08 Wild Cards – Page 165 – Public Intelligence Blog

For all the talk about hashtags and Facebook, al-Jazeera is the primary vector of this democratic infection. Most Tunisians first learned of the early protests in Sidi Bouzid from al-Jazeera. Egyptians watched the overthrow of Ben Ali on al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera broadcast the Egyptian mass demonstrations to the Yemenis. Social media may be important pathways for secondary infection, but this is an al-Jazeera revolution.

‘We are witnessing today an Arab people's revolution'

Today's Arab revolution is no less significant than those that preceded it in recent decades in Eastern Europe and Latin America. This time, Arabs are not being led by their leaders — from colonialism to pan-Arabism or Islamism or any other “ism” — as was the case in the past.

Propelled by the young and the digital revolution, citizens will demand nothing less than the right to choose and change their representatives in the future.

Continue reading “Stronger Signals: REVOLUTION…”

2011/01/282011/01/31

Egyptian Protests Live Video (Al Jazeera) / “Revolution-in-Progress”

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Comment: Kuwait gov paying citizens money and food mentioned during the broadcast as a move to pacify and prevent uprisings by Kuwait citizens.

Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today

Continue reading “Egyptian Protests Live Video (Al Jazeera) / “Revolution-in-Progress””

2011/01/25

Where Does the Money Go?

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Budgets & Funding, Government, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth

http://www.publicagenda.org/wheredoesthemoneygo

The Top Ten Foreign Holders of U.s. Debt in November 2009:

Country Amount

China, Mainland                      $789.6 billion
Japan                                         $757.3 billion
U.K.                                            $277.5 billion

Oil Exporters $187.7 billion
(including Ecuador,
Venezuela, Indonesia,
Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates,
Algeria, Gabon, Libya,
and Nigeria)

Caribbean Banking Centers $179.8 billion
(includes the Bahamas,
Bermuda, Cayman Islands,
Netherlands Antilles,
Panama, and British Virgin Islands)

Brazil                                                                                 $157.1 billion
Hong Kong                                                                        $146.2 billion
Russia                                                                                  $128.1 billion
Luxembourg                                                                     $91.7 billion
Taiwan                                                                                 $78.4 billion

Source: Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board as reported in CRS report The Federal Government Debt: Its Size and Economic Signifcance, Feb. 3, 2010. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL31590_20100203.pdf.

2011/01/212011/01/21

NIGHTWATCH Extract: Tunisian Political Theater

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

NIGHTWATCH EXTRACT Tunisia: Update. The Tunisian army fired into the air to disperse protesters from the headquarters of former President Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR) in Tunis. The CDR has been disbanded but some demonstrators want the building razed. The state of emergency remains in effect.

The interim government met for the first time today. The session concluded with a number of decrees.

The government ordered a general amnesty for all political prisoners, reduction of the curfew everywhere except Tunis, and the reopening of schools and universities next Monday. It also agreed to recognize all previously banned political parties and declared three days of mourning for the 78 people killed during the recent uprising.

In his address, the interim president and former Speaker of the Parliament stressed the temporary character of this government, and determined its tasks to be:

– to make sure that all enterprises get back to normal business;

– to prepare for the forthcoming presidential elections.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The interim president and the prime minister both resigned from the RCD, in which both had been longstanding members. They directed other hold-over cabinet members to resign in today's cabinet session.

The political activities are almost surreal. The holdover political leaders apparently think a “do-over” will be sufficient to correct the authoritarian excesses of the past 23 years. Thus far Tunisians are acquiescing in this bizarre exercise. Meanwhile, the economic grievances that gave rise to street demonstrations remain unaddressed.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: The well-mannered unethical among us will be quick to scorn the above headline, but the comment says it all. Buckminster Fuller was among the first in modern history to point out that the White House was theater, and many others have addressed the huge gap between reality and the images that Wall Street and Washington seek to communicate. Advanced cyber-information operations have been perfected by the financial crime network within which the two political parties are fully complicit co-conspirators. There are 63 other parties in America that have been disenfranchised, and the electoral system is as corrupt as any abroad including that of Tunisia. The current financial and political leadership of the USA really thinks that a “do-over” (the other term is “make-over”) will quiet things down. This isn't just moving deck chairs on the sinking Titanic; this is re-arranging deck chairs floating in the icy waters of the North and pretending the ship of state is still there.

2011/01/202011/01/20

Clear-Hold-Build–VN Deja Vu “Destroy to Save”

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Government, Military, Officers Call

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

The Clear-Hold-Build (C-H-B) strategy was first enunciated enthusiastically during the Bush Administration as the new counterinsurgency strategy to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Actually, this strategy was merely an unimaginative regurgitation of Marshall Lautey's “tache d'huile” (oil spot) strategy used to quell native uprisings during France colonial wars at the end of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 20th Century.

