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Archive for August, 2006Houston paper sees the light, wants paper.
Ballot backstop
Always happy to see people grasping what we have been saying for slmost four years.
Again, I would like to point out that the greatest threat from these machines is the fact that the software is so poorly written, failure is inevitable.
No, the cavalier attitude comes from folks like you who insist on faith in a system that has been repeatedly shown to be unreliable and inaccurate. Also, you were warned about these problems LONG before you bought these systems. You chose to listen to the vendors rather than the voters, so if more money is required, look in the mirror for someone to blame.
The software FAILED. It failed in a spectacular fashion, which was good. Next time it can fail in a subtle fashion which will be harder to detect, but will thwart the will of the voters all the same.
Again, if you had listened to us in the first place, you wouldn't have wasted money. [Black Box Voting] CIA's Secret UK Bank Trawl May Be Illegal. 'A covert programme under which confidential information about British banking transactions is passed to the CIA with the full knowledge of the government may breach both British and European law, the Guardian has learned. 'The information commissioner, who is responsible for enforcing the Data Protection Act, is investigating the arrangement, which has seen details of computerised transactions from around the world passed to the CIA in an attempt to spy on the financiers of jihadist terrorism.' (Guardian article). [Disinformation] Real Threat Or Fake Terror?. 'Attorney Nabih Ayad drove two hours north from the Arab-American enclave of Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, to tiny Caro, Mich., last Wednesday in hopes of springing three of his clients from the Tuscola County jail. 'The clients, three young Palestinian-Americans from Texas, had been arrested while driving their van from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart buying cheap cellphones. The county prosecutor had filed state terrorism charges against the trio, believing they were jihadis plotting to blow up the Mackinac Bridge. Though Ayad knew that the terrorism case was already collapsing, and expected his clients would soon be in the clear, he still wanted to get them out of jail on bond in the interim.' (Salon Magazine article). [Disinformation] The Loose Cannon Of 9/11. 'It took two governors, four congressmen, three former White House officials and two special counsels two years to compile. They reviewed over two and half million pages of classified and declassified documents, consulted 1,200 sources in 10 countries, and spent over $15 million of the taxpayers' money in the process. And on July 22, 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report on the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Is it possible that two twentysomethings from “a small hippie town that time forgot” could undermine that entire effort with $8,000 and a laptop? 'Yes, if you ask ex-Army specialist Korey Rowe. The 23-year-old from Oneonta, New York returned home from two tours — one to Afghanistan, the other to Iraq — to help his best friends, Dylan Avery (director) and Jason Bermas (researcher), produce the sensational 80-minute, Web-based documentary “Loose Change,” which seeks to establish the government's complicity in the terror attacks by addressing some very tough questions: Why wasn't Ground Zero treated like a crime scene? How did both towers “free-fall” to the ground “in 9.2 seconds” in just under two hours? And where are the black boxes from American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175?' (AlterNet article). [Disinformation] Was 9/11 more than just an attack? Could the Bush administration have had anything to gain from the attack? Two prominent European politicians express their serious doubts about the official version of the 9/11 story. Former UK Government Minister Michael Meacher: “The war on terror is bogus” Former German Secretary Of Defense Andreas Von Bulow: “The official story is so inadequate and far fetched that there must be a different one”. (Information Clearing House video stream). Graphic Evidence In US Troops' Rape & Murder Trial. 'An Iraqi medic has provided graphic testimony against four American soldiers who stand accused of raping a 14-year old Iraqi girl and killing three of her relatives. 'The US military hearing in Baghdad is expected to last several days and will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to take the case to a court martial. 'The medic, who was not named for his own safety, told the hearing he was the first to arrive at a house in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad after the 12 March attack. 'He said he found the girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, lying naked in the house, her torso and head burned. She had a single bullet wound beneath her left eye. In the next room, he said he found the body of Abeer's sister, Hadeel, the back of her head blown out by a bullet. Qassim and Fikhriya, the children's parents, were also dead, their mother's torso riddled with bullets. 'After witnessing the scene, he said he was ill for weeks. 'Sergeant Paul Cortez, Specialist James Barker, Private Jesse Spielman and Private Bryan Howard face charges of rape and murder.' (New Zealand Herald article). Olbermann Exposes Nexus Of Politics And Terror Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | August 15 2006 During a prime time segment on his MSNBC show last night, anchor Keith Olbermann presented ten clear examples where the Bush administration had issued terror alerts days after politically damaging revelations and questioned the credibility of each of the alleged plots' authenticity in light of astounding evidence to the contrary. Read entire article HERE or view the VIDEO below.
