Sunday 25 March 2018

"The Whole Story"?: #Epidemiology #MarketSegmentation #Algorithms #CambridgeAnalytica #CryptoCurrencies #Libor #CERN #VoteManipulation #Brexit #StrategicCommunicationLaboratories #TheMull #WiFiSurveillance #FusionReactors #TwinTowers #Incineration #Biodiversity #Sustainability #EmergenceTheory

Its a "dark art" and these are "dark-matters" nevertheless let us examine the current application of standard deviation calculus and algorithmic profiling to the sciences social, physical and economic. Do CERN and its ilk, Cambridge Analytica and theirs and crypto-currencies represent valid means of analysis and exchange or is their information incorrect (tarred with the brush of "wishful-thinking" and blinkered to the realities of the human condition)? "Lies damn lies and statistics" used to be the cry but statistics' "history is bunkum" in this regard for surreptitiously had-away-in-the-night have been both the profile and the language of the science. The theory of "sigma" or "standard deviation" is not hard to understand even to someone with only a fifth form level of mathematical understanding for it represents the factor by which a data set or "demographic" deviates from its own (or; "the demographics deviate from their own"),  mean (average), for any given criteria (the terminology of Social Science being most apposite and understandable here although of course "standard deviation" calculus can be applied to any data set -provided there is sufficient relationship within the chosen set to be meaningful and therefore capable of subjection to calculus-).

"Standard Deviation.

The Standard Deviation is a measure of how spread out numbers are.

You might like to read this simpler page on Standard Deviation first.
But here we explain the formulas.
The symbol for Standard Deviation is σ (the Greek letter sigma).
This is the formula for Standard Deviation:

square root of [ (1/N) times Sigma i=1 to N of (xi - mu)^2 ]
Say what? Please explain!
OK. Let us explain it step by step.
Say we have a bunch of numbers like 9, 2, 5, 4, 12, 7, 8, 11.
To calculate the standard deviation of those numbers:


At CERN "sigma" is applied thus, quote: "In short, five-sigma corresponds to a p-value, or probability, of 3x10-7, or about 1 in 3.5 million. This is not the probability that the Higgs boson does or doesn't exist; rather, it is the probability that if* the particle does not exist, the data that CERN scientists collected in Geneva, Switzerland, would be at least as extreme as what they observed. "The reason that it's so annoying is that people want to hear declarative statements, like 'The probability that there's a Higgs is 99.9 percent,' but the real statement has an 'if'* in there. There's a conditional. There's no way to remove the conditional," says Kyle Cranmer, a physicist at New York University and member of the ATLAS team, one of the two groups that announced the new particle results in Geneva on July 4.
Scientists use p-values to test the likelihood of hypotheses. In an experiment comparing some phenomenon A to phenomenon B, researchers construct two hypotheses: that "A and B are not correlated," which is known as the null hypothesis, and that “A and B are correlated,” which is known as the research hypothesis." Go to: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/five-sigmawhats-that/ for full article. Some might observe that such conditionality stands statistical analysis on its head because it pertains to a continuum the only thing that can be known about is its Khaotic nature (and therefore does not represent a "data set" of any kind), epidemiology is limited in its applications for a very good reason for one must first determine and define the demographic/s one is studying, however, when one is attempting to study the fundamental creative principle of the universe all variables must be accounted for and the continuum of "Space Time" is subject to Khaos (sensitive to initial conditions), therefore, extrapolating conclusions concerning this "God Particle's" existence from deliberately standardised data achieves precisely nothing and to claim it does or ever will is very bad (and dangerous), science. That the use of huge amounts of energy might achieve a result is not the same thing, however, one might expect to achieve precisely the opposite result to the one you wish for (and in this case as one is attempting to find the, "cosmic holy grail" of the creative principle such would clearly be catastrophic), certainly the related issues of the energies required to produce and contain both fusion reactions and dark-matter suggest that there is something fundamentally wrong with both the science and the theory of particle physics. It's not called "particle-beam" research for nothing either as it eschews the quantum physical reality of light as both particle and wave.
 Examining the notion of the algorithmic prediction of human behaviours based on the principles of epidemiology and standard deviation calculus might suggest where the Standard Model advocates have been going wrong, in a previous post I attempted to examine the social consequences of such an application but wasn't happy with my summation, I had infact left out a number of important steps to understanding the problem but have now revised my remarks as follows, quote; ..the intersectionalities which truly exist are subverted by algorithmic profiling that by identifying (according to the "pursuit of happiness" individual profit motive), "new" groups or "segments" then attempts to create or "encourage" (depending on the degree of development of the perceived or potential grouping), both them and the artificial intersectionalities they themselves create. We might see these new segments and intersections as "counter-revolutionary" (in a literal way in that they interrupt the cyclical movements of true commerce -a form of sabotage-, for true commerce recognises that the efficiency of a thing is also in its lifespan and repair-ability -that is if the manufacture of the repair is itself efficient, "planned obsolescence" is antithetical to the pursuit of sustainability and the protection/encouragement of biodiversity-, the "pursuit of happiness" model of economic growth does not, instead it attempts to optimize short-term profit for the minimum number of individuals), or even "5th Column" for they are designed to eradicate or prevent the evolution of consciousness within pre-existing "classes" or "segments" (or potential what one might term, "natural" groupings), and replace that consciousness with another "ready-made" alternative, such consciousness is also vital to the recognition of "sameness" between the segments (the "intersectionalities"), and therefore this too is deliberately disrupted and manipulated (interesting that this should highlight how Marxist analysis of economically determined relationships should still have relevance once removed from the anachronistic context of the Industrial Revolution)." Go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/03/squaring-circles-intersectionalities.html

What is the relationship between standard deviation and robustness in evolutionary algorithms?

Quote; "In case of evolutionary algorithms, when the obtained objection functions values are acceptable,  a small value of standard deviation indicates that algorithm is more robust, is able to reproduce the solution with minimum discrepancy and has less dependency on initial population.

You can (find Ed.), many articles in good journals like information sciences and evolutionary computations. I have attached one article which present extensive tables for comparison of various evolutionary algorithms.

Short answer: when an optimization algorithm produces acceptable results in different runs, the lower the SD, the more robust and reliable is the algorithm. Low value of SD means that the algorithm results in almost similar answer in different runs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4835425/"..

.."Always Standard deviation should be minimum. It should be applied for all the algorithms. Kindly refer the statistics books for your further clarification . So in your case you must relate, Standard deviation and variance should be less for sophisticated robustness of algorithm". Go to: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_relationship_between_standard_deviation_and_robustness_in_evolutionary_algorithmsrithms

