04 Inter-State Conflict – Page 83 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/07/15

SchwartzReport: US Star Chamber “Disposition List,” NSA Revelation Feed Anti-Americanism, US Courts Against US Citizens

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military

This is the new warfare. It is the obvious next step in asymmetrical conflict. Lower risk for Americans, and probably cheaper. But, I wonder, is it making more enemies than it is eliminating? If I lived in a little village in the Afghan mountains and, in the middle of night, a drone strike blew up one of the houses, killing a neighbor family, I might have some serous attitude about it.

Obama's Secret Kill List – the Disposition Matrix
IAN COBAIN – The Guardian (U.K.)

There is a growing anti-American attitude taking root in Europe, one already well-established in the Islamic world, and parts of Asia. The long term consequences of this are not going to be happy. But our foreign policy barely deals with it.

Snowden Revelations Stir Up Anti-US Sentiment
GEOFF DYER – Financial Times (U.K.)

More and more judicial decisions, particularly those of Republican appointed judges, overwhelmingly favor corporations over people. These decisions get almost no coverage in the media, but they have real and far-reaching consequences. Here's an example of what I mean.

In Chilling Ruling, Chevron Is Granted Access to Amazon Activists’ Private Emails
JUAN COLE – Informed Comment

2013/07/122013/07/12

Berto Jongman: 2013 Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat Assessment

04 Inter-State Conflict

2013 Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat Assessment

July 10, 2013

Air Force ISR Agency

The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), in partnership with the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center and the Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence produced the 2013 Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat assessment. This assessment is an update to the 2009 edition of the same name.

This collaborative, unclassified assessment uses a combination of images, assessments and projections to characterize the current global ballistic and cruise missile threat environment. This product will serve as an educational communications tool as well as a method to discuss global ballistic and cruise missile threats.

Visit the Air Force ISR website to download the full report.

2013/07/11

Chuck Spinney: Has the US Lost Its Grand Strategic Mind?

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

As Esam Al-Amin explained here, Mohamad Morsi made some colossal blunders during his one year rule of Egypt, as its democratically elected president. He was elected in what most observers regard as a reasonably fair election.

But the exclusive report by Al Jazeera (also attached below) reveals that the United States — which claims to support democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere — has been actively involved in bankrolling Morsi's opposition, and in so doing has continued its long policy of subverting Islamist democratic victories when they win fair elections (Hamas in 2006) or threaten to win fair elections (Algeria 1991).

Al Jazeera reveals how stark contradictions continue to rip through the three legs of the moral triangle that is US foreign policy — i.e., the contradictions between (1) the values we profess to to the world that we uphold, (2) the values we actually hold as demonstrated by our actions abroad as well as at home (don't forget the neo-fascist, non-accountable, hidden hand the emerging American deep state exemplified by the NSA scandal) and (3) the world we have to deal with deal with (in this case epitomized by the changing conditions of the Arab Spring).

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Has the US Lost Its Grand Strategic Mind?”

2013/07/072013/07/07

Berto Jongman: Did Israel Bypass Russians with Submarine Missile Attack on Syria Last Night?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards

Did an Israeli Dolphin submarine just bypass the Russian S-300 batteries in Syria ?

Editor’s Note…

Semi-official reports in the recent 36 hours describe a mysterious blast in a Syrian arms depot in the city of Latakia ,located well within the Allawite enclave in North Western Syria. FSA sources claimed responsibility for the blast, but western observes cast doubts on these claims due to the geographical and tactical constraints. According to some estimations the blasts were caused by missiles arriving from the western direction, that is from the Mediterranean sea. This would suggest that if the Israelis are behind this event, they may have used an undetectable maritime platform, like the Dolphin class submarine, to bypass the recently deployed S-300 air defense systems, operated in Syria by Russian teams. Sea skimming cruise missiles are hard to detect, likewise submarine-borne naval commandos conducting nocturnal raids on enemy ports. If so, this would indicate a decision to refrain from risking a confrontation with the Russian military which would surely break out in case of a direct attack on the S-300 batteries. There is no ‘smoking gun’ to support this version yet,but the refusal of Israeli official to comment on this event may suggest a repetition of the standard mode of operation used during the IAF bombing raids on Hezbollah targets and biochemical facilities in Damascus in the recent year: maintaining two-fold plausible deniability which enables both governments (of Israel and Syria) to limit armed clashes to the clandestine level in order to avoid the unpredictable results of a full scale war .

Read full article.

2013/06/252013/06/25

NIGHTWATCH: Taliban Spanks Karzai and CIA

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards

Afghanistan: During this Watch, news reporters and other sources in Kabul reported a series of explosions and gunfire in the center of the city, near the presidential palace and the minister of defense building. Witnesses said the presidential palace was under attack.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Zahir said he could not locate the attack, but confirmed that an attack was in progress early on the morning of 25 June, local time.

A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defense and the CIA headquarters.

Comment: This attack might be Taliban retaliation for President Karzai's refusal to join talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. It is not so much a show of force as an exposure of vulnerability. This is a sensational security breach in the most heavily fortified part of Kabul.

Latest reporting indicates only the four attackers were killed, but the outer perimeter of a US facility was breached.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Taliban Spanks Karzai and CIA”

2013/06/242013/06/24

Mini-Me: Did This Letter to Israel from JFK Catalyze the Order from New York to Assassinate the President of the United States?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Huh?

July 5, 1963

Dear Mr. Prime Minister Eshkol:

It gives me great personal pleasure to extend congratulations as you assume your responsibilities as Prime Minister of Israel. You have our friendship and best wishes in your new tasks. It is on one of these that I am writing you at this time.

You are aware, I am sure, of the exchange which I had with Prime Minister Ben-Gurion concerning American visits to Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona. Most recently, the Prime Minister wrote to me on May 27. His words reflected a most intense personal consideration of a problem that I know is not easy for your Government, as it is not for mine. We welcomed the former Prime Minister’s strong reaffirmation that Dimona will be devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes and the reaffirmation also of Israel’s willingness to permit periodic visits to Dimona.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Did This Letter to Israel from JFK Catalyze the Order from New York to Assassinate the President of the United States?”

2013/06/192013/06/19

Chuck Spinney: Imperial Idiocy Wrecks Middle East (Fruits of Treason) — End of Sykes-Picot Betrayal, Five Inter-Mixed Conflicts, Return of the Tribes

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

Patrick Cockburn has written a very important essay on Syria in the London Review of Books (attached below). The essay is aptly titled but has only a few oblique, albeit important, references to Sykes – Picot Agreement, a document some readers may not familiar with. Let's begin with a little background.

The Sykes-Picot agreement (it was a secret agreement concocted by two bureaucrats) is one of the most cynical documents in the creation of the modern Middle East.

The Encylopaedia Britannica describes it accurately as follows:

It was a … “secret convention made during World War I (1916) between Great Britain and France, with the assent of imperial Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French- and British-administered areas. The agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Imperial Idiocy Wrecks Middle East (Fruits of Treason) — End of Sykes-Picot Betrayal, Five Inter-Mixed Conflicts, Return of the Tribes”