Threat Axis Log

This is interesting….this thing already flew…YEARS ago.

http://www.scaled.com/projects/ares.html

US Army Human Terrain System in Disarray

Millions of Dollars Wasted, Two Lives Sacrificed*

by John Stanton

John Stanton is a Virginia-based writer specializing in national security and political matters. His latest book is Talking Politics with God & the Devil in Washington, DC. Reach him at cioran123[at] yahoo.com. * Part II of this subject to follow at a later date.
According to sources, United States Army brigade commanders privately believe that the US Army’s TRADOC Human Terrain System (HTS) program is a “joke” and completely unnecessary. The HTS program is publicly supported by brigade military commanders, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, only because it is a “pet project” of the currently
politically popular US Army General David Petraeus.

BAE Systems, the prime contractor on the project, has repeatedly been pressured by the HTS program manager and his staff to hire individuals who are not field-experienced ethnographers/anthropologists, but rather Google-fed political and social scientists. In two cases, pre-security clearance award investigations revealed that one candidate recommended for hire by senior staff was a felon. The other candidate had health problems that would have compromised the functions of a deployed Human Terrain Team (HTT). BAE Systems has been the punching bag for the poor decision-making of HTS program managers and advisors.

(more…)