Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2564 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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The four business gangs that run the US

Ross Gittins

Sydney Herald, December 31, 2012

IF YOU'VE ever suspected politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, I have news: Jeffrey Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia University, agrees with you – at least in respect of the United States.

In his book, The Price of Civilisation, he says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop. ”Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth,” he says.

Sachs says four key sectors of US business exemplify this feedback loop and the takeover of political power in America by the ”corporatocracy”.

First is the well-known military-industrial complex. ”As [President] Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address in January 1961, the linkage of the military and private industry created a political power so pervasive that America has been condemned to militarisation, useless wars and fiscal waste on a scale of many tens of trillions of dollars since then,” he says.

Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex, which has steered the financial system towards control by a few politically powerful Wall Street firms, notably Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and a handful of other financial firms.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: The Four Business Gangs That Run (Loot) the US + 4 Books”

2013/01/082013/01/09

Marcus Aurelius: Pentagon Plays the 800,000 Cuts Card, Dishonest to the Bone

Corruption, Military

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Pentagon gets to work planning for severe cuts

Wants to be ready if sequestration occurs

Defense officials have begun “serious planning” for automatic spending cuts that could force the Pentagon to lay off hundreds of thousands of civilian workers as it reduces its budget by $500 billion over the next 10 years.

“We are doing some serious planning for sequestration,” Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters Tuesday. “We need to be ready, and we’re working through those numbers right now.”

Known as sequestration, the across-the-board, automatic reductions are set to begin March 1, unless Congress reaches a deal on taxes and spending. Under sequestration, about $1 trillion is to be trimmed from the federal budget, with the Pentagon accounting for about half of that amount.

As many as 800,000 civilian employees in the Pentagon eventually could be laid off, defense officials say.

Read full article.
Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Pentagon Plays the 800,000 Cuts Card, Dishonest to the Bone”

2013/01/082013/01/08

Steve Aftergood: Intelligence System Acquisition

Director of National Intelligence et al (IC)

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New Procedures for Intelligence System Acquisition

January 8th, 2013 by Steven Aftergood

The Director of National Intelligence issued a directive last month prescribing procedures for major system acquisitions by elements of the intelligence community.

The directive defines a multi-phase process for identifying critical needs, evaluating alternative paths to meet those needs, and so forth.

See Intelligence Community Directive 115, “Intelligence Community Capability Requirements Process,” December 21, 2012.

Phi Beta Iota: A sad little document of no value what-so-ever. This is a process for stove-piping that sets no standards for a) assuring that all collection can be processed; b) assuring that all processing collection can be shared; or c) assuring that the IC is moving as quickly as possible toward Open Source Everything (OSE) as well as M4IS2 (Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Shariing and Sense-Making). The DNI and ODNI appear to be distracted, incoherent, largely ineffective, and long over-due for elimination.

2013/01/082013/01/08

Mini-Me: Kerry-Hagel as Obama Attempt to Change Direction Away from War and Toward Domestic Reconstruction

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

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Huh?

A view of what's really behind Hagel nomination fight

From CNN's “Early Start”

January 8, 2013

EXTRACT:

CNN: Peter wrote what I think is (one of the) most … interesting and compelling articles about the Hagel nomination, explaining it perhaps better than anyone I've seen, including the president.

The first paragraph of the piece, you write, it may prove the most consequential foreign policy appointment of his presidency because the struggle over Hagel is a struggle over whether Obama can change the terms of the foreign policy debate. Explain that for me.

Peter Beinart: I think so far, the debate about military action in Iran has been conducted by and large in Washington, as if Iraq and Afghanistan didn't happen.

As if we haven't learned anything from the disaster (of) these two wars over the last 10 years. I think the real struggle between Hagel and his foes is he wants to bring some of the lessons in to the Iran debate that we learned about (Iraq) and Afghanistan.

He talks very compellingly about the fact wars once launched can't be fully controlled. He is very cognizant of the enormous financial cost that these wars have imposed on the United States, and I think the heart of the hostility is the fear that his recognition about what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq will make taking us to war in Iran harder.

