Government – Page 714 – Public Intelligence Blog

WinslowWheeler Cropped — Winslow Wheeler

My analysis of DOD's latest “30 year” (not really) Aviation Plan is running at Time's Battleland Blog at http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/05/01/the-pentagons-million-dollar-aviation-plan/, and below. In my judgment, the overriding revelation in this document is of the incompetence and disingenuousness of the bureaucracy in DOD that wrote it. If you think documents like this, costing over $1 million to produce, add anything to oversight and understanding our defense problems, I hope to convince you otherwise.<

Readers who get to the very end of this e-mail will note a change in my signature block. The change is also announced in a new press release from POGO at http://www.pogo.org/press-room/winslow-wheeler.html.

Battleland.Blogs.Time.com
May 1, 2012

PROCUREMENT

The Pentagon's Million-Dollar Aviation Plan

By WINSLOW WHEELER

The Pentagon’s new, high-flying 30-year aircraft-buying blueprint – the Annual Aviation Inventory and Funding Plan Fiscal Years (FY) 2013-2042 – makes for depressing reading.

No, not because it predicts the loss of U.S. air superiority — its verbiage on that score is blithely reassuring—but because it evidences the Defense Department’s persistent refusal to acknowledge the overriding and fundamental air power issues. Bottom line — America’s combat aviation inventory and our air combat capability are:

– Decaying.

– Growing smaller and older.

– Becoming ever more costly.

The document starts out with wonkish assurances that the 30-year plan is fully consistent with the latest “strategic guidance” from the White House and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and it works hard to convince readers that all is well.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: We cannot say it any plainer: any flag officer, any senior executive service officer now serving and putting up with all this fraud, waste, and abuse, LACKS INTEGRITY. From the Secretary of Defense to the Service Chiefs to the various “leaders” (more like over-promoted clerks), the Department of Defense sets the gold standard for fraud, waste, and abuse. They do no favors to those who die for their country–the infantry–both Army and Marine Corps–just 4% of the force–takes 80% of the casualties and receives 1% of the total budget. Hence, we must conclude that the persistence of this lack of integrity across the board among the Pentagon seniors is DESIRED by a Congress and a White House that themselves LACK INTEGRITY. It may be time to re-do Title 50 and Title 150–but first we have to find an honest Congress and an honest President. If General Flynn keeps his integrity as D/DIA, and perhaps finds a wing-man or two, then the first thing DIA could do is scrub the entire Pentagon budget in relation to the “strategic generalizations” first developed by the Marine Corps Intelligence Center (soon lost, as the Marines fell prey to the money wagon and lost their integrity as well).

Chuck Spinney: Hardware Über Alles in the Spendagon — Paneta Pumps Corporate Profits While Veterans Commit Suicide + Meta-RECAP

Richard Wright: General Flynn to Head DIA – Exile or Reward? PLUS Comments by BG Bubba Boo, Ralph Peters, and Airborne Ranger

Journal: Reflections on Integrity UPDATED + Integrity RECAP

2012/05/012012/05/01

Marcus Aurelius: Polish Lid Comes Off Global Rendition-Torture Pot

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

March 27, 2012

Polish Ex-Official Charged With Aiding C.I.A.

By JOANNA BERENDT and NICHOLAS KULISH

WARSAW — The former head of Poland’s intelligence service has been charged with aiding the Central Intelligence Agency in setting up a secret prison to detain suspected members of Al Qaeda, a leading newspaper here reported on Tuesday, the first high-profile case in which a former senior official of any government has been prosecuted in connection with the agency’s program.

The daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the former intelligence chief, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, told the paper that he faced charges of violating international law by “unlawfully depriving prisoners of their liberty,” in connection with the secret C.I.A. prison where Qaeda suspects were subjected to brutal interrogation methods.

When President Obama took office in 2009, he said he wanted to “look forward, as opposed to looking backward” and rejected calls for a broad investigation of C.I.A. interrogations and other Bush administration counterterrorism programs. In sharp contrast, the Poles see the case as a crucial test for rule of law and the investigation by prosecutors here has reached the highest levels of Polish politics.

