Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
In recent years, Joint Task Force-Bravo has bolstered our relationship with Department of Defense, Department of State, Interagency and Central American militaries through the Community of Interest and NCO-Leader Development programs. These programs build and maintain invaluable relationships, develop the capacity of our partner nations and strengthen the Partner-of-Choice focus in Central America.
Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
The Coast Guard offloaded approximately 2,000 pounds of seized cocaine worth an estimated $30 million in wholesale value and transferred custody of four suspected smugglers to U.S. federal law enforcement authorities at Coast Guard Sector San Juan Sunday.
Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
WASHINGTON –
On Dec. 28, 2016, President Barack Obama published the annual proclamation of January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing next-generation search technologies to help investigators find the online perpetrators of those crimes.
Wade Shen, a program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, said in a recent DoD News interview that the program, called Memex, is designed to help law enforcement officers and others perform online investigations to hunt down human traffickers.
“Our goal is to understand the footprint of human trafficking in online spaces, whether that be the dark web or the open web,” he explained, characterizing the dark web as the anonymous internet, accessed through a system, among others, called Tor.
“The term dark web is used to refer to the fact that crimes can be committed in those spaces because they’re anonymous,” Shen said, “and therefore, people can make use of [them] for nefarious activities.”
Point of Sale
The approach he and his team have taken is to collect data from the Internet and make it accessible through search engines.
“Typically, this is data that’s hard for commercial search engines to get at, and it’s typically the point of sale where sex trafficking is happening,” Shen explained. “Victims of sex trafficking are often sold as prostitutes online, and a number of websites are the advertising point where people who want to buy and people who are selling can exchange information, or make deals.
“What we’re looking for,” he continued, “is online behavioral signals in the ads that occur in these spaces that help us detect whether or not a person is being trafficked.”
When a prostitute is advertised online as being “new in town” or by specific characteristics, those are hints that person might be trafficked. New in town means a person might be moving around, and the term “fresh” often means a person is underage, Shen explained. “Those kinds of things are indicators we can use to figure out whether or not a person is being pimped and trafficked,” he added.
Trafficking Signals
Before the Memex program formally began in late 2014, Shen’s team was working with the district attorney of New York to determine if they could find signals associated with trafficking in prostitution ads on popular websites.
“We found that lots of signals existed in the data, whether they be phone numbers used repeatedly by organizations that are selling multiple women online, or branding tattoos that exist in photos online, or signals in the text of the ads,” Shen said.
Shen’s team had been working on text-based exploitation programs for big data — extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions. But they thought that if they extended the technology to understand images and networks of people, then they could apply it to detecting rings of traffickers and behaviors associated with trafficking online.
“If we could do that,” he said, “we could … generate leads for investigators so they wouldn’t have to sift through millions of ads in order to find the small number of ads that are associated with trafficking. So that’s what we did.”
Prosecuting Perpetrators
Early on, the team realized that search wasn’t quite the right modality for doing such investigations and that there was a lot more work to do before the technology could be adapted to trafficking. That’s when the Memex program began, Shen said.
“Since the beginning of the program, we’ve had a strong relationship with the district attorney of New York, but they’re not the only user of the technology. Over time, we have engaged with many different law enforcement agencies, including 26 in the United Kingdom, the district attorney of San Francisco, and a number of others,” he said.
Investigators for the district attorney of New York were able to use Memex tools to find and prosecute perpetrators, and that resulted in an arrest and conviction in the program’s first year, he added.
“Since then,” Shen said, “there have been hundreds of arrests and other convictions by a variety of law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad.”
Today, more than 33 agencies are using the tools, he added, and an increasing number of local law enforcement agencies are using the tools.
“As word of mouth spreads about the tools and the fact that we give free access to the tools to law enforcement, more and more people are signing up to use it,” he said.
Shen said it’s easy for his team to work with state, local and federal partners in the United States, but it’s harder to work with agencies abroad.
“But we’re committed to do that,” he added, “so we are in the process of working out deals with a number of those agencies so they have access to the tools we currently deploy and to allow them, after we exit [when the program ends in a year] … to continue to run their own versions of these tools.”
Noble Cause
DARPA funds the Memex project, which, according to the agency’s budget office, has cost $67 million to date. But rather than do the work, as with its other projects, DARPA catalyzes commercial agents, universities and others to develop the technology, Shen said.
