Politics, Intelligence and Lies: Get a Clue(train)

My last three posts have been on the topic of PRISM (so, I'll not bother with links - just click the preceding entries)...

As the story continues to play out, I am seeing patterns of misinformation, disinformation and out-and-out lies that we've seen before, recently in terms of Benghazi, over a decade ago in Iraq, and, finally, very personal to me, in the context of my (still-gainful) employment over the last three years

Notwithstanding the protestations from the U.S. Government, it seems clear that whatever the Government's intent, PRISM infringes - actually or prospectively (being gracious) - on the personal liberties and rights of American citizens, and, hopefully of some concern to my countrymen, completely and utterly violates the rights and personal information of innocent non-U.S. citizens.

Some would label the Government's protestations misinformation.  That might be generous.  At the same time, we do indeed have an essential need to gather intelligence to secure our homeland.  Our challenge - dramatically multiplied in the wake of PRISM's outing - is to do so while balancing our obligations to the liberties and privacy of our countrymen, and other innocents abroad.

Turn to Benghazi, one of three burning scandals in Washington these days.  I'll dismiss the other two: IRS/Tea Party and FBI/AP/Fox - the former being a dumb reflection of how polarized our nation has become (but hardly a strategic initiative from the top); the latter, not to diminish the unique nature of tapping the 4th estate, being little more than an extension of everything PRISM is about.

Adversaries are slamming the Administration for having orchestrated lies about Benghazi, initially explaining away insufficient security as unfortunate happenstance - who could have predicted the spontaneous uprising over a spurious YouTube video? Notwithstanding the current wisdom that it was an Al Qaeda-inspired terrorist assault, some might think that either story is just another cover-up.

Indeed, at least one rumor has it that Benghazi was targeted because the U.S. compound was a transshipment point to illegally funnel arms to Syrian rebels.  I'm not saying I buy into this, but, I do perceive more misinformation, which, if true, would mean that some of the Congressional folk assaulting the Administration are disingenuous, all the more so knowing that the Administration cannot defend itself. 

Some would call this back-and-forth partisan bickering an instance of conflicting disinformation campaigns, or worse. Most, at the very least, would call it politics. Whatever intelligence the Government may have had in advance of, during or after Benghazi, the one thing that seems sure is that the American people will very likely never know.

Flash back a decade-and-change, to a time when we, the American people, were sold an ugly bill of goods (WMDs in Iraq) to justify a war.  It matters not whether there was some alternate good cause for such a conflict - and I am a firm supporter of our troops in any context - it matters that the pretext for war was trumped up.  Fake intelligence.

Some might call these lies.

And now (indulge me this brief paragraph and then read on - I do return to the broader issues), we come to Huawei, my employer.  For the last three years (and earlier, but my tenure only extends that far), Huawei has been repeatedly maligned and slandered by various and sundry U.S. Government and Congressional authorities, alleged, without a whit of proof, of being susceptible to Chinese Government penetration and compromise.  No need to even fake any intelligence.

I have called this disinformation.  I have called this politics.  (See the last couple of years' posts on this blog).

The American people deserve better from our Government.  

In 1999, little known to other than the digerati (or geeks like me), online activists seeking to reintroduce humanity to the corporate world via technology, issued a document known as "The Cluetrain Manifesto" (linked).  The Manifesto proclaimed that "through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge...getting smarter faster than most companies."

The Manifesto continued: "Most corporations...only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tones, same old lies."  Sound familiar?  

Focused on the conversation between consumers and businesses, and highlighting that the Internet was shifting "power" from the latter to the former, Cluetrain called on corporations to engage in a real and open dialogue, with their continued commercial success in the information age be imperiled.

Of the 95 Thesis included in the Manifesto, a number of them - most of them - seem quite relevant to the current relationship between American citizens and their Government, and the need for change.

A handful of examples:

• Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.

• The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us?

• Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.

• Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.

• Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds."

It is time America. 

Time to demand less politics, less misinformation, fewer lies.  It is time for real and interactive dialogue.