Category: Intelligence (Public)

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2006 Forbes Blank Slate On Education

Articles & Chapters, Education (General), Education (Universities), Information Society, Intelligence (Public)
2006 Forbes Blank Slate
2006 Forbes Blank Slate

Although I had long recognized that intelligence at the national level is remedial education for policy-makers and their staff who live in a “closed circle,” it was the juxtaposition of Derek Bok's review of education with my own on intelligence in the same issue that made me realize we need a Deputy Vice President for Education, Intelligence, and Research.  I tried to get Colin Powell interested in the idea, to no avail.  In my view, we will always need spies and secrets, but they must be cast in the context of a Smart Nation, and our secret intelligence budget is so large now that it can safely afford to become a modest bill-payer for advances in education and research that are part of the Smart Nation triad.

It is not for me to do anything other than champion the idea–others actually manage the money and it is they who decide how the taxpayer dollar is spent.

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2006 THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

Books w/Steele, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks)
Free PDF Text
Free PDF Text

Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02) lost by eighty-three votes in 2006.  A retired U.S. Army Colonel who pioneered Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and whose service on the House Committee for Homeland Security focused on the urgency of greating public intelligence useful to our state, county, municipality, and tribal leaders, his defeat came in part because two editorial boards in his district turned against him with the tide of the times, completely unaware of his very big ideas.  This book, published in 2006, was distributed to every member of the House by his staff, and to every Senator by my staff, and we can now be quite certain that not a single Member every actually read this book (just as they do not actually read the legislation they vote on such as the Patriot Act).  To read Congressman Simmon's Forword only, click on his photo below.

Rob Simmons
Rob Simmons

For a number of related references in the related areas of electoral, intelligence, governance, and national security reform, see Search: smart nation intelligence reform electoral reform national security reform

Free Chapter
Free Chapter
Amazon Page $29.95++
Amazon Page $29.95++
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2006 INFORMATION OPERATIONS: All Information, All Languages, All the Time

Books w/Steele, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks)
Free PDF Text
Free PDF Text

I have learned a great deal from colleagues at the U.S. Special Operations Command.  Their most memorable lesson is captured in the following quotation from a person who in my mind represents the very best intellect and ethics that command has to offer:

“Secret intelligence is 10% of all-source intelligence, and all-source intelligence is 10% of Information Operaitons (IO).”

I have long known that acquisition and logistics are the red-headed step-children of the global defense community, and long realized that we create force structure without regard to the actual threat or the actual geospatial conditions in which we will be waging war and peace, but with this book I attempted to address the totality of our information needs in relation to strategic planning and programming for Whole of Government operations, not just military operations.  I also believe that we have failed to develop decision support as well as IO capabilities relevant to cdost avoidance, burden sharing, and leveraging opportunities for creating a prosperous world at peace.

Technical Preface by Robert Garigue, CA (RIP)
Technical Preface by Robert Garigue, CA (RIP)
Buy Direct $25 Total
Buy Direct $25 Total
Amazon Page $34.95++
Amazon Page $34.95++
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Review: NOW Who Do We Blame?–Political Cartoons by Tom Toles (Paperback)

5 Star, Intelligence (Public), Politics

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

Sheer Genius, the People's Poet Cartoonist Laureate,

June 2, 2006
Tom Toles
I start every day with the Tom Toles cartoon in the Washington Post, and consider him to be the Nation's poet cartoonist laureate. I've taken to buying his books as well, for cheer, for reflection, as gifts, and as a collector's item.

The publisher has done this book a real dis-service by not using Amazon's “about the book” information upload capabilities. The table of contents, for example, not provided by the publisher, is provided here to demonstrate that this is a “serious” cartoon book that is both hysterically funny, and poignantly pointed at REALITY. The contents, as organized by the author:

Politics and the Election
Gays and Religion
Law and Regulations
Press and Media
Health and Education
Science and the Environment
Social Security
The Economy and Budget
Security
WMD and Beyond

This is, quite simply, a sensational book. I will end by noting, somewhat pointedly, that Tom Toles' human wisdom as displayed across all these topics, makes a great deal more sense to me than the idiot “banana words” of most Republican and Democratic candidates for any elective office. Tom Toles for President! (I smile–he's too good a man for the job, unless we change the way we elect Presidents).

Consider also Googling for his web site and sharing his daily cartoons with others–Tom Toles is as close as we get in America to the Solidarity movement and samizdat freedom thinkers that broke the back of communism–now we need to break the back of ideological extremism and predatory capitalism, and that can start with the sharing of Tom Tole's great work.

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Review: Peacekeeping Intelligence–Emerging Concepts for the Future (Hardcover)

5 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Editor's Update on PKI Literature,

September 13, 2005
Wies Platje
Edit of 5 Apr 08 to point to first book in new Peace series.

Thanks to everyone that has ordered this book, which is published as a non-profit endeavor. The concluding leadership in peacekeeping digest which is structured as an intelligence cycle versus levels of warfare (strategic, operational, tactical, technical) matrix continues to be available at oss.net or by request to the US editor.

The third annual conference on peacekeeping intelligence by Sweden built from this book in December 2004, and the contributed papers were superb and moved the literature to a new level of detail, the operational level of detail. That book will be published in 2008 as “Peacekeeping Intelligence: The Way Ahead” co-edited by Col Jan-Inge Svensson of the Swedish Military Academy.

Six other titles are planned for 2008-2009, you can follow them (and read them free online although we do recommend the books as collector's items). Earth Intelligence Network has the details.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
PEACE INTELLIGENCE: Assuring a Good Life for All
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE: From Moral Green to Golden Peace

Subject to change, 2009:
GIFT INTELLIGENCE: Optimizing & Orchestrating Global Charity
CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE: Faith, Ideology, & the Five Minds
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE: EarthGame(tm) for All

The Swedes, with the explicit leadership of the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, are henceforth sponsoring a tactical peacekeeping intelligence course in March-April of each year that will be open to others–talk to your nearest Swedish defense attache. That course will lead to the third book in the series on “Peacekeeping Intelligence: Tactics for Success.”

Readers of this book who wish to recommend or write contributions to the follow-on book are urged to communicate with the US editor via email, with a decision deadline of 1 November 2005.

This book, and your purchase of it, would never have been possible without Amazon.com. They have opened new paths for information sharing that will help bring peace and prosperity to the dark corners of the world, including New Orleans.

Consider the other books in the set, also free online:
On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

All future books will be published by Earth Intelligence Network, a Virginia non-profit, and sold in limited editions via Amazon, while also free by the chapter at the EIN web site.

See the first book in the new peace series, also free online, Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

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