Category: Intelligence (government)

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Journal: Banks Own Obama, His Mind, His Time

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Chuck Spinney Recommends...

The author is a former chief economist of the IMF and is now a professor at MIT.  Chuck

The Bill Daley Problem

By Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers (out in paperback on Monday)

Baseline Scenario, 9 January 2011

Highlighted extracts:

The Bill Daley Problem is completely bipartisan – it shows us the White House fails to understand that, at the heart of our economy, we have a huge time bomb.

…largest U.S. banks – have far too little equity and far too much debt relative to that thin level of equity…

Today’s most dangerous government sponsored enterprises are the largest six bank holding companies: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

No one can show significant social benefits from the increase in bank size, leverage, and overall riskiness over the past 15 years.  The social costs of these banks – and their complete capture of the regulatory apparatus – are apparent in the worst recession and slowest recovery since the 1930s.

Paul Volcker gets it; no wonder he has resigned.  Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, gets it.  Tom Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, gets it.  Elizabeth Warren, the tireless champion of consumer rights, gets it.   Gene Fama, father of the efficient financial markets view, gets it better than anyone.

This is not a left-right issue – again, look at the list of people who co-signed Professor Admati’s recent letter to the Financial Times.  This is a question of technical competence.  Do the people running the country – including both the executive branch and the legislature – understand economics and finance or not?

Top bankers, including Bill Daley, have pulled off a complete snow job – including since the crisis broke in fall 2008.  They have put forward their special interests while claiming to represent the general interest.

Bill Daley now controls how information is presented to and decisions are made by the president. Daley’s former boss, Jamie Dimon, is the most dangerous banker in America – presumably he now gets even greater access to the Oval Office.  Daley is on the record as opposing strong consumer protection for financial products;… [Emphasis added.]

Read the full posting….

Phi Beta Iota: Our generous and well-intentioned philanthropists appear to be unaware that the Federal Reserve, Morgan Chase, and Citi-Bank have pulled a Bernie Maddoff on them–they think they are being “taken care of” at the very moment when everything they have worked so hard for is most vulnerable to a massive melt-down.  The control of the President's mind and time is the ultimate victory for anyone seeking to control the White House.  It is “checkmate” against We the People.  None of the bureaucracies in the Executive–and certainly not the so-called “intelligence community”– are capable of rescuing the President–he is a happy captive.

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Journal: Will Pakistan Implode Because of US in AF?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Military, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off

Pakistan will implode if the US does not leave Afghanistan

The continuing US presence in Afghanistan fuels extremism in neighbouring Pakistan

Imran Khan The Observer, Sunday 9 January 2011

The assassination of Salmaan Taseer has shown only too clearly the growing extremism in Pakistan, the radicalisation of its society and the polarisation that is taking hold. This is not just between the religious and the secular, but also the polarisation that the “war on terror” has caused between the various religious sects.

Read rest of article Chuck Spinney is commenting on…

Is the Global War in Terror Creating More Problems than it is Solving?

Chuck Spinney

The late historian Chalmers JOHNSON popularized the term “blowback” to describe the unintended grand-strategic consequences resulting from interventionist foreign policies and military actions.  The term blowback dates to the CIA's internal history of the US’s 1953 Iranian coup that threw out the Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh (a progressive social reformer who wanted to nationalize the oil industry among other things) and replaced him with the tyrannical American puppet Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.  No one can doubt that contemporary problems with Iran today are rooted in resentments dating back to the 1953 coup.

Continue reading “Journal: Will Pakistan Implode Because of US in AF?”

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Reference: Genocide of Bees From Failure of Government

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 06 Family, 07 Health, 10 Security, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government)

Leaked Memo Sheds Light on Mysterious Bee Die-Offs and Who's to Blame

The culprit may be a pesticide that the EPA has allowed on the market despite the fact that the company which makes the pesticide has failed to prove it is safe.

AlterNet / By Jill Richardson

December 10, 2010

Read long detailed and compelling story….

Phi Beta Iota: This is the part that the President, the Director of the Office of Management, and the Director of National Intelligence simply do not compute.  As presented in the M4IS2 briefing in Chile, in today's complex era security is everything about everything always.  Intelligence must mature.  We have wasted 19 years going on 25.  Creating a Smart Nation and a Smart Government starts with evidence-based policy-making–intelligence is where that comes from, and public intelligence is how we nurture integrity within the government.

See Also:

Sense-Making Summit: Public Health (October 2011)

2010 INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability

Graphic: Intelligence Maturity Scale

Journal: Army Shines with Bee Deaths But Case Still Open

Journal: Bees’ tiny brains beat computers

Journal: Electromagnetics, Bees, & Agriculture

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Lack Of)

Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation (2008)

Journal: Bees’ tiny brains beat computers

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Journal: CIA Ghosts of Khost Ride Again….

04 Education, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Using terminology sometimes used in the DoD special operations community, article below conveys a strong suggestion that in organizing and staffing its operation at Khost, CIA failed to discriminate between enthusiasm and capability.  Based on knowing nothing more about the case than is available to the public, there seems to be a lot to agree with in this article, which seems to get better the farther into it you read.

