Going To Your Public Library, Gathering Open Source Intelligence, and Surviving

Okay, so this is a different kind of survival I am bring to the Survival Forum area through Open Source Intelligence

I have been going to the library since I was six years old, having stories read by the librarian, reading books I found, researching books I was interested in, and either staying in the library to read them, or checking them out and taking them home. Needless to say, I am an avid reader, currently I choose to buy books either on Amazon or at the local branch of Barnes and Noble, still two other locations you can do the same exact thing as you can at the library, the only difference there of course is instead of checking out your books, you're buying them, and either having them stuck into a plastic bag with a receipt, or having it shipped to your home address.

Open source intelligence as defined by the previous link within the first sentence of this post, through words I've chosen here as follows :

Utilizing discipline in order to gather information, through finding, being selective, and targeting information from publicly open sources and analyzing it to produce actionable intelligence

Having stated this, here are a few examples of open source intelligence :

* Media

*Public Data - Government Records - F.O.I.A. - Freedom Of Information Act

* Professional - Conferences, Organizations, Term Papers, Subject Matter Experts - Odd isn't it, ATS has FSME's, or Forum Subject Matter Experts, huh? I'm a Blackwater Expert, ask and I'll help.

Having stated all the previous, here are seven books I grabbed randomly off the library shelves in the local area I live in, and every single one of them talks about topics that ATS'ers are rabid about, either through wanting to talk about the conspiracies within them, or in defending them because of the person's pro-government thoughts.

Opera tion Gatekeeper: The Rise of the 'Illegal Alien' and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary

Review on Amazon

From Library Journal
In October 1994, the Immigration and Naturalization Service began Operation Gatekeeper. Its goal was to reduce the movement of Mexicans across the U.S. border between San Diego and Tijuana. Nevins (Berkeley), who writes for the Nation, the Progressive, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications, examines this operation in the context of immigration between these two countries. A historical account of the United States-Mexico border shows that, up through recent times, the movement of peoples between the two countries was of relatively little concern. Not until the period of 1970 to the 1990s did political pressures make securing the border a pressing national issue.

In turn, this pressure popularized the concept of the illegal alien. Operation Gatekeeper itself was developed by the Clinton administration to counter efforts by Gov. Pete Wilson to restrict Mexican migration into California as well as the Proposition 187 movement to deny education, health, and social services to undocumented immigrants. While the operation did defuse anti-immigrant feelings, it made the crossing much more dangerous and resulted in an increased loss of life. This work complements Peter Andreas's Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (LJ 8/00) and Pablo Vila's Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexican Frontier (Univ. of Texas, 2000). Nevins does a good job of presenting the case, but the result is a narrowly focused work that is most appropriate for academic libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Navy Seals : A History of the Early Years

Review on Amazon

From Booklist
The prolific Dockery makes another valuable contribution to the literature on the navy's special operations units, one that begins with the SEALs' five different World War II ancestors, which survived misuse, kamikazes, and sharks to shrink practically to nonexistence after the armistice. The Underwater Demolition Teams survived to play a useful role in the Korean War, whose special operations history is still emerging from a fog bank of secrecy and apathy. Finally, President Kennedy took an interest in special warfare, the navy (under the aegis of Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke) chose to be a player, and the Teams (or, at least, One and Two) emerged in the face of every difficulty military professionals can face from their own services, even before they went to Vietnam to shoot and be shot at.

Dockery blends oral history and conventional narrative with consummate skill, making the book exceptionally accessible to casual readers as well as serious students. Again Dockery's efforts are likely only to enhance reader approval of the SEALs. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Guide to Military Operations Other Than War: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Stability and Support Operations Domestic and International

Review on Amazon

The first book to cover on-the-ground functions, such as working with international and interagency task forces; methods of coordination; rules of engagement; checkpoints; civilian population and movement control; evacuating noncombatants; distributing humanitarian aid; operating dislocated civilian camps; providing medical care; conducting cordons and searches; disarming belligerents; confiscating hostile weapons and equipment; conducting negotiations; exchanging prisoners; interacting with the media; and dozens of other military and civil support type operations.

