contractors – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Georgia Tech Ends Relationship with U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System

This latest information just came in via email from John Stanton, who asked that it be posted immediately: “I have spoken with our team and have learned that Georgia Tech has requested to end its involvement in this program [HTS] after the current contract period. For further information you will need to contact the government […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Innocently Informing State Terrorism: Journalism, Knowledge, and Counterinsurgency

With President Barack Obama sending at least 30,000 additional American troops to knock the Taliban off-balance and a U.S.-led offensive in Helmand province, a better understanding of today’s Taliban is central to the effort to defeat them and to begin withdrawing some American troops from Afghanistan in summer 2011. (McClatchy, 14 March 2010) A very […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Washington Post: Nationalizing the Human Terrain System

Extracted from, DeYoung, Karen. (2009). U.S. moves to replace contractors in Iraq: Blackwater losing security role; other jobs being converted to public sector. The Washington Post, March 17, A07, the following paragraphs on the so-called nationalization of the Human Terrain System: “Human terrain” experts — civilian social scientists and linguists hired to help the military […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

On the conduct of military “contractors” in Afghanistan: In the words of Paula Loyd (1.7)

Since Paula Loyd (36 years old) was set on fire by an Afghan Taliban man, Abdul Salam, on November 4, 2008, there has been a considerable outpouring of messages of grief and condolences for Loyd online, in the United States particularly. Another member of the U.S. Army Human Terrain Team to which Loyd belonged, a […]