This is much more serious than one guy with a history of disruptive journalism calling out the man. Two weeks ago in NSA Spies, Brazil Shuns Boeing, Selects Saab we saw a U.S. defense contractor lose a $4.5B fighter fleet upgrade due to the NSA’s clumsy spy games. This comes after a steady flow of negative news about U.S. communications and cloud vendors, and the world has not yet begun to digest the shocking revelation that the NSA can intercept new computers and other devices in transit in order to ‘root’ them.
Where do you find new valuable content for your area of interest? If you are looking for new content, whether in the form of news, articles, video or educational content, I have put together a small directory of tools (170+) and services I have collected over time for my own use, and that can help you greatly in finding the content you need. Organized in over 25 different categories, you can find direct links to what I consider the most useful tools and resources from news and video discovery to RSS tools and alerts.
A handy rule of strategy-making is to first list the assumptions that undergird the strategy’s logic and to identify any risks that might interfere with those assumptions. And this document attempts to do just that. With violence in Afghanistan just as high as it was before the “surge” (if not higher – the Department of Defense decided to stop releasing information on enemy-initiated attacks), the American taxpayer could reasonably expect a candid re-assessment of the assumptions that have guided American strategy in the Hindu Kush in recent years. The analyst could hope for at least a partial departure from the narrative, now resembling Swiss cheese, that we are leaving Afghanistan a more stable and secure place. Both the taxpayer and the analyst in me are disappointed.
Some of the ten assumptions listed are highly problematic – dangerous even – which undermines the entire strategy.
. . . . . . .
The assumptions are followed by a “risks” section, which numbers fewer than 200 words in an 8000 word strategy document.
We haven't seen a National Security Strategy or National Military Strategy in years.
The sexual assault issue is virtually all-consuming. My own two-star, one of the Army's better flag-level intellects, will soon (or may already have) take charge of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting program at OSD level. In fairness, word is that he was selected for something much better but personal considerations drove him to seek to remain in Washington area.
IMHO, the women in direct fire ground combat issue is largely much ado about very little. Right or wrong, for good or ill, females have ALREADY successfully engaged in direct ground combat. To my knowledge, in modern American history, it dates back to World War II when the Office of Strategic Services employed a number of females, often as radio operators and couriers, in unconventional warfare and espionage operations in then European Theater and perhaps elsewhere. More recently, during Operation JUST CAUSE (Panama, 1989), LT Linda Bray led an MP platoon in a direct fire ground attack against a Panama Defense Force position vicinity Curundu dog kennels. Most recently, Female Engagement Teams (GPF) and Cultural Support Teams (SOF) have accompanied conventional and special operations ground elements in direct fire combat operations. By all reports they have performed well, probably because they were carefully selected and well trained. The general argument about PT requirements requires, IMHO, more study. I'm not totally convinced that all of the PT requirements are truly essentially. I think much of the PT stuff is simply a cheap way to crudely measure “resolve.” For the single most essential special operations physical quality that comes immediately to mind, tolerance of cold in combat diving, I'm not aware of any way to teach that; it's an inherent can or can't kind of thing.
The sexual revolution has some traditionalists wondering whether the Pentagon is taking its eye off the ball — the enemy.
“Every conceivable form of PC is being enforced upon our hard-pressed military with a zeal that only a Russian army zampolit — a political officer — would truly appreciate,” said Ken Allard, a retired Army colonel and commentator. “We are seemingly concerned about everything except the most basic thing: how to fight and win the nation's wars. If we have forgotten that constraint, let me assure you that our enemies have not, from the Taliban to the drug cartels to the Iranian Quds Force.”
Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency’s reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the globe, as it collects information about their phone calls, their email messages, their friends and contacts, how they spend their days and where they spend their nights. The public learned in great detail how the agency has exceeded its mandate and abused its authority, prompting outrage at kitchen tables and at the desks of Congress, which may finally begin to limit these practices.
The revelations have already prompted two federal judges to accuse the N.S.A. of violating the Constitution (although a third, unfortunately, found the dragnet surveillance to be legal). A panel appointed by President Obama issued a powerful indictment of the agency’s invasions of privacy and called for a major overhaul of its operations.
All of this is entirely because of information provided to journalists by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who stole a trove of highly classified documents after he became disillusioned with the agency’s voraciousness. Mr. Snowden is now living in Russia, on the run from American charges of espionage and theft, and he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.
This is a popular recap taken from a paper in Nature, the source citation can be found below. I have been publishing these reports in SR since 1991 — that's 23 years. None of this research every contradicts the original findings that climate change is occurring in large measure because of human activity. The papers just refine the understanding of the impact, and report a collapse of the timeline. That said, I doubt anything will be done in time to offset what is coming. Greed is simply too powerful.
Here is some good news about the madness of drug testing the poor essentially because they are poor and have no political power. As you read this think of the piece in yesterday's SR about Minnesota. Maybe we are finally going to see the end of these malicious policies created by the Theocratic Right.
I consider David Cay Johnston one of the few economists sophisticated in banking who actually tells the truth. It is rarely a happy truth, and this story is no exception. History is going to judge the Obama Administration very harshly concerning its protection of the Wall Street crooks.
If you cross the borders in or out of the American national security state you should know that your electronic devices from phones, to tablets, to laptops are subject to searches and seizure. As with most things involving government security agencies it is largely a matter of racial or religious profiling done by low level agents.