A Shield in Space? Technology, Politics, and the Strategic Defense Initiative

Review on Amazon

From Library Journal
Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara has called this book the best he has seen on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). High praise, but deserving, as the authors, both at the University of California at San Diego, critically review and evaluate SDI since its inception in 1983 under Reagan to its diminishing support under the Bush administration. SDI is plagued by its dependence on technologies years away from realization. The transition to a strategic defense from an offense would cause strategic instability for the superpowers and their allies. This work also clearly documents that security cannot be achieved through technological development; such faith in technology is illusory. Highly recommended.
- D. Felbel, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
In March 1983, Ronald Reagan made one of the most controversial announcements of his presidency when he called on the nation's scientists and engineers to develop a defensive shield so impenetrable as to make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete."

This book provides the first comprehensive review and evaluation of the project launched to implement that announcement --the project officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and more popularly as "Star Wars." The authors--a political scientist and a physicist who has played a key role in developing military technologies--provide an intriguing account of how political rather than technical judgment led to the initial decision, and they explain the technical issues in terms accessible to non-specialists.
Judging SDI as "a classic example of misplaced faith in the promise of technological salvation," the authors examine the implications of the program for strategy, arms control, the unity of the Western alliance, its prospective economic impact, and the way the American political process has dealt with all these issues.

Te rrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America

Review from Amazon

From Publishers Weekly
The author of this gripping account, whose identity, for obvious reasons, must remain secret, has some shocking revelations to make regarding innocuous-sounding Islamic groups that she says serve as fronts for Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad and even al-Qaeda; about FBI ineptitude in investigating these groups; and perhaps worst, about government suspicion of those, like herself, who are investigating this network. Some will dismiss as paranoid her claim that there is a Saudi-funded movement to gain "Muslim world domination," yet readers will follow along in fearful fascination as she slowly assembles the puzzle pieces of a complex, interlocking group of organizations and traces their links to terrorist groups and, ultimately, to a "Saudi connection."

The author, a researcher at an unnamed research institute in New York City that focuses on the Middle East, has, through her work, become perhaps the leading authority on how these front organizations operate in the U.S.-government agencies come to her for information. Readers will share her nervousness as she attends a Muslim conference with a tape recorder attached to her eight-month-pregnant stomach under her burka or dives into a garbage-filled Dumpster in search of documents.

Her personal story is equally dramatic: as a child, she and her Jewish family escaped imprisonment in Iraq after the regime executed her father as a spy for Israel. With her evidence of how reputedly moderate Islamic leaders speak in support of jihad, she will undoubtedly be accused of feeding anti-Muslim fears. Readers will have to absorb her tale and judge for themselves whether her evidence is credible; this should be headed for bestseller lists. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[url= www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217358316&sr=1-1The Secret History of al Qaeda[/url]

Product Description
Drawing on unparalleled access to Osama bin Laden and his key associates, journalist Abdel Bari Atwan gives an incisive and timely account, the clearest we have so far, of the rise of the notorious terrorist organization, al Qaeda. In this lively narrative, the author establishes what al Qaeda is or has become, what it wants, what its capabilities are, and how the West can answer its complaints and challenges.

The only Western-based journalist to have spent time with Osama bin Laden, Atwan begins with an engrossing personal record of his 1996 trip to visit al Qaeda's founder and guide at his Tora Bora hideout. He takes an in-depth look at bin-Laden, presenting a nuanced portrait of the man and a description of his development as the prime exponent of jihad today.

Atwan reveals how al Qaeda's radical departure from the classical terrorist/guerilla blueprint has enabled less adaptable efforts to neutralize it. The fanaticism of its fighters, and their willingness to kill and be killed, are matched by the leadership's opportunistic recruitment strategies and sophisticated understanding of psychology, media and new technology--including the use of the Internet for training, support and communications. Atwan's outspoken London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, of which he is Editor-in-Chief, has been the vehicle of choice for the release of many al Qaeda electronic communiqués.

The Secret History of al Qaeda reveals events in Iraq and Saudi Arabia as watershed moments in the organization's evolution that are making it more dangerous by the day. Atwan efficiently charts how the concept of jihad is being refined and appropriated, how a new kind of leader has been made possible by al Qaeda's horizontal chain of command, the making of the suicide bomber as a permanent feature of a global holy war, al Qaeda's economic strategy, and how the war in Iraq has transformed that country into a breeding ground for the most ruthless and militant al Qaeda fighters to date.
Copub: Saqi Books

From the Inside Flap
"Deeply researched, well reported and full of interesting and surprising analyses. It demands to be read."--Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama Bin Laden I Know.

