Terrorism as Organized Crime

September 28, 2010

“Terrorist Networks Are Organized + Terrorism Is a Crime = Terrorism Is Organized Crime”

That’s the formula that Blue Planet: Informal International Police Networks and National Intelligence presents to the reader, and author Michael D. Bayer makes a good case for it. Bayer, a former chief of the Department of State’s transnational criminal investigative office, takes the view that police around the world are better positioned to know what’s going on in their local areas, no matter how remote they seem from the wider world. Through informal contacts with colleagues in their own countries and abroad, they can gather and disseminate vital intelligence to detect and suppress “worldwide manifestations of destabilizing violence, often indiscriminately labeled ‘terrorism.’”

I found Blue Planet to be an intriguing read for a number of reasons. It presents a reasonable and clearly written case for greater involvement of the police in fighting terrorism, argues forcefully against the post-9/11 militarization of U.S. anti-terrorism effort, and cites a number of fascinating case studies of how informal international police networks, even including such relatively closed societies as Cuba and China, have worked effectively to apprehend criminals. (Some of these stories could be the basis for your next suspense novel!)

Blue Planet also makes the interesting point that both international criminal operations and terrorist networks often use the same illegal methods (smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking), and who better to learn about those links than those already tracking organized crime?  According to a recent RAND report cited in the book, “For terrorist groups that cannot or will not abandon terrorism, policing is likely to be the most effective strategy to destroy terrorist groups. The logic is straightforward: Police generally have better training and intelligence to penetrate and disrupt terrorist organizations. They are the primary arm of the government focused on internal security matters.”

Blue Planet is not just another policy report. It’s an insightful and intellectually stimulating book that also includes some terrific true crime stories. You can read it here on the National Defense Intelligence College Web site or track down your own copy here.

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What to Do Before the Pipeline Arrives

September 22, 2010

Not all Government publications are for everyone. For instance, if you haven’t been notified that someone is going to run a natural gas pipeline through your property, you probably don’t need An Interstate Natural Gas Facility on My Land? What Do I Need to Know? Ah, but if you do get a call from a private company contemplating an interstate project of that sort, your interest might be…intense.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) created this little 24-page booklet so that property owners could learn about their rights, how FERC’s procedures work, what safety and environmental issues might be involved, and lots more. For example, it addresses such issues as the legal rights and responsibilities of all parties, archaeological sites, environmental and safety issues, pipeline installation procedures, how long a pipeline might stay in place and many other questions. Even from the viewpoint of someone like me, who likely never will be affected by such a circumstance, it seems to provide a lot of concrete information clearly and concisely – which many of the best Government publications do. I also learned quite a bit about the natural gas transmission business and terms of art – did you know that in the pipeline world, a pig is “any independent, self-contained device, tool, or vehicle that is inserted into and moves through the interior of a pipeline for inspecting, dimensioning, or cleaning,” or that it gets its name “because of the occasional squealing noises that can be heard as they travel through the pipe”? Now that’s worth knowing!

Okay, as I said at the beginning, Government publications like this one are pretty specialized, but very useful if you need them. You can read An Interstate Natural Gas Facility on My Land? What Do I Need to Know? here, buy a package of them here, or take a peek at it in a library. That’s it – direct from the Government Book Talk pipeline!

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Ball’s Bluff: A Little Battle with Lasting Consequences

September 20, 2010

A few Veterans Days ago, my wife and I made a day trip to Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park  in Loudon County, Virginia. You’d never know it was there, tucked away as it is behind a suburban housing development. Once you step out of your car and into the park, you’re in another place altogether. For one thing, Ball’s Bluff is really two sites in one.  Just inside the park is a small National Cemetery, containing the remains of 54 soldiers in 25 graves, all killed during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. We were there on a cold, cloudy day, the kind of day that really made us think somberly about that long-ago battle near the beginning of the Civil War. Given that it was a small engagement, we were able to walk most of the battlefield, up to the edge of the high bluff where the inexperienced Union soldiers made their last stand. 