The recent escalation in Afghanistan may be taking the unimaginative C-H-B soundbyte to the extremities of its logical absurdity, if the attached report by Spencer Ackerman is correct: Apparently, our forces applied the C-H-B strategy literally to a small Afghan village in Kandahar's Arghandab River Valley of Taliban by using 25 tons of air delivered explosives to CLEAR it off the map (see photo). Ackerman goes to suggest HOLDING will be accomplished because we will spend one million dollars to (re) BUILD it. As part of our cultural sensitivity strategy to HOLD onto the Afghan's hearts and minds during the BUILD leg of the strategy, our troops are holding “construction shuras” with the villagers to compensate them for their loses.

Think of the C-H-B strategy as the Petraeus equivalent of destroying a village to save it — sound familiar?

Chuck Spinney

Archive of selected Blasters

25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town off Map

by Spencer Ackerman, Wired, 19 January

An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar's Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It's hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America's counterinsurgency strategy – which supposedly prizes the local people's loyalty above all else.

But it's the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.

Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Petraeus biographer, described the destruction of Tarok Kolache in a guest post for Tom Ricks' Foreign Policy blog. Or, at least, she described its aftermath: Nothing remains of Tarok Kolache after Lt. Col. David Flynn, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 1-320th, made a fateful decision in October.

Continue reading “Clear-Hold-Build–VN Deja Vu “Destroy to Save””

2011/01/192011/01/19

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Moves In on North Korea

02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Strategy

North Korea-China: North Korea will develop the islet of Hwanggumpyong on the Yalu River Delta linking Sinuiju with the Chinese city of Dandong as a special economic zone in cooperation with Chinese businessmen, Chosun Ilbo reported 18 January. North Korean Cabinet already approved a law on the development that will be announced in March or April.

Comment: This is another example of Chinese business tutelage for North Korea. All other special economic zones have either failed for lack of investors or been troubled by North Korean government meddling. In the last category are the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast and the Kaesong joint industrial park, north of Panmunjom.

One would surmise that a joint venture with the Chinese would be relieved of the unpredictability of North Korean leadership whims, which have undermined the profitability of the joint ventures with the South Koreans. More importantly, every Chinese economic lifeline tossed into the North Korean economic morass is a burden on China and a restraint on North Korea.

The Chinese are moving slowly, but steadily based on their understanding of the magnitude of North Korean economic mismanagement. Thus far, they appear to be helping North Korean enterprises that have prospects of profitability, such as textiles, and Chinese enterprises that benefit from North Korean geography, such as ports and infrastructure on the Sea of Japan.

North Korea never has been self-reliant and its condition of dependency on the global economy has steadily deepened under Kim Chong-il. The Chinese appear determined to salvage what they can and rebuild the rest of North Korea in a different, more sustainable direction, slowly, by converting some North Korean activities into extensions of China's economy.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: The Chinese are out-thinking and out-maneuvering the USA on all fronts, and in a fascinating twist, may be egging the USA on to the same military-industrial death march that led to the end of the Soviet Union. The above development should be studied in relation to WASHINGTON RULES: US-Korea-China-NK NAFTA. In both instances, leaders are making strategic moves for reasons they consider valid, but that have nothing to do with the well-being of their respective publics.

2011/01/182011/01/18

WASHINGTON RULES: US-Korea-China-NK NAFTA

01 Agriculture, 02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Methods & Process

A project of Americans for Free and Fair Trade

Dear Citizen:

Barack Obama is pushing a NAFTA-Style Korea Free Trade agreement that would undermine America's sovereignty, laws and economy. This deal would:

Allow foreign corporations to drag the U.S. before U.N. and World Bank tribunals to enforce special trade privileges and to demand compensations from the U.S. Treasury.
Undermine states rights with hundreds of state laws and regulations subject to review and alteration.
Kill almost 160,000 jobs in the U.S.

Six things you can do right now:

1.    Add your organization's name to our coalition letter (attached)
2.    Ask your members to sign our petition
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4.    “Like” on Facebook
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Thank you for your commitment to authentic free trade!

Joseph McCormick
Americans for Free and Fair Trade
Project Site: StopUSKoreaNAFTA.org
Phone: 541.531.0530
Email: jmccormick@freeandfairtrade.org

Frequently Asked Questions (Link)

Below the Line: Top Ten Reasons KORUS is Not Free or Fair Trade

Continue reading “WASHINGTON RULES: US-Korea-China-NK NAFTA”