04 Inter-State Conflict – Page 60 – Public Intelligence Blog

2014/09/112014/09/11

Steven Aftergood: US Intelligence Budget Data — PBI: Understated but on the Record

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Intelligence Budget Data

On March 4, 2014, the Administration submitted its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, including a base funding request of $45.6 billion for the National Intelligence Program (NIP), and a base funding request of $13.3 billion for the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). On June 30, the DNI submitted an updated FY2015 budget request of $49.4 billion for the NIP including funding for overseas contingency operations. An updated budget request figure for the MIP has not yet been disclosed.

Phi Beta Iota: We consider these figures to be severely deceptive and roughly 70% of the actual combined total budget for green and black intelligence capabilities that are secret, toxic, and a mix of benignly worthless (standing armies of ignorant analysts, collection that is not processed) and pathologically dangerous (drones, renditions, covert operations, subsidies to foreign intelligence services). Our best guess of the actual total US secret intelligence budget remains US$100 billion per year, inclusive of thousands of private sector “intelligence” capabilities (many of them “open source” and extremely mediocre) that are embedded within acquisition and other contracts, all out of control and of dubious value.

IC Budget Table Cropped — Click on Table to Enlarge

Click to access Office of the Director of National Intelligence Budget Justifications

2014/09/08

Owl: Religion is Not to Blame for “Terrorism”

01 Poverty, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime

Atheists have It Wrong on Religious Causes of Terrorism and Suicide Bombing

This article dispels all illusions based on the belief that terrorism done by Muslim extremists is to be blamed on their religion, a view much favored by well-known atheist critics of religion such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

One of the implied back stories to this insightful article is that big-time atheist writers such as Harris and Christopher Hitchens (who is not mentioned), in blaming religion on terrorism perpetuated by Muslims and others, also happen to favor policies that perpetuate mass killing by larger western governments of large number of civilians in countries where Muslims live. That observation alone is worthy of an article all by itself.

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2014/09/08

Marcus Aurelius: General Robert Scales on Defeating ISIS – Comment by Robert Steele

01 Poverty, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities

MG(R) Scales, a former Commandant of the Army War College, is nothing if not a controversial character. I don't necessarily disagree with his assertion, but I have a couple of practical questions:

Where are we going to get adequate numbers of personnel of the quality required to implement the McChrystal method on the scale proposed by MG(R) Scales?
If the McChrystal-method units suck up the quality people they will need, what will be left to execute other special operations requirement?

The only way to defeat the Islamic State – The Washington Post

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2014/09/032014/09/03

Yoda: Ukraine = China Wins, Central Asia Arms

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards

Interesting.

China May Be Biggest Winner From Ukraine Crisis

By VOA

By Mike Eckel

Thousands of miles away from the Ukrainian battlefields of Donetsk and Novoazovsk sits the country that may end up being the largest beneficiary of the turmoil along Russia’s southwest border: China.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin rewriting the playbook on security in post-Cold War Europe, Beijing has watched warily 3,700 miles to the east, though without protest or interference.

Its abstention from a U.N. Security Council resolution vote in March that condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea was unusual, given Beijing’s traditional stance on such votes, but it comes as bilateral ties have been on the upswing for years now.

Two generations ago, ties between Leonid Brezhnev’s Russia and Mao Zedong’s China were fraught. The two fought small-scale skirmishes in 1969 along the Ussuri River border (the Wusuli in Chinese) that almost resulted in war.

That’s a distant memory now.

“China may win out” from the Ukraine crisis? asked Martha Brill Olcott, a longtime scholar of Russia and Central Asian politics. “I think the word is ‘will.’ China ‘will’ absolutely benefit.”

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2014/08/222014/08/22

Berto Jongman: General Allen Calls for War — Was Foley Executed with White House Approval Precisely to Justify War?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, Idiocy, Military

Being read in Europe.

Gen. Allen: Destroy the Islamic State Now

The brutal murder of the brave American journalist James Foley is meant to directly terrorize the world’s media, the international community, and the United States. If all the actions of the Islamic State, or IS, to date weren’t sufficiently reprehensible, this act and the potential for other similar acts will snap American attention with laser-like focus onto the real danger IS poses to the existence of Iraq, the order of the region and to the homelands of Europe and America.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: General Allen Calls for War — Was Foley Executed with White House Approval Precisely to Justify War?”

2014/08/182014/08/18

Berto Jongman: Saudi Ebola Student Martyrs in USA?

02 Infectious Disease, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Ethics, Government, Military, Officers Call

Obama Oversees Brazen Paris Convoy Attack Against Saudi Prince

As we had, likewise, reported on after the issuance of last weeks SVR report, of the estimated 111,000 Saudi Arabian students currently in the United States, 8,000 have been identified as being Islamic State (IS) [also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)] terror members, of which nearly 3,000 of them have become “Ebola Martyrs” willing to die in their “mission” of infecting as many Americans as they can before their stated deadline of October.

Phi Beta Iota: We have no direct knowledge. By all accounts available the US intelligence community appears to have helped the US special operations community achieve an extraordinary intervention in the past 24 hours. The FBI has absolutely no clue who's who among all the foreigners inserted into the USA, and least of all among the Saudis and the combination of Israelis and multinational “sayonim” (Jews who blindly support the Zionist state). Note that the posited 8,000 above could easily provide a 1,000 individuals to be voluntarily infected with Ebola or anything else AFTER their arrival in the USA, with the viruses imported via the Saudi diplomatic pouch. However, having lost all faith in the integrity of the US Government in relation to the public interest, we do not discount the possibility that this is a false flag operation intended to justify a fake Ebola crisis to further test the ability of the federal government to restrict travel and shut-down any areas of the country they wish. We pray the Obama Administration understands just how close the USA is to massive armed push-back against the militarization (and potential federalization) of the state and local police. We suspect Obama has no one he can actually trust to tell him the truth.

Police Militarization @ Phi Beta Iota

2014/08/162014/08/15

Berto Jongman: The Costs of War — Human Costs, Economic Costss, Social + Political Costs with Alternatives and Recommendations

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Communities of Practice, IO Deeds of Peace, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Over 350,000 Killed by Violence, $4.4 Trillion Spent and Obligated

The wars begun in 2001 have been tremendously painful for millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and the United States, and economically costly as well. Each additional month and year of war adds to that toll. Moreover, the human costs of these conflicts will reverberate for years to come in each of those four countries. There is no turning the page on the wars with the end of hostilities, and there is even more need as a result to understand what those wars’ consequences are and will be.

The goal of the Costs of War Project has been to outline a broad understanding of the domestic and international costs and consequences of those wars. A team of 30 economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts, and physicians were assembled to do this analysis. Their research papers are posted and summarized on this website.

We asked:

What have been the wars’ costs in human and economic terms?
How have these wars changed the social and political landscape of the United States and the countries where the wars have been waged?
What have been the public health consequences of the wars?
What will be the long term legacy of these conflicts for veterans?
What is the long term economic effect of these wars likely to be?
Were and are there alternative less costly and more effective ways to prevent further terror attacks?

Some of the project’s findings:

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: The Costs of War — Human Costs, Economic Costss, Social + Political Costs with Alternatives and Recommendations”