Category: Government

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Mini-Me: Obama Approves CIA War on Syria, CIA & Arabs Arming Islamic Militants Instead — But Wait, Could This Be Smoke Related to Benghazi-Based Acts of War on Syria?

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Media, Military
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

New York Times: Arms Shipments ‘Secretly’ Approved by Obama Admin. Ended Up in Hands of Islamic Militants

Jason Howerton

The Blaze, 5 December 2012

U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands

By , and

New York Times, December 5, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

. . . . . . .

“To do this right, you have to have on-the-ground intelligence and you have to have experience,” said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser who is now dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, part of Johns Hopkins University. “If you rely on a country that doesn’t have those things, you are really flying blind. When you have an intermediary, you are going to lose control.”

Read full article.

Tip of the Hat to Jaimi Miller and Richard Byrd at Google+.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Obama Approves CIA War on Syria, CIA & Arabs Arming Islamic Militants Instead — But Wait, Could This Be Smoke Related to Benghazi-Based Acts of War on Syria?”

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Chuck Spinney: Pentagon Escaping Fiscal Cuts — To No Good End

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Military
Chuck Spinney

TIME BATTLE BLOG: MILITARY SPENDING

Business As Usual Inside Obama’s Pentagon

By Chuck Spinney, Time.com, Dec. 06, 2012

Winslow Wheeler’s three-part series on the Navy that wrapped up on Battleland Wednesday shows that the sea service is up to its old tricks.

To wit, it is impregnating President Obama’s five-year defense program by front-loading today’s budget in a way that creates irresistible pressure to grow its future budgets –even if it takes a marginal reduction in the near term.

Think of this as an emerging right to programmatic life issue, because, for reasons explained by Wheeler, abortion is out of the question, even though a programmatic miscarriage is inevitable.

Any one who doubts this, or thinks this future pathway is unlikely or accidental, need only recall the braggadocio of Ronald Reagan’s chief navy stud, Navy Secretary John Lehman, when he told a seminar in January 1983 at the Brookings Institution, that it was “too late” to stop the buildup to a 600-ship navy.

“We’ve already accomplished it,” he continued, “because we front-loaded (emphasis added) the budget.”

Predictably, Lehman’ 600-ship navy miscarried a few years later in the late 1980s in terms of fleet size, if not money.

Read full article.

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Lynn Wheler: NASA Adopts IC Security Standards, Loses 100 Scientists Doing Unclassified Work

Government, Idiocy
Lynn Wheeler

Security Obsession Drives 100 Scientists from NASA

Top Security Clearance Needed to Help Steer the Curiosity Rover?

EXTRACT 1:

Thanks to the zealous wackos at the Department of Homeland Security, back in 2007 during the latter part of the Bush administration an order went out that all workers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena–an organization that is run under contract to NASA by the California Institute of Technology, had to be vetted for high security clearance in order to continue doing their jobs. Never mind that not one of them was or is engaged in secret activities (NASA is a rigorously non-military, scientific agency which not only publishes all its findings, but which invites the active participation of scientists from around the world). In order to continue working at JPL, even scientists who had been with NASA for decades were told they would need a high-level security badge just to enter the premises. To be issued that badge, they were told they would need to agree undergo an intensive FBI check that would look into their prior life history, right back to college.

Continue reading “Lynn Wheler: NASA Adopts IC Security Standards, Loses 100 Scientists Doing Unclassified Work”

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Berto Jongman: Joshua Foust on Chaotic Intelligence Community

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

 

Berto Jongman

Chaotic Intelligence Community

American Security Project Flashpoint Blog

posted by Joshua Foust on December 5, 2012 at 11:56 am

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the Pentagon is sendinghundreds of spies overseas as part of its rapid expansion into espionage- an endeavor rivaling the CIA. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will oversee this effort, expected to top the deployment of 1,600 agents worldwide. And it is the wrong approach.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Joshua Foust on Chaotic Intelligence Community”

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Marcus Aurelius: Max Boot on Better Spies, Not More

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude
Marcus Aurelius

Better Spies, Not More

By Max Boot

Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2012, Pg. 19

The Defense Intelligence Agency is planning to dramatically expand the ranks of its covert “collectors” — a.k.a. case officers or, more popularly, spies. It has 500 or so and hopes to double that number.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this plan, which is being pushed by the DIA's new director, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. It is unlikely to lead to a militarization of U.S. foreign policy, as some fear — the military is already the dominant player in the intelligence community, with its control not only of the Defense Department's DIA but also the National Security Agency and other high-tech outfits.

The real question is, will a beefed-up DIA make up for the intelligence community's long-standing difficulties in acquiring high-quality human intelligence? On that score, unfortunately, there is real cause for doubt.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Max Boot on Better Spies, Not More”

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Lynn Wheeler: Iceland Right – Everyone Else Corrupt

03 Economy, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Lynn Wheeler

Top Economists: Iceland Did It Right … And Everyone Else Is Doing It Wrong

Iceland Shows the Way

Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz notes:

What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system.

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:

What [Iceland's recovery] demonstrated was the … case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses.

Read full string of superb quotes.

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Lynn Wheeler: Fukushima Lies Continue

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Lynn Wheeler

Deception Confirmed by UN

Government and Industry Still Denying Science at Fukushima

John LaForge

CounterPunch, 5 December 2012

EXTRACT

Disinformation and denials confounded by science

Official lullabies, denials and attempted cover-ups are desperate shields against the enormous economic and legal liability that would follow any acknowledgment of the depth and breadth of radiation’s likely effects. Tepco said Nov. 6 that it may need 11 trillion yen, or $137 billion, to cover its damages. Tokyo already set aside ¥9 trillion in July as part of the federal bailout and takeover of the utility. Minister Edano hinted last May that the government may cover some of the costs of decontaminating certain limited areas. Comprehensive decontamination is not even being considered because, as the science ministry reported in Nov. 2011, radioactive fallout from the triple meltdowns was found in every one of its 57 prefectures.#

The journal Science reported this fall that 40% of the fish caught off the coast of NE Japan are contaminated with radioactive cesium at levels well above what the government allows.** Author Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution concluded that there is either a source of cesium on the seafloor, or it is still being dumped into the ocean by Tepco.

Read full article.

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