We were surprised this morning to learn that Ray McGovern, a CIA veteran whose credibility we respect, is saying that Leon Panetta and Barack Obama may be treating CIA with kid gloves for fear of being assassinated by the “insider” CIA that itself fears criminal prosecution for the death of over 100 detainees in CIA custody. Food for thought. Read McGovern's thoughts at The Media Consortium, “Ray McGovern Warns of ‘Two CIA's.'”
There are two sides to this matter. How many CIA's? Does CIA assassinate U.S. citizens including leaders?
In keeping with our new-found commitment to focus on public intelligence and leave political reform to others, this commentary provides an overview of the political scene (including political commentary from journalists lacking any independence), and concludes that what is missing from our national dialog are integrity and public intelligence.
First, the political “terrain” of ideological conviction, borrowing from Michael Crane with permission.
Death of the Center
As best we can tell, there is not a single think tank free of ideological conviction andall are also lacking in full access to all relevant sources of information, to serious processing power, and to multi-cultural analytics.
The two-party tyranny is “running on empty” and has effectively destroyed the center, where ideas should meet, and also greatly extended the chasm between those in power (the power of the purse and the day to day operations of government) and those with knowledge (generally in the private sector, generally not being listened to by the so-called “intelligence community” that thrives on expensive secrets at the public's expense (double-entendre).
Highlight: Jackie Salit and her organization, which assured the elections of both Mayor Mike Bloomberg in New York City and Barack Obama by the thinnest margin that would not have been achieved without 19 million Independents, is seeking help from the public and all organizations interested in democracy, help in challenging Barack Obama to fill the two vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) with Independents or members of parties other than the two-party tyranny (our word, not hers). The FEC has six commissioners and historically has been a joint venture between the Republican and Democratic parties, excluding all others–just as the Presidential Debate Commission stolen from the League of Women Voters (LWV) excludes Independents and all others.
IN APRIL, the US Army published the “Commander’s Guide to Money as a Weapons System,’’ a handbook that provides guidance on how to use aid funding to win the support of the “indigenous population to facilitate defeating the insurgents.’’ This summer the US government indicated that it plans to nearly double (to $1.2 billion) the main fund military commanders in Afghanistan use to support projects intended to “win hearts and minds.’’
First, a link to the translated Al Qaeda message. Then Chuck Spinney's commentary on the rmessage (there is no assurance it is actually from Bin Laden, who may be long dead). Finally, a Phi Beta Iota comment that will outrage the lame of mind and resonate with every average American.
The American people have been taken hostage to a broken system. It is a system that remains in place to this day. . . . . . . .
It has become startlingly clear that we as a country, and I as a journalist, had made a grave error in affording those who built and ran those banks and insurance companies the honorable treatment of being called capitalists. When in fact the exact opposite was true, these people were more like vampires using the threat of Too Big Too Fail to hold us hostage and collect ongoing ransom from the US Government and the American taxpayer.
This was no unlucky accident. The massive spike in unemployment, the utter destruction of retirement wealth, the collapse in the value of our homes, the worst recession since the Great Depression all resulted directly from these actions.
Phi Beta Iota: The following accompanied the story: “Ratigan departed CNBC last spring under circumstances many believe were not he result of his contract coming up for renewal but because he started speaking out against what he was seeing from his perch at CNBC.” Our own comment: had John McCain listened to his better angels instead of the Bushies bent on wrecking the Straight Truth Express, he would be President today. All he had to do was respect the inherent common sense of the House conservatives and tell President Bush (Junior): “over my dead body will you bail out Wall Street.” See ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig for our October 2008 recommendations, as well as the prefaces by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Thoma Hartman, Tom Atlee, and our own “Paradigms of Failure.” America is a wreck because we have given up our Integrity. All it takes is one simple fix: the Electoral Reform Act of 2009.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intelligence activities across the U.S. government and military cost a total of $75 billion a year, the nation's top intelligence official said on Tuesday, disclosing an overall number long shrouded in secrecy.
Phi Beta Iota: So much for all those who questioned our long-standing repetitive statement that secret U.S. intelligence is costing the U.S. taxpayer $65 billion a year. We were deliberately off by $10 billion. Now that we have established this, perhaps the time has come for both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Accountability Office (GAO) to ask the obvious question: What does the taxpayer get for this vast sum, and how could it be spent better?