Threats – Page 474 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/05/082012/05/08

Reference: Defense and Energy Deficit Reduction: $688 Billion

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, General Accountability Office, Government, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call

POGO Source Page, May 8, 2012

Wasteful Spending in the Department of Defense Budget
Wasteful Spending on Nuclear Weapons Programs
Service Contracts
Conclusion
Endnotes

Americans are tightening their belts, and it’s time for the U.S. government to do the same. In light of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the subsequent failure of the “Super Committee,” Congress is still desperately seeking ways to reduce spending. To this end, the Project On Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Common Sense have closely examined the proposed national security budget[1] and found plenty of wasteful spending. Adjusted for inflation, U.S. national security spending is higher than at any point during the Cold War and accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending.[2] However, the U.S. faces no existential threats as it did then, and U.S. defense needs are changing as the military draws down its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Still, military spending at the Department of Defense (DoD) has increased by an astounding 95 percent from FY 2001 to the FY 2013 estimate, adjusted for inflation.[3] Nuclear weapons spending at the Department of Energy (DOE) is projected to grow by billions of dollars over the next decade.[4] And the federal government’s reliance on contractors, most of whom work on national security-related work and cost on average nearly twice as much as the federal workers who do the same job, is also driving budgets through the roof.[5] It’s clear that any serious proposal to shrink the U.S. deficit must include cuts to the national security budget.

The following list updates our recommendations from 2011[6] and details nearly $700 billion in savings over the next ten years, including cuts to wasteful weapons systems as well as limits on out-of-control contract spending. We found programs for which there are cheaper yet equally effective alternatives, and programs that can be cancelled or delayed without putting America’s security at risk.

The Project On Government Oversight is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO’s investigations into corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.

Taxpayers for Common Sense is a nonpartisan budget watchdog serving as an independent voice for American taxpayers. Its mission is to achieve a government that spends taxpayer dollars responsibly and operates within its means. TCS works with individuals, policymakers, and the media to increase transparency, expose and eliminate wasteful and corrupt subsidies, earmarks, and corporate welfare, and hold decision makers accountable.

Wasteful Spending in the Department of Defense Budget

Continue reading “Reference: Defense and Energy Deficit Reduction: $688 Billion”

2012/05/082012/05/08

Eagle: Murder in Arizona: Corrupt Cops Executing Citizen & Family?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Law Enforcement

Police Withhold Witness Statements That May Find Officers Among Killers

By Mike Harris

Veterans Today, 7 May 2012

While news around the world was told that sheriff candidate J.T. Ready, leader of the controversial US Border Guard, had killed his family and himself, they had always been holding an eyewitness, the 17 year old daughter of Ready’s girl friend, who, from moment one, had given them descriptions of those who killed Ready and the rest of her family.

Yet, the Gilbert police, the Pinal County Sheriff, both suspected of being on “cartel” payrolls, nor even the FBI, conflicted by jurisdictional disputes, has yet to release the truth, begin an investigation or start looking for suspects.

. . . . . . . .

Only one small problem, the Gilbert Police spokesman made the statement knowing it was false, and incomplete. The Gilbert Police Department had witness 17 year old Brittany Modero in protective custody. The Gilbert PD also had statements from neighbors who saw 2 other cars at the house, which fled the scene before the police arrived at the shooting.

This is more than simple obstruction of justice, the Gilbert PD and every corporate owned and controlled News outlet in Arizona especially the local outlet for Village Voice Media, the “New Times” reporter Stephen Lemons. Since it has now been disclosed that there were other people in the house at the time of the shooting, why didn’t Gilbert PD or Media outlet issue an apology or a retraction. Nothing but silence from corporate media, I guess the truth does not fit their pre-planned agenda to destroy the character of Mr. Ready and cast him as a crazed white supremacist, Neo-Nazi.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: There is evidently strong evidence that Mr. Ready was an FBI informant, which means that local law enforcement personnel, corrupted by the cartels, may have murdered not just a citizen, but a federal informant as well. The FBI does not appear too eager to get to the bottom of this….just as they were not at all interested in leads to the 9/11 atrocity received before the event.

