From the Internet — quick reference list of actions/characteristics used to categorize people as potential terrorists. Note that affiliation with Islam is not included (at least I don't see it), while the 19 9/11 attackers were Muslim Arabs, as were the COLE attackers
EXTRACT: Departing more and more from rational depictions of truly suspicious activity, the criteria listed in law enforcement reports as indicating criminal or terrorist activity have become so expansive as to include many ubiquitous, everyday activities.
Phi Beta Iota: This is a classic example of trying to micro-manage from the top in an environment of such increasing complexity and constant change as to be completely dysfunctional at great expense.
Sooner than you thought? I would also suggest that Karzai is on shaky
ground unless he figures out a way to get out of his Parliament
crisis…..the Pashtu do not go for technology the way the Hazara and
Tajiks do……
Thousands of protesters on Thursday took to the streets of Yemen, one of the Middle East’s most impoverished countries, and secular and Islamist Egyptian opposition leaders vowed to join large protests expected Friday as calls for change rang across the Arab world.
and also this….at least one country understands the impact of the Internet on mobilizing
the masses….
As Egyptians plan for massive protests Friday, the government shuts down the internet.
An Egyptian woman shouts as she demonstrates outside the Lawyers' Syndicate in Cairo on January 27, 2011. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
Phi Beta Iota: From 1989 with the publication of General Al Gray's “Global Intelligence Challenges for the 1990's,” and then 1992, with the publication of “E3i: Ethics, Ecology, & Evolution,” is has been known that “open everything” was the single sustainable path to a prosperous world at peace. In 1995, in 1998, and again and again over the years the case has been made for an Open Source Agency (as recommended on pages 23 and 423 of the 9-11 Commission Report) able to achieve the Open Source “Tri-Fecta” of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS), and Open Spectrum (OpenBTS ++). CORRUPTION of intellect and politics, plain and simple, has been the constant obstacle. It is not too late for the USA to “turn on a DIME” (that's a pun for War College graduates) and get cracking and implement the four core initiatives to stabilize the world:
1) Electoral Reform in the USA to settle the USA by 2012
2) Open Source Agency as planned by Rob Simmons, Robert Steele, and Joe Markowitz with help from retired OMB officials and advance approval from serving OMB officials contingent solely on ONE Cabinet secretary asking for it (State with DoD non-reimbursable funding)
3) Undersecretary of State for Democracy, Ambassador Mark Palmer being the obvious choice, with two Assistant Secretaries, one to deal with the dictators that accept the six year exit plan, one for the other others who do not (and are immediately cut off from all assistance).
4) Undersecretary of Defense for Civil Affairs and Cyber-Collaboration, able to simultaneously make real the redirection of resources toward Operations Other Than War (OOTW) and unscrew the mess being made within communications, intelligence, and information operations by four star generals and their lesser followers, all without a clue. They mean well, but they are both timid and ignorant.
Egypt: Update. Bedouin protesters in Egypt fired two rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at a police station in the Sinai Peninsula town of Sheikh Zuweid on the 27th. One of the rockets hit empty space at the station, while the other missed and hit a nearby medical center. No casualties were immediately reported. Protesters also fired an RPG at another police station outside the town, setting it on fire. The attacks came hours after police shot and killed a protester.
Members of the pro-democracy Egyptian youth group April 6 Movement promised more anti-government demonstrations, defying a government ban on protests and called for mass demonstrations on 28 January after Muslim prayers. According to one demonstrator, after the protests started on Jan. 25, they will not end until the demands of life, liberty and dignity for the Egyptian people have been met.
Scientists say video games can increase concentration, help with learning and even improve decision-making skills. Now, in an effort to improve the work of spies, the intelligence community may also resort to using educational games.
Phi Beta Iota: Nothing the secret world does in gaming can be called serious, and that includes the ridiculous DARPA initiative to model a world so as to influence what real people think. There is no game that can help those put into IC leadership positions or those who continue to allow $75 billion a year to be spent on technical collection and contractor butts in seats that produce “at best” 4% of what top commanders need. The insanity continues. The ONLY “serious game” any intelligence community should be funding (and ideally all together in the aggregate) is the EarthGame designed by Medard Gabel. Medard was co-creator with Buckminster Fuller of the analog World Game, and the only person truly qualified to create the EarthGame in the context of a global Strategic Analytic Model that allows to design a world that works for all. Anything less is a corruption of the possible.
The first meeting, in Assisi on Saturday 22 January 2011, was off the record. The letter is in the Franciscan Order's hands. The third meeting, with a major trans-Europe foundation, is off the record until the Secretary-General obtains approval to proceed with broad dissemination of the letter.
The second meeting, arranged by Sergio Germani, was by invitation and spanned the various sectors with an emphasis on the government ministries contemplating the need for an Italian national security strategy. This was the only meeting that covered anything other than the letter to the Most Holy Father.
Below are a few of the topics addressed and links that were recommended as part of the Q&A. At the very end are other Assisi Intelligence links. The short URL to the original link is http://www.tinyurl.com/Assisi-Intelligence.
Summary of topics (repeated with links below)
Letter to the Pope (First Order of Business)
9-11 (The Last Question)
21st Century Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
21st Century Information Security
21st Century Regional Intelligence
21st Century Security
21st Century Strategy (Italy, Europe, World)
Coping with Non-State CNBC/WMD
Emerging Threats: Identification and Response
Future of US Africa Command
Open Source Intelligence (US Status & Failure)
Terrorism Today and Tomorrow
Bill Keller is the executive editor of The New York Times. This essay is adapted from his introduction to “Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy: Complete and Expanded Coverage from The New York Times,” an ebook available for purchase at nytimes.com/opensecrets.
EXTRACT: The government surely cheapens secrecy by deploying it so promiscuously. According to the Pentagon, about 500,000 people have clearance to use the database from which the secret cables were pilfered. Weighing in on the WikiLeaks controversy in The Guardian, Max Frankel remarked that secrets shared with such a legion of “cleared” officials, including low-level army clerks, “are not secret.” Governments, he wrote, “must decide that the random rubber-stamping of millions of papers and computer files each year does not a security system make.”
Phi Beta Iota: Upgraded to a Reference because this nine part overview of the entire process is elegant, informative, and provocative. A very fine contribution of lasting value.
If you are a Latino or have any grasp of Latino culture, this is a 6. This is as good as Evita and confirms in my own mind Penelope Cruz, who awed in Spanglish, as the Greta Garbo of our time. It took me some time to realize it was her, as her role, both through facial and body language as well as costume and design, was completely opposite that of the role she played in Spanglish. The male star, Adrien Brody, was himself phenomenal, and one has to give enormous credit to every side of this production from script and casting to settings, supporting actors at all levels, and the over-all framing of the story. This could easily become a cult classic to be enjoyed over and over again. I personally found it head and shoulders above just about every film I have watched these past five or six years. Penelope Cruz's face is a work of art in constant motion, and I was absolutely fascinated by the choreography of her eyes and mouth and the entire setting both up close and personal and in the larger cultural landscape that the producer and director captured to perfection.
I certainly hope this becomes available in USA standard (still incredible that there is not one global standard for DVDs, digits are digits) because when it does I will buy and keep this particular DVD for recurring viewing.
Writing this review has exposed me to the enormous body of work of Penelope Cruz, and caused me to explore the work of Adrian Brody. Below are a few DVDs that I have selected from a very large–a surprisingly large–selection, all of which, in combination with the two performances by Penelope Cruz I have actually seen, cause me to feel she is truly one of the most diverse, nuanced, beautiful, and downright plain TALENTED actresses of our time.
Six Star Instant Classic–Needs to Come in US DVD