References – Page 100 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/09/07

DefDog: Nation’s Top Cops Slam US Intelligence

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement

Failure, across the board…..implications of this for domestic security abound…..where has all the money gone?

Report: Nation's Top Cops Say U.S. Counterterror Effort Is Lacking

Ten years after 9/11, top cops in the nation's biggest cities feel there
are still significant gaps in the intelligence and analysis they receive
about terrorism, even as the homegrown terror threat looms larger.

A survey of intelligence commanders from America's 56 biggest cities conducted by the Homeland Security Policy Institute found the police chiefs believe the nation's intelligence enterprise is less robust than it could be, and that 62 percent of the chiefs felt this lack left them “unable to develop a complete understanding of their local threat.”

Read full article.

Read full report.

Phi Beta Iota: The “top cops” are great people, they just do not understand that the terror threat is fradulent and that the homeland security industrial complex is working precisely as intended, wasting hundreds of billions on fraudulent dysfunctional white and white-collar employment while channeling hundreds of billions in unearned profits to the homeland security industrial complex.

No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of U.S. Intelligence

2011/09/072011/09/07

David Isenberg: Jim Clapper Claims Transformation — Robert Steele Comments on Each Misrepresentation

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Ethics, Hill Letters & Testimony, IO Impotency

PRINT VERSION (Memorandum to SSCI & HPSCI with Attached Post)

SHORT URL FOR THIS SPECIFIC POST:

http://tinyurl.com/Clapper-Steele

For information.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

How 9/11 Transformed the Intelligence Community

It's no longer about ‘need to know.' Our guiding principle is ‘responsibility to share.'

By James R. Clapper

It has been a decade since our nation suffered the greatest strategic surprise on American soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of September 11, as the country sought to understand how such a complex attack could go undetected, much attention was focused on the intelligence community. Pundits, scholars, commentators and others quickly labeled 9/11 an intelligence failure.

Read full original.

Phi Beta Iota: General Clapper means well, but his Op Ed is utterly disingenous and completely out of touch with reality. Below the line is a safety copy of his Op Ed with inserted commentary.

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Jim Clapper Claims Transformation — Robert Steele Comments on Each Misrepresentation”

2011/09/072011/09/07

John Robb: Hollow States & Crisis of Capitalism

Blog Wisdom, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Policies

Tuesday, 06 September 2011

HOLLOW STATES and a CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

Had fun with this post. Working on getting the thinking on this right. Tough to do.

________________________

Hollow, bankrupt states and crisis of capitalism is not a “dystopian future” if it is actually happening now. With almost hourly updates.

I coined the term, “hollow state” back in 2007. The idea derived from what I was seeing develop due to open source warfare and primary loyalties. Here's a run down on what it means:

The modern nation-state is in a secular decline, made inevitable by the rise of a global market system. Even developed nations, like the US, are not immune to this process. The decline is at first gradual and then accelerates until it reaches a final end-point: a hollow state. The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (“leaders”, membership in international organizations, regulations, laws, and a bureaucracy) but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services, and control of its historical counter-part. It is merely a shell that has some influence over the spoils of the economy. The real power rests in the hands of corporations and criminal/guerrilla groups that vie with each other for control of sectors of wealth production. For the individual living within this state, life goes on, but it is debased in a myriad of ways. The shift from a marginally functional nation-state in manageable decline to a hollow state often comes suddenly, through a financial crisis.

Continue reading “John Robb: Hollow States & Crisis of Capitalism”

2011/09/07

Patrick Meier: OpenStreetMap Micro-Tasking Imagery

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Geospatial, Hacking, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Real Time, Threats, United Nations & NGOs

OpenStreetMap’s New Micro-Tasking Platform for Satellite Imagery Tracing

September 7, 2011

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT) response to Haiti remains one of the most remarkable examples of what’s possible when volunteers, open source software and open data intersect. When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on January 12th, 2010, the Google Map of downtown Port-au-Prince was simply too incomplete to be used for humanitarian response. Within days, however, several hundred volunteers from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) commu-nity used satellite imagery to trace roads, shelters, and other features to create the most detailed map of Haiti ever created.

Read full posting with graphics.

See other Patrick Meier contributions at Phi Beta Iota.

2011/09/072011/09/07

Penguin: CIA’s Metamorphis Into the Drone Machine

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Deeds of War

If you build it, they will come….

CIA's Push for Drone War Driven by Internal Needs

Gareth Porter

The World News, 6 September 2011

EXTRACT:

The shift in the CIA mission's has been reflected in the spectacular growth of its Counter-terrorism Center (CTC) from 300 employees in September 2001 to about 2,000 people today – 10 percent of the agency's entire workforce, according to the Post report.

The agency's analytical branch, which had been previously devoted entirely to providing intelligence assessments for policymakers, has been profoundly affected.

More than one-third of the personnel in the agency's analytical branch are now engaged wholly or primarily in providing support to CIA operations, according to senior agency officials cited by the Post. And nearly two-thirds of those are analysing data used by the CTC drone war staff to make decisions on targeting.

Read full article.

2011/09/062011/09/06

Paul Fernhout: How Security Clearance Process Harms National Security by Eradicating Cognitive Diversity

10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Threats

This essay discusses how the USA's security clearance process (mainly related to ensuring secrecy) may have a counter-productive negative effect on the USA's national security by reducing “cognitive diversity” among security professionals. Background refs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_clearance#United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrecy

Scott Page wrote an insightful book about the value of “cognitive diversity” in making effective groups, called The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. From a review:

“Rather than ponder moral questions like, ‘Why can't we all get along?' Dr. Page asks practical ones like, ‘How can we all be more productive together?' The answer, he suggests, is in messy, creative organizations and environments with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.”

Ralph J. Perro (a pseudonym) wrote an essay called: “Interviewing With An Intelligence Agency (or, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Fort Meade)”. From the document:

“After the process was over, I was talking to one of my references – a veteran Silicon Valley software executive, and former manager of mine. My reference commented on what transpired “That’s disappointing. If they can’t hire you, I have no idea who they can hire. That process seems to be designed to retain only the most bland.” The ‘bland’ comment might be a bit severe, however, considering the 1999 External Management report it would appear that the agency would appear to need creative thinkers & problem-solvers more than ever.”

What happens if you think about both of these together and consider the implications for US national security?

Continue reading “Paul Fernhout: How Security Clearance Process Harms National Security by Eradicating Cognitive Diversity”

2011/09/062011/09/06

Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

WinslowWheeler Cropped — Winslow Wheeler

What Has Been the Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars?

Email from Winslow Wheeler

This week, as the media runs its displays on America ten years after the 9/11 attacks, there will be references to the dollar costs. A figure some will use is the one trillion dollars President Obama cited as for the war in Iraq. That figure is a gross underestimate.

The war in Iraq and its costs are inseparable from the wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and elsewhere. Indeed, when the Defense Department seeks appropriations for them, it does not distinguish the costs by location; nor does Congress in appropriations bills.

Moreover, the DOD costs are hardly the whole story: add costs in the State Department budget for aid to the governments (such as they are) of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Add also the costs to care for the US veterans of these wars. That would include the care already extended and the care now obligated for the duration of these men's and women's lives.

Add to that the expanded costs of domestic security against terrorism.

Add also the interest we annually pay for the deficit spending that has financed the wars.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+”