Dr. Lani Kass

[Ken White]

it didn't come from a "Hard core leftist website" unless you call Col. (ret.) Pat Lang's "Sic Semper Tyrannis" website hard core leftist.

Nah, I consider Lang soft core. He's a waste of time, I've long paid him very little heed. Giraldi seems to lean somewhat more crossways -- or something...

The question remains; how did she get this position? I'm very sure she is very smart and good at what she does. However, the "world islamofication" map and her associated speech however is certainly unmeasured and certainly not in Americas best interests by any stretch of the imagination, as recent events surrounding settlements in East Jerusalem and comments by Gen. Petreaus have indicated.

By being bright and obviously ambitious, she insinuated herself into various positions and friendships and used those to lever herself 'up,' one job at a time. Fairly standard way of doing business. I don't agree with it but it's quite common and I doubt we'll change it. Has to be that way to prove the Peter Principle.

As for her 'ideas' -- there are a lot of folks who have ideas with which I disagree in all facets of government in most nations. I'm opposed to most social welfare provisions for example as I believe their secondary goal of creating a complaint citizenry is inimical to freedom -- and accountability. Yet, most western governments are filled with folks who believe in that stuff. Idiots abound. The Air force -- indeed all the services, the entire US guvmint -- puts people in high places that I wouldn't take as working troopies in combat because while they may be intelligent and educated, they have no common sense and thus are ineffective -- or mildly dangerous...

The Middle East today is a conundrum, all the rest of the world can do is watch as it sorts itself out. Yet, the urge to poke it, stick fingers in odd places or otherwise meddle seems to overwhelm many. No worries, as my wife, for some inexplicable reason, absolutely hates to hear me say; "It'll all work out -- one way or another..."

I've given powerpoint presentations about "seamless integration of technology to produce a magic customer experience" myself. I smell the same paradigms in that presentation.

Yes. Hmm. I agree but I also am confirmed in my opinion that a grease pencil on acetate is far better than a computer and PP...

Also confirmed is my suspicion that certain salespeople are best avoided.

...We fail to understand how this person is "adding value" to command, nor how the risk associated with potentially divided loyalties, as demonstrated by her unhelpful and misleading hype about Islam, is being managed.

I strongly doubt she is adding any value. OTOH, neither is or did Pat Lang in his government tenure. Very few people in government really add much value at all, most just do their job to one degree or another. The system is too large and self correcting (self-defeating??? ) to be much perturbed by anyone or any group of persons. Nothing to worry about, really -- there are a slew of bright people in the US (all???) government(s) who probably don't have the best interests of the nation or its people as their overarching drive. Fools, charlatans, con men, mildly incompetent well meaning and generally ineffective folks, blithering idiots all abound. That's life...

If there is some form of risk management in place, and it can be shown that there is some value add, then well and good.

The risk management factor is amply provided by plain old bureaucratic risk aversion and generic US governmental mismanagement.

[Olive Oyl]

Ms. Kass's history suggests she isn't on the ground doing the nitty gritty. She is likely not hacking and coding, but synthesizing the information gleaned from her subordinates - who are more likely the "real" pros on cyberwarfare - into strategic advice for a burgeoning and rapidly evolving field of warfare.
Similarly, I recently met someone described to me as a "gaming expert" and offered up as the equivalent of an advisor (on gaming) to our team. This person actually had no real experience with gaming, and was even lacking some basic terminology, but has worked on developing strategy for several high level gaming related initiatives, which made him apparently qualified.


Also: It's easier to self identify as an expert in a field that is in such nascent stages. There simply isn't a critical mass of established pros to deny another's expertise in cyberwarfare yet (although there is some emerging genius; it'll be interesting to watch this woman's work on cyberterrorism develop). Sad but true: there aren't enough academic groups well-established on the topic, as interested parties face fierce fights from within their institutions on justifying the need for cyberwarfare education beyond a single course or workshop.
Of course, one could always start with an IT or Computer Science degree... But when ever does logic reign in the high seas of bureaucracy?

