Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty

Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty

Come soon Father Christmas😁😍#christmasspirit

A photo posted by Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@officialshilpashetty) on Dec 13, 2015 at 4:27am PST

Reality TV creates a very surreal diplomatic crisis

Anthony Browne in Bangalore, Ashling O'Connor in Bombay, Philip Webster and Adam Sherwin

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2553080,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=Britain

Update: Dec. 14, 2015 – the link no longer seems to work. It just takes you to “The Times” website…

India lodges Big Brother protest

Blair and Brown drawn into row

Times exclusive: interview with Shilpa Shetty's mother

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown mounted a diplomatic offensive to protect Britain’s reputation in India and the sub-continent yesterday as a television racism row grew into an international crisis.

India threatened to make a formal protest about the racist bullying of the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on the reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

Effigies of the show’s organisers were burnt and in Britain there were 22,000 complaints to Ofcom. The Channel 4 programme had become the most complained about in the broadcasting watchdog’s history.

Mr Brown, who is on his first visit to India, described the comments on the show as offensive and condemned anything that harmed Britain’s reputation as a tolerant country.

Mr Blair said little initially. Questioned in the Commons, he said that MPs should oppose racism in all its forms. But after protests poured in he authorised a No 10 statement saying that Britain would not tolerate racism in any way. His spokesman said: “What clearly is to be regretted and countered is if there is any perception abroad that in any way we tolerate racism in this country.

“What the response to the programme has shown is precisely the opposite — that there is no level of toleration in this country for anything which, rightly or wrongly, is perceived to be racist. The message should go out loud and clear that we are a tolerant country and we will not tolerate racism in any way.”

The spokesman emphasised that Mr Blair had not seen the programmes.

Read much more here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2553080,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=Britain

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200701113 A commentary on the new director of national intelligence

New Intel Chief: Wrong for the Job

A commentary on the new director of national intelligence Mike McConnell

For other related posts click here – or here.

For a bit more information, click here…

This photo: Rear Admiral John McConnell, 1990

Nation

New Intel Chief: Wrong for the Job , Jan. 10, 2007 | By Robert Baer

...Baer says the CIA needs to stop its overreliance on technology and outsourcing of intelligence. But that's not likely to happen under Mike McConnell...

[Related Where Does Negroponte Leave Intelligence? The director's surprising move to the State Department raises new questions about much-needed reforms in the spy community]

_____

Robert Baer, (“a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down.”) has gone to what many consider to be the “unusual task” of writing a dissent about appointing retired Rear Admiral John Michael "Mike" McConnell - - and then having it published in “Time” magazine.

Among the important points that need to be called to your attention:

[…]

“…The CIA is hemorrhaging people, with the vast majority leaving to work for contractors, like Booz Allen. They're lured by higher salaries and double dipping (on top of their government retirement packages). They often end back up at the CIA with a green contractor's badge, doing pretty much the same job. The important difference is they answer to the company they work for, not the CIA.

“I'm told that today contractors outnumber staff employees. As one CIA officer told me, ‘You walk in the building and all you see is green badges, all doing the retiree shuffle, keeping their heads down, focusing on holding on to their jobs.’ ”

[…]

"You know as well as I do," he said. "Contractors won't take risks. You can't send them out into the field to recruit new sources. They know they make a mistake and they're gone." He's right. It's a lot easier to replace a contractor than it is to fire a government employee.”

[…]

“Rank and file at the CIA will look at McConnell's appointment as part of a trend shifting intelligence away from human sources, the CIA's bread and butter, to the Pentagon, the NSA, technology and outsourcing.”

[…]

“But bin Laden, like most terrorists, has dropped off the digital grid. To find him you need a warm body, not just cool gear.” (my emphasis)

Read the entire piece here: New Intel Chief: Wrong for the Job

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20070112 Mark Tapscott has the story behind this picture

Mark Tapscott has the story behind this picture

January 12th, 2007

Read that story here: “Do You Know Why Bush Cried?”

Cross posted
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