I think I didn't miss the point… I just can't understand it (them, not you).

You state leadership's true goal was "sending a message and raising awareness about it (force protection)"… and not about preventing terrorist attacks.

O.K., then, I won't bitch about leadership being ineffective, I'll bitch about them being asinine.

To bring this "awareness", Draconian restrictions were put in place which greatly, yet needlessly, affected lower-ranking GIs' and contractors' freedom but had little affect on leadership who were mostly home with their command sponsored families after 9pm. Not exactly a demonstration of caring leadership… and it was noticed.

Then, while leadership was fake-hyperventilating over "force protection" and "imminent terrorist threats" to the point where enlisted careers were ended and contractors were fired over arbitrary new rules, leadership showed their true concern over the "threat" by allowing their families to gallivant around the bar/shopping districts (before 21:00) as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Not exactly convincing… and it, too, was noticed.

So, what kind of message was supposed to be sent, exactly? Do they think all GIs are stupid… or just indoctrinated enough to buy into such nonsense? (Remember, they marketed it as a real threat and not an "awareness" campaign.)

At the time, everybody knew the "threat" didn't exist… because, if it really did exist, "leadership" would have told their families to stay the hell at home long before word trickled down to GI Dogface that the Ville was dangerous after 21:00.

The little general who cried, "Terrorist!" And everybody knows it. And everybody resents it.

GI, this type of situation is a "cause" for me because I see it tearing our country apart. Substitute "force protection" for "homeland defense" and you get a bloated government agency which oversells fear to the American population to reduce opposition to the erosion of the foundation of many basic American rights… while offering expensive and inconvenient half-assed solutions to non-existent problems. I'll go on about this another time.

As for human trafficking and prostitution, I'm not sure why you continue to bring this up. I, in no way, related this situation to HT&P. To clear this up, allow me to state that I believe this was a power grab by LaPorte and not related to the small minority of corrupt leaders who support the open and obvious HT&P industry or the majority of careerist leaders/followers who ignore HT&P and USFK's de facto support of it (including yourself).

I hesitated to write this reply because I was hoping more people would comment… but I guess reruns of CSI were on.

I know there are some strong feelings out there about this event and LaPorte's failed attempt to control civilians. I know this because it seems this 21:00 curfew's biggest legacy is a 350 million dollar class action lawsuit by civilian workers who had their freedom restricted… which USFK will probably lose to some great extent. USFK apparently already tried to settle quietly for 22 million.

We sure didn't need that money to buy night vision and body armor for GIs busting their ass in the Desert or mold-free rooms at Walter Reed when it could be better spent raising "awareness" of non-existent terrorist threats in an attempt to control people who were doing just fine in the first place.

Great fucking message, USFK!

jag,

Do tell more! I am under the impression that many new contracts are including clauses which say contractors have to do what Big Mamma USFK tells them to… combined with the new concept that contractors fall under the UCMJ. Doesn't look good, does it? Next time USFK ays you gotta smoke dick twice a week, they might have the legal backing to keep hold of contractor's ball hair for real. And the "ate up losers"(LOL) will take it, too… 'cause they ain't got no choice. I watched some of them living in true fear of being caught out after 21:00 and they would lose the best job they ever had (or will have).

mcnut,

Buying bomb-making materials is beyond easy. Apart from missing LPG trucks or stolen welding equipment, you could probably build a small, suitable bomb with chemicals in your home right now.

When one sets up an anodizing line in one's machine shop, one might buy 20 liters of nitric acid to clean aluminum parts and 20 liters of sulphuric acid to anodize. If one was so inclined, glycerin is available at a pharmacy and ice is in the freezer. Total cost would be less than a hundred bucks to make more nitroglycerin than one would want to take jogging… and 10 minutes on the Internet would teach one how to stabilize it long enough to get it to it's target.

When one make acrylic casts from liquid MMA, one uses small amounts of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide as a polymerizing initiator (also used for fiberglass). While kinda explosive all by itself, when mixed with acetone it can form acetone peroxide (aka Mother of Satan) all by itself… or one can make it in quantity from acetone, hydrogen peroxide and a bit of sulphuric acid left over from one's nitroglycerin project.

In case nobody noticed, Mother of Satan is nail polish remover hair dye battery acid ice = BOOM! That is why it is popular with the jihad crowd… although it takes hours to make and is not really possible to mix unnoticed or unsmelled on an airplane as our government and toothpaste-confiscators would have us believe.

None-the-less, all these chemicals can be bought in most countries without question… including America and Korea.

And, of course, the terrorists already know this.

J!

geckos on a saturday night

helios on thursday night

packed with gi's and expats from many countries

unless they ban middle-eastern customers or check everyone that comes in it wouldnt be hard to carry out

the only hard part for them would be to get the materials locally to make a bomb

unless they had a korean buy it for them which i think in the past there were reports that koreans were helping middle-easterners get into the country under the pretense for carrying out attacks on US bases and forces

that was a couple of years ago when suspected al-qaeda agents supposedly visited here with the help of SK nationals

Love your blog, but Chickenhead is actually making more sense than you are.

If things were treated as business as usual no one would take the threat seriously. The actual threat of an attack was low since the ROKs did a good job busting the cell, but it was important to raise awareness in the ranks about the force protection threat. The measures taken then definitely raised awareness both within the ranks and in the villes. Business owners in the villes were practically ran out all third country nationals out of the ville every time they saw them during that period.

A lot of regulations in Korea are directly related to human trafficking and prostitution but decisions made during the period in question had nothing to do with human trafficking and prostitution.

At this same time when GI Joe couldn’t have a beer and a dance after the magic terrorist-awakening hour of 21:00, officers’ wives and children were packing Songtan’s glass-fronted McDonalds and Burger King from lunch to dinner time, obliviously standing in line with backpack-toting South/West Asians of unknown subspecies, watching trucks deliver LPG tanks on the “no traffic allowed” main street, etc etc etc."

I nearly spat a mouthful of tea all over my keyboard after reading that.