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NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan Attacking India + Pakistan RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, Idiocy
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India-Pakistan: Relations are trending downward and tension is up because of a surge in attacks from Pakistan in the past two months along the Line of Control and across the International Border of India's Jammu and Kashmir State.

This week two attacks occurred: on the night of 22 October and the night of 24 October. On the 22nd, mortar fire and small arms fire struck 50 border observation posts on the Indian side of the International Border in the Jammu, or southern, part of the state. The attacks killed one Border Security Force constable and injured six others and a civilian. The harassing fire lasted through the night for more than seven hours. On the 24th, mortar fire and small arms attacks struck 17 border observations posts, injuring eight civilians.

The Union Home Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, visited one of the target areas on the 24th. He told the media elements, including the Pakistan Rangers and Kashmiri militants, have violated the 2003 ceasefire agreement nearly 150 times. Forty violations occurred in the month of October. He announced reinforcements for the Border Security Forces and increased patrols to prevent infiltration.

Shinde also promised “a fitting response” to attacks by fire from Pakistan. However, Indian retaliatory fire has not reduced the attacks. Locals living along the boundary want the Indian Army to escalate the retaliation.

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Berto Jongman: NSA A Diplomatic Disaster for USA

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
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Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Hard National Security Choices

Dispatch from Berlin on a Diplomatic Disaster

By

Friday, October 25, 2013 at 7:00 AM

A diplomatic disaster for the United States is currently unfolding in Berlin.  The revelation that the NSA may have monitored cell phone conversations and text messages of Chancellor Angela Merkel has led to popular outrage in Germany, as well as unusually pointed language from the Chancellor and other government officials. The U.S. Ambassador was not merely asked but summoned (“einbestellt”) to the German foreign office—a strong verb used until now (if at all) only for the Syrian and Iranian ambassadors. The Chancellor’s phone conversation with President Obama did nothing to ease the tension. Merkel declared such practices totally unacceptable: Between friends and partners such as the United States and Germany, the monitoring of communications by government leaders is a grave breach of trust, her press secretary emphasized. The Obama administration, other than saying the Chancellor’s phone is not now and will not in the future be monitored, has offered nothing: neither apology, nor explanation of what happened in the past, nor any sort of suggestion for future cooperation or discussion of a collective solution.  

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Berto Jongman: Does Power Make You Mean? Yes. Also Stupid and Very, Very Unethical

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence
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Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Does power make you mean?

By Susanne Gargiulo

CNN October 24, 2013

“Thinking Business” focuses on the psychology of getting ahead in the workplace by exploring techniques to boost employee performance, increase creativity and productivity.

(CNN) — We all know the story. Someone gets promoted at work and suddenly they change — they start forgetting their previous peers or turning into bullies.

Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger

As it turns out, it may be in our wiring.

In one of the first studies to make this claim, scientists now say a default brain mechanism may cause us to lose empathy when we gain power.

“This research is important because it opens the door to examining what power does to us,” says Sukhvinder Obhi, senior author of the study at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. “We have very little understanding of how power affects the brain, both in terms of the neural causes and consequences.”

Specifically, the study showed that when you put people in a state where they feel more powerful, their sensitivity to other people dropped, including their ability to put themselves in other peoples shoes.

Read full article.

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John Steiner: US “War on Terror” Has INCREASED Terrorism

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
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John Steiner
John Steiner

From Gary Sycalik

Fellow earth-travelers,

An exceedingly important article / blog is copied below.  It involves the War on Terror.  

The very important rule rule is “Follow-the-Money.” So, when applied to the War on Terror what do we find?  Perhaps, we find a tremendous strengthening of the Military-Industrial-Complex, a substantiation for unconscionable U.S. military budgets (to the determent of other budget areas such as education) and exceedingly huge profits of such corporate giants as Halliburton.  According to a 2012 article in the Huffington Post, the  U.S. spends more than China, Japan, UK, France, and Russia combined.  More than all these added together.  Russia spent 52.7 billion while the United States spent 695.7 billion (Not counting off the books stuff such as ‘black ops.”)

Could the War on Terror really be, substantially (and pivotally), about power and money?  And until the majority of we, the people, become realistic about the ‘why’ of ‘things’, shine light into the shadows of secrecy, and demand appropriate responsible action from government and corporate leaders, the very few will control the many to the determent of the citizen-public.   Consider this; existing corporate-government relationships are insidious in nature and dangerous in fact.  President Eisenhower warned us about the this relationship (military-industrial complex) as he left office.  Why do you think he waited to do so at the end of his presidency?  Think about it.  A more balanced relationship can be created.  Actually, it must be if our country is to be sustainable and viable in the future.  I want a sustainable and viable country.  I assume that you do too.

Happy travels,

Gary

U.S. “War On Terror” Has INCREASED Terrorism

Posted onOctober 21, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog

Charts Show that U.S. Policy Has Increased Terror Attacks

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) Global Terrorism Database – part of a joint government-university program on terrorism –  is hosted at the University of Maryland.

START is the most comprehensive open source terrorism database, which can be viewed by journalists and civilians lacking national security clearance.

A quick review of charts from the START database show that terrorism has increased in the last 9 years since the U.S. started its “war on terror”.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

This chart shows the number of terror attacks conducted in Iraq:

See compelling charts and rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota: The article and the charts do not address the financial terrorism of the City of London and Wall Street that have destroyed entire national economies, and particularly those of the USA, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece.  Iceland, alone, had the integrity and intelligence to stuff the bankers into jail.

 

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SmartPlanet: The world’s top universities — still no “smart nation”

Academia
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smartplanet logoWestern universities still dominate the upper reaches of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. But a power shift is underway and the east is beginning to rise through the ranks.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings powered by Thomson Reuters judges research-led universities on teaching, research, citations (research influence), industry income and international outlook. Universities that do not teach undergraduates, only teach a single narrow subject or have produced research of fewer than 1,000 articles between 2007 and 2011 are not included in the rankings.

CalTech in California took the top spot for the third year in a row, followed by Harvard University, the UK’s University of Oxford, Stanford University and MIT. The same institutions make up the top 10 as last year, albeit with some changes in the pecking order and there is minimal movement among the world’s top 30, according to Times Higher Education, or THE.

However, Europe’s national flagships are losing ground to institutions in the east. The premier-ranked institutions in Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Ireland and Austria all fell. Meanwhile, the top players in China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore rose up the top 200 list.

Asia also has six top 50 institutions, up from five last year, THE says.

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