September 2009 – Page 18 – Public Intelligence Blog

As America wakes up to the reality that the two-party tyranny is history and that we do not have to tolerate this corrupt abuse of political and economic and military power, two web sites in particular surface for consideration.

Click on the logo to reach their short and simple but well-leavened with links directory of the main American political parties today. There are about 65 parties actually registered, this directory covers 46 of them, those that have actually had candidates, and we find the directory to be most helpful as a place for any citizen to start thinking about alternatives to the two parties that have so betrayed the public trust.

On the Issues (click on the logo) is a real powerhouse of a web site, and especially

appreciated for the manner in which it displays both the substance of each candidate's position on any issue, and where on the political “map” they fall.

2009/09/07

AFRICOM Week in Review Ending 7 September 2009

Uncategorized

Hot Topics

AA: African countries take up laws to fight spread of small arms 09/07/09

AA: CIA freeze intel over Libya Saturday, September 5 09/05/09

AA: The Union of Arab Maghreb is Dead 09/04/09

BW: BDP heavyweights toppled by bulela ditswe in Francistown 09/07/09

CI: Côte d'Ivoire: It's a Tricky Affair As Poll Looms 09/05/09

CM: Cameroon: Communication Minister Condemns – Misinformation Against … 09/02/09

LR: Liberia: Tribalism undermines National Development and threatens peace 09/03/09

NE: Niger's main Tuareg rebel group deposes leader: website 09/02/09

NG: Nigeria militant describes training in Afghanistan 09/02/09

SO: Analysis: Who is fighting whom in Somalia 09/02/09

SO: Hizbul Islam rebel chief denies talks with Somalia govt 09/06/09

ZW: Calls grow for Zimbabwean blood diamond ban 09/03/09 Continue reading “AFRICOM Week in Review Ending 7 September 2009”

2009/09/07

PACOM Week in Review Ending 6 September 2009

Uncategorized

Hot Topics

AA: Australia, US to Invite China to War Games 09/03/09

BD: Unity of Islamic forces urged 09/01/09

CN: Chinese website reveals plan to balkanise India 09/05/09

ID: Indonesia Takes Beggars Off Jakarta Streets 09/05/09

IN: YSR is dead, says Chidambaram 09/03/09

JP: Japan Democrats ‘Vow To Oust' US Forces From Okinawa 09/04/09

KP: FACTBOX: North Korea's uranium enrichment program 09/04/09

KR: US ‘liberators' turned South Korea into a neo-colony 09/04/09

LK: ‘Orchestrated campaign against Sri Lanka': 09/06/09

MM: Q+A-Will the conflict in northern Myanmar intensify? 09/01/09 Continue reading “PACOM Week in Review Ending 6 September 2009”

2009/09/072009/09/07

Reference: When InterNET Is InterNOT

Articles & Chapters, Methods & Process, Technologies, Tools

Arno Reuser, one of a tiny handful of lifetime leaders of the new disciplines of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and its public service manifestation, Public Intelligence in the service of Collective Intelligence, contributed the below piece in 2008. It is a standard reference. Below is the summary followed by a link to the full-text article online. Summary: Searching for information in order to solve somebody's information problem requires a wide range of skills, methods, capabilities, and knowledge of sources. In other words, it requires strategy and tactics. Unfortunately, many customers think that a simple connection to the Internet and one general-purpose search engine is more than enough to do the trick. Luckily, the well-framed end user knows better, but librarians are often challenged by budget holders and higher management to explain why the Internet is not the ultimate solution for every conceivable information problem. To confront this challenge, the author presents six simple aspects of Internet bias: 1. The Internet is not international. 2. The Internet is not easy. 3. The Internet is not just Google. 4. The Internet is not large. 5. The Internet is not objective. 6. The Internet is not anonymous. Skilled librarians or information professionals can outperform the Internet in many occasions. In the information world, librarians rule. The problem is, they are too modest.

When InterNET Is InterNOT

2009/09/072009/09/10

Journal: Education and the Republic

04 Education

Education in the United States of America (USA) has become a prison, a factory, a fraud that dumbs down the vast majority with compulsory rote education of little value in a rapidly chaning world. Within the Cabinet of the USA, Education is a sideshow, a neglected step-child vastly overshadowed by a $1 trillion a year national security budget and the insanity of a White House that thinks theater is a substitute for thinking, sabre-rattling a substitute for production.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had it right. Jefferson said “A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry” to which we would add “and armed”). James Madison, whose statement we have adopted as the foundation for this Public Intelligence Blog, is even more specific: “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Continue reading “Journal: Education and the Republic”

2009/09/072009/09/10

Journal: Steele on Integrity and the Secretary of Defense Specifically

Ethics, Military

In the notional conversation below, Robert Steele first defends the Secretary of Defense in the context of a White House that is insanely criminal or criminally insane, and then outlines the other position, one rooted in the Constitution and the inviolate nature of Integrity as the foundation for a Republic Of, By, and For We the People.

Robert Gates as Victim

Gates was not and is not the problem. The problem on this is specifically in the White House and NSC. Gates is doing his best, but probably wishes he had not agreed to stay on. I don't understand what you've got against Gates. Every military person I respect thinks the world of him. The complaints are about the WH crowd. Gates is trying to make things work–despite the WH.

Robert Gates as Enabler

Gates is an enabler. Powell left his integrity at home and allowed Cheney to commit high crimes and misdemeanors, now Gates (and Jones) are doing the same thing. Loyalty is NOT what we swear an oath to. The Constitution is ABOVE the slime in the White House and on the Hill.

My point is that the absolute most important duty of anyone who swears an Oath to defend the CONSTITUTION is to refuse illegal orders. I believe that the order to gag McChrystal on needing more troops is an illegal order, a high crime, an impeachable offense, and if Gates “goes along” as Colin Powell “went along” with the 25 high crimes and 935 lies of Dick Cheney, then Gates is — however good and intelligent a man he might be – himself guilty of an impeachable offense. This is crystal clear to me.

2009/09/072009/09/07

Journal: Chuck Spinney on Moral and Mental Collapse of the Federal Government

Ethics, Government, Legislation, True Cost

EMPHASIS: The larger result of this cynical behaviour is a widespread moral and mental collapse that is rapidly transforming our experiment in building a government of the people, by the people, and for the people into a sham that is more like a 21st Century corporatist mutation of 18th Century court of Louis XVI.

Viewed retrospectively, the political economy of Versailles on the Potomac admits to only two stages in the life cycle of any government program, be it defense, a bailout of the banks, healthcare reform, or anything else: (1) It is too early to tell, and (2) it is too late to do anything about it.

Nowhere is the decision-making conundrum implied by these stages more clearly evident than in the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex, MICC, particularly in the acquisition of high tech weapon systems, but also in the decision to go to war.

Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney on Moral and Mental Collapse of the Federal Government”

Month: September 2009

Worth a Look: Politics1 and On the Issues