Government – Page 644 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/01/23

NIGHTWATCH: Weak Signal from Algeria – Anti-US Forces Up Their Game

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Government, Military

Algeria-US: Update. A senior Algerian official said that one of the terrorists captured at the In Amenas gas plant said under interrogation that some of the dead Egyptian terrorists also participated in the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi last year. Three terrorists are in custody.

The official said the terrorists staged in southern Libya with arms purchased in Tripoli, Libya. He also said, “This is the result of the Arab Spring…. I hope the Americans are conscious of this.”

Comment: There is no way to corroborate the detainee's statement. What is worth noting is that the Algerian official's statements help explain why the Algerians might have had few qualms about assaulting the terrorists, despite the risk to foreigners. The Algerian government expects more attacks and the outcome will probably not be much different for foreigners.

The government has opposed US policy in the Arab world, especially the overthrow of the Qadhafi government. Some officials are making it very clear they hold American policy ultimately responsible for the gas plant attack in Algeria, the invasion of northern Mali by Islamist fighters and future attacks to come.

Americans working in Algeria are at increased risk from terrorists. Moreover, their safety does not appear to be a major factor in government planning for rescue operations.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Weak Signal from Algeria – Anti-US Forces Up Their Game”

2013/01/222013/01/22

Penguin: Why is West Point Studying Domestic Movements? Led By an Israeli?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

(1) Why is West Point in the business of studying the domestic activities of Americans?

(2) Why is such an effort spearheaded by an Israeli?

(3) Is it any wonder America's good old boys do not trust their own government?

Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right

Arie Perliger

West Point Combatting Terrorism Centrer, January 15, 2013

In the last few years, and especially since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who self-identify with the far-right of American politics. These incidents cause many to wonder whether these are isolated attacks, an increasing trend, part of increasing societal violence, or attributable to some other condition. To date, however, there has been limited systematic documentation and analysis of incidents of American domestic violence.

This study provides a conceptual foundation for understanding different far-right groups and then presents the empirical analysis of violent incidents to identify those perpetrating attacks and their associated trends. Through a comprehensive look at the data, this study addresses three core questions:

Continue reading “Penguin: Why is West Point Studying Domestic Movements? Led By an Israeli?”

2013/01/212013/01/21

Jon Meacham: America Treading Water

Cultural Intelligence, Government

Speaking the the O'Reailly Show at Fox:

America is treading water.

Neither the President nor Congress nor the public are ready to make hard choices.

Absent a restoration of the middle class, this Presidency will be unremarkable.

Books by Jon Meacham:

2012 Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

2009 American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

2007 American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation [Review by Robert Steele]

2004 Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

2003 Voices in Our Blood: Americ's Best on the Civil Rights Movement

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive Future-Oriented)

2013/01/21

David Isenberg: Recommended Book, Mel Goodman on National Insecurity, The Cost of American Militarism

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

Recommended! Coming out 12 February 2013.

“Mel Goodman has spent the last few decades telling us what's gone wrong with American intelligence and the American military, and now, in National Insecurity, he tells us what we must do to change the way the system works, and how to fix it. Goodman is not only telling us how to save wasted billions–he is also telling us how to save ourselves.” — Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

Upon leaving the White House in 1961, President Eisenhower famously warned Americans about the dangers of a “military industrial complex,” and was clearly worried about the destabilizing effects of a national economy based on outsized investments in military spending. As more and more Americans fall into poverty and the global economy spirals downward, the United States is spending more on the military than ever before. What are the consequences and what can be done?

Melvin A. Goodman, a twenty-four-year veteran of the CIA, brings peerless authority to his argument that US military spending is indeed making Americans poorer and less secure while undermining our political standing in the world. Drawing from his firsthand experience with war planners and intelligence strategists, Goodman offers an insider's critique of the US military economy from President's Eisenhower's farewell warning to Barack Obama's expansion of the military's power. He outlines a much needed vision for how to alter our military policy, practices, and spending in order to better position the United States globally and enhance prosperity and security at home.

Melvin A. Goodman is the Director of the National Security Project at the Center for International Policy. A former professor of international security at the National War College and an intelligence adviser to strategic disarmament talks in the 1970s, he is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed The Failure of Intelligence.

See Also:

Goodman, Mel (2008), Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA (Rowman & Littlefield)

Steele, Robert (2000), ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World (AFCEA 2000, OSS, 2001)

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most)

2013/01/212013/01/21

Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan’s Big Idea — Break Up the Banks

Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

The Legacy of Timothy Geithner

By SIMON JOHNSON

New York Times, 17 January 2013

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and co-author of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.

“Too big to fail is too big to continue. The megabanks have too much power in Washington and too much weight within the financial system.” Who said this and when?

The answer is Peggy Noonan, the prominent conservative commentator, writing recently in The Wall Street Journal.

. . . . . . . .

As Ms. Noonan puts it bluntly: “People think the G.O.P. is for the bankers. The G.O.P. should upend this assumption.”

This is a significant opportunity for anyone with clear thinking on the right – someone looking for a Teddy Roosevelt trustbusting or Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Again, Ms. Noonan gets it right: “In this case good policy is good politics. If you are a conservative you’re supposed to be for just treatment of the individual over the demands of concentrated elites.”

Recall that some grass roots conservatives are already there: House Republicans initially voted down TARP, the former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s plan to end too big to fail received widespread applause from many Republicans and a number of influential commentators, including George Will and Ms. Noonan, have advocated ending too big to fail.

This would play well in the Republican presidential primaries – and even better in the general election. Watch PBS “Frontline” on Jan. 22 for an articulate presentation of why serious potential financial crimes were not prosecuted during the first Obama administration, and think about how to turn these facts into political messages.

A smart candidate could even mobilize plenty of financial-sector support in favor of breaking up or otherwise restricting the too-big-to-fail financial entities. The megabanks have very few genuine friends.

The lasting legacy of Timothy Geithner is to create the perfect electoral issue for Republicans. Will they seize it?

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan's Big Idea — Break Up the Banks”

2013/01/212013/01/21

Eagle: Heal America, Tax Wall Street 1%

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Ethics, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

1% Wall Street sales tax solution to stablize US federal budget: This would work!!

In the midst of the current haggling over the US federal budget, the main fact is being ignored: the fiscal shortfall of the US government over decades is largely due to Wall Street’s rigging of the tax code so that the main money center banks pay little or nothing in the way of taxes.

Like the haughty nobility in France before the Revolution of 1789, the Wall Street banks are practically exempt from taxation, and the burden of paying for the government is shifted to the middle class. Anybody who is serious about reducing the power of Wall Street bankers in US politics must now mobilize to educate public opinion about the situation and its main remedy – the 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.

Read full post.

United Front Against Austerity

Nationalize the Federal Reserve

1% Wall Stree Staff
0% Interest for Infrastructure and Production
Public Control of Money and Credit
Stop Predatory Financial Speculation

Webster Tarpley: Political Report to the United Front Against Austerity

See Also:

We the People Reform Coalition

2013/01/212013/01/21

Marcus Aurelius: Downsizing Congress

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

Below is an email circulating among retired military officers:

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers must find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well.

Wall street and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of “tough decision”.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks.

Therefore:

Reduce the House of Representatives from the current435 members to 218members.
Reduce Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Then, reduce their remaining staff by 25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years (two steps/two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

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