In The Wake Of Davis -- Horseshit (Non-Starter) ROE

ROE like this would clearly be a non-starter. Probably just horseshit to advance Davis' release

An important aspect of the settlement, for the U.S., was that the principal of diplomatic immunity was never formally challenged in Pakistani courts. The Pakistani High Court refused to rule on the question and the trial court didn’t make a finding, either. That was crucial for the U.S., which feared that a legal challenge to its claim of immunity for Davis would expose hundreds of other undercover agents around the world who rely on the legal protection of their formal status as “diplomats.”

The final piece of the settlement may be the most complicated. Pakistani officials say discussions will begin soon with the CIA about the “rules of engagement” in Pakistan. “If it’s a CIA operation, the ISI needs to know,” explained one Pakistani official. The CIA has a roughly similar policy of “declaring” its personnel and operations with some other countries with which it has close intelligence ties, such as Britain, France, Israel and Jordan..

More On The Boundary Break

Security researchers, meanwhile, say Anonymous has changed the game. "The bar has been raised" with the targeted attack and breach of HBGary, says Marc Maiffret, founder and CTO at eEye Digital Security, who did some black-hat hacking as a teenager. "They may start to do more of that versus just DDoSing."


Maiffret says Anonymous has a large, global identity that includes political activists and hackers. "Rather than different people, they are gravitating to a central identity," he says.

Entirely predicted by the theory. Also, theory does not predict kumbaya environment. Precisely the opposite.

More Stuff You Just Can't Make Up

Bardella, 27, described most reporters as "lazy as hell" and displayed supreme confidence about his ability to place stories favorable to his boss in almost any major news media outlet.

and a WaPo review of that new Bing West book on Afghanistan:

West spreads the blame widely but finds a failure of political culture at the heart of the problem. Endlessly engaged in euphemism and rhetorical triangulation, American generals and politicians insist on a story in which war isn't war and doesn't center on killing. Official doctrine instead declares that professional warriors are engaged in a nation-building strategy "to serve and secure the population," a focus that West argues has "transformed the military into a giant Peace Corps."

JFC! When you have an impossible mission you must define it in possible terms. Career suicide otherwise.

Disgruntled CP Officials with Access to Secret Docs Posting on Chinese Wikileaks-type Sites

We have been informed that in China disgruntled CP officials and others with access to secret docs have been posting them on myriad Chinese Wikileaks-type sites. Just like the theory predicts. Perfect.

Also that Chinese officials' hands have been forced and they have had to address problems revealed by docs.

And USG thinks they will just bluff, threaten, and punish their way through this.

Gov truly doesn't grasp what is at hand here (even though they have had decades of warning). Although the USA is in a much better position than other security states, given the (ostensibly) open nature of our wider society. The problem for the USG is that with so much bread buttered by the secret state, there will always be pissed off (or suddenly awakened/radicalized) people with access who will take matters into their own hands. Live by big numbers, ...

Speaking of that, some want to know why we haven't let LTC Coombs (BM's atty) in on the specifics of what we (and SMC readers) know. Might be helpful, might not. Not a priority of ours, I answered. Sometimes a US Senator will suffice. (Although the BS about "aiding the enemy" (in the indictment) was kinda special.)

They are trying to send the most serious message to acolytes by the treatment of BM.

It ain't gonna work.

The theory says so.

PS: NSA assumes that they are compromised. Saw it in a doc that was in the HBGary email dump.

The theory would predict that type of OPSEC approach would be a good one (even if they are not in fact compromised).

Also, Russia has its hands full with copycat WLs too - but this has been widely reported, unlike AFAIK the China news

Contractor Blues (Our Boy Davis Aside)

ISI better hope Davis doesn't choke on a chicken bone.

On t'wards other matters -- decent little interim report [72-page PDF] on the contingency-contracting clusterfuck.

Basic conclusion is that lots of this shit will be on the chopping block.

Some highlights:

Armed private security contractors generally perform one of three roles: static security for facilities and bases, movement security for convoys, and movement security for personnel. Movement security for personnel carries a number of special risks

A serious concern with relying on armed security contractors is a potential gap in legal accountability. Without certain legal accountability, incidents involving contractors may alienate the host nation and undermine attempts at establishing legitimacy. ...

