07 Other Atrocities – Page 303 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/12/15

Tikkun Rabbi Michael Lerner: Obama Suppressing 6,000-Page Report on CIA Torture Adopted by Senate Intelligence Committee

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government

Obama Suppressing 6,000-Page Report on CIA Torture Adopted by Senate Intelligence Committee

by: David Harris-Gershon on December 14th, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Over a year ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a historic, 6,000-page report which contains “startling details” about CIA misdeeds related to its torture program.

The report, which cost $40 million to produce and appears to pose no national security threats, has been set for release since December 13, 2012. However, it has yet to see the light of day.

The reason: the Obama administration continues to suppress its release, apparently for no reason other than to protect the reputations of the guilty.

Per The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdorf:

[Over a year ago], the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a 6,000-page report on the CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation program that led to torture. Its contents include details on each prisoner in CIA custody, the conditions of their confinement, whether they were tortured, the intelligence they provided, and the degree to which the CIA lied about its behavior to overseers. Senator Dianne Feinstein declared it one of the most significant oversight efforts in American history, noting that it contains “startling details” and raises “critical questions.” But all these months later, the report is still being suppressed.

The Obama Administration has no valid reason to suppress the report. Its contents do not threaten national security, as evidenced by the fact that numerous figures who normally defer to the national-security state want it released with minor redactions. The most prominent of all is Vice President Joe Biden.

Read full article.

2013/12/142013/12/15

Chuck Spinney: Staying in Afghanistan Is a Recipe for More Terrorism

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, Drones & UAVs, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military

Staying in Afghanistan Is a Recipe for More Terrorism

Anthony W. Orlando – Huffington Post – 12/12/13

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-w-orlando/staying-in-afghanistan-is_b_4437192.html

Barack Obama is daring the terrorists. He's standing in their front yard. He's calling them out.

Of course, that's not how it's reported. “U.S. ‘nowhere near' decision to pull all troops out of Afghanistan,” was the understated Reuters headline. Under negotiation is an agreement keeping 8,000 to 10,000 American troops in Afghanistan “through 2024 and beyond.” Also on the table are night raids and drone strikes that Afghan President Hamid Karzai refuses to allow.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Staying in Afghanistan Is a Recipe for More Terrorism”

2013/12/132013/12/13

Chuck Spinney: BIll Polk on Syria Part III

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation

The purpose of this email is to transmit the 3rd part of historian William R. Polk's study entitled, Understanding Syria. Parts 1 & 2 can be found at these links: Understanding Syria and Appendix A: The Intellectual and Political Foundations of 21st Century Jihad. Part 3, attached below is in PDF format and is entitled Appendix B: Chemical Weapons.

This latest essay is an excellent short description of chemical weapons, a history of their use since WWI, and it lays out an analysis of the question of whether or not President Assad used them against his own people. He also examines the grand strategic implications of President Putin's intervention, which effectively put a stop to an American intervention, opened the door to greater Russian involvement in the region, and may have changed the strategic dynamic in the Middle East, particularly from the perspective of Israel.

Polk's argument in this essay is also an excellent bookend to Seymour Hersh's' explosive report in the London Review of Books, which I discussed in The Syrian Guns of August (Counterpunch, Dec 10, 2013).

PDF (9 Pages): Polk – Appendix B-Chemical Weapons

2013/12/112013/12/11

Mini-Me: Cognitive Dissonance at NSA + NSA High Crimes RECAP + Integrity Remediation

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Huh?

Do You Trust the Washington Post‘s Sources on Morale at the NSA?

Former officials insist that employees are upset because President Obama hasn't visited to show his support.

Conor Friedersdorf

Reuters via The Atlantic, Dec 10 2013, 8:20 AM ET

A strange Washington Post story gives readers the impression that morale is low at the NSA because President Obama hasn't visited to signal his support for the intelligence agency, even as Edward Snowden's leaks are causing many to criticize it.

The headline: “NSA morale down after Edward Snowden revelations, former U.S. officials say.”

The lead:

Morale has taken a hit at the National Security Agency in the wake of controversy over the agency’s surveillance activities, according to former officials who say they are dismayed that President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support.

