Communities of Practice – Page 1091 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/10/032011/10/17

DefDog: First Ignored, Now Fat Cats Organizing a Negative Information Operations Campaign Against “Protesters Behaving Like Spoiled Brats”

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Impotency

Little coverage to begin with, then mostly negative following ….. indications that the “fat cats” are calling in favors to discredit this initiative. With the Transport Workers Union filing a complaint about the commandeering of buses to move the detained, word is spreading….time for social media to step up to the plate as it has
elsewhere?

Occupy Wall Street protesters are behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats

NY Daily News, 28 September 2011

And for sleet and torrential rains – anything that might convince the precious insufferables who have taken over Wall Street that they have had enough of exercising their First Amendment rights to the inconvenience of tens of thousands of people who actually have to work for a living.

This bunch ought to get down on their knees in thanks that America‘s capitalist Founding Fathers saw fit to protect the privileges of the dumb and obnoxious along with everyone else.

They should also salute the NYPD and all its officers for paying diligent attention to ensuring that peace and harmony reign in their daze of rage. But no.

Instead, in a disgraceful attempt at intimidation, partisans of Occupy Wall Street, as the micromovement calls itself, posted on the Internet the name, address and telephone number of a ranking cop who dosed a couple of upstarts with pepper spray – along with the same information about the officer's family members.

If the NYPD has made any tactical error in this episode, it was in being too tolerant.

Marcus Aurelius & DefDog: Google, NSA, Domestic Spying

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Deeds of War

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

NSA spooks win fight to keep secret possible ties to Google

The National Security Agency will get to keep secret documents that may, or may not, show a working relationship with Google.

In a decision made public Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon denied a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the curious souls at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. EPIC sought documents relating to NSA's possible relationship with Google following news of an alleged cyber attack by hackers in China and of a subsequent cooperation agreement between Google and NSA.

DefDog: North Dakota – Our Oil Reserves, Obama Refuses

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 09 Justice, 11 Society, 12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

North Dakota is debt free with a surplus of cash that can only be spent with 66% of the legislature approving. Integrity seems to be plentiful there, but not in Washington, where Obama refuses to free up access to oil in our ground, at the same time that he is blowing taxpayer money on fraudulent green schemes.

How North Dakota Became Saudi Arabia

Harold Hamm, discoverer of the Bakken fields of the northern Great Plains, on America's oil future and why OPEC's days are numbered.

By STEPHEN MOORE

Wall Street Journal, 1 October 2011

Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma-based founder and CEO of Continental Resources, the 14th-largest oil company in America, is a man who thinks big. He came to Washington last month to spread a needed message of economic optimism: With the right set of national energy policies, the United States could be “completely energy independent by the end of the decade. We can be the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas in the 21st century.”

“President Obama is riding the wrong horse on energy,” he adds. We can't come anywhere near the scale of energy production to achieve energy independence by pouring tax dollars into “green energy” sources like wind and solar, he argues. It has to come from oil and gas.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: The difference between North Dakota reserves and the Canadian oil tar scam is that the latter requires vast amounts of aquifer water to flush, a trade-off that no honest person would ever make. The Governor of North Dakota has every right to nullify federal interference with his state's natural resources.

2011/10/02

Berto Jongman: ICSR Report – As American As Apple Pie – How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad + US Government Assassination RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

From the Introduction:

This is an ICSR Insight written by Research Fellow, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
On the ten year anniversary of 9/11 earlier this month ICSR published an authoritative report on Anwar al-Awlaki, As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al-Awlaki became the Face of Western Jihad.

The demise of Anwar al-Awlaki, if reports of his death are accurate, represents a significant milestone in the fight against al-Qaeda. Despite his involvement with a number of both successful and abortive terrorist attacks against the West, it is Awlaki’s ability to project Salafi-jihadi ideology

. . . . . .

The story of Anwar al-Awlaki, and in particular his intellectual progression to jihad, reveals a unique
trajectory of jihadism in the West. This movement is not just confined to Muslim majority countries,
and through arguments he and others have provided, its message now resonates with a small section of
Western Muslims. The movement has achieved this level of resonance through a process which
includes the appropriation of contemporary Western political discourse about human rights, injustice
and foreign policy, interwoven with the history of Islam and the fostering a of global Islamic
consciousness which demands violent action in order to survive and expand.

As American as Apple Pie:
How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad
PDF 96 Pages

See Also [US Government Assassination RECAP]

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: ICSR Report – As American As Apple Pie – How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad + US Government Assassination RECAP”

2011/10/022011/10/02

Patrick Meier: Ushahidi Emergent as Democracy in Being

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Mobile, Policies, Reform, Serious Games, Technologies, Threats, Tools

Theorizing Ushahidi: An Academic Treatise

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Patrick Meier

[This is an excerpt taken from Chapter 1 of my dissertation]

Activists are not only turning to social media to document unfolding events, they are increasingly mapping these events for the world to bear witness. We’ve seen this happen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and beyond. My colleague Alexey Sidorenko describes this new phenomenon as a “mapping reflex.” When student activists from Khartoum got in touch earlier this year, they specifically asked for a map, one that would display their pro-democracy protests and the government crackdown. Why? They wanted the world to see that the Arab Spring extended to the Sudan.

The Ushahidi platform is increasingly used to map information generated by crowds in near-real time like the picture depicted above. Why is this important? Because live public maps can help synchronize shared awareness, an important catalyzing factor of social movements, according to Jürgen Habermas. Recall Habermas’s treaties that “those who take on the tools of open expression become a public, and the presence of a synchronized public increasingly constrains un-democratic rulers while expanding the right of that public.”

Continue reading “Patrick Meier: Ushahidi Emergent as Democracy in Being”

2011/10/022011/10/22

John Steiner: Declaration of Occupation of NYC + Revolution USA RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Hacking, Officers Call

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
Posted on September 30, 2011

by NYCGA

This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.

We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one¹s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers' healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity. They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people's lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

See Also [Revolution USA RECAP]:

Continue reading “John Steiner: Declaration of Occupation of NYC + Revolution USA RECAP”

2011/10/02

Chuck Spinney: The Contradictions of Green

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Government

Democrats in the US like to think they can use green politics to revitalize their base. But will going green achieve this end when most of the people in the world (and the US) are either poor or lower middle class and the distribution of income is getting worse in a global economy dominated by the ideology of neoliberal economics? The attached essay in the French journal Le Monde Diplomatique provides some interesting food for thought in that regard, at least as far a Germany is concerned.

Greens now just ‘neoliberals on bikes’

Germany goes for sustainable capitalism

The Greens are likely to be a major part of the next German government; few seem to have noticed that they’ve already been a substantial part of its regional governments for 59 years

by Olivier Cyran, Le Monde Diplomatique, October 2011

EXTRACT:

The fat cats who live in [the totally green] Marco Polo Tower may not vote Green in the elections. The tower was built on a natural promontory in the port that gives residents a bird’s eye view of the landing stage for liners. But the designers forgot that these floating palaces belch out toxic smoke that the wind blows back on to the balconies and windows of the tower. According to an investigation by Der Spiegel, a “breath of fresh air” for Marco Polo’s residents contains the equivalent of the emissions from “50,000 lorries travelling at 130kmph, with significant quantities of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other carcinogenic particles”. Multi-millionaires poisoned by luxury cruises: sustainable development has some surprising twists.