Corruption – Page 703 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/02/092012/02/09

Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, History, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Key Players, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Policies, Strategy, Threats, True Cost

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Baluchistan Hearing, February 8, 2012
Testimony of Ralph Peters, military analyst and author

“PAKISTAN AS A FAILING EMPIRE”

2012-02-09 Ralph Peters House Testimony, Baluchistan and Pakistan (8 pages, doc)

Introductory remarks: This testimony arises from three premises.

First, we cannot analyze global events through reassuring ideological lenses, be they left or right, or we will continue to be mistaken, surprised and bewildered by foreign developments. The rest of the world will neither conform to our prejudices nor behave for our convenience.

Second, focusing obsessively on short-term problems blinds us to the root causes and frequent intractability of today’s conflicts. Because we do not know history, we wave history away. Yet, the only way to understand the new world disorder is to place current developments in the context of generations and even centuries. Otherwise, we will continue to blunder through situations in which we deploy to Afghanistan to end Taliban rule, only to find ourselves, a decade later, impatient to negotiate the Taliban’s return to power.

Third, we must not be afraid to “color outside of the lines.” When it comes to foreign affairs, Washington’s political spectrum is monochromatic: timid, conformist and wrong with breathtaking consistency. We have a Department of State that refuses to think beyond borders codified at Versailles nine decades ago; a Department of Defense that, faced with messianic and ethnic insurgencies, concocted its doctrine from irrelevant case studies of yesteryear’s Marxist guerrillas; and a think-tank community almost Stalinist in its rigid allegiance to twentieth-century models of how the world should work.

If we do not think innovatively, we will continue to fail ignobly.

Continue reading “Ralph Peters: Testimony to Congress on Pakistan As a Failing Empire, Focus on Baluchistan”

2012/02/082012/02/08

Jon Lebkowsky: Google Glasses – What Do You See?

Commerce, Corruption, IO Impotency

Google glasses (or maybe we should call ‘em Google Goggles) will be an interesting AR advance, more science friction happening now, if they do happen. Preview (aka rumor) at 9to5Google.

These glasses, we heard, have a front-facing camera used to gather information and could aid in augmented reality apps. It will also take pictures. The spied prototype has a flash —perhaps for help at night, or maybe it is just a way to take better photos. The camera is extremely small and likely only a few megapixels. Quote from above source below.

According to our source, it communicates directly with the Cloud over IP. Although, the “Google Goggles” could use a phone’s Internet connection, through Wi-Fi or a low power Bluetooth 4.0.

google glasses — Click on Image to Enlarge

The use-case is augmented reality that would tie into Google’s location services. A user can walk around with information popping up and into display -Terminator-style- based on preferences, location and Google’s information.

Therefore, these things likely connect to the Internet and have GPS. They also likely run a version of Android.

Phi Beta Iota: It is quite fascinating to watch Google make the same mistake as the US secret world, obsessing on collection and meaningless displays while failing to make sense or influence outcomes.

2012/02/08

Michael Peterson: Jew on Jew – The Importance of Dissent

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

Phi Beta Iota: The following is a comment posted to the reviewby Robert Steele of Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul (Carroll & Graf, 2002). It is a combination of Constitutional and religious counterintelligence commentary that we found to be encouraging–most American Jews are not Zionist sayanim [traitors to the USA, clandestine assets for the Mossad].

FULL EXTRACT:

Oh c'mon as Jew I'm offended. You doing that only proves him right, jeez dude way to be reactionary. It's more about the state of Israel. There are plenty of American Jews that see Israelis as arrogant to say the least…

I'm an American first. Well….it's not like the people that run the place have any sense of loyalty beyond money and family so to my own ears they sound hallow, but it's the only thing we have left right? Anyway Sanayim was removed from wikipedia so waybackmachine led me to a former Mossad intelligence officer Victor_Ostrovsky who actually admitted to it's existence and wrote at length.

Also on censorship, those who fear something usually react. So I take the side of whoever says something, provides evidence and then doesn't have a history of trying to crush the dissenting opinion of others who disagree with them. Even if I categorically disagree with their conclusions, the reactionary, who hides behind “such and such is inflammatory and therefore he must be REPORTED to protect the minds and hearts of others is even less of a human being and even more reproachable. I'm a black biracial Jew so I know what being persecuted is.

In 7th grade re-enacting a supreme court case about media censorship we were given hypotheticals as to what decisions we would make as justices. The important part about protecting the constitution is defending the rights of those you disagree with as long as they are non-violent and don't impose on the civil liberties of others. Imagine the audacity of me being the only student in class writing that the klan should be able to march in Midtown Manhattan exercising their first amendment right…why you ask? So they could embarrass themselves, heck maybe even get punched in the face? You lose liberty when you aren't willing to defend people you ideologically disagree with. Defend your convictions with fact by fact analysis and come to a conclusion that best supports the data.

Also that same year in 7th grade I learned what Nuclear Deterrence theory meant, what the Bush doctrine was, who George F Kennan Was, and most importantly what Project For New American Century is…all because of something called the 9/11 Commission Report I needed to make my case for the mock supreme court trial about whether a newspaper in Denver Colorado was breaching the espionage act by reporting on the environmental effects of government chemical testing. I was a middle schooler in the top class of a considerably bad school from South Jamaica Queens, in a lower middle class household. I did exceedingly well on standardized tests, but had a lax GPA.

