Tag: Intel Gathering

It Is Always About The Money

I have been an outspoken foe of the idea of private armies used to do the nation’s bidding…..these people even though they will not admit it are mercenaries…..they fight for cash if there were another reason then they would not be around every corner…..organizations like Blackwater or is it XE or did they change the name again to confuse the situation?

Where do their loyalties lie?  Is it ideology or is it the money?

I bring this up because of something I read a day or so ago…….

The United States Department of Defense has released details of an agreement with a private intelligence contractor, which experts believe involves the provision of services to American Special Forces working clandestinely inside Syria. Theannouncement, made on the Pentagon’s website, is believed to be the first public admission of the use of a private intelligence contractor by the US government in Syria. In the brief press release, the DoD identifies the contractor as Six3 Intelligence Solutions, a McLean, Virginia-headquartered company that specializes in intelligence, biometrics and security.

Six3 Intelligence Solutions is a subsidiary of CACI International Inc., one of the largest defense, security and intelligence contractors in the US. According to The Daily Beast, CACI purchased Six3 Intelligence Solutions in 2013 for $820 million, in what a CACI media statement said was “the biggest deal” in the company’s 50-year history. Public records indicate that Six3 Intelligence Solutions is already fulfilling a $30 million contract with the Pentagon, involving the provision of nondescript “intelligence services” to American troops stationed in Afghanistan. The latest contract, worth $9.5 million, was announced on July 27. It is a no-bid contract, otherwise known as a ‘sole source contract’, which means that the government believes that only one company can provide the services required. Thus, the process by which a no-bid contract is awarded is non-competitive.

The Pentagon’s July 27 announcement states that, under the contract, work by Six3 Intelligence Solutions personnel “will be performed in Germany, Italy, and Syria”. There is no mention of the precise nature of the work, though it is generally assumed that it will support the operations of US Special Forces troops that are currently stationed in Syria. American troops have been active in Syria for at least a year. Nearly 300 US Special Forces members are believed to be presently operational in the war-torn country, working with officers of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Daily Beast said it contacted CACI and the DoD about the recently announced contract, but received no responses.

Source: Intelnews.org

Again….mercenaries that will do what money tells them…..is that advisable for an intel gathering group?  Where will their loyalties lie?

Do you want the future of this country in the hands of mercenaries?  Think Snowden who was one of these “defense contractors”…..

I think this is a mistake……what say you?

A Great Spy Story

I admit it….in my younger days was a huge fan of James Bond novels and a pulp fiction spy named Sam Durell…..spy novels were fun and even entertaining…..but are they anything like real life?

To this day I still enjoy a good spy story….only these days they are more fact than fiction…..

Awhile back I wrote a post about the death of a Russian dude in Washington D.C.  I provide a link below on the subject of modern day spies……

Source: Spies Like Us – In Saner Thought

I thought that it was interesting that a former KGB dude was poisoned and awhile later some Russian ex-pat was also killed “mysteriously”.

Then a couple of years ago the FBI and other counter-intel groups had a big coup when they uncovered a pack of modern day spies operation in suburbia….one was a hot red head name Anna Chapman…..

Anna Chapman (RIA Novosti / Vitaliy Belousov)

I recall the big deal that the media made out of the ferreting out of these spies and the damage they could have caused….the media played their scenario for hours about the spies and what it took to discover their existence……

And then I found the rest of the story…….

Russian intelligence officer, Aleksandr Poteyev, who was sentenced for treason in absentia by Russia after blowing the cover of a spy ring in the US, has reportedly died. Moscow, however, is not confirming the news or taking the defector of its wanted list.

Source: Russian ‘traitor’ who exposed Anna Chapman’s spy ring dead in US – reports — RT News

Another person with a “mysterious” death…..that makes 3 the number of people connected to Putin…….this would make a great spy novel or a TV show….wait….wait…I think they already have one…..”The Americans”?

 

Riverine Mystery Solved

By now most Americans will not recall this incident….they have moved on to other things……but…….

