Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1788 – Public Intelligence Blog

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Israel Still Angling for Attacks on Syria and Iran

Jonathan Cook

Counterpunch:, 2013-09-18

Nazareth.

President Barack Obama may have drawn his seemingly regretted “red line” around Syria’s chemical weapons, but it was neither he nor the international community that turned the spotlight on their use. That task fell to Israel.

It was an Israeli general who claimed in April that Damascus had used chemical weapons, forcing Obama into an embarrassing demurral on his stated commitment to intervene should that happen.

According to the Israeli media, it was also Israel that provided the intelligence that blamed the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, for the latest chemical weapons attack, near Damascus on August 21, triggering the clamour for a US military response.

It is worth remembering that Obama’s supposed “dithering” on the question of military action has only been accentuated by Israel’s “daring” strikes on Syria – at least three since the start of the year.

It looks as though Israel, while remaining largely mute about its interests in the civil war raging there, has been doing a great deal to pressure the White House into direct involvement in Syria.

That momentum appears to have been halted, for the time being at least, by the deal agreed at the weekend by the US and Russia to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.

To understand the respective views of the White House and Israel on attacking Syria, one needs to revisit the US-led invasion of Iraq a decade ago.

Israel and its ideological twin in Washington, the neoconservatives, rallied to the cause of toppling Saddam Hussein, believing that it should be the prelude to an equally devastating blow against Iran.

Israel was keen to see its two chief regional enemies weakened simultaneously. Saddam’s Iraq had been the chief sponsor of Palestinian resistance against Israel. Iran, meanwhile, had begun developing a civilian nuclear programme that Israel feared could pave the way to an Iranian bomb, ending Israel’s regional monopoly on nuclear weapons.

The neocons carried out the first phase of the plan, destroying Iraq, but then ran up against domestic opposition that blocked implementation of the second stage: the break-up of Iran.

The consequences are well known. As Iraq imploded into sectarian violence, Iran’s fortunes rose. Tehran strengthened its role as regional sponsor of resistance against Israel – or what became Washington’s new “axis of evil” – that included Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel and the US both regard Syria as the geographical “keystone” of that axis, as Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, told the Jerusalem Post this week, and one that needs to be removed if Iran is to be isolated, weakened or attacked.

But Israel and the US drew different lessons from Iraq. Washington is now wary of its ground forces becoming bogged down again, as well as fearful of reviving a cold war confrontation with Moscow. It prefers instead to rely on proxies to contain and exhaust the Syrian regime.

Israel, on the other hand, understands the danger of manoeuvring its patron into a showdown with Damascus without ensuring this time that Iran is tied into the plan. Toppling Assad alone would simply add emboldened jihadists to the troubles on its doorstep.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Israel Still Angling for Attacks on Syria and Iran”

2013/09/18

Stephen E. Arnold: Economic Analysis? Makes Me Cry…

Commerce, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

A Lament for the State of Analysis Tech in Economics

It seems like state-of-the-art analysis tools would be a priority in the data-rich field of finance. That’s why it is startling to learn that the technology being used by economic analysts and consultants seems to be stuck in the era of Windows 95. About Data shares a data-loving former economist’s lament in, “Bridging Economics and Data Science.”

Blogger Sam Bhagwat majored in economics because he was intrigued by innovative uses of data in that field; for example, a professor of his had gleaned conclusions about European patent law from a set of 19th century industrial-fair records. As he progressed, though, Bhagwat came to the disappointing realization that his field still relies on technology for which “outdated” is putting it mildly. He writes:

“When I graduated, the questions had changed, but the fundamental tools of analysis remained constant. Half of my classmates, including me, were headed to consulting or investment banking. These are ‘spreadsheet monkey’ positions analyzing client financial and operational data.

“In terms of relationship-building, this is great. Joining high strategy or high finance, you walk through the halls of power and learn to feel comfortable there. But in terms of technical skill-set, not so great. You begin to specialize in spreadsheets, a tool which hasn’t significantly improved since 1995.

“For someone like me, who wants to solve the most interesting problems out there, dealing with gigabytes and terabytes of data, realizing this was bitter medicine. Computational data analysis has changed a lot in the last twenty years, but my career track — economics, consulting, finance — hadn’t.”

So that is how one inquiring mind decided to make the leap from economics to data science. Bhagwat says he taught himself programming so he could pursue work he actually found challenging. I wonder, though—will he use his dual expertise to help bridge the gap between the two disciplines, or has he moved on, never to look back?

Cynthia Murrell, September 18, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

2013/09/18

Ramez Naam: The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet (Video and Book)

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Ramez Naam is the author of More than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, which offers a tour of emerging technologies and makes a case for embracing human enhancement, showing readers how these technologies are powerful new tools in humanity’s quest to improve ourselves, our offspring and our world. His latest book, The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet is now published.

Naam is a professional technologist who helped create two of the most widely used pieces of software in the world: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook. He is currently the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, which develops software for nanotechnology researchers. He also serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, and is a member of the World Future Society. He is the recipient of the 2005 H. G. Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism.

