Reference: Lying is Not Patriotic–Ron Paul

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Movies, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Videos/Movies/Documentaries, YouTube

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends....

Several truths, nine questions.

Phi Beta Iota: Here are the questions as asked:

01 Do the American people deserve to know the truth regarding the on-going war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen?

02 Could a larger questions be how can an Army private gain access to so much secret information?

03 Why is the hostility mostly directed at Assange the publisher and not our government's failure to protect classified information?

04 Are we getting our money's worth from the $80 billion dollars per year we are spending on intelligence gathering?

05 Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths? Lying us into war, or WikiLeaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers?

06 If Assange can be convicted of a crime for information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the First Amendment and the independence of the Internet?

07 Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on Wikileaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?

08 Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death, and corruption?

09 Was it not once considered patriotic to stand up to our government when it is wrong?

2010/12/112010/12/11

Journal: Cyber-Idiocy Wipes Out Productivity

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Cyberscams, malware, spam, InfoOps (IO), Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Technologies

Information has never been so free. Even in authoritarian countries information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable. — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 21, 2010

So much for that….

Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

By Noah Shachtman, Wired, December 9, 2010 | 7:02 pm<

It’s too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon’s secret network. But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the Dec. 3 “Cyber Control Order” — obtained by Danger Room — which directs airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” the Defense Department’s secret network. Similar directives have gone out to the military’s other branches.

Read the rest of this sorry tale….

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

Journal: Army Industrial-Era Network Security + Cyber-Security RECAP (Links to Past Posts)

2010/12/072010/12/08

Journal: Barack Obama, Colin Powell, and National Security

Budgets & Funding, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats

Will Colin Powell become Barack Obama's next Pentagon chief?

Toby Harnden, The Telegraph UK

4 December 2010

– – – – – – –

Obama's most important decision you haven't heard about — Pentagon leaders

Richard H. Kohn, Christian Science Monitor

6 December 2010

Breaking Down Obama's Cabinet Contenders (2008)

Brian Montopoli, CBSNews

6 November 2008

Phi Beta Iota: The most important decision Barack Obama faces is the fundamental one of whether he wants to lead a government that works for all, or continue to be a meaningless placeholder in the theater of the absurd. Electoral Reform is the only thing that matters at this point. Absent Electoral Reform, his mid-term Cabinet appointments will be meaningless–business as usual. Colin Powell is as good as it gets if he can reframe his sense of loyalty back to the Constitutional Oath and actually down-size the Pentagon program by a third or more, while shifting $200 billion a year to State, where Senator Chuck Hagel would be well qualified to get the place back to evidence-based policies and coherent strategic planning. Commerce is a big one–Clyde Prestowitz would be our recommendation, along with Joseph Stiglitz to Office of Management and Budget–see our Virtual Cabinet at Huffington Post. However stellar the appointments, nothing they do will matter absent fundamental Electoral Reform and a restoration of the integrity not only of the US executive policy process, but of the legislative deliberation process as well. Only Electoral Reform can create an honest representative Congress. There are many other critical changes to be made at the highest levels, but ONLY in the context of a restoration of the government being Of, By, and For We the People. Obama is one single piece of paper away from greatness. We observe with interest.

2010/12/072010/12/07

Journal: Sam Adams and WikiLeaks

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Law Enforcement, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Policy, Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2010
4:00 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks Disclosures

WASHINGTON – December 7 – The following statement was released today, signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Grevil, Katharine Gun, David MacMichael, Ray McGovern, Craig Murray, Coleen Rowley and Larry Wilkerson; all are associated with Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.

WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in America, who thrive on secrecy, are trying desperately to stuff the genie back in. The people listed below this release would be pleased to shed light on these exciting new developments.

How far down the U.S. has slid can be seen, ironically enough, in a recent commentary in Pravda (that's right, Russia's Pravda): “What WikiLeaks has done is make people understand why so many Americans are politically apathetic … After all, the evils committed by those in power can be suffocating, and the sense of powerlessness that erupts can be paralyzing, especially when … government evildoers almost always get away with their crimes. …”

So shame on Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and all those who spew platitudes about integrity, justice and accountability while allowing war criminals and torturers to walk freely upon the earth. … the American people should be outraged that their government has transformed a nation with a reputation for freedom, justice, tolerance and respect for human rights into a backwater that revels in its criminality, cover-ups, injustices and hypocrisies.

Continue reading “Journal: Sam Adams and WikiLeaks”

2010/12/072010/12/07

Review (DVD): The Most Dangerous Man in America–Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 6 Star Top 10%, Censorship & Denial of Access, Civil Society, Congress (Failure, Reform), Consciousness & Social IQ, Corruption, Corruption, Crime (Government), Cultural Intelligence, Culture, Research, Democracy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Government, History, Impeachment & Treason, Justice (Failure, Reform), Media, Methods & Process, Military, Military & Pentagon Power, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

Actors: Daniel Ellsberg, Patricia Ellsberg, Tony Russo, Howard Zinn, Hedrick Smith
Directors: Judith Ehrlich;Rick Goldsmith

Stunningly Relevant Today and Always

December 7, 2010

I completely missed the release of this film in July, and stumbled on it while picking movies for a sick son.