One of Poland’s prime ministers during the period when terrorism suspects were alleged to have been subjected to torture in Poland, Leszek Miller, could be charged before Poland’s State Tribunal, the newspaper said.

“We try to treat our Constitution seriously and try not to forget the fact that there was a manifest violation of the Polish Constitution within the country’s borders,” said Adam Bodnar, vice president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, based in Warsaw.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: There is nothing honorable, patriotic, or even intelligent about rendition and torture (or the drone program managed by CIA) All those US citizens who can be identified by foreign governments as participants in the rendition and torture programs or the drone programs would be well advised to avoid any foreign travel lest they be arrested and charged for crimes against humanity. Poland–like Iceland against financial terrorism–is on the right path.

Bin Laden Show 59: Waterboarding for Morons Part II–Senator John McCain Gets Explicit “NO–N, O”

Bin Laden Show 55: Waterboarding for Morons

Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–On Torture–While Obama Signs Law Blocking Release of Torture Photos

Former CIA Director, Former CIA Counterterrorism Director, 31 Other Intelligence Experts Announce Support for McCain Anti-Torture Amendment to Defense Bill

2012/04/302012/04/30

Mini-Me: Were Real Persons Murdered on 9/11?

07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Media, Military

Huh?

EXTRACT from second story:

Even after almost 9 years, there are still NO remains for 1,123 of the victims who died at Ground Zero.

Were Real Persons Murdered on 9/11?

Stewart Ogilby

Veterans Today, 29 April 2012

The question is an absurd one except to those of us who have spent part of our lives exploring contradictions and mysteries posed by official narratives regarding events of that world-changing day. Increasingly, the question is becoming, “How many real persons died as a result of alleged events that occurred in connection with the destruction of buildings in New York City’s World Trade Center Complex on September 11, 2001?”

A logical tentative answer is provided by Mr. Simon Shack, the brilliant creator of SeptemberClues.info web site and supported by members of his CluesForum.info, two online resources that call into serious question reports of that day’s victims.

Shack’s sites initially postulated all alleged victims to be computer created fakes who never existed, based on absurdities of photoshopped and digitally morphed memorial images. Proofs presented on their Vicsim Report are overwhelmingly convincing when one takes sufficient time to carefully review its eighty pages.

Read rest of story.

Over 70 Body Parts from 9/11 Found on New York City Streets (Yes, in 2010)

Brian Romanoff Nor Cal Truth June 23, 2010

Another search for human remains from the 9/11 attacks has yielded more evidence of an explosive death, coupled with a lack of forensic integrity.

. . . . . . .

Even after almost 9 years, there are still NO remains for 1,123 of the victims who died at Ground Zero.

Many of the 20,000 body parts found so far are from the same people – as mentioned in the same story as the above quote:

Read full article, with video inserts and active links.

Phi Beta Iota: There are three lines of thinking emergent on 9/11 that are gathering some momentum. The first is that the mainstream media were fully engaged in showing manipulated video enhanced with some computer simulation — this has not been investigated to our knowledge. The second is that the body count for 9/11 was fabricated. We would add the likelihood that the same force that pulverized all the concrete was also responsible for pulverizing most of the bodies within the buildings. The third, the most interesting, has actually begun to connect the dots among all the Zionists in NYC and neo-cons in Washington, D.C. We have no direct knowledge. We only know that the truth of the matter remains to be found.

See Also:

9-11 Truth Books & DVDs (38)

9/11 at Phi Beta Iota

2012/04/292012/04/29

David Isenberg: Private Military Corporations – Chapter Twelve

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military

Chapter 12

David Isenberg

Huffington Post, 29 April 2012

After ten years of operation by private military and security (PMSC) contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq, what ethical lessons should we draw from their use?

Namely, that private sector contracting has become an integral part of modern international operations, and in Afghanistan and Iraq contracting has been largely fruitful, despite some well-publicized problems and the enormous difficulties inherent to reconstructions in the midst of violent conflicts.

At least, that is the view of Doug Brooks and Mackenzie Duelge, who co-wrote Chapter 12 in the book Conflict Management and “Whole of Government”: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security Strategy? which was recently published by the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute.

