Military – Page 158 – Public Intelligence Blog

Hagel's legislative record belies his potential role as bit player on the stage of the American empire, unlikely to wield the kind of influence suggested by the controversy over his nomination.

Wednesday, 30 January 2013 00:00

By Mike Lofgren, Truthout | Op-Ed

Ideological elements of both the Left and the Right have inflated the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense to symbolize far more than he can possibly achieve in office, good or bad. The controversy over his nomination is based on a handful of his comments and valedictory Senate addresses. His actual legislative record is a lot thinner. From my time as a Senate staffer, I do not remember any significant legislation he was personally responsible for, nor did he involve himself to any great extent in floor debates on authorization or appropriation bills having to do with national security.

Continue reading “Mike Lofgren: Chuck Hagel and American Empire”

2013/01/292013/01/29

Berto Jongman: Stronger Signals US Planning False-Flag Chemical Attack in Syria

Corruption, Government, Military

Sorcha Faal (David Booth) is a know frabricator with a gift for surfacing and connecting dots that merit attention.

Obama Plan For World War III Stuns Russia

A grim Federal Security Services (FSB) report circulating in the Kremlin confirming the validity of the just released hacked emails of the British based defence company, Britam Defence, stunningly warns that the Obama regime is preparing to unleash a series of attacks against both Syria and Iran in a move Russian intelligence experts warn could very well cause World War III.

According to this report, Britam Defence, one of the largest private mercenary forces in the world, was the target of a “massive hack” of its computer files by an “unknown state sponsored entity” this past week who released a number of critical emails between its top two executives, founder Philip Doughty and his Business Development Director David Goulding.

The two most concerning emails between Doughty and Goulding, this report says, states that the Obama regime has approved a “false flag” attack in Syria using chemical weapons, and that Britam has been approved to participate in the West’s warn on Iran, and as we can read:

Email 1: Phil, We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW (chemical weapon) to Homs (Syria), a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion? Kind regards David

Email 2: Phil, Please see attached details of preparatory measures concerning the Iranian issue. Participation of Britam in the operation is confirmed by the Saudis.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Stronger Signals US Planning False-Flag Chemical Attack in Syria”

2013/01/292013/01/29

Rob Dover: Intelligence Failures in Syria & Algeria — Is Open Source Everything an Alternative? Steele Comments

#OSE Open Source Everything, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Syria, Mali, Algerian gas-works and ‘Open Source Everything’

Read any government security document, any of the national security strategies produced by a now large number of states and you will get a feel for the proliferation in the number of threats they feel they face. The preamble will normally contain a paragraph explaining that after the Cold War or after 9/11 everything got a little more complex, a little less explicable.

Heightened complexity in the international system appears to have coincided (and is only partially causally linked) to the increased levels of activity/ improvements in technology, social media etc. The rate at which information can be collected has increased, even if the sort of information being collected is broadly the same.

The problem of accounting for events like the Algerian gas-plant siege a few weeks ago (or the development of the insurgency in Syria, or in the hijacking of the state in Mali) for state-based security organisations is that their resources allocated in such a way that it logical for them to be looking the wrong way when this happens. It would be unlikely – although we can’t be sure, obviously – that there’s a bod in every security community across Europe pondering the safety of gas-plants in the ME and Maghreb. So, when this happens the information required to rapidly come down the pipe needs to be hastily scoped and drawn in. And this got me thinking about Robert Steele’s ‘open source everything’ manifesto (I declare the interest that Robert has written a chapter for the Routledge Handbook on Intelligence that I, Mike Goodman and Claudia Hillebrand have compiled and which will be in a good bookshops from August, and that he and I have corresponded at length about these issues), and how it could be used or applied in these circumstances. I have my own take on this, and I’ve provided the link above to the source: Robert also has a good search on his name I think so I’d guess he’ll correct me in comments too! But my wonder is more in the aggregation of huge quantities of information.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Rob Dover: Intelligence Failures in Syria & Algeria — Is Open Source Everything an Alternative? Steele Comments”

2013/01/272013/01/27

DefDog: CyberCom is a Joke. Does Boosting Its Numbers Fivefold Make it a Travesty? Memo to Hagel: Start Here.

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Cybercom is a joke. This is insane.

Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force

By Ellen Nakashima, Sunday, January 27, 5:42 PM

The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold to bolster the nation’s ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries, according to U.S. officials.

The move, requested by the head of the Defense Department’s Cyber Command, is part of an effort to build an organization that until now has focused largely on defensive measures into the equivalent of an Internet-era fighting force. The command, made up of about 900 personnel, will expand to include 4,900 troops and civilians.

Details of the plan have not been finalized, but the decision to expand the Cyber Command was made by senior Pentagon officials late last year in recognition of a growing threat in cyberspace, said officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the expansion has not been formally announced. The gravity of that threat, they said, has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer.

Read full article.

Continue reading “DefDog: CyberCom is a Joke. Does Boosting Its Numbers Fivefold Make it a Travesty? Memo to Hagel: Start Here.”

2013/01/272013/01/27

Marcus Aurelius: The Force — How Much Military is Enough?

Military

The Force: How much military is enough?

by Jill Lepore

New Yorker, January 28, 2013

Sixty-two legislators sit on the House Armed Services Committee, the largest committee in Congress. Since January, 2011, when Republicans took control of the House, the committee has been chaired by Howard P. McKeon, who goes by Buck. He has never served in the military, but this month he begins his third decade representing California’s Twenty-fifth Congressional District, the home of a naval weapons station, an Army fort, an Air Force base, and, for the Marines, a place to train for mountain warfare. McKeon believes that it’s his job to protect the Pentagon from budget cuts.

. . . . . . . . . . .

But by far the most adamant statement came from Dempsey. “I didn’t become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to oversee the decline of the Armed Forces of the United States, and an end state that would have this nation and its military not be a global power,” he said. “That is not who we are as a nation.”

Either the United States rules the world or Americans are no longer Americans? Happily, that’s not the choice the 113th Congress faces. The decision at hand concerns limits, not some kind of national, existential apocalypse. Force requires bounds. Between militarism and pacifism lie diplomacy, accountability, and restraint. Dempsey’s won’t be the last word.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: The Force — How Much Military is Enough?”

2013/01/262013/01/26

Marcus Aurelius: New Special Forces Command, Mexico as Rabbit Hole, Zetas on Steroids Coming Soon

Government, Ineptitude, Military

Invite your attention to both article immediately below and four comments on it, second below. Some of the comments appear pretty sound to me. Integrity of any institution of Mexican (MX) government seems questionable — “plata o plumba” is a long tradition in Latin America and the MX government has been in the press many times for corruption. They are reportedly using screening polygraphs on a very widespread basis and I'm not sure it's getting them what they thought it would. Of course, DHS law enforcement agencies operating along the border and recruiting Spanish-speaking employees from the region are having the same problems. I think the former SF weapons sergeant (18B) is sort of prescient — the proposed program for SF to train MX commandos may not turn out well for the US if it is in fact true.

Special forces create new command to train Mexican troops

January 18, 2013 12:00 am • Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is stepping up aid for Mexico's bloody drug war with a new U.S.-based special operations headquarters to teach Mexican security forces how to hunt drug cartels the same way special operations teams hunt al-Qaida, according to documents and interviews with multiple U.S. officials.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: New Special Forces Command, Mexico as Rabbit Hole, Zetas on Steroids Coming Soon”

2013/01/262013/01/26

Mini-Me: Bin Laden — the Story Continues — Zero Dark Thirty as the Glorification of Treason — What Price Integrity? How Many SEALS Must Die For a Lie?

Corruption, Government, Military

Huh?

“Zero Dark Thirty”: The deeper, darker truths

Jim Fetzer, former Marine

Veterans Today, 26 January 2013

A film that may even take the Academy Award for “Best Picture of 2012” raises serious moral issues; glorifies a political stunt and is based on an historical fiction. It is the latest in Obama propaganda.

Osama bin Laden was not killed on 2 May 2011 during the raid on a compound in Pakistan. He actually died in Afghanistan on or about 15 December 2001 — and he was buried there in an unmarked grave.

Local obituaries reported Osama’s death at the time. Even FOX News subsequently confirmed it. He was buried in an unmarked grave in accord with Muslim traditions. He did not die in Pakistan.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Bin Laden — the Story Continues — Zero Dark Thirty as the Glorification of Treason — What Price Integrity? How Many SEALS Must Die For a Lie?”