Corruption – Page 470 – Public Intelligence Blog

2014/05/08

SchwartzReport: War

03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

The War on Drugs has always been a charade, a flashy story to get the rubes riled up, whose real purpose was to justify increased law enforcement budgets, prison budgets, judiciary budgets, and inflated corporate profits for all the technology this bogus war involves. It has been a disaster at every level of social policy, albeit ever so profitable.

Group of Nobel Prize Winners Warns: The ‘War on Drugs’ has Failed
Agence France-Presse (France)/The Raw Story

The global ‘war on drugs” has been a catastrophic failure and world leaders must rethink their approach, a group including five Nobel Prize-winning economists, Britain’s deputy prime minister and a former U.S. secretary of state said Tuesday.

An academic report published by the London School of Economics (LSE) called ‘Ending the Drug Wars” pointed to violence in Afghanistan, Latin America and other regions as evidence of the need for a new approach.

2014/05/072014/05/07

Berto Jongman: Rise in Global Political Violence Challenges Supply Chains — True Cost of Predatory Capitalism Becomes Visible

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Peace Intelligence

Example of true cost: corruption plus public abuse = political violence = cost to predatory capitalism.

Rise in global political violence challenges supply chains

Supply Management, 7 May 2014 | Will Green

Levels of conflict and political violence have increased in 48 countries over the past six months and created “significant challenges to supply chains”, according to a report.

Maplecroft’s biannual Conflict and Political Violence Index showed Ukraine moved 52 places to become the 35^th most at risk country following its uprising and the threat of Russian intervention, while 16 countries are rated as “extreme risk”.

These include the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya, while Syria remains the country with the highest levels of conflict and political violence.

Many key growth markets feature in the “high” and “extreme” risk categories, including Colombia (11), Nigeria (15), Philippines (17), India (18), Bangladesh (21), Thailand (23), China (25), Indonesia (29) and Turkey (31).

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Rise in Global Political Violence Challenges Supply Chains — True Cost of Predatory Capitalism Becomes Visible”

2014/05/062014/05/06

Lee Camp: FCC Sells Out Internet & Public – Net Neutrality? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Net Neutrality

03 Economy, 04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, IO Impotency, Offbeat Fun, Officers Call

In an FCC ruling last week, they completely decimated the idea of internet freedom or net neutrality. They basically said that the corporations that can pay more can get faster internet service – this opens the floodgates for corporate rule online.

2014/05/062014/05/06

Winslow Wheeler: Buck McKeon Sells Out the Troops and the A-10 — C/HASC Rolls Big Bucks Against Little People

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military

Supporters of the A-10 “Warthog” close air support aircraft in Washington and US combat Soldiers and Marines who have seen, and are seeing, combat in Afghanistan were stunned Monday to read about a decision of the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA). He is joining with the Air Force and wants to retire all of these extraordinarily effective combat aircraft, sending them all to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force base, starting as soon as next year.

Ever since Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) Mark Welsh decided to get rid of all of 300-plus A-10s in the active and reserve Air Force and the Air National Guard, the media and congressional hearings have been stuffed with information from combat veterans, pilots and defense specialists about how spectacularly the A-10 has been performing in Afghanistan and all other recent US wars in Libya, Iraq and Kosovo–going as far back as Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

McKeon's A-10 sell-out comes in the form of a ruse. His draft legislation, to be moved Wednesday (May 7) at the mark-up of the House Armed Services Committee of its FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), creates a distinction without a difference with CSAF Welsh's retirement plan. McKeon's own description of his handiwork says he “would limit funds . to retire A-10 aircraft unless each such retired aircraft is maintained in type-1000 storage [which]. means storage of a retired aircraft in a near-flyaway condition that allows for the aircraft to be recalled into use by the Regular or Reserve Components of the Department of the Air Force.” Falling for the ruse either foolishly or knowingly, some media describe the language as “something of a compromise” or emphasize the “near fly-away” condition of the A-10 fleet after it is sent to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan. However, a simple check of what “type-1000 storage” means reveals that the aircraft will be made un-flyable and sealed in two layers of latex, which can be removed and the aircraft made operable only after considerable effort.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Buck McKeon Sells Out the Troops and the A-10 — C/HASC Rolls Big Bucks Against Little People”

2014/05/062014/05/07

Mini-Me: US Army DCGS-A Failures — and Palantir Keeps Trying to Over-Sell Its Shallow Pit

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military

Huh?

