General Hamid Gul, former chief of the Pakistani intelligence service–11:50 tour of the horizon from death of Bin Laden to future of Afghanistan to what World War III might look like if US military-industrial complex is allowed to open a Pakistani front.
Phi Beta Iota: Worth listening to every second. BBC (itself a virtual subsidiary of CIA under the US-UK “special relationship”) is rapidly being over-shadowed by Russian TV, Al-Jazeera, and Ha'aretz as sourced of useful open information in English.
(Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say.
Phi Beta Iota: This is not new. This is just recycled crap from the White House, desperate as it is to find new enemies as well as new excuses for why our bloated weapons and mobility systems do not work. Just as DoD has known for over a decade that its drone videos were in the clear and could be picked up at will by anyone on the ground, so also DoD has known since at least 1992 that the DoD grid is hopeless, and the contractors don't really have a clue about how to keep a secret. It is all theater–the decision was made in the 1990's to be IRRESPONSIBLE and they are sticking to that. We are quite sure that the Israelis, French, and Germans are far more intrusive than the Russians and Chinese and that Iran is NOT a major player in probing US military-industrial systems–they rely on the CIA to give them nuclear weaponization plans. We are equally certain that most of what the cyber-spies find they use as an example of what NOT to waste money on. China has used its time and energy wisely–they can now incapacitate any US system with electromagnetic neutralization. Sucks for the USG, but probably a good thing for the US public.
Ten Reasons Why China is Different–PLUS-CHINESE LEADERSHIP UNDERSTANDS THAT IF IT DOES NOT SERVE THE INTERESTS OF MASSES IT WILL GO DOWN.
NEW HAVEN – The China doubters are back in force. They seem to come in waves – every few years, or so. Yet, year in and year out, China has defied the naysayers and stayed the course, perpetuating the most spectacular development miracle of modern times. That seems likely to continue.
Today’s feverish hand-wringing reflects a confluence of worries – especially concerns about inflation, excess investment, soaring wages, and bad bank loans. Prominent academics warn that China could fall victim to the dreaded “middle-income trap,” which has derailed many a developing nation.
There is a kernel of truth to many of the concerns cited above, especially with respect to the current inflation problem. But they stem largely from misplaced generalizations. Here are ten reasons why it doesn’t pay to diagnose the Chinese economy by drawing inferences from the experiences of others:
Strategy. Since 1953, China has framed its macro objectives in the context of five-year plans, with clearly defined targets and policy initiatives designed to hit those targets. The recently enacted 12th Five-Year Plan could well be a strategic turning point – ushering in a shift from the highly successful producer model of the past 30 years to a flourishing consumer society.
Phi Beta Iota: We are surprised that Brazil, India, and Russia are not doing more to put a complete stop to the illegal and immoral attacks on Tripoli. The US and UK governments are completely out of control, completely without any possible legal ethical justification for what they are doing, and shaming all of us–at our expense in incurred debt, we might add. Flag officers, commanders, and pilots should be held accountable for failing to refuse illegal orders–their lack of individual integrity is what enables a lack of government integrity to be so dangerous and costly to humanity.
President Obama could be impeached for violating U.S. Constitution and law by going into Libya without congressional consent, but Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he doesn't want to cause that kind of havoc on the Republic, he just wants the United States to get out of Libya's civil war. While many lawmakers in general support the U.S. role in Libya, even if they want the final say on approving military action, Kucinich, D-Ohio, will introduce a joint resolution when Congress returns this week that he says “hopefully will lead us out of this mess that we've waded into in Libya.”
. . . . . . .
Kucinich said the U.S. has no business intervening in Libya because it's a civil war. He added that the rebel forces the U.S. and NATO appear to be backing are demonstrating some disturbing behaviors, including “committing some of the same practices that they accused Colonel Qaddafi of.” Beyond that, he added, the whole operation stinks of a bid for the oil fields of Benghazi, where the rebels have set up their stronghold.
Military action passes 60-day threshold, but Obama won't seek congressional approval
The White House is skipping a legal deadline to seek congressional authorization of the military action in Libya — but few on the Hill are objecting.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 a president can only send troops into combat for 60 days without congressional mandate. That deadline fell Friday, but in absence of pressure from Congress, White House officials say they think they're on solid ground continuing U.S. involvement in the mission, now led by NATO, without formal congressional sign-off — as long as consultations with Congress continue.
In that spirit President Barack Obama sent a letter to congressional leaders Friday saying U.S. involvement remains critical and welcoming congressional input.
Phi Beta Iota: Unconstitutional, illegal, immoral — business as usual.
Nuclear Pakistan, we are often told, is the Islamic-state equivalent of a Wall Street firm: In geostrategic terms, it is too big to fail. That explains why, even as the Obama administration begins preparing for modest troop withdrawals from Afghanistan this July, it dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Islamabad last week to smooth over bilateral relations with Pakistan's paranoid regime, which were strained even before the killing of Osama bin Laden. But Clinton's trip and the Obama administration's instinctive embrace of Islamabad is a fool's errand, doomed by history, geography and globalization itself.
In fact, the U.S. should drop the entire Afghanistan-Pakistan mess in China's lap now, while the getting is good, and here are the reasons why: …
Phi Beta Iota: World Politics Review has not figured out the new world of information quite yet, and we have no desire to copy their entire article. Suffice to say that Barnett, who has gotten much more coherent since his first book, is on target here, but add to that that the US Government's foreign policy is both ideological and idiotic — apart from the huge error by Zbigniew Brzezinski giving Pakistan the nuclear bomb in the first place, the US has no business in Central Asia that is of benefit to the American people, only to the American carpet-baggers that feed at the public treasury (now much depleted and greatly in debt) while looting foreign countries.
Gunships vs Gaddafi: UK to send Apache attack choppers to Libya
