Yale The Politic: The Intelligence Gathering Conundrum + Toxic Secrecy RECAP

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The Politic

Introducing The Yale Undergraduate Journal of Politics

The Intelligence Gathering Conundrum

As distrust of the U.S. abounds, reliable intelligence is more difficult to procure.

By Zachary Mohriing

“Snowden and Manning fucked us. Who would want to work with us?” asked one former CIA officer. Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, he told The Politic, not only leaked a record number of classified intelligence documents, but damaged America’s credibility on the world stage. And with revelation after sullying revelation of each American snooping scandal, the world grows increasingly weary of U.S. involvement in the global arena.

Intelligence gathering from local sources is often the only feasible way of managing the diverse threats the U.S. faces. But as distrust of the United States abounds, reliable intelligence is more difficult to procure — even as it becomes more essential in places like Afghanistan.

Read full article.

ROBERT STEELE: Yale is conflicted. It has a deeply embedded sense of ethics stemming from its missionary roots. Yale was created in part to educate new generations of missionaries who were both knowledgeable and ethical. Sadly, since at least the end of the Cold War, Yale has also been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Wall Street elite and their primary mechanism for subverting democracy at home and abroad, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). At both the strategic (grand wurlitzer control of media) and tactical (mind-control experiments on individuals) levels, Yale has been central to the CIA's operations in the arena of unethical psycho-social operations. Today Yale is taking DoD money for the latest in mind-control experimentaton. The journal shows promise but lacks depth — its budding entrepreneurial journalists have not yet learned the “rule of three” and tend to accept too much at face value — particularly so when their source is both a Yale graduate and a “soldier” in good standing within the ranks of the declining Empire. Here are a few competing facts in relation to the above article:

01 Snowden's motivations are still not known. It remains highly possible that he was a Chinese covert action pawn intended to gut Obama on cyber issues immediately before Obama's meeting with Xi.

02 As with Manning, the primary effect of Snowden's leaks was not to undermine US intelligence (an expensive paper tiger at best) but rather to reveal persistent crimes against humanity in violation of all applicable national and international laws.

03 US “intelligence” is broken beyond repair. While some truly excellent capabilities exist, they comprise less than 5% of the total budget and provide — as General Tony Zinni, USMC (then CINCCENT) has stated, “at best” 4% of what he needed — to which I would add “and nothing for everyone else.” 95% of what is needed to create ethical, evidence-based decision support is not secret (nor is it online or in English), and that is the 95% that the US “intelligence” community refuses to collect, process, or analyze.

04 The focus on Afghanistan is interesting. For twelve years we have failed in Afghanistan, in large part because we insisted on promoting Hamid Karzai as a puppet (shades of Diem, he was not the first choice of the first Loya Jirga) and then stood idly by while his brothers became drug lords and he ran circles around our diplomats and generals, all on short tours and all lacking the non-negotiable foundation for being effective, intelligence (decision-support) with integrity (coherence). As General McCrystal has himself observed, our policy approaches to Afghanistan have been “frighteningly simplistic.”

05 The primary use of secrecy within US intelligence is to “keep the money moving” by avoiding oversight and accountability. This was the primary thrust of multiple testimonials to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) RIP Commission on Secrecy. No one holds the secret world accountable for decision-support because its primary purpose is not to support decisions (those are based on who pays to be heard and which element of the 1% will profit) but rather to produce pork for the best of the servant class, the Members of Congress that have betrayed the public trust and betrayed their Oaths of office in favor of those who enrich them for doing so.

06 The rest of the world does not trust the USA because it cannot keep a secret. The rest of the world does not trust the USA because it has legitimate grievances against unilateral militarism, predatory capitalism, and virtual colonialism. From its high point with the Marshall Plan, the moral and intellectual authority of the USA has collapsed. The assassination and cover-up of the assassination of JFK are the precise point at which the US Government ceased to represent the public and instead became a wholly-owned front for Wall Street and the City of London while elements of the US Government — the CIA, the FBI, and elements of the US Army — could commit treason with impunity.

07 Here is the real intelligence conundrum: do you want a government that makes decisions based on ethical evidence-based decision-support? Do you want to live in a Smart Nation in which true costs are understood, the interests of future generations protected, and stewardship of the commons on behalf of all accepted as a sacred duty? If your answer is no, you have the government you deserve. If your answer is yes, now you have a conundrum.

Today our Constitution is dishonored; our Republic fragmented; our government ineffective and unrepresentative; and our political system a two-party tyranny blocking ballot access — excluding Independents and the other six accredited national political parties (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, Reform, Socialist). Can any of us claim to be “intelligent” while passively accepting this state of affairs?

See Also:

2006 Forbes Blank Slate On Intelligence

2006 Open Source Intelligence (Strategic) 2.0

2008: Creating a Smart Nation (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

2008 Legitimate Grievances (Foreign vs USA) ELECTION 2008 – Lipstick on the Pig (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

2008 Legitimate Grievances (US Citizens versus US Government) ELECTION 2008 – Lipstick on the Pig (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

2008 Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

2008 The Substance of Governance

2009 Intelligence for the President–AND Everyone Else

2009 Fixing the White House & National Intelligence

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Retrospective

2009 Robert Steele: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both