Communities of Practice – Page 929 – Public Intelligence Blog

Huh?

Mainstream Media Caught In Snarl Of Tangled Benghazi Yarns (Larry Bell in Forbes)

Tightly spun accounts of when and what the president and top administration officials knew and did prior to, during and following the deadly 9/11 terrorist attack on our Benghazi consulate are unraveling at warp speed.

The Benghazi Circus (Joe Klein in TIME)

There were two attacks in Benghazi that night. The first was a spontaneous response to the anti-Islamic film that had caused similar protests in Cairo and elsewhere. That is important: there would have been no terrorist attack if the film hadn’t provided the opportunity for mayhem.

The Benghazi Test: How and Why Obama's Foreign Policy Passed It (Dominic Terney in Atlantic)

Benghazi is what a “scandal” looks like when there aren't any real scandals to talk about.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Spinning Benghazi”

2012/11/202012/11/20

Robert Steele: Big Four Audit Firms “Not Our Job to Detect Fraud”

Commerce, Corruption

steele smiling final — Robert David STEELE Vivas
Click on Image for Bio Page

I do not make this stuff up. Of course one has to recognize that “best practices” are defined to favor the larger players, and the larger players are very interested in things like import-export pricing fraud and other less than ethical tax avoidance strategies. But the idea that the Big Four do not consider it part of their job to detect fraud when evaluating companies for acquisition, I find reprehensible. In addition, Hewlett-Packard was insanely cavalier at multiple levels, not least of all in assigning $6.6 billion as the intangible asset value of “good will” in the purchase of Autonomy — for that alone everyone at HP who signed off on the deal should be walking the plank. What troubles me as I continue to reflect on the importance of transparency, truth, and trust, is that fraud is so heavily embedded into our politics and economics that the Big Four feel absolutely no shame in adopting such an outrageous position. As a society, we are broken.

Hewlett-Packard's Autonomy Allegations: A Material Writedown Puts All Four Audit Firms On The Spot

Francine McKenna

Forbes, 20 November 2012

You can bring a Big Four audit firm to court for missing a major accounting fraud but it’s much harder to bring the auditor to justice.

Deloitte was the auditor of Autonomy, a UK software firm acquired by HP in 2011 for $11.7 billion. HP announced today it is writing down more than $5 billion, or almost half of the acquisition price, because of “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures”.

Continue reading “Robert Steele: Big Four Audit Firms “Not Our Job to Detect Fraud””

2012/11/202012/11/20

David Isenberg: CIA Closes Climate Center

Earth Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude

CLIMATE: Amid budget scrutiny, CIA shutters climate center

Annie Snider, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Monday, November 19, 2012

With the U.S. intelligence budget shrinking, the CIA has quietly shut down its Center on Climate Change and National Security — a project that was launched with the support of Leon Panetta when he led the agency, but that drew sharp criticism from some Republicans in Congress.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the center said it closed its doors earlier this year, with its staff and analysis continuing under other auspices.

CIA spokesman Todd Ebitz confirmed the change.

“The CIA for several years has studied the national security implications of climate change,” Ebitz said in a statement to Greenwire. “This work is now performed by a dedicated team in an office that looks at a variety of economic and energy security issues affecting the United States.”

The CIA launched the climate change center in September 2009 after a spate of reports linking climate change and national security that drew interest from some members of Congress seeking political action on climate change.

Continue reading “David Isenberg: CIA Closes Climate Center”

2012/11/20

Michael Ostrolenk: Grover Norquist vs. the Pentagon

Corruption, Military

Grover Norquist vs. the Pentagon

By Michael D. Ostrolenk

The American Conservative • October 24, 2012

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, famously quipped that he didn’t want to do away with government, merely “shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” He is best known as the architect of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a promise from lawmakers to their constituents to oppose any and all tax increases. Since its inception in 1986, the pledge has become a virtual litmus test for Republican office-seekers, and today all but a handful of GOP congressmen have signed it.

Though the GOP often professes a desire to reduce spending, the party has been notably reluctant to go after the largest item in the discretionary budget—the Pentagon. TAC’s Michael Ostrolenk recently spoke to Norquist about this curious exception.

TAC: Grover, you are famous for saying that the U.S. government does not have a revenue problem but a spending problem. Sequester aside, how would you recommend the next Congress and President address pork at the Pentagon?

Continue reading “Michael Ostrolenk: Grover Norquist vs. the Pentagon”

2012/11/202012/11/20

Robert Steele: HP Claims Fraud at Autonomy — Could Autonomy Defense be that HP is Stupid?

Commerce, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

Want to save several billion dollars, increase market share with innovation, and not be stupid in the IT arena? The answer is simple: do not buy other software companies (go all in on Open Source Everything); and if you must buy something, consult Stephen E. Arnold, CEO of Arnold IT, first. HP is a potentially great company, but it seems out of touch with reality and unable to do its homework. They are not alone — Microsoft after Ozzie, Oracle, Yahoo, Facebook, all mired in old think. The arrogance of insularity is quite stunning, across all fronts.

H-P Claims Fraud at Autonomy

With Autonomy, H-P Bought An Old-Fashioned Accounting Scandal. Here's How It Worked.

How Hewlett-Packard lost its way

HP's Future Was Fried Before Screaming Fraud

Stephen E. Arnold: Free Online 30 Days Only – The New Landscape of Search

2012/11/20

David Isenberg: Google Scholar Results for “Intelligence Reform” and “Intelligence Reform Steele”

10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

Found this interesting. Last round of discussion in 2005-2007, the one hit below is outrageously expensive, but “for the record.”

Intelligence Reform: Adapting to the Changing Security Environment (Comparative Strategy Volume 31, Issue 5, 2012)

Google Scholar / “Intelligence Reform”

Google Scholar / “Intelligence Reform” Steele

A Look Back at Intelligence Reform (FAS, 1 June 2010)

2012/11/202012/11/20

SchwartzReport: Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence

ROBERT SHARPE, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy – The Baltimore Sun

This is the truth that is becoming increasingly apparent.

WASHINGTON — If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize Mexican drug cartels, prohibition is a success (“The nonsense of marijuana busts shown,” Nov. 11). The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. There is a reason you don't see drug cartels sneaking into national forests to cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with legitimate farmers.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Spain legalized personal use cultivation and has lower rates of use. Portugal decriminalized all drugs and still has lower rates of use than the U.S. If anything, marijuana prohibition increases use by creating forbidden fruit appeal.

Thanks to honest public education, tobacco use has declined, without any need to criminalize smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. This drop in the use of one of the most addictive drugs available has occurred despite widespread tobacco availability. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a plant.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence”