Government – Page 473 – Public Intelligence Blog

‘Merchants of Death’ Could Make a Lot of Money Off a War in Ukraine

William Greider, thenation.com, May 13, 2014 – 3:57 PM ET

If you’re wondering why some US politicians are so hot for war in the Ukraine, think “merchants of death.” At the height of the antiwar movement, that was nasty label some of us applied to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other major manufacturers of high-tech war-fighting equipment—planes, tanks, missiles, whatever does the job. When the drums of war are sounding in some distant land, these the weapons makers naturally smell sales opportunities.

Trouble in Ukraine has aroused the same ambitions and hawkish politicians have picked up the ball and are running with it. They are demanding that the US government send military stuff to Kiev to hold off threatening Russians (our favorite bad guys). The hawks are portraying President Obama as a wimp who’s insufficiently bellicose. But the president is so far playing a cool hand. He has been getting us out of two wars. He’s pretty sure the people don’t want another one.

In fact, neutral historians may someday conclude that it was the United States who stirred up the trouble in the Ukraine, inadvertently if not intentionally, and that US arms makers played an important supporting role. When the Cold War ended in 1991, these companies saw a promising new market opening for their stuff—the newly liberated Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe. Let’s expand NATO! The manufacturers lobbied policy makers in Washington and courted governments of post-Soviet nations as potential customers.

Bill Clinton decided to do it, cheered on by the arms merchants. Why is nobody talking about that? Because It might sound unpatriotic. And the media love bang-bang, even if the cause is stupid.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: William Grieder on US Merchants of Death Profiteering on the Ukraine”

2014/05/152014/05/15

Yoda: Hundreds Protest FCC Dismissal of Net Neutrality

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Impotency

Neutrality not...

Hundreds protest outside FCC net neutrality hearing

One activist calls FCC's proposal “a nail in the coffin” for American innovation.

WASHINGTON, DC—As the Federal Communications Commission was considering new net neutrality rules, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the meeting Thursday morning to protest FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal.

Advocacy organizations like Free Press argued that Wheeler's proposal, discussed in greater detail in this post, “has the potential to stop the flow of a free and open Internet.”

Others at the rally, like Scott Beiban, a Philadelphia-based artist and technologist, told us, “As an artist making use of innovations like cryptocurrency, I find net neutrality to be a very important issue. If the FCC allows companies like Comcast and Time Warner to dictate the means by which information flows, it will be a nail in the coffin for American innovation.”

“We work at a technology company for schools and nonprofits,” Vanessa Holub and Elizabeth Rose, of Baltimore-based information technology services company Civilization Systems, told us. “Our clients can't afford to have a two-tiered system. Independent news agencies and poor school kids would feel the brunt of this attack.”

Those wanting to express their arguments against (or support for) the FCC proposal can submit comments to the FCC by going here and clicking on the link to the left of the words, “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet.”

Read full article.

2014/05/152014/05/17

Mini-Me: US Intelligence Community’s Kodak Moment — IMPLOSION — Comment by Robert Steele

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Ethics, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Huh?

The U.S. Intelligence Community's Kodak Moment

The game is changing rapidly. Can Washington's intelligence community keep up?

Josh Kerbel

National Interest, 15 May 2014

Josh Kerbel is the Chief Analytic Methodologist at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He writes often and openly on the intersection of government (especially intelligence) and globalization. The views expressed in this article are his alone and do not imply endorsement by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense or the US Government.

In 2012, the once-mighty Eastman-Kodak company declared bankruptcy. It was an event that should have reverberated strongly with the United States Intelligence Community (IC)—and not just due to the obvious connection between imaging and spying. Rather, it should have resonated because in Kodak the IC could have glimpsed a reflection of itself: an organization so captivated by its past that it was too slow in changing along with its environment.

To understand the IC’s similar captivation and lethargy—to remain focused on classified collection in an era of increasingly ubiquitous, useful and unclassified data—one must first understand the type of problem around which the modern IC business model remains designed: the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was fundamentally a collection problem. That is to say, it was a closed system (i.e., a discrete entity) with clear edges and a hierarchical governance structure. Given that nature, knowing what was happening in the Soviet Union required the use of classified means of collection—most of which the IC alone possessed.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: US Intelligence Community's Kodak Moment — IMPLOSION — Comment by Robert Steele”

2014/05/142014/05/14

Jim Fetzer: More Proof Sandy Hook Staged Event with Actors — Complex Details with Documentary and Photographic Evidence of a Mass Deception

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement

School closed, actors used: Robbie Parker, entertainer, exposed

by Jim Fetzer and Victoria Muramoto

“In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?”–Barack Obama

As I have previously explained (“Sandy Hook Elementary School: closed in 2008, a stage in 2012″), the school appears to have been non-operational during at least the four years prior to the events of 14 December 2012.

There is lots of confirming evidence, with or without the Wayback Machine’s indirect proof–that if there was no internet activity on specific days, probably there was none during the interval within which they fall–that confirms it had been closed.

In addition to not being compliant with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), video footage shows that it was being used as a storage facility, where even The Newtown Bee reported that it was laden with asbestos and other bio-hazards. No student should have been there.

