Event: 7 pm 28 Jul DC Movie The Whistleblower (Hosted by the Brookings Institution & Vital Voices Global Partnership
Corruption, Movies, Peace IntelligenceChuck Spinney: Israel To Bomb Iran Soon + RECAP
04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Former CIA Official: Israel Will Bomb Iran In September
July 15, 2011 4:04 pm ET — MJ Rosenberg
A longtime CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East is predicting that Israel will bomb Iran in fall, dragging the United States into another major war and endangering U.S. military and civilian personnel (and other interests) throughout the Middle East and beyond.
Earlier this week, Robert Baer appeared on the provocative KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing, hosted by Ian Masters. It was there that he predicted that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to ignite a war with Iran in the very near future.
Phi Beta Iota: We know and admire Bob Baer, one of the greats in clandestine case officering, whose books, Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude and See No Evil–The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism correctly observe that no amount of professionalism in the intelligence ranks can make up for massive ideology, corruption, and impeachable malfeasance in the White House, Congress, and the military-industrial cabal. War is how the unethical elite deal with unrest at home–it syphons the poor angry young men out of the system and distracts the booboisee. Israel, like the USA, has multiple governments, and right now the two extremist versions are nominally in charge and think they can get away with bombing Iran and then redirecting the US military against Iran. The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty is the best “truth-teller” on how crazy they can get, and how much they disrespect the USA. They give no thought at all to the five front war that George Bush started with the Islamic virtual caliphate, or the consequences of “burning” the young seeking reform, turning them all against Israel and the USA.
See Also:
Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Israel To Bomb Iran Soon + RECAP”
John Robb: Attacks on Energy Infrastructure
Communities of Practice, Peace Intelligence
Tracking Energy Attacks site. This is a great early site put up by my friend, the excellent analyst Jennifer Giroux. If the oil companies and defense/intel world isn't fully funding her work analyzing attacks on energy infrastructrue, they are making a BIG mistake.
Sample Headlines:
Another Sinai EI Attack: Fourth times the charm
Status of Libyan Rebels Control of Oil Resources
FARC Strikes Again: Cañon Limon (aka “The Flute”) Pipeline Attacked
Oil Tanker Attacked in Indian Ocean, Hijacking Unsuccessful
Phi Beta Iota: Not only is it possible to create a prosperous world at peace for one third of what we spend on war, but a tumultous world is UNAFFORDABLE. Special interests have been getting by on the margin. Law enforcement and the military were designed for the 10% that are recalcitrant to the standing world order. When that number climbs to 20% and toward 40%, the efficacy and affordability of violent solutions to non-state violence collapse.
DefDog: Cyber-Command Can’t Find Ball…
Corruption, IO Impotency, Military, Peace Intelligence
We generally say this approach is the same as a sucking chest wound…..
Cyberwar Plan Has New Focus on Deterrence
By JULIAN E. BARNES and SIOBHAN GORMAN
Wall Street Journal, 15 July 2011
The military must move from defending against major cyberattacks to deterring assaults by letting enemies know the U.S. is willing to retaliate with its own virtual weapons or military force, a top general said Thursday.
The Pentagon's new strategy for threats from computer hackers primarily deals with enhancing the defense of its computer systems and those of its military contractors. But Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that policy is just a start. He said that over the next decade the military would move beyond building better firewalls and make clear to adversaries that they will pay a price for serious cyberattacks.
“There is no penalty to attacking us now. We have to figure out a way to change that,” Gen. Cartwright said.
Phi Beta Iota: Never mind ignoring sound advice in the early 1990's [1994 Sounding the Alarm on Cyber-Security]; never mind DoD following the secret world into the technology rabbit-hole, sacrificing all human productivity on the altar of out-sourced incoherent contracting. What the above really says is that Cyber-Command realizes it has no hope at all of defending the rat's nest it has inherited, and it is now going to do a theatrical exit toward “counter-strike.” This is absurd in various ways. First off, only 20% of what we are calling secret actually is secret. Second off, we are so far out of touch with reality that the best way to retard adversary countries is to give them our acquisition system and our incoherent technology gameplan. Third off, the denial service of attacks are now coming from angry individuals, not nations, and London is one of the hubs. Last but not least, GAO has made it clear that the DoD Global Grid is dead in the water and will never breathe–ever. Bottom line: these folks not only don't understand the new game, they cannot even find the ball.
