11 Society – Page 243 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/252011/08/25

John Steiner: American Taliban Gathers for Home War

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

FYI…From two friends…

As someone who once took an oath in the military to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, I have to wonder why a group that preaches taking over the government using “spiritual warfare” isn't a domestic enemy. Where is the line between freedom of religious expression and sedition?

The New Apostolic Reformation

The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare

National Public Radio, 24 august 2011

An emerging Christian movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus, is becoming more of a presence in American politics. The leaders are considered apostles and prophets, gifted by God for this role.

. . . . . .

Tabachnick says the movement currently works with a variety of politicians and has a presence in all 50 states. It also has very strong opinions about the direction it wants the country to take. For the past several years, she says, the NAR has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the “seven mountains of culture” from demonic influence. The “mountains” are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education.

“They teach quite literally that these ‘mountains' have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society,” says Tabachnick. “And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. … The apostles teach what's called ‘strategic level spiritual warfare' [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups.”

Read full summary….

2011/08/252011/08/25

Howard Rheingold: Editors Matter More in Cyberspace

04 Education, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Media

Infotention

“Managing attention & information”

Created and curated by Howard Rheingold

Accessibility Vs. Access: The Filter Bubble And Human Information Curation | Maria Popova On Nieman Lab

Human-driven information curation is the antidote to this algorithmic disconnect between access and accessibility:

The primary purpose of an editor [is] to extend the horizon of what people are interested in and what people know. Giving people what they think they want is easy, but it’s also not very satisfying: the same stuff, over and over again. Great editors are like great matchmakers: they introduce people to whole new ways of thinking, and they fall in love.

Cynthia McKinney: Massive Propaganda on Libya Misleads

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

Most of what has been coming through the Total Information Dominance machinery about the situation in Tripoli – and Libya proper – is untrue. The situation there is very bad for the people, that much is true. But not only is the battle not with an indigenous rebellion – it is, rather, with a NATO expeditionary force comprised mainly of Qatari and other troops and irregulars under local Qatari regular command and coordinate with NATO proper.

Most reporting is being done from inside or near the journalists' hotels. Outside the primary location, snipers have fired at – and in one case, shot – non-mainstream journalists. Only those who are embedded with the invaders have been permitted to shoot outdoors, while the Libyan media has had its power cut off and is thus off the air.

You must recall that only this past Friday, we were told in full spectrum broadcast that Gadhaffi had left with his family for Tunisia. As it turns out, that was untrue.

Here's what I was told by some of the journalists stuck in the hotel who have been able to call around the city to the many residents they know personally:

The invaders have been largely turned back. They arrived under severe aerial attacks across the city, including strafing of civilians intended to clear the streets for the invasion. They were supplemented with troop landings from NATO naval vessels in the port. This was apparently the source of many of the Qatari personnel.

The invaders have been routed in many sectors, and, in fact, most of the city is calm with the exception of aerial activity.

What is needed right now is not despair on our part, but the dissemination of information, which NATO has decided is the most important battleground. Please visit my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/don.debar for a long string of information that needs to be shared with everyone you know – especially those in, or in contact with people in, Libya.

2011/08/22

Penguin: Mikhail Gorbechev on Why Openness Came First

06 Russia, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government

Fascinating interview. Note the “no plan,” the conversation with Gromyko on change, and why openness had to come first.

SPIEGEL Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev

‘They Were Truly Idiots'

In a SPIEGEL interview, Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, discusses the last days of the Soviet Union, his failure to resolve problems with the Communist Party and the ensuing bloodshed he says still troubles him today. He also accuses Vladimir Putin of pulling the country “back into the past.”

Read full interview….

2011/08/222011/08/24

Review: Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws 2010 from the Electronic Privacy Information Center

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Law Enforcement, Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Electronic Privacy Information Center (Author), Marc Rotenberg (Editor), Harry A. Hammitt (Editor), Ginger McCall (Editor), John A. Verdi (Editor), Mark S. Zaid (Editor)

5.0 out of 5 stars Critical USEFUL Reference, Handbook, Citizen Manual,August 22, 2011

I'm exploring a major campaign to expose illegal actions across the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals and the Defense Intelligence Agency in particular, and in talking to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) leadership got a chance to understand just how vital and USEFUL this guide is.

