Month: June 2010

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Journal: Obama To Name Retired General To Top Spy Post

04 Education, 10 Security, Corruption, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Technologies, True Cost
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Probably not an inspired choice.

MA

New York Times June 5, 2010 Pg. 1

Obama To Name Retired General To Top Spy Post

By Peter Baker and Eric Schmitt

WASHINGTON — President Obama has picked Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. as director of national intelligence, tapping a retired officer with decades of experience to improve coordination of the nation’s sprawling spy apparatus amid increasing threats at home and escalating operations abroad.

Mr. Obama plans to announce his choice in the Rose Garden on Saturday, two weeks after forcing Adm. Dennis C. Blair out of the spymaster job, according to administration officials, who insisted on anonymity to disclose the decision before the formal ceremony.

FULL STORY ONLINE

 
 
 
 

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

See also:

He has been nicknamed “the Godfather of HUMINT” — using human contacts for gathering intelligence in addition to high-tech methods like satellite imagery or intercepting communications.

Phi Beta Iota:  This alone–a farce on top of a farce–makes him unsuited to the position.   Obama and Gates know what they want: to continue Grand Theft Intel as the same time that Grand Theft Pentagon continues the looting of the public treasury.  If Congress can rediscover its integrity and invite former Senators such as David Boren (D-OK), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Bob Graham (D-FL) as well as Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA), they might discover the universal condemnation of “business as usual,” which is precisely what this nominee represents.  Whatever claims are made about transformation or revolution will at best be pap and at worst a deliberate breach of trust in lying to the Congress.  Dick Cheney would be proud of what passes for leadership in the Department of Defense today.

Reference:  Human Intelligence (HUMINT): All Humans, All Minds, All the Time

Earlier Posts on DNI Self-Destruction:

Journal: With No Successor In Sight, Intelligence Czar Departs

AFIO Selected Headline Links with Phi Beta Iota Comments

Intelligence Headlines of Note

Reference: Strategic Asymmetry–with Comment

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CrisisWatch Monthly Report from the CrisisGroup

03 India, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Security, CrisisWatch reports

June report homepage

Deteriorated Situations

Four actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in May 2010, according to the new issue of the International Crisis Group’s monthly bulletin CrisisWatch, released today.

Israeli commandos killed at least nine people when they raided a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on 31 May. Full details are not yet clear but the incident has already thrown into question recently launched proximity talks between the Palestinians and Israel. The international community has been swift to condemn Israel’s actions and the UN Security Council has called for an impartial investigation. However, the event has underscored the failure of a much broader policy for which Israel is not solely responsible. Many in the international community have been complicit in isolating Gaza in the hope of weakening Hamas, an approach that has ultimately harmed the people of Gaza without loosening Hamas's control.

May also saw renewed violence in the streets of Bangkok. Clashes between anti-government Red Shirt protesters and security forces that resulted in scores of deaths in April escalated this month, leaving at least 54 people dead. Soldiers removed the Red Shirts from the capital on 19 May and the government has since lifted a curfew imposed on Bangkok and 28 other provinces. But a state of emergency remains and divisions between the Thai establishment and the protesters, many of whom support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have widened. The government has so far failed to address the underlying causes of the protests, which are likely to have long-term implications for Thailand’s stability.

Tensions continued to mount on the Korean Peninsula after investigators announced that a South Korean ship that sunk in March had been hit by a North Korean torpedo. Pyongyang continues to deny responsibility for the sinking which killed 46 people. With Seoul now threatening to take the case to the UN Security Council, recent events have highlighted the challenges facing South Korea – as well as China and the international community more broadly – in dealing with its volatile northern neighbour.

Security also deteriorated in India, where suspected Maoist rebels derailed a train on 28 May leaving at least 147 civilians dead. The Maoists have denied responsibility, but the incident has once again underlined the government’s failure to curb escalating insurgent violence that has become increasingly deadly in recent months.

PDF FULL REPORT

Report homepage

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Event: 9 Jun 2010, NYC 5-9pm, Screening and Discussion: The Battle of Chile (coup), with Dr. Óscar Soto

Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, History, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Screening and Discussion: The Battle of Chile, with Dr. Óscar Soto

Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 7–9 pm
Location: Cabinet, 300 Nevins Street, Brooklyn (directions here)
FREE. No RSVP necessary

On September 11, 1973, the socialist government of Chilean president Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup backed by the US government. The jailings, torture, and persecution that followed largely stamped out resistance efforts inside Chile, but were unable to silence writers, artists, and filmmakers working in exile.

The young filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, using film stock donated by the French filmmaker Chris Marker, had already shot footage for a documentary on the Allende years, right up to the day of the coup. He smuggled the material out of the country to produce his epic three-part documentary The Battle of Chile, the first two parts of which were released to resounding international acclaim in 1975-76. This event focuses on the documentary's second part, “The Coup d'État,” which culminates in the assault on the presidential palace on September 11.

Inside the palace on that day, one of the last people to see Allende alive was his young physician Óscar Soto, whose memoir of Allende's last day, El Último Día de Salvador Allende, is now in its second edition. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Soto, who is visiting New York from his residence in Spain.

