you can come back to it after the misdirection and lies/vitriol/counter-questions have spun themselves out.

Step four: Ask questions, don't answer them. If you start answering a subject's questions you have just put them on an equal level with yourself. This can be counter-productive to getting information out of a reluctant subject. You're not negotiating (if you are, this is the wrong place to be reading), you're collecting information.

I'm going to go ahead and post this. I'll come back and update it as I scrape the rust off of my memories.

MIM #2 (MI Musings)- SALUTE report

2013-03-25T00:20:00.000-05:00

A SALUTE report was the form we used for quickly passing on small amounts of intelligence as widely as possible. They break down into the following parts:

Size
Activity
Location
Unit
Training
Equipment
any other information that may be of use or interest is added to the end.

An example of a SALUTE report would go something like, "On 22 Mar 2013, I saw 2 MRAPs refueling at the truck stop outside Boring, IA on I-35 exit 88. They had DHS markings and the 14 dismounted, uniformed personnel took their time gassing up and refilling their personal coolers. The vehicles were left unattended several times, with no sign of a security detail. Personal weapons were visible and consisted of handguns only. They left via I-35 north-bound at 1235 local."

Size- 2 MRAPs, 14 personnel
Activity- refueling
Location- Boring, IA
Unit- DHS
Training- Lack of security and no sense of urgency
Equipment- Handguns were the only arms visible.

While this is not a perfect way to transmit intel, it is a standardized method. It is an easy format to remember, and the acronym makes it easy to check to ensure that you gather usable information. Remember to put DOI in there, it makes a difference.

MIM (MI Musings) #1 DOI

2013-03-25T00:17:00.000-05:00

The most important part of any information or intel is the DOI. Date OF Information (DOI) tells everyone who reads it if they are looking at ancient history or current data. It also allows analysts to chart habits, routines, routes, and changes in these so they can request more information to clarify their prognostications. I was a collector, not an analyst. We got follow-up questions quite often (more on that when I get to POW treatment).

Think about it, if your wife tells you that the check engine light is on in her car and it's making a funny noise, what's the first thing you ask? When did you first notice it? It makes a difference if it happened last night or last month, doesn't it? DOI
How about if your neighbor mentions that they've seen a car with no plates cruise slowly by your house. Was it last night or today at noon? DOI
You're watching a YouTube video of armored vehicles on trains going by a crossing in Missouri. When did it happen? 2002, when they were moving them to the ports to be shipped to Iraq or 2013 when they're being shipped to only-God-knows-where? DOI

MI musings

2013-03-23T17:59:00.001-05:00

A long time ago, I was trained as an Interrogator, Prisoner it War. I eventually was given the task of teaching parts of the skill set to new IPW students, and feel the need to pass them on or at least get them on record. I will try to break them down into digestible chunks that others may find useful.

How far we've come

2013-02-20T02:07:00.001-06:00

For those who have never read his work, Fred is an American living in Mexico after giving up on the current culture. This piece resonates with me.

http://www.fredoneverything.net/Guns.shtml

Fred is a few years older than I am, and grew up in a different part of the country.
I grew up in the late '60s and 'through the '70s in Iowa. At the age of 12, we moved out of a cul-de-sac in a suburb and onto an acreage in the hills.
Even when we lived in town, the kids were free to roam the neighborhood. You just knew which houses to avoid, whose lawn to stay off of, and how far from home you could stray. When the streetlights came on, it was time to go home, unless you heard your mother yelling for you before that. Graffiti and vandalism never entered our minds. When we moved into the country, I suddenly had fewer friends living close by, but I had hundreds of acres of land to explore. The few friends I did have were closer, more like brothers than just friends. As teenagers we were trusted with rifles and shotguns (unsupervised), and actually taught how to build fires and sleep under the stars. Every boy in school carried a knife- it was a tool that they used in their daily lives. Fights were settled with fists, not weapons, and if you got your ass kicked you learned not to be stupid.
When I got my first car, there were few rules other than I bought my own gas and tires (you learn to care for both that way, even when gas was only $0.59 per gallon) and I had to let my parents know where I was going. I vividly remember driving a drunk friend home one night (we were both about 17) after he broke up with is girlfriend. He decided to step out of the car while we were doing 60mph down a gravel road (we didn't need maps, let alone GPS to get home- we learned the roads). He out weighed me 2:1 and I still managed to grab him and hold on to him while slowing to a stop, so I could beat some sense into him. He thanked me later.
Since this was the '70s, drugs were everywhere, but only about 2% of my graduating class ever got hooked on anything other than alcohol. He ended up in a mental hospital, totally burnt out. Football players shared pain-killers so they could take hits, and speed (pure amphetamine- not meth) so they could run faster and longer during a game. Steroids weren't around back then. Weed was cheaper than beer and didn't give you a hangover, was it was accepted as normal. The local dealers were all in the game to supply themselves, not get rich so we didn't have turf-wars.
I missed out on the "free love" era of the '60s and early '70s. By the time I got interested in girls in a serious way, AIDS had reared its ugly head, as had herpes. We had one woman (I can't call her a girl) who married her high school sweetheart (who was a year older) and was pregnant when we graduated. The school wouldn't let her walk across the stage to pick up her diploma- there was still a sense of shame back then. I dated a few girls, but could never allow my hormones to control me to the point of taking advantage of someone who was under the influence. There were several times we dropped off a totally drunk girl at her doorstep, rang the bell and ran like hell. Date-rape wasn't even a concept that could enter our minds because we had respect for the women/girls that we were dating. Getting intoxicated was its own goal, not to get someone vulnerable. Good times didn't have to involve sex.

