Military – Page 79 – Public Intelligence Blog

Robert,

I read your appraisal over several times. Essentially, in my opinion, your understanding of the problems continues to be on the mark and remarkably consistent over the last twenty or so years. Yet your work on both the process and products of intelligence is very high level and in this latest appraisal, as in your previous works, you leave it up to the imagination of the reader to figure out how to actually implement the ideas you so eloquently express. This I think is a mistake in that potential employers, impressed with you macro ideas, would be interested in how these ideas could be brought to the implementation stage. Attached is a supplement to your appraisal on collection and analysis.

In any event I hope that this finds you well and upbeat. You deserve a position that would reflect both your knowledge and your commitment to saving the IC from itself.

A Fan

ROBERT STEELE: The time has indeed come to create an alternative to the existing system. I have started to work with a select group across the emergent M4IS2/OSE network, on a firm geospatial foundation. While many of my ideas have been mis-appropriated and corrupted over the past 20 years, no one has actually attempted to implement the coherent vision — sources, softwares, and services all in one, and this time around, all open source, all multi-everything. The PhD thesis, the School of Future-Oriented Hybrid Governance, and the World Brain Institute — and perhaps even the Open Source Agency as a non-US international body — are the beginning of my final twenty-year run. Intelligence with integrity. Something to contemplate.

Extention of Appraisal Details

Continue reading “Anonymous Feedback on Robert Steele's Appraisal of Analytic Foundations — Agreement & Extension”

2014/05/032014/05/03

Berto Jongman: Benghazi – Was Ambassador Steven Murdered to Cover Up CIA Arming of Al Qaeda?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Government, Idiocy, Military, Peace Intelligence

CIA Pilot Bombshell!! Confirms Obama’s Gun Running Program To Al Qaeda

A very interesting interview over at InfoWars, which can be heard in part in the video below, with a former CIA gun runner, William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, which confirmed that before the Benghazi attack which killed four Americans, including Ambassador John Stevens, the Ambassador had expresed concern over the illegal arms reaching Islamic radicals. Plumlee talks about the lack of information provided to the mother of one of an information officer killed that fateful day:

“I began to wonder ‘why won’t they tell her anything?’” He asked. “Then a contact of mine in the Middle East, a high-ranking NATO official, mentioned to me that he had reports that the ambassador [J. Christopher Stevens] had been complaining about the dispatches and cables that he had got from the State Department about the weapons being received and [Islamic] radicals armed, including Stinger missiles.”

According to Plumlee, Steven was ordered to stand down after he asked the State Dept. what he should do about the American arm shipments to al-Qaeda.

“The ambassador and his people had written a series of field reports and cable dispatches advising our State Department that the rebel factions had been armed with U.S. weapons,” he said. “Now my contention is this: if that is the case, why is that classified as a national security matter?”

Was Stevens and the other three Americans killed because of what they knew and expressed concern about? Is that why the White House deliberately had officials providing false information to the public over the attack directly following it, which the latest Benghazi bombshell recently revealed? Is this also why the military was told to stand down and were not allowed to go in to save Ambassador Stevens and the others?

See Also:

Benghazi @ Phi Beta Iota

2014/04/282014/04/28

Robert Young Pelton: General Dostom is INNOCENT of the Dasht-i-Leili Massacre [PBI: What’s It Worth To Set Record Straight in Time for Run-Off?]

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

ROBERT STEELE: General Dostom is accused of the being directly responsible for the Dasht-i-Leili massacre aka container massacre that has been hugely overblown — as well as civilian collateral damage over time — and this remains a sore point with many Pashtuns and of course those that also consider themselves Taliban. What is your understanding?

ROBERT YOUNG PELTON: I was there for all this and have told many journos (NYTimes, Newsweek, BBC etc) that they are full of shit since they use second hand sourcing and constantly avoid using my first hand testimony since I was in the prison, saw the containers unloaded, took real time photos, notes etc. I also was there with Doran when his doco on Dostum got cancelled by the BBC and he had to make a “massacre” doco, first with British then American troops…using second hand footage and testimony. I have already gathered all the facts at: www.generaldostum.com, see especially the Conflict & Controvery section including the detailed timeline inclusive of photographs. I have been out of touch but this is a long beaten horse started by Atta [Muhammad Nur] with the eager ear of the State Dept flunkies. They wanted to minimize the threat of Dostum to promote Karzai. Ghani was no where near all this but the Pansjiris love to spread this bullshit before every election. One also has to be aware that there are Massoud groupies in the journo world that hate Dostom blindly and have been caught fabricating stories.

