Thursday, July 31, 2008

New Web Site Consolidates Access to
DoD Scientific and Technical Information
FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC(r)) launches the new DTIC Online, a redesigned public Web site for Department of Defense (DoD) scientific and technical (S&T) information.
This new site integrates three of DTIC's public Web sites: DTIC Search, DTIC Home and its Public Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET(r)).
R. Paul Ryan, DTIC's Administrator, said, "This consolidation provides DTIC customers with a single point of entry to S&T information. While the new site includes users' favorite products and resources, enhancements have been made to improve navigation and provide access to more resources in one location."
Two key features of the new site are (1) the ability to search more databases in one search and (2) Interest Area pages that provide links to pertinent information for specific S&T research communities.
With the release of DTIC Online, the MultiSearch tool has also been enhanced. This search feature assists the DoD community in accessing S&T information over a wide range of DoD, federal, commercial and international sources. DTIC customers are now able to access more than 50 database sources, from approximately 50 countries with an estimated number of 20 million documents. Sources include DTIC collections, Science.gov, the Library of Congress, World Wide Science.org, Scitopia.org and much more.
View DTIC Online at http://www.dtic.mil today. To submit feedback on the new Web site, please email: feedback@dtic.mil.
DTIC is a DoD Field Activity aligned with the Director, Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E). The premier provider of DoD scientific and technical information, DTIC has served the information needs of the defense community for more than 60 years.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has released their latest and it can be found along with related information at their website -- http://www.empcommission.org/index.php
Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: Critical National Infrastructure can be found at http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf
The EMP Commission was established as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2001 and "reestablished via the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 to continue its efforts to monitor, investigate, make recommendations, and report to Congress on the evolving threat to the United States from electromagnetic pulse attack resulting from the detonation of a nuclear weapon or weapons at high altitude."
Duties of the EMP Commission include assessing:
1. the nature and magnitude of potential high-altitude EMP threats
to the United States from all potentially hostile states or non-state actors that have or could acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles enabling them to perform a high-altitude EMP attack against the United States within the next 15 years;
2. the vulnerability of United States military and especially
civilian systems to an EMP attack, giving special attention to vulnerability of the civilian infrastructure as a matter of emergency preparedness;
3. the capability of the United States to repair and recover from
damage inflicted on United States military and civilian systems by an EMP attack; and
4. the feasibility and cost of hardening select military and
civilian systems against EMP attack.
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point is pleased to announce the release of its second report of al-Qa'ida's foreign fighters in Iraq:
Bombers, Bank Accounts, and Bleedout: al-Qa`ida's Road in and Out of Iraq. The report expands on an analysis of al-Qa'ida in Iraq personnel records conducted by the CTC in December 2007. The report can be accessed at:
http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/pdf/Sinjar_2_July_23.pdf
New Raw Data
Bombers, Bank Accounts, and Bleedout not only expands on the analysis of the Sinjar Records conducted in the first report, it also introduces a host of new data, including:
* Statistics on the exact number and nationality of foreign
fighters held by the US at Camp Bucca in Iraq.
* Contracts signed by AQI's foreign suicide bombers
* Contracts signed by AQI fighters entering and leaving Iraq
* Accounting sheets signed by various fighters that indicate
funding sources and expenditures
* Several narratives describing AQI's network in Syria, personnel
problems, and ties to Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon
* Weapons reports, etc.
Findings
The report has several major new findings:
* Foreign Fighters were an important source of funds for AQI;
Saudi Fighters contributed far more money than any other nationality
* Far more Syrians and Egyptians are held at Camp Bucca than were
listed in the Sinjar Records, which likely reflects the demographic shift away from those nationalities
* Approximately 75% of suicide bombings in Iraq between August
2006 and August 2007 can be attributed to fighters listed in the Sinjar Records.
* "Bleedout" of fighters from Iraq is occurring, but in relatively
small numbers. Nonetheless, these individual fighters will likely be well-trained and very dangerous. The primary threat from these fighters is to Arab states, Af-Pak, and perhaps Somalia.
* Smuggling of all kinds across the Syrian/Iraqi border has long
been linked to corruption in both Syria and Iraq, which limits both government's ability to crackdown.
* Fighters that contributed money to AQI were more likely to
become suicide bombers.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Stephen Platt, Henderson Public Library District's Government Documents Librarian amazes and astounds with his presentation at the Nevada Govdocs Training Day at the Nevada State Library & Archives.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Yet, another view of the beautiful quilts on display at the Downtown Reno Library.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The National War Powers Commission, co-chaired by Secretaries of State Baker and Christopher, was released yesterday. This commission report recommends that Congress repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution and "substitute a new statute that would provide for more meaningful consultation between the President and Congress. In its final report, the Commission has recommended that Congress pass a new statute, the War Powers Consultation Act of 2009, establishing a clear process on decisions to go to war."
The main website is
http://millercenter.org/policy/commissions/warpowers/
The final report can be found through the link above or directly at http://millercenter.org/dev/ci/system/application/views/_newwebsite/poli
cy/commissions/warpowers/report.pdf
And the appendices to the report can be found at http://millercenter.org/policy/commissions/warpowers/appendices

Sunday, July 06, 2008

A different view of the beautiful quilts on display in the Downtown Reno Library.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

July is quilt month at the Downtown Reno Library.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

From Melody Kelly, Associate Dean, UNT Libraries


Today's NY Times has a lead article "China Inspired Interrogations at Guantanamo" that has govdoc research challenges hidden within its text. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02detain.html?th&emc=th
For those who teach docs classes and those who keep up with the interrogation methods used by the military and CIA this article is a gem.
Hearings are an obvious source but you can also find related technical reports by Biderman http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/prodsrvc/stinet.html
And the article specifically mentioned by Biderman using our old friend PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/
Don't you just love reading the newspapers!

Thank you, Melody
Rand has finally been able to release its report "After Saddam: Prewar Planning and the Occupation of Iraq."
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG642.pdf.
This report examined activities through June 2004 and part of an "eight-volume collection of reports that the RAND Arroyo Center undertook to prepare an authoritative account of the planning and execution of combat and stability operations in Iraq. Six of the volumes are classified. The other unclassified volume is being finalized."
Abstract: "This monograph begins by examining prewar planning efforts for postwar Iraq, in order to establish what U.S. policymakers expected the postwar situation to look like and what their plans were for reconstruction. The monograph then examines the role of U.S. military forces after major combat officially ended on May 1, 2003; the analysis covers this period through the end of June 2004. Finally, the monograph examines civilian efforts at reconstruction after major combat ended, focusing on the activities of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and its efforts to rebuild structures of governance, security forces, economic policy, and essential services prior to June 28, 2004, the day that the CPA dissolved and transferred authority to the Interim Iraqi Government. The authors conclude that the U.S. government was unprepared for the challenges of postwar Iraq for three reasons: a failure to challenge fundamental assumptions about postwar Iraq; ineffective interagency coordination; and the failure to assign responsibility and resources for providing security in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations."