Thursday, June 29, 2023

April Leaflet Drop from PSYOP Veterans Association

 

POVA LEAFLET DROP - MARCH 2023 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 

Greetings and welcome to your April Leaflet Drop. 

In April we welcomed two new members: Jordan Hamilton and Bill Holland. 

Your Board of Directors held our second monthly meeting on 12 April.Attending were Larry Dietz; Mike Robbins, Brett Cox, Herb Friedman and Dan Wood. 

Anyone who would like a copy of the minutes can email me at: Dietz.POVA@gmail.com and I will send a copy. The Board agreed to meet monthly. Our next meeting is 17 May at 1900. 

Some highlights from our meeting were: 

The March Leaflet Drop was sent to 578 email addresses. 

We had a 59% open rate which is well above the industry rate of between 17 and 28% 

We are still evaluating moving our banking relationship and are considering Wells Fargo and Edward Jones. Anyone with input please let me know. 

The Association will also be moving our official mailing address from Michigan to California in the near future. 

Our next virtualBoard meeting is scheduled for 17 MY at 1900 Eastern Time. If you would like to attend please let me know via email. 

Our President Emeritus, Chad Spawr, has just published a memoir about his personal experience in Viet Nam. I have read it and it is a deeply moving and personal account of his time there. Interestingly enough, Chad and both spent time at Quan Loi and Dau Tieng, but our experiences were quite different. 

Entitled "Memoir of a Hard Time: Memories from my Time at War," the book is available on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle-reader format. 

Chad's book is purely personal. It is neither a war story, nor a history of the Viet Nam War. It shares several memories from his time in-country. To access the book you can visit Amazon and search for the title, or click on the following link:

https://a.co/d/cfpCggy" 

Thanks to our colleagues at the PSYOP Regimental Association (PRA), I was put in contact with the Director of Doctrine at JFK Special Warfare Center and School (SWC) at Fort Bragg. He is in the process of trying to get me on the SWC CG’s calendar for a virtual office visit. 

Speaking of PRA, I had a very productive and cordial conference call with Neil Heupel, President and Ed Burley, Vice President of PRA (Both of whom are POVA Life Members). Our discussion focused on how we can best serve PSYOP soldiers and veterans. If you have any thoughts on this critical topic, please email them to me at: dietz.pova@gmail.com 

We still have several Board and Committee positions vacant. Filling these positions is critical to moving the organization forward. I have put the titles and job descriptions at the end of this message. We need members to step forward and help us lead the organization. If you are interested, please send me an email @ dietz.pova@gmail.com

Our POVA FaceBook page continues to be quite popular and we have a particularly rich collection of material in our PSYOP News this month. 

If you missed the March Leaflet Drop, you can find it at: 

https://conta.cc/3Z40oiP 

Together POVA we will support the PSYOP Regiment - soldiers and veterans - to ensure that we maintain our legacy of excellence. 

Larry 

Lawrence D. Dietz 

President 

PSYOP NEWS - APRIL 2023 

19 Apr 23 

What is Discord and Why the Platform Matters in National Security 

Last week the news broke of theyoung airman leaking classified documents about Russia and Ukraine on Discord. While almost all of you are familiar with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Reddit (Hootsuite says the average person has seven social media accounts), unless you are under the age of 25 or have an affinity for a specific topic such as gaming, Discord may be unfamiliar territory. It was originally made for gamers and up until three years ago, was focused narrowly on that subject. Truth be told, I always heard it was a much cleaner, better mannered version of 4Chan with far more features.

https://bit.ly/3opJhv5 

Cyber Espionage: Israeli Mercenary Spies Attack iPhones with Malicious Calendar Invites 

The world of cyber espionage has experienced an increase in the sophistication and complexity of its tools. A clear example of this is the recent discovery of a group of Israeli mercenary spies that have attacked iPhones through malicious invitations to calendar events. The QuaDream company, responsible for creating these tools, has been identified as responsible for these attacks, according to reports from Microsoft and Citizen Lab. https://bit.ly/3mS1m4f 

Real-Life Spies Pick Their Top 100 Spy Books from Box 889 to the Quiet American 

Imagine having access to the personal bookshelves of top intelligence operatives, including CIA, FBI, Mossad, and KGB-trained agents. Well, we did just that and asked them to share their all-time favorite spy books. Get ready to discover the ultimate reading list for anyone who loves the world of espionage and covert operations. 

