Beware Of The “Intelligence-Industrial Complex”

Data Intelligence Complex Is The Real Story -- Edward Luce, Financial Times

More than half a century ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans of the dangers posed by the country’s growing “military-industrial complex” – a phrase that entered instantly into everyday language.

“The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government,” the outgoing Republican president said. “We must be alert to the … danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.”

Ike was chiefly warning about the power of the Pentagon and the big defence companies that had grown up around it. Today his prescience would be applied to America’s vast army of federally-employed data analysts and the hundreds of software companies they employ.

The US spends at least $80bn a year on intelligence alone, which is more than the defence budgets of all but a handful of countries.

Read more ....

My Comment: If President Eisenhower was alive today .... he would definitely warn of the country’s growing “military-INTELLIGENCE-industrial complex”. His last speech (above video) has always been prophetic .... especially today.

Remembering The Three Who Saved Europe

Cold Warriors: President Roland Reagan, Blessed John Paul II, & Baroness Margaret Thatcher. The Blaze

Three Who Saved The West -- William Kristol, Weekly Standard

And now the last of them is gone. Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II—three who won the Cold War and, it isn't too much to say, saved the West (at least for a while!)—are no longer with us. Their examples remain.

They knew what they believed but also knew they had to justify their beliefs, and that one could adjust prudently to circumstances without yielding on principle. They stood firm when in power, and they took risks to get there, challenging the conventional wisdom and the respective establishments of their nations or institutions. They were conservative but not nostalgic, and would counsel us today against excessive nostalgia for their deeds and their days. They would rather, I suspect, urge that we act in their spirit—what one might call a spirit of unapologetic but reformist conservatism.

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My Comment: Growing up in the former Soviet Union I was in awe of all three individuals. I knew even then that they were on the right side of history .... and with time I had the opportunity to see with my very own eyes how these three leaders transformed the Europe that I grew up with into something better. And what is even more remarkable is that they did it not with guns or brute force .... but with logic, reason, morality, conviction, and the will to persevere against those who wanted to maintain the status quo and their privilege.

I cannot express enough my gratitude and thanks for what they did. They put into motion events that helped to set me free from the shackles of a regime that had no place for me and what I wanted to do in my life. And while problems and difficult times still exist in Eastern Europe .... they pale in comparison to what life was like during the height of the Cold War .... for now we have hope that the future will not only get better .... but more importantly ..... also be more free.

They are all gone now .... but they will be remembered for the ages.

Stories That Caught My Eye During My Vacation (As Well As Some Personal Thoughts)

(A view of wine country that I have always liked)

WNU Editor: Just a few random thoughts.

At the bottom I have listed a brief (a very brief) list of news stories that caught my attention during my 2 week vacation. Financial crisis, war in Afghanistan, DADT, START Treaty, budget debts, terrorism, Wikileaks, tensions on the Korean Peninsula, wars in Africa/Hamas and Israel/civil war in Pakistan/drug cartel wars/etc. .... sighhh .... in a certain way nothing has changed. But .... the world is changing. There are now more stress points for conflict, and with the U.S. now perceived as a declining super power, the restraining influence that the U.S. has always played will now disappear with the result that wars and conflicts between nation states and their proxies will start to increase.

My brief hiatus from this blog has been a good thing. It gave me a chance (and the time) to look at what is happening in the world from a detached point of view, and a clearer realization that the world is now rushing to go somewhere ..... and where that 'somewhere is' .... hmmmm .... only time will tell. But I am a betting man, and I cannot help but feel that storm clouds are coming our way.

On a side note, a special thanks to my brother and his family who gave me a wonderful time in San Francisco. Also, a special thanks to some old friends at Stanford University, and a special thanks to a winery in Sonoma and one in Napa who tolerated my arrogance and presence when it came to arguing about how they make wine while freely drinking their vintage stock in their cellars.

Sighhhh .... if only the rest of the world could live like this.

