Posted on

Berto Jongman: ISIS — What We Do Not Know and How NOT to “Understand” ISIS

08 Wild Cards, IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making
0Shares
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Most interesting for its itemization of what the US does NOT know about ISIS.

How Not To Understand ISIS

EXTRACT

I should begin by emphasizing that our knowledge of ISIS is extremely scant. We know close to nothing about ISIS’ social base. We know little about how it made its military gains, and even less about the nature of the coalitions into which it has entered with various groups—from other Islamist rebels in Syria to secular Ba‘athists in Iraq.

Sensationalist accounts of “shari‘a justice” notwithstanding, we do not have much information about how ISIS administers the lives of millions of people who reside in the territories it now controls.

Information about the militants who fight for ISIS is likewise scarce. Most of what we know is gleaned from recruitment videos and propaganda, not the most reliable sources. There is little on the backgrounds and motives of those who choose to join the group, least of all the non-Western recruits who form the bulk of ISIS’ fighting force. In the absence of this information, it is difficult to even say what ISIS is if we are to rely on anything beyond the group’s self-representations.

Read full article.

See Also:

ISIS @ Phi Beta Iota

1989+ Intelligence Reform

Posted on

Stephen E. Arnold: Buzzword Alert – “Dark Data”

IO Impotency
0Shares
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

Buzzword of the Day: Dark Data

Big Data. Biggish Data. Now dark data. The idea plays on the silliness of the dark Web; that is, it is information that is “there”, but you don’t know about it. Well, get with it, pilgrim. Datameer used this term in “Shine Light on Dark Data.”

Here’s the definition:

At every organization neglected data sits overlooked in log files and archives accumulating digital dust and incurring costs. But as more organizations look for ways to become better, stronger and faster, they’re digging into this “dark” data and uncovering a gold mine of business intelligence.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Buzzword Alert – “Dark Data””

Posted on

SchwartzReport: $26 Billion Later, Iraqi Military a Disaster — the True Cost of US Government Corruption and Idiocy

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military, Peace Intelligence
0Shares
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

As you read this think about how many schools this money would have built and staffed. How many elder care facilities could have been built. How much prenatal care this would have paid for. All lost on a losing strategy, that has failed over and over, and will fail again.

$26 Billion in US Aid Later, the Iraqi Military Is a Total Disaster

Alex Park  –  Mother Jones

As US bombs rain down on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria, analysts agree that this war will ultimately be won on the ground. Too bad the Iraqi defense forces are a shambles. The New York Times reports that the United States still has to train the country's 26 “intact and loyal” brigades. And the Iraqi government has yet to recruit and set up national guard units. “It is not going to be soon,” says a State Department official.

Sound familiar? Following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US government spent billions trying to rebuild Iraq's security forces so they could fight insurgents such as ISIS. By the fall of 2012, about a year after the full withdrawal of American troops, this effort had consumed about half the money the US government spent on Iraq's reconstruction, according to the final report of the Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).

Read full article.

Posted on

JZ Liszkiewicz: Free Book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

04 Education, Academia, Commerce, Corruption, Government
0Shares
Jason "JZ" Liszkiewicz
Jason “JZ” Liszkiewicz

In the process of gathering this information two beliefs that most Americans hold in common became clear:

1) If a child can read, write and compute at a reasonably proficient level, he will be able to do just about anything he wishes, enabling him to control his destiny to the extent that God allows (remain free);

2) Providing such basic educational proficiencies is not and should not be an expensive proposition.

Since most Americans believe the second premise—that providing basic educational proficiencies is not and should not be an expensive proposition—it becomes obvious that it is only a radical agenda, the purpose of which is to change values and attitudes (brainwash), that is the costly agenda. [Emphasis added.]

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 THE SOWING OF THE SEEDS: 1 late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

2 THE TURNING OF THE TIDES: 7 early twentieth century

3 THE TROUBLING THIRTIES 17

4 THE FOMENTATION 27 of the forties and fifties

5 THE SICK SIXTIES: 55 psychology and skills

6 THE SERIOUS SEVENTIES 93 7 THE “EFFECTIVE” EIGHTIES 159

8 THE NOXIOUS NINETIES 265

Free Book in PDF Form, and More, Below the Fold

Continue reading “JZ Liszkiewicz: Free Book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America”

Posted on

Worth a Look: American Deception

07 Other Atrocities, IO Deeds of War, Worth A Look
0Shares

logo american deceptionWelcome to American Deception. This website is committed to exposing the deceptively hidden truths that have brought America, and the world as a whole, to the present situation, where individual freedom is becoming a thing of the past. Little of what has occurred throughout history has been by mistake, yet there is a wide belief amongst the majority of people that “bad things just happen for no reason at all”. Seen as more of a faulty and clumsy political dance, it is easier for many people to believe that most unfortunate happenings are a result of misjudgments or error.

As our visitors will quickly notice, the informational content has rarely if ever been covered by the Major Media. This is of no surprise since the triangle is as one. It is hardly a complicated reality that the corporations own the government as well as the media. Therefore one should not be surprised that what is called news in this country is more omission than commission, and therefore does not reflect accurately what is happening here in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world. When the truth has been burned or hidden, one immediately suspects connivance amongst those in charge, or to use a “dirty” word: “conspiracy”. We have been conditioned to believe that those who attribute certain actions to conspiracy should not be taken seriously with regard to the particular issue at hand, or more importantly, any issue they may discuss in the future. The media has been highly successful in limiting discussion of important issues simply by rejecting out of hand any mention of the role of conspiracy or planning in the economic, social, and political transformation of the globe as a whole.

Learn more.

Posted on

Worth a Look: Context Institute

Worth A Look
0Shares

logo%20context%20instituteContext Institute

Whole-system pathways to a thriving sustainable future