Corruption – Page 702 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/02/142012/02/14

DefDog: Cyberwar is the New Yellow Cake

Computer/online security, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

The same has been said about the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism, et al…..and nothing seems to back up the dire rhetoric, but the spending of tax dollars rolls on just the same.

Wired Opinion: Cyberwar Is the New Yellowcake

By Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins

WIRED, 14 February 2012

In last month’s State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to pass “legislation that will secure our country from the growing dangers of cyber threats.” The Hill was way ahead of him, with over 50 cybersecurity bills introduced this Congress. This week, both the House and Senate are moving on their versions of consolidated, comprehensive legislation.

The reason cybersecurity legislation is so pressing, proponents say, is that we face an immediate risk of national disaster.

“Today’s cyber criminals have the ability to interrupt life-sustaining services, cause catastrophic economic damage, or severely degrade the networks our defense and intelligence agencies rely on,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said at a hearing last week. “Congress needs to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legislation immediately.”

Yet evidence to sustain such dire warnings is conspicuously absent. In many respects, rhetoric about cyber catastrophe resembles threat inflation we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War. And while Congress’ passing of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation wouldn’t lead to war, it could saddle us with an expensive and overreaching cyber-industrial complex.

Continue reading “DefDog: Cyberwar is the New Yellow Cake”

2012/02/122012/02/12

Eagle: Israel Funds MKO; MKO Funds US Politicians

05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency

‘Israel funds MKO; MKO funds US politicians’

Iranian PressTV, 11 February 2012

A senior political analyst says numerous prominent US political figures are receiving “substantial fees” from the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) that is in turn funded by Israel.

“One of the most under-reported political stories of the last year is the devoted advocacy of numerous prominent American political figures on behalf of an Iranian group long formally designated as a Terrorist organization under US law,” Glenn Greenwald wrote on salon.com on Friday.

guliani mko — MKO chief Maryam Rajavi applauds former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani in a meeting in Paris on January 20, 2012.

. . . . . .

The Christian Science Monitor reported last August that former US four-star generals, intelligence chiefs, governors, and political heavyweights had been paid “tens of thousands of dollars” to call for the US government to take the MKO off the terror list.

Another report by NBC News last Thursday, shed light on the financial status of the MKO by citing two “senior US officials” as saying that the group “is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service,” confirming that it was this terrorist cell which was involved in the string of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: The truth at any cost lowers all other costs. Part I is finding the truth. Part II is presenting the truth where it matters — not just the ostensible direct consumers, but the public at large. Part III is creating a climate of integrity such that the public demands that their government attend to the truth.

2012/02/122012/02/12

Penguin: “Or Your Lying Eyes…” Truth and Fiction in the News Business – Conspiracy of Lies While US Networks Prepare & Rehearse for Israeli Attack on Iran

Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Media, Military

“Or Your Lying Eyes…” Truth and Fiction in the News Business

Alex Cockburn

Counterpunch, Weekend Edition February 10-12, 2012

If you want a sense of what could well lie in store for Syria, go no further than Anthony Shadid’s report from Libya in the New York Times for February 9. Shadid, a good reporter, describes a dismembered country, rent by banditry.

EXTRACT:

As Byrne reported,

“Of the three main sources for all data on numbers of protesters killed and numbers of people attending demonstrations – the pillars of the narrative – all are part of the ‘regime change’ alliance. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, in particular, is reportedly funded through a Dubai-based fund with pooled (and therefore deniable) Western-Gulf money (Saudi Arabia alone has, according to Elliot Abrams allocated US$130 billion to ‘palliate the masses’ of the Arab Spring).

What appears to be a nondescript British-based organization, the Observatory has been pivotal in sustaining the narrative of the mass killing of thousands of peaceful protesters using inflated figures, ‘facts’, and often exaggerated claims of ‘massacres’ and even recently ‘genocide’.”

