Peace Intelligence – Page 361 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/03/21

NIGHTWATCH Plus: North Korea — US B-52 Follies, NK Threatens US Bases in Pacific, Crashes SK Networks

Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

B-52's & NK Counter-Threat

In Show of Force, US Bomber Trains Over S. Korea

North Korea: B-52 flights an ‘unpardonable provocation’

North Korea threatens US Pacific bases over B-52 flights

NK Cyber-Attack on SK? [Israel also suspect]

South Korean TV networks and banks suffer computer crashes after suspected cyber-attack from the North

NIGHTWATCH

North Korea: On 21 March at 0930 local time, the Korean Central Broadcasting Station made the following unscheduled announcement:

“We inform all soldiers and residents!

“This is an air raid warning. This is an air raid warning. This is an air raid warning. Military units and units of all levels must quickly take measures to prevent damage from the enemy's air strikes.”

At 1028 local time the Korean Central Broadcasting Station carried a second unscheduled announcement:

“This is the Korean People's Army Broadcasting Station. We inform all residents and soldiers: The air raid warning is lifted. The air raid warning is lifted. The air raid warning is lifted.

Comment: According to defectors queried by the Daily NK, this was the first use of the public radio system for broadcasting an air raid warning. It was a test because it was too brief to be a civil defense evacuation drill. In large cities they take up to a full day. This is significant because air raid warnings are never broadcast. This was probably a no-notice drill in response to the US announcement about B-52s operating over South Korea.

Air raid warnings were more common in the 1990s, but all were sent via the “Third Broadcast” which is a cable radio system, only accessible in North Korea. The Korean People's Army Broadcasting Station only has been known to use the Third Broadcast.

The use of a nationwide radio broadcast implies the North's leaders expect they will need such a system at a time when people would be away from their homes, in fields, on the street or in public conveyances. They expect the population to respond swiftly according to plan without advance warning. That is uncommonly realistic preparation. The B-52 announcement had effect.

North Korean drones. The Korean Central News Agency reported on 20 March that North Korea launched a drone attack on a simulated South Korean target. The press item touted that Kim Jong Un personally supervised the operation. The drone strike successfully shot down a target mimicking a South Korean cruise missile.

Comment: It is not clear just what transpired in the exercise, whether a drone actually flew. However, South Korean news sources in February 2012 reported North Korea had acquired older US drones, MQM-107D Streaker target drones built by Raytheon, from a Middle Eastern country. South Korea's Yonhap reported they possibly came from Syria. Photos of the drone are available on the Internet.

The North Koreans are extremely good at tinkering with older systems and finding value in materials that would end up on the cutting room floor in the US. Their entire missile program evolved from tinkering with obsolescent systems. They certainly have the science to boost the performance and capabilities of a target drone.

The North Korean news report disclosed information about the status of a fairly new weapons project. They are aware of the threat from Allied cruise missiles and have been working to counter them and probably build their own for over a year.

2013/03/192013/03/26

Paul Craig Roberts: Iraq Invasion at 10 Years — The legacy of “the war on terror” is the death of liberty.

08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

March 19, 2013. Ten years ago today the Bush regime invaded Iraq. It is known that the justification for the invasion was a packet of lies orchestrated by the neoconservative Bush regime in order to deceive the United Nations and the American people.

The US Secretary of State at that time, General Colin Powell, has expressed his regrets that he was used by the Bush regime to deceive the United Nations with fake intelligence that the Bush and Blair regimes knew to be fake. But the despicable presstitute media has not apologized to the American people for serving the corrupt Bush regime as its Ministry of Propaganda and Lies.

It is difficult to discern which is the most despicable, the corrupt Bush regime, the presstitutes that enabled it, or the corrupt Obama regime that refuses to prosecute the Bush regime for its unambiguous war crimes, crimes against the US Constitution, crimes against US statutory law, and crimes against humanity.

In his book, Cultures Of War, the distinguished historian John W. Dower observes that the concrete acts of war unleashed by the Japanese in the 20th century and the Bush imperial presidency in the 21st century “invite comparative analysis of outright war crimes like torture and other transgressions. Imperial Japan’s black deeds have left an indelible stain on the nation’s honor and good name, and it remains to be seen how lasting the damage to America’s reputation will be. In this regard, the Bush administration’s war planners are fortunate in having been able to evade formal and serious investigation remotely comparable to what the Allied powers pursued vis-a-vis Japan and Germany after World War II.”

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: Iraq Invasion at 10 Years — The legacy of “the war on terror” is the death of liberty.”

2013/03/192013/03/26

Winslow Wheeler: Iraq Invasion at 10 Years — Learning from the Past

08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Media, Peace Intelligence

The media is doing its usual vapid tour of the 10th “anniversary” of the American invasion of Iraq. Far better to consider how the nation permitted the disgrace to happen. Mike Lofgren cites three important lessons to learn.

For myself, I believe it most important to consider the domestic politics and careerist posturing that drives civilian (and military) leaders to beat the drums of war in order to manipulate political (and budgetary) decisions, or worse to simply advocate war.

Consider Mike's lessons below as you read in the morning news articles of the current US B-52 exercises over the Korean peninsula and the hysteria of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in reacting to a historically minor budget correction. Given the nature of the North Korean regime, is this the time to bait them? Have the Joint Chiefs shown they are capable to dealing with budget events they have only had a year and a half to prepare for? Is there an American domestic political (and budgetary) content to the US escalation of events in Korea?

As you read Mike's important column below, it is useful to think about such questions.

Michael S. Lofgren

Former Congressional Staffer, author of The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted

Iraq: 10 Years After, Have We Learned a Thing?

