By Steve Hammons 

Two new documents by and about the U.S. Army are sparking discussion and debate about various elements of the Army’s missions and future directions.

Both documents, a field manual and a research study report, expand perspectives about achieving short-term and long-term success in various kinds of missions.

Taken together, along with other comprehensive considerations, these views might be considered part of an “outside-the-box” and valuable concept sometimes referred to as “transcendent warfare.”

The new Stability Operations Field Manual, to be released today according to an Oct. 5 Washington Post article, emphasizes the role of “stability operations” in countries and regions that include fragile states and failed states.

The article quoted Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV as saying, “This is the document that bridges from conflict to peace.” Caldwell is commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The manual was created with the past year at the center.

Another new document is a report by the Rand Corporation based on a study they conducted for the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI). The report is titled “Green Warriors: Army Environmental Considerations for Contingency Operations from Planning Through Post-Conflict.”

The report notes that issues such as clean water, sewage and sanitation, proper handling of hazardous waste and similar challenges can affect mission success in establishing stability and support for U.S. missions by local residents, according to an Oct. 3 report in Newsweek.

How do the Stability Operations Field Manual, the Green Warriors research report and other approaches contribute to thinking and perceptions about transcendent warfare and future success for U.S. missions and activities?

HARD POWER, SOFT POWER, TRANSCENDENT POWER

When a U.S. Navy SEAL officer coined the term “transcendent warfare” several years ago, he was referring to the development of perspectives that include various advances in knowledge about psychology, sociology, physics, intelligence-gathering and other important elements.

The officer’s graduate-level research paper was titled, “Unconventional Human Intelligence Support: Transcendent and Asymmetric Warfare Implications of Remote Viewing.”

The 2001 report by then-Commander L.R. “Rick” Bremseth was part of his studies at the Marine Corps War College, Marine Corps University, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia.

During and after extensive research and interviews, Bremseth noted that emerging developments and perspectives could be very helpful in various kinds of U.S. military and intelligence operations.

Do some of his research findings correlate with ideas such as those expressed in communications platforms such as the Stability Operations Field Manual and Rand’s Green Warriors study?

The answer is probably yes. Thorough, effective planning and implementation of those plans that take into account a wide scope of factors involved in U.S. military and intelligence activities can contribute to success.

While some comprehensive thinking may seem “outside the box,” some of it might be perceived as logical and common sense.

The Stability Operations Field Manual proposes that nations and regions that are havens for terrorism, criminal activities and religious extremism may pose a greater threat to the U.S. than the threat of major conventional battlefield wars.

The Green Warriors report noted that developing and sustaining the support from indigenous populations, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, can be impacted by how well or poorly local circumstances involving clean water, sanitation and similar issues are handled.

The concepts in the field manual and the Rand report are not new.

The importance and value of comprehensive approaches in “winning hearts and minds” has long been recognized. Perhaps the value of these documents is to remind us that U.S. objectives can be achieved with “soft power” as well as the bombs and bullets of “hard power.”

The ideas of transcendent warfare simply add to the tools and options that are associated with both soft power and hard power.

NEW FORM OF WARFARE

Using Iraq and Afghanistan as examples, it is widely recognized that improving jobs and economic opportunity, getting business and agriculture up and running, providing basic services such as roads and electricity, opening schools and medical facilities, supporting the local communications media and similar activities all work hand-in-hand with hard-power military activities.

Making friends for America can be more helpful than making enemies.

Competence in the use of hard power, “killing people and blowing things up” as some like to say, is a given for military activities, whether we are talking about armies, navies or air forces. But, as we know, sometimes the battle is won but the war is lost.

What is sometimes a more challenging mission is to create peace, stability and long-term friends.

This assumes, of course, that the goal is actually to create stability and peace. When it is claimed or believed that military actions are undertaken for purposes of war-profiteering, to access natural resources such as oil or to intrude upon or dominate a specific region, then the moral authority of a military action will be questioned and possibly resisted.

It is possible that in some cases, conflict and war could be more desirable by some than peace and stability, at least by war-profiteers and those who have less-than-honorable motives.

Here again, perhaps transcendent warfare concepts can be of assistance. This is because some aspects of transcendent warfare look at human consciousness and human psychology in ways that can be helpful in a higher, deeper and more inclusive scope of understanding.

This can be helpful in dealing with other societies. And, it can be helpful in the understanding and advancement of our own nation.

In his Marine Corps War College report, Navy SEAL Bremseth noted that, “The real challenge for the United States is not asymmetric warfare, but rather what this writer calls transcendent warfare, the ability to conceptualize and subsequently actualize an entirely new form of warfare that transcends all previously known models.”

He also stated that it would be useful to, “Explore a myriad of phenomena having potential military applications with the goal of developing transcendent and asymmetrical warfare approaches.”