Of course, the kind of survival this can link to is more than mere life and death survival; it can get you a job within the system as well.


[edit on 29-7-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Nice post.

If I'm not mistaken there was someone on here who wanted to make one giant
master survival thread.

I don't know what happened to it but this kind of information gathering would make great material for that thread.

Thats if you'd want to share your gatherings.

reply to post by n0b0DY


Thanks, I was trying to demonstrate how easily it is to snatch open source intelligence seemingly right out of the blue, to use it to surviva, and as well some ATS'ers here might learna thing or two in how to better make their threads come alive as well as their posts on other people's threads.

By the way, I'm checking out all seven of these books I've mentioned here, and I will be adding to this thread when time allows.



[edit on 29-7-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

This aspect of survival by going to your library can be done on almost any application, from what I've already outlined, towards survival foods by eating the right flora and fauna, to gaining better understanding in just getting a better job, to making better threads and posts here on ATS. I will be interested to see who else has what to say about this intriguing idea I've began here on ATS with this thread.

I began this thread a few months back, and now some of the pieces should begin falling into place in regards where I was going with this thread when I started it today. Bits and pieces, bread crumbs, and clues to a trail to follow.

Becoming a Detective of Conspiracy Theories

These are three books I just recently found at the public library.

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century

The one on the Bin Laden family is very interesting so far, as it tells the entire family history of the family, the family connections to Saudi Arabia, and the connections to the American Government.

No Backup: My Life as a Female FBI Special Agent

This one is interesting so far in that the author points out the descrepancies between fact and fiction in one of the most intense Law Enforcement agencies in the world.

My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror

I have yet to have read this book, but I am sure it is interesting and in depth.

This thread inspired me to go out and renew my library card. I read a lot, but mainly internet research and fiction, such as Warhammer books. Either way I picked up some interesting reads.

The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner
This book from what I have read seeks to show how our world currently works in the world of chaos and markets. Not by showing what is done day to day, but how thinkers of the past have influenced the economy today.

The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family
Now this book is interesting. It doesn't tell any great secrets about government dealings or financing different nations during the second Great War. But anyone on this site who has looked into the Rockefeller's or say Operation Paper-clip would find the chapter of "War and Politics" very interesting. It also goes into the feeling's that some people had towards FDR as a "Socialist and Communist". In the chapter it talks about how Rockefeller Jr started gathering intellectuals from Germany and then other nations as the war progressed. The result was putting them into universities such as Princeton as professors to help build the U.S. into a nation of higher learning.

Highway of the Sun
This book I can't wait to get started on. It is the documentary by Victor W. Von Hagen about his travels to discover all the lost trade routes and highways of the Inca's that are combined distances of over 10,000 miles. It all started when he read documents from the Conquistadors about how the roads they had discovered were better maintained and more sophisticated than any road discovered in the European world.

reply to post by UFORacer56


Now that's awesome.

I am happy the thread inspired you.

Possibly it gave you an avenue of new research material for a few threads.

The library is an awesome place to learn new and fascinating ideas and information.

Yeah man. I always loved reading and the smell of books. I don't know why the smell, but I do. The library is a great source of information. I swear, I just get a good feeling every time I walk into one. Not sure why. Maybe it is because I am surrounded by knowledge, or it is peaceful. Maybe it is knowing that if you look carefully enough, you can start to really deny ignorance.

Now, from what I have read from the book, the Rockefeller's were going after intellectuals for most of the war. The book never mentions Operation Paperclip, but it would be interesting to see how far back the government might have been working with very rich people as a sort of black budget funding before there was a black budget. If I or anyone can correlate from individual biographies and different operations we might be able to get a clearer understanding of who the real players were and are. My threads normally don't spike much interest, but maybe this will.

Also, it is fairly common knowledge among us here on ATS that the Rockefeller's were involved with Operation Paperclip.It was interesting that the biographer never mentioned that the Rockefeller's were working with the U.S. Government to bring these people to the U.S. and Canada. You might think that would stand out a bit. But why the biographer never did, or why the Rockefeller's never mentioned it would be intriguing to find out.

Now I just need to look up some other people from the past who were influential either with their money, media or corporations to see if there is a possible connection with our often blurry history.