2.  A quotation long reputed to be associated with Marine Corps Drill Instructors is, “Let's be damned sure that no man's ghost will ever have cause to say, ‘if your training program had only done its job.'”  The obvious supposition is that you actually put people through the training program.  That may not have happened here.

Silent Stars

By Jennifer Sklaka

Washingtonian.com, January 2011

Phi Beta Iota: Click on Silent Stars to read the entire piece, link posted for the record.  Toward the end the article gracefully provides an indictment of CIA's incompetence across multiple fronts.

See Also:

Journal: The Truth on Khost Kathy

Journal: CIA Officer Blew Off Warning in Jordon Weeks in Advance of Jordanian Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan that Killed Seven

Journal: CIA Does It Again….(Taliban Imposter)

Reference: Panetta Puts Lipstick on the Pig (Again)

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Journal: Afghanistan as a Failure of Imagination

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Who, Me?

Flawed projects prove costly for Afghanistan, U.S.

Contractor leaves Afghan police stations half-complete

Phi Beta Iota: Our political, policy, and military leaders simply do not know what they do not know.  Assuming–desiring–that they have the best of intentions–the reality is that they are not receiving the intelligence (decision-support) that they require to make intelligent decisions.  In both Iraq and Afghanistan, because there was political will, trillions have been wasted on “security” instead of sustenance.  Haiti, because there were no political will, was a microcosm–20,000 troops with a huge logistics tail when what was really needed were CAB 21 Peace Jumpers able to call in a Reverse TPFID….  Advanced Cyber/IO starts with imagination & intelligence.

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Journal: American Decline in Zero-Sum World?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Reform, Strategy, Threats
DefDog Recommends...

“We've Heard All This About American Decline Before.”

This time it's different. It's certainly true that America has been through cycles of declinism in the past. Campaigning for the presidency in 1960, John F. Kennedy complained, “American strength relative to that of the Soviet Union has been slipping, and communism has been advancing steadily in every area of the world.” Ezra Vogel's Japan as Number One was published in 1979, heralding a decade of steadily rising paranoia about Japanese manufacturing techniques and trade policies.

In the end, of course, the Soviet and Japanese threats to American supremacy proved chimerical. So Americans can be forgiven if they greet talk of a new challenge from China as just another case of the boy who cried wolf. But a frequently overlooked fact about that fable is that the boy was eventually proved right. The wolf did arrive — and China is the wolf.

Read full article….

Gideon Rachman is chief foreign-affairs commentator for the Financial Times and author of Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety.

Phi Beta Iota: The problem with the “status quo” actors and thinkers–however good their intentions–is that they simply do not know what they do not know.  The world can indeed be zero-sum.  It can also be non-zero sum, a case made by Robert Wright and summarized in Review: Nonzero–The Logic of Human Destiny.  We know how to do this and want to do this.  Those in power do not know how to do this and do not want to do this.  Therein lies the challenge–all it takes is ONE leader–Cynthia McKinney comes to mind–willing to stand up, demand Electoral Reform (1 Page, 9 Points), and the rest will be history–a very good history of the Second American Republic, how it came to its senses, and created a prosperous world at peace through intelligence as design.  Now THAT is Advanced Cyber/IO!

See Also:

Graphic: Intelligence Maturity Scale

Review: Evolutionary Activism by Tom Atlee

Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure

Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today

Reference: Electoral Reform (Huffington Post Version)

Reference: Electoral Reform–1 Page 9 Points 2.2 (Document Only)

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Journal: Eradicating Poverty One Micro-Job at a Time

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Geospatial, Historic Contributions, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Maps, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Open Government, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Reform, Research resources, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Working for change: Samasource redefines international aid

December 10, 2010

On Need to Know, we do a lot of reporting about the world’s problems. But we’re premiering a new series about people coming up with creative solutions — it’s called “Agents of Change.”

Click on title to read short intro and option to view video….

9 minutes — summary

Social entrepreneur challenging conventional wisdom

Samasource–microwork (small digital tasks that can be done on an inexpensive computers).

Building 21st Century assembly line that can break down massive tasks (e.g. updating addresses for Google maps, or translating emergency messages from Creole to English).  Won contracts with Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft.

15% premium for socially-conscious companies, AND competitive on cost, quality, and turnaround time.

Small scale digital tasks did not exist before.

Transforming lives, especially women, young men, and refugees.  $5 a day is very much better than local norms, and buys an active English-speaking brain with hands able to do quality work.

IMPORTANT:  Developing world is out-pacing USA and West generally in extending Internet infrastructure to the poor–centers created, humans come in, also doing viewing (Gorgon Stare, take note!), creating logs of store videos on shopper buying habits, anything that can be noticed and logged by a human–$5 a day.

Phi Beta Iota: We could not, in a million years, have found a better “off-set” to the USAF Gorgon Stare program.  This micro-tasking, combining human brains and hands with Internet access, is one of  the most profoundly intelligent and socio-economically useful ideas we have seen in our lifetimes (there are 800 of us here).  BRAVO.