Military – Page 205 – Public Intelligence Blog

Brent At $126 As Israel Security Cabinet Votes 8 To 6 To Attack Iran

According to Israel's NRG, in a just completed cabinet vote, for the first time Netanyahu has gotten a majority (8 over 6) supporting an Iran attack. NRG also notes that at this point Israel has decided to not wait until the US elections in November before proceeding with sending crude to the stratosphere. From NRG (google translated): “Israeli political sources believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a majority Cabinet support Israeli military action against Iran without American approval….He announced that he would not hesitate to perform the operation without the approval of President Obama mentioned the precedent of the decision to attack the Iraqi reactor, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and with the comments heard yesterday some cabinet ministers say privately that “It sounds like a speech preparation for attack.

US Launches PR Campaign for Ugandan Oil Intervention

Phi Beta Iota: Oil and Oil Futures are the common denominator; Israeli aggression in expanding the settlements while everyone is watching Iran are the very important sideshow. It is a real shame when the public cannot trust its government to know the truth, much less tell the truth. This is about bets on oil futures. Can the US Government determine who gains from oil going up another $20 a barrel in March? Can the public do this on its own?

2012/03/16

Chuck Spinney: Investigating NATO’s War Crimes Against Libya

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, DoD, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Non-Governmental, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Investigations Around Libya

NATO’S Craven Coverup of Its Libyan Bombing

by VIJAY PRASHAD, Counterpunch, March 15, 2012

Ten days into the uprising in Benghazi, Libya, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council established the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya. The purpose of the Commission was to “investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Libya.” The broad agenda was to establish the facts of the violations and crimes and to take such actions as to hold the identified perpetrators accountable. On June 15, the Commission presented its first report to the Council. This report was provisional, since the conflict was still ongoing and access to the country was minimal. The June report was no more conclusive than the work of the human rights non-governmental organizations (such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch). In some instances, the work of investigators for these NGOs (such as Donatella Rovera of Amnesty) was of higher quality than that of the Commission.

Due to the uncompleted war and then the unsettled security state in the country in its aftermath, the Commission did not return to the field till October 2011, and did not begin any real investigation before December 2011. On March 2, 2012, the Commission finally produced a two hundred-page document that was presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Little fanfare greeted this report’s publication, and the HRC’s deliberation on it was equally restrained.

Nonetheless, the report is fairly revelatory, making two important points:

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Investigating NATO's War Crimes Against Libya”

2012/03/162012/03/16

Graphic: US Defense Outlays vs All Others

Corruption, Government, Military

Source

Tip of the Hat to Winslow Wheeler

Phi Beta Iota: Across most if not all US Cabinet budget categories, it has been established by multiple independent audits that roughly 50% of every dollar in federal spending is fraud, waste, or abuse. This is as true of agriculture-food and energy as it is of defense and homeland “security.” Federal spending today mixes a complete lack of requirements analytics; industrial-era processes that are grossly ineffective; ideological and criminal misallocation of resources, and zero accountability.

See Also:

Winslow Wheeler, The Military Imbalance: How The U.S. Outspends The World, AOL Defense, 16 March 2012.

2012/03/142012/03/14

Reference: Political Terror Scale

09 Terrorism, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, White Papers

Political Terror Scale Home Page

Political Terror Scale Levels

Level 5 : Terror has expanded to the whole population. The leaders of these societies place no limits on the means or thoroughness
with which they pursue personal or ideological goals.

level 4 Level 4 : Civil and political rights violations have expanded to large numbers of the population. Murders, disappearances, and torture are a common part of life. In spite of its generality, on this level terror affects those who interest themselves
in politics or ideas.

level 3 Level 3 : There is extensive political imprisonment, or a recent history of such imprisonment. Execution or other political murders and brutality may be common. Unlimited detention, with or without a trial, for political views is accepted.

Level 2 : There is a limited amount of imprisonment for nonviolent political activity. However, few persons are affected, torture and beatings are exceptional. Political murder is rare.

Level 1 : Countries under a secure rule of law, people are not imprisoned for their views, and torture is rare or exceptional. Political murders are extremely rare.

Learn more.

Tip of the Hat to Berto Jongman.

2012/03/13

DefDog: Army’s Mental Health Questionable

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military

Responding to Gordon Duff: Unit Murders In AF, Cover-Up Begins.

There is an investigation that has shed light on the poor medical support being provided at Ft. Lewis…….this may, in fact, be the result of sheer incompetence by the Army Medical Corps and the resultant hiding of the fact that soldiers are being blamed for the incompetence…..

POLL: Are Afghan Killings Reflective of Ongoing Problems at Joint Base Lewis-McChord?

Lewis-McChord: A Military Base With Many Problems

Joint Base Lewis-McChord: ‘The Most Troubled Base In The Military’

Shooting suspect's base no stranger to trouble

What we probably have here is systemic lack of integrity among the senior Pentagon/White House Staff. The issue of mental problems at Ft. Lewis has been widely known yet we continue to send troops from there to combat zones…..a replay of the casual treatment of Walter Reed and the abuse of the amputees? Has the Army lost its mind, literally?