“They are experts in their fields — image analysis, text analysis or web crawling and so on — and we engage the best of that community to work on this problem. What they’ve essentially done is form coalitions to … build the tools [needed] to solve the problem, because no one of the entities that we call performers is able to do that on their own,” he added.
The Memex program has 17 different performers, and many of them also work with partners. “So all in all,” Shen said, “we have hundreds of people who are working on this effort. All of them are very dedicated to this problem, because the problem of human trafficking is real.”
When Shen’s team started the program, one of the things they realized was that the cost of people in these spaces, the cost of slaves, is essentially zero, he added.
“That means our lives are essentially worthless in some sense, and that just seems wrong,” he said. “That motivated us and a lot of our performers to do something, especially when we build technology for all sorts of commercial applications for profit and for other motives. That’s what a lot of our folks do on a day-to-day basis, and they felt the need to make use of their technology for a noble cause. We think Memex is one of these noble causes.”
(Follow Cheryl Pellerin on Twitter: @PellerinDoDNews)
Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
Military leaders from 20 states descended upon Fort Sam Houston Jan. 18 in support of the DoD joint security cooperation program, managed by the National Guard Bureau that matches the states/territories of National Guards within the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility of Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
SOTO CANO AIR BASE, Honduras – Members from Joint Task Force-Bravo completed a two-day troop movement of Honduran soldiers Dec. 17, 2015, in the Gracias a Dios Department (state) of Honduras, as a part of a greater endeavor to assist the Central American nation’s efforts to combat the trafficking of illicit materials through the region.
The troop-movement mission is part of a greater Honduran operation, named CARAVANA, and this iteration was the final one this calendar year, continuing to develop and build on the effects of the operation from the initial vision and request for support from the Honduran president in October 2014.
Originally, the request for aid to move troops came from the Honduran President’s office to Gen. John F. Kelly, U.S. Southern Command commander.
“Our President has recognized the importance of supporting our Central American partners, making the region one of his top foreign policy priorities,” Kelly stated in his March 12, 2015 Posture Statement to Congress. “We are now seeing real progress being made by the three ‘Northern Triangle’ countries. While there are many good examples, the situation is especially encouraging in Honduras, where the government is working hard to combat the drug trade, re-establish governance in remote areas, and take meaningful action to protect human rights.”
Since its initiation, Operation CARAVANA has facilitated the movement of nearly 5,000 troops and over 210,000 pounds of cargo between remote locations in the eastern part of Honduras, giving the country the ability to quickly focus and adjust their forces against the ever changing tactics traffickers use in the region.
As Operation CARAVANA continues to evolve in its execution, JTF-Bravo continues to work in support of the Honduran Forces to ensure we facilitate efforts to gain significant effects against the trafficking organizations working within Honduras.
“The execution of this operation on a consistent basis has not only achieved the right effects within Gracias a Dios, but also effects throughout the region – impacting the overall trafficking network,” said Col. Robert Harman, JTF-Bravo commander. “In addition, it has increased our interaction with the Honduran Staff in developing detailed and integrated plans, and also integrated command and control throughout the Honduran 30 day rotations of Operation CARAVANA. This operation is not only impacting the environment but providing the time and space for further development of our partnered forces.”
Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
The Department of Defense announced today that the Joint Task Force-Red Hill has completed its defueling mission at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawai’i and shifted command and control of the facility to the United States Navy. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment will continue to convene a Senior Steering Group on Red Hill to provide oversight and offer support to the Navy.
“Today I am pleased to announce that the Navy has assumed command and control of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. “Rear Admiral Stephen Barnett – now dual-hatted as Commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Commander of Navy Closure Task Force – will have overall responsibility for the final steps to ensure the safe closure of Red Hill.
“I’m grateful to Vice Admiral John Wade, Commander of the Joint Task Force, for his leadership and his work with the Hawai’i Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, and our community partners in Hawai’i to complete the Department’s prompt and safe defueling of Red Hill earlier this month.
“The Department of Defense and the United States Navy remain deeply committed to protecting the public’s health and preserving the environment. Rear Admiral Barnett is determined to close Red Hill safely, and I’ve directed him to continue to communicate with our personnel and the people of Hawai’i candidly, frequently, and transparently.
The Navy will continue its work to safely close Red Hill while protecting the safety of the surrounding community and being responsible environmental stewards in Hawai’i.”
