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NEW YORK - Amy Winehouse's father says he has a hard time enjoying her breakthrough "Back to Black" album because the songs are about her ex-husband.
Mitch Winehouse blames Blake Fielder-Civil for leading her into drug abuse, and he details her long decline in a new memoir, "Amy, My Daughter." His views on the British singer's ex-husband have been stated before and are well known.
Amy Winehouse, whose "Back to Black" disc sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award for album of the year in 2008, died of accidental alcohol poisoning in July. The British singer was 27.
Mitch Winehouse, a former taxi driver and aspiring singer, writes in the memoir that it recently occurred to him that one of the biggest-selling albums of the 21st century is all about Fielder-Civil, whom he disparages. He prefers his daughter's jazzy first album, "Frank," which wasn't released outside England until after her later success.
His memoir is scheduled to come out June 26. The Associated Press bought a copy on Monday.
Winehouse recalls his daughter as a girl writing into a notebook phrases that later turned up in songs and his pride as her singing talent became evident. But most of the book is about a seemingly endless cycle of attempted recoveries and relapses as she battled drugs and alcohol.
Winehouse also says that his daughter suffered from stage fright throughout her career. She had breast enlargement surgery more than a year before her death and considered plastic surgery on her nose.
Amy Winehouse's strong will may have helped her during her career, but it didn't help with substance abuse, her father writes.
"Long before Amy was an addict, no one could tell her what to do," he writes. "Once she became an addict, her stubbornness just got worse. There were times when she wanted to be clean, but the times when she didn't outnumbered them."
He writes that he could never understand why she was so in love with Fielder-Civil, a music industry hanger-on. The book details his numerous run-ins with Fielder-Civil and his family.
"It wasn't as if he brought much good into her life, or so it seemed to me," he writes.
Amy Winehouse married Fielder-Civil in 2007. They divorced in 2009.
Some friends believed that Winehouse grew to dislike singing the songs on "Back to Black" because they reminded her of her ex-husband and that was one reason she drank so much before she performed. Tape of a drunken Winehouse stumbling through a set months before she died became a great embarrassment to her after it spread widely on the Internet.
Alcohol was trouble because it was freely available and she could drink wherever she liked, mostly without public criticism, writes her father, who worried "her illness might end up killing us both."
A 32-year-old woman died Friday night after she was hit by a car in Oxnard.
A 32-year-old Oxnard woman died after she was hit by a vehicle in Oxnard, police said Saturday.
The crash took place at 9:25 p.m. Friday near Robert Avenue and Oxnard Boulevard.
Through an investigation, authorities said they learned a 67-year-old Santa Paula woman was driving north on Oxnard Boulevard in a Chevrolet pickup when it hit the victim, who was crossing the street.
The victim suffered serious injuries and was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where she later died as a result of her injuries.
Akiko Mitsui (94) passed away peacefully on September 5, 2016 in Mar Vista, California.
She is survived by her family: daughter Janet Mitsui Brown (Roger); son Jeff Mitsui (Kathy); grandsons Kelvin Mitsui (Page), Jon Mitsui, Marcus Mitsui; granddaughters Mika Mitsui, Tani Mitsui Brown; sisters Betty Masuda and Millie Okai. She is also survived by many nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, October 1, at 12:00 p.m. in Green Hills Memorial Park, 27501 S. Western Ave., Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275; (310) 831-0311.
I firmly believe that e-mail marked the beginning of a communication breakdown in our society. Sure, we talk all the time about how e-mail magically connects almost everyone on Earth, but when e-mail is used to avoid an in-person conversation, that's where it gets problematic. Some people now hide behind e-mail to threaten others or communicate unpleasant things that they would never have the guts to tell a person face to face. But it's not only e-mail, as text messaging is now being used for nefarious purposes as well. I've been reading a lot lately about text bullying, where text messages are used (often by girls) to insult, ridicule, divulge secrets, or spread nasty rumors. Just today I learned of a 12-year-old student at Pataruru College in New Zealand was found dead after she received a flood of text bullying on her phone. And it's not just a problem abroad, as some U.S. schools have reported cases of text bullying as well.
