Category: Government

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Mike Lofgren: War as a Business Model

Corruption, Government
Mike Lofgren
Mike Lofgren

Operation Rent Seeking

How the war on terrorism became a business model.

By Mike Lofgren

Washington Monthly, March/April/May 2015

EXTRACT

The syndrome the Bush administration created in Iraq was what former Pentagon critic Chuck Spinney has called a “self-licking ice cream cone”: the measures to fight the war on terrorism guaranteed more terrorists, which in turn guaranteed the agencies more money to fight the war on terrorism. The same process was at work with respect to torture and drone strikes. It is a great business model for contractors and bureaucratic empire builders, but far less favorable as a national survival strategy.

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Berto Jongman: Oil and Military Intervention – Once Again, “Conspiracy Theorists” Are Right On Target

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Oil and Military Intervention: Are the Conspiracy Theorists Right?

The probability that an “oil-thirsty” country will intervene in a civil war in an oil-producing country is over 100 per cent greater than the probability that an oil-exporting country will intervene in a civil war in a country that lacks oil resources.

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Marcus Aurelius: America’s Military Power in Decline with a Blood-Letting Commentary from Robert Steele

Corruption, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

America’s Military Power in a Steep Decline

EXTRACT

If you want to know what is wrong about the entire approach to our nation’s military needs, consider that since 2009 when Obama took office, the Pentagon’s civilian workforce has grown about 7% to almost 750,000, while active-duty military personnel have been cut by approximately 8%. At the same time, dozens of military-equipment and weapons programs have been canceled, including a new Navy cruiser, a new search-and-rescue helicopter, the F-22 first-generation fighter, the C-17 transport aircraft, missile defense and the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. We are not prepared to fight a war and now you know why.

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Jefferey Jaxen: Medical Informed Consent Gone

07 Health, Commerce, Ethics, Government
Jeff Jaxen
Jeff Jaxen

Western Medicine In Trouble: The Death of Informed Consent

A monumental ethical issue is hovering over the entire medical establishment in the United States that threatens its integrity and trust. The human element is being removed from the equation, replaced by computers to give us our options, and legislation to remove our choice. Somewhere in the shuffle, the individual’s informed consent was broken down, lost in the paperwork, and made irrelevant.

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Reference: 2014 Declassified CIA Documents

Government, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Studies in Intelligence: A Digest of Declassified CIA Documents

For the benefit of researchers, Lawfare has reviewed and digested documents released in September of 2014 by the Central Intelligence Agency. The bulk of the materials hail from the CIA’s in-house intelligence journal, Studies in Intelligence.

We have grouped the documents in rough thematic fashion and, within each theme, by publication date where possible. (Many of the declassified items do not reflect a date or have dates and other information redacted.) Our five broad subject areas are: Intelligence Agency Leadership and Governance; Operations and Counterintelligence; Law and Oversight; Analysis; and Science and Technology. For ease of reference, each entry within each subject is accompanied by a brief summary of the document’s contents.

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