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Journal: Vickers to Replace Clapper? Double-Whammy.

Military
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Marcus Aurelius Recommends

W/R/T Vickers' Irregular Warfare office — that looked like a shoo-in when originally staffed 3-4 weeks ago.  More recently it has picked up significant senior-level opposition within the Building.  If for no other reason, it's inherently inconsistent with what SECDEF is now advocating about streamlining headquarters, reducing layers and reduncancy, etc. 

Morning Defense (Politico.com)
June 22, 2010

Vickers To Replace Clapper

By Gordon Lubold

If Clapper is confirmed as the new DNI, Gates is expected to nominate Michael Vickers, currently the assistant secretary of defense for
special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities, to replace Clapper as under secretary of defense for
intelligence, POLITICO has learned. Vickers, the top civilian overseer of special operations forces, is best known outside the Pentagon for his portrayal in “Charlie Wilson's War” as a national security wunderkind.  Sources tell POLITICO that Vickers would be Gates' favorite to replace Clapper, assuming Clapper's nom goes through.

A NEW OFFICE ON IRREGULAR WARFARE? – Vickers is proposing a new “Irregular Warfare Office” – IWO for short, POLITICO has also learned.  The focus of the new office would be to “identify, accelerate and monitor the implementation of the Department's top priority IW
initiatives,” according to a memo Vickers wrote in May that was obtained by POLITICO.

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Chuck Spinney Sends: From McCrystal to Turkey to Unemployment

08 Wild Cards, Military
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Chuck Spinney Sends

CS: The United States may be on the cusp of a double dip recession and the government (the President and Congress) appears to be on the verge of making the same mistake Franklin Roosevelt made in 1937 — namely moving to reduce the federal deficit before the recovery was locked into place.  Most historians now agree that FDR's move prolonged the Great Depression and made it more miserable for the working classes.  The fundamental issue was then and is today a question of values: Is reducing the deficit (favoring the monied classes) more important than reducing unemployment (favoring the greater mass of middle and lower classes)?  In the attached essay, my good friend Marshall Auerback argues that reducing unemployment is more important.

President Obama is Hoisted on His Own Budget-Busting Petard
by Marshall Auerback, New Deal 2.0, 22 Jun3 2010
All it takes is simple accounting to stop obsessing about the deficit and start focusing on unemployment.

CS:  As is (2).

Punishing Turkey
by Philip Giraldi, Antiwar.com, June 24, 2010

Switch to Petraeus Betrays Afghan Policy Crisis
by Gareth Porter, Antiwar.com, June 24, 2010

Phi Beta Iota:  Ignore the nonsense fed to the journalist by the Kilcullen crowd.  Two farces do not make a force.

CS:  An excellent critique of COIN.
Rolling Stone Article’s True Focus: Counterinsurgency
23 June 2010

“COIN doctrine [is] an oxymoron.”
– Chief Adm. Eric Olson, U.S. Special Operations Command

CS:  Portrait of a jerk with his hair on fire.
The Runaway General, Rolling Stone, 22 June 2010
Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House

CS: Why Obama needs to clean out the Augean Stables at the Pentagon (and this is just the tip of the iceberg).
Runaway Defense Spending Not Winning Any Wars
by William Pfaff, June 23, 2010

BP's Other Gifts to America and the to the WorldIran, BP and the CIA
By LAWRENCE S. WITTNER, Counterpunch, 22 June 2010

The offshore oil drilling catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico brought to us by BP has overshadowed its central role over the past century in fostering some other disastrous events.

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Event: 28 Jun-2 July 2010, Singapore International Water Week

12 Water
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Event page

The Singapore International Water Week is the global platform that brings policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.

Themed Sustainable Cities: Clean and Affordable Water, the Singapore International Water Week 2010 will focus on the need for efficiency and cost effective solutions to address water problems amidst a constantly changing environment. More than half of the earth’s population already live in cities, and the trend towards urbanisation is accelerating. As urbanisation continues to gain momentum, there is an urgency to address the water shortage issues before the situation deteriorates further and hampers economic growth.

The event’s flagship programmes comprise:
• Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize
• Water Leaders Summit
• Water Convention
• Water Expo
• Business Forums

Related:
+ First dedicated live blog from a major water/wastewater conference
+ 40 page resource of water-related links with descriptions

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Event: 26 July-13 Aug, Ft. Huachuca AZ, Calif, VA, UK, CAN, AU, NL – Empire Challenge (EC10)

Intelligence (government), Military
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Event info

Empire Challenge (EC) is an annual joint and coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) interoperability demonstration sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD/I) that showcases emerging ISR capabilities, and provides vital lessons learned to improve joint and combined ISR interoperability to support warfighters at the tactical edge.

