February 2012 – Page 24 – Public Intelligence Blog

Mixed feelings. Great idea — one that has been recommended for the five billion poor everywhere else in the world.

Troubling: out of 300 million citizens, 100 million qualify for this specific form of poverty assistance?

Obama Phone: Gov to Spend $2.4 Billion On Millions of Free Phones In 2012

Mac Slavo

SHTFplan.com, February 9th, 2012

One of the complaints about the U.S. Constitution recently, being as outdated as it is, is that it fails to guarantee certain unalienable rights such as free medical care, housing , food, and of course, the right to bear cell phones. And, although the founders failed to specifically cite social programs as a necessary element for promoting the general welfare, the living nature of our founding document has been interpreted by political and legal scholars alike to allow for the seizure of assets by force from one group of people in order to redistribute those assets in a fair and responsible manner to those less fortunate.

As such, if you’re one of the 100 million Americans living below or at the edge of the poverty line, you’ll be happy to know that you more than likely qualify for a free cellular phone, also known as the Obama Phone, from the US government:

Continue reading “Eagle: 300 Million Citizens – 100 Million Qualify for Poverty Phone?”

2012/02/09

Gordon Duff: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Arab League Report Shows that Syria Has Been Mischaracterized

While the Western media act like the Syrian government is wantonly and indiscriminately killing its own people without provocation, an independent investigation has found a different reality on the ground.

Specifically, over 160 monitors from the Arab League – comprised of both allies and mortal enemies of Syria – toured Syria and published a report on January 27th showing that the situation has been mischaracterized.

Initially, the report noted general cooperation by the Syrian government:

The Mission [i.e. the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.

The report noted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria:

The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.

The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.

***

Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria”

2012/02/09

Winslow Wheeler: Sorting Out the Real DoD Budget…

10 Security, Budgets & Funding, DoD, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call

I thought the short piece below might help people better analyze and report on the defense spending budget that will be released on Monday, February 13. As you know, DOD has already released some numbers; however, they are quite incomplete. They do not even cover all Pentagon spending, let alone all defense-related spending. Using the Pentagon's press release on Monday will likely mean missing the more complete picture. I try to explain below, and I address where you can find a more complete display of the numbers–all of them.

Decoding the Pentagon's Budget Numbers

Winslow T. Wheeler

This Monday, February 13, the Pentagon will release the details of its fiscal year 2013 budget. The press, congressional staff and think tank-types go through an annual routine, scrambling to get out their take on the numbers and some selected issues. Some of these efforts are quite predictable; this year we will surely hear about

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Sorting Out the Real DoD Budget…”

2012/02/09

David Swanson: Could Impeachment Threat Stop Attack on Iran? Photos of Depleted Uranium Babies

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, IO Deeds of War

Where is Conyers with Impeachment Threats Against President for Iran Attack Now?

By Ralph Lopez

It may have been the one and only thing which prevented an attack on Iran during the Bush years. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee John Conyers spent years fending off nationwide calls to impeach George W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq, the shredding of the Constitution after 9/11, and other high crimes and misdemeanors culminating in a summer of 2008 “non-impeachment impeachment hearings,” in which witnesses such as Rep. Brad Miller, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Rep. Walter Jones, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, Vincent Bugliosi and many others came together to implore the committee to bring articles of impeachment.

At one point Conyers closed to the committee room to any further audience members, prompting calls of “shame! shame! shame!” from the packed halls of the Rayburn Building to which people had traveled from across the country, but established numerous closed-circuit television viewing rooms for the public in other parts of the Hill.

Conyers refused to impeach, but did in fact draw one hard line in the sand, saying that if Bush attacked Iran, it would guarantee impeachment proceedings. George Bush must have believed him. Now as the crazies beat the drums for war with Iran, driving Obama almost irresistibly to war, Conyers has fallen silent. As recently as January 25, Obama said no options were “off the table.”

If we attack Iran, it will be an excuse to pour millions of rounds of utterly demonic – there is no other word – depleted uranium ammunition into a country which has done us no harm, which acknowledges the right of navigation in international waters but merely insists that it will not be bullied. The U.S. is determined to impose sanctions no matter what Iran says about its weapons programs, in a perfect replay of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Then as in Iraq, this will kill and maim entire generations of the most innocent life imaginable, that which sits and will sit in their mothers' wombs.

Read full article and see extremely disturbing photos of depleted uranium babies.

2012/02/092012/02/09

DefDog: Rent-A General Business Continues As Usual…

Corruption, Military

Rent-A-General Business Booming

Chris Frates

National Journal, 7 February 2012

Two of the highest-ranking Pentagon officials to leave government in the past year have landed on a lucrative rainmaking board for the federal contracting arm of business-consulting giant Accenture.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James “Hoss” Cartwright have signed on to provide advice on “the federal market, industry trends, and business strategies” for Accenture's federal business arm, based in the Washington suburb of Reston, Va.

