Communities of Practice – Page 1436 – Public Intelligence Blog

Ambassador Mark Palmer is one of the most thoughtful, focused, practical, and hence impressive professional diplomats we have ever encountered. His book, Defeating the Real Axis of Evil, made a profound impression on all of us thinking about how to create a prosperous world at peace, and was the final nail in the coffin of U.S. foreign policy–no foreign policy that relies on supporting 42 of 44 dictators can possibly have morality, legitimacy, reciprocity, or transparency, all vital attributes if we are to nuture humanity toward clarity, diversity, integrity, and sustainability. Our review of the below book is entitled: Single Most Important Work of the Century for American Moral Diplomacy, and was posted November 30, 2003. We still believe that.

Below is his presentation to OSS '04.

2004/12/162009/08/01

2004 Ray (US) Values in America and the New Political Compass

11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Historic Contributions

Paul Ray came to our attention as a result of his writing, with his life-long partner Sherri Ruth Anderson, CULTURAL CREATIVES: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World.

In 2004 he was well into his new work, and had introduced the avant guarde to the “New Political Compass,” which can be seen in full page color size at www.oss.net/PIG where it is the third side in from the cover. Clicking on his photo above leads to the 2004 article that captured a great deal of respect everywhere except within the two-party tyranny that has been “Running on Empty” and in “Breach of Trust” since at least the 1970's. Below are his two presentations to OSS '04.

2004/12/152009/08/02

2004 Scheitle Knowledge Management Overview from Perspective of Federal Library Depositiory and Network Manager

Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Methods & Process, Technologies

2004/12/142009/08/01

2004 Seagrave (US/FR) Interview with Sterling and Peggy Seagrave on Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold

Cultural Intelligence, Government, Historic Contributions, Law Enforcement

We met the authors at their Knight Templar fortress overlooking a southern French bay, where they are in voluntary exile. What they have revealed about the US theft of the gold stolen by Japen from China, and the subsequent use of that gold to bribe both US Presidents and foreign government leaders, is quite intriguing–precisely the kind of information the public needs to know.

Below is the written record of their DVD interview as shown at OSS '04.

We strongly recommend their books on the corrupt Taiwanese government (Chang Kai Skek was a warlord and crime lord to the end of his days) but for our concerns about the integrity of the Wall Street-White House axis of secrecy, we particularly recommend Gold Warriors, below.

Earth-Shattering, Faith-Shaking, Well-Documented Deceit, September 25, 2003

Few realize that China (the one China, the People's Republic of China) did NOT sign the San Francisco treaty and has NOT given up the right to demand reparations of both the Japanese and of the United States of America. By rights, most of the gold the USA took out of the Philippines–and all of the cultural treasures stolen by the Japanese from China–are the legitimate historical property of China, and we anticipate that “truth and reconciliation” will one day bring the above book center stage again.

2004/12/132009/08/02

2004 (US) Spinney Water and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

06 Genocide, 12 Water, Civil Society, Earth Intelligence, Government, Historic Contributions, Military, Peace Intelligence

Chuck Spinney, who contributes highlighted items to the Journal of Public Intelligence, wrote the original modern book on defense waste and the plans/reality mismatch, shown below with a link to its Amazon Page.

Although not a professional intelligence analyst, Spinney is a deeply-experienced real-world analyst and understands the lunacy of building a strategy, a force structure, a foreign policy, or a campaign plan on ideological fantasies and misrepresentations. Israel and Palestine is a WATER issue, nothing more, nothing less. Below is his briefing to OSS '04 to that effect–prepare to be shocked at how Israel is stealing water from the Arab aquifers, and how Israeli agruculture is using 50% of the regions water to produce less than 5% of the Israeli GDP, all the while denying Palestinians their own water. The Arab govenrments, and the US Government, “go along” because they do not yet place proper emphasis on human rights and especially on the rights of indigenous peoples.

2004/12/122009/08/02

2004 Tongeren (NL) A Need for a Global Alliance for Human Security

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions

GOLDEN CANDLE AWARD: Mr. Paul van Tongeren

OSS '04: To Mr. Paul van Tongeren, leader, educator, advocate, and pioneer in the prevention and resolution of conflict. As Executive Director of the European Centre for Conflict Prevention, his is a critical voice in facilitating peace through hinter-disciplinary study, cross-cultural communication, and the creation of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

The ECCP received its own award in 2002:

GOLDEN CANDLE AWARD: European Centre for Conflict Prevention, The Netherlands

OSS '02: European Centre for Conflict Prevention. For their consistent and superior efforts to make open sources of information more readily available to those who deal with conflicts and humanitarian emergencies, to include their surveys of conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities, and their lessons learned. Their web site, www.conflict-prevention.net, is a global resource.

Below is the outline of the speaker's remarks to OSS '04.

2004/12/112009/08/02

2004 Vlahos (US) The Muslim Renovatio and US Strategy

02 Diplomacy, 04 Indonesia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Historic Contributions

GOLDEN CANDLE AWARD: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

OSS '04: To the JHU-APL, and especially to Capt Joseph Mazzafro, USN (Ret) and Dr. Michael Vlahos, for sustained excellence in the integration of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) into their complex all-source analytic efforts in support of the Department of Defense. Aided by the Gibson Library, they have set a new standard.

Michael Vlahos is an iconoclast and a free-thinker.

The transmittal memorandum below, and the paper, each shown for separate access, represent an update on his views as expressed in his seminal monographs,“Culture’s Mask: War and Change After Iraq” (62-page pdf), Johns Hopkins (2004) and“Terror’s Mask: Insurgency Within Islam” (34-page pdf), Johns Hopkins University (2002), and new thinking that has NOT been understood by either the outgong Bush-Cheney Administration or the incoming Obama-Biden Administration.

The U.S. Intelligence Community and its policy and operational consumers do not “do” culture and are seriously challenged at geo-anything. Michael Vlahos, in our view, has ably articulated the central lens by which we should be crafting our collection, policy, trade, and operational strategies with respect to the rising tide of Islam (India, Indonesia, Iran, and pockets everywhere else).

Category: Communities of Practice

2004 Palmer (US) Achieving Universal Democracy by Eliminating All Dictators within the Decade