The Americas Post.- Air cargo screening process will be simplified.

Under a new pilot program, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the entry process for air cargo  is designed to reduce the number of customs holds that delay air cargo and help give shippers a better idea of when they can take possession of their goods

Already starting in December, importers or brokers of air cargo will only have to provide thirteen data points and three optional pieces of information, instead of the current twenty-seven.

The new process, dubbed the “Simplified Entry Pilot,” is designed to…READ MORE HERE

Security: Joe Parry from Cambridge Intelligence and Victor Bjorgan, CEO og Global Security Services LLC and Publisher of TheAmericasPost.com, during the EISIC 2011 Conference.

How should we communicate the results of our analysis to decision-makers? How to visualize key information for decision makers?  The talk of Joe Parry argued that visualisations and infographics play a very important role, not only for analytical processes of data analysts, but also for explaining the analytical results to decision-makers at the highest of levels.

Some care must be taken to avoid various common pitfalls when designing such visuals: the talk will cover bad examples as well as good in order to uncover design guidelines and practical advice for those wishing to pursue a more visual approach.

in that sense, Joe Parry initiated his keynote that these visualization tools are specially important for law enforcement and National Security. In that sense he recalled an old saying ” a good sketch is better than a long speech”.

What is visualitation? asked Parry to the conferencists. Well , a good visualitation does not consist in just good pictures.

About graphs and numbers, Parry said that the use of interactive data and vissualy representation of data is used to amplify cognition. Parry briefly described how a good visualization helps in the Intel analysis. Described some common pitfalls in data visualization. he recommend the reading of the book written by Westell, Duncan and Weeks on visualization in Intel analyIntel analysissis.

Parry also described a model of intelligence analyzing processes. The final product of such analysis is a report.

In the reports, he does not recommend the use of colours to describe the visual variables. He recommend the use of Kinley Visual variables.

To start the visualization of the Analysis in its low phase, Parry mentioned the visualization of pattern of life, but said this is a analytical tool, not a decission tool. He also said that this analysis must be simplified, not use numbers.

During his keynote speech, Joe Parry showed a photograph of former President George Bush looking a wall full of sketches with the networks and interrelations of all individual terrorists participants in the attacks of September 9/11. It was a very confusing material, President Bush was looking at in this photo. Not the best intelligence visualization report.  President Bush was not looking in the photo at a screen with the three followings ingredients that are important in any report: geovisualization, timeline visualization and network visualization.

Parry said, that if only using that photo, it was impossible for former President Bush tot ake any intelligence decission, because there is no report, but only information.

In things not to do, Joe Parry also told participants that it is no good to put pies in the reports, neither 3D presentations. The intelligence reports for decission makers must avoid the use of colour since there is often a color blind among the public. He recommends not to use labels, simplicity instead  of complexity, no use of black backgrounds, no use of pie charts, not use of misleading scales.

Joe Parry showed enthusiasm while talking about the infographics reports of the New York Times NYT. He said the NYT infographics show all needed info to understand what is happening.

Summarizing, Parry described some of what he called as ” design guidelines” for any Intel report, like  first an overview, always  aim for clarity, show context, show how the situation has changed, make comparison easy, all visual elements must be backed by data, and that the report should be so clear and convincing that the decission makers will act backed by the report.

To know more about the subject, Joe Parry from Cambridge Intelligence mentioned some sites that can be of interest like:

flowingdata.com

infosthetics.com (slow uploading, be patient..)

visualcomplexity.com

nytgraphics.com

stamen.com

visualization.org

Finally, Joe Parry ended his keynote speech saying to all participants: “Back Up everything you say!”

Joe Parry´s email address is joe@cambridge-intelligence.com

His twitter is @parry_joe

Phone nr: 07973 787 233

His address is:

idea Space

The Entrepreneurship Centre

3 Charles Babbage Road

Cambridge CB 3 OGT

Biographical Details:
Joe Parry has worked on visualization and graphics systems for intelligence work for the last thirteen years.
During that time he has done software development, design, systems architecture and more experimental
research projects. He has worked with the intelligence communities of the UK, US and other countries. His
recent professional interests include social network analysis and web-based visualisation systems. This year he started his own software company which is producing what he hopes will be part of a new wave of
investigation software.

Illegal Drug Trafficking: Synthetic drugs surpassed world consumption of cocaine and heroine.

New York- Tuesday 13,2011.- The United Nations reported today that synthetic drugs like ecstasy and methamphetamine have moved up in the rankings to a  second place within the illicit drugs consumption.   In the world, synthetic drugs are now more used than cocaine and heroin. Only marihuana is the most common hallucinogen in the globe, more than synth drugs.

In a study made by the Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC, the UN said the information indicated that the meth tablets and seizures of clandestine laboratories shows a worrying trend on the rise.

Holland and Burma continue to be the major producers, but its manufacture has spread to new countries and regions including West Africa.