Using perspectives and methods that take into consideration the implementation of stabilization activities, peace operations, constructive psychological operations (PSYOP), information operations, open-source intelligence (OSINT), unconventional approaches, transcendent warfare concepts and other tactics and strategies might be very helpful now and in the future.

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An Article by:
Steve Hammons

As an average American citizen, I don’t pretend to be an economic or financial expert.

But I do have a “macro” perception of the situation from the viewpoint of an average American.

Reading and hearing the latest news about the plan for a $1 trillion bailout of Wall Street seems to confirm my gut instincts over the years.

My perceptions have been that Wall Street and the financial services sector are part of a culture of very greedy and perhaps crooked people.

Are they greedy, crooked and smart? Or, are they greedy, crooked and dumb?

Maybe they are stupid like a fox.

When you can create a system where people on the inside are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions, or tens of millions, or hundreds of millions on Wall Street, and then ask for upward of a $1 trillion bailout from the government and taxpayers, that seems fairly smart.

PLENTY OF SUCKERS

Over the years, the culture of Wall Street has been smart enough to convince many average Americans to put their money in stocks, mutual funds and other “investments.”

On TV, we see frequent ads by investment firms telling us that if we just give them our money, we will have a safe retirement and protect our children. TV and movie personalities get paid big money for these commercials that try to convince us to hand over our money to these investment firms.

We also see investment industry representatives on TV legitimizing schemes to get our money. Giving our money to Wall Street is very smart, they tell us.

The internet has further expanded the range of Wall Street so that anyone can bet their money on various kinds of stocks or other investment gambling.

The laws that launched the 401(k) and similar plans helped channel retirement savings into the Wall Street system. This was also part of the situation surrounding the disintegration of conventional employer pension plans.

There have even been proposals to change the Social Security program so that people can give that money to Wall Street too.

So, Wall Street and the “investment experts” who want our money have been smart enough to convince many suckers to give them money.

Of course, for some people, it doesn’t take much encouragement to bet their money. That is why gambling at casinos is so popular. People seem to have a natural desire to gamble. Maybe it is wired in our brains. It can be like an addiction.

In these ways, and in others, it seems that gambling at a casino and handing your money over to an “investment advisor” and Wall Street can sometimes have similarities.

As the U.S. financial services sector has grown, many people have become investment advisors. They convince gullible people to hand over money to the advisor. Of course, the advisor always takes a cut. And maybe there is compensation that is unseen by the person handing over their money.

WALL STREET AND WASHINGTON

The Wall Street system exists hand-in-hand with the culture of Washington lobbyists and politicians. No surprise there. Wall Street passes out “contributions” to politicians of all stripes, although officials who support Wall Street positions are, of course, especially favored.

Some politicians eagerly go along with the theory of minimal “government interference” in the free market. Until, that is, the system has been looted by greed and apparent incompetence. Then, government involvement is pleaded for. Not involvement actually … just a $1 trillion dollar bailout.

It seems as though the looting of the U.S. Treasury must have some limits. How long can we keep printing money and borrowing from China before there are more serious problems?

First, the war profiteers looted the U.S. Treasury as part of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The homeland security industry was also in line to make big bucks in government contracts and spending.

Now, Wall Street is lining up at the Treasury hog trough to get their share.

Maybe, like individual and group investors now, there is a “run on the (U.S. Treasury) bank” by Wall Street. Get what money you can now from Uncle Sam before the money dries up.

Maybe Wall Street is making a run on the U.S. Treasury to get while the gettin’ is good and before the U.S. Government is in such a dire financial situation that $1 billion bailouts might be more difficult to obtain.

After all, the current administration is due to leave office soon. The gravy train of hundreds of billions of dollars in hand-outs to war profiteers and cronies may be at an end.

This may be the last chance to line up for the big bucks that have been so freely distributed by the U.S. Government in recent years.

Maybe we American citizens have truly been made to be the suckers in many ways. The question now could be: What are we going to do about it?

Tags: corporations, Deregulation, economics, economy, government, legislation, politics, social responsibility, Steve Hammons, wall street. financial bailout
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An Article by:
By Steve Hammons

The term “transcendent warfare” was used by a U.S. Navy SEAL officer several years ago to describe the use of leading-edge knowledge and methods that could be helpful in achieving many important objectives.

The SEAL officer, L.R. Bremseth, indicated in a graduate-level research paper for the Marine Corps War College that transcendent warfare includes not only the deployment of certain methods, but also the understanding of underlying concepts.

He noted a significant range of opportunities for the utilization of leading-edge transcendent activities in U.S. national defense efforts.

People sometimes ask, “Is transcendent warfare a way to conduct war more successfully, or is it a way to transcend actual warfare and accomplish objectives in other ways?”

