Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1813 – Public Intelligence Blog

COMMENT: RIFs vice furloughs is consistent with other reporting which quotes Frank Kendall, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics as saying, essentially, that recent furloughs were inconvenient for OSD seniors because they made it virtually impossible to hold meetings on Mondays and Fridays.

Bloomberg.com
August 22, 2013

Pentagon Weighs Firing Thousands Under 2014 Spending Cuts

By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News

The Defense Department may have to fire at least 6,272 civilian employees if automatic cuts known as sequestration slice $52 billion from its fiscal 2014 budget, according to a Pentagon planning document.

Additional budget analysis is “likely to produce further reductions” as the services focus on shrinking their contract labor forces, according to a Pentagon “execution plan” obtained by Bloomberg News. The job cuts, although less than 1 percent of the non-uniformed workforce, would mark an escalation from the unpaid leave mandated under sequestration in the current fiscal year.

The services should expect a $475 billion budget after sequestration cuts for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, almost 10 percent less than the pending $526.6 billion request, according to the document dated Aug. 1. Sequestration would result in 16 percent reductions in the Pentagon’s procurement and research spending and 12 percent cuts in operations, maintenance and military construction.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Pentagon Implodes — Dull Minds Make Dull Cuts”

2013/08/24

Nick Peachy: ActiveTextbook | Interactive Textbook Software from Evident Point

IO Tools

This looks like a great tool for creating interaction and adding multimedia to PDF content. Free for materials up to 500 page.

ActiveTextbook | Interactive Textbook Software from Evident Point

Turn your vision into reality by creating your own version of an existing PDF or textbook. Give it a dynamic touch, jot down notes, add video/audio clips, and discuss materials with your readers within your interactive content. Use Active Textbook to learn, teach or simply share your documents online – it's easy!

Phi Beta Iota: This has huge potential for “just in time” education and for the advancement of Standard Operating Procedures and all forms of organizational handbooks, manuals, regulations, etcetera.

2013/08/242013/08/24

Berto Jongman: Brookings Evaluates the NSA Documents

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Media

The NSA Documents, An Introduction

Benjamin Wittes

Brookings, 22 August 2013

Rather than starting with what I—or anyone else—think and believe about the remarkable cache of documents the intelligence community declassified yesterday, I thought we should begin with a detailed account of what these documents actually are and the story they tell, individually and collectively.

The press stories that follow a document release like this often do not bother to do this. They look, instead, for a key—or the key—fact, around which the news story then develops. In this case, unsurprisingly, the key fact is that the NSA gathered tens of thousands of email communication by Americans before the FISA Court declared its actions unconstitutional. As the Washington Post puts it in its lead:

For several years, the National Security Agency unlawfully gathered tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-revised collection method, according to a 2011 secret court opinion.

Read full article.

2013/08/24

Berto Jongman: CENTCOM Underground War Room in Amman to Manage US War on Syria

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, DoD, IO Deeds of War

New Centcom underground war room in Amman for US intervention in Syria

DEBKAfile Video August 17, 2013, 1:58 PM

Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Amman this week to inaugurate the Centcom’s Forward Command in Jordan manned by 273 US officers. US media correspondents were permitted to visit the new war room for the first time on condition of non-disclosure of its location and secret facilities. debkafile’s military sources report that the installation is bomb- and missile-proof against a possible Syrian attack. The US Air Force command section is in direct communication with the US, Israeli, Jordanian and Saudi Air Force headquarters ready for an order by President Barack Obama to impose a partial no-fly zone over Syrian air space.

Another section is designed to coordinate operations between US and Jordanian special forces, as well as the units trained in commando combat by US instructors in Jordan. A closed section houses CIA personnel who control the work of US agents going in and out of Syria and also a communications center.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: CENTCOM Underground War Room in Amman to Manage US War on Syria”

2013/08/242013/08/24

John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military

Three Illusory “Investigations” of the NSA Spying Are Unable to Succeed

By Mark M. Jaycox

Since the revelations of confirmed National Security Agency spying in June, three different “investigations” have been announced. One by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), another by the Director of National Intelligence, Gen. James Clapper, and the third by the Senate Intelligence Committee, formally called the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).