This battle was relatively inconsequential militarily, but it had a larger impact politically. An overly ambitious reconnaissance in force that resulted in the death of Abraham Lincoln’s friend Colonel and Senator Edward D. Baker, it cost Union General Charles Stone his career and was the impetus for the establishment of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which became long-term Radical Republican thorn in the side of Lincoln’s Administration.

The U.S. Army’s Center of Military History has a neat little booklet on the battle that I wish we’d had that day. Battle of Ball’s Bluff was developed as a staff ride guide for Army personnel so they can “learn from the past by analyzing the battle through the eyes of the men who were there.” The best part of the booklet is the blow-by-blow account of the battle, accompanied by a number of detailed maps. As I said, the battlefield is relatively small, so you can really get a sense of what happened in just an hour or two.

What sticks in my mind is the fearful predicament of the Union troops, unfamiliar with the area and forced back to that steep bluff above the Potomac.  Many of them jumped to their deaths or died on the narrow little strip of land beneath under a rain of Confederate musket fire (left). I’m not that crazy about heights, so looking down from the top of that cliff really brought at least a bit of the grim reality of that day home to me.

You can read about this little battle with lasting consequences here, get your own copy here, or find a library that has a copy here.

6 Comments | Civil War, U.S. Army | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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A Comic Book History of Printing

September 13, 2010

 When I started doing this blog, I assumed that I’d be talking about the work of other people – that legion of writers and artists who have been cranking out Government publications since the dawn of the Republic. Now here I am, almost six months later, getting ready to write about a publication that I scripted myself – a comic book, no less!

Squeaks Discovers Type: How Print Has Expanded Our Universe is the first comic book that GPO has ever created in toto, from the initial concept and design through its publication a couple of weeks ago. Why a comic book? Because we think that the story of printing, which is really the story of the profound impact of printing on the dissemination of information worldwide, needs to be better understood, especially in the context of a digital age. Although our comic book is aimed at kids, its message is for everybody.

When I was asked to develop a script for a comic book, my first thought was “Okay, I’ve never done this before – how do I come up with a concept?” Fortunately, I have two sons who always preferred playing video games to doing their homework – what an inspiration! An unwanted homework assignment, a new video game, a dream, and a journey through space and time – I had nailed down a concept, which for me was the toughest part of my job.

Once I sketched out the plot and wrote some initial dialogue, I turned the project over to my colleague Nick Crawford, GPO Creative Services Visual Information Specialist and amazingly talented artist. I explained the concept to Nick and suggested some kind of cute animal video game hero. He came up with Squeaks the Space Pirate and – let’s face it –  Squeaks is one cute mouse!

After lots of hard work on Nick’s part, I went through his layout and crafted additional dialogue around the gorgeous images he’d drawn, then conferred with him to iron out the glitches. For my part, it was an unprecedented collaboration with an artist, and one that went amazingly well – who said writers and artists can’t get along?! For more about how we developed the comic book, check out this video.

The result, Squeaks Discovers Type, is, I hope, a fun read that conveys some good information and sets printing in its proper place in history for kids of all ages. You can see more of the artwork here.

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On the Greenland Patrol

September 10, 2010

A few posts back I blogged about a booklet that told the story of the U.S. Coast Guard beach patrol and corsair fleet during World War II. The Coast Guard and the Greenland Patrol, another booklet in the same series, recounts another forgotten episode that pitted the Coast Guard against the perils of the Arctic and marked the only U.S. capture of a German surface vessel during the war.

When the German Army occupied Denmark in 1940, the fate of Greenland, a Danish possession, loomed large in American strategy. Greenland was a major source of cryolite, a mineral used in the extraction of aluminum, its largely frozen land mass lay athwart a major air route used to ferry Lend-Lease aircraft to Great Britain, and was of great value in establishing weather stations. Two Coast Guard cutters equipped as icebreakers, the Northland and the Modoc, conducted a lengthy survey of Greenland’s coastal waters in early 1941, in the course of which the Modoc stumbled into a British air attack on the German battleship Bismarck!

Although the U.S. and Germany were not yet at war, tensions were high as America moved aggressively to defend the hemisphere. During June and July 1941, the Northland and the Modoc, joined by other Coast Guard and Navy vessels, were organized into the Greenland Patrol with the missions of supporting the Army in establishing bases in Greenland, defending Greenland from Germany, and preventing German operations in northeast Greenland.