Transcendent warfare may be both … and more.

Transcendent concepts may help average people around the world understand ways to improve their lives and develop constructive solutions to the challenges they may face. In other words, transcendent understanding may enhance human development and change human consciousness.

NATIONAL SECURITY ACTIVITIES

In his paper, Bremseth summarized activities related to facilitating robust psychological and perceptual functioning of U.S. military and intelligence personnel.

He noted that research into human behavior and thinking processes is ever-expanding and that these developments can provide very useful insight and significant assets.

One aspect of transcendent warfare is establishing a perspective from which transcendent concepts can be understood. This is the formation of a certain perspective, viewpoint and understanding.

Another element is translating this understanding into activities can be deployed to accomplish worthwhile missions and tasks.

These may include “hard power” methods as well as “soft power” efforts. They may be applied to special operations missions and humanitarian activities. They may assist “public diplomacy” and constructive psychological operations. They may involve open source intelligence (OSINT) platforms and educational/sociological outreach.

Transcendent concepts and activities can provide additional resources and tools for many kinds of situations … situations that are of importance to us now.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

When we hear a term like transcendent warfare, the ideas of improving the state of the human race and solving the myriad of problems facing humanity might not immediately come to mind.

However, a study of the theories and activities on which the idea of transcendent warfare is based clearly indicates a potential for far-reaching positive changes for the human race and our planet.

Why? At the heart of transcendent concepts is human psychology and human consciousness. Most problems facing the human race are based on these fundamental elements. Many solutions lie in those same basic platforms too.

Enhancing human perception and understanding are keys to the transcendent perspective. Some of the research and activities conducted regarding discoveries in the area of human consciousness clearly indicate great potential for short-term and long-term human development.

How will these discoveries in consciousness and transcendent perspectives help us? It may not be completely clear. Important progress has already been made in integrating some of these leading-edge discoveries into the mass media and our everyday lives.

Social, educational, cultural, spiritual, medical, public safety, governmental, defense and other components of human societies can make greater use of transcendent viewpoints.

As they do, we may see a new paradigm, tipping point or breakthrough in the ways the human race solves problems and makes progress.

Tags: american empire, intelligence, military, psychological operations, Steve Hammons, Terrorism, veteran, war, War on Terror
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An Article by:

Steve Hammons

Originally published in the AmericanChronicle.com

http://americanchronicle.com/articles/53747

The recent controversial remarks from Cincinnati radio personality Bill Cunningham about Barack Obama at a McCain rally can be instructive about the Cincinnati region and Ohio.

I was born and raised in the Cincinnati area, was given the mandatory Ohio history classes in school and later went to college in southern Ohio at nearby Ohio University in Athens, a couple of hours east of Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati and southern Ohio region has a unique history that may be relevant in the run-up to the Democratic primary and the 2008 elections. This history and current flavor of the whole state might also be of interest.

We know that Ohio has been in the news during recent elections. Concerns about questionable election processes in Ohio have been part of this.

After Cunningham made his comments at the McCain rally, another Ohio politician followed him to address the crowd … former Congressman Rob Portman who represented the Cincinnati area.

Portman has been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential running mate with McCain, and a possible presidential candidate in 2012.

SPECIAL ELECTION

Portman left his congressional seat in 2005 to take a position in the George W. Bush administration as U.S. trade representative, which carries the rank of ambassador.

From 2006 to 2007, he took another position in the Bush administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget. He currently is working at a law firm in Cincinnati.

What is interesting is that when a special election was held for Portman’s congressional seat in 2005, the solidly Republican-voting area almost elected another attorney and Marine Corps Reserve major who had served in Iraq, and was running as a centrist Democrat.

That person was Paul Hackett, and during the campaign he said that he had opposed the Iraq war, yet felt it was his duty to volunteer to serve there.

In the congressional race in August 2005, Hackett, who notably opposed gun control, gained attention by referring to George W. Bush as a “chicken hawk” for avoiding combat service in Vietnam during that war.

Hackett also said Bush made “stupid” remarks such as “bring it on,” challenging insurgents in Iraq to attack U.S. troops there.

Hackett reportedly bluntly stated about Bush, “I’ve said I don’t like the S.O.B.”

Hackett’s opponent, Jean Schmidt, strongly supported Bush and the Iraq war.

Hackett lost by about 3,500 votes, getting about 48 percent of the vote in a district that routinely elected the previous Republican congressman there by about 70 percent.

This was a very surprising development in southwestern Ohio.

Obama’s stance on the invasion and occupation of Iraq may resonate in Ohio, where many active duty and reserve Army and National Guard personnel have been killed and wounded. Active duty Marines and Marine reservists from Ohio have also been killed and injured in high numbers in Iraq.

GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHICS

The hilly country of southwestern Ohio around Cincinnati is very much like southern Indiana next door and northern Kentucky, just south across the Ohio River.

If you go further east, the southern neighbor becomes West Virginia and southeastern Ohio is considered part of the Appalachian region, as the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains start there. There is coal mining in this region.

Many people in southern Ohio speak with a slightly or markedly southern-type accent.

An ancient glacier that flattened central and northern Ohio stopped just short of the still-hilly southern part of the state.

In that flat central Ohio area, there are plenty of farms, small and medium-size towns with the state capitol of Columbus right in the middle.

Northern Ohio has a lot of the industrial areas around Lake Erie that have had historical links with Detroit and other centers of the old “rust belt” regions.

Many people here speak with a somewhat northern type of accent.

There are many good union people in Ohio. Sometimes their social and political views are centrist and they might find positions and candidates of either major party to be valid.

Some Ohioans who have benefited from unions and have a middle class or even upper middle class economic status are educated enough to know that the struggles of the union and labor movements over the decades resulted in the benefits they have now.

Some realize that the social, economic and political forces in America that supported or opposed working people and the unions were associated in certain patterns with the two major political parties. Some Ohioans who have benefited from unions may not fully understand this history.

Obama’s efforts and results in Ohio will be related to many of these these factors.

OHIO HISTORY AND ETHNICITY

Will Obama’s mixed-ethnicity be a factor? Probably. There are not too many Ohioans who had a father from Kenya, Africa.

Although Ohio is not as diverse as Hawaii, where Obama mostly grew up, raised by his grandparents from Kansas, there is some interesting ethnic and historical background.

Today, you can find people of virtually every ethnic background living in Ohio.

Italian-Americans in northern Ohio, German-Americans in southwestern Ohio, you name it. People from Eastern Europe often came to work in Ohio’s steel mills and mines.

In the early 1800s, Germans were a dominant ethnicity that settled early Cincinnati.

There reportedly were German or even Nazi sympathizers there before and during U.S. entry into World War II.

At the same time, some local German-Americans, including some distant relatives of mine, thought about changing their very German names to avoid problems during the war years, such as being thought of as “the enemy.”

It could be that some German-Americans in Cincinnati then went overboard the other way, feeling that being a “super American patriot” required certain political and social positions.

Going further back in history, during slavery, for a period of time, laws provided that escaping slaves who crossed north of the Ohio River into southern Ohio could not be returned to slave owners and were, as a practical matter, free.

Subsequent laws required escaping slaves to reach Canada to be free from slave catchers.

Amish and Quakers are found throughout areas of Ohio. The Underground Railroad was very active in southern Ohio during the slavery era. Some Quaker relatives of mine, according to stories and rumors, were involved in the Underground Railroad in the rural areas of southwestern Ohio.

There is a problematic element here. Next door in southern and central Indiana, the KKK is quite strong and active. This is also an aspect of the region in general.

My grandfather told a story about a relative of ours who, decades earlier, had run for sheriff in Kentucky. One night the KKK came to visit him, white robes and all. They told him if he was not on board with the KKK, he would not get elected.

He apparently told them he was not on their side … and he did not get elected sheriff.

Many people entering southern Ohio in the 1800s and 1900s were migrating from the Appalachian Mountain regions in Kentucky, such as some relatives of mine, and from elsewhere in the Appalachian region.

In more recent decades, many Appalachians chose to escape the poverty, oppression and violence of the coal-mining regions. Cincinnati was a center for these escapees too.

Among these migrating groups were people who were mixed-ethnicity European and Native American Indians such as the Cherokee whose native lands were in the Appalachian region.

Many early explorers in the 1700s had intermarried with the Cherokee and generations of mixed English-Scottish and Cherokee families lived in the region.

In the years before the 1839 “Trail of Tears” forced march west, and the confiscation of Cherokee lands and homes, many mixed-ethnicity families blended into the mainstream society, with only a few family stories or suspicions remaining about the Indian connections in the family tree, such as my own family.

Another interesting aspect of Ohio is that after the American Revolution, many Revolutionary War veterans and their families moved over the mountains to settle in eastern Ohio. Today, in the cemeteries of southeastern Ohio, you can find the gravestones of many who fought in the American Revolution.

Ohio University, where I went to college, was founded by Revolutionary War veterans.

I am happy to say that I had ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and were associates and relatives of George Washington and the other American leaders of that period.

I also recently learned that, according to a genealogy researcher in the family, Obama and I are distantly related too.

How do all of these and many other cultural, ethnic, geographic and historical elements fit together in our current political landscape as we approach the Democratic primary and then the general election?

We will soon be finding out.