The use of contractors to manage other contractors and the heavy use of armed private security contractors reflect a failure of government to provide for
contingency workforce needs. Congress and federal agencies are obligated to structure the U.S. peacetime workforce to deal with projected mobilization and crisis demands. Personnel shortages in a contingency are not sufficient justification for contracting out high-risk functions after a crisis develops. Securing a standing capability to deploy at the start of a contingency would reduce contract waste, fraud, and abuse such as were conspicuous in early operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Accordingly, the Commission recommends that Congress direct agency heads to:

Recommendation 1

Grow agencies’ organic capacity

Require DoD, State, and USAID to:

▪ Undertake a comprehensive, risk-based, contingency-manpower
assessment to determine the organic resources needed to preserve a
core level of capability, including consideration of the agencies’ ability to
manage any contractors they use.

▪ Submit budget justifications and obtain the hiring authority to
accommodate staffing increases.

The trend toward contracting out security also  reflects the government’s human-resource constraints. With Congressionally mandated  overall force-strength ceilings, and with limits on military force-strength “in theater,” DoD has had to choose between using military personnel or security contractors for force protection. The State Department has limited numbers of diplomatic security agents in its Bureau of Diplomatic Security, while USAID has no organic security capability.

In most cases, private security contractors are used not because they are necessarily more effective or efficient than government security personnel, but because agencies have turned to them by default. If these  agencies attempted to conduct security functions with organic capability, it would require increasing manpower significantly, redirecting military personnel from other missions, or some combination of these options. Another alternative to using private security contractors would be to increase reliance on host-nation government security forces, but this is not currently a realistic option.

Accordingly, the Commission recommends that Congress:

Recommendation 2

Develop a deployable contingency-acquisition cadre

▪ Provide funding and direction for agencies involved in contingency
operations to establish a trained, experienced, and deployable cadre for
acquisition-support functions. The strategic plan for deploying this cadre
should be supported by a back-up capability for making rapid, temporary
hires of acquisition professionals for large-scale or long-term contingency
operations.

Recommendation 3

Restrict reliance on contractors for security

▪ Restrict the reliance on private security contractors by requiring agencies
to more broadly provide embedded government personnel responsible for
leadership, command and control, and oversight of all security contractors
and operations. 

This recommendation does not, however, address the Commission’s abiding
concern that agencies’ reliance on contractors relative to government
personnel is excessive, notably in the realm of movement security
contractors. The Commission’s final report will address that concern.

Recommendation 4

Designate officials with responsibility for cost consciousness

Revise management directives, instructions, and other policies as necessary to:

▪ Ensure that senior officials are specifically designated as being accountable
for contract-cost consciousness, and develop metrics to facilitate
assessment of contract outcomes.

▪ Establish criteria allowing promotion boards and selection panels to
evaluate and reward officials for contract cost consciousness.

 Recommendation 5

Measure senior military and civilian officials’ efforts to manage
contractors and control costs

Revise senior officials’ personnel-evaluation reports to:

▪ Affirmatively state the responsibility to avoid excess cost, accurately
establish contingency-contract support requirements, manage contractor
performance, and revalidate requirements at appropriate stages of the
acquisition process.

▪ ▪ Include an acquisition-management category that is separate from any
existing category to measure officials’ demonstrated commitment to
contractor management and oversight, and to acquisition-cost control....

Defense policy for more than two decades has recognized that contractors—along with military reservists, federal civilians, and host-nation support personnel—are part of the “total force” for contingency operations. But the declared total-force policy that includes contractors is at odds with agencies’ failure to plan for their reliance on contractors...

Supplementing the contingency-contracting function with ad hoc solutions has proven to be ineffective. The Iraq and Afghanistan contingencies have brought many problems with contractors into sharp relief. Solutions demand concerted and continuing leadership attention to ensure that money spent in the future will bring better results. Despite contractors’ constituting almost half the total force deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, DoD contingency-contracting matters have been mixed together with the J-4 logistics directorate and managed by a colonel. At State and USAID, the functions have been relegated to the office-director level.

Qaradawi Perfect

We seem to be hearing a lot from Qaradawi these days:

Tribal and religious leaders condemned Gaddafi for the attacks against civilians; some urged all Muslims to rise against him. Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi told al-Jazeera that he urged any Libyan soldier who has the opportunity to kill Gaddafi - and issued a religious decree to that effect.
"I am issuing a fatwa now to kill Gaddafi," the cleric said. "To any army soldier, to any man who can pull the trigger and kill this man to do so."

Perfect.

It's down to the ding-a-lings (Beck's show over in a year)

This article is the prod; BECK VS. GOOGLE

"Its down to the ding-a-lings (plus/minus 2.3 percent) for Beck audience. Those types all have their own theories.  They no longer need a Beck."--SMC source 

LMAO





Also,

that his show will be over in a year.

