The Defense Department released 2 reports yesterday related to Afghanistan which look at the progress related to the country's security and its national forces. The studies were mandated by Congress to analyze results of Operation Enduring Freedom through March and are intended to include semi-annual updates. Both reports are available from http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/
The "Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan"
looks at the security environment and describes is as very "fragile."
It can be found at
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/Report_on_Progress_toward_Security_and_S
tability_in_Afghanistan_1230.pdf

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and House Intelligence Community Management (ICM) Subcommittee held a joint hearing today on the "National Security Implications of Global Climate Change." The prepared statements of the witnesses have now been posted and are available at http://globalwarming.house.gov/pubs/pubs?id=0046#main_content

Alternative Energy - the National High School Debate Topic,
2008/09 - is up and running on the web at:
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/debate08.html
The web site has annotated links to major global warming reports, the three fossil fuels and energy alternatives ranging from hydrogen, wind, and wave to fuel cells, plug-in electric cars, and various hyrids. There are articles, research reports, laws, and Congressional hearings in full text. The Department of Energy has a truly outstanding web site, which we analyzed and supplemented with those from think tanks, automakers, state government associations, and the OECD.
Given national interest in the topic and piecemeal coverage by the media, the web team attempted to create a broad picture of the energy/environment tension, evaluate potential short and long term fixes, and define mysterious terms such as carbon sequestration.
Ray Walling (Rozkuszka Scholarship), Todd Baker and Justin Joque (both SI students) were a dream team. We spent about six weeks throwing questions at one another, like the difference between the Toyota Prius and the newest hydrogen Honda. What does methane have to do with that commercial about cows? (Not much.)
While most of us have been worrying about gas prices, it turns out that Congress has been constantly trying to address the issues and private industry has made more progress than we realized.
Grace York, Coordinator
Documents Center
University of Michigan Library
graceyor@umich.edu
(734) 764-0410
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/

The BIA website has announced an order to reconnect to the Internet

Court Order Permitting Internet Reconnection

Indian Affairs is now on the path to full reconnection to the Internet.
In a major development with regard to the Cobell v. Norton litigation, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 14, 2008, granted defendants' motion to vacate the December 17, 2001, Consent Order Regarding Information Technology Security and has given its permission for the information technology systems of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Office of Hearing and Appeals (OHA), the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting (OHTA) to be reconnected to the Internet. A copy of the Court Order is attached.
The Department, and Indian Affairs has worked long and diligently to resolve the IT security issues that have concerned the Court with respect to the Department's systems housing Individual Indian Trust Data (IITD). Indian Affairs is pleased that the Court has granted this opportunity to improve our level of service to the tribes and individual Indian trust beneficiaries and to demonstrate our commitment to the protection and preservation of the IITD.
Source: http://www.doi.gov/bia/

The House Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight released today the first of 3 reports on America's International Image (covering Decline, Impact on U.S. National Interests and Recommendations).
The Decline in America's Reputation Why?
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/42566.pdf
Related testimony
The Honorable Bill Delahunt,
Esther Brimmer, Ph.D., --
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/bri061108.htm
Scott W. Hibbard, Ph.D., --
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/hib061108.htm
John Tirman, Ph.D., http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/tir061108.htm
David Frum, Esq.
Webcast --
http://international.edgeboss.net/real/international/oi06112008.smi

The Rand counterinsurgency study reports are making the round and they have released another report in the series.
The report by Seth Jones is Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan: RAND Counterinsurgency Study - vol 4. The direct link is http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG595.pdf but the page with information about it and links to the other vols and papers can be found at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG595/ or see the list below.
A related report of interest is Analytic Support to Intelligence in Counterinsurgencies
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG682.pdf
According to the summary for Vol 4 - "This study explores the nature of the insurgency in Afghanistan, the key challenges and successes of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign, and the capabilities necessary to wage effective counterinsurgency operations. By examining the key lessons from all insurgencies since World War II, it finds that most policymakers repeatedly underestimate the importance of indigenous actors to counterinsurgency efforts. The U.S. should focus its resources on helping improve the capacity of the indigenous government and indigenous security forces to wage counterinsurgency. It has not always done this well. The U.S. military-along with U.S. civilian agencies and other coalition partners-is more likely to be successful in counterinsurgency warfare the more capable and legitimate the indigenous security forces (especially the police), the better the governance capacity of the local state, and the less external support that insurgents receive."

From Daniel Cornwall and FGI via usa.gov


" EPA's National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information. EPA is holding an on-line discussion among its federal partners and the public to foster collaboration on information access. Everyone is invited to use this site to identify and share their best resources, tools, and ideas for improving access to EPA's environmental information. This blog will only be accepting comments for one week - from June 9-13, 2008 - so be sure to visit and add your comments and good ideas soon!"
This ONE WEEK ONLY blog can be found at http://blog.epa.gov/partners/. I hope that anyone with an interest in environmental information will try and use this venue. - Daniel

DOD has released its FY2007 DoD Statistical Report on the Military Retirement System. It can be found directly at http://www.defenselink.mil/actuary/statbook07.pdf or from their Actuary website http://www.defenselink.mil/actuary/ . Previous reports back to
FY2001 are also available along with other reports from that office.
If you are not familiar with this report, it is pretty comprehensive providing information on all kinds/levels of military retirement information. Most is available by service and rank. While most of the stats are for the current fiscal year, there is one table for the number of military retirees receiving retired pay by year going back to 1900.
Also included are stats such as:
by State
Military Retirees outside the US
by Zip Code
by rank and current age/age at retirement/years of service by gender

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released its Phase II reports on administration misstatements on Prewar Iraq Intelligence and inappropriate intelligence activities by a Pentagon Policy Office. These reports are available from the Senate Intelligence page http://intelligence.senate.gov/pubcurrent.html or from the Chairman Rockefeller's page http://rockefeller.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=298774& or directly at indicated below. The press release is available at
http://intelligence.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=298775
Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials were substantiated by Intelligence Information http://intelligence.senate.gov/080605/phase2a.pdf
Report on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy http://intelligence.senate.gov/080605/phase2b.pdf
The initial report is also available
Report on the Select Committee on Intelligence on Prewar Intelligence Assessments about Postwar Iraq.
http://intelligence.senate.gov/prewar.pdf