Communities of Practice – Page 1033 – Public Intelligence Blog

Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Arab League Report Shows that Syria Has Been Mischaracterized

While the Western media act like the Syrian government is wantonly and indiscriminately killing its own people without provocation, an independent investigation has found a different reality on the ground.

Specifically, over 160 monitors from the Arab League – comprised of both allies and mortal enemies of Syria – toured Syria and published a report on January 27th showing that the situation has been mischaracterized.

Initially, the report noted general cooperation by the Syrian government:

The Mission [i.e. the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.

The report noted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria:

The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.

The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.

***

Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria”

2012/02/09

Winslow Wheeler: Sorting Out the Real DoD Budget…

10 Security, Budgets & Funding, DoD, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call

I thought the short piece below might help people better analyze and report on the defense spending budget that will be released on Monday, February 13. As you know, DOD has already released some numbers; however, they are quite incomplete. They do not even cover all Pentagon spending, let alone all defense-related spending. Using the Pentagon's press release on Monday will likely mean missing the more complete picture. I try to explain below, and I address where you can find a more complete display of the numbers–all of them.

Decoding the Pentagon's Budget Numbers

Winslow T. Wheeler

This Monday, February 13, the Pentagon will release the details of its fiscal year 2013 budget. The press, congressional staff and think tank-types go through an annual routine, scrambling to get out their take on the numbers and some selected issues. Some of these efforts are quite predictable; this year we will surely hear about

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Sorting Out the Real DoD Budget…”

2012/02/092012/02/09

DefDog: Rent-A General Business Continues As Usual…

Corruption, Military

Rent-A-General Business Booming

Chris Frates

National Journal, 7 February 2012

Two of the highest-ranking Pentagon officials to leave government in the past year have landed on a lucrative rainmaking board for the federal contracting arm of business-consulting giant Accenture.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James “Hoss” Cartwright have signed on to provide advice on “the federal market, industry trends, and business strategies” for Accenture's federal business arm, based in the Washington suburb of Reston, Va.

It's the latest evidence that the “rent-a-general” business is booming for Pentagon retirees in the post-9/11 decade. Sitting on internal advisory boards for government contractors has become a popular destination for high-level Pentagon retirees, and while it's perfectly legal it remains controversial.

Phi Beta Iota: In a properly managed military, not only would be cut the flag officer and senior executive service by half, but by the time they retired, they should not be qualified to serve in the private sector — they should have been focused every waking moment on training, equipping, and organizing national capabilities, and as a general rule should be considered by contractors to be Darth Vaders on fraud, waste, and abuse. Not today.

2012/02/092012/02/09

Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, History, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Key Players, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Policies, Strategy, Threats, True Cost

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Baluchistan Hearing, February 8, 2012
Testimony of Ralph Peters, military analyst and author

“PAKISTAN AS A FAILING EMPIRE”

2012-02-09 Ralph Peters House Testimony, Baluchistan and Pakistan (8 pages, doc)

Introductory remarks: This testimony arises from three premises.

First, we cannot analyze global events through reassuring ideological lenses, be they left or right, or we will continue to be mistaken, surprised and bewildered by foreign developments. The rest of the world will neither conform to our prejudices nor behave for our convenience.

Second, focusing obsessively on short-term problems blinds us to the root causes and frequent intractability of today’s conflicts. Because we do not know history, we wave history away. Yet, the only way to understand the new world disorder is to place current developments in the context of generations and even centuries. Otherwise, we will continue to blunder through situations in which we deploy to Afghanistan to end Taliban rule, only to find ourselves, a decade later, impatient to negotiate the Taliban’s return to power.

Third, we must not be afraid to “color outside of the lines.” When it comes to foreign affairs, Washington’s political spectrum is monochromatic: timid, conformist and wrong with breathtaking consistency. We have a Department of State that refuses to think beyond borders codified at Versailles nine decades ago; a Department of Defense that, faced with messianic and ethnic insurgencies, concocted its doctrine from irrelevant case studies of yesteryear’s Marxist guerrillas; and a think-tank community almost Stalinist in its rigid allegiance to twentieth-century models of how the world should work.

If we do not think innovatively, we will continue to fail ignobly.

Continue reading “Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan”

2012/02/082012/02/08

Jon Lebkowsky: Google Glasses – What Do You See?

Commerce, Corruption, IO Impotency

Google glasses (or maybe we should call ‘em Google Goggles) will be an interesting AR advance, more science friction happening now, if they do happen. Preview (aka rumor) at 9to5Google.

These glasses, we heard, have a front-facing camera used to gather information and could aid in augmented reality apps. It will also take pictures. The spied prototype has a flash —perhaps for help at night, or maybe it is just a way to take better photos. The camera is extremely small and likely only a few megapixels. Quote from above source below.

According to our source, it communicates directly with the Cloud over IP. Although, the “Google Goggles” could use a phone’s Internet connection, through Wi-Fi or a low power Bluetooth 4.0.

google glasses — Click on Image to Enlarge

The use-case is augmented reality that would tie into Google’s location services. A user can walk around with information popping up and into display -Terminator-style- based on preferences, location and Google’s information.

