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NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan Plays US as Fool

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Pakistan-India: Pakistan has deployed more troops on the eastern border with India.  Confirming the report, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said that India had increased pressure on the border by building several new military cantonments close to the sensitive frontier, and Islamabad can not remain “subservient” to the move.

“The government has had to send some troops down there because we don’t want to leave ourselves exposed. This is taking away from our defence capabilities on the Afghan border. We really wish the international community would intervene, but nobody has said anything to the Indians,” a British newspaper quoted Hasan, as saying.

Experts and diplomats, however, have described the troops reinforcement as more of a political and diplomatic move rather than a strategic one.

Note: No press source has confirmed new Indian cantonments. This is a ruse to deflect US pressure for additional operations to suppress domestic terrorists. Without confirming the facts, the anti-Indian Pakistani press denounced the Indian military moves.

Pakistan-US: Xinhua reported on Saturday the United States has agreed to provide another 14 F-16 jet planes to Pakistan until December 2010. U.S. authorities are scheduled to begin delivering the planes as well as Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles in June 2010.

Comment: Pakistan has no need of BVR missiles except in a war with India. There is no fundamental change in the mindset that India poses the greatest threat to Pakistan. Old hands know that provision of modern US weapons invariably are misinterpreted as US support for Pakistan in a war against India.

Aside from high minded sound bites the press coverage of last week’s “strategic” discussions in Washington provided no insight about what promises the US obtained in return.

Phi Beta Iota: The above is in today's NIGHTWATCH, which is available free online in archive form, with the daily version only to AFCEA and NIGHTWATCH subscriber.  It merits comments that for over a couple of decades Pakitan successfully deceived to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its clandestine service chief and so-called “experienced” case officers with the illusion that there was a “rogue” element of the military that favored extremists.  In fact, Pakistan is the Israel of Central Asia, a serious pain in the ass that cannot be trusted and needs to lose all US support just as Israel needs to lose all US support.  The reality is that neither the US intelligence community nor the US national security policy community have a clue as to “what is” reality, strategy, or sustainable end-state.

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Review (DVD): Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

5 Star, Corruption, Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Reviews (DVD Only)
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5.0 out of 5 stars Original, Totally Absorbing, and a Great Cast

March 28, 2010

Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes

Not sure why Eva Mendes is not listed by Amazon in the credits. This movie is already very hot in the Latin American bootleg circuit and I watched it this quiet Sunday. As another reviewer observes, this movie has not gotten the publicity it merits, and that surprises me. On balance, a four at the cinema and a solid five for home viewing.

Movie has Eva Mendez (super-star in Hitch (Widescreen Edition), and I cannot see why Amazon lists Cameron Diaz in the credits.

I found it engrossing in part because it does a super job of showing a number of ways in which cops, sometimes in league with other cops, prostitutes, and often on their own, can shake down everyone from the careless suburban types in the big city for a night, to high rollers with connections, to major regional drug pushers.

Definitely recommended.

See also reviewed today:
The Limits of Control

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Review (DVD): The Limits of Control (2009)

5 Star, Crime (Organized, Transnational), Culture, Research, Reviews (DVD Only)
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5.0 out of 5 stars Great Medley–Bete Noire Meets Good Bad and Ugly, The Mexican
March 28, 2010

Isaach De Bankolé

Strongly recommended for those that have my tastes in DVDs and have enjoyed my recommendations in the past. This movie was fun to watch, relaxing, intriguing, and totally enjoyable.

It reminded me of a mix among The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe – with ENGLISH subtitles (Import), The Mexican, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

For me, this movie is NOT over-played, its a great combination of some good and bad clandestine tradecraft, some sparkling lines (am re-learning French and appreciate anything with French actually spoken), some artful nudity, some real art, and over-all, a smooth panorama.

A pleasure to watch.

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Search: nato knowledge development handbook

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Non-Governmental, Threats, Threats/Topical
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What an interesting search, thank you.  Here are some links that came up in a broader search that we import to Phi Beta Iota with a tip of the hat to the anonymous searcher.

Cross-Domain Collaboration Takes Center Stage at NATO Network-Enabled Capability (NNEC) Conference (Intelligence and Knowledge Development, March 12, 2010)

IMPLEMENTATION OF NATO EBAO DOCTRINE AND ITS EFFECTS ON OPERATIONAL STAFFS’ STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS by Cristophe MIDAN  Strategic Impact (Impact Strategic), issue: 4 / 2009, pages: 3954, on www.ceeol.com.

MCC Northwood Effects Based Approach to the Operational Planning Process, CDR J.L. Geiger, USN    N521 (Bottom line: Knowledge Development is OSINT outside of the IC combined with rotten and thin secret intelligence from Member states).

