Cultural Intelligence – Page 933 – Public Intelligence Blog

Although snuffing out dissent and cutting citizens off from the world aren't actions generally associated with the American ideal, two U.S. companies are helping the Egyptian government do just that as populist protests continue shaking the African nation.

The tear gas and smoke grenade manufacturer Combined Systems, Inc. is based out of Jamestown, Pennsylvania. But its wares have been showing up all over the Middle East as of late. On January 20, a photographer with the Eurpean PressPhoto agency was killed when a CSI tear gas canister struck him in the head at a protest in Tunisia. And throughout yesterday and today, CSI smoke bombs and tear gas have clogged the air and lungs in Cairo.

A less visible but possibly more important American-Egyptian partnership is that between the tech company Narus and the Mubarak autocracy. A subsidiary of Boeing, Narus sells hyper-complex, slightly creepy mass surveillance equipment. Its most famous creation is Narus Insight, “a supercomputer system which is allegedly used by the National Security Agency and other entities to perform mass surveillance and monitoring of public and corporate Internet communications in real time.”

Continue reading “Two U.S. Companies Helping Egypt Restrict Its People”

2011/01/302011/01/30

Did Obama’s Promise Trigger Arab Revolt?

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

My good friend Jim Fallows, national correspondent for the The Atlantic, asked me to be part of a team to publish guest blogs while he is using the ‘down time' to finish a book. I am assigned, with three other people, for this week. Attached is my first entry, which I am also distributing as a blaster.

Chuck

Did Obama’s Promise Trigger the Arab Revolt?

Chuck Spinney

During his brilliantly run campaign of 2008, Barack Obama electrified the world with vague promises of change in foreign policy as well as domestic policy. (My take on his campaign strategy can be found here.) Two and a half years later, those promises are ashes. Nowhere is that clearer in foreign policy than in the Arab world.

In contrast to the euphoria surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Arab Revolt of 2011 leaves one with a disquieting sense that we may be standing on the wrong side of history. People power and the promise of democracy worked spectacularly well for the United States when the tyrants in Eastern Europe collapsed twenty years ago, but I think it may be working against us in the Arab world of 2011.

Read entire article at The Atlantic….

Phi Beta Iota: Brother Chuck is at least half right. The Davies J-Curve shows how people revolt not when they are oppressed, but when they have enjoyed or tangibly seen within reach the state of non-oppression. What we have here is a convergence. Yes, the US is on the wrong side of history–it gave up its strategic integrity immediately after WWII when it joined the UK in reneging on all promises to the Arabs and then supporting a series of brutal dictators. Yes, Obama's broken promises had an effect, but not the effect Brother Chuck suggests: instead of raising hopes, Obama's promises, quickly broken, sidelined the US. It took the US off the table. All that was left was the example of the former Soviet Union states, what Vaclav Havel calls “the power of the powerless.” That memory lay dormant while the Internet and cellular telephones and social networks (including especially Facebook) created a new sense of social power independent of the state. The PRECIPITANT for Egypt was the fall of the despotic Tunisian government in less than a week IN COMBINATION WITH the visible collapse of the US and global economies and the food scarcities visible across the region. Paradigms of failure have been with us for some time, but the word ENOUGH!, first articulated in Egypt, will now be heard–and acted upon–around the world. Saudi Arabia is ripe. That's a good thing.

2011/01/302011/10/22

Assisi, Egypt, US Hypocrisy, Global Revolution

About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Autonomous Internet, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Officers Call, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc)

This is the one link to share if you wish to have a consolidated view on these topics. The Tiny URL for this consolidated posting is http://www.tinyurl.com/Assisi-Egypt-USA.

Phi Beta Iota: Egypt is a lever for the Assisi Peace Summit.

1) Against dictators and corruption, inter-faith dialog and coordinated action is HAPPENING.

2) The connected young are the antidote to radical violent Islamic fundamentalism.

3) Muslim demographics must be understood by all Catholics and Protestants

4) The Church can be a central force for Open Spectrum, Open Source Software, Open Source Intelligence, and Open Society–imagine, in a revolution, all churches and mosques as sources of wireless solar and wind-powered information that cannot be shut down, that collaborate to avoid inter-faith violence and promote non-violent “presence” in the streets to overturn the 44 dictators and demand the withdrawal of all foreign military forces….

5) Revolutions are no longer national–the diasphoras matter–the global presence of the Church matters from local to national.

6) The hypocrisy of the USA is now fully revealed–Barack Obama made 500 promises to the American people he has not fulfilled, and he dares to suggest to anyone that they honor their promises? It is time for the Church to recognize that the people are the sovereign power, not governments, and that the Church can profit much more from a free people creating wealth than from absolving corruption by governments and corporations and crime families.

7) Liberation Theology is back–it must be elevated by the Most Holy Father NOW.

2012 is not the year of apocalypse, it is the year of awakening when the meek inherit the earth. The time between now and Assisi and from Assisi on is strategically priceless, in our collective view.