EC10, which runs July 26-Aug. 13, focuses on near-term capabilities that can be delivered rapidly to Afghanistan. Requirements from Afghanistan will drive the event schedule, venues and scenarios, which are conducted through a combination of modeling and simulation, laboratory and live events.

USJFCOM will host EC10 at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., with locations at the Joint Intelligence Lab and Joint Systems Integration Center in Suffolk, Va.; the Combined Air Operations Center-X at Langley Air Force Base, Va.; service Distributed Common Ground/Surface System (DCGS) labs; coalition sites in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia; and the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency in the Netherlands.

EC10 participants include the Joint Staff, combat support agencies, services, coalition partners, academia and industry. During EC10, live and virtual capabilities will be demonstrated as they typically would be by a real-world combined joint force.

The demonstration will evaluate the effectiveness of proposed ISR solutions to warfighter requirements identified by combatant commanders, services and coalition partners.

EC10 Purpose

  • Demonstrate and assess interoperability of the DCGS enterprise
  • Evaluate sensor developers on data intake into DCGS and coalition ground station/enterprise
  • Demonstrate and assess coalition interoperability
  • Demonstrate and evaluate multinational data sharing
  • Explore emerging ISR capabilities that can address warfighter requirements
  • Explore joint and coalition ISR interoperability with command and control from national operations centers to deployed warfighters

EC10 Objectives

  • Provide assessments of the DCGS enterprise, the capability-based interoperability of multinational systems, and the quality of intelligence support to command and control
  • Enable a quick reaction capability and optimize the live-fly phase of EC

• Download this page as a printable fact sheet (Opens in a new window and requires Adobe Acrobat)
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Journal: Google Wants You….In Every Way, Forever

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Computer/online security, Corporations, Corruption, Cyberscams, malware, spam, InfoOps (IO), Misinformation & Propaganda, Mobile, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Privacy, Real Time, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies, Tools
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Prevent web malware and enforce policies for all users

Google Web Security for Enterprise, protects organizations of all sizes against web malware attacks and enables the safe, productive use of the web, without incurring hardware, upfront capital, or IT management costs.

Simple to deploy, effortless to maintain, scalable and secure

  • No hardware to install or maintain, just a simple change to your firewall or proxy
  • Proactively blocks web malware before it reaches your network
  • Integrates easily with directory services for granular enforcement and reporting
  • Extends to all employees wherever they are working – at home, in a hotel room, café, client premises, or Wi-Fi spot

Interested in learning more? Download these resources

Comment:  You were right. I've just learned about Google's Endgame. I'm sure it's been out a while, but when I saw this, I immediately thought of your statement about Google wanting to BECOME the Internet. The short video tells all.  REDACTED

Phi Beta Iota:  see also these posts.

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23 Worst Tyrants/Dictators (Yes, there’s more than 23) and Oops, there’s Saudi Arabia..

01 Poverty, 02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 07 Venezuela, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military
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The Worst of the Worst

BY GEORGE B.N. AYITTEY | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Foreign Policy link

Millions of lives have been lost, economies have collapsed, and whole states have failed under brutal repression. And what has made it worse is that the world is in denial. The end of the Cold War was also supposed to be the “End of History” — when democracy swept the world and repression went the way of the dinosaurs. Instead, Freedom House reports that only 60 percent of the world's countries are democratic — far more than the 28 percent in 1950, but still not much more than a majority. And many of those aren't real democracies at all, ruled instead by despots in disguise while the world takes their freedom for granted. As for the rest, they're just left to languish. Although all dictators are bad in their own way, there's one insidious aspect of despotism that is most infuriating and galling to me: the disturbing frequency with which many despots, as in Kyrgyzstan, began their careers as erstwhile “freedom fighters” who were supposed to have liberated their people. Back in 2005, Bakiyev rode the crest of the so-called Tulip Revolution to oust the previous dictator. So familiar are Africans with this phenomenon that we have another saying: “We struggle very hard to remove one cockroach from power, and the next rat comes to do the same thing.

