Collaboration Zones – Page 947 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/10/252013/10/25

NIGHTWATCH: Libya as Arsenal for Muslim Terrorists

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Government, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Algeria-Libya: Algerian soldiers found a large weapons cache on 24 October in Illizi in east central Algeria, near the border with Libya. The weapons included 100 anti-aircraft missiles, more than 500 MANPAD shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles and hundreds of rocket launchers, rifles, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades.

Comment: Algerian authorities have not commented about whom they suspect stored the weapons, except to suggest they came from Libya. Illizi is on the road several hundred kilometers southwest from Tripoli, Libya. This is one of the routes used to smuggle Libyan weapons to militants and terrorists in Mali.

The cache contents help confirm where some of Libya's large store of man-portable shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles (MANPADS) went after the weapons depots used by Qadhafi's forces were ransacked and their contents carried off. This is an important discovery, but only a portion of the weapons that are unaccounted.

Five hundred MANPADS would be more than enough to neutralize French air superiority in Mali, had they reached the militants there. Libya has become the arsenal of Muslim terrorists.

2013/10/252013/10/25

Marcus Aurelius: Invictus for the Army Staff

Cultural Intelligence

Below written by one of the better officers I've been privileged to know. He's now in three months predeployment training for the very high threat diplomatic assignment he volunteered for in order to escape our command climate. While his performance while with us probably merited a Legion of Merit, insofar as I know, he left with nothing and without “signing out” on our traditional “tablecloth,” which dates back about 50 years and carries the signatures of most/all who have served in the Army War Plans Division. That speaks volumes. He left right at about the same time my closest civil service colleague retired. They were the best men we had.

PDF (1 Page): (U) InvictusfortheArmyStaff

INVICTUS FOR THE ARMY STAFF

Out of the blackness it comes for me
Wrought by a system without a soul
Yet another tasking that comes persistently
To quash yet another part of MY soul

A struggling victim of circumstance,
I cannot flinch, nor cry aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
This staffer is bloody, yet unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
looms but the horror of the shade,
shackled to a desk these many years,
I remain doomed, but unafraid.

It matters not how you hit the gate
Or escape from ARSTAFF's roll,
The only way to change your fare
is to row, baby row!

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Invictus for the Army Staff”

2013/10/25

Berto Jongman: 40,000 Afghan SIM Cards in Pakistan

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

40,000 Afghan SIMs active in country

Waseem Ahmad Shah

Dawn.com (Peshawar), 24 October 2013

EXTRACTS:

PESHAWAR: Over 40,000 cellphone SIM cards of Afghan telecom companies are operational in Pakistan and most of them are used in acts of terrorism, kidnapping for ransom and extortion.

The information was placed before a Peshawar High Court bench by National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday during the hearing into a case about unregistered SIM cards.

. . . . . . .

Head of the legal department of Zong Waqar Ahmad said the roaming agreements existed between Pakistani and Afghan companies with prior approval of PTA and if the court ordered they would stop that facility forthwith. He said the company had been following SOPs given by PTA.

He said a meeting of the companies would be held with the Interior Ministry on Wednesday wherein it would be decided how to further make the SIM card registration mechanism foolproof.

He added that to improve the mechanism, the companies had been planning to introduce a biometric system under which a SIM card would be activated only after thumb verification of the subscriber.

Read full article.

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2013/10/25

Jim Dean: Government Shut-Down and the Real Crimes Behind the Scenes — Wall Street Rules and Stealing the Gold

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 03 India, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call

Government shutdown and Chinese gold

EXTRACT

Gordon Duff first reported in Veterans Today another financial scandal motive for the Repubs wanting to hold up Obama Care. New regulations were going into effect to stop the cross collateralization of insurance company reserves, who are all owned by banks, so they could be market traded. The sums involved were astronomical.

“The Obama Care issue is about ‘funds in management.’ The health insurance industry, through investment banks and hedge funds, accounts for 35% of the entire investment capital of the United States.

This sector has been totally unregulated with, not just individual policyholders but industries and government forced to subsidize a health care Ponzi scheme where in some cases fewer than 3% of policy premiums were paid back in benefits.”

