Ineptitude – Page 32 – Public Intelligence Blog

Trump Needs to Make Heads Roll at the CIA and FBI

One of the thorniest questions facing the incoming Trump administration is what to do about America’s increasingly dysfunctional intelligence community, known collectively by its acronym, the IC. Made up of no fewer than 16 different agencies, the IC includes marquee services like the CIA and the National Security Agency, as well as more obscure spook fiefdoms such as Defense Intelligence Agency (serving the military) and the National Reconnaissance Office, which monitors America’s national-security concerns via satellites.

Trump’s first order of business, therefore, is to take control, firmly, by dissolving Homeland Security and cashiering the DNI, a jolly figure of comic relief named James Clapper. Another firing that would do wonders for morale is the prompt sacking of CIA Director John Brennan, widely derided as a careerist, yes-man and Islamophile.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: NY Post – Trump Needs to Make Heads Roll at the CIA and FBI (and Fire the DNI)”

2016/11/102016/11/18

Berto Jongman: Dan Harris on Eroding Human Intelligence Collection in the US Intelligence Community — Reflections on Intelligence Reform by Robert Steele

All Reflections & Story Boards, Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

The Consequences of Eroding Human Intelligence Collection

TheCIPHERBrief, November 2, 2016 | Dan Harris

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s (IC) clandestine human intelligence (HUMINT) services are experiencing an erosion of their core mission and values, with consequences to our current and future collection capability. . . . I believe the issue in the IC is not the need for a new service but the need for experienced mission-enablers, vice political loyalists, at the command level. . . . Former CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappas spoke poignantly of this condition when he said he could find 100 Agency officers willing to risk their lives in a war zone, but could find not one willing to risk his/her career.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Dan Harris on Eroding Human Intelligence Collection in the US Intelligence Community — Reflections on Intelligence Reform by Robert Steele”

2016/11/082016/11/07

Antechinus: Lessons from Hillary Clinton’s Emails

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

What I learned from visualizing Hillary Clinton’s emails

Political systems scale poorly. The most influential actors in them are spending a substantial fraction of their mental capacity thinking about how to communicate, and do not have the bandwidth needed to deal with many incoming messages. This is not surprising considering the large number of people they interact with. Our modern political world is one where a few need to interact with many, so they have no time for deep relationships — they physically cannot. So what we are left is with a world of first impressions and public opinion, where the choice of words matters enormously, and becomes central to the job. Yet, the chronic lack of time that comes from having a system where few people govern many.

Graphic, Comment, Links Below the Fold

Continue reading “Antechinus: Lessons from Hillary Clinton's Emails”

2016/10/042016/10/02

Berto Jongman: Lessons Learned on Counter-Terrorism — A History of Failure

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, Military, Peace Intelligence

What lessons should be learnt from 15 years of counter-terror and stabilisation?

By aiding and abetting abuse, corruption and bad governance in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, Western actors fell into the ‘stabilisation trap’: trading away a long-term focus on rights and governance for short-term stability – but ultimately guaranteeing abusive governance, chronic instability and deep public resentment. As these examples show, ‘terrorists’ may not be the worst threat to stability in conflict contexts, and lasting peace in contexts like Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan will prove elusive without facing up to the cynicism and abuse of supposed ‘partners’.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Lessons Learned on Counter-Terrorism — A History of Failure”

2016/10/032016/10/01

Berto Jongman: Fewer and Fewer Journalists…

Ineptitude, Media

Employment picture darkens for journalists at digital outlets

In 2005, for every one digital-only journalist, there were 20 newspaper journalists. In 2015, for every one digital-only journalist, there were four newspaper journalists.

In 2005, there were 69,900 journalists employed in these two industries. In 2015, there were 51,980, a decline of 26 percent. As a result, Americans have fewer journalists to provide news information.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Fewer and Fewer Journalists…”

2016/09/272016/09/27

Stephen E. Arnold: US Government Struggling with IT — 77% of funding consumed by O&M — while Palantir sues US Army for business….

#OSE Open Source Everything, Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

US Government: Computer Infrastructure

Notice that the US Federal government spent $0.68 cents of every IT dollar on operations and maintenance in 2010. Jump to the 2017 estimate. Notice that the status quo is likely to consume $0.77 cents of every IT dollar.

Bam! Pow! Zap! Palantir Steps Up Fight with US Army

I recall one Master of the Universe telling me, “Keep the client happy.” Today an alternative approach has emerged [and is being pioneered by Palantir]. I term it “Fight with the client.” I assume the tactic works really well.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: US Government Struggling with IT — 77% of funding consumed by O&M — while Palantir sues US Army for business….”

2016/09/232016/09/21

Berto Jongman: FBI Pays $1.3M for a $100 Hack

Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement

The FBI spent $1.3M to crack the iPhone — this hacker spent just $100

A security researcher has demonstrated that the passcode of an iPhone can be cracked using off-the-shelf components which cost just $100 — a tiny fraction of the $1.3 million the FBI paid a third party to do the same thing in the case of an iPhone 5C belonging to the San Bernardino shooter earlier this year. In a video posted on YouTube and an accompanying paper describing the technique, University of Cambridge associate researcher Sergei Skorobogatov showed how a four digit passcode could be revealed in less than two days using a technique known as Nand mirroring.