In March 2022, Secretary Austin directed the defueling and the permanent closure of the Red Hill facility and established the Joint Task Force to lead the defueling efforts and maintain command and control of Red Hill. Last fall, the Secretary directed a conditions-based transition of command and control from the Joint Task Force to the Navy Closure Task Force, with the Navy assuming responsibility for Red Hill upon completion of the defueling mission.
On March 4, the Joint Task Force completed its gravity defueling mission, and a significant number of its personnel have been reassigned to serve on the Navy Closure Task Force to retain institutional knowledge and to ensure continuity of mission for safety, security, and community engagement. The Department of the Navy has provided the remaining personnel.
Secretary Austin convened all key stakeholders on March 14, 2024, to verify that all conditions for transition, including final transition review and safety measure turnover, have been met.
Following certification by INDOPACOM, the Navy, the Joint Staff, and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment that the transition conditions have been met, Secretary Austin has directed the transition from the Joint Task Force to the Navy Closure Task Force. The Navy-led Task Force will assume responsibility for the permanent closure of Red Hill, in accordance with state and federal regulatory requirements.
Dual-hatting Rear Admiral Barnett as both Commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Commander of Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill will allow for synergies throughout the closure of Red Hill and remediation actions. It will also establish clear responsibility for future steps, which the Department hopes will continue to rebuild trust with the State of Hawai’i and the community of Oahu. Rear Admiral Barnett will also draw on supporting commands’ capabilities to assist the Navy Closure Task Force.
A Deputy Commander for Closure and Demolition and a Deputy Commander for Remediation and Environment will both report to Rear Admiral Barnett. These Deputy Commanders will oversee the day-to-day activities of the project and will lead the on-the-ground execution of the Department of the Navy’s Tank Closure Plan.
Since the establishment of the Joint Task Force in 2022, the Navy has been routinely involved with community meetings to provide information and answer questions about the water-distribution system, the water-monitoring program, closure planning, and environmental remediation steps. The Navy will continue this high level of engagement throughout the closure of Red Hill.
On February 28, the Department extended until March 2025 the Secretarial Designation authorizing continued access to a medical assessment at the Red Hill Clinic on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. This designation was also expanded to include current residents of military family housing served by the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Water Distribution System.
Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
DARWIN, NT, Australia –
A new group of Marines and Sailors arrived in the Northern Territory to begin the 13th annual iteration of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin.
Led by a California-based Marine infantry regiment for the third year in a row, this year’s Marine Air-Ground Task Force brings approximately 2,000 U.S. Marines and Sailors to Australia’s Northern Territory for a series of exercises and training events alongside the Australian Defence Force.
Part of a 25-year agreement made in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama and then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the six-month deployments advance shared security objectives identified in the Australian United States Force Posture Initiatives. The deployment has grown in scale and complexity each year, enhancing our Alliance’s capabilities and ability to work together, and improving our combined capacity to respond to crises and contingencies in the Indo-Pacific region. MRF-D remains a key touchpoint of the Australia-U.S. security Alliance.
“The Marines and Sailors of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin are honored and excited to continue the legacy of cooperation and interoperability with our Australian Defence Force brothers and sisters,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brian T. Mulvihill, the commanding officer of MRF-D 24.3. “Our strong Alliance contributes to stability in the region and enables the readiness of our forces to respond to any crisis or contingency that arises.”
Participants will conduct operations across a full spectrum of missions including expeditionary operations, geographically distributed communications, non-combatant evacuation operations, embassy reinforcements, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and rapid projection of combat power.
“These rotations not only help build interoperability between the ADF and the U.S., but also serve to increase regional cooperation with partner nations in the Indo-Pacific,” said Australian Navy Capt. Mitchell Livingstone, the commanding officer of Headquarters Northern Command. As in previous rotations, this year’s MRF-D exercise schedule will incorporate security partners from throughout the Pacific Islands and the broader region. Training events will occur throughout Australia and various countries in the region through the end of MRF-D 24.3’s rotation in October.
The Australia-U.S. Alliance is an anchor of peace, security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Our nations share key objectives: increasing combined capabilities, promoting a stable and secure Indo-Pacific region, and strengthening their ability to respond to humanitarian crises, natural disasters, and contingencies.
For questions regarding this release, please contact the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin media team at MRFDMedia@usmc.mil.
Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. spoke by phone today.
