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The U.S. Intelligence Community is Doing Group Think on Steroids.

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The line dividing consensus from group think is narrow and not well defined. There are four principal agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) who actually produce raw intelligence — the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Why is this important? The USIC is on the record supporting the analytical conclusion that Russia is in trouble, Putin is on the ropes and Ukraine can expel Russia from Ukrainian territory as long as it gets the necessary support. How can so many people with advanced degrees from top flight universities be so blind and so deluded? The answer is simple — the USIC is a collection of gargantuan bureaucracies that do not encourage or promote thinking out of the box. Any analyst inclined to engage in counter intuitive or counter narrative analysis is not just ignored. He or she will be punished and, in some cases, fired or shuffled off to dead end jobs.

Let me take you inside the process I experienced as an analyst. I would arrive at my desk in the Central America Branch of the Middle America Caribbean Division of the Office of Africa and Latin American Affairs (ALA) around 7am and had to quickly read a 6 inch stack of paper containing the latest intelligence in order to identify any issues that would merit producing an article for the National Intelligence Daily or the Presidential Daily Brief. (Can you smell the bureaucracy?)

The intelligence I perused consisted of messages from State Department and Embassies overseas, intercepted voice and electronic communications courtesy of the NSA, DIA human intelligence reports and CIA human intelligence reports. Let’s say that after my review I knitted together several pieces of intelligence showing that the Central American leaders were working in secret to produce a peace plan that ran counter to the policy of the President of the United States regarding Nicaragua. I would go to the morning Branch meeting, brief my colleagues and Branch Chief on the story and would get the green light to produce an analytical piece explaining the particulars of the Central American plan.

For the sake of illustration, let us assume that I used a CIA and a DIA human intel report, a message from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, and an NSA piece reporting on a conversation between the President of Honduras and the President of Costa Rica. As I wrote that article I needed to refer specifically to the sources I was drawing on. Once my draft was complete I then submitted it to my Branch Chief who, like a dog marking territory, would piss on my prose and edit it with untrammeled glee.

While that was going on I had to send my draft to my counterparts in the Directorate of Operations at CIA, the Central American analyst at DIA, the Central American analyst at State INR and the NSA division that produced the report on the intercepted conversation. Everyone of those analysts had the opportunity to concur with what I wrote or offer their changes. Getting their approval is known as the “clearance process.”

Most of the time there was little disagreement and I secured their approval quickly. On occasion there would be a difference of opinion and a negotiation would ensue on finding mutually acceptable language. Once in a while the disagreement would be profound with no chance of compromise. In those rare cases, the dissenting analyst from one of the other agencies could write a dissent. This always was discouraged but not prevented.

After I made the changes requested by my Branch Chief and the other coordinating agencies, the piece went to the Chief or Deputy of the Middle America Caribbean Division (MACD) for another round of editing. I would make those changes and then it would go to the front office of ALA. Rinse and repeat. Once I had the blessing of ALA I could submit the proposed draft to the editing staffs of the National Intelligence Daily and the Presidential Daily Brief.

That was 38 years ago. Today there is no paper shuffling back and forth. Everything is done on line with computers. But that has not made the process more efficient. It has created more opportunity for a variety of people to weigh in and tweak the piece.

There also is something that did not exist when I was there — a Top Secret version of Twitter where analysts throughout the IC can congregate and engage in the same nonsense that occurs on unclassified Twitter (e.g., you may get mocked with snarky comments). Unlike regular Twitter, where you can mask your identity and hide behind a key board, the IC classified version of Twitter requires you to use your real name. And guess what? That classified channel of Twitter is regulated by senior managers who are quick, so I am told, to cancel anyone who dares offer an analytical perspective that departs from the “community standard.”

For example, imagine you are an analyst who tries to argue that the actions by the U.S. and NATO created a motive for Vladimir Putin to launch the Special Military Operation. Odds are you will be ridiculed or even cancelled. When analysts are being punished for stepping outside the IC “consensus” you have what I describe as Group Think on Steroids. There is enormous pressure to conform and no incentive to swim against the ideological current.

