Communities of Practice – Page 1005 – Public Intelligence Blog

Afghanistan: Comment: On the 16th, US and NATO officials praised the Afghan commandos for leading the counterattack against the small group of anti-government fighters who assaulted Kabul on Sunday. However, some seemed to undermine the significance of the Afghan achievement by minimizing the significance of the assault itself, calling it the last gasp of the anti-government forces. Evidently, the Afghans fought well against a weak force and the sensational set of attacks actually signifies an improving security situation. Hmmm.

Thus, Readers might be confused on the 17th by multiple press services reports that the NATO command plans a large offensive to improve security in Kabul in May.

NightWatch has written that violent instability is centripetal. It moves from the border marches and other peripheries to the center of power, the capital. Victory for the anti-government forces means seizing and holding the capital. Victory for the government forces means holding a secure center and expanding a secure perimeter outward to the national borders.

A government that cannot maintain a secure center of power, the capital, cannot survive. It does not matter whether it falls to the Taliban or the Haqqanis. It will fall. Thus, attacks in the capital are always signs of weakness at the center. The only question is how weak.

For example, the Syrian government understands this phenomenology, which is why there have been less than a handful of attacks in Damascus during a year of violent instability. Damascus has experienced no 18-hour battles. The occasional attacks do not signify significant weakness. The Syrian center is holding.

Syria is not Afghanistan and the two fights are quite different, but the importance of security at the center is the same. This week's outbreak of fighting in Kabul means one thing: Kabul is not secure even with NATO forces. If the center is not secure, nowhere else matters.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

2012/04/172012/04/17

Chuck Spinney: Hardware Über Alles in the Spendagon — Paneta Pumps Corporate Profits While Veterans Commit Suicide + Meta-RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, Military, Officers Call

Hardware Über Alles in the Spendagon

(Note to Readers, the following essay is a revised version of one that appeared in Time Magazine's Battleland blog found at this link.)

For a good example of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex’s (MICC’s) value system — which is hardware before ideas and people — read this New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof.

Note his opening paragraph:

Here’s a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.

And here is Kristof’s penultimate paragraph:

We refurbish tanks after time in combat, but don’t much help men and women exorcise the demons of war. Presidents commit troops to distant battlefields, but don’t commit enough dollars to veterans’ services afterward. We enlist soldiers to protect us, but when they come home we don’t protect them.

In between, Kristof supports these statements with horrific detail.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Hardware Über Alles in the Spendagon — Paneta Pumps Corporate Profits While Veterans Commit Suicide + Meta-RECAP”

2012/04/162012/04/16

Theophillis Goodyear: Ethics, Psychology, and the Volunteer Army

Ethics, Military

During World War II, most men joined the service out of a sense of duty and a sense of right and wrong. During the Vietnam war, many men, but not all, were drafted and really didn't want to be there. But they didn't want to go to prison. But men tend to join today's volunteer army so they'll have a job. These are all generalizations of course, but only for the purpose of discussion.

Ethics is a deep and complex subject. Right and wrong may seem easy to determine on most occasions, but what's not easy, at all, is to give reasonable and rational arguments for what's right and wrong on all occasions. That's why ethics is an imprecise branch of philosophy that often asks more questions than it can ever hope to answer. Some moral dilemmas are impossible to resolve.

If a man goes to war and kills out of a sense of duty, then that sense of duty may protect him from some of the psychological consequences of committing violence. He can tell himself that his heart was in the right place and his intentions were good—-and they probably were. But in the heat of battle, things happen.

Continue reading “Theophillis Goodyear: Ethics, Psychology, and the Volunteer Army”

2012/04/162012/04/16

Steven Aftergood: Jesselyn Radack as “Traitor” or Whistleblower – the Death of Ethics Across the Entire US Government

Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

“TRAITOR,” A WHISTLEBLOWER'S TALE

Jesselyn Radack's memoir Traitor: The Whistleblower and the American Taliban presents the moving story of a young attorney's unexpected encounter with official misconduct, and the excruciating ordeal that ensued when she decided to challenge it.