I'm building this backstory to say what? That anything is possible from any ruling class(foreign or domestic)when Sarah Palin can be viewed as a credible running mate by over 40% of the voting block. Neoliberalism with the doublethink of Neoconservatism definitely proves the current regime of Israel and the policies of the United States government as the greatest threats to democracy the world has ever seen since the rise of the Third Reich.

This isn't just a message to the above commenter, but anyone who's on amazon scanning to be better informed. Be self-sufficient and remember to research, research, research, regardless of whatever your religion, class, or creed may do to disarm you emotionally.

2012/02/072012/02/07

David Swanson: Betrayal of the Nobel Peace Prize

Corruption, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

The Betrayal of the Nobel Peace Prize

Alfred Nobel's will, written in 1895, left funding for a prize to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

The first such prize, awarded in 1901, went to Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy, two men who held and promoted peace congresses, two peace activists, two men who were not elected officials. Nor were they war makers who had exercised restraint in some instance or other. In 1902, again, the peace prize went to two peace activists. In 1903 the prize went to a member of the British Parliament, but one who had worked for peace and not for war. In 1904, the laureate was what we would now call an NGO, but one that had worked for peace and not for war. In 1905, a woman who had played a role in the creation of the prize, an author and a peace activist, someone who indeed held and promoted peace congresses, was the first female winner. And then came 1906.

In 1906, the Nobel prize for peace was awarded to a lover of war by the name of Theodore Roosevelt. He had up to that point done, and would continue until his death to do, more to promote war than peace. Was it possible that he had nonetheless done the most or the best work for international fraternity, demilitarization, and peace congresses? Frankly, no. He was prominent. He was a president of a rising empire. Those, and his negotiating a peace between two other nations, were not sufficient qualifications. A disastrous trend had begun in the very mixed history of the peace prize.

Continue reading “David Swanson: Betrayal of the Nobel Peace Prize”

2012/02/07

NIGHTWATCH: Syria, Russia, US, Iran, Israel, Lies, & Truth + RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Blog Wisdom, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Media, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Syria: Special comment. Readers are rightly perplexed about conditions in Syria. Syrian press restrictions inhibit any neutral or balanced coverage. Everything reported from opposition sources and activists is biased and some reports of massacres include manufactured images, according to eyewitnesses.

International news descriptions of a worsening crisis receive no offsetting coverage of testimony from non-Sunni and non-opposition sources that little is occurring. The massacres are not taking place, occurring to sources that receive messages from Orthodox Christians living in Homs, for example. Life goes on in all of the towns and ports.

Skirmishes at checkpoints are the most common form of clash. That means four or five people fire a few rounds at four or five soldiers or policemen. Defectors are Sunni conscripts. The Syrian Army is about 60% conscript. Desertion is common in conscript armies. Defectors from the professional, full-time, non-conscript core of the force, most of whom are Alawites, have not been reported.

The point is that western media present one side of the struggle — that of the exiled Sunni politicians and activists with cell phones. Clips from social networking media are heavily one-sided and some are not authentic.

Limited communications from people caught in the middle, non-Muslims, suggest there is a lot less fighting and fewer deaths. Reports of carnage and massacres of hundreds do not seem to be accurate, except in opposition propaganda media.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syria, Russia, US, Iran, Israel, Lies, & Truth + RECAP”

2012/02/06

John Steiner: Super Rich Plan to Own Global Media

Commerce, Corruption, Media

Check out the video the mining industry never expected you to see:

http://www.getup.org.au/minersmediaplan

You simply have to see this video to believe it.

This week mining billionaire Gina Rinehart became the largest shareholder in Fairfax, having already bought a stake in Channel Ten. But this new video reveals this move is bigger than one woman’s ambition – it’s part of a coordinated and very deliberate strategy, with climate skeptic ‘Lord’ Monkton seen here advising a room full of mining executives on how the industry must gain control of Australia’s media.

Can you help share this video so all Australians understand what's really going on in the mining industry?

http://www.getup.org.au/minersmediaplan

We've seen what happened in the USA when coordinated, super-wealthy corporate interests set about deliberately reshaping the media landscape to suit their agendas. It's bad news for democracy and it's bad news for the issues we care about. And while this most recent purchase was a brazen move, it's hardly the first time a mining industry executive has used their vast wealth to push an agenda.

Last year, Rinehart helped set up a new lobby group calling for a special ‘Northern Economic Zone’ demanding lower tax, government concessions and cheap migrant labor from Asia. She helped bankroll the campaign against Government efforts to ask the mining industry to pay their fair share of tax through the Mining Super Profits tax and she's been actively sponsoring prominent climate skeptics like Monckton, Ian Plimer and Andrew Bolt, who got his own TV show weeks after she invested in Channel Ten.

Phi Beta Iota: The Internet, the schools, and how the general public is informed are the battleground for 21st century peace and prosperity. All are rotten to the core right now, but all signs point to a global public rebellion that is insistent on getting back to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

See Also:

Note: this book will NOT be available free online. Pre-orders are offered by Amazon at a $5 discount.

THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust

2012/02/062012/02/06

Reference: Truth, Lies and Afghanistan

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Articles & Chapters, Corruption, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Truth, lies and Afghanistan

How military leaders have let us down

LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS

Armed Forces Journal,

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

. . . . . . . .

Tell The Truth

When it comes to deciding what matters are worth plunging our nation into war and which are not, our senior leaders owe it to the nation and to the uniformed members to be candid — graphically, if necessary — in telling them what’s at stake and how expensive potential success is likely to be. U.S. citizens and their elected representatives can decide if the risk to blood and treasure is worth it.

Likewise when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start. AFJ

Read full article.