In the Americas the main producer of synthetic drugs is the cartel of Sinaloa, leade by the criminal Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman.

The former Director of the Special Anti Narcotics Force in Bolivia Gral. Oscar Nina. Photo Credit to Abi Agencia

The U.S. television network Univision claims to have access to Bolivian intelligence reports.

In Univision´s report, released Thursday, the network linked the former commander of the Bolivian Police General Oscar Nina with the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera , known as “Chapo” (Shorty).

The Police Commander Nina allegedly provided protection when Chapo Guzman was in Bolivia.  However, Nina rejected the accusation.
The TV network states that the Bolivian government met this report days before the arrest in Panama of the country’s former anti-drug  Czar René Sanabria, now in jail in the United States.
Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said yesterday that the government will study the Univision video, but he ruled out the presence of drug cartels in Bolivia.
Who is Joaquin Guzman?  “Shorty”, 52, is the leader of an international drug dealers called “Alianza de Sangre”, known as the Sinaloa cartel, leading operator in the illegal drug trafficking industry in Mexico and would be the new “king of cocaine and synthetic drugs in the world. “  He is the FBI´s  second most wanted criminal .
Univision reported that Chapo Guzman  “took advantage of the environment of corruption in Bolivia to expand his cocaine business and also sent one of his children to this country.”

Bolivia is the third world producer of cocaine, after Peru and Colombia, and is now the hub where much of the cocaine of the region is shipped via Brazil and Argentina, then to Africa, Europe and to the U.S. via the Caribbean route.
Univision interviewed Maximiliano Paredes, a well known Brazilian drug trafficker,  who also lived and operated in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) , but is now in jail in Brazil.     He said that “the presence of Joaquin ‘Chapo’ Guzman in Bolivia is a “well known secret”. Paredes heard that the leader of the Sinaloa cartel  had been in Santa Cruz.
The report said that at least 40 Bolivian nationals provided coverage to Guzman´s cocaine business in Bolivia.

Good Initiative in Security: Government in El Salvador will reeducate juveniles into military discipline

The Minister of National Defense of El Salvador, David Munguia Payés , said that the plan is aimed at those young people “at risk” living in areas of influence of the “maras” (a dangerous international gang linked to Zetas and other criminal groups) . The project will be presented by the government to the United Nations UN to seek international funding.

General Payés Munguia said the plan is to recruit some 5,000 young people living in areas influenced by gangs (Maras) and intern them to receive unarmed military discipline.

“It seeks to instill some discipline and training in the field of civil protection and job skills,” said the military chief.

“We will meet with UN staff to present some ideas that we have in regard to this program and see if they can help us fund it,” said the officer.

Minister National Defense of El Salvador David Munguia Payes (center) and wife meeting Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, under the gaze of General Chiang Kai Shek.

The Salvadoran government has said in recent days that they lack funds to finance the project, which has caused controversy in Salvadoran society.

In El Salvador, about 12 people are killed daily. Police officials say that ten percent of homicides are committed by juveniles linked to gangs.

Interpol Summit in Montevideo against tech crime

During the inauguration in Montevideo, Uruguay of the XI International Conference of the Interpol Working Group on Technology Crime (including cybercrime) , the President of the Interpol Working Group Mr. Miguel Angel Justo (from Argentina) said that “the police of the countries of Latin America must bring their national legislation on tech crime to the conference, in order to increase cooperation to better cope with cybercrime”.
After inaugurating the 11th Meeting of the Working Group in Montevideo, the Principal of the Argentine Federal Police Mr. Justo also said that “the ongoing challenge is to achieve international cooperation against technology and Internet crime.”

“There is no technique that can advance in cybercrime without achieving  international cooperation, due to the dynamic nature of the Internet,” Police Chief Justo said, estimating  that “international cooperation is the only way to circumvent the difficulty of defining the jurisdictions in investigating a cyber crime of this type.”

The current state of cooperation “today may not be the ideal to which we aspire,” Mr. Justo admitted. “We think our countries should have a better legal and legislative framework to fight cybercrime, but to alleviate the shortcomings of law we are making efforts at the regional level within the framework of Interpol,” he added.

Justo explained that the nature of such crimes makes it difficult to apply traditional rules. For example, in most countries of the region Business Internet Service Providers BSIP are not required to store information for a specific period.

“When there is no obligation for them to store this information, we do not have the information necessary to conduct an investigation,” he said.

“This happens in most countries , and very few have legislated on the subject”, added Mr. Justo that “ at some point our countries are going to regulate this technology , so that we can do our police work, “he said.

From Wednesday until Friday in Montevideo, representatives of police research units of each country devoted to combating cybercrime will exchange information on new types of crime through the use of Internet and social networking and ways to combat them.

The participants and members of this Working Group include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Spain, France, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can be misused for crime, violence and terrorism

In the beginning, social networks were just a new way of socializing among friends and business people. In the last few years, some people have begun using these networks for other purposes than family and friends.  Using facebook some people started a political movement that ended in the Egyptian revolution against Mubarak.

