Month: November 2010

Posted on

Journal: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Successes

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Government, HUMINT, IO Multinational, IO Secrets, IO Sense-Making, Law Enforcement, Military, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

(1) If true, probably a good idea.

(2) Appears that indiscretions abound.

Miami Herald November 6, 2010

Spy Agencies Use Ex-Captives To Infiltrate Al Qaeda

By Paisley Dodds, Associated Press

LONDON — Months after he was released from Guantánamo Bay, Abdul Rahman was back in the company of terrorist leaders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. But he was a double agent, providing Taliban and al Qaeda secrets to Pakistani intelligence, which then shared the tips with Western counterparts.

The ruse cost him his life, according to a former Pakistani military intelligence official, Mahmood Shah. The Taliban began to suspect him, and after multiple interrogations executed him.

The case of Rahman, which Shah recounted to The Associated Press, falls in line with a key aspect of the fight against terror — Western intelligence agencies, with help from Islamic allies, are placing moles and informants inside al Qaeda and the Taliban. The program seems to be bearing fruit, even as many infiltrators like Rahman are discovered and killed.

It was a tip from an al Qaeda militant-turned-informant that led international authorities to find explosives hidden in printer cartridges from Yemen to the United States a week ago, Yemeni security officials say. Officials say the explosives could have caused a blast as deadly as the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people.

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) done right, in the context of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) done right, is the cheapest, fastest, and most effective means of creating intelligence (decision-support) at all levels from strategic to tactical.  After ten years of letting CIA get away with doing both badly, and ten years of the Pentagon's recovering from treating its HUMINT and CI people like shit, it appears that adults are finally back in charge.  We continue to under-budget for operational HUMINT and OSINT, and we continue to grossly over-spend on contractor vapor-ware for technical capabilities that simply do not deliver 96% of what what we need, but that is a separate issue.  It is good to see HUMINT (not OSINT) making some progress.  However, the continued absence of a strategic analytic model and honest governance means that these capabilities are not being focused on transnational crime or on white collar crime, where the most significant gains in the public interest are to be achieved.

See Also:

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated
2009 DoD OSINT Leadership and Staff Briefings
Graphic: OSINT and Full-Spectrum HUMINT (Updated)
Graphic: OSINT and Lack of Processing
Graphic: Four Quadrants J-2 High Cell SMS Low
Graphic: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) 101 (Wrong Way)
Graphic: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) 102 (Right Way)

Posted on

Reference: $1.5 Billion Health Care “Rationing Board”

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

NCFF APB: ****A MUST VATCH VIDEO***** HEALTH CARE DEATH PANELS/RATIO…

Wait a minute here! Nancy Pelosi said that we need to pass the healthcare bill to see what's in it. Now that it's passed and we're getting to see the details, Ecuador, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and even Italy are looking like great places to retire happily ever after… Their healthcare programs are no where as restrictive or dangerous to longevity as Obamacare!!!

Check out this video – it's really eye-opening…

Dr. David Janda explains health care rationing and quitting of 40+% physicians who will go to jail if they fail to comply with denials of care.

Short Video

Phi Beta Iota: The editorial board watched this video in its entirety.  If these details are confirmed, they are grounds for the impeachment of all those who voted for health rationing and cost rationing by a federal board appointed by President Barack Obama. The evil incarnate in legislation passed without Member review, much less public review, is one reason we believe that Electoral Reform must demand that all legislation be subject to prior public review before being voted upon.  It also bears mention that the alternative to rationing care is a combination of sound health policy (see Graphic) and honest government (top 75 prescriptions can be gotten legally for 1% of what we pay now, a dishonest government has promised not to negotiate prices, the quid pro quo for pharmaceutical campaign contributions to both parties.

See Also:

Reference: Electoral Reform–1 Page 9 Points

Graphic: Health Quadrants & Open Source Information

Posted on

Journal: US Govenment Accepts Fraud as “Normal”

Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Officers Call
David Isenberg

Are charges that private military contractors commit egregious acts of fraud overblown? Not according to recent news. McClatchy Newspapers reports that the Louis Berger Group, one of the U.S. government's highest profile American contractors in Afghanistan has agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations that it overbilled the U.S. government.

In return, the Justice Department will end its investigation into allegations that Louis Berger was intentionally overcharging American taxpayers. The settlement, which is just over $69 million, includes civil and criminal penalties.

Louis Berger's alleged overbilling, a practice that dates to at least the mid-1990s, swelled to tens of millions in lost tax dollars. In 2006, a former Louis Berger employee handed the government evidence against the company, two months before the U.S. Agency for International Development tapped Louis Berger to jointly oversee $1.4 billion in reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan.