What these “dismayed” sources told the newspaper:

Supporters of the NSA say staffers are not feeling the love.

“The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it is had no support from the White House even though it’s been carrying out publicly approved intelligence missions,” said Joel Brenner, NSA inspector general from 2002 to 2006. “They feel they’ve been hung out to dry, and they’re right.”

A former U.S. official—who like several other former officials interviewed for this story requested anonymity because he still has dealings with the agency—said: “The president has multiple constituencies—I get it. But he must agree that the signals intelligence NSA is providing is one of the most important sources of intelligence today. So if that’s the case, why isn’t the president taking care of one of the most important elements of the national security apparatus?”

Is this just an attempt to exert pressure on the president and stave off even the mildest criticism of the NSA? The sourcing here seems awfully shoddy. Is a former NSA inspector general who hasn't worked for the agency in seven years really qualified to pronounce upon the current feelings of every employee? Is the proposition that NSA staffers are all of one mind about recent controversies something we'd credit even if a current NSA employee said it? Did the anonymous “former U.S. official” ever work for the NSA? What “dealings” does he or she presently have with the agency, and how remunerative are those dealings?

After reading what these former officials had to say, Marcy Wheeler points out that NSA employees have a reason for low morale that has nothing to do with Obama's support:

Most of the NSA’s employees have not been read into many of these programs … That raises the distinct possibility that NSA morale is low not because the President hasn’t given them a pep talk, but because they’re uncomfortable working for an Agency that violates its own claimed rules so often. Most of the men and women at NSA have been led to believe they don’t spy on their fellow citizens. Those claims are crumbling, now matter how often the NSA repeats the word “target.” [PBI: Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Cognitive Dissonance at NSA + NSA High Crimes RECAP + Integrity Remediation”

2013/12/10

Penguin: The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind”

03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Atoms for Peace….

The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind”

Global Research News Hour Episode 46. Conversations with Yoichi Shimatsu and Hatrick Penry

We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

-Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project which created the first atomic devices. [1]

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Length (59:20)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)

Read text and see documentation.

2013/12/10

Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Bubble Economy – Starting with the Assassination of JFK

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Why We're Stuck with a Bubble Economy (December 9, 2013)

Inflating serial asset bubbles is no substitute for rising real incomes.

Why are we stuck with an economy that only generates serial credit/asset bubbles that crash with catastrophic consequences? Ths answer is actually fairly straightforward.

Let's start with the ideal conditions for an economy that depends on consumer spending.

1. Rising real income, i.e. after adjusting for inflation/currency depreciation, wages/salaries have more purchasing power every year.

2. An expanding pool of new households, i.e. young people who move away from home or graduate from college, get a job and start their own household. New households buy homes, vehicles, furniture, appliances, kitchenware, tools, etc., driving consumption far more than established households.

Neither of these conditions apply to today's economy. Income for the bottom 90% has been stagnant for forty years, and has declined 7% in real terms since 2000.

Read full article with more graphics.

Continue reading “Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Bubble Economy – Starting with the Assassination of JFK”

2013/12/092013/12/09

Stephen Lendman: Mandela’s Disturbing Legacy

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government

On December 5, Mandela died peacefully at home in Johannesburg. Cause of death was respiratory failure. He was 95.

Supporters called him a dreamer of big dreams. His legacy fell woefully short. More on that below.

“The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society.”

In 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was mostly incarcerated on Robben Island. It’s in Table Bay. It’s around 7km offshore from Cape Town.

In February 1990, he was released. In 1993, he received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with South African President FW de Klerk.

Nobel Committee members said it was “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”

De Klerk enforced the worst of apartheid ruthlessness. In 1994, Mandela was elected president. He served from May 1994 – June 1999.

He exacerbated longstanding economic unfairness. He deserves condemnation, not praise.

John Pilger’s work exposed South African apartheid harshness. Doing so got him banned. Thirty years later he returned.

He wanted to see firsthand what changed. He interviewed Mandela in retirement. His “Apartheid Did Not Die” documentary followed.

Continue reading “Stephen Lendman: Mandela's Disturbing Legacy”