U.S. intel chief in Afghanistan leaves post

By Anne Gearan and Kimberly Dozier – The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 12:11:01 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Army spokesman says the top U.S. and NATO intelligence officer in Afghanistan is on his way to another job.

Spokesman Col. Thomas Collins did not say what job Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn would take, as the move had not yet been approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But two defense officials say Flynn will become a top troubleshooter for the Director of National Intelligence. The officials spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Flynn is expected to be replaced by Brig. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, the current intelligence officer at the U.S. Central Command in Florida.

Continue reading “Journal: General Mike Flynn from AF to DC”

2010/09/092010/09/09

Journal: Cognitive Dissonance in Afghanistan Part II

Cultural Intelligence, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Col. Lawrence Sellin — Col Lawrence Sellin: Traitor or Truth-Teller?

Fired colonel calls PowerPoint a crutch

Army Times, By Andrew Tilghman – Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 8:29:12 EDT

Army Reserve Col. Lawrence Sellin has no regrets about publishing a rant about the military’s overreliance on PowerPoint presentations — despite the fact it got him fired from his job at joint command headquarters in Afghanistan.

. . . . . . .

Sellin said his controversial article was the last of several efforts to find something meaningful to do at ISAF headquarters.

. . . . . .

Sellin’s screed highlights a long-simmering controversy inside the military bureaucracy.

Marine Gen. James Mattis, currently chief of U.S. Central Command, told a military conference earlier this year that “PowerPoint makes us stupid.”

And Army Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster banned PowerPoint presentations as a brigade commander during his successful efforts to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005.

Sellin said his complaint is not solely about PowerPoint, the presentation software created in 1987.

“I don’t hate PowerPoint. It’s a useful tool,” he said. “But it can be a crutch as a substitute for thinking. It’s too easy to produce a lot of slides and create volume, not quality. You really think that with a lot of detailed slides that you’re making progress, when you are actually not.”

Continue reading “Journal: Cognitive Dissonance in Afghanistan Part II”

2010/09/082010/09/09

Journal: Court Excuses CIA & KR Rendition & Torture

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, Corruption, Government, Intelligence (government), Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Full Story Online

CIA rendition: US court throws out torture case, citing state secrets

Appeals court judges sound apologetic tone in ruling; plaintiffs say they were tortured overseas in ‘extraordinary rendition' program.

Under the state secrets doctrine, courts have generally granted deference to executive branch claims that certain litigation may involve highly sensitive US government information which, if disclosed, would cause significant damage to national security.

. . . . . .

In a dissent joined by four other judges, Judge Michael Hawkins said the court was wrong to dismiss the entire lawsuit at such an early stage. He said the case should be remanded to a federal judge to determine to what extent actual evidence in the case might raise a threat of disclosing state secrets.

Hawkins acknowledged that the state secrets doctrine is an established precedent. But he said the privilege need not be so broadly enforced.

“The doctrine is so dangerous as a means of hiding governmental misbehavior under the guise of national security, and so violative of common rights of due process, that courts should confine its application to the narrowest circumstances that still protect the government’s essential secrets,” he wrote.

The majority concluded its opinion with a quasi apology to the plaintiffs. “Our holding today is not intended to foreclose – or to prejudge – possible nonjudicial relief, should it be warranted for any of the plaintiffs,” Judge Fisher said.

Continue reading “Journal: Court Excuses CIA & KR Rendition & Torture”

2010/09/08

Journal: UN on Food Security, It’s All Connected

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Full Article Online

Renewed instability in global food markets requires urgent response, UN expert said

An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on governments and the international community to promptly tackle the renewed instability of global food markets, noting the related social unrest that has hit some countries in recent weeks.

Tip of the Hat to Charles Rault at LinkedIn.

Continue reading “Journal: UN on Food Security, It's All Connected”

2010/09/072010/09/07

Journal: CIA Veteran Rings Bell on Iraq–Way Too Late…

10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Intelligence (government), Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Iraq: Time to Ring the Bell

by Howard P. Hart

27 August 2010

Many years ago I attended a series of Headquarters briefings for out-going CIA Chiefs of Station. Our main speaker was Richard Helms, then the Agency’s Director and one of the lions of American foreign policy in the 1960’s and 70’s. A man who was subsequently crucified in the Nixon catastrophe. Dick was essentially giving us our instructions, and in my mind his most telling directive was the quiet statement: “Ring the Bell.” Telling us to sing out when we apprehended a major disaster in the offing.

It’s time to ring the bell on Iraq.

Briefly put, in a matter of months Iran will emerge the unchallenged military and economic power dominating the area from Lebanon to Pakistan. It will control Iraq, and be in a position to shut off all oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. It will be free to provide extensive assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus ensuring a NATO defeat in that country. It will be in a position to provide crucial support to radical Islamic elements in Pakistan – which may well result in the collapse of that already shaky nuclear-armed government. It will be free to radically increase its support to a variety of terrorist organizations targeting the US. And, in conjunction with well-armed radical Palestinian forces that already exist on Israel's borders, it will pose the greatest threat ever faced by Israel. A threat that I do not believe Israel could survive without direct US military intervention.

READ THE BALANCE OF THE PIECE BY THIS CIA VETERAN

Continue reading “Journal: CIA Veteran Rings Bell on Iraq–Way Too Late…”

2010/09/06

Worth a Look: Learn to Lead–with Intelligence

04 Education, Ethics, Government, Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call

Learn to Lead

Dedicated to educating a network of intelligence professionals who Think and Live Leadership.

“Leadership and learning are indispensible to each other. ”

John F. Kennedy to the Dallas Citizen's Council, 22 Nov. 1963

This website is a labor of professional love for retired Senior Executive Service (SES) Bill Manthorpe, also Captain, USN (Ret). Once serving as Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence he followed this with over a decade of teaching at Johns Hopkins University and as an Adjunct Professor at the Joint Military Intelligence College.

This site is being added to the roster of Righteous Sites.

2010/09/02

Journal: Mathematicians Get it Wrong…Again

04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, Academia, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call

Monday, August 30, 2010

Mathematicians Create Objective Quality of Life Index

The US comes second in a new quality of life index designed to be mathematically objective

Phi Beta Iota: The explanation of this is wrong. There is nothing “objective” about it, and nothing “subjective” about the other indexes. What is useful here is “elastic mapping”. A linear model makes things seem clear, but it introduces distortions. A non-linear modeling technique, while confusing in one sense because you don't know exactly how it works, it still sensible if you use an image, as they do here, of relaxing springs among all the nodes. And the result is less distortion, less to criticize, and more opportunity to consider the meaning, as they do here. GDP gets you something, but health gets you something else, and it would be nice to have a mathematical rule that doesn't make it completely arbitrary how you balance the two, or the many contrastive factors that you choose.

U.S. intel chief in Afghanistan leaves post

Full Story Online CIA rendition: US court throws out torture case, citing state secrets

Appeals court judges sound apologetic tone in ruling; plaintiffs say they were tortured overseas in ‘extraordinary rendition' program.

Full Article Online Renewed instability in global food markets requires urgent response, UN expert said

Mathematicians Create Objective Quality of Life Index

Full Story Online

CIA rendition: US court throws out torture case, citing state secrets

Full Article Online

Renewed instability in global food markets requires urgent response, UN expert said