I waited a few days after a report to see how the blogosphere would react….especially those on the Right….and as I thought there was little mentioned in their daily regurgitation….so I guess it is up to me after all……but since it will not confirm the paradigm about our troops then it also was ignored….(go figure)….

Back in January of this year there was an international incident that sent the American press into a batcrap crazy frenzy……that situation was the capture of Americans sailors in Iranian waters….I wrote a couple of posts after I saw the vid that the Iranians provided……to get a little background may I suggest that you spend some time to familiarize yourself with the posts I wrote…..

https://lobotero.com/2016/01/15/iran-i-have-questions/

https://lobotero.com/2016/01/28/iran-the-riverine-mysteries/

The government the other day has released its finding is the cause of this incident……

On Thursday, the US Navy released its official report on the 10 sailors detained by Iran last January, and the whole thing sounds like something out of Down Periscope. Problems started instantly, as the two Navy vessels left Kuwait for Bahrain four hours behind schedule, Fox News reports. The vessels then attempted to take a shortcut, veering off course without any apparent concern for where they actually were. According to Reuters, that’s how the vessels ended up passing through Saudi Arabian waters before suffering mechanical difficulties in Iranian territory. The report found that all it would have taken to figure out their location was for a crew member to zoom in on their navigation system’s map. Instead, 10 sailors were captured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

And the problems continued. “It is clear that some, if not all, crew members provided at least some information to interrogators beyond name, rank, service number, and date of birth,” Reuters quotes the report as saying. Information given up by sailors included passwords to phones and laptops and the capabilities of their vessels. The detained sailors also shouldn’t have eaten on camera, as the video was used as propaganda by Iran, CNN reports. The problems with the mission were blamed on low morale, bad planning, and lack of oversight, among other factors. Or as CNN sums up: “Crews were poorly prepared, their boats not properly maintained, communication almost entirely lacking.” The Navy will use the incident as a “case study” in the future.

Having dealt with these agencies in the past I can say here and now…BULLSHIT!

First, if you believe these findings then I have a bridge that can be yours for the right amount of cash……

Now that it comes out that they (Iranians) were given laptops, passwords and other “sensitive” equipment and/or information…..that was the operation all along….false intel…..

Beyond that…we are told that the US troops are the best trained and armed force in the world, right?  Then how do they want to explain this statement…..“Crews were poorly prepared, their boats not properly maintained, communication almost entirely lacking.”  Is it a one time thing or is it a symptom?

When the original story broke I said there was something terribly wrong with the story as told to the press….how stupid do they think we are?

Mystery solved!

Talk And No One Listens

I could go on and on about the latest attack in Turkey..,..but why?  Everyone’s minds are made up and nothing anyone says, no matter how rational it may be will they change their minds….

So I just want to point out  a thing that seems that is a universal form of stupidity…..

Before the last attack in the US……Orlando to be exact……the FBI had the shooter in the sights but decided that he was not of any threat….there was a report that some owner of a gun store try to warn the FBI of the guy and the strange questions he was asking….to be fair there is also a report that this owner had little info on the shooter so we can sort of let the FBI off the hook….well you can…I will not.

I bring this up because of a report I read about the attack in Istanbul……

Turkish intelligence units allegedly warned relevant government bodies about a possible attack by Islamic State terrorist in Istanbul week before Tuesday night’s deadly attack by three suspected ISIS suicide bombers.

According to Turkish media Wednesday, the country’s intelligence apparatus sent a warning letter to state institutions some 20 days ago about a potential attack.

Turkish Hurriyet Daily News cited Doğan TV as reporting that the June warning message mentioned the names of potential targets, including Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

These types of reports keep coming out….and each time some vital piece of intel has been missed or ignored….

Is that a coincidence or by design?

Just asking

What’s The Truth Worth?

NOTICE:  This press is from the Daily Beast and I have not much luck with the site….for me it sucks but this is a piece of news that I have to get out there.  I apologize if it is a piece of crap for you or your system.

