Peace Intelligence – Page 440 – Public Intelligence Blog

U.S.-Iraqi partnership halts smuggling across Syrian border

Dec 14, 2009 By Spc. Michael J. MacLeod

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE UBAYDI, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2009) — Since U.S. advise and assist forces began partnering with Iraqi border patrols along the Syrian border in mid-November, instances of smugglers circumventing port-of-entry stations have all but ceased, according to several sources within the Department of Border Enforcement.

. . . . . . .

The Americans bring highly-skilled manpower, armored trucks, night-vision optics and satellite imagery, while the Iraqis bring knowledge of the terrain and local smuggling patterns, said 1st Lt. Pat Barone, whose platoon of paratroopers was conducting nightly operations with the Iraqis north of Husayba.

Iraq’s first line of defense secures border crossing

By: 1st Lt. Juan Torres, Jr. Tue Dec. 15, 2009 [with mulitple photographs]

JOINT SECURITY STATION AL WAHAB, Iraq — Iraq’s first line of defense, their border police, trained at the Al Sheeb Port of Entry, led by Port of Entry Transition Team “Juggernaut,” and made significant advances in improving border security in the southern Maysan province.

Continue reading “Journal: Advise and Assist (Iraq)”

2009/12/152010/09/02

Event Report: UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Among Civil Society in Southeast Asia

09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Communities of Practice, Key Players, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence

Home Page

The Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation and Nahdatul Ulama (NU), with support from the governments of Germany and Sweden, co-hosted a workshop in Jakarta on 18-19 November 2009 to raise awareness of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy among civil society in Southeast Asia and explore the possibilities for greater civil society participation in efforts to implement the global framework in a manner that reflects the local contexts, needs, and prioriti es across the region. Participants in the workshop included representatives from civil society from across Southeast Asia working on an array of issues related to the implementation of the UN Strategy. The workshop aimed to build on the rich contributions of civil society to furthering human security in Southeast Asia and lay the foundations for the development of a civil society network related to the issues covered in the UN Strategy.

Click here to read the meeting summary.

Click here to read the background paper.

Press Coverage (Nine Links):

Continue reading “Event Report: UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Among Civil Society in Southeast Asia”

2009/12/14

Journal: Stolen Valor & Ignored Suicides & Amputees

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, 11 Society, Military, Peace Intelligence

Military Impostors Are Neither Few Nor Proud

Mary Schantag, co-founder and researcher for the POW Network, said her group's Web site lists 3,500 “phonies and wannabes” who claim to be former prisoners of war, medal recipients, members of elite forces or heroic combat veterans. She said she receives new allegations daily.

“This is an epidemic,” said Schantag, who is based in Skidmore, Mo. “It's almost a mass identity theft of people who earned their status as heroes.”

. . . . . . .

“It pretty much boils down to ego, women or money,” Schantag said.

Many impostors get away with their claims for years because the military does not keep a list of most medal recipients. Sterner, who pushed for adoption of the Stolen Valor Act, is now campaigning for legislation that would require the Pentagon to maintain a list of all the men and women it has honored.

“How many people do you see out there claiming they won an Academy Award and didn't?” he asked. “None, since there is a list of Academy Award recipients. How many phonies are claiming Silver Stars? They are all over the country because there is no list of Silver Star recipients.”

Sterner has compiled his own list of more than 26,000 medal winners and posted it on the Hall of Valor Web site, sponsored by the Military Times. Members of the public can search the database to verify the names of true medal winners. Earlier this month, AMVETS launched ReportStolenValor.org, where people can report suspected impostors.

Phi Beta Iota: Marcus Aureleus flagged this one, and we'd like to add to it the dismal lack of coverage of our suicides and amputees, two sides of the four-sided human cost of war that is almost deliberately concealed. See those stories below.