This subversion clearly takes place due to to the incestuous relationship between the data collected and the conclusions the collator wishes to draw (which are based in this case solely on the individual profit motive -and now-days usually are-), introducing conditionality into the system (this is not to say that making a profit or using "profit" as I criteria is wrong; however, profit, "beyond the rule of law" is theft, there must be other criteria of equal import which would recognise "public happiness" as a social necessity -as discussed on previous posts to this blog-, factored in to the equation), epidemiology must be a pure art otherwise (as in the saying Mark Twain attributed to Disraeli), all you will learn will be; "lies, damn lies". Intervening in the behaviour of the demographic in order to generate more data is not permissible in human society without the cognisance of that same demographic, further attempting to manipulate data by interfering with the conditions (the data input this "unconscious" demographic receives), in order to produce a hoped for result is just bad science.
 Crypto-currencies are based on similar errors despite the fact that many have been set-up with the best-of-intentions (attempting as they do to ameliorate the consequences of the major-markets "hedging their bets"); however, one cannot sit either on the fence or in/on the hedge forever, as has been proven time and time again throughout human evolution, there comes a time when one must act or one will be swept-away and this is what Nemesis will do with us now if we don't put our house in order. Figures were recently released, quote;
"The skyrocketing value of Bitcoin is leading to soaring energy consumption. According to one widely cited website that tracks the subject, the Bitcoin network is consuming power at an annual rate of 32TWh—about as much as Denmark. By the site's calculations, each Bitcoin transaction consumes 250kWh, enough to power homes for nine days.
Naturally, this is leading to concerns about sustainability. Eric Holthaus, a writer for Grist, projects that, at current growth rates, the Bitcoin network will "use as much electricity as the entire world does today" by early 2020. "This is an unsustainable trajectory," he writes."..
.."Bitcoin mining—the process that generates new bitcoins while maintaining the network's shared transaction ledger—is a secretive global industry. No one knows exactly how much energy it consumes*.
However, we can make some educated guesses. For starters, we know the industry's revenue: Bitcoin miners currently generate 75 bitcoins per hour, which, at the current price of around $12,500 per bitcoin, translates to $937,500 per hour, or more than $8 billion per year.
Moreover, the industry is highly competitive, and electricity is one of its biggest costs. So when the price of bitcoins rises, we can expect miners to spend more and more on electricity until electricity costs are roughly on par with revenues." Go to: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/bitcoins-insane-energy-consumption-explained/ for full article.
  This may seem insane but the truth is desperate people do desperate things. It has surely been such desperation that has lead to a blind-eye being turned throughout the British media and wider society to the true level of the exposure of our financial system to the Credit Crunch that the LIBOR scandal attempted (and still attempts), to obfuscate.
 A "paradigm shift" is not just a new experimental method it is a new criteria that suggests the nature of the observations which inform experimentation and therefore must be based on proven theories ("if I hit a watch with this hammer the watch will break"  is not a good theory as the results have been proven many times -and may instead indeed be, "the proof of insanity"-), and this is where Emergence Theory comes in. So far however those scientists studying emergence have not linked the disciplines together to form a "whole picture" but this is what a paradigm shift away from the exploitative model of economics requires, "biodiversity is the engine of sustainability" and its pursuit and protection are antithetical to mono-cultural short-term "quick-fix" profit taking enterprises.
 "Posturing is the method (or "vehicle"), by which denial transfers the shame that is its genesis."

*Italics mine.

**Nb. Etymology, quote; "democracy (n.)
1570s, from Middle French démocratie (14c.), from Medieval Latin democratia (13c.), from Greek demokratia “popular government,” from demos “common people,” originally “district” (see demotic), + kratos “rule, strength” (see -cracy).

Though we can see some disturbing hints here that it is not so simple as it seams. It’s not just generic “people”, but “common” people which come from a particular “district”.
If we surf the site further down the link, we’ll find that demotic:
demotic (adj.)
1822, from Greek demotikos “of or for the common people, in common use,” from demos “common people,” originally “district,” from PIE *da-mo- “division,” from root *da- “to divide” (see tide).

means “divided” people from the point of view of its proto-indo-european origins. But who was the person who created that devision?
Well, let’s search for the same PIE root on the same site:
demon (n.)
c.1200, from Latin daemon “spirit,” from Greek daimon “deity, divine power; lesser god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity” (sometimes including souls of the dead); “one’s genius, lot, or fortune;” from PIE *dai-mon- “divider, provider” (of fortunes or destinies), from root *da- “to divide” (see tide (n.))."
Go to: https://selitsky.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/what-a-democracy-is-an-etymological-approach/


Where's the "Wonga"?

After years of investing in HADRON colliders and the like where is the return on our massive investment? The problem of fusion still remains and the populace should be constantly reminded that Lockheed Martin and others invest in CERN specifically in order to find a "something for nothing" origin for generating a continued fusion reaction (if the; "God Particle" was ever discovered and found capable of generating "free fusion" it would certainly be, "something for nothing" because as we know any finite investment would certainly be insignificant in relation to; "INFINITE POWER!" -and they say we're mad!-), so the debate for and against such research really does hinge on the feasibility of sustaining these reactions. Gravity created our Sun and will continue to sustain it until all the energy in its captured mass has been used up, mankind is simply not able to create the necessary gravitational conditions for continued fusion. A hydrogen bomb is not a sun and a fusion reaction does not represent a sustainable energy source, it should come as no surprise to learn that no fusion reaction experiment has ever produced more energy than it took to create and contain it.
 Just think of it Capt. James Tiberius Kirk and his crew are waiting for the day when mankind can abandon its flirtation with sustainability completely and give itself carte-blanche to travel through the universe exploiting any planet unfortunate enough to fall into its path, these truly empyreal dreams await us all if we would only abandon our strange attachment to reason and place ourselves totally in the hands of the technocratic revolutionaries who have served us so well so far*. I feel many might be fearing that I am polarising debate but I am only accentuating the negative in order to bring the positive into sharp-relief, for we do have the the ability as a species to achieve the balance between artifice and nature that is now essential for our own survival, fundamentalists of all kinds all want quick, easy and painless solutions to their problems, nothing, however, was ever achieved without effort (as every good physicist knows).




*Nb. There have always been two schools of thought on this subject but I grew up with "Space Opera" and am as keen to split-the-infinitive as any other red bloodied Sci-Fi fan; however, the sheer elegance of Frank Herbert's conception in his "Dune" books where, "space is moved through matter" (and not the other way around), by the mind of the navigator "folding" it, has greater philosophical appeal (it is surely no coincidence that one of the main themes running through Herbert's work is ecology).



Also see; "Wonga collapses into administration" Go to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45359395

Market Segmentation.

The following article indicates just how ubiquitous certain practices have become, quote; “Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad-based consumer or business market , and consists of sub-groups of consumers (known as segments ). In dividing or segmenting markets, they typically look for common interests, common interests, similar lifestyles or even similar demographic profiles . The overall aim of segmentation is to identify high yield segments – that is, those segments that are likely to be most profitable or that have growth potential – so that they can be selected for special attention (ie become target markets ).

Many different ways to market have been identified. Business-to-business (B2B) sellers might segment the market into different types of businesses or countries . While business to consumer (B2C) sellers might segment the market into demographics segments, lifestyle segments, behavioral segments or any other meaningful segment.

Market segmentation assumes that different market segments require different marketing programs – that is, different offers, prices, promotion, distribution or some combination of marketing variables. Market segmentation is not only designed to identify the most profitable segments, but also to develop profiles of key segments in order to better understand their needs and purchase motivations. Insights from segmentation analysis are subsequently used to support marketing strategy development and planning.”



A major step in the segmentation process is the selection of a suitable base. In this step, marketers are looking for a means of achieving internal homogeneity (similarity within the segments), and external heterogeneity (differences between segments). [30] In other words, they are searching for a process that minimizes differences between members of a segment and maximizes differences between each segment. In addition, the segmentation approach must yield segments that are meaningful for the specific marketing problem or situation. For example, a person’s hair may be a base for a shampoo manufacturer, but it would not be relevant for a financial services provider. Selecting the right base a good deal of thought and a basic understanding of the market to be segmented.

