The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Chelsea Manning Awarded Sam Adams Integrity Prize for 2014
Announcement by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII)
The Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) have voted overwhelmingly to present the 2014 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence to Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning.
Continue reading “David Swanson: Chelsea Manning Awarded Sam Adams Integrity Prize for 2014”
The NSA, Snowden and the Media
By Robert Dover
e-International Relations on January 15, 2014
As Michael Goodman and I tried to whimsically note in the sub-title of our edited collection on intelligence and the media – media needs intelligence and intelligence needs the media. The symbiosis of this relationship can be partly found in common expertise and practices (investigative zeal and tradecraft around weeding out hidden empirical detail), but also in the political or normative function of intelligence agencies, namely to constrain and repel certain forms of political discourse and activity deemed to be abhorrent to the majority, but more particularly which is abhorrent to the established political elites. So, at a very basic level media outlets learn much from the activities of intelligence agencies and the business they engage in. Similarly the agencies have both used mainstream media to shape debates (the Cold War and the War on Terror were notable examples), and to position adversaries in a particular way (and this might apply to every conflict since the printing press was invented). But what I want to rehearse here are the particular ways in which mainstream and parallel media sources – with a particular emphasis on the UK – have coalesced and acted within the NSA/Snowden furore, and the lessons we can learn from this.
Continue reading “Rob Dover: The NSA, Snowden and the Media”
Robert Gates: A man still at war
Washington Post, 12 January 2014
Skagit County, Wash. — Robert M. Gates is a crier. He is also an expert at restraining himself.
The war is fought in the throat, and lost in the eyes.
He clears his throat as if it will hitch his composure back into compliance. His eyes, however, water and redden. It’s clear what will happen if he blinks.
“I’m — ” he says and stops.
“I’m — ” he says and stops.
“I think I’m — ” he says and stops. “I think I’m at peace.”
He sits in a wooden swivel chair but has stopped swiveling.
I Spent Two Hours Talking With the NSA’s Bigwigs. Here’s What Has Them Mad
By Steven Levy
WIRED, 01.13.14
EXTRACT:
I talk about that session in my story, but let me note a few general takeaways:
The dual mission of the NSA generates cognitive dissonance. Right on its home page, the NSA says its core missions are “to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information.” The officials repeatedly claimed they pursue both responsibilities with equal vigor. There’s a built-in conflict here: If U.S. industries distribute strong encryption throughout the world, it should make the NSA’s signals-gathering job much harder. Yet the NSA says it welcomes encryption. (The officials even implied that the tension between the two missions winds up making both efforts more robust.) Nonetheless, the Snowden leaks indicate that the NSA has engaged in numerous efforts that tamper with the security of American products. The officials resisted this characterization. Why, they asked, would they compromise security of products they use themselves, like Windows, Cisco routers, or the encryption standards they allegedly compromised?
Latin America and the US: The Apotheosis of Distrust
The year 2013 was shockingly damaging to relations between the U.S. and the countries of Latin America. Edward Snowden’s revelations showed that in the Western Hemisphere, Washington is trying to play only by the rules it itself has written.
Using such spying programs as Prism, Boundless Informant and others, U.S. intelligence was collecting strategically useful information throughout the South American continent and using it to ensure the effectiveness of its policy in the region…
Continue reading “4th Media: Latin America and the US: The Apotheosis of Distrust”
Nonpartisan my ass!
CBO suggests tough defense spending cuts
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has proposed six ways to reduce defense spending ranging from deep cuts to the military services to controversial reductions in pay and benefits.
In a presentation Tuesday before a group of retired and current government personnel and federal budget experts, CBO senior analyst Carla Tighe Murray delivered options for defense savings that would total between $10 billion and $495 billion through 2023.
God bless Secretary Gates! He is a man of honor, integrity and competence as well as a good judge of character. During one of the critical periods, Iraq surge if memory serves, he had heard about what my offices does and came down to meet us personally and take pictures with us. For the duration of his watch, DoD was well led.
Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique of Obama’s leadership in ‘Duty’
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post, January 7
In a new memoir, former defense secretary Robert Gates unleashes harsh judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.
Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Bob Gates, Tough on the Record”
