References – Page 111 – Public Intelligence Blog

Operation Shady Rat. Sustained, silent, IP theft from 70 organizations across 14 countries. More. What we have witnessed over the past five to six years has been nothing short of a historically unprecedented transfer of wealth — closely guarded national secrets (including from classified government networks), source code, bug databases, email archives, negotiation plans and exploration details for new oil and gas field auctions, document stores, legal contracts, SCADA configurations, design schematics and much more has “fallen off the truck” of numerous, mostly Western companies and disappeared in the ever-growing electronic archives of dogged adversaries.

Phi Beta Iota: This is not new! What is new is the desperation of the Pentagon and its contractors to find a new threat justifying gross waste in the face of new taxpayer outrage over borrowing a trillion a year to pay for things we do not need and cannot afford. What most do not understand is that those nations that do industrial espionage on this scale also have the brains to devote humans to the cherry-picking task, which is non-trivial and labor intensive. CIA and NSA have never been about a sufficiency of humans–at CIA, in the early days of cyber-espionage, one reports officer walked off the job when handed a print-out of everything stolen in one pass by one device. Cyber-war is a scam, plain and simple. We should be focusing on responsible communications and computing architectures, and on open sources of information in 183 languages we don't understand. Until then, Shady Rat will continue to kick Sleeping Dog's ass.

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

The Cyber Racket

Reference: Bruce Schneier on Cyber War & Cyber Crime

Review: War by Other Means–Economic Espionage in America

Review: Friendly Spies–How America’s Allies Are Using Economic Espionage to Steal Our Secrets

2011/08/03

Pierre Levy: New Media Literacies (12 of Them)

04 Education, 11 Society, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence

This is interesting!

The New Media Literacies

EXTRACT (12 Literacies)

01 Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving. Having a strong sense of play can be helpful when you pick up a new piece of technology that you've never used before, when you're trying to write an essay and your outline isn't functioning as you'd hoped, and when you're designing anything at all, from a dress to a web page to a concert's program.

02 Performance: the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery. Being able to move fluidly and effectively between roles can help you when you're exploring online communities, when you're trying to decide what actions are ethical, and when you're shuffling between home, work and school.

03 Simulation: the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes. Being able to interpret, manipulate and create simulations can help you understand innumerable complex systems, like ecologies and computer networks – and make you better at playing video games!

Continue reading “Pierre Levy: New Media Literacies (12 of Them)”

2011/08/032011/08/03

Joe Mazzafro: Deficit Deal and Impact on the US IC

03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Military

The MAZZ-INT Blog

DEFICIT DEAL AND ITS IMPACT ON THE IC

At the time of the July edition of Mazz-INT Blog, the government was tied in a knot over coming to grips with how to get long term spending under control so there would be the political conditions to raise the debt ceiling on August 2^nd; NATO forces were engaged in a seeming stalemate in Libya to remove Gadhafi from power; there was rising concern about corruption in the Karzai “government” in Afghanistan; near open confrontation between Islamabad and the Washington over continuing US unilateral drone attacks against Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership inside of Pakistan; and the US Intelligence Community (IC) was finishing a quiet but well deserved victory lap for taking out Osama bin Laden. As August begins I am happy to report that Bin Laden remains dead —– with increasingly negative impacts for Al Qaeda, but little else as changed.

So what to discuss with you that is worth your time? As Eddie Layton, Nimitz’s N2 throughout WWII, was famous for saying “the biggest alligator is the one closest to you” which means to me the debt crisis and its impact on the on the IC. As I write this on 31 July, the Executive and Legislative branches are struggling to figure out how to raise the debt ceiling so the US government will not be in default on August 3^rd when you are likely to be seeing these ramblings. So let’s focus on how debt crisis will likely impact the IC.

Continue reading “Joe Mazzafro: Deficit Deal and Impact on the US IC”

2011/08/03

Review (Guest): Global Risks 2011 – Governance Failures & Economic Disparity (World Economic Forum)

Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Key Players, Policies, World Economic Forum

Phi Beta Iota: The interactive edition is well worth going through. Below are highlights from our own review.

Six Risks Stand Out: Fiscal crisis, Geopolitical Conflict, Climate Change, Extreme Energy Price Volatility, Economic Disparity, Global Governance Failure.

Risk Interconnectivity Map: Central to the map are Economic Disparity and Global Governance Failures. Three clusters add depth to the potential sustained crisis: Fiscal-Energy Volatility; Crime, Corruption, and Failed States; and Water-Food Security.