Also,

that we saved the gov some money by our generic reminder to look before you turn in your ID for private sector.  

Still modeling number of saves - gonna probably be good.

The operative Communications Theory idea is likely being nibbled at.  After all, parts were funded by the Ford Foundation. Too bad gov lost the thread - holding up good here.


Jerkoffs might suspect that we are touting the Assange line. Hardly


(Feel free to feel amply dumb -- it's the true feeling that builds a resilient community)

Iranian Lawmakers Call for Opposition Leaders' Deaths

Iranian Lawmakers Call for Opposition Leaders' Deaths.

"We believe the people have lost their patience and demand capital punishment," more than 220 legislators said in a statement a day after thousands of Iranians took to the streets in support of the protests in Egypt.

Read original story Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011

This kinda thing - paradigm shift or what - is never far from our minds. The Islamists must go.

Not like we ever lost main focus. We are the ultimate pain-in-the-ass critics. They know we are checking their work.

They get a break for now.

This shit is serious.

The Intel Biz Is Changing As Never Before (Or Should Be)

A few seem to be missing a prime point of WL.

It actually enhances global (and arguably US) security.

That's why Russia and China have among the most to fear from the new dispensation.

The intel biz is changed as never before.

Some think that the problem is one leaker of historic proportion.  The problem for the security states is the ability for able users of the WL media to leverage prior knowledge into confirmed hypotheses.

The revelations are not the story, though.

It is in the increased ability within the larger intel community (incl OSI) to be able to think about these things in a new way.  (Very opaque intentionally - were talking man's original software).  Secrets are no longer - even if locked away from all but the most qualified eyes - safe.  Nobody's secrets.

Just part of the battle for the unconscious mind.

Those with a vested interest in keeping up the scam - for the money - are really going to be hurting.  But this may take awhile.  The obvious takes forever sometimes.

PS WARNING! Today's blandishment d'easter egg takes us to one of the documents in Aftenposten's cache of WL State cables. Our usual disclaimer applies -- as do the following excerpts and screwy commentary:

"Allies differed over whether the Special Committee should focus its efforts only on traditional subjects, such as the threat to NATO from Russian intelligence services, or should expand its reach to look at issues such as the threat to NATO forces in Afghanistan from Al Qaeda."

Yikes, this in 2009?  And NATO?  No wonder NATO Intelligence Reform is a pressing concern.

"The French PermRep argued that the Special Committee should not engage in an assessment of the threat from Russian security services, stating that these proposed topics appeared to have been drafted with a "Cold War" viewpoint -- despite the fact that NATO recently expelled two Russian diplomats for activities inconsistent with their status."

Score one for the Frogs there.

and

"XXXXXXXXXXXX also said that the Committee needed guidance from the NAC to help it pare down a list of 12 possible "normal" threat assessments to the five that the Committee would produce during 2010. The list of twelve included:

-- Al Qaeda and Taliban capability in Pakistan and its impact on NATO operations in Afghanistan;

-- Afghanistan: Provision of Logistical Support and Know-How to ISAFs Adversaries;

-- Threat to NATO Operations in Afghanistan from Iranian Intelligence Services;

-- North Koreans U-turn on NBRC: What will be the Strategic Impact of the North Korean Decision to Enhance their Programme?

-- Al Qaeda Presence in Yemen: Threats and Risks to NATO Countries;

-- Somalia: Impact of the Deterioration of the Security Situation in Somalia on NATO Nations;

-- Kosovo: Links between Organized Crime and Political Figures and Subsequent Risks for KFOR;

-- Modus Operandi of Civilian Cover GRU Officers targeting the Advanced Technology Field and What Types of Advanced Technology they are attempting to Acquire;

-- FSB Overseas Operational Activity using International Counter-Terrorism and Law Enforcement Liaison. Consequent Threats to NATO Countries;

-- Initiatives by Subversive/Antagonist Circles towards NATO Targets;

-- Decision-making Process of Extremist Cells: the Role played by Veterans and Religious Leaders; and

-- The Fight against Imperialism, Militarism, and Security Policies: Shared Battlefronts of the NATO Countries Antagonist Mobilisation Front."

SMC readers who need the answers to any of these Qs - classified at the NATO XXXXXXXXXXXX level - can choose one of two options. Those with appropriate NATO clearances may obtain a copy from their NATO registry or sub-registry - or else wait for us to post them when we feel like getting around to it.

Davis: A Little Too Close For (Someone's) Comfort -- Or "Hose 'Em Double-Crossing Sanctuary-Paks"

The Urdu-speaking American diplomat who is being held in Pak didn't grease robbers.

