Government – Page 912 – Public Intelligence Blog

In a 1 February 2010 article adapted from the his forthcoming book, ‘Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage,' Eamon Javers wrote:

“In the midst of two wars and the fight against Al Qaeda, the CIA is offering operatives a chance to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side — a policy that gives financial firms and hedge funds access to the nation’s top-level intelligence talent, POLITICO has learned.”

“The never-before-revealed policy comes to light as the CIA and other intelligence agencies are once again under fire for failing to “connect the dots,” this time in the Christmas Day bombing plot on Northwest Flight 253.”

“But sources familiar with the CIA’s moonlighting policy defend it as a vital tool to prevent brain-drain at Langley, which has seen an exodus of highly trained, badly needed intelligence officers to the private sector, where they can easily double or even triple their government salaries. The policy gives agents a chance to earn more while still staying on the government payroll.”

Commentary Below the Fold

Continue reading “Journal: Commentary on Moonlighting at the CIA”

2010/02/202010/02/20

Journal: Modern Obstacles to Spying & Assassination

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

(1) I've seen some of the surveillance video on CNN; here is a link to more.

(2) Regardless of who ran the operation, sounds like the Hamas guy needed to go;

(3) in addition to surveillance and biometrics, proliferation of commercially-available databases such ChoicePoint creates additional operational challenges.)

Full Story Online

How spy technologies foil old-school political killings

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Peter Finn

Saturday, February 20, 2010; A13

The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state — an age-old tool of foreign policy — has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profile killing on foreign soil.

In Doha, London and now Dubai, political killers have been caught on film and tracked, provoking unexpected attention and controversy for the organizers. Because of new biometric technologies, the proliferation of cheap video, and sophisticated monitoring of customs points and airports, the skills of those who specialize in the creation of fictional identities have been tested, and sometimes defeated.

The apparent political killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has ricocheted around the world in recent days after his alleged attackers were spotted by a camera above an elevator at the Dubai Al-Bustan Rotana hotel, in the United Arab Emirates. Four suspects, all obvious weight-lifters, were filmed exiting in pairs and heading for Mabhouh's room.

Shortly after the killing, they were again filmed, this time more nervously boarding the same elevator, wearing the same baseball caps. Then they were filmed again, leaving the airport on flights to Europe, Africa and Asia. On Thursday, Interpol issued warrants for 11 suspects after the Dubai police conducted a careful study of their videotaped movements at nearly a dozen locales. Their mug shots had already been flashed on television screens around the world.ed to this report.

2010/02/202010/02/20

Search: how much is al-qaeda worth?

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Mobile

Very cool question. We don't have the answers, but here are a few thoughts.

Who benefits? There is only one beneficiary of Al Qaeda as a virtual actor: the US Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Congressional Complex whose outrageously wasteful funding and excessive (70%) obligations to contractors are bankrupting the US economy, but who cares as long as the corporate gravy train keeps rolling along. The indigenous peoples seeking self-determination, including the long-repressed people of Saudi Arabia and the long-repressed peoples of Palestine, do not benefit from a model that Mahatma Gandhi clearly understood was self-destructive. Non-violence is the only sustainable path to self-determination.

Calculating value. With the above firmly in mind, Al Qaeda's “value” to the sole beneficiary, the MIICC, is a combination of three sums:

1. The sums Al Qaeda and related groups receive from governments, corporations, and individuals interested in sustaining radical Islamic violence against both Muslims and the West.

2. The sums the US and others spend on false flag operations attributed to Al Qaeda (the underpants bomber is probably an Israeli false-flag operation with US consent and colalboration)

3. The sums the MIICC receives from a corrupt Congress that has not done a serious national security baseline evaluation of need since Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) retired from his post as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

What is Al Gaeda Worth? Our wild-ass but informed guess is $1 trillion a year. That one trillion a year is both positive value (for those that benefit) and negative value (for all the others). With one trillion a year we could have brought the USA into the 21st Century, funded free cell phones for the five billion poor so they could create infinite stabilizing and self-sustaining wealth, and created a prosperous world at peace.

Continue reading “Search: how much is al-qaeda worth?”

2010/02/182010/02/18

Journal: Air Rage–More to Come

11 Society, Civil Society, Government, Law Enforcement

Pilot May Have Targeted IRS in Austin Crash

Because of his expenses and lack of income, Mr. Stack wrote, he didn't file a tax return, prompting an IRS audit that cost him $10,000. He wrote that he had other problems involving “Sheryl's unreported income.”

“I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are,” the author wrote.

Phi Beta Iota: See the small selection below for a sense of the growing rage across America. The Wall Street bail-out has been in our view, “the last straw” for most Americans who wonder why the IRS or any other federal agency is spending time harassing them at the same time that the US Government is doing so many very expensive and highly questionable things including allowing US taxpayer funds to pay multi-million dollar bonuses to individuals who knowingly cheated multiple governments and millions of shareholders. This is called Cognitive Dissonance. The last reference below is to a Chapter 20: 21st Century Counterintelligence: Evaluating the Health of the Nation. We predict a wave of death threats against serving Members of Congress (more of whom will announce their retirement); a wave of threats–many false but intended to distrub–against federal buildings; and a growing wave of civil disobedience reflective of the public's deep anger at the bi-partisan betrayal of the public trust these past forty years. There are 65 political parties in America–63 of them have been locked out of what must be seen as a fraudulent democracy that does not meet minimalist international standards.

