Category: Collaboration Zones

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Journal: Federal Judge–NSA Wiretaps Were Illegal

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence
Full Story Online

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush.

. . . . . .

The ruling by Judge Walker, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, rejected the Justice Department’s claim — first asserted by the Bush administration and continued under President Obama — that the charity’s lawsuit should be dismissed without a ruling on the merits because allowing it to go forward could reveal state secrets.

The judge characterized that expansive use of the so-called state-secrets privilege as amounting to “unfettered executive-branch discretion” that had “obvious potential for governmental abuse and overreaching.”

Phi Beta Iota: The US Intelligence Community is totally out of control and stupid as well.  Keith Alexander,[1]  like Mike Hayden [2] before him, is an administrative piss-ant with zero ethics–he means well, but he simply does not have the strategic brain-power to be honorable in the sense that every US citizen has a right to expect.   Across the board, US intelligence is being administered rather than led, and the time has come for the President–if he wishes to retain a semblance of credibility with the US public as well as the international community–to bring in a wrecking crew.  Not likely, but eminently necessary.

[1]  On very ignorant legal advice, while administering the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), Alexander destroyed ABLE DANGER and destroyed the early warning on two of the hijackers that ABLE DANGER produced, rather than hand over the information to the FBI as he was supposed to.

[2]  While administering NSA, Mike Hayden was the first to violate the Constitution and the  law with warrantless wiretapping, and then went on to pioneer rendition and torture at CIA.  He is the  epitomy of well-intentioned generals who sacrifice their ethics and their integrity in favor of loyalty to a political chain of command that is abjectly corrupt irrespective of which of the two-party tyranny wings holds  the White House.

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Journal: Israel, Neo-Cons, Big Oil, Iraq, & Green

05 Energy, 08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Strategy
Chuck Spinney

In my last blaster (here), I raised a question of whether the Israelis were trying to hijack the Green Lobby or whether they were ready for the rubber room.  This was made in response to a report by Jonathan Cook that contended Israel was greenwashing war on terror.  It turns out that I may have phrased this question in naive, simplistic terms, if my good friend Pierre Sprey (a justifiably well known weapons analyst, mathematician, and recording entrepreneur) is correct, Israel's motives for  trying to hijack the Green Lobby can be viewed in a larger, longer range context.  Below is his most interesting analysis of Israel's motives for greenwashing the war on terror: Chuck

—–[Comment by Pierre Sprey]—–

I totally agree that the currently faddish alternate energy sources are ludicrously uneconomical and, for the most part, environmentally harmful. The only alternate source that could almost completely supplant oil and that actually makes economic and environmental sense, natural gas, is currently among the most unfashionable.

Nevertheless, there's an important larger perspective to Israel's dead serious push to raise huge amounts of capital (guess where?) to produce non-oil based energy from trendy green sources in large enough quantities to reduce worldwide oil demand significantly.

That perspective is simple: unbeknownst to most, the absolute highest priority objective of Israeli foreign policy, from 1949 to today, has been to break the Seven Sisters oil cartel's stranglehold on world oil production in order to collapse the world price of oil. From Israel's point of view, that's a perfectly rational strategic objective–and, almost certainly, the only Israeli objective I know of that would be a major benefit to the world.

Continue reading “Journal: Israel, Neo-Cons, Big Oil, Iraq, & Green”

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Reference: Intelligence Reform Death Notice

10 Security, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Commissions, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Ethics, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Full Document Online

Phi Beta Iota: With a tip of the hat to Marcus Aurelius, this document is provided for information.  On balance it is rich with insights that are not available elsewhere and consequently must be very highly regarded as a baseline for where US intelligence reform (and US intelligence) are today: dead, with a $75 billion a year casket that shows no signs of atrophy.  Below are summary extracts both positive and negative.

Continue reading “Reference: Intelligence Reform Death Notice”

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Journal: The Iran Threat–Boogie Woogie Woo Woo

02 Diplomacy, 04 Education, 05 Energy, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 10 Security, 11 Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Peace Intelligence

The Iran Threat in the Age of Real-Axis-of-Evil Expansion

by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson

It is intriguing to see how whoever the United States and Israel find interfering with their imperial or dispossession plans is quickly demonized and becomes a threat and target for that Real-Axis-of-Evil (RAE), and hence their NATO allies and, with less intensity, much of the rest of the “international community” (IC, meaning ruling elites, not ordinary citizens).  If and when the need arises, any bit of news that is damaging to the targeted state will be fed into the demonization process — and in the marvelous propaganda system of the West, the grossest distortions will be swallowed and regurgitated without much guilt or apology, even upon the exposure of exceptional gullibility and dishonesty. The dishonesty, gullibility, double standard, and hypocrisy are handled with an aplomb that Pravda and Izvestia could never muster in the Soviet era.

