I will not replicate all that is at www.oss.net and to a much lesser extent, www.earth-intelligence.net, but do want to recognize a handful of extraordinary individuals by isolating their especially meritorious contributiions to the long-running debate about national intelligence reform and re-invention.
Peter W. Singer is the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative and a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings. Singer’s research focuses on three core issues: the future of war, current U.S. defense needs and future priorities, and the future of the U.S. defense system. Singer lectures frequently to U.S. military audiences and is the author of several books and articles, including Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.
Editor's Note: In the following article, which appeared as a five-part series for Time Magazine's Battleland blog, Peter W. Singer attempts to dive deeper into the issue of sequestration and what it might really mean for U.S. military spending and power projection across the globe. A version of this article was presented at a private event at Brookings organized by the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies and the 21st Century Defense Initiative.
Imagine having all the downsides of Big Brother and none of the benefits: That's what you get with the Department of Homeland Security's vast network of “fusion” centers, according to a damning new report by the Senate's bipartisan Subcommittee on Investigations.
The fusion centers, described by Janet Napolitano as “one of the centerpieces of our counterterrorism strategy,” allegedly invade the privacy of Americans while producing “shoddy” reports that are typically “irrelevant” and “useless.” It's the sort of report that will find a home on every Ron Paul fan forum and, according to reporters, with good reason: The 77 centers, which have cost an estimated $289 million to $1.4 billion, have a pretty questionable track record. Here are some of the more surprising elements journalists have dug up from the report:
A shocking new Federal Security Service (FSB) report circulating in the Kremlin today alleges that an entire American family that sought Russian protection from the Obama regime was massacred by US intelligence agents within hours of their planned escape from the United States.
According to this report, on 22 September a woman who indentified herself as Kathleen Peterson visited the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Washington D.C. under the pretense of signing up to take a course titled Russian Language Express Course A-1 for beginners set to begin on 26 September whereupon she approached director Yuriy Zaytsev and “slipped into his hand,” while shaking it, an encrypted computer thumb drive covered in a small note that said “please help us we’re in danger.”
Following “standard protocols” for such instances, when Russian officials are approached on American soil by US citizens, this report continues, the note and thumb drive in question were “processed” according to “established procedures” and revealed the plans of Mrs. Peterson, her husband Albert [both pictured 2nd photo left], and their two children, Mathew and Christopher, to leave Washington D.C. on 23 September on a flight to Paris where it was requested they be met by Russian security personal as this family feared their lives were in danger.
Within 24 hours of Mrs. Peterson passing her information to Russian officials, this report says, she, her husband and two children were violently gunned down in their Fairfax County Virginia home on 23 September with this massacre being blamed by US police officials on a murder-suicide plot initiated by her husband, Albert, with at least one Western news source, quoting a source indentified only as “Maggie L.”, stating this tragedy was due to his, Albert’s, fears over Obama being reelected as US President.
According to US news sources, Albert Peterson was a longtime employee of the US defense giant Northrop Grumman until he resigned in 2009, and Kathleen Peterson was employed by the US defense contracting firm Blackbird Technologies located in Herndon, Virginia.
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This FSB report further notes Blackbird Technologies “tracking and tagging” of those US citizens destined to be placed in America’s most feared prisons called Communication Management Units, or CMU’s. These secretive political prisons for “domestic terrorists” radically restricts prisoner communications with the outside world to levels that rival, or exceed, the most restrictive facilities in the country, including the dreaded “Supermax”, and any other such prison operating in the Western world.
Greece: The General Confederation of Employees of Greece and the civil servants' union federation declared a 24-hour nationwide strike on Wednesday in protest against the finalization of the new package of austerity measures demanded by Greece's creditors.
Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated outside Greece's parliament on 26 September against austerity measures. The strike included doctors, teachers, tax workers, ferry operators and air traffic controllers. The Greek government is looking for ways to cut 11.5 billion euros ($14.7 billion) from the country's budget.
Comment: The economic hardships and austerity measures carry the risk of a breakdown in civil order. The key indicator of a spreading, unmanageable breakdown is the duration of protests. Thus far they have been short lived in Spain and Greece.
The international media has suggested the Eurozone crisis is now on a more stable trajectory. The protests suggest otherwise. European bankers and financial experts continue to fail to distinguish financial risks from real threats. There will be more outbreaks of civil disorder and more violent clashes.
Phi Beta Iota: We now know that financial assets inflated seventeen times verus the five times normal inflation (under a corrupt Federal Reserve) for physical assets. We now know that the financial mandarins and “control fraud” on the part of various governments has led to the internal looting of European Union and Americas commonwealths. Spain will be the next to collapse because the Spanish government has resolutely refused to consider the Iceland example. It is difficult to stop doing the wrong thing righter, we know this. Prospects for the USA in 2013-2014 are terrible. This is particularly troubling since there is nothing wrong with the USA that could not be fixed rapidly with the restoration of intelligence and integrity to governance.
In this first video (5 mins), Dr Sims looks at the information revolution – how the rise of the internet has fundamentally altered intelligence-gathering techniques, bringing challenges and opportunities in a globalised security environment.
In part two of my interview with world renowned intelligence expert and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies Dr Jennifer Sims, we discuss the close relationship between internet penetration and government instability.
Dr Sims presents her theory about how the spread of ‘viral' ideas, through improved internet/communication mediums, can lead to rapid mobilisation of these ideas across the citizenry, which may force government instability. Dr Sims looks at examples in the Middle East and Africa, where internet penetration has quickly moved from 15% to 40% of the population, which she calls ‘the critical period where political instability can happen'. The rapid spread of communications is empowering to people and can be for good, says Dr Sims, but governments need to take notice.
Dr Sims talks about the tremendous change in intelligence studies in the US, with a significant number of well-known women reaching senior levels in the field. It is a testament to the national security studies programs at universities across the US, says Dr Sims, which are becoming ‘increasingly female in their composition' — not because they are looking at gender statistics but because they are ‘looking for who is good' when searching to bring people into programs.
Women are increasingly occupying key security and intelligence positions in the US, and Dr Sims encourages women in Australia who are interested in national security studies to pursue it as a career.
“In 2011, 46.2 million people were counted as poor in the United States, the same number as in 2010 and the largest number of persons counted as poor in the measure's 53-year recorded history,” according to a timely new report from the Congressional Research Service. See Poverty in the United States: 2011, September 13, 2012.
Other new and newly updated CRS reports that have not been made publicly available include the following.
Phi Beta Iota: The juxtaposition of a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on poverty in America – a hot issue being kept under wraps at this time – with a report on the intelligence authorization bill by two experienced analysts new to the account (Richard Best finally retired and Al Cumin is on assigment elsewhere), is encouraging. In the latter instance, Richard F. Grimmett (CRS International Security analyst) and Rebecca S. Lange (an Air Force Fellow) demonstrate intelligence with integrity in tackling the militarization of intelligence and the excessive focus of intelligence on defense targets to the exclusion of all others (Whole of Government).
