Intelligence and economics: changing priorities

[Детективное агентство ИКС-Инфо.]

Who are the largest intelligence agencies working for today? How does corporatocracy serve the interests of the state and how does the state help private companies? What does the reform of Russian education have to do with the activities of special services? How did intelligence help the “Chinese economic miracle”?

"Intelligence is just a continuation of politics. If politics is bad, then even the best intelligence in the world will not save it." .
Joseph Melman, an Israeli journalist.


1. Intelligence is a business
To own information means to own everything. This formula is becoming more and more visible every year, and the boundaries of this “everything” are constantly expanding. At the same time, the position of those who extract this information, professional intelligence, is changing significantly. Today, the results of their activities are in great demand not only at the state level, but also among the largest companies and corporations. Special services cease to be only an instrument of government and become an independent player in world politics and economics. Fighting this trend is like putting a finger in a hole in the hold of a sinking ship. Nevertheless, the current situation can be turned to the benefit not only of individual companies, but also of the country as a whole - here, as always, everything depends on a competent government strategy.
2. Israel
One of the most effective and professional intelligence services in the world is considered the political intelligence of Israel - Mossad, although in terms of the number of full-time employees it is several times inferior to the intelligence services of most countries. Mossad has an estimated total of about 1,200 employees, including technical staff. According to available information, in this intelligence service there are only a few dozen operational officers who are at any time ready to conduct operations in any country in the world. For comparison: the estimated number of full-time employees of the CIA is 20 thousand people, SVR is about 13 thousand, Cuban intelligence of DGI in its foreign missions alone contains about 2000 employees.
Moreover, due to the huge number of emigrants who come to Israel from various regions, Mossad can easily select personnel for work in any country in the world - with knowledge of culture and language up to local dialects. In addition, in the interests of Mossad around the world there is a huge number of recruited agents (their number is estimated at 35 thousand people) and an international network of voluntary assistants - Sayanim.
Mossad’s activities are mainly directed against Arab countries, militants and terrorists. However, at the same time, the economic component is invariably present, Viktor Ostrovsky, one of the former senior officials of this special service, emphasizes in his book, "Dear Lies." So, some time ago, the Mossad, through third countries, supplied the regime of Saudi Arabia with weapons and military equipment. When Saudi Arabia turned directly to the United States for the supply of the same equipment, believing that Israelis were paid too much, the entire Jewish lobby in the United States and all the Mossad resources were involved to reject this request. However, according to the author of the book, in economic terms, Mossad is of little use to the state of Israel, since all the financial frauds that it conducts are divided among a narrow elite circle at the very top of the Israeli public pyramid. Mossad officers from each operation make some profit for themselves and put considerable sums in their pocket, and having reached a certain position, connections and influence, they retire and start their own game, working exclusively for "themselves" - their large-scale multi-million dollar business.
At the same time, Mossad is completely beyond the control of the government and, according to the data given in the book, it is he who rules the country.
3. USA
New tasks of the special services. The US government, sensitively grasping current trends, in the early 2000s officially set the intelligence services tasks that previously were only “side” for them. Today, state intelligence agencies are expanding cooperation with security services of large corporations and ensure the priority of American business on the international and domestic markets, the security and stability of financial flows going to the country, and also contribute to the establishment of favorable US rules in world trade and business.
“The interaction of special services and private companies is carried out according to various schemes. Thus, a large company can contact the FBI for help in preventing industrial espionage and obtaining data on foreign partners working in the USA, in the CIA for checking data on potential foreign competitors. , US intelligence is attracting private companies to support military and political action in Iraq or Afghanistan, "explains Nikolai Leonidovich Semin, a senior fellow at the US and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Corporationocracy. At the same time, financial groups and private investment funds, closely connected with the government and special services, made a significant contribution to ensuring US economic superiority. “In 2006 alone, US private investment funds spent $ 400 billion on assets around the world. Their boards of directors include retired senior politicians, former senior executives who retain influence over the business community, senior military, diplomats and retired special services employees Relations with secret departments allow ensuring the main thing: checking a potential partner, establishing contacts with presidents, ministers and big businessmen of developed and developing countries and, accordingly, organizing confidential negotiations at any level. . State intelligence, in turn, uses the capabilities of corporations to ensure the security of the country.
Today, the leading place in the implementation of American policy is played by transnational corporations (TNCs), based in the United States, and commercial firms created in recent years by former senior government officials (George W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense F. Karlucci) and some former leaders of American intelligence. The provision of American hegemony in the world in modern conditions is realized through multibillion-dollar commercial projects, which involve both state intelligence forces, the capabilities of security services and the finances of TNCs. A vivid example is the work of the Carlyle Group, which actively supports the image of one of the elements of the international "shadow government". The Carlisle Group manages assets worth $ 54.5 billion. Its interests in higher political circles are promoted by former US President George W. Bush. Over the past 10 years, the Carlisle group has carried out financial penetration into the state and private structures of a number of countries, including through the complex system of shell companies and the use of intelligence work under the guise of companies, British military intelligence has been taken under control. That is, today, according to some reports, British military intelligence is actually controlled by the American financial structure. "
As a result of the merging of the state and business, the so-called corporatocracy arose - the interaction of the largest corporations and banks with government bodies, in which special services play an important role.
