On pagers and procurement at the MoD
This story on #procurement policy is terrifying in the light of the #intuitive capacity to think #creatively when fighting #terrorism which the #israelis did recently in the #hezbollah #pager #digital #supplyline attack.
It's specific to the #uk, but not. One of the strengths of #totalitarian regimes is their ability to value and remember #history: this assigns them the skillset of #patience. One of the weaknesses of our #democratic societies is our preference for just-in-time-isms: focussing on what's easily front-of-mind instead of multitasking everything of potential importance as always valuable front-of-mind. Our weaknesses, then, include and lead to #expediency. We are not as wise as we could be, by half. They, meantime, are much more focussed — but longitudinally so, as in a #chessgame — than we ever will be. Actually, strike that: people like #putin and those who support him in #russia (which is the vast majority of citizens who would claim to be simply ordinary) are playing #chess it's true: but through the filter of #poker. Imagine that, if you can: and then realise why we got to where we have got.
Yes. This is the real reason why.
On the procurement side of things, meanwhile, we get this recent story:
• https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/some-british-uniforms-and-protective-gear-sourced-from-china/ | the #ukdefencejournal reporting on sourcing military supplies from an enemy, #china
'An MoD spokesperson said previously:
“As part of an international supply chain, around 16,000 different items of military clothing are sourced for our Armed Forces. Our contractor must abide by strict procurement regulations to ensure that any risks around modern slavery are identified and addressed during the tender process and the subsequent contract.”'
The journalist reporting for the magazine in question then assures us the following:
'When talking to a source, I was also told that all purchases adhere strictly to procurement policies and are evaluated to ensure they meet the standards required for durability and safety, there’s no question on the quality. However, with China as one of the primary suppliers, questions can be asked about the implications of sourcing critical goods from a nation with which the UK has a complex and sometimes tense trade relationship.'
It's interesting, this: a fascinating insight into a #procurement which has zero understanding of #neocrime and how it operates in the space of #darkfigure [ https://gb2earth.com/hunch/neocrime | on #darkfigure and #neocrime | hosted at https://gb2earth.com/hunch ]: that is, a #criminalactivity which cannot be predicted, understood or tracked on the basis of previous and/or current experience and/or events [ https://gb2earth.com/hunch/terror | on the #extreme #creative #terror assailing us right now, from #putin to local community #mafias | hosted at https://gb2earth.com/hunch ].
In essence, the #mod is worried about #modernslavery and the quality — as seen in terms of manufacture according to prior tendered-for specifications — of #delivery. Fair enough: but a given, not a proactive #security focus in a world post-#pagers surely.
Because what we're really talking about here is a globalisation that has benefitted #bigtech financially as much as anyone, at the same time as making it possible for our enemies — regimes such as #china and #russia, which form part of what has fast become a veritable web of #digital #supplylines — to potentially insert their long-term weaponisation of trackable tools into the #supplyline structures that profit other people safely away from all conflict, in the #valley that runs the world so disgracefully now.
And that people in #mod #procurement should be oblivious of the #security implications of all this is frankly disturbing.
The problem ain't as defined at all, is it? It's not #quality or #slavery but the fact that once a country like #china is in your portfolio of trusted #suppliers, whether you like it or not, they're more trusted than less. Once they're in, they're in, aren't they?
And then ...
Are you really telling me that 35 million items of #militarywear will be tested one-by-one as they arrive to #uk shores from #chinesesuppliers? Really? Every single one … always? And not just for quality? Also for #weaponisation?
• https://www.secrecy.plus/spt-it | on the #weaponisation of you and me, by a supremely #creativecriminality