A
serial killer is traditionally defined as a person who has
murdered two or more peopleover a period of more than a month, with down time (a "cooling off period") between the murders.The motivation for killing is usually based on
psychological gratification.Some sources, such as the
FBI,
disregard the "three or more" criteria and define the term as "a series
of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not
always, by one offender acting alone" or, including the vital
characteristics, a minimum of two murders.Most of the killings involve sexual contact with the victim,but the FBI states that motives for serial murder include "anger, thrill, financial gain, and
attention seeking".The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion
and the victims may have had something in common; for example,
occupation,
race, appearance,
sex, or age group.
Assassins can be traced back to just before the
First Crusade,
around 1080. There has been much difficulty finding out much
information about the origins of the Assassins because most early
sources are either written by enemies of the order or based on legends,
or both. Most sources dealing with the order's inner working were
destroyed with the capture of
Alamut, the Assassins' headquarters, by the
Mongols in 1256. However, it is possible to trace the beginnings of the cult back to its first Grandmaster,
Hassan-i Sabbah.
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the
area occupied by friendly forces to gain vital information about enemy
forces or features of the environment for later analysis and/or
dissemination.
Often referred to as
recce (British and Canadian English) or
recon (American English, Australian English), the associated verb is
reconnoitre in British and Canadian English or
reconnoiter in American English.
Examples of reconnaissance include
patrolling by troops (
LRRPs,
Rangers, scouts, or military intelligence specialists), ships or
submarines, manned/unmanned
aircraft,
satellites, or by setting up
covert observation posts.
Espionage
normally is not reconnaissance, because reconnaissance is a military
force's operating ahead of its main forces; spies are non-combatants
operating behind enemy lines.
The
Department of Defense (
Defense Department,
USDOD,
DOD,
DoD or
the Pentagon) is the
executive department of the government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with
national security and the
United States Armed Forces. The Department is also the largest employer in the world,
with more than 2.13 million active duty soldiers, sailors, marines,
airmen, and civilian workers, and over 1.1 million National Guardsmen
and members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Reserves. The grand
total is just over 3.2 million servicemen, servicewomen, and civilians.
The Department – headed by the
Secretary of Defense – has three subordinate military departments: the
U.S. Department of the Army, the
U.S. Department of the Navy, and the
U.S. Department of the Air Force which oversee the
U.S. Army,
U.S. Navy,
U.S. Marine Corps, and the
U.S. Air Force. In addition, four
national intelligence services are subordinate to DOD - the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the
National Security Agency (NSA), the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Other
Defense Agencies include
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the
Missile Defense Agency (MDA),
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the
Pentagon Force Protection Agency
(PFPA), all of which are under the command of the Secretary of Defense.
DOD's military operations are managed by nine regional or function
Unified Combatant Commands. DOD also operates several joint services schools, including the
National Defense University (NDU) and the
National War College (NWC).
The Department is allocated the
highest level of budgetary resources among all Federal agencies, and this amounts to more than one-half of the annual Federal
discretionary budget.
On February 26, 2013 the Senate confirmed
Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, replacing the retiring
Leon Panetta, after a pitched nomination battle and a narrow vote.