Communities of Practice – Page 739 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/11/072013/11/08

Marcus Aurelius: SecDef – Six Points, No Bench, No Plan, No Joy — Can CSA Mobilize Carlisle and Re-Invent the US Army in 6 Months?

Attached is a SECDEF speech from two days ago — six main points and the major thrust is things are not going to get better any time soon.

PDF (10 Pages): (U) SecDef Six Points 5 NOV 13

Six priorities:

First, we will continue to focus on institutional reform.

Second, we will re-evaluate our military's force planning construct – the assumptions and scenarios that guide how the military should organize, train, and equip our forces.

A third priority will be preparing for a prolonged military readiness challenge.

A fourth priority will be protecting investments in emerging military capabilities – especially space, cyber, special operations forces, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Our fifth priority is balance. Across the services, we will need to carefully reconsider the mix between capacity and capability, between active and reserve forces, between forward-stationed and home-based forces, and between conventional and unconventional warfighting capabilities.

And our sixth priority is personnel and compensation policy. This may be the most difficult.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: SecDef – Six Points, No Bench, No Plan, No Joy — Can CSA Mobilize Carlisle and Re-Invent the US Army in 6 Months?”

2013/11/07

Steven Aftergood: US Intelligence Challenged by Foreign Technological Innovation [and Everything Else…]

Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

US Intelligence Challenged by Foreign Technological Innovation

“The increasing pace and adoption of global scientific and technological discovery heighten the risk of strategic or tactical surprise and, over time, reduce the advantages of our intelligence capabilities,” according to a new report on U.S. intelligence research and development programs prepared by a congressionally-mandated Commission.

“Foreign countries’ growing expertise and proficiency in a number of emerging or potentially disruptive technologies and industries–gained either by improving their own capabilities, by using surreptitious methods, or by taking advantage of an erosion of U.S. capabilities and U.S. control over critical supply chains–have the potential to cause great harm to the national security of the United States and its allies,” the report said.

In order to adapt, the report said, the US intelligence community will need to place renewed emphasis on scientific and technical intelligence; improve coordination and management of competing collection and analysis programs; and accelerate the production of actionable intelligence, among other recommended steps.

See the Report of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version, released November 2013 (NYT, WP).

The Commission also produced a White Paper on The IC’s Role Within U.S. Cyber R&D.

2013/11/07

Paul Craig Roberts: How America Was Lost

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

How America Was Lost

“No legal issue arises when the United States responds to a challenge to its power, position, and prestige.” Dean Acheson , 1962, speaking to the American Society of International Law.

Dean Acheson declared 51 years ago that power, position, and prestige are the ingredients of national security and that national security trumps law. In the United States democracy takes a back seat to “national security,” a prerogative of the executive branch of government.

National security is where the executive branch hides its crimes against law, both domestic and international, its crimes against the Constitution, its crimes against innocent citizens both at home and abroad, and its secret agendas that it knows that the American public would never support.

“National security” is the cloak that the executive branch uses to make certain that the US government is unaccountable.

Without accountable government there is no civil liberty and no democracy except for the sham voting that existed in the Soviet Union and now exists in the US.

Read full post.

2013/11/062013/11/06

Mini-Me: NYT Discussion of Cutting Military Flag Officers + Meta-RECAP on Flag Waste and Corruption

Ethics, Government, Military

Huh?

Weighing the Brass

New York Times, 5 November 2013

One of the hardest-hit areas being discussed in federal budget talks is the Pentagon, which would take an automatic $20 billion cut in January under sequestration. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel proposed a 20 percent cut in his own office’s budget, but command headquarters around the world doubled in cost from 2007 to 2012, the Government Accountability Office found. And while Hagel’s predecessor, Robert Gates, said at least 50 generals and admirals should be eliminated, few of the cuts have occurred.

Trim the Top, Like Most Innovative Organizations

Celeste Ward Gventer, former deputy assistant secretary of defense

With cuts coming, the best junior officers will see a surfeit of generals and seek a future elsewhere than in a top-heavy bureaucracy

Why Cut the Leaders We May Soon Need?