If you want to know why the United States has intelligence failures (e.g., Saddam is hiding weapons of Mass Destruction) this is why. No bureaucratic entity in the world, regardless of whether it is a government enterprise or a publicly traded company, likes or encourages “boat rockers.” People who rock the boat (don’t tip the boat over now) or color outside the lines have a short life in any bureaucracy. That person is fired or put into a dead end job or subjected to so much pressure and abuse that he or she decides to quit. This ain’t the world of Jack Ryan sitting around a table with a bunch of colleagues amicably working together to figure out what those dastardly Irish terrorists will do next. Pure Hollywood bullshit.

The ability of any analyst to do good, solid, objective work is totally a function of leadership at the top of the organization. If the Director of the CIA is going to shade the truth, that message is communicated down the food chain and anyone in that chain who desires to get a promotion will happily go along with shading the truth as well. There is no law or procedure that you can create to fix this. It is truly a matter of having people in management positions blessed with courage, integrity and a commitment to telling the truth no matter what the price. I have a news flash — the current leadership in the IC is lacking on all counts.

The post The U.S. Intelligence Community is Doing Group Think on Steroids. appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

By Larry Johnson

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Nandi Bear: A Ferocious African Cryptid

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An artist’s interpretation of the Nandi Bear. Photo: Cryptid Archives.

The Nandi Bear is a ferocious cryptid spotted in the highlands of Kenya during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Description of the Nandi Bear

A footprint of a Nandibear

The Nandi Bear is also known as the Chemosit, Kerit, Koddoelo, Ngoloko, or Duba. It has been described as as a carnivorous animal with a formidable build, possessing long legs exceeding a height of four feet, and a back that slopes downward. It is described as being highly aggressive in nature.

Nandi Bear Sightings

A drawing of a Nandi Bear encounter by A. McWilliams

A number of early 20th century authors mention the Nandi Bear in their work.

Richard Meinertzhagen claimed in 1905 that he was told by the Nandi people that the Nandi bear was once widespread when they first settled in the highlands of present-day Kenya, around the early 17th century.

The Nandi people believed that the rinderpest epidemic towards the end of the 19th century pushed the Nandi bear to the brink of extinction. Although the Nandi bear was never numerous, it was not uncommon prior to the epidemic.

Unfortunately, the population never fully recovered from the impact of the outbreak. During the colonial era, the Nandi bear was held responsible for the deaths of numerous native people, whose skulls were found crushed every year.

While the Nandi Bear was widely feared by the native population, it does not appear to have been known to Europeans or colonial officials until the beginning of the 20th century.

Prior to 1912, the Nandi reportedly killed a Nandi Bear after it climbed onto the roof of a hut, broke through, and killed everyone inside. Subsequently, the village inhabitants burned down the hut with the animal still inside. Geoffrey Williams had heard of a similar animal’s preserved skin in Kabras, but was unsuccessful in obtaining it.

There were rumors that a Boer had shot a Nandi bear, but was unable to retrieve the carcass. C. W. Hobley wrote of this story.

Similarly, a farmer from Uganda named K. R. Williams supposedly unintentionally poisoned a young Nandi bear while setting out bait for hyenas.

Williams described the animal as being much larger than a spotted hyena, with the same yellowish fur, and a head similar to that of a bear. However, when he returned to his camp to retrieve a knife for skinning the carcass, actual hyenas had dragged the Nandi bear’s body away.

In 1905, while on the Nandi Expedition to the Uasin Gishu in western British East Africa, Geoffrey Williams wrote of his experiences with the Nandi Bear.

He observed an animal of around 5 feet in height sitting upright like a zoo bear, with small pointed ears and a long head, about 30 yards away.

The creature then ran away with a sideways canter towards the Sirgoit Rock. Williams quickly took a snapshot of the animal with his rifle, but missed it.

He claimed the Nandi bear was larger than a typical zoo bear and heavily built, with thick fur covering its forequarters and all four legs. The hindquarters were relatively smooth, and the color was dark.

Williams could not recall much about the ears, but mentioned that they were small, and the tail, if any, was tiny and barely noticeable.