Besides, who knows, maybe she's a closet programmer

[walrus]

Apparently the good Doctor is now the Principal Advisor for the Middle East to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff. She also rejected Gen. Petreaus conclusions regarding American credibility in the Muslim world.

Col. Langs comments was that he knows of no foreign national who could possibly obtain a position like this. She must know Americas likely response if Israel were to attack Iran, and other sensitive information.

More from Giraldi..

Additional information has come to light on Kass that heightens my concern about her high position in the United States government’s defense and security establishment. Her first job in Washington was with the Advanced International Studies Institute (AISI), a Washington DC area based think tank. After being recommended by someone at the Pentagon, she was hired for her Russian language skills in an unclassified program funded by the Department of Defense called Soviet Watch. Her fellow employees understood that she was a former major in Israeli intelligence. A few months later she moved on to beltway bandit Booz Allen Hamilton. Some months after she departed AISI, one of her colleagues received a call from a personnel manager at the Industrial War College asking to confirm Kass’s employment with AISI. The Industrial War College was, as the name implies, an institute set up to coordinate industrial production with Defense Department needs. Some of its work was classified. Kass’s colleague told the caller that Kass was an intelligence officer who thought of herself as an Israeli and added that putting her in any position of influence would be a bad idea.

From there and then to here and now has taken more than twenty years, proceeding through a number of Defense Department positions with ever-increasing responsibility and access. It would not be out of place to observe that if the report that Kass was truly an intelligence officer for the Israeli Defense Forces is correct the Department of Defense security screeners should have erred on the side of caution based on the supposition that she was still in touch with her former employers. She should never have been given a security clearance and provided access to United States classified information in the first place, which again raises the issue of just if and how thoroughly her background was actually investigated.

More information has also been developed regarding Kass’s current role. According to a highly reliable source, Dr. Lani Kass is now the principal adviser to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen regarding the Middle East. She recently was involved in a very important meeting, one that concerned Israel.

The meeting took place because of concerns that the United States has been losing the "war of ideas" in the Muslim world. At the end of last year, General David Petraeus sent a special emissary out on a fact finding mission to meet with the heads of state and top military officers in all of the Muslim countries considered to be friends or allies of the US for a frank exchange of views. The emissary, an Arabic speaker, learned that no country any longer trusts the United States because it is widely believed that all American policies in the Near East region are subject to veto by Israel. It was also commonly observed that Washington is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinians because of its failure to do anything to restrain Israel, making it extremely difficult to rally popular support in any Muslim country for US policies.

Petraeus was surprised by the unanimity and emotion of the views that were confidentially expressed and thought the issue to be important enough to move it up the chain of command. In February, he met with Admiral Mullen and briefed him on his findings. Mullen was accompanied only by Dr. Lani Kass, who was described to Petraeus as his special assistant for the Middle East. Mullen expressed some dismay at the implications of the findings while Kass disputed Petraeus’ conclusions and said that the concerns being expressed were greatly exaggerated. Petraeus nevertheless presented his report to the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 17th together with his judgment that the failure to address the Palestinian issue was putting US soldiers in danger because it was inflaming anti-American sentiment and giving groups like al-Qaeda an unnecessary propaganda victory.

One might argue that Dr. Lani Kass is just another Israel firster who has risen to high office in the US government, not really unlike Dennis Ross, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, and Douglas Feith. And that might well be true. But at the same time one must challenge the judgment of those who enabled her rise to a position of great responsibility and power and there should be serious questions about whether her bellicose and racially tinged viewpoint comes from objective and honest analysis of the genuine challenges confronting the United States or from her loyalty to her country of birth.

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/...-dr-lani-kass/

[Ken White]

LINK.

LINK.

LINK.

I have little use for Lang's self professed 'expertise' but if he knows of no other foreign nationals who emigrated to the US, became US citizens -- some dual -- and moved into high places -- then he leads a sheltered life...

I realize that's not exactly the same thing as 'he knows no...' but it's close enough for government work -- which is as close as he seems to get.

I'd also suggest that Kass, like Lang, may not know as much as he thinks she knows. I doubt, for example, she knows America's likely response if Israel were to attack Iran -- mostly because I don't think 'we' * know what we'd do.