(Those who also wish to see Part 1 of the film should come at 5 pm.)

Chilean wine and snacks will be served.

This event is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Related:
+ Documentary: The Battle for Chile/ La batalla de Chile (YouTube Spanish version)
+ Wikipedia – History_of_Chile

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Revolving Door Between Congress & Wall Street + Oil & Gas Money to Congress

05 Energy, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
link to report

From OpenSecrets.org
Organizations in the financial services sector have deployed at least 1,447 former federal employees to lobby Congress and federal agencies since the beginning of 2009, according to a joint analysis of federal disclosure records and other data released today by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics. (Download the full report here: FinancialRevolvingDoors.pdf )

Oil & Gas: Money to Congress

Candidate Amount
Lincoln, Blanche (D-AR) $286,400
Vitter, David (R-LA) $242,600
Murkowski, Lisa (R-AK) $209,826
Boren, Dan (D-OK) $139,700
Bennett, Robert F (R-UT) $138,400
Blunt, Roy (R-MO) $133,100
Cornyn, John (R-TX) $130,525
Specter, Arlen (D-PA) $130,400
Edwards, Chet (D-TX) $123,630
Conaway, Mike (R-TX) $116,950
Coburn, Tom (R-OK) $105,100
Barton, Joe (R-TX) $100,470
Dorgan, Byron L (D-ND) $92,950
Thune, John (R-SD) $91,140
Cantor, Eric (R-VA) $87,000
DeMint, James W (R-SC) $79,951
Tiahrt, Todd (R-KS) $79,800
Burr, Richard (R-NC) $78,200
Ross, Mike (D-AR) $76,950
Fleming, John Calvin Jr (R-LA) $76,300

Related:
+ Earmark database

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Event: 10 Jun-07 Aug 2010, NYC, Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus @EyeBeam (free)

Academia, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Media, Non-Governmental, Technologies
event (free) link

Jun 10, 2010 – Aug 07, 2010
Eyebeam Atelier
540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011

From the Eyebeam Press Release: “With participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring business models, creative and activist practice, the architecture of the city, and the economy, we are all integrated into structures of participation whether we want to be or not. The exhibition will examine models of participation and participation as a model, presenting work that encourages subversive participation, intervenes into existing systems, or envisions new alternatives.”

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Search: the emerging worldwide university (to be finished later)

Searches

This is a very important search that failed to yield a proper automated response.  Here is the human-in-the-loop answer.

Search terms on this site: World Brain, Global Brain, Collective Intelligence, World University, M4IS2

Journal: Taming Twitter–Emergence of Baby World Brain?

Journal: GPS Finally Fully Integrated in Voice Comms

Journal: Google, the Cloud, Microsoft, & World Brain

Reference: Indexing & Seaching Information Timeline

Reference: World Brain Review

Review: A New World Order

Review: Global Mind

Review: The Emerging Worldwide Electronic University–Information Age Global Higher Education

Search: “global futures partnership” 2010

Search: osint and it’s role in intelligence

Search: smart nation intelligence reform electoral reform national security reform

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Secrecy News Selected Headlines

Uncategorized

CORRECTION RE: INTELLIGENCE REFORM

I mistakenly wrote that a 2009 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the development of the 2004 intelligence reform legislation had not been published on the ODNI web site (“A Look Back at Intelligence Reform,” Secrecy News, June 1).  In fact, it was posted by ODNI last year.

The report is not mentioned on the ODNI list of reports and publications.  Nor can it be located through a google search (since the document is not text-based) and the title is not indexed anywhere on the site.  So I inferred that it wasn't there.  But it turns out that it can be found through the ODNI home page (in a somewhat attenuated 12.5 MB file) by looking under “About the IC” and clicking “IRTPA & IC Reform,” which takes you here (large pdf).

Not a correction but a late addition:  Josh Gerstein of Politico has a first look at the summary of a new report from the President's Intelligence Advisory Board on the role of the Director of National Intelligence.  See “Panel found ‘distracted' DNI,” Politico, June 2.
A LOOK BACK AT SECRECY REFORM

In 1992, the Department of Energy performed what may have been the most thoughtful and self-critical assessment of classification policy that any government agency has ever carried out.  It is now available online.

“This study represents the first fundamental review of classification policy for nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon-related information since the Atomic Energy Act became law [in 1946],” wrote George L. McFadden, then-director of the DOE Office of Security Affairs, in a transmittal letter (pdf).  It laid the foundation for the subsequent revision of specific classification practices in the 1995 Fundamental Classification Policy Review and other reforms.

The study asked basic questions — What is the purpose of classification (specifically, of nuclear weapons information)?  What is wrong with the status quo?  How can it be improved? — and then it considered various answers to these questions.  Many of the questions, and a few of the answers, are still valid today.  And the study as a whole remains impressive as a model for taking a “fresh look” at classification activity, especially at a time when the National Security Advisor is gathering recommendations for “a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system.”

The 1992 DOE study predated the world wide web, and as far as I know it has not previously been published online.  A copy is now posted on the Federation of American Scientists web site.  See “Classification Policy Study,” U.S. Department of Energy, July 4, 1992.

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