Engineer Dennis Burnett and his wife Marlene reported the most recent documented sighting of the Nandi bear in February 1998.

While driving along the Koru-Kisumu road near the base of the Nandi Escarpment during a rainy evening, they saw a large animal crossing the road.

Upon reversing their car, the couple observed the animal for about fifteen seconds. Although they initially thought it was a bear, they soon realized that it was “an enormous, shaggy hyena – resembling a Striped Hyena but significantly larger.”

Theories about the Nandi Bear

Bob Gymlan of Bigfoot hunting fame has posted a detailed video telling the history of the Nandi Bear.

In 1923, Charles William Andrews proposed that the Nandi bear might be a surviving species of the extinct Chalicothere. Louis Leakey later suggested in the 1930s that the Nandi Bear’s descriptions matched those of the Chalicothere, despite chalicotheres being herbivores.

The Chalicothere hypothesis was eventually abandoned. In 2000, paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs stated that if Chalicotheres still existed, they would have been discovered, much like the giant forest hog. Jacobs concluded that if there was any truth to the Nandi bear story, it could be a description of gorillas passed down orally across the continent.

Zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock argued that the Nandi bear sightings were actually misidentified spotted hyenas. The British Natural History Museum also stated in 1932 that many reports of the Nandi bear were nothing more than spotted hyenas.

Paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson claimed that the Nandi bear turned out to be honey badgers, which zoologists had been aware of since 1776.

Have you ever seen a Nandi Bear? Let us know in the comments.

If you enjoyed learning about the Nandi Bear you might also be interested in the J’Ba Fofi: A Giant Congolese Spider Cryptid or the Tikoloshe, a South African Cryptid.

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Cryptids

Squonk: The Saddest Cryptid

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The Squonk as featured in Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by William Cox. Photo: Wikipedia

The Squonk is said to be the ugliest creature in the world. It is so ashamed of its appearance that it will hide from anyone who approaches and, if caught, it will dissolve into a puddle of tears.

The Legend of the Squonk

The rock band Genesis wrote a popular song about the Squonk

The first mention of the squonk in written history is in William Cox’s 1910 book “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts.”

Cox describes the as the ugliest animal in the world and claims it is aware of its unfortunate appearance.

Cox claims that the squonk used to have a wide distribution and preferred habitats with plenty of desert vegetation on high plains. As these areas changed into swampy, lake-dotted regions, the squonk was forced to adapt to the water.

Due to its low intelligence, the squonk constantly searched for food by swimming in the marshes, and over time developed webbing between its toes, but only on its left feet that were submerged in water. As a result, it could only swim in circles and could never return to shore, leading to thousands of squonks dying from starvation, as evidenced by fossil bones found in the lake bottoms.

Cox also claimed that the squonk can only be found in the hemlock forests of Pennsylvania. It is said to be shy and reclusive, and can be seen mostly during twilight hours.

It is covered in a loose and warty skin that doesn’t fit properly. The squonk is known to be perpetually unhappy and often weeps due to its distressing appearance, leaving a trail of tears that can be followed.

The best time to search for a squonk is during moonlit nights, as it tends to stay hidden in its hemlock dwelling, afraid to catch a glimpse of itself in a reflective pool.

Sometimes, the sound of a softly weeping squonk can be heard, which sounds like a mournful call resembling that of the cross-feathered snee.

A Mr. J.P. Wentling had a disappointing experience with a squonk near Mont Alto. He captured the squonk by mimicking its crying sounds and tricking it into hopping into a sack. As he carried it home the sack suddenly became much lighter. Wentling unslung the sack and looked in. He found that the squonk had dissolved into tears and bubbles.

Squonk Meme

A variation of the squonk meme that has become popular in recent times.

The squonk has become a meme in recent times, with many internet users feeling like they can relate to the poor little creature. The squonk has even featured in one of our paranormal meme dumps.

Have you ever seen a poor little squonk in the wild? Let us know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article you might also be interested in the story of the kushtaka or the Central American Whintosser.

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