Peripheral Milit_Urb 5

[Image: "Mock Iraqi Villages in Mojave Prepare Troops for Battle" NYT, 2006]

[(POST)MILITARY] ARCHITETCURE / URBANISM

Virtual war: to be as if (Space and Culture): "In a 1,000-square-mile region on the edge of Death Valley, Arab-Americans, many of them from the Iraqi expatriate community in San Diego, populate a group of mock villages resembling their counterparts in Iraq."
Charging Bison: Urban Warfare Rehearsals Come to Winnipeg: The City of Winnipeg has long had a surprisingly large military footprint. In addition to housing the Canadian regional NORAD headquarters, the city is home to an airforce base, 17 Wing, and the soon-to-be-redeveloped Kapyong Barracks. (CityStates: IUS Blog)
Fear Factor (by John Hockenberry): Designing in a post 9/11 world has forced architects and planners to revisit some basic tenets and beliefs. (related: After the Fall: Why City Planners Must Seek Answers About 9/11)
Bunker battle in Barnet: "There's trouble brewing in the Mill Hill area, where SLLB Architects claim to have finally been given permission to convert a cold war nuclear bunker, situated just off Partingdale Lane, into a luxury home, complete with new glass penthouse."
The Most Unique and Secure Real Estate In The World: Silohome (via things magazine)
'Zero Tolerance' comes to Brazil: Rio authorities are rolling out a crime-fighting plan that mirrors policies Rudy Giuliani used in New York and Mexico City. Urbanized Beach Surveillance.
A Fortress Seen from Space: A follow up on the embassy going up in Baghdad.
Homeless Heroes: The next generation of American Veterans is on its way home. Over 1.3 million American troops have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and tens of thousands more will return from combat over the years to come. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, nearly 200,000 American veterans are homeless on any given night, and over 400 of those homeless veterans served in Iraq.
Base realignment in Korea spurs protest: Farmers protested Thursday as work intensified on a base that will expand to include US headquarters.
Residents of the Mexican town of San Salvador Atenco rose up against police on Wednesday, chasing them out of town and taking control.
Seminar Seeks to Streamline Disaster Relief: This week, the Marine Corps partnered with Joint Forces Command to host "Joint Urban Warrior 2006 Homeland Security/Homeland Defense," a seminar examining what happens when the military must support civil authorities in response to a major domestic natural disaster.
Bunker hunter (WMMNA): Over 3000 bunkers, built between 1882 and 1995, are scattered around Swizerland. Over the course of four years, Leo Fabrizio has documented these military strongholds. Real fortresses camouflaged amidst the rocks, hidden behind greenery and beneath improbable decorations, the Swiss bunkers, through a series of unconventional images, bear witness to an "armed neutrality" and provide a useful instrument for analysing the relationship between landscape and architecture.



[Image: The concrete portion of Israel’s West Bank security barrier has become an inviting canvas for artists from around the world who sympathize with the Palestinians. Above, a mural by a foreign artist near the Bethlehem checkpoint. (David Blumenfeld for the Boston Globe)

ISRAEL / PALESTINE

'It Takes a Village' (by Gideon Levy): "The IDF has declared war on the small village, which is interfering with its training: checkpoints, demolition orders, night forays, confiscation of ID cards, arrests and expulsions...."
Israeli barrier draws artists to a cause: Many Palestinians object to paintings as disguising reality.
Plans for Jerusalem split outlined: Israel’s new government is drawing up a blueprint for dividing the holy city of Jerusalem - a once inconceivable notion - giving the Palestinians nearly all the Arab neighborhoods while holding onto Jewish areas and disputed holy shrines.
Breaking barriers: The international press may not report them, but anti-occupation Israelis are increasingly forming alliances with Palestinians to protest.

