Phi Beta Iota: David Pozen, JD Yale 2007, has provided advance access to the complete draft on his paper forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review, and we are both appreciative of this offering, and impressed–deeply impressed–by this seminal work. At a time when the U.S. “security clearance” system is so totally hosed up (and 70,000 clearances behind) that we might do better with with “spin the bottle,” the author is highlighting the reality that most of the secrecy we buy with $75 billion a year in taxpayer funds is not really that important–not only have others, such as Rodney McDaniel, made it clear that 809% to 90% of all “official” secrecy is about turf protection and budget share rather than national security, but it is administrative secrecy rather than “deep secrecy” that is leveraged by a very few with their own informal system for assigning trust, generally at the expense of the larger mass of uninformed individual who are treated as “collateral damage” that is of little consequence. The download options are at the top of the linked page
Reference: Corruption Perceptions Map
09 Justice, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, White PapersPhi Beta Iota: Kudos to Australia, Canada, the Nordics and the Netherlands, and probably Singapore too small to shine here. The USA has less to be proud of, between corporate corruption of Congress and what one author calls The Cheating Culture. Other books on corruption in the USA can be seen at Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth (31); Capitalism (Good & Bad) (117; Censorship & Denial of Access (23; Corruption (71);Crime (Corporate) (26); Misinformation & Propaganda (85); andPower (Pathologies & Utilization) (80).
Reference: Counterintelligence Open Source
Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Methods & ProcessSeptember 2009.
Just noticed. A fine first effort that also provides a snap-shot of where the Open Source Center is now.
For more advanced thoughts, see Librarian's Paradox as well as Handbooks and Historic Contributions.
Seven Presentations from the Counterintelligence Open Source Symposium:
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Reference: Berto Jongman Recommends
05 Civil War, 09 Terrorism, Media Reports, MonographsToday's recommendaitons:
Who's who in the Somali insurgency: A Reference Guide
Interview with Maajid Nawaz:Becoming a Muslim Radical
New Quilliam report: British prisons are incubating Islamist extremism
Selected Translation of the LIFG Recantation Document
Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field. Antonio Giustozzi gathers a renowned cast of journalists, experts, and academics to answer the most pressing questions regarding the Taliban today. Each contributor possesses extensive knowledge of the insurgency's latest developments, decoding its structure and organization as it operates within specific regions and provinces. They analyze the new Taliban as it expands, from the mature south, where they hold sway, to the southeast, where they struggle to penetrate, from the west and northeast, now in the initial stages of infiltration, to the provinces surrounding Kabul, which have been unexpectedly and quickly occupied.
Empires of Mud: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007. Warlords are charismatic leaders who exploit weak authorities to gain control of subnational areas. Nevertheless, warlords do in fact participate in state formation, and this book considers the dynamics of warlordism within the context of such debates. Antonio Giustozzi begins with aspects of the Afghan environment that are conducive to the fragmentation of central authority and the emergence of warlords. He then accounts for the phenomenon from the 1980s to today, considering Afghanistan's two foremost warlords, Ismail Khan and Abdul Rashid Dostum, along with their political, economic, and military systems of rule.
Reference: Gangs in the US Military
08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Commercial Intelligence, DoD, Government, Military, Peace IntelligencePhi Beta Iota: We have been highlighting our couinterintelligence deficiencies since the 1990's, primarily focused on the need for religious counterintelligence, but also on the need to recognize that sub-state and non-state groups are legitimate threats in and of themselves. Today the US military it thoroughly penetrated by multiple networks from Opus Dei and the Mormons to radical Islamics and plain street gangs happy to not only receive advanced training, but access to easily stolen weapons–one of the dirty little secrets of the US military is how little control it has over the primary weapon of mass destruction on the planet, small arms (which we also like to sell liberally to anyone with cash and especially dictators).
Reference: Chinese Information Warfare
02 China, Monographs
Phi Beta Iota: Read the report and draw your own conclusions. On balance we give it a C+ [this is actually a complement] in part because it cost too much to get to this point, neglects all Chinese and other language sources, neglects or is unaware of the non-military capabilites, and is completely lacking in context–the Chinese are NOT emphasizing attack IW as much as capture and exploit IW, in all the languages we do not comprehend, and for the purpose of waging peace and conquering, with soft power, the entire Southern Hemisphere. Our two-pager on Chinese Irregular Warfare is free and more policy-relevant. See also:
Journal: CINCPAC Slams IC on China
Reference: Information Operations (IO) Newsletters
Review: Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World
Review: The Second World–Empires and Influence in the New Global Order
Reference: United Nations Terrorism Desirata
09 Terrorism, Communities of Practice, Peace Intelligence, United Nations & NGOs
Recommended by Researcher Berto Jongman.
2009-11-15 UN Overview of Terrorism Research Desirata Gestation
2009-11-15 UN List of Terrorism Research Priorities
Phi Beta Iota: Researcher Berto Jongman is a disciple and most respectful student of the work of Alex Schmid and more recently, the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) practices of Researcher Arno Reuser, who leads one of a handful of military OSINT teams that are truly on the bleeding edge of accomplishment and global access (analog & unpublished as well as the obvious).
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