Mr. Arno Reuser, Arno the Curious, is a Master Librarian who has done more for the practice of Open Source Inteligence (OSINT) in support of national security than anyone else in Europe. He has been a pioneer in the explotiation of badly-delivered OSINT from private sector vendors, writing original PERL programs to make sense of their feeds; he has known how to make the most of the Internet; and above all, he has known how to find and engage human intellects around the world, each capable of producing unique tailored knowledge not available online or in print. He is the Master Librarian of the OSINT world and all seven intelligence tribes.
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist “A People's History of the United States” became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.
Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, “A People's History” was — fittingly — a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including “Voices of a People's History,” a volume for young people and a graphic novel
Phi Peta Iota: Click on the photo for the full story. We take exception to the labeling of Howard Zinn as “left wing.” He was neither left nor right, he was honest, and that is not something one can say about either of the two political parties that exclude half the eligible voters from the process and that loot the treasury on behalf of special interests. It is truly a terrible indictment of society when truth-tellers are labeled in any manner
Fedor Dostoevsky: A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else.
Tom Atlee is a social change pioneer and visionary, author of The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World that Works for All and founder of the nonprofit Co-Intelligence Institute http://co-intelligence.org. The book below would not have been possible without his identification and encouragement of many of the pioneers who helped create the book, which then allowed the editor to attract additional leaders in the field to contribute to this collective endeavor.
Phi Beta Iota: Tom Atlee is arguably the single most influential “spirit” in convergence that is occurring as we begin the second decade of the 21st Century. Click on Atlee to see his many listings on this site. His most recent work, Reflections on Evolutionary Activism, is one of a handful of revolutionary reflections pertinent to the urgent need for massive non-violent social change today.
Barbara Marx Hubbard was the second of two female candidates for Vice President of the United States of America, at the Democratic Convention of 1984 along with Gerraldine Ferraro. She was nominated from the floor because of her short presentation on the need to connect everything and have a Peace Room as sophisticated as what we imagine for war. Today (2010) she is one of the most respected pioneers for conscious evolution within diversity.
Dr. Max G. Manwaring is a Professor of Military Strategy in the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army War College (USAWC). He has held the General Douglas MacArthur Chair of Research at the USAWC, and is a retired U.S. Army colonel. He has served in various civilian and military positions, including the U.S. Southern Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, Dickinson College, and Memphis University. Dr. Manwaring is the author and coauthor of several articles, chapters, and books dealing with Latin American security affairs, political-military affairs, and insurgency and counterinsurgency. His most recent book is Insurgency, Terrorism, and Crime: Shadows from the Past and Portent for the Future, University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. His most recent article is “Sovereignty under Siege: Gangs and Other Criminal Organizations in Central America and Mexico,” in Air & Space Power Journal (in Spanish), forthcoming. His most recent SSI monograph is A Contemporary Challenge to State Sovereignty: Gangs and Other Illicit Transnational Criminal Organizations in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, and Brazil. Dr. Manwaring holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College.
Phi Beta Iota: We are deeply inpressed by this individual, who crosses harnesses Collective Intelligence to achieve Commercial Value in both Cultural and Earth contexts. His idea is infinitely scalable, infinitely valuable, and applicable to every single product and service on the planet, ultimately to included planned giving at the item level.
FYI … I just found this interesting report. While the report focuses almost entirely on the political perspective to this conflict, note how he claims the Taleban increases its cohesion by organizing itself in a decentralized way the marries centralized intent with high degree of autonomy at lower levels. He thinks it is paradoxical that this type of organization improves cohesion, but it is right out of the maneuver warfare tradition, and it is hardly paradoxical that this kind of organization increases the variety, rapidity, and harmony of its OODA loops at all levels organization. Nor should it be surprising, given the sluggish, rigid OODA loops that result our highly centralized, techno-intensive approach to command & control, that the Taleban seized and maintains the initiative, as acknowledged by General McChrystal in his report to President Obama in August. Chuck
Report Online
35-Page Report includes Executive Summary, Introduction, Roots & Causes, Induced & Internal Factors, Pakistan Factor, Who Are the Insurgents, Talks or Reconciliation, Conclusion, and Recommendations.
High points:
1. Many actors, no strategy
2. Cannot reconcile extremists with corrupt government
3. Time for the UN to be the UN again and lead a 360 “all stakeholders” non-military convergence.
