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Month: August 2017

Assessing the Tradecraft of Intelligence Analysis

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“Analysis” in the U.S. Intelligence Community is definitely plural. It encompasses a range of styles, levels, and customers. It ranges from solving puzzles (such as whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction a question that could be answered definitively if only the United States had access to information that in principle was available) to framing mysteries (those questions that are future and contingent, which no information could resolve definitively). It would surprise many citizens to learn that the big “collectors,” such as the National Security Agency or the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, have more “analysts” than the Central Intelligence Agency. The vast majority of what all those analysts do is current and tactical, more question answering than producing deep understanding of critical issues. That tyranny of the immediate has become more entrenched, for a variety of reasons, not least that technology now permits the take from big national collection systems to be retrieved in time...

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Infrastructure, Safety, And Environment

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If a terrorist group lacks the ability to learn, its effectiveness in achieving its goals will largely be determined by chance the chance that its members already have the necessary skills to carry out operations and support activities; the chance that its current tactics are effective against desirable targets and against current antiterrorism measures; and the chance that shifts made by the group will prove to be beneficial. Similarly, in a dynamic environment, a terrorist organization that cannot learn will not be able to effectively adapt to new developments in intelligence gathering and law enforcement. But when a terrorist group can learn and learn well it can act systematically to fulfill its needs, strengthen its capabilities, and advance its strategic agenda. The ability to learn allows a terrorist group to purposefully adapt to ever-evolving circumstances by

• Developing, improving, and employing new weapons or tactics that can enable it to change its capabilities over time

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Understanding and Ameliorating Revenge Fantasies in Psychotherapy

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Nature of the Problem

In evaluating and treating stress response syndromes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), clinicians may encounter intrusive and persistent thoughts of vengeance associated with feelings of rage at perpetrators (1 – 3) . The inciting stressors can be injuries, rape, mugging, rejection, divorce, physical abuse, insulting criticism, deliberate neglect, or betrayal of promises. Symptomatic revengefantasies go beyond normal bitter thoughts; they are unwanted, uncontrollable, dangerous, or intensely evocative of shame or guilt. Revenge fantasies also may permeate the thinking of people with paranoid traits when they feel under stress.

Revenge fantasies are common but not specific to PTSD, complicated grief, or other stress response syndromes. The patient may expect to be judged critically for such hostility and may not divulge the fantasies. Direct questions may open the door to disclosure. Revenge fantasies may even include rage at the self and lead to suicidality.

Revenge fantasies have been discussed in the literature on PTSD (1 , 4 , 5)...

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Risk Factors – Warning Signs of Suicide

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The most common risk factors associated with youth suicide include depression, previous suicide attempts, frequent thought about death, and the use of drugs or alcohol. The following information was accessed from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Website to provide you with additional information about identifying and managing potentially suicidal patients. Many of the signs and symptoms of suicide are similar to those of depression:

• Change in eating and sleeping habits • Withdrawal from friends, family, and regular activities • Violent actions, rebellious behavior, or running away • Drug and alcohol use • Unusual neglect of personal appearance • Marked personality change • Persistent boredom, difficulty concentrating, or a decline in the quality of schoolwork • Frequent complaints about physical symptoms, often related to emotions, such as stomachaches, headaches, fatigue, etc. • Loss of interest in pleasurable activities • Not tolerating praise or rewards

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Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms?

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Abstract

Corruption by the politically connected is often blamed for economic ills, particularly in less developed economies. Using a loan-level data set of more than 90,000 Örms that represents the universe of corporate lending in Pakistan between 1996 and 2002, we investigate rents to politically connected Örms in banking. Classifying a Örm as ìpoliticalîif its director participates in an election, we examine the extent, nature, and economic costs of political rent provision. We Önd that political Örms borrow 45 percent more and have 50 percent higher default rates. Such preferential treatment occurs exclusively in government banks - private banks provide no political favors. Using Örm Öxed e§ects and exploiting variation for the same Örm across lenders or over time allows for cleaner identiÖcation of the political preference result. We also Önd that political rents increase with the strength of the Örmís politician and whether he or his party is in power,

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Differences between Politically Connected and Nonconnected Firms: A Cross-Country Analysis