All three investigations are insufficient, because they are unable to find out the full details needed to stop the government's abuse of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The PCLOB can only request—not require—documents from the NSA and must rely on its goodwill, while the investigation led by Gen. Clapper is led by a man who not only lied to Congress, but also oversees the spying. And the Senate Intelligence Committee—which was originally designed to effectively oversee the intelligence community—has failed time and time again. What's needed is a new, independent, Congressional committee to fully delve into the spying.

The PCLOB: Powerless to Obtain Documents

The PCLOB was created after a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission to ensure civil liberties and privacy were included in the government's surveillance and spying policies and practices.

But it languished. From 2008 until May of this year, the board was without a Chair and unable to hire staff or perform any work. It was only after the June revelations that the President asked the board to begin an investigation into the unconstituional NSA spying. Yet even with the full board constituted, it is unable to fulfill its mission as it has no choice but to base its analysis on a steady diet of carefully crafted statements from the intelligence community.

As we explained, the board must rely on the goodwill of the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, and Gen. Clapper—two men who have repeatedly said the NSA doesn't collect information on Americans.

Continue reading “John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation”

2013/08/242013/08/24

David Swanson: 10 Problems with the Latest Excuse for War [Against Syria]

Peace Intelligence

10 Problems with the Latest Excuse for War

If you own a television or read a newspaper you've probably heard that we need another war because the Syrian government used chemical weapons.

If you own a computer and know where to look you've probably heard that there isn't actually any evidence for that claim.

Below are 10 reasons why this latest excuse for war is no good EVEN IF TRUE.

1. War is not made legal by such an excuse. It can't be found in the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the United Nations Charter, or the U.S. Constitution. It can, however, be found in U.S. war propaganda of the 2002 vintage. (Who says our government doesn't promote recycling?)

2. The United States itself possesses and uses internationally condemned weapons, including white phosphorus, napalm, cluster bombs, and depleted uranium. Whether you praise these actions, avoid thinking about them, or join me in condemning them, they are not a legal or moral justification for any foreign nation to bomb us, or to bomb some other nation where the U.S. military is operating. Killing people to prevent their being killed with the wrong kind of weapons is a policy that must come out of some sort of sickness. Call it Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

3. An expanded war in Syria could become regional or global with uncontrollable consequences. Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Russia, China, the United States, the Gulf states, the NATO states . . . does this sound like the sort of conflict we want? Does it sound like a conflict anyone will survive? Why in the world risk such a thing?

4. Just creating a “no fly zone” would involve bombing urban areas and unavoidably killing large numbers of people. This happened in Libya and we looked away. But it would happen on a much larger scale in Syria, given the locations of the sites to be bombed. Creating a “no fly zone” is not a matter of making an announcement, but of dropping bombs.

5. Both sides in Syria have used horrible weapons and committed horrible atrocities. Surely even those who imagine people should be killed to prevent their being killed with different weapons can see the insanity of arming both sides to protect each other side. Why is it not, then, just as insane to arm one side in a conflict that involves similar abuses by both?

Continue reading “David Swanson: 10 Problems with the Latest Excuse for War [Against Syria]”

2013/08/242013/08/24

Stephen E. Arnold: NSA Cannot Search Its Own Employees’ Emails — Say What?

Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Surveillance Organization Unable to Search Own Employees Email

An article titled NSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails on ProPublica brings up an interesting glitch in the NSA’s surveillance technology. In spite of having the capability to sort through big data with a supercomputer, when it comes to doing a search of NSA’s over 30,000 employees they are at a loss. The article explains,

“There’s no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately,” NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week. The system is “a little antiquated and archaic,” she added… It’s actually common for large corporations to do bulk searches of their employees email as part of internal investigations or legal discovery.”

The article also brings up the point that federal agencies often don’t have the funding they need for public records. However, if any agency should have the capability to keep tabs on its employees, it is the agency charged with surveillance of the nation. Lacking that ability limits NSA operatives to searching emails by individuals one at a time instead of searching for keywords or in bulk. This is very interesting in light of recent events, no further comment.

Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext