Public Intelligence Blog

Patrick Meier

Joining the Qatar Foundation to Advance Humanitarian Technology

Big news! I’ll be taking a senior level position at the Qatar Foundation to work on the next generation of humanitarian technology solutions. I’ll be based at the Foundation’s Computing Research Institute (QCRI) and be working alongside some truly amazing minds defining the cutting edge of social and scientific computing, computational linguistics, big data, etc. My role at QCRI will be to leverage the expertise within the Institute, the region and beyond to drive technology solutions for humanitarian and social impact globally—think of it as Computing for Good backed by some serious resources.  I’ll spend just part of the time in Doha. The rest of my time will be based wherever necessary to have the greatest impact. Needless to say, I’m excited!

My mission over the past five years has been to catalyze strategic linkages between the technology and humanitarian space to promote both innovation and change, so this new adventure feels like the perfect next chapter in this exciting adventure. I’ve had the good fortune and distinct honor of working with some truly inspiring and knowledgeable colleagues who have helped me define and pursue my passions over the years. Needless to say, I’ve learned a great deal from these colleagues; knowledge, contacts and partnerships that I plan to fully leverage at the Qatar Foundation.

It really has been an amazing five years. I joined the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) in 2007 to co-found and co-direct the Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning. The purpose of the program was to assess how new technologies were changing the humanitarian space and how these could be deliberately leveraged to yield more significant impact. As part of my time at HHI, I consulted on a number of cutting-edge projects including the UNDP’s Crisis and Risk Mapping Analysis (CRMA) Program in the Sudan. I also leveraged this iRevolution blog extensively to share my findings and learnings with both the humanitarian and technology communities. In addition, I co-authored the UN Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Report on “New Technologies in Emergen-cies and Conflicts” (PDF).

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NUCLEAR FAMINE: A BILLION PEOPLE AT RISK

Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition

Ira Helfand, MD
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Credits and Acknowledgements
The publication of this briefing paper was made possible
thanks to the generous financial support of the Swiss Federal
Department of Foreign Affairs.

Executive Summary

Over the last several years, a number of studies have shown that a limited, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan would cause significant climate disruption worldwide.

Two studies published this year examine the impact on agricultural output that would result from this climate disruption.  In the US, corn production would decline by an average of 10% for an entire decade, with the most severe decline, about 20% in year 5. There would be a similar decline in soybean production, with, again, the most severe loss, about 20%, in year 5.

A second study found a significant decline in Chinese middle season rice production. During the first 4 years, rice production would decline by an average of 21%; over the next 6 years the decline would average 10%.

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Robert David STEELE Vivas

Press Release

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2012 – The World Bank today announced that it will implement a new Open Access policy for its research outputs and knowledge products, effective July 1, 2012. The new policy builds on recent efforts to increase access to information at the World Bank and to make its research as widely available as possible. As the first phase of this policy, the Bank launched today a new Open Knowledge Repository and adopted a set of Creative Commons copyright licenses.

The new Open Access policy, which will be rolled out in phases in the coming year, formalizes the Bank’s practice of making research and knowledge freely available online. Now anybody is free to use, re-use and redistribute most of the Bank’s knowledge products and research outputs for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

“Knowledge is power,” World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said. “Making our knowledge widely and readily available will empower others to come up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Our new Open Access policy is the natural evolution for a World Bank that is opening up more and more.”

The policy will also apply to Bank research published with third party publishers including the institution’s two journals—World Bank Research Observer (WBRO) and World Bank Economic Review (WBER)—which are published by Oxford University Press, but in accordance with the terms of third party publisher agreements. The Bank will respect publishing embargoes, but expects the amount of time it takes for externally published Bank content to be included in its institutional repository to diminish over time.

Event 21 May 2012 1230-1400 Washington DC

Join us for an Open Discussion: What the Bank’s Open Access Policy Means for Development

Monday, May 21, 2012 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET/16:30 – 18:00 GMT

The World Bank will be adopting an Open Access Policy as of July 1. In addition, the Bank recently launched the World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) and became the first major international organization to adopt a set of copyright licenses from Creative Commons. As a result, a wealth of Bank research and knowledge products are now freely available to anyone in the world for use, re-use, and sharing.

• Why is this so significant?
• How can open access contribute to the goal of eliminating poverty?
• How does the new policy impact the Bank’s researchers and authors?
• How will the OKR benefit users of Bank knowledge, in particular those in developing countries?

Join us in person at the World Bank or online for a lively conversation about these and other aspects of open access to research, and its potential for development progress.

See Also:

The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations

THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust

INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Open Source Agency: Executive Access Point

Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

Congressional Committee Proposal would raise US taxpayer support for Israel’s military in 2013 to a record $4 billion.