For some time now I have been hearing and reading that there was  massive breech of protocol within the intel community over the vetting of the Syrian “moderate’ rebels…..also that there is some evidence that the US was responsible for the rise of ISIS.

In case you would like to check up on me I have included some of my more notable posts for the near past……

Source: Arms Come To The Rebels – In Saner Thought

Source: “We Will Arm And Train Syrian Rebels” – In Saner Thought

Source: Train The Syrian Rebels……Then What? – In Saner Thought

So far I have not posted much on these allegations….but after reading this article I thought it was time to put the info out there and see what my readers have to say about this turn of events…..

So please read carefully and then let me know what you think about the article….

The scandal over cooked ISIS intelligence just got worse. Now analysts say they’re being forced out for not toeing the Obama administration’s line on the war.

Source: Intel Analysts: We Were Forced Out for Telling the Truth About Obama’s ISIS War – The Daily Beast

 

What Goes Around, Comes Around

The most recent terrorists attacks have brought up all the rhetoric again….and we have even returned to the debate about torture……since the loudest proponent of this is the GOP front runner, Trump…..the rhetoric is even louder than normal….

It seems that thanx to the election rhetoric most Americans think the torturing of another human being is acceptable…….

Donald Trump made some waves in early March when he made pro-torture statements at a GOP debate (he walked that back somewhat the next day). But he likely wouldn’t have offended a good number of Americans, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Per the poll of nearly 2,000 US adults (18 and over) between March 22 and March 28, almost two-thirds of respondents are OK with the US using torture methods to get info from terror suspects, Reuters reports. About one-quarter of those asked agreed torture is “often” justified “against suspected terrorists to obtain information about terrorism,” with another 38% saying it was “sometimes” justified; just 15% said it should never be employed.

And 64% of US citizens feel like a terror attack within the next six months is “very likely” or “somewhat likely,” the Hill notes. There’s a disparity, too, between political parties, with 82% of Republicans noting torturous methods are “often” or “sometimes” justified, while only 53% of Democrats feel this way. Trump himself may be exacerbating Americans’ fears due to recent attacks overseas (e.g., France, Belgium) and at home (San Bernardino); he’s said that techniques like waterboarding should be on the table, despite outcry from human rights groups, and that he’ll “bring back a hell of a lot worse” methods if he assumes the White House. “The public right now is coping with a host of negative emotions,” says a Vanderbilt University professor. “Fear, anger, general anxiety: [Trump] gives a certain credibility to these feelings.”

I am opposed to torture…..PERIOD!

But for the sake of this post I have one more thing yo say…….”Try it then we can talk”!

Torture is like war….those that are the strongest defenders are the ones that have tasted neither.

My opinion is that if you have not experienced a thing then there is NO way one can make a rational conclusion.

But this poll was taken after the latest attack in Brussels……so emotional responses kicked in.

A recent study by the U of Maryland found that the chances of an attack here in the US is low……

“In global terms, this is a relatively low level of activity,” according to the study, first reported by The Washington Times .

“North America is the least-likely region to be involved in a terrorist attack, though this is not the general impression among many of its residents,” says Steve Killelea with the Institute for Economics and Peace, which published the study using statistics and analysis from the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism .

Source: Study: U.S. at ‘Low’ Risk of Terror Attack – US News

This is a significant study but as usual the media did not report on this because it would not feed the fear that they want to perpetrate….without information Americans have kneejerk responses…..and kneejerk responses lead to disastrous decisions.

US Intel Vets Warn Against Torture

Back in the days, few years back, when we were having the conversation about torture, I, as usual, had something to say……my post was short and sweet…..

“Try it, then we will talk”!

But once again the subject of torture has returned.  A few of the candidates think that it is thee answer to solving the problem of terrorism.

The veterans of the intel services have something to say about the subject……..

To those living “outside the Beltway” it may seem counterintuitive that those of us whose analysis has been correct on key issues that the U.S. government got criminally wrong – like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – would be blacklisted from “mainstream” media and ostracized by the Smart People of the Establishment. But, alas, that’s the way it is.