1. KIM JONG IL of North Korea (yrs in power: 16) Visa says no info
2. ROBERT MUGABE of Zimbabwe (yrs in power: 30) US embassy
3. THAN SHWE of Burma (yrs in power: 18) US embassy
4. OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR of Sudan (yrs in power: 21) US embassy
5. GURBANGULY BERDIMUHAMEDOV of Turkmenistan (yrs in power: 4) US embassy
6. ISAIAS AFWERKI of Eritrea (yrs in power: 17) US embassy
7. ISLAM KARIMOV of Uzbekistan (yrs in power: 20) US embassy
8. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD of Iran (yrs in power: 5) Iran c/o embassy of Pakistan + Canadian embassy
9. MELES ZENAWI of Ethiopia (yrs in power: 19) US embassy
10. HU JINTAO of China (yrs in power: 7) US embassy
11. MUAMMAR AL-QADDAFI of Libya (yrs in power: 41) US rep
12. BASHAR AL-ASSAD of Syria (yrs in power: 10) US embassy
13. IDRISS DÉBY of Chad (yrs in power: 20) US embassy
14. TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO of Equatorial Guinea (yrs in power: 31)
15. HOSNI MUBARAK of Egypt (yrs in power: 29) US embassy
16. YAHYA JAMMEH of Gambia (yrs in power: 16) US embassy
17. HUGO CHÁVEZ of Venezuela (yrs in power: 11) US embassy
18. BLAISE COMPAORÉ of Burkina Faso (yrs in power: 23) US embassy
19. YOWERI MUSEVENI of Uganda (yrs in power: 24) US embassy
20. PAUL KAGAME of Rwanda (yrs in power: 10) US embassy
21. RAÚL CASTRO of Cuba (yrs in power: 2) “Cuba interests section”
22. ALEKSANDR LUKASHENKO of Belarus (yrs in power: 16) US embassy
23. PAUL BIYA of Cameroon (yrs in power: 28) US embassy

Comment: We are uncertain why FP stopped at 23, why they list Hugo Chavez over Blaise Compaore' (who they claim murdered an opponent, while Chavez' gov was the 1st to respond to the Haiti crisis), and what their view is of Saudi Arabia whose known to fund the notorious Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) who are connected to terrorist operations, and Saudi Arabia was well-known to be pro-Taliban and they were recently revealed to be funding terrorism in Iraq. Also check out the History Commons timeline associated with the Saudis and Taliban connection.

Non-genius idea for FP: link information sources that backup your list.

UPDATE: Jan 31, 2011 they added this article America's Other Most Embarrassing Allies

Related:
+ Handbook: Democide–Internal Murder by Regimes
+ 2004 Palmer (US) Achieving Universal Democracy by Eliminating All Dictators within the Decade
+ Review: Breaking the Real Axis of Evil–How to Oust the World’s Last Dictators by 2025
+ Postcard from Hell: The Failed States Index 2010 (Foreign Policy)

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Event: 30 June – 1 July, New York City, ICSR Peace and Security Summit

Uncategorized
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(A report on this event has been uploaded as of July 7, 2010)

The ICSR Peace and Security Summit will bring together 400 leading policymakers, diplomats, senior officials and experts from across the globe, encouraging them to share their experiences and approaches in a number of working groups and high-level panels.

Held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, the Summit will explore the greatest security challenges of our time, ranging from domestic radicalization and violent extremism to ongoing conflicts and the struggle for peace in places such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and the Middle East.

Among the many keynote speakers and panellists are:

HRH Princess Aisha Bint Al Hussein, Jordan
·         Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Eryani, former Prime Minister of Yemen
·         Amb. Daniel Benjamin, Counterterrorism Coordinator, State Department
·         Amb. Cofer Black, former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center
·         Noman Benotman, former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
·         Amb. Peter Galbraith, former UN Deputy Special Representative
·         Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair
·         Hekmat Karzai, director of Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Kabul
·         Tsipi Livni, leader of the Israeli opposition
·         Fran Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush
·         Lord David Trimble, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

The ICSR Peace and Security Summit is organised in partnership with the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, and receives support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Public Safety Canada, as well as Rena and Sami David.

Thanks to our supporters, there will be no attendance fee. However, places are strictly limited and will not be allocated on a first come first serve basis. If you would like to attend, write to Katie Rothman at katie.rothman@icsr.info before June 25th. Make sure you include your full name, title, affiliation, and current position.

Program as of 21 June 2010

ICSR Conference Page

EVENT REPORT Uploaded July 7, 2010