MINNEAPOLIS – A 47-year-old Minnesota man accused of urinating in his co-worker’s beverage on multiple occasions now faces charges, according to authorities.
Conrrado Cruz Perez allegedly polluted the woman’s water bottle after she turned down his romantic advances, according to the Pioneer Press. Perez has been charged with two counts of adulterating a substance with bodily fluids.
According to a Ramsey County court document, the 42-year-old woman called police in October, saying a baker at the Perkins Family Restaurant where she worked was harassing her.
She also told authorities that, for several months, the water she kept in a bottle at work had tasted like urine, according to WCCO.
The woman told investigators she started noticing the foul flavor after she told Perez she only wanted to remain friends, documents say. Since that day, she said that she detected the urine taste roughly 15 times.
According to WCCO, Perez initially denied being involved, but later admitted to relieving himself in the bottle after investigators told him they might perform DNA tests. Perez, however, said he only did it because there were so many orders piling up and he was too busy to go to the restroom. He added that he was going to dispose of the bottle but forgot to do so.
His next court date is set for March 28.
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At 7 p.m. Wednesday at Sexton Arena in Collegeville, the St. John’s and St. Thomas men’s basketball teams renew their rivalry.
Both teams are contenders for the MIAC title. St. John’s is ranked 15th in the country in NCAA Division III. The Johnnies are 15-3 in the MIAC and 19-4 overall. St. Thomas is ranked sixth in the country. The Tommies are 17-1 in the MIAC and 21-2 overall.
Falkirk defender Will Vaulks has signed a new contract with the Bairns to keep him at the club until the end May 2016.
The Englishman, 20, has helped the Bairns reach the Premiership play-offs this season.
Having started his career at Tranmere Rovers, Vaulks initially joined Falkirk on loan before securing a full transfer last summer.
"Will has been tremendous during the campaign," manager Gary Holt told the Falkirk website.
"To get his signature and commitment at this stage of the season is a real boost for the club and supporters."
It’s hard to begin watching the Netflix movie ‘The Highwaymen’ and not think about the way it will inevitably end — in a famous ambush and a hail of bullets.
For film fans of a certain age, we’ve practically seen the fatal ambush. ‘The Highwaymen’ is haunted by the 1967 film ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ which had at its final scene a torrent of gunfire riddling Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.
That film romanticised the criminal duo who killed 13, and their fatal ambush seemed less like a necessary law enforcement action than a gutless slaying. Now, 52 years later, comes the reverse view with ‘The Highwaymen,’ screenwriter John Fusco’s tale of how two handkerchief-wiping, retired Texas Rangers tracked them down.
If Bonnie and Clyde were the heroes of director Arthur Penn’s 1967 film, lawmen Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson) are the ones here — gruff, taciturn and hard-nosed officers. Director John Lee Hancock is so unwilling to glamorise the young outlaws that he virtually never focuses his camera on Bonnie and Clyde, instead using dreamlike filters or odd angles.
The film has been gestating so long that it was once going to star Robert Redford and Paul Newman, which raises all kinds of nostalgia issues. (Think about the leads of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ and ‘The Sting’ donning fedoras and dark suits, getting into Depression-era Fords and fighting on the OTHER side of the law).
Now, when it comes to the end, this film describes the final shoot-out in a very different way than ‘Bonnie and Clyde.’ (Hint, the cops had some honour.) The film often feels in many ways as an attempt to correct history, or at least the previous Dunaway-Beatty-led portrayal of a bumbling Hamer.
The Highwaymen streams on Netflix from March 29.
Video: The Natural Niagara River Strait by Jim Grimaldi, Jay Burney, and Madelyn Burgess.