Tim Kane, Hudson Institute

The past isn't a model for the future. More troops and money on the battlefield might not be the most efficient allocation if more drones are used

The Costs Are Crippling

Benjamin Freeman, Third Way

The bureaucracies that surround top commanders have grown drastically, and the taxpayer-financed perks these commanders enjoy is immense

Cuts Are Needed, but Shouldn’t Affect Diversity

Willie J. Williams, Retired general

The number of minorities serving in the military's highest ranks has risen, but there are still so few, that cuts, without care, could almost eliminate them.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: NYT Discussion of Cutting Military Flag Officers + Meta-RECAP on Flag Waste and Corruption”

2013/11/062013/11/06

Jon Rappoport: USG Ends Rule of Law for Vaccine Malpractice

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Commerce, Corruption, Government

The vaccine mafia and its jury of thugs: your rulers

by Jon Rappoport

November 6, 2013

www.nomorefakenews.com

I’ve written several articles on this subject. As vaccine supporters, enthusiasts, liars, and poisoners keep showing up, I’m sure I’ll write several more.

Here’s the drill. If a parent believes her child has developed autism as the result of a vaccine(s), she must enter the maze of the US government compensation system. Why? Because she can no longer go to court and sue the vaccine manufacturer directly. That’s out.

The manufacturers and the federal government have conspired to erect a wall against those lawsuits, to protect the manufacturers from high-priced judgments.

Continue reading “Jon Rappoport: USG Ends Rule of Law for Vaccine Malpractice”

2013/11/062013/11/06

Stephen E. Arnold: Google Banner Ads Displace Search Results

Commerce, Corruption, IO Impotency

Google Banner Ads Take Over Results Pages

Google is always striving to improve their flagship search engine. Well, improve its profitability, anyway. Ars Technica reports that “New Banner Ads Push Actual Google Results to Bottom 12% of the Screen.” These new adds do not unobtrusively hug the top of the page; for thirty companies lucky enough to be part of this “experiment,” their ads can dominate the results page. Reporter Casey Johnston reminds us this is a tactic Google pledged eight years ago never to employ. Have dollar signs have weakened the company’s resolve? The article observes:

“The rollout of banner ads comes only days after Google’s most recent earnings call, where financial results showed that Google is struggling with falling mobile ad sales prices. As The New York Times reported, Google sells mobile ads for half to two-thirds as much as desktop ads, but the mobile ads are only a third to a quarter as effective. It bears mentioning that before scrolling, real search results on mobile don’t get much real estate, either.

“Google will not publicly address any aspect of the banner ad experiment beyond saying that it is a ‘very limited, US-only test, in which advertisers can include an image as part of the search ads that show in response to certain branded queries.’”

It is worth noting that last bit—”. . . in response to certain branded queries.” In other words, if you search for “Southwest Airlines,” you might get a really big ad about Southwest Airlines. That’s much more reasonable than getting such advertising if you just searched for “airplanes” or “air travel.” (I would not put that evolution past them, though. Stay tuned.) Still, the tactic is bound to rub many searchers the wrong way. Johnston delves into specifics, augmenting her analysis with several screenshots. She concludes with a prediction—she will not be surprised if this experiment turns into a fixture. Neither will I.

Cynthia Murrell, November 06, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Google Banner Ads Displace Search Results”

2013/11/052013/11/05

John Steiner: NSA Files Decoded

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

From: Kevin Kelley <kwk@thehomegalaxy.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2013 10:31:11 -0700
Subject: NSA Files: Decoded – Truly Stunning! & ESSENTIAL! (From The Guardian)

This is truly stunning in many ways! Not in order:

It's stunningly beautiful as a graphic piece and typography
It's a stunning cutting edge of digital reporting converging interactive media
It stunning in it's brilliant and cogent making of it's case
It's stunning in the story it tells and conveys and in it's impact.

It is absolutely essential

NSA FILES: DECODED

What the revelations mean for you

A collection of videos, text snap-shots, and images, across many authoritative personalities. This is a MAJOR contribution to the public dialog about mass surveillance and out of control government agencies.

Baker, Stewart (former NSA general counsel)
Drake, Thomas (former senior executive, NSA)
Greenwald, Glenn (Journalist)
Jaffer, Jameel (Deputy legal director, ACLU)
Levison, Ladar (Founder of Lavabit)
Lofgren, Zoe (US congresswoman)
Scalhill, Jeremy (National security journalist)
Soghoian, Chris (Principal technologies, ACLU)
Stepanovich, Amie (Lawyer, Electronic Privacy Information Center)
Wyden, Ron (US senator)