News
to Me
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it."
— Dwight David Eisenhower
"I fully understand that the intelligence was wrong,
and I'm just as disappointed as everybody else is."
— George W. Bush, April 7, 2006
"I will not convene an accountability board
to judge the performances of any individual
CIA officers." — J. Porter Goss
"Once a government is committed to the
principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and
that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a
source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in
fear."
— Harry S Truman
"It is the Iraqis' country, 28 million of
them. They are perfectly capable of running
that country. . . . Our problem is that
anytime something needs to be done, we have a
feeling we should rush in and fill the vacuum
and do it ourselves."
— Donald Rumsfeld, 29 November 2005
What happens to private contractors
who kill Iraqis? Maybe nothing
L. Paul Bremer, then the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the initial
occupation government of Iraq, issued CPA
Order 17 in June 2004, the day before the CPA
ceased to exist. "Contractors," it says,
"shall not be subject to Iraqi laws or
regulations in matters relating to the terms
and conditions of their Contracts."
The Iraqi government has contested the
continued application of this order, but
because of restraints that inhibit the Iraqi
government from changing or revoking CPA
orders, Order 17 technically still has legal
force in Iraq.
Iraq orders expulsion of US security firm
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,apologised to the Iraqi government yesterday
in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of all
employees of the security firm Blackwater
USA.
... Blackwater has 1,000 employees in Iraq.
Chiquita fined 25 million dollars
for payment to paramilitaries
A US federal court Monday ordered the Chiquita banana company to pay 25 million
dollars in fines for paying millions of
dollars in protection money to Colombian
paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2004.
Blackwater: Banned in Iraq? (Updated Yet Again)
Is there even a license to revoke? Buzz onthe contractor street is that it isn't clear
how this development will affect
Blackwater. Allegedly, Blackwater doesn't
have a "license" to revoke, and its contracts
with the State Department and CIA may not be
immediately affected. This could play out in
an interesting (albeit depressing) powerplay
between the al-Maliki, Iraq's Ministry of
Interior, and the U.S. Government.
Federal prosecutor from Florida
caught in child sex sting
According to the complaint, Atchison reassured the sheriff's deputy who was posing
as the child's mother that he would not hurt
the 5-year-old because he goes "slow and
easy," and "I've done it plenty."
Iraqis Order Blackwater out of Iraq --
But Will It Leave?
Following a Baghdad shootout yesterday that left at least nine civilians dead,
security-contractor giant Blackwater will no
longer be permitted to operate in Iraq,
according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
The Interior Ministry's decision is likely to
be a source of friction between the
U.S. Embassy and Iraq. Not only does
Blackwater guard many important
U.S. officials there, but the embassy is
unlikely to want a precedent established that
allows the Iraqi government to kick out
U.S. contractors for excessive use of force.
Settlements Reached in Sept. 11 Cases
Migliori said he believed the case turned ona decision last week by U.S. District Judge
Alvin K. Hellerstein to allow several minutes
of Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder to be
played for the jury at an upcoming trial in
Manhattan.
It included the last minutes of the
passenger's lives as they struggled to take
over the United Airlines plane.
Migliori said he was not allowed to describe
the substance of the tape. But he did say
that the last five minutes revealed the
heroism of the passengers before the plane
went down in a Pennsylvania field.
Abizaid: World could abide nuclear Iran
John Abizaid, the retired Army general whoheaded Central Command for nearly four years,
said he was confident that if Iran gained
nuclear arms, the United States could deter
it from using them.
"Iran is not a suicide nation," he said. "I
mean, they may have some people in charge
that don't appear to be rational, but I doubt
that the Iranians intend to attack us with a
nuclear weapon."
How war was turned into a brand
After the dotcom bubble burst in 2000,Israel's economy was devastated, facing its
worst year since 1953. Then came 9/11, and
suddenly new profit vistas opened up for any
company that claimed it could spot terrorists
in crowds, seal borders from attack, and
extract confessions from closed-mouthed
prisoners.
88 killed, 42 injured in plane crash in Thailand
As many as 88 people were killed and 42injured when a budget airliner crashed in
attempting to land at the Phuket
International Airport in southern Thailand
Sunday afternoon, reports here said.
More Than 190 Arrested at D.C. Protest
Several thousand anti-war demonstratorsmarched through downtown Washington on
Saturday, clashing with police at the foot of
the Capitol steps where more than 190
protesters were arrested.
Bush setting America up for war with Iran
Miss Rice's bottom line is that if theadministration is to go to war again it must
build the case over a period of months and
win sufficient support on Capitol Hill.
