Category: Key Players

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Earth Intelligence Network Twitter Feed Links (that were not listed here)

02 Infectious Disease, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 07 Health, 10 Transnational Crime, Geospatial, Mobile, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries, Waste (materials, food, etc)
@earthintelnet Twitter feed

Below are interesting links/stories from our Twitter feed that were not posted to Phi Beta Iota due to time constraints, etc:

  1. ISP Owner Who Fought FBI Spying Freed From Gag Order
  2. America discards 40% of the food it makes (2% composted) while a billion go hungry
  3. Afghan War Interactive Timeline
  4. Scientists developing cancer breath test
  5. (video) Crime on the Southwest Border: The FBI partners with Mexican law enforcement and many federal, state, and local
  6. Mapping Haitian History: An interactive map of Haiti
  7. Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center Overview
  8. President Obama signs into law ban on cell phones in federal prisons
  9. Latest from Russia: Russian-Fires.ru, the First Ushahidi Experience
  10. Ramadan goes hi-tech with phone apps to remind the devout to pray
  11. Social Networks Can Warn of Disease After Disasters
  12. How Freedom Fone Helped Create Participatory Radio in Africa
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NIGHTWATCH Extracts: China-Fiji, China Carriers, Venezuela-Colombia Re-Set

02 China, 08 Wild Cards

Below the line:

Full Extract on China-Fiji, Fiji as Potential Base of China in South Pacific

Full Extract on China Carrier Force and Implications in Region

Full Extract on Venezuela-Colombia Reconciliation

Phi Beta Iota:  It's a shame no one will fund NIGHTWATCH to do Global Coverage, because it is consistently more intelligent than all the other “open source” offerings.  Fiji is a failure, primarily an Australian failure but also a US failure; China's carriers are a natural progression, they advance while the US Navy retards–absent Whole of Government, a long-haul Air Force, and a 450-ship expeditionary Navy, US influence in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere is destined to whither.  Our esteemed colleague is too hard on Venezuela.  Read Open Veins of Latin America, understand Savage Capitalism and Sorrows of Empire as well as Killing Hope, and push the reset button–the US has screwed over Latin America for going on two centuries and throws a hissy-fit when Castro first, and now Chavez seek their own declaration of independence.  America desperately needs someone with gravitas devising a sustainable strategy aimed at a Non-Zero solution: a prosperous world at peace.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extracts: China-Fiji, China Carriers, Venezuela-Colombia Re-Set”

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“Lord’s Resistance Army” Attacks in Bas Uele, Northeastern Congo

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Military
See report from EnoughProject.org

(From EnoughProject.org)
The Lord’s Resistance Army has depopulated a remote corner of northeastern Congo, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians, and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. In a new report, “‘This is our land now:’ Lord’s Resistance Army attacks in Bas Uele, northeastern Congo,”  Enough Project Field Researcher Ledio Cakaj documents 51 attacks by the LRA in Bas Uele, Congo, resulting in at least 105 deaths and 570 abductions during the last 15 months.

“The LRA rampage in Bas Uele territory is brutal but strategic,” notes Cakaj, “LRA fighters have used this region as a base and transit point to the Central African Republic and beyond. The threat to civilians is increasing, since there is no meaningful military force to challenge the LRA in this area. The Congolese army remains a threat to its own population, and the United Nations is drawing down its peacekeepers in this region.”

After signing into U.S. law the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act on May 24, 2010, the Obama administration is developing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the LRA. The report argues that any viable strategy needs to take into account the importance of Bas Uele to the LRA, in order to better protect civilians and finally to end the LRA’s escalating threat across a vast region of central Africa.

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Journal: Fidel Castro, Other Indicators of Nuclear War

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards
Webster Griffin Tarpley

Fidel Castro Warns of Imminent Nuclear War; Admiral Mullen Threatens Iran; US-Israel Vs. Iran-Hezbollah Confrontation Builds On Multiple Fronts

Navy Ships and Planes

Webster G. Tarpley
TARPLEY.net
August 9, 2010

READ FULL STORY

Phi Beta Iota: We take historian Webster Tarpley very seriously.  He nailed it with his book 9/11 Synthetic Terror–Made in USA, Fourth Edition that was quickly followed by author Jim Bamford's first negative views of the US Government, in A Pretext for War–9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies and also Review: The Secret Sentry–The Untold History of the National Security Agency.  His personal web site is well worth a visit.

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Journal: Taliban Plays GO in AF

08 Wild Cards
Chuck Spinney Recommends

On Aug 9, 2010, Wired carried the below chart of the evolution of Taliban attacks between 2004 and 2009. This chart was constructed from the now notorious Wikileaks data base by Drew Conway, a graduate student at NYU, using the open source statistical analysis program known as “R.”

Below these I provide three historical charts, and after my comments, a chart of the Mongol invasion, the only one with lasting influence–but also a failed invasion and occuption.

Continue reading “Journal: Taliban Plays GO in AF”

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Journal: Over $1 trillion Wasted on Wars, Veterans and Families of Veterans Vocal Against Both Elective Wars

02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 10 Security, Civil Society, Government, Military
source article

$1 trillion wasted on wars

By KEVIN RAFFERTY
Aug 4, 2010
Special to The Japan Times

HONG KONG — The calculator busily counting out how much money the United States has spent on wars since 2001 has raced past $1 trillion — $1,024 billion plus at the start of August. There is little point in trying to give a more refined figure since the clock ticks remorselessly on, mesmerizingly faster than you can write the sum down, about $260,000 blown away in each passing minute.*

Meanwhile, the wars are being lost rather than won, U.S. and allied soldiers are dying and being maimed every day, tens and sometimes hundreds of innocent civilians are killed daily, and billions of dollars are being wasted and millions of lives being destroyed for no good reason apart from the overweening egos of politicians who are not prepared to admit that they are wrong.

Accompanying Veterans Today article (Obama burning with Bush)

The grim bottom line is that American military and foreign policy is bust and the greatest imperial power the world has ever known is failing. U.S. President Barack Obama promised to be different, but he has become trapped as a gear-lever in the same broken machine.

Phi Beta Iota: Apart from the stunning graphics, click on the photo of the two faces stitched together to get to a compelling article on veterans and families of veterans being against both elective wars, both wars of the rich of no benefit to the public.

Continue reading “Journal: Over $1 trillion Wasted on Wars, Veterans and Families of Veterans Vocal Against Both Elective Wars”