10 Security – Page 98 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/03/102011/03/10

Director of National Intelligence Self-Destructs…Again

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Reform

Senator: Remarks about Libya ‘should be the final straw' for Clapper (CNN)

Clapper lambastes Russia; wait, isn’t Joe Biden in Russia? (The Hill)

U.S. Intelligence Chief Says Qaddafi Has Edge in Conflict (NYT)

US should keep up Lebanon military aid: intel chief (AFP)

Losing Libya III (PajamasMedia)

Phi Beta Iota: We used to admire Jim Clapper, so much so that a member of our collective issued a press release in his defense when Donald Rumsfeld fired him for telling the truth. General Clapper appears to have forgotten how to tell the truth, and he is not leading the US Intelligence Community, he is administering it with cronies assigned to administer the various agencies. There is no longer intelligence at the top of the intelligence community. It is time for a full-spectrum house cleaning, to include the conversion of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, which is not needed, into the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Peace Operations, which IS needed. Mike Vickers is not qualified for either position.

Media Spin: Clapper told the truth. Reality: Clapper is out of touch with reality–he cannot even outline the ten high-level threats to humanity or explain why continued fragmentation of the US Government is the greatest threat to our near term as well as a long term stability and prosperity. Russia and China are not military threats to the US but rather economic threats, and in the case of China, a demographic and scientific & technology threat. The Old Guard is dead, may they rest in peace. Sadly, there is no bench within the US Intelligence Community OR the contractor world. We anticipate nothing beneficial for our $90 billion a year.

See Also:

Obama to Clapper: “Disappointed.” Duh.

Journal: Reflections on Integrity

Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both

Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure

What’s Right with America? Let Me List the Books…

2011/03/07

Afghanistan: Too Many Contractors, No Accountability

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Commerce, Corruption, IO Sense-Making, Military, Peace Intelligence

SECRECY NEWS EXTRACT:

DOD CONTRACTORS IN AFGHANISTAN AT A RECORD HIGH

The number of private security contractors employed by the Department of Defense in Afghanistan has reached a new record high, according to DoD statistics in a recently updated report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.

Continue reading “Afghanistan: Too Many Contractors, No Accountability”

2011/03/07

Pentagon Contractors Baby Gaga on Steroids

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Government, Military, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

There is no doubt that, Pentagon Labyrinth is a first rate piece of work. However it did fail to mention an additional factor in defense procurement costs that is often overlooked and that is the need to subsidize U.S. defense industry giants such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman and General Dynamics. This also explains the over elaborate use of sub-contracting since the boutique sub-contractors used by the defense giants often produce key components for weapon systems so also must be given a portion of the subsidies. Boeing is the only major defense contractor that even makes a pretense of also dealing in commercial aircraft. Lockheed, Northrop, and General Dynamics along with their networks of sub-contractors are virtually entirely dependent on government contracts or contracts from the government’s foreign clients for their continued existence.

Continue reading “Pentagon Contractors Baby Gaga on Steroids”

2011/03/06

HISTORICAL: Jack Davis, The Bogotazo

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Cultural Intelligence, Government

The declassified version of my 1968 Studies in Intelligence article can be found in a couple of different formats under “Jack Davis, Bogotazo.” Please post it. I think this is my first published work.

Take a look at the conclusions of an article I wrote 43 years ago, and substitute “North Africa” for “Latin America” and “al Qa’ida” for “Communists.”

Jack

APPROVED FOR RELEASE 1994 CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM 2 JULY 96

SECRET

Distant events shape the craft of intelligence.

THE BOGOTAZO

Jack Davis

On the afternoon of 9 April 1948, angry mobs suddenly and swiftly reduced the main streets of Bogotá to a smoking ruin. Radio broadcasts, at times with unmistakable Communist content, called for the overthrow of the Colombian government and of “Yankee Imperialism.” Many rioters wore red arm bands; some waved banners emblazoned with the hammer-and-sickle. A mob gutted the main floor of the Capitola Nacional, disrupting the deliberations of the Ninth International Conference of American States and forcing Secretary of State Marshall and the other delegates to take cover. The army regained control of the city over the next day or two. But not before several thousand Colombians had been killed. It was the bogotazo.

Read entire analytic piece now declassified.