Considering that Chapter 12 is best known as a chapter of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the authors may have wished for another chapter number. On the other hand, considering the gap between some claims and evidence, perhaps it is appropriate.

Full article below the line.

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Private Military Corporations – Chapter Twelve”

2012/04/29

Mini-Me: Goldman Sachs – the Corruption Machine…

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government

Huh?

Exclusive: How Goldman Sachs Rigs the Game

Andy Rowell

SpinWatch, 20 March 2011

In light of Sunday Times’ revelations concerning MEPs being paid cash to place amendments on financial reform, a report published today by SpinWatch exposes financial lobbying in Brussels.

The report, entitled, Doing God’s Work: How Goldman Sachs Rigs the Game details Goldman Sachs’ secret lobbying activities in the UK and Brussels and links to politicians. It exposes:

The extensive links between Goldman Sachs and the Conservative Party;

* Political donations totalling £8.5million to British politicians in the past decade from Goldman and ex-Goldman people;

* Goldman Sachs’ immense lobbying machine in Brussels, including active membership of over a dozen financial sector lobby groups;

* Extensive meetings between Goldman Sachs and Conservative MEPs including: 9 meetings in six months with a key MEP on the Parliament’s Economics and Monetary Committee; and a total of 36 meetings between just four Tory MEPs and Goldman Sachs, its lobby groups or PR companies acting on their behalf;
* The bank’s lobbying campaign to undermine political reform on derivatives and alternative investment funds including: private dinners and unminuted “after office hours” meetings, high-level conferences and targeted campaigns to Commission officials, MEPs and their assistants;

* How Goldman Sach’s lobbyists tried to undermine amendments in a key report on derivatives, seen as “financial weapons of mass destruction”;

* The bank’s lobbying enabled them to gamble on food futures and drive up prices.

Report author, journalist Andy Rowell said: “A year ago, David Cameron said that lobbying was the next big scandal waiting to happen. This report shows that banks like Goldman Sachs – who are intricately connected to the Tories – continue to lobby to get what they want.”

Rowell continued: “The entire regulatory process – and the lobbying activity that surrounds it – has to become significantly more transparent and accountable. If it is allowed to be captured by bankers, the next financial crisis will only be a matter of time.”

The report is being published just as the debate on financial reform in Brussels reaches a crucial stage. The parliament and commission are finalising plans for reform of the OTC Derivatives market as well as Credit Default Swaps.

It also comes as the government is due to launch a consultation on a statutory register of lobbying, for the UK.

The report can be downloaded here.

Safety copy: How Goldman Sachs Rigs the Game (SpinWatch March 2011)

2012/04/282012/11/05

Marcus Aurelius: Admiral Lyons Blasts US Intelligence Community – No Improvement Since 9/11 — Could It Even Be WORSE? With Comment by Robert Steele

Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Impotency, Military, Policies

UPDATED 2 November 2012 to add 450-ship Navy and other military implications of intelligence with integrity

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Admiral Lyons Blasts US Intelligence Community – No Improvement Since 9/11 — Could It Even Be WORSE? With Comment by Robert Steele”

2012/04/282012/04/28

Marcus Aurelius: CIA Panetta Memo on Presidential Authorization of Bin Laden Hit

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

As posted at http://cryptocomb.org/cia-memo-panetta.jpg.

Phi Beta Iota: This may well be authentic, but it is highly suspect. A signed Presidential finding is needed for such a project, one does not undertake such initiatives without that written document, nor accept a phone call from a lesser aide as a substitute–nor should JSOG be doing anything without that written finding, certainly not on the verbal word of the CIA Director. We continue to believe that CIA created an Oswald situation, a patsy, for JSOG to kill and dump without credible forensic evidence. There is uncertainty as to whether Obama actually authorized the mission–it may have been done against his wishes as the placeholder president. We continue to believe that former Assistant Secretary of State Dr. Steve Pieczenik has it right — Bin Laden died in 2001. Our only certainty is that the truth is quite distant from the “Bin Laden Story” as told to date.