Forget the continuing carnage in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions made refugees. Within the mainstream U.S. media and around Washington’s major policy circles, there is little serious dialogue, much less debate about what went so hideously wrong; and Americans still innocently wonder – regarding the people on the receiving end of the blunderbuss violence – “why they hate us.”

Source: US Intel Vets Warn Against Torture « Antiwar.com Blog

Sorry to say….but if you have not been tortured then you opinion is not valid…..again I say…..

“Try it, then we will talk”!

COINTELPRO: The Ghosts Of Protests Past

Time for a history lesson…….

The term will have little meaning to those lily white school boys of the 60’s and 70’s……but if you were what the “bully boys” called a “pinko” then you are well  aware of the term and its uses…..

A term from my past…..back in the days of my protests I was under scrutiny by the government for my associations and my work…..you see there is nothing new about the Patriot Act or other such invasions of an individual’s privacy…..I bring this up because 45 years ago this week the program became common knowledge….thanx to the work of some brave people…..

Source: Common Dreams

Forty-five years ago on Tuesday, peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and unearthed documents exposing the government’s expansive COINTELPRO operations, which aimed to surveil, disrupt, and “neutralize” lawful activist groups, including war protesters, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the American Indian Movement, and the National Lawyers Guild.

Though the COINTELPRO revelations stirred widespread outrage and led to the eventual passage of reform legislation, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, such abuse of activists’ First Amendment rights continues to this day.

More than 60 national and local groups on Tuesday sent a letter (pdf) to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees expressing concern over the FBI’s and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s “abuse of counterterrorism resources to monitor Americans’ First Amendment protected activity.”

The groups, which include Center for Constitutional Rights, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Government Accountability Project, Greenpeace USA, National Lawyers Guild, School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), and Veterans for Peace, among others, are urging the Committees to conduct a full investigation, not unlike the Church Committee, “to determine the extent of FBI and DHS spying in the past decade.”

“The FBI in particular has a well-documented history of abuse of First Amendment rights,” the letter states—referring specifically to the COINTELPRO operations—and such activities have continued, including “sending undercover agents and informants to infiltrate peaceful social justice groups, as well as surveillance of, documenting, and reporting on lawful political activity.”

Groups recently targeted by the FBI include SOAW, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and anti-Keystone XL Pipeline activists. Meanwhile DHS and local fusion centers, which operate as local sources of “counter-terrorism” intelligence gathering and sharing, monitored the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements as well.

What’s more, the groups note, “documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI continuously invokes counterterrorism authorities to monitor groups it admits are peaceful and nonviolent.”

“Labeling activism as terrorism criminalizes political dissent,” the letter states. “Given the current  political climate and draconian laws concerning terrorism, individuals may be deterred  from participating in completely lawful speech, such as a protest march, by this stigma.”

“That the FBI cannot discern between activism and terrorism shows us that they think dissent is still the enemy,” said Chip Gibbons, legal fellow with Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation, which organized the letter. “There have been multiple attempts at reform but after each and every one we see the same thing happening again. The FBI claims to no longer investigate groups for their political beliefs, but look at who the FBI investigates under its counterterrorism authority—peace groups, racial justice groups, economic justice groups—the very same types of organizations that were targeted during the heyday of J. Edgar Hoover.”

You see there is nothing new about the government’s attempts to neutralize such protests groups like #Black Lives Matter or the Keystone protests or the Occupy movement……the government has always found protests groups as some sort of enemy of the state….

To think that the government is moving into new territory is just wrong…..if you are a protester then you are considered an enemy.

I rather enjoyed being a “loose” cannon back in the day….and I enjoy my agitator status……

Do you feel safer today than you did yesterday?

Live long and prosper!  They are watching!

Iran: The Riverine Mysteries

I recently wrote a couple of posts about the sailors that were captured by the Iranians…..and as I suspected I got a few comments but most of them were anti-Iranian and not an answer to the questions I asked within my posts….

