Journal: Appeal to Obama on Afghanistan

02 Diplomacy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
DefDog Recommends...

Obama ‘must talk to Afghan Taliban'

By Staff Reporter
AFP Global Edition

Dec 11, 2010 11:36 EST

A group of influential international experts on Afghanistan Saturday appealed to US President Barack Obama to radically change his strategy in the war-ravaged nation and negotiate directly with the Taliban.

. . . . . . .

“It is better to negotiate now rather than later, since the Taliban will likely be stronger next year.”

“The situation on the ground is much worse than a year ago because the Taliban insurgency has made progress across the country,” the letter said.

“The Taliban today are now a national movement with a serious presence in the north and the west of the country.”

. . . . . . .

“Like it or not, the Taliban are a long-term part of the Afghan political landscape and we need to try and negotiate with them in order to reach a diplomatic settlement. The Taliban's leadership has indicated its willingness to negotiate and it is in our interests to talk to them.”

Full article….

Journal: Presidential Election 2012 Rolling Update

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government

9 Dec 10 Nader: Bloomberg Could Win–21 Reasons (Daily Beast)

9 Dec 10 Ralph Nader Predicts Obama Will Face Democratic Primary Challenger in 2012 (Politics Daily)

He called the president “opportunistic” and lacking in principles.  “He's a con man. I have no use for him,” Nader said.

6 Dec 10 Journal: Rabbi Michael Lerner, Barack Obama, and the Washington Cesspool Update

Starting Point:  Be Very Afraid – 29 Candidates

Constant Good Value:  On The Issues

Journal: The Wall Street Pentagon Papers–Biggest Scam In World History Exposed–Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Too Big To Comprehend?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
WANTED

The Wall Street Pentagon Papers: Biggest Scam In World History Exposed: Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Too Big To Comprehend?

By David DeGraw
The Public Record
Dec 10th, 2010

What if the greatest scam ever perpetrated was blatantly exposed, and the US media didn’t cover it? Does that mean the scam could keep going? That’s what we are about to find out.

. . . . . . .

The Fed doled out $12.3 trillion in near-zero interest loans, using the American people as collateral, demanding nothing in return, other than a bunch of toxic assets in some cases. They only gave this money to a select group of insiders, at a time when very few had any money because all these same insiders and speculators crashed the system.Do you get that? The very people most responsible for crashing the system, were then rewarded with trillions of our dollars. This gave that select group of insiders unlimited power to seize control of assets and have unprecedented leverage over almost everything within their economies – crony capitalism on steroids.

Read full blast….

Reference: Lying is Not Patriotic–Ron Paul

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Movies, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Videos/Movies/Documentaries, YouTube
Chuck Spinney Recommends....

Several truths, nine questions.

Ron Paul on YouTube

Phi Beta Iota: Here are the questions as asked:

01  Do the American people deserve to know the truth regarding the on-going war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen?

02  Could a larger questions be how can an Army private gain access to so much secret information?

03  Why is the hostility mostly directed at Assange the publisher and not  our government's failure to protect classified information?

04  Are we getting our money's worth from the $80 billion dollars per year we are spending on intelligence gathering?

05  Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths?  Lying us into war, or WikiLeaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers?

06  If Assange can be convicted of a crime for information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the First Amendment and the independence of the Internet?

07  Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on Wikileaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?

08  Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death, and corruption?

09  Was it not once considered patriotic to stand up to our government when it is wrong?

See Also:

Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both

Journal: Cyber-Idiocy Wipes Out Productivity

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Cyberscams, malware, spam, InfoOps (IO), Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Technologies
Chuck Spinney Recommends....

Information has never been so free. Even in authoritarian countries information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable. — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 21, 2010

So much for that….

Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

By Noah Shachtman, Wired, December 9, 2010  |  7:02 pm<

It’s too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon’s secret network. But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the Dec. 3 “Cyber Control Order” — obtained by Danger Room — which directs airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” the Defense Department’s secret network. Similar directives have gone out to the military’s other branches.

Read the rest of this sorry tale….

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

Journal: Army Industrial-Era Network Security + Cyber-Security RECAP (Links to Past Posts)

Journal: Crowd Fund-Raising Here to Stay….

03 Economy, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence

Crowd-Fundraising For Causes Adds Up Fast

Phi Beta Iota: Excellent story, with $200,641 being the top funded project so far.  Imagine the day when the public refuses to pay taxes but contributes to what it really wants, cutting out the carpet-bagging intermediaries.  Missile defense and most Pentagon pork would NOT get funded by an informed engaged public.  The game has changed.

Online:

http://www.indiegogo.com

http://www.kickstarter.com

http://spot.us (reporting)

http://pledgie.com

Reference: Innovation From, By, and For Africa

08 Wild Cards, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, IO Mapping, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Mobile, Policies, Reform
Jerri Chou

Jerri Chou

Co-Founder All Day Buffet, The Feast, TBD and Lovely Day

Posted: December 10, 2010 12:39 PM

Innovation From, By and For Africa

Collaboration is never easy, particularly when dealing with complex issues like development. So imagine an attempt at galvanizing an entire continent to collaborate for societal change and innovation and the task seems daunting, difficult, if not impossible. Well turns out it's always worth trying and that the results can be greatly inspiring.

I'm talking about The Open Innovation Africa Summit (OIAS) I recently attended, hosted by Nokia, The World Bank and Cap Gemini. Over the course of three days, 200-plus leaders and innovators convened in the Rift Valley of Kenya, Africa to share, connect, and take action toward fostering innovation in and from Africa.

. . . . . . .

Facilitated by Cap Gemini's exploratory process, this remarkable body of people broke out into working groups to focus and dive deep into four specific areas:

  • African Innovation Ecosystem
  • Emerging Business Models for the BoP
  • Human Capital — Education for All
  • Mobile Information Society.

Read rest of article….