One of the main concepts for this company and site, Excalibur R&D, is to do things differently, that the older ways of our existing defense structures and supporting mechanisms haven’t adapted as the world has changed.  Just last night, I met with some defense contractors, all retired or soon to be retired military and we discussed some of the problems the military is currently grappling with: how can you legally and constitutionally hold contractors accountable on the battlefield? How will cyber-warfare unfold and what will define the battlespace of the future? If the Georgian President moved hosting his websites to servers in the US, would an attack on it be an attack on the US?

Is the US Congress the solution to these questions? Is it the problem? Is it both?

If I am going to call this Excalibur thing a think-tank then I’ve got to do some thinking.  So far, I’ve put forth a few ideas to various government entities and individuals and none has taken root.  So, in the next few months, I’m going to publish a few of these to show folks what kind of new ideas might be formed from a non-traditional resource.  The first idea I published, to give structure and process to my vision was the idea that the US military should field propeller driven counterinsurgency aircraft and I used the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 as the basis for this concept.  Initially, some took me to task for the lack of a requirement, others took issue with that specific aircraft, both good points. 

But, there has also been a great deal of interest in the idea and so far, this PowerPoint briefing that I created extolling the virtue of an armed lighter, cheaper alternative to F-16’s and F-18’s, let alone the F-22, has been downloaded over 700 times.  This document outlining the cost alternatives between these fighters and the T-6 has been downloaded over 900 times, clearly there’s interest in this concept.  A Canadian site, called Canadian American Strategic Review here, has a parallel concept for the Canadian Armed Forces to acquire an armed AT-6B for much of the same reasons I advocated.

Lately, cyber-warfare has been in the news a great deal because of the reported Cyber attacks by the Russians against the Georgians and specifically their President’s site.  There does not appear to be consensus on whether this was from the Russian Government or just folks politically aligned or even just miscreants having fun.  But it points to the evolving situation on the web.  Last year, I wrote a paper outlining a concept for the US Congress to get involved with the war against terror.  The idea was to resurrect a centuries old provision of the US Constitution to allow Congress to support the Executive Branch in the emerging fight in Cyberspace.  The idea is based on the provisos in the Constitution called Letter of Marque and Reprisal (Wikipedia site here)

Basically, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a warrant to a Privateer (private ship captain, often a Pirate himself) that gave the crew of his ship the legal authorities to conduct operations against enemies of the nation that issued the writ.  Because we lacked a standing Navy in the Revolutionary War, these Letters were issued but they were banned by the Declaration of Paris, which the US was not a signatory and is not bound by it.  In fact, Presidential candidate Ron Paul envisioned using the Letters of Marque and Reprisal as a provision to fight the current terrorists, his proposal offered a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. The last issuance of a Letter of Marque and Reprisal by the US Congress was to a Goodyear Blimp during WWII to patrol the West Coast of the US, it’s name: Resolute.

One of the best modern works on the subject of the Letters of Marque and Reprisal was the two novels by former Naval Officer and attorney James Huston.  Jim’s first book, Balance of Power, is a look at what if the President of the US was unwilling to use military force to resolve a kidnapping of a US couple in Asia?  Loosely based on the story of the Burnham Family, Jim postulates that Congress could issue a Letter of Reprisal to the Carrier Battle group in the Pacific and it’s Admiral to hunt down those responsible and rescue the couple.  The second book outlines the court-martial of the Admiral, so you pretty much know there was a significant Constitutional crisis in both novels.  It’s a great "what if" story. I actually helped advise Jim on the second novel, having been introduced by a mutual friend who was a Navy SEAL. 

Using all of this as a backdrop, I present a new idea to increase the options for fighting terrorist, a proposal to create a modern day Privateer to conduct cyber operations against designated terrorist elements, I present the United States Cyber Ship Resolute:

Excalibur Letter of Marque paper 15 August 2008.pdf

I envision the Resolute would be a privately funded (read no US government funds) operations center staffed by some of the most innovative and imaginative information specialists America has.  It might even include hackers convicted of crimes but using their imagination and skill to penetrate hostile networks.

This “ship” (actually a very high tech operations center) would operate in conjunction with and in parallel with government entities not in competition with.  But, because it is not bound by the rules and regulations that apply to the Government, it might be able to operate quicker and more freely to do things that hamstring our government personnel.  Since it’s operated by a writ from Congress and it would be reviewed by bipartisan and bicameral supervisory staffers, this could ensure no political agendas are services, only national support.

I would say my idea is about 85% “baked” but could definitely use a good sanity check and scrubbing by folks.  I present it here and request any and all comment on the idea, no profanity or buffoonery please, solid commentary on the goodness or stupidity of such an idea.  If you know of someone in Congress who might be interested, please pass it along.  We need every tool we can envision to fight these terrorist networks, especially as they seem to be increasing their profile on the web as they move around the world.

Thanks for your interest and please do drop a comment.  You don’t have to be registered on the site so let me know what you think.