Internal Army Report’s Damning Conclusion on a System Meant to Protect Our Troops

Editor’s Note: This is the third part in an investigative series by TheBlaze into how top Army officials failed to provide necessary technology to troops on the battlefield, choosing to promote their own flawed software instead. Read part one and part two here.

In January, members of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team trained to track enemy combatants and bombs were inputing data into a $4 billion software system developed by the Army.

ADVANCE EXTRACT: A total of 60 companies were involved in the Army’s DCGS-A program. The four largest were defense weapons developers, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamic, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. “They have no play in the global commercial IT market, no standing at all,” said an IT specialist who works with both the government and private sector and is familiar with Defense programs. The specialist spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “The cost to the taxpayer is extraordinary for products that already exist.”

The software was intended to give military analysts the life-saving tools they needed to be one step ahead of the enemy.

Instead, it shut down, losing all of the valuable data the unit members had uploaded, according to an after-action report obtained exclusively by TheBlaze.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: US Army DCGS-A Failures — and Palantir Keeps Trying to Over-Sell Its Shallow Pit”

2014/05/062014/05/06

NIGHTWATCH: Polio Re-Emergent, Pakistan Central, CIA Partly to Blame

07 Health, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy

Pakistan: The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that Pakistan's failure to stem the spread of polio has triggered a global health emergency. The WHO is recommending all residents must show proof of vaccination before they can leave the country and should present a polio vaccination certificate.

The WHO's emergency measures also apply to Syria and Cameroon, which, along with Pakistan, pose the greatest risk of exporting the polio virus.

According to Pakistani press, Pakistan is the only country with endemic polio that saw cases rise last year. The number of Pakistanis with polio rose to 93 from 58 in 2012, accounting for more than a fifth of the 417 cases globally in 2013.

A WHO official said the virus has spread recently to Iraq, Israel and Syria, and has been found in sewage in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and greater Cairo. These outbreaks have been traced back to Pakistan, according to Pakistani press. Polio also appeared in China two years ago.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Polio Re-Emergent, Pakistan Central, CIA Partly to Blame”

2014/05/052014/05/05

SchwartzReport: US Nuclear Infrastructure a Radioactive Time Bomb — We Are Not Ready and USG Lies to the Public About This…

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Officers Call

Here we have a pretty realistic take on the state of the U.S. nuclear industry. We have been so lucky not to have had a crisis like Chernobyl. Click through to see the supporting graphics.

Our Nuclear Infrastructure Is a Radioactive Time Bomb
BRENDAN SCOTT – Vice News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has had a busy few weeks. Last month, thanks to Freedom of Information Act queries filed by numerous organizations, the Commission was forced to disclose a dossier of emails showing the lengths it had gone to in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster to downplay the risk of a similar catastrophe happening in the US. The correspondence showed a startling lack of preparedness.

In one example, NRC public affairs officer David McIntyre offered his opinion on what Energy Secretary Steven Chu should have done when asked by CNN whether American nuclear plants could withstand a force 9.0 earthquake: ‘He should just say, ‘Yes, it can.’ Worry about being wrong when it doesn't. Sorry if I sound cynical.”

The documents also show a background briefing for then NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko and other commissioners that split intelligence into ‘public answer” and “additional technical, non-public information.” In some cases the NRC withheld crucial details and misdirected the media.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: US Nuclear Infrastructure a Radioactive Time Bomb — We Are Not Ready and USG Lies to the Public About This…”