Category: Worth A Look

Phi Beta Iota: We love Cryptome, it renders a public service.  We appreciate being listed there as a public service ourselves.  We do NOT, however, under any circumstances, violate our lifetime secrecy  oath or ever reveal anything that is remotely classified or sensitive.  We derive intelligence (decision support) exclusively from open sources and methods.  When we write about traditional intelligence sources and methods (e.g. on Human Intelligence) our work is reviewed by both DoD and CIA in advance of publication.  Our mission is to help create public intelligence in the public interest.  That said, we point with respect to Cryptome, where the following statement appears, and then a long list of existing web sites full of sensitive sources and methods information….including, erroneously, our own.

From Cryptome DOI 4 September 2010

Sensitive Information Security Sources and Breaches

In response to Wikileaks background inquiries Cryptome offers that there are hundreds of online and offline sources of sensitive information security breaches which preceded Wikileaks beginning about 120 years ago. This outline traces the conflict between technological capabilities for sensitive information breaches and control by law enforcement when technical countermeasures are insufficient — a few examples among many others worldwide:

See the full list.

Education and training

NATO conducts education and training to ensure its forces are effective and interoperable, as part of its cooperation with non-member countries, and as part of NATO-led operations.

Historically, NATO education and training has been focused on ensuring that military forces from member countries can work together effectively in operations and missions. Today, NATO education and training functions have expanded significantly. NATO has a network of training schools and institutions, conducts regular exercises and runs training programmes as far away as Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.

The three main purposes are to enhance the interoperability and effectiveness of NATO-led multinational forces, assist Partner countries in their reform efforts, and help bring peace and stability to crisis-hit areas.

On this power-grid map of the United States, the black-circled areas are regions especially vulnerable to collapse during an extreme geomagnetic storm. Inside those boundaries are more than 130 million people. Credit: National Academy of Sciences report on severe space weather.

A contemporary repetition of the Carrington Event would cause … extensive social and economic disruptions,” the report warns. Widespread failures could include telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion (some 20 times greater than the costs of Hurricane Katrina).

The problem begins with the electric power grid. Ground currents induced during an extreme geomagnetic storm can melt the copper windings of huge, multi-ton transformers at the heart of power distribution systems. Because modern power grids are interconnected, a cascade of failures could sweep across the country, rapidly cutting power to tens or even hundreds of millions of people. According to the report, this loss of electricity would have a ripple effect with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.

Phi Beta Iota: Soviet electromagnetic emission deconfliction and protection standards have always been ten times tougher than US standards–they anticipated the problems US troops now suffer across Afghanistan.  Attentive readers will recall the five weeks it took a New Zealand city to restore power after a main power feed fried in place.

See Also:

• Complexity & Catastrophe (90)
• Complexity & Resilience (99)

The purpose of the Foundation shall be, by presentation of Right Livelihood Awards, to promote scientific research, education, public understanding and practical activities which:

• contribute to a global ecological balance
• are aimed at eliminating material and spiritual poverty
• contribute to lasting peace and justice in the world.

The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 to honour and support those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.

It has become widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize' and there are now 137 Laureates from 58 countries.

Here are a few internal links for direct appreciation:

List of Laurates 1980-2009

Online Videos of 2006-2009 Awards (One Each)

Propose a Candidate