Category: Government

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Reference: Cynthia McKinney Speaks in Tehran

05 Iran, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Policies, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Cynthia McKinney

The Tehran Peace Conference started on 14 May and ended today, 15 May, (63rd Anniversary of Palestine's Nakbah ) with me chairing the 7:30 am panel entitled, “Terrorism:  Concepts and Contexts.”  Members of the Clergy from Brazil, Greece, and the U.S. made presentations as well as international lawyers, academicians, and peace activists from Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela, Spain, Ghana, and Bolivia.  My assignment is to write up my report of each of the presentations and submit the recommendations from the panel to the Conference Secretariat.

On Day One of the Opening Plenary with journalist Jim Lobe seated on my right and Rabbis Weiss and Rosenberg sitting in front of me, I was surprised when my name was called to make a presentation at the opening plenary of the Tehran Peace Tribune.  I immediately set about writing my remarks and here is what I said:

Cynthia McKinney
International Conference on Global Alliance Against Terrorism for a Just Peace
Tehran, Iran
15 May 2011

How wonderful to be at a Conference where the word “love” is used; we are here because we love humankind.  We are here from all corners of the earth; we are against terrorism; we want peace.

However, we must clarify peace.  What kind of peace do we want?

President John F. Kennedy answered his question by saying:  “. . . not a Pax Americana” imposed on the world by weapons of war.  He went on to say that the kind of peace we want is the kind of peace that makes life worth living–peace for all men and women for all time.

No Justice, No Peace.  No Truth, No Justice!

But, today, U.S. policy is rooted in lies, injustice, and war.  And at home, the people of the U.S. suffer.  Racism is acute, despite and maybe because of President Obama; hatred is rampant with hatred of Muslims, incarceration of Palestinians, targeting of immigrants, the lynchings of Blacks, disappearances of Latinos, and the pauperization of the people.  People inside the U.S. are under attack in the realm of policy:

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Reference: US DOJ Tells Court It Has Authority to Lie UPDATED to include Amended Order of 27 April 2011

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call
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Source (2 Page PDF)

Tip of the Hat to Samurai Sam in  the Far East for this one.

Phi Beta Iota: We don't make this stuff up.

See Also:

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

UPDATE: Here is the full back story.  What is revealed is a long-standing US Government practice of lying to Congress and the Judiciary, the other two “co-equal” branches of the federal government.  More and more each day we see the naked unethical Emperor for what he/she is: naked unethical tyranny replete with impeachable acts each day.

Amended Order 27 April 2011

Tip of the Hat to Penguin for the update.

 

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USG on Oil: Doing the Wrong Thing Righter….

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, 12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, True Cost

Obama says ‘Drill, baby, drill.' Will new oil policy ease gas prices?

President Obama used his weekly address to announce steps to promote greater domestic oil production and reduce the burden of high gas prices. Republicans say it's not enough.

Big Oil's Political Ploy

Whatever else we might say about Big Oil in the United States, we have to give the industry credit for one thing: it has mastered the art of scamming us with a perfectly straight face.

Freshmen challenge energy subsidies

Pompeo and Labrador were joined by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Mike Needham of Heritage Action Fund. The two organizations joined a coalition of conservative groups in March, including Americans for Prosoperity, in a letter calling for an end to energy subsidies.

 

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Phi Beta Iota: US politicians have substituted ideology for intelligence (decision-support) and borrowing for thinking.  There is nothing intelligent in US energy policy, because there is no policy–just a long string of subsidies and hand-outs and tax exemptions.  The oil drilling decisions are an example of doing the wrong thing righter, instead of the right thing (Russell Ackoff).  The “policy” decisions are also hypocritical because nothing being decided today will have substantive effect in less than ten years.  Here's what an intelligent government would use to think about energy futures…and everything else, all together.

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Engineers of India-Afghanistan vs China-Pakistan

02 China, 03 India, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 12 Water, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

India-China-Pakistan: Indian intelligence agencies say they have credible evidence that several hundred Chinese working in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are People's Liberation Army engineers, the Times of India reported 12 May.

According to the report, Indian intelligence agencies are verifying that the engineers are engaged with military construction projects, such as bunkers, and said the presence of military engineers in civilian construction activities carried out by China in other countries is “unusual,” an intelligence source said. The information about the engineers was part of an assessment presented by the Indian Army to the Indian prime minister, defense minister and other senior officials weeks ago.

Comment: This is the first press report of Chinese military engineers in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir. Chinese engineers are working on road construction in far northern Pakistan which borders China, but no engineering agreements are known that cover Pakistani Kashmir.

