Following from a former Agency officer who blogs on the Internet. For your convenience, in addition to the article, I include in PDF format the IG report on which the press report is based.
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5.) Management: Clearly management has been a problem and will continue to be one of the biggest problems the CIA will face for years to come. The CIA hemorrhages quality talent because management doesn’t know how to adequately manage, support and incentive employees. Los Angeles Times Ken Dilanian’s story explains these issues better than I can.
In an interview with the reactionary right-wing Fox News network, former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey said U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden «should be prosecuted for treason.
If convicted by a jury of his peers, he should be hanged by his neck until he is dead». Woolsey, a staunch neo-conservative, was fired as CIA director by President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Clinton believed that Woolsey had not been aggressive enough in holding senior CIA officials accountable over the exposure of top CIA officer Aldrich Ames as a longtime agent for Soviet intelligence.
Wayne Madsen
Some CIA insiders believe that Woolsey thought that if the CIA engaged in a massive «mole hunt», other agents, particularly those loyal to Israel, a country with which Woolsey has a suspiciously close relationship, would be uncovered. Woolsey, of course, is the last person in the world whose opinion on Snowden’s fate should be given any credibility.
Gareth Porter and Robert Parry, two of our finest investigating reporter/historians deserve kudos for placing the self-serving nature of the Gates' memoir in a proper perspective.
Readers should bear in mind that the soap-opera-like gaming of Obama into acquiescing to the fatally flawed plan for a surge in Afghanistan surge in 2009, described accurately by Porter and Parry below, was clearly obvious well before Obama made his decision to cave into the pressure exerted by Gates, Clinton, and the Generals and their neo-con allies in Congress. To be sure, Obama was also feebly playing the game by leaking differences of opinion to the press — but his was an amateurish operation by an inexperienced malleable politician and his piss-ant staffers. Those on the other side were pros in manipulating the wholly owned subsidiaries in the press. Predictably, as explained below, the brass hats won in 2009, notwithstanding a well publicized last ditch effort to stop the madness executed by Ambassador (and former General) Karl Eikenberry.
The massive data breach at Target over the holiday season is potentially much worse than the retailer first reported — as many as 110 million people may have had their identity and financial information compromised, the retailer says.
Editor's Note: It's hard to know the right reaction to Israel's latest craziness (mishugas)—its attempts to block Obama's deal with Iran to stop the potential militarization of Iran's nuclear capacity. Israel is trying to block the deal by using its American allies to push the Senate to vote on new sanctions against Iran now, instead of allowing the process toward a possible accommodation to be explored. Israel's goal is transparent: create conditions that Iran cannot accept, then argue that this proves Iran is really after the militarization of its nuclear capacities, then attack Iran with U.S. backing, and then use Iran's military response as proof that it was seeking nuclear capacity to attack Israel. Should one respond with sadness (see MJ Rosenberg’s article below) or with outrage?
Below I am also sharing a piece in which Israeli peace movement (Gush Shalom) leader Uri Avnery shows the craziness of Netanyahu's latest attempt to block an agreement with the Palestinians, this time by demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel not just as a state the way all other parties recognize Israel, but as a JEWISHstate (presumably meaning its right to discriminate against non-Jews or something of the sort).
The alleged recovery took a direct hit from Friday’s payroll jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy created 74,000 net new jobs in December.
Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 70,700 of these jobs or 95.5%. It is likely that the December wholesale and retail hires were temporary for the Christmas shopping season, which doesn’t seem to have been very exuberant, especially in light of Macy’s decision to close five stores and lay off 2,500 employees. It is a good bet that these December hires have already been laid off.
A job gain of 74,000, even if it is real, is about half of what is needed to keep the unemployment rate even with population growth. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the unemployment rate fell from 7.0% to 6.7%. Clearly, this decline in unemployment was not caused by the reported 74,000 jobs gain. The unemployment rate fell, because Americans unable to find jobs ceased looking for employment and, thereby, ceased to be counted as unemployed.
In America the unemployment rate is a deception just like everything else. The rate of American unemployment fell, because people can’t find jobs. The fewer the jobs, the lower the unemployment rate.
