08 Wild Cards – Page 215 – Public Intelligence Blog

But whatever the weight given to those historical analogies, it seems clear, from the sampling of American opinion we can take from the blogs that have reached this Web site since we posted “Obama’s Options in Afghanistan” as our latest topic, that many Americans have already concluded that the American enterprise in Afghanistan is doomed; and that President Obama, by “doubling down on a bad bet”, as Sandra from Kent, Wash., put it, only ensures that the price in lives lost and billions of dollars expended will be much higher when the moment comes, as these critics believe it will, for American forces to follow the Russians in abandoning an unwinnable war.

EMERGENCY ANTI-ESCALATION RALLY
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 • 11am-4pm • Washington DC
Lafayette Square | White House Metro: Farragut West or Farragut North

Come hear Cynthia McKinney; Sen. Mike Gravel; Kathy Kelly; Chris Hedges, David Swanson; Coy McKinney, Debra Sweet, Mathis Chiroux, Lynne Williams, Hon. Betty Hall, Elaine Brower, Marian Douglas, Michael Knox, Ralph Lopez, Ron Fisher, and a message from Granny D (turning 100).

Continue reading “Journal: Afghanistan, Options, Anti-War Rally, Cynthia McKinney, Michael Moore, Event Report”

2009/11/302009/11/30

Journal: Honduran Democracy Triumphs

08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Night Watch For the Night of 29 November 2009

As Mary O’Grady reported in the Wall Street Journal, the conduct of today’s presidential and Congressional elections is a tribute to the fortitude of the leadership in standing up to the United States and the anti-US front led by Hugo Chavez.

Preliminary official results showed Porfirio Lobo, of the opposition National Party, with 56% support with more than 60% of the tally sheets counted. Ruling party candidate Elvin Santos conceded defeat to Lobo. Election officials said more than 60% of registered voters cast ballots Sunday.

Neither Zelaya nor Marcheletti were candidates. The fact of the elections without Zelaya is the crowning achievement of Honduran democracy.

Continue reading “Journal: Honduran Democracy Triumphs”

2009/11/252009/11/25

Journal: German Hackers Point to 9-11 Text Messages

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Methods & Process

Files of 9-11 Text Messages

Text messages sent in the hours before and during 9-11 are now becoming available for public examination.

It will take time, but a number of individuals are working through them (remember what the Iranians did with CIA's singular shredded messages) and we anticipate findings within a few months. We've also suggest a quick tag cloud cross-references to time and location.

For the text files themselves, click on Wikileaks logo. For the Reddit discussion click on the Frog.

CNN Catches Up with Phi Beta Iota

2009/11/242009/11/24

Journal: Afghanistan

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Civil Society, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

Full Story Online

Pentagon preparing to send 34,000 troops to Afghanistan, official says

CNN November 24, 2009

Pentagon planners expect orders to send about 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a defense official told CNN, a day after the president's final meeting to decide the next moves in Afghanistan. The military has planning under way to send three U.S. Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade, about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element, about 7,000 troops; and between 4,000 and 5,000 support troops — a total of approximately 34,000 troops, according to a defense official with direct knowledge of Pentagon operations. CNN reported last month that this was the preferred option within the Pentagon.

Full Story Online

Cynthia McKinney Letter to the President

Please bring our troops home now.

A peace demonstration is being organized for December 12, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally, also known as the End US Wars Rally, is scheduled for 11am at Lafayette Park at the White House. I wholly endorse this rally and encourage all who can to participate in Washington, DC or to help a local peace organization committed to ending U.S. wars on that date.

2009/11/24

Journal: Common Sense on Palestine & Israel

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Peace Intelligence

Gershon Baskin

Encountering Peace: Getting serious about ‘economic peace'

More than 10 months have passed since President Barack Obama entered the White House and seven months since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took over the reins in Jerusalem and there is still no peace process worth mentioning.

Full Story Online

Phi Beta Iota: Imagine an “Information Wall” available online and projected on walls around the world, showing the stark contrast between the day to day conditions of the Palestinians and of the Israelis.

2009/11/24

Journal: A Nation of Naive Inattentive Infidels

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement

Full Op-Ed Online

Lethal Weapon: Islamist Perfidy or Western Naivety?

by Raymond Ibrahim, Pajamas Media, November 23, 2009

The narrator’s enthusiastic talk of NYPD brass standing in awe of the “cadences of the call” makes it difficult to discern exactly which verse is being recited. Only the last few words — qawm al-kaffirin, “nation of infidels” — are crystal clear, raising red flags. Thanks to my trusty Arabic Koranic concordance, I have placed this phrase as part of Koran 2:286, which supplicates Allah “to make us [Muslims] victorious over the nation of infidels.” Bear in mind that, from an Islamist point of view, the United States is the “nation of infidels” par excellence.

And there it is: From an American president who publicly defines his mission by quoting a jihadi-related verse, to American-Muslim leaders who publicly pray for the subjugation of non-Muslims (in the middle of an NYPD auditorium, no less), it is clear that the ultimate threat comes more from Western carelessness and indifference — in a word, naivety — than it does from active Islamist machinations. In short, Islamists peddling misleading interpretations for the word “jihad” is but the very tip of the iceberg.

Continue reading “Journal: A Nation of Naive Inattentive Infidels”

2009/11/242009/11/24

Journal: French Amphibious Ship in Russia

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military

France shows off cutting-edge navy ship in Russia

By IRINA TITOVA, Associated Press Writer

Mon Nov 23, 2009

The head of the Russian navy has said that a Mistral-class vessel could put as many troops in Georgia in 40 minutes as the Russian Black Sea Fleet took 26 hours to land during the nations' August 2008 war. Moscow declared the Russian-allied breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia an independent nation after the war and sent thousands of troops there. Russia, Georgia and Ukraine all have Black Sea coastlines, as does Abkhazia.

Slideshow:France shows amphibious assault ship

Continue reading “Journal: French Amphibious Ship in Russia”