Category: Media

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Journal: ClimateGate, Israel & Greenwashing Terror

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Media
ClimateGate Rolling Update
Chuck Spinney

An excellent summary of the ongoing dispute over Global Warming.  Chuck.

Climate Catastrophe:A Superstorm for Global Warming Research

By Marco Evers, Olaf Stampf and Gerald Traufetter

Der Spiegel 1 April 2010

Plagued by reports of sloppy work, falsifications and exaggerations, climate research is facing a crisis of confidence. How reliable are the predictions about global warming and its consequences? And would it really be the end of the world if temperatures rose by more than the much-quoted limit of two degrees Celsius?

… are they ready for the Rubber Room or Both? My guess is the answer is “both.”  But read the attached article by Jonathan Cook and judge for yourself.  One thing that is becoming clear, however:  Global Warming can be used as a canonical fear to justify just about anything — from Obama's plan to resurrect the nuclear power industry (while at the same time, he punts on the nuc waste issue by caving into political pressure to close the Yucca Mountain waste depository, after spending $17 billion since the 1980s) to Israel's crackpot plan to win the so-called war on terror by impoverishing the petro-states via the weaning the industrial world off hydrocarbons (see below).  If you want to get a realistic idea of the size of the energy numbers as well as the socio-economic implications of the policy transformations implied by displacing the West's reliance on hydrocarbons, I urge you read my good friend Robert Bryce's important new book, Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, Public Affairs Press, April 2010.  You do not have to agree with his specific recommendations to accept the value of his important work.

Chuck Spinney
Marmaris, Turkey

[archive under construction at http://chuckspinney.blogspot.com/ ]

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 30 March 2010
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Court Decision (NOT Congress Oversight) Declared NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Illegal

09 Justice, Civil Society, Communities of Practice, Government, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Court document: Alharamain versus National Security Administration

(From Secrecy News)
WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE OF CHARITY RULED UNLAWFUL

Warrantless surveillance of an Islamic charity in Oregon in 2004 violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a court ruled (pdf) on March 31.

In the culmination of a four-year lawsuit, Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of Columbia found that the government had unlawfully intercepted international telephone conversations of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation without a warrant, as required by the FISA for intelligence and counterterrorism surveillance.  The government had contended that the state secrets privilege barred a resolution of the case, but the court found that the defendants were able to make their case without the use of state secrets.

At least by implication, the ruling means that aspects of President Bush's Terrorist Surveillance Program were illegal.  Significantly, that determination was made by a court, based on a private complaint years after the fact, and not through congressional intelligence oversight.  While Congress did enact the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which was the foundation of the court's ruling, contemporary congressional oversight alone would have left the Al-Haramain violation (and untold others) undiscovered and unpunished.
Continue reading “Court Decision (NOT Congress Oversight) Declared NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Illegal”

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Journal: CIA Seeks to Influence Opinion on Wars

02 Diplomacy, 04 Education, 10 Security, 11 Society, Ethics, Government, Media, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman Recommends...

Wednesday 31 March 2010

by: Daan de Wit  |  DeepJournal

photo
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Patrick Hoesly, CIA)

The CIA recommendations for influencing the European public into continuing their support for the mission in Afghanistan is receiving a lot of attention both in The Netherlands and beyond. But in a military conflict, war is only one stage of the struggle. The biggest struggle is for the hearts and minds of the public at large. What's special about the case of the document is not so much its content, but the fact that it is now available for all to see.

At the top of the CIA-document it states: ‘Why counting on apathy might not be enough'.

Phi Beta Iota: CIA and the Pentagon both stink at Information Operations because neither is interested in putting the truth on the table and working from there, only in manipulating perceptions to achieve ends that are neither strategic nor just.  For an alternative perspective that treats the truth with respect, see INFORMATION OPERATIONS:  All Information, All Languages, All the Time (OSS, 2006), and more recently, INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability (EIN, 2010).

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Journal: OUT OF CONTROL–The Demise of Responsible Government “Intelligence” III

Civil Society, Government, Law Enforcement, Media, Military

Message from sender:

I am sure they do see a threat. If the Pentagon were not engaged in such a broad spectrum of illegal and corrupt practices wikileaks would not be seen as such a threat.

Phi Beta Iota: We ran this story earlier, but now that the New York Times is running it, it merits emphasis in conjunction with the other two “OUT OF CONTROL” posts.  The Pentagon is nuts on the inside and criminal on the outside”  They have lost sight of their mission, their roots within the Republic, and their responsibility to be responsible.  Wikileaks, in sharp contrast, is an non-profit organization funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public.

Pentagon Sees a Threat From Online Muckrakers

By STEPHANIE STROM    March 18, 2010

WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information that governments and corporations would prefer to keep secret, published an Army report about itself.

To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.