VIDEO

BOOK

2013/09/18

Berto Jongman: Internet Balkanization, Cyber-Crime, Cyber-Espionage

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency

Whither The Internet In An Age Of Cyber-Espionage?

As everyone should know by now, not quite two weeks ago the latest nugget from Edward Snowden via Glenn Greenwald and co-authors was revealed, and was that the NSA and its UK counterpart the GSHQ “have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails.” The measures used to accomplish this include covertly controlling the setting of encryption standards, more powerful brute force code-cracking, and inserting backdoors into commercial encryption software.

This is very bad, and has led more than one observer to declare that the internet as we know it is dead as a secure medium of communication. That of course leads to the question of what is to be done about it.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Internet Balkanization, Cyber-Crime, Cyber-Espionage”

2013/09/182013/09/18

Berto Jongman: Uzbeckistan Faces Civil War, Possible Disintegration

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Uzbekistan Faces Civil War, Possible Disintegration, Tashkent Scholar Says

Over the past six weeks, the independent FerganaNews.com portal has conducted an online discussion, sparked by an article of the leader of the “Birdamlik” opposition movement, Bahordir Chorniyev, on the possibility that Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov and his regime could be overthrown by a “velvet revolution” (fergananews.com/articles/7849; fergananews.com/articles/7852;fergananews.com/articles/7854; fergananews.com/articles/7856).

Most of those taking part were skeptical about that possibility, but none of them has as bleak a vision of Uzbekistan’s future as Maryam Ibragimova, a Tashkent-based political scientist, whose article concludes the current series (http://www.fergananews.com/articles/7860). In an 800-word letter to the editor, she argues that her “beautiful and unhappy land” likely faces “either a military dictatorship or a civil war.”

As “a professional political scientist,” Ibragimova writes, she says she has no choice but to add her voice and that in her view there is no possibility of any “velvet” revolution in Uzbekistan. Instead, she continues, what lies ahead is “a bloody dismantling” of the existing dictatorship “or a prolonged civil war accompanied by the disintegration of the country.”

The Tashkent scholar gave five reasons for her explanation.

2013/09/182013/09/18

Berto Jongman Et Al: Navy Yard, Drugs, Story Unravels

07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War

Berto Jongman: Was Navy Yard Killer on Anti-Depressant Meds?

Jon Rappoport: Navy Yard shooting: Aaron Alexis narrative crumbling

Phi Beta Iota: The CIA has a long history of using drugs to make people do terrible things. We now know that anti-depressants are unstable medications, and life insurance companies have begun to deny life insurance to people known to be taking anti-depressants. A broad literature has emerged that shows the pharmaceutical industry — and ignorant doctors that do not do their homework — to be terribly irresponsible, ignorant, and ultimately liable for malpractice.

2013/09/182013/09/18

SwartzReport: 46.5 Millions US Citizens Living in Poverty

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society

15% of Americans Living in Poverty

STEVE HARGREAVES – CNN Money This is not sustainable, it is creating a permanent underclass. Social unrest and the corruption of democracy must follow inevitably.

Years after the Great Recession ended, 46.5 million Americans are still living in poverty, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday.Meanwhile, median household income fell slightly to $51,017 a year in 2012, down from $51,100 in 2011 — a change the Census Bureau does not consider statistically significant.

But taking a wider view reveals a larger problem: income has tumbled since the recession hit, and is still 8.3% below where it was in 2007.

“We've had [economic] growth, but it hasn't really reached everyday Americans,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “It's a lost decade, maybe more.”

This long-term decline in income is troubling to economists, especially as the middle and lower classes have fared considerably worse than the rich. Since 1967, Americans right in the middle of the income curve have seen their earnings rise 19%, while those in the top 5% have seen a 67% gain. Rising inequality is seldom a sign of good social stability.

Americans were the richest in 1999, when median household income was $56,080, adjusted for inflation.

Who is earning the most: Young people continued to struggle last year, with those under the age of 35 seeing slight drops in income while those 35 and made some gains.

Women made 77% of what men made, unchanged from the year before but up from 61% in 1960. Over one million men found full time work last year, as the economy recovered. Some have dubbed the most recent recession the “mancession,” as large numbers of men have left the workforce.

Asians had the highest household income ($68,600), followed by whites ($57,000), Hispanics ($39,000) and blacks ($33,300).

How the poorest are faring: The recession also pushed many more people into poverty. In 2010, the poverty rate peaked at 15.1%, and has barely fallen since then. This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or above 15% three years running since 1965.

Those making $23,492 a year for a family of four, or $11,720 for an individual were considered to be living in poverty.

While the ranks of the poor are still elevated from the recession, overall poverty is remains far below the 22.4% it was at in 1959 when the Census first began tracking the data. Over the last 25 years, the poverty rate has averaged just over 13%.

Why is the U.S.A. so unequal?

The official poverty rate reported Tuesday does not include things like government benefits and the effects of medical and work expenses on the cost of living. It is also not adjusted for regional differences in housing costs.

The Census Bureau puts out another poverty index later this year that takes those things into account and is considered a more accurate measure. Last year, that separate measure put the poverty rate at 16.1%.