Tim King | Salem-News.com

(WASHINGTON DC) – As news about Israeli political parties merging dominates headlines, this one is being overlooked. The US House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday approved almost $1 billion for Israel’s anti-missile defense programs.

The expensive systems are called Arrow 3. The American politicians propose spending this exorbitant amount in order to upgrade the current Arrow system, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome.

The names are fancy, unlike the missiles they say they are defending themselves from. The munitions fired from Gaza are al Qassam rockets and they are little more than unguided fireworks.

Israeli and American media portray the ‘rocket attacks from Gaza’ as a serious danger and they claim that the large U.S. tax payer contributions are necessary in order to ‘defend’ Israel. The Gaza rockets have in all time, killed a total of 28 Israeli citizens. Some place the number at 29.

The total appropriation is the highest ever approved for the four programs; it reflects the willingness of the United States to back yet another racist, apartheid government that uses American investments to send Israeli youth to college, and to kill Palestinians; Muslims and Christians, who have few rights under a system that Israel created, offering one set of laws and punishments to Jews, and a different set for all other human beings.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  Equally troubling is the continued borrowing of $1 trillion a year and the continued waste of over $2 trillion a year.

Chuck Spinney

Interview with Mullah Omar, Arnaud de Borchgrave (June 2001)  – Very important and rare interview with Mullah Omar the head of the Taliban almost three months before 9-11 on the front page of the Washington Times (June 18).  Omar suggested Osama bin Ladin was a problem he wanted to resolve.  Bush Administration showed no interest in pursuing this lead.  The information in de Borchgrave’s 2001 report is consistent with that in an important report issued in February 2011 by theCenter on International Cooperation at New York University, which is summarized by Gareth Porter in Counterpunch here.

Chuck Spinney
The Blaster

Phi Beta Iota:  There are other reports of the Taliban approaching the US Department of State (including one approach to a CIA officer under cover).  After 9/11 the Taliban resurfaced these offers, but asking only that Bin Laden receive a public trial.  In every instance before and after 9/11 the US refused to consider the Taliban offers to turn over Bin Laden.  One can only surmise that between them the CIA and the White House were quite content with the role Bin Laden was playing in AF, and that removing him would actually interfere with US plans for which Bin Laden was, like Lee Harvey Oswald, a “patsy” in the not-so-great game.

Europe: For the record. German Chancellor Merkel and the European Council have changed in the last 48 hours from emphasizing austerity and the importance of adhering to agreements and goals to focusing on growth.

The two economic ideas are not mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, the growth has not been discussed in connection with south European sovereign debt. The rise of the socialists in France and the rejectionists in Greece seems to jolted the European bankers to consider potentially more innovative ideas about continental economic health besides “pay what you owe” policies.

The window of innovation will not last long because the debt exceeds the capacity to pay it down. The demographics of up to 50% unemployment among the most able cohorts of the work forces in Mediterranean European states defeat growth without statism. This is the threat.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

See Also:

Chuck Spinney: Why Doesn’t Spain Understand that Integrity is Priceless?

Chuck Spinney: Europe in Crisis Rule by Troika Spain and Hungary Next

Chuck Spinney: Financial Coups Destroying Europe

Chuck Spinney: German Economic Imperialism Killing Europe?

John Steiner: Iceland Defies Banks, Recovering Rapidly

Michel Bauwens: Michael Hudson on the crucial link between democracy and debt throughout history

Mini-Me: Iceland Breaks the Back of Western Banking

Mini-Me: Iceland Triumphs Over Banks, Western Governments Continue the Charade

NIGHTWATCH: Financial Crisis Now a Crisis of Fundamentals

Mini-Me: US Dollar Out, Yuan, System D, and Open Money In + Meta-RECAP

DefDog

This represents one of the dishonorable acts a politician can commit. Using other people’s lives to win an election…….a clear indication of the lack of integrity of an individual who holds the highest office of the land….and the speech sounds like it was modeled after LBJ’s equally incoherent speech in the closing days of Viet-Nam.  The second article is pure propaganda, witless and without merit.

Afghanistan security deal Obama signed has holes

CBS News, May 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — The 10-year security compact that President Barack Obama signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai contains promises the United States and Afghanistan cannot guarantee they will keep, and loopholes for both nations.

The deal signed Tuesday also allows either nation to walk away on a year’s notice. That could allow the next U.S. president, or the next Afghan leader, to scuttle a deal negotiated by his or her predecessor.

For Obama, the agreement represents a compromise with Karzai after messy negotiations over U.S. military detention of Afghan suspects and raids on Afghan homes that offend Afghans.

Read full article.

