04 Inter-State Conflict – Page 146 – Public Intelligence Blog

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November 2, 2009

Clinton, Goldstone and true cost of the occupation

Hever: The Israeli government is hiding the true cost of the occupation even from itself

The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported last Friday that at least 11 locations within settlement colonies in the West Bank are escalating construction in order to alter “facts on the ground.” In October, the joint Israeli-Palestinian organization, Alternative Information Center, organized a conference on the economy of the Israeli occupation in Bethlehem. The Real News' Lia Tarachansky attended and spoke to the AIC's Shir Hever about the real costs of maintaining Israel's occupation.

Cost estimated at US$9 billion to the governments of Israel and the USA, while profit is almost entirely privatized.

Continue reading “Journal: True Cost–Israel and Palestine”

2009/10/202009/10/20

Journal: Multinational Operations 101

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Methods & Process, Military

Italian Troops Denied Access To Intelligence Reports, Minister Says

Richard Owen TimesOnline (UK) October 20, 2009

Italy is denied full access to intelligence assessments in Afghanistan, a restriction that affects its troops' ability to operate safely and hampers allied co-ordination, the Italian Foreign Minister said yesterday.

The lack of co-ordination and pooled intelligence between Nato forces was a widespread problem, Franco Frattini said. “We have repeatedly raised this issue,” he added. …

Mr Frattini said the problem was that intelligence was “the only resource not put at the disposal of everyone”. He said that in Herat, which is under Italian and Spanish command, there was excellent co-ordination with Spanish forces, “but if I want to leave Herat to go to Kandahar it is another matter”.

Continue reading “Journal: Multinational Operations 101”

2009/10/202009/10/20

Journal: How NOT to Decide on Afghanistan

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats

The Real Reason for More Troops in Afghanistan

Michael Gaddy LouRockwell.com October 20, 2009Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of our quest for empire over the past six decades realizes that Obama’s contemplation of whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan is simply those who control him providing Obama with the opportunity to look “presidential.” The decision to send additional troops was reached prior to the situational comedy of General McChrystal’s leaked “confidential report” to the Washington Post and Obama’s National Security Advisor’s public admonishment of McChrystal’s failure to follow the chain of command. All of this is nothing but a well-rehearsed, though poorly camouflaged hoax. Additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan within a very short period of time and Obama really has no say in the matter. The question is: why?

Continue reading “Journal: How NOT to Decide on Afghanistan”

2009/10/152009/10/16

Journal: Afghanistan, Biden, Baer, & Brains

03 India, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Communities of Practice, Ethics, History, Peace Intelligence, Policy, Reform, Strategy, True Cost

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Rethink Afghanistan Part Six

Robert Baer, a former CIA field operative says, “The notion that we're in Afghanistan to make our country safer is just complete bullshit… what it's doing is causing us greater danger, no question about it. Because the more we fight in Afghanistan, the more the conflict is pushed across the border into Pakistan, the more we destabilize Pakistan, the more likely it is that a fundamentalist government will take over the army — and we'll have Al-Qaeda like groups with nuclear weapons.”

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U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops. . . . . . .

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Why Joe Biden Should Resign

Citing a Newsweek story: “Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?” Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. “And how much will we spend on Pakistan?” Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. “Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?” The White House Situation Room fell silent.

Continue reading “Journal: Afghanistan, Biden, Baer, & Brains”

2009/10/092009/10/09

Journal: Defense Research, Science, & Technology

04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Security, Commercial Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Reform

Proprietary Black Box Magic Happens Inside Linked to TS/SCI Price List (Only Visible to Idiots) — Proprietary Black Box Expensive Classified Magic Happens Inside

DoD Suppressed Critique of Military Research

New DoD Website Fosters Secret Science

Phi Beta Iota:Two reports today confirm our grave doubts about the viability of U.S. Departemnt of Defense (DoD) research in general, and Science & Technology (S&T) in particular. In combination with the known grid-loock and inherent loss of integrity within defense acquisition, these two reports suggest that the U.S. taxpayer will continue to pay more and more for less and less, while secrecy is used to avoid accountability. It has long troubled us that in classifying deficiencies, DoD assures a lifetime monopoly on “fixes” to the people that created the deficiencies in the first place–they do not know what they do not know! DoD desperately needs a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) able to get a grip on all Human Intelligence (HUMINT) funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Ideal would be an expansion of the Undersecretary of Defense of Intelligence so as to add this as an integrative ICT and HUMINT integration function, while also assuming collaborative oversight of the Inspector General and of Operational Test and Evaluation. See the latest draft of the HUMINT Monograph for more information.

2009/09/292009/09/29

Journal: Early Warning on Further Destabilization from Afghanistan and India into Pakistan

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

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In an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy Journal, retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul responds to charges that he supports terrorism, discusses 9/11 and ulterior motives for the war on Afghanistan, claims that the U.S., Israel, and India are behind efforts to destabilize Pakistan, and charges the U.S. and its allies with responsibility for the lucrative Afghan drug trade.

Ex-ISI Chief Says Purpose of New Afghan Intelligence Agency RAMA Is ‘to destabilize Pakistan’

August 12, 2009 by Jeremy R. Hammond

Continue reading “Journal: Early Warning on Further Destabilization from Afghanistan and India into Pakistan”

2009/09/232009/09/23

Journal: The Afghanistan Impasse–Chuck Spinney Highlights NYT Review of Books

04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Security, Military

The Afghanistan Impasse

By Ahmed Rashid New York Review of Books

Volume 56, Number 15 · October 8, 2009

To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan by Nicholas Schmidle Henry Holt, 254 pp., $25.00

Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, 300 pp., $25.95

Follow the Frog to the full article with Chuck Spinney's highlights, nine pages in an easily downloaded document.

Highlights as we read them:

1) Massiviely fraudulent election in Afghanistan;

2) Military situation going from bad to worse for US and the (virtually non-existent) Afghan Army and Police;

3) Pakistan keeping 80% of its troops on the border with India;

4) Pakistan refusing to rein in its one really disciplined jihadist group that keeps attacking India (Mumbia plus).