Olbermann Exposes Nexus Of Politics And Terror
 Details ten clear examples where Bush admin. alerts preceded by damaging revelations Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | August 15 2006 During Read entire article HERE or view the VIDEO below.
Please Tune-In Wednesday Night for Adam Gorightly on The Blue-Rose-Report CORRECTION - Go here to listen to Tonight's Show: BlogTalkRadio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=939 After 8pm CST you'll see a LISTEN NOW Icon next to the show on the Host Channel page. Requires Windows Media Player to listen. Once the show has started you can call in by dialing … (347) 996-3510. Please tune in to the show and give us a call on air. For more information on the show goto: Please Read: Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks Dear Friends and Fellow Americans, Why am I sending this to you now? I have decided to send this to you NOW because of an under-reported item in Sunday's Los Angeles Times newspaper by Willaim Arkin (October 27th). In that article Rumsfeld is alleged to be making efforts to provoke more terror attacks as part of a plan to flush terrorist groups out into the open in order to find and destroy them. I am speaking of their “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG)”: “Among other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at 'stimulating reactions' among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction — that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to 'quick-response' attacks by U.S. forces. Such tactics would hold 'states/sub-state actors accountable' and 'signal to harboring states that their sovereignty will be at risk,' the briefing paper declares.” More important than Arkin's article is Chris Floyd's article in CounterPunch that connects the dots, citing the Operation Northwoods documents (see below) and what's really going on here and abroad as the direct intended result of the 911 events which were allegedly allowed to happen. Surely, you can see the parallels between the events of 911, Rumsfeld's plan to instigate terror attacks and the documented plans of Operation Northwoods. What is Operation Northwoods … ? Since before September 11th 2001, I was aware of documents declassified and uncovered in 2000 that demonstrate efforts on the part of the 1962 Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage terrorist attacks against American civilians to start a war with Cuba. Researcher James Bamford (The Puzzle Palace) was made aware of documents found during a search of declassified JFK assassination docs. Bamford then published these documents in his 2001 book Body Of Secrets. It was on the New York Times bestseller list in early 2001. These explosive documents show that the Joint Chiefs of Staff plotted to initiate a “remember the Maine” terrorism campaign against the American people by “Cuba” - staging attacks on Guantanimo Bay, blowing up US airliners filled with American citizens, bomb Washington DC, and much much more - so that “casualty lists in US Newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation” and a pretext for invasion and war with Cuba. John F. Kennedy opposed this plan and was dead within a few months. Shortly after I heard about this book in early 2001 it was covered by the Baltimore Sun newspaper and then by Peter Jennings on prime time ABCNews. (See links to those articles below) PDF copies of the original documents are available at the National Security Archive (see link below) as well as the archive link at my site Operation Northwoods Documents (archived at Elfis.Net) In May 2001 local parapolitical investigator and radio host Alex Jones interviewed author James Bamford about these documents. Note that during this pre 911 interview Alex alludes to other plans mentioned in the docs that intimate sniper attacks in US cities. Alex Jones interviews James Bamford 5/9/1 (File Size = 5mb) Over a year and a half after the above interview wherein Jones and Bamford discuss the documented plans for fake terror attacks against American citizens (including sniper attacks) Alex would suddenly put two and two together and issue a press release on October 23rd in which he draws the connection between certain passages of the Northwoods docs that suggest the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington DC. Alex Jones' Operation Expose the Govt Snipers Press Release In less than 24 hours the alleged snipers were apprehended by authorities following their surreal Manchurian Candidate-esque “cue” televised to the sniper using the Cherokee folktale of the fox and the: “You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You've asked us to say,'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important to you.” Just weeks before Alex Jones' realization I had a conversation with one of my other local parapolitical writers/researchers who had already drawn the same conclusion, that the sniper attacks were the continued implimentation of the Northwoods plan. Whether you think of this as absolute fact, complete fantasy, or disinfo from some unknown group, the fact remains that no-one is addressing the obvious parallels between the 911 “intelligence failure” *** *** Or was it an Intelligence Success … see W199EYE released by former FBI deputy director John O'Neill (before his murder on 911) and published by Greg Palast in his book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. W199EYE is an alleged Executive Order signed by President Bush before September 11th 2001, pulling all FBI agents from investigation of the very terrorists who would allegedly carry out the 911 attacks. This order and the resulting lawsuits by 911 victims families have been deemed a “threat to National Security”. AND NOW …. Big Brotha is getting everything he wants … From the Federation of American Scientists at <www.FAS.org> SECRECY IN THE NEWS The pending Homeland Security Act includes “the most severe weakening of the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] in