Obama’s Deal With Afghanistan Underscores Its Crucial Role in the War on Terror

Click on Image to Enlarge

Fukushima Primed For Worldwide Disaster

The radioactive Fukushima Genie is out of the bottle and is primed to accomplish a worldwide disaster. If the roof of Reactor building #4 collapses, a building that is now seismically rated at zero, a pool of 1563 spent fuel rods perched 100 feet above the ground would also collapse ~ resulting in a gusher of global radiation that would put most of the world’s human and biological populations at severe risk.

by Allen L Roland

The greatest and most dangerous on going cover up in the world today is not the official 9/11 cover up (now into its 11th year); it is not the supposed assassination of Bin Laden by Navy Seals last year (an operation with no confirmed body, no video and completely staged as a re-election gimmick as we are now witnessing); but instead, it is the unspoken on going conspiracy of silence regarding the spreading worldwide nuclear radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011.

. . . . . .

Just recently, authorities in Japan confessed that the amount of cesium-137 released by Fukushima is equivalent to 168 of the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A brief confirmation came from a recent article in the Telegraph ~ “Japan’s government estimates the amount of radioactive caesium-137 released by the Fukushima nuclear disaster so far is equal to that of 168 Hiroshima bombs.”

Read full article with photos, videos, and links.

See Also:

Berto Jongman: Japan Planning Forced Evacuation of 40 Million

Interactive: Map: US bases encircle Iran

Dozens of US and allied forces’ military installations dot the region, from Oman, UAE and Kuwait to Turkey and Israel.

Doha, Qatar - US military bases continue to form a strategic envelope around Iran, although the American withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011 may have changed the regional balance somewhat towards Iran’s favour. While US forces are scaling back in many parts of the globe due to budget cuts – and have begun a gradual depature from Afghanistan to be completed by 2014 – their international presence remains vast.

From an active-duty force of 1.4 million soldiers, the US has deployed some 350,000 troops to at least 130 foreign countries around the world. Some are at Cold War-era installations, but many are in or near combat zones in the Middle East. At more than 750 bases internationally, private contractors and third-country nationals also form a large percentage of the staff, in addition to military reservists and civilian employees of the Pentagon.

US military installations in the Middle East serve to keep an eye on Iran, but their regional footprint was significantly expanded well before Iran became the most publicly cited foreign “threat”.

There were three reasons why the US sought a presence across the Middle East, says Mehran Kamrava, Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar:

“Securing oil resources, guaranteeing the security of the state of Israel and combating threats to American interests” were the initial priorities of US military activity in the region prior to the first Gulf War, Kamrava says.

“Subsequently, direct military presence wasn’t in the form of impositions, but the [security umbrella] was a conscious policy decision on the part of the Persian Gulf states.”

See Interactive Map

Earlier Version with Black Dots:  Graphic: US Bases (44) Surrounding Iran

DefDog

What an IO goldmine for the Taliban……ending a war takes two just as a Tango does. By saying we are done it provides an opponent with victory. There is no other way to spin it. Now the questioning begins (as it should have. Lack of intelligence on Pashtu culture is the root cause of this war. If we had understood Pashtunwalli and the meaning of sanctuary we would have understood Omar’s obligation to bin Laden. We didn’t because it is not found in the classified enclaves of the intelligence
community….it is found on the many websites regarding Pashtuns and Afghanistan though.)

In Afghanistan, President Obama signals end to the war

WASHINGTON — Speaking to a war-weary nation from the epicenter of the fight against terrorism, President Obama signaled the end of what he called “a decade under the dark cloud of war.”

“This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end,” Obama said before a backdrop of armored military vehicles and a draped U.S. flag at the Bagram air base.

Obama’s address to the nation capped a surprise visit that coincided with the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, a mission that has become an unexpected focal point in his campaign for reelection.

PHOTOS: Obama makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  What DefDog forgets is that the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden, but the Bush-Cheney regime refused that offer.  Below are a few headlines to that effect. In retrospect, we now realize that the Taliban’s demand for proof was one that Cheney could not accept because Cheney knew with precision that 9/11 was a controlled false flag operation for which Bin Laden was a patsy.  Who would have thought we would one day consider the Taliban more honorable (at the time) than our own Administration?  The core point is valid: the US went into Afghanistan ignorant, and leaves Afghanistan just as ignorant.  The same was true of Viet-Nam.  The ideologues in policy dismissed the educated views of the intelligence community in both instances.  What we consider important is that between AF-IQ and Libya, this may well be the last tolerated invasion of any country by the US acting unilaterally.  Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela — and many others, are now not only in a position to slam down on US acting up, but highly motivated to do so.  The era of US carpetbagging is coming to an end, but the USG will be the last to realize this, and will destroy is domestic economy as a final desperate action.

See Also:

Al-Jazeera: Taliban offered to give up bin Laden before 9/11

Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over

US Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass

Book Reviews:

9-11 Truth Books & DVDs (38)

Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback (226)

Impeachment & Treason (123)