Here is what I believe is a correct assessment concerning the creation of the national security state in which we live today. Absurd amounts of money have been spent, and civil liberties abridged to an unprecedented degree, on the basis of a threat consisting of little gangs. It is transparently disproportionate, there has to be something underneath that.! I believe it results from a long-term strategic assessment of what is going to happen with climate change. Since 1991 I have been following and publishing stories on this trend. It's very clear, on the basis of the scientific research in the open literature, that it is going to cause massive disruption, and social disorder. I am sure there are lots of other studies that are classified that say the same thing, perhaps in greater detail, and with a security perspective not usually found in open research literature

NSA Spying Did Not Result In a SINGLE Foiled Terrorist Plot
WashingtonsBlog

Entire article with links below the line.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: NSA Has Not Foiled a SINGLE Terrorist Plot + NSA Meta-RECAP”

2013/10/182013/10/18

David Isenberg: Protecting Victims of the Privatization of War

09 Justice, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers Call

Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire

Protecting the Victims of the Privatization of War

Over the years we have seen numerous cases of various abuses and outright crimes by private military and security contractors (PMSC). True, they don’t happen every day, and don’t reflect the actions of the vast majority of the contractors working overseas but it would be foolish to say it is just the actions of a few bad apples either. Why these crimes happen says as much about the overall framework of accountability that various governments have set up and, with varying degrees of effort and resources, have enforced. But that is not the point of this post.

What is the point is this. When, in the past, crimes have become public, governments have brought cases against the accused offenders with varying degrees of success. To name a few:

the killings of Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors at Nisoor Square in 2007, the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Titan reportedly aided by Titan and CACI contractors, DynCorp contractors, being accused of rape and running underage prostitution networks in association with their security duties under contract with the US military in Bosnia; PMSCs accused of killing Ecuadorian peasants by spraying their villages with toxic defoliants and accidentally shooting down a missionary plane incorrectly suspected of drug trafficking.

But it is still fairly rare for the perpetrators to get convicted and go to prison. Why is that?

The paper Protecting the Victims of the Privatization of War by Willem van Genugten, Marie-José van der Heijden, and Nicola Jägers, published earlier this year by the Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands offers some answers.

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Protecting Victims of the Privatization of War”

2013/10/18

Berto Jongman: Russia’s Illegals and “Day X” Behind the Lines General War Plan

04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

An inside look into Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service – mysterious Directorate “S”, Department “12″

EXTRACT:

“The formula Day X in our documents meant the beginning of a large scale war against the west. Our department 12 (together with department 8) was in charge of perpetrating acts of sabotage and terror on the enemy territory…to participate in so called: direct actions, which are clandestine acts of biological sabotage and terrorism against potential strike targets. These included: “Army targets and classified biological warfare ammunition, stockpiles, military garrisons, bases and military (and other) defense commands, like those which surveillance of biological weapons activities. Civil targets included public drinking water systems, food stores and pharmaceutical and biotechnological plants, also the economy.”

He concluded by saying: “our tools for these actions included, first and foremost our illegals, whom we had planted in the target country. These were the most reliable, well trusted special agents.”

Read full article.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Russia's Illegals and “Day X” Behind the Lines General War Plan”

2013/10/17

Eagle: Working Cannot Stop Poverty (Really)

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Put another way, the 1% have so thoroughly screwed the system that one adults working full time (or two adults working part-time four times) cannot support their children at the same time that social and other state services are collapsing.

Alan Milburn says child poverty ‘no longer problem of the workless and work-shy'

Working parents in Britain “simply do not earn enough to escape poverty”, the government's social mobility tsar Alan Milburn has warned.

Two-thirds of poor children are now from families where an adult works, his report found.

Read full article.

2013/10/17

Eagle: Are We Approaching Peak Retirement?

03 Economy, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

Are We Approaching Peak Retirement? (October 15, 2013)

If stocks, bonds and real estate all decline going forward, where are pension funds going to earn their 7+% annual yields?If we look at the foundations of retirement–Social Security, stocks, bonds and real estate–it seems we may have reached Peak Retirement. Let's start the discussion by noting that the primary Federal retirement programs–Social Security and Medicare–are “pay as you go,” meaning the checks sent out to beneficiaries this year are funded by payroll tax revenues collected this year from workers.

As Mish and I (as well as others) have tirelessly pointed out, the “trust funds” for these programs are phantoms of imagination. When these programs run deficits, the government raises the money to fund the deficit the same way it funds all its deficit spending–by selling Treasury bonds.

These programs were founded on a demographic illusion, i.e. that the number of retirees (beneficiaries) would magically remain a small percentage of the workforce paying payroll taxes. Alas, the number of beneficiaries is rising fast while the number of full-time workers is stagnating.

Full-time employment and the number of Social Security beneficiaries: the ratio of full-time workers to beneficiaries is already 2-to-1, and set to decline. Below 2-to-1, either payroll taxes will have to icnrease or benefits will have to be trimmed, or some of both.

SmartPlanet: What a U.S. default means for the world

Commerce, Corruption, Government

What a U.S. default means for the world

By David Worthington | October 15, 2013

The United States is on the brink of defaulting on its sovereign debt for the first time since the gold standard ended. The “full faith and credit” of the United States hangs in the balance as the Republican tea party caucus is recalcitrant against raising the debt ceiling, which limits how many bonds that the Treasury can issue.

Nothing less than a global economic crisis and the status of the United States as a world power are at risk if T-bills are downgraded from their coveted AAA status. We’ve already written about how catastrophic a default would be for the U.S.; here are some of the consequences of a default for the global business environment courtesy of experts that we spoke with today.

A U.S. economic collapse & fall of the dollar as a reserve currency?

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: What a U.S. default means for the world”

2013/10/172013/10/17

4th Media: What Will Happen to the Global Economy If BRICS Announce Launch of New Currency – BRISCO?

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government

What Will Happen to the Global Economy If BRICS Announce Launch of New Currency – BRISCO?

Peter Koenig, a former World Bank economist and a Voice of Russia regular, outlines one of the scenarios in which America’s plans for a New World Order are broken.

Part I

For several decades, we’ve been told by the mainstream media that the West has a firm grip on the word’s economy and that America decides the future of the world. Peter Koenig, former World Bank economist and Voice of Russia regular, outlines one of the scenarios in which America’s plans for a New World Order are broken. This is the first part of the series about “How to dismate the New World Order”.

Imagine – it is December 31, 2013. The Presidents of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) plus Iran and Venezuela call an impromptu press conference – in Paris – to present a ‘Sea of Change in Economics,’ as they call it. The announcement was circulated throughout the international media and diplomatic offices and embassies just a day before – an indication of urgency. Despite it being the last day of the year with most people thinking of their year-end festivities, the event calls the attention of many – especially the world of finance – and of course the media. The press meeting is planned for 18:00 at theDolce Chantilly, in Chantilly, just 40 minutes from the center of Paris.

The seven presidents, accompanied by their Ministers of Finance, are seated in a half-moon panel in front of about 500 journalists from all over the world. The Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mr. Xi Jinping, opens the conference without fanfare, introducing the subject as an event that may have worldwide repercussions. He elaborates,

Continue reading “4th Media: What Will Happen to the Global Economy If BRICS Announce Launch of New Currency – BRISCO?”