News Stories That Caught My Attention In The Past Two Weeks

Holbrooke's Last Words: "You've Got to Stop this War in Afghanistan" -- CBS News

Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia -- Washington Post

Afghan Bombs Kill, Wound 3,800 Troops in 2010 -- The Danger Room

Second X-37B Prepared For Launch -- Ares/Aviation Week

OpenLeaks aims to provide a more transparent alternative to WikiLeaks -- Deutsche Welle

'Prepare for all-out cyber war' -- The Independent

'Stupid and reckless blunder' which left Camilla cowering on car floor after being hit with stick by anarchist mob -- The Daily Mail

Pakistani forces 'hamper' U.S. Embassy -- Washington Times

N.Korea 'will rely on nuclear might for defence' -- Breitbart/AFP

More Christians Flee Iraq After New Violence -- The New York Times

Japan Plans Military Shift to Focus More on China -- New York Times

Were anti-Christians behind pilgrimage site attack? 2,000-year-old Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury is cut down -- The Daily Mail

Dozens of suspected Afghan insurgents killed in rare wintertime fighting -- Washington Post

China’s Army of Graduates Struggles for Jobs -- New York Times

Hackers Rise for WikiLeaks -- Wall Street Journal

Leaked cables suggest growing North Korean, Burmese nuclear cooperation -- Washington Post

U.S. fiscal health worse than Europe's: China adviser. -- Reuters

Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S. -- Hudson New York

WikiLeaks supporters disrupt Visa and MasterCard sites in 'Operation Payback' -- The Guardian

House acts to block closing of Gitmo -- Washington Times

Why the U.S. Ended Push for Israeli Building Freeze -- New York Times

Barack Obama fails to meet President Karzai in Kabul -- The Telegraph

Catch and release in Afghanistan -- Long War Journal

Yet Still Another Embarrassing F-35 Problem -- Strategy Page

Russian spy found working in UK parliament -- The Australian

WikiLeaks sold classified intel, claims website's co-founder -- World Net Daily

Frankenbombers are 'new kind of terrorism': Al Qaeda hopes to surgically implant bombs into thugs -- New York Daily News

Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega dubbed 'Chavez Mini-Me' in leaked U.S. cables -- L.A. Times

A Map to Break Your Heart: Mexico Bleeds -- Red State

Lockerbie bomber's family 'preparing to sue Britain for false imprisonment' -- The Telegraph

Report: Gitmo transfers return to terrorism: Count is 150 and still rising -- Washington Times

War News Updates Editor: This Is Why I Do What I Do

From his home in Stone Mountain, Ga., Michael White, the founder of iCasualties.org, logs deaths among coalition forces. Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times

Close Watch On Casualties In Afghanistan And Iraq -- New York Times

“EVERY morning I wake up and go looking for dead people,” says Michael White, a computer programmer from Stone Mountain, Ga., who publishes the Web site iCasualties.org, which tracks deaths and injuries among coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is grim work of trolling through news sites and official releases about each episode, assessing the reliability of those accounts and then entering the details about the wounded and killed into a database.

Mr. White, 54, has done so since the 2003 invasion of Iraq — “when everything was flowers and chocolate,” he said. Yet he had a hunch that events might not continue so smoothly.

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My Comment: When reading this article I could not help but feel that I was reading about myself. Like Mr. Michael White, I do what I do because it is a calling .... nothing more or nothing less. I wake up every morning scanning and reading numerous blog posts, news web sites, and official announcements. I hunger for information .... especially information that everyone else has ignored. There is uttlerly no financial gain in this work .... the gain is all spiritual and intellectual and a satisfaction that others appreciate what this blog is trying to do.

Kudos to the New York Times in revealing the man behind iCasualties .... this recognition is warranted and long overdue.

If for some reason iCasualties cannot continue .... I will carry that baton because it is necessary and essential to preserve the legacy of what our men and women in the armed forces have gone through and must go through every day, and to those who want to remember them.