In reality, marketers can be identified, substantial, responsive, actionable and stable. [31]

Identifiability refers to the extent to which managers can identify or recognize distinct groups within the marketplace
Substantiality refers to the extent to which a segment or group of customers represents a sufficient size to be profitable. This could not be done
Accessibility refers to the extent to which marketers can reach the targeted segments with promotional or distribution efforts
Responsiveness refers to the extent to which consumers in a defined segment will respond to marketing targeted
Actionable – segments are said to be actionable when they provide guidance for marketing decisions. [32]“


Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation, qui est Sometimes called Expired lifestyle segmentation is Measured by studying the activities, interests, and opinions (Aios) of customers. It considers how to spend their leisure, [49] and which external influences they are most responsive to and influenced by. Psychographics is a very widely used basis for segmentation, because it enables marketers to identify narrowly defined market segments and better understand consumer motives for product or brand choice.

While many of these proprietary psychographic segmentation analyzes are well-known, the majority of studies based on psychographics are custom designed. That is, the segments are developed for individual products at a specific time. One common thread among psychographic segmentation is that they use quirky names to describe the segments. [50]
 

Behavioral segmentation

Behavioral segmentation divides consumers into groups according to their observed behaviors. Many marketers believe that behavioral variables are superior to demographics and geographics for market segments [51] and some analysts have suggested that behavioral segmentation is killing off demographics. [52] Typical behavioral variables and their descriptors include: [53]”


Other types of consumer segmentation

In addition to geographics, demographics, pyschographics and behavioral databases, marketers occasionally turn to other means of segmenting the market, or to develop segment profiles.
 

Generational segments

A generation is defined as “a cohort of people born within a similar span of time (15 years at the upper end) who share a comparable age and life stage and who were shaped by a particular span of time (events, trends and developments) . ” [57] Generational segmentation refers to the process of dividing and analyzing population by cohorts based on their birth date. Generational segmentation assumes that people’s values ​​and attitudes are shaped by the key events that occur during their lives and that these attitudes translate into product and brand preferences.

Demographers, studying population change, disagree about accurate dates for each generation. [58] Dating is usually achieved by identifying population peaks or troughs, which can occur at different times in each country. For example, in Australia, the post-war population boom peaked in 1960, [59] while the peak occurred in the United States and Europe, [60] with most estimates converging on 1964. Accordingly, Australian Boomers are normally defined as those between 1945-1960; while American and European Boomers are normally defined as those between 1945-64. Thus, the generational segments and their dates should be taken as approximations only.”


Cultural segmentation is used to classify markets according to cultural origin. Culture is a major dimension of consumer behavior and can be used to enhance customer insight and a component of predictive models. Cultural segmentation enables appropriate communications to be crafted to particular cultural communities. Cultural segmentation can be applied to existing market segments by product, brand, channel and traditional measures of recency, frequency and monetary value. These benchmarks form an important evidence-base to guide strategic direction and tactical campaign activity, allowing engagement trends to be monitored over time.
Cultural segmentation can also be mapped according to state, region, suburb and neighborhood. This provides a geographical market view of the population and the availability of local markets.”


When the segments have been determined and separate offers developed for each of the core segments, the marketer’s next task is to design a marketing program (also known as the marketing mix) that will resonate with the target market or markets. Developing the marketing program requires a deep knowledge of key market segment’s purchasing habits, their preferred retail outlet, their media habits and their price sensitivity. The marketing program for each brand or product should be based on the understanding of the target market (or target markets) revealed in the market profile.

Positioning is the final step in the S-T-P planning approach; Segmentation→ Targeting → Positioning; a core framework for developing marketing plans and setting objectives. Positioning refers to decisions about how to present the offer in a way that resonates with the target market. During the research and analysis that forms the central part of segmentation and targeting, the marketer will have gained insights into what motivates consumers to purchase a product or brand. These insights will form part of the positioning strategy.”

Segmentation: algorithms and approaches

The choice of an appropriate statistical method for segmentation, depends on a number of factors, the broad approach ( a priori or post-hoc ), the availability of data, time constraints, the marketer’s skill level and resources.
 

A priori segmentation

A priori research occurs when “a theoretical framework is developed before the research is conducted”. [75] In other words, the marketer has an idea about whether to segment the market geographically, demographically, psychographically or behaviorally before undertaking any research. For example, a marketer might want to learn more about the motivations and demographics of light and moderate users in an effort to understand what tactics could be used to increase usage rates. In this case, the target variable is known – the marketer has already been segmented using a behavioral variable – user status. The next step would be to collect and analyze attitudinal data for light and moderate users. Typical analysis includes simple cross-tabulations, frequency distributions and occasionally logistic regression or one of a number of proprietary methods. [76]

The main disadvantage of a priori segmentation is that it does not explore other opportunities to identify market segments that could be more meaningful.
 

Post-hoc segmentation

In contrast, post-hoc segmentation makes no assumptions about the optimal theoretical framework. Instead, the analyst’s role is to determine which segments are most relevant to a given marketing problem or situation. In this approach, the empirical data drives the segmentation selection. Typically employs some types of clustering analysis or structural equation modeling to identify segments within the data. The figure may be formed using clustering, but it is important to note that this diagram only uses two variables, while in practice clustering employs a large number of variables. [77] Post-hoc segmentation on access to rich data sets, usually with a large number of cases and uses sophisticated algorithms to identify segments. [78]
Statistical techniques used in segmentation.”



Data sources used for segmentation

Marketers use a variety of data sources for segmentation studies and market profiling. Typical sources of information include: [90] [91]
Internal sources

Customer transaction records
Patron membership records eg active members, lapsed members, length of membership
Customer relationship management (CRM) databases
In-house surveys
Customer self-completed questionnaires or feedback forms

External sources

Proprietary surveys or tracking studies
Proprietary databases / software [92]
Omnibus surveys
Government agencies and departments
Government statistics
Professional / Industry associations / Employer associations
Census data
Observed purchase behaviors
Data mining techniques
Commissioned research
*

Companies (proprietary segmentation databases)
Acorn
Claritas Prizm
Experian
Mosaic
Roy Morgan Research
VALS
Values ​​Modes
*”  Go to: http://www.clickandsave.eu/market-segmentation/ 

for full and detailed article.

*Italics mine.

"The art of epidemiology is in the identification of the demographics." or; "statistics is asking the right questions"

Quote; "The story is that Cambridge Analytica, once directed by Steve Bannon, by shoplifting Facebook profiles to bend your brain, is some unique "bad apple" of the cyber world.
That's a dangerously narrow view. In fact, the dark art of dynamic psychometric manipulation in politics was not pioneered by Cambridge Analytica for Trump, but by i360 Themis, the operation founded by… no points for guessing… the Brothers Koch.
Mark Swedlund, himself an expert in these tools, explained in the film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, that i360 dynamically tracks you on 1800 behaviors"..
"The Koch operation and its competitor, DataTrust, use your credit card purchases, cable TV choices and other personal info — which is far more revealing about your inner life than the BS you put on your Facebook profile. Don’t trust DataTrust: This cyber-monster is operated by Karl Rove, "Bush’s Brain," who is principally funded by Paul Singer, the far Right financier better known as The Vulture.
Way too much is made of the importance of Cambridge Analytica stealing data through a phony app. If you’ve ever filled out an online survey, Swedlund told me, they’ve got you — legally." Go to: http://www.gregpalast.com/cambridge-analytica-aint-nuthin-look-i360-datatrust/ for full article.

*Italics mine.