He offed a Pak intel motorbike-mounted surveillance team.

Not conjecture.

Looks like our boy Davis may have gotten a little too close to a high-value AQ target - the Paks tried to intervene - and he had to hose 'em.

Whaa?! Davis was a SOF/ODA type? ;)

Anyways, we expect nothing short of a full court press to get D out. Leeway for massive & extreme prejudice must be allotted (and this at any early sign of bilking Pak-intransigence).Go Reagan on 'em on a whim.We'll pick up the tab (Our OEX Feb Calls have been good to us -- so far.)

The Main Strategic PSYOP As Practiced By US In UK

The conservative-leaning British paper The Telegraph has published 400 of the cables relating to the UK on their website . There are some goodies. I see no harm (to us) in republishing content from cables found on Telegraph website.

Have made it through all 400 of the cables posted by The Telegraph on Feb. 4. 

We will spotlight a few of the good ones over the next few posts. We must assure any watchers that these cables are posted in full on the Telegraph's website, so the OPSEC bogeyman doesn't apply to us. Content's certainly  public domain at this point (despite claims to the contrary from know-nothings).

That said - as hard as it is for some to believe (and watchtards believe much BS) - no OPSEC was harmed in the making of this and subsequent posts.


The main strat PSYOP as practiced by US in UK. (Since GB has plenty of experience along these lines - and is active worldwide in the post 9/11 strat PSYOP - the fact that we are doing some lifting in UK proper is probably due to money issues, given traditional British sensitivities to their turf in matters of this nature.)

This Is A Battle For The Unconscious Mind

The quote from the recorded message: "Fear no one. Do not be afraid of jail. Do not fear death," shows classic activation of the God archetype.  The psychological power of same is the hitherto unmentioned (except at least once on SMC) real problem for us of the GWOT.

From a 2007 SMC post (a classic - must read again):

We will never be able to reach with words the Allah-intoxicated Islamist any more than reason can prevail upon someone whose unconscious is in the thrall of an activated God archetype anywhere.

For such cases, there are expedient means (not necessarily kinetic) that cannot be openly discussed in a public forum.
Remember, this is a battle for the unconscious mind.

Station Venezuela -- Elevator Pitch For Cred

A boilerplate plan (though pilcrow 7 suggests another influence program - one that is serious - is operational).

Dig the de rigueur polling - just like in mil IO & domestic housekeeping ops (inter alia)


SUBJECT: EMBASSY STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLAN -- COUNTERING CHAVEZ' ANTI-AMERICANISM
Warning: The above links to Q


(WARNING! The text above links to wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/03/08CARACAS420.html Access w/ extreme prudence)

Mr. Clarridge's Operation Eclipse Group

Stuff like this makes it worthwhile to get up in the morning. You just can't make this shit up.

[Clarridge] planned to set spies on ... the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai in hopes of collecting beard trimmings or other DNA samples that might prove Mr. Clarridge’s suspicions that the Afghan leader was a heroin addict, associates say.

Ho Ho Ho.

What leverage would this provide the US - already the provider of endless largesse to K?

Zilch.

Maybe we can lure him to JFK or Newark and let DEA take it from there?

Gotta be in the playbook. (Joke)

And a little farther along:

For all of the can-you-top-this qualities to Mr. Clarridge’s operation, it is a startling demonstration of how private citizens can exploit the chaos of combat zones and rivalries inside the American government to carry out their own agenda.

Ho Ho Ho²

Mr. Clarridge declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement that likened his operation, called the Eclipse Group, to the Office of Strategic Services, the C.I.A.’s World War II precursor.
“O.S.S. was a success of the past,” he wrote. “Eclipse may possibly be an effective model for the future, providing information to officers and officials of the United States government who have the sole responsibility of acting on it or not.”


Ho Ho Ho³

Still, associates said, Mr. Clarridge maneuvered against the Karzais last summer by helping promote videos, available on YouTube, purporting to represent the “Voice of Afghan Youth.” The slick [sic] videos disparage the president as the “king of Kabul” who regularly takes money from the Iranians, and Ahmed Wali Karzai as the “prince of Kandahar” who “takes the monthly gold from the American intelligence boss” and makes the Americans “his puppet.”

The videos received almost no attention when they were posted on the Internet, but were featured in July on the Fox News Web site in a column by Mr. North, who declined to comment for this article. Writing that he had “stumbled” on the videos on the Internet, he called them a “treasure trove.”

Ho Ho Ho

Later, Sabelle

Our public health propaganda poster girl has died, sad.