Photo by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Aerial view of the Niagara River Greenway. Photo by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
The Niagara River, a strait that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is an environmental and cultural treasure of unique ecological character. It is home to more than 700 species of plants, 300 bird species, 100 fish species, and various mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and mussels. It provides essential habitat resources for many of those species, some of which are endangered. It also is an economic and tourism driver for the region, drawing visitors for birdwatching, nature photography, hiking, biking, boating, fishing, and other recreational activities. The Niagara River has been a draw for human settlements throughout history, and many visitors come to visit historical sites dating back to Native American tribes, early colonial settlers, the Revolutionary War, and the Underground Railroad. The river is a major source of drinking water for people in the region, and provides up to 2.6 million kilowatts of clean hydroelectricity on the U.S. side alone.
The magnificent Niagara River Corridor meets all criteria for designation as an internationally important body of water under the Ramsar Convention. This treaty has designated over 2,000 sites across the world as “Wetlands of International Importance.” Designation leads to increased economic opportunities, tourism, funding opportunities, and environmental appreciation. The bi-national Niagara Region, the United States, Canada, and the world would benefit from including the Niagara River Corridor among these critical resources.
In January, 2019 the Niagara River Ramsar Binational Steering Committee (“Steering Committee”), working with the University at Buffalo School of Law Environmental Advocacy Clinic, submitted a complete nomination package reflecting the science underlying the nomination, and the support from many organizations and governmental representatives for the designation, to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The Steering Committee and the Clinic are continuing to monitor and assist the nomination process, and eagerly hope for a swift formal nomination from the United States to the Ramsar Secretariat for official listing.
After more than five years of collaborative efforts between the Steering Committee and the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, the Ramsar nomination package for the Niagara River Corridor has finally been submitted to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
In the year running up to the submission of the nomination package, the Environmental Advocacy Clinic worked jointly with the Steering Committee to complete the Ramsar Information Sheet (“RIS”). The RIS is a document, required by the Ramsar Secretariat for a site to be nominated, that needs to contain all the data which shows how the nominated site satisfies the Ramsar criteria. The Niagara River Corridor’s abundance of noteworthy flora and fauna, diverse ecological features, social and cultural values resulted in a detailed 98+ page RIS.
Additionally, the Environmental Advocacy Clinic assisted with the acquisition of endorsements for the Ramsar designation. Written endorsements from each of the landowners in the designation boundaries, the local or state wildlife agency, and a member of Congress representing the geographic area were required for the Niagara River Corridor Ramsar nomination package. The Environmental Advocacy Clinic, and Steering Committee, successfully obtained these endorsements from several municipalities, agencies, elected officials, and additional stakeholders to the Niagara River Corridor. The local community’s endorsements provide a glowing base of support for the Niagara River Corridor to be designated a Ramsar Site.
Every year at UB, students have an opportunity to showcase their academic contributions, research, and creative works to students, faculty, and the rest of the UB community at the Celebration of Student Academic Excellence. Students showcase these achievements through a poster that reflects all of their efforts and results. Ultimately, posters that set themselves apart for their outstanding achievements are given a significant accolade, the Student Academic Excellence Presentation Award.
The law students from the Environmental Advocacy Clinic crafted a poster for the Student Academic Presentation that covered all of the work the clinic had done for the Niagara River Ramsar Designation. This poster not only covered who the clinic’s client was and what the clinic did for them, but it dove into informing the audience about the beauty of collaborative learning, how the Ramsar Treaty benefits communities, legal impacts of a Niagara River Corridor Ramsar Designation, and the significance of the Niagara River Corridor becoming the first bi-national, transboundary Ramsar site in North America.
The clinic’s well-orchestrated poster was ultimately recognized for its achievement by the celebration as it received the noteworthy Student Academic Excellence Presentation Award. This award distinguished the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, on the graduate level, for their work on their presentation of the Niagara River Ramsar Designation.