Secretary Austin reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. commitment to the Philippines following the PRC Coast Guard and maritime militia’s dangerous obstruction of a lawful Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal on March 23. He emphasized U.S. support for the Philippines in defending its sovereign rights and jurisdiction, and reiterated that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to both countries’armed forces, public vessels, and aircraft—including those of its Coast Guard—anywhere in the Pacific, to include the South China Sea.
The two officials discussed the importance of preserving the rights of all nations to fly, sail, and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows. They highlighted that the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal Ruling is final and binding on the Parties and called on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law.
The officials discussed historic momentum in U.S.-Philippine defense ties and reaffirmed their mutual commitment to strengthening the U.S.-Philippine alliance, which has upheld peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region for over seventy years. They agreed to bolster bilateral and multilateral cooperation with like-minded partners in the South China Sea and committed to accelerate a number of bilateral initiatives to enhance information-sharing, interoperability, and capability enhancements for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. They also underscored both countries’ shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific grounded in transparency, the rule of law, respect for sovereignty, and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners provided the following readout:
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for South and Southeast Asia Lindsey Ford concluded her visit to Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines last week for a series of engagements with defense and military officials in all three countries.
DASD Ford’s trip began in Vietnam with a stop at Bien Hoa airfield outside Ho Chi Minh City, where DoD and the U.S. Agency for International Development are working to complete dioxin remediation efforts. In Hanoi, DASD Ford joined the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and representatives from U.S. industry to discuss opportunities to expand U.S. defense trade with Vietnam as part of broader efforts following the 2023 upgrade of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
In Thailand, DASD Ford co-chaired the 20th annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Experts’ Working Group (EWG) on Maritime Security, marking the conclusion of three years of co-chairmanship with Thailand and the beginning of the EWG’s new co-chairmanship by Japan and the Philippines. She also met with Thai Ministry of Defence Director-General of Policy and Planning General Paiboon Vorranprecha to discuss opportunities to deepen bilateral defense cooperation, including on force modernization, cybersecurity, and defense trade. DASD Ford’s visit came on the heels of a successful U.S.-Thailand 2+2 Strategic and Defense Dialogue in March 2024.
DASD Ford’s final stop was in the Philippines, where she met with counterparts from the Department of National Defense, Department of Foreign Affairs, and National Security Council to advance bilateral initiatives to enhance information-sharing, interoperability, and bilateral security cooperation. DASD Ford also met with Flag Officer-in-Command of the Philippine Navy, VADM Toribio Adaci Jr., and commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Command, VADM Alberto Carlos, to discuss bilateral and multilateral opportunities to support the Philippines’ maritime capabilities and ability to operate safely, responsibly, and lawfully in its Exclusive Economic Zone.
“Robust U.S. engagement with allies and partners in Southeast Asia contributes to a peaceful, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific,” DASD Ford said. “After visiting all three countries, it is clear to me that these relationships with the United States are stronger than ever.”
Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is launching the first trilateral prize challenge through AUKUS Pillar II— a defense and security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (U.S.)— to identify electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) technologies that help give a strategic edge in targeting and to provide protection against adversarial electromagnetic-targeting capabilities.
This inaugural AUKUS Pillar II trilateral prize challenge will run as three synchronized competitions by the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) in Australia, Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) in the UK, and DIU in the U.S.
Through AUKUS Pillar II, the Department of Defense (DoD) is bolstering national, regional, and global stability and security by enhancing the capabilities that warfighters need to respond to current and future threats. AUKUS allows the DoD to coordinate information and technology with its international partners to deliver critical capabilities quickly while integrating and strengthening the U.S., UK and Australian defense industrial base and supply chains.
“There is enormous potential in collaborating with our allies and partners, and our AUKUS electromagnetic warfare (EW) Challenge is an example of this,” said DIU Director Doug Beck. “A strong international community of defense innovation entities can help nurture and harness these new capabilities.”
The trilateral problem statement calls for capabilities that will allow us to leverage EMS technologies for both offensive and defensive purposes. The EMS presents a congested and competitive environment, with new technologies and solution sets that have the potential to provide asymmetric advantages for AUKUS and other partners. Key capabilities sought include the ability to:
A team of subject matter experts will evaluate applicants and select winning companies from the three countries in July 2024.
For more information or interview requests, please contact us at media@diu.mil.