And from the Arab League Report:

Continue reading “Penguin: “Or Your Lying Eyes…” Truth and Fiction in the News Business – Conspiracy of Lies While US Networks Prepare & Rehearse for Israeli Attack on Iran”

2012/02/122012/02/12

Owl: Shyness, Grieving Classified as Mental Illness Treatable by Drugs, Incarceration of Sane Next?

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Uncategorized

An article like this poses the question – who is really insane, psychiatrists or the people they treat? When readers finish this article, they may vote for the former.

“In a damning analysis of an upcoming revision of the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health experts said its new categories and “tick-box” diagnosis systems were at best “silly” and at worst “worrying and dangerous.” Some diagnoses – for conditions like “oppositional defiant disorder” and “apathy syndrome” – risk devaluing the seriousness of mental illness and medicalising behaviors most people would consider normal or just mildly eccentric, the experts said. At the other end of the spectrum, the new DSM, due out next year, could give medical diagnoses for serial rapists and sex abusers – under labels like “paraphilic coercive disorder” – and may allow offenders to escape prison by providing what could be seen as an excuse for their behavior, they added.

Continue reading “Owl: Shyness, Grieving Classified as Mental Illness Treatable by Drugs, Incarceration of Sane Next?”

2012/02/112012/02/11

Berto Jongman: Anonymous Takes Down CIA Website + RECAP

Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Military

This refers to the external publicity site, not to any analytic or operational system.

Anonymous Takes Down CIA Website

Hacker group Anonymous on Friday took down the website of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), online publication PC Magazine reported.

The website is still offline.

“CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous,” the @YourAnonNews feed tweeted.

Anonymous did not make public the attack’s details, but the group’s hackers normally use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock their targets offline.

“We are aware of the problems accessing our website, and are working to resolve them,” CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said Friday night as quoted by the CNN.

Last month, Anonymous briefly took down the websites of the Department of Justice and the FBI in retaliation for the Megaupload file sharing site’s shutdown.

Phi Beta Iota: The solution was clearly stated in 1994 and again in 2010. Until the US Government gets a grip on “Smart Nation” and “Whole Earth” concepts of security at the code level, migrating to open source software across the board, and reinforcing all the shared nodes, it will continue to be easy to take down individual capabilities. And if all else fails, most systems can be taken down by cutting their obvious external big wires and/or their satellite downlinks, most easily reachable from outside the wire with various means.

2012/02/09

Gordon Duff: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Arab League Report Shows that Syria Has Been Mischaracterized

While the Western media act like the Syrian government is wantonly and indiscriminately killing its own people without provocation, an independent investigation has found a different reality on the ground.

Specifically, over 160 monitors from the Arab League – comprised of both allies and mortal enemies of Syria – toured Syria and published a report on January 27th showing that the situation has been mischaracterized.

Initially, the report noted general cooperation by the Syrian government:

The Mission [i.e. the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.

The report noted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria:

The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.

The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.

***

Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria”

2012/02/092012/02/09

DefDog: Rent-A General Business Continues As Usual…

Corruption, Military

Rent-A-General Business Booming

Chris Frates

National Journal, 7 February 2012

Two of the highest-ranking Pentagon officials to leave government in the past year have landed on a lucrative rainmaking board for the federal contracting arm of business-consulting giant Accenture.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James “Hoss” Cartwright have signed on to provide advice on “the federal market, industry trends, and business strategies” for Accenture's federal business arm, based in the Washington suburb of Reston, Va.

It's the latest evidence that the “rent-a-general” business is booming for Pentagon retirees in the post-9/11 decade. Sitting on internal advisory boards for government contractors has become a popular destination for high-level Pentagon retirees, and while it's perfectly legal it remains controversial.

Phi Beta Iota: In a properly managed military, not only would be cut the flag officer and senior executive service by half, but by the time they retired, they should not be qualified to serve in the private sector — they should have been focused every waking moment on training, equipping, and organizing national capabilities, and as a general rule should be considered by contractors to be Darth Vaders on fraud, waste, and abuse. Not today.