The first mission involved escorting troop and supply ships, breaking the ice to get them to port, and, especially after the declaration of war against Germany, defending them against attacks by U-boats. The duty included “cold weather, ice, fog, snowstorms, and plenty of hard work…cooped up in that little tub month after month, in bad weather, wet to their skins…” It was tough and unglamorous, but vital in keeping the northern sea and air lanes open.

On several occasions, Coast Guard cutters captured German ground personnel and vessels intent on establishing clandestine radio stations in northeast Greenland. One German trawler scuttled itself after a lengthy pursuit, while another, the Externsteine (left), surrendered after the new Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind fired three salvoes alongside its icebound hull – the only American capture of a German surface ship in the course of the war.

As you can tell, I’m totally taken with this fascinating story – Arctic gales, secret enemy weather stations, and “snow ice cream” (“Take two bowlfuls of snow, add sugar to taste, then throw in a dash of fruit juice or extract for flavor. The result isn’t bad.”). You can read all about it here or find it in a library here.

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A Classic Updated: Glenn Brown’s History of the United States Capitol

September 7, 2010

From 1900 to 1902, the Government Printing Office produced a two-volume architectural history of the U.S. Capitol by the architect and author Glenn Brown. As a condition of its authorization by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, Brown personally selected the type and paper and designed the cover, which was based on a Capitol fireplace frieze destroyed in a basement gas explosion in 1898.  Only 200 hardbound copies were produced, making it a much-sought publication for architectural historians, collectors of Washingtoniana, and anyone interested in the art and architecture of the Capitol.

Fast forward to the bicentennial of the Capitol, which stretched from 1993, the year in which the cornerstone was laid by President George Washington, to 2000, 200 years after Congress moved to Washington, DC. Thanks to the U.S. Capitol Preservation Commission, a new one-volume edition of Glenn Brown’s monumental work was designed and printed by GPO. It’s a really splendid achievement for a number of reasons.

First, it brings back into circulation a classic historical work. Second, under the meticulous editorship of William B. Bushong, it’s more than just a reprint. In addition to annotating Brown’s text “to correct errors, identify sources, describe controversial issues, or point readers to further modern published versions of cited documents on selected topics,” this new edition adds many black and white and color photographs of drawings, prints, and paintings while retaining the historically important original photos (reproduced in full when cropped for the original). He also provides an excellent profile of Glenn Brown, highlighting both his career achievements and disappointments.

For me, the enhanced illustrations are a highlight of this book, showing how the Capitol came to be, how it was in Brown’s day, and the changes that have occurred since then. Also, Brown is a lucid guide to the sometimes bewildering steps involved in first building and then remodeling the Capitol and provides little-known sidelights even on  its most well-known features. It certainly gave me pause to learn that when Thomas Crawford  forwarded photos of the model of Freedom, which surmounts the Capitol Dome, to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the latter objected to Freedom’s liberty cap, a contemporary emblem of liberty, on the grounds that it was “an emblem of emancipated slaves, while Americans were freeborn.” As a result, Freedom sports a helmet crested with feathers. Even the byways of history can reveal surprises.

This really remarkable book can be found here, you can add it to your personal libraryby buying it  here, or browse through it at a library near you.

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The Key to a Healthy Life

September 3, 2010

This week’s guest blogger is Ingrid Reyes-Arias, a former GPO intern and new staffer with GPO’s Library Services and Content Management area.

How often do we make plans to be “healthier”? Easier said than done, right? Luckily for us, there are plenty of Government publications that provide us with nutritional information.  A good example is Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. 

The goal is to live a long healthy life and minimize the risk of chronic diseases, and we can achieve this by undertaking the recommendations that this publication provides.  This is a user-friendly book that has information about adequate nutrients, weight management, physical activity, food groups, and food safety. The most difficult component of health is applying it to daily life.  Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 has been able to take highly important information and make it available and easy to understand for those learning to be healthy.  The first portion of the book provides information on adequate nutrients, plus a sample of the USDA Food Guide and estimated Calorie Requirements for each gender and age group, ranked by the levels of physical activity.  This leads to another important aspect of weight and health management, which is regular physical activity that makes a contribution to minimizing the risk of chronic diseases.  Not only is it an easy read, but the information is provided and endorsed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, so why not take this useful advice?

