Category: Communities of Practice

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Journal: How NOT to Decide on Afghanistan

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Failure of HUMINT
Failure of HUMINT

The Real Reason for More Troops in Afghanistan

Michael Gaddy LouRockwell.com    October 20, 2009Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of our quest for empire over the past six decades realizes that Obama’s contemplation of whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan is simply those who control him providing Obama with the opportunity to look “presidential.” The decision to send additional troops was reached prior to the situational comedy of General McChrystal’s leaked “confidential report” to the Washington Post and Obama’s National Security Advisor’s public admonishment of McChrystal’s failure to follow the chain of command. All of this is nothing but a well-rehearsed, though poorly camouflaged hoax. Additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan within a very short period of time and Obama really has no say in the matter. The question is: why?

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Journal: Medical Software–Dead on Arrival

07 Health, Civil Society, Ethics, Methods & Process, Mobile

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Medical Records: Stored in the Cloud, Sold on the Open Market

Kim Zetter October 19, 2009

When patients visit a physician or hospital, they know that anyone involved in providing their health care can lawfully see their medical records. But unknown to patients, an increasing number of outside vendors that manage electronic health records also have access to that data, and are reselling the information as a commodity.   …

Below Fold More and Second Story

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Journal: Iran Bombings–Whu Dun It? Update 1

05 Iran, Ethics, Government
Webster Griffin Tarpley
Webster Griffin Tarpley

Phi Beta Iota: The public and Congress–and perhaps even the White House–are not fully informed on the this matter.  In our view, “the Borg” is out of control and Iran could be a nuclear flash-point.  See headlines.  Zbigniew Brzezinski is the common threat, and is doing as much damage as he is because the “Bush Lite” team does not have heavy-weight thinkers willing to speak the truth (two part qualification, most fail on the second).

Webster Griffin Tarpley was interviewed by Russia Today in Washington DC discussing the role of the CIA and British intelligence in yesterday's terror bombing in Iran's Baluchistan region claimed by Jundullah which killed several key commanders of the Iranian Pasdaran Revolutionary Guards. Tarpley locates the US-UK strategy in the attempt to break up Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran in favor of the microstates and ministates demanded by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the grey eminence of Obama's foreign policy. Baluchistan is the location of the strategic port of Gwadar, which could become a key to solving China's need for imported oil – a perspective the Anglo-Americans are determined to block.   Watch the interview on Russia Today.

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Journal: IC on Twitter, Still Not Making Sense

Government, Law Enforcement, Mobile, Technologies

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

By Noah Shachtman
October 19, 2009

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

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Journal: Microsoft, Cyber-Security, Syllable, & Integrity

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Real Time
Microsoft Story Online
Microsoft Full Story Online

Silent Install Firefox Plugin Backfires on Microsoft
posted by Kroc Camen    on Sat 17th Oct 2009 05:27 UTC

Now a security hole has been found in a plugin that Microsoft have  been silently installing into Firefox.  Along with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, Microsoft have been silently  installing a Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin that allows the embedding of XAML applications (an XML-based UI technology) in web  pages, called XBAP (XAML Web App).   …  The only thing that surprises me more, is that I’m not surprised that  Microsoft could be this incompetent when it comes to the safety of all  users of the web using Windows, regardless if they’re using IE or not.

hackers
Hackers Have the Right Stuff

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Journal: $400 per gallon gas in Afghanistan

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Ethics, Military

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan

By Roxana Tiron

The Hill

10/15/09

The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan. The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week.

. . . . . .

“It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense panel, said in an interview with The Hill. “When I heard that figure from the Defense Department, we started looking into it.”

The Pentagon comptroller’s office provided the fuel statistic to the committee staff when it was asked for a breakdown of why every 1,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan costs $1 billion. The Obama administration uses this estimate in calculating the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan.

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Journal: Goldman Sachs Is Robbing Us Blind

03 Economy, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Full Op-Ed Online
Full Op-Ed Online

Dylan Ratigan

Anchor of MSNB

Oct. 15, 2009, 5:22 PM

Now this method of “business” is only possible if the government continues to allow these crooked insurance contracts to be written in secret, allows them to hold little or no money in reserve for payment and allows them to sell enough coverage on enough vital national assets that if there is a default — the taxpayer has no choice but to pay.

Needless to say, J.P. Morgan & Co. has never had more revenue and the Goldman Sachs bonus pool has never been bigger.

Considering the $23.7 trillion of taxpayer money being used to support these Corporate Communists one would hope they could at least make a few billion in profits with it. In context, making a few billion risking a few trillion is a rather pathetic return after all.

As we talked about last week – allowing these outdated banks to take control of our government and change the rules so they are protected from the natural competition and reward systems that have created so many innovations in our country, you not only steal from the citizens on behalf of the least worthy but you also doom them by trapping the capital that would have been used to generate new innovation and, most tangibly in our current situation, jobs.