Stephen E. Arnold: Free DoD Book about Ethical Behavior

Ethics, Military
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

Free DoD Book about Ethical Behavior

Ethical behavior in the intelligence community is an important consideration. What does the Department of Defense do to assist its personnel in navigating the often-churning waters of day-to-day decision making?

The Department of Defense publishes in Microsoft Word format a compendium of stories about ethical lapses in the Department of Defense and other US government agencies. The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures is a Department of Defense publication. The 2012 update is located at http://goo.gl/784oP. The case examples range from simple fraud to bizarre exchanges of inside information for “personal” (sexual) services. The Wall Street Journal makes a copy of the 2007 version of the document available at its Web site at http://goo.gl/yJBcF.

You can find a compendium of related publications on the DoD Guidance page. An interesting summary of the “rules” for ethical conduct may be found in Cindy Van Rassen’s Ethics/Professional Responsibility” delivered at the 2012 40th Annual Symposium on Government Acquisition. At the time, Ms. Van Rassen was the Associate General Counsel for the Missile Defense Agency. The PowerPoint presentation was available online on July 22, 2013.

Does the Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures help minimize lapses in judgment? One hopes that the information programs provide a useful function.

Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2013

You can sign up for a free monthly newsletter about online and content processing at http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/honk/.

David Swanson: Deep Dissection of Trans-Pacific Partnership — The Most Evil Reprehensible Impeachable Act To Come Out of Washington in Recent Memory

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government
David Swanson
David Swanson

TPP: The Terrible Plutocratic Plan

By David Swanson

Remarks July 21, 2013 at an Occupy Harrisonburg (Va.) Event.
Make your voice heard here.

Thanks to Michael Feikema and Doug Hendren for inviting me.  Like most of you I do not spend my life studying trade agreements, but the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is disturbing enough to make me devote a little time to it, and I hope you will do the same and get your neighbors to do the same and get them to get their friends to do the same — as soon as possible.

I spend most of my time reading and writing about war and peace.  I'm in the middle of writing a book about the possibility and need to abolish war and militarism.  I hate to take a break from that.  But if we think trade and militarism are separate topics we're fooling ourselves.

New York Timescolumnist Thomas Friedman, a big fan of the supposed wonders of the hidden hand of the market economy says, “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the U.S. Air Force F-15.  And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.”

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Ray McGovern: General Hayden’s Glass House

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern

Gen. Hayden’s Glass House

By Ray McGovern

July 21, 2013

Editor Note: Official Washington’s national security/mainstream media incest was on scandalous display when ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden posed as a CNN analyst to denounce Edward Snowden for exposing surveillance excesses that Hayden had a hand in creating.

Mike Hayden
Mike Hayden

Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden should not throw any more stones, lest his own glass house be shattered. His barrage Friday against truth-teller Edward Snowden and London Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald invited a return rain of boulders for Hayden committing the same violations of constitutional protections that he is now excusing.

Writing as “CNN Terrorism Analyst,” Hayden read from the unctuous script previously used by “Meet the Press” host David Gregory on June 23 when he questioned Greenwald’s status as a journalist. Hayden claimed Greenwald deserves “the Justice Department’s characterization of a co-conspirator.”

But the principal target of Hayden’s ire was Snowden. After lumping him together with despicable characters like CIA’s Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen of the FBI, and others who spied for the U.S.S.R. – and then disparaging “leakers” like Bradley Manning – Hayden wrote, “Snowden is in a class by himself.”

But it is Michael Hayden who is in a class by himself. He was the first NSA director to betray the country’s trust by ordering wholesale violation of what was once the First Commandment at NSA: “Thou Shalt Not Eavesdrop on Americans Without a Court Warrant.” Not to mention playing fast and loose with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

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Gordon Duff: Israel Hit Hard by EU Sanctions Linked to 1949, Not 1967, Borders, and Lack of Israeli Integrity in Dealing with Palestinian Issue

Ethics, Government, Peace Intelligence
Gordon Duff
Gordon Duff

Israel Hit with EU War Crimes Sanctions

EU sanctions keep Israel guessing

In a surprise last minute move, the European Union set forth a strong set of economic sanctions against Israel, leaving that nation both surprised and reeling.

The sanctions, stimulated by what the EU refers to as “Israeli intransigence” regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, cover all financial dealings, loans, awards, transfer of “instruments” and severely limiting economic cooperation between Israel and all EU member nations starting in 2014.

The sanctions are against any Israeli “economic activity,” not just within what has been referred to as the “occupied territories” but broad areas of Israel that had been designated for the establishment of an “Arab State” in 1949.