Obama will probably have significant support in Ohio from a wide variety of people.

I bet that many Ohioans will be thinking long and hard about Obama, about the invasion and occupation of Iraq, about the direction our country has been going in for the last few years and about themselves and their core beliefs, deep down inside.

Tags: democracy, ohio, politics, race, race relations, society, sociology, Steve Hammons
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An Article by:

By Steve Hammons

As Barack Obama continues to move ahead in the Democratic presidential primaries, we note that ethnic background and gender still seem to be playing important and interesting roles.

The many domestic and foreign affairs issues we face, such as the candidates’ positions on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, are also key parts of the debates and campaigns.

According to recent surveys and demographic studies, Hillary Clinton’s support, in part, comes from white women and older Democrats.

Reasons for this seem obvious.

Some white women see one of their own and feel that giving her support is appropriate. They identify with her. This seems like a natural response.

Older Democrats may feel comfortable with “another Clinton” and, should we say it? – they might feel more comfortable voting for an all-white candidate. This may be a factor for some Democrats with lower educational levels, which is also a group supporting Clinton to some degree.

Obama gets support from younger voters and increasingly from men. Since Obama is a relatively young father of two young kids, these voters might naturally identify with him. His youthful manner might also be attractive.

Men probably identify with him not just because he is a male, but because he is a male who appears to be admirable and a “regular guy.”

INVASION, OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Some of the main differences between Obama and Clinton, of course, are their positions and actions regarding the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Many Americans now believe that intelligence information was inaccurate about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There is significant evidence that indicates this was intentional on the part of some people within the Bush administration and those connected to it.

Many people believe that the Bush administration was willing to send our troops to Iraq, to die and be terribly injured, for access oil, to assist other governments in the Middle East and to “finish the job” that former president George H.W. Bush wisely did not undertake – invading and taking over Iraq.

Some researchers say there were those in and associated with the Bush administration who wanted to pour monies of the U.S. Treasury into war profiteering and those who wanted to establish permanent U.S. bases in Iraq to influence and police the Middle East region for decades to come.

It has been said that there were Bush administration people and others who wanted to show they were “macho” – the “chicken hawks” – even though few of them had ever served in combat environments themselves. Many even avoided military service in Korea and Vietnam.

Other aspects of the invasion and occupation seemed to indicate the huge egos and incompetence of those associated with the Bush administration.

The deceptive and dishonorable nature of some of these players also seems evident to many people.

We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This has been, in large part, borrowed money. There are many hidden costs as well.

The Bush administration’s Iraq fiasco has nearly broken our Army, Army Reserve, National Guard and has broken the bodies, minds and spirits of many good American soldiers, Marines and their families.

According to some research, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including children, have been killed as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Many more have been terribly injured.

Though she may not have intended all of these results, this is what Hillary Clinton supported when she voted to authorize military action by the Bush administration against Iraq.

This is what Barack Obama opposed.

STIRRING THE MELTING POT

Obama’s support includes African-Americans. This is not surprising since his father was from Kenya, Africa.

Obama’s father and mother were divorced when he was two years old.

After the divorce, his father went on to get a Ph.D. from Harvard in economics and then returned to Kenya to pursue a career there.

Obama spend formative childhood and teen years in Hawaii, and was raised by his mother and her parents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who were originally from Wichita, Kansas.

Obama has noted that his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, joined the Army in WWII after Pearl Harbor and served under Gen. George Patton in Europe. Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn, worked on a bomber assembly line during the war.

This reminds us that it can be fairly and accurately said that Obama is a mixed-ethnicity American. He straddles a sometimes wide divide of Americans from different ethnic backgrounds.

But, he is not the only one. Nowadays, after many generations of mixing the different ethnic groups of people in the U.S., there are millions of mixed-ethnicity Americans.

If your family has some Scottish, Cherokee and Swedish, you have a mixed-ethnicity. Are you part African, part English with maybe some Dutch in the family tree? Same thing. Was great-grandma half-Mexican and grampa Joe part-Navajo? Join the club.

Obama is in good company here.

Along these lines, Hispanics seem to be a swing vote of sorts in the Democratic primaries. Many Mexican-Americans and African-Americans sometimes compete for the same turf, whether it is access to decent blue-collar jobs or other resources. This can create friction.

It should, though, create teamwork. The “divide and conquer” strategy seems to be in play at times when wedges are driven between the Hispanic and African-American communities. They should be working together to obtain better jobs, educational opportunities, housing and health care.

Many Native American Indians have very substandard resources and opportunities too.

And, we might want to remember that the majority of poor and underprivileged Americans, adults and children, are white.

An interesting development in the ongoing discussions about Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigration is that two states with two of the largest populations of Native American Indians, Oklahoma and Arizona, have recently passed some of the toughest anti-immigrant laws in the country.

