Search & Worth a Look: Iraq Veteran Rings

Citizen-Centered, Military, Searches, Worth A Look
Home Page for Rings

This is interesting for two reasons:

1)  Our first thought was that returning veterans were forming small criminal rings to survive in the absence of jobs being available.  That is still a potential threat, on top of all the gang members that joined the military for the express purpose of gaining advanced training and liberal access to weapons and munitions.

2)  Second, this is the same web site that sells service rings for $45, and those we recommend highly, but the “culture of war” seems to be captured by this offering, with one big caveat as pointed out by Marcus Aurelius in an earlier post–only a tiny segment of our population–and virtually NONE of our political leaders–is a war veteran.

Y Combinator Hacker News Community’s Model for Info-Sharing & Potential for Collective Intelligence

03 Economy, 04 Education, 11 Society, Academia, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Hacking, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Mobile, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, Technologies

Hacker News” has a welcome page and guidelines page offering an overview of what the organizers expect from those planning on posting comments and why it's good overall for the community.  I (Jason Liszkiewicz) was impressed with this. Hacker News has a solid number of participants and provides a simple and mature format for exploring and contributing thoughtful feedback, insight and resources.

It has a jobs link (mainly for engineers and programmers) and the “Ask Hacker News” link which enables the community to share information and reply to what is shared. Such a model (deemed an “experiment”) that provides mature and thoughtful information-sharing is something we need more of. Communities inter-linking with communities (or at least over-lapping) to spill over each others insights can be invaluable and potentially priceless.

Example: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

This simple and useful model is something I hoped would emerge + converge from the SMS/text messaging developers at ChaCha.com (humans online responding to text messaged questions) or somewhere else. Converging multi-community info-sharing online, offline, and through the mobile world on a global scale is an exciting possibility.

The next level to all of this exists in the form of ideas or fragmented applications but it seems not beyond that, yet.

Email earthintelnet|at|gmail.com or post something at this new forum to discuss these ideas. Or, provide some mature and thoughtful feedback at the Hacker News community.

Journal: CIA Links to NYC Mosque Controversy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military, Officers Call

Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque

By Mark Ames

September 10, 2010 | 2:36 p.m

EXTRACT 1: Leslie Deak's resume also notes his role as “business consultant” for Patriot Defense Group, LLC, a private defense contractor with offices in Winter Park, Florida, and in Tucson. The only names listed on the firm's website are those of its three “strategic advisers.” These include retired four-star General Bryan “Doug” Brown, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command until 2007, where he headed “all special operations forces, both active duty and reserve, leading the Global War On Terrorism,” and James Pavitt, former deputy director for operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he “managed the CIA's globally deployed personnel and nearly half of its multi-billion dollar budget” and “served as head of America's Clandestine Service, the CIA's operational response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.”

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 2:  So, to recap: From 2006 to 2008, R. Leslie Deak worked as a “business consultant” to this super-secretive security contractor with ties to the CIA and counterterrorism forces, and in those same three years he also donated nearly $100,000 in seed money to the foundation now advocating the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 3:  Goldline is to Glenn Beck what General Electric was to Ronald Reagan: The company sponsors Beck's TV and radio shows as well as his touring act, and Beck is its public face. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, along with the Santa Monica City Attorney's office, are currently investigating Goldline for defrauding customers by railroading gullible customers into buying their most debased products.

Speaking of Glenn Beck, it has been reported that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent company Fox News, which airs Beck's program, is also a major funder of Imam Rauf's projects, as Jon Stewart viewers heard all about last week.

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 4: But add to this array of unexpected connections the work of Imam Rauf on behalf of the U.S. government—which includes serving as an FBI “consultant” and being recruited as a spokesperson by longtime George W. Bush confidante Karen Hughes, who headed up the administration's propaganda efforts in the Muslim world—and a compelling picture begins to emerge. Bush's favorite Imam, with backing from a funder with connections to the CIA, the Pentagon and the currency trading company that now sponsors rightwing firebrand Glenn Beck, proposes to build a mosque around the corner from the site of the most devastating terrorist attack ever visited on America. In the name of “[cultivating] understanding among all religions and cultures,” he puts forth a project that offends a majority of Americans and deals a significant setback to the broader acceptance of Muslim-Americans. It's a little like Billy “White Shoes” Johnson claiming the only reason he moonwalks after scoring a touchdown is to lower tensions on the football field and raise the other team's spirits.

