Cultural Intelligence – Page 930 – Public Intelligence Blog

Phi Beta Iota: Below the line is an excellent overview from NIGHTWATCH. Here are the key points:

1. Muslim Brotherhood was caught by surprise, not just the US Intelligence Community.

2. This is a revolution of young people focused on fundamentals, NOT an Islamic uprising.

3. There is no overt anti-US aspect within the young, but Hezbollah and others are trying to tie the US to the dictators it supports–left unsaid is that if the US cannot turn on a DIME (pun intented) it will be skewered with its own sword.

4. Dictator Mubarak may be shopping for an exile estate in Egypt.

INSIGHT: The US Government has no one thinking strategically–certainly not the Goldman Sachs lobbyist now enjoying the corner office and pretending to be national security advisor to the President, and certainly not the Department of State, which has lost its one strategic thinker back to Princeton and has no bench. NOW IS THE TIME for President Barack Obama to decide he wants to create a Smart Nation with Whole of Government strategy and operations resting on a foundation of intelligent intelligence. See ON INTELLIGENCE: Open Letter to the President.

Continue reading “EGYPT: The Young, Not the Brotherhood, Anti-US?”

2011/02/07

Report Casts Doubt on Taliban’s Ties With Al Qaeda

08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, Intelligence (government), Policy, Strategy

N.Y.U. Report Casts Doubt on Taliban’s Ties With Al Qaeda

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: February 6, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan Taliban have been wrongly perceived as close ideological allies of Al Qaeda, and they could be persuaded to renounce the global terrorist group, according to a report to be published Monday by New York University.

The report goes on to say that there was substantial friction between the groups’ leaders before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that hostility has only intensified.

The authors, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, have worked in Afghanistan for years and edited the autobiography of a Taliban diplomat, many of whose ideas are reflected in the report. The authors are among a small group of experts who say the only way to end the war in Afghanistan is to begin peace overtures to the Taliban.

An excellent critique of Israel’s grand strategy …

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

… which is to morally isolate itself by making enemies faster than it can kill them.

If Israel's behaviour continues unchecked, the pro-Israeli biases in and distortions of US policies will intensify our own isolation, until something snaps in our polity — and then, Israel will be all alone.

Read rest of article….

IMO … Israel's only constructive option is to do a grand strategic U turn, which Israel's leadership steadfastly refuses to do. On the contrary, it shows every sign of digging itself deeper into the self-destructive bunker mentality described by M.J. Rosenberg below.

[Interested readers will find a summary of the basic ideas underpinning a constructive grand strategy, which are universal, in this blaster, where I criticized the US grand strategy pursued by the Bush Administration.]

Chuck Spinney

Why Is Israel So Blind?

MJ Rosenberg, Political Correction, February 02, 2011 3:55 pm ET

Those of us in the pro-Israel, pro-peace camp do not enjoy being proven right — although we invariably are.

Our standard recommendation to Israel is that it should move quickly to achieve agreements with the Arab states and the stateless Palestinians before it is too late.

And the Israeli response is that there is no urgency to make peace — except on Israeli terms — because Israel is strong and the Arabs are weak.

Read rest of article….

2011/02/062011/02/06

From Egypt to Connecticut–Burning Mansions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Government

Egypt’s Ire Turns to Confidant of Mubarak’s Son

CAIRO — As Egyptians turned their anger on symbols of the state late last month, torching police stations along with the headquarters of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party, they reserved a special hatred for a garish building with black tinted windows in an upscale neighborhood, setting fire to it three times.

Terror at Fort Hood? Or Terror from America?

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Military

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

We Could Have Stopped The Terror At Fort Hood

Washington Post February 6, 2011 Pg. B1

By Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan M. Collins

Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused in the murders of 13 people and the attempted murders of 32 others in the shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex., in November 2009, appears to be the toughest kind of terrorist to spot: a lone wolf who plots without the overt support of domestic cells or foreign sponsors.

Still, the attack did not come as a complete surprise to some in the Army and the FBI, and that makes this incident all the more tragic. Our Senate committee's 14-month investigation of the Fort Hood killings has concluded that the Department of Defense and the FBI “collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.”

The deaths at Fort Hood could and should have been prevented. The Defense Department's failure to acknowledge the threat of violent Islamist extremism within its ranks, coupled with organizational and communication flaws in the FBI's counterterrorism operations, contributed to the tragedy.

Full Op-Ed….

Continue reading “Terror at Fort Hood? Or Terror from America?”

2011/02/062011/02/06

Hackers target NASDAQ Site

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commercial Intelligence, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Tools

By GRAHAM BOWLEY The New York Times

Published: Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 1:00 a.m.

Computer hackers have repeatedly breached the systems of the company that runs the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York but did not penetrate the part of the system that handles trades, according to several law enforcement officials.

Continue reading “Hackers target NASDAQ Site”

2011/02/062011/02/06

Tom Atlee on Congress 2.0: Empower the Public

About the Idea, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Open Government

YOU, TOO, CAN BE A CONGRESSPERSON

by Tom Atlee

Why would you want to become one? Here are four very enticing reasons:

Read full posting….

The alternative approach:

* You might have to advocate policies that would be hard on yourself, your constituents or your supporters — even temporarily. You might become unpopular. You might get assassinated or your plane might develop unexplained engine trouble and crash. You might even not get re-elected!

* You would actually have to face reality, get the facts, learn about complicated stuff like how complex systems work. (It's really unfortunate, but most of our thorny problems are all tangled up with complex systems that are tangled up with other problems, too. Yuck!!)

* You would have to listen to and work with people who see things differently from you. After all, they may know something that's important to take into consideration. That could be really unpleasant and take you far afield from your party line, out in the political boonies where the real danger lies.

* You just wouldn't get the same adrenaline rush you get when you stick with oversimplifications, grandstanding, being loved by your supporters, and launching juicy attacks on your enemies. There just aren't as many ego-strokes or perks available for working with others to deeply understand things and come up with what makes sense for the long haul.

Co-Intelligence Institute's Pledge for Politicians

Read full posting….