Corruption – Page 816 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/03/102011/03/10

Director of National Intelligence Self-Destructs…Again

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Reform

Senator: Remarks about Libya ‘should be the final straw' for Clapper (CNN)

Clapper lambastes Russia; wait, isn’t Joe Biden in Russia? (The Hill)

U.S. Intelligence Chief Says Qaddafi Has Edge in Conflict (NYT)

US should keep up Lebanon military aid: intel chief (AFP)

Losing Libya III (PajamasMedia)

Phi Beta Iota: We used to admire Jim Clapper, so much so that a member of our collective issued a press release in his defense when Donald Rumsfeld fired him for telling the truth. General Clapper appears to have forgotten how to tell the truth, and he is not leading the US Intelligence Community, he is administering it with cronies assigned to administer the various agencies. There is no longer intelligence at the top of the intelligence community. It is time for a full-spectrum house cleaning, to include the conversion of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, which is not needed, into the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Peace Operations, which IS needed. Mike Vickers is not qualified for either position.

Media Spin: Clapper told the truth. Reality: Clapper is out of touch with reality–he cannot even outline the ten high-level threats to humanity or explain why continued fragmentation of the US Government is the greatest threat to our near term as well as a long term stability and prosperity. Russia and China are not military threats to the US but rather economic threats, and in the case of China, a demographic and scientific & technology threat. The Old Guard is dead, may they rest in peace. Sadly, there is no bench within the US Intelligence Community OR the contractor world. We anticipate nothing beneficial for our $90 billion a year.

See Also:

Obama to Clapper: “Disappointed.” Duh.

Journal: Reflections on Integrity

Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both

Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure

What’s Right with America? Let Me List the Books…

2011/03/102011/03/10

Secrecy News: Mike Vickers on Leaks as “Serious”

Corruption

LEAKS A “SERIOUS PROBLEM” FOR DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE

Unauthorized disclosures of classified information are among “the major challenges” facing defense intelligence, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers told Congress last month. Mr. Vickers is awaiting Senate confirmation to be the new USD(I), a post that was last held by James R. Clapper, who is now the Director of National Intelligence. The Under Secretary is “dual-hatted” as Director of Defense Intelligence.

Continue reading “Secrecy News: Mike Vickers on Leaks as “Serious””

2011/03/09

Israel Wants Billions From US After Sticking It Hard…

08 Wild Cards, Corruption

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

First they stick it to the US generally and Barack Obama specifically on the matter of the settlements, and now they want $20 billion from the US. Note that the source of this report, “Ynet,” is an Israeli news outlet.

Israel seeks $20 billion in US military aid

Defense Minister sees no immediate threat in Egypt but fears repercussions of Mideast unrest. In Wall Street Journal interview, he says military upgrade can turn Israel into regional stabilizer

Ynet, 8 March 201103.08.11, 10:15

Defense Minister Barak said Israel might request an additional $20 billion in military assistance from the United States in order to prepare for possible threats, given the recent unrest in the Middle East.

Read rest of story…

2011/03/09

Crowd-Sourcing Comes of Age on Libya

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Government, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Mobile, Real Time

yoda — May the Crowd be with you, always.

Volunteers Behind Libya Crisis Map: A True Story

Patrick Meier, iRevolutiion, 8 March 2011

My colleague Clay Shirky called it “Cognitive Surplus” in his recent book. Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams refer to it as “MacroWikinomics” in theirs.

What is cognitive surplus? The trillion hours of free time enjoyed by the world's educated population every year. Don and Tony describe MacroWikinomics as mass distributed collaboration on scales we've never seen before thanks to technology.

We're familiar with deficits and shortages, writes, Clay, but when it comes to surplus social capital, things quickly become unpredictable—especially when this capital scales thanks to the use of social networking platforms and Web 2.0 technologies. But then again, says Clay, “Many of the unexpected uses of communication tools are surprising because our old beliefs about human nature were so lousy.”

Rest of story, maps, photos….

Phi Beta Iota: Over bagels and lox yesterday, Doug Rushkoff summarized his intention for ContactCon: “to take us back to 1992, but this time with 2012 technology and human understanding.” Here is what the US Government was told in 1992 about crowd-sourcing. 20 years and 1 trillion dollars later (20 years, average of 50 billion a year), we still have the world's most expensive ineffective wasteland pretending to “do” intelligence. The lunacy continues.

1992 AIJ OSS Steele’s Original Vision

1992 AIJ Fall ‘New Paradigm” and Avoiding Future Failures

Reference: 1992 USMC C4I Campaign Plan

1992 E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, & intelligence (An Alternative Paradigm)

2011/03/082011/03/08

Michael Moore on the Class War & Looting of America

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence

Recommended!

Phi Beta Iota: Two items are included in full below the line in sequence. To read them in their original online form, here are the two headlines:

How I Got to Madison, Wisconsin …a letter from Michael Moore

Michael Moore: The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far — And We're Finally Fighting Back

Continue reading “Michael Moore on the Class War & Looting of America”

2011/03/082011/03/08

1992-2012 CIA Still Does Not “Get” Open Source

Advanced Cyber/IO, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call, Policies

Today's News, Brought to You by Your Friends at the CIA

Spy Service Translates World's Papers at Secret Cost; Mr. Hounsell Has Few Buyers

Phi Beta Iota: Worth a full read (click on headline). One word summary: “stagnant.” Neither the DNI nor the CIA nor DoD nor anyone else is serious about Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), known as “Open Sores” within the secret and largely useless U.S. Intelligence Community, which provides, 4% “at best” according to General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret) of what any senior commander needs, and nothing tailored to the needs of everyone else according to Robert Steele, OSINT proponent since 1988. If Congress were not so busy steam-rolling pork through secret channels as the open ones dry up–if Congress had any integrity at all–it would be asking the fundamental question: if we spent $3 billion on a proper Open Source Agency, how much of the $70-90 billion secret fraud, waste, and abuse could we eliminate? The answer? 50% in quick time, 75% over six years. Meanwhile, the real world is now routing around the US Government.

Continue reading “1992-2012 CIA Still Does Not “Get” Open Source”

2011/03/07

Afghanistan: Too Many Contractors, No Accountability

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Commerce, Corruption, IO Sense-Making, Military, Peace Intelligence

SECRECY NEWS EXTRACT:

DOD CONTRACTORS IN AFGHANISTAN AT A RECORD HIGH

The number of private security contractors employed by the Department of Defense in Afghanistan has reached a new record high, according to DoD statistics in a recently updated report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.

Continue reading “Afghanistan: Too Many Contractors, No Accountability”