11 Society – Page 137 – Public Intelligence Blog

Huh?

Do You Trust the Washington Post‘s Sources on Morale at the NSA?

Former officials insist that employees are upset because President Obama hasn't visited to show his support.

Reuters via The Atlantic, Dec 10 2013, 8:20 AM ET

A strange Washington Post story gives readers the impression that morale is low at the NSA because President Obama hasn't visited to signal his support for the intelligence agency, even as Edward Snowden's leaks are causing many to criticize it.

The headline: “NSA morale down after Edward Snowden revelations, former U.S. officials say.”

The lead:

Morale has taken a hit at the National Security Agency in the wake of controversy over the agency’s surveillance activities, according to former officials who say they are dismayed that President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support.

What these “dismayed” sources told the newspaper:

Supporters of the NSA say staffers are not feeling the love.

“The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it is had no support from the White House even though it’s been carrying out publicly approved intelligence missions,” said Joel Brenner, NSA inspector general from 2002 to 2006. “They feel they’ve been hung out to dry, and they’re right.”

A former U.S. official—who like several other former officials interviewed for this story requested anonymity because he still has dealings with the agency—said: “The president has multiple constituencies—I get it. But he must agree that the signals intelligence NSA is providing is one of the most important sources of intelligence today. So if that’s the case, why isn’t the president taking care of one of the most important elements of the national security apparatus?”

Is this just an attempt to exert pressure on the president and stave off even the mildest criticism of the NSA? The sourcing here seems awfully shoddy. Is a former NSA inspector general who hasn't worked for the agency in seven years really qualified to pronounce upon the current feelings of every employee? Is the proposition that NSA staffers are all of one mind about recent controversies something we'd credit even if a current NSA employee said it? Did the anonymous “former U.S. official” ever work for the NSA? What “dealings” does he or she presently have with the agency, and how remunerative are those dealings?

After reading what these former officials had to say, Marcy Wheeler points out that NSA employees have a reason for low morale that has nothing to do with Obama's support:

Most of the NSA’s employees have not been read into many of these programs … That raises the distinct possibility that NSA morale is low not because the President hasn’t given them a pep talk, but because they’re uncomfortable working for an Agency that violates its own claimed rules so often. Most of the men and women at NSA have been led to believe they don’t spy on their fellow citizens. Those claims are crumbling, now matter how often the NSA repeats the word “target.” [PBI: Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Cognitive Dissonance at NSA + NSA High Crimes RECAP + Integrity Remediation”

2013/12/10

Penguin: The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind”

03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Atoms for Peace….

The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind”

Global Research News Hour Episode 46. Conversations with Yoichi Shimatsu and Hatrick Penry

We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

-Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project which created the first atomic devices. [1]

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Length (59:20)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)

Read text and see documentation.

2013/12/10

Preston James: Why Didn’t We Learn from Vietnam?

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Threats

Why Didn’t We Learn From Vietnam?

Individual soldiers deserted in huge numbers, whole units refused to fight, there was rebellion in some Barracks, and numerous incidents of fragging, some preceded by warnings to officers and non-coms to back off, others not.

There were large mass demonstrations at home in America and the situation became so dire, that President Lyndon Johnson was told by his advisers and the Ruling Cabal that he must step aside and could not run for a second term.

Most of this was kept from the American public by a Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM) which served in most cases as official USG propaganda dispensers.

Henry Kissinger was the interface between the Ruling Cabal, the Secret Shadow Government (SSG) and President Nixon and basically ran Nixon’s foreign policy.

Nixon was elected and seemed to be led around by the nose by his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger who is now viewed by many as a hardened war criminal for his many dealings in Vietnam, Myanmar and other places which directly resulted in mass death. He is also blamed for his manipulative, botched negotiations and recommendation to leave so many American POW/MIAs behind with secret plans to have them assassinated in jungle prison camps by special Observation Groups (SOGs), actually Special Operations Groups and aircraft dispensed poisonous VX gas when that failed.

It’s important to note that because JFK was Assassinated by a high military Cabal including LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, GHWB, Dulles, Lansdale, Lemnitzer, etc. that Vietnam became possible as an illegal perpetual, un-winnable war for profits in the first place. Once JFK was out of the way, the US Military and the defense industry and banks surrounding became the Secret Shadow Government, and began ruling the visible, ceremonial government which actually became a hired prostitute of the SSG.

It takes creative Psyops by the top Policy-Makers to elicit a nation’s support for any new war.

No nation’s citizens are eager to send their children to war to be maimed and die in mass, and it take special high level psychological operations (Psyops) to process the society’s group mind to motivate them adequately to want revenge against another nation or group.

OPTION A: Read full post with photos at host site.

OPTION B: Read full post without photos, and Phi Beta Iota comment with additional links, below the line.

Continue reading “Preston James: Why Didn't We Learn from Vietnam?”

2013/12/10

Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Bubble Economy – Starting with the Assassination of JFK

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Why We're Stuck with a Bubble Economy (December 9, 2013)

Inflating serial asset bubbles is no substitute for rising real incomes.

Why are we stuck with an economy that only generates serial credit/asset bubbles that crash with catastrophic consequences? Ths answer is actually fairly straightforward.

Let's start with the ideal conditions for an economy that depends on consumer spending.

