Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 2516 – Public Intelligence Blog

Doing the Right Thing for IC and DoD

Dr. Russell Ackoff (P)

The President wants $400B shaved off security over 12 years. The DNI thinks he is excluded from that number. Possibly, but that's only because the President hasn't yet come up with a similar number for intelligence. $80B for all intelligence is too much, and intelligence agencies need to cut back. Congress in its Appropriations bill implores the DNI to think differently as we head into this new era. But there is no real program to do that. The community was breathlessly awaiting the DNI's strategy. It is a short list of nice sentiments, duly framed and posted on all the floors, without a hint of irony. Yet the DNI is not completely insensitive to the situation. When presenting his strategy, he observed that since 9/11 intelligence has only grown, and that there is no living experience with cutbacks nor any mechanisms for managing it. It simply isn't done. Mr. Leiter, the NCTC chief, was agitated at the meeting, sensing a train wreck. Along with Gates, he cautioned that a salami slicing approach would be the absolute worst way to do it. Like Gates, Leiter promptly resigned a week later, preferring to go out on top, before the deluge.

Continue reading “Dr. Russell Ackoff (P): Reflections on IC and DoD + Design RECAP”

2011/06/182011/06/18

Campaign for Liberty: Steele on IC and DoD

Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Autonomous Internet, Blog Wisdom

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National Intelligence and National Defense

By Robert David Steele Vivas

Published 06/17/11

Right up front, here is the value proposition: a revolution in national security affairs can immediately deliver three things:

1. Permit the rapid (four years) reduction of the secret intelligence community budget from $80 billion to under $20 billion and permit the rapid (four years) reduction of the active and reserve military budget from over $1 trillion a year (which is how much the US Government borrows every year “in our name”) to under $250 billion a year, with a strict focus on defense against real modern threats instead of fabricated or exaggerated threats;

Continue reading “Campaign for Liberty: Steele on IC and DoD”

2011/06/18

Jon Lebkowsky: Collaboration, Cooperation, Democracy

11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Everybody’s head is a strange universe filled with echos of voices they’ve heard over and over again. Against this, we try to manifest our intentions, to persuade with more voice, more conversation. Sometimes we get through, but even when we get through, we’re often filtered, just as we’re filtering. Is it any wonder that it’s so difficult to build and sustain an effective collaboration?

I’m looking at the ways that we strive to aggregate our attentions, find common ground, and work together. Over the years I’ve approached this through the lens of democracy, or what I’ve referred to as the “democratic intention” to create a participatory process that works. The older I get and the more I think about it, the more I realize that this intention, though we so often profess it, is actually rare. Most of us would really like to assert our self interest, our own preferences, but society is a collision of interests and preferences, we have to give in order to take. In a recent discussion of the book The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod, I was struck by the hardwired assumption that self-interest inherently rules, and cooperation is reached most effectively with an understanding of that point, thus the prisoner’s dilemma. In fact, I find that real people are fuzzy on that point, they’re not necessarily or inherently all about self-interest. We’re far more complex than that.

Continue reading “Jon Lebkowsky: Collaboration, Cooperation, Democracy”

2011/06/18

Builders of the Next Net

Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet

this is the second post in a series to highlight the people and projects coming together at this year’s Contact Conference, Oct 20, 2011 in NYCOne of the big areas we’ll be highlighting at Contact is ‘next net’ technologies – hardware and software tools that bring people internet access and the ability to connect, communicate and share information without the risk of censorship or shut-down.

Below are just a few of the people and projects we’re looking forward to bringing together this October:

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2011/06/18

Narrative Battle & Public Diplomacy in 21st Century

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence

The Narrative Battle & Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century

By John Marke

Warfare in the 21^st century is about the battle for the mind – it is about ideas and perceptions. Understanding how people make sense of what’s happening around them, i.e., socially constructed reality is a key element of this dynamic.

Military strategists, at least the ones I favor, i.e. Sun Tzu, Liddell Hart, and John Boyd, would all agree that ideas have consequences and are perhaps more consequential than bullets, especially in today’s environment of limited war. What we think, what we say, and how we act need to be congruent – that is the essence of integrity. Clearly articulating our ideas and demonstrating the integrity between ideas and actions – are vital components of war and peace in the 21^st century….and they must authenticate basic human values of justice and truth. There is a moral dimension to war; and without a firm commitment to justice and truth, no narrative will be sustainable.

I choose to look at Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield as the context for exploring the importance of the narrative in war because it is timely but has also passed into history, as contrasted to Iraq or Afghanistan which are battles still in play as of this writing.

Continue reading “Narrative Battle & Public Diplomacy in 21st Century”

2011/06/18

Jock Gill: Carbon Negative Energy

05 Energy

Carbon Negative Energy

This new/old, yet simple technology, creates carbon negative energy by extracting carbon from the feedstocks for use in agriculture, water treatment, and other applications. Additionally, more than three billion people can benefit from the biochar process using nearly 100% recyclable materials. Applications of pyrolysis include creating home heating systems that produce carbon for sequestering, as well as clean burning stoves that reduced health risks while providing farmers with a beneficial soil amendment. Jock Gill is a leader in creating simple and low cost units for introducing students to pyrolysis and its two principal co-products: Thermal energy & biochar.

There is a 27 minute video interview for STEM educartors in which I answer questions about pyrolysis, iCans and biochar: www.retn.org/programs/pyrolysis-creating -carbon-negative-…

If you add sensors & actuators to an iCan, does it become an iCan robot? Could this be a STEM project? A 4H project?

2011/06/18

Obama Over-Rules Top Lawyers on Libya Attacks

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

2 Top Lawyers Lost to Obama in Libya War Policy Debate

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

June 17, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: Obama is in violation of the Constitution and an active sponsor of crimes against humanity that should subject him to consideration for appearance before an International Tribunal. His “national security advisor” is a Goldman Sachs apparatchik with his eyes fixed on the substantial holdings of real gold that could be looted (as opposed to paper gold where Goldman holds a strong but fraudulent position). Congress remains a craven foot-soldier to the Executive, and is liable for impeachment in detail for failure to fulfill its Article 1 responsibilities. US soliders are starting to come back from Libya in body bags, making it starkly clear that the US already has “boots on the ground” and blood in the sand. NATO pilots and commanders attacking Libya (not part of the “no fly” mandate) are liable for prosecution as war criminals. US flag officers accepting illegal orders are liable for court-martial should the US have an honest president in the future. An invasion of Libya is said to be planned for October, with the oil and the water and the gold as the presumed objectives. The lunacy continues….

Cynthia McKinney Reports from Libya