The neo-con dream is the natural denouement of the "manifest destiny" of capitalism, agreed? Does not the articulation of the profit motive when untrammeled result in a shorter and shorter frequency between periods of crisis when resources must be somehow replenished? Do we observe a true schism between the law of supply and demand and the activities of monopolistic commerce?"” Go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/03/squaring-circles-intersectionalities.html comments now revised (see above), also see: "Update on the Deutsche Bank story re: "Squaring the Circle": #CERN #Bitcoin" go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2018/02/update-on-deutsche-bank-story-re.html
& ""We're poor little sheep who have lost our way! Baah! Baah! Baah!" #Mercer #Trump #Putin #CambridgeAnalytica #Bannon #Breitbart" go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/05/were-poor-little-sheep-who-have-lost.html

"the search of London SCL HQ delayed by wait for warrant: tons of files have been moved out of their office. Files could incriminate politicians and government
Powerful figures are behind this.
This is a blatant delay to stop data from being exposed" Madeleine The Lifeboat News ("TLN"), message board


"It seems that much of the time (esp. whilst observing the political macrocosm of both the Republicans in America and the Conservatives in Britain being at each others' throats), that conflict within the security services (always present but not usually so extensive or overt), of the major powers is being exploited by the globalised mavericks." Ed's comment to TLN concerning the "spy-angle".



Quote;New revelations continue to be unearthed revealing Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL’s links to the 2014 fascist coup in Ukraine. Journalist Liam O’Hare has written the following about Cambridge Analytica/SCL’s relationship to fascist militant movements in both Ukraine and Latvia, as well as the company’s deep involvement with NATO and state-run intelligence agencies in Europe and the US. O’Hare writes,

“The organisation boasts that it has conducted “behavioral change programs” in over 60 countries and its clients have included the British Ministry of Defence, the US State Department and NATO.

A freedom of information request from August 2016, shows that the MOD has twice bought services from Strategic Communication Laboratories in recent years.

In 2010/11, the MOD paid £40,000 to SCL for the “provision of external training”. Meanwhile, in 2014/2015, it paid SCL £150,000 for the “procurement of target audience analysis”.”


It is therefore clear that Cambridge Analaytica/SCL have worked with NATO and espionage groups in order to train and promote fascist fighters throughout eastern Europe in order to threaten the sovereignty and stability of the Russian Federation, while posing a clear danger to the Russian populations of the Baltic states.

As Eurasia Future reported yesterday, the SCL website boasts about its links to the current regime in Kiev and its attempts to help the fascist aggressors to commit genocide against the Donbass people:

“SCL admits to conspiring with the fascist regime in Kiev and the British Ministry of Defence as part of a campaign of information warfare that was designed to insight sedition in the Donetsk People’s Republic and prepare a violent fascist takeover of Donetsk.”

SCL’s history with promoting fascism in Ukraine appears to date back to the so-called “Orange Revolution” in 2004. However, the current conspiracy to work for the Poroshenko regime in attempting to promote fascist aggression against Donbass is an even more serious offence. Mercenary bandit corporations such as SCL and Cambridge Analytica should not be allowed to promote the goals of a genocidal regime without facing the appropriate legal consequences”.

In spite of these efforts, Cambridge Analytica/SCL, admitted that their attempts to aid the Ukrainian regime’s war of aggression against Donbass proved ineffective due to the popular feelings resistance among anti-fascist freedom fighters in the Donbass republics. While even the most infamous election meddling and now, war meddling organisation in the world could not deter the progress of the Donbass republics, Cambridge Anaytlica’s former associates in Kiev are now facing a threat from within as far-right radicals call for the execution of other far-right radicals.”" Go to: http://www.eurasiafuture.com/2018/03/23/cambridge-analyticas-fascist-friends-in-kiev-are-feeling-the-heat/ for full article.

 
James Le Mesurier, a British private security specialist, and former British military intelligence officer.
 
Quote; "Since they were founded in 2013, much of Western media has sought to elevate the White Helmets as the “bravest” and most heroic of Syrians. They have been the subject of a Netflix documentary, which won an Oscar, and has consistently been plastered across TV screens in surprisingly well-produced videos showing them removing children from rubble in war-torn areas claimed by Syria’s “rebels.”
However, missing from this unambiguously positive coverage has been the group’s ties to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, their doctoring of footage, their role in executing civilians and their use of children – both dead and alive – as props for producing pro-intervention propaganda. Also absent is how the White Helmets have received over $123 million from 2013 to 2016 from the U.S. and UK governments, as well as Western NGOs and Gulf state monarchies."..
"By 2000, Le Mesurier left the army and went to work for the United Nations as he had “realized humanitarian aid was more effectivethan an army in theaters of war during his time with the British military. He, again, served in a variety of locations, focusing on delivering stabilization activities through security sector and democratization programs.”* According to Le Mesurier, “stabilization activities” refers to the “framework for engagement in ‘fragile’ states” or, in other words, destabilized nations.
Prior to his founding of the White Helmets, Le Mesurier served as Vice President for Special Projects at the Olive Group, a private mercenary organization that has since merged with Blackwater-Academi into what is now known as Constellis Holdings. Then, in 2008, Le Mesurier left the Olive Group after he was appointed to the position of Principal at Good Harbor Consulting, chaired by Richard A. Clarkea veteran of the U.S. national security establishment and the counter-terrorism “czar” under the Bush and Clinton administrations." Go to: https://www.mintpressnews.com/james-le-mesurier-british-ex-military-mercenary-founded-white-helmets/230320/#.Wh_Rm9YiifZ.twitter
for full article.

*Italics mine. 

"Strategic Communication Laboratories".
   
There are, quote; "deep connections between Cambridge Analytica’s parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL Group) and the Conservative Party and military establishment, ‘Board members include an array of Lords, Tory donors, ex-British army officers and defense contractors. This is scandal that cuts to the heart of the British establishment.’

The scandal around mass data harvesting by Cambridge Analytica took a new twist on Monday.

A Channel 4 news undercover investigation revealed that the company’s Eton-educated CEO Alexander Nix offered to use dirty tricks – including the use of bribery and sex workers – to entrap politicians and subvert elections.

Much of the media spotlight is now on Cambridge Analytica and their shadowy antics in elections worldwide, including that of Donald Trump.

However, Cambridge Analytica is a mere offshoot of Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL Group) – an organisation with its roots deeply embedded within the British political, military and royal establishment.

Indeed, as the Observer article which broke the scandal said “For all intents and purposes, SCL/Cambridge Analytica are one and the same.”

Like Cambridge Analytica, SCL group is behavioral research and strategic communication company.

In 2005 SCL went public with a glitzy exhibit at the DSEI conference, the UK’s largest showcase for military technology."  Go to: http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/20/scl-a-very-british-coup/
for full article. 

Quote; "Cambridge Analytica’s parent company is British-based SCL. Formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories, it is a private behavioural research and strategic communication company, founded in 1993 by Nigel Oakes. The son of Major John Waddington Oakes and a former boyfriend of Lady Helen Windsor, Oakes was formerly employed by Margaret Thatcher’s favourite advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, before establishing SCL*.
As with Oakes, SCL’s board members include scions of the British ruling class, from former military officers and defence contractors to major Conservative Party donors.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten, third cousin to Queen Elizabeth, is on the board, while CEO Roger Gabb is a millionaire wine merchant, a former British special forces officer and major contributor to the Tory Party. SCL President Sir Geoffrey Pattie was a defence minister under Thatcher. SCL chairman is the venture capitalist Julian Wheatland, also chairman of Oxfordshire Conservatives Association. Former Conservative Party Treasurer Jonathan Marland, trade envoy under Prime Minister David Cameron, is a shareholder.
Others associated, past or present, with SCL include property billionaire and Tory Party donor Vincent Tchenguiz; Sir James Allen Mitchell, privy counsellor since 1985; Rear Admiral John Tolhurst, a former assistant director of naval warfare in the Ministry of Defence and aide de camp to the Queen; and Gavin McNicoll, creator of the Eden Intelligence firm, which has run projects for the British government.
SCL boasts of providing “data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organizations worldwide,” notably the British Ministry of Defence, the US State Department and NATO. It states that it has carried out “behavioural change programs” in more than 60 countries. One of its first contracts in 1999 was promoting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. It has worked to influence elections in Afghanistan, Latvia, Ukraine, Nigeria and Kenya among others.
Cambridge Analytica was launched in 2012 by SCL to extend its operations to the US. In partnership with hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, this included the Republican primaries for the 2016 election, where it worked to support Ted Cruz and then Donald Trump*." Go to: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/26/camb-m26.html for full article.