Below the line:

On Assisi Peace Summit and Inter-Faith Intelligence (7 Links)

On Egypt as Awakening (14 Links)

On Revolution in & Hypocrisy of USA (10 Links)

Direct to the Core Revolution References (8 Links)

Continue reading “Assisi, Egypt, US Hypocrisy, Global Revolution”

2011/01/30

Leading Tunisian Islamist returns from exile

08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence

Leading Tunisian Islamist Rachid Ghannouchi returned home on Sunday from 22 years in exile, witnesses said. Thousands turned out to greet him at
the airport.

His return is the most powerful symbol to date of the change that has
swept this country since its president was toppled by popular protests
this month.

. . . . . .

Speaking to Reuters a day before his return, Ghannouchi said the party's role would be to help “anchor a democratic system, social justice and to put a limit to discrimination against banned groups.”

“We are taking part so we can move from a one-party system to a true multi-party system without corruption or oppression.”

Read entire article and view 18 photos….

Phi Beta Iota: The USA has a one-party system or a two-party tyranny, whatever you want to call it: corrupt politicians that work for special interests and betray the public trust. There is no difference between Democratic and Republican politicians, and sadly, the good people who think of themselves as Democrats or Republicans have no idea they are being deceived, screwed, stolen from, and generally dismissed.

2011/01/302011/01/30

EGYPT: China Concerned, USA Clueless

08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Mobile, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Real Time, Threats

CHINA has blocked the word “Egypt” from the country's wildly popular
Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been
tightly restricted in state media.

China's ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of
social unrest.

A search for “Egypt” on the Sina microblogging service brings up a
message saying, “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the
search results are not shown.”

Read full article….

Throughout the week, as the crisis gathered storm in Egypt, the
administration had otherwise been slow to react, seemingly always one step
behind events. This was partly because neither the U.S. intelligence
community nor diplomats on the ground foresaw how swiftly the protests in
Egypt would gather momentum—even if everyone realized that virtually the
entire Arab world is a tinder box of pent-up frustration, with despotic
regimes unable to meet the needs of, especially, their youth.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: Advanced Cyber/Information Operations are primarily about being in close touch with reality inclusive of history and culture as well as a full range of future holistic projections firmly grounded in a mature concept of intelligence that fully integrates “true cost” information for every service, product, and policy, and clearly appreciate the value of the human factor. Cyber-security is largly a scam (think back to the Y2K scare), and to the extent that cyber-security vaporware reduces the commander's attention to substance (intelligence), it is a cancer.

2011/01/30

Revolution Kickstarted by Facebook Generation

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Ethics, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Officers Call, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Threats

We've waited for this revolution for years. Other despots should quail

Change is sweeping though the Middle East and it's the Facebook generation that has kickstarted it

Guardian, 29 January 2011

EXTRACT: Meanwhile, the uprisings are curing the Arab world of an opiate, the obsession with Israel. For years, successive Arab dictators have tried to keep discontent at bay by distracting people with the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israel's bombardment of Gaza in 2009 increased global sympathy for Palestinians. Mubarak faced the issue of both guarding the border of Gaza, helping Israel enforce its siege, and continuing to use the conflict as a distraction. Enough with dictators hijacking sympathy for Palestinians and enough with putting our lives on hold for that conflict.

Read entire long and very thoughtful article….

Phi Beta Iota: The Assisi Peace Summit would do well to integrate the Facebook Generation. Ms. Eltahawy raises the prospect of Arab youth no longer tolerating an Arab-Israeli conflict (as well as genocide by both Israel and the Arab dictators against the Palestinians). The question now for us is this: where is the Jewish Facebook Generation? They need to pay attention and participate. By the by, this is what Advanced Cyber/Information Operations should be focusing on, not the expensive and fraudulent cyber-terror/cyber-security now a cancer within Cyber-Command circles.

2011/01/302011/01/30

Muslim Demographics–Dominant by 2050)

06 Family, 07 Health, 08 Immigration, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, YouTube

Muslim Demographics (7:31)

2.11 children per family required to maintain a culture.

Muslims births outpacing Christians including Catholics

Muslim immigration plus immigrant birthrate swamping West

Phi Beta Iota: When governments lack a strategic analytic model and a holistic as well as honest planning, programming, and policy process, they fail to provide for culture and education as well as water and other essentials. The era of governments being “in charge” appears to be winding down. The era of hybrid networks leveraging shared information to achieve consensus on “who are we and who do we want to be” appears emergent. This is advanced cyber/information operations in gestation.

See Also:

2 Roosters Can't Make an Egg (2:46)

Phi Beta Iota: Lesbians and Gays are biological way stations between female (the default for everyone) and male. The Industrial Era impact on agriculture, family, food, health, and bio-economics is still not understood. The reality is that between dropping sperm counts and bio-cultural changes including growing industrial-based diseases, the West is committing cultural suicide.