10 Security – Page 146 – Public Intelligence Blog

Tom Friedman had an especially fatuous column in Sunday's New York Times, which is saying something given his well-established capacity for smug self-assurance. According to Friedman, the big challenge we face in the Arab and Islamic world is “the Narrative” — his patronizing term for Muslim views about America's supposedly negative role in the region.

. . . . . . .

I heard a different take on this subject at a recent conference on U.S. relations with the Islamic world. In addition to hearing a diverse set of views from different Islamic countries, one of the other participants (a prominent English journalist) put it quite simply. “If the United States wants to improve its image in the Islamic world,” he said, “it should stop killing Muslims.”

Phi Beta Iota: The chart is below the fold, or at the Full Story Online

Continue reading “Journal: Why they hate us (II): How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years?”

2009/12/012009/12/01

Journal: Spinning Afghanistan

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military, Peace Intelligence

Marcus Aurelius Recommends:

Karzai Aides, Tribal Leaders Say Surge Is Wrong Strategy

KABUL — Some powerful Afghan politicians and tribal leaders have expressed doubts that more U.S. troops can turn the tide of the war, as President Barack Obama prepares to unveil a new Afghanistan strategy Tuesday.

Army Researchers Warn Against Tribal War in Afghanistan

U.S. Army’s own specialists in Afghanistan’s culture and society are warning that relying on the tribes there may be a waste of time. “Most of Afghanistan has not been ‘tribal’ in the last few centuries,” notes a recent report from the Army’s Human Terrain System at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. “In fact, many scholars are reluctant to use the word ‘tribe’ at all for describing groups in Afghanistan.”

Clear, Hold And Duct Tape

Continue reading “Journal: Spinning Afghanistan”

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

2009/11/24

Journal: UK Complicity in torture of its own citizens

09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Ethics

Full Story Online

Editorial, Wednesday 25 November 2009

Allegations about Britain's role in the torture of its own citizens in Pakistan are not new. They have been made persuasively by our own investigative reporting. What is new in the report published yesterday by Human Rights Watch is the corroboration it obtained from the torturers themselves. Ali Dayan Hasan, HRW's senior south Asia researcher, found sources in Inter-Services Intelligence, the military-controlled spy agency in Pakistan, and the Intelligence Bureau, a civilian-controlled one, to admit they tortured five British citizens at the behest, and with the full knowledge, of British intelligence.

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.

2009/11/242009/11/24

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”

2009/11/232010/09/02

Reference: The Hasan Slide Presentation

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Articles & Chapters, Cultural Intelligence, Military

Phi Beta Iota: Berto Jongman flagged this from the Small Wars Journal. It is consistent with our own earlier diagnosis of Cognitive Dissonance, and we recommend it be read in its entirety. At the link below can be found a link to the original slide show. The author stresses the reasonable gravity of the conflict between being a Muslim and being asked to kill other Muslims, and while he avoids recommending a policy, we do not. DoD has been culturally ignorant for too long. It's time we brought both DoD human resource management and DoD counterintelligence into the 21st Century. See also:

Worth a Look: Berto Jongman on Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, CIA Torture, and Maj Nidal Hasan’s Slide Show

Journal: Fort Hood Cognitive Dissonance Round-Up

Journal: Cognitive Dissonance, Military Suicides, and an Alternative Interpretation of the Fort Hood Deaths