May 2011 – Page 32 – Public Intelligence Blog

Iran-Arab Spring: For the record. The head of the parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy said on 12 May that the Iranian government was not dynamic in supporting regional uprisings. Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran's diplomatic system was not active enough initially but that the activity has started and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has begun his regional visits. Although the government's steps to aid regional uprisings were delayed, Boroujerdi said it is good that such measures have started.

Comment: Iran was caught by surprise by the Arab cell-phone uprisings so much so that it was unable to support Shiite risings in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia as well as in Bahrain. Boroujerdi primarily was referring to these two regions, implying that Iran missed an opportunity to spread the dominion of Shia Islam to the western banks of the Persian Gulf.

The statement is an admission of an intelligence failure in Iran, coupled with hubris. No secular Arab uprisings, including in Syria, have looked to Iran for guidance. Even the Alawite Baathists of Syria have little use for the wisdom of Persian ayatollahs.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Continue reading “Iran–and the USA–Blew Arab Spring, Both Irrelevant”

2011/05/12

Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet

bittorrent screen — Click on Image to Enlarge

Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?

from the it's-got-the-distribution… dept

Innovation by Mike Masnick

TechDirt, Thu, May 12th 2011

One of the key things we've been noting over the past few months is how many more people are beginning to recognize the benefits of having systems and services that really are more distributed and decentralized, rather than very centralized. The problems with centralized systems should be obvious: not only are there single points of failure where a single mistake can knock out the entire system, but it also puts a single party in control as well. And that can lead to problems, say, when it comes to handing over private information to the government (or companies) without proper legal process.

Among the areas that have grown up with very centralized systems are various social networks, such as Facebook. In response, there's definitely been a call for alternative, more open and more distributed social networking systems, such as Diaspora, which has received a ton of hype, but still has a long, long way to go.

But could another player enter the space and have the infrastructure in place to make it work? It appears that BitTorrent is betting yes. The company is launching its new, much more user friendly Chrysalis interface for its software, which really goes a long way in moving the software towards being a media manager program:

Read entire analytic piece….

Tip of the Hat to Colin Hawkett at Google Group Next Net.

2011/05/122011/05/12

Cooperation Is Pledged By Nations Of the Arctic

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, History, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Maps, Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Real Time, Reform, Research resources, Serious Games, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools

dynamaxion classic — Click on Image to Enlarge

Cooperation Is Pledged By Nations Of the Arctic

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

New York Times, May 12, 2011

NUUK, Greenland — The eight Arctic nations pledged Thursday to create international protocols to prevent and clean up offshore oil spills in areas of the region that are becoming increasingly accessible to exploration because of a changing climate.

The Arctic Council — the United States, Russia, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden — said the protocols would be modeled on a separate agreement signed here in Nuuk on Thursday to coordinate search-and-rescue operations over 13 million square miles of ocean.

Taliban on Twitter, The End Is Near!

05 Civil War, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Non-Governmental

An Afghan man receives phone call on his mobile phone on a street in Kabul — Click on Image to Enlarge

The Taliban Are On Twitter

By Chris Gayomali on May 12, 2011

TechLand (Time)

Due to a strict adherence to Sharia law, the Taliban have long shunned modern technology, particularly personal televisions and computers. But in the wake of a recent offensive campaign in the Afghan city of Kandahar, the group has emerged on a new, if unlikely, modern platform: Twitter.

At the the time of writing this, the account in question (@alemarahweb) has 363 followers. Most of the messages are broadcasted in the militant sect's native Pashto. But, as the Guardian points out, on early Thursday morning a message that read in English was sent across the Twitter-sphere. Like most of the tweets posted, the message concerned exaggerated reports of “strikes against the ‘infidel forces'” that typically feature links back to The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan website, a frequently relocated Web headquarters for the splintered Taliban's makeshift government.

PHOTOS: Inside bin Laden's lair

The account also follows 12 other users (at least at the time of writing this), notably @Afghantim, a “USAF Logistics Readiness Officer currently deployed as a combat advisor to the Afghan Army,” and numerous Afghani news and development groups. The Guardian surmises this to be a practice of the old axiom “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” (More on Time.com: See the 140 best Twitter feeds)

The emergence of Twitter has consistently been one of the key stories concerning the revolutions in Egypt and other uprisings. And it has proven, time and time again, pivotal to community leaders for organizing unified protests on a massive scale. The adoption of social media by a decentralized group like the Taliban is perhaps an acknowledgement of the platform's communicative potential, whether that be for strategic or merely propaganda purposes.

2011/05/122011/05/12

Secrecy News: F-35 “True Costs” Disclosed

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

F-35 SELECTED ACQUISITION REPORT DISCLOSED

The latest annual report to Congress (pdf) on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program details the soaring costs and deferred production schedule associated with the program. The report, which has not been publicly released, outlines total program costs from last year as well as per-aircraft costs and planned annual spending rates.

It's “a useful primer on the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program,” said one close observer of defense procurement.

A copy was obtained by Secrecy News. See the 2010 Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) for the F-35, April 2011.

Phi Beta Iota: Congress has abdicated its Article 1 responsibilities across the board, but particularly with respect to war and the cost of war. Coincident with the insanity of the US Intelligence Community claiming it can restrict the use of unclassified information in legal proceedings (See Drake Leak Case), what we have is a government that is “out of control” and incurring costs “in our name” that are unaffordable and often immoral as well as illegal. Transparency of true costs is a major foundation for sane democratic policies.

2011/05/122011/10/22

Review: Liberty Defined–50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom

6 Star Top 10%, America (Founders, Current Situation), Biography & Memoirs, Complexity & Resilience, Congress (Failure, Reform), Consciousness & Social IQ, Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Education (General), Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Public), Justice (Failure, Reform), Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Priorities, Public Administration, Threats (Emerging & Perennial)

Ron Paul

Six Stars for Ron Paul's Consistent Constitution–50 one liners, May 10, 2011

I have read and reviewed earlier books by Ron Paul, such as The Revolution: A Manifesto and A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship. This book moves into a higher class (only 10% of the books I read and review get 6 Stars, see all my reviews in 98 categories at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog). I decided in this instance, thinking of Ron Paul as a viable Presidential candidate for the first time, to deconstruct the book down to 50 one liners. I offer these as a short form of the book, not a substitute for the real deal, but intended to help inspire more people to either buy the book, or absorb this free summary as we all try to break free of the corrupt two-party tyranny that fronts for a neo-fascist state.

Bottom line: liberty is a human condition diminished by a leviathan state.

Below: one line summary of each of the 50 chapters. See also the review by A. Maheshwari that I liked so much I cross-posted it to Phi Beta Iota for others to appreciate.

Continue reading “Review: Liberty Defined–50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom”

2011/05/122011/05/12

Advanced Cyber/IO: Knowledge Integration

Advanced Cyber/IO

Phi Beta Iota: It has become evident that this integrative post is needed. It should be obvious–but evidently it is not–that both Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information Sharing and Sense-Making (M4IS2) are inherently integrating by nature. Both are the anti-thesis to “Rule by Secrecy” and the Weberian concept of stove-piped knowledge. Both are pillars within the emergent Web 4.0 that will be the World Brain and Global Game connecting all human minds to all knowledge in all languages all the time. Below are a handful of graphics and core contributions that focus on Knowledge Integration as the next step in Advanced Cyber/IO.

Continue reading “Advanced Cyber/IO: Knowledge Integration”