09 Terrorism – Page 36 – Public Intelligence Blog

Exclusive: Experienced intelligence professionals reaffirm that torture – while popular with “tough” politicians – doesn’t work in getting accurate and actionable information, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

To those living “outside the Beltway” it may seem counterintuitive that those of us whose analysis has been correct on key issues that the U.S. government got criminally wrong – like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – would be blacklisted from “mainstream” media and ostracized by the Smart People of the Establishment. But, alas, that’s the way it is. Read full article.

2016/03/232016/03/22

CounterPunch: Zero-Sum in Brussels – the Savage Vision Driving a Terror-Ridden World

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 09 Terrorism

Zero-Sum in Brussels: the Savage Vision Driving a Terror-Ridden World

The atrocities in Brussels — and they are horrific, criminal atrocities — are not occurring in a vacuum. They are not springing from some unfathomable abyss of motiveless malevolence. They are a response, in kind, to the atrocious violence being committed by Western powers on a regular basis in many countries around the world. And just as there is no justification for the acts of carnage in Brussels (and Paris and Turkey and elsewhere), there is likewise no justification for the much larger and more murderous acts of carnage being carried out by the most powerful and prosperous nations on earth, day after day, year after year.

2016/02/232016/02/20

Worth a Look: Empire, Racism, and Genocide – A History of U.S. Foreign Policy

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

In its entire history, there has been very little time when the United States has been at peace. As it wages its many wars and ‘interventions’, the stated goal is always something few people could argue with: fostering democracy when a struggling people are resisting tyranny, removing threats to U.S. security, or punishing a cruel dictator for unspeakable misdeeds.

Yet on closer scrutiny, these reasons are seldom valid. They simply hide the true purposes of U.S. military involvement, which are power and wealth. Starting with the barbarous destruction of Native American culture in order to gain farmlands, right through to the Iraqi invasion for oil, money and power have always motivated U.S. foreign policy decisions. Dictators with appalling records of human rights violations are upheld by the U.S. if they agree to whatever economic or strategic demands the U.S. makes. Conversely, democratically elected leaders are overthrown if they don’t.

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Empire, Racism, and Genocide – A History of U.S. Foreign Policy”

2016/02/132016/02/11

Berto Jongman: CIA Arms Terrorists — Over and Over and Over….

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War

A Special Relationship

The United States is teaming up with Al Qaeda, again

By Andrew Cockburn

Harper's Magazine, January 2016

2016/02/092016/02/08

Berto Jongman: Advance Knowledge of ISIS Plots in Europe?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, IO Deeds of War

Intel agencies had hints of ISIS plot

Source: It wasn't a secret ISIS was targeting Europe

Intelligence obtained by Western security agencies before the November 13 Paris attacks indicated as many as 60 ISIS fighters had been deployed by the group to Europe to carry out attacks on five cities and had already reached European soil, a senior European counterterrorism source told CN.N.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Advance Knowledge of ISIS Plots in Europe?”

2016/02/082016/02/07

Berto Jongman: Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 09 Terrorism

Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad

TUNIS — PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI of Afghanistan has warned in several recent interviews that unless peace talks with Pakistan and the Taliban produce results in the next few months, his country may not survive 2016. Afghanistan is barely standing, he says, after the Taliban onslaught last year, which led to the highest casualties among civilians and security forces since 2001.