In 2001, Ms. Radack was a Justice Department attorney and specialist in legal ethics. In response to an official inquiry, she advised that the newly captured John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” should not be interrogated without an attorney present — which he then was anyway. When Department officials publicly denied having received any such legal advice, and even destroyed evidence to the contrary, she exposed the deception.

Ms. Radack was not looking for a fight, but only to do the right thing. For her trouble, she was forced out of her Justice Department position, put under criminal investigation, fired from her subsequent job, reported to the state bar, and put on the “no fly” list.

“Traitor” is the story of a young professional whose career is derailed because her ethical compass will not let her be silent in the face of official dishonesty. It is also the story of a political system that is seemingly incapable of tolerating honorable dissenting views within the government workforce.

Continue reading “Steven Aftergood: Jesselyn Radack as “Traitor” or Whistleblower – the Death of Ethics Across the Entire US Government”

2012/04/162012/04/19

Gordon Duff: Colombian Hooker Demands $800, Lives to Talk About It UPDATE 3

Corruption, Government

UPDATE 3: Brother Duff's provocative speculation aside, this looks more and more like a four-way goat-fest. 1) Idiot prostitute tried for $800 instead of the customary $60-80. 2) Secret Service cherub lost it. 3) Colombian police were not at all cool. 4) CIA fixer was asleep. Journalists are after the Secret Service “racist bitch” that may have made all of this much much worse, her identity should be public knowledge by the week-end.

Two Secret Service agents ousted over scandal identified

UPDATE 2: Party line is that this was a wicked party that violated no local laws but was a breach of expected professional as well as personal ethics, with 20-21 women being involved (at the Colombian rate for gringos, $60 each). It defies belief that one of the US personnel would be dumb enough to stiff the Colombia prostitute (pun intended) and allow the situation to get to the point that the police were called. There is more to this story not yet in the public domain. Congress is raising legitimate questions about counter-intelligence vulnerabilities, but since Congressional delegations are notorious for precisely the same sort of behavior, one has to wonder where this will end up. We do have to wonder at just how stupid a Secret Service person has to be to register a hooker for the night and then not pay her. Had they been nurse-maided by CIA, there would have been no records, no price disagreements, and no blowback. Meanwhile, GSA is taking a hit for $830,000 in fiesta expenses. ” It's the culture, stupid.”

NBC: Prostitute's $50 fee for two agents triggered Secret Service scandal

Sources: Secret Service personnel partied prior to summit

US Secret Service prostitution scandal widens as five more service members arrested

House panel tells GSA, ‘Party’s over’

UPDATE 1: From inside the Secret Service, a lot of attention being cast on a female member of the presidential detail who is a “rascist bitch” and has been looking for a way to lash out at Obama…..along with serious concerns that there really is a plot that their and US counterintelligence missed. (US CI is practically non-existent–NSA does NOT “really” change its priorities for a Presidential visit prior to or during; nor are threats against the President a national intelligence collection priority). So this makes three scenarios: real plot missed by US CI and discovered by Colombian CI, not US CI; political theater with the detail being unwitting dupes; and internal break-down of both screening and discipline. We wait with bated breath–meanwhile, White House continues to cover up US unemployment and job losses; morally and intellectually challenged Secretary of the Treasury; the Japanese melt-down (pun intended); and other failures.

Assassination Colombia – What If It Ain’t About Whores?

Was Presidential Detail Penetrated by an Assassin?

by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Cartagena, Colombia (VT) The story, one a child wouldn’t believe, is that our Secret Service and Army advance teams, those that arrange for presidential security, were arrested for failing to pay one or more whores for “services rendered.”

The real deal is very probably this:

At least one of the members of the presidential detail is suspected of working with foreign nationals to arrange the assassination of President Obama.

