Collaboration Zones – Page 1083 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/10/182012/10/18

Chuck Spinney – Cogent Analysis pf Arab Spring Seven Key Challenges Not Available from CIA or Department of State – Plus Personal Appeal for Contributions to Keep CounterPunch Going

05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Knowledge, Military, Peace Intelligence

Jeffrey St Claire, the editor at Counterpunch has given me permission to distribute the attached essay, “The Arab Spring at the Crossroads,” by Esam Al-Amin. It was published in the subscription edition of Counterpunch and is not available at the CP website. Al-Amin, who I do not know, has written a very informative summary of the crosscurrents now shaping the Arab world. This is a subject of very great importance to the welfare of all Americans. I urge you to read it carefully.

In addition to being informative, Al-Amin's essay is a prime example of the quality of the information now available in what the mainstream media likes to call the alternative press. This brings me to my second reason for writing this blaster. Counterpunch is having a rare fundraising drive and I am taking what for me is an unprecedented action of urging you to contribute. I think it is important to support alternative news/opinion outlets like Antiwar.com, Truthout, Alternet, and especially, since I am biased, Counterpunch. (Truth in advertising: I counted the late editor Alex Cockburn and still count his co-editor Jeffrey St Claire as friends.)

So, I urge you read the essay below — you can determine whether or not you think it stands on its own merits. If you feel this is the kind of info worth paying a little for, I encourage you to think about purchasing a subscription or a gift sub for a friend or relative or sending a small tax-deductible donation to CP's secure sever. The Counterpunchers promise they won’t contact you to shake you down for more money or sell your name to any lists–not Karl Rove’s and especially not MoveOn’s. To contribute by phone you can call Becky or Deva toll free at: 1-800-840-3683

Chuck Spinney

Please Contribute to CounterPunch. Printable Document: Esam Al-Amin on Arab Spring Seven Challenges (9 Page Doc)

The Arab Spring at the Crossroads

Seven Key Challenges

By Esam Al-Amin

CounterPunch Volume 19 Number 17, >October 1-15, 2012, published October 2, 2012

Ever since Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798, the relationship between the West and the Arab-Muslim East has been contentious and convoluted. Although this military leader of the first French Republic conquered Egypt for strategic reasons in his rivalry with the British and the Ottomans, the Muslim Arabs of the region – later dubbed “the Middle East” by an American naval officer – felt vulnerable, exposed, and weak.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney – Cogent Analysis pf Arab Spring Seven Key Challenges Not Available from CIA or Department of State – Plus Personal Appeal for Contributions to Keep CounterPunch Going”

2012/10/172012/10/17

Mini-Me: Eustace Mullins Books & Videos — a Deep Look Into the Origins of Western Financial Crime & Terror with Politicians as the Best of the Servant Class

Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence

Huh?

First read Wikipedia / Eustace Mullins

EXTRACT:

A central theme of Mullins' book is that the Federal Reserve allows bankers to monetize debt, creating it out of nothing by book entry, and thus they have enormous leverage over everyone else. Near the end of the book, he said of the Federal Reserve:

The Federal Reserve System is not Federal; it has no reserves; and it is not a system, but rather, a criminal syndicate. It is the product of criminal syndicalist activity of an international consortium of dynastic families comprising what the author terms “The World Order”. The Federal Reserve system is a central bank operating in the United States. Although the student will find no such definition of a central bank in the textbooks of any university, the author has defined a central bank as follows: It is the dominant financial power of the country which harbors it. It is entirely private-owned, although it seeks to give the appearance of a governmental institution. It has the right to print and issue money, the traditional prerogative of monarchs. It is set up to provide financing for wars. It functions as a money monopoly having total power over all the money and credit of the people.

Then watch this YouTube (58:19) Eustace Mullins – The New World Order (Full Length)

Eustace Mullins (1923-2010), America's foremost bank examiner, appears for the first time in a full studio production interview with “The Mouth of the South,” Bobby Lee. Mullins, a renowned author, lecturer and scholar reveals over 50 years of intensive research in an incredible true story and documentation of the conspiracy against the patriotic, hard working families of middle America.

Eustace Mullins can rightly be called not only America's premier populist historian, but he is a titanic figure on the landscape of American and world history, as a consequence of his monumental contributions to the arena of political, economic and philosophical discussion. Debt, Taxation, Inflation, Deflation, Bankruptcy; in the New World Order, there's nothing new under the sun.