its 36-year history,” Senator Patrick Leahy told the Washington Post. See “Disclosure Curbs in Homeland Bill Decried” by Dan Morgan, Washington Post, November 16: … and “Homeland bill's secrecy rules criticized” by Tamara Lytle, Orlando Sentinel, November 15: A November 14 New York Times column by William Safire galvanized public concern about the privacy implications of DARPA's “Total Information Awareness” initiative that would probe databases of private transactions in search of terrorists. A November 16 Washington Post editorial put the matter in some perspective: By creating a new Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Pentagon has done approximately the opposite of what was recommended by a classified review of U.S. intelligence headed by Brent Scowcroft last year. See “New Intelligence Post Consolidates Rumsfeld's Clout” by Vernon Loeb in the Washington Post online, November 18: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Friendly Fire - Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba By David Ruppe N E W Y O R K, May 1 In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. <abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662> -=-=-=-=-=- Baltimore Sun Coverage: New book on NSA sheds light on secrets - U.S. terror plan called Cuba invasion pretext By Scott Shane and Tom Bowman Sun Staff WASHINGTON - U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to create a pretext for invasion and the ouster of Communist leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about the National Security Agency. <baltimoresun.com/bal-te.md.nsa24apr24.story> -=-=-=-=-=- Original Official NSA Declassified Documents: The National Security Archive In his new exposé of the National Security Agency entitled Body of Secrets, author James Bamford highlights a set of proposals on Cuba by the Joint Chiefs of Staff codenamed OPERATION NORTHWOODS. This document, titled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” was provided by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as the key component of Northwoods. Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba. These proposals - part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose - included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake “Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,” including “sink[ing] a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated),” faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage. Bamford himself writes that Operation Northwoods “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.” Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba [includes cover memoranda], March 13, 1962, TOP SECRET, 15 pp. <gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/news/20010430/> -=-=-=-=- CounterPunch November 1, 2002 Into the Dark - The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks This age: layers of lime harden in the sick son's blood… There's nowhere to run from the tyrant-epoch… Who else will you kill? Who else glorify? What other lies will you invent? Osip Mandelshtam, This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large? Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense. This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There–in an article by military analyst William Arkin, detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon–came the revelation of Rumsfeld's plan to create “a super-Intelligence Support Activity” that will “bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception.” According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization–the “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)”–will carry out secret missions designed to “stimulate reactions” among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to “counterattack” by U.S. forces. In other words–and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan–the United States government is planning to use “cover and deception” and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people–your family, your friends, your lovers, you–in order to further their geopolitical ambitions. For P2OG is not designed solely to flush out terrorists and bring them to justice–a laudable goal in itself, although the Rumsfeld way of combating terrorism by causing it is pure moral lunacy. (Or should we use the Regime's own preferred terminology and just call it “evil”?) No, it seems the Pee-Twos have bigger fish to fry. Once they have sparked terrorists into action–by killing their family members? luring them with loot? fueling them with drugs? plying them with jihad propaganda? messing with their mamas? or with agents provocateurs, perhaps, who infiltrate groups then plan and direct the attacks themselves?–they can then take measures against the “states/sub-state actors accountable” for “harboring” the Rumsfeld-roused gangs. What kind of measures exactly? Well, the classified Pentagon program puts it this way: “Their sovereignty will be at risk.” The Pee-Twos will thus come in handy whenever the Regime hankers to add a little oil-laden real estate or a new military base to the Empire's burgeoning portfolio. Just find a nest of violent malcontents, stir 'em with a stick, and presto: instant “justification” for whatever level of intervention/conquest/rapine you might desire. And what if the territory you fancy doesn't actually harbor any convenient marauders to use for fun and profit? Well, surely a God-like “super-Intelligence Support Activity” is capable of creation ex nihilo, yes? The Rumsfeld-Bush plan to employ murder and terrorism for political, financial and ideological gain does have historical roots (besides al Qaeda, the Stern Gang, the SA, the SS, the KGB, the IRA, the UDF, Eta, Hamas, Shining Path and countless other upholders of Bushian morality, decency and freedom). We refer of course to Operations Northwoods, oft mentioned in these pages: the plan that America's top military brass presented to President John Kennedy in 1963, calling for a phony