Story - Emaciated model became a symbol of anorexia's effect on fashion world

Gaddafi, Scanlan, & Julian (And Those Pesky SIPDIS-tagless cables)

Picking up on the conspiracy theory put forward by Iran’s leadership, which holds that the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables were released by the C.I.A. to undermine anti-colonialist governments, Colonel Qaddafi warned his listeners about the dark designs of “WikiLeaks which publishes information written by lying ambassadors in order to create chaos.”

And from the Grauniad:

5.03pm: Cables published by the Swedish press have disclosed that the US made efforts to get two Swedish companies - Colenco and Mahacos - from working with Iran on civilian nuclear reactors.

2.45pm: Gregg Mitchell at the Nation reports that Norway's Aftenposten, which was leaked a set of the cables, has shared its cache with more media organisations. Die Welt, the German paper, has been named and there are three more to come, a contact at the paper tells him.

The Aftenposten set has also been shared with Politilken in Denmark, Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden and the Dutch broadcaster RTL and newspaper NRC Handelsblad, as mentioned below.

Keen readers may note that Assange has also said he gave the cables to the Dutch pair referenced to above..

Question: what links Muammar Gaddafi and Teresa Scanlan, winner of Miss America 2011? The answer is they both made strong statements over the weekend against WikiLeaks.

Gaddafi blamed the Tunisia uprising on cables written by "ambassadors in order to create chaos". In answer to a question on WikiLeaks at the pageant, Scanlan, who (more conventionally) also played the piano and wore a bikini, said the release of the cables "was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people's right to know."

Nice.  No frickin rocket scientist her

PS

Must leave 'em all scratching their heads.

While they must be able to sense that something funny is happening, their luck runs out there.

This is because logic is not necessarily in play.

It may be part of the battle for the unconscious mind.

Or it may be shimmer.

Speaking of shimmer, French intel indicates that Mrs. Ben Ali decamped from Tunisia with 1.5 tons of gold - probably in late 2010 as they were getting their ducks in a row.

Out InThe Cold: Just For Laughs

 
Both of these gems are from Al Kamen's Post column.

Frosty exit for Wolfowitz
On Saturday, counterinsurgency guru and Center for a New American Security President John Nagl held his annual post-Christmas party at his home in Alexandria, attended by dozens of Iraq war veterans, Obama administration officials and journalists.

Also in attendance was Iraq war architect and former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, whose jacket somehow vanished from the coat room.

In all likelihood, it was a simple case of mistaken identity.

But as Wolfowitz, now at the American Enterprise Institute, headed home without his coat on a frigid Washington night - temps around 26 degrees with gusting winds up to nearly 30 mph - conspiracy theorists couldn't help but wonder whether foul play was involved. The big question as the party was winding down: Did a disgruntled Iraq veteran walk off with the jacket as a last measure of revenge, or was it the work of a left-leaning Obama-ite?

For once, no one seemed to blame the journalists.


That's why it's a secret 

One of the favorite ploys used by government bureaucrats to thwart freedom-of-information requests (aside from just stalling) is the old B5 dodge. That refers to a section of the Freedom of Information Act that exempts from disclosure any information that the agency deems might be a sensitive part of the internal "deliberative processes" of government, such as inter- or intra-agency communications and such.

The National Security Archive recently won an appeal from the State Department over a B5 classification of something written by a department official on a proposed House resolution. The January 2000 resolution, sponsored by Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), expressed "the sense of the House of Representatives that Pakistan should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism."

A State Department official had written something on the proposed resolution that the department decided was exempt from disclosure. The Archive went through the department's appeals process and two years later won the right to see the hidden writing on the resolution.

It said: "What a bunch of crap!!"

Ah, the old deliberative process ain't what it used to be.

Arizona

At the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, I knew to within an hour or so when the bombs were to begin falling = "shock and awe."

I and a very few others I knew went thermo-short - assuming the Middle East was going to go apeshit. (You can check the tape.) As soon as war broke out, the market rallied like a mother, and I was creamed for days (if not longer) until I threw in the towel.

Later, people I knew were saying "of course the market rallied, the market always loves war." I knew that the market had no idea what a fuckup it was, but it rallied because it thought we had won a clear victory.

Oh well.

And - vis-à-vis the unrest, the PTB is really spinning the narrative that the AZ shooter was not political.  What nonsense.  But it seems to be working.  They are conducting BDA-type assessments of their work - polling - and the American people are answering as they have been instructed.  They do not believe that the fucktard was a wingnut.

Worry not.  Gov has this under control.

At least until the next incident.