Government – Page 732 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/03/082012/03/08

Betty Boop: Stratfor as a Neo-Con / Mossad Scam

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Blog Wisdom, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Officers Call

Responding to Richard Wright: USMC “Learns” From StratFor – Integrity? – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Integrity

Back in 2002 while I was at a major Command, Friedman made a pitch to provide “ground truth” intelligence on contract. While some folks went gaga over his presentation, there were many small indicators that all was not well. Apparently Friedman was asked to leave LSU for reasons undetermined. Offically, according to STRATFOR ” In 1997, a small company that would eventually grow into Stratfor—called Strategic Intelligence LLC—left Baton Rouge and LSU, where its founder George Friedman had been a professor. A 1999 profile in Texas Monthly said the company “couldn't thrive” in Baton Rouge, and that's why Friedman took it to Austin, where it blossomed into a global powerhouse.”

Reasoning heard on the street by colleagues active in San Antonio, he was bankrolled by Mossad and they wanted him in an area of hightech.

I have read his comments about OSS and you specifically; his arrogance is unbelievable. His “analysts” are currently UT-Austin students with a couple of “seasoned veterans”, none of whom have an intelligence
background.

He has been described as a neocon and I think that fits. From where I sit, I think STRATFOR is finished, they are trying very hard to regain their client base….with little success…

Continue reading “Betty Boop: Stratfor as a Neo-Con / Mossad Scam”

2012/03/082012/03/08

NIGHTWATCH: Syria Ground Truth Tars West

08 Wild Cards, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Government, IO Impotency, Media, Peace Intelligence

Syria- Arab Red Crescent: Over the past few days, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has distributed aid provided by the ICRC to the Bab Amr district of Homs, to Hama, Idlib, Deraa, rural Damascus and the eastern city of Raqqa, a spokesman said. “The situation as we see it today is that unrest is still taking place mainly in Hama, Deraa, Rural Damascus, Homs and Idlib,” Hassan said.

Opposition spokespeople said fighting was continuing in Homs, but a Red Crescent spokesman said that it was not. The Red Crescent teams found that the population had evacuated the Baba Amr district of Homs and the rest of the city was quiet.

Comment: The arrival of Red Crescent teams has provided some much needed ground truth reporting. The fighting in Homs has been concentrated in the Baba Amr district, which the government seized, but the residents apparently had already left along with the fighters. It remains difficult to develop a relatively unbiased view of the struggle. The Red Crescent statements suggest actual confrontations are occuring in neighborhoods of five towns and cities. That is far more limited than international media suggest.

Syria-UK: British Prime Minister David Cameron told a hearing at the House of Commons Liaison Committee on 6 March that his government provided cash and equipment to foreign-backed rebels in Syria under such names as “aid agencies” operating on the ground to help deliver food and emergency medical supplies, Press TV reported.

Comment: Cameron's admission in conjunction with the capture of the 13 French officers tends to confirm the Syrian government's consistent contention that the opposition is made up of outside troublemakers. The Syrian situation in no way resembles Libya and accurate information is just not available, except one fact. There are no significant and sustained operations in Damascus. Until they occur, the regime will survive.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

See Also:

NIGHTWATCH on Syria at Phi Beta Iota

Search: map of sunni and shiite muslim groups

2012/03/072012/03/07

Mini-Me: Germany to Audit Gold in USA; Mass Bank Resignations; Iceland Prime Minister on Trial

Commerce, Corruption, Government

Three related items all having to do with intelligence and integrity lost.

Germany to Review Bundesbank Gold Reserves in Frankfurt, Paris, London and New York Fed

EXTRACT:

It is believed that some 60% of Germany’s gold is stored outside of Germany and much of it in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Germany and other central banks may follow in Hugo Chavez’s footsteps and repatriate their gold to Germany so as to have direct possession of and ownership of their gold reserves in order to be better prepared for a systemic or monetary crisis.

Read full article.

Mass Banking Resignations Signal A Purging Has Begun?

According to a list compiled by independent blog,American Kabuki, at least 122 banking directors, CEOs, and board members of both national and international stature have resigned since September of last year. The blog recently posted a list of all 122 of these individuals with links to the announcements and reports of their resignation.

Read full article with list of names and links.

Should Politicians Go on Trial for Economic Negligence?

Iceland’s former Prime Minister Geir Haarde on Monday (5 March) became the world’s first leader to be put on trial on charges of negligence over the 2008 financial crisis. Haarde, who was a premier from 2006 to 2009, is being accused of “gross negligence” in failing to prevent the collapse of Iceland’s top three banks – Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki – all heavily involved in risky investments on the US real estate market. One of the main architects of Iceland’s transformation from a fishing nation into a financial services hub, Haarde is also accused of failing to control the country’s fast-growing banks and of having withheld information indicating the country was heading for financial disaster.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: We certainly hope Germany plans to drill many of the gold bars to determine if they are 100% gold or severely diminished in their core with titanium. The bank resignations have not been accompanied by arrests, so this is all theater. Change the face, keep the criminal enterprise as before. As for politicians being held accountable, that is hard to imagine in today's environment of “anything goes.” Iceland seems to be the ONLY country now combining intelligence with integrity in the aftermath of the legalized crime spree by Goldman Sachs, Morgan, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etcetera.