Continue reading “Journal: Stolen Valor & Ignored Suicides & Amputees”

2009/12/142009/12/14

Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

Phi Beta Iota: Zbigniew Brzezinski is doing an enormous amount of damage in his hidden counsel to the White House; if John Hamre replaces Bob Gates in January as has been discussed, this will get worse, not better. Below are a few odds and ends from various contributing editors, consolidated here to avoid beating a dead horse with too many postings. We have not sought to reconcile contradictory points of view, only to honor the importance of listening to diverse points of view. The London Telegraph piece is reproduced in full as it has disappeared from online view.

Chuck Spinney Sends on Religious Fundamentalism and the Rise of the Corporate State on What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy? on Soldiers’ Complaints of Shoddy Gear Spur Inquiry by House Democrats

Webster Tarpley Sends on Obama's War Against Pakistan on End the War Rally Videos on No Wind of Change After Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Obama’s West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan — it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan.

Victor Davis Hansen on Obama’s Wheel of Fortune: The president’s luck has changed — and he doesn’t seem to have noticed

Marcus Aurelius Sends: Special Forces Unite To Destroy Taliban Leaders London Sunday Telegraph December 13, 2009 Pg. 2 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent

British and US special forces are set to open a new front in southern Afghanistan in a bid to “break the back” of the Taliban insurgency.

Continue reading “Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War”

2009/12/132009/12/13

Officers Call: A Conversation About Iraq II

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 10 Security, Analysis, Ethics, IO Sense-Making, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Sir,

There's nothing inherently wrong with the analysis of Al Qaeda (I just glanced at it, if you wish I can read in detail today). The PROBLEM lies not so much in how we analyze support to terrorism (state, crime, other) but rather in the way we analyze (or rather do NOT analyze) EVERYTHING.

Here's what I have thrown together for you, in six pages with links.

Summary of Contents (OC Iraq II)

Why We Missed the Threat
Terrorism is Threat Number Nine Out of Ten
Terrorism is a Tactic, Al Qaeda an Interest Group
Without Legitimacy Forget About Stabilization
Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power
Three Things Secret Intelligence Cannot Do
Advise & Assist Transition to Exit Menu
- Strategic Communications
- Inter-Agency Professionals
- Regional Concordat
- Faith Brigades
- Redirect Funds Toward Waging Peace
- Contain Israel
- Make Nice with China

Officers Call on Iraq I

Semper Fidelis, Robert

2009/12/102009/12/10

Worth a Look: CitizenTube

Collective Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence

CitizenTube Home Page

Phi Beta Iota: We love this, even though it is very time and bandwidth intensive. As voice to text matures (China is rreported by Atlantic Monthly to be much further ahead than Google) it will become much easier to aggregate citizen views into the Global Game, and to create a “level playing field” for true democratic self-governance acrosss all issues and boundaries–it's called Panarchy.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Kofi Annan, Thomas Friedman to join CNN/YouTube Climate Debate panel

Last week, we announced the CNN/YouTube Climate Debate in Copenhagen, an effort to make sure that your voice is included in the climate debate – and that your questions are posed to decision-makers on an international stage.

These leaders will include Kofi Annan, Thomas Friedman, Yves de Boer, and Bjorn Lomberg.

To submit your question, upload a short video of yourself posing the question and submit it here: www.youtube.com/cop15. We've already seen some top-notch video questions like this one from Mo in Florida who is concerned about the cost of going green:

2009/12/092009/12/09

Worth a Look: Unitarian Inclusionality

Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Worth A Look

Inclusionality

Evolving Co-creatively, Beyond Conflict.

A place to encourage our understanding of space
in the fluid flow of nature.

Is it possible to understand what gets in the way of human understanding?

That is the question we are asking ourselves as we invite you to participate in the development and communication of a natural awareness that we call ‘inclusionality'.

We think that inclusional understanding , a natural capability that can be “re-awakened” in all of us, can radically transform the way we think, feel and behave, enabling us to live more harmoniously in sustainable dynamic relationship with our living space and one another.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Evolving Co-creatively, Beyond Conflict. A place to encourage our understanding of space in the fluid flow of nature.

Evolving Co-creatively, Beyond Conflict.

A place to encourage our understanding of space
in the fluid flow of nature.