NIGHTWATCH: Asian Naval Developments

04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy

Japan-India: Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony and Japanese Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa agreed to hold their first bilateral naval exercises in 2012, according to Japanese Defense Ministry officials.

Ichikawa said deepening bilateral defense ties between Tokyo and New Delhi will lead to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Antony said India's relations with Japan remain a priority and New Delhi seeks to strengthen those ties. Both ministers discussed the importance of the international community in protecting sea lanes, specifically discussing the South China Sea.

Comment: For India, this is the next step in its “Look East” policy. Similar ties and exercises with the South Korean Navy also are likely. Eventually, the combined fleets of India, South Korea and Japan, supported by Taiwan and the US, will be arrayed against China in future conflicts. The Asian states do not perceive containment of China as primarily a US leadership task. That is an important lesson and manifests the success of a half century of US policy.

The Chinese, on the other hand, are reaping what they have sowed in the past twenty years by their aggressive assertiveness in northeast Asia, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Chinese actions have nurtured an extraordinary and unprecedented regional reaction that is moving towards a new regional military cooperative structure, linking the fleets of the Asian democracies.

The most important features of this interlocking set of bilateral ties are that the Asian members are equals and the Asians are taking responsibility for Asian security affairs, without relying on the US Navy. US Navy connections with all the parties constitute a second tier of linkage that resides in background and gives the Asians depth and strength.

A third feature is that for the first time in a millennium and a half, the Asian navies are defying China and are actually much more capable than the Chinese navy, without relying on the forces of nature.

The worst thing that could happen is for the US to try to take charge or steer the development or do anything except enable it, behind the scenes. US estimates of Asian security threats that do not factor Asian capabilities that the US has nurtured are incomplete.

The NightWatch bias is that Asian nations know best how to solve Asian problems, with some US support as requested. The Asians will find a way.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota:  The above good sense is in sharp contrast to the on-going US Navy attempt, aided by a defense policy mafia that blends ignorance and corruption to an astonishing degree, to invest  dollars and capabilities we do not have in making the Pacific the “main front” for the future.  There is nothing intelligent about how the US Navy is planning for the future, in large part because the US Navy, like the US Government generally, lacks integrity at the leadership / gerbil maximus levels.

Richard Wright: Bill Moyers on Politicians and Money Launderers in the Trafficking of Power and Policy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Legislation, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Richard Wright

Moyers is a sanctimonious preacher who sometimes speaks the truth.

Bill Moyers: “Our Politicians Are Money Launderers in the Trafficking of Power and Policy”

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Public Citizen 40th Gala
Washington, DC
October 20, 2011

I am honored to share this occasion with you. No one beyond your collegial inner circle appreciates more than I do what you have stood for over these 40 years, or is more aware of the battles you have fought, the victories you have won, and the passion for democracy that still courses through your veins. The great progressive of a century ago, Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin – a Republican, by the way – believed that “Democracy is a life; and involves constant struggle.” Democracy has been your life for four decades now, and would have been even more imperiled today if you had not stayed the course.

VIDEO (21:15):  Bill Moyers keynote at Public Citizen's 40th Anniversary Gala

Event: Nov 9 – Nation-wide House Parties to Plan for the Two-Year Anniversary of Citizens United

Civil Society, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Ethics, Government


More than 150 house parties are being planned
, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the parties by phone and webcast. For those in Manhattan, believe it or not, but there is only ONE event listed (60 Wall St, “the Atrium” which is also accessible from Pine St).

 Also see:
Resources for House Party Hosts and Activists Organizing for the Two-Year Anniversary of Citizens United v. FEC

Boulder's corporate personhood measure

Marcus Aurelius: Death Notice for Counterintelligence

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call
Marcus Aurelius

Combat Commanders Gain Control Of Counterintelligence Ops

By Carlo Munoz

AOL Defense, November 1, 2011

Washington: The Pentagon is offering field commanders control of counterintelligence operations to cope with the never-ceasing efforts by countries such as China, Iran and Israel to gain access to classified information and technology.

Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers approved the plan in an Oct. 5 memorandum. Groups such as Central Command and Special Operations Command can now choose to do their own CI work within their organizations, according to the memo. Formal investigations are still handled by the services.