. . . . . . .

Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002).  David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago

Phi Beta Iota: See the table at the Monthly Review Zine to truly appreciate the spectacular relevance of the total commentary by the lead author who with Noam Chomsky was a half-century ahead of the pack in understanding how Potemkin Democracy might be foisted on a deliberately disengaged public.

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Journal: Growing Non-Violent Informed US Revolution

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Government

Full Story Online

Guardians of the Free Republics' letters to governors spur inquiry

At least 30 governors have received the group's demand that they cede office in three days. Federal officials say they're investigating whether the message might be considered a threat.

Reporting from Washington – Governors across the country have received letters from a quasi-religious, anti-government group ordering them to step down from office in three days, in what the group's website said was the first step to disband parts of the U.S. government.

Homeland Security Department and FBI officials said Friday that there didn't appear to be an immediate threat, and they were investigating whether the message could be considered dangerous.

The Guardians of the Free Republics describes its plan as a nonviolent and legal attempt to “restore the true Republic.”

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Journal: US Government Party to $4 Trillion Fraud

03 Economy, 09 Justice, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Thursday, April 01, 2010

AltNews3 http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/

Largest fraud case in world history deliberately ignored by Western mainstream media. $3.87 trillion phantom shares lawsuit against US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Shapiro and others actively suppressed in senior editorial offices. The Bivens action suit was filed on Friday 8th January 2010 by Pasadena attorney Al Hodges on behalf of CMKM Diamonds shareholders.

CMKM Diamonds was used by the US government as part of a covert sting operation – unbeknown to shareholders – to apprehend criminals for their offences. However, instead of prosecuting most of them, restitution deals were cut. CMKM was registered as a publicly traded diamond and gold mining company. By 2005, concrete evidence detailing fraud within the company emerged. CMKM sold hundreds of billions of unregistered shares (naked short selling) to third parties. One official estimate cites two trillion phantom shares and 40,000 shareholders as being involved. Eventually, the US Securities and Exchange Commission moved to delist CMKM stock, whose value never exceeded one penny per share. After several administrative proceedings, CMKM Diamonds stock was ultimately deregistered in October 2005. The legal status of a meeting held in Las Vegas and chaired by Robert A. Maheu is being questioned. In exchange for a US Government promise of no prosecution for phantom share sales in CMKM Diamonds, brokers, dealers, market makers and hedge fund managers promised to pay negotiated amounts to a frozen trust for disbursal at a later time. What happened to these trust monies is not clear. Robert A. Maheu was heart-attacked out in Las Vegas on Monday 4th August 2008, and died aged 90. The Central District of California Court document (08.01.10 – Case Number CV10-00031-JVS [MLGX]) can be viewed heere. Deep background here (31.03.10), here (02.03.12), here (29.01.10) and here (09.01.10). And more about Bivens Actions (Constitutional Torts) can be found here.

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Journal: ClimateGate, Israel & Greenwashing Terror

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Media
ClimateGate Rolling Update
Chuck Spinney

An excellent summary of the ongoing dispute over Global Warming.  Chuck.

Climate Catastrophe:A Superstorm for Global Warming Research

By Marco Evers, Olaf Stampf and Gerald Traufetter

Der Spiegel 1 April 2010

Plagued by reports of sloppy work, falsifications and exaggerations, climate research is facing a crisis of confidence. How reliable are the predictions about global warming and its consequences? And would it really be the end of the world if temperatures rose by more than the much-quoted limit of two degrees Celsius?

… are they ready for the Rubber Room or Both? My guess is the answer is “both.”  But read the attached article by Jonathan Cook and judge for yourself.  One thing that is becoming clear, however:  Global Warming can be used as a canonical fear to justify just about anything — from Obama's plan to resurrect the nuclear power industry (while at the same time, he punts on the nuc waste issue by caving into political pressure to close the Yucca Mountain waste depository, after spending $17 billion since the 1980s) to Israel's crackpot plan to win the so-called war on terror by impoverishing the petro-states via the weaning the industrial world off hydrocarbons (see below).  If you want to get a realistic idea of the size of the energy numbers as well as the socio-economic implications of the policy transformations implied by displacing the West's reliance on hydrocarbons, I urge you read my good friend Robert Bryce's important new book, Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, Public Affairs Press, April 2010.  You do not have to agree with his specific recommendations to accept the value of his important work.

Chuck Spinney
Marmaris, Turkey

[archive under construction at http://chuckspinney.blogspot.com/ ]

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 30 March 2010