IS THE SECRECY SYSTEM AN AUTONOMOUS ENTITY?
Does the secrecy system function according to its own autonomous principles? Is it beyond the rule of law and outside of presidential control?
Continue reading “Secrecy News: The Autonomous Secrecy System”
US Intelligence a Clipping Agency–A Bad One
02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call
Dr. Stephen Blank, one of America's top experts on Russia and the former satellites of the USSR, likens US Intelligence to a clipping service, a very bad one. He itemizes the recent failures of US Intelligence and observes that anyone in the audience he was addressing in NYC could have written a better threat estimate than that presented by the Director of National Intelligence recently to Congress. Includes video of his full answer to the question about US Intelligence.
Army college expert likens US intelligence to ‘clipping agency’
By Asia Society Mar 18, 2011 5:30PM UTC
asiancorrespondent.com
Continue reading “US Intelligence a Clipping Agency–A Bad One”
Director of National Intelligence Self-Destructs…Again
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Reform
Senator: Remarks about Libya ‘should be the final straw' for Clapper (CNN)
Clapper lambastes Russia; wait, isn’t Joe Biden in Russia? (The Hill)
U.S. Intelligence Chief Says Qaddafi Has Edge in Conflict (NYT)
US should keep up Lebanon military aid: intel chief (AFP)
Losing Libya III (PajamasMedia)
Phi Beta Iota: We used to admire Jim Clapper, so much so that a member of our collective issued a press release in his defense when Donald Rumsfeld fired him for telling the truth. General Clapper appears to have forgotten how to tell the truth, and he is not leading the US Intelligence Community, he is administering it with cronies assigned to administer the various agencies. There is no longer intelligence at the top of the intelligence community. It is time for a full-spectrum house cleaning, to include the conversion of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, which is not needed, into the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Peace Operations, which IS needed. Mike Vickers is not qualified for either position.
Media Spin: Clapper told the truth. Reality: Clapper is out of touch with reality–he cannot even outline the ten high-level threats to humanity or explain why continued fragmentation of the US Government is the greatest threat to our near term as well as a long term stability and prosperity. Russia and China are not military threats to the US but rather economic threats, and in the case of China, a demographic and scientific & technology threat. The Old Guard is dead, may they rest in peace. Sadly, there is no bench within the US Intelligence Community OR the contractor world. We anticipate nothing beneficial for our $90 billion a year.
Obama to Clapper: “Disappointed.” Duh.
Journal: Reflections on Integrity
Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both
Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure
Crowd-Sourcing Comes of Age on Libya
Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Government, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Mobile, Real Time
Volunteers Behind Libya Crisis Map: A True Story
Patrick Meier, iRevolutiion, 8 March 2011
My colleague Clay Shirky called it “Cognitive Surplus” in his recent book. Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams refer to it as “MacroWikinomics” in theirs.
What is cognitive surplus? The trillion hours of free time enjoyed by the world's educated population every year. Don and Tony describe MacroWikinomics as mass distributed collaboration on scales we've never seen before thanks to technology.
We're familiar with deficits and shortages, writes, Clay, but when it comes to surplus social capital, things quickly become unpredictable—especially when this capital scales thanks to the use of social networking platforms and Web 2.0 technologies. But then again, says Clay, “Many of the unexpected uses of communication tools are surprising because our old beliefs about human nature were so lousy.”
Phi Beta Iota: Over bagels and lox yesterday, Doug Rushkoff summarized his intention for ContactCon: “to take us back to 1992, but this time with 2012 technology and human understanding.” Here is what the US Government was told in 1992 about crowd-sourcing. 20 years and 1 trillion dollars later (20 years, average of 50 billion a year), we still have the world's most expensive ineffective wasteland pretending to “do” intelligence. The lunacy continues.
1992 AIJ OSS Steele’s Original Vision
1992 AIJ Fall ‘New Paradigm” and Avoiding Future Failures
Reference: 1992 USMC C4I Campaign Plan
1992 E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, & intelligence (An Alternative Paradigm)
Secrecy News: CIA Culture In Detail
07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Analysis, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
LONG STRANGE JOURNEY: A WHISTLEBLOWER'S TALE
In the vast literature of intelligence-related memoirs, the new book Long Strange Journey by Patrick G. Eddington stands out in several ways.
Eddington entered the intelligence arena as an imagery analyst for the CIA's National Photographic Intelligence Center. Imagery analysis is a predominately technical activity and is not normally considered a hotbed of intrigue or controversy. Nor has it been widely featured in the intelligence “literature of discontent.” Eddington provides an introduction to the world of light tables, mensuration and the now-defunct world of the NPIC analyst.
Then Eddington himself defies easy stereotyping. As an Army veteran, a political conservative, and a person of faith, he might have been voted least likely to rock the boat and to become a whistleblower. But that's what he did.
Continue reading “Secrecy News: CIA Culture In Detail”
Obama in a Strategic & Intellectual Vacuum
02 Diplomacy, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Officers Call, Strategy
No intelligence, no strategy, no nothing. For this we pay taxes?
In U.S. Signals to Egypt, Obama Straddled a Rift (NYT)
Summary: State still loves dictators, has no idea what is going on with the young and the restless. Intelligence is no where to be found. Bottom line is that the President, who appears to have had the right instincts, is being undermined by a government that can only be considered to be uninformed and incoherent.
Phi Beta Iota: From David Abshire to Jim Locher to Tony Zinni and Robert Steele, we have long known of the strategic vacuum surrounding the President. You cannot be an effective President (theatrics aside) without getting a grip on reality, having a Strategic Analytic Model, and demanding Whole of Government harmonization deeply rooted in 360 degree multi-cultural intelligence. None of that exists today within the US Government.
See Also:
Intelligence for the President–AND Everyone Else, as published in CounterPunch, Weekend Edition, February 27 – 1 March 2009
Fixing the White House and National Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Spring 2010; As published:
Human Intelligence (HUMINT): All Humans, All Minds, All the Time (US Army Strategic Studies Institute, June 2010
Reference: Frog 6 Guidance 2010-2020
Review: The Battle for Peace–A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose (Hardcover)
US Intelligence Lies to “Defer” to General Petraeus
07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Intelligence (government), Military
National Intelligence Estimate Failed to Register Taliban Growth
By GARETH PORTER, Counterpunch, 14 February 2011
Despite evidence that the Taliban insurgency had grown significantly in 2010, the U.S. intelligence community failed to revise its estimate for Taliban forces as part of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan in December. That unusual decision was in deference to Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan, who did not want any official estimate of the insurgency's strength that would contradict his claims of success by Special Operations Forces in reducing the capabilities of the Taliban in 2010.
Continue reading “US Intelligence Lies to “Defer” to General Petraeus”