- * - 'We' being the entire US government. No doubt some in the Administration have ideas, probably several -- but Congress may have still other ideas...

You apparently also lead a sheltered existence, Pinniped -- you should broaden your horizons, an excessive amount of that leftish foolishness will warp your mind.

[walrus]

Ken, thank you for your reply.

Henry Kissinger - arrived as a Fifteen year old.

Madeleine Albright - arrived as an Eleven year old.

Gen. John Shalikashvili - arrived as a Sixteen year old.

All of them fled Europe with their family to start a new life in the United States. There is no question regarding conflicts of interest or loyalty, nor as far as I know, any interest in dual citizenship.

Dr. Lani Kass on the other hand, arrived in America by choice as a born, bred, educated and trained Israeli army major and a Twenty something and immediately began work in the national security and intelligence community.

I note that she has also taken care that her children were born in Israel.

It is axiomatic that Israeli interests and American interests diverge from time to time, if not permanently, as Gen. Petreaus demonstrated in his testimony before Congress.

Dr. Kass by definition as a dual citizen must face these conflicts of interests in her work, and no amount of mental gymnastics can make them go away.

If Giraldi's account of the meeting of Adm. Mullen and Gen. Petreaus is to be believed, then that, taken with her unmeasured and untrue pronouncements about Islam are suggestive of a deep and totally unmanaged conflict of interest regarding American policy towards Islamic nations and also Israel..

Needless to say, it is not in Americas interests that a highly placed advisor should have such conflicts, nor is it fair to the advisor, to not have such conflicts of interest openly declared and discussed, and steps taken to address the obvious risk to both parties. In the case of Dr. Kass, I fail to see how ths matter can be addressed. If she was advising about South America, maybe, but the Middle East? This is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.

To put it another way, Ken; You want a Likudnik to give advice about Americas best interests to Adm. Mullen? You want I should ask what that advice should be about Iran? Sheesh!


P.S. These days I send my minions out to broaden horizons.

[J Wolfsberger]

Walrus,

I note that she has also taken care that her children were born in Israel.

Is this assertion really fair? My immediate assumption would be that they were born in Israel prior to her coming to the US. Is there any evidence otherwise?

Dr. Kass by definition as a dual citizen must face these conflicts of interests in her work, and no amount of mental gymnastics can make them go away.

...

Needless to say, it is not in Americas interests that a highly placed adviser should have such conflicts, nor is it fair to the advisor, to not have such conflicts of interest openly declared and discussed, and steps taken to address the obvious risk to both parties. In the case of Dr. Kass, I fail to see how ths matter can be addressed. If she was advising about South America, maybe, but the Middle East?

But one of her roles is as an adviser on cyberwar, on leave from the US War College. I don't see where her Israeli experience has a bearing on suitability in this regard.

Presumably, her expertise on the Middle East stems, at least in part, from her experience with the Israeli armed forces. If any bias or prejudice is understood up front, I don't see what the problem is.

[J Wolfsberger]

As a side note on the issue, which you may not have picked up on as an Australian, Mr. Philip Giraldi is rather ignorant of the workings of the US defense community. Just two glaring examples:

1. BAH is hardly a "beltway bandit." The term is a pejorative. If it has any accurate usage, it is to describe retired officers and civil servants who take high salary jobs in the DC area to lobby their former employers/organizations and Congress. It's application to BAH is 100% inaccurate.

2. He states "It would not be out of place to observe that if the report that Kass was truly an intelligence officer for the Israeli Defense Forces is correct the Department of Defense security screeners should have erred on the side of caution based on the supposition that she was still in touch with her former employers." Well, yes, it would be out of place. His observation is also so stunningly wrong as to call into question whether he has any knowledge of US procedures regarding security clearances. The US has granted clearances to people who came out of the Soviet bloc countries, and still had relatives there, beginning, to my absolutely certain knowledge, in the 1970s and continuing to the present.

I can't know what Mr. Philip Giraldi's motivation is, but given the significance of these two errors to his questioning Dr.Kass' suitability, and the over all ad hominum tone, I wouldn't give him any credibility.