Others organize urban riots like some British youngsters recently did in London and Birmingham.

Others organize groups in Facebook to sell  illegal narcotics, as recently happened in Brazilian slums.

Facebook and social networking now often play a role in teen violence, school harassment, gang activity and organized crime.

That is why police are concerned about violence generated through online social networks, which then moves to the streets and result in dead and wounded people.

Some say there is a need to have a strategy for the treatment of such antisocial behavior.  That there is a need to form cyber patrols, composed of undercover policemen with support of sociologists and psychologists.

For example it is now quite usual that young people socializing in the web have been provoked and challenged to street confrontations, violence and crime.

A few days ago, in Uruguay a Facebook challenge also ended with a 19 year old killed in the vicinity of the Montevideo Shopping Mall.  These challenges to violence are also common in association with sports and football games.

On Wednesday, in Montevideo, the 11th World Meeting of Cyber ​​Cops opened with the participation of police specialists from 20 countries.

During the Police Conference , the cyber cops will exchange their experiences and views on the subject. Some proposals include the following: to research more about the “dark web”,  to cyber patrolling the net when there is evidence of criminal activity, to research the misuse of social networking like Facebook, to form a virtual patrol (with cyber cops, sociologists and psychologists) who do prevention work on these violent groups as done in sports.

But violence cannot be resolved by limiting the Internet or social networking technology. In that sense, during the inauguration of the conference, the Interior  Minister of Uruguay Mr. Eduardo Bonomi said that “the problem has clear social roots and cannot be only solved by police action. Police must intervene when something serious happens,  but this does not help to eliminate crime. We must fight the causes that lead to such violent or criminal activity. The solution must also come from a better education,  the role of the family, the role of the school and not by always looking after the police, “said  Bonomi.

Janet Napolitano, Head of Homeland Security. Following U.S. trend to cuts in defense and security..?

The coming wave of U.S. defense budget cuts will apparently be followed by less spending on Homeland Security. Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Government is spending near $75 Billion per year on U.S. Homeland Security. Whether the Spending Spree has been worthwhile is the subject of increasing debate, especially among U.S. liberals…READ MORE HERE ]]> http://www.theamericaspostes.com/3682/u-s-liberals-start-debating-on-budget-cuts-for-homeland-security/feed/ 0 http://www.theamericaspostes.com/3628/sign-up-for-the-free-americas-post-newsletter/ http://www.theamericaspostes.com/3628/sign-up-for-the-free-americas-post-newsletter/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 23:42:47 +0000 Carbonero http://www.theamericaspostes.com/?p=3628 Sign up for the FREE Americas Post Newsletter! Be part of the community that knows what’s happening in The Americas, with NO cost or obligation. We hope you’ll enjoy your free newsletters, and we look forward to welcoming you as a subscriber.  Thank you for your interest.
Enter your email address:

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón is now working as adviser for the Mission to Support the Peace Process established by the OAS. Photograph Credit to Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

During a lecture under the XXIX Interdisciplinary Course on Human Rights which concluded on August 19th at the American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica, the Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón said that governments foster instability among citizens when politicians elaborate security policies without consulting the people. Garzón  called upon the american states to include the opinions and needs of more people, common citizens, in the elaboration of security policies.
For the lawyer and advisor to the International Court in Hague, the authorities act in secret and assume that  regular people do “not understand” their policy decisions.
Garzón thinks that “Citizens must participate in the design of those aspects or rules that affect them.”
For the jurist, one of his major concerns is that some governments postulate the safety of citizens, but continue to violate basic human rights.

Garzon gained worldwide fame for promoting an arrest warrant against former dictator Augusto Pinochet for the death and torture of Spanish citizens during his dictatorship. He also accused Pinochet of commiting crimes against humanity. Garzón has niow been suspended in Spain, due to his initiative to investigate the human rights situation during the Franco regime.
“What is the role of victims in the fight against organized crime,” he asked yesterday at the Institute headquarters in Los Yoses, San Pedro, Montes de Oca.  “Normally, no government takes into account what the victims claims during the design of security policies ,” ​​the judge responded to an audience that included senior officials and security minister, Mario Zamora, and the president of the Supreme Court Justice Luis Paulino Mora.
Garzón said that “we need citizen involvement to define the security agenda so that everything does not become a critique of the government in power because in the end is a matter of coresponsibility.”
During his speech of nearly an hour, Garzon said he was alarmed by the levels of “very serious” violence  that plague countries like Mexico and Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking. He said that violence has led criminal groups to bring their operations in the Isthmus, especially in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
In this regard, he considered that they are wrong who believe that the attacks by organized crime reach only members of rival groups in fight among themselves for power quotas or zones of influence.  “Anyone who thinks this makes a big mistake,” said Garzón.