2012/05/082012/05/08

David Swanson: Bank of America Prepares for Shareholders Meeting as if Under Assault

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Commerce, Corruption

Bank of America Prepares for Shareholders Meeting as if Under Assault

Bank of America has hired G4S for its shareholder meeting. According to Wikipedia:

“G4S plc (formerly Group 4 Securicor) (LSE: GFS, OMX: G4S) is a global security services company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest security company measured by revenues and has operations in more than 125 countries.^[2]^[3] With over 630,000 employees, it is the world's second-largest private sector employer (after Wal-Mart Stores).^[2]^[4]”

G4S and its subsidiary Wackenhut have a lengthy criminal record:

“In March of 2006, whistle-blowers employed at Wackenhut released information to the press revealing that the company cheated on an anti-terrorism drill at a US nuclear site.

“… In 2009, an Aboriginal man from Western Australia died of heat stroke after being transported in a G4S (then GSL) van without air conditioning or water.^[26]

“… On June 13, 2010, a video posted on YouTube by documentary filmmaker James Fox showed Wackenhut guards preventing reporters from covering the BP oil spill.^[30]

“… In October 2010, three G4S-guards heavily restrained and held down 46-year old Angolan deportee Jimmy Mubenga on departing British Airways flight 77, at Heathrow Airport. Security guards kept him restrained in his seat as he began shouting and seeking to resist his deportation. Police and paramedics were called when Mubenga lost consciousness. The aircraft, which had been due to lift off, then returned to the terminal.^[31] Mubenga was pronounced dead later that evening at Hillingdon hospital.^[32]”

The kind souls from G4S, being housed in two downtown hotels by B of A, will be joined by off-duty police hired by B of A, wearing their police uniforms, and empowered to arrest on B of A's behalf and at the order of B of A security.

What is this militarized, privatized emergency preparation for?

Are foreign armies descending upon the shareholders meeting of the Bank of America?

Nope.

Actually citizens of the Country of America. Newspaper headlines explain:

Bank of America braces for protesters onslaught

“In Charlotte, protesters are expected to demand a complete halt to foreclosures, forgiveness of student loan debt, a stop to financing coal projects, an end to political spending and an end to seven-figure compensation packages.”

Uh oh. More cops! More guns! Quick! What would Bloomberg do?

The protesters' plans, of course, are for a nonviolent march and rally.

B of A billionaires aren't afraid for their physical safety. They're afraid their shareholders may side with their victims.

2012/05/042012/05/04

Mini-Me: Fears Grow of Big Tokyo Quake That (A) Blows Up the Spent Nuclear Fuel and (B) Brings Down Transportation, All Trapped in Tokyo … + RECAP

05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, Corruption, Government

Huh?

Fears Grow of Big Tokyo Quake

By Sam Eaton ⋅ May 4, 2012

Color-coded lines track seismic activity at Tokyo University’s Earthquake Research Center. The yellow and red clumps reveal a small quake in the Tokyo-area district of Tsukuba. (Photo: Sam Eaton)

In a quiet room at Tokyo University, seismologist Shinichi Sakai points to steady, color-coded lines on a digital monitor. The screen displays real-time readings from Japan’s extensive network of seismometers. This is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, and the flat lines show that all is quiet across the region, at least for the moment.

Then, as if on cue, two of the lines start to jump violently, splashing the screen with red and yellow pixels. They’re tracking a very small earthquake, centered just outside of Tokyo.

Sakai says small quakes like this happen about ten thousand times a year in Japan, and for geologists like him, even the small earthquakes are worth paying attention to. He says there’s been a fivefold increase in small tremors around Tokyo since the huge quake off Japan’s northeast coast in March of last year. And that adds up to a mathematical omen for scientists like him.