[Ken White]

Though I've noted that some opinion sources more nearly could be called cesspits. Anti Semites to the left of me, anti Islamists to the right of me -- why, I even understand there's a Pommy anti-Oz site!

All of them fled Europe with their family to start a new life in the United States. There is no question regarding conflicts of interest or loyalty, nor as far as I know, any interest in dual citizenship.

That may be true but it still refutes to a great extent what you say Lang said. It also proves one shotgun blast may draw another.

Dr. Lani Kass on the other hand, arrived in America by choice as a born, bred, educated and trained Israeli army major and a Twenty something and immediately began work in the national security and intelligence community.

Easiest place to watch her...

I note that she has also taken care that her children were born in Israel.

My Mother was from Kentucky but a traveling Navy Wife, yet she made sure all her children were born in Kentucky, one even during a big war. There is no accounting for the vagaries of the female mind.

It is axiomatic that Israeli interests and American interests diverge from time to time, if not permanently, as Gen. Petreaus demonstrated in his testimony before Congress.

Of course they do, just as Australian and US interests diverge frequently. Israel probably diverges far more than you Strynes and most of us dumb Merkuns are very much aware of that -- including people in high places. I, BTW, put little more stock inthe good General than I do in the retired Colonel you have been citing. I suggest it is entirely possible that the good Doctor's words may be as little heeded to by many in positions of consequence. She's one more advisor of many with a viewpoint that may or may not be worthwhile and that worth is likely to vary from time to time and topic to topic. Not to mention polite listener to polite listener.

Dr. Kass by definition as a dual citizen must face these conflicts of interests in her work, and no amount of mental gymnastics can make them go away.

Who's trying to make them go away? Not I. I say they're present, however, I also say they are well known to everyone and they're just of small consequence.

If Giraldi's account of the meeting of Adm. Mullen and Gen. Petreaus is to be believed...

If. Surprised he was in attendance...

...suggestive of a deep and totally unmanaged conflict of interest regarding American policy towards Islamic nations and also Israel.

Yeah. There's a LOT of that going around and not just from former Israelis who may -- probably -- still have a an Aman connection.

Umm, How do we know it's unmanaged?

To put it another way, Ken; You want a Likudnik to give advice about Americas best interests to Adm. Mullen? You want I should ask what that advice should be about Iran? Sheesh!

I'm far less concerned with advice given -- there's a tremendous amount of that going on and the majority of it is from sources of dubious provenance, is of quite speculative value and really amounts to little more than noise -- than I am with advice that is actually heeded.

One of the problems any and all senior persons have is sorting out the tons of chaff to get to a few kernels of wisdom.

P.S. These days I send my minions out to broaden horizons.

Excellent planning! Truly. Ensure you listen to them...

P.S.

Stop worrying. Bad for the digestion and longevity...

[walrus]

I note that she has also taken care that her children were born in Israel.

I'm wrong there. She didn't come to the U.S.A. until 1981 0r 82.

Without going into it in detail, one needs a computer science degree to have any understanding of "cyberwarfare".

Her presentation here is a disgrace:

http://www.au.af.mil/info-ops/usaf/c...orce_sep06.pdf

Furthermore, her immoderate and simply untrue comments about Islam, if they were unfortunately accepted as true by the good Admiral, have the capacity to destroy Americas relationships with each and every Islamic country. Here is a sample of her rhetoric:

I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Lani Kass, special assistant to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and director of the Air Force Cyberspace Task Force. A former professor of military strategy and operations at the National War College, she helped develop the national strategy for combating terrorism and the military's Global War on Terrorism strategic plan. During her presentation, she detailed why we're at war with radical Islam, outlined their agenda and what we need to do to win this war.

After Sept. 11, 2001, most Americans asked the questions, "Why did they do this to us, and why do they hate us?" According to Doctor Kass, the reason stems from the history of Islam. Between the seventh and mid-16th centuries, Islamic culture was among the world's most dominant. For more than nine centuries, Islamic academia, medicine and science remained unrivaled. Islamic expansion and dominance declined in the 17th century following the advance of western culture and religion.