Law students in the Environmental Advocacy Clinic presented a PowerPoint concerning the Niagara River Corridor Ramsar Nomination at the Great Lakes Restoration Conference. The Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference brings together more than 400 practitioners from the Great Lakes Region in an effort to advance restoration of the Great Lakes. At the conference, participants share and discuss contemporary restoration issues being faced by the practitioners in the region. The conference also provides an opportunity for practitioners to develop strategies for advancing the restorations goals of state, local, and federal agencies.
The Great Lakes Restoration Conference provided the Clinic with a massive audience to inform the area of our efforts and garner support for the Ramsar recognition of the Niagara River Corridor. The PowerPoint presentation itself covered the Ramsar Treaty itself, benefits to the Great Lake Region from a Ramsar designation, how the Niagara River Corridor qualified as a site, the legal impact of the Ramsar recognition, and why the area should be recognized as a Ramsar site.
The impact of this presentation cannot be understated. The coalition that attended the Great Lakes Restoration Conference maintains an influential presence in local, state, and federal communities. This presentation provided the clinic with a vital opportunity of informing an influential coalition of our restoration efforts and obtaining substantial support for the Ramsar Designation of the Niagara River Corridor.
The Niagara River Corridor Project, a project supported by legal and policy work by law students in the Environmental Law & Policy Clinic together with the Niagara River Greenway Commission and the Niagara Corridor Ramsar Site Steering Committee, held the event World Water Day in Buffalo on March 22, 2016.
INDIANAPOLIS -- The driver in a hit-and-run crash that killed an army veteran and injured his girlfriend last month has surrendered.
Indianapolis police say Michael Lipscomb, 58, turned himself in to police Tuesday. Lipscomb is accused of hitting Sgt. Joseph Nordstrom, 30 and Angie Ruhlig, 36, on Southeastern Avenue on February 24 and then leaving the scene.
Sgt. Nordstrom, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, later died from his injuries.
Nordstrom served in the Army National Guard for 11 years, including a tour in Afghanistan. He was a graduate of Northwest High School.
Nordstrom's girlfriend, Angela Ruhlig, was injured in the hit-and-run crash. She is expected to be OK.
Lipscomb is charged with failure to stop at an accident resulting in death and failure to stop at an accident resulting in serious bodily injury. The Marion County Prosecutor's Office will make final charging decisions in the case.
Robb Bank$ has been active in the Florida hip-hop scene for quite some time now, making a buzz for himself with a few critically acclaimed releases. Dropping his debut mixtape, Calendars, in 2012, and his follow-up project, Tha City, in 2013, the 22-year-old rapper continued his string of buzz-worthy releases with the launch of his debut album, Year of the Savage, in 2015. By the following year, Rob continued to push his music with two new projects and a few singles before announcing he signed to Birdman's Cash Money Records in early 2017. Now, with a new record deal on deck and his TC2: Falconia project scheduled to drop in early April, Bank$ looks to make 2017 his biggest year to date.
HOUGHTON, Mich. (WLUC) – Junior Abbie Botz of the Michigan Tech women's basketball team has been selected as the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference North Division Player of the Week, announced Monday by the conference office. Botz powered the Huskies to a pair of GLIAC victories over Northwood University and Saginaw Valley State University last week.
Botz, a forward from Little Chute, Wisconsin, averaged 19.5 points per game and scored a career high 22 points in the 79-54 win over Saginaw Valley State Saturday afternoon. She opened the week with a 17-point performance against Northwood in a 70-40 victory Thursday evening. Botz converted 65.4% of her shots from the field (17-26) and was a perfect 4 for 4 at the free throw line combined in the two games.
In addition to her point totals, Botz matched a career high with 17 rebounds versus Saginaw Valley State, marking her fourth double-double of the season. She opened the week by pulling down seven rebounds on Thursday night against Northwood University. Botz leads the Huskies in both scoring and rebounding this season thanks to an 11.3 points per game scoring average and an 8.2 rebounds per game average in 2018-19. Her rebound totals are seventh best in the GLIAC.
The Huskies are 16-7 overall and 12-3 in the GLIAC as they get set to travel to Lake Superior State Thursday and then Ferris State Saturday. Thursday's tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. with Saturday's battle slated for 1 p.m. eastern time.
