Nine key factors are examined by BGen McMaster in his talk to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Answers question on why we were so unprepared. Final paragraph of trip report:
Can’t get much from a database and IT networks, but contractors keep pushing and we keep buying. But what really need is experts from anywhere, context, and also need to ask the soldiers! Make Phebe Marr a general! Also pay attention to: Charles Tripp, R. Kadeiri, Sarah Chayes, Barnett R. Rubin and Ahmed Rashid, Michael Howard, Frontline piece on Children of the Taliban, Fariad Ali Han on borders. Educate analysts (and self-educate) on the place, don’t waste time training them on the process.
The decision downgrades China from “Priority 1” status, alongside Iran and North Korea, to “Priority 2,” which covers specific events such as the humanitarian crisis after the Haitian earthquake or tensions between India and Pakistan.
One new area that has been given a higher intelligence priority under the Obama administration is intelligence collection on climate change, a nontraditional mission marginally linked to national security. The CIA recently announced that it had set up a center to study the impact of climate change.
Phi Beta Iota: The priorities are primarily influential on collection by the National Security Agency (NSA), determining whether the “system” stays on Beijing or goes to Central Asia instead, and this is probably the heart of the matter. HOWEVER, in combination with the DoD concerns that CIA is totally ineffective with respect to China, Afghanistan, or anything else of immediate concern (e.g. Somalia, Sudan, Yemen), and the idiocy of creating a Climate Change Center rather than restructuring to attack all ten high-level threats to humanity, this latest “theater” must be labeled for what it is–naked Emperors parading their very expensive rags. CIA is an utter travesty in all respects. The DNI is treading water for lack of vision, understanding, authority, and the will to confront “the system.” DoD is not much better–paper-pushing stuffed shirts and politically-correct uniforms disconnected from ground truth and the real needs of policy directors, acquisition managers, and operational commanders down to the company level. Not pretty at all.
My friends who served in the military speak of the pride with they performed what they viewed as their duty. This duty included the obligation to act with honor, including, above all, following the Geneva Conventions when handling detainees and prisoners of war. My friends tell sadly of the despair they felt in seeing this obligation shredded during the Bush administration as word came down that they should do “whatever it takes.” Some of them resigned in disgust. Others resisted what they viewed as moral decay from within.
A new story by attorney Scott Horton at Harpers reveals yet another very disturbing episode of dishonor. Horton reveals strong credible evidence that three alleged “suicides” at Guantanamo in June 2006 were really homicides. The official story is that during the night of June 9, 2006, three prisoners were found hanging in their cells in Alpha Block of Guantanamo's Camp 1.
Blackwater/XE behind terrorist bombings in Asia and Africa?
ByWayne Madsen Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jan 18, 2010, 00:25
WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia and Europe are reporting that the CIA contractor firm XE Services, formerly Blackwater, has been carrying out “false flag” terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sinkiang region of China, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, in some cases with the assistance of Israeli Mossad and Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) personnel.
Fingers are being pointed at Blackwater/XE and Mossad operatives for the motorbike bomb in Tehran that killed Tehran University nuclear physicist Dr. Moussad Ali-Mohammadi.
Gen Richards' views come ahead of a defence review and potential cuts
A “radical” shift in defence spending is needed, the head of the British army has said.
General Sir David Richards said priority should be given to troops working on the ground on winning over hearts and minds.
He told the International Institute for Strategic Studies there was too much emphasis on cutting-edge technology and not enough on cheaper troops and staff.
The UK was behind its enemies in being prepared for modern warfare, he added.
‘Minds of millions'
Gen Richards said current and future conflicts would focus on using communication to drum up support and would need more British troops to work among populations such as that in Afghanistan.
In his speech in London, he said: “If one equips more for this type of conflict while significantly reducing investment in higher-end war-fighting capability, suddenly one can buy an impressive amount of ‘kit'.
The United States attorney in Manhattan is merging the two units in his office that prosecute terrorism and international narcotics cases, saying that he wants to focus more on extremist Islamic groups whose members he believes are increasingly turning to the drug trade to finance their activities.
Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has ‘Always' Added New Testament References
By JOSEPH RHEE, TAHMAN BRADLEY and BRIAN ROSS
Jan. 18, 2010
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Note: the below report, which appears to be well sourced, does not rebut the Global Warming hypothesis per se, but it highlights the shoddy political character of the IPCC, together with its bias to hype the threat of global warming.
It also makes the revelations in the hacked emails all the more salient to the GW debate, especially those emails which reveal the organized efforts of suppress the opposing views of those scientists labeled disparagingly as “climate deniers” (an obscene, almost subliminal, reference to holocaust deniers) in peer reviewed journals.
…after dozens of U.S. military helicopters began arriving in force Friday, using the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson a few miles offshore as their base, the delivery of food, water and medical supplies got galvanized. “We're still running out of water faster then we can deliver it,” Marine Maj. Will Klumpp told me above the deafening roar of copter rotors. “But at least we feel like we've started to keep up with what the Haitians need now.”
The log jam at the airport has put the 82nd behind schedule. An 800-man battalion was supposed to be on the ground Friday but by yesterday there were only 240.
World leaders have pledged aid to rebuild earthquake-hit Haiti – but survivors are still waiting for food, water and medicine.
Five days after the 7.0 magnitude tremor killed up to 200,000 people, international rescue teams were continuing to find victims alive under the rubble in capital Port-au-Prince.
Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians desperately need help, but logistical logjams kept major relief from reaching them.
WASHINGTON — With many nations vying to get urgent relief into horror-struck Haiti after the devastating earthquake, US officials acknowledged Saturday it was “critical” to better coordinate the massive influx of aid.
Though the aid operation was picking up steam, it was still not reaching many of the survivors desperately scrambling for badly-needed food and water four days after the quake believed to have killed tens of thousands.
Water, water everywhere, and yesterday it finally got to people who need it.
Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne landed on a hill where survivors had gathered. So often these days, the face of America is that of a soldier – in this case, Captain Jonathan Hartsock.
The log jam at the airport has put the 82nd behind schedule. An 800-man battalion was supposed to be on the ground Friday but by yesterday there were only 240.
The main port is a disaster area, and until a second one can be opened up at Cap-Haitien on the north shore, the American military is trying to move into Haiti through that single-runway airport.
Phi Beta Iota: This is a fascinating peace challenge that the WWII D-Day planners would have appreciated–the US does not appear to leveraging all of the instruments of national power, including Sea Bees, landing craft, combat bridge repair, etcetera.