Economic killers. One of the tactics that have been successfully used by the security services to this day was developed during the years of the Cold War. The economist John Perkins described it in his book Confession of an Economic Killer. The so-called “economic killer,” usually the analyst of a reputable consulting firm, recruited by intelligence agencies, offers the government of another country patronage in the form of loans for the development of infrastructure — power plants, highways, ports, airports, or technology parks. Its task is to convince that these loans will allow the country to modernize the economy and reach the level of industrialized countries. This money is hired by American engineering and contracting companies, which carry out modernization. Thus, the loans provided by the Americans almost immediately and in full return to the American economy. However, the trick is that the debtor country is obliged to pay the full amount of the debt plus interest on time. If the "killer" has achieved complete success, the loan is so large that the debtor is forced to default on his payments in a few years. This can mean either control over voting at the UN, or the deployment of military bases, or access to valuable resources, such as oil or the Panama Canal. According to J. Perkins, "the debtor still owes us money - and another country is included in the global empire." This scheme has been shown to be effective in many countries.
"Gift" of the American intelligence services of Russia. It seems that this very scheme was used to break up the Russian education system. In 1997-2005 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (part of the World Bank Group) has granted Russia a number of loans for the implementation of the "Innovative Education Development Project." At the same time, loans were issued on very specific conditions: the borrowing state must comply with certain standards and carry out certain reforms. Among the prescribed “recommendations” of the World Bank are, for example:
- "close pedagogical institutes and attract teachers from among university graduates";
- "close vocational schools that cannot carry out structural adjustment";
- introduce "per capita funding for schools, based on the level of expenses per student";
- establish "minimum standards of citizenship", which were reduced by the authors of the report to "the ability to correctly read cards, explain in a foreign language, correctly fill out tax returns ... this list may also include the ability to perceive Russian art and literature, as well as tolerance for other social groups";
- “not to increase the share of expenditures on higher or secondary vocational education in the total volume of GDP unless they are seriously restructured before that”;
- Eliminate the "injustice and inefficiency of the examination system."
"... the World Bank demands from us that we abandon special schools, gymnasiums and lyceums, as this is supposedly undemocratic, and curtailed the teaching of the humanities and fundamental sciences, because for such a poor country like Russia, this is an unacceptable luxury. And, Imagine our Ministry of Education and Science is following these advisers, "remarked a wonderful philologist Galina Andreevna Belaya in an interview.
Today we already see that the recommendations of the World Bank are being consistently implemented. There is a massive reduction in pedagogical institutes, the system of vocational schools has virtually been destroyed, dubious "educational standards" are bringing us closer to the "minimum standards of citizenship", the "unfair" examination system has been replaced by the exam.
Moreover, according to the results of inspections of the Accounts Chamber, "for the entire period of use of borrowed funds in the field of education by the Russian side, the effectiveness of any of the IBRD projects has not been evaluated." According to the president of the Higher School of Economics, Alexander Shokhin, up to 2/3 of the amounts received by Russia from the World Bank went to pay for the very lending party (its consultants, advisers, etc.). The remaining third went to experiments. Repayment and loan servicing were carried out at the expense of the federal budget.
4. China
The PRC Ministry of State Security can be called one of the creators of the "Chinese economic miracle." In the mid-80s of the last century, when the "patriarch of Chinese reforms" Deng Xiaoping chose a strategy for their implementation, the MGB presented him with a program for obtaining financial resources and advanced technologies using foreign intelligence tools. “Having studied the proposals in detail, Dan not only approved them, but also made a strategic decision on priority financing and strengthening the MGB as a tool for ensuring radical reforms in China. In fact, all available resources were thrown at the needs of economic development. They engaged in economic and scientific-technical intelligence (and engaged in) both the units of the MGB, and the structures of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army of China, as well as special departments of the CPC. They worked not only full-time employees and foreign agents, but almost all private companies doing business with foreign partners. "
Hard-working intelligence and the rapid development of stolen technology ensured the rise of almost all industries. But "China has achieved the greatest success (at least visible) in industrial espionage in the military-industrial complex and in the automotive industry. Chinese copying of foreign weapons and military equipment has been put on stream, and Russia is already beginning to reap the benefits of this process - China is systematically cutting back the purchase of Russian weapons, and soon will even be able to compete with us on the world market through the release of their samples, created on the basis of copied and stolen technologies. "
Today, personnel for business intelligence are officially officially trained by leading universities in China. "The first training course in this discipline was created in 1995 at the Nanjing Science and Technology University at the Department of Management and Information. Now more than 30 Chinese universities plan to introduce the specialty" Business Intelligence "in their curricula as a separate area. The training program includes such aspects such as monitoring the competitive environment, analyzing a competitor, formulating a strategy, managing business intelligence programs, protecting trade secrets, etc. More specific - but at the same time integral - components of business (and not only) intelligence, such as recruiting sources, illegal information retrieval by technical means, etc., are taught exclusively within the framework of separate paid courses, which are conducted by former intelligence officers who are now working in the field of business intelligence. "
5. Russia
The use of Russian special services in the interests of the state depends entirely on the political will of the government. Unfortunately, this has not yet been observed - despite the predominance of immigrants from the special services, not only in business but also in government. We already have corporatocracy. However, R. Abramovich and other oligarchs are not at all striving to ensure Russia's economic interests around the world. Even Gazprom’s expansion, and it seems, brings the main dividends not to the whole country, but to a narrow circle of the elect and close ones.
The prospects of industrial espionage, for all their temptation, also seem doubtful - will our endangered industry and science be able to correctly use the stolen goods?
Perhaps it is time for the gentlemen of intelligence and special forces to finally take up their immediate responsibilities?

[DLMURL] https://www.kapital-rus.ru/articles/article/200023 [/ DLMURL]

 

[Детективное агентство Москва.]

Roma, thanks, read it.

 

[Частный детектив. Владивосток.]

Romych, thanks, interesting!

 

[Евгений СБ]

Thank.
Everyone knows, they say, they write. And then what? It seems that our country is ruled by enemies.

 

[Частный детектив. Владивосток.]

It seems that our country is ruled by enemies.

And there is...