Continue reading “Jim Dean: Government Shut-Down and the Real Crimes Behind the Scenes — Wall Street Rules and Stealing the Gold”

2013/10/242013/10/24

Berto Jongman: Sunni-Shia Schism — US Has No Clue and Continues to Prostitute Itself to Saudi Arabia and Israel

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Peace Intelligence

How the Sunni-Shia schism is dividing the world

The unprecedented Saudi refusal to take up its Security Council seat is not just about Syria but a response to the Iranian threat

The Muslim world’s historic – and deeply tragic – chasm between Sunni and Shia Islam is having worldwide repercussions. Syria’s civil war, America’s craven alliance with the Sunni Gulf autocracies, and Sunni (as well as Israeli) suspicions of Shia Iran are affecting even the work of the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia’s petulant refusal last week to take its place among non-voting members of the Security Council, an unprecedented step by any UN member, was intended to express the dictatorial monarchy’s displeasure with Washington’s refusal to bomb Syria after the use of chemical weapons in Damascus – but it also represented Saudi fears that Barack Obama might respond to Iranian overtures for better relations with the West.

The Saudi head of intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan – a true buddy of President George W Bush during his 22 years as ambassador in Washington – has now rattled his tin drum to warn the Americans that Saudi Arabia will make a “major shift” in its relations with the US, not just because of its failure to attack Syria but for its inability to produce a fair Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

What this “major shift” might be – save for the usual Saudi hot air about its independence from US foreign policy – was a secret that the prince kept to himself.

Israel, of course, never loses an opportunity to publicise – quite accurately – how closely many of its Middle East policies now coincide with those of the wealthy potentates of the Arab Gulf.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Sunni-Shia Schism — US Has No Clue and Continues to Prostitute Itself to Saudi Arabia and Israel”

2013/10/24

SmartPlanet: The Switching Economy Puts $5.9 Trillion Up For Grabs

03 Economy, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

The ’switching economy’ puts $5.9 trillion up for grabs

By Tyler Falk | October 23, 2013

For companies around the world there are literally trillions of dollars worth of revenue up for grabs in what Accenture calls, in a new report, the “switching economy.”

According to the ninth annual Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Survey, which surveys consumer attitudes toward marketing, sales and customer service in 32 countries around the world, consumers are feeling more empowered to stop doing business with, say, a mobile phone provider or any other company if the customer service isn’t meeting their expectations.

Last year, there was a four percent jump — from 62 percent to 66 percent — in the number of people switching a company globally because of poor customer service. That’s a big increase from the 49 percent of people who switched in 2005 when the first survey was conducted.

The top five industries which see the most changes by customers are: consumer goods retailers (28 percent), retail banks (20 percent), Internet service providers (18 percent), wireless phone companies (17 percent), and landline phone companies (14 percent).

Those are the industries that have the best opportunity for taking advantage of the estimated $5.9 trillion worth of revenue that’s available worldwide from consumers switching companies.

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2013/10/242013/10/24

SchwartzReport: Six Specifics That Make Denmark the Happiest (and Perhaps the Most Productive) Nation on Earth

08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Lessons, Peace Intelligence, Policies

Lo and behold when a society is ordered on wellness and not just profit, as is the case in Denmark, we can see what results — wellness, happiness. So why aren't we doing this?

Denmark Is the Happiest Country on Earth! You'll Never Guess Why
AlterNet (U.S.)

Last month, Denmark was crowned the happiest country in the world.

‘The top countries generally rank higher in all six of the key factors identified in the World Happiness Report,” wrote University of British Columbia economics professor John Helliwell, one of the report's contributing authors. ‘Together, these six factors explain three quarters of differences in life evaluations across hundreds of countries and over the years.”

The six factors for a happy nation split evenly between concerns on a government- and on a human-scale. The happiest countries have in common a large GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy at birth and a lack of corruption in leadership. But also essential were three things over which individual citizens have a bit more control over: A sense of social support, freedom to make life choices and a culture of generosity.

“There is now a rising worldwide demand that policy be more closely aligned with what really matters to people as they themselves characterize their well-being,” economist Jeffrey Sachs said in a statement at the time of the report's release.

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