We've Always Been At War With Eastasia...

Welcome to the "Global War On Terror, Cyber Crime, Illegal Immigration, and Drugs, and In Favor of the Ballistic Missile Shield Military-Defense Contractor-Law Enforcement Complex."

Bruce Schneier reminds us that the Global War On Terror™ is too big to fail.  It's not so much a war as a cash cow upon which civil government administrators are more than happy to remain dependent on for funding.  Never mind that Al Qaeda has never been weaker, if you paint it olive drab or tactical black your community can civilianize the Global War On Terror™.

I'd love to see 9/11 come and go without a mention (except for selfless bravery of the passengers of Flight 93) but it's already way too late for that. Osama bin Laden is dead and buried but he's still reaping windfall profits from his $500,000 investment.  Two trillion dollars and counting, an economy in shambles, and an American people treating 9/11 like a national holiday...

Unsurprised

I had a hunch the inevitable 9/11 ten year retrospectives would piss me off.  I didn't have to wait long... 

The excellent Homeland Security Watch blog posted a link to Homeland Security Affairs who has published a collection of essays today in remembrance of the ten-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, titled Ten Years After: The 9/11 Essays.

I've only read a couple but Chertoff's 9/11: Before and After, was everything I expected it to be.

I am not surprised Chertoff expressed disdain for the rights of criminal suspects that are guaranteed by the Constitution.

I am not surprised he was uncomfortable with rules of evidence that make it challenging to prosecute accused criminals while upholding the law.

I am not surprised Chertoff resorted to aphorisms like “refashioning our legal tool set,” “streamline information requests,” “detaining operatives,” “incapacitating terrorists,” “failure to integrate warning information,” and “less than optimal.”

Actually I was a little surprised Chertoff bothered to argue that the FISA Act Amendments created the means to resolve legal issues related to electronic surveillance, but then he didn't bother to mention that the Bush administration frequently chose not to submit their domestic spying requests to the FISA courts anyway.

I am not surprised that, except to complain that criminal courts won’t accept evidence provided by the government in many terrorism cases, Chertoff utterly failed to mention issues arising from the torture of suspects, bizarre attempts to redefine torture, and the deaths of accused terrorists in US custody or that of countries to whom the US rendered them.

I am not surprised Chertoff failed to mention the concerns of air travelers subjected to ever more intrusive searches at TSA checkpoints. He mentioned nothing at all about the controversy surrounding the deployment of nude scanners at US airports, devices the sale of which enrich him personally.

I am not surprised that in his closing paragraphs, as though he’d run out of terrorism issues with which to be concerned, Chertoff turns his attention to cyber crime and hacktivism in the context of how difficult existing law makes it for the government to monitor the internet in real time.

No, I am not surprised, disappointed, but not surprised.  I remain fearful for the moral integrity and ethical center of our nation in the hands of unelected officials the likes of Michael Chertoff.

UPDATE: Here's a sobering article on claims by Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall that the Obama administration is operating under a secret interpretation of the PATRIOT Act to spy on American citizens.  Al Qaeda sure got their money's worth...

REUPDATE: And for a more measured, less self-serving, viewpoint on the state of Al Qaeda these visit always interesting Stratfor.com.

Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine

I happen to think climbing 8000 meter peaks is a foolhardy undertaking...

I offer as proof this story which started with the death of two climbers attempting to be the first reach the summit of Mt Everest in 1924. Mallory and Irvine were last seen "climbing with alacrity" toward the peak...and were never seen or heard from again. Their fate was unknown, until a 1999 expedition was mounted to solve the mystery, find the climbers' bodies, and determine if they reached the summit. The 1999 expedition was partially successful, but you'll have to read the book to learn precisely in what way. Ghosts of Everest is not only a captivating account of two mountain climbing adventures set 75 years apart, it is also a detective story.

Roadside Picnic

Written by the Brothers Strugatsky - Arkady and Boris...

Roadside Picnic was the basis for the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. I couldn't afford a copy of the book so I read the Cryptomaoist Editions PDF of it using the Bookman PDF reader app on my iPhone.  Spooky, evocative, heart-felt science fiction.

CPTED Resources

That's Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design for the acronym averse...

 The infamous Cabrini-Green - the opposite of CPTED

CPTED is the idea that we can shape our built environment to increase the ability of legitimate users of a space to assert and retain control of its proper use.  The inverse of this principal is that poorly thought out spaces can actually contribute to social disorder and crime.

There is a CPTED group at LinkedIn managed by Severin Sorenson, a consultant and one of the top people in the field. I am reposting the links from a reference list he maintains there as a service to those security practitioners who do not yet have a LinkedIn account (?!!) or subscribe to the CPTED group.

Anything by Randall Atlas is worth reading. His website is here.

Likewise Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design by the late Timothy Crowe is a classic in the field.

In the mean time just in case you haven't read Oscar Newman's Creating Defensible Space your reference library is incomplete.  Follow the link for a free PDF of this classic text.

National Crime Prevention Institute (NCPI) at the University of Louisville.

And there's the International CPTED Association.

The Wikipedia external links on the topic lead us to an interesting annotated bibliography.

When all else fails you can Google: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design PDF

Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Design for Security - Milan

US DOJ Using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Problem-Solving

Secured by Design (UK)

Felson and Clarke's Opportunity Makes the Thief - Practical theory for crime prevention

"Counter Terrorism Protective Security Advice for Shopping Centres" isn't strictly CPTED

The GSA Site Security Design Guide is recommended

Crime Prevention Research (UK Home Office)

California Crime Prevention Officers Association (CCPOA)

CPTED Ontario

Designing Out Crime Association

Environmental Design at Wikipedia

Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)

Environmental Psychology (Wikipedia)

European Designing Out Crime Association

Florida Design Out Crime Association

International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioners (ISCPP)

Law Enforcement Environmental Planning Association of California (LEEPAC)

National Institute of Crime Prevention

Place Making for Communities

United States Designing Out Crime Association

This is just a sampling of the many resources out there for people and organizations to apply to their communities.

UPDATE (31 January 2012): Here are some new crime prevention resources recommended by participants in a long running LinkedIn thread.

Counter Terrorism Protective Security Advice for Shopping Centres

Crowded Places: The Planning System and Counter-Terrorism

Crime and Everyday Life by Marcus Felson

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: Guidelines for Queensland - Part A: Essential features of safer places

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: Guidelines for Queensland - Part B: Implementation Guide

Building Safe Toilet Design into Shared Urban Space by Carol McCreary

FEMA Security Risk Management Series

FEMA Site and Urban Design for Security

National Guidelines for Crime Prevention through Environmental Design in New Zealand Part 1: Seven Qualities of Safer Places - Published November 2005

National Guidelines for Crime Prevention through Environmental Design in New Zealand Part 2: Implementation Guide - Published November 2005

Peel Regional Police (leaders in CPTED)

PLANNING URBAN DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT FOR CRIME PREVENTION HANDBOOK

Safer Places: The Planning System and Crime Prevention

THE THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF 'CPTED': 25 YEARS OF RESPONSES TO C. RAY JEFFERY

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Toronto Police Services CPTED brochure

UPDATE (22 July 2012): Gregory Saville points us all to an updated CPTED bibliography at Safe Cascadia.  See also the 6 March 2012 Eclectic Breakfast post titled Safe Cascadia.