2014/04/272014/04/27

Marcus Aurelius: Army – Navy Retention Issues

Cultural Intelligence, Military

Month-old Rowan Scarborough article at bottom and transmittal messages above it are worth reading. While I don't have Army numbers, I'd bet we have or will soon have same kinds of retention problems as the Navy.

What I am seeing are:

* A stated policy of “precision retention” whereby, in getting to end strength it thinks it can afford, Army does not intend to entice people to leave voluntarily. Rather, it intends to try to cull out those it no longer wants, essentially anyone whose record is off-perfect in the slightest respect.

* A “back to basics” push that could be intended to set people up for getting blots on their copybooks.

* Radically fewer resources for training, constrained by dollars focused on buying gadgets.

* A great deal of political correctness, just like Navy

* Massive requirements for annual online training on intractible problems, just like Navy.

We have seen parts of this before and it didn't work out well.

Sailors leaving Navy over stress on social issues, Top Gun instructor says

A Navy F-18 fighter pilot and former Top Gun instructor is publicly warning admirals that retention is beginning to suffer from the military’s relentless social conditioning programs.

Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, until recently a Pentagon speech writer for the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, said sailors are becoming fed-up with the constant emphasis on social issues — an apparent reference to gays in the military, women in combat and ending sexual harassment.

Read full article.

2014/04/252014/04/25

Sunny: KBR & Halliburton Potentially Liable for Iraq Toxic Burn Pits, Court Rules 57 Lawsuits Can Proceed

03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military

KBR and Halliburton Can Be Sued For Iraq Toxic Burn Pits, Court Rules

by Fatima Hansia, CorpWatch Blog

April 17th, 2014

KBR and Halliburton – two major U.S. military contractors – can be sued for the health impacts of trash incineration on U.S. soldiers who served in the war in Iraq, according to a new court decision that allows a series of 57 lawsuits against the companies to go forward.

Continue reading “Sunny: KBR & Halliburton Potentially Liable for Iraq Toxic Burn Pits, Court Rules 57 Lawsuits Can Proceed”

2014/04/242014/05/18

Winslow Wheeler: New F-35 Claims on Cost Highly Questionable

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

My analysis of the new DOD data on the cost of the F-35 is at the Straus Military Project website at http://www.pogo.org/our-work/straus-military-reform-project/weapons/2014/new-f-35-claim-lower-os-estimate-more-than-offsets-higher-acquisition-cost.html, and it is below.

While the media reports on these costs were out last week, there are some critically important elements of the DOD cost reporting that got little or no attention.

New F-35 Claim: Lower O&S Estimate More than Offsets Higher Acquisition Cost

Last week the Defense Department released its new Selected Acquisition Reports (SARs) on its major weapon programs. These annual reports are the Pentagon's effort at definitive cost analysis; they come in two forms: the summary data on all 77 of DOD's Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) and separate reports on individual programs, such as the F-35-the latter put on-line without a pay wall by Breaking Defense.

As in recent years, the release of new data on the F-35 provoked press coverage, some of it quite thorough in summarizing much the new data and what the top F-35 defender, F-35 program manager Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, had to say about it all. However, there are some important points that did not get the attention they perhaps deserve, and one key point seems to have been generally missed.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: New F-35 Claims on Cost Highly Questionable”

2014/04/232014/04/23

Mini-Me: Veterans Die While Waiting Up to a Year for VA Medical Appointments — Secret List Used to Conceal Gross Dereliction of Duty

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, DoD, Government, Ineptitude, Military

Huh?

A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list

(CNN) — At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Veterans Die While Waiting Up to a Year for VA Medical Appointments — Secret List Used to Conceal Gross Dereliction of Duty”

Category: Military

Anonymous Feedback on Robert Steele’s Appraisal of Analytic Foundations — Agreement & Extension