by Norton, Doug
FEMA. Abbreviation for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a unit of the DHS. FEMA is tasked with handling all possible disasters in the United States. This includes both natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, and manmade ones, such as hazardous substance spills, bombings, and war.
GOC. Abbreviation for Government of China. This formulation is sometimes used in American diplo-speak to refer to other governments, e.g., GOJ for the Japanese government.
Gulf One. A term referring to the UN-authorized international military operation that drove invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1990.
Great Leader. Term used by North Koreans to address or refer to Kim Il-sung, father of Kim Jong-il and his predecessor as dictator of North Korea.
HEU. Abbreviation for Highly Enriched Uranium. The fissionable material of particular interest in natural uranium ore, U-235, occurs naturally in low concentration, too low for powering a nuclear reactor or serving as the fissionable core of a bomb. For those purposes it must be concentrated, or enriched. When enriched to a concentration of twenty percent U-235 or greater, uranium is said to be highly enriched. The degree of enrichment wanted for a bomb is much higher than twenty percent.
IAEA. Abbreviation for the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA is an independent, intergovernmental science-and-technology-based organization in the United Nations family that serves as the global focal point for nuclear cooperation. Among other functions, it verifies through its inspection system that nations comply with their commitments, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and other non-proliferation agreements, to use nuclear material and facilities only for peaceful purposes.
ICC. Abbreviation for the International Criminal Court. The ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. It came into operation in 2002. Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ICC tries individuals and is not part of the UN system.
JCS. Abbreviation for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. They are the chairman, the vice chairman, the chief of staff of the army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the air force, the commandant of the marine corps and the chief of the national guard bureau. The collective body of the JCS is headed by the chairman, who is the principal military advisor to the president, secretary of defense, and the National Security Council (NSC). However, all JCS members are by law military advisors, and they may respond to a request or voluntarily submit, through the chairman, their advice or opinions to the president, the secretary of defense, and the NSC.
Juche. An ancient Korean philosophy adapted and perverted by both Kims to sustain their absolute rule. North Koreans are immersed in its teachings and shielded as much as possible from contrary views. Among its tenets are the absolute subordination of the people to their wise rulers and the idea that Koreans are a chosen people who can be completely self-sufficient and who have no need of contact with the inferior, outside world.
NATO. Abbreviation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The signatories, including all major European powers, Canada, and the United States, are pledged by Article Five of the treaty to treat an armed attack on one member as an attack on all members. Formed to resist the Soviet Union’s westward push after World War II, the institution diminished greatly in the twenty-first century.
NEST. Abbreviation for Nuclear Emergency Support Team. Its mission is to provide specialized technical expertise to the federal response in resolving nuclear or radiological terrorist incidents. NEST capabilities include nuclear materials search and identification, diagnostics and assessment of suspected nuclear devices, technical operations in support of render safe procedures, and packaging for transport to final disposition.
NORAD. Abbreviation for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a bi-national United States and Canadian organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. Aerospace warning includes the monitoring of manmade objects in space and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles. Aerospace control includes ensuring air sovereignty and air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States. These missions are managed from a command center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.
NSA. Abbreviation for the National Security Agency, the U.S. government organization that makes and breaks codes that protect information. One very important task of the NSA is to intercept, decode, and analyze all forms of communication. NSA's listening mission is specifically limited to gathering information about international terrorists as well as foreign powers, organizations, or persons.
NSC. Abbreviation for the U.S. National Security Council, the president's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials. The NSC is chaired by the president. Its other statutory members are the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the assistant to the president for national security affairs. The chairman of the JCS is the statutory military advisor to the NSC, and the director of national intelligence is the intelligence advisor. Other officials, such as the director of the CIA, the secretary of homeland security, and the secretary of the treasury, attend as appropriate.
Pak. English slang term for Pakistan and its peoples.
Pantex. Pantex Plant, located near Amarillo, Texas, maintains the safety, security, and reliability of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile. The facility is managed and operated by B&W Pantex for the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. Among its functions is the dismantling of nuclear weapons that are surplus to the strategic stockpile.
Predator. The MQ-1 Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft. The MQ-1's primary mission is interdiction and conducting armed reconnaissance against critical, perishable targets. It is used extensively against insurgents in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although the pilots and their remote control gear can go anywhere, the major drone control site is Creech Air Force Base, thirty-five miles from Las Vegas.
ROK. Abbreviation, usually pronounced “rock,” for the Republic of Korea, frequently called South Korea. Its derivative, ROKs (pronounced “rocks”) is sometimes used in reference to ROK officials or military forces.
RFID. Abbreviation for Radio Frequency Identification. A technology similar in application to bar code identification, RFID can be used just about anywhere, from clothing, to missiles, to food. Attached RFID tags use transponders to transmit significant amounts of data to a receiver; often such tags are used as part of a real-time locator system.
Sandia Labs. Sandia National Laboratories, near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sandia's primary mission is ensuring the U.S. nuclear arsenal is safe, secure, reliable, and can fully support U.S. deterrence policy.
SECDEF. Abbreviation for the Secretary of Defense. The secretary is an officer of the cabinet, responsible to the president.
SCIF. Abbreviation for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. The most sensitive of classified information is allowed to flow only to particular individuals—each specifically cleared for access to that source of information—and is called “Sensitive Compartmented Information,” or “SCI.” SCI may only be discussed in an SCIF, an ultra-secure facility colloquially known as a “skif.”
SEAL. Acronym for Sea, Air, and Land used in reference to the navy’s Special Operations Forces. Navy SEALs operate in all of those environments.
Situation Room/Sit Room. The Situation Room is actually a five- thousand-square-foot complex of rooms on the ground floor of the West Wing. The staff of the Situation Room helps the president connect with intelligence agencies and important people overseas. The Sit Room watch provides continuous monitoring of world events and briefs the president. Because of its location, security, and high-tech bells and whistles, the Sit Room complex is often used f
or national security meetings and for monitoring crisis events.
Tenet, George. CIA Director at the time of Nine-eleven. He served from 1997 through 2004.
WMD. Abbreviation for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are considered WMDs.
Yongbyon. North Korea has several known facilities that produce nuclear material for bombs. Most are located at Yongbyon, sixty miles north of Pyongyang, which has a staff of about two thousand. The major installations include a five-megawatt electric research reactor, a fifty-megawatt reactor under construction, and a plutonium reprocessing facility. Yongbyon is also the site of the Radiochemical Laboratory of the Institute of Radiochemistry, the Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Plant, and a storage facility for fuel rods.