Overall this is one of the most extraordinary points of reference in existence.

Governance Failures & Economic Disparity: WEF Global Risks Report 2011 Posted: July 18th, 2011 | Author: chris arkenberg

The Global Risks Report 2011 from the World Economic Forum highlights two primary megatrends with the potential to inject significant disruption into global systems. From the report:

Two risks are especially significant given their high degrees of impact and interconnectedness. Economic disparity and global governance failures both influence the evolution of many other global risks and inhibit our capacity to respond effectively to them.

In this way, the global risk context in 2011 is defined by a 21st century paradox: as the world grows together, it is also growing apart.

It is worth noting how inter-related these two megatrends are as wealth consolidation into an elite class enables them to further deconstruct global governance mechanisms. This has been a feedback loop for at least the past 40 years, if not longer, as western growth fueled the rise of non-state economic bodies & super-empowered individuals who then lobbied against regulatory measures that would aim to keep their rise in check and mitigate the risk of disparity. Elites consolidate more money & power, further driving disparity and eroding governance. What results is an interstitial vacuum where corporate intervention fails to see any profit motive and where state intervention lacks the funds or will to govern effectively.

In effect, the combination of super-empowered non-state actors, failures of state governance, and widespread economic disparity undermines the Rule of Law by releasing elites from accountability and driving the underclass deeper into criminality.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Global Risks 2011 – Governance Failures & Economic Disparity (World Economic Forum)”

2011/08/022011/08/02

Reference: UN Air Power Conference Papers

Briefings (Core)

Wings of Peace — Click on Image to Enlarge

The 17th Air Force Historical Workshop was a great success and the proceedings will be published in book form (scheduled for 2012).

For futher information, please contact Dr. Walter Dorn, Canadian Forces College, Toronto, at dorn@cfc.dnd.ca.

Presentations

“Air Operations in Somalia, 1991-1993“,

Dr. William Dean III, United States Air Force Air Command and Staff College

“Kinetic Air Power in the Congo, 1961-1963“,

Dr. Walter Dorn, Royal Military College / Canadian Forces College

“Attack Helicopters in the Heart of Africa, 2004 onward“,

Dr. Walter Dorn, Royal Military College / Canadian Forces College

“United Nations Air Operations in the Congo Crisis, 1960 – 1964“,

Dr. Sebastian Lukasik, United States Air Force Air Command and Staff College

2011/08/022011/08/02

Chuck Spinney: Libya, Rebels, & the West–A Debacle

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

Note: the author of this important report is one of best journalists covering the wars of Western intervention in the Islamic world. CS

August 1, 2011

Follow the Oil and the Money

Why the West is Committed to the Murderous Rebels in Libya

By PATRICK COCKBURN, Counterpunch

In keeping with the British Government's well-established record of comical ineptitude in dealing with Libya, foreign secretary William Hague chose to recognize the rebel leaders in Benghazi as the legitimate government of the country at the very moment some of them may have been shooting or torturing to death their chief military commander.

Read full article….

See Also:

Cynthia McKinney Reports from Libya

2011/08/02

Chuck Spinney: Israeli Ethnic Cleansing of the Bedouin

05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

Palestinians fear for ancient West Bank water source

By Tom Perry, Reuters

RASHAYIDA, West Bank | Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:43am EDT

(Reuters) – – Hewn from rock, the cavernous cisterns which dot the desert beyond Bethlehem have for centuries harvested winter rain to provide shepherds and their flocks with water through summer.

Under a baking sun, an elderly Bedouin explains how cisterns he remembers from childhood, many of them restored to full working order in the last few years, are once again helping his goat-herding community to survive.

That, he concludes, is why the Israeli authorities who control the West Bank have demolished at least three in the area since November.

“Maybe they are doing this to make us leave. We will not leave,” said Falah Hedawa, 64, sitting on cushions in his tent home pitched in the hills that slope down to the Dead Sea.

Out into the desert, a stagnant pool marked the spot where one of the cisterns, chiseled out of a hillside, had stood until its recent demolition. A mud trail on the otherwise dry ground indicated where the water inside had drained away toward a wadi, a valley which becomes a river when the rain falls.

Israel has demolished 20 rainwater collection cisterns in the West Bank in the first half of this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which monitors conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: There are two crimes against humanity here, the first against the Palestinians, the second against the centuries old cisterns that collect winter water.

The Attack on the Liberty–The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship

Category: References

John Robb: Operation Shady Rat vs Sleeping Dog