Journal: ClimateGate Suppression Continues–Academy Wants Gore’s Oscar Back
03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Key PlayersU.N. to open “climategate” probe, Issa criticizes Obama's refusal to investigate
The UN has announced it will open an investigation into climate research as a result of the CRU e-mails and documents that became public last week. The UN said it is luanching the probe because some of the research in question touches on related work either completed or promoted by its own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore, Climategate and Copenhagen
Al Gore has canceled a scheduled event to speak in Copenhagen and promote his new book Our Choice. Attendees who purchased tickets to hear the former US vice president and climate change speaker present his book in Denmark, will have to seek refunds for their ticket purchases.
Climategate: Academy members demand Gore's Oscar be returned
Gore won an Oscar for his climate change documentary in 2007 which in light of leaked emails from 2,500 political hacks posing as scientists, criticism is rapidly growing against Gore and his qualifications for earning the award.
Does ‘Climategate’ kill Copenhagen?
Climategate will have a “huge impact” on the global-warming summit, said Saudi Arabia’s top climate negotiator, Mohammad Al-Sabban, to BBC News. “It appears from the details of the scandal that there is no relationship whatsoever between human activities and climate change,” so curbing carbon emissions will only hurt countries economically. We’ll only consider “no cost” proposals.
Time Covers Up For Climategate
Time Magazine is uncritically parroting a fabricated defense for one of the most damaging emails in Climategate, the one in which Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia boasted of repeating a “trick” to “hide the decline” in temperatures as indicated by tree ring data.
Climategate? What Climategate?
Democratic committee chairmen ignored the evidence of scientific skullduggery at the influential research unit, even as its head Phil Jones stepped aside this week to make way for an investigation. … After the hearing, Rep. Sensenbrenner said the refusal of committee Democrats or President Obama's representatives to take the leaked emails seriously indicated that the “the President's science advisers are at the bottom of the whole climate change debate,” and just as intent as the East Anglia scientists in not having a full and open airing of the issue.
Climate Gate Scandal Cybernet Fraud
The hacked emails of the scientists made people consider that they have been modifying their scientific studies to have some political gains. Yet, most of the leading dailies did not focus much on the Climate Gate scandal and the subsequent cybernet fraud.
Phi Beta Iota: When the celebrity status of Al Gore made it clear he would be considered for the Nobel, we wrote to the Nobel Committee urging them to instead recognize Lester Brown, Herman Daly, Paul Hawkin, and Anthony Lovins, who along with the Meadows (Limits to Growth) have been the real pioneers of Earth Science. Climate Change is a scam, and we would not be surprised to learn that its primary proponent behind the scenes, a Canadian energy entrepreneur, might be the Maddoff Ponzi Scheme artist of the new phantom wealth being “traded” under the Climate Change fraud.
Journal: Pakistan, Terrorism, & Afghanistan
09 TerrorismBerto Jongman recommends…
Special Services Group & Pak-Sponsored Terrorism (ICT 15/11/2009)
Till now, the international focus has been on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as the sponsor and trainer of jihadi groups. Indications of a similar role being played by at least some elements in or of the the SSG—- possibly in tandem with the ISI — are coming to the fore now.”
Waziristan: A Stygian Dark (ICT 10/10/2009)
Crucially, Islamabad’s orientation to these various groups has been defined exclusively by the degree to which they have remained loyal to Pakistan’s objectives in destabilizing Kabul, or to which they have turned ‘renegade’ and attacked targets within Pakistan. The US and Pakistan, consequently, act at cross purposes with several of these and the many lesser groups operating in Waziristan.
How Close Are Blackwater and JSOC?
Could Prince be airing his CIA work to distract from his work with JSOC? As I wrote, operations from predator drones to militant detention seem to be shifting from the CIA to JSOC. As Marc wrote, Blackwater is controversial within the CIA and with the agency's congressional overseers. But JSOC has no such problems. If Blackwater's special operations work is being moved from CIA to JSOC, that would help Blackwater continue programs like drone-spotting in Pakistan unabated. It would also be yet another case of transferring authority from CIA to JSOC.
Continue reading “Journal: Pakistan, Terrorism, & Afghanistan”
Worth a Look: MicroPlace Giving to the Poor
11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Gift Intelligence, Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, Real Time, Threats
Level of poverty
Financial My financial return 1% – 3% | 4% – 6%
When I get repaid Anytime | < 1 yr | 1 – 3 yrs | > 3 yrs
My money is going to Single institution | Multiple institutions
Support small coffee growers in the mountains of Nicaragua
Support Fair Trade Coffee Farmers in Tanzania
Phi Beta Iota: Evidently an EBay initative with a PayPal front end, this impresses us. Subject to audit, it is precisely what we were thinking of (see our Denmark Briefing) as a means of connecting the one billion rich (80% of whom do not give to charity now) with the five billion poor at the household item level of need. The major FLAW with with implementation is that it relies on intermediaries that will suck off 50% or more of the actual value. Still needed: the Global Range of Needs Table. This would also benefit from a Twitter application and a near real time “close by can do easy” option.
Reference: Al Qaeda Violence Against Muslims
09 Terrorism, MonographsJournal: Notes on David Kilcullen to US IC
05 Civil War, 09 Terrorism
David Kilcullen spoke to NCTC and ODNI on Dec 2, unclassified, and spent a good deal of time talking about good and bad ways to measure counter-insurgency.
His remarks are at a level below the “global police action against the jihadist criminal conspiracy” (how Bacevich characterized on morning NPR interview, Dec 3).
Kilcullen is now with the Crumpton Group.
His book The Accidental Guerrilla–Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One remains his most easily accessible offering.
Some general points on counter-insurgency:
- It is “an adaptation struggle”
- Governments almost always win under two conditions: if they negotiate to end it, and if they are fighting to take back their own country (not in occupation/colony). (He was using Correlates of War data from Univ. of Indiana.)
- Insurgency is actually stronger in many ways when smaller, and the remnant is really hard to stop. He was decorated for fighting 400 Malay insurgents 30 years after the war was supposedly won.
- The ratio of troops to population that is in the manual is based on an irrelevant figure from an old Rand study. He tried to keep it out of the manual. He says you can do quite well with fewer troops. In Vietnam, we exceeded this ‘standards’ and still lost.
Some bad measures
Continue reading “Journal: Notes on David Kilcullen to US IC”
Reference: Measuring Success and Failure in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism–US Government Metrics of the Global War on Terror (GWOT)
08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Government, Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence
Alex P. Schmid, one of a handful of trully expert scholars in the field of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and his colleague Rashmi Singh, have created a summary that is devasting on multiple fronts. The “Global War on Terror” or GWOT has lasted longer than World Wars I and II combined; the money expended (the authors do not include the military costs of occupying Afghanistan and Iraq) has been enormous, and in all that time, no one has defined the metrics by which to measure the endeavor. The chapter in included in After the War on Terror: Regional and Multilateral Perspectives on Counter-TerrorismStrategy
See also:




Green Serves rural areas Focus on women Fair trade