Communities of Practice – Page 943 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/10/222012/10/22

David Isenberg: Heavy Metal in Iraq = 50% or More Babies with Congenital Birth Defects – Mercury, Lead, and Depleted Uranium

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, DoD, IO Deeds of War, Military

Heavy Metal in Iraq

By David Isenberg, Oct. 22, 2012

Every war is hell, particularly for civilians. And while every war produces deadly familiar impacts on the civilian population whether it is death and injuries due to combat or subsequent illness and death due to destruction of infrastructure sometimes the impact can be unique.

Sadly, such seems to be the case in Iraq which links the past war there with a “staggering” increase in birth defects in areas of the country where bombing and heavy fighting occurred.

A recent study, titled “Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities” was underwritten by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan and which was published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, focused on the cities of Basra and Fallujah, where serious fighting occurred during the war. According to the study:

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Heavy Metal in Iraq = 50% or More Babies with Congenital Birth Defects – Mercury, Lead, and Depleted Uranium”

2012/10/222012/10/22

Mini-Me: CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody ‘video-game’ sorties by drone pilots

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Drones & UAVs, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War

CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody ‘video-game' sorties by drone pilots

The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.

A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.

The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.

Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed.

See photos and real full article.

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2012/10/212012/10/24

Leah Lynn Plante: Our Tunesian Fruit Seller?

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Law Enforcement

Political Prisoner Leah Lynn Plante Released!

Last week Leah Lynn Plante was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for remaining silent during a grand jury trial. Due to the secrecy of the proceedings, little information has come to light about her or her two friends, Katherine “Kteeo” Olejnik and Matthew Kyle Duran since the story went viral last week.

However, word was just sent out from Leah's supporters that she had been released, although unfortunately her two friends still remain behind bars.

Continue reading “Leah Lynn Plante: Our Tunesian Fruit Seller?”

2012/10/202012/10/20

Mini-Me: CIA Station Chief – Drone War Creating More Enemies Than We Destroy

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

Huh?

Drone War Creating More Enemies Than it Destroys

Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

New American, 20 October 2012

EXTRACT:

Reuters explains that “Western diplomats in Sanaa say al Qaeda is a threat to Yemen and the rest of the world.” An argument can be made that a bigger threat to the world is the United States’ daily drone attacks that destroy our own dedication to the rule of law and serve as effective recruiting tool for those seeking revenge for the killing.

The former CIA Pakistan station chief agrees. Speaking of the rapid expansion of the drone war in Yemen, Robert Grenier told the Guardian (U.K.):

That brings you to a place where young men, who are typically armed, are in the same area and may hold these militants in a certain form of high regard. If you strike them indiscriminately you are running the risk of creating a terrific amount of popular anger. They have tribes and clans and large families. Now all of a sudden you have a big problem…. I am very concerned about the creation of a larger terrorist safe haven in Yemen.

And:

We have gone a long way down the road of creating a situation where we are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield. We are already there with regards to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Read full article with many links.

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2012/10/202013/04/25

Mini-Me: REPLAY Future of the USA in 3 Parts

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Hacking, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call, Policies, Threats

Huh?

The future of the USA – 2012-2016: An insolvent and ungovernable United States (first part)

Thus, according to LEAP/E2020, the 2012 election year, which opens against the backdrop of economic and social depression, complete paralysis of the federal system (3), strong rejection of the traditional two-party system and a growing questioning of the relevance of the Constitution, inaugurates a crucial period in the history of the United States. Over the next four years, the country will be subjected to political, economic, financial and social upheaval such as it has not known since the end of the Civil War which, by an accident of history, started exactly 150 years ago in 1861. During this period, the US will be simultaneously insolvent and ungovernable, turning that which was the “flagship” of the world in recent decades into a “drunken boat”.

To make the complexity of the current process understandable, our team has chosen to organize its anticipations around three key areas:

1. US institutional deadlock and the break-up of the traditional two-party system
2. The unstoppable spiral of recession/depression/inflation
3. The breakdown of the US socio-political fabric

Read rest of analysis.

Below the line: the other two parts of the series.

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2012/10/20

David Jimenez: Visual Understanding Environment – Open Source, Tufts, Digital Education and Research

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence

The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information.

03.08.12 – Release of VUE 3.1.2 Read More

03.15.11 – Release of VUE 3.1.1 Read More

02.03.10 – Announcing the release of VUE 3.0. Read more.

Learn more, see graphics, free download.

2012/10/202012/10/20

Michel Bauwens: Worker-Owned Cooperatives

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics

220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

Worker-Owned Cooperatives Offer A Vision Of A Different Kind Of Capitalism

A new documentary, Shift Change, explores a kind of company where the workers are also the owners, which results in a quite different economic model than we’re used to.

In an era when income disparities and anger with financial institutions in the U.S. are generating powerful social movements, it’s not surprising that people are starting to look towards alternative business models. Shift Change, a new movie from filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, looks at the world of worker cooperatives, where reasonable salaries, job security, and general work satisfaction prevail.

Nowhere are the benefits of this model more obvious than in the Mondragon Corporation, a giant federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain (there’s nothing about dragons involved, it was founded in a town called Mondragon) that works in finance, retail operations, production of consumer goods and industrial components, and more. Co.Exist spoke with Young about her experiences making the film, and visiting the notoriously closed-off Mondragon Corporation.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Worker-owned cooperatives do not out-source jobs and do focus on community equities.