IO Deeds of War – Page 187 – Public Intelligence Blog

The story continues to develop. This “house arrest” thing popped up when the US was beating on the Talibs to hand him over in Kandahar in 2001, then some faux intel from Brad Thor about Mullah Omar being under “house arrest” in Karachi and then now this. Sounds very familiar. Two fiction authors in the intel field being played for reasons unknown. My jury is out on how much I want to believe Raelynn. There are some holes you can drive a truck through in flaws in logic but some ideas could be untangled to pick up a few new truths. Kinda like the blind man and the elephant.

Bin Laden Turned in by Informant — Courier Was Cover Story

Forget the cover story of waterboarding-leads-to-courier-leads-to bin Laden (not to deny the effectiveness of waterboarding, but it’s just not applicable in this case.) Sources in the intelligence community tell me that after years of trying and one bureaucratically insane near-miss in Yemen, the US government killed OBL because a Pakistani intelligence officer came forward to collect the approximately $25 million reward from the State Department's Rewards for Justice program.

The informant was a walk-in. The ISI officer came forward to claim the substantial reward and to broker US citizenship for his family.

Marcus Aurelius: Al Qaeda Ricin, USG, Israel, Nuts

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

From the underpants bomber to exploding print cartridges to ricin bombs…

Qaeda Trying to Harness Toxin for Bombs, U.S. Officials Fear

By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER

The New York Times, August 12, 2011

WASHINGTON — American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States.

. . . . . .

But senior American officials say they are tracking the possibility of a threat very closely, given the Yemeni affiliate’s proven ability to devise plots, including some thwarted only at the last minute: a bomb sewn into the underwear of a Nigerian man aboard a commercial jetliner to Detroit in December 2009, and printer cartridges packed with powerful explosives in cargo bound for Chicago 10 months later.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: The insular insanity of the US Government continues. We note with interest that the NYT does not qualify either of the two preceeding plots, both of which are very likely to have been Israeli false flag operations to keep the “terror” myth alive, neither of which was properly investigated. We are right back in the 1970's, and repeat below what Daniel Elsberg said then to Henry Kissinger:

The danger is, you’ll become like a moron. You’ll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours” [because of your blind faith in the value of your narrow and often incorrect secret information].

2011/08/09

Penguin: Air Force to Spy on Commercial Aircraft

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military

This is the most absurd intelligence item so far this week.

Air Force Tackles New Intel Mission

Carlo Munoz

AOL Defense, 9 August 2011

Washington: The Pentagon's top intelligence official has ordered the Air Force to set up a new intelligence unit to analyze the behavior of foreign-based commercial aircraft and integrate intelligence from the combatant commanders as the planes move through American airspace.

Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers has tasked Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to hand pick a chief for the new intelligence cell.

While USD(I) will be the “focal point in DoD for intelligence on foreign civil aviation-related entities associated with illicit activities or posing a threat to the United States, its allies or its interests,” the Air Force will handle day-to-day operations through the Civil Aviation Intelligence Analysis Center, according to a July 29 memo from Vickers.

Read full article….

2011/08/092011/08/09

Winslow Wheeler: Defense Budget Hysteria

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

WinslowWheeler Cropped — Winslow Wheeler

Defense Budget Hysteria and Business as Usual – or Reform?

By Winslow T. Wheeler

Military.com, 9 August 2011

The rhetoric of people rushing to rescue Pentagon spending from “completely unacceptable” cuts is quite hysterical. Leading the chorus has been Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. He termed the possible defense budget cuts (about $850 billion over 10 years according to most) a “doomsday mechanism,” if the automatic sequestration trigger of Obama’s debt deal with the Republicans in Congress is pulled. Some think tank types, opining in the Washington Post and the New York Times, have deemed these reductions “indiscriminately hacking away” at the Pentagon’s budget and something that could “imperil America’s national security.” Their defense spending allies, including multiple generals and admirals sitting atop various Pentagon bureaucracies, confirm it all with descriptions like “very high risk” and “draconian.”

It should be pointed out that these people are underestimating the size of the potential cuts the new debt deal could theoretically cause. The $850 billion supposition measures the reductions against an artificial “baseline” from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that does not include the actual budget growth the Pentagon had scheduled for itself. Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments tells us in a useful analysis (“Defense Funding in the Budget Control Act of 2011”) that the debt deal’s automatic sequesters, if implemented, would mean $968 billion in cuts over ten years from the DOD budgets heretofore planned – over $100 billion more in cuts.

Read full analysis….

2011/08/09

Chuck Spinney: Time Favors the Taliban

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

August 9, 2011

The Whack-a-Mole Endgame Begins in Afghanistan

Americans Have the Clock, But the Taliban Have the Time

By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch

Cap Ferrat, France

Obama’s surge and de-surge has, therefore, created a reinforcing dynamic that is playing into the hands of the insurgents by seducing the United States into increasing its reliance on a pointless, reactive, “whack-a-mole” strategy. Like a judo specialist, the insurgents will use the expenditure of American energies to exhaust American forces and paralyze American political willpower by inducing our military to over and under react to an unfolding welter widely dispersed insurgent attacks

Read full analysis…

Phi Beta Iota: At home, the teen riots have started in Philadelphia. More riots are certain to follow, and more “random” shootings of anyone representing the US Government are likely west of the Mississippi. This is almost the perfect storm–all that is missing is a water failure in New York City followed by a firestorm, and massive epidemic across California.

2011/08/082011/08/08

Penguin: Taliban Plussing Up Anti-Air? Deja Vu….

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

Improvisation by the Taliban, combined with decades of strategic, intellectual, and integrity shortfalls in DoD, equal death traps in the air. Note that the Taliban laid a trap to optimize body count AFTER the action was “over” and the helicopter was “going home.”

Did a New Taliban Weapon Kill a Chopper Full of Navy SEALs?

David Axe

WIRED, 8 August 2011

The passengers and crew of the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopter probably never saw the rocket hurtling towards them. The explosion and fiery crash in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan early on Saturday morning killed all 38 people aboard the lumbering chopper.

For U.S. forces, it was the bloodiest single incident of the 10-year-old Afghanistan war — and possibly a sign of the insurgency’s continued ability to introduce new weaponry. The attack is also a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of the United States-lead coalition’s indispensable helicopters. “Shock and disbelief,” is how one official characterized the reaction inside the military.

Marcus Aurelius: 22 SEAL Team Six & Others Die in Old Slow Chopper, Because US DoD Never Cared About Training, Equipping, & Organizing for High-Altitude Mountain Warfare

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Offbeat Fun, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy

British press report, unusually thorough, but miss the core point: why so many sent into combat in a single very old, very slow transport helicopter.

Special forces helicopter shot down in Afghanistan was on a mission to rescue U.S. Army Rangers

Daily Mail, 7 August 2011

Chopper brought down in rocket attack was on its way to aid other elite troops fighting militants
Names of American victims begin to be released
Twenty-two of the dead soldiers were from elite Seal Team Six
At 30 deaths in total, it's highest number of U.S. casualties in one incident
Seven Afghan soldiers die in the crash
President Obama mourns this ‘extraordinary sacrifice'
Afghan president sends condolences to Obama

Category: IO Deeds of War

Robert Young Pelton: Bin Laden “Kill” & Back Story