Isn’t it interesting that many Hispanic, Mexican and other immigrants from south of Mexico are of part-Native American Indians and part Spanish ancestry. They have darker skin, like Indians of North America. They have straight black hair and some of the facial characteristics of North American Indians.

And at the same time, Oklahoma and Arizona passed some of the most stringent laws against these immigrants. This just seems like an interesting dynamic.

After all, let’s not forget, amid all the talk about securing our borders and saving the English language from destruction, it is probably safe to say that some people just don´t like others who have different color skin, who look different, speak in a different way and have different cultural and social characteristics.

The ethnic factors in play seem to need a fresh perspective from many of us.

Whether the ongoing presidential race is focusing on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the multi- and mixed-ethnicity of Americans or the other issues of the day, it might be helpful to look carefully and objectively at all the elements involved.

Americans do face dangers from enemies, foreign and domestic. Our democracy, our freedoms, our Constitution and our peace and prosperity are at risk.

As we select our next president and other federal, state and local government officials, our wisdom and intelligence, or lack thereof, can have very serious consequences, as we have seen in recent years.

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An Article by:
Steve Hammons
First Published on AmericanChronicle.com

The local newspaper reporter in Stephenville, Texas, who helped cover a UFO sighting case there is no longer working at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune newspaper, effective last Thursday, Feb. 7.

Journalist Angelia Joiner had been covering the UFO story which broke early in January and brought national and international news media representatives and researchers to Stephenville, other nearby small towns and the surrounding region.

Mainstream media such as the Associated Press, CNN and other major TV networks and newspapers covered the incident with great interest. The international press also paid special attention to the UFO sightings in Stephenville and towns in the area.

Media personalities such as CNN’s Larry King and NBC’s Today show host Matt Lauer explored the sightings on their shows.

In Stephenville, Joiner was a staff writer at the small-town newspaper there. She did an excellent job of researching and interviewing local residents who were surprised, curious and concerned about the very unusual objects they reportedly saw.

As national and international interest in the case grew in January, Joiner was contacted for information as the reporter on the scene with some of the best knowledge of the local community.

Her articles helped inform not only local residents who relied on professional reporting for their community, but also assisted other Americans and people internationally understand that Stephenville people and residents in the area were down-to-Earth, solid and of good character.

The factual and level-headed journalism Joiner provided helped the national news media understand and respect the citizens in these communities. This resulted in some of the most serious and credible reporting in the national media on such an incident in recent memory.

The AP article was carried in hundreds of papers and news outlets. People like Larry King and Matt Lauer talked about the subject with intelligence and open minds.

All these outcomes were related in part to the high level of credibility of local witnesses who were courageous enough to come forward and the professionalism of local reporter Joiner and her colleagues in the national and international news media.

However, some of these witnesses and Joiner seem to be paying a price for doing their civic duty and communicating about an incident that appeared to be very significant, and could even have affected the public safety of the communities in the area.

CENSORSHIP AND “NEED TO KNOW”

According to information obtained for this report, management at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune did not want further coverage in the paper of the sightings by local citizens of something that appeared to be highly unusual. Pressures may have been placed on newspaper management to discontinue articles on the subject.

According to the newspaper’s Web site, “The Stephenville Empire-Tribune is a mid-morning paper published six days a week by Erath Publishers, Inc., a Consolidated Southwest Media company which is owned by American Consolidated Media. The Empire-Tribune is a member of the Associated Press, Texas Press Association, West Texas Press Association and the Inland Press Association.”

Publisher Rochelle Stidham and Managing Editor Sara Vanden Berge were contacted for their comments for this report but did not immediately respond.

Did the paper’s management face pressures to end coverage of the UFO sighting by a local peace officer, respected businessman and pilot and reportedly dozens of other local citizens? Did they back away from accounts of local citizens who said they were apparently being threatened for talking about what they saw?

Is this a case of media censorship or self-censorship and political correctness? Is it about professional courage and moral integrity? And, can the newspaper now be trusted by the community to cover important aspects of public health and safety, local political activities and other sometimes sensitive topics?

These seem to be questions for the citizens who read and subscribe to the paper and advertisers who use that newspaper.

The corporate owners of the Empire-Tribune (Consolidated Southwest Media, American Consolidated Media) and the professional news and journalism organizations with which the paper is affiliated (Associated Press, Texas Press Association, West Texas Press Association, Inland Press Association) might also want to review developments there.

As for the former reporter Joiner who had covered the concerns and accounts of local citizens so professionally, life goes on.

She appears to be confident that she did the best job she could have for her community as a responsible local journalist who realized something important had happened to her fellow citizens, neighbors and friends.