It's the latest evidence that the “rent-a-general” business is booming for Pentagon retirees in the post-9/11 decade. Sitting on internal advisory boards for government contractors has become a popular destination for high-level Pentagon retirees, and while it's perfectly legal it remains controversial.

Phi Beta Iota: In a properly managed military, not only would be cut the flag officer and senior executive service by half, but by the time they retired, they should not be qualified to serve in the private sector — they should have been focused every waking moment on training, equipping, and organizing national capabilities, and as a general rule should be considered by contractors to be Darth Vaders on fraud, waste, and abuse. Not today.

2012/02/092012/02/09

Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, History, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Key Players, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Policies, Strategy, Threats, True Cost

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Baluchistan Hearing, February 8, 2012
Testimony of Ralph Peters, military analyst and author

“PAKISTAN AS A FAILING EMPIRE”

2012-02-09 Ralph Peters House Testimony, Baluchistan and Pakistan (8 pages, doc)

Introductory remarks: This testimony arises from three premises.

First, we cannot analyze global events through reassuring ideological lenses, be they left or right, or we will continue to be mistaken, surprised and bewildered by foreign developments. The rest of the world will neither conform to our prejudices nor behave for our convenience.

Second, focusing obsessively on short-term problems blinds us to the root causes and frequent intractability of today’s conflicts. Because we do not know history, we wave history away. Yet, the only way to understand the new world disorder is to place current developments in the context of generations and even centuries. Otherwise, we will continue to blunder through situations in which we deploy to Afghanistan to end Taliban rule, only to find ourselves, a decade later, impatient to negotiate the Taliban’s return to power.

Third, we must not be afraid to “color outside of the lines.” When it comes to foreign affairs, Washington’s political spectrum is monochromatic: timid, conformist and wrong with breathtaking consistency. We have a Department of State that refuses to think beyond borders codified at Versailles nine decades ago; a Department of Defense that, faced with messianic and ethnic insurgencies, concocted its doctrine from irrelevant case studies of yesteryear’s Marxist guerrillas; and a think-tank community almost Stalinist in its rigid allegiance to twentieth-century models of how the world should work.

If we do not think innovatively, we will continue to fail ignobly.

Continue reading “Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan”

2012/02/092012/02/09

Eagle: The Truth About Syria — Anyone?

08 Wild Cards, IO Deeds of War

When governments separate themselves from the truth, they are betraying the public trust. Those who lie to Congress are committing impeachable acts. Those who lie to the public are in violation of their Oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Below are several sources focused on Syria. It appears that the truth about the situation in Syria is not to be found among US or NATO sources, a distressing condition that goes back to the CIA sponsorship of false flag terrorism in Italy, and of fascist leaders “re-born” in Japan and Germany as CIA “assets.” All of this is now well-documented in open sources, but history has been “lost” and continues to be buried to the point that the US Department of State cannot publish its own accurate history for lack of cooperation from the CIA in fulfilling the presidentially and congressionally mandated obligations to declassify files from the far past.

Lies and truths about Syria

When the guns fell silent and it was possible for our colleagues and friends to go on the spot, they noted with astonishment that the “propaganda was not on both sides.” No, NATO’s version was entirely false, while that of the local journalists turned out to be entirely true.

Syria True News (Facebook)

Camille Otrakji, a contributing editor with Syria Comment online magazine tells RT that many members of the opposition have little to do with Syrian people as they have been living abroad for decades…
‘Outside meddling fuels Syria fire' www.youtube.com

Media Distortions: Ignoring Truth about Syria

The real reason for the Russian and Chinese vetoes is that they were duped by NATO’s involvement in Libya. What should have been the enforcement of a no-fly zone and a total embargo on military goods for the protection of civilian life was distorted beyond recognition by the alliance. Without Security Council authorization, rebels were armed and trained, a stable prosperous society was bombed into poverty and insecurity, atrocities were committed, much of the infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, the regime was overthrown and armed bands were left on the streets to fight among themselves and to kill and loot with impunity. Having been fooled once, Russia and China cannot, and will not allow any authorization which could serve as an excuse for a US-led colonial project in Syria.

The Truth About Syria (rense.com)

The state provides free education up to university level, free medical care and subsidized housing for all its people. Adoption of an IMF structural adjustment program in 2006 has compromised some of these benefits. These services have also been adversely impacted by the presence of 1.5 million Iraqi and 500 000 Palestinian refugees victims of the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948.

The Truth About Syria (YouTube Video)

The Truth About Syria (Vimeo Video)

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