Review: Harvest Of Rage–Why Oklahoma City Is Only The Beginning

Review: TYRANNICIDE The Story of the Second American Revolution

Review: Rage of the Random Actor

Review: Dying to Win–The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Hardcover)

Review: Leave Us Alone–Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives

Review: The End of America–Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

21^st Century Counterintelligence: Evaluating Health of the Nation

2010/02/17

Journal: Goldman Sachs Outed, European Audit Soon?

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement

Chuck Spinney

Goldman Goes Rogue – Special European Audit To Follow

Simon Johnson Baseline Scenario February 14, 2009

We now learn – from Der Spiegel last week and today’s NYT – that Goldman Sachs has not only helped or encouraged some European governments to hide a large part of their debts, but it also endeavored to do so for Greece as recently as last November. These actions are fundamentally destabilizing to the global financial system, as they undermine: the eurozone area; all attempts to bring greater transparency to government accounting; and the most basic principles that underlie well-functioning markets. When the data are all lies, the outcomes are all bad – see the subprime mortgage crisis for further detail.

A single rogue trader can bring down a bank – remember the case of Barings. But a single rogue bank can bring down the world’s financial system.

Goldman will dismiss this as “business as usual” and, to be sure, a few phone calls around Washington will help ensure that Goldman’s primary supervisor – now the Fed – looks the other way.

But the affair is now out of Ben Bernanke’s hands, and quite far from people who are easily swayed by the White House. It goes immediately to the European Commission, which has jurisdiction over eurozone budget issues. Faced with enormous pressure from those eurozone countries now on the hook for saving Greece, the Commission will surely launch a special audit of Goldman and all its European clients.

Phi Beta Iota: The balance of the above article is a “must read.”

2010/02/172011/10/22

Journal: Potential End to Two-Party Monopoly

Collective Intelligence, Government

Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system

In an interview on MSNBC this morning, newly retiring Sen. Evan Bayh declared the American political system “dysfunctional,” riddled with “brain-dead partisanship” and permanent campaigning. Flatly denying any possibility that he'd seek the presidency or any other higher office, Bayh argued that the American people needed to deliver a “shock” to Congress by voting incumbents out en masse and replacing them with people interested in reforming the process and governing for the good of the people, rather than deep-pocketed special-interest groups.

Phi Beta Iota: For some time now, since we published ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig, we have sought to do three things: 1) show the 70% that did not vote for President Barack Obama that Electoral Reform is the only thing that will cure Washington, and also the only thing needed to restore the Constitution and the Republic; 2) show Barack Obama, beginning with a memorandum under his hotel room door in Des Moines that he needs to eject the partisans from the White House and begin governing with a coaltion cabinet and an open source decision support network; and 3) show all those who claim to be interested in transpartisan or post-partisan processes that holding hands and singing kum-ba-ya together is not enough–a Strategic Analytic Model is needed, along with a Policy-Budget Outreach Web that allows all citizens to be connected with all relevant information so as to have informed appreciative dialog online, harnessing all humans minds to create a Smart Nation.

We recommend a three-pronged strategy for liberty:

1) Electoral Reform at the state and local level beginning with wide open ballot access for 2010 or we recall every Governor and Secretary of State who persists in protecting the two-party tyranny through restricted ballot access

2) Electoral Reform at the national level–any Member not sponsoring and voting for the Electoral Reform Act in time for 2010 (first four provisions) will be rejected at election or recalled if a Senator not up for reelection.

3) Aggressive state nullification of all federal programs inclusive of income tax levies until such time as the Secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve are fully transparent.

We strongly support elected President Barack Obama and elected Vice President Joe Biden. If they cleanse the White House of the partisan hacks (Emmanuel, Axelrod, and Plouffe), get themselves a Chief of Staff that can manage in the public chief, and get themselves an intelligence community leadership able to deliver public decision support on the ten threats and twelve policies to all levels of government, there is every reason to believe that this Administration can still be rescued from itself and that Barack Obama can rise to his rhetorical potential with real non-partisan governance. Absent such a change, he will not be re-elected and an Independent promising a coalition cabinet and an end to winner take all control of Congress will probably win in 2012. America is awake, fed up, and on the move.

See Also (Graphics, Reviews of Solutions, Secession, and Problems)

Continue reading “Journal: Potential End to Two-Party Monopoly”

2010/02/122010/02/12

Journal: US Blusters on UK Torture Disclosures

Ethics, Government

COMMENT: IMHO, incredibly irresponsible behavior by UK judicial system. However, I really wonder whether USG will really degrade the special relationship because I suspect it would be cutting our nose off to spite our face. While I think we have clear dominance in some intelligence disciplines and coverages, I also think the UK dances rings around us in others. Marcus

Full Story Online

Intelligence ties between UK and US in jeopardy

By DAVID STRINGER The Associated Press

Thursday, February 11, 2010; 7:32 PM

LONDON — Intelligence ties between London and Washington have been jeopardized by a British court's disclosure that a terrorism suspect was beaten and shackled in U.S. custody, diplomats and security officials said Wednesday.

. . . . . . .

“This is more serious than the Cambridge spy ring, this is more serious than Robert Hanssen,” said Bob Ayers, a London-based former U.S. intelligence officer. “This has the potential to be far more damaging.”

Continue reading “Journal: US Blusters on UK Torture Disclosures”