General Hamid Gul, former chief of the Pakistani intelligence service–11:50 tour of the horizon from death of Bin Laden to future of Afghanistan to what World War III might look like if US military-industrial complex is allowed to open a Pakistani front.
Phi Beta Iota: Worth listening to every second. BBC (itself a virtual subsidiary of CIA under the US-UK “special relationship”) is rapidly being over-shadowed by Russian TV, Al-Jazeera, and Ha'aretz as sourced of useful open information in English.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, trying to create a formal strategy to deter cyberattacks on the United States, plans to issue a new strategy soon declaring that a computer attack from a foreign nation can be considered an act of war that may result in a military response.
Phi Beta Iota: These people literally have no clue and are simply striving for budget share before Pentagon right-sizing gets underway. We absolutely guarantee that what the Pentagon and the US Intelligence Community do to their own employees every day (including forbidding thumb drives now) qualifies as a crime against humanity as well as an act of war. The USG is its own worst enemy in every possible sense.
(Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say.
Phi Beta Iota: This is not new. This is just recycled crap from the White House, desperate as it is to find new enemies as well as new excuses for why our bloated weapons and mobility systems do not work. Just as DoD has known for over a decade that its drone videos were in the clear and could be picked up at will by anyone on the ground, so also DoD has known since at least 1992 that the DoD grid is hopeless, and the contractors don't really have a clue about how to keep a secret. It is all theater–the decision was made in the 1990's to be IRRESPONSIBLE and they are sticking to that. We are quite sure that the Israelis, French, and Germans are far more intrusive than the Russians and Chinese and that Iran is NOT a major player in probing US military-industrial systems–they rely on the CIA to give them nuclear weaponization plans. We are equally certain that most of what the cyber-spies find they use as an example of what NOT to waste money on. China has used its time and energy wisely–they can now incapacitate any US system with electromagnetic neutralization. Sucks for the USG, but probably a good thing for the US public.
Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden's killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those “enhanced interrogation techniques” legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it?
Phi Beta Iota: We are surprised that Brazil, India, and Russia are not doing more to put a complete stop to the illegal and immoral attacks on Tripoli. The US and UK governments are completely out of control, completely without any possible legal ethical justification for what they are doing, and shaming all of us–at our expense in incurred debt, we might add. Flag officers, commanders, and pilots should be held accountable for failing to refuse illegal orders–their lack of individual integrity is what enables a lack of government integrity to be so dangerous and costly to humanity.
Under pressure to reduce the DoD budget, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has – until recently – avoided asking for a reduction in military pay and benefits. However, the Wall Street Journal has reported that increasing pressure on lawmakers to make bigger cuts in the federal deficit has convinced defense budget planners that Congress is willing to look at cutting military compensation.
Since the beginning of his term as Sec Def, Gates has avoided asking for military pay freezes or reductions. He has instead sought to reduce the cost of TRICARE by increasing annual premiums and fees for military retirees and taxing their employers if retirees opt-out of employer provided health care. So far his repeated attempts to make major changes to TRICARE have been thwarted by Congress – mainly due to pressure from groups like the Military Officers Association of America.
However, pressure from the White House to make $400B in cuts may have forced Gates’ hand. In fact, Sec. Gates reently floated the idea that reducing military compensation may not be a bad idea. Gates told a group that reducing military pay wouldn’t negatively impact recruiting; pointing out that even during the worst of the Iraq war the Army was the only service that didn’t exceed their recruiting and retention goals.
President Obama could be impeached for violating U.S. Constitution and law by going into Libya without congressional consent, but Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he doesn't want to cause that kind of havoc on the Republic, he just wants the United States to get out of Libya's civil war. While many lawmakers in general support the U.S. role in Libya, even if they want the final say on approving military action, Kucinich, D-Ohio, will introduce a joint resolution when Congress returns this week that he says “hopefully will lead us out of this mess that we've waded into in Libya.”
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Kucinich said the U.S. has no business intervening in Libya because it's a civil war. He added that the rebel forces the U.S. and NATO appear to be backing are demonstrating some disturbing behaviors, including “committing some of the same practices that they accused Colonel Qaddafi of.” Beyond that, he added, the whole operation stinks of a bid for the oil fields of Benghazi, where the rebels have set up their stronghold.
Gunships vs Gaddafi: UK to send Apache attack choppers to Libya
