Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2368 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

2013/05/212013/05/21

Eagle: Benghazi Testimony Forthcoming – Ambassador Stevens Buying Back Weapons Given to Al Qaeda by State for Libya Take-Down — General Ham Directly Ordered Not to Rescue

Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

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300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

PJM EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Diplomats Report New Benghazi Whistleblowers with Info Devastating to Clinton and Obama

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon.

These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law.

According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel.

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2013/05/212013/05/21

Tom Atlee: Doing Democracy Differently

Civil Society, Culture, Ethics, Government

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Doing democracy differently

In Is Democracy in Trouble? E.J. Dionne describes major studies suggesting that “Across most of the democratic world, there is an impatience bordering on exhaustion with electoral systems and political classes” because governments don’t follow the will of “the people”.

It would be one thing if governments made wiser decisions than what “the people” want. But they so seldom do. Usually they make decisions that favor special interests regardless of the common good.

It saddens me that this is framed as people losing faith in democracy. I don’t think governments that act this way are good examples of democracy. I’m also not sure that such a system can be fixed within a corrupted democratic process.

There are other ways to do democracy. Most people don’t realize that ancient Athenians – our alleged democratic forebears – were radically in favor of random selection and opposed to voting for representatives. They figured that aristocrats would dominate any electoral system. (Sound familiar?) Aristotle summarized their view, saying “It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot [random selection]; and as oligarchic when they are filled by election.”

Although John Adams and James Madison (the first and fourth US Presidents) may not have been aware of the use of random selection in democracy, they did make statements that sound like it. Adams said that a legislature “should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them.” And Madison added that “The government ought to possess… the mind or sense of the people at large. The legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society.”

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2013/05/212013/05/21

Review: Ten Types of Innovation – The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs

5 Star, Change & Innovation

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Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkl, Brian Quinn, Helen Walters

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, Broad, Structured, Fundamental Reference for Adult Students and Professionals, May 21, 2013

Another reviewer has laid out the book's structure. This review builds on that one.

I've been a fan of several innovation books, such as The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail and The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, while also respecting earlier pioneers such as Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. When I got this book my first impression was “too much design” (at first glance it looks like an advanced comic book) but after several passes I now consider this volume perfect — the authors have put an EXTRAORDINARY amount of thinking into going beyond the ten types of innovation (each discussed in its own chapter) to the nuts and bolts of spotting trends, making innovation happen, and keeping innovation alive (often the hardest).

Certainly this book is superb for students in any sector — government, private, non-profit, I'd even suggest the declining labor unions and churches study this book. It has universal value and applicability. It is also a book that is easily sufficient to warrant being in a CEO's handful of books worth returning to over and over again. At one level this is a textbook, at another level this book, as it is designed, is perfect for recurring reflection.

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2013/05/212013/05/21

Berto Jongman: EU Loses One Trillion a Year to Tax Evasion — Comment on the Tax Gap, the Information-Sharing Gap, and the Legitimacy Gap

Ethics, Government

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EU tax: Barroso urges full automatic exchange of data

The head of the European Commission has told the European Parliament he wants EU-wide exchange of income data as part of the fight against tax evasion.

Jose Manuel Barroso said he would urge Wednesday's summit of EU leaders to support automatic exchange of people's earnings data between tax authorities.

Tax evasion costs EU states 1tn euros ($1.3tn; £0.85tn) a year, more than was spent on healthcare in 2008.

MEPs are expected to call for a Europe-wide blacklist of tax havens.

Pressure is likely to be put on Switzerland to relax banking secrecy amid anger over revelations about Greek and French politicians holding secret Swiss bank accounts.

The debate comes a day after UK Prime Minister David Cameron urged British overseas territories which operate low-tax regimes to “get their house in order” and sign up to international treaties on tax.

Mr Barroso said he wanted to see the principle of automatic exchange “become the standard at international level as well”.

Read full article.

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2013/05/212013/05/21

Neal Rauhauser: NDU Convergence Free Online Book

Advanced Cyber/IO

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National Defense University’s Convergence

I have been writing on attention conservation for the last four years, having first heard of the concept within Bruce Sterling’s Viridian Design Notes. Sterling used this term as a label for an initial few lines of summary on each note, basically negative information regarding the content, permitting those who would not be interested to ‘conserve their attention’. I use the phrase more broadly, in the sense that we are overloaded by media, overloaded by data, and overloaded by a world that is about to change dramatically.

Part of my personal attention conservation this year has been an effort to take the time I used to spend on short, reactive social media – like Twitter – and redirect it into more weighty reading. I just finished the National Defense University’s Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization, and I strongly recommend this tome for anyone seeking to better understand the nature of conflict between hierarchies and networks.

Read full post.

Contents

Chapters (Links to Each):

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2013/05/212013/05/24

Counter-Intelligence: Free New Film Online by Scott Noble; Links & Summary for Earlier Film The Power Principle (Also Free Online)

Cultural Intelligence

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Of his films as a whole, John Stauber, the founder of the Center for Media and Democracy, stated:

“Metanoia is brilliantly pioneering the new film-making — incisive analysis, compelling sound and footage, fearless and independent reporting, and the aggregation of the best information out there into powerful, educational and free online feature films – all on a shoestring budget. Noble's films are dedicated to democracy; they fan the flames of non-violent, people-powered revolution”.

The title of the new film is “Counter-Intelligence” (‘Shining a light on black operations'). It is made up of 5 parts, viewable here (all Vimeo links, all free online):

1. The Company

2. The Deep State

3. The Strategy of Tension

4. Necrophilous

5. Drone Nation

The film includes original interviews with:

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2013/05/212013/05/21

Search: Steele Dumain corso di due giorni per i militari italiani

Searches

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Noi purtroppo non abbiamo la presentazione fatta dalla signora Dumaine, che era (e rimane) un dipendente della CIA. Qui di seguito sono le presentazioni, con le parole in formato Notes, che sono stati presentati a responsabili di filiali di intelligence militare a Roma, con il direttore generale della scuola di intelligence militare come nostro ospite.