2012/03/062012/03/07

DefDog: Jim Clapper On Way Out? + RECAP

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

Surprise, surprise…..such a disaster it could be a blessing in disguise…his replacement? General Flynn, the individual who said intel
in Afghanistan was a failure…..and it is.

DNI Jim Clapper Out in Fall? Rumor Mill Says Maybe

Colin Clark

WASHINGTON: Jim Clapper, the first Director of National Intelligence to order budget cuts across the intelligence community, may be leaving his post this fall.

Or, then again, he may not. At this stage, all is rumor. So far, we've got three people with good intelligence connections saying Clapper is likely on the way out. We've got one former senior intelligence saying it is not likely.

But as so often with the intelligence community, rumors possess value because they indicate perception as much as fact. There may be senior Obama administration officials who would like to see Clapper gone. He is a career military man heading a “civilian” intelligence community and there's another such fish over at CIA named Petraeus. And we all know how they treated retired Adm. Dennis Blair.

Also, two of the sources for the rumor may have a strong institutional interest in Clapper's departure. But we can't say more for fear of blowing their cover.

A source with excellent intelligence community access had a specific piece of information. “Clapper was told he is no longer valued….back in October. General Cartwright was offered the job but declined,” this source said in an email.

A former senior Pentagon intelligence official told us that Clapper has said “how much he values working for this President and this administration” and tells him that the administration has demonstrated “their respect for and understanding of the business of intelligence. I¹d be quite surprised to see Jim step down if either a re-elected Obama or newly elected successor asked him to stay on.”

This source also made a key point. The DNI job carries so few benefits and so many responsibilities and is so disliked or distrusted by so many in the intelligence community that, “few qualified people” would “even remotely yearn for the DNI position.” Given all that, this source said, “I think we should all hope that Jim hangs in there.”

Will he? Let us know what you're hearing. — // —

Robert Steele Comments and Links Below the Line.

Continue reading “DefDog: Jim Clapper On Way Out? + RECAP”

2012/03/052012/03/05

Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival

Budgets & Funding, DoD, Government, Military, Office of Management and Budget

WinslowWheeler Cropped — Winslow Wheeler

A Final Word on Drones and Reaper (doc 20 pages)

A Final Word on Drones and Reaper

Last week I distributed a five part series on drones, specifically the MQ-9 Reaper. It was published at Time Magazine's Battleland blog. This last message on the series distributes each of the five parts and the entire paper as originally written for any who might be looking for a missed part or to read the paper as one piece. But also, I attempt here to raise some broader issues.

My paper addressed Reaper as a physical system, and I take a few shots at some of the more uninformed things that have been written about drones by some people who, had they looked more into the data, probably would have been a little less effusive about the “revolution in warfare” and expectation that drones should naturally replace manned aircraft for air combat roles in the foreseeable future.

My paper only scratched the surface of the implications of the burgeoning love affair of the US defense community with drones. Some of those issues have already been thoroughly discussed in the press: such as the use of unmanned systems to pursue air to ground combat roles in friendly, ambiguous and hostile countries as a “safe” way to pursue policy makers' objectives. The endnotes in the first part of the series referenced several excellent articles on this issue, or you might want to read Andrew Cockburn's more recent essay in the London Review of Books at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n05/andrew-cockburn/drones-baby-drones.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival”

2012/03/052012/03/05

DefDog: NASA lost ‘full control’ to hackers, pwned 13 times last year

Government, Hacking, IO Impotency

NASA lost ‘full control' to hackers, pwned 13 times last year

Houston still has a problem with security

By John Leyden

The Register, 5 March 2012

Cybercrooks broke into NASA's computer systems 13 times last year gaining “full functional control” of important systems in the worse cases, according to the testimony before the US Congress by the space agency's inspector general.

Read full article.

1998 TAKEDOWN: Targets, Tools, & Technocracy

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

2012 Reflexivity = Integrity: Toward Earth/Life 4.0

DefDog: $15 Billion for Cyber-Command, Zero for Actual Needs + Meta-RECAP

2012/03/042012/03/04

Koko: Iowa passes outrageous law demanding total secrecy over factory meat filth and cruelty practices

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

Iowa passes outrageous law demanding total secrecy over factory meat filth and cruelty practices

Ethan A. Huff

Natural News, 4 March 2012

(NaturalNews) Capturing undercover footage of extreme animal abuse at factory farms is soon to be illegal in Iowa, thanks to the passage of a new bill that squelches First Amendment protections for agricultural whistleblowers. In one of the fastest legislative rush-throughs in history, the “American Heartland” state's House and Senate recently passed House File 589, also known as the “ag-gag” bill, which redefines undercover filming and various other whistle-blowing activities as “agricultural production facility fraud” punishable under the law.

Prior to the passage of the bill, which now sits on Republican Governor Terry Branstad's desk for signing, exposing the horrific conditions in many of Iowa's factory farms was a legally-protected free speech right. Once signed into law, however, H.F. 589 will make Iowa the first state in America to actively muzzle individuals from exposing the ugly truth about what takes place at chicken farms, animal processing plants, and even behemoth genetically-modified (GM) crops farms across the state.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: The truth at any cost lowers all others costs. This is the worst possible step Iowa could take.