5 Star – Page 147 – Public Intelligence Blog

Excellent but Incomplete–See Other Books Below,

August 11, 2006

Center for Constitutional Rights

This is a fine little effort, a very fast read, with four articles of impeachment:

1) Violation of privacy and law re the NSA eavesdropping

2) Initiation and continuation of the Iraq war on web of lies

3) Torture & rendition inclusive of US citizens and violation of habeas corpus, making law and interpreting law

4) Abrogation of power from Congress, exceeding the bounds of excutive authority as established by Constitution and laws in effect.

It is not, however, the whole story. At least two other books by constitutional lawyers must be read to appreciate the gravity and full range of impeachable offences that could be judged by Congress: the book “How Would a Patriot Act,” and the book, “The Case for Impeachment,” which is more substantive than this one. Here is the complete list from the latter book:

1. Stole Florida election in 2000.
2. Lied on Iraq to Congress, the Public, and the United Nations.
3. 9-11 Cover-Up and Obstruction of Justice.
4. Violated Rights of Citizens including Habeas Corpus.
5. NSA Program to Listen to Citizens without Warrant.
6. Violated International Treaties Including Geneva Convention.
7. Actively Encouraged, as a Policy, Use of Torture.
8. Gross Negligence on Hurricane Katrina.
9. Iraq Contract Corruption–Bremer “Lost” $8 billion in cash, sole source awards, and gross negligence in managing the peace.
10. Stole Ohio election in 2004.

Still, that is not the whole story. Congress, with the sole brilliant exception of the most extraordinary Senator Byrd (see my review of his book of speeches against the Bush violations, “Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency”) failed all Americans. To understand the failure of Congress, see Senator/Congressman Tom Coburn's “Breach of Trust” and the book just out on “Broken Branch” in which the authors make clear that the extremist Republicans in Congress (not the moderate Republicans like Congressman Rob Simmons, an authentic patriot and man of honor) decided they were the President's “footsoldiers” rather than, as the Founding Fathers intended, the FIRST Branch of Government.

However, even that is not enough. To understand the full extent of the violations that have burned our seed corn, inflicted syphillis on our children, and cost us the moral regard of the rest of the planet, you need to read “The One Percent Doctrine” and “Speaking Freely” and can go on from there to “Downsizing Democracy: How American Sidelined Its Citizedns and Privatized Its Public.” And more. See my lists on evaluating Dick Cheney in relation to both impeachable offenses, and corporate corruption.

It was the Republicans with their grotesque law suite against President Clinton that demeaned Congress and surrended moral authority. This next election may throw out as many Democrats as it does Republicans (Democcrats are Republicans lite–just as corrupt, just less capable), but if we wish to avoid two more years of economic colonialism and unilateral militarism by chicken hawks like Cheney that never served under arms, then we may just have to bite the bullet.

The one thing missing from this book is the “Do It Yourself Impeachment” kit. It turns out that citizens can impeach the President and Vice President if Congress fails to do its dury. Now wouldn't that be something–restoration of the engaged Republic of the whole.

This is a fine book. My reviews of all of these books are the first investment I recommend, followed by any one of the above.

2006/08/092011/10/22

Review: The Broken Branch–How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)

5 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Politics

Amazon Page

Helpful to Anyone Planning to Vote in November 2008,

August 9, 2006

Thomas E. Mann

I have long understood the original terrible sin of Congress, the obscene corruption. I did not understand party line corruption (forcing Members to vote the party line instead of for their constituents until I read Tom Coburns Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders.

This book helped me understand that the third sin is that partisan politics have turned Members into (the author's term) “footsoldiers for the President” and thus a complete abdication of their role as the Article 1 (i.e. first) branch of government.

This book helped me understand that it is the long-serving Members who are often shaking down lobbyists and extorting funds from people, not the other way around, where bribes are offered by the lobbyists.

I read this book after reading David Broder's article in the 8 August 2006 issue of the Washington Post, an article entitled “Contempt for Congress” and summarizing the utter disdain that the Governors–both Republican and Democratic–have for most Members. The Congress is indeed broken and dysfunctional. There is a tide sweeping against all incumbents, regardless of party, in this year.

Hence, as Congress reconvenes on 5 September for one last session ending in early October, it could be quite fruitful for as many voters as possible to read this book and Tom Coburn's book, and demand of Congress two things in this next session: Electoral Reform, and a Public Intelligence Agency independent of both the President and Congress. We have a window for reform. This book is one of two pillars for those who wish to “raise the roof.”

It is vital that the 100 million voters who have “dropped out” of the broken partisan political scene come back in 2008.