*Italics mine.

Alexander Nix boasted of his ability to employ “Israeli companies” to gather intelligence on politicians.

Quote; "Even before the depth of Cambridge Analytica’s meddling in the US election was exposed, the Trump campaign’s ties to “Israel” were widely known. Prior to the election, “Israeli” regime leader Benjamin Netanyahu held private meetings with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. At the time, Trump’s social media supporters boasted of the fact that Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump was far lengthier than his meeting with Hillary Clinton.".. .."The important question for investigators into Cambridge Analytica’s relationship with both Faceboook and the Trump campaign is therefore: Did Cambridge Analytica procure the services of “Israeli” spies or other organisations directly or indirectly related to the “Israeli” regime, in efforts designed to manipulate US voters into voting for Donald Trump? Not only is this foreign meddling a strong possibility, but the fact that Trump promoted himself as a highly pro-“Israel” candidate even by American standards, means that many of these “Israeli” agents of espionage about which Alexander Nix bragged of employing, may have been all to eager to work in the services of Cambridge Analytica’s pro-Trump meddling scheme.
What the world is witnessing is the western elites from Tel Aviv, London and Washington turning against themselves. Cambridge Analytica ought to be classified as a group engaged in the practice of “Information Terrorism”, and like any terrorist group, its primary motivation is money. Therefore Cambridge Analytica seemed and still seems to be willing to work with anyone, representing anything, so long as the price is right*." Go to: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-could-provide-hard-evidence-of-israeli-meddling-in-trump-election/5632939 for full article.

*Italics mine.

Quote; "“SCL Group provides data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organisations worldwide” reads the first line of its website. “For over 25 years, we have conducted behavioural change programmes in over 60 countries & have been formally recognised for our work in defence and social change*.”..
.."after the propaganda disaster of the Tet offensive in Vietnam softened domestic support for the war, the military planners began to devise new ways to control media reporting.
As a result, when Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falklands in 1982, they pioneered a new technique for media control: embedding journalists with troops. And, as former BBC war reporter Caroline Wyatt blogged, “The lessons from embedding journalists with the Royal Navy during the Falklands war were taken up enthusiastically by military planners in both Washington and London for the First Gulf War in 1991.”"..
.."by the time of the 2003 Iraq War, communications technology had moved on again. As the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt explains in the same blog, “satellite communications are now much more sophisticated, meaning we almost always have our own means of communicating with London. That offers a crucial measure of independence, even if reports still have to be cleared for ‘op sec’ [operational security]. The almost total control by the military of the means of reporting in the Falklands would be unthinkable in most warzones today.”
In February 2004, another major disruption in communications technology began: Facebook was founded. And with it came a whole new propaganda nightmare.
As the same time as this history was unfolding, though, something else vital was happening: neoliberalism.
Looked at one way, neoliberalism is the successor to geographical imperialism as the “most extreme form of capitalism”. It used to be that someone with a small fortune to invest could secure the biggest return by paying someone else to sail overseas, subjugate or kill people (usually people of colour) and steal them and/or their stuff. But they couldn’t keep expanding forever – the world is only so big. And so eventually, wealthy Western investors started to shift much of their focus from opening new markets in ‘far off lands’ to marketising new parts of life at home. Neoliberalism is also therefore this process of marketisation: of shifting decisions from one person one vote, to one pound (or dollar or Yen or Euro) one vote. Or, as Will Davies puts it: “the disenchantment of politics by economics”."..
.."While much of what SCL has done for the military is secret, we do know (thanks, again, to O’Hare) that it’s had contracts from the UK and US departments of defence amounting to (at the very least) hundreds of thousands of dollars. And a document from the National Defence Academy of Latvia that I managed to dig out, entitled “NATO strategic communication: more to be done?” tells us that they were operating in Afghanistan in 2010, and gives some clues about what they were up to:
“more detailed qualitative data gathering operation was being conducted in Maiwand Province by a British company, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) is almost unique in the international contractor community in that it has a dedicated, and funded, behavioural research arm located in the prestigious home of British Science and research, The Royal Institute, London.”
In simple terms, the SCL Group – Cambridge Analytica’s parent firm – is the psychological operations wing of our privatised military: a mercenary propaganda agency." Go to: https://www.mintpressnews.com/cambridge-analytica-is-what-happens-when-you-privatize-military-propaganda/239813/
For full article.

*Italics mine, quote; "Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll." Go to: http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/un-charter-full-text/ for full article.
 
Also see; "Why the Cambridge Analytica scandal could be much more serious than you think" esp. re: #Brexit, go to: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/why-the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-could-be-much-more-serious-than-you-think/27/03/



& "The Mull of Kintyre Incident; Accident or Assassination? What is extant #MullofKintyre" Go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/01/the-mull-of-kintyre-incident-accident.html

The Dangerous Technology of Surveillance.

How much longer will it take I wonder for people to realise just how "unprofitable" it is to collude in their own oppression? An increasing number allow access to all sorts of important data about themselves by utilising wireless-free technologies (and this is before one takes into consideration the ubiquitous security flaws in "closed software" and the ease of hacking such connections). The fondness for the-sound-of-our-own-voices has allowed obsession to consume us and it has created a false-economy for the continued expansion of the debt-bubble has been aided and abetted by the addiction to these gee-gaws and "ghafla"* (whose actual effect is to destroy true intercourse between the peoples and replace it with the market driven dialogue we have examined above). Users dumbed-down to accept ephemera as true experience are encouraged in their posturing and cupidity whilst being discouraged from engaging in reasoned discourse (and if they do such is labelled "Fake News" -using capitals advisedly-). I only use "hardline" ethernet connections when I go online and have had the wireless signal to my domestic router turned off at source (Nb. there is no "wireless-off" button on any of the major service providers' home routers as far as I am aware).



The practice of vampirising on the people is mirrored in the elite's "drive to austerity" and further financial enslavement of the masses but we do have a choice, we can refuse to participate in this desperate sham and we can campaign against the siting of masts and towers and to rid our schools of the curse (a recent survey found that the schools with the most computer access do in-fact perform worse than less "techno-savvy" institutions -"sophistication" being the practice of "sophistry" and not a virtue-).


How much that should be sacrosanct and remain inviolate is now simply handed over with hardly a murmur? All who are capable of such literacy should speak the language of "open-source" computer programming before they leave school this would empower our children and give them the skills they truly need to survive in the "cyber-verse". Go to: https://twitter.com/i/moments/930097464530690052

*Quote; "Ghafla is a Chakobsa term meaning "distraction"- in the Dune books by Frank Herbert, Ed.-, Herbert took this term directly from the Arabic where "Ghafla" means anything that distracts one from God. The term is especially important in Sufic Islam" Go to: http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Ghafla 

Quote; "Every year in the U.S., almost a half million people are injured or killed in traffic accidents attributed to the combination of texting and driving. The statistics are shocking, especially in view of the fact that this danger could be completely avoided. With the latest statistics available as of 2018, in 2015, according to statistics compiled by the Department of Transportation, 3,477 people died and another 391,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes caused by drivers who were distracted because they were texting or using cell phones." Go to: https://www.personalinjurysandiego.org/topics/facts-about-texting-driving/
for full article.

