Course Note

A good portion of the Applied Professional Project was in writing and rewriting the project.  This was a 10 page paper, as opposed to the thesis I had been expecting to write.  The project became the base for the following paper:
The Effects Of Hoover's Bureaucratic Tactics On COINTELPRO Operations: A Comparison Between NEW LEFT and WHITE HATE 

It would be rather spammy for me to post the same material over and over again, so I will only post versions which are significantly different from the final version.

For example, the paper which I had turned in at this point of time in the course had very similar introductory material, but I proposed a much different paper, summarized below.

Political Differences in COINTELPRO Operations

Organization of the Study

            Chapter One discusses the background and the formation of the central question; did politics affect COINTELPRO operations to the point o

            Chapter Two will be a review of  the literature concerning  COINTELPRO operations.  The critical point in this literature review is to develop the themes generated by these researchers.    In addition, Chapter Two will define the Operational Definition of Terms that this thesis uses.

            Chapter Three will discuss the origination and history of the FBI, focusing on the political influence that traditionally directed the activities of the FBI.

            Chapter Four may not ultimately define what subversion is, or is not, but will seek to answer the question, “What is a legitimate domestic threat?”.

            Chapter Five will define how the Ku Klux Klan was a legitimate domestic threat

            Chapter Six will define how the New Left was a legitimate domestic threat

            Chapter Seven will be a comparison of COINTELPRO operations between those targeted at the Klan, and those targeted at the New Left

            Chapter Eight will be a comparative analysis incorporating all element of the thesis

            Chapter Nine will be a limited discussion of  topics that are beyond the scope of the thesis, but that are relevant to the effects of COINTELPRO.  Chapter Nine will also raise further questions to research.

            Chapter Ten will conclude the thesis.  A review of the critical points will be made.

 

Academics in homeland security

Universities in Protection (1 of 2)

In addition to the laboratories, DHS collaborates with several universities with centers of excellence in academia in order to secure the nation. These centers are involved in academic research and development regarding homeland protection. DHS centers of excellence bring together the nation's best experts and researchers to examine a variety of threats that include agricultural, chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological, explosive, and cyber terrorism, as well as the behavioral aspects of terrorism. The research on homeland protection varies from analyzing the economic risk of terrorism to developing methods of agrosecurity to dealing with the sociology of terrorism and bioterrorism. The prominent university-based centers of excellence are as follows:

The Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE)

The Homeland Security National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense (FAZD)

The National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD)

The Center for Behavioral and Social Aspects of Terrorism and Counterterrorism (START)

The Center of Excellence for Border Security and Immigration (COE BSI)

CREATE, established in 2004 and funded by the DHS, began at the University of Southern California. Today, CREATE universities, USC, and the University of Wisconsin are partnering with two new national DHS centers of excellence at Texas A&M University and University of Minnesota. These universities are considered among the country's top engineering schools and pioneers of distance education. CREATE is dedicated to modeling and analysis in risk assessment, economic assessment, and risk management. By developing models, experts are attempting to evaluate the risks, costs, and consequences of terrorism to protect the homeland.

CREATE also provides educational and training programs in homeland security and antiterrorism procedures. The aim of these programs is to augment the number of qualified professionals in the field of homeland security in public and private organizations. The educational programs focus on developing professionals through research, certificate courses, and short-term professional courses. The training programs enhance the knowledge of these professionals and develop homeland security leaders.

Universities in Protection (2 of 2)

In addition to CREATE, the FAZD in Texas is another academic center dedicated to homeland security and protection. FAZD primarily focuses on the threats posed by zoonotic diseases, which are passed to humans from animals and diseases carried into the country by foreign animals. The center also develops new vaccines and new methods of preventing and recovering from disease outbreaks and is involved in educational programs.

Another university-based center of excellence is NCFPD. Located at the University of Minnesota, NCFPD focuses on the prevention of deliberate contamination of the country's food supply. It also contributes to the detection of such contamination. Although the focus of the center's research is towards business or information technology (IT) approaches to supply chain management, it also investigates methods to improve response to public health epidemiology.

START, located at the University of Maryland, conducts research on the sociological perspectives of domestic terrorism. The center is involved in profiling research, which looks into the usefulness of demographic indicators. It also conducts research on developing geospatial, cultural, linguistic, and political indicators. These indicators are used to predict terrorist activity at the earliest point in time.

In 2004, DHS started providing undergraduate and graduate-level scholarships and fellowships to college students.

COE BSI was established in 2007 as a collaborative effort between DHS, University of Arizona, and University of Texas at El Paso. The University of Arizona leads the research component of COE BSI and the University of Texas at El Paso leads its educational components.

