Category: Uncategorized

The recent publication of the 2010 QDR reveals once again, in typically leaden and mind-numbing prose, how the Pentagon is incapable of coming to grips with the mismatches among strategy, programs, and resources that its decision makers create for themselves, even when budgets are at the highest levels since the end of WWII.  The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (also called the JSF) has become a metaphor for the larger mess of the Pentagon's self-destructive pathological behavior.

Consider the first sentence in the Wired.com report attached below — “If the Pentagon doesn’t get its Joint Strike Fighter just right, the U.S. military is screwed.”  Just right? Give me a break.

The JSF, like all Pentagon procurements, is in deep trouble, and Secretary Gates just fired the two-star program director and will replace him with three-star — apparently operating under the assumption that pumping up an already bloated bureaucracy will get the JSF problem “just right.”  That is more nonsense — this disaster was written in the wind: the seeds were planted in the early 1990s, and the outcome was perfectly predictable — the simple fact is that the JSF was doomed not to be the “right stuff” from the very beginning.

Continue reading “Journal: Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as a Metaphor for a Predictable Defense Meltdown”

Phi Beta Iota: We have been increasingly concerned by the penetration of US Government agencies by a two-pronged Israeli assualt, mixing dual-citizens in positions of either influence  or observation potential, and Israeli-provided and supported software that vacuum-cleans from within.  To this ugly mix the Israeli's add false-flag operations–we believe 9-11 included both an Israeli false-flag operation and the active advance support of Dick Cheney, Rudy Guliani, and Larry Silverstean, as well as members of the Bush family who profited handsomely from the murder of 3,000.

The USS Cole is now suspected of being an Israeli false-flag operation.  Coming as it does after the USS Liberty, a blatant direct attack by Israel on a US Navy ship engaged in non-combtant audio surveillance duties, there are ample grounds for our speculation on Israel's subversion, espionage, and dual-citizen treason against the United States of America–and our certainty that there is sufficient evidence for an indictment of all concerned–we defer to a proper investigation of these matters, merely observing that U.S. Government “counterintelligence” does not exist and and “relgiious counterintelligence” is not even contemplated.

In our view, the religious affiliation of an indivdidual must be included in any evaluation of their suitability for positions of trust and confidence, so as to inform the direction of the security investigation or counter-intelligence follow-on.  Opus Dei and the Mormons have their own networks, generally much less active.  Neo-Nazis and gangs have their networks, to which we were oblivious until recently.  The worst, the most pernicious, the most demanding of the highest standards of security and precaution, are the Israelis and their Jewish sayonim, a term brilliantly articulated in Review: Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy–The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul.

Continue reading “Journal: Israel, False-Flags, Dual-Citizens, & Smiles”

NOTE:  This offering ends 9 Feb 10 unless we can find a volunteer to do once a week.

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Continue reading “SOUTHCOM Week in Review Ending 28 Jan 10”

The earthquake ocurred on 12 January 2010–17 days ago.

As of today, as reported by Team Rubicon's team leader in Haiti, there are still people on the outskirts or Port au Prince  who have not received medical attention (i.e. crushed bones and open wounds are now beyond gangrene, blood poisoning, and other infections).

Haiti victims' medical needs shift away from trauma [erroneous for those who have not seen doctors at all and have no near-term prospects of doing so]

JACMEL, Haiti — When she arrived, the woman's foot had been apparently crushed and gone untreated for almost two weeks. Maggots and flies covered her wound. Gangrene had set in.

“This is Vietnam — only we had better equipment then,” said Ted Alexander, a retired orthopedic surgeon who was a battalion surgeon during the war.

At this point in the relief effort, the need for emergency surgical care has declined significantly, said PAHO's deputy director, physician Jon Andrus.

“We are seeing many fewer traumatic injuries, fractures, wounds and burns, and internal injuries,” he said in an e-mail.

However, there is a worrisome development. Cases of tetanus have been reported, as well as suspected cases of measles. An outbreak would be another major challenge to doctors here.

There are 43 hospitals and 12 field hospitals operating from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel, a coastal city southwest of the capital, the U.N. says. About 200,000 people have been injured; the latest estimates from the Haitian government say at least 111,500 are dead.

Phi Beta Iota: 200,000 injured divided by 55 medical units is 3,636 per unit.  Not even close to needed capabilities and most on thye outshirts of  Port au Prince still have not seen a single first responder.

Continue reading “Journal: Haiti Assessment 29 Jan 10 AM”

NOTE:  This offering ends 9 Feb 10 unless we can find a volunteer to do once a week.

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Continue reading “AFRICOM Week in Review Ending 26 January 2010”

Many problems in alleviating humanitarian crises caused by natural catastrophes, like that in Haiti, have less to do with raising money and aid and more to do with how the flows of money and the aid are processed through the maw of bureaucratic institutions like the military, Red Cross, and the ever growing welter of NGOs.  Adding to the complexity of multiple bureaucratic agendas is a sensationalist media that descends on the catastrophe like a cloud of locusts; it is naturally biased to exaggerate and generalize from any extreme incident like looting or killing or “feel-good” altruistic hype.  Many times the picture on the ground is very different than that perceived through lenses conditioned by the needs of bureaucracy and sensationalism — but, like a self-fulfilling prophecy,  reality is often made worse by how that conditioning feeds back on and distorts the OODA loops of the various bureaucratic agencies and the public.

My friend Robert Steele, a former Marine intelligence officer and a longtime promoter of the using “open source intelligence,” to open, sharpen, and quicken decision cycles (OODA Loops), just debriefed Sgt William McNulty (USMCR) about his recent trip to Haiti.  Readers may recall that I forwarded McNulty's initial spot  SITREP a few days ago.  The attached interview organizes and adds information to that spot report.

Sgt McNulty's findings are very important and should be carefully considered.  In my opinion, he exemplifies the kind attributes we seek in our military personnel — intelligence, drive, initiative, and forthrightness.  In this interview he identifies crucial bottlenecks blocking the flow of aid to the Haitians.  According to McNulty, many of these bottlenecks are self-inflicted and emanate from the US obsessions with top-down organization, bureaucratic control, and security.  What is different and makes McNulty's report valuable is that he examines these bottlenecks from the viewpoint of those on the receiving end of the aid pipe, AND he identifies some ground-level examples of the kinds of self-organizing bottom-up initiatives, based on individual initiative and empowerment of those at the working level, could work more quickly to get aid to where it is needed the most.

Chuck Spinney

Journal: Haiti EYES ON Interview with William McNulty

Phi Beta Iota: Chuck's comment arrives as the media is starting to report that the U.S. military is declaring victory and winding down.  From where we sit, there is still a need for all that the military did not do in the first 10 days.  Haiti is an information and logistics challenge of the first order that none of the NGOs and most nations including Brazil simply cannot handle.  If the USA does not step up to its Responsibility to Protect, then we anticipate both another 100,000 deaths, and a million or more incurring dehydration and starvation related illnesses.  This is no way to run a railroad!

Journal: Haiti Update 26 January 2010 PM

Journal: Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010

2001 Oakley (US) The Use of Military & Civilian Power for Engagement and Intervention

1999 Sovereign (US) Information Superiority for the Lower End of the Spectrum (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief)

1999 Marks (US) UN/OCHA Joint Proposal for IRIN and ReliefWeb Activities and Funding in 1999

1998 Mti (ZA) Open Source Intelligence, the African Renaissance, and Sustainable Development: the Emerging National Intelligence Model for South Africa

Continue reading “Journal: Haiti–How Little We Learn From the Past”