Corruption – Page 812 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/03/252011/03/25

Wesley Clark interview (March 2007): “We plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years”

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Military, Officers Call

Wesley Clark interview (March 2007): “We plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years”

Synopsis: 10 days after 9-11, visiting Joint Staff, not only knew we were going to take down Iraq, a few weeks later but got the list of six other countries:

Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran

Watch the short video…

Phi Beta Iota: This is somewhat consistent with the published book Endgame–The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror by Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely with an introduction by Oliver North. Published in 2004, they focused on the need to use our military to wipe out Syria and Iran while intimidating Libya and Pakistan. What is quite clear is that regardless of which political party is nominally in power, the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (MICC) has taken on a life of its own that is expensive, dangerous to all, clearly at odds with the US Constitution, and totally out of control. For a third of what we spend on war we could be waging peace and providing all 44 dictators with non-violent exit strategies. The gap between the public and the government has never been greater in the modern history of the USA, in our collective view.

2011/03/25

USG Breathtakingly Irresponsible on Banks

Corruption

The Baseline Scenario

Dividend Lost

by Simon Johnson

Four types of people were directly affected by the Federal Reserve’s decision at the end of last week to allow major banks to increase their dividends and to buy back shares. Three of these groups – bankers, bank shareholders, and government officials – were somewhere between happy and delighted. The four group, US taxpayers, should be much more worried (see also this cautionary letter to the Financial Times by top finance academics).

The bankers’ reaction is obvious. They are officially released from the financial hospital ward that was set up for them in 2008. No matter that this was a very comfortable place with few conditions relative to any other bailout in recent US or world history – there were still restrictions on what banks could do and, naturally, bank executives chafed at these constraints.

In particular, banks were required to build up the equity in their business – insolvency is avoided, after all, while there is positive equity in a business. When shareholder equity is exhausted, creditors face losses. Read more….

Phi Beta Iota: The disingeneous will observe the Federal Reserve is neither Federal nor a Reserve, and they are correct. However, the complicity of the USG going back to Bill Clinton is breathtakingly irresponsible. Merely airing the truth and assuring public outrage would be salutory.

2011/03/25

Tom Christie on Failure of Acquisition Reform

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military

face thomas christie — Thomas P. Christie

Tom Christie spent almost 50 years inside the DOD acquisition apparatus, concluding his career as a top level civilian professional directing DOD's office of Operational Test and Evaluation. Since the 1960s, he has seen every single stab at reforming how we develop and buy weapons come and go – and fail. Today, as measured by GAO and many others, cost overruns are higher, deliveries are later, and the biggest DOD budget since the end of World War II buys us the smallest, oldest force structure and weapons inventory since 1946.

Christie has a straight forward explanation: the buying apparatus in the Pentagon, Congress and industry does not enforce the declared intent of acquisition laws and regulations, they circumvent the intent – thanks to the multiple loopholes and dodges assiduously inserted by Congress, the Pentagon and industry. Politely, he calls this a lack of “discipline.”

Listen to his interview and explanation at Federal News Radio.

This interview is part of a series; find a link to these and several other related interviews at one of the webpages devoted to the anthology, The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It.

Interested in more details of Christie's explanation? Find the text of his essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth at , and find the entire text of The Pentagon Labyrinth.

Want to make a comment about Christie's or any other author's essay? Want to hold a debate? We welcome that. Let me know by emailing winslowwheeler at msn.com.

Phi Beta Iota: Integrity is a self-healing system. No one dealing with acquisition has it. This has gotten so out of hand it is now an atrocity.

2011/03/252011/03/25

General Electric 2010: No Taxes, Claimed 3.2B Credit

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

But Nobody Pays That

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

The New York Times, March 24, 2011

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year
in 2010.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1
billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2
billion.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: This is an atrocity, a crime against humanity. Legalized crime in the US has reached heights not seen in modern history. There is no social contract between the government and those puportedlyostensibly governed. GRIFTOPIA meets Empire of Illusion. The systemic corruption of America–the Paradigms of Failure–is daunting to those who strive to serve the public interest. Integrity–one word–absent across the board. Why? Because they can get away with it.

2011/03/252011/03/25

Reference: US CoC on Cyber-Security

Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military

Source Online (26 Pages)

Phi Beta Iota: This is interesting at multiple levels. It demonstrates that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) endeavor to achieve common solutions is not only not working, but does not properly integrate industry. It demonstrates that Cyber-Command is off on its own warpath, and not thinking deeply about the issues that this White Paper raises. Finally, it is a perfect display of the tail end of Industrial Era thinking, assuming that top down coordination of anything is going to be effective in a bottom-up world. The Autonomous Internet is NOT something these people are even aware of….

2011/03/252011/03/25

Fatal Game of Chess–Obama Moves, Public Loses

Corruption

Phi Beta Iota: This email is circulating in gold trading circles. It does two things: establishes the absolute corruption of the US Congress in abdicating all of its Constitutional responsibilities in the public interest; and draws a line between “high Jews” that do not support Israel and “low Jews” that are now allegedly “not counted” anymore by the Obama Administration.

THE FATAL GAME OF CHESS.

Have you ever heard of the Scotch Gambit? It is not as often plaid as the Ruy Lopez or The Indian Defense, and if you are not a chess player, you may have a problem following the logic of this article. If some of you will be offended I propose you take a wait and see attitude and let time expose the game and its results. This is about the Middle East Chess Game and the latest moves. Perhaps it will explain some seemingly unconnected events and point out possible future moves by the players.

One of the basic characteristics of the Scotch Gambit followed by a “swindle” was best played by an old US chess master F.J. Marshall. Assume that Pres. Obama and his advisers want to accomplish a “swindle” that is three moves removed from today’s action. Attacking Libya was a move calculated to mislead Congress and the various political alignments in the US, but it has laid the foundation for a future similar drastic move. Willing to accept attacks form both right and the left seems to be a high price to pay by President Obama, but once the objective is accomplished, he will be forgiven. So what is the objective?

Continue reading “Fatal Game of Chess–Obama Moves, Public Loses”

2011/03/24

Obama fails to grasp the gravity of going to war

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

Although a partisan paper, the Examiner does show the lack of
understanding that is permeating the current administration……..

By: Byron York 03/24/11 8:05 PM

The Examiner

“I see Obama's visiting the United States,” said Rush Limbaugh on
Thursday, the president's first full day back in Washington after a spring
break diplomatic tour of Latin America….

. . . . . . .

After ordering troops into action, the president headed off to South
America with his wife, daughters, mother-in-law, and mother-in-law's
friend in tow. There was no solemn, reasoned speech to explain why the
U.S. was going to war…..

obama goes to war ii — Click on Image to Enlarge

Meanwhile, the White House is at times having difficulty simply making
sense. The president talked about an “exit strategy” in which American forces would not exit at all. And administration officials are going out of their way to deny that the Libyan fighting, which involves a significant fleet of U.S. warships and U.S. warplanes, is a “war.” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters Wednesday that Libya
wasn't a war, describing it instead as a “kinetic military action.”