The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
North Korea/China: Why public intelligence matters more than Chinese blocking of UN information.
Bahrein: Corrects erroneous view that Egyptian Army was “insubordinate and policized” in contrast to the disciplined and brutally repressive Bahrein forces.
Egypt: Excellent overview on Workers, Brotherhood, the naive young–and corrective comment on why US Government is failing to get it right in Egypt.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extracts & Corrective Observations”
Friday, Febuary 18, 7:00PM
Heavenly Bamboo
New York, NY
A gathering of tribes, for people to speak and think freely, while we still can.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/heavenly-bamboo-pavilion/menu
One of the best SITREPS of the Arab Revolt in Egypt I have read. The author is an Israeli peace activist, a hero of the 1948 War and a former member of the Knesset.
Chuck Spinney, The Blaster
Blown Opportunities Tsunami in Egypt
By URI AVNERY, Counterpunch, 14 February 2011
Until the very last moment, the Israeli leadership tried to keep Hosni Mubarak in power.
It was hopeless. Even the mighty United States was impotent when faced with this tsunami of popular outrage.
In the end it settled for second best: a pro-Western military dictatorship. But will this really be the outcome?
* * *
WHEN CONFRONTED with a new situation, Obama’s first response is generally admirable.
Then, it seems, second thoughts set in. And third. And fourth. The end result is a 180 degree turn.
Phi Beta Iota: Barack Obama has a good mind and a good heart trapped in the most unethical white system money can devise. Whether he fears assassination or lacks the close friendships with iconoclasts helpful to being all he could be, he has evidently died in place. Instead of Electoral Reform and intelligence-driven policy replete with ethics and a commitment to do the right thing, not the wrong thing righter, he has blown more than Egypt–he has failed himself, his family, his public, and the ideal that once was America the Beautiful.
Wisconsin's Walker Calls for End of Collective Bargaining, Alerts National Guard
By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Blog
February 11, 2011
First Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced a state budget plan that strips state workers of nearly all
their collective bargaining rights, cuts pay and benefits and says there will be no negotiations.
Phi Beta Iota: Ronald Reagan broke the back of modern labor with his use of the military to break the air traffic controller's strike. It appears that Governor Walker is demonstrating a similar disregard for the sanctity of labor rights, and that the National Guard–as with the Pentagon in Reagan's time–will be a willful collaborator this time around.
Others, notably Dr. Loch Johnson, de facto dean of the intelligence scholars in the English language, have explored both definitions and concepts for a theory of intelligence. Others, such as Jack Davis, have done much in the area of analytic tradecraft or the “art” of intelligence analysis (to match the “art” in clandestine operations and covert action).
Now the time has come to develop a science of intelligence. The first casualty must of necessity be the obsession with secret sources and methods, secret agencies, and secret clients. Intelligence is about decision-support, plain and simple, and the new science of intelligence will be developed along the lines of the services science developed by Dr. Jim Spohrer of IBM, and others. Dr. Spohrer provided the below in an email exchange today:
(1) “you can have a science of anything, if a community agrees it is important”
(2) “innovations that are based on sciences, not just management and engineering practice, can be advanced more systematically”
(3) “industry cares about innovation acceleration, can academia deliver a science? does the engineering and management exist in practice”
(4) “academia said we can establish a research area to help build the science under the engineering and management practice.”
A round-table is being formed and a new article will result.
‘Hacktivists’ retaliate against security expert
By Joseph Menn in San Francisco
Financial Times February 7 2011 22:53
The cyber-activist group Anonymous reacted quickly over the weekend to infiltration by a US security analyst, hacking into his personal online accounts and computers and distributing thousands of e-mails and other documents.
The attack embarrassed researcher Aaron Barr, head of HBGary Federal, a contractor for US intelligence and other government agencies, while demonstrating that Anonymous has considerable technical abilities.
Wael Ghonim, freed from Egyptian prison today, confirms to Mike Giglio in his first interview with international media that he is the man behind the Facebook page that sparked revolt. Plus, full coverage of Egypt’s uprising.
In his first interview with English-language media, the senior Google executive released today after twelve days in Egyptian custody, confirmed that he was the anonymous force behind the Facebook page that sparked Egypt’s revolt.