In January, Sakai and the University’s Earthquake Research Institute crunched the new numbers and came up with a shocking prediction: a 70-percent chance that a major earthquake would hit Tokyo within the next four years.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Fears Grow of Big Tokyo Quake That (A) Blows Up the Spent Nuclear Fuel and (B) Brings Down Transportation, All Trapped in Tokyo … + RECAP”

2012/05/042012/05/04

Paul Craig Roberts: Disinformation (Lies) From Left to Right — Why the Military-Industrial Complex Consistently Assassinates or Impeaches Presidents Who Cross Them….

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

Disinformation On Every Front

Some readers have come to the erroneous conclusion that the Matrix consists of Republican Party disinformation as if there is no disinformation from the left. Others think that propaganda is the business of Obama and the Democrats. In fact, propaganda from the right, the left and the middle are all part of the disinformation fed to americans.

If I may give some examples: The other day Chuck Colson, one of the Nixon officials imprisoned for Watergate crimes, died. This gave NPR the opportunity to relive the Nixon horror.

What precisely was the Nixon horror? Essentially, there was no such thing. Watergate was about President Nixon lying about when he learned about the Watergate burglary.
When Nixon learned about the burglary, he did not act on it prior to his reelection, because he reasoned, rightly, that the Washington Post would blame him for the burglary, although he had nothing to do with it, in the hopes of preventing his reelection.

By going along with a cover-up, Nixon enabled the Washington Post to make an issue of the precise date on which Nixon learned of the burglary. White House tapes indicated that Nixon had learned of the burglary before he said he learned of it. So Nixon had permitted a cover-up and had to go, but what was the real reason?

What was the Watergate burglary? We don’t really know. A group of men including former CIA operatives were hired by the Committee to Re-elect the President to break into a Democratic campaign office in the Watergate complex. We don’t know the purpose of the burglary. Some claim it was to wire-tap the telephones in the belief that the Democratic Party was getting re-election money from communists in Cuba or elsewhere. Others claim that the burglars were looking for a list of call girls, that compromised a White House official, as his fiancee was allegedly one of the call girls.

Looking back from our time during which Bush and Obama have deep-sixed the US Constitution, violated numerous US and international laws, and behaved as if they were caesars unconstrained by any law or any morality, Nixon’s “crimes” appear so trivial as to be unremarkable. Yet, Nixon was driven from office and is regarded as a criminal.

What was Watergate really about?

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: Disinformation (Lies) From Left to Right — Why the Military-Industrial Complex Consistently Assassinates or Impeaches Presidents Who Cross Them….”

2012/05/03

David Isenberg: More People Enslaved on Earth Than Ever Before in History

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement

A Morally Reprehensible Problem

I confess: I have an interest in an unseemly topic. Last year I coauthored a report on the subject and testified before Congress about it. The subject is labor trafficking.

So let's give credit where it is due. On May 1, the International Stability Operations Association, a leading private military and security contracting trade association and the American Bar Association hosted a Combating Labor Trafficking: Legal and Compliance Mechanisms in the Fight Against Forced Labor conference. The coordinating partners for the event were such major companies as DynCorp International, Triple Canopy, FSI Worldwide, and Principal Risk Solutions.

This is not, of course, a problem exclusive to the PMSCO sector but neither is it something that has happened only now and then either. Suffice it to say that it enough of a problem that this is the second conference ISOA organized on the issue, the first being seven years ago. The conference program guide minced no words in stating why a conference is necessary:

Labor trafficking is a disgraceful practice that plagues many country as well as international peacekeeping and stability operations. Poverty creates pools of desperate labor at high risk of human trafficking of all kinds, including forced labor. The problem is morally reprehensible but of such enormous complexity it cannot be solved by a single sector and must be addressed by stakeholders working in partnership from all sides — private, governmental, nongovernmental and humanitarians sectors; clients and employers

As a sign that of its recognition of the seriousness of the problem ISOA's Code of Conduct has long had a provision stating that “Signatories shall not engage or allow their personnel to engage in the act of trafficking in persons.”

Trafficking in persons takes different forms. It might be forced labor, sex trafficking or bonded labor, to name a few examples. The first two types have happened in the PMSC industry.