Senator Patrick Leahy, co-sponsor of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, and many others are on record as considering this the single most indispensable tool in any citizen's toolkit.

For myself, having seen the capricious, arbitrary, and often unethical and even abusive manner in which DIA Personnel “cooks the books” and manipulates job announcements and screening decisions, and having been personally privy to enormous abuse by the Director of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals and a specifc group of his subordinates, consider this manual essential to my own search for justice.

Although I will use it more to inform myself so I can assist the specialist lawyers in making the most of what I know in their probing inquires at DIA and DOHA, I certainly recommend it to any citizen that has a specific concern that is not getting a fair hearing.

I also recommend the publisher and experts that put it together, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Many folks do not realize that they have been one of the leading champions of open government, and have also been one of the leading champions in exposing fraud, waste, and abuse that has been concealed by secrecy.

The US Government, in my view, as a general observation, is out of control and no longer representative of We the People. This is the handbook for citizens to use in holding every branch of the federal government accountable for its misbehavior and its dereliction of duty in failing to represent the public interest as opposed to the interest of its very big stakeholders who are recipients of the tax dollar rather than contributors to the treasury of the Republic.

Arm yourself with this knowledge, and go into battle confident in the righteousness of your cause.

See Also [Amazon book link still broken]:

Piercing the Veil of Secrecy: Litigation Against U.S. Intelligence by Janine Brookner

AA Mind the Gap — Vote and/or Comment on Review

2011/08/22

Chuck Spinney: Great Depression II? Or Something Worse?

03 Economy, 11 Society

Many fear that the US is poised on the cusp of a second depression. Simon Johnson, on of the most astute observers of the current crisis, takes exception to this view by making an interesting comparison of the current economic slump to the busts of the 19th Century, particularly the long decline between 1873 and 1879.

With the fiscal option being taken off the table by Obama's capitulation on the debt limit extortion, Johnson concludes ironically that the looming right wing populist attack on the monetary option (a weak anti-deflationary tool to be sure) would be like nailing the working class to a “cross of gold” in a time of recession. In so doing, one of the most cogent critics of the Federal Reserve (for protecting the “too big to fail banks”) ends up defending its Chairman. What a strange world we live in, where modern populists adopt the values of the banker who impoverishes them.

Chuck Spinney
Nice, France

Is This A Second Great Depression – Or Could It Become Something Worse?

Simon Johnson, Baseline Scenario, 18 August 2011

Read full article…

2011/08/212011/08/22

Reference: Contours of 21st Century Conflict

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, InfoOps (IO), Military, Officers Call, Strategy, White Papers

berto small — Berto Jongman Recommends...

Worth a read. Interesting report based on innovative research method. From the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.

Report: Contours of Conflict in the 21st Century

EXTRACT from Overview:

In gaining a better understanding of the future nature of conflict, it is therefore of the utmost importance to go beyond the traditional Western (English) language domain experts, and include views from regions across the world. The main purpose of the Future Nature of Conflict project is therefore to map and analyze global perspectives about the future nature of conflict published over the last two decades across four language domains – Arabic, Chinese, English and Slavic.

cover contours — Click on Image to Enlarge

Phi Beta Iota: Finally! For years we have talked about the need to do multi-lingual perspectives and statements (e.g. charting Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippine, and Australian statements on the Spratley Islands going back 200 years). The protocol developed by this team must be –along with M4IS2–the future of strategic dialog, policy, acquisition, and operations. Any intelligence community that is unable to do this for any issue, any question, may as well go out of business.

Reading through the report is a real pleasure, with all sources being spelled out in footnotes that are actively linked to the original sources. This is a marvelous gift to scholars and practitioners at multiple levels.

A few highlights:

Continue reading “Reference: Contours of 21st Century Conflict”