Military – Page 112 – Public Intelligence Blog

COMMENT: RIFs vice furloughs is consistent with other reporting which quotes Frank Kendall, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics as saying, essentially, that recent furloughs were inconvenient for OSD seniors because they made it virtually impossible to hold meetings on Mondays and Fridays.

Bloomberg.com
August 22, 2013

Pentagon Weighs Firing Thousands Under 2014 Spending Cuts

By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News

The Defense Department may have to fire at least 6,272 civilian employees if automatic cuts known as sequestration slice $52 billion from its fiscal 2014 budget, according to a Pentagon planning document.

Additional budget analysis is “likely to produce further reductions” as the services focus on shrinking their contract labor forces, according to a Pentagon “execution plan” obtained by Bloomberg News. The job cuts, although less than 1 percent of the non-uniformed workforce, would mark an escalation from the unpaid leave mandated under sequestration in the current fiscal year.

The services should expect a $475 billion budget after sequestration cuts for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, almost 10 percent less than the pending $526.6 billion request, according to the document dated Aug. 1. Sequestration would result in 16 percent reductions in the Pentagon’s procurement and research spending and 12 percent cuts in operations, maintenance and military construction.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Pentagon Implodes — Dull Minds Make Dull Cuts”

2013/08/242013/08/24

John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military

Three Illusory “Investigations” of the NSA Spying Are Unable to Succeed

By Mark M. Jaycox

Since the revelations of confirmed National Security Agency spying in June, three different “investigations” have been announced. One by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), another by the Director of National Intelligence, Gen. James Clapper, and the third by the Senate Intelligence Committee, formally called the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).

All three investigations are insufficient, because they are unable to find out the full details needed to stop the government's abuse of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The PCLOB can only request—not require—documents from the NSA and must rely on its goodwill, while the investigation led by Gen. Clapper is led by a man who not only lied to Congress, but also oversees the spying. And the Senate Intelligence Committee—which was originally designed to effectively oversee the intelligence community—has failed time and time again. What's needed is a new, independent, Congressional committee to fully delve into the spying.

The PCLOB: Powerless to Obtain Documents

The PCLOB was created after a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission to ensure civil liberties and privacy were included in the government's surveillance and spying policies and practices.

But it languished. From 2008 until May of this year, the board was without a Chair and unable to hire staff or perform any work. It was only after the June revelations that the President asked the board to begin an investigation into the unconstituional NSA spying. Yet even with the full board constituted, it is unable to fulfill its mission as it has no choice but to base its analysis on a steady diet of carefully crafted statements from the intelligence community.

As we explained, the board must rely on the goodwill of the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, and Gen. Clapper—two men who have repeatedly said the NSA doesn't collect information on Americans.

Continue reading “John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation”

2013/08/242013/08/24

Stephen E. Arnold: NSA Cannot Search Its Own Employees’ Emails — Say What?

Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Surveillance Organization Unable to Search Own Employees Email

An article titled NSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails on ProPublica brings up an interesting glitch in the NSA’s surveillance technology. In spite of having the capability to sort through big data with a supercomputer, when it comes to doing a search of NSA’s over 30,000 employees they are at a loss. The article explains,

“There’s no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately,” NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week. The system is “a little antiquated and archaic,” she added… It’s actually common for large corporations to do bulk searches of their employees email as part of internal investigations or legal discovery.”

The article also brings up the point that federal agencies often don’t have the funding they need for public records. However, if any agency should have the capability to keep tabs on its employees, it is the agency charged with surveillance of the nation. Lacking that ability limits NSA operatives to searching emails by individuals one at a time instead of searching for keywords or in bulk. This is very interesting in light of recent events, no further comment.

Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

2013/08/23

Berto Jongman: Syria False Flags & Mystery Munitions, Blowback To UK

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

US-Trained Rebels Moved Towards Damascus Days Before ‘Chemical Attack’

Lawmakers who opposed arming FSA militants “reconsider intervention”

Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars.com, August 23, 2013

300 handpicked rebel militants trained by the US, Israel and Jordan entered Syria and began advancing towards Damascus in the days before an alleged chemical weapons attack, the French newspaper Le Figaro is reporting.

“The rebels were trained for several months in a training camp on the Jordanian-Syrian border by CIA operatives, as well as Jordanian and Israeli commandos,” reports the Jerusalem Post.

Read full article.

See Also:

Mystery Munitions Video

How Might Syria Come Back to the UK?

2013/08/23

John Maguire: James Corbett on the Syrian Cover Story

07 Other Atrocities, Government, IO Deeds of War, Media, Military

Description: In this exclusive clip from the forthcoming edition of the Jack Blood Podcast, James Corbett and Jack Blood dissect the latest reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, occurring just two days after a UN chemical weapons team arrived in the country. James goes over the history of false flag chemical provocations in the country and the reasons why we should doubt the quickly-forming official narrative that this attack was perpetrated by Assad's military. Listen to the Jack Blood podcast at DeadlineLive.info.

http://youtu.be/bSAMT5Pe15k

2013/08/222013/08/23

NIGHTWATCH: Syrian Chemical Attack? “No Fucking Way, Jose.”

05 Civil War, 08 Proliferation, Ethics, Government, Military

Syria: Syrian opposition elements claim that a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in the outskirts of Damascus killed hundreds up to 1,000 people. The Syrian government denied such an attack took place and claimed the opposition fabricated the allegations and the video to hide its recent losses.

Comment: As yet there is no independent, direct evidence of the attack. The videos posted to the web were done by amateurs. One shows rows of what appear to be wrapped corpses, but the upright people in the video are not wearing protective gear. No decontamination equipment or measures are evident. One man is shown walking through a makeshift morgue of wrapped bodies that supposedly are contaminated with chemical agents. His only protection is a light surgical mask. None of it can be confirmed.

A major concern is the timing. The UN chemical investigation team is in Damascus with the permission of the Asad government. The opposition has a strong interest in attracting the attention of the UN tea, or any potential outside source of assistance, any way it can.

On the other hand, it is hard to credit the opposition's allegations because it means that the Syrians used chemical weapons during the investigation by the UN team, when government forces are inflicting setbacks on the opposition. That contention is not credible.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syrian Chemical Attack? “No Fucking Way, Jose.””

2013/08/202013/08/20

Berto Jongman: US Military SATCOM Vulnerabilities

IO Impotency, Military

The Future of MILSATCOM

This report argues that the US's military satellite communication systems (MILSATCOM) are becoming increasingly vulnerable to physical, electronic and cyber-attacks by those who reject the idea that space should be a conflict-free domain. Given these threats and the specter of reduced budgets, the report thus suggests that the US might want to improve the passive defense, disaggregation and dispersement capabilities of its MILSATCOM systems.

Download :English (PDF · 57 pages · 1.0 MB)

Author: Todd Harrison Series: CSBA Studies

Publisher: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), Washington DC, United States

See Also:

All Army CYBER RECAPS