Quote; "According to the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), 80% of accidents and 16% of highway fatalities are caused by distracted drivers. The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that crashes from cell phone use account for 27% of all auto accidents. In Ohio in 2015, 41% of distracted drivers in fatal crashes were texting or talking on a phone.
Texting while driving increases your chances of being in an accident by 23 times. When you are driving 55 mph, diverting your attention for five seconds (the average time it takes to read a text message) means you are driving the length of a football field without looking at the road. A crash typically occurs within three seconds after a driver is distracted.
Even with the staggering statistics, the National Safety Council found that evidence indicates that under-reporting of driver cell phone use in accidents is causing a substantial under-estimation of the extent of the public safety threat." Go to: https://www.lawyersthatfightforyou.com/auto-and-truck-accidents/2016/12/06/distracted-driving-from-cell-phone-use/
for full article. 


Also see:; "The #Epidemiology of Khaos or "The Problem with #CERN"" Go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2015/09/the-epidemiology-of-khaos-or-problem.html

Paradigm Shift.

Another indicator of a redundant paradigm is the growth in municipal waste incineration, lead by the oil industry for the oil industry this "loss-leading" practice has also undermined the drive to sustainability for it perpetuates the myth that the continued exploitation of fossil fuels is a "healthy-option" when it is no such thing. Inimical to both true economic and fetal development this poisonous practice has convinced many that the wholesale reduction/recycle/reuse-ability of our waste stream is a fundamentalists dream and not to, "worry-their-pretty-little-heads-about-it". I refer the reader to my Twitter "Moment" on the subject and suggest that they pay particular attention to the work of Dr.Paul Connet and the International Society of Doctors for the Environment ("ISDE" go to: http://www.isde.org/), see; "The False Philosophy that Underpins the Oil Industry" #Incineration" go to: https://twitter.com/i/moments/937997845344473088
Also see; "#Fukushima #Seismology #NuclearPower #ClimateChange: An in depth exploration of the safety and climate issues brought up by yet another nuclear disaster" go to: https://twitter.com/i/moments/889745996347052033

Financial Collapse.

Some might say; ""The Whole Story"? Where is the truth about 9/11? Furthermore I've never seen anything but the most cursory reference to the event that has shaped western policies, both foreign and domestic, for nearly the entirety of this millennia on this blog, what gives?" Well "what gives" is that I am not an engineer and my resources are not unlimited, I've seen many articles and a large number of videos which suggest to me (esp. considering the context of the 9/11 events), that the collisions into World Trade Centre were false-flag events and I suggest that my readers search out the truth for themselves. As an icon the "Twin-Towers" represented the "New (market-lead/financial) Jerusalem" of the late 20c, is it any surprise that the dewy-eyed dream should end on such a note or that the 21c should be forced to begin with blood-on-its-hands?
 Something else the Powers that Be seem to like to keep quiet is that there were at least two floors of offices belonging to Mercer and his associates in the Twin Towers, he and his friends are now engaged in (often "not so"), civil strife with the rest of the Republican Party; "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold" was Yeats' assessment as; "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" ("The Second Coming" W.B.Yeats, go to: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming 
).


Quote; "Wayne Anderson, an Avionics Technician is interviewed by Rob Balsamo, Co-Founder, Pilots For 9/11 Truth. Wayne reveals his observations of a remote guidance test on a Boeing 757 in which technology was used to control the aircraft remotely, while also being able to "Lockout" the Flight Crew from overriding the autopilot system in order to regain control of the airplane. The following interview discusses the details of this test which was performed prior to September 11, 2001, the violations of FAA regulations and the possibilities using such technology." go to: http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/archive/1512081442.html & http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/archive/1512033259.html , also see;  
"The 9/11 Document that Launched US-NATO’s “War on Terrorism” in the Middle East"" go to: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-mysterious-frank-taylor-report-the-911-document-that-launched-us-natos-war-on-terrorism-in-the-middle-east/5632874?print=1 


 




Friday 16 March 2018

Cui Bono? #SergeiSkripal #Trump #Putin #Brexit #BioWeapons #SteeleDossier

The principle of Cui Bono ("who benefits"?), is surely the only one those of us not privy to State secrets have available when examining issues of espionage as they relate to both foreign and domestic policy but the mainstream media (msm), almost never apply it. There have been countless instances in recent decades when sober reflection on the wider implications of incidents of terror or assassination (both successful and attempted), may have indicated further lines of inquiry which if followed could well have produced evidence (even if only circumstantial), that might have cast the events concerned in an entirely different light. It is the responsibility of good journalists to identify and examine these before they put pen-to-paper whatever the editorial line the publication or broadcast media they write for might be (any "spin" being applied later), however standards have unfortunately fallen to such an extent that it has become acceptable for the major players in the media to indulge in the worst kind of pandering to popular opinion and knee-jerk response and the recent "spy murders" have proven to be yet another example. Having said this let us therefore examine just who might stand to gain from the recent alleged (both "attempted" and "successful"), assassinations on British soil.


Quote; "Mikhail Lyubimov, a former KGB London station chief in the 1980s, told Moscow-based Dozd TV that “you've got to be an idiot to suddenly do this right before our presidential elections.” Lyubimov’s conspiracy theory is simple: A Western secret service—he didn’t say which one—or “some kind of Russian gang linked to some Western secret services” carried out the attack to whip up anti-Putin feeling in the West."
..."an attempted hit on an officially exchanged spy undermines the whole logic of spy-swap protocol established during the Cold War. “Spy exchanges are a bargain—both sides pay a price to get their people back,” says one former British diplomat, not authorized to speak on the record, whose time in Moscow coincided with previous spy swaps. “If you start bumping off people [you’ve agreed to exchange], that goes against the spirit of the thing…. It makes it difficult to negotiate in good faith in the future.”
  It’s possible Skripal’s would-be assassins may not care about the political fallout, which would be evidence, says Mark Galeotti of the Institute of International Relations Prague, of “more cracks forming” in Putin’s control of his espionage services. And the murder attempt could have been the result of a rivalry between different security agencies.*" Go to: http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-lost-control-russia-assassins-840598 for full article.

*Italics mine.

Official claim that ‘Novichok’ points solely to Russia discredited.

Quote; "This assumes that the narrative that insists an exclusively Russian made nerve agent was responsible is correct, however an examination of the work of such an august body as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) suggests that this is not a conclusion that can be immediately drawn, quote;
"in the statement by Ambassador Peter Wilson, UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),"."he claimed that Russia has “failed for many years” to fully disclose its chemical weapons programme.
Wilson was parroting a claim made a year earlier by the US State Department that Russia had not made a complete declaration of its chemical weapons stockpile: “The United States cannot certify that Russia has met its obligations under the Convention.”
Yet these claims are contradicted by the OPCW itself, which in September 2017 declared that the independent global agency had rigorously verified the completed destruction of Russia’s entire chemical weapons programme, including of course its nerve agent production capabilities.
OPCW Director-General, Ahmet Üzümcü, congratulated Russia with the following announcement:
“The completion of the verified destruction of Russia’s chemical weapons programme is a major milestone in the achievement of the goals of the Chemical Weapons Convention. I congratulate Russia and I commend all of their experts who were involved for their professionalism and dedication. I also express my appreciation to the States Parties that assisted the Russian Federation with its destruction program and thank the OPCW staff who verified the destruction.”
The OPCW’s press statement confirmed that:
“The remainder of Russia’s chemical weapons arsenal has been destroyed at the Kizner Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in the Udmurt Republic. Kizner was the last operating facility of seven chemical weapons destruction facilities in Russia. The six other facilities (Kambarka, Gorny, Maradykovsky, Leonidovka, Pochep and Shchuchye) completed work and were closed between 2005 and 2015.”
The OPCW’s reports on Russia confirm that the agency found no evidence of the existence of an active Novichok* programme."..
 "the OPCW’s science board, which included Porton Down’s Dr Black as UK representative, concluded that:
“… it has insufficient information to comment on the existence or properties of ‘Novichoks.’”
So in short, the OPCW does not agree with the vague US and British insistence that Russia failed to declare all its chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities, and does not agree with the insistence that Novichok stockpiles or production facilities exist in Russia. But it seems that neither does His Excellency Peter Wilson** himself.
In a statement to the OPCW in November 2017, Ambassador Wilson congratulated the OPCW on verifying the complete destruction of Russia’s chemical weapons programme with high praise for its director, Ahmet Üzümcü. Wilson listed the latter’s numerous achievements including:
“… the completion of the verified destruction of Russia’s declared chemical weapons programme.”" Also...
 "According to former British diplomat Craig Murray, for instance, it is more reasonable to cast the net of suspicion onto Israel for many of the same reasons cited by the British government:

