Marcus Aurelius: White House Flushing US Hawks on Iran — Meanwhile, Intelligence with Integrity About Iran is Completely Lacking

From all I’ve heard and read, Gen Mattis is one of finest GO’s to come along in a very long time.) The ouster of Mattis: Some follow-up details and a White House response Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Saturday, January 19, 2013 – 5:17 PM Share Here are a few things I have heard since I …

NIGHTWATCH: Mali Out of Algeria — French Fighting Algerians Not Displaced Libyans + Mali RECAP

Algeria: Islamist militants, apparently affiliated with al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, seized a natural gas facility in east-central Algeria early Wednesday. The 20 or so attackers took as hostages up to 41 foreign supervisors, technicians and workers. They include at least 13 Norwegians and seven Americans, plus one Irishman, and a number of Japanese …

Michel Bauwens: Cloud Computing as Virtual Prison

Cloud Computing as Enclosure 15th January 2013 Republished from David Bollier: “As more and more computing moves off our PCs and into “the Cloud,” Internet users are gaining access to a wealth of new software-based services that can exploit vast computing capacity and memory storage. That’s wonderful. But what about our freedom to create and …

Daniel Ellsberg: Secrecy vs. Whistleblowing in a Democracy

Secreacy and National Security Whistleblowing Daniel Ellsberg Huffington Post repritned from Social Research, 13 January 2013 I) Reflections on Secret-keeping and Identity In the “national security” area of the government — the White House, the departments of state and defense, the armed services and the “intelligence community,” along with their contractors — there is less …

NIGHTWATCH: French with UK Lift & Africans Handle Mali — SOF in Africa at Greater Risk? Islamists and Food Security — Islamists versus Separatists

Mali-France: Last Friday, France began its direct intervention in the Malian civil war, at the request of the Bamako government after Islamists, terrorist and jihadis captured a key town on the road from the north to Bamako. The immediate French objective was to stop the jihadis at Konna and to deter them from moving farther …

Review: Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds – American Intelligence Agency Report on the Megatrends, Gamechangers, and Black Swans of the Future, the Rise of China, Alternative World Scenarios

CIA National Intelligence Council 3.0 out of 5 stars Report Lauds Fracking as Energy Solution, Disappoints on Multiple Fronts, December 27, 2012 Certainly worth reading, along with other and generally better reports linked below, but a huge disappointment. There is nothing here actually useful to a national or corporate leader, and generally nothing new. To …

Worth a Look: Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies

The Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies provides a broad of the growing field of intelligence studies, acting as a relection of the state of the art of the subdiscipline. Focusing on the origins, practice and nature of intelligence studies, this Companion features essays by an array of international experts. It first explains the generic lessons of intelligence – …