Corruption – Page 656 – Public Intelligence Blog

Huh?

Phi Beta Iota: As President Barack Obama faces what David Gergen calls one of three “choice” or turning point elections in modern US history, one has to wonder where he stands on the subject of the truth. Below the line is a methodical review with many links from retired Marine Corps officer Jim Fetzer, who focuses on the Cheney-dominated US Government at the time. Equally troubling facts can be asserted on the New York end by focusing on Larry Silverstein and Rudy Guliani. If ever a sitting President had a ready-made opportunity for eradicating an opposing political party by enabling the truth to be told about a major event in modern US history, Barack Obama is that President. We do not favor a traditional justice approach here, but rather a Truth & Reconciliation Commission. If Barack Obama were to sponsor The Smart Nation Act, the Electoral Reform Act of 2012, a Truth & Reconciliation Commission on 9/11, and the immediate decriminalization of marijuana and then of all other drugs [with a jobs program equal to the challenge of existing unemployment and emptied prisons with restored voting rights], it would be game over. Then instead of having to fight for credibility and traction every day, he might actually be able to govern in 2013-2016. On the other hand, if President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are intent on demonstrating there is no substantive difference between the two parties that control the electoral process and the disbursement of the public treasury, they should continue to do precisely what they are doing now.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Marine Officer on 9/11 – The Anomalies Continue to Surface”

2012/08/302012/08/30

Chuck Spinney: James Fallows on Paul Ryan’s Lie-Filled Convention Speech

Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Media

Paul Ryan and the Post-Truth Convention Speech

By James Fallows

The Atlantic, Aug 30 2012, 11:43 AM ET

Paul Ryan's speech was well-written, well- delivered, and well-received. All of that was evident to anyone watching on TV. It had a number of nice smilingly vicious hit lines — starting with the masterful “staring up at the faded Obama posters” riff — plus a note of encouraging uplift at the end.

It was also profoundly dishonest in ways large and small.

Small: telling the sad story of the closing of the Janesville GM plant, and clearly implying that this was one more casualty of the Obama-unemployment era. Whereas of course the plant was shuttered before Obama even took office.

Medium: telling that story on the assumption that no one would say, “Wait a minute: wasn't Obama the guy who was pushing the big auto-industry bailout, which your nominee and your party opposed? So wouldn't there have been a lot more closed plants if you'd had your way?”

Large: blasting Obama for not enacting the outlook of the Simpson-Bowles commission, without noting that Ryan himself was on the commission and voted against its recommendations because they included tax increases as well as revenue cuts.

Large: blasting Obama for proposed cuts in Medicare without noting that Ryan has proposed those same cuts and much more.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: James Fallows on Paul Ryan's Lie-Filled Convention Speech”

2012/08/302012/08/30

Chuck Spinny: NYT “Gray Lady” Down, Dishonest

Corruption, IO Impotency, Media

The New York Times — aka America's Gray Lady of journalism — loves to refer to itself as the newspaper of record — but whose record? After the NYT's sorry exposure of being a activist conduit for government disinformation and propaganda hyping the WMD fears leading up to invasion of Iraq in 2003, a reasonable person might expect it would have cleaned up its act. Glenn Greenwald's withering expose below suggests the NYT's dreary gray covers pomposities cover a darker journalistic dna that is no longer prone to self correction, if it ever was.

Chuck Spinney
Gaeta, Italia

EXTRACT:

From “All the news that's fit to print” to “please delete after you read” and cannot “go into detail because it is an intelligence matter”: that's the gap between the New York Times's marketed brand and its reality.

Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA

Mark Mazzetti's emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power

Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 August 2012

(updated below)

Continue reading “Chuck Spinny: NYT “Gray Lady” Down, Dishonest”

2012/08/28

David Isenberg: Private Military Contractors (PMC) – A Stake in the Heart of DoD and USG

Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military

Negative Views of Civilian and Private Security Contractors

Concerns over their cost effectiveness and strategic value make the deployment of PMSCs a risky proposition. More worryingly, argues David Isenberg, is that they may permit governments to circumnavigate democratic debates over the necessity of sending armed forces into battle.

By David Isenberg for the ISN

From the outset, it needs to be established that the use of private military and security contractors (PMSC) – whether in wars or humanitarian and stabilization operations – is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, even if this was the case, the United States is unlikely to decrease its reliance on them in the future, if for no other reason than the fact that contractors are now essential to maintaining the U.S. military’s vast network of overseas bases and facilities. But it is also true that the deployment of PMSCs does not always make sense. Indeed, just because contractors are often unfairly vilified doesn’t mean that their claims should be taken at face value. Yet, like any other issue worthy of debate the devil is always in the details. Questions concerned with how PMSCs will be used, who monitors contracts for proper implementation – not to mention the challenge of developing transparency and accountability processes – are questions that have far too often been answered by trial and error.

