References – Page 175 – Public Intelligence Blog

2009/12/032009/12/03

Reference: Measuring Success and Failure in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism–US Government Metrics of the Global War on Terror (GWOT)

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Government, Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence

Alex P. Schmid, one of a handful of trully expert scholars in the field of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and his colleague Rashmi Singh, have created a summary that is devasting on multiple fronts. The “Global War on Terror” or GWOT has lasted longer than World Wars I and II combined; the money expended (the authors do not include the military costs of occupying Afghanistan and Iraq) has been enormous, and in all that time, no one has defined the metrics by which to measure the endeavor. The chapter in included in After the War on Terror: Regional and Multilateral Perspectives on Counter-TerrorismStrategy

See also:

Search: Strategic Analytic Model

Search: QDR “four forces after next”

2009/12/012009/12/03

Reference: Senate on Losing Bin Laden & Tora Bora

Hill Letters & Testimony

This document is an official report on the failed effort of the combined resources of the US Government to kill Osama Bin Laden. He was found, and also followed for four days as he marched out to Jalalabad and then to sanctuary in Waziristan. Below we provide links to the reviews of books cited in the report, which also contains some excellent graphics and a couple of a ppendices.

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA’s Key Field Commander (Hardcover)

Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man

First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA

American Soldier

Inside CentCom: The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

2009/11/302009/11/30

Reference: Are Hackers Pioneers with the Right Stuff or Criminal Pathological Scum? Mitch Kabay Reprises

03 Economy, 04 Education, 10 Transnational Crime, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Hacking, ICT-IT, InfoOps (IO), Law Enforcement, Media Reports, Methods & Process, Mobile, Real Time, Technologies

Full Story Online

Why Criminal Hackers Must Not Be Rewarded
Part 1: The Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
By M. E. Kabay, 11/30/2009

In 1995, I participated in a debate with distinguished security expert Robert D. Steele, a vigorous proponent of open-source intelligence. We discussed the advisability of hiring criminal hackers. Perhaps readers will find the polemic I published back then of interest today. I’m sure it will provoke vitriolic comments from the criminal hacker community.

Continue reading “Reference: Are Hackers Pioneers with the Right Stuff or Criminal Pathological Scum? Mitch Kabay Reprises”

2009/11/30

Reference: Open Innovation vs. Dinosaur Defenses

Articles & Chapters, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process

Abstract & Download

The Imperfect is the Enemy of the Good: Anticircumvention Versus Open Innovation

Wendy Seltzer, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Vol. 25, 2010

Digital Rights Management, law-backed technological control of usage of copyrighted works, is clearly imperfect: It often fails to stop piracy and frequently blocks non-infringing uses. Yet the drive to correct these imperfections masks a deeper conflict, between the DRM system of anticircumvention and open development in the entire surrounding media environment. This conflict, at the heart of the DRM schema, will only deepen, even if other aspects of DRM can be improved. This paper takes a systemic look at the legal, technical, and business environment of DRM to highlight this openness conflict
and its effects.

. . . . . . .

In the full cost-benefit analysis of anticircumvention, the loss to open innovation would outweigh the gains from this imperfect mechanism of copyright enforcement. Treating code literally as law leaves the law with too many harmful side effects.

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2009/11/302009/12/02

Reference: Creating a global knowledge network

Briefings (Core)

Abstract: If we were to start from scratch today to design a quality-controlled archive and distribution system for research findings, would it be realized as a set of “electronic clones” of print journals? Could we imagine instead some form of incipient knowledge network for our research communications infrastructure? What differences should be expected in its realization for different scientific research fields? Is there an obvious alternative to the false dichotomy of “classical peer review” vs. no quality control at all? What is the proper role of governments and their funding agencies in this enterprise, and what might be the role of suitably configured professional societies? These are some of the key questions raised by the past decade of initial experience with new forms of electronic research infrastructure. In the below, I will suggest only some partial answers to the above, with more complete answers expected on the 5-10 year timescale.

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2009/11/252009/11/25

Reference: Department of State Language Gaps

02 Diplomacy, General Accountability Office, Key Players, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Tools

Phi Beta Iota: The Department of State (State), which should be the primary interface between the Republic, it's policy, acquisition, and operations communities, and the rest of the world, has fewer diplomats than the Department of Defense (DoD) has military musicians; and continues to suffer persistent staffing and foreign language gaps that “compromise diplomatic readiness” according to the General Accountability Office (GAO).

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2009/11/252009/11/25

Reference: Emails on Climate Change Fraud

03 Environmental Degradation, Academia, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Non-Governmental, United Nations & NGOs

Full File Free Online

Climatic Research Unit emails, data, models, 1996-2009

Released November 21, 2009

This archive presents over 120Mb of emails, documents, computer code and models from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, written between 1996 and 2009.

The CRU has told the BBC that the files were obtained by a computer hacker 3-4 days ago.

This archive includes unreleased global temperature analysis computer source code that has been the subject of Freedom of Information Act requests.

The archive appears to be a collection of information put together by the CRU prior to a FoI redaction process.