Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1973 – Public Intelligence Blog

Huh?

American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus

The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (formerly the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya) is a Freedom House initiative that bills itself as the ”only private, nongovernmental organization in North America exclusively dedicated to promoting the peaceful resolution of the Russo-Chechen war.”[1] According to Freedom House, ACPC “coordinates with an international network of activists, journalists, scholars and nongovernmental organizations to advocate for and support human rights and rule of law, to monitor the upward trend of violence in the region, and to promote peace and stability in the North Caucasus.”[2] As of early 2013, the committee appeared to be largely defunct.

Founded in 1999 by U.S. liberal hawks and neoconservatives primarily interested in using the conflict in Chechnya to press an anti-Russian agenda, the ACPC eventually updated its name and broadened its focus after conflicts erupted between Russia and other parts of the Caucasus, including Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, and North Ossetia.[3]

In early 2013, the committee attracted attention when the suspects in the April 2013 Boston marathon bombing were identified as ethnic Chechens. Although early reports did not indicate that the suspects were driven by Chechen nationalist motivations, some writers questioned whether the FBI had improperly ignored warnings from Russian authorities that one of the alleged bombers had met repeatedly with a suspected terrorist leader in Dagestan.

A writer for Antiwar.com suggested that groups like ACPC had promulgated an anti-Russian bias in Washington that precluded serious consideration of Russian warnings about potential Chechen terrorists. “How did [the bombers] manage to evade the multi-billion dollar ‘security apparatus, which was set up with so much fanfare after 9/11? The answer is to be found in the manipulations and odorous alliances dictated by our interventionist foreign policy, a throwback to the cold war era, which has deemed Russia an enemy and the Chechens the Good Guys.”[4]

Continue reading “Mini-Me: American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus”

2013/04/262013/04/26

Penguin: Chinese Pick-Up Trucks with Gun-Mounts “Off the Shelf” — Affordable, Low Maintenance, Fast, Stable….

Peace Intelligence

Law of unintended consequences — destabilize Libya, promote Chinese pick-up trucks with gun mounts.

Now You Can Buy A Machine Gun-Ready Pickup Truck

Ever fancied owning your own “technical” – the sort of pickup truck fitted with a heavy machine gun that rebels careering around the streets from Somalia to Libya have made notorious?

Come to the Shanghai Auto Show and a Chinese automaker will sell you one.

When the show opened a week ago, Zhongxing Auto proudly displayed on its stand a version of its Grand Tiger pickup with an unusual accessory – a four-legged steel frame fixed to the cargo bed, ready for the weapon of your choice.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Penguin: Chinese Pick-Up Trucks with Gun-Mounts “Off the Shelf” — Affordable, Low Maintenance, Fast, Stable….”

2013/04/262013/04/26

David Isenberg: Foreign Affairs on the Rise (and Good) of Big Data

Data, IO Impotency

The Rise of Big Data

How It's Changing the Way We Think About the World

Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger

May/June 2013

Article Summary and Author Biography

EXTRACT

Big data is a resource and a tool. It is meant to inform, rather than explain; it points toward understanding, but it can still lead to misunderstanding, depending on how well it is wielded. And however dazzling the power of big data appears, its seductive glimmer must never blind us to its inherent imperfections. Rather, we must adopt this technology with an appreciation not just of its power but also of its limitations.

Read full article.

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2013/04/26

Chuck Spinney: America’s War Games — to the Death

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Media, Military

Almost 23 years ago, I wrote a short pamphlet, Defense Power Games. My aim then (as it is now) was to explain why the end of the Cold War would not produce a peace dividend in the form of reduced defense budgets that were substantially lower that those averaged during America's Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Take a quick scan of Defense Power Games … now watch this 25 minute video — America's War Games — (also on youtube here) just released by Aljazeera for its People and Power segment. The video explains why the end of the War on Terror will not, like the end of the Cold War did not, result in a peace dividend

Santayana wrote that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. After watching “America's War Games,” ask yourself two simple questions:

“What has changed since the Defense Power Games pamphlet was published in 1990?”
“Will the end of the War on Terror produce a dividend?”

I submit the answers are self-evident: (1) “Nothing” and (2) “No”

But one thing that has changed: Our economy is in far greater trouble today than it was in 1990, although the seeds for the current disaster were being merrily planted during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, as well as in the 1990s, not to mention the first decade of the 21st Century. And this time around, it ought to be clear that continuing to assign grossly excessive amounts of scarce resources (capital and skilled labour) to defense spending will make America's current economic problems worse.

So, how can we reduce the defense budget to free up the funds needed by both the private and public sectors to reinvigorate our economy?

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2013/04/262013/04/26

Jean Lievins: Community-based labs nurture young talent

04 Education

Community-based labs nurture young talent

Fab Labs, which began at MIT, could bloom under bill in Congress

EXTRACT

The mobile facility, as well as a Fab Lab at the South End Technology Center, are part of a patchwork of some 40 labs around the United States and 80 worldwide. Their fortunes range from well-endowed to hand-to-mouth; the South End one, for example, was short of money and closed to the public for the better part of 2011.

But their financial standing — not to mention availability — could take a huge turn if a US representative from Illinois persuades Congress to create a nationally chartered network for the US labs, to improve their fund-raising abilities, particularly for government money. The measure, which Democrat Bill Foster introduced in March, also calls for placing a Fab Lab in every congressional district.

His goal is, in essence, is to bring the tools of innovation to Main Street.

“It’s very empowering for a young person to actually build something,” Foster said. “Kids no longer take apart automobile engines. You can’t realistically take apart an iPod, like you could a radio. This is giving kids the opportunity for innovation.”

Read full article.

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2013/04/26

Sepp Hasslberger: Rethinking Light

Commercial Intelligence, Innovation

No one seems to be talking about those “energy saving” CFL lights any more … the future will be LED lighting.

New Technology Inspires a Rethinking of Light

EXTRACT

“This is the move from the last industrial-age analog technology to a digital technology,” said Fred Maxik, the chief technology officer with the Lighting Science Group Corporation, one of many newer players in the field.

The efforts start with energy efficiency and cost savings but go far beyond replacing inefficient incandescent bulbs. Light’s potential to heal, soothe, invigorate or safeguard people is being exploited to introduce products like the blanket, versions of which are offered by General Electric and in development at Philips, the Dutch electronics giant.

Innovations on the horizon range from smart lampposts that can sense gas hazards to lights harnessed for office productivity or even to cure jet lag. Digital lighting based on light-emitting diodes — LEDs — offers the opportunity to flit beams delicately across stages like the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — creating a light sculpture more elegant than the garish marketers’ light shows on display in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus and the Shibuya district in Tokyo.

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2013/04/262013/04/26

SchwartzReport: EU Set to Pan Pesticides Harmful to Bees

01 Agriculture, 11 Society, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Finally, we may have some good news about the bees. It's not a done deal yet, but it looks possible. It appears that whereas the American Congress, captured as it is by corporate forces, cares nothing for facts concerning the crisis of the bees, the EU has begun to recognize officially what is happening with these small creatures upon whom our wellbeing depends. And they are seem to be willing to do something about it — ban the insecticides that a growing body ! of research say are at least a major cause of the problem.

EU Set To Ban Pesticides Blamed for Decline of Bees: Source
EU Business