A Checkered Past

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Private Military Contractors (PMC) – A Stake in the Heart of DoD and USG”

2012/08/262012/08/26

Mini-Me: Time for NATO Truth & Reconciliation Commission? + NATO RECAP

Corruption, Government, Military, Politics

Huh?

DATE OF EVENT: 1980-06-27

2012-08-26 Botched 1980 Gaddafi Assassination Kills All Aboard

2012-08-25 An Assassination of International Proportions 27 June 1980 and A Cover-Up by NATO : civilian jet with 81 civilians shot by French Mirage instead of Qaddafi Plane over Sicily

2012-07-06 Wikipedia / Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870

libyan attack — Click on Image to Enlarge

2011-10-18 Libyan secret documents said to uncover

Ustica tragedy… and how Gaddafi escaped to Malta unscathed

2010-07-18 ITAVIA DC-9 INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS GRAPHICS [and two photos]

2006-07-21 The mystery of flight 870

2004-05-03 Itavia 870 DC-9 I-TIGI Unsolved Crash

1999-10-04 What DID happen to Itavia Flight 870?

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Time for NATO Truth & Reconciliation Commission? + NATO RECAP”

2012/08/252012/08/25

Mini-Me: Asian Deep Wealth versus US/EU Illuminati/Nazis

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

Huh?

Benjamin Fulford Update 8-21-12…”Cabal Control Is Disintegrating At An Accelerating Pace On Multiple Fronts”

Highlights

…the IMF is now officially calling for an Iceland style solution (bust the banks and arrest corrupt bankers and politicians who accepted their bribes).
Now the most brainwashed people in the West are failing to explain the contradictions of their so-called leaders.
Neil Keenan’s liens… are now set to be refiled as early as this Friday… [they] have way more evidence backing them than the original Keenan lawsuit ever did…
Keenan says he has the backing of the pentagon and most of the US law enforcement establishment as well as Interpol.
The Japanese underworld and all major Yakuza gangs have now agreed to stop working for the cabal and take action against their puppets.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Asian Deep Wealth versus US/EU Illuminati/Nazis”

2012/08/252012/08/25

NIGHTWATCH: Afghanistan Truth Check – Still Hosed

Corruption, Military

Afghanistan: Special comment: This week Coalition forces commander General Allen said that only ten of Afghanistan's now 405 districts, in 34 provinces, are responsible for half of the violence in Afghanistan.

They are Sangin, Nowzad, Musa Qala, Kajaki, Nad e Ali, Nahr e Sarraj in Sangin Province plus Pol-e-Alam in Lowgar Province and Maiwand, Panjwai and Zherai in Kandahar Province.

Allen's list is not a metric of progress. For several years NightWatch published highly detailed evaluations of the insurgency, district by district and below. Four years ago, the only district that would not have been included in a similar list of the worst districts in Afghanistan is Pol-el-Alam in Lowgar Province. Districts in Ghazni, Paktia and Paktika Provinces would have been included.

Allen's list is an indictment of a failed policy and failed military strategy. Nothing has changed in four or more years. Nothing the US has done has reduced the volatility of the 12 or 13 Pashtun provinces in southern Afghanistan and the dozen or so districts that formed the heart of the insurgency.

UN surveys from 20 or more years ago reported that Pashtuns had deep and historic links to Pakistan and Iran. There were no jobs in Afghanistan so most Afghan men worked in adjacent countries. In the face of adversity, the men left to finda work and to return after conditions improved. This is information is easily accessible on the Internet.

It means people in border regions had long established “rat lines” leading outside Helmand, Kandahar, Lowgar and all the other border provinces. When US or UK forces moved in, the anti-government and anti-foreign Pashtuns moved on the rat lines to friends and family outside the areas of the US or UK surge. Now they have returned, after the western surge forces left. This is how Afghans have survived for centuries, whether the enemy was lack of rain or foreign invaders.

Afghanistan, as a land-locked country, is a component of a multi-national economic and social system, with southern and northern regions demarcated by the Hindu Kush. No war can be won in Afghanistan without winning it in Pakistan, in eastern Iran, and the southern reaches of the “Stans.” Alexander the Great apparently understood that better than all subsequent western generals who tried.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Afghanistan Truth Check – Still Hosed”