03 Economy – Page 167 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/042011/08/04

Chuck Spinney: Demonizing Iran, Bankrupting America

01 Brazil, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military

Making an Enemy of Iran

By Patrick Seale

Agence Global, 2 August 2011

It is now widely accepted – and lamented — that US President Barack Obama failed dismally in attempting to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Defeated by Israel’s hard-line Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and by Israel’s friends in the U.S. — lobbyists, Congressmen and women, neo-conservatives, Christian Zionists, and assorted Arab-haters both inside and outside the Administration — the President threw in the towel.

What is less well understood is that Obama was also defeated in another major area of foreign policy – relations with Iran. When he came to office he vowed to ‘engage’ with the Islamic Republic, but this admirable objective was soon supplanted by a policy of threats, sanctions and intimidation aimed at isolating Iran, subverting its economy and overthrowing its regime.

Israel and its friends led the campaign against Iran, demonizing it as a threat to all mankind, and forcing the United States to follow suit. Israel has repeatedly, and very publicly, threatened to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, and has done its best to drag the U.S. into war against it, in much the same way as pro-Israeli neo-conservatives – such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith at the Pentagon — manipulated intelligence to push America into war against Iraq in 2003, with catastrophic consequences for the United States.

Read full analysis….

Phi Beta Iota: Brazil and Turkey are depicted as adults, the US as a retarded child misguided by Israel. There is no discernible difference between the Bush-Cheney Administrations and the Obama-Biden Administration with respect to foreign policy and national security, with one signal exception: the National Security Advisor is a Goldman Sachs lobbyist.

Wesley Clark interview (March 2007): “We plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years”

Chuck Spinney: Israel To Bomb Iran Soon + RECAP

Review: Endgame–The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror

Review: Target Iran–The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change

2011/08/04

John Robb: Operation Shady Rat vs Sleeping Dog

03 Economy, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom

Operation Shady Rat. Sustained, silent, IP theft from 70 organizations across 14 countries. More. What we have witnessed over the past five to six years has been nothing short of a historically unprecedented transfer of wealth — closely guarded national secrets (including from classified government networks), source code, bug databases, email archives, negotiation plans and exploration details for new oil and gas field auctions, document stores, legal contracts, SCADA configurations, design schematics and much more has “fallen off the truck” of numerous, mostly Western companies and disappeared in the ever-growing electronic archives of dogged adversaries.

Phi Beta Iota: This is not new! What is new is the desperation of the Pentagon and its contractors to find a new threat justifying gross waste in the face of new taxpayer outrage over borrowing a trillion a year to pay for things we do not need and cannot afford. What most do not understand is that those nations that do industrial espionage on this scale also have the brains to devote humans to the cherry-picking task, which is non-trivial and labor intensive. CIA and NSA have never been about a sufficiency of humans–at CIA, in the early days of cyber-espionage, one reports officer walked off the job when handed a print-out of everything stolen in one pass by one device. Cyber-war is a scam, plain and simple. We should be focusing on responsible communications and computing architectures, and on open sources of information in 183 languages we don't understand. Until then, Shady Rat will continue to kick Sleeping Dog's ass.

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

The Cyber Racket

Reference: Bruce Schneier on Cyber War & Cyber Crime

Review: War by Other Means–Economic Espionage in America

Review: Friendly Spies–How America’s Allies Are Using Economic Espionage to Steal Our Secrets

2011/08/032011/08/03

Joe Mazzafro: Deficit Deal and Impact on the US IC

03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Military

The MAZZ-INT Blog

DEFICIT DEAL AND ITS IMPACT ON THE IC

At the time of the July edition of Mazz-INT Blog, the government was tied in a knot over coming to grips with how to get long term spending under control so there would be the political conditions to raise the debt ceiling on August 2^nd; NATO forces were engaged in a seeming stalemate in Libya to remove Gadhafi from power; there was rising concern about corruption in the Karzai “government” in Afghanistan; near open confrontation between Islamabad and the Washington over continuing US unilateral drone attacks against Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership inside of Pakistan; and the US Intelligence Community (IC) was finishing a quiet but well deserved victory lap for taking out Osama bin Laden. As August begins I am happy to report that Bin Laden remains dead —– with increasingly negative impacts for Al Qaeda, but little else as changed.

