10 Security – Page 37 – Public Intelligence Blog

I thought the short piece below might help people better analyze and report on the defense spending budget that will be released on Monday, February 13. As you know, DOD has already released some numbers; however, they are quite incomplete. They do not even cover all Pentagon spending, let alone all defense-related spending. Using the Pentagon's press release on Monday will likely mean missing the more complete picture. I try to explain below, and I address where you can find a more complete display of the numbers–all of them.

Decoding the Pentagon's Budget Numbers

Winslow T. Wheeler

This Monday, February 13, the Pentagon will release the details of its fiscal year 2013 budget. The press, congressional staff and think tank-types go through an annual routine, scrambling to get out their take on the numbers and some selected issues. Some of these efforts are quite predictable; this year we will surely hear about

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Sorting Out the Real DoD Budget…”

2012/02/09

David Swanson: Could Impeachment Threat Stop Attack on Iran? Photos of Depleted Uranium Babies

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, IO Deeds of War

Where is Conyers with Impeachment Threats Against President for Iran Attack Now?

By Ralph Lopez

It may have been the one and only thing which prevented an attack on Iran during the Bush years. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee John Conyers spent years fending off nationwide calls to impeach George W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq, the shredding of the Constitution after 9/11, and other high crimes and misdemeanors culminating in a summer of 2008 “non-impeachment impeachment hearings,” in which witnesses such as Rep. Brad Miller, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Rep. Walter Jones, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, Vincent Bugliosi and many others came together to implore the committee to bring articles of impeachment.

At one point Conyers closed to the committee room to any further audience members, prompting calls of “shame! shame! shame!” from the packed halls of the Rayburn Building to which people had traveled from across the country, but established numerous closed-circuit television viewing rooms for the public in other parts of the Hill.

Conyers refused to impeach, but did in fact draw one hard line in the sand, saying that if Bush attacked Iran, it would guarantee impeachment proceedings. George Bush must have believed him. Now as the crazies beat the drums for war with Iran, driving Obama almost irresistibly to war, Conyers has fallen silent. As recently as January 25, Obama said no options were “off the table.”

If we attack Iran, it will be an excuse to pour millions of rounds of utterly demonic – there is no other word – depleted uranium ammunition into a country which has done us no harm, which acknowledges the right of navigation in international waters but merely insists that it will not be bullied. The U.S. is determined to impose sanctions no matter what Iran says about its weapons programs, in a perfect replay of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Then as in Iraq, this will kill and maim entire generations of the most innocent life imaginable, that which sits and will sit in their mothers' wombs.

Read full article and see extremely disturbing photos of depleted uranium babies.

2012/02/09

NIGHTWATCH: Iran-Syria

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices

Iran-Syria: Iran rejected any Yemeni-like scenario in Syria, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian who spoke to the press on 8 February at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. Abdollahian added that Iranians recently kidnapped in Syria were released after Turkish mediation.

Comment: The visit by the Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry corresponds to reports that the Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force Major General Sulemani had arrived in Damascus to assist in the defense of the Syrian Alawite government. At least one other news service reported — without good sourcing — that a large number of IRGC forces are present in Damascus.

Open sources are unable to confirm the reports about Sulemani's visit and the presence of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps soldiers in Damascus. The logic of the situation is that Iran needs to take action to prevent a strategic disaster. The unconfirmed reports suggest it has begun to do so.

However, the deployment of Persians to Syria does not seem a likely first option. On the other hand, Sulemani, in person, might have gone to Damascus to offer his expert advice on destroying subversive movements.

All news services suggest that the struggle to control Homs will determine the future of the anti-al-Asad uprising. If that prediction is accurate, then the Alawites should win, provided that Bashar al-Asad and his generals have the same strength of will that his father and his generals had in ordering the destruction of Hama in February 1982, when Sunni rebels, including the Muslim Brotherhood, held the town briefly.

If the Syrian Sunni uprising hinges on the fate of Homs, it will lose, not only because the Alawites will not hesitate to destroy rebel enclaves in the town, but also because many residents of Homs will side with the government to destroy the outlaw gangs, posing as rebels, according to sources in Homs.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

2012/02/08

Michael Peterson: Jew on Jew – The Importance of Dissent

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

Phi Beta Iota: The following is a comment posted to the reviewby Robert Steele of Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul (Carroll & Graf, 2002). It is a combination of Constitutional and religious counterintelligence commentary that we found to be encouraging–most American Jews are not Zionist sayanim [traitors to the USA, clandestine assets for the Mossad].

FULL EXTRACT:

Oh c'mon as Jew I'm offended. You doing that only proves him right, jeez dude way to be reactionary. It's more about the state of Israel. There are plenty of American Jews that see Israelis as arrogant to say the least…

I'm an American first. Well….it's not like the people that run the place have any sense of loyalty beyond money and family so to my own ears they sound hallow, but it's the only thing we have left right? Anyway Sanayim was removed from wikipedia so waybackmachine led me to a former Mossad intelligence officer Victor_Ostrovsky who actually admitted to it's existence and wrote at length.