More proof it had been abandoned

Continue reading “Jim Fetzer: More Proof Sandy Hook Staged Event with Actors — Complex Details with Documentary and Photographic Evidence of a Mass Deception”

2014/05/142014/05/14

Penguin: It’s Official – NSA Puts Zionist Israel Ahead of USA, Compromises Official US Government Communications in Favor of Zion

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military

New Snowden Document Implies NSA May Be Putting Israel’s Security Ahead of America’s

Why Is the NSA Putting Israel First?

The following leaked slide from Edward Snowden was released today by Glenn Greenwald in his new book, No Place to Hide:

If you can’t read the slide, it says:

Balancing the SIGINT exchange equally between US and Israeli needs has been a constant challenge in the last decade, it arguably tilted heavily in favor of Israeli security concerns. 9/11 came, and went, with NSA’s only true Third Party CT relationship being driven almost totally by the needs of the partner.

That is a stunning statement. It implies that the signals intelligence exchange between the American and Israeli governments has been driven almost entirely by the NSA giving information to the Israelis, instead of Israel giving information to the U.S. … even though we were the ones attacked on 9/11.

Remember, the raw data in American citizens collected by the NSA is shared with Israel. As the Guardian reported in September:

The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

***

According to the agreement, the intelligence being shared would not be filtered in advance by NSA analysts to remove US communications. “NSA routinely sends ISNU [the Israeli Sigint National Unit] minimized and unminimized raw collection”, it says.

***

A much stricter rule was set for US government communications found in the raw intelligence. The Israelis were required to “destroy upon recognition” any communication “that is either to or from an official of the US government“. Such communications included those of “officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the US House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the US federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)”.

This not only raises major privacy concerns for American citizens, but it might mean that Israel is spying on the American Congress and other high-level politicians.

We have nothing against Israel, but – as American citizens – we want our intelligence agencies to put the American people and American security first.

Continue reading “Penguin: It's Official – NSA Puts Zionist Israel Ahead of USA, Compromises Official US Government Communications in Favor of Zion”

2014/05/142014/05/14

Marcus Aurelius: CSA Reflects on Whole of Government Deficiencies — Military Best for Strong on Strong, Not Strong on Weak

Government, Military

Dempsey Wants to ‘Rebalance the Use of Military Power’

By James Kitfield

Defense One, May 12, 2014

At the top of the United States military’s vast, global bureaucracy sits the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the land and the president’s senior military advisor. The chairman sits between the four-star service chiefs on one side, and the four-star combatant commanders on the other. The chiefs are responsible for developing, training and equipping the armed forces for the future. The commanders are responsible for deploying those forces, and their focus is on the application of military power to mitigate crises of the day. Between them in that “supply and demand” equation sits Gen. Martin Dempsey mitigating disputes and fashioning tradeoffs.

As U.S. combat forces withdraw from Afghanistan this year, the service chiefs are trying to manage a force drawdown across the military as combatant commanders cope with myriad crises and an unstable world. That has made Dempsey’s job one of the most difficult of any chairman of the Joint Chiefs in modern times. Defense One contributor James Kitfield recently discussed those challenges with Dempsey. Edited excerpts from their interview follow:

Defense One: Even before the U.S. has pulled its last combat troops out of Afghanistan, the administration is being widely criticized for its reluctance to use military force in response to numerous other crises. How do you balance the frequent demands for a U.S. military response with a stressed force and war-weary American public?

Dempsey: Well, I’m going to get a little philosophic with you here, but when you look at what the military instrument of power can accomplish, it is actually more effective in dealing with strength-on-strength situations than it is in dealing with strength-on-weakness scenarios. And we’re finding that a weakening of structures and central authority is pervasive in today’s world. The Middle East is a poster child for that dynamic. But if you look at almost any sector of civilization – from international organizations, to big corporations to places of worship – their authority has diminished over the past decade. That has to do with the spread of technology that has made information so ubiquitous in today’s world. But the result has been a weakened international order. And frankly, it’s harder to articulate the proper use of military power in that environment as opposed to a world with stronger centers of authority.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: CSA Reflects on Whole of Government Deficiencies — Military Best for Strong on Strong, Not Strong on Weak”

2014/05/122014/05/12

SchwartzReport: No One Trusts Washington on Climate Change – Loss of Legitimacy is EXPENSIVE

03 Environmental Degradation, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

The ongoing disinformation campaign financed by carbon interests such as the Koch brothers, combined with the corruption of every branch of our government, has left us in this condition.

No One Trusts Washington on Climate Change
CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL, Senior Editor – Financial Times (U.K.)

In the age of the Iraq war and Obamacare, the government is hardly a trustworthy body.

The 841-page National Climate Assessment released by the US government this week has been described as ‘sobering”, but Americans do not appear sobered. The report goes into astonishing detail about what severe climate change would mean – and what it means already to specific villages, mountains and beaches.

. . . . . . .

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: No One Trusts Washington on Climate Change – Loss of Legitimacy is EXPENSIVE”