"[D]efense industry, military, and government personnel" are in the process of registering for a trade show that will be held at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center on June 4-6.  --  Billed as the "SpecOps West 2007 Expo Trade Show and Symposium," the gathering will "preview new products and services and emerging technologies for today's warfighter."[1]  --  As a trade show, the SpecOps West 2007 Expo will focus on armor, tactical equipment, search & rescue, diving equipment, night vision, UAVs, sea navigation devices, communications, weapons systems, medical technology, combat search & rescue, training, robotics, sensors, and security.[2]  --  Some 73 exhibitors have announced they will be on hand to peddle their wares.  --  Companies represented range from giants of the military-industrial complex like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman to local business like Tactical Tailor of Lakewood, WA.  --  As a symposium, SpecOps West 2007 will feature a keynote speech on "Status of SOF: Today and in the Future," by Wade Ishimoto, special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.  --  The current ASD-SO/LIC (as he is called in the SpecOps West 2007 program), by the way, is Thomas W. O'Connell, a veteran of the PHOENIX Program in Vietnam, a "murderous covert program" which beginning in 1968 organized the torture and murder of tens of thousands of Vietcong suspects, the well-documented record of which was reviewed recently by historian Alfred W. McCoy on pages 64-71 of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Metropolitan Books, 2006); O'Connell later became a senior manager at Raytheon after his career in Army Special Ops and the CIA.  --  Other planned speeches include "2007 and Beyond" by Col. Jeff Mathis of the Washington State National Guard and "Beyond Remotely Operated Unmanned Vehicles: Cooperative Autonomous Unmanned Systems for Air, Sea, and Ground Operations" by David Scheerer and Chad Hawthorne of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.  --  There will also be a number of panels on subjects like "Special Operations in Homeland Security: Civil Affairs & Natural Disaster Response," the "Indigenous Surveillance Program" (if this sounds like the PHOENIX Program all over again, it might be because the speaker is an employee of the Abraxas Corp., a private military firm that describes itself as "a global risk mitigation services provider offering a unique insight in the areas of competitive intelligence, . . . political, economic and security assessment, compliance monitoring, behavioral analysis, deception detection, and information elicitation[, with] the largest aggregate of counter-terrorism expertise outside the U.S. Government"; Abraxas has also been called "a firm which provides cover stories for CIA contractors and agents to work worldwide [and which] has allegedly been instrumental in putting into effect illegal plans, unlawful programs, and other activities which violate the laws of war and Geneva Conventions"), "Irregular Warfare," "WMD Warfare: Large Events-Scheduled and Unscheduled," "Portable Backscatter X-Ray Imaging Technology," "Real-time Intelligent Video Exploitation — Scaling the Solution to the Resources," and "Emerging RF-over-fiber Technology Enhances Command Post Security."  --  Online registration costs $145....

1.

http://www.fortlewismwr.com/MWR_at_a_glance.htm

The SpecOps West 2007 free expo for military personnel is at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center June 4-6. Preview new products and services and emerging technologies for today's warfighter. Expo preview and demonstrations are scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 4; registration and expo open at 8 a.m. and the conference is at 9 a.m. on June 5 & 6. A reception is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on June 5. Expo closes at 2 p.m. on June 6. You must show a valid government-issued identification card upon entry. No entry to anyone under 18 years of age. Register online now at http://www.SpecOpsWEST.com to attend.  For additional information, go to http://www.defensetradeshows.com or call 919.954.1633.

2.

SpecOps 2007 WEST: Warfighter Symposium and Expo will be held June 4-6, 2007 in Tacoma, WA. SpecOps WEST 2007 will enable attendees to explore emerging technologies and the latest in products and services promoting warfighting effectiveness, efficiency, adaptability, utility and mobility of special operations forces. The exchange of information and ideas between research/academia, industry, government, and military attendees will be faciliated through presentations, demonstrations, and exhibits.