Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Koko: CIA and Libyan Intelligence VERY Close, Including Rendition–meanwhile Fran Townsend Excels at Being a Vacuous Bimbo

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War
Koko

Koko Sign:  Who is this blond vacuous bimbo that keeps appearing on television with nothing serious to say?  Yes, we gorillas know that vacuous bimbo is a tautalogical redundancy, it just seemed appropriate.

Documents shed light on CIA, Gadhafi spy ties

From Ben Wedeman, CNN

September 3, 2011 7:15 p.m. EDT

Includes video.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Documents seized at the Libyan intelligence headquarters have revealed a surprisingly close relationship between the CIA and their counterparts in the Gadhafi regime.

. . . . . . .

Fran Townsend, CNN counter-terror analyst who worked as President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser, said that when suspects were transferred to any country, not just Libya, U.S. officials asked the government for assurances that they wouldn't violate human rights of the person in question.

Read full report…

Phi Beta Iota:  CNN lost its integrity when Ted Turner left, and it has not had anyone really serious on the national security account for a while.  Koko is right–Fran Townsend is an idiot who knows nothing.  These are trying times–if CNN is serious about getting back into analytics, they need to change their linen.

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Chuck Spinney: Hill Staffer Expose of the GOP

11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Deeds of Peace, IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Threats
Chuck Spinney

My very close friend Mike Lofgren, and Republican of the Old School, one of the smartest people I have ever met, backs out of the Capital Hill Saloon with both guns blazing.  Knowing the truly dedicated people like Mike in government over the years is one of the things that made my 33 years in government service both a privilege and honor for which I will remain ever thankful.

Chuck Spinney
Ste Maxime, France

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult

by: Mike Lofgren,

Truthout, 3 September 2011

Barbara Stanwyck: “We're both rotten!”
Fred MacMurray: “Yeah – only you're a little more rotten.”
– Double Indemnity (1944)

Those lines of dialogue from a classic film noir sum up the state of the two political parties in contemporary America. Both parties are rotten – how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot. The main reason the Democrats' health care bill will be a budget buster once it fully phases in is the Democrats' rank capitulation to corporate interests – no single-payer system, in order to mollify the insurers; and no negotiation of drug prices, a craven surrender to Big Pharma.

But both parties are not rotten in quite the same way. The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP.

Full safety copy with added emphasis below the line.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Hill Staffer Expose of the GOP”

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Marcus Aurelius: AmEx CEO Blasts Obama and Buffet

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius

MSNBC had Mr. Golub on the Dylan Ratigan show yesterday. The Clintonesque sub for Ratigan was aghast that Golub did not want to buy into higher tax rates and that he advocated making the 50% or so of Americans who pay no taxes pay their share. The follow-on segment had three talking heads, at least two of whom were also aghast that Golub might want to keep more of the money he earned.

My Response To Buffett And Obama

By HARVEY GOLUB

Wall Street Journal, 22 August 2011

Before you ask for more tax money from me, raise the $2.2 trillion you already collect each year more fairly and spend it more wisely.

EXTRACT:

Today, top earners–the 250,000 people who earn $1 million or more–pay 20% of all income taxes, and the 3% who earn more than $200,000 pay almost half. Almost half of all filers pay no income taxes at all. Clearly they earn less and should pay less. But they should pay something and have a stake in our government spending their money too.

. . . . . .

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: AmEx CEO Blasts Obama and Buffet”

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Worth a Look: Pull Together Now!

Worth A Look

Place-to-Place, Face-to-Face, for a Sustainable Future

PTN Mission

Pull Together Now!’s  purpose is to unite and support people committed to a peaceful and sustainable future across our shared, finite planet. We believe that the people of the world will transcend all religious, social, ethnic and political barriers and pull together place-to-place, face-to-face in support of peace, equity, justice and reconciliation with our environment and each other.

PTN Topics

Home Page

Tip of the Hat to Debilyn Molineaux.

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David Isenberg (Military): Government Contractors at War

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
David Isenberg

War and Private Contractors: Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them

David Isenberg

Huffington Post, 9/2/2011

EXTRACT:

The number of Department of Defense (Defense), Department of State (State), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractor employees in Iraq and Afghanistan has varied, but exceeded 260,000 in 2010. The contractor employee count has at times surpassed the number of U.S. military personnel in the two countries.

. . . . . . .

Although contract activity has taken on increasing importance, the resources devoted to managing contracts and contractors have not kept pace. The number of contract specialists — an occupation critical to the execution of contingency contracting — rose by only 3 percent government-wide between 1992 and 2009, despite an enormous increase in contracting activity during that period.

That last point is a diplomatic way of saying that even after 10 years of extensive use of contractors to enable and facilitate military, diplomatic and reconstruction operations, government still doesn't know how, or even worse, doesn't care, to carry out due diligence on the activities it contracts out.

. . . . . . .

Also, speaking of big firms, pause to consider the similarities between large PMCs and the financial services industry. The CWC did and found, “Because the U.S. government relies on only a handful of contractors to provide most of the support for the contingencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, this reliance potentially presents a situation analogous to the U.S. financial industry's “too big to fail” calamity.”

Read full article including list of top contractors.

Phi Beta Iota:  So much for Bob Gates doing anything useful at DoD.  He combined “civility” with maintenance of the status quo, ignoring both the fact that the US Government is incapable of contracting at scale, and the fact that 4% of the force takes 80% of the casualties and gets 1% of the budget.  Shame everlasting.  Defense is long past due for a Secretary of Defense able to combine intelligence with integrity….but that needs a restoration of integrity to the electoral process and the governance process.

noble gold