2006/08/092009/12/04

Review: Fiasco–The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Hardcover)

5 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Amazon Page

Extraordinarily Good Review, with Sadness of Deja Vu and Silence of the Lambs,

August 9, 2006

Thomas E. Ricks

There are other vital books to read, not least of which is James Risens State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration and Jim Bamford's A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies and Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq as well as The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End. There are lesser books as well, such as Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. On balance, of all the books I have read, this is the best and easiest to read chronicle and teaching device.

Everyone preparing to vote in November for the gutless Congress that betrayed America and failed to maintain either the power of the purse or the power to declare war, should read this book.

And when future politicians who were military commanders that failed to speak up (“the silence of the lambs” as the author notes) ask for your vote, laugh in their face.

There are leadership heros in this book–General Zinni of the Marine Corps, General Shinseki, who told the truth to Congress and was fired for his trouble (as was General Clapper, who said that the national agencies could be cut free from defense). Garner and the Army generals were on the right track, until Garner was fired for doing the right thing (trying to accelerate the turnover of authority to the Iraqis and the exit of Americans).

There are also villains. Chalabi gets his due share but in my view the author underestimates Chalabi's influence on Cheney, and Chalabi's treasonous representation of Iranian interests.

Rumsfeld is documented over and over as one massive ego completely uncaring of inter-agency effectiveness or accomodating to reality.

Edit of 10 Sep 06: the author appeared on a Sunday talk show today, and pointed out that it was Paul Bremer who gave the Iraqi insurgency everything they needed: 1) leadership, with his order to ban Bathists from responsible positions; 2) guns and volunteers with his order to disband the Iraqi military and police; and 3) finances, providing Iran with exactly the right opportunity to further its interests. It can be said that Bremer has done more damange to America than Bin Laden–what an obituary that makes!

This is a superb chronicle of who shot John, when, and how. The headings for each section of text are brilliant. When I first got the book I flipped through it and read only the headings, and they were as compelling and concise of summary of our botched endeavor in Iraq as one could want.

If you buy and read only one book from among all those I have mentioned, this is the book to buy.

2006/08/082009/12/04

Review: The End of Faith–Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (Paperback)

5 Star, Religion & Politics of Religion

Amazon Page

Very Important, Objective, Valuable, Relevant to Peace,

August 8, 2006

Sam Harris

Of the 3000 or so books I have read in the past decade, 750 or so them reviewed here at Amazon (almost all non-fiction) this is perhaps the single most important work that declares, and then documents, the “naked Emperor” of religion.

While I agree with the reviewer that sums it up as saying that religion in the form of blind faith does more harm than good, I would hasten to add that faith is an essential part of the American value system, and can do a great deal of good when channeled in partnership with a tolerant secular state. See my reviews of “The Left Hand of God,” “Faith-Based Diplomacy,” and “American Gospel.”

The alternative sub-title of this book could be “The Cost of Intolerance.” However–and I strongly recommend this book to the Information Operations and Public Diplomacy or Strategic Communication professionals–the author is brilliantly on point when he suggests that the third world war now happening is about beliefs–about good beliefs versus bad beliefs, about a need for a morality order of battle. As Robert Garigue sums up in his own original work offered as a technical preface to my book on Information Operations, war has moved to the semantic level, and we have to focus on identifying, containing, and then eradicating belief systems that are totally set against our once-balanced (not now) combination of secular state and diversity of belief.

It merits comment, as discussed in Howard Bloom's “Global Brain,” that belief systems, once embedded in a person older than 30, are not changeable. World War III is a war for the minds of those in elementary and secondary school. We have to contain or kill the adults who believe that martyrdom awaits those who kill “unbelievers.” On a positive note, the disciplines of psychology and neuroscience are now coming together (see my review of “Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of the Mind” by Eric Kandel). At the same time, the discipline of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is finally about to be funded properly, and we are within arms reach of being able to make sense of all information in all languages all the time.

Over-all the author agrees with those who say we are engaged in a clash of ideologies rather than civilizations. He notes that democracy can NOT be seen as a precursor to changing beliefs, for as we have found in Iraq, given a vote, most rabid Muslims would vote to give up their public liberties in favor of their blind and intolerant faith.

The author is compelling in also noting that poverty, among other high-level threats, is not the source of the conflicts that should frighten us with the prospect of being wiped out. It is about belief systems. He suggests that energy independence is actually a pre-requisite to gaining the economic leverage we need, while depriving the radical Muslim states of oil revenues they have consistently used to finance Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, among others.

Among the varied insights offered by the author I especially appreciated these:

1) Discussion of how evangelical Christians are penetrating the federal and state governments and subverting secular policy to fight “reasoned policy” and channel tax-payer funds to specific evangelical missions and churches.

2) A fascinating review of our skewed priorities, where we spend $4 billion annually to eradicate marijuana, which kills no one, while refusing to spend $2 billion one time to secure our ports, meanwhile ignoring the fact that alcohol kills hundreds of thousands.

