Communities of Practice – Page 1095 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/09/28

Chuck Spinney: Fiascos of American Foreign Policy

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

This is really good analysis.

Fiascos of American Foreign Policy

by Patrick Seale

Agence Global, 27 Sep 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama is piling up foreign policy disasters. In at least three areas, crucial for world peace and American interests — Arab-Israel, Afghanistan-Pakistan and Yemen-Somalia — he is pursuing a course which can only be described as foolhardy. The anger and hate towards the United States which he is generating could take a generation to dispel.

. . . . . . .

Is it not time to enquire whether U.S. policy has not created more terrorists than the CIA has managed to kill? Would it not be better if the United States were simply to declare victory in Afghanistan — and indeed in all the other places where its Special Forces operate — bring its troops home as soon as possible and turn its attention to tending the wounds in its own broken society?

Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad el-Solh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press).

Read full story.

Phi Beta Iota: The assumption that US foreign policy is somehow focused on peace or prosperity is evidently not correct. The people who make policy and give orders are not stupid–they are achieving the outcomes they desire. What is different is that a much greater percentage of the public than ever before can now use public intelligence to determine that these policies are not in the public interest, and therefore, are much more likely to be associated with treason–high crimes and misdemeanors that yield personal profit and public pain.

2011/09/282016/10/22

Tom Atlee: Diebold Voting Machines Can Be Hacked Remotely–ONE THIRD of All Votes Can Be Easily Manipulated

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, IO Technologies

This kind of information should be spread as fast as possible. – Tom

Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control

Exclusive: A laboratory shows how an e-voting machine used by a third of all voters can be easily manipulated

Brad Friedman, Salon, 27 September 2011

It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.

Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.

Read full story.

Phi Beta Iota: The two political parties and the Department of Justice under varied Administrations have known of all this since the Diebold machines were first introduced and their CEO bragged publicly that he would “deliver” the next election to George Bush Junior. What kind of Nation is so stupid and so apathetic as to tolerate this kind of pervasive electoral crime?

See Especially:

For $26 and an 8th Grade Education, You Can Hack a Voting Machine

Two of the lead researchers in the study were able to demonstrate a number of different ways that voting machines could be hacked. They used a $1.29 microprocessor and a circuit board that costs about $8, along with a $15 remote control. They demonstrated that the cheap hack worked from over a half-mile away.

See Also:

Diebold Crime at DuckDuckGO

Journal: The U.S. electoral system is in danger, once again.

Review: Grand Illusion–The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny

Wikipedia entry for “Diebold Election Systems” which was acquired by “Premiere Election Solutions” then by “Election System & Software” (ES&S) which was then acquired by “Dominion.”

Video: Princeton Univ Exposes Diebold Flaws

Diebold to Deploy Situational Awareness Platform Software to Manage Security Systems at World Trade Center Site

2011/09/282011/09/28

G.I. Wilson: Killer Drones, Moral Disengagement, + War Crimes RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Cultural Intelligence, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers Call

The Psychology of Killer Drones – action against our foes; reaction affecting us

G. I. Wilson

Fabius Maximus, 28 September 2011

Summary: We now have enough experience with drone warfare to study its effects. Just as in physics, our actions affect ourselves as well as our targets. Social science research shows that drones are a gateway to moral disengagement dehumanization, and deindividuation. The great distances drones operate over, manipulated by faceless-nameless-lawyeristic-voyeurs, creates an emotional, mental, and physical divide between “us” ( i.e. our government) and the enemies we kill. Drones allow us to dissociate our actions from our values, a useful high-cost and high-tech justification. At the end are links to gain more information about this new form of warfare.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
— Newtons Third Law of Motion, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)

Contents

Moral Disengagement
Dehumanization
Deindividuation
For more information

Read full article with many supporting links and references.

Winslow Wheeler: His article gives a chilling rebuke to those who glibly see them as “the future of warfare” and essential for counter-terror operations without acknowledging the consequences.

Robert Steele: The US Government has lost both its intelligence and its integrity. This has been a consistent theme of this web site, and while I have distanced myself from the day to day operations of Phi Beta Iota–they now have a life of their own–G. I. Wilson is one of the original Marines in this era able to demonstrate both intelligence and integrity, and one of the original gurus on asymmetric warfare. That he got to be a Colonel is a credit to the Marine Corps. “Authority” in the U.S. Government is now irrational, illegitimate, and out of control. Even from a practical stand-point, the bandwidth for remote killer drones costs more than human pilots would, and human pilots would have the added advantage of situational awareness, something that simply cannot be achieved from a one-dimensional cockpit in the middle of the USA. From killer drones to JSOC assassinations to the totally illegal war on Libya, the US Government is now a monstrous collage of atrocities being perpetuated against its own public (22% unemployment, 18 veterans a day committing suicide, just under 16% under the poverty line) as well as foreign publics from Palestine and Libya to Central Asia to the Southern Hemisphere. What is being done “in our name” is unaffordable, reprehensible, and long over due for presentation to the International Tribunal with a long list of “by name” perpetrators that should run from Congress and the White House down to the individual pilots and squadron commanders that have betrayed their Oaths of office. What we are doing every day is neither patriotic nor moral.