See Also:
2011 Cyber-Command or IO 21 + IO Roots
Journal: Army Industrial-Era Network Security + Cyber-Security RECAP (Links to Past Posts)
Reference: Bruce Schneier on Cyber War & Cyber Crime
Marcus Aurelius: 82nd Airborne Not Happy in Garrison
10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
This is a very fine piece of reporting at multiple levels.
82nd Airborne Paratroopers Unhappy With Iraq, Afghanistan Troop Withdrawals
David Wood
Huffington Post, 11 July 2011
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Among the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne's 1st Brigade Combat Team, there's a sinking feeling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will fade away. Instead of an exciting and challenging combat tour, they'll be relegated to the dread “garrison life” here at Fort Bragg.
. . . . . .
Garrison life can be more dangerous than living in Afghanistan. In a major study released last year, the Army reported that a small but growing number of soldiers who perform credibly in combat turn to high-risk behavior at home, including drug abuse, drunk driving, motorcycle street-racing, petty crime and domestic violence.
The study, commissioned by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, assistant chief of staff, estimated that 40,000 soldiers are using drugs illicitly, and misdemeanor offenses are rising by 5,000 cases a year. Among the growing number of Army suicides — which soared past the civilian rate and reached a record 300 cases last year — almost half had never deployed from garrison.
In addition to the suicides, the Army study noted there were 107 fatal accidents among its active-duty soldiers and 50 murders in 2009, part of an ugly toll of 345 active-duty, non-combat deaths — about 100 more than were killed in combat that year.
Winslow Wheeler: Analysis of House Mood on Defense Cuts
03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, DoD, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, Methods & Process, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace Intelligence, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Below is an important and interesting analysis of John Isaacs of the Council for a Livable World of the “mood” of the House on defense issues. I do not agree with all of the characterizations or implications (and I agree with some), but I do believe John (whom I have known professionally with respect for almost four decades) has collected some significant information. From this and other data, I conclude:
1) No one should be surprised at the House' ambivalence on a defense issue like Libya. It has been the hallmark of Congress for longer than I can recall to permit presidents to do as they please internationally while sniping from the sidelines and avoiding taking responsibility;
2) Congress pats itself on its own back for pretending to support frugality in the Pentagon by taking easy votes such as against the second engine for the F-35 (which SecDef Gates successfully painted as a pork program) and against a piece of the DOD funding for military bands (see below). The size of the votes on matters that are actually significant, such as the Barney Frank/Ron Paul and the Mulvaney amendments to cut from $8.5 to $17 billion from the 2012 DOD budget, shows a new high-water mark for budget cutting in the Pentagon not seen in Congress since — by my recollection — in the mid-1980s when the so-called Military Reform Caucus and budget cutters like Chuck Grassley were fully active.
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Chuck Spinney: Why US War Machine Goes On…and On…
07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Peace IntelligenceImportant note to readers: This differs from the published version. I made one really dumb error (bold below) and corrected a few typos and added some hotlinks to aid referencing. I apologize for my inexcusable mistake. Chuck Spinney
July 5, 2011
Perpetual Motion
Why the War Machine Keeps on Running
By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Villefranche, France.
The United States has always meddled in other people's affairs. For those readers who think this statement is an exaggeration, I urge them to peruse the chronology of interventions compiled by the Congressional Research Service. This historical predilection for meddling, however, grew enormously in depth and breadth during the Cold War, and to make matters worse, it is now clear that it exploded after the end of the Cold War.
Full story with correction below the line.
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