1. Rising real income, i.e. after adjusting for inflation/currency depreciation, wages/salaries have more purchasing power every year.

2. An expanding pool of new households, i.e. young people who move away from home or graduate from college, get a job and start their own household. New households buy homes, vehicles, furniture, appliances, kitchenware, tools, etc., driving consumption far more than established households.

Neither of these conditions apply to today's economy. Income for the bottom 90% has been stagnant for forty years, and has declined 7% in real terms since 2000.

Read full article with more graphics.

Continue reading “Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Bubble Economy – Starting with the Assassination of JFK”

2013/12/10

4th Media: Group of Thirty created in 1913 as a response to “the Populist assault on the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of few.”

03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption

Global Power Project: The Group of Thirty and the “Good Discussion” They’re Still Having

Dec 9th, 2013 @ 12:57 pm › Kiyul Chung

The Group of Thirty (or G-30) describes itself as “a private, nonprofit, international body composed of very senior representatives of the private and public sectors and academia,” which “aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers.”

Its membership consists of roughly thirty major figures in the global financial world, from central banks, academia, international institutions and major private financial institutions. These figures hold regular meetings, conduct research and produce highly-influential reports through various “working groups,” providing a forum for top policy makers and private sector market “actors” to meet and hold discussions, while helping shape consensus and give recommendations to policy makers on issues of finance and governance.

This institution, though not widely discussed, is enormously influential. And here’s why.

The history of the Group of Thirty goes back to the Rockefeller Foundation, which provided the organization’s initial funding. In its 1978 annual report, the Rockefeller Foundation – which represents the interests of highly centralized corporate and financial power – recalled that it was created in 1913 as a response to “the Populist assault on the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of few.” (Annual Report, 1978, Rockefeller Foundation.)

Continue reading “4th Media: Group of Thirty created in 1913 as a response to “the Populist assault on the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of few.””

2013/12/02

Mini-Me: $7.25 an Hour? That’s $15,000 a Year – NOT a Living Wage!

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Huh?

$7.25 an hour is not a living wage

By Richard Trumka and Christine Owens

CNN, December 2, 2013

Editor's note: Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. Christine Owens is executive director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for lower-wage workers.

(CNN) — For the first time since the Great Depression, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us, middle-class family incomes have lost ground for more than a decade.

The sad truth is that the rewards for productivity and hard work such as health care coverage, retirement security, opportunity — rewards that used to make America's workers “middle class” — are on the rocks.

All the wage increases over the past 15 years have gone to the wealthiest 10%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. All of them. And almost all, 95%, of the income gains from 2009 to 2012, the first three years of recovery from the Great Recession, went to the very richest 1%.

Something else has happened, too. The bottom has fallen out of America's wage floor. And the erosion of the minimum wage has lowered pay and working standards for all of us.

Read rest of article.

2013/11/292013/11/29

Chuck Spinney: Patrick Cockburn Interviews Muqtada al-Sadr on Iraq — Toxic Mix of Sectarianism, Incompetent and Corrupt Government, and Interference by US, UK, and Iran

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 05 Iran, 07 Health, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

The United States bears a moral responsibility for the murderous state of affairs in Iraq, but contemporary American grand strategy has become a self-referencing mix of arrogance, narcissism, and exceptionalism; so it is not surprising that most Americans have dismissed Iraq their minds (as they are now dismissing Afghanistan). Below is an excellent reminder of the situation in Iraq.

Patrick Cockburn, one of the very best journalists now covering conflicts in the Arab World and Central Asia interviews Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the most influential Shia clerics in Iraq and leader of the Mehdi Army, a powerful Shia faction. Sadr is now a member of the Shia dominated Iraqi government, but he is becoming increasingly alienated from its leader, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Sadr argues that a toxic mix of (1) sectarianism, (2) governmental incompetence and corruption, and (3) external interference by the U.S. and U.K. and Iran is plunging Iraq into an ever-deepening state of chaos, with no light at the end of the tunnel. (Note: I inserted a few clarifying comments in red.)

Chuck Spinney

The Blaster

(h/t Antiwar.com)

“The near future of Iraq is dark”

Warning from Muqtada al-Sadr – the Shia cleric whose word is law to millions of his countrymen

BY PATRICK COCKBURN • NOVEMBER 29, 2013

http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/the-near-future-of-iraq-is-dark/

In a rare interview at his headquarters in Najaf, he tells Patrick Cockburn of his fears for a nation growing ever more divided on sectarian lines.

The future of Iraq as a united and independent country is endangered by sectarian Shia-Sunni hostility says Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious leader whose Mehdi Army militia fought the US and British armies and who remains a powerful figure in Iraqi politics. He warns of the danger that[1] “the Iraqi people will disintegrate, [2] its government will disintegrate, and [3] it will be easy for external powers to control the country”.

In an interview with The Independent in the holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south-west of Baghdad – the first interview Mr Sadr has given face-to-face with a Western journalist for almost 10 years – he expressed pessimism about the immediate prospects for Iraq, saying: “The near future is dark.”

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Patrick Cockburn Interviews Muqtada al-Sadr on Iraq — Toxic Mix of Sectarianism, Incompetent and Corrupt Government, and Interference by US, UK, and Iran”