Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3817 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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State to award grants to increase social networking in the Middle East, North Africa

By Gautham Nagesh 10/09/2009

The State Department recently unveiled a pilot program that will award up to $5 million in grants to expand the use of social networking technologies in the Middle East with the goal of increasing citizen engagement and civic participation.

In an announcement released on Sept. 25, the department said it will award five organizations between $500,000 and $2.5 million to expand the availability of social networking and new media capabilities in the Middle East and North Africa. The program is sponsored by the Middle East Partnership Initiative, part of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.

Phi Beta Iota: On balance, positive. More positive would be a global initiative to give away cell phones and free connectivity to the five billion poor starting in India and China.

2009/10/10

Journal: “Pakistan Act” Weakens National Security

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Collective Intelligence, Government, Peace Intelligence

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In opposition to the Pakistan Act, sponsored byBarbara Boxer [D-CA], Thomas Carper [D-DE], Robert Casey [D-PA], Hillary Clinton [D-NY], Christopher Dodd [D-CT], Richard Durbin [D-IL], Charles Hagel [R-NE], John Kerry [D-MA], Richard Lugar [R-IN], Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI], Ron Paul offers some thoughts worthy of consideration.

Phi Beta Iota: The Republic is now confronted with both an Executive and a Legislative Branch that make decisions without regard to strategy, holistic reality-based appreciations, or public discourse on costs and benefits. The Administration is proposing, and Congress is approving, without serious thought and without regard to the best interests of the American public. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are turning in their graves.

2009/10/092009/10/09

Journal: Senate Side-Stepping Constitution

07 Health, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Government

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Full Story Online

Watching the Constitution Disappear

American Thinker

By Joseph Smith

The President says the Constitution is defective, and now Senator Harry Reid is preparing the coup de grace. Once Reid and Obama emerge from their transparent closed-door consultations on how to blend the two competing Senate Health Care bills, Senator Reid has a nifty parlor trick up his sleeve. . . . . . .The plan to railroad Obamacare through was initially reported last week by Huma! n Events and The Heritage Foundation, and has now been confirmed by Senator Reid's office.Here is Senator Reid's plan in a nutshell, from CNS News: A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CNSNews.com that it is “likely” that Reid will use H.R. 1586-a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions-as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate's health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting.The rub here, and the reason Senator Reid has conjured up his little parlor trick, is the Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 7: All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.

Continue reading “Journal: Senate Side-Stepping Constitution”

2009/10/092009/10/09

Journal: PA & NYPD Criminalize Twitter

10 Security, 11 Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Law Enforcement, Mobile, Real Time, Reform

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Elliot Madison Accused Of Using Twitter To Tweet Police Actions At G-20 Protests

NEW YORK — A self-described New York City anarchist has been accused of tweeting the location of police officers to protesters trying to evade them during the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania State Police arrested Elliot Madison alleging he used Twitter to direct the movement of protesters and inform them about law enforcement actions at last month's summit.

Phi Beta Iota: We are–as usual–NOT making this up. Coming as it does with repeated rumors of on-going preparations to federalize all state and local police forces “as necessary” and the long-standing concerns about the internment camps for use in the event of “civil unrest,” we have to ask ourselves, can this be for real? According to the Huffington Post, it most assuredly is.

2009/10/092009/10/09

Review: Green Intelligence: Creating Environments that Protect Human Health

5 Star, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions)

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Excellent Overview Book, Great Price, Nice Emphasis on Public Information Gaps

October 9, 2009

John Wargo

I like this book. It is not as detailed as any of the following but does a super job of blending together in a very easy to read manner coverage of five areas: nuclear testing, military contamination of training areas, pesticides, vehicle emissions, and plastics.

Among the books I recommend (and have reviewed) for more detailed insights:
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power
The Blue Death: The Intriguing Past and Present Danger of the Water You Drink
Blue Frontier: Dispatches from America's Ocean Wilderness
The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters
Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Ind
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications

This book would normally have been a four on the substnace of the five domains, especially if one is looking for more in-depth appreciations, but I found the Notes and the Index satisfactory, and the intelligence-information perspective that this author makes a special effort to address carries the book most easily to a solid five.

Highlights from my fly-leaf notes:

Continue reading “Review: Green Intelligence: Creating Environments that Protect Human Health”

2009/10/092009/10/09

Journal: Real-Time Intelligence

Real Time

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UN – Successful Fight against Drug Trafficking, Transnational Organized Crime Requires Interlocking National, Regional, International Strategies, Third Committee Told

ISRIA – France
The time had come to consider how to better implement the decisions of the …… to share real–time intelligence on illicit drugs and associated crimes, …

No Substitute for Boots on the Ground

Wall Street Journal – USA
Tellingly, the Biden camp has yet to offer any details about the sources of real–time intelligence needed to execute precision strikes, or the locations of …

2009/10/092009/10/09

Journal: Defense Research, Science, & Technology

04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Security, Commercial Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Reform

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Proprietary Black Box Magic Happens Inside Linked to TS/SCI Price List (Only Visible to Idiots) — Proprietary Black Box Expensive Classified Magic Happens Inside

DoD Suppressed Critique of Military Research

New DoD Website Fosters Secret Science

Phi Beta Iota:Two reports today confirm our grave doubts about the viability of U.S. Departemnt of Defense (DoD) research in general, and Science & Technology (S&T) in particular. In combination with the known grid-loock and inherent loss of integrity within defense acquisition, these two reports suggest that the U.S. taxpayer will continue to pay more and more for less and less, while secrecy is used to avoid accountability. It has long troubled us that in classifying deficiencies, DoD assures a lifetime monopoly on “fixes” to the people that created the deficiencies in the first place–they do not know what they do not know! DoD desperately needs a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) able to get a grip on all Human Intelligence (HUMINT) funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Ideal would be an expansion of the Undersecretary of Defense of Intelligence so as to add this as an integrative ICT and HUMINT integration function, while also assuming collaborative oversight of the Inspector General and of Operational Test and Evaluation. See the latest draft of the HUMINT Monograph for more information.