Those who follow radical Islamic believe it's God's will they dominate the world. They hate western culture because they feel the western world took their position in the world away from them, and they want it back.

Their intent was clearly outlined in a map posted on a Muttahida Jihad Council Web site titled, "The Map of United States of Islam." It shows the current Islamic dominated regions and the expected end state at the end of this century. By the year 2100, every nation and person on earth, including the United States, will follow the law of Islam.

The diversity of this intent, their level of hatred for western culture and their message of world domination became very clear to me recently while watching an interview of a captured terrorist leader. He was the mastermind behind hundreds of bombing deaths that targeted only westerners. He didn't operate in Afghanistan or Iraq or even the Middle East. He isn't affiliated with Al Qaeda but aligns with Osama bin Laden's principles that it's OK to kill civilians in the name of Islam, our arrogance is to blame for 9/11 and western cultures must give back everything taken from Muslims. He is Abu Dujana, the leader of the most notorious terrorist group -- in Indonesia.

We are in a fight for our lives.

To win this fight, we must first understand the fight we are in, Doctor Kass said. We must understand this war is unlike anything we've ever fought. It's not like World War I, World War II or the Cold War, because the foes we fought in those wars wanted to live.

Radical Islam, on the other hand, have developed a "culture of death" where they either meet their objective or die trying. In their narrow view, we must surrender and convert to Islam, or we must die. There is no middle ground or room for negotiation.

According to Doctor Kass, people in the United States fall into two groups. We are either sheep or sheepdogs. The sheep know wolves are stalking them but keep their heads down and continue to graze hoping the wolves will attack other sheep in the flock and not them. The sheepdogs know the wolves are out there, but they do something about it to protect the flock.

I feel there's a third type out there -- people who think we shouldn't fight this war and just pull back our troops. They're convinced if we leave the terrorists alone they'll leave us alone. However, this live-and-let-live philosophy is flawed, even suicidal. In the long term, radical Islam's strategic vision doesn't just include taking back their land and regaining the dominance they lost. They want to control the entire world. Those who do not submit to Islam must die.

As a military member, I'm honored to serve with the "sheepdogs" protecting our country, and I'm proud to be one of them.

When will this war end? It's tough to say right now. However, Doctor Kass provided a clue, "When they learn to love their children more than they hate us."

http://www.mountainhome.af.mil/news/...p?id=123060048


I'm sorry, but if this B.S. above is representative of the quality of advice she is whispering in Adm. Mullens shelly pink ear than God save the United States!!


I speak as someone who has travelled and traded through Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim country for Thirty Five years, a country that, while Muslim, has booze, pork, women in the Government, bikinis, etc. as does Malaysia. it's a very laid back form of Islam, and I'm not standing idly by and watch attempts by Israelis to antagonise them into radicalism because it creates a massive headache for Australia were it to be successful. In addition we have our own troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

Furthermore her statement about the hard line Wahabists is untrue:

Those who follow radical Islamic believe it's God's will they dominate the world. They hate western culture because they feel the western world took their position in the world away from them, and they want it back.

These folks specifically reject Western culture in its entirety. Al Qaeeda in particular wants to overthrow the Saudi regime, and their antagonism for us arises out of our support for Israel, the Saudi Monarchy, and our pervasive communications technology (DVD, Internet) that is making it increasingly difficult for religious leaders to control their youth as they used to. I see no "world domination" tendencies outside a few sects that are no more important than the "Christianist' types that want exactly the same Theocratic type of government.


Having been to Karachi by accident many years ago, I have seen first hand the hate of the West, but that is by no means representative of Islam and it is patently false to claim it does, as apparently Dr. Kass does.

This is not a matter about Left or Right, or Conservative of Liberal. It is a matter of what are the best interests of the United States Of America? It is obvious at least to the President, the Vice President and Gen. Petreaus that Israels interests and U.S. interests are not the same thing. Why try and deny it?

Furthermore, it is neither Anti Semitic nor an Ad Hominem attack to fail to understand how Dr. Kass can possibly manage the conflict of interest she obviously has, in the position she apparently holds, period.