Veterans ID Card

If you served in the military, you can obtain a Veterans ID Card from the VA. Submit a copy of your DD-214 and they provide you with this ID. An advantage here is that it is government issued ID without all the personal information (such as address) that is found on a driver's license.

Prior to the establishment of the Veterans ID Card, there weren’t many easy options for military veterans to prove their service. The military only issues ID cards for current service members, retirees, and certain veterans with a 100% disability rating.

Many veterans who were not eligible for the above ID cards had a difficult time proving their military service, and often carried a DD Form 214, which contains personal information that should be kept secure (such as the veteran’s SSN, birthday, etc.). Best practices for avoiding identity theft recommend leaving your SSN and other personally identifying information in a locked and secure place to avoid potential loss.

Veterans ID Card for Identification Use & Proof of Service Only. The new ID cards will only be valid for proving military service. The new cards cannot be used for benefits through the VA, to access military installations, or to receive other military or veterans benefits. These ID Cards will include a photo of the veteran, their name, and a non-Social Security identification number.

It takes a few months to get the card (this is the VA) but if you want a secondary ID, or want to be able to prove military service, then the Veterans ID Card may be an option.
You can apply for a Veterans ID Card here.
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If you are someone in an occupation that 'checks IDs', please note that while the Veterans Identification Card does not provide VA benefits, it is official government issued ID for the purpose of identification.



 

 

 

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.



 

Government Agencies Monitoring Your Cell-Phone and Social Media

According to Forbes (September 19, 2018) ICE has acquired the services of GrayShift - the iPhone hacking company. And it’s spent more than any other government department on GrayShift tech, with a single order of $384,000. Other branches of the government, from the Drug Enforcement Administration to the Food and Drug Administration, have splashed between $15,000 and $30,000 on different models of the GrayKey, which requires physical access to an Apple device before it can break through the passcode.

But ICE is a different kind of customer altogether. Given recent controversy around President Trump's hard-line policies and the separation of infant children from their parents, human rights activists are concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of immigrants.

“It’s very concerning to learn that the government continues to bulk up on spying tools —which can violate privacy rights and chill free speech—for use in immigration enforcement and border entry surveillance,” a spokesperson from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.

“These tools can sweep up information about legal U.S. immigrants and innocent Americans, and give ICE access to personal information with little oversight or transparency. ICE should be getting a warrant before using these technologies to search electronic devices, including at the U.S. border.”

This August, Cellebrite scored a significant $558,000 contract, while Palantir scored another $10 million as part of a multiyear deal with ICE stretching back to 2011 worth more than $50 million. Giant Oak, a specialist in tracking social media, had a profitable summer with two deals worth nearly $1 million each. Both were record deals for the company with any federal government department and were for “social media data analytics.” Over the last year, ICE has also spent $4.5 million on “intercept software” and “telecommunications analysis” tech from Pen-Link, a Nebraska-based contractor.

Alongside Israel’s Cellebrite, ICE has looked to a variety of foreign-made hacking tech to aid investigations. In August, it spent $41,000 on “computer support equipment” from Oxygen Forensics, a company founded by Russians that specializes in extracting WhatsApp data, among other artifacts, from iPhones and Androids. Canadian rival Magnet Forensics sold more “computer support equipment” to ICE in August for $371,000. That was more than double the value of its previous biggest deal between Magnet and the immigration department.
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Does the government have a valid use for these tools? Yes, of course, in legitimate criminal investigations, with properly issued warrants. But mass surveillance, the gathering of information about large groups of people, without warrants authorizing that specific collection is a concern.

 

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way Paperback

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

Police Chief in Eastern Washington Says His Officers Won't Enforce New Gun Laws

The police chief in Republic, Washington said on social media that he won't allow his department to enforce the regulations passed by voters under Initiative 1639, saying the new gun laws violate the 2nd amendment.

Initiative 1639 passed with a statewide approval of nearly 60 percent of the vote. In Ferry County, where Republic is located, 73 percent of voters said no to the measure, which was 2,542 votes against.

On a Facebook page called "Republic Police WA", Chief Loren Culp wrote "The second amendment says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. As long as I am Chief of Police, no Republic Police Officer will infringe on citizens right to Keep and Bear Arms, PERIOD!" (KXLY, November 15, 2018)

According to the Spokesman Review (November 15, 2018) Republic, Washington, considers becoming a ‘sanctuary city’ to protect gun rights. The Republic, Washington, City Council is mulling legislation to protect itself from state and national laws that limit Second Amendment gun rights, including the recently passed Initiative 1639.

