Communities of Practice – Page 1420 – Public Intelligence Blog

Starting this year, Americans will have to get government approval to travel by air. As Privacy Journal revealed last fall, henceforth “Permission Now Needed to Travel Within U.S.” Getting a reservation and checking-in for air travel will soon require Transportation Security Administration authorization. That permission is by no means assured: For example, if your name matches a “no-fly” list, even mistakenly, you can be denied the right to a reserve a seat on a flight. If your name is on a “selectee” list, you and your possessions will be searched more thoroughly before you can board. What is going on here?

Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment: The USA still does not have a reliable watch list.

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2009/08/182009/08/18

Journal: Washington Post Continues to Die….

09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

Meet Walter Pincus. He has “covered” the U.S. Intelligence Community for over two decades.

Fine Print: U.S. Intelligence and Afghan Narcotics

By Walter Pincus

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Click on the story title to read the story. The entire story is built arouind an Air Force contracting announcement, and everything there-in is taken at face value including the absurd claim electronic processing of Dari information not only allows it to accept locally generated Afghan intelligence but to also return finished intelligence reports in Dari to the Afghan counternarcotics police.

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2009/08/17

Journal: Special Forces Collect, But Cannot Process

Military

Phi Beta Iota: Tip of the Hat to Steven Aftergood and the Federation of American Scientists.

“Ongoing SOF operations demonstrate the ability to collect significant amounts of pocket litter, hard copy documents, hard drives, cell phones, and other important hard copy and electronic media with significant intelligence value. However, without specialized expeditionary processing, this information becomes inaccessible and of no value to SOF in immediate urgent operational missions, and over the longer term to the war fighter, the intelligence community and others in need of access.” The Committee recommended additional resources to remedy this deficiency.

Read the full story, including two links at Secrecy News.

2009/08/17

Journal: Information Sharing as a Form of Secrecy

10 Security, Government

Phi Beta Iota: Tip of the hat to Steven Aftergood and the Federation of American Scientists.

“Although information sharing might seem like the antithesis of secrecy, the term has come to be used to refer exclusively to sharing within the government, including state and local officials and certain selected private partners. Unlike “transparency,” which is a different policy portfolio, information sharing does not extend to members of the general public even in principle. To the contrary, it implies their exclusion– there is no need to “share” information that is generally available to all. And so “information sharing” is emerging as a modified form of official secrecy.”

Read the full story at Secrecy News.

2009/08/17

Journal: UK Conservatives Get it Right–David Cameron announces ‘right to data’ plans

Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice

We watched a replay last night of a June speech by David Cameron, 40-year leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. That led us to search for a story to share, and this is it, followed by a photo of David Cameron and a link to the full text of the speech.

David Cameron announces ‘right to data' plans

Highlights from the anticipatory story:

In a speech at Imperial College London, Cameron is expected to say: “A radical redistribution of power also means increasing our power over the state, which means advancing political accountability.

“Information is power – because information gives people the tools to hold the powerful to account.”

2009/08/172009/08/17

Journal: President Barack Obama on Military

Military, Peace Intelligence

‘Because in the 21st century, military strength will be measured not only by the weapons our troops carry, but by the languages they speak and the cultures they understand,” the president said.

Obama lashes waste…
never mind Empire as usual…..

President Barack Obama salutes as his daughter Sasha Obama, 8, holds her glasses, as they step off Air Force One at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Ariz., Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment:

Let there be no doubt of our hopes for President Barack Obama. He has the potential to be the George Washington of the 21st Century, but first he needs to reform the electoral process, the secret intelligence world, the governance process, and national security. Above is the most intelligent thing he has said about the military to date.

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2009/08/17

Journal: Our Road to Oceania By Victor Davis Hanson

Civil Society, Ethics, Government

Real Clear Politics — Original Source Online

In George Orwell's allegorical novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the picture of “Big Brother” appears constantly in the adoring media.

Perceived enemies are everywhere – supposedly plotting to undo the benevolent egalitarianism of Big Brother. Citizens assemble each morning to scream hatred for two minutes at pictures of the supposed public traitor Emmanuel Goldstein. The “Ministry of Truth” swears that the former official Goldstein is responsible for everything that goes wrong in Oceania.

In Orwell's Oceania, there is a compliant media that offers “Newspeak” – recycled government bulletins from the Ministry of Truth. “Doublethink”means you can believe at the same time in two opposite beliefs.

America is not Oceania, but some of this is beginning to sound a little too familiar.

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