MIDEAST

US seeks options for Iraq, finds few answers: Senator Biden's 'third way' - divide Iraq in order to save it - gets little support from experts.
Three years after looting of Iraqi National Museum: an official whitewash of US crime
100,000 Families Are Fleeing Violence, Iraq Official Says: A new estimate by one of Iraq's vice presidents has put the number of families who have fled their homes at 100,000, a number far greater than recent projections by other Iraqi officials and one that further clouds the debate over how deeply sectarian conflicts are affecting the nation.
Families hunt for Iraq's 'lost': More than 34,000 Iraqis have been jailed, but officials often do not know where.
Senate Speaks: No Permanent Bases In Iraq: Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to the Iraq supplemental spending bill proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) that would require the Bush administration not to use any appropriated funds for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. The amendment also called for the U.S. not exercise control over Iraqi oil.
American Gangs, Iraqi Turf (Archinect): Members of Chicago's Latin Kings, Gangster Desciples and Vice Lords serving in Iraq are doing what any gang would do when faced with virgin turf: staking their claim with graffiti.


PRIVATIZATION OF WAR

War privatisation talks in Warsaw: The increasing privatisation of war is being discussed at a Warsaw conference.
A government in search of cover: PMCs in Iraq (by David Isenberg): Paper prepared for "Market Forces: Regulating Private Military Companies," March 23-24, 2006
Blood is Thicker Than Blackwater: Lawsuits by families of soldiers-for-hire killed in Falluja have put a major war profiteer in the cross-hairs.
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (Robert Greenwald): A quest to make a film.


[Image: on the location of lethality and agency... (brick house).]

OTHER RANDOM MILIT_URB NEWS

Against the Grain (Critical Spatial Practice): is a radio and web media project whose aim is to provide in-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters - political, economic, social and cultural - important to progressive and radical thinking and activism.
Finland buries its nuclear past: An unprepossessing tunnel entrance set in low forest on the western coast of Finland marks the probable final resting place of the country's most dangerous nuclear waste.
Report: Congress should cut $62 billion of Cold War weapons programs: Non-partisan study recommends using money to improve homeland security, halt spread of nuclear weapons.
The Other Japanese Occupation (By John Dower): The expansive, prewar Imperial Japan bears some striking similarities to our own present government.
Angela Davis: U.S. is backing torture: The United States is emerging as the prison guard of the world, Angela Davis told a UW-Madison audience Thursday.
Soldiers and Suits / pt. 2 (brick house).


[Image: "A team crewing NASA's Mars Desert Research Station, a simulated planetary environment in the Utah desert, has been experimenting this week with software that can talk to the crew about the status of their spacecraft's systems." (BLDGBLOG).]

SURVEILLANCE / SECURITY

A simulated planetary environment in the Utah desert (BLDGBLOG).
Israel satellite 'to spy on Iran'
The Total Information Awareness Project Lives On: Technology behind the Pentagon's controversial data-mining project has been acquired by NSA, and is probably in use.
Your Thoughts Are Your Password (By Lakshmi Sandhana): What if you could one day unlock your door or access your bank account by simply "thinking" your password? Too far out? Perhaps not.
U.S. moves to quash privacy suit against AT&T: The Bush administration said Friday that it will ask a federal judge to dismiss a privacy rights group's lawsuit against AT&T over the company's reported role in a government surveillance program, because the case might expose state secrets.
Feds' Watch List Eats Its Own: Newly released government documents show that even having a high-level security clearance won't keep you off the Transportation Security Administration's Kafkaesque terrorist watch list, where you'll suffer missed flights and bureaucratic nightmares.
Maps of mass destruction (phronesisaical).
How to spot a terrorist (MoJo Blog).
The RFID Hacking Underground (By Annalee Newitz): They can steal your smartcard, lift your passport, jack your car, even clone the chip in your arm. And you won't feel a thing. 5 tales from the RFID-hacking underground.
Your actions follow you around (WMMNA): Dave Chiu and Didier Hillhorst have developed an interesting concept of what they call Reputation Management Service. Interesting because it gives a glimpse of what tomorrow could bring but i also find it rather frightening (and not just because i never ever pay my bills on time). RentAThing enables negotiation for access by addressing risk.