Court documents reveal that the Justice Department has been negotiating a deal that would “aid in preserving the company's continuing eligibility to participate” in federal contracting in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

According to McClatchy Louis Berger is accused of manipulating overhead cost data and overhead rate proposals submitted to the U.S. government and several states including Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia.

Read rest of post….

Continue reading “Journal: US Govenment Accepts Fraud as “Normal””

Posted on

Wikileaks Round II (Iraq) Rolling Update 20101105

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Military, Peace Intelligence

NOTICE: Within DoD, at least all elements of the Army as well as the Marine Corps Reserve have been given direct, unqualified, written orders not to access the Wikileaks site or read the Wikileaks document via any Government **OR** non-Government computer.  This Rolling Update complies with the DoD guidance.

Friday 5 November 2010

WikiLeaks Incidents May Lead to Data Sharing Restrictions, DIA Chief Says

Journalists Protest Crackdown On Wikileaks, Julian Assange

Wikileaks Info Cherry Picked by Corporate Media to Bolster Case Against Iran

Continue reading “Wikileaks Round II (Iraq) Rolling Update 20101105”

Posted on

Reference: On the Issues from Abortion to War & Peace

Articles & Chapters, Blog Wisdom

I want to put this somewhat intellectual blog posting into perspective. Below is a quote from Matt Taibbi's new book, Griftopia-Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America (Spiegel & Grau, 2 November 2010). Click on the title of the book to read my full review.

QUOTE (32): What has taken place over the last generation is a highly complicated merger of crime and policy, of stealing and government. Far from taking care of the rest of us, the financial leaders of America and their political servants have seemingly reached the cynical conclusion that our society is not work saving and have taken on a new mission that involved not creating wealth for us all, but simply absconding with whatever wealth remains in our hollowed out economy. They don't feed us, we feed them.

In other words, nothing being discussed by any politician matters at all, because behind the scenes they have sold us out in such a total manner as to call into question why they are still in office. We have been stupid. That ends now, I hope.

My book, ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Earth Intelligence Network, 2008) is free online as well as on sale at Amazon as a very nice wire-bound color reference work. The below graphic opens the chapter in that book, “Candidates on the Issues”:

2010-11-04-candidates.jpg

Here are links to each of the chapters in the book, in the aggregate they offer a context for national deliberative dialog by sane people.

Prefaces

Paradigms of Failure

The Substance of Governance

Legitimate Grievances (US Internal)

Legitimate Grievances (Anti-US Global)

Candidates on the Issues

Balanced Budget 101

Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them

Annotated Bibliography

What I have realized over time is that candidates do not have positions, they have postures, and those postures are generally shaped by ideology and very narrow constituencies. Because of decades of corruption at the federal, state, and local levels, political districts have been so gerrymandered as to be representative of only one of the two extremes that monopolize power.

Continue reading “Reference: On the Issues from Abortion to War & Peace”

Posted on

Reference: The Secret Life (True Cost) of Beef

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 11 Society, 12 Water, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

“THE SECRET LIFE OF BEEF” REVEALS BEEF’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

INFORM launches third video in “The Secret Life” series

(New York City) INFORM, Inc., the educational and advocacy nonprofit that raises environmental consciousness through visual media, has just launched “The Secret Life of Beef,” an engaging and enlightening six-minute video. The video increases awareness about the environmental impacts of industrial beef production, illustrates how it contributes to global warming, and offers more sustainable alternatives.

Americans consume over twenty-eight billion pounds of beef a year, one of the highest per capita rates in the world, yet few beef eaters are aware of the connection between their dietary choices and the environmental damage caused by beef production.

  • Livestock production produces one-fifth of all global greenhouse gases, more than all transportation sources combined
  • It takes seven pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of hamburger
  • Seventy percent of all antibiotic use in the U.S. is used in livestock production

“The Secret Life of Beef” tells its story through academic experts, grass-fed beef farmers, chefs, sustainable butchers, educators, and restaurant owners. It also offers more eco-friendly alternatives to the heavy meat consuming habits of most Americans—from going meatless one day a week to purchasing grass-fed beef.

  • If every American went meatless one day a week, it would be equivalent to taking eight million cars off the road.
  • The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to reduce your overall beef consumption.

For a preview viewing of “The Secret Life of Beef,” visit: http://www.informinc.org/pages/media/the-secret-life-series/secret-life-beef.html

Continue reading “Reference: The Secret Life (True Cost) of Beef”