This publication can serve as reference for future endeavors in becoming healthy and maintaining weight.  It is tailored for the average person with a desire to change his or her health habits. It also includes tables with the food sources for different vitamins and minerals.  The key recommendation tables allow you to focus on the importance of each section, which can lead to successful comprehension of the specific recommendations. 

Take the time to read and embrace the importance of leading a healthy life. Don’t hesitate to take a look on the US Government Bookstore for a copy! You can also find it in a library or read it here.

4 Comments | Agriculture | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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A New Deal Legacy

August 30, 2010

One of my uncles logged in some time at a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp during the Depression of the 1930’s, so The Bureau of Reclamation’s Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy: 1933-1942 caught my eye while I was looking over a list of new books at GPO. When the Roosevelt Administration established the CCC in 1933, America’s youth had been hit extra hard by America’s drastic economic decline. In addition to putting thousands of young men like my uncle to work, the CCC’s legacy includes a myriad of buildings, picnic shelters, and other structures still in use today across the country.

This is a weighty tome, indeed. It was originally published in 2000 and revised to include updated research and more photos. In addition to an interesting essay on the history of the national CCC and another on the Bureau of Reclamation’s involvement, the bulk of the book is made up of brief forms describing the history and activities of each Reclamation camp. The real revelation to me was the involvement of the Bureau – I’ve always thought that the Forest Service and the National Park Service were the major Government players regarding the CCC. The book is nicely designed and includes many period photos of the CCC at work, and of the structures they built as they look today.

Note: Although a great resource for students of the CCC, this is mainly a reference work rather than a narrative history. As such, it would be a good addition to library collections.

You can look through it here, buy a copy here, or find it in a library.

15 Comments | Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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War on the Beaches

August 23, 2010

Spending time at the Jersey shore, as I have since I was a kid, always conjures up my parents and the things they talked about back then. For example, they remembered walking on the beach during the early days of World War II and seeing Coast Guardsmen on patrol amidst the debris of torpedoed ships. I think of those men often when I walk the beach, especially at night, when it’s easier to imagine the cold, loneliness, and boredom they endured as part of their contribution to the war effort.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard continued its pre-war beach patrols – usually one man armed only with flares – to spot enemy submarines and watch for saboteurs who might be landing from those subs. All of that changed after June 13, 1942, when Seaman 2nd Class John C. Cullen was approached by a stranger on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island. The men and his companions were Nazi agents (an extremely incompetent group, fortunately) freshly landed from the German sub U-584. Their discovery and subsequent capture turned the Coast Guard beach patrol into an armed force that used men, dogs and horses (left) to patrol America’s shoreline for the balance of the war.

The Beach Patrol and Corsair Fleet, one of a number of booklets produced by the Coast Guard to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, tells the little-known story of this aspect of the war. Although saboteurs never amounted to much of a problem, the patrol performed its most important service in its traditional role of lifesaving. A particularly dramatic rescue occurred off the coast of Washington State in 1943, when the Soviet freighter Lamut struck the rocky ground below a sheer cliff near Teahwhit Beach. Guardsmen hurled a makeshift heaving line from the cliff top to the freighter so the crewmen could ascend hand over hand, “Hanging between the black clouds above and the snarling, crashing breakers below…One slip on the wet line would have meant instant death.” Wow!

The Corsair Fleet, complete with a Donald Duck logo (left), was a motley conglomeration of yachts and smaller craft offered to the U.S. Navy by the Cruising Club of America for emergency U-Boat spotting off the East Coast in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The Navy refused the offer until an avalanche of bad publicity forced its hand and it gave the Coast Guard permission to organize the Coastal Picket Patrol, more commonly known as the Corsair Fleet. During much of 1942, these ships and their amateur crews patrolled in all kinds of weather and spotted a few U-Boats before being eliminated as an economy measure in 1943. Shades of Ernest Hemingway’s private submarine patrols off Key West!