terrorist campaign–complete with bombings, hijackings, plane crashes and dead Americans–to provide “justification” for an invasion of Cuba, the Mafia/Corporate fiefdom which had recently been lost to Castro. Kennedy rejected the plan, and was killed a few months later. Now Rumsfeld has resurrected Northwoods, but on a far grander scale, with resources at his disposal undreamed of by those brass of yore, with no counterbalancing global rival to restrain him–and with an ignorant, corrupt president who has shown himself all too eager to embrace any means whatsoever that will augment the wealth and power of his own narrow, undemocratic, elitist clique. There is prestuplyeniye here, transgression, a stepping-over–deliberately, with open eyes, with forethought, planning, and conscious will–of lines that should never be crossed. Acting in deadly symbiosis with rage-maddened killers, God-crazed ranters and those supreme “sub-state actors,” the mafias, Bush and his cohorts are plunging the world into an abyss, an endless night of black ops, retribution, blowback, deceit, of murder and terror–wholesale, retail, state-sponsored, privatized; of fear and degradation, servility, chaos, and the perversion of all that's best in us, of all that we've won from the bestiality of our primal nature, all that we've raised above the mindless ravening urges and impulses still boiling in the mud of our monkey brains. It's not a fight for freedom; it's a retreat into darkness. And the day will be a long time coming. Chris Floyd is a columnist for the Moscow Times and a regular contributor to <counterpunch.org/floyd1101.html> -=-=-=-=- P2OG: LATIMES - The Secret War - William Arkin The Secret War Frustrated by intelligence failures, the Defense Department is dramatically By William M. Arkin William M. Arkin is a military affairs analyst who writes regularly for October 27 2002 SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. — In what may well be the largest expansion of covert action by the armed forces since the Vietnam era, the Bush administration has turned to what the Pentagon calls the “black world” to press the war on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organizations are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised. Spy planes and ships are being assigned new missions in anti-terror and monitoring the “axis of evil.” The increasingly dominant role of the military, Pentagon officials say, reflects frustration at the highest levels of government with the performance of the intelligence community, law enforcement agencies and much of the burgeoning homeland security apparatus. It also reflects the desire of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to gain greater overall control of the war on terror. Insulated from outside pressures, armed with matchless weapons and technology, trained to operate below the shadow line, the Pentagon's black world of classified operations holds out the hope of swift, decisive action in a struggle against terrorism that often looks more like a family feud than a war. Coupled with the enormous effort being made throughout the government to improve and link information networks and databases, covert anti-terror operations promise to put better information in the hands of streamlined military teams that can identify, monitor and neutralize terrorist threats. “Prevention and preemption are … the only defense against terrorism,” Rumsfeld said in May. “Our task is to find and destroy the enemy before they strike us.” The new apparatus for covert operations and the growing government secrecy associated with the war on terrorism reflect the way the Bush administration's most senior officials see today's world: First, they see fighting terrorism and its challenge to U.S. interests and values as the 21st century equivalent of the Cold War crusade against communism. Second, they believe the magnitude of the threat requires, and thus justifies, aggressive new “off-the-books” tactics. In their understandable frustration over continued atrocities such as the recent Bali attack, however, U.S. officials might keep two points in mind. Though covert action can bring quick results, because it is isolated from the normal review processes it can just as quickly bring mistakes and larger problems. Also, the Pentagon is every bit as capable as the civilian side of the government when it comes to creating organization charts and bureaucracy that stifle creative thinking and timely action. The development of the Pentagon's covert counter-terror capability has its roots in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The Army created a highly compartmentalized organization that could collect clandestine intelligence independent of the rest of the U.S. intelligence community and follow through with covert military action. Known as the Intelligence Support Activity, or ISA, when it was established in 1981, this unit fought in drug wars and counter-terror operations from the Middle East to South America. It built a reputation for daring, flexibility and a degree of lawlessness. In May 1982, Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci called the ISA”uncoordinated and uncontrolled.” Though its freelance tendencies were curbed, the ISA continued to operate under different guises through the ill-starred U.S. involvement in Somalia in 1992 and was reportedly active in the hunt for Bosnian Serbs suspected of war crimes. Today, the ISA operates under the code name Gray Fox. In addition to covert operations, it provides the war on terrorism with the kind of so-called “close-in” signals monitoring — including the interception of cell phone conversations — that helped bring down Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Gray Fox's low-profile eavesdropping planes also fly without military markings. Working closely with Special Forces and the CIA, Gray Fox also places operatives inside hostile territory. In and around Afghanistan, Gray Fox was part of a secret sphere that included the CIA's