So what to discuss with you that is worth your time? As Eddie Layton, Nimitz’s N2 throughout WWII, was famous for saying “the biggest alligator is the one closest to you” which means to me the debt crisis and its impact on the on the IC. As I write this on 31 July, the Executive and Legislative branches are struggling to figure out how to raise the debt ceiling so the US government will not be in default on August 3^rd when you are likely to be seeing these ramblings. So let’s focus on how debt crisis will likely impact the IC.

Continue reading “Joe Mazzafro: Deficit Deal and Impact on the US IC”

2011/08/032011/08/03

Marcus Aurelius: “Deal” Cuts 1.5T Adds 10T Net 8.5T+

03 Economy, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

The government is certain we are stupid. This deal cuts $1.5 trillion over ten years while continuing the practice of borrowing $1 trillion a year. The net increase in debt is roughly $8.5 trillion.

The deal, point by point

By Katy O'Donnell National Journal August 1, 2011

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: “Deal” Cuts 1.5T Adds 10T Net 8.5T+”

2011/08/012011/08/01

John Robb: US DoD Cuts Around $200 Billion a Year

03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of Peace

Sunday, 31 July 2011

JOURNAL: Rumored US DoD Cuts

Here's what is circulating (assuming this budget impasse can be resolved, it gets more severe if it isn't):

DoD to cut $800 billion over 4 years. $200 billion a year out of a $600 b budget.
3 government employees must retire/leave before any new hire is made.

About 3 years ago when I was a speaker at the Highlands Conference (they run a private conference for the Secretary of Defense), I was asked what the biggest unexpected challenge facing the US defense department was. My answer: The DoD will only have half the budget it has today in five years. The trick is going to be: how to get down to that number in an orderly way.

Phi Beta Iota: These are long overdue cuts and barely scratch the surface. Between out of control research, overseas bases, out of control contractors, and the Navy/Air Force obsession with big complex systems that are of little use 90% of the time, there is much more work to be done. It must be driven by intelligene with integrity. That is not something that is now available within the US Government. It is also time to end the early retirement of military employees that have not seen combat, and to end double-dipping by retirees who sign on with contractors. One paycheck per person should be the standard. Anyone working after retirement gets up to 80% of their retirement check suspended with thanks from a grateful public.

Dr. Russell Ackoff on IC and DoD + Design RECAP

Reference: No More Secrets – Open Source Intelligence/Intelligence Reform Fight Round II

2011/07/312011/08/01

Chuck Spinney: Jeff Madrick on The Age of Greed and Failure of Government to Check Private Sector Greed

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Here is a review of my friend Jeff Madrick's important new book, Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present

Book review: ‘Age of Greed’ by Jeff Madrick

By David Greenberg, Washington Post Outlook, 29 July 2011

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2010-11 academic year.

EXTRACTS

“Age of Greed” chronicles how Americans ended up with the highly unregulated financial system that produced the meltdown of 2008 and the fallout that lingers three years later. What’s most novel about the book, which relies heavily on other secondary accounts, is that unlike other recent treatments of the financial crisis, it traces the origins of the problem not to the Bush or Clinton or even Reagan years, but all the way to the late 1960s.

. . . . . .

The real scandal revealed by Madrick’s important book is not the well-known tales of dastards such as telecom analyst Jack Grubman or Internet stock promoter Frank Quattrone, but the more elusive — and more consequential — story of how the government came to abdicate this supreme responsibility.

Read full review….

2011/07/312011/07/31

DefDog: Who Lent to America? America, Not China

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, IO Impotency

Who owns America? Hint: It's not China

A close-up look at who holds America's debt.

Thomas Mucha, July 20, 2011 17:45

Truth is elusive. But it's a good thing we have math.

Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.

. . . . . . .

America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.

Phi Beta Iota: Details below. The lies and misrepresentation from all sides in Washington are reprehensible. The distance between the truth and those in power has never been greater. It turns out the US owes the largest chuck (30.3%) to the US Treasury and the Social Security fund; next up is 6.6% to US households, and then a plethora of banks and funds that could easily be stiffed for a year.

US holders of US debt:

Continue reading “DefDog: Who Lent to America? America, Not China”