Therefore, these things likely connect to the Internet and have GPS. They also likely run a version of Android.

Phi Beta Iota: It is quite fascinating to watch Google make the same mistake as the US secret world, obsessing on collection and meaningless displays while failing to make sense or influence outcomes.

2012/02/08

Michael Peterson: Jew on Jew – The Importance of Dissent

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

Phi Beta Iota: The following is a comment posted to the reviewby Robert Steele of Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul (Carroll & Graf, 2002). It is a combination of Constitutional and religious counterintelligence commentary that we found to be encouraging–most American Jews are not Zionist sayanim [traitors to the USA, clandestine assets for the Mossad].

FULL EXTRACT:

Oh c'mon as Jew I'm offended. You doing that only proves him right, jeez dude way to be reactionary. It's more about the state of Israel. There are plenty of American Jews that see Israelis as arrogant to say the least…

I'm an American first. Well….it's not like the people that run the place have any sense of loyalty beyond money and family so to my own ears they sound hallow, but it's the only thing we have left right? Anyway Sanayim was removed from wikipedia so waybackmachine led me to a former Mossad intelligence officer Victor_Ostrovsky who actually admitted to it's existence and wrote at length.

Also on censorship, those who fear something usually react. So I take the side of whoever says something, provides evidence and then doesn't have a history of trying to crush the dissenting opinion of others who disagree with them. Even if I categorically disagree with their conclusions, the reactionary, who hides behind “such and such is inflammatory and therefore he must be REPORTED to protect the minds and hearts of others is even less of a human being and even more reproachable. I'm a black biracial Jew so I know what being persecuted is.

In 7th grade re-enacting a supreme court case about media censorship we were given hypotheticals as to what decisions we would make as justices. The important part about protecting the constitution is defending the rights of those you disagree with as long as they are non-violent and don't impose on the civil liberties of others. Imagine the audacity of me being the only student in class writing that the klan should be able to march in Midtown Manhattan exercising their first amendment right…why you ask? So they could embarrass themselves, heck maybe even get punched in the face? You lose liberty when you aren't willing to defend people you ideologically disagree with. Defend your convictions with fact by fact analysis and come to a conclusion that best supports the data.

Also that same year in 7th grade I learned what Nuclear Deterrence theory meant, what the Bush doctrine was, who George F Kennan Was, and most importantly what Project For New American Century is…all because of something called the 9/11 Commission Report I needed to make my case for the mock supreme court trial about whether a newspaper in Denver Colorado was breaching the espionage act by reporting on the environmental effects of government chemical testing. I was a middle schooler in the top class of a considerably bad school from South Jamaica Queens, in a lower middle class household. I did exceedingly well on standardized tests, but had a lax GPA.

I'm building this backstory to say what? That anything is possible from any ruling class(foreign or domestic)when Sarah Palin can be viewed as a credible running mate by over 40% of the voting block. Neoliberalism with the doublethink of Neoconservatism definitely proves the current regime of Israel and the policies of the United States government as the greatest threats to democracy the world has ever seen since the rise of the Third Reich.

This isn't just a message to the above commenter, but anyone who's on amazon scanning to be better informed. Be self-sufficient and remember to research, research, research, regardless of whatever your religion, class, or creed may do to disarm you emotionally.

2012/02/072014/01/18

Robert Steele: The Craft of Intelligence – OLD vs. NEW

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Earth Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Reform, Serious Games, Threats

UPDATED 18 January 2014

Intelligence Chief Describes Complex Challenges. America and the world are facing the most complex set of challenges in at least 50 years, the director of national intelligence told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence here today.

James R. Clapper Jr. said capabilities, technologies, know-how, communications and environmental forces “aren't confined by borders and can trigger transnational disruptions with astonishing speed.”

“Never before has the intelligence community been called upon to master such complexity on so many issues in such a resource- constrained environment,” he added.

CIA Director David H. Petraeus, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr. and others accompanied Clapper during his testimony on Capitol Hill. Clapper spoke for all agencies in his opening statement.

All U.S. agencies are combating the complex environment and making sense of the threats by continuing to integrate the community and “by taking advantage of new technologies, implementing new efficiencies and, as always, simply working hard,” Clapper said.

Still, he said, all agencies are confronting the difficult fiscal environment.

“Maintaining the world's premier intelligence enterprise in the face of shrinking budgets will be difficult,” the director said. “We'll be accepting and managing risk more so than we've had to do in the last decade.”

Terrorism and proliferation remain the first threats the intelligence agencies must face, he said, and the next three years will be crucial. [Read more: Garamone/AFPS/31January2012]

Tip of the Hat to AFCEA.

Below the Line: Craft of Intelligence for the 21st Century

Continue reading “Robert Steele: The Craft of Intelligence – OLD vs. NEW”