On the decennial of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the persons responsible have shown remarkably little guilt over launching an unprovoked war of aggression, even when the lamentable results might be expected to give one pause to rethink the enterprise. Marveling at the complacency about Iraq of America's foreign policy elite as they are fawningly interviewed on the Sunday talk shows, columnist Alex Pareene says that “[p]eople who were integral in the decision to wage that war sat there and opined on what the United States should do about Iran and China and North Korea and no one laughed them out of the room. It was disgusting.” Disgusting, but hardly surprising here in the United States of Amnesia.

Are there any lessons to be drawn from the debacle? Here are three tentative conclusions:

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Iraq Invasion at 10 Years — Learning from the Past”

2013/03/182013/03/26

Chuck Spinney: The Truth About the Cuban Missile Crisis

Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Peace Intelligence

The below article, which appeared in the Atlantic last January, is a very important illustration of how domestic politics determine foreign policy. Bear in mind, the behaviour described below occurred when there was (and still is) a consensus among the pol-mil intellectuals that domestic politics stops at the water's edge and that foreign policy was and should be bi-partisan — the conclusion is a good analysis of where this kind of romantic intellectualization leads.

The Real Cuban Missile Crisis

EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT THOSE 13 DAYS IS WRONG.

By Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic, 11 January 1913

EXTRACT

On that very first day of the ExComm meetings, McNamara provided a wider perspective on the missiles’ significance: “I’ll be quite frank. I don’t think there is a military problem here … This is a domestic, political problem.” In a 1987 interview, McNamara explained: “You have to remember that, right from the beginning, it was President Kennedy who said that it was politically unacceptable for us to leave those missile sites alone. He didn’t say militarily, he said politically.” What largely made the missiles politically unacceptable was Kennedy’s conspicuous and fervent hostility toward the Castro regime—a stance, Kennedy admitted at an ExComm meeting, that America’s European allies thought was “a fixation” and “slightly demented.”

Read full article.

2013/03/182013/03/26

NIGHTWATCH: China Declares Peace with US, Taiwan, and the Region — The Chinese Dream is About Retrenchment & Revitalization

02 China, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Peace Intelligence

China: The National People's Congress ended on the 17th with a press conference by Premier Li Keqiang. Before the closing, however, President Xi Jinping delivered his first address to the Congress. The central theme was The Chinese Dream.

Eight of the 17 paragraphs of the text were devoted to, or carried forward the application of, the dream. One of them reiterated the guidance Xi gave to the People's Liberation Army delegates on the 11th: obey the party, win wars and behave well.

Xi introduced the dream immediately after four paragraphs of thanks and preamble. The concluding, sentence of the second paragraph of the introduction is significant.

“Today, our people's republic is standing on the East of the world with a spirited posture.”

Comment: The point is that Xi did not describe China's posture as rising, but as standing. The period of rising has ended.

After the fourth paragraph of introduction, Xi began the discussion and for the Chinese dream.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: China Declares Peace with US, Taiwan, and the Region — The Chinese Dream is About Retrenchment & Revitalization”

2013/03/152013/03/26

Yoda: New Pope — Argentine, Trained in Philosophy & Psychology

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

May the force be with him.

The new Pope is the oldest of the seven cardinals identified by Phi Beta Iota as being of interest in relation to the educational table prepared by Anthony Judge. Argentine, trained in philosophy and psychology as well as theology, he is, as with the others selected by Phi Beta Iota, NOT DOGMATIC.

Latinos have always been the heart of the Catholic Church, and one of the greatest misteps of prior Popes was the rejection — the condemnation — of liberation theology. The Most Holy Father is the first Latino and the first Jesuit to be appointed leader of the Catholic Church.

It will be most interesting to see if the new Most Holy Father elevates the other six cardinals Phi Beta Iota studied, particularly Cardinals Fernando Filoni of Italy, now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Cardinal George Alencherry of India; and Cardinal John Njue of Kenya.

Anthony Judge: Scrutinizing the Cardinals by Educational Disciplines

About the New Pope:

Cardinals Pick Bergoglio, Who Will Be Pope Francis

Pope Francis takes Vatican trappings to a new plain

Pope Francis, a new era: Editorial

Pope Francis: Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is new Catholic leader

Why the election of Pope Francis matters to developing countries

Catholic Church Getting Serious About “Truth”

Egypt & Jordan: Muslim & Christian Side by Side

Event: 26 Oct 2011 Assisi Italy Pope, Peace, & Prayer — 5th Inter-Faith Event Since 1986 — Terms of Reference…

2013/03/062013/03/26

NIGHTWATCH: China-India-Russia Confer on Afghanistan

02 China, 03 India, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Peace Intelligence

China-India: Chinese media reported that India and China have agreed to start a dialogue on Afghanistan. An “in-principle” agreement on official-level dialogue has been reached and dates for the first meeting are being worked out.

Earlier this week, Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon travelled to Moscow for the first three-way dialogue between India, Russia and China on Afghanistan in an effort to build on common security concerns. At present, India has an institutionalized dialogue on Afghanistan only with the US.

Comment: The news commentary noted that China first offered India a wider dialogue on South Asia in general. India declined to hold talks about what it considers its sphere of influence with its primary competitor.

Afghanistan is different because India and China share an interest in preventing the return of the Taliban or another extremist Islamist regime. India was a primary backer of the Northern Alliance tribes that fought the Pashtun Taliban before the US intervention in late 2001.

As for China, Mullah Omar's Taliban regime allowed terrorism training for Uighur Islamic separatists from Xinjiang, China, and rejected Chinese inducements to terminate it. China is Pakistan's most important ally, but Pakistan also did nothing to stop the Uighur training by the very Taliban regime that Pakistan supported.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: China-India-Russia Confer on Afghanistan”