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Owl: John Stockwell on Role of Secrecy — Cover for Corruption

Corruption, Government
Who?  Who?
Who? Who?

“John Stockwell is the highest-ranking CIA official ever to leave the agency and go public. He ran a CIA intelligence-gathering post in Vietnam, was the task-force commander of the CIA's secret war in Angola in

1975 and 1976, and was awarded the Medal of Merit before he resigned. Stockwell's book In Search of Enemies, published by W.W. Norton 1978, is an international best-seller.”

John Stockwell quotations excerpts from the book The Praetorian Guard: The U.S. Role in the New World Order

by John Stockwell, former CIA agent

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/JStockwell_quotations.html

“The major function of secrecy in Washington is to keep the U.S. people and U.S. Congress from knowing what the nation's leaders are doing. Secrecy is power. Secrecy is license. Secrecy covers up mistakes. Secrecy covers up corruption.”

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SchwartzReport: Snapshot of Deep Evil in US Banks & Commerce — Enabled by Direct Corruption of Government

Commerce, Corruption, Government

schwartz reportHere is an excellent assessment of how the corruption that is eating away our democracy like a cancer operates.

“Bagful of Cash” Report Exposing the US Chamber of Commerce
CARL GIBSON – Reader Supported News

The following is an excerpt from Shut the Chamber's new 28-page report, “Bagful of Cash: How the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Orchestrated a Corporate Takeover of Government.” My goal when writing the report was to publish a one-stop-shop for everything relating to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's domination of all institutions of merit, from Congress to the courts, to the election cycles. This report also shows how the U.S. Chamber has invested millions of corporate dollars into opposing all legislation relating to healthcare, financial reform, closing corporate tax loopholes, and climate change. The report also highlights the U.S. Chamber's support of austerity, fracking, the Keystone XL pipeline, and mostly Republican pro-corporate candidates running for Congress. You can read the full report at bit.ly/bagfulofcash.

Read full article.

They knew; they always knew what they were doing. And they ruined the lives of tens of millions of people anyway. And no one was truly held accountable. You cannot have a healthy democracy when people can commit crimes of this magnitude and be considered above the law.

Shocking Things Wall Street Financiers Say Off the Record About Their Bloated, Corrupt Industry
LES LEOPOLD – AlterNet (U.S.)

In a shocking new survey [3] commissioned by the Labaton Sucharow law firm, Wall Street insiders say that breaking the law, screwing your clients and covering up crimes is a way of life on Wall Street. The shock is not that cheating is going on. We all know that. The shock is that these financiers would actually admit it on a survey. This should tell us that the Wall Street culture is so brazenly corrupt, so confident of not getting caught, so certain that a passive public won't fight back that those surveyed didn't even bother to lie about the fact that they were living, breathing sociopaths.

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This is so wrong that in one headline it encapsulates what is destroying our world.  Click through to see the video.

Richest 300 Persons on Earth Have More Money Than Poorest 3 Billion
MARK KARLIN, Editor – Buzzflash

As we repeatedly focus on wealth inequality in the United States (i.e.; just four hundred persons in the US have as much in assets and income as the bottom 50% of Americans), a video points out the even more extreme global wealth disparity.

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Phi Beta Iota:  A sound analysis of all of this would always show that it is the lack of ethics in politics that enables the lack of ethics in finance.  A two-party tyranny that excludes all others, that gerrymanders, that votes on the basis of cash instead of constituent need, is a crime against humanity.  The bribery is “just business.”  Demanding the bribes, that is the real crime.  There is nothing wrong with America the Beautiful that cannot be fixed and fixed quickly by the Electoral Act of 2013 in time for 2014 and 2016.

John Maguire: Russia Goes to Full Strategic Combat Readiness (Troops & Bombers) Exercise in Eastern District (Furthest from Middle East)

Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence
John Maguire
John Maguire

While everyone is distracted by the Trayvon Martin case….two stories.

From 14 July 2013:

WW3 Brews As Nation Distracted By Trayvon Martin Case

EXTRACT

Now enter new reports surfacing from the Russian Defense Ministry on orders of Vladimir Putin that the largest military ‘state of full combat readiness’ drill is taking place with around 160,000 troops ordered to report from all corners of the military. Specifically, the translated reports detail how Putin is calling together not just Armed Forces of Russia troops, but all forms of long-range aircraft, 70 naval ships, bomber and fighter aircraft, and so on.

According to a syndicated Russian announcement:

“On Friday, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Russian, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unexpected military drill, urging all forces to enter a state of full combat readiness on the night of July 13.”

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