January 2011 – Page 33 – Public Intelligence Blog

In defense of RSS

Lots of buzz today about RSS (dying or not dying).

If you're not using it, can I strongly suggest you give it a try? I use Newsfire. Not sure the particular readers matters, though.

Here's what you need to know:

It's not particularly difficult to keep up with 200 blogs you care about in less than hour using an RSS reader.
RSS provides home delivery. Instead of remembering where to click, or waiting for a post to get all buzzy and hot, the good stuff comes to you. Automatically and free.
Subscribing to a blog is easy. Just click here for my blog, for example. In Newsfire, you can paste the URL of any blog and it automatically finds the RSS feed for you.

RSS is quiet and fast and professional and largely hype-free. Perhaps that's why it's not the flavor of the day.

Phi Beta Iota: The Public Daily Brief done by Winston Maike (RIP) out of Australia can be seen at the Archives. With his death and the economic crash we had to discontinue–but on a shoestring, we covered all ten threats, all twelve policies, all eight demogrpahics, once a week, in eight pages, AND a single one page presidential-level summary for all 30 factors. 6,000 people were receiving that weekly document. OCS/FBIS does not offer anything helpful to Whole of Government–if they did, they would have focused on RSS to individual action officers across all the Departments and agencies, with the added value of using that to bond classified subject matter experts with the larger community of open source experts through the non-intelligence action officers. 100 T-1 lines into an existing septic tank does not impress us.

Read more below the line….

Continue reading “Journal: In Defense of RSS–Does USIC OSC “Get” RSS?”

2011/01/042011/01/04

Secrecy News Headlines

Uncategorized

** TIGHTENING SECURITY IN THE “POST-WIKILEAKS” ERA

Phi Beta Iota: US Government (USG) has learned nothing since it took testimony in 1993 and then proceeded to ignore testimony from 1995 (Aspin-Brown), 1996 (Moynihan) through 1998 (various). 90% of what is classified should not be classified and should not be a”protected” at a cost of $15 billion a year to the taxpayer. This is a classic example of the entire USG trying to do the wrong things righter, instead of enjoying a renaissance, doing the right things faster, better, cheaper.

** SECURITY PRACTICES AT DOD FACILITIES REVIEWED

** AIR FORCE SAP POLICY LIMITS CONGRESSIONAL CONTACTS

2011/01/042011/01/04

Journal: CIA Ghosts of Khost Ride Again….

04 Education, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Using terminology sometimes used in the DoD special operations community, article below conveys a strong suggestion that in organizing and staffing its operation at Khost, CIA failed to discriminate between enthusiasm and capability. Based on knowing nothing more about the case than is available to the public, there seems to be a lot to agree with in this article, which seems to get better the farther into it you read.

2. A quotation long reputed to be associated with Marine Corps Drill Instructors is, “Let's be damned sure that no man's ghost will ever have cause to say, ‘if your training program had only done its job.'” The obvious supposition is that you actually put people through the training program. That may not have happened here.

Silent Stars

By Jennifer Sklaka

Washingtonian.com, January 2011

Phi Beta Iota: Click on Silent Stars to read the entire piece, link posted for the record. Toward the end the article gracefully provides an indictment of CIA's incompetence across multiple fronts.

See Also:

Journal: The Truth on Khost Kathy

Journal: CIA Officer Blew Off Warning in Jordon Weeks in Advance of Jordanian Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan that Killed Seven

Journal: CIA Does It Again….(Taliban Imposter)

Reference: Panetta Puts Lipstick on the Pig (Again)

2011/01/042011/01/04

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Captures Indonesia

02 China, 03 Economy, 04 Indonesia, 10 Security, 11 Society

China-Indonesia: Representatives from nine Chinese companies will visit Indonesia on 5 January to consider investment in transportation infrastructure in the Papua and West Papua Provinces of Indonesian New Guinea, according to Indonesian Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi. The companies' representatives, accompanied by Chinese officials, are on a fact finding trip for constructing airports and seaports, and will consider upgrading airports in Manokwari, Timika, Biak and Sorong into international airports. The governors of Papua and West Papua Provinces will also present investment opportunities during the visit.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Captures Indonesia”

2011/01/032011/01/03

Journal: What’s Wrong with American defense….

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy, Technologies

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Phi Beta Iota: Notes summarizing the 59 minute video are below the line.

….Watch this!!!!! My good friend Pierre Sprey interviews Bill Hartung on Book TV about Hartung's new book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

The book is a history of the largest military contractor in U.S. history, Lockheed Martin. Hartung argues that with 25 billion dollars annually in Defense Department contracts, Lockheed Martin's reach into American life is extensive and largely unknown, including creation of satellites used to spy on the phone calls of American citizens. He discusses the company's size, scope and influence with Pierre Sprey, father of the A-10 and F-16 military aircraft and a well-known thorn in the Pentagon's side. Chuck

William Hartung

Mr. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. He is the author of How Much are You Making on the War Daddy? and And Weapons for All. He's written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Nation magazine.