As an article in JIPO notes:

Human trafficking on U.S. government contracts in the Central Command (“CENTCOM”) sector is chronic, overt and unabated. The appalling fact that hundreds of thousands of men have been used as slave laborers to support “freedom” operations is not lost upon the victims.

Investigative journalists reporting of widespread human trafficking of laborers on U.S. government contracts in CENTCOM date back to 2004. The New York Times reported the too common fraudulent recruiting scheme that began in 2003 when contractors first started trafficking men to perform services on government contracts. The Chicago Tribune also covered human trafficking in 2005, calling out the use of US tax dollars to provide slave labor during wartime. Articles in USA Today have reported labor trafficking abuses of Asian workers in Saudi Arabia as well as forced labor of Thai workers in the United States, considered “the nations biggest human trafficking operations.”

Personal investigations both on the ground in Iraq, and in conducted interviews of victims who have returned to the Indian subcontinent, have produced conclusions consistent with other investigative journalists. Other investigative journalists such as David Phinney and reporters who have been on the ground, observed the practice and interviewed thousands of victims have also highlighted this blight on our national image. In fact, the only thing parties agree upon is that the practice is prolific, unabated and contrary to the very foundation and core of American values.

A more blunt way of putting is, as one conference speaker noted, is that we now have people enslaved than at any time in human history, with estimates ranging from 12 to 27 million people.

Interestingly, this is not an issue where people think this is something best left to industry to self-regulate. As the morning keynote speaker Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, senior adviser to the secretary of state, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said:

Government is the answer, government is the solution, but it is not the only player. We have to dismiss the notion that this is someone else's problem. This is our problem and we have to be part of the solution. Our starting point has to be that we're not making the problem worse.

Those wanting more detail should see the current (May/June) issue of ISOA's JIPO magazine, which is devoted to the subject. According to ISOA it will be online later this week.

2012/05/032012/05/03

Marcus Aurelius: Jose Rodriguez, the Ollie North of CIA

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Officers Call

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

Rodriguez is dumb enough to take this as a complement. His Wikipedia page looks like it was written by CIA PAO.

Ex-CIA official says tapes destroyed to prevent al Qaeda reprisals

(Reuters) – Jose Rodriguez said it took a “few hours” to destroy 92 videotapes showing his CIA colleagues using harsh interrogation techniques – including waterboarding – on al Qaeda leaders such as September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

But the former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service told Reuters on Monday that he ordered the tapes destroyed to protect his colleagues from possible retaliation by al Qaeda.

The tapes of interrogations at a CIA “black site” included images of waterboarding – a form of simulated drowning – on Mohammed, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, three al Qaeda leaders now held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Rodriguez said he was afraid the material would be leaked.

“You really doubt that those tapes would not be out in the open now, that they would not be on YouTube?” he said. “They would be out there, they would have been leaked, or somebody would have ordered their release.”

After the tapes were destroyed in an “industrial-sized disintegrator,” he said, “I felt good.”

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Rodrigues is what you get when a clandestine service becomes a bureaucracy, and people are promoted for ass-kissing, going along, and generally playing the political game. Latin America Division has been a joke for decades, relying heavily on liaison for hand-outs, on making up stuff taken from the newspapers, on Chiefs of Station claiming recruitments that could never be turned over, and so on. One legitimate reason for DIA to want its own clandestine service (with full non-official cover options) is because CIA no longer know how to train, equip, or operate a clandestine service. It has lost its integrity across the board and despite the best of intentions, General Petraeus will never “get it” and not have time to fix it even if he did. Rodriguez' book is beneath contempt — a perfect companion to the books by Dick Cheney and Doug Feith. In retrospect, Rodriguez may merit investigation for his role in enabling Dick Cheney's many high crimes and now known lies. Between Rodriguez and Khost Kathy you have the disembowelment of CIA in a nutshell. This sort of stuff disgraces the profession of intelligence.

Colin Powell Letter Against Torture

Journal: Reflections on Integrity UPDATED + Integrity RECAP

Journal: The Truth on Khost Kathy

Steele The Craft of Intelligence 2.6