paramilitary Special Activities Division and the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command. These commands and “white” Special Forces like the Green Berets, as well a Air Force combat controllers and commandos of eight different nations report to a mind-boggling array of new command cells and coordination units set up after Sept. 11. An Army brigadier general commands the Joint Interagency Task Force at Bagram air base north of Kabul to coordinate CIA, Defense Department and coalition forces in Afghanistan. A new Campaign Support Group has been established at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The Special Operations Joint Interagency Collaboration Center has been created in Tampa, Fla. In Europe, the Joint Interagency Coordination Group handles information-sharing and logistical support with NATO. Hawaii's Pacific Command stood up a Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorist Group this summer. Meantime, old commands are being morphed into new ones for the covert war. The two Joint Interagency Task Forces in the United States previously devoted to fighting drugs now have the war on terrorism as their highest priority. The epicenter of the Pentagon's covert operations remains the North Carolina-based Joint Special Operations Command, often referred to as Delta Force. The super-secret command is still not officially acknowledged to exist. Its two-star commander, Army Maj. Gen. Dell L. Dailey, who spent much of the Afghan war in Oman, has no public biography. Among Dailey's assets is a fleet of aircraft specially equipped for secret operations — conventional and covert military planes and helicopters, and even former Soviet helicopters. The bulk of those craft, including the reconfigured Russian choppers, fly from airfields in Uzbekistan and from two Pakistani air bases, Shahbaz and Shamsi. The Air Force and the CIA collect additional intelligence from unmanned Predator and Global Hawk drones. They also have low-profile reconnaissance assets that look like transport planes and operate under such code names as ARL-Low, Keen Sage, Scathe View and Senior Scout. Not to be left out, the Navy's Gray Star spy vessel, reminiscent of the old Pueblo, captured by North Korea in 1968, now sweeps up sophisticated — and obscure — “measurements and signatures intelligence” to monitor the ballistic missile capabilities of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Even with all this, the Pentagon wants to expand covert capabilities. Rumsfeld's influential Defense Science Board 2002 Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism says in its classified “outbrief” — a briefing drafted to guide other Pentagon agencies — that the global war on terrorism “requires new strategies, postures and organization.” The board recommends creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception. Among other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at “stimulating reactions” among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction — that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to “quick-response” attacks by U.S. forces. Such tactics would hold “states/sub-state actors accountable” and “signal to harboring states that their sovereignty will be at risk,” the briefing paper declares. Never to be outdone in proposing hardware solutions, the Air Force is designing its own Global Response Task Force to fight the war on terrorism. The all-seeing, all-bombing Air Force envisions unmanned A-X aircraft capable of long-range, nighttime gunship operations and an M-X covert transport, as well as hypersonic and space-based conventional weapons capable of delivering a “worldwide attack within an hour.” Who says the arms race is over? Rumsfeld's science board warns against overemphasis on equipment even as it recommends more. Washington is well on its way to an arms race with itself. And for those who worry that all these secret operations and aggressive new doctrines will turn the United States into the world's policeman, there is a ray of hope. Rumsfeld is now the field marshal of the war on terrorism, but the Pentagon is also creating new layers of bureaucracy that may save it from itself. Not to mention the rest of us. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times -=-=-=-=-=- DOD EXAMINES “PREEMPTIVE” INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS One way to invigorate U.S. intelligence would be to “Develop an entirely new capability to proactively, preemptively evoke responses from adversary/terrorist groups,” according to the Defense Science Board, a Pentagon advisory group. Such an approach would “improve [intelligence] information collection by stimulating reactions” from the target. One hundred “highly specialized people with unique technical and intelligence skills such as information operations, PSYOP, network attack, covert activities, SIGINT, HUMINT, SOF, influence warfare/deception operations” could constitute a new, elite “Proactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG),” reporting to the National Security Council with an annual budget of $100 million. The proposal is the latest sign of a new assertiveness by the Defense Department in intelligence matters, and an indication that the cutting edge of intelligence reform is not to be found in Congress but behind closed doors in the Pentagon. The Defense Science Board recommended creation of the preemptive operations group in its “DSB Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism.” The findings and recommendations of the DSB Summer Study were set forth in an August 16, 2002, PowerPoint briefing. The first thirty pages of the unclassified 78 page PointPoint presentation are posted here: <fas.org> The DSB briefing was first reported by Dan Dupont in Inside the Pentagon on September 26. It was also discussed by William M. Arkin in the Los Angeles Times on October 27. <fas.org> -=-=-=-=- The Secret War October 27 2002 |
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