It opens with Henry Kissinger, since demonstrated to be a war criminal, calling Daniel Elsberg the most dangerous man in America, and lamenting the release of secret documents (that ultimately proved government perfidy). Fast forward to WikiLeaks as a sequel to the 935 documented lies led by Dick Cheney.

Continue reading “Review (DVD): The Most Dangerous Man in America–Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”

2010/12/052010/12/05

Journal: Brooks on Assange, Others on Brooks

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Privacy, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

EDIT of 5 Dec 2010 to add commentaries by various others.

Op-Ed Columnist

The Fragile Community

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: November 29, 2010

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, had moved 37 times by the time he reached his 14th birthday. His mother didn’t enroll him in the local schools because, as Raffi Khatchadourian wrote in a New Yorker profile, she feared “that formal education would inculcate an unhealthy respect for authority.”

. . . . . . .

She needn’t have worried. As a young computer hacker, he formed a group called International Subversives. As an adult, he wrote “Conspiracy as Governance,” a pseudo-intellectual online diatribe. He talks of vast “patronage networks” that constrain the human spirit.

Far from respecting authority, Assange seems to be an old-fashioned anarchist who believes that all ruling institutions are corrupt and public pronouncements are lies.

Read the rest of this revealing assessment….

Phi Beta Iota: We like David Brooks. He's less submissive than David Ignatius, less pretentious than Fareed Zakaria, and generally has something interesting to say. In this piece, most revealingly, he displays his limitations to the fullest. We are quite certain that David Brooks means well, but the depth of his naivete in this piece is nothing short of astonishing. The below lists of lists of book reviews will suffice to demonstrate that David Brooks is not as well-read as he needs to be, not as intellectual as he pretends to be, and not at all accurate in his assessment of Julian Assange. We share with Steven Aftergood of Federation of American Scientists (FAS) concerns about Assange's judgment in releasing some materials that are gratuitous invasions of rightful privacy, but we also believe that Assange is finding his groove, and the recent cover story in Forbes captures that essence. WikiLeaks is an antidote to corporate fascism and elective Empire run amok. It meets a need.

Other Commentaries on the Same Article:

Continue reading “Journal: Brooks on Assange, Others on Brooks”

2010/12/042010/12/04

Journal: Marcus Aurelius with a Mixed Bag…

10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Hoyer: “Military Should Share Fed Civs' Sacrifice” (topix.com)

In reaction to the president's announcement, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) quickly said the freeze should also extend to troops in uniform.

Throw the WikiBook at them (Washington Post)

…however quaint that term may seem. We are at war – a hot war in Afghanistan where six Americans were killed just this past Monday, and a shadowy world war where enemies from Yemen to Portland, Ore., are planning holy terror.

Army, Marine chiefs cast doubt on gay service (AP)

The Marines are the most uncomfortable with the idea of lifting the ban, according to the Pentagon study that polled each service. Nearly 60 percent of Marines in combat jobs said the change would dent fighting mettle.

Aircraft #13 on the Doolittle Raid (imfa-austin.org)

A self-explanatory and compelling story of initiative, airmanship, and officership.

Phi Beta Iota: A few points of balance….

1. Military pay in wartime is very very good–the only people who should be exempt are the 4% on the front-line who take 80% of the casualties, everyone else is full-up on unearned combat pay, clubs, post exchanges, and ice cream shops.

2. Assange is Australian and has not violated any US laws. Charles Krauthammer knows this and is venting for the ignorant that love him. This is a similar situation to where CIA claims it cannot tell Congress anything to protect sources and methods, when all it is protecting is its culture of corruption and its grotesque incompetence at operations, analysis, and technology. WikiLeaks is the antidote to Rule by Secrecy, Transparency is the 21st Century Killer App. Get over it, the game has changed and the public is on track to being sovereign again.

3. The Marines are the single most attractive service for gay men seeking “real men” and the dirty little secret of the Marine Corps has for a very long time been that it hosts a wealth of gay staff non-commissioned officers as well as lesbian officers who thrive in that environment. Cultures change over time–at one time the Israelis were right when they said women in combat took the focus off the mission. That is less true now. The day will come when gay and lesbian are accepted biological facts rather than cultural biases, on balance C/JCS is right. Red light green light protocols work just fine in same-sex situations as they do in opposite sex situations, as to administrative housing regulations.

4. Aircraft #13 is a truly great story. It's the kind of story that benefits from holding the moral high ground.