Republic Mayor Elbert Koontz said on Monday the Republic City Council will begin discussing the idea of becoming a “sanctuary city.” The move has widespread support within the city, he said.

“Everybody in Republic seems to like it and has decided that it seems like a great thing,” Koontz said.

The idea was sparked by a message Republic police Chief Loren Culp posted last week to the Republic Police Department’s Facebook page.
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Chief Culp's statement that he and his department will protect the rights of American citizens and the residents of Republic and not enforce laws that violate the Constitutions of  both the United States and Washington State is truly inspiring.

"People simply will not respect a law that is not respectable."

 

 

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

DSHS to Pay $900,000 to Settle Abuse Claims at Western State Hospital

The state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay $900,000 to the estate of a 74-year-old woman who allegedly was neglected and abused as a patient at Western State Hospital.

The lawsuit, which was officially settled Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, gives this account of Struthers’ time at Western State:

She broke her arm, her hip, suffered a head injury and had various bruises and cuts from falls and assaults by other patients.

The hospital didn’t diagnose and treat her congestive heart failure until her family “objected to the lack of care and medical attention she had been receiving.”

She also had an abnormal mammogram and subsequent biopsy and mastectomy, after which she experienced “untimely medical attention, lack of wound care and lack of assistance with personal hygiene.”

Additionally, Western State put her in restraints, and “failed to treat Ms. Struthers with basic human dignity and denied her assistance with simple daily hygiene.”

She was also “given inappropriate medications” and “sustained drug overdoses,” the lawsuit says. (The Olympian, November 13, 2018)
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According to a CBS News report "Washington state psych hospital is "like going into hell" on July 6, 2018 "Dr. Joseph Wainer wrote an editorial in a local newspaper and statement for a court claiming "a systemic culture of retaliation, discrimination and bullying." He was put under investigation and told to leave the hospital. Dr. Jay Jawad said he objected to a management decision to discharge his patients and faced investigation and loss of his clinical responsibilities. Wainer and Jawad were later told that the investigations were closed with no findings. They have sued the hospital and the health department claiming retaliation." 

"Dr. Michael Quayle sued the hospital claiming he faced a hostile work environment after reporting expired and improperly stored meat. A jury awarded him about $550,000 in December 2016."
Nursing supervisor Paul Vilja filed a complaint last December after a man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of multiple people was moved from a secure ward into one with limited security.

"I said you are endangering my patients and he's a risk for escape," Vilja told the AP.
The health department agreed with Vilja's concerns, but he was moved to the medical records department within a week. He couldn't work with patients for six months but was recently told he can move back to the ward. Vilja has filed a whistleblower complaint.
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Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

WA Inmate Awarded $549K After Pain Medication for MS Denied

A federal jury has awarded $549,000 to a Washington state inmate with multiple sclerosis who was repeatedly denied non-addictive nerve-pain medication by prison staff.

The Seattle Times reports the jury in Tacoma last week found that three prison medical staffers showed "deliberate indifference" to Etienne Choquette's pain and medical needs when they refused to allow him medication that was prescribed to him by a neurologist.

Choquette was awarded $149,000 in compensatory damages for violation of his Eighth Amendment rights and $400,000 in punitive damages. (Tacoma News Tribune, November 8, 2018)
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Although WA DOC has not publicly commented on this ruling; it is difficult to understand why prison medical staff would deny prescribed medication to an inmate.

It seems however that disregard for the health and welfare of inmates may be common in other facilities as well, as we saw in these reports:

Army Veteran Mocked and Left to Die By Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputies

Inmates Denied Medical Attention After Being Pepper Sprayed in Prison

 

Locking Down Signal: A Guide for Journalists

Martin Shelton (November 9, 2018) has written an interesting article on making your use of Signal Private Messenger more secure.

I strongly encourage you to encrypt all of your communications. Signal is a great tool to protect your telephone calls and text messages.

 

 

Soldier Dies in Training Accident at NTC

Spc. Nicholas Jividen, 21, died at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin on the afternoon of November 6, 2018 in an unspecified training accident. The incident is currently under investigation. Jividen was assigned to Headquarters and Support Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group as a signals intelligence analyst.

Jividen was the second soldier to die in a training accident on the West Coast last week. Another soldier, 23-year-old Spc. Drew Watters, based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, was killed Nov. 4 in a training accident on post, Army officials said last week.Watters served with the 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. (Army Times, November 13, 2018)

RIP Spc. Jividen.  Our prayers for the family and friends of our fallen Soldiers.

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