From that era, fast-forward to today. I work with teenagers and young adults, many of them are my friends even though I'm older than their parents. I see what's going on through them and my own kid's experiences. I see useless wastes of flesh that can't keep a job more than two weeks because they have no work ethic, and they usually show up to work stoned out of their gourds, but I also see kids starting their own businesses and raising families. I see the heartache and emotional trauma brought about by an overly sexed-up society and the expectations laid upon our young women (and men), but I also see enduring love and strong bonds being formed between partners. Getting stopped for DWI or MIP will just about ruin your life for a few years. If you have a cell-phone, it is state law that it have a GPS chip in it, so you can be tracked wherever you go. The same city police who would pull me over for a burnt out tail light and give me a fix-it ticket as a teenager, will now demand to search my vehicle for any minor infraction. I see a government that treats citizens as the enemy, not the employer. We've gone from a game warden who taught the CCW class who believed that everyone should be armed to a deputy sheriff who tells people that he will drag them out of their car through the window if he thinks they're armed, legally or not.

Society is changing faster than ever before, and not always for the better.

Chaplain Tim

RIP Cricket

2013-02-11T18:24:00.003-06:00

My last pet passed away in her sleep today.

My son rescued a scrawny gray kitten from the drive-thru at Burger King 13 years ago. When he moved out at the age of 18, she stayed at home, and adopted me. My son named her after her preferred toy and snack- she would hunt and kill crickets for me. She loved her laser pointer and catnip, like any other house cat, and was a good friend and companion through the years. I will miss her deeply, and don't know when I'll get another pet. My dog of 17 years passed 5 years ago, and he hasn't been replaced- I don't know if I'll get another pet again or not at this point.

2013-02-11T15:26:00.000-06:00

I finally got an answer from my Senator, here's the money quote:

"In regards to your question about Senator Feinstein’s proposed gun control legislation, I believe that these mass shootings need to be studied and analyzed in order to comprehend why these tragedies happen. The debate on how to prevent these horrible actions needs to include all aspects and not focus solely on firearms. There must be serious and thoughtful discussion on mental health issues.

I believe that overly restrictive gun control legislation does very little to deter criminals while imposing unnecessary burdens on law-abiding Americans who wish to own guns. Our crime reduction efforts must focus on criminals and criminal activity, not on gun control. More attention needs to be focused on the cause of crimes and not the tool used to commit the crimes. Those who use a firearm to commit a crime should serve the maximum sentence so they cannot pose a further threat to society. "

I have not yet heard from the other Senator, but he is a died-in-the-wool Democrat, so I already have a good idea of what he'll say.

Back at it

2012-12-16T13:42:00.001-06:00

I've let this blog go fallow for months. I had a lot of things going on in my life that have tried my faith and resolve, but I am still alive and taking it day by day.

I will not be updating this every day, but I am going to try to get something posted at least twice a week, just as a way to vent.

Summer is coming fast

2012-05-18T21:29:00.002-05:00

Saw a single lonely lightning bug in the front yard last night, flashing his butt off to no avail.

Osteoporosis #1

2012-04-16T23:49:00.002-05:00

This is the first of a running account of my fight with osteoporosis.
I went in to have two vertebrae fused in my neck 16 Nov 2011. The surgeon didn't like the looks of my bones while he was rooting around in my neck, so he had me get a bone density scan on 6 Feb 2012. Diagnosis, severe osteoporosis of the lumbar spine (worse than most 85 year-old men) and osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis) of the hips. This immediately took me out of the job I have been doing for the last 17 years, because it requires elevated work and serious risk of falls. My employer has been good to me. Short term disability runs for 6 months, starting in Nov 2011, and is at full base pay. Long-term disability is an option for two years at 2/3 of base pay or about half of what I have been making.
Add in all of the other crap going on in my life right now and I'm almost looking forward to the coming of the zombie hordes. Gives me a goal to strive for- survival.