2011/09/28

Cynthia McKinney: Fidel Castro Makes Sense, Slams Barack Obama for “Gibberish” and Moral Hazard

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

Fidel Castro calls Obama UN address ‘gibberish'

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:28

“Who understands the gibberish of the president of the United States before the General Assembly?” Castro asked.

AFP – September 26, 2011
HAVANA – Cuba's Fidel Castro blasted Barack Obama's speech to the United Nations as “gibberish” on Monday, saying the US president used a rambling address to justify the “unjustifiable.”

In his first published column since July, the 85-year-old revolutionary icon slammed US and NATO intervention in Libya as “monstrous crimes” and said Obama — whom he called the “yankee president” — used a bully pulpit at the UN General Assembly last week to try and sway global opinion.

Fidel, who handed the presidency to his younger brother Raul Castro in 2006 due to a health crisis, has laid low in recent months, and his column published in state media was his first since July 3.

In Monday's piece he came out swinging, saying Obama distorted the situations in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Afghanistan, North Korea, Libya and the Palestinian conflict, and that the US leader used “a long rant to explain and justify the inexplicable and unjustifiable.”

“Who understands the gibberish of the president of the United States before the General Assembly?” Castro asked.

Castro also took issue with the “fascist methods by the United States and its allies to confuse and manipulate global opinion,” and said he was heartened by the “resistance” of his key allies Hugo Chavez and Evo Moralez, presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, respectively, who criticized US and UN policy in their speeches.

“Has any nation been excluded from the bloody threats of this illustrious defender of international peace and security?” Castro said of Obama, whose UN quotes he cited extensively in his column.

“Who gave the United States such privileges?” Castro said.

He said countries must consider taking a stand at the General Assembly against the “NATO genocide in Libya,” an action Castro described as one of many “flagrant violations of principles.”

“Does anyone want it to be recorded that under their direction, the government of their nation supported the monstrous crimes by the United States and its NATO allies?” he said.

Washington and Havana are Cold War adversaries who have brought their mutual dislike and distrust into the 21st century, and Castro routinely makes political attacks on his ideological foe.

2011/09/272011/09/27

Tom Atlee: Whole System Conversations – Voice of the Whole

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Blog Wisdom, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Key Players, Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Whole System Conversations – and the Voice of the Whole

WHO PARTICIPATES IN “WHOLE SYSTEM” CONVERSATIONS? – PARTISANS, STAKEHOLDERS, DOMAINS, AND CITIZENS

by Tom Atlee

Consciously convened conversations have many functions. Many seek simply to get people talking with each other. Others try to bring together what they call “the whole system” to address that system's collective issues or dreams. Who is involved in these “whole system” conversations?

A “whole system”, in this case, involves all the parties who play – or could play – roles in some social unit or situation. The social unit could be a family or relationship, a group or organization, a community or a whole society. A situation might be, on the one hand, an issue, a problem, or a conflict – or, on the other hand, an inquiry, an opportunity, a shift, or simply a periodic reflection about what's happening. We can convene conversations around any of these things.

So how do we decide who the parties or players are? How do we “cut the pie” of the whole system? And, if we're ambitious, how do we elicit a “voice of the whole”?

I see four different approaches to defining who “a whole system” includes. Each approach has its own rationale and appropriate usages. They are not mutually exclusive, but are usually used more or less separately. Perhaps being aware of them and building synergies between them would enhance the power and wisdom of our conversations. These approaches include:

Read full essay.

Phi Beta Iota: Tom Atlee is in our view the living founding father of Epoch B–there have been others before him, and there are other now, but for us, he is the spiritual center of gravity for doing the right thing now, here, in America. Please support his work on behalf of all of us.

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org / http://tom-atlee.posterous.com
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2011/09/27

Marcus Aurelius: New York City In Your Pants – And Now Able to Shoot Down Airplanes

09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Government, Law Enforcement

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

With CIA Help, NYPD Moves Covertly In Muslim Areas

Associated Press, 24 August 2011

NYC police chief: We can shoot down airplanes

CBS News, 26 September 2011

Phi Beta Iota: On the one hand, NYPD's capabilities are vastly exaggerated. They're still feeling their way, wasting enormous human and financial resources, “because they can.” On the other hand, NYPD's efforts are precisely where the rest of the world needs to go, where Stephen Cambone said we need to go, down to the neighborhood level of granularity. One thing NYPD has going for it is the wicked combination of officers fluent in over one hundred key languages, and not having to deal with the idiocy of the federal classification and security clearance systems. What they do not have going for them is a complete loss of perspective–this is a force that spends $75 million a year putting mostly black people in jail for possession of marijuana….NYC is the marijuana arrest capital of the planet.

2002 New Rules for the New Craft of Intelligence (Book 2 Chapter 15)

2004 NEW RULES for the New Craft of Intelligence

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated

Graphic: Two-Levels Down

2011/09/27

Mini-Me: Obama Jobs Plan Cost $200,000 a Job?

03 Economy, Corruption, Government

Geithner Says Even At $200,000 Per Job Obama’s Jobs Plan Is Still A Bargain…

(ABC News) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to measure the bill’s worth.

And he also pointed out, in an interview today with ABC News’ David Muir, that there is no other option on the table for getting the economy moving and putting more people back to work.