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Despite the fact that corruption has a negative aggregate economic effect on a country’s investment and growth, a growing body of literature has pointed out that political connections may be beneficial to specific firms. Academic studies reporting evidence on how connections provide sources of value have identified only a few differences between connected and nonconnected firms, such as preferential access to credit (Johnson and Mitton, 2003; Chiu and Joh, 2004; Dinc¸, 2004; Cull and Xu, 2005; Khwaja and Mian, 2005), government contracts (Goldman, Rocholl, and So, 2008), regulatory protection (Kroszner and Stratmann, 1998), and government aid for financially troubled firms (Faccio, Masulis, and McConnell, 2006). Additionally, most of these studies look at individual countries and highly dissimilar types of connections, making cross-country comparison virtually impossible. By contrast, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how connected firms differ from nonconnected firms across a large number of countries...

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Federal Conspiracy Law: A Brief Overview

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Summary

Zacarias Moussaoui, members of the Colombian drug cartels, members of organized crime, and some of the former Enron executives have at least one thing in common: they all have federal conspiracy convictions. The essence of conspiracy is an agreement of two or more persons to engage in some form of prohibited misconduct. The crime is complete upon agreement, although some statutes require prosecutors to show that at least one of the conspirators has taken some concrete step or committed some overt act in furtherance of the scheme. There are dozens of federal conspiracy statutes. One, 18 U.S.C. 371, outlaws conspiracy to commit some other federal crime. The others outlaw conspiracy to engage in various specific forms of proscribed conduct. General Section 371 conspiracies are punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years; drug trafficking, terrorist, and racketeering conspiracies all carry the same penalties as their underlying substantive offenses, and...

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Civil Conspiracy and the Rule of Law: A Proposal for Reappraisal and Reform

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I. INTRODUCTION

A civil conspiracy is a group of two or more persons acting together to achieve an unlawful objective or to achieve a lawful objective by unlawful or criminal means.”

. . . . “[T]here must also be some illegal or tortious act committed by at least one of the parties to carry out the objectives of the agreement.

A. The Nature of the Problem and Questions Posed This article considers the doctrine of civil conspiracy, which has been used to impose expansive liability on defendants, in certain cases with limited (if any) fault, through a form of vicarious liability where each coconspirator is jointly and severally liable for the acts of the other.

Civil conspiracy has also been applied inconsistently in various places throughout the United States: for example, some states restrict its scope, through a concept of “duty limitations” while others do not, and some states are still

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Problems Encountered in Investigating and Prosecuting Conspiracies to Commit Terrorist Offences 

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Terror conspiracies are among the most problematic criminal offences to prosecute because of the difficulty of distinguishing between the mere expression of subversive thoughts and substantive plans to execute an outrage. The afore mentioned dilemma has critical consequences for law enforcement agencies carrying out surveillance of conspiratorial meetings whether by way of SIGINT or HUMINT2 . To find the correct balance between a longer period of surveillance or a relatively short one is a refined technique. The task becomes more reliable when the intelligence base has infiltrated and become integrated in the suspect's community. On the prosecution process when two or more potential terrorists agree upon a plan for an act of terror, the legal elements of the offence of conspiracy may be made out even if the commission of the complete criminal enterprise is beyond their capability. In these circumstances the task of sentencing such individuals is often a conjectural exercise...

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Economic Models

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Economic modeling is at the heart of economic theory. Modeling provides a logical, abstract template to help organize the analyst's thoughts. The model helps the economist logically isolate and sort out complicated chains of cause and effect and influence between the numerous interacting elements in an economy. Through the use of a model, the economist can experiment, at least logically, producing different scenarios, attempting to evaluate the effect of alternative policy options, or weighing the logical integrity of arguments presented in prose. Certain types of models are extremely useful for presenting visually the essence of economic arguments. No student of economics has sat through a class for very long before a picture is drawn on a chalkboard. The visual appeal of a model clarifies the exposition. In this text, four primary models will be presented; the Aggregate Supply - Aggregate Demand (AS/AD) Model, the Loanable Funds Model, an HMCMacroSim simulation model,...

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Extended Release Drug Delivery Technology

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The article by Dr. Siegel in the June 2005 edition of your journal [Extended Release Drug Delivery Strategies in Psychiatry: Theory to Practice. Psychiatry 2005 2005;2(6):22–31] was quite a relevant and 35 piece. I was particularly interested in the aspects that dealt with substance abuse treatment, which touched on the extended-release injectable form of naltrexone.