Continue reading “DefDog: Army's Mental Health Questionable”

2012/03/122012/03/12

Gordon Duff: Unit Murders In AF, Cover-Up Begins

Corruption, DoD, IO Deeds of War, Military

Murder in Afghanistan, the Coverup Begins (updates)

Sixteen Dead, Nameless “Lone Gunman,” We Have Heard It All Before

Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

The village is Balandi, outside Kandahar in Afghanistan. Thus far the dead are 16, shot in their homes, not just said to be “women and children” but actually infants murdered in their mother’s arms and set afire.

The US claims the perpetrator to be an unnamed “Army Staff Sergeant who has turned himself in.” There are inconsistencies.

This is the report from Reuter’s today:

Afghan officials also gave varying accounts of the number of shooters involved. Karzai’s office released a statement quoting a villager as saying “American soldiers woke my family up and shot them in the face.”

“They (Americans) poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,” Samad told Reuters at the scene.

Neighbors said they had awoken to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, who they described as laughing and drunk.

“They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,” said neighbor Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where killings took place.

“Their (the victims’) bodies were riddled with bullets.”

The village is outside the gate of an American base. A single soldier without a vehicle would have had to evade security and tunnel under the wire and walls to reach the village or, much more likely, this was more than one man?

This is how CNN has it as for the morning of the 12th. Story embellishment, as you will note involves a “bed count” and a “search patrol.” I believe the next story will include rocket flares and bloodhounds. We will wait for this one. To impart credit to the Army, their belated response is much more creative but as full of holes as a sieve. A minor thing to add here, of course, is that a Staff Sergeant, as the perpetrator or suspect, whichever you choose, “patsy” if you will, is a Staff Sergeant, rank E 6. At 3:AM, those of such rank typically do not “stand watch” on towers or in bunkers.

Then, of course, we will return to the forgotten jerrycan, taken off the nonexistent vehicle to burn the bodies of the dead. I did, however, feel a need to get this response added in so that readers in the Western Hemisphere would be better informed. Another minor error in the report below, noted in our earlier evaluation and reiterated here, above that text, is the nature of the armed response team.

Read the rest of the article.

2012/03/12

Steven Aftergood: NSA Has Failed, Since 1976, to Protect US Commercial Communications

03 Economy, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Military

IN 1976, NSA WAS TASKED TO HELP SECURE PRIVATE COMMS

As long ago as the Gerald Ford Administration, the National Security Agency was directed to help secure non-governmental communications networks against intrusion and interception by foreign — or domestic — entities, according to a recently declassified presidential directive.

“The President is concerned about possible damage to the national security and the economy from continuing Soviet intercept of critical non-government communications, including government defense contractors and certain other key institutions in the private sector,” wrote National Security Advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft in National Security Decision Memorandum (NSDM) 338 of September 1, 1976.

“The President further recognizes that U.S. citizens and institutions should have a reasonable expectation of privacy from foreign or domestic intercept when using the public telephone system. The President has therefore decided that communication security should be extended to government defense contractors dealing in classified or sensitive information at the earliest possible time. He has also directed that planning be undertaken to meet the longer-term need to protect other key institutions in the private sector, and, ultimately, to provide a reasonable expectation of privacy for all users of public telecommunications.”

The directive ordered that “in confirmed threat areas,” existing communications networks involving classified information should be transitioned from microwave circuits to secure cable “as soon as possible.” A broader plan to protect non-governmental communications was also to be prepared.

“The President further directs the Director of the Office of Telecommunications Policy, with the participation and assistance of DOD and NSA, to prepare a detailed Action Plan setting forth the actions and schedule milestones necessary to achieve a wide degree of protection for private sector microwave communications. The Plan should identify needed policy and regulatory decisions, describe in detail the roles of industry and government, including management and funding considerations, and integrate the schedule for these actions with the technical development milestones.”

“The Action Plan should be based on the fundamental objective of protecting the privacy of all users of public telecommunications, as well as satisfying specific needs of the government,” the directive stated.

The 1976 directive was originally marked TOP SECRET / SENSITIVE (XGDS), where XGDS stood for “exempt from general declassification schedule.” It was declassified on September 13, 2011. The document had been requested through the mandatory declassification review process by Dr. John Laprise of Northwestern University.

The directive prefigures an ongoing controversy over the proper role, and the actual extent, of National Security Agency involvement in securing public communications.

In response to a FOIA lawsuit brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the NSA said (and a court affirmed) that it could “neither confirm or deny” a relationship between the Agency and Google. NSA has also refused to release the 2008 National Security Presidential Directive 54, which reportedly tasks the Agency with certain cybersecurity functions.

Phi Beta Iota: This would be an excellent case study for the retrospective court martial, conviction, and demotion by two grades in retirement (affects pension) of every NSA director since then, with special attention to those serving after the alarm was sounded again in 1994. NSA today does not have the public interest in mind and could care less about presidential directives. It exists to create millionaires among NSA senior executives jumping to sweetheart “soft landings.” NSA and the Cyber-Command are an ideal candidate for the first joint GSA-OMB deep audit of secret spending since 2001.

Category: Military

Eagle: Drums of War — Israel-Iran AND US-Uganda