Hagel vows to fight ‘distortions'

[Note: An Open Source Agency (OSA) controlled by Kerry-Hagel would go a very long way toward fighting the information pathologies that abound in Washington.]

CNN: You suggest there are no consequences for the Iraq War in terms of those who supported or imposed it.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Kerry-Hagel as Obama Attempt to Change Direction Away from War and Toward Domestic Reconstruction”

2013/01/082013/05/18

Marcus Aurelius: Fact-Checking CIA Fact-Checking 0 Dark 30 [with Robert Steele Fact-Checking Both] 1.2

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency

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Fact-Checking the CIA's Fact-Check on ‘Zero Dark Thirty

By J.K. Trotter | The Atlantic Wire – Fri, Dec 28, 2012

“The CIA is a lot different than Hollywood portrays it to be,” reads an official explainer issued today by the Central Intelligence Agency — a thinly veiled attempt to continue debunking Zero Dark Thirty, the controversial Oscar favorite that its director admittedly hates. Referring to James Bond, the fictional MI6 agent, depictions of “shootouts and high speed chases,” and scenes of “CIA officers chasing terrorists through the American heartland,” the memo goes on to try and dispel an array of “myths” pertaining to the agency's operations, from its impact on foreign policy to its ability to spy on Americans. The effort follows a December 21 letter addressed to CIA employees from the agency's acting director, Michael Morrell, concerning the “artistic license” of Zero Dark Thirty. Today's release touches on the same themes: whether the CIA of our popular imagination corresponds to the CIA of reality, and how movies like Zero Dark Thirty (which isn't name-checked directly) blur the distinction between fact and fantasy. Should you believe the CIA's interpretation of Hollywood? We break down each agency claim with actual details from the movies — and Homeland, obviously.

Below the line: each of the five “myths” and Robert Steele's “best truth” answer, Steve Coll's negative review of film.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Fact-Checking CIA Fact-Checking 0 Dark 30 [with Robert Steele Fact-Checking Both] 1.2”

2013/01/082013/01/08

Mini-Me: John Brennan, Drones, Killing Children + Drone Meta-RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

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Huh?

John Brennan vs. a Sixteen-Year-Old

Medea Benjamin

Huffington Post, 01/08/2013

In October 2011, 16-year-old Tariq Aziz attended a gathering in Islamabad where he was taught how to use a video camera so he could document the drones that were constantly circling over his Pakistani village, terrorizing and killing his family and neighbors. Two days later, when Aziz was driving with his 12-year-old cousin to a village near his home in Waziristan to pick up his aunt, his car was struck by a Hellfire missile. With the push of a button by a pilot at a US base thousands of miles away, both boys were instantly vaporized — only a few chunks of flesh remained.

Afterwards, the US government refused to acknowledge the boys' deaths or explain why they were targeted. Why should they? This is a covert program where no one is held accountable for their actions.

The main architect of this drone policy that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents, including 176 children in Pakistan alone, is President Obama's counterterrorism chief and his pick for the next director of the CIA: John Brennan.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: John Brennan, Drones, Killing Children + Drone Meta-RECAP”

2013/01/082013/01/08

John Robb: Community Supported Agriculture — Farming as Service

01 Agriculture, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

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Farming is Becoming a Service. Here's How to Benefit From It

By John Robb

Farming is increasingly becoming a service.

The reasons for this are simple.

People want the freshness, quality, and meaning they get from buying local food from people they know. It's also great for the farmer, since it enables them to directly interact with customers again.

One of the ways this service is being provided is Community Supported Agriculture, or a CSA.

A CSA is essentially a subscription to a farm's output, usually delivered weekly. Here's what a good sized box looks like (via dirtandveggies):

The weekly delivery system works nicely to the benefit of both the resilient customer and the farmer. The customer gets freshly picked, locally procured, high quality produce, that is grown in a way that they approve of (this is going to become very, very important when the GMO bubble pops).

The farmer benefits from a predictable income stream. Income that is paid upfront (instead of being reliant of volatile commodity markets and government subsidies) by willing customers.

Continue reading “John Robb: Community Supported Agriculture — Farming as Service”