Model NATO 2009/2010 Handbook

Cody Burke, Freeing knowledge, telling secrets: Open source intelligence and development (Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies, CEWCES Research Papers, Bond University, 2007)

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Journal: Pentagon Strategy & Policy Oxymoron Squared?

02 China, 03 India, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Government, Military
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Michèle Flournoy

Phi Beta Iota: We don't make this stuff up.  The Pentagon has no strategy because the U.S. Government has no strategy.  The National Security Council is managed by a General who emphasized getting along with the Chief of Naval Operation, never-mind leaving Marines wounded on the battlefield for lack of Naval Gunfire Support (NFS).

Join us in savoring what passes for a strategist and nominal policy making savant with the below headlines.

Below item is full text to avoid inconvenience.  It is followed by several linked  headlines that make quite clear the shallowness of the Pentagon strategy-policy pool.

Executive Summary: The gentle lady has no idea what the ten high-level threats to humanity are, nor does she care.  She's a place-holder for the disappointed John Hamre, and a token female at the top who goes with the flow.  She has neither any grasp nor any conceptual framework for actually creating grand strategy, harmonizing Whole of Government policies nor even–this really did surprise us–how many failed states there are in the world.

PBS March 27, 2010

Interview With Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary Of Defense For Policy

Charlie Rose (PBS), 1:00 A.M.

CHARLIE ROSE: The United States military is engaged around the world. It is withdrawing combat troops from Iraq as it builds up troops in Afghanistan. It is partnering with Pakistan in an aggressive counterterrorism campaign including drone attacks in the tribal areas. It’s working with the Yemeni government to counter a resurgent al Qaeda there. And U.S. troops are still in Haiti for the humanitarian relief efforts.

But the military has to do more than respond to the conflicts of the day. It must prepare for future wars, adoptive enemies and a shifting security environment.

The person at the Pentagon who spends the most time working on these issues is Michèle Flournoy. She is under secretary of defense for policy and the highest ranking female official in the Defense Department. I am very pleased to have her with me in the night studio at the Newseum in Washington.

Tell me what it is that you do at the Pentagon, how do you define this responsibility?

Continue reading “Journal: Pentagon Strategy & Policy Oxymoron Squared?”

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Journal: Deja Vu in AF, Wahhabist Balkans….

08 Wild Cards
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Chuck Spinney

Deja Vu in Marja

Our guiding illusions in Afghanistan

ANDREW J. BACEVICH, America Magazine: The National Catholic Weekly, 29 March 2010

In American politics, deficits have suddenly become all the rage. Throughout the presidency of George W. Bush, the federal government hemorrhaged red ink, with no one paying much attention. Upon the election of Barack Obama, however, the rules abruptly changed. As if overnight, Republicans in Congress discovered that theirs is the party of fiscal conservatism. From out of nowhere came the Tea Party movement, providing at least a pretty good imitation of people who are “mad as hell” about a government unable to manage its own affairs and careening toward bankruptcy. Although the administration’s spending plans add more than a trillion dollars each year to the national debt, President Obama himself has allowed that this might not be such a good thing—for long. In Washington the sky grows dark with deficit hawks.

But the deficits that plague the United States extend well beyond the realm of fiscal policy. At least as important is a deficit in self-awareness that makes it difficult for policymakers to learn from and avoid repeating past mistakes.  Continue reading…

Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West

Bojan Pancevski in Skopje, Sunday Times [UK], 28 Mar 2010

SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.

According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.

Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to £225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans.

Continues reading…

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President Obama’s Behind the Scenes Advisory Posse

Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Videos/Movies/Documentaries
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Obama has said that the Council on Foreign Relations is just a forum where people talk about foreign issues. He has actually said that he didn't even know if he was a member (video of that here).

He has downplayed, or it could be said that he lied about his relationship with Zbigniew Brzezinski (see this interview with Brzezinski on his role in the power elite and accusations of ‘conspiracy').

Earlier this year (according to Intelligence Online issue #609), Jami Miscik, president and vice chairman of Kissinger Associates was  appointed a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. She has been with the CIA and Lehman Brothers bank.

Robert Eringer, former spymaster for Prince Albert II of Monaco (who, in January 26 won a court case against the gov of Monaco after the prince declared immunity due to his head of state status), wrote briefly about the presidential history in relation to the Trilateral Commission and Obama's list of Trilateral Commission appointees:

• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner;
• National Security Adviser James Jones;
• Deputy National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon;
• Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair;
• State Department special envoys Richard Holbrooke. Dennis Ross, and Richard Haas;
• Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice;
• Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council;
• Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg;
• Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell;
• Paul Volcker, chairman of the Economic Recovery Committee.

Related:
2010 Membership list