New York state will require internet providers to observe net neutrality or risk losing eligibility for state contracts under an executive order issued Wednesday by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The new policy aims to protect consumers by using the state’s lucrative information technology contracts as leverage over internet companies. It’s similar to one enacted through executive order Monday by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana and comes as states consider how to respond after the Federal Communications Commission last month repealed its own net neutrality policy.
Attorneys general for 21 states and the District of Columbia also have sued to block the repeal of the federal policy, which had banned companies from interfering with web traffic or speeds to favor certain sites or apps. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, is leading the lawsuit.
“The FCC’s dangerous ruling goes against the core values of our democracy, and New York will do everything in our power to protect net neutrality and the free exchange of ideas,” said Cuomo.
New York state legislators had pushed for the new policy as a simpler alternative to proposals to impose state regulations on internet companies. Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, an Albany Democrat, announced legislation this week that would mandate net neutrality for internet companies doing business with local governments in addition to state governments. Fahy said there’s still a need for her bill even after Cuomo’s executive order. A Cuomo spokesman said the governor supports her proposal.
Messages left with spokespeople for AT&T, Spectrum and Verizon were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Modern adversaries can now integrate cyber operations into military plans. Recent events have shown that rival governments can not only develop cyber-attack plans, but synch them to achieve national goals. The U.S. Department of Defense must begin integrating and normalizing the use of cyber effects. While there are numerous methods to begin that process, the key is choosing a method and beginning the long process of training in its employment. The primary level this training should be performed is at the Army Division level. Often, the division is the first major headquarters that can develop a list of requirements to submit to the Joint Task Force Headquarters or the Combatant Command. With that in mind, training at home station and during operational level exercises is absolutely necessary. Simulation technology will catch up with cyber operations in due course, but this is no reason to not begin training now.
As a military, the US faces adversaries that have proven their ability to integrate offensive cyber effects from the tactical up to the strategic level. Though multiple methods exist to request and execute Cyber Operations (CO) at the division level, the bigger and more looming problem is the lack of training in utilizing these effects, and being ready to put these effects to use on the battlefield. For the United States to keep pace with near-peer nations, it must train on and prepare to use these effects in a real-world combat environment.
What is Available to Division Planners? The U.S. Army Operating Concept states that a critical component to a strategic victory is being able to present the enemy with multiple, simultaneous dilemmas to contend with.1 Going forward, cyber options present a perfect additional capability to bring into the fight. Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) personnel should maintain their subject matter expertise on tools that are currently in use, but also should be ready to make requests for new cyber tools. Nothing should prevent the planner from asking for a specific effect as long as it properly addresses the commander’s intent. Requirements developed through the CEMA Working Group and approved through the targeting process will drive tool development. As the requirements list moves up the chain, the next hurdle to overcome is negotiating with higher echelons on what level of command should retain execution authority. The most important portion of this process is getting requirements up to the next higher level of command.
At what level? There are a few schools of thought on what command level should conduct cyber operations. The JP 3-12 indicates that CO should be integrated at all levels, and in all military operations. However, usage of offensive cyber operations at the division level requires military units to rethink how they perceive the ‘level’ of operations.2 More to the point, one of the Major Army Warfighting Challenges directly addresses the optimal method by which to support Unified Land Operations at all echelons.3 As long as divisions are generating requirements that do not massively overstep their given mission, Army divisions can confidently say they are getting after that challenge.
This is not to say that Army units at all levels should be given carte blanche to cyberattack the adversary. It is a typical practice to limit certain activities to higher echelons. The primary reasoning behind it is to ensure those effects that have much further reaching results are controlled to avoid unnecessary collateral damage or unforeseen effects. Some weapons also should be withheld from a lower echelon because their effects can have strategic implications (i.e. nuclear munitions). It stands to reason that authority to release cyber effects should be held at a considerably higher level than a division. That being said, this should not preclude divisions from asking for tailored effects that support the ground commander’s vision.4 In fact, the division planners stand the best chance of requesting cyber effects that could substantially affect the conflict within their Area of Operation (AO).
