Category: Policies

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NIGHTWATCH Extract: Pakistan’s Penetration by Radicals–Why Fundamentalism Defeats Security

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society

Pakistan: Update. On 5 January, Pakistani media reported more details about the assassination of Governor Taseer.

The assassin said everyone in the governor's protective detail knew of his intentions. The weird thing is no background investigation would find adverse information about a devout Muslim, not in Pakistan.

The guard who assassinated Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on 4 January told other police officers of his planned attack but was still assigned to Taseer's security detail, the Wall Street Journal reported 5 January. The assassin, Qadri, previously was removed from a counterterrorism police branch because of concerns about his Islamist leanings. He personally had requested to guard Taseer, according to a senior police official.

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Reference: WATER–Soul of the Earth, Mirror of Our Collective Souls

12 Water, Blog Wisdom, Book Lists
Robert David Steele

Robert David Steele

Comprehensive Architect, Prime Design

Huffington Post, Posted: January 5, 2011 21:08 PM

Last week I examined how we might create Infinite Wealth for All, but left for this week the most vital element of life on earth, Water. It is the soul of the Earth, and it is black with the sins of humanity, on the verge of becoming Lucifer's salve for Hell on Earth.

Water is–in its purified form–Heaven on Earth. The water cycle cannot be owned, but it can be destroyed. It is the ultimate manifestation of why we must, as a human species, achieve conscious evolution, integral consciousness, and an active appreciation for clarity (the truth), diversity (the sources of multiple forms of truth), and integrity (the enabler of inter-faith and multi-cultural wisdom and tolerance).

This review focuses on books about water suitable for drinking–less than 1% of the total water on the planet, most of which is oceans and a great deal of which is polluted.

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Journal: Supreme Court OK’s Astroturfed Zombie Army

11 Society, Civil Society, Corporations, Cultural Intelligence, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Chuck Spinney Recommends...

An Astroturfed Zombie Army

The Future of American Democracy?

By Werther*

ElectronicPolitics, January 2, 2011

EXTRACT:  With the Citizens United Supreme Court decision (certainly one of the ten most consequential rulings in the court's history), all pretense of restraint is gone. The reader can see just how unrestrained in the January 1 edition of the Washington Post. The article recounts the adventures of one Gena Bell, a declassé Ohioan of modest intellectual gifts balanced by an unbounded anger over a sense of entitlement slipping through her fingers. Otherwise a very unremarkable individual, made remarkable only by the fact that the Koch brothers, through the front group Americans for Prosperity, paid for her to demonstrate against the United Nations climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.

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Reference: Cutting the Defense Budget + RECAP

10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Military, Officers Call, Strategy, Threats, White Papers
Full Report Online

Phi Beta Iota: The author, Michael O'Hanlon, remains one of our most respected commentators on defense, and his suggestions within this document are entirely reasonable.  However, he does not go far enough.  A 10% reduction of a military-industrial complex budget that has nearly tripled in 30 years is not serious, nor is there innovation in this document.  The military-industrial complex must be reduced by 40% if not 50%: one third direct cuts; one third reallocation to Program 150 (diplomacy & development); and one third to thinkers and actual shooters–Cyber and Advanced Information Operations, Civil Affairs, Multinational Decision Support Centres, and long over-due investment in tactical intelligence, surveillance, & reconnaissance that is Of, By, and For the Strategic Sergeant, NOT Of, By, and For Lockheed, Harris, or the U.S. Air Force.

See Also:

2001 Threats, Strategy, and Force Structure: An Alternative Paradigm for National Security

2008 U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Restrospective

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Crisis Group CrisisWatch N°89, 3 January 2011

02 Diplomacy, 04 Education, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Civil Society, CrisisWatch reports, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Non-Governmental
report download (pdf)

Five actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and two improved in December 2010, according to the latest issue of the International Crisis Group's monthly bulletin CrisisWatch.

Côte d’Ivoire was gripped by political crisis as incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power after losing to rival Alassane Outtara in the late-November presidential runoff polls. Post-election violence claimed the lives of at least 170 people and more than 15,000 fled to neighbouring countries.

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Worth a Look: ConsortiumNews.com

09 Justice, 11 Society, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Worth A Look

Message from Journalist Robert Parry Building a truthful historical narrative may seem abstract but has powerful implications and needs your support, says Robert Parry.

Obama Should Read WikiLeaks Docs Before re-upping his Afghan strategy, President Obama might first read WikiLeaks' evidence on the folly, advises Ray McGovern. January 3, 2011

The Danger of Pro-Israel Extremism The hasty demonizing of Israeli critics as “anti-Semites” has hurt hopes for peace in the Middle East, writes Lawrence Davidson. January 2, 2011

Birth of Pakistan's Islamic Extremism While helping the CIA fight Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Pakistan adopted Islamic extremism, notes Alvaro Vargas Llosa. December 31, 2010

Consortium News Home

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Reference: Bioterrorism Threat and US Preparedness

07 Health, White Papers
Berto Jongman Recommends...

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism

In the eighth annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, 14 states scored nine or higher on 10 key indicators of public health preparedness. Three states (Arkansas, North Dakota, and Washington State) scored 10 out of 10. Another 25 states and Washington, D.C. scored in the 7 to 8 range. No state scored lower than a five.   . . .    Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C. cut public health funding from fiscal years (FY) 2008-09 to 2009-10, with 18 of these states cutting funding for the second year in a row.

See Also:

Journal: US Public Health InfoTech NOT….

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