“Israel has the nerve agents. Israel has Mossad which is extremely skilled at foreign assassinations. Theresa May claimed Russian propensity to assassinate abroad as a specific reason to believe Russia did it. Well Mossad has an even greater propensity to assassinate abroad. And while I am struggling to see a Russian motive for damaging its own international reputation so grieviously, Israel has"..."Russian action in Syria has undermined the Israeli position in Syria and Lebanon in a fundamental way, and Israel has every motive for damaging Russia’s international position by an attack aiming to leave the blame on Russia.***”" Go to: https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-british-governments-russia-nerve-agent-claims-are-bullshit-a69b4ee484ce
 for full article.

*The "Russian produced" agent held to be responsible by the British govt. for the poisoning of Segei Skripal, his daughter and a a member of the local police force in Salisbury.

**This was clearly before an accusation of failure on the part of the OPCW would have aided rather than hindered the man's political career.

***Italics mine.

  " In the early 1990s Skripal was recruited by an MI6 agent Pablo Miller, whom the British media declined to name. Miller was an MI6 agent in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Miller’s main task was recruiting Russians to provide information about their country to the British. An interesting fact, possibly coincidental, was that the MI6 officer under diplomatic cover in Moscow at this time was Christopher Steele. Steele was later to become better known as the principal author of the infamous Trump dossier.
When Steele returned to London, he ran MI6’s Russia desk between the 2006 and 2009. The information that Skripal disclosed would have been given to Steele, first in Moscow and later in London.
Skripal was arrested in 2004. In 2006 he was convicted of treason and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. In 2010 he was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Russian spies in U.S. jails. He went to live in the United Kingdom where he has lived in supposed retirement ever since. Another interesting fact, although again possibly coincidental, is that Salisbury, where Skripal lived, is only about 12 kilometres from Porton Down, the U.K.’s principal research centre for nerve agents.
If the Russians had wanted to kill him, they had ample opportunity to do so during the years when he was imprisoned or the eight years he lived in retirement in Salisbury. If they did wish to kill him, it is not a very credible that they would do so very publicly and by a means that could not be bought off the shelf in the local pharmacy. The handling and the administering of these very dangerous substances require professional expertise. The obvious candidates for the attempted murder are therefore government agencies, but which government is the unanswered question.
This is where the facts become thinner, but the interesting connections of Skripal offer scope for some tentative hypotheses. While living in Salisbury, Skripal became friendly, according to a report in the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph, with none other than the aforementioned Pablo Miller – whom the Telegraph declined to name but has since been identified on the web.
Miller is now working with a British security consultancy named Orbis Business Intelligence. Again according to the Telegraph, Miller’s association with this company has now been removed from Miller’s LinkedIn profile.
The obvious question again is: why do so now?
Orbis is the same private intelligence agency as that of Christopher Steele. It seems more than a mere coincidence that the same three men who had personal and professional links going back to the 1990s should have a continuing association at the same time as the Steele dossier was being compiled and later as the so-called Russiagate inquiry was imploding. Former FBI Director James Comey described the Steele dossier as “salacious and unverified” in a Senate hearing. " Go to: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48985.htm for full article.

The Steele Dossier.

Quote; "In January 2017, BuzzFeed News published an intelligence dossier developed by a former British MI6 intelligence officer who was deemed credible by U.S. intelligence officials. The Dossier raises profoundly disturbing questions about whether there was improper contact between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and about the existence of compromising personal and financial information about Donald Trump. At the time BuzzFeed published the Dossier, it acknowledged that the allegations it contained were “unverified” and that the document contained “some clear errors.”
BuzzFeed’s decision to publish the Dossier has itself attracted a lot of attention. The Dossier is part of ongoing lawsuits filed by parties named in the dossier and may be part of congressional investigations.

Why is it Important?

The Dossier is a human intelligence document or [HUMINT] and therefore should be viewed not as evidence in a trial, but as a road map for investigators. The dossier’s high level of accuracy is rapidly becoming clear.
There are significant takeaways that are largely absent from the conversation about the Dossier:
  1. Christopher Steele is credible. Steele was not just a former UK MI-6 officer; he also worked on behalf of the FBI in the successful FIFA investigation.
    • Steele and the Dossier were credible enough for former FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to brief President Obama and then-President elect Trump on the contents of the dossier.
    • Steele was writing the Dossier in real time and it largely contains intelligence related to internal Russian efforts to interfere, not intelligence about the Trump campaign.
    • Steele was concerned about his safety after the Dossier was released and went into hiding.
  2. While much attention has gone to the salacious tape described in the Dossier, more should be paid to the allegation that for at least 5 years Trump was passing information on Russians living at his properties to Russian intelligence operatives. Steele cites four different sources – a former senior Russian intelligence figure (who is believed to have been murdered in his car on December 26, 2016), a current senior Russian foreign ministry figure, and two Russian emigres; these sources all indicate that Trump had a relationship with Russian intelligence and was providing information on the comings and goings of Russians at his properties. We know that Trump had a vast surveillance system of his properties, and that President Putin and Russian intelligence keep a close tab on Russian oligarchs. We also have separate press reporting that UK, Dutch, French, German, Estonian, and Australian intelligence agencies picked up intelligence on meetings between Trump associates and Russian intelligence going back to 2015." Go to: https://themoscowproject.org/dossier/ for article and view the dossier in full as published by Buzzfeed.
Having applied the principle of "Cui Bono" the above would suggest some motive on the part of the Russian administration itself but is it really that simple? Espionage is after all a game of smoke-and-mirrors and very often based on "best probable outcome"; Putin is up for re-election, Russia is about to stage the World Cup and world opinion is much concerned with the heightened tensions between the superpowers in both Eastern Europe and The Middle East so where lies his motive for alienating the international community? It must also not be forgotten that Putin himself was once head of the KGB so is about as far from a novice in such affairs as it is possible to be (and has proven this more than once as in his adroit maneuvering in securing the Crimea following NATO's rather clumsy attempt to continue the expansion of its influence in Eastern Europe by "piggy-backing" on the ill-considered -in my opinion-, "Wider European Adventure" of the EU). Yet it is Trump and Netanyahu (now bosom-buddies following the Trump administration's acceptance of Jerusalem as Israel's capital), who are also implicated by the Steele Dossier (if somewhat "second-hand" in the case of Netanyahu nevertheless there is no doubt where much of Donald Trump's funding has been coming from nor that the Israelis would rather the international community did not more closely examine some of their own recent foreign policy decisions and "strange-bedfellows" -see blog post bellow-). Some have also suggested that Theresa May might benefit from a distraction from her "Brexit" miseries and welcome the opportunity to demonize the Russian administration further. Might that account for her strange (and somewhat inappropriate), "fist-bumping" behaviour in Salisbury yesterday? Go to: https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/974363571961417731
  Furthermore Russian sources have suggested that as the attempt on Sergei Skripal's and his unfortunate daughter Yulia's lives was "botched" it was certainly not carried out by the Russian Security Services describing the attempt as "amateur" (but let's face it that's not like MOSSAD either), the newcomer to "the game" being infact the Trump administration itself!
 All of which is of-course merely circumstantial but none of which has appeared in the msm suggesting that (yet again), a "convenient" scapegoat may have been employed to bolster a popular narrative, certainly the following inconvenient facts have not become part of that narrative, quote;
 "On 16 January 2018, a Bulgarian investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva wrote a detailed article about the US bio-weapons research that spans across the world in 25 different countries. Gaytandzhieva wrote in her article that the US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of biological weapons, and that hundreds of thousands of unwitting people are systematically exposed to dangerous pathogens and other incurable diseases. She added that bio-warfare scientists are using diplomatic cover (and testing, Ed.), man-made viruses at Pentagon bio-laboratories in 25 countries across the world. These bio-laboratories are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $2.1 billion military program called Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, etc. Luckily, the Balkans seems to be clear.