“I appreciate the opportunity I have had at the newspaper,” Joiner said. “A story of this magnitude drained the limited resources a small newspaper has. I performed my other duties to the best of my ability.”

Even as the national and international media interest calmed down somewhat, other ominous developments were occurring in the Stephenville area.

A local resident stated he had been received threatening phone calls and threats of implied bodily harm or death for talking publicly about what he saw.

An intruder had also appeared on his rural property at 1 a.m., causing the resident to be concerned about the safety of his family.

See my Feb. 7 article: “Texas UFO witnesses threatened for talking to media?”

As Joiner was covering this more serious aspect of the UFO sighting case (in articles published Feb. 3 and Feb. 4) which appeared to be a law enforcement and criminal matter affecting public safety, she was reportedly told by newspaper management to back off.

“My directions were to move on to something else,” Joiner said.

The reason given to Joiner for this was, “because our readership had grown tired of the UFO stories.”

However, Joiner was still a contact person and resource for community residents, researchers, news media representatives and others.

While trying to obey management’s directives to cover topics other than the UFO sightings and related developments, Joiner said, “It was a difficult task to achieve. I was still receiving a surprising number of e-mails and phone calls on the subject.”

“I tried to direct those calls and interviews to after hours or during lunch hours. And I forwarded e-mails to my home so that I would not be giving newspaper time to the subject. I honestly tried to do as they had asked.”

The apparent irregularities and journalistic priorities of what was starting to emerge at the Empire-Tribune probably also started to dawn on Joiner as she realized things were not going in a good direction at the paper.

She gave her two-week notice, then was told to leave immediately.

“I had given notice when I realized my boss was unhappy with my performance, but was unexpectedly asked to pack my things and leave Thursday,” she said.

Joiner apparently felt that people in her community had “a need to know” about what was going on when respectable citizens came forward with their accounts and subsequent serious incidents reportedly involved the safety of and threats to a local family.

GOING FORWARD

The Stephenville UFO sighting incident is not the first and will not be the last. The responses by local and regional public safety officials to such incidents have also occurred before, and will again. Local, national and international news media professionals are also part of the picture, past, present and future.

Americans wearing the military uniform of our country and our intelligence professionals are certainly also parts of the puzzle involving UFOs and how our society deals with an apparently sensitive and complex situation. Their respect and support for good American citizens will remain crucial in the days ahead.

Many of the residents of the Stephenville region are just such good Americans. Reporter Joiner knew this because she knows the people of her community.

Local journalists typically work on topics involving all kinds of community activities: the local schools and hospitals, area peace officers and public safety personnel, businesses and employers, civic groups and organizations. And when they do, reporters often feel a sense of responsibility to do their best for their neighbors and their communities.

This works in reverse too, at the local and national levels. Our newspapers, TV and radio media, Web-based news and other similar information platforms are sometimes only as good as the standards we expect of them, and the support we give to honorable and ethical journalists.

Like the old saying, “In a democracy, citizens get the government they deserve,” the same can be said about our news media. We get the newspapers and news media we demand, deserve and support.

If we continue along a path of the “dumbing down” of Americans, as many have alleged, the fabric of our communities and our nation may deteriorate.

If we search for truth, integrity and honor within ourselves, our media and our government officials, we may just find that too.

The citizens of the Stephenville region, and all the rest of us, must decide about the directions we want to take. Do we want to continue being dumbed down? Do we want to stick our head in the sand and close our eyes?

Or, do we want greater respect as American citizens and intelligent human beings who have the ability to understand sensitive, complex and, yes, even highly unusual and unexpected situations?

When events occur that affect public health and safety, public information, our rights and responsibilities as citizens, what are our roles and those of our institutions such as local and national government and the news media?

These are questions that, it appears, must be faced and dealt with if our communities, our society and our nation will continue to thrive.

NOTE TO READERS: Hammons is a former reporter for newspapers in the San Diego area. He covered public health and safety, the “police beat,” U.S. Navy and Marine Corps topics, Pacific Ocean and beach area stories and other subjects. He studied communications and journalism at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, home of the prestigious Scripps College of Communications and E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, recognized as two of the top such programs in the United States. Hammons is also author of two novels – MISSION INTO LIGHT and the sequel LIGHT’S HAND.

Tags: democracy, establishment, flying, government, journalism, Steve Hammons
Categories: Commentary, Democracy, government, journalism
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An Article by:

Steve Hammons

December 21, 2007

According to a recent Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings.”

That was the conclusion explored in a Nov. 20, 2007 article by Kevin Crowe, a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service, and Guido H. Stempel III, director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Crowe and Stempel noted that in a Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey in July 2006, “more than one-third of Americans thought federal officials assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East.”

