Category: Communities of Practice

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Owl: Paula Broadwell nee Kranz as Zionist Honey? — Probably Not But Some Questions Do Need to Be Asked

Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement
Who? Who?

A Covert Affair: Petraeus Caught in the Honeypot?

Justin Raimondo has uncovered the connection that Petraeus' lover, Paula Blackwell [nee Kranz], has to neocon and Zionist entities, which may explain who really brought Petreaus down:

“While Broadwell’s current academic affiliation is with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, her previous post was deputy director of the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. The Center, according to its self-description, “distinguishes itself by a philosophy that maintains counter-terrorism should be predictive, preventive and preemptive, with the latter being a last resort.” Founded in 2005, the Jebsen Center was made possible by the generous donation of one Jan Henrik Jebsen, heir to the Norwegian shipping fortune, who gave $1.3 million to set it up. Jebsen, a former investment banker with Lazard Freres, is the principal of Gamma Applied Visions Group, an international octopus with tentacles all over the place: part arms dealer and weapons developer, part “green” energy company. As one might expect from someone who has so much of his multi-billion dollar fortune invested in making and selling armaments, Jebsen is on the board of directors of the distinctly warlike Hudson Institute, where Scooter Libby, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen, and practically every neocon you’ve ever heard of have found refuge.”

Raimondo goes on at length documenting the Jebsen Center's pro-Zionist and anti-Arab sensibility and activities, as well as that of certain neocons associated with Jebsen, and then notes:

Continue reading “Owl: Paula Broadwell nee Kranz as Zionist Honey? — Probably Not But Some Questions Do Need to Be Asked”

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Richard Wright: Petraeus A Political Execution – Bad for CIA – Vickers (or O’Sullivan, of the Clapper harem)?

Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military
Richard Wright

The story line that General Petraeus is being forced to resign because the FBI uncovered an affair he was having with his former biographer is classic Washington DC theater. The story is a way of removing the politically popular General Petraeus from CIA without raising a political uproar. The real question is why?

This is just guess work, but I think there is a convergence of reasons for the newly elected administration to ease the General out. I think the administration does not particularly like the general and especially dislikes his political clout with congress. Also General Petraeus may have approved of some CIA operations or positions that have exacerbated the Benghazi tragedy and the administration does not want him before congress talking about this under oath. Finally Michael Vickers has developed a reputation based on nothing of being an intelligence wiz kid, yet he is politically harmless.

Continue reading “Richard Wright: Petraeus A Political Execution – Bad for CIA – Vickers (or O'Sullivan, of the Clapper harem)?”

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Penguin: Peter Peterson & Gang Pressing for Destruction of Safety Net — Time to Roll Out The Chicago Plan and Stick It to Wall Street

Commerce, Corruption, Government
Who, Me?

Does anybody in the federal government actually read and think anymore?

Wall Street's Plan to Push Obama to Betray Those Who Elected Him

Through its lobbying group Third Way and media mouthpieces, Wall Street is determined to destroy the social safety net.

The safety net is the glory of America and the unending nightmare of Wall Street. That's why Wall Street’s leading “false flag” group, the Third Way (which calls itself a “leading moderate think tank”), has responded to the warnings that Robert Kuttner, AFL-CIO President Trumka, and I have made that if President Obama is re-elected our immediate task will be to prevent the Great Betrayal – the adoption of self-destructive austerity programs and the opening wedge of the effort to unravel the safety net (including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid).

Here's what you need to know about this plan to rob Americans of their future.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  A clever well-informed President intent on making the most of his last four years would–unless he aspires to being a Wall Street shill after retirement from the White House–be putting The Chicago Plan Revisited front and center along with the Automated Payment Transaction Tax.  Wall Street–and Peter Peterson and David Walker in particular–needs to shut up and disappear into its box while ethical adults (hard to find, we know) sort this out.  What we can say with certainty is that both Congress and the White House are betraying the public trust as this time by not being clever or well-informed — they continue to focus on doing the wrong things righter instead of the right thing.

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Marcus Aurelius: Superficial Cuts at Defense

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, DoD, Government, Military
Marcus Aurelius

There is a lot of waste in the defense budget, much of it inserted by Congress for pork reasons, but DoD is also used to mask many other non-Defense programs, not just intelligence but in energy, health, foreign aid, etcetera.  Breaking the bargain with military retirees on health care is both a major betrayal, and a window into an alternative, a national health care service that does not pay full price for pharmaceutical that rarely work.

Deficit Cutters Look To Pentagon Budget

By Donna Cassata, Associated Press

WASHINGTON–One war is done, another is winding down and the calls to cut the deficit are deafening. The military, a beneficiary of robust budgets for more than a decade, is coming to grips with a new reality — fewer dollars.