Leap Day

2012-02-29T06:29:00.000-06:00

Ah, the extra day we get almost every fourth year because our calenders are based on a melange of cultural debris that makes no real sense.
Because it takes our blue marble called Earth a hair less (about 11 minutes less) than 365 and a quarter days to swing around the local star, we get an extra day added to February every fourth year, unless it is a century year, but then again if it divisible by 400 we get the extra day. What a mess.
Look at the rest of our calender. Twelve months, based on the signs of the zodiac or some other base-12 system that has been lost to history. The days of the year aren't evenly distributed throughout the months, a month can have 28, 29, 30 or 31 days in it.
Then there are the names of the months. Janus- the Roman God of beginnings (31 days); Februa was the Roman festival of purification (28 or 29 days); Mars- the Roman god of war is the host of March (31 days); Aphrodite- shortened to Aphro or Apru was the Goddess of love (30 days); Maia was the daughter of Faunus and the wife of Vulcan, metalworker of the Gods (31 days); Juno- the main Goddess of the Romans (30 days); Julius Caesar named a month after himself after he reformed the calendar in 46BC (31 days); Augustus Caesar thought that was neat so he named a month after himself when he tweaked the calendar (31 days); Sept- Oct- Nov- and Dec- are designations for the seventh (30 days), eighth (31 days), ninth (30 days), and tenth (31 days) months which is where they fell in the old way of reckoning.
Confused yet? It gets better, because our Gregorian calendar (named after pope Gregorory XIII who decreed changes to the Julian calendar in 1582) is not he only one in use, nor is it the most accurate (which is why we need to throw in extra days). The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar, which is loosely based on the phases of the moon. Their months have 29 or 30 days each, and they use a 19 year cycle of adding a month to the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years to stay in sync with the seasons. The Mayans and other Mesoamericans used a very complicated calendar system with more than one way to express a date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar is a good explanation of the systems they used. I personally like the old Norse calendar, with its two seasons- Summer and Winter. Simple and easy to remember.

So, what are you going to do on your extra day this year?

Is there a Fusion Center near you?

2012-02-24T23:24:00.000-06:00

Forwarding a link to a post with the locations of most of the "Fusion Centers" scattered around the country.
This falls in the realm of self-defence against rogue government agencies that have no oversight or accountability. They are causing harm for the mere pleasure of it, and have declared most of us enemies already.

http://publicintelligence.net/fusion-center-locations-revealed/

Introduction

2012-02-24T18:07:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog. I decided to start this up to give me a place to offer what assistance I could to whoever asks.

First things first. Yes, I am an ordained minister. I am a Christian of non-congregational beliefs and I hold no illusion that I know more about the will of God in his many guises than any other person. If you're happy with your relationship with (or without) a higher being in your life, I'm happy for you. If you aren't happy with our current standing with whatever higher being you believe in, feel free to ask for help- I may be able to offer some. If you want to argue theological ideals please go find someone who likes to argue, because I don't. I will state my beliefs on religious matters, but that does not mean I want to get into discussions about them. My beliefs are mine, and yours are yours- if that is not good enough for you then feel free to go play in traffic. I do not force my beliefs on anyone, nor do I allow other to force their beliefs on me or mine.

Second, I believe that man has been given certain rights by his creator. The right to defend oneself against violence is a basic right of all living things. This is why you will find me carrying a firearm more often than you will find me carrying a Bible. I was not born with the protective spines of a cactus, the teeth and claws of a tiger, nor the thick hide of a hippo. I was born with a mind capable of being taught how to use tools, and I choose to use tools to protect myself.

Third, I know that there is good and evil in this world. Some things are right and some things are wrong. It is right to help our fellow man, it is wrong to cause harm without reason. I could not possibly care less about who you choose to love (as long as you keep it within the species), or how you decide to live your life as long as it does not cause harm to others. There are plenty of important things to worry about in this life, so leave other peoples' lives alone and concentrate on your own.

Fourth, I know that I am wrong on some things (just ask my wife of 25 years). My opinions are separate from my beliefs in that they are open to discussion. You'll have to try pretty hard to hurt my feelings, so feel free to express yourself if I write something you don't agree with. We may come to a compromise, I may admit I'm wrong, you may admit I'm right, or we may just agree to disagree. I will warn you that outright stupidity will be treated as such and I can be an ass when required (again, just ask the wife).

Finally, I am a man of varied talents. I have a head full of useless knowledge that I offer to pass on to any who ask. I know fieldcraft from growing up in an era where I could and did spend most of my free time outside, often hunting or just exploring the woods. I know weapons from a lifetime of shooting, fixing and collection them. I reload my ammunition and have taught others how to do it safely. I have my own forge and lathe, and am learning to work metal. I read just about anything I can and I generally remember what I read, at least long enough to try it out for myself. I keep a varied reference library, so I can cite my sources if I need to.