India-Afghanistan: India has committed about $1.5 billion to Afghanistan for developmental assistance and plans to commit another $500 million over the next five years, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on 12 May. Priority areas for the aid will be social programs, agriculture and infrastructure, according to Singh

India strongly supports Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Afghan President Hamid Karzai during Singh's two-day visit to Kabul. Singh told Karzai and senior Afghan officials that New Delhi is Kabul's “neighbor and partner in development.” He expressed support for Afghanistan's “unity, integrity and prosperity

Comment: The two news stores above help explain Pakistan's dogged support for the Taliban and other anti-Kabul movements and its anxiety about India. India supported the Northern Alliance of Uzbek and Tajik tribes against the Pashtun Taliban when Karzai still was working for the Taliban, before he switched sides.

The presence of Indian advisors and influence west of Pakistan confronts Pakistani strategists with the prospect of fighting on two fronts in a putative future war, with no strategic depth because Pakistan is so narrow. More importantly, the Indian Border Roads Organization (BRO) has thousands of workers and Indian Army engineers working on the “infrastructure” projects in Afghanistan about which Prime Minister Singh spoke. BRO seems to concentrate on improving the roads in Afghan provinces that border Pakistan.

Indian motives in helping Afghanistan are far from altruistic, just as are those of Iran. Both states have provided aid to the Northern Alliance and the Afghan government, based on their strategic calculations to restrain Pakistan and especially prevent it from annexing the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

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Iran–and the USA–Blew Arab Spring, Both Irrelevant

02 Diplomacy, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

Iran-Arab Spring: For the record. The head of the parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy said on 12 May that the Iranian government was not dynamic in supporting regional uprisings. Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran's diplomatic system was not active enough initially but that the activity has started and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has begun his regional visits. Although the government's steps to aid regional uprisings were delayed, Boroujerdi said it is good that such measures have started.

Comment: Iran was caught by surprise by the Arab cell-phone uprisings so much so that it was unable to support Shiite risings in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia as well as in Bahrain. Boroujerdi primarily was referring to these two regions, implying that Iran missed an opportunity to spread the dominion of Shia Islam to the western banks of the Persian Gulf.

The statement is an admission of an intelligence failure in Iran, coupled with hubris. No secular Arab uprisings, including in Syria, have looked to Iran for guidance.  Even the Alawite Baathists of Syria have little use for the wisdom of Persian ayatollahs.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

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Taliban on Twitter, The End Is Near!

05 Civil War, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Non-Governmental
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The Taliban Are On Twitter

By Chris Gayomali on May 12, 2011

TechLand (Time)

Due to a strict adherence to Sharia law, the Taliban have long shunned modern technology, particularly personal televisions and computers. But in the wake of a recent offensive campaign in the Afghan city of Kandahar, the group has emerged on a new, if unlikely, modern platform: Twitter.

At the the time of writing this, the account in question (@alemarahweb) has 363 followers. Most of the messages are broadcasted in the militant sect's native Pashto. But, as the Guardian points out, on early Thursday morning a message that read in English was sent across the Twitter-sphere. Like most of the tweets posted, the message concerned exaggerated reports of “strikes against the ‘infidel forces'” that typically feature links back to The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan website, a frequently relocated Web headquarters for the splintered Taliban's makeshift government.

PHOTOS: Inside bin Laden's lair

The account also follows 12 other users (at least at the time of writing this), notably @Afghantim, a “USAF Logistics Readiness Officer currently deployed as a combat advisor to the Afghan Army,” and numerous Afghani news and development groups. The Guardian surmises this to be a practice of the old axiom “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” (More on Time.com: See the 140 best Twitter feeds)

The emergence of Twitter has consistently been one of the key stories concerning the revolutions in Egypt and other uprisings. And it has proven, time and time again, pivotal to community leaders for organizing unified protests on a massive scale. The adoption of social media by a decentralized group like the Taliban is perhaps an acknowledgement of the platform's communicative potential, whether that be for strategic or merely propaganda purposes.

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Secrecy News: ODNI Tools for Data Fusion & Analysis

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Officers Call, Policies

ODNI DESCRIBES EMERGING TOOLS FOR DATA FUSION, ANALYSIS

Several intelligence community initiatives to develop improved tools for data search, analysis and fusion were described in the latest report to Congress (pdf) from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on data mining.

A new program called DataSphere is intended “to aid in the discovery of unknown terrorism relationships and the identification of previously undetected terrorist and terrorism information” through analysis of communication networks and travel patterns.

A continuing program called Catalyst seems to be a glorified search engine that “will enable data fusion/analytic programs to share disparate repositories with each other, to disambiguate and cross-correlate the different agencies' holdings, and to discover and visualize relationship/network links, geospatial patterns, temporal patterns and related correlations.”

Although these and other initiatives do not yet constitute or engage in “data mining,” they were described in the new report “in the interest of transparency,” ODNI said. See “2010 Data Mining Report,” Office of the Director of National Intelligence, April 2011.

Comment and Two Complex Links Below the Line

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