Reply #3: Nature: Shut Down Army's 'Human Terrain' [View All]

[tanyev]

By Noah Shachtman December 11, 2008

Over the summer, one of the world's leading scientific journals gave a cautious thumbs-up to the Human Terrain System, the U.S. Army's combat zone cultural studies project. Today, in an editorial that can only be described as scathing, Nature says the $130 million program is "failing on every level" and "needs to be closed down."

The relationship between the Human Terrain program and the academic social science community has been strained from the start. The executive board of the American Anthropological Association, for instance, was calling the program unethical while there were only a handful of Human Terrain Teams on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. What kind of social science research can take place, the Association asked, when everyone involved is carrying a gun?

The Ivory Tower opposition to Human Terrain only grew louder, after whistleblowers charged the program's chief contractor, BAE Systems, with improperly vetting and training its employees. More concerns were raised, when two Human Terrain social scientists were killed in separate incidents, seven weeks apart.

Then, in September, Human Terrain social scientist Paula Loyd was set on fire during a research foray in Afghanistan. Her teammate, Don Ayala, shot the attacker -- and then was charged with second-degree murder in U.S. court. Days later, Human Terrain employee Issam Hamama was indicted for spying on America, on behalf of the Saddam Hussein regime. For Nature, these incidents were the final straws. "In theory, is a good idea," the editorial says. "In practice, however, it has been a disaster.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/nature-shut-dow.html