The election accelerated an already shifting political dynamic that next year will pair a second-term Democratic president searching for spending cuts with tea partyers and conservatives intent on preserving lower tax rates above all else, even if it means once unheard of reductions in defense.

President Barack Obama and Congress have just a few weeks to figure out how to avert the automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs totaling $110 billion next year. Those reductions are part of the so-called fiscal cliff of expiring Bush-era tax cuts and the across-the-board cuts that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned would be devastating to the military.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Superficial Cuts at Defense”

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Marcus Aurelius: Thomas Ricks on Generals “Casual Arrogance”

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
Marcus Aurelius

Combine this with the reporting on toxic leadership (e.g. by LTG(R) Walter Ulmer) and you have the whole picture.  Emphasis added below.

Questioning The Brass

By Thomas E. Ricks

New York Times, November 12, 2012
Pg. 29

Washington–OVER the last 11 years, as we fought an unnecessary war in Iraq and an unnecessarily long one in Afghanistan, the civilian American leadership has been thoroughly — and justly — criticized for showing poor judgment and lacking strategies for victory. But even as those conflicts dragged on, our uniformed leaders have escaped almost any scrutiny from the public.

Our generals actually bear much of the blame for the mistakes in the wars. They especially failed to understand the conflicts they were fighting — and then failed to adjust their strategies to the situations they faced so that they might fight more effectively.

Even now, as our wars wind down, the errors of our generals continue to escape public investigation, or even much internal review. As the Vietnam War drew to an end, the Army carried out a soul-searching study of the state of its officer corps. To my knowledge, no such no-holds-barred examination is under way now. Instead, the military’s internal analyses continue to laud the Pentagon’s top brass while placing almost all of the blame for what went wrong in our wars on civilian leaders.

As Paul Yingling, a recently retired Army colonel, noted during some of the darkest days of the Iraq war, a private who loses his rifle is punished more than a general who loses his part of a war.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Thomas Ricks on Generals “Casual Arrogance””

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Mini-Me: CIA Bimbo Eruption or Hit Job with Vickers Replacing Patreaus? Photos Updated 14 Nov

Cultural Intelligence, Government
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

“The harassing e-mails Broadwell sent to the woman [evidently from Patreus's personal email account and computer] said things such as “I know what you did,” “back off” and “stay away from my guy,” a government official said.”

“This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,” Broadwell’s dad, Paul Krantz, told the Daily News outside his home in Bismarck, N.D.

“There is a lot more that is going to come out,” said Krantz, claiming he was not allowed to elaborate. “You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.”

PICTURED: The State Department military liaison [sic — just a local charity family services liaison according to other reports] who sparked revelations of Petraeus affair after complaining to FBI about ‘jealous' mistress

Jill Kelley Pre-Bimbo

Phi Beta Iota:  Mini-Me is evidently captivated by the photos–note the strategically unbuttoned buttons–but the story is still developing.  Jill Kelley (not to be confused with porn star Jill Kelly) is shown here to the right.  The FBI would not normally get into an email harrassment case — there is much more to this than we have been told.  For this to go down as it has, three separate powers had to want Petraeus' head on a platter:

01  CENTCOM would have heard of this first, via the Command Group.  One call to the General and this would have been nipped in the bud.  Somebody at CENTCOM chose to let this go to the next level [it is highly unlikely FBI would have acted on emails as described].

02  FBI, which does not do anything at this level without the explicit approval of the Director and probably in this instance the Attorney General, chose to bring the hammer down instead of doing a courtesy notification.

03  The DNI, himself known for having a harem in the past, chose to hang General Patraeus.  This may have something to do with Mike Vickers wanting to move to CIA, and then the back-stabbing will be completed with the DNI being phased out awhile Vickers is restored to the role of Director of Central Intelligence.  Vickers was a desk officer at CIA for three years, before that a special operations enlisted man promoted to company grade.  He has been described as an inoffensive wall-flower.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: CIA Bimbo Eruption or Hit Job with Vickers Replacing Patreaus? Photos Updated 14 Nov”

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Yoda: The Intertia of Large States – View from Quebec

Government, Ineptitude
Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Quebecois, he is.  Author's translation, this is.

States and the inertia

With the commission Charbonneau, now we know what leads the inertia of the state.

René Marcel Sauve
Free forum Vigil
Sunday, November 11, 2012

The State’s force of inertia.

Concerning the imminent economic and political catastrophe awaiting the United States, I tend to agree with most statements produced so far.  However, allow me to express this case with a different language, using the terminology of geopolitics.

Not being different from all other big States of History, one can say  that the United States suffer from what is referred to in geopolitics as the force of inertia affecting all States and large powers in the World.

Continue reading “Yoda: The Intertia of Large States – View from Quebec”

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