I do hope that people read the entire post and not just the title of the subject matter…..some seem to think that I was defending the Iranians or maybe speaking bad of the US Navy……none of that would be true…..I did however, have questions that I need answering, at least for me……

As a past analyst I am trained to look for small details that could be more revealing than the big picture…..the one thing that struck me was the female sailor in the pic of the crews in the small room…..she seem to be segregated from the rest of the crew…..is she having a problem with the situation?  Maybe she has a problem with her crew mates……she does not appear to be part of the crew, at lest to me….

I have been reading as much as possible on the situation….trying to get a handle on what is going on…..we will probably never know the whole story….but that should not preclude any questions from being asked…..

I read a piece that I found intriguing and decided to share it with my readers…..

The events surrounding the interception of ten American sailors in two US riverine boats who somehow wandered into Iranian waters continues to baffle the curious. Not that the American media is to be included among those asking questions: aside from the outraged shrieks of the neoconservative outlets over the alleged “appeasement” of Iran and the […]

Source: The Riverine Mysteries – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

The media and the lame excuses given by the government has done nothing to ease my mind at what I think was a covert mission……after all Farsi Island is an Iranian Naval Base……

And then there is yet another incident involving the US and Iran on the high seas of the Persian Gulf…….

The US warship, reportedly the guided-missile cruiser the USS Monterey, was loitering around in the Sea of Oman today when it got a warning from the Iranian Navy to withdraw, cautioning that the ship had entered the area of an ongoing military exercise.

Iranian Admiral Habibollah Sayyari accused the US ship of trying to spy on the live-fire exercise, but did confirm that the US ship left quickly after receiving the warning that it had strayed into the missile range of the exercise. They also reported warning a US jet away from the area.

US Navy officials confirmed that Iran had announced a “closure” in the area because of a live-fire exercise, which is common practice, but offered no explanation for why the US warship strayed into the area, beyond saying they don’t consider announcements like that to be “orders.”

Once again…..questions.

Was this an accident or an intel mission or maybe a provocation?

What is going on in the Persian Gulf?  The first thought is that it is a game…..a geopolitical game……personally, I do not like the idea of putting troops in danger for a game……am I alone?

Iran:  I Have Questions

Before the primates come out with their chest thumping let me say here…..I am pleased that our sailors were returned in about 24 hours……and if you think that my questions are somehow those of an “apologist”….please hold that thought (it may be difficult but I have faith you can do it) I am apologizing for nothing……as an analysis I am always looking for what Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story”……you look at the evidence that you have and look for small things that could shed some light on the task at hand…….and as I have already said….”I have questions”…….

The stories that came out after the incident were the boat had engine malfunction….both of them?  Then it was a possibility of running out of gas….again….both?  Finally they telling us it was a navigational problem…..one more time….both?

If it was only one that had a problem then why did not the 2nd boat come to their aid?  What prevented the other boat from offering assistance?

Finally, the video and pics of the crew…….what caught my eye was the female sailor…..why was she semi-segregated from the others?  She appeared as if she was not part of the crew….or there was a problem with her crew members…..or she could be just terrified at the situation…..but she looks like she is not part of the crew…..in my opinion……

I read an op-ed….keep in mind it is NOT mine…..but it is asking some of the same questions as I am……

Your bullshit-ometer should be making an awful racket in response to the shifting explanations given for the twenty-four-hour Iranian hostage scare involving two US Navy boats intercepted in the Gulf. First they told us “at least one of the boats” had experienced a “mechanical failure.” Then they said the boats had run out of fuel, […]

Source: Caught With Our Pants Down in the Gulf – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

So far all the ramblings have been of an emotional nature……BS along ideological lines…..few will step back and take a look at the big picture…..instead they want to babble on about things that cannot or will not try to understand…..

Sports fans….there is more to this situation than we are told….granted we may never know the real story….but that should not preclude asking questions…..unless of course there is a paradigm that you must part on to the rest of us……

Note:  Please if you want to comment do so on the substance of my post…I do not give a shit about talking points….