3) Priceless quote, on page 165: “And yet, religious faith obscures uncertainty where uncertainty manifestly exists, allowing the unknown, the implausible, and the patently false to achieve primacy over facts.”

4) The author provides a very comprehensive review of both the Koran and the Bible, citing many specific passages, and concludes that even “moderate” Muslims are inherently trained to believe that “unbelievers” are to be converted or killed. This is, incidentally, the first stage of genocide, where the one to be killed is put into a class with vermin to set the stage for acceptable massacres.

The book concludes with a brilliant and provocative call for a science of good and evil, an ethics and science of the mind. The author states that truth is NOT just a matter of consensus or belief, and that some truths, in a human or reality sense, must be absolute. He calls for common sense and a sensibility of tolerance for others, while stating quite clearly that we must identify and kill those who threaten us “blindly.” He concludes that both torture and pacifism are wrong, and that principled moral engagement, one for all and all for one, is what is right. He supports non-violence where it works, but force is still needed for the greater evils that will respond to no other means.

The author documents the origin of the yellow star to “mark” Jews as having been in Baghdad, and only much later adopted by the Nazis.

The paperback version has a Question & Answer section that is not in the hardback original.

This is an extraordinary book, and should be–but of course is not–influencing those who would lead their Nation into a future of peace and prosperity. We have no strategy, no policy, only predatory capitalism fueled by militant unilateralism, and a Vice President who has usurped power from the President to pursue cheap oil at the expense of longer-term prosperity and peace. If ever there was a book to help us understand all that is wrong with America and the Muslims today, this is it.

2006/07/122009/12/04

Review: Never Quit the Fight (Hardcover)

5 Star, Biography & Memoirs, Philosophy, Religion & Politics of Religion, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

Amazon Page

THE best combination of strategy, psychology, & intelligence about REALITY,

July 12, 2006

Ralph Peters

This is without question one of the finest and most ably organized collections of commentaries it has been my privilege to read in all these years. It suffers from one major flaw, not the author's fault: the publisher failed to include an index. The oversight should be corrected in the next printing, and ideally included as an Errata with the books now going out to bookstores.

The author is a world-class strategist, warrior, psychologist, intelligence professional, and writer.

He returns to four familiar themes, with all new refreshing insights:

1. America has no strategy and no official means of getting there. He ends the book by pointing out that drawing lines between the US, Spain, and Portugal to African and Latin American countries with colonial ties to these countries, and then lines of modern immigration and kinship back to the US, would be a de facto strategic network worthy of consideration.

2. America has the wrong military, with too few infantry, military police, and even truck drivers. He is brutally on the mark when he concludes that the current Administration's efforts to out-source everything led to the out-sourcing of America's honor. The author is on target when he revisits his long-standing beef with the U.S. Navy, which is still trying to build to “four carriers on the Kamchatka peninsula” and the rest on China. We need a 450-ship Navy capable of executing peace from the sea, and we need an Air Force capable of two Berlin Airlifts at once, with a budget for the peace goods they will need to carry to the 30+ failed states that spawn terrorism, infectious disease, poverty, environmental degradation, civil war and genocide, and of course crime.

3. Even with the right military–that is to say, a military able to dispatch single terrorists with a single bullet, able to mount punitive “in and out” expeditionary operations, and–where called for–invade and occupy for extended periods, but with proper planning for the post-war transition to peace–military intelligence is completely broken. It cannot find the targets known to exist at the individual and tribal levels, and it cannot anticipate emerging threats. I would add that civilian intelligence is just as broken. The current Director of National Intelligence and his senior agency heads are continuing the Cold War systems that are “inside out and upside down” and have no idea how to create a modern intelligence capability that is founded on multinational and inter-agency information sharing, and on making the most of what can be known from open sources of information in all languages.

4. Faith is a strategic factor. The author is compelling when he slams not just the radical Islamic terrorists, but the ideologically insane evangelical Christians in America, for religious degradation rather than religious charity. David Johnston, author of the very influential book on “Faith-Based Diplomacy” would certainly agree. The author excels at criticism of our mis-placed faith in technology and “precision munitions” while ignoring what Army War College strategist Steve Metz calls “precision psychology.” In this vein the author points out that the fastest way to calm the Earth and increase productivity while reducing poverty is to focus on human capital and the education of the poor. Michael O'Hanlon has pointed out that the single greatest return on investment comes from a dollar spent on the education of women. This is where Google.org might usefully apply it extraordinary capabilities. Free online education in all languages, and donated Internet access centers and study computers in every village across Africa.

There are two portions of the book that are priceless gems worthy of inclusion in the welcoming kits of every War College student: the ten lessons of Iraq, and Occupation 101. Buy the book for these alone, and enjoy the rest as context.

