Interesting Policing Idea (with COIN implications): “The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name “Mongols”

Found on SlashDot:

…a Federal raid on a California-based motorcycle club, the Mongols, on charges “ranging from murder and robbery to extortion, money laundering, gun trafficking and drug dealing.” The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name “Mongols.” “Federal agents and police in seven states arrested more than 60 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang on Tuesday in a sweep that also targeted for the first time an outlaw group’s ‘intellectual property,’ prosecutors said. The arrests cap a three-year undercover investigation in which US agents posed as gang members and their girlfriends to infiltrate the group, even submitting to polygraph tests administered by the bikers … [T]he name ‘Mongols,’ which appears on the gang’s arm patch insignia, was trademarked by the group. The indictment seeks a court order outlawing further use of the name, which would allow any police officer ‘who sees a Mongol wearing this patch … to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back‘ …”

This is an interesting twist on getting Lawfare-y for Domestic COIN/4GW.

“NATO mulls expanded counter-narcotics role in bid to stem growing Afghan violence”

Sigh:

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The United States on Thursday pushed NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan’s thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

A two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers comes amid an increase in violence that has created doubts about whether Western forces can win the war against the resurgent Taliban militants.

“If we have the opportunity to go after drug lords and drug laboratories and try and interrupt this flow of cash to the Taliban, that seems to me like a legitimate security endeavor,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the meeting. [AP Link]

The Afgan war is not a Counter-Narcotics war. The focus is on Al-Quada and their supporters (Taliban mostly).

The poppy business is on both sides.

US/NATO must focus on the goal: Defeating/Destroy/Degrading Al-Qada et al.

Taking on the Poppy farmers is a sure way to separate USA/NATO from the Afganistani people. That is not the way successful 4GW/COIN works.

I just finshed reading Michael Yon’s new book “Moment of Truth in Iraq”…

…and I really liked it.

The book is 3 things:

– First-rate first-person war reporting
– An account of what is going on tactically in Iraq
– A partial handbook on COIN/4GW and the importance of the non-kinetic activities

I highly recommend it. The PurpleDad is getting my copy.

“The best argument for the Nagl Advisory Corps plan is how it offers the prospect of preventing large-scale U.S. COIN missions from becoming necessary in the future”

WestHawk on Nagl’s Army Advisor Corps idea:

The best argument for the Nagl Advisory Corps plan is how it offers the prospect of preventing large-scale U.S. COIN missions from becoming necessary in the future. By making it a regular practice for small U.S. advisor teams to work in all four corners of the globe, assisting allies with peacetime foreign internal defense preparation (so-called “Phase Zero operations”), the U.S. can prevent crises from happening in the first place. LTC Nagl’s Advisory Corps and its associated schoolhouse would ensure that these Phase Zero advisory efforts would be performed by well-trained and highly-prepared teams, employing best-practices tactics, techniques, and procedures.

The Army CoS and/or Army Secretary should get the ball rolling on this.

“Congress should immediately pass legislation authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters”

Hidden Unities notes a shameful combination of action/inaction by the USGOV:

Earlier this month, Iraq war vet Owen West wrote a blistering piece in the NY Post condemning the State Department for betraying through pure bureaucratic ineptitude the Iraqi interpreters who have sought asylum in the United States.
[…]
Anti-American forces in Iraq and elsewhere would be wise to broadcast far and wide the utter contempt Bush and Condi Rice have for their “Iraqi” friends. They’re certainly sending a crystal clear message to those of us in America who have a sense of decency and honor.

Here is his plan:

Congress should immediately pass legislation* authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters. Sens. McCain, Clinton and Obama should be the leading sponsors in the Senate to forestall a likely presidential veto attempt and ensure there is no party-line voting on what is a strictly non-partisan emergency and ensure it passes with a veto-proof tally.

My thoughts (comments left at that blog):

The combination of action/inaction by USGOV on this is shameful and truly counter-productive.

If the USA is going to be doing COIN around the world on-and-off for the next generation, a good working relationship with friendly locals will be needed.

The current USGOV action/inactions should give an future friendly local a big pause before helping the USGOV.

“Congress should immediately pass legislation* authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters.”.

Yes!

Hmmm…maybe this can be spun into a $200,000 earmark for each congressional district?