You can read this fascinating little booklet here or find it in a library here.

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Benefits for Veterans

August 18, 2010

One of the great things about Government publications is that they’re the real deal: official, authoritative information on Federal programs – nothing fancy, just clearly presented facts, figures, and contact information. For instance, every year for I don’t know how many years (could anyone out there hazard a guess?), the Department of Veterans Affairs or its predecessor, the Veterans Administration, has issued a booklet  about the various services and programs available for veterans of the armed forces and their families.

Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents and Survivors 2010 covers pensions, insurance, home loans, survivor benefits, military medals and records, and a lot more. In Chapter 4, Education and Training, you’ll find the latest information on the post-9/11 GI Bill. For wounded warriors, Chapter 10, Transition Assistance, talks about a re-launched Web site, the National Resource Directory (www.nationalresourcedirectory.gov), that “provides access to thousands of services and resources at the national, state and local levels to support recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration.”

In short, this publication has the power to give millions of people the information they need to get the benefits they deserve. You can view it here in either English or Spanish, buy your own copy in English or Spanish, or locate it in a library.

4 Comments | Department of Veterans Affairs | Tagged: , | Permalink
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Bookstore Grand Reopening

August 16, 2010

As readers of this blog know, I’m a real book person. Give me a bookstore to roam around in and I’m a goner for the day. That’s why it was especially rewarding this morning, when I got to witness the grand reopening of the Government Printing Office’s own bricks and mortar store, which has been closed for renovation for several months. Although the store has been in existence since 1921, this has got to be the most extensive makeover it’s ever had. The whole atmosphere is more like a small independent bookstore, with an open airy feel, comfortable chairs to read in, and even a children’s corner. Even better, part of the store is now an exhibit area for photos and objects that tell the story of printing at GPO – from handset to digital. All of the work – the design, the cabinetry, the décor – was done by GPO’s own in-house designers and craftsmen.

If you live in the greater Washington, DC area or just in town for a visit, please come on by. You can find all of the sales titles I’ve blogged about and many more of our newest and best books. Even I’m astonished at the vast range of subject matter. Come on book lovers, it’s time to head our way!

For more information, please click here. The address is 710 North Capitol St, NW, Washington, DC 20401.

9 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO) | Tagged: , | Permalink
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Cold Outside?

August 13, 2010

It’s been an exceedingly hot here for the past month or so. When we had our record-breaking snowfall in February, everyone was longing for the warmth of summer. Now it’s here with a vengeance, and a brisk breeze would be most welcome. Sometimes the best way to fight the heat is to experience cold weather vicariously, which is easy to do in a real Government classic: American Weather Stories.

Originally appearing mainly in various National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA to the cognoscenti) publications, the essays in this 1976 publication covers all kinds of weather, but I was drawn to “The Year Without a Summer.” The year 1816 witnessed extraordinarily frigid temperatures throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In the American Northeast, there were two snowstorms in June and frost in June, July, and August. Farmers suffered severe crop losses in each of those months. It may have been no coincidence that the first general migration from new England to the Middle West occurred the following year. Meteorologists generally agree that fine particles in the upper atmosphere generated from an unusual number of worldwide volcanic eruptions caused this bizarre weather phenomenon.

Another cold weather tale is “The Blizzard of ‘88”, still a catchphrase even today. In New York City, drifts up to the second story windows of office buildings were common, and people literally were blown off their feet by the blasting winds that fed blizzard conditions starting on March 10, 1888. In “The Weather on Inauguration Day,” you’ll find tales of  really rotten weather, including William Howard Taft’s big day, when the snow and wind was even worse than the notorious day in 1961 when President Kennedy took his oath of office. As Taft remarked to a reporter, “I always knew it would be a cold day when I got to be President.”

Of course, American Weather Stories includes drought, hurricanes, and historic weather patterns, too, but it’s to hot to think about those…

Although long out of print, a commercial publisher has issued a reprint. I had no luck finding the text online, but you can find the original at a library.

Addendum: Thanks to Emily Carr at the Library of Congress, I can now share this online text with you.

7 Comments | NOAA | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
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