The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Phi Beta Iota: The US Intelligence Community (both civilian and military) still has not accepted the fact that 60% of its effort should be focused on Global Coverage (e.g. the Third World and the non-military high-level threats to humanity) and on relevant information and tailored intelligence necessary to support Stabilization & Reconstruction Operations as well as what General Al Gray, USMC (Ret), then Commandant of the Marine Corps, called “peaceful preventive measures.” See also:
Memorandum, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
July 2009
Authors: Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Aki J. Peritz
Click any of the links below to read and download the individual memos online.
You can download the complete report containing all the memos at the bottom of this page.
Continue reading “Handbook: Harvard on Congress & Intelligence”
Below is the Annotated Bibliography that completed ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig. It was designed to be a “handbook” of sorts on Reality. We like to paraphrase Trotsky, with a tip of the hat to Alvin Toffler who quoted him in War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century:
“You may not be interested in reality, but reality is interested in you.”
Trotsky was referring to war. For the Public Intelligence Blog, reality is war, and our worst enemies are domestic in nature, causing self-inflicted wounds vastly more fatal than any foreign armed adversary could produce at any cost. The categories in the graphic below are repeated legibly below the graphic. This Blog superceeds the below bibliography, which only cover about 500 of the 1500+ books that are more easily accessed here within the Blog–as a gift to others, however, the below document can be useful as a starting point. This is all the stuff neither the government nor the media are willing to cover seriously in the public interest.
Anti-Americanism, Blowback, Why the Rest Hates the West. 92
Betrayal of the Public Trust. 93
Biomimicry, Green Chemistry, Ecological Economics, Natural Capitalism.. 98
Blessed Unrest, Dignity, Dissent, & the Tao of Democracy. 99
Capitalism, Globalization, Peak Oil, & “Free” Trade Run Amok. 100
Collective Intelligence, Power of Us, We Are One, & Wealth of We. 102
Culture of Catastrophe, Cheating, Conflict, & Conspiracy. 104
Deception, Facts, Fog, History (Lost), Knowledge, Learning, & Lies. 104
Democracy in Decline. 107
Emerging and Evolving Threats & Challenges. 110
Failed States, Poverty, Wrongful Leadership, and the Sorrows of Empire. 114
Future of Life, State of the Future, Plan B 3.0. 115
Innovation & 21st Century Leadership. 117
Instruments of National Power Hard and Soft. 120
Intelligence, Decision-Support, & Decision-Making. 121
Internet (Good, Bad, & Ugly). 123
Philosophy, Psychology, & Religion from Faith to Fascism.. 124
Strategy. 127
War, Waste, & Crimes Against Humanity. 129
Seminal Work that Redirected My Life
May 8, 2008
United Nations
Together with C. K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks), this book redirected my life. Although I have been an intelligence and operations professional all my life, and spent the last 20 years kicking doors down all over the world to get secret intelligence communities to focus on the 96% of the information they could get legally, ethically, and generally free or at very low cost, I was lacking a strategic frame of reference.
This book literally blew my mind into smithereens. Starting with the fact that LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcorft is one of the last adults still standing with his integrity intact, I was moved to the core of my being by the following list, which is in priority order:
01 Poverty
02 Infectious Disease
03 Environmental Degradation
04 Inter-State Conflict
05 Civil War
06 Genocide
07 Other Atrocities
08 Proliferation
09 Terrorism
10 Transnational Crime
I cannot under-state the force with which this list hit me. In combination with Prahalad's book, which makes the point that capitalism is focused on the billion rich with a one trillion marketplace, while the five billion poor represent a FOUR trillion marketplace, I suddenly realized that the Panel had delivered one side of a strategic matrix for creating a prosperous world at peace.
Despite the existence of other superb books, such as High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them; The Future of Life; and Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition, no one–no one–had created a list in priority order that calls into question every national security budget on the planet, but especially that of the USA.
These two books led to my decision to sell my for-profit, OSS.Net, and create, with 23 other co-founders, the Earth Intelligence Network, a 501c3 Public Charity, and to commit myself to being intelligence officer to the poor for the remainder of my life.
I will just list the twelve policies and the eight humanities below, all other information is at EIN, and I do not want to distract from other reviews. This book, this list, is the single most important first step in empowering the collective intelligence of the public to the point that we can eradicate corruption, protect our commonwealths, and achieve a prosperous world at peace.
Twelve policies that must be harmonized at the budget level across all Nations and corporations and foundations, and organizations (this is important because governments are organized as stovepipes–it is lunacy to use up water we don't have to grow grain we do not need to create ethanal with food instead of sugar cane, bacteria, or algae):
01 Agriculture
02 Diplomacy
03 Economy
04 Education
05 Energy
06 Family
07 Health
08 Immigration
09 Justice
10 Security
11 Society
12 Water
The eight humanities (this is important because nothing the US or EU do unless we create, within seven years, an EarthGame that helps these dominant demographics avoid our mistakes:
01 Brazil
02 China
03 India
04 Indonesia
05 Iran
06 Russia
07 Venezuela
08 Wild Cards (e.g. Congo)
There are so many books relevant to all of the above I must point to my lists, but want to list just a couple of future-oriented books here, the last being the first by EIN (free online, but lovely here at Amazon):
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
See also 2008 Chapter: Annotated Bibliography on Reality
Carol Dumaine was for a few years allowed to manage an internal revoslution in intelligence affairs that ultimately failed, but left its mark. She is still standing, and we expect to see her at the finish line when we finally do achieve a revolution in intelligence affairs and create both a Smart Nation and a World Brain.
Above, with a full title of Are You Ready?: Implications of a Changing Global Information Environment for Open Source Intelligence, was published in June 2001. It remains a precious point of reference.
The internal revolution failed, Global Futures Partnership was transferred to the Department of State where it has been stuffed in a closet, and Carol Dumain marches on professionally.