Ralph Peters is a patriot. Occasionally he will rant, occasionally he will be belligerent and unwilling to entertain the reasonable claims and concerns of the enemy, but on balance, there is no other author that I would rather read in the domain of national security, than Ralph Peters. For complementary and sometimes opposing views, I recommend Colin Gray's “Modern Strategy,” Jonathan Schell's “Unconquerable World,” Joe Nye's “Paradox of American Power,” William Shawcross, “Deliver Us From Evil,” and C. K. Prahalad's “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” but see my lists for many other suggested top-notch books in the field of non-fiction about reality.

2006/07/082009/12/04

Review: Nature’s Extremes–Inside the Great Natural Disasters That Shape Life on Earth (Time Magazine Hardcover)

5 Star, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design

Better than Inconvenient Truth, A Tremendous Contribution,

July 8, 2006

Editors Of Time Magazine

The ideal combination for anyone seeking to understand what Al Gore calls An Inconvenient Truth is the video by Gore and this book. I would supplement that with J. F. Richard's High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them and E. O. Wilson's The Future of Life.

Unlike the Gore book, which is admirable in its content and purpose, but got lost with an explosion of varying font sizes and color schemes that block knowledge transmission rather than aid it, this book by TIME has the investigative journalistic rigor and the editorial maturity that I look for in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) products–tailored knowledge helpful in making major public policy decisions.

The structure of this book is perfect: Inside the Planet; The Water Planet; The Land Planet; and Above the Planet. There is an index and the maps and graphics are world-class. The content is presented in a straight-forward analytic fashion. CIA should do work this good.

I have often wished that TIME might adjust its editorial mind-set to be the de facto Public Intelligence Agency for the planet. This book addresses threat number three of the ten threats identified by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations. The other threats, in order, are poverty, infectuous disease, [environmental degradation], inter-state war, civil war, genocide, other atrocities (e.g. trade in women and children, kidnapping for body parts or forced labor including prostitution), proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and crime. I would be quite thrilled if TIME committed to doing books on each of these threats, and creating an interactive Public Intelligence Website that tied the books together and to the actual budgets of the United States and other nations, in that way showing how our USA national budget is badly mis-directed, and perhaps inspiring other nations once we get our priorities right ourselves.

This book is a joy to read, intelligent, a real keeper.

2006/07/082009/12/04

Review: The Transparent Society–Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Paperback)

5 Star, Civil Society, Information Society

Amazon Page

Puts NSA Wiretapping in Context,

July 8, 2006

David Brin

It is helpful to return to this book, from 1998, and to a follow on book, “the digital person” published in 2004, as context for the recent bru-ha-ha over NSA wiretapping without a warrant, and the loss to theft of tens of thousands of social security number and other personal information of veterans. Oh yes, somewhere in there, the FBI was hacked and companies like First Data are making fortunes compiling actionable profiles of individuals from disparate sources that were never approved for sharing.

This book focuses on the value of transparency and considers the key issue to be the war between secrecy versus accountability. The author directly confronts the issue of “who controls” information about YOU.

The author draws a useful comparison between the Internet, which sacrificed security for robust sharing, and the intelligence community, which chose security over sharing as its primordal principal.

The author observes that the Internet is having one undesireable effect, that of fragmenting communities that become less amenable to compromise and consensus. He points out that reality and locationally based discussion can lead to more effective consensus and compromise.

There is a useful discussion of “tagging” and how citizen truth squads and public commentary can serve as a useful antidote to corporate messages. The idea of “culture jamming” is picked up and treated at length by another excellent book, “NO LOGO.”

Overall this book remains a standard in providing a detailed revoew of the issues and the capabilities surrounding digitial information about individuals. It is the author's view that WHO controls information, rather than WHO is elected, will determine the future of democracy.

In passing the author makes two points that I find important:

1) A liberal education, rather than the current trends toward immediate specialization, is essential if the public is to be able to think critically.

2) Law enforcement under the current government model, does not work. The author gives the example of 100 felonies, of which only 33 are reported. Of the 33, 6 are caught, 3 are convicted, and 1 goes to prison.

The author ends with a reference to genius savant John Perry Barlow, one of America's more notable commentators, and suggests that we are entering an era of individual collective intelligence against organized government intelligence (and secrecy).

I recommend this book be read together with “the digital person” because the latter book focuses on the degree to which government and corporate mistakes–“careless unconcerned bureaucratic processes” can undermine privacy and good order.

Category: 5 Star

Review: Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush

Review: The Broken Branch–How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)

Review: Fiasco–The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Hardcover)

Review: The End of Faith–Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (Paperback)

Review: Never Quit the Fight (Hardcover)

Review: Nature’s Extremes–Inside the Great Natural Disasters That Shape Life on Earth (Time Magazine Hardcover)

Review: The Transparent Society–Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Paperback)