2011/03/062011/10/22

Four Time Bombs Centered on Wall Street

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Paul B. Farrell

March 1, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST

Four time bombs that will blow up Wall Street

Commentary: Too late to jail bank CEOs; only revolution will succeed

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

Phi Beta Iota: Highlights include extimate that US is 44 trillion in debt; that nothing and Administration does will stop Wall Street–this is now so bad the author believes a revolution (as in swarming homes and offices and demanding the return of ill-gotten wealth) will do. We do not agree. Yes, it is bad. No, recovering the stolen money will not do. The silver lining in all this is the obvious decrepitude of governments and corporations; the now obvious toxic nature of information asymmetries and data pathologies; and the less obvious but emergent need for a) restoring the integrity of the US Electoral process through Electoral Reform 2.2 ; and b) creating the Autonomous Internet so as to achieve Panarchy and create a prosperous world at peace in which transparency eliminates corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse, starting in the USA.

READ ORIGINAL POST WITH FOUR TIME BOMBS DEFINED

Safety Copy of Entire Story Below the Line

Continue reading “Four Time Bombs Centered on Wall Street”

2011/03/05

Regime Alternation: US Response to Arab Revolt + RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, IO Sense-Making, Military

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

The Obama administration could end up in a very dicey situation if/when the Arab Revolt spreads to Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud is likely to crack down on demonstrators with a very heavy hand. Oil prices could explode, and Israel would go bonkers. The Wall Street Journal just issued a detailed report describing how the Obama Administration is wavering in its support for democracy demonstrators, urging patience, and hoping the protesters work will with existing monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, etc.) as well as Yemen for gradual reforms (Libya excepted, of course) … the curious euphemism for the emerging desperation to stiffen the three pillars* of our crumbling Middle East policy is “regime alteration.”

The attached essay by veteran middle east correspondent Robert Fisk puts the theory of regime alteration into a moral and economic perspective.

Chuck Spinney<
The Blaster

————

* The three pillars of our ME foreign policy are –

Uncritical support for and protection of Israel.
Protection of Saudi Arabia (and the Persian Gulf Arab states) in return for Saudi assurance of stable oil flows.
Recycling of petrodollars via weapons sales (to countries at peace with Israel, like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc.) and banking/investment houses.

(Note: Over these years, these pillars have been supported also by efforts to limit Soviet and Iranian influence in the Middle East and N. Africa.)

Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt

By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent
Independent, Saturday, 5 March 2011

Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week's “day of rage” by what is now called the “Hunayn Revolution”.

Saudi Arabia's worst nightmare – the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom – is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain, where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will. Read more….

Phi Beta Iota: The Obama Administration means well, but it operates in a moral & intellectual vacuum. In combination, its bailing out of Wall Street and destitution of the middle class (while poverty doubled), its loss of integrity in not ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, its continued tolerance of out-of-control security and intelligence bureaucracies, and now its clear intent to join the UK in putting still more forces in the middle of what is rightfully a legitimate revolt of, by, and for the Arab people, represent the last death rattle of Empire.

2011/03/05

How Many [Taliban Wistful] Ahmeds in Afghanistan?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

Background: According to an Afghan friend, the author of this piece was sacked from her job at IWPR, by the British, because she insisted on publishing an unpleasant truth in an article. Now she works free-lance and she’s free to publish exactly what she sees and hears. CS

Those Good Old Taliban Days

A desperate longing for order in the midst of today’s chaos is making many Afghan nostalgic for a simpler time.

Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost, 5 March 2011

“I hate this country,” said my taxi driver. “Any other country is better. I like Pakistan, I would move to Iran. Afghanistan is just not a good place.”

This categorical announcement in the midst of a bright, sunny Saturday morning was prompted by a rather nasty traffic jam. Cars were lined up to get into the swanky new Gulbahar shopping center, blocking two lanes of a busy road. It did not help that the entrance to the parking garage – the first one I have seen in Afghanistan – had room for only one car at a time. There was a brawny 4X4 trying to get out, a scrappy Toyota trying to get in; neither was willing to give way, so roughly a dozen drivers were blowing their horns and ruining my otherwise benign mood.

I made some noncommittal comment about poor Afghanistan being the war playground for the region, but my driver, let’s call him Ahmed, was having none of it.

“It’s not the English, or the Soviets, or the Americans,” he insisted. “It’s the people. They love to fight. They are dishonest. Everyone, from Karzai right on down to the smallest child.”

Continue reading “How Many [Taliban Wistful] Ahmeds in Afghanistan?”