Here are the Top 100 Spy Books both fiction and non-fiction selected by spies, our True Spies team and our SPYSCAPE bookshop - you won't find another list like this anywhere in the world. 

https://bit.ly/3GZ4PoK 

12 Apr 23 

Leaked Pentagon Documents May Herald a New Era of Revelations 

Researchers say the leak ranks high among other prominent recent revelations about clandestine US government activity—a list that includes information from Edward Snowden about the NSA's bulk surveillance activity, details of the CIA's hacking capabilities in the Vault7 revelations published by WikiLeaks, and NSA hacking tools revealed in the Shadow Brokers leak. But this latest leak has some specific characteristics reflective of the current moment: It is relatively small and contains fresh information rather than a large trove of months- or years-old data. And while it is not yet clear who leaked the documents or what their motivation was, initial indications from Discord activity suggest that the leaker may have been trying to show off to their gaming friends, and might even be a teenager or young adult. 

http://bit.ly/3MHCdnn 

7 Apr 23 

Russians Accused of Doctoring Leaked Western Documents on Ukraine War Classified U.S. and NATO planning documents related to the war in Ukraine have appeared on social media, prompting officials in Washington to scramble to have them removed from Twitter and other online platforms. Officials in Kyiv, meanwhile, cautioned that the documents were altered by the Russians, in part to cover up the true extent of casualties suffered by

Moscow’s forces and inflate the number of Ukrainians they killed. http://bit.ly/3mholFP 

6 April 

The U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan 

To view the document outlining the key decisions and challenges surrounding the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, visit: 

http://bit.ly/3KmVTKD 

5 Apr 23 

China, Russia propaganda wither as cameras multiply, US admiral says The proliferation of cameras now in use around the world make it increasingly difficult for China and Russia to control the narrative in international disputes, according to a senior U.S. Navy intelligence official. 

Photographs and other documentation of run-ins between Chinese and Russian forces and those of other countries have proven critical to debunking propaganda, establishing factual timelines and holding Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to account, Rear Adm. Mike Studeman said April 5 at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland. http://bit.ly/3UgTO7p 

4 Apr 23 

The US Army moves to tweak its formations for future conflicts The U.S Army plans to spend roughly the next two years finalizing key decisions on what its future formational design will look like in the 2040s, the service’s four-star general in charge of modernization and requirements said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium last week. http://bit.ly/40TAgJ6 

1 Apr 23 

Security News This Week: ‘Vulkan’ Leak offers a Peek at Russia’ Cyberwar Playbook 

The Russian government and military remain the most aggressive in the world when it comes to disruptive acts of cyber-sabotage against civilian infrastructure. But documents leaked by a whistleblower inside a Russian intelligence contractor seem to reveal some new and alarming pages of the Kremlin’s hybrid war playbook. 

http://bit.ly/410OWp4 

1 Apr 23 

National Counterintelligence & Security Center: Don’t Be a Paw of Repressive Foreign Governments 

Foreign intelligence entities (FIEs) and elements working on behalf of repressive 

regimes have sought to use U.S.-based persons to facilitate their efforts to threaten or 

harm perceived critics and opponents in the United States. 

https://bit.ly/3KsU3cw

27 Mar 23 

Fast Five with Adm (Ret) William McRaven, former USJSOC Commander Ukraine, China, DOD Budget & Implosion of Silicon Valley Bank http://bit.ly/3K4VIn2 

24 Mar 23 

Dozens of graduates from Chinese 'defence universities' working in British arms firms could be spying for Beijing, new investigation reveals Dozens of graduates fromChina's 'defence universities' – which are suspected of harvesting foreign research for its military – work for leading British companies. 

http://bit.ly/40SO323 

24 Mar 23 

Visualized: The Head of State of Each Country by Age & Generation Infographic showing countries by median age and the age of their head of state. 

http://bit.ly/3Mnrb6Q 

21 Mar 23 

Mapped: The World’s Legal Government Systems 

With over 200 countries existing across the world with unique cultures and traditions, one might assume that there are hundreds of types of government systems. But both historically and in modern times, that’s not the case. Even while political regimes across these countries havechanged over time, they’ve largely followed a few different types of governance. Today, every country can ultimately be classified into just nine broad forms of government systems. 

This map by Truman Du uses information fromWikipedia to map the government systems that rule the world today. 

https://bit.ly/40SyCqG 

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