Pakistan: An elite police commando from the provincial police force who was assigned as a bodyguard for the governor of Punjab Province murdered the governor today in Islamabad. The commando dropped his weapon and surrendered to the police, bragging that he was proud he killed a blasphemer. With that, Pakistan's political crisis deepened.
Journal: CIA Ghosts of Khost Ride Again….
04 Education, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Using terminology sometimes used in the DoD special operations community, article below conveys a strong suggestion that in organizing and staffing its operation at Khost, CIA failed to discriminate between enthusiasm and capability. Based on knowing nothing more about the case than is available to the public, there seems to be a lot to agree with in this article, which seems to get better the farther into it you read.
2. A quotation long reputed to be associated with Marine Corps Drill Instructors is, “Let's be damned sure that no man's ghost will ever have cause to say, ‘if your training program had only done its job.'” The obvious supposition is that you actually put people through the training program. That may not have happened here.
By Jennifer Sklaka
Washingtonian.com, January 2011
Phi Beta Iota: Click on Silent Stars to read the entire piece, link posted for the record. Toward the end the article gracefully provides an indictment of CIA's incompetence across multiple fronts.
Journal: The Truth on Khost Kathy
NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Captures Indonesia
02 China, 03 Economy, 04 Indonesia, 10 Security, 11 SocietyChina-Indonesia: Representatives from nine Chinese companies will visit Indonesia on 5 January to consider investment in transportation infrastructure in the Papua and West Papua Provinces of Indonesian New Guinea, according to Indonesian Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi. The companies' representatives, accompanied by Chinese officials, are on a fact finding trip for constructing airports and seaports, and will consider upgrading airports in Manokwari, Timika, Biak and Sorong into international airports. The governors of Papua and West Papua Provinces will also present investment opportunities during the visit.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Captures Indonesia”
Journal: What’s Wrong with American defense….
03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy, Technologies
Phi Beta Iota: Notes summarizing the 59 minute video are below the line.
….Watch this!!!!! My good friend Pierre Sprey interviews Bill Hartung on Book TV about Hartung's new book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.
The book is a history of the largest military contractor in U.S. history, Lockheed Martin. Hartung argues that with 25 billion dollars annually in Defense Department contracts, Lockheed Martin's reach into American life is extensive and largely unknown, including creation of satellites used to spy on the phone calls of American citizens. He discusses the company's size, scope and influence with Pierre Sprey, father of the A-10 and F-16 military aircraft and a well-known thorn in the Pentagon's side. Chuck
William Hartung
Mr. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. He is the author of How Much are You Making on the War Daddy? and And Weapons for All. He's written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Nation magazine.
NOTE: Title leads to Words, WATCH leads to the actual playing of the video.
Summary of the 59 minute back and forth CSPAN BookTV Interview:
Continue reading “Journal: What’s Wrong with American defense….”
Journal: Get America Working–A Conversation Part II
07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corporations, Cultural Intelligence, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, StrategyOriginal Post with William Drayton, Alexandere Carpenter, and Robert Steele: Journal: Get America Working–A Conversation
Part II–Alexander Carpenter (AC), the Founding Fathers, and Modern Seers
Journal: Get America Working-A Conversation
If you do nothing else, please consider reviewing the many contributions by Tom Atlee via the first line in Part IV: Related Recommended Reading,
AC: And add this from Charles Hugh Smith to the list:
Charles Hugh Smith America's Job-Creation Machinery Is Hollowed Out
Dave Cohen on Job Prospects in the Bubble Economy, looking for a technological driver:
And this for those still trying to believe in the “enlightenment model,” some lowest-common-denominator and somewhat overstated evolutionary psychology:
Ian Charles, Conscious Robots: How We Make a Decision
And add this about computer gaming:
How Videogames Are Changing the Economy
Continue reading “Journal: Get America Working–A Conversation Part II”
Journal: Afghanistan as a Failure of Imagination
08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Flawed projects prove costly for Afghanistan, U.S.
Contractor leaves Afghan police stations half-complete
Phi Beta Iota: Our political, policy, and military leaders simply do not know what they do not know. Assuming–desiring–that they have the best of intentions–the reality is that they are not receiving the intelligence (decision-support) that they require to make intelligent decisions. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, because there was political will, trillions have been wasted on “security” instead of sustenance. Haiti, because there were no political will, was a microcosm–20,000 troops with a huge logistics tail when what was really needed were CAB 21 Peace Jumpers able to call in a Reverse TPFID…. Advanced Cyber/IO starts with imagination & intelligence.
Journal: American Decline in Zero-Sum World?
Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Reform, Strategy, Threats
“We've Heard All This About American Decline Before.”
This time it's different. It's certainly true that America has been through cycles of declinism in the past. Campaigning for the presidency in 1960, John F. Kennedy complained, “American strength relative to that of the Soviet Union has been slipping, and communism has been advancing steadily in every area of the world.” Ezra Vogel's Japan as Number One was published in 1979, heralding a decade of steadily rising paranoia about Japanese manufacturing techniques and trade policies.
In the end, of course, the Soviet and Japanese threats to American supremacy proved chimerical. So Americans can be forgiven if they greet talk of a new challenge from China as just another case of the boy who cried wolf. But a frequently overlooked fact about that fable is that the boy was eventually proved right. The wolf did arrive — and China is the wolf.
Gideon Rachman is chief foreign-affairs commentator for the Financial Times and author of Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety.
Phi Beta Iota: The problem with the “status quo” actors and thinkers–however good their intentions–is that they simply do not know what they do not know. The world can indeed be zero-sum. It can also be non-zero sum, a case made by Robert Wright and summarized in Review: Nonzero–The Logic of Human Destiny. We know how to do this and want to do this. Those in power do not know how to do this and do not want to do this. Therein lies the challenge–all it takes is ONE leader–Cynthia McKinney comes to mind–willing to stand up, demand Electoral Reform (1 Page, 9 Points), and the rest will be history–a very good history of the Second American Republic, how it came to its senses, and created a prosperous world at peace through intelligence as design. Now THAT is Advanced Cyber/IO!
Graphic: Intelligence Maturity Scale
Review: Evolutionary Activism by Tom Atlee
Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure
Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today
Reference: Electoral Reform (Huffington Post Version)
Reference: Electoral Reform–1 Page 9 Points 2.2 (Document Only)