“We gave the [combat commands] an option to develop an organic CI capability… or to rely on [the Defense Department],” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory said. “We did not want to legislate either way but instead wanted to give [them] an option.” The decision comes as the Pentagon and intelligence community are preparing for a $25 billion to $40 billion budget cut over the next decade.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  At the tactical level intelligence has always been the runt, generally one rank down from operations, and within intelligence, counterintelligence is where the runts of the runts go.  Marty Hurwitz destroyed tactical intelligence with his consolidation of the General Defense Intelligence Program (GDIP) and the well-intentioned but badly conceived Joint Intelligence Center (JIC) concept.  While Jim Clapper destroyed Marty Hurwitz, he did not make tactical intelligence  (counterintelligence silent as in non-existent) healthy again, going on to make national consolidation every worse.  There is a huge difference between security and defensive counterintelligence – they are not the same but ignorant commanders will treat them as one.  There is a huge difference between defensive counterintelligence and offensive counterintelligence – no one in the US national intelligence community is competent as offensive counterintelligence, and the commanders will be oblivious to this until such time as we finally eliminate the regional commands and reset national defense and multinational information-sharing and sense-making.  The budget cuts are trivial – $40 billion over ten years is $4 billion a year, that is a 4% cut on $90 billion a year, while at least 50% of what the IC spends now is fraud, waste, and abuse, 70% of that on contractor vapor-ware.  The greatest enemy of America is a dishonest intelligence community that cannot do holistic analytics relevant to everything we need to know.

More practically, COCOMs consist of headquarters staffs and operational units sourced from the Services.  Counterintelligence is currently a functional support service provided to the COCOMs by the Services and perhaps DIA.  I know of no joint CI force structure designed for COCOMs.  So, for COCOMs to run their own CI operations, they will require resources to be sourced, either permanently or temporarily, from the Services or from DIA, which itself gets its military personnel from the Services and competes with the rest of the Intelligence Community to hire civilians.  That would serve principally to exacerbate existing shortages in counterintelligence personnel and force structure.  In other words, Mike Vickers is not leading, he is scamming.

NIGHTWATCH: Drums of War Israel Iran USA

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Iran-Israel:  Iran is on “full alert” and ready to retaliate for any strike against the Islamic Republic, Iranian military officials warned Wednesday amid Israeli media speculation of plans for an attack.

“We consider any threat — even those with low probability and distant — as a definite threat,” said General Hassan Firouzabadi, the armed forces' chief of staff. “We are ready to punish them.” The United States also “will suffer serious damages should there be a military attack by the Zionist regime against Iran,” the Iranian chief of staff warned.

Comment: The significance of this statement is that it represents feedback to the Israelis that their chest thumping and foot stomping is registering in Tehran. It also makes clear that if Israel ever attacks Iran, Iran will attack US installations in reach as well as Israel.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota:  We have learned not to underestimate the ideological idiocy of the neo-cons still entrenched across the US national security “regime,” nor the ineffectiveness of the White House is doing anything other than “going along.”  Israel is out of control; the US Government is out of control; this does not bode well for anyone.

Cynthia McKinney: More Truth on Libya

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Military, Movies, Officers Call
Cynthia McKinney

It's really sad when journalists want to print the truth, but are prevented from doing so because of concerns about keeping their jobs.  It seems that is the situation today with the video that shows that all of the Libya destruction was built on a pack of lies.  The video done by Julien Teil called “The Humanitarian War” demonstrates, in the words of the author of the original lie, that there was no evidence at all to back up the allegation that thousands were killed by the Jamahirya government, but that instead, a small circle of friends “worked” that lie throughout the various organs of the United Nations and the result is genocide of a people and contamination of a land.

Now, here's my request to you.  Can you become a journalist for a day and post the video link to just a few of the sites that you visit regularly?  If the real journalists won't do it, then could you?  It is clear that we have to become the journalists that we seek.

Please post this video link to Daily Kos, Common Dreams, OpEd News, Democracy Now!, and the rest that we visit regularly.  But could you also please visit FOX, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBC, Russia Today, PRESS TV, etc. and post it there?

I'll do my part, too, and make sure that it's posted to my sites or sites that I'm supposed to have control over.  Only, I have to learn how to post!  (That's another matter!)

Finally, if you haven't taken the time to watch this video, please do.  It will take your breath away that all of this has been done by NATO to Libya and its foundation is a lie.  What kind of people would do that to their own country?

Click here to have a look at Julien (not Jonathan) Teil's, “The Humanitarian War:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gJz45K4Q50

(Those of you in Europe, Africa, and Asia might want to use this link instead:  http://www.laguerrehumanitaire.fr/english

)