Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3384 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

2011/01/132011/01/13

Reducing Afghan Corruption Through Mobile Payments to National Police

08 Wild Cards, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, microfinancing, Military, Mobile, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Non-Governmental, Open Government, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

0Shares

M-Paisa: Ending Afghan Corruption, one Text at a Time

Monty Munford Oct 17, 2010

Afghanistan supplies 92% of the world’s opiates. According to the latest available figures, the country produced 8,200 tons of heroin in 2008, more than double the the amount three years earlier.

But even being the heroin capital of the world, bringing in more money than most Afghans can dream of, the on-going war and rampant corruption means the money goes to the wrong people and the country has no infrastructure. There are no decent roads, no railways… But they do have mobile phones.

Four months ago, the Afghan National Police began to pay salaries through mobiles (using a text and Interactive Voice Response system), rather than in cash. The platform used was based on the M-Pesa service that has become highly successful in Kenya. Branded M-Paisa in Afghanistan, it was introduced by the operator Roshan in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and had an immediate effect.

Full article

Thanks to Vinod Khosla via his Twitter feed.

Also see: Afghanistan War Wealth + Corruption Cycle (Opium, Hashish, Minerals, Past Pipeline Attempts)

2011/01/132011/01/13

Journal: Microcosm of US Failure in Afghan Development

01 Poverty, 02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Cultural Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Government, Methods & Process, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

0Shares

More wasted money…..

Program to modernize Afghan justice system yields little so far

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

McClatchy's November investigation of contracting in Afghanistan

Military bans two U.S. firms from Afghan contracting

Contractor Louis Berger settles in Afghan overbilling probe

Follow Afghanistan developments at McClatchy's Checkpoint Kabul

Graphic: Whole of Government Intelligence

Journal: Whole of Government Competence & Contractors

Review: Losing the Golden Hour–An Insider’s View of Iraq’s Reconstruction

Worth a Look: The Golden Hour and Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power

2011/01/132011/01/13

Journal: Taliban Doubles US Casualties in Two Years…

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Peace Intelligence

0Shares

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

January 12, 2011

Why Mine Warfare is Good for Protracted War

Surging Tit for Tat in Afghanistan

By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch

President Obama's ballyhooed surge of US forces in Afghanistan added 17,000 troops in early 2009 plus an additional 30,000 by 2010, in effect doubling the number of troops in Afghanistan (not to mention the concomitant surge in the camp-follower contractor force). The Taliban may not have doubled its troop strength, but as Tom Vanden Brook reports in the 10 January issue of USA Today, the insurgents have doubled the the total number of casualties inflicted by mines in just the last two years of the nine year war. [See graphic]

Read rest of article….

Continue reading “Journal: Taliban Doubles US Casualties in Two Years…”

2011/01/132011/01/13

NIGHTWATCH Extract: US C/JCS & China Arms Race

02 China, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, History, Intelligence (government), Military, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Waste (materials, food, etc)

0Shares

China- US: CJCS Admiral Mullen said today that China's high-tech military capabilities, including the radar-evading stealth J-20 fighter, focus on America.

China has every right to develop military capabilities, Mullen said, adding that he cannot understand why many appear to target the United States despite North Korea's being an evolving threat to the region and to the United States. If Pyongyang obtains long-range nuclear missile capabilities, its provocations may become more catastrophic, Mullen stated, adding that China must pressure North Korean leadership to cease development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and expansion of nuclear weapons capability.

Comment: It is difficult to accept at face value that Admiral Mullen does not understand the Chinese obsession with the threat from the United States.

Taking the statement at face value – and not as an act of political manipulation – it implies that the J2 and J5 staffs have failed to brief him about the origins of Chinese national defense strategy since the death of Deng Xiao Ping. If the Chairman's statement is genuine and not posturing, it is astonishing.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: US C/JCS & China Arms Race”

2011/01/132011/01/13

Search (2): jongman world conflict map 1997 – jongman world conflict and human rights

Geospatial, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Maps, Searches

0Shares

Berto Jongman is one of the top Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) pioneers. Word Press search has its good and bad features. Good is that it updates instantly. Bad is that it prefers simple searches e.g. <Jongman map> without the brackets. Neutral is the fact that for older references, you will have to wade through every more current reference that cites the older reference. If there were an Open Source Agency, the first three things it would do would be to commission an update of this map integrating all ten high-level threats; create a global intelligence, policy, and budget council for each of the thirty factors using citation analysis and making it multinational; and create the EarthGame with Policy-Budget Citizen Outreach.

2002 Jongman (NL) World Conflict & Human Rights Map 2001/2002

2001 Jongman (NL) World Conflict & Human Rights Map

2011/01/122011/01/13

Poor in the USA: 50 Million & Rising + RECAP

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

0Shares

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

Misery With Plenty of Company

By BOB HERBERT

Published: January 7, 2011

Consider the extremes. President Obama is redesigning his administration to make it even friendlier toward big business and the megabanks, which is to say the rich, who flourish no matter what is going on with the economy in this country. (They flourish even when they’re hard at work destroying the economy.) Meanwhile, we hear not a word — not so much as a peep — about the poor, whose ranks are spreading like a wildfire in a drought.

The politicians and the media behave as if the poor don’t exist. But with jobs still absurdly scarce and the bottom falling out of the middle class, the poor are becoming an ever more significant and increasingly desperate segment of the population.

How do you imagine a family of four would live if its annual income was $11,000 or less?

Continue reading “Poor in the USA: 50 Million & Rising + RECAP”

2011/01/122011/01/12