Prison Planet Alternate View of Entire Piece

Tip of the Hat to Niels Groeneveld at LinkedIn.

Phi Beta Iota: It would appear that as the public is becoming more informed and more outraged, the military-intelligence complex on behalf of its global banking sponsors is becoming more brazen.  As it has with the Martin Luther King and JFK assassinations, the Tonkin Gulf and Iraq lies, and most recently with the 9-11 cover-up, the truth cannot be held back.  It has a way of reconnecting that is profoundly moving.

Journal: America’s Army–Tough, Isolated, Happy

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I suggest to you that this article is a keeper, that David Woods gets it.  While it focuses on the Army, I think it's applicable in significant part to the other

David Wood Biography

DoD military Services, particularly to the Marine Corps, and to one or two non-DoD Federal agencies have been close partners in the national security effort.

V/R,

REDACTED

In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America

The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors.

This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.

EXTRAORDINARY BRILLIANT STUFF “MUST READ”

“A lot of us are here because society has no further use for us,” he said. “The Army has become home for a lot of restless souls who can never really go back.

See Also:

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Corruption
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Dereliction of Duty (Defense)
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Poverty
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on War Complex—War as a Racket

Journal: General Mike Flynn from AF to DC

08 Wild Cards, Military, Officers Call

U.S. intel chief in Afghanistan leaves post

By Anne Gearan and Kimberly Dozier – The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 12:11:01 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Army spokesman says the top U.S. and NATO intelligence officer in Afghanistan is on his way to another job.

Spokesman Col. Thomas Collins did not say what job Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn would take, as the move had not yet been approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But two defense officials say Flynn will become a top troubleshooter for the Director of National Intelligence. The officials spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Flynn is expected to be replaced by Brig. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, the current intelligence officer at the U.S. Central Command in Florida.

See Also:

Reference: Fixing Intel–A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan

Continue reading “Journal: General Mike Flynn from AF to DC”

Journal: Cognitive Dissonance in Afghanistan Part II

Cultural Intelligence, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Col Lawrence Sellin: Traitor or Truth-Teller?

Fired colonel calls PowerPoint a crutch

Army Times, By Andrew Tilghman – Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 8:29:12 EDT

Army Reserve Col. Lawrence Sellin has no regrets about publishing a rant about the military’s overreliance on PowerPoint presentations — despite the fact it got him fired from his job at joint command headquarters in Afghanistan.

. . . . . . .

Sellin said his controversial article was the last of several efforts to find something meaningful to do at ISAF headquarters.

. . . . . .

Sellin’s screed highlights a long-simmering controversy inside the military bureaucracy.

Marine Gen. James Mattis, currently chief of U.S. Central Command, told a military conference earlier this year that “PowerPoint makes us stupid.”

And Army Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster banned PowerPoint presentations as a brigade commander during his successful efforts to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005.

Sellin said his complaint is not solely about PowerPoint, the presentation software created in 1987.

“I don’t hate PowerPoint. It’s a useful tool,” he said. “But it can be a crutch as a substitute for thinking. It’s too easy to produce a lot of slides and create volume, not quality. You really think that with a lot of detailed slides that you’re making progress, when you are actually not.”

Continue reading “Journal: Cognitive Dissonance in Afghanistan Part II”

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

Hacking, IO Multinational, IO Secrets, IO Sense-Making, Military, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Army Times article, second below, reports what the beginning of what I expect will be a major decline in functionality of Army computer systems.  While some sort of institutional response to the alleged Wikileaks traitor, Specialist Bradley Manning, is appropriate, I don't think this is it.  This is a simplistic approach, the sort of thing the KGB did and presumably the sort of the SVR continues to do.

By the way, IMHO, 91K classified documents on the Internet is not some sort of an inadvertent security violation.  It's almost certainly one of the national security crimes; I think it's treason. Better to concentrate on the perpetrator — try him, convict him, and then, maybe, violate in some significant ways his Constitutional protection against “cruel and unusual punishment” as a highly visible deterrent against espionage.

NOTE:  Image links to source generally as persistent link not available.

Below the line: PBI comment and cyber-security recap (34).

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