Another medication currently in the pipeline is a new, extended-release formulation of buprenorphine, which is a depot form. This depot formulation is an injectable solution that contains tiny biodegradable capsules of buprenorphine. As the capsules disintegrate, it is said that it would be slowly released over several weeks, and it would be administered once every 4 to 6 weeks.

Diversion of medications in substance abuse treatments, whether it be medications like methadone, benzodiazepines, or narcotic analgesics, has been a huge problem. Buprenorphine, a partial opiate agonist, was given FDA approval in October 2002 for treatment of...

See Also: Extended Release Drug Delivery Strategies

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Overview of Controlled Release Mechanisms

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Abstract

Controlled release systems have been developed to improve the temporal and spatial presentation of drug in the body, to protect drug from physiological degradation or elimination, to improve patient compliance, and to enhance quality control in manufacturing of drug products. When designing controlled-release systems, it is important to identify and understand particular mechanisms involve in the release process. Often, more than one mechanism is involved at a given time or different mechanisms may dominate at different stages of the drug delivery process. This chapter begins with several vignettes, each highlighting a mode of controlled drug delivery and identifying associated mechanisms. An introductory description of several of the mechanisms follows. Details regarding these mechanisms are provided in subsequent chapters.

2.1 Introduction

Controlled-release systems are designed to enhance drug therapy. There are several motivations for developing controlled-release systems, which may depend on the drug of interest. Controlled release systems have been devised to enable superior control of...

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Legal Framework Regulating Outside The Box Investigations

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OBJECTIVES:

After this session, you will be able to:

1. Identify the major statutory and Fourth Amendment distinctions regarding obtaining data on networks, including the distinction between content and non-content;

2. Describe the main characteristics of the Pen Register Act, Wiretap Act, and Stored Communications Act; and

3. Understand the uncertain status of the relationship of the Fourth Amendment and statutory requirements.

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Panduit StructuredGround™ Grounding System for Data Center Grounding

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The Purpose of Grounding

The grounding system is not just an insurance policy against a lightning strike. It is an active, functioning system that provides protection for personnel and equipment. Proper grounding is essential for efficient network performance. The purpose of the grounding system is to create a low impedance path to earth ground for electrical surges and transient voltages. Lightning, fault currents, circuit switching (motors turning on and off), and electrostatic discharge are the common causes of these surges and transient voltages. An effective grounding system minimizes the detrimental effects of these electrical surges. A properly designed grounding system is one that is intentional, visually verifiable, adequately sized to handle expected currents safely, and one that directs these potentially damaging currents away from sensitive communication equipment. Any metallic component that is part of the data center infrastructure (such as equipment, racks, ladder racks, enclosures, cable trays, etc.) must be bonded to the grounding system....

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Grounding and the Use of the Signal Reference Grid in Data Centers

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The signal reference grid (SRG) is a network of copper wires typically installed below a raised floor in a data center as shown in Figure 1. An SRG can also be constructed of flat copper straps, aluminum wires, raised flooring substructure, or in extreme cases, a solid covering of sheet metal. The installation of signal reference grids has been common practice for over 30 years. Most data center designs call out for SRGs and their use and expense are not questioned.

Recently, more and more data centers are being constructed on existing hard-floor environments where SRGs cannot be installed under the floor. The evidence suggests that the lack of SRGs in such installations has given rise to no adverse effects on the operation of the IT equipment. Naturally this leads to the question of why systems can work reliably without an SRG and whether the SRG is ever a necessary or logical...

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Arc Flash Analysis: IEEE Method versus the NFPA 70E Tables

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1.0 Abstract

Recent changes in workplace safety regulations have heightened the awareness of hazards associated with electrical arcs. The hazard level must be quantified and workers properly protected before entering proximity of exposed energized conductors. National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) standard 70E provides the guidelines for work involving electrical hazards and the selection of arc flash protective equipment. In order to properly select the protective gear one must have knowledge of the potential thermal energy of the electric arc. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 1584 has been the de facto standard for calculating the arc energy levels at different points in the electrical power system.

However, NFPA 70E also provides the option of using the Hazard/Risk Category (HRC) task tables for personal protective equipment (PPE) selection. These tables provide pre-defined levels of PPE, which are based on the available short circuit current and the speed of the overcurrent protective device...

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