A certain nation comes to mind, one very close to former Governor Romney, the GOP candidate hopelessly behind in the polls, a candidate belonging to a religion seen as a dangerous sect, a candidate hated by most American women and women vote.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Colombian Hooker Demands $800, Lives to Talk About It UPDATE 3”

2012/04/152012/04/15

Theophillis Goodyear: US Veteran Suicides: 25 for each combat death, 18 a day every day year after year + Meta-RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

According to the New York Times, for every U.S. soldier killed on the Battlefield this year, 25 committed suicide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/veteran-death-nation-shame_n_1427263.html

The whole story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-veterans-death-the-nations-shame.html?_r=1

A related topic:

MDMA (known on the street as ecstasy) is showing promise as a psychotherapeutic tool for helping people with post traumatic stress disorder. Here's some info from Vanderbilt University:

http://healthpsych.psy.vanderbilt.edu/2008/PTSD_MDMA.htm

Some more info on MDMA therapy:

http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/

http://www.military.com/news/article/study-ecstasy-treats-ptsd.html

Of course, conservatives tend to resist this kind of psychotherapy, even if it has shown promise, because they had a hard time getting beyond the fact that the drug produces euphoria. But one psychotherapist got special permission from the U.S. government to do a study using MDMA to treat PTSD. I think it's past time they expanded the program to try to start helping soldiers NOW. Before MDMA was made illegal, it was being commonly used as a tool of psychotherapy. So there's plenty of collected information on the subject, going all the way back to the eighties.

Phi Beta Iota: 18 US veterans a DAY succeed in killing themselves. A 1000 a month attempt to do so. This is a problem that in a properly managed government would lead to the firing of everyone from the Secretary of Defense down through the Army Chief of Staff to the head of Army personnel. Post-traumatic stress syndrome is a factor, but cognitive dissonance is a greater factor. We also need to remember depleted uranium and bio-chemical left-overs. These people cannot live with what they have done in our name and they live with the toxic environments we fund for them. Because military flag officers have lacked the integrity to dispute illegal unconstitutional orders to wage war on the world, they have put their troops into situations that did not warrant the insertion of our military, and that drawn out over time have destroyed our military and our veterans and therefore our society.

2012/04/15

David Swanson: Nobel Laureate Rejects State Department Event & Agenda

Civil Society, Corruption, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

Nobel Peace Laureate Rejects U.S. State Department – NATO – Chicago Agenda

FROM: MAIREAD MAGUIRE

Dear Friends,

I write to let you know that I have decided not to attend the 12^th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on 23^rd-25^th April, 2012, in Chicago, USA.

On 10^th April, Sec. of State H. Clinton appeared on video in US State Department Web announcing plans for the forthcoming Nobel Peace Laureates Summit and said ‘The US Department of State is proud to be an active partner in this event’.

Sec. Clinton gave details of how the US State Dept. is working with US embassies around the world, to bring twenty students and 4 teachers from 4 countries to Chicago and explained that video conferences and portals for live streaming of events, will be managed by US State department.

I have now decided, with some sadness, not to be associated in this Partnership as I do not agree with many of the Policies of the US State Department. Indeed I have, as a Nobel Peace Laureate, (and in the spirit of Alfred Nobel) often called for disbandment of NATO, end of militarism and war, and for Disarmament and demilitarization. I cannot therefore, in good conscience, be part of a Partnership with the US State Government (NATO). I also believe that my participation in such a partnership would compromise my position and put in jeopardy my work in the Middle East and other countries.

I am very disappointed that what is a great opportunity for young people, the Nobel Laureates and organizations to listen, learn, and exchange friendships and experiences, has been, I believe, seriously compromised in such a Partnership.

However, I hope it will be an enjoyable and educational summit particularly for all the young people, and I am deeply saddened not to be with you all.

Peace,

Mairead Maguire

Peace People, Northern Ireland

http://www.peacepeople.com

13.4.2012

Category: Communities of Practice

NIGHTWATCH: Afghanistan Lost, Syria Holding