(Reader note: I promised shorter columns this week. Let’s see how we do. Our usual precisely timed reports may be somewhat off schedule due to lightning storms which are wandering through East Texas this morning. Our editor (Zeus the Cat) has taken the morning off to hide out in places unknown until the racket dies down. He showed me how to smell-check once, but I fergot.)
You may not remember the early Peoplenomics reports., But you’ll find this tale pretty interesting.
In one of the earliest of what are now around 600-back issues of Peoplenomics – December 1, 2001 to be exact – I hypothecated the existence of something called Directorate 153.
The concept was that somewhere in the West there would be a multi-purpose government tool (yeah, sort of like one of those Leatherman tools) so that governments could do what needed doing without being “found out.”
Secret agencies, which includes the likes of the NSA and CIA, are fine for large scale intelligence operations. But the military-intelligence operations have an “iffy” history of getting things right. Or, keeping secrets.
To be sure, operations like Iran-Contra were – at some level – well-intentioned. But they also were large enough that they had a considerable “footprint” and this is a very bad thing because it meant over time, their existence and operations were almost sure to leak out. They did.
Like the multipurpose tool, what government needs (or thinks it does) is something small that can be pliers, tweezers, pea shooter, futurists, high-level henchmen, and all more or less under wraps. Oh, and under budget, too.
The December 2001 “Inside Report” (the name Peoplenomics had not yet been cobbled together) was based on the reports that someone knew more than was being told to us about the events surrounding 9/11.
For one, there were a flurry of reports about a group of “5 Israelis” videotaping events on 9/11. Sure enough, we can find lots of references to this through a Google Search, but whether they were “genuine” or not is a little more ethereal.
In 2001 there were several incidents that suggested an “almost visible, but not quite” Invisible Hand was operating in the background not only of 9/11 but also the OKC bombing and other events as well. Even now, a conspiratorially open person might wonder about some of the claims of “others”.
And the HYPOTHECATED Directorate might have gone back even further. Remember, there are reports many people miss in the high-volume flow of the news that point to a “hidden hand” even going back to the Kennedy Assassination in 1963.
Besides the “grassy knoll” shooter, we also hear reports that Lee Harvey Oswald’s name was quietly added to the CIA wall of heroes. What to make of the report? I’ll leave that to you.
To me (back in 2001 and ever since) this “hidden hand” with future forecasting technology has been a real possibility.
Until this weekend. Now it may be real.
That’s as the Washington Post began to report on (loved the choice of words here) a hidden Navy Directorate in a case involving the manufacture of illegal silencers. From the Post report:
“The silencers — 349 of them — were ordered by a little-known Navy intelligence office at the Pentagon known as the Directorate for Plans, Policy, Oversight and Integration, according to charging documents”
The specifics of the Post story are less interesting to me than the generalities of it because it substantially “bulks up” our logical conclusion that there not only could be a few of these multipurpose tools, squirreled here and there, but they may have (and may still be) engaged in exactly the kinds of behaviors that would fit our Directorate 153 profile.
- Burn bags of documents are missing. Someone doesn’t want anyone – including Navy brass by the sound of it – knowing exactly what was going on.
- Fake law enforcement credentials were made available to the group.
- The group (likely) had unlimited access to the highest levels of “national technical means”. This would mean Keyhole satellite data, data surveillance, and so forth.
- And, by the time the Post gets done, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t some angle of “futuring” that would come to light.
But this last is highly speculative. A little more background may be useful.
The December 2001 report sketched out a need for Directorate 153 on the basis of continuity of government and initially it was sited in the UK as an outgrowth of MI-6. This is because the British really had “the reins” of spy networks 30-years ago (and longer)., They’d been the “seat of empire” and so it would be logical for there to be a major foreign component to Directorate 153.
Most Americans don’t have a clue why this is so, but here’s what the British were so important.
American government officials are barred (courts and law problem) from wiretapping whoever they care to when they’re off sniffing our problems for the country’s future.
How do you “solved” the legal problem of blocked wiretaps without a court order?
Easy! You simply route the calls through a foreign-staffed telephone exchange and employ foreign nations to do the listening. In this way, while the intelligence so gathered might not be admissible in a court, the quality of the intel was above reproach.
And technically it was legal.
One of the better-know communications intercept sites is Menwith Hill RAF station in the UK (Yorkshire). Another is outside of Alice Springs, Australia. Known in the trade as Pine Gap and part of the Echelon arm of “national technical means.”
Even as the NSA operation up in Provo comes on line, the future of such earlier circumventions of strike constitutional law remains bright because two-way radio coms don’t always make it onto the PSTN (public-switched telephone networks) which is why from the KH-17 series and on, surveillance satellites have been equipped with broadband radio receivers that can frequency hop wherever needs in order to hear what’s being said behind pretty much whatever rocks you chose in the Middle East.
Even that is not perfect, however, which is why the graduates of Fort Huachuca (AZ) include folks who schlep computers and scanning radios into the front lines of conflict (and beyond front lines) in places like Afghanistan. (Thank you for your service, BTW.)
One of the real difficulties if my hypothecated Directorate 153 is real, is that compartmentalized intelligence is a real beast of a management problem.
Sure, you might cut up the functionality into multiple agencies (part of the group might be with the Navy, another part secreted into the Department of Agriculture, maybe Commerce, or the other uniformed services), but in doing so, there would be a huge level of trust required.
Still and all, even with congressional oversight of intelligence, there’s nothing to stop a group of super-patriots within government from creating their own “meta agency” and that may be the case in real life.
And sometimes the line between national interest and “that piece of paper” becomes a bit blurred.
So we’ll be watching the Post story develop and see how many of the pieces of our “hypothecated” Directorate 153 can be pieced together. Just one, though, is a damn good start.
Just maybe it’s just seeping into media….uh, what it it? 13-years behind the theoretical work. Not bad for a “nutter in the woods.”
A recent hypothecated episode is here.
Home Handy-Bastards Workshop
Say, not to pick a fight with the reviewers at Family Handyman, but I disagree with their assessment of the importance of a laser line sighting device and LED work light being built into a circular (e.g., Skil) saw.
While it’s true that any good journeyman carpenter can follow a line by instinct, those of us with only marginal skills can use any help we can get. Bring on the lightshow and lasers! Check out the latest issue for the lowdown on which two saws in their “saw off” had the laser.
I don’t get paid to mention this, unless you ante up $12 bucks for a subscription to The Family Handyman (1-year). I think I get a nickel of that if you do.
My real motivation is to remind you that regardless of how much money you (don’t) have, you can always add to the appearance and convenience of your own home with very little effort. That’s what God made weekends for.
This week, we’ll get hip-deep into this in Peoplenomics and how it may pay large in the Depression to come.
War Between the Wheels
Was it Peoplenomics or here that I was mentioning the showdown between Old Paradigm and New Capitalism as we discussed how Uber.com and Lyft.com were making a real go at the traditional taxi cab industry nationally.
So reader James is in Pennsylvania where the Public Utilities Commission is trying to jam a $6.9 –million fine up Lyft’s ying-yang.
George,
On the Uber and Lyft issue in Pittsburgh. If you want a cab now and are going anywhere but the stadiums,airport or the casino, call a jitney. Cabs in this city are strictly a gravy sucking reprobate stain. Period. Call a cab and pack a lunch.
They show up late or better yet, they take calls and just never show up. They don’t have to if they don’t want to. Its the rules they operate under. The only time they try doing ANYTHING is when some other transportation method is suggested.
I don’t know of ANY person who would call [big brightly colored) Cab over the new upstarts.
In fact my daughter called out one of them the other day. Showed up promptly, clean car, cheap ride, done. It will be something to watch though as it’s all fun and games so far.
When things get serious, this town is famous for fires, flat tires, bombings, wrecks etc. Refer to the strip club and/or tow truck conflicts of the 70s. Things were burning up right and left as Cooter and Gomer would engage in demo derbies shooting at each other right down Liberty Avenue.
Per John Wayne.
‘Life’s hard. It’s even harder when you’re stupid.’
What we find so interesting is the battle between dispersed technology (the app-slingers) on one side and the “regulated” technology on the other.
The real reason the government will defend the old paradigm is because they get a piece of it; cab licenses, inspections, rates, passenger fees. Given everything else being equal (it’s not, of course) government is still putting it’s fat thumb on the scales of freedom because it has a fiduciary interest in the outcome. Screwing the people to make up government jobs.
That’s what many taxes are… less a way to promote safety than to fill coffers and empires.
“But what about other regulatory efforts like building departments? Would you go into an uninspected high rise?”
Well hell yes, I would but two points here: First, high-rise buildings are obsolete. I am an office wherever I am, thanks. I don’t need to commute, fight, elevate up some tower to work. I do that all the time anyway. Inappropriate times, mostly. (Who is stupid enough to get up at 4 AM to write, anyway?)
Second point: If you killed building departments, the free market would DEMAND that safe construction be used. Otherwise a building is a terrible investment and so are negligence lawsuits. Banksters would demand quality assets. Insurance companies would balk if an owner-installed electrical fire burned down a house, and so on. Hell, they balk anyway.
But enough – keep us posted, brother James. It’s an up Lyfting story about the battle for the future.
Today’s Winning Breakfast
Coffee and a reheated Reuben sandwich for breakfast.
With rain pouring down in sheets and lighting flickering the power, there’s nothing like corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese on rye to fill the void within.
It also ensures solitude for work. Garlic breath…..
Around the Ranch: Making Joyful Noises
Oilman2’s son is a pretty good guitar player…they dropped by Saturday and we did some further studio tuning.
Sunday, Elaine, Panama, and Panama’s squeeze (I didn’t ask permission to use her name, sorry) were in for tuning of three mic’ed vocals. We have a few karaoke tracks around, and it was surprising how good Panama did on 16-Tons.
Sometime in coming weeks, we have a quartet (one male and three female voices) due to come by to do some “front porch singing” as it’s called around these parts. That’d be a mix of gospel, country, and traditional music.
Everything in the world comes down to sales and marketing. So I figured we ought to name the studio something other than “Uretopia Studio” or “UrbanSound.”
For now, we call it Drums, Voices, Magic.
OK, so much for a short column.
(exactly 2,135words to there)
Write when you break-even
George george@ure.net