Gaytandzhieva recently traveled to Brussels and attended the European Parliament in order to confront Robert Kadlec, Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Health, regarding the number of classified bio-weapons research labs scattered through Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Kadlec categorically denied the existence of an American bio-weapon program as well as that information surrounding the labs in question were classified. Gaytandzhieva attempted to continue her follow up but was silenced by Hilde Vautmans, the EU official sitting next to Kadlec, who stated "This is not an investigation" to applause from the audience and an embrace between herself and Kadlec. Gaytandzhieva didn't stop there, however, following Kadlec to the elevator and continuing to ask him questions regarding the bio-weapons program which Kadlec refused to answer. Security staff then refused to let Gaytandzhieva on the elevator." Go to: http://balkanspost.com/article/468/bulgarian-journalist-gaytandzhieva-confronts-kadlec-over-us-secret-bio-weapons for full transcript of the exchange between Gaytandzhieva and Kadlec.

The Pentagon's Bio-weapons.

Quote; "The US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of Biological Weapons".."Bio warfare scientists using diplomatic cover test man-made viruses at Pentagon bio laboratories in 25 countries across the world. These US bio-laboratories are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program– Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa." Go to: https://www.naturalblaze.com/2018/01/bio-weapons-pentagon.html for full article.

Also see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/13/russian-businessman-close-associate-ofboris-berezovsky-found/


James Comey to reveal new information on Trump and respond to 'lies' about the FBI.

Quote: "Mr Comey, who was fired after Mr Trump admitted to becoming frustrated with the probe into Russia alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible links between his campaign and Moscow, has publicly remained largely silent since his firing. Mr Mueller has since launched his own probe into possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Four former campaign staff have been indicted with various offences."..
"It said that among the episodes that the book will cover will be a one-on-one dinner between the two men and the so-called Trump dossier produced by former British spy Christopher Steele.*" Go to: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comey-book-tour-trump-fbi-former-director-lies-russia-mueller-investigation-a8259916.html for full article.

*Italics mine.

British Scientists Balked at Pressure to Link Nerve Gas to Russia.

Quote; "Porton Down would only sign up to the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” after a rather difficult meeting where this was agreed as a compromise formulation. The Russians were allegedly researching, in the “Novichok” programme a generation of nerve agents which could be produced from commercially available precursors such as insecticides and fertilisers. This substance is a “novichok” in that sense. It is of that type. Just as I am typing on a laptop of a type developed by the United States, though this one was made in China.
To anybody with a Whitehall (government) background this has been obvious for several days. The government has never said the nerve agent was made in Russia, or that it can only be made in Russia. The exact formulation “of a type developed by Russia” was used by Theresa May in parliament, used by the UK at the UN Security Council, used by Boris Johnson on the BBC yesterday and, most tellingly of all, “of a type developed by Russia” is the precise phrase used in the joint communique issued by the UK, USA, France and Germany yesterday:"''
 "When the same extremely careful phrasing is never deviated from, you know it is the result of a very delicate Whitehall compromise. My FCO source, like me, remembers the extreme pressure put on FCO staff and other civil servants to sign off the dirty dossier on Iraqi WMD, some of which pressure I recount in my memoir Murder in Samarkand." Go to: https://russia-insider.com/en/bombshell-british-scientists-balked-pressure-link-nerve-gas-russia/ri22809#.WqwY1XsvwIw.twitter for full article.

Also see; ""We're poor little sheep who have lost our way! Baah! Baah! Baah!" #Mercer #Trump #Putin #CambridgeAnalytica #Bannon #Breitbart" go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/05/were-poor-little-sheep-who-have-lost.html 
& "Squaring the Circle: #Intersectionalities #SERCO #Mercer #CambridgeAnalytica" go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2017/03/squaring-circles-intersectionalities.html

How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions.

Quote; "LONDON — As the upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica prepared to wade into the 2014 American midterm elections, it had a problem.

The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. But it did not have the data to make its new products work.

So the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, according to former Cambridge employees, associates and documents, making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network’s history. The breach allowed the company to exploit the private social media activity of a huge swath of the American electorate, developing techniques that underpinned its work on President Trump’s campaign in 2016.

An examination by The New York Times and The Observer of London reveals how Cambridge Analytica’s drive to bring to market a potentially powerful new weapon put the firm — and wealthy conservative investors seeking to reshape politics — under scrutiny from investigators and lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Both Congress and the British Parliament have questioned Alexander Nix, chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, about the firm’s activities.

Christopher Wylie, who helped found Cambridge and worked there until late 2014, said of its leaders: “Rules don’t matter for them. For them, this is a war, and it’s all fair.”

“They want to fight a culture war in America,” he added. “Cambridge Analytica was supposed to be the arsenal of weapons to fight that culture war.”

Details of Cambridge’s acquisition and use of Facebook data have surfaced in several accounts since the business began working on the 2016 campaign, setting off a furious debate about the merits of the firm’s so-called psychographic modeling techniques.”...

“In Britain, Cambridge Analytica is facing intertwined investigations by Parliament and government regulators into allegations that it performed illegal work on the “Brexit” campaign. The country has strict privacy laws, and its information commissioner announced on Saturday that she was looking into whether the Facebook data was “illegally acquired and used.”” ...

..”Today, as Cambridge Analytica seeks to expand its business in the United States and overseas, Mr. Nix has mentioned some questionable practices. This January, in undercover footage filmed by Channel 4 News in Britain and viewed by The Times, he boasted of employing front companies and former spies on behalf of political clients around the world, and even suggested ways to entrap politicians in compromising situations.

All the scrutiny appears to have damaged Cambridge Analytica’s political business. No American campaigns or “super PACs” have yet reported paying the company for work in the 2018 midterms, and it is unclear whether Cambridge will be asked to join Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.

In the meantime, Mr. Nix is seeking to take psychographics to the commercial advertising market. He has repositioned himself as a guru for the digital ad age — a “Math Man,” he puts it. In the United States last year, a former employee said, Cambridge pitched Mercedes-Benz, MetLife and the brewer AB InBev, but has not signed them on.“ Go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html for full article.