Higher echelons do not typically direct specific tactical actions for maneuver units. It is not practical and higher echelons will not have the sort of tactical situational awareness required for effective decision making. Consequently, senior commands would most benefit by allowing divisions a substantial amount of authority to synch cyber operations as it nests with their overall execution plan.
Division planners can concentrate on specific effects that would have a localized effect in their AO. The assets to perform collateral damage estimates reside at levels higher than the division. It is important to perform due diligence to ensure planned effects do not propagate uncontrolled. Thus, division CEMA personnel craft the request for effects and begin a two-way discussion with the assigned Cyber Mission Teams (CMT) as the request matures.5 Bottom-up requests with top-down refinement provides the most efficient method of acquiring specific and effective cyber effects.
As a combat multiplier, CEMA personnel must look at their job as being inherently joint and thus must always work with the CMT to craft and synch requested effects. Planners must be completely clear when making requests on how their plans will nest with the command’s vision and endstate.6 The common thread of Mission Command (MC) provides a framework for CEMA planners to begin the request process.
High Priority Target List (HPTL): There is a challenge with providing cyber targets to the Division targeting cycle in that, often times, a valid and lucrative cyber target isn’t on the Commander’s HPTL. It might be the last thing one would think as a valid military target. Some of the best targets for cyber manipulation are targets the enemy never thinks to protect due to their perceived low military value. A HPTL is typically populated with kinetic weapon systems and enemy combat multipliers. CEMA personnel need to be aware of this and be able to fully explain the value of a target, and why it’s being actioned. Further, cyber targets don’t necessarily need to be located on the commander’s HPTL. They merely have to be a valid military target. The reason behind this is that servicing these targets will not involve the usage of limited divisional resources.9 Identifying targets of this nature requires the planners to ensure they are using tools based in doctrine.
Methodology: Cyber Operations must be fully integrated into the targeting process. The process of bringing cyber effects can work the same way that typical lethal targeting works. That being said, the planning horizons of CO are considerably different.11 The level of target fidelity is often unknown to a requesting unit, and at the Division level, access to pertinent targeting data may or may not exist. It’s almost never possible to have perfect information. This type of target granularity is not an absolute requirement. The primary job of the CEMA staff at division is to develop a listing of requirements and immediately push these requests to their higher headquarters as soon as there is a decision to move forward with a cyber Course of Action (COA).
It is possible for a unit below Corps to get wrapped up in the intricacies of fine-grain cyber target development. What is most important for Division CEMA planners is to be aware of what cyber techniques are possible, and develop the planning products to issue a request to Corps and above. Of critical importance is a well thought out and detailed Concept of Operations (CONOP). Greater detail in the CONOP will allow echelons above division to apply the proper solution, and gain sound intelligence during cyber tool development. A Cyber Effect Request Format (CERF) will sometimes be called for from the Division to accompany the CONOP. While the CERF can (and certainly should) be forwarded with the CONOP, it is operative to understand that most of the information required by the CERF will not be readily available to a division. Hence the CONOP’s absolute importance in this process.
The next key step will be well crafted Measures of Effectiveness (MoE) and detailed synchronization of effects. Knowledge of programming code and tool development can help with overall formulation of a plan, but it should not be considered a prerequisite. Measurable results gets the commander accustomed to working more cyber options into the overall plan. As stated previously, there are a number of methods for selecting targets, and provided the process yields viable targets, and can be synched to the Division’s lethal targeting process, any version will work. The following step will be to craft the request and understand what type of effect will yield the best results.
Shotgun Effect versus Chess Match.12 The design of cyber effects are an important consideration when attempting to plan at the tactical and operational level. There is literally no limit to the methods that a cyber operation can use to achieve results. For the purpose of this article, the left and right limits can be depicted by the amount of pre-coordination and planning involved in putting the effect into execution.
