Six top hits on future information operations, five Phi Beta Iota references on same.
Continue reading “Future of Information Operations (IO) — Potpourri”
US Economy, US Federal Budget–To Cut or Not to Cut?
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, IO Sense-Making, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
ECONOMIC SCENE
Why Budget Cuts Don’t Bring Prosperity
New York Times, February 22, 2011
Remember the German economic boom of 2010?
Germany’s economic growth surged in the middle of last year, causing commentators both there and here to proclaim that American stimulus had failed and German austerity had worked. Germany’s announced budget cuts, the commentators said, had given private companies enough confidence in the government to begin spending their own money again.
Well, it turns out the German boom didn’t last long. With its modest stimulus winding down, Germany’s growth slowed sharply late last year, and its economic output still has not recovered to its prerecession peak. Output in the United States — where the stimulus program has been bigger and longer lasting — has recovered. This country would now need to suffer through a double-dip recession for its gross domestic product to be in the same condition as Germany’s. Read more….
Does The U.S. Really Have A Fiscal Crisis?
By Simon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario, 24 February 2011
The United States faces some serious medium-term fiscal issues, but by any standard measure it does not face an immediate fiscal crisis. Overindebted countries typically have a hard time financing themselves when the world becomes riskier – yet turmoil in the Middle East is pushing down the interest rates on US government debt. We are still seen as a safe haven.
Yet leading commentators and politicians today repeat the line “we’re broke” and argue there is no alternative other than immediate spending cuts at the national and state level.
Which view is correct? And what does this tell us about where our political system is heading? Read more….
Continue reading “US Economy, US Federal Budget–To Cut or Not to Cut?”
Reference: Aidphone Flybox for Autonomous Internet
11 Society, Autonomous Internet, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Methods & Process, Mobile, Real Time, Technologies, Tools
Two Pages Online . . Aaron Huslage . . ContactCon
Army Runs PSYOP on US Senators….
Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Secrets, Military
Another blockbuster by Rolling Stone raises a basic question of just who the military views as the real enemy — the threat posed by the Taliban or the threat to its money flow posed by Congress and the American people.
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators
Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone, 23 February 2011
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as “information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
“My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave,” says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. “I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line.”
The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.
Reference: Cook Report on Internet Protocol V4 E Pluribus Unum* Resurrected: How Human Ingenuity, DIY Technology, and Global R&E Networks Are Remaking the World Part 1 of 2 Parts
Autonomous Internet, Book Lists, Monographs, White Papers
Who’s Who in Collective Intelligence: Gordon Cook
Alpha A-D, Collective Intelligence
Dr. Gordon Cook is a Hacker inspired by Dave Hughes to create a living document, The Cook Report on Internet Protocol, that manifests itself in both a Blog, Cook's Collaborative Edge, and a document, now in Version 4, E Pluribus Unum* Resurrected: How Human Ingenuity, DIY Technology, and Global R&E Networks Are Remaking the World (February 2011).
His background includes two years as Senior Analyst at the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment (1990-1992), three years as Senior Editor at the John von Neumann National Supercomputer Center (1987-1990), and long period at Policy Analyst and Technical Writer for Delta Data and Computer Sciences (1977-1986).
His education includes a BA from Columbia (1965), an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics (1966), a PhD from Duke University (1972), and an MLS from Rutgers (1976).
Tip of the Hat to Contributing Editor and Who's Who in Collective Intelligence: Venessa Miemis for the pointer.
Worth a Look: Books on Government Secrecy
Worth A Look
Susan Maret, Contributing Editor
Emerald Group, January 2011
$164.95 shipping within 2-3 weeks
Government secrecy (GS) is a significant social, political, and policy issue and often presents as a barrier to civic participation, public right-to-know, historical understanding, and institutional accountability. This volume examines GS in a variety of contexts, including comparative examination of government control of information, new definitions, categories, censorship, ethics, and secrecy's relationship with freedom of information and transparency. It investigates GS in terms of its current theoretical descriptions as power over and concealment of information (Bok 1983), a ‘tampering of communications' (Friedrich 1972), the ‘compulsory withholding of knowledge, reinforced by the prospects of sanctions for disclosure' (Shils), or Georg Simmel's (1906) idea of secrecy creating the ‘possibility of a second world'. Following the introduction this book is divided into the following six sections: Government Secrecy: Theoretical Musings; Government Secrecy and the Media; Government Secrecy and Technology; Freedom of Information; Government Secrecy: Current Policy; and Ethics. Articles are sourced from around the world and include some from USA, Mexico, Africa, Israel and Britain.
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