The survey looked at Americans’ distrust of the federal government in general and at specific topics like the 9/11 attacks, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, rigging of international oil prices and questions about what the federal government knows about UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation to Earth.

Crowe and Stempel reported that the survey “was conducted by telephone Sept. 24 to Oct. 10 among 811 adult residents of the United States who were selected at random. The survey was conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University under a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation and has a margin of error of about 4 percent.”

In their article, Crowe and Stempel quote several experts and authors on facts and theories involved that may affect Americans’ views on alleged cover-ups and conspiracies.

Of course, when we say “the federal government,” we must look at many individuals, groups, departments and agencies as well as forces behind the scenes. There are many good and honorable people and groups within the federal government. There may also be people and groups that do not fit into these categories.

Two apparently unrelated topics of interest addressed in the survey were the 9/11 attacks and questions about UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation. Looking at these might provide examples of the reasons for doubts by Americans.

QUESTIONS ABOUT 9/11

Various questions have been raised by the 9/11 Commission, experts, investigators and the general public. These questions apparently have fueled mistrust of the “official story” of the 9/11 attacks.

Some of these questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

- FBI agents, intelligence officers, national security officials and international intelligence personnel reportedly were raising red flags about a pending attack, but their intelligence allegedly was not responded to by the appropriate civilian chains of command.

- Certain people and groups publicly indicated that “a new Pearl Harbor” was needed to provoke Americans to expand certain military operations and defense spending.

- There reportedly was a desire by some to invade Iraq (and possibly Iran and/or Syria) and a justification for the American people and the international community was needed.

- Several air defense military maneuvers and training activities were ongoing around the time frame of 9/11. These exercises depleted available U.S. Air Force air assets and caused confusion among military and civilian air traffic controllers and air defense personnel.

- Stock market transactions, known as “put options,” were made regarding the stock of the two airlines involved prior to the 9/11 attacks. These particular transactions were especially unusual.

- Certain officials were reportedly advised not to fly around the time frame of 9/11.

- At the Pentagon, the debris and type of damage done to the building is not consistent with the impact of a passenger jet, according to some determinations by experts.

- In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the debris field at the alleged impact site seemed inconsistent with the crash of a passenger jet, some people state.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITATION

Since the late 1940s, the sightings of unusual objects in the sky have been a topic of great interest in the U.S. and around the world. There have been many indications that some of these objects could possibly be related to spacecraft from outside our normal understanding. That is, they may not be conventional human-made craft or other technology.

Some of the questions and discussion about so-called “unidentified flying objects (UFOs)” include, but are not limited to the following:

- References to unusual flying objects can be found throughout human history in written material and art.

- American WWII pilots reported seeing “foo fighters” during military operations. These were unusual objects flying near U.S. aircraft.

- In 1947, Army Air Corps personnel at Roswell Army Air Base in Roswell, New Mexico, apparently concluded that a “flying saucer” that may have been extraterrestrial in origin had crashed nearby.

- After that event, some researchers allege that President Harry Truman created a special group of scientists and top military officials to try to understand and coordinate this challenging situation.

- There are reports that as part of the evolving developments, further U.S. diplomatic contact was made with more than one extraterrestrial race that was visiting Earth. According to some of these claims, advanced technology was provided to U.S. officials in exchange for cooperation.

- Sightings and contacts of various kinds between people around the world and what are alleged to be extraterrestrial activities have been reported in many countries.

- Other aspects of the alleged situation involve efforts to prepare the American people, and people around the world, about the surprising development of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Books, articles, movies and other communications platforms reportedly have been used to help in this process.

NEED TO KNOW

The concept of “need to know” is one used in various military, intelligence and other circles. That is, some information is sensitive and if a person does not have a need to know it, don’t tell them.

Certainly, information security can be important and this has its place. At the same time, freedom of information, knowledge and understanding are also important for us, especially in a democracy. Secrecy can sometimes be unwise, unethical or dangerous.

The distrust of certain elements of the federal government reported in the Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll are both cause for concern and might also be a healthy and natural response to our current situation. There may very well be valid justifications for this distrust.

As we decide what we have a need to know and what we do not, Americans will undoubtedly continue to be vigilant in protecting their Constitutional rights and liberties, perceiving various internal and external dangers, and maintaining a healthy understanding about the dangers of excessive secrecy and power on the part of the federal government.

Research like that in the Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll can help us “get on the same page” and recognize that many of us are thinking along similar lines. This might unify us and move us toward success, peace, progress, preparedness and prosperity in the future.
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To read the article on the Web site of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University, visit:

http://newspolls.org/story.php?story_id=66

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AmericanChronicle.com
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=46800

Tags: agency, anomalous cognition, citizens, government, military, Steve Hammons, Terrorism
Categories: Commentary, government, Terrorism, military, Steve Hammons
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