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I'm going to start this thread by reposting this army training doctrine on the observation process.

I'm proud of Jerseygirl's recon of the downtown area. It occurs to me that we need more eyes and boots on the ground looking for specific threat indicators. One good indicator obviously is the absence of ME where ME has in the recent past been a forceful and thriving presence.

When we do a recon in the infantry we teach a format to follow: It can be remembered by the acronym SALUTE. Say you're doing an S&P (Snoop and Poop) or a P&G (Prowl and Growl) and you spot enemy movement. You'd want to remember the most vital stuff for the intel weenies to analyze later so you'd use SALUTE:

Size (how many bad guys in the group)
Activity (what are they doing at that moment)
Location (don't forget direction of movement, vehicles if any and est. speed)
Uniform (how are they dressed; especially if not in keeping with climate, environment or culture)
Time
Equipment (what stuff are they carrying in the way of communications, weapons, chemical protective gear, video, optics like binoculars, etc.)

As they say, the "Devil is in the Details." The more details, the better. ALSO, LOOK UP. people, like deer have no natural "predators" that strike from above that's why deer hunters use tree stands and snipers like the high ground. So, you must deliberately look up, like jerseygirl did. I'm really proud of her, she did an excellent job. The more TM folks who undertake these kinds of forays and put actual eyeballs onto a situation and report back (BurbankKarl!) the faster we can dope out something useful to hand to the feds.

Let me also make very clear that I am in no way advocating any surveillance of law abiding citizens! We're in a war, be alert is all I'm saying.

Thank you for your kind words, Ex! And your suggestions.

Re: Burka's in Philly. Yes, quite a significant number of Muslim women in the area dressed in Full Islamic garb- only a peekhole for their eyes.

Sometimes it would amuse me to see these women shopping in the GAP, and such.

Recently it has NOT amused me to see that women so-clothed have virtually disappeared from the areas I frequented in Philly- primarily Center City.

ALSO, LOOK UP

Yes. All in Rittenhouse square were enjoying the free opera yesterday, their friends, dog-walking, or, in some sad cases, vodka bottles.

However, a fellow paranoic like myself was looking UP and urged me to do the same. There we saw 2 window washers perched high on a ledge at the top of an apartment building adjacent to the Park.

(At least- we Hoped all they were doing was window-washing.)

IMO we are surveilling things from above. Via Helicopters and the like.

And jot down some notes. IMMEDIATELY IN POCKET 3 X 5'S OR A SMALL NOTEBOOK OR AT LEAST BEFORE SLEEP IN A BOUND BOOK AT NIGHT.

Try and come up with behavioral specifics for each SALUTE item as fitting. Rate 1-10 things that doing so makes sense on, with 10 high.

Baselines are helpful to establish so you know emphatically when a dramatic change has occurred. And, an inbetween change can signal earliest that a NEW TREND is afoot and give an earlier warning, imho.

OPINION:

There may be a somewhat fine legal line between general observation and surveillance of law-abiding citizens. What we are looking for are patterns of activity, unusual activity, which can be seen from public areas.

Observation of individuals of concern or suspicion is trickier. The main thing to remember is that there should be no discussions of any focus upon, or targeting of, specific individuals or groups, IMHO.

Further, such activities should remain in the personal domain of each investigator, and not an active element of the Threat Matrix or FR in general.

Posting of substantive reports should be welcome, though details regarding surveillance activities may make it seem as though this forum is facilitating wrongful activities. Which it is not doing, of course, and we want to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.