The Pentagon assessed the danger WikiLeaks.org posed to the Army in a report marked “unauthorized disclosure subject to criminal sanctions.” It concluded that “WikiLeaks.org represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence, OPSEC and INFOSEC threat to the U.S. Army” — or, in plain English, a threat to Army operations and information.

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Journal: Plain Speaking About Washington Scams

Ethics, Government, Media, Military

Dark Visions? Cyberspace In Words And Warfare

by AuthorTim StevensThe facts of cyberterrorism, or state-sponsored cyberattacks, are heavily-guarded by national security protocols, but the case has yet to be made that these are really significant risks, despite what you hear senior officials say.  And this is the point: you cannot use the darkest imaginings of those with high-level security clearances to promote ends with little consideration of the ethical and practical implications of the means of achieving them. Crime and espionage are not necessarily acts of war, and the fact that they are being subsumed under the rubric of “war” should worry those who care about international relations, diplomacy, the role of security agencies, the relationship between state and industry, and about the constitutional contracts between the individual and the state.

. . . . . . . .

Critical analysts like James Der Derian have long noted the existence of a military-industrial-media-entertainment network (MIME-NET), a thesis it is more and more difficult to write off as paranoid post-structuralism.
. . . . . . . .

In a recent issue of Race & Class, journalist and writer Matt Carr tackles this phenomenon head-on, in a readable and non-academic article, Slouching Towards Dystopia: the New Military Futurism.  Carr claims that “a new genre of military futurology has emerged which owes as much to apocalyptic Hollywood movies as it does to the cold war tradition of ‘scenario planning'.”

. . . . . . .

Carr interprets this as a sign that institutions like the US military perceive themselves as “the last bastion of civilisation against encroaching chaos and disorder.  The worse the future is perceived to be, the more these dark visions of chaos and disorder serve to justify limitless military ‘interventions', techno-warfare, techno-surveillance and weapons procurement programmes, and the predictions of the military futurists are often very grim indeed.” I’ve sat in enough horizon-scanning workshops to have some sympathy for this view―little positive emerges from these discussions, and the outcome is almost always appeals for more regulation, bigger budgets, and better tools for the projection of power.

See Also:  America's CyberScam, Homeland Security Today, 9 February 2010

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Journal: In Search for Truth….Maybe Not

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Media, Military
Story with Many Links

Pentagon’s Gitmo Recidivism Claims Don’t Add Up

Researchers at Seton Hall and New America Foundation track the Pentagon's claims that released Guantanamo detainees ‘returned to battle.'

Phi Beta Iota: Government claims 1 in 5 and counts those who speak to the press against USG and Guantanamo.  Researcers find 1 in 25 at best and observe that the USG is simply not able to get the same story told in the same way more than once.

Appeal Hearing on Guantanamo: Main Issues

On January 26, 2010, a panel of military officers will hear the historic first direct appeal from the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.  Oral argument in the case of United States v. al Bahlul will focus on three constitutional issues that reach beyond military commissions and terrorism trials.    The main issue in the case asks whether the war on terrorism justifies the censorship of foreign media. [Emphasis added.]

My Truth & Only My Truth

The Age of Affirmation: A new study finds that TV viewers watch the news more for affirmation than for information.

A new study suggests that viewers worldwide turn to particular broadcasters to affirm — rather than inform — their opinions. It's a notion familiar to those dismayed by the paths blazed by cable news networks FOX and MSNBC — although the study finds one (perhaps unlikely) network may actually foster greater intellectual openness.

The study in the December issue of Media, War & Conflict by Shawn Powers, a fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and Mohammed el-Nawawy, an assistant professor in the department of communication at Queens University of Charlotte, found that the longer viewers had been watching Al Jazeera English, the less dogmatic they were in their opinions and therefore more open to considering alternative and clashing opinions.

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Worth a Look: Citizen-Centered Talking Points Memo

Media, Worth A Look
Home Page

Talking Points Memo is the flagship blog of TPM Media LLC, which also publishes TPMmuckraker, TPMDC, TPMtv and TPMCafe. Founder and editor Josh Marshall began publishing Talking Points Memo during the 2000 Florida vote recount. The site specializes in original reporting on government and politics and offers breaking news coverage, investigative reporting, high profile guest bloggers and a book club.

Talking Points Memo is one of the most innovative political news organizations in the country. Media watchers consider TPM the site to watch as the news business transforms from the old world of print to the online digital future. In March 2009 TPM topped TIME Magazine's list of 25 Best Blogs of 2009. “Talking Points,” wrote Time's editors, “has become the prototype of what a successful Web-based news organization is likely to be in the future.” And in September of 2009 The Atlantic listed founder Josh Marshall among the nation's 50 most influential commentators.

Phi Beta Iota: If we had to pick one source of citizen-centered political news that represents clarity, diversity, and integrity, it would be this one.   Since we shy away from politically-oriented material and focus mostly on process, these folks get our vote as a righteous source of information.