Berto Jongman: Bits, Bytes, & Stuff

Avoiding Armageddon: America, India, and Pakistan to the Brink and Back British Foreign Fighters in Syria Democratization of Big Data Ethical Farming Ill-Equipped IT Managers Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Iraq Death Toll Based on Intelligence Lie(s) Modern Honey Traps: BBC Documentary Turkey blows Israel’s cover for Iranian spy ring

Karl W. Eikenberry: The Limits of Counterinsurgency Doctrine in Afghanistan — The Other Side of COIN

 The Limits of Counterinsurgency Doctrine in Afghanistan The Other Side of the COIN Foreign Affairs, September-October 2013 (General and Ambassador) Karl W. Eikenberry Since 9/11, two consecutive U.S. administrations have labored mightily to help Afghanistan create a state inhospitable to terrorist organizations with transnational aspirations and capabilities. The goal has been clear enough, but its …

Jean Lievens: NSA + TSA = Questionable Due Process – a German Victim of Rule by Secrecy, or a Bulgarian Clandestine Asset Properly Barred?

Ilija Trojanow, German Writer, Banned From US For Criticizing NSA According to Der Spiegel, German-Bulgarian writer and activist Ilija Trojanow was barred from entering the United States on Monday. Trojanow was to speak at a literary conference. HuffPost Live’s Ahmed Shihab-Eldin took a closer look at the story, which has yet to be covered by …

Marcus Aurelius: N.S.A. Gathers Data On Social Connections Of U.S. Citizens

New York Times September 29, 2013 Pg. 1 N.S.A. Gathers Data On Social Connections Of U.S. Citizens By James Risen and Laura Poitras WASHINGTON — Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations …

Berto Jongman: BRICS Creating Own Internet — Routing Around the US-UK

The BRICS “Independent Internet” Cable. In Defiance of the “US-Centric Internet” The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff announces publicly the creation of a world internet system INDEPENDENT from US and Britain ( the “US-centric internet”). Not many understand that, while the immediate trigger for the decision (coupled with the cancellation of a summit with the …