Criminal Insurgencies

[Graycap]

Graycap:

Do you have any recommendations for reading on Cosa Nostra?

Sorry Mike I'm italian and I haven't read anything written in english. For us it's something that you get to know by experience

BW wrote
...
The nuance of causation and purpose is the most important thing. If all one can see is violence and conflict, then the result is applying the same old hammer to the same old nail. Not every problem is a nail.

I agree that not every problem is a nail. But I thought that in this forum the question would be if the armed forces could get a role in countering criminal violence (even if we can't catalog them as insurgencies)

In Italy we have a long tradition of armed forces' (mis)use in combating organized crime. Organized crimethat has evolved his course of action when faced with the use of armed forces signalling that some kind of a role could exist.

We began in the years following unification (1861) when a full fledged insurgency was fought in southern Italy in a situation very similar to Iraq. From that suppressed insurrection the Mafia was born as Criminal organization used by land owners.

We had ten of thousands of soldiers flooding Sicily in the 90's after the terrorist actions of 1992-93.

Today we have to guard the building machinery used to construct an highway in the south (Calabria) that are constantly burned by N'drangheta who wants total control of building business.

It's obvious that military can't kill the way out of organized crime. But can they help? Or using military force could backfire (as in Mexico) rushing toward definitive collapse if force is used but demonstrates itself unsufficient?

In Italy my impression is that we used military force not for their coercive power but just like an information warfare tool. When criminal leadership receive the message they get in touch with political power and they reach some kind of agreement.

But this get the situation worse and worse.
Today even the doctors of some hospitals are nominated by criminal gangs.
When your son dies for a stupid disease because the doctor is incompetent that is a desperate situation. And the collapse of any meaningful "State".

[Bob's World]

No question that when there are those acting illegally and violently there is almost always room for a bit of "hammering" by state security forces. Where we get in trouble is if we don't fully appreciate the type of problem we are hammering on, and what role that hammering is going to play in moving toward an overall solution.

[slapout9]

Go to the link provided and scroll down to "International Crime Threat Assessment" for 12/2000. Long and detailed paper but it goes into a lot of the problems with gangs,globalization and there connection to extremist movements and insurgencies. It is a long paper and very detailed but worth the read IMO. Some of the stuff in the papaer I have been saying for years never the CIA paid any attention to me joke...just a joke guys.




http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp?p...cord=Top25.txt


I don't like the term but it sounds like 4GW!

[AdamG]

MIAMI (AP) -- Transnational criminal organizations across Latin America pose the region's greatest threat, U.S. officials and experts agreed Friday.

"We have a key threat that we all need to focus on and that is transnational criminal organizations," the head of U.S. Southern Command Gen. Douglas Fraser told a conference organized by the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US