07 Other Atrocities – Page 498 – Public Intelligence Blog

Economic Recovery on Edge

Lack of Contract Oversight Puts Billions At Risk

Laurel Adams February 6th 2011
Center for Public Integrity

EXTRACT: The GAO singled out the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as agencies with risky contractor oversight. The GAO also said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services failed to review contractor rates and identified $90 million in questionable costs.

Phi Beta Iota: Government–and society–are comprehensive design problems–advanced intelligence (decision-support). The US Government is archaic in its design, and lacks integrity (holistic accurate feed-back loops) at all levels across all mission areas. It is a useful challenge for 2012 and beyond.

2011/02/062011/02/06

Terror at Fort Hood? Or Terror from America?

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Military

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

We Could Have Stopped The Terror At Fort Hood

Washington Post February 6, 2011 Pg. B1

By Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan M. Collins

Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused in the murders of 13 people and the attempted murders of 32 others in the shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex., in November 2009, appears to be the toughest kind of terrorist to spot: a lone wolf who plots without the overt support of domestic cells or foreign sponsors.

Still, the attack did not come as a complete surprise to some in the Army and the FBI, and that makes this incident all the more tragic. Our Senate committee's 14-month investigation of the Fort Hood killings has concluded that the Department of Defense and the FBI “collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.”

The deaths at Fort Hood could and should have been prevented. The Defense Department's failure to acknowledge the threat of violent Islamist extremism within its ranks, coupled with organizational and communication flaws in the FBI's counterterrorism operations, contributed to the tragedy.

Full Op-Ed….

Continue reading “Terror at Fort Hood? Or Terror from America?”

2011/02/062011/02/06

Hackers target NASDAQ Site

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commercial Intelligence, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Tools

By GRAHAM BOWLEY The New York Times

Published: Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 1:00 a.m.

Computer hackers have repeatedly breached the systems of the company that runs the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York but did not penetrate the part of the system that handles trades, according to several law enforcement officials.

Continue reading “Hackers target NASDAQ Site”

2011/02/052011/02/21

NIGHTWATCH Special Comment on Egypt

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet

Phi Beta Iota: Below the line is a most intriguing speculative analytic comment on what role Saudi Arabia may have played, and the intersection between religion, despots, military, and the public.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Special Comment on Egypt”

2011/02/032011/02/03

Central Asia–Failed States in the Making

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

Central Asia: Decay and Decline

International Crisis Group Report 201 3 Feb 2011

Quietly but steadily Central Asia’s basic human and physical
infrastructure – the roads, power plants, hospitals and schools and the
last generation of Soviet-trained specialists who have kept this all
running – is disappearing. The equipment is wearing out, the personnel
retiring or dying. Post-independence regimes made little effort to
maintain or replace either, and funds allocated for this purpose have
largely been eaten up by corruption. This collapse has already sparked
protests and contributed to the overthrow of a government.

Read full report….

Continue reading “Central Asia–Failed States in the Making”

2011/02/03

James Madison: US Security Budget a Nightmare

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Military

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

Madison's Nightmare: How Much Should We Spend for National Insecurity?

Chuck Spinney, FEB 3, 2011

The Atlantic (for James Fallows)

Read entire reference piece….

Brother Chuck makes three key points:

1. He quotes Madison, as we have, on the importance of public knowledge as the basis for the Republic keeping the government accountable and in check.

2. He points out that the defense budget has never been audited, cannot be audited, and is both totally “out of control” and irresponsibly chaotic and grotesquely excessive.

3. He proposes regular persistent cuts in the defense budget until such time as it can actually pass an audit.

Continue reading “James Madison: US Security Budget a Nightmare”

2011/02/022011/02/02

‘Al-Qaida nuclear bomb’ + Egypt Push-Back

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence

‘Al-Qaida on brink of using nuclear bomb'

By Heidi Blake and Christopher Hope, The Daily Telegraph February 1, 2011

Al-Qaida is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build “dirty” bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents.

A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a “nuclear 9/11”.

Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing “workable and efficient” biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.

Category: 07 Other Atrocities

Half a Trillion a Year for Contractors–Poor Oversight