More Links (Books, Videos, Online)

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Eustace Mullins Books & Videos — a Deep Look Into the Origins of Western Financial Crime & Terror with Politicians as the Best of the Servant Class”

2012/10/16

Tom Atlee: Webinar on Empowering Public Wisdom

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence

Empowering Public Wisdom with Tom Atlee

Tom Atlee, author of The Tao of Democracy, is on a mission to bring the citizen back into democracy through a simple and practical method. The co-director of The Co-Intelligence Institute in Eugene, Oregon, calls for the introduction of citizen councils that offer a platform for “collective intelligence.” This political pioneer shares his views in his new book, Empowering Public Wisdom, and with you in this engaging online seminar.

Logistics

Date: October 18, 2012 (=October 19 for Dutch viewers due to timedifference)
Location: Online
Time: 5 pm-6:30pm PDT (02.00-3.30 for Dutch viewers)
Price: $10 (€10 for Dutch registrants)

FREE: Read major article.

FREE: 2009 TEDx by Tom Atlee (26:06)

2012/10/132012/10/13

Berto Jongman: Social Network Analysis of Al-Muhajiroun’s Propaganda Campaign

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War

The YouTube Jihadists: A Social Network Analysis of Al-Muhajiroun’s Propaganda Campaign

by Jytte Klausen, Eliane Tschaen Barbieri, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, and Aaron Y. Zelin

Abstract

Producers of Al-Qaeda inspired propaganda have shifted their operations in recent years from closed membership online forums to mainstream social networking platforms. Using social network analysis, we show that behind the apparent proliferation of such sources, YouTube account holders associated with incarnations of the British al-Muhajiroun collude to post propaganda and violent content. European groups commonly use American platforms and domain names registered with American companies. Seeking shelter under speech rights granted by the First Amendment, they evade European laws against incitement and hate speech.

Read full article.

2012/10/13

Chuck Spinny: Variations on a Theme – Faux Democracy

Cultural Intelligence

In this first provocative essay, the historian Norman Pollack* explains why he thinks fascism with a thuggish face might be preferable to the silky corporatism of the neo-liberal deep state** An interesting review/critique of Pollack most well-known book can be found here. ** the “deep state” is a term coined by the Turks and used by the Egyptians to describe their own versions of Maryuma's “close-embrace” system, the American version of Professor Pollack summarizes below.

Under the Cloak of Liberalism – America on the Cusp of Fascism

Berto Jongman: Director-General of Red Cross on War and Non-War in the Future

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Being watched in Europe.

Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Yves Daccord explains how war has shaped the image of our heroes but warns of the risks as modern technology makes warfare anonymous and hidden.

Phi Beta Iota: Provides an excellent focus on war as a cultural force, changing relations between generations, between men and women. Concludes that technology and anonymnity are making war possible for any individual to launch and continue, and consequently also making war a concept that must be eliminated as an option at all levels. Ignores the financial reality that war is a business and business is good. Strives to suggest that eliminating the us versus them divide is an essential first step.

2012/10/112012/10/11

Yoda: US Intelligence Turns to Crowd-Sourcing (Only in English, Only Online)

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Government

yoda with light saber — Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Intelligence agencies turn to crowdsourcing

Sharon Weinberger

BBC 10 October 2012

EXTRACTS:

Research firm Applied Research Associates, has just launched a website that invites the public—meaning anyone, anywhere—to sign up and try their hand at intelligence forecasting. The website is part of an effort, sponsored by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (Iarpa), to understand the potential benefits of so-called crowdsourcing for predicting future events. Crowdsourcing aims to use the “wisdom of crowds” and was popularised by projects like Wikipedia.

. . . . . . . .

There’s good reason for Iarpa’s interest in finding new ways to collect useful information: the intelligence community has often been blasted for its failure to forecast critical world events, from the fall of the Soviet Union to the Arab Spring that swept across North Africa and the Middle East. It was also heavily criticized for its National Intelligence Estimate in 2002, which supported claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Those failures raised larger questions about how the intelligence agencies come up with forecasts, which is usually a deliberative process involving a large number of analysts. The Iarpa project, known officially as Aggregative Contingent Estimation, is looking at whether crowdsourcing can result in more accurate forecasts about future events than those traditional forms of intelligence estimation.

Continue reading “Yoda: US Intelligence Turns to Crowd-Sourcing (Only in English, Only Online)”