A menu of pre-coordinated effects colloquially named “shotgun effects” refers to effects that have all been prearranged and can be executed rapidly. These effects address a very specific problem set with coordination to use these tools performed well in advance. The tactical order they operate under defines specific targets and times the effects can be utilized. They sacrifice flexibility for responsiveness. Grouped within this category are specific cyber operations that are designed and implemented with one single purpose in mind. These “silver bullet” effects are just as specific as other shotgun effects, and will likely only be used once due to the tailored nature of the tool.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, effects that have a significantly longer term execution cycle and aim at seemingly innocuous vulnerabilities work much like a “chess match”. These effects, are often less defined and work against multiple vulnerabilities. The key to success of this type of attack is its ability to operate for a longer period of time without being discovered. This kind of attack should be aimed at systems not really deemed of significant military value, and less likely to be heavily defended. Small changes over time stand less of a chance of being discovered and can produce massive cascading effects. They would be considerably harder to fix until it is far too late in the battle. These types of operations can have the capacity to preclude a major military engagement by removing the enemy’s initiative. Plans like this are (understandably) the hardest to put into play. The operation will certainly be executed at a much higher level (than division) but, as stated before, this should not prevent units from asking for these effects. To be effective in today’s fight, Cyber/EW personnel must employ both shotgun and chess match type effects. Further, CEMA planners must effectively employ these operations against enemy vulnerabilities that may not be immediately apparent.
What enemy vulnerabilities does one attack? A trouble spot for CEMA personnel is knowing just what to target and exploit. With a small amount of creative thinking, a planner can utilize the tools available to Division targeteers to plan and execute CO. Simply put, the Division’s targeting process can be fed with cyber requirements just as it is fed with lethal requirements.
Target research. As the Cyber Attack/Defend Methodology has provided, a targeting tool (PMESII crosswalk) that can be modified to suit a cyber targeting approach.13 This method will allow CEMA personnel to cage their efforts, better produce CONOPS and formulate the basis of an effective attack. This also allows other members of the staff to visualize how CEMA looks at the enemy. Cyber planners at the division level will often have little access to make specific requests. As previously stated, full target resolution is not a necessity to make the request, but elements well above the division are equipped to do the heavy lifting to resolve a target and compute collateral damage estimates.
Way Ahead: To become better at integrating and to normalize the use of these techniques, Division CEMA elements must train in their employment. The challenge with training CO is properly replicating effects and ensuring enough of the staff has a grasp of the cyber support plan. It begins with ensuring cyber planning is included in the division’s battle rhythm and ensuring effects are briefed during combined exercises. While most of these effects cannot be replicated in an exercise, the effects can be worked into the scenario by Observer Controllers. As scenario technology improves, so will the ability to replicate special effects as a matter of course. It is incumbent on the Division CEMA staff to press for inclusion of these effects. Educating the division staff will allow leadership to continue to involve cyber operations in their menu of options when planning courses of action. These capabilities are real and can become a normal part of division operations provided we are willing to train and use them. Conflict is going continue to increase in complexity and scope. The US military must keep pace with the changing face of warfare to ensure we can contend with any threat to national security regardless of how new or emergent it is.
LTC James Montgomery is the Cyber Electro-Magnetic Activities (CEMA) Chief for the 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. In addition to previous assignments within the signals intelligence community, he has had multiple deployments as an Electronic Warfare Officer at the Brigade and Combined Joint Task Force level. He is a graduate of the Joint Electronic Warfare Theater Operations Course and the Joint Advanced Cyber Warfare Course. He holds a master’s degree in ethics and decision making from The Pennsylvania State University.
S Army Training and Doctrine Command, “TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating Concept,” October 31, 2014, http://www.tradoc.army.mil/tpubs/pams/TP525-3-1.pdf (Accessed March 3, 2016).
S. Department of Defense, “Joint Publication (JP) 3-12, Cyberspace Operations,” February 5, 2013, x. http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp3_12R.pdf.

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