Corruption – Page 528 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/09/26

Winslow Wheeler: USAF Seeking to Kill A-10 — At What Point Does Personal Greed and Professional Idiocy Become Treason?

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Yet again, the Air Force is trying to get rid of the A-10. The matter has been covered in the defense-specialized, but not the major, news media for about a week.

It comes as no real surprise to long-time observers of the A-10, but it is a very unpleasant surprise to US ground forces who have observed–all too closely–what the A-10 can do on the battlefield.

Air Force management has tried to defuse the growing controversy by fobbing off the plan as “pre-decisional,” but a briefing slide from Air Combat Command's 2015 budget plan shows that a decision has been made. Today, Defense News and others are reporting that Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has put a hold on the nomination of Deborah James to be Secretary of the Air Force until she “gets answers” on just what the Air Force thinks it is up to.

One of the previous Air Force gambits to unload the A-10 was exposed by author Robert Coram in 2003 in the New York Times. Coram has been following the Air Force's new gambit since before it became public, and he has now written about it again. His new piece points out that the Air Force has been planning to dump the A-10 for some time by engineering things to strip out A-10 training and to push up A-10 operating costs, has tried to mask the strong preference of troops in combat for A-10 support, and has risen to a new level of willfully ignoring the painful lessons of combat.

Find Robert Coram's new commentary on the Air Force's 2013 effort to unload the A-10, “Air Force Brass Ignores War's Lessons to Wipe Out A-10s,” at the new website of the Straus Military Reform Project.

(In case the embedded link above does not work, the url for this commentary is http://www.pogo.org/our-work/straus-military-reform-project/weapons/2013/air-force-brass-ignores-wars-lessons.html.)

Coram is also the author of “Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Air of War,” which addresses the early genesis of the A-10–and of the F-16 and of the F-15.

2013/09/26

Berto Jongman: Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Special Report Fixing Intelligence on Syria?

Corruption, Government

Special report: fixing intelligence on Syria?

If there is anything to learn from the Syrian conflict, it is that in the fog of war, truth really is the first casualty. Narratives and counter-narratives of the conflict have plagued media accounts and the blogosphere ever since it erupted in the form of angry street protests over two years ago. From the White House dossier to the United Nations report, from Syrian nuns to revelations from former and active intelligence officials, the propaganda war between pro and anti-interventionists to control the paradigm through which we understand the conflict — manifesting in Bashir al-Assad’s latest call for a ceasefire — may be feeding into little-known strategic imperatives that see the Syrian people as mere pawns in a wider gambit.

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2013/09/262013/09/26

David Swanson: Top 45 Lies in Obama’s Speech at the U.N.

01 Poverty, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

Top 45 Lies in Obama's Speech at the U.N.

1. President Obama's opening lines at the U.N. on Tuesday looked down on people who would think to settle disputes with war. Obama was disingenuously avoiding the fact that earlier this month he sought to drop missiles into a country to “send a message” but was blocked by the U.S. Congress, the U.N., the nations of the world, and popular opposition — after which Obama arrived at diplomacy as a last resort.

2. “It took the awful carnage of two world wars to shift our thinking.” Actually, it took one. The second resulted in a half-step backwards in “our thinking.” The Kellogg-Briand Pact banned all war. The U.N. Charter re-legalized wars purporting to be either defensive or U.N.-authorized.

3. “[P]eople are being lifted out of poverty,” Obama said, crediting actions by himself and others in response to the economic crash of five years ago. But downward global trends in poverty are steady and long pre-date Obama's entry into politics. And such a trend does not exist in the U.S.

42 additional lies below the line.

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2013/09/24

Steve Aftergood: Court Finds CIA in Contempt on FOIA Abuse

Corruption, Government

COURT CURBS CIA USE OF A FOIA EXEMPTION

The Central Intelligence Agency tried to make “inappropriate” use of an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act to withhold information that was not subject to the exemption, a federal court ruled last month.

In a significant interpretation of the Central Intelligence Agency Act, Judge Beryl A. Howell narrowed the permissible scope of records that CIA may withhold under Section 403g of the Act. That section allows CIA to exempt from release information concerning “the organization, functions, names, official titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed by” the Agency.

But in a 163 page opinion in response to a lawsuit brought by the non-profit National Security Counselors, Judge Howell ruled on August 15 that CIA was interpreting this provision in a manner that was “inappropriately broad” (discussed at pp. 99-122).

Instead of just withholding information about CIA organization and personnel, she concluded, the Agency was also wrongly attempting to withhold “information that relates to” CIA organization and personnel– which is almost everything the Agency does.

“The Court holds that the CIA may not invoke [50 USC] 403g to withhold information merely because that information may be used by CIA personnel to carry out their responsibilities or functions,” Judge Howell wrote. “The CIA Act does not protect all information about CIA functions generally… The CIA may only invoke 50 USC 403g to withhold information under the FOIA if it would reveal the specific categories of personnel-related information enumerated in the statute.”

If that seems like a common-sense conclusion, it is also a rare judicial setback for the CIA, and a reversal of the more familiar expansion of national security secrecy authority.

“This really is something pretty remarkable,” said Harry Hammitt of Access Reports, which monitors FOIA policy. “Judge Howell has narrowed the interpretation of the statute dramatically.”

2013/09/24

SchwartzReport: The Middle Class Does Better In States With Lots Of Union Members

Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

This ought to be fairly self-evident. That it isn't tells us something about our media and the American voters, neither very complimentary. It should also be noted that the Republican Party has been doing everything in its power to destroy the Unions. If you are a working person and you vote Republican, I'm sorry, you're nuts. Anyone who cares about the middle class ou! ght to support Unions, and here is the evidence.

The Middle Class Does Better In States With Lots Of Union Members
ALAN PYKE – Think Progress

The middle class brings home a substantially larger share of aggregate earnings in states that have high rates of union membership than in those where fewer workers are organized, a Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) analysis of Census data shows. Amid very high and still increasing income inequality, union density appears to offer some buffer for middle-class Americans.

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2013/09/24

4th Media: 80 Percent of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

80 Percent of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

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2013/09/24

4th Media: Saudi Intelligence Behind Chemical Attacks in Syria

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

Saudi Intelligence Behind Chemical Attacks in Syria But Unfortunately Nobody Will Dare Say That

A senior United Nations official who deals directly with Syrian affairs has told Al-Akhbar that the Syrian government had no involvement in the alleged Ghouta chemical weapons attack: “Of course not, he (President Bashar al-Assad) would be committing suicide.”

When asked who he believed was responsible for the use of chemical munitions in Ghouta, the UN official, who would not permit disclosure of his identity, said: “Saudi intelligence was behind the attacks and unfortunately nobody will dare say that.” The official claims that this information was provided by rebels in Ghouta.

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