Also on censorship, those who fear something usually react. So I take the side of whoever says something, provides evidence and then doesn't have a history of trying to crush the dissenting opinion of others who disagree with them. Even if I categorically disagree with their conclusions, the reactionary, who hides behind “such and such is inflammatory and therefore he must be REPORTED to protect the minds and hearts of others is even less of a human being and even more reproachable. I'm a black biracial Jew so I know what being persecuted is.

In 7th grade re-enacting a supreme court case about media censorship we were given hypotheticals as to what decisions we would make as justices. The important part about protecting the constitution is defending the rights of those you disagree with as long as they are non-violent and don't impose on the civil liberties of others. Imagine the audacity of me being the only student in class writing that the klan should be able to march in Midtown Manhattan exercising their first amendment right…why you ask? So they could embarrass themselves, heck maybe even get punched in the face? You lose liberty when you aren't willing to defend people you ideologically disagree with. Defend your convictions with fact by fact analysis and come to a conclusion that best supports the data.

Also that same year in 7th grade I learned what Nuclear Deterrence theory meant, what the Bush doctrine was, who George F Kennan Was, and most importantly what Project For New American Century is…all because of something called the 9/11 Commission Report I needed to make my case for the mock supreme court trial about whether a newspaper in Denver Colorado was breaching the espionage act by reporting on the environmental effects of government chemical testing. I was a middle schooler in the top class of a considerably bad school from South Jamaica Queens, in a lower middle class household. I did exceedingly well on standardized tests, but had a lax GPA.

I'm building this backstory to say what? That anything is possible from any ruling class(foreign or domestic)when Sarah Palin can be viewed as a credible running mate by over 40% of the voting block. Neoliberalism with the doublethink of Neoconservatism definitely proves the current regime of Israel and the policies of the United States government as the greatest threats to democracy the world has ever seen since the rise of the Third Reich.

This isn't just a message to the above commenter, but anyone who's on amazon scanning to be better informed. Be self-sufficient and remember to research, research, research, regardless of whatever your religion, class, or creed may do to disarm you emotionally.

2012/02/07

John Robb: When Security is Huge, Stupid, & Out of Control

10 Security, Blog Wisdom, DHS, IO Impotency

Simple equation:

A national security system that is mostly bloat and mission creep instead of real, honest to goodness, security

Badly design social media monitoring tools that are sifting through billions of messages a day?

FAILURE

Here's a simple example. A young British guy makes a tweet to his friends:

Easy to discern the tweet is about hard drinking/partying.

He flies to Los Angeles with a friend. He is promptly arrested. Held in cuffs/cell for 12 hours and deported.

Why? The Department of Homeland Security flagged his tweet as a possible threat to the US.

Huh?

Automated security at its finest.

Add lethal drones that kill people due to “terrorist” signature behaviors and we have a problem Houston.

Phi Beta Iota: Oddly enough, this is the exact unclassified parallel of the National Security Agency (NSA) that processes less than 1% of all traffic, and less than 5% of “high priority” traffic, according to various open source reports. At what point–in the midst of economic collapse–do serious people get to say “enough – let's get real about needs, capabilities, costs, outputs, and trade-offs?” Has anyone been able to find the “M” in OMB? This is what you get when “management” is non-existent, money is printed without pause, and very expensive executive merely channel dollars rather than actually thinking about what they buy, what the produce, and how we might better spend (or not spend at all) those dollars.

2012/02/062012/02/06

Reference: Truth, Lies and Afghanistan

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Articles & Chapters, Corruption, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Truth, lies and Afghanistan

How military leaders have let us down

LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS

Armed Forces Journal,

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

. . . . . . . .

Tell The Truth

When it comes to deciding what matters are worth plunging our nation into war and which are not, our senior leaders owe it to the nation and to the uniformed members to be candid — graphically, if necessary — in telling them what’s at stake and how expensive potential success is likely to be. U.S. citizens and their elected representatives can decide if the risk to blood and treasure is worth it.

Likewise when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start. AFJ

Read full article.

2012/02/04

Berto Jongman: Seth Jones in Foreign Affairs on Al Qaeda in Iran

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, IO Impotency

Al Qaeda in Iran

Why Tehran is Accommodating the Terrorist Group

Seth G. Jones

Foreign Affairs, January 29, 2012

Article Summary and Author Biography

Phi Beta Iota: There are two competing narratives, neither of which is properly researched and documented. Narrative A (our tentative preference) has all of these Al Qaeda stories as part of a contrived joint Israeli-led but US supported disinformation campaign to justify armed force against Iran. Narrative B (equally plausible, but the point is we do not actually know) has Iran — these are Persians, not ragheads — well-prepared to do asymmetric attacks via multiple channels including the remnants of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda posers. This would including exploding apartments in Tel Aviv. We really don't know, and it is a rather important question.