COE BSI focuses on technologies such as surveillance, screening, data fusion, and situational awareness using sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other technologies. COE BSI promotes research on the following:

Population dynamics

Administration of immigration, immigration policy, and enforcement of immigration laws

Operational analysis

Control and communications

Civic integration and citizenship

Quick Note on Discussion posts

The reader will note that the "Followup" remarks in the discussion posts are disjointed.  I decided that it was not appropriate to include the comments made by other students and staff; hopefully, the content of the response provide enough context for understanding an unseen comment.

Cleanup on all aisles

I haven't posted lately, although there is a whole course worth of material to go up.  I have been considering whether to go back and clean up the papers I have written.  The stated purpose of this site was to maintain a reference site for myself as far as writings and sources.  But I also have started thinking about using the site as a showcase for the papers.  Right now I wouldn't want to do that as there are plenty of spelling areas, some papers lack any sort of coherent conclusions, and some papers lost all formatting when I copied them into Blogger.  So I think that I am going to (over a long period of time).  This means that I will not be leaving the exact papers up that I submitted for my coursework.

As far as having the site up for my own reference, that has worked very well for me.  Instead of having to drill down through a series of folders and open several files with technical course names to look for an idea or source I have used before, I can search through the site and scan several papers (including notes) for the material I am looking for.  I do need to rename some posts, I believe, and add some additional labels to be able to sort things more efficiently.

Posting Hiatus and a Change in Direction

     I have a few papers to publish, and I will probably publish some of my discussion notes;  but I have been hesitant about putting these out because so much of my work over the last six weeks has been sub-par for me.  Now I have excuses; I sold and closed on my house, ran into two bad weeks of insomnia, and had a love life setback.  But life goes on, and I shouldn't use such things as a reason not to publish.
     One of the reasons I started this blog was to compare my work from beginning to end.  Another was to have my references and my ideas handy for future projects.  In that context, I need to put my work up no matter how bad of a judgement I make on it.  Having said that, I have noticed way too many spelling mistakes in the papers I have put up so far.  I have been using Open Office Writer, and though I can't blame my spelling mistakes on the processor I can certainly fault it's spell checker for not catching some easy ones.  I will be forking some cash out for MS Office after all.  One issue I have noticed is that the quality of my introductions and concluding paragraphs has been abysmal this quarter.  That is something you will notice over the next few days as I schedule to work to publish.  Even more importantly, that is something I need to work on in the upcoming classes.

     Finally, I have taken a change in the direction of my studies.  When I started this program, I was undecided as to what exactly I would focus on.  I was looking at the options of counter-terrorism, border security, and cyber-crime; all these subjects have some interest for me.  But I have not been able to distance myself from the anger at out politicians and the decisions regarding national security they have made.  So I have decided that the focus of my study will be on the effects that politics has on national security.  Now many folks may ask if this is appropriate in a Criminal Justice program; however, the focus of my program is in Homeland Security.  Furthermore, I consider crime to be a national security issue in of itself.  In addition, there is a host of other issues associated with these ideas; the militarization of our police, the freedom destroying nature of the War on Drugs, and the privacy issues associated with mass spying on the populace in the alleged service of national security all come to mind.

     I will be meeting with the dean in a couple of weeks, and  hopefully get the how's and why's of the thesis down pat.  I don't know what I am supposed to be doing outside of classes, although I suspect there is a wide range of things I need to be doing to make this degree worth it.

After the first month

I am running an A in this course at the moment.  It is an accelerated course( the quarter will be done in 2 more weeks instead of 6 more), and the grading weight for spelling and grammar is light...which is why I'm holding onto an A ;>

I can see some definite improvement from the first paper to the fourth.  My prof has been very helpful in pointing out the areas I tend to screw up, and I finally broke down and got an APA style guide; which requires some study in itself.

I'm not seeing a lot of difference between undergraduate work and graduate so far, other then the two items I'm about to mention.  Primarily, I'm actually working at it this time around.  I found college to be a joke, and drank more then I studied.  The other thing is that grad school is requiring a lot more reading and writing; and surprisingly I find that I am enjoying the writing.

I have done a fair amount of writing over the last twenty years; political rants, technical procedures, some TV production, and I've hacked away at some novel material.  I am not going to claim to be writing a book at this time ;>

About Me

I started my Master's in Criminal Justice @ South University (Austin campus) in January 2014.  My BA is in Government from UT-Austin  ('95)...20 years later.

I'll be using this blog to keep my papers handy.  They are not always going to be good ;)

Current classes:
Elementary Statistics
Foundations of Criminal Justice