The Sunday Telegraph has been told that Mr
Bush has privately promised her that he would
consult "meaningfully" with Congressional
leaders of both parties before any military
action against Iran on the understanding that
Miss Rice would resign if this did not
happen.
Media ownership study ordered destroyed
The Federal Communications Commission orderedits staff to destroy all copies of a draft
study that suggested greater concentration of
media ownership would hurt local TV news
coverage, a former lawyer at the agency
says.
Demobilized soldiers riot in China
The violence comes just over one week afterabout 2,000 demobilized Chinese soldiers
rioted at training centers in at least three
cities.
The reported protests, which authorities
refused to confirm, were notable for their
level of coordination, something not seen on
a nationwide scale since the 1989
pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing and
several other cities.
U.S. Secret Air War Pulverizes
Afghanistan and Iraq
The killers were robots, General Atomics MQ-1 Predators. The AGM-114 Hellfire missiles they
used in the attack were directed from a base
deep in the southern Nevada desert.
It was not the first time Predators had
struck. The previous year a CIA Predator took
a shot at al-Qaeda's number two man, Ayman
al-Zawahiri, but missed. The missile,
however, killed 18 people. According to the
Asia Times piece, at least one other
suspected al-Qaeda member was assassinated by
a Predator in Pakistan's northern frontier
area, and in 2002 a Predator killed six
"suspected al-Qaeda" members in Yemen.
Prosecute US Corporate Media For War Crimes
Fritzsche describes how he receivedinstructions on the eve of the invasion of
the Soviet Union in June 1941: “[Foreign
Minister Joachim von] Ribbentrop informed us
that the war against the Soviet Union would
start that same day and asked the German
press to present the war against the Soviet
Union as a preventative war for the defense
of the Fatherland, as a war which was forced
upon us through the immediate danger of an
attack of the Soviet Union against
Germany. The claim that this was a
preventative war was later repeated by the
newspapers which received their instructions
from me during the usual daily parole of the
Reich Press Chief. I, myself, have also given
this presentation of the cause of the war in
my regular broadcasts."
Thus, the presentation of an illegal invasion
of a foreign country as a
“preventative” or pre-emptive war did
not originate with Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld.
San Francisco to Offer Care for
Every Uninsured Adult - New York Times
It is financed mostly by the city, which is gambling that it can provide universal and
sensibly managed care to the uninsured for
about the amount being spent on their
treatment now, often in emergency rooms.
A poor choice to replace the attorney general
Under the Reagan administration, he wasassistant attorney general and had been
accused of lying to Congress on environmental
decisions. He was not indicted.
Mr. Olson was the president of the
Washington, D.C. chapter of the Federalist
Society, devoted to filling law schools,
firms and judiciary with right-wing
conservatives.
Video: GOP Minority Leader Says US
Casualties in Iraq Are aSmall Price" to
Pay
Everything about Boehner's bizarre response was either offensive, wrong, or both. We're
not "making success," al Qaeda isn't the
central problem in Iraq, the Middle East
isn't being stabilized at all, and
U.S. sacrifices are anything but "small."
Intel czar admits new surveillance
law did not foil terror plot
According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, McConnell testified to
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Monday that the new law
"helped 'facilitate' the arrest of three
suspects believed to be planning massive car
bombings against American targets in
Germany." Intelligence officials quickly
raised questions about McConnell's testimony,
indicating that the US military had provided
the information to the Germans 10 months ago,
long before the new law was passed.
Reyes: McConnell Lied When He Claimed
New FISA Law Stopped Terrorist Attack
On Monday, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Director of
National Intelligence Mike McConnell claimed
that the new expansive FISA law adopted by
Congress prior to the August recess was
responsible for the foiling of an alleged
terrorist attack in Germany.
The disgraced ABC consultant
and the push for war in Iran
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan,
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have
added their names to the list of people
who say they were the subjects of fake
interviews published in a French foreign
affairs journal under the name of Alexis
Debat, a former ABC News consultant.
Special military group looks
ahead to fight America's future wars
"Thanks to DARPA, we're toying with bankruptcy in this country," said Johnson,
who believes that because the United States
hopes to minimize casualties to its own
troops, it has increasingly been adopting the
costly high-tech approach to warfare outlined
in Anaheim.
"Does this make the country more secure?" he
asked, arguing the reverse: that just as the
United States won the Cold War in part by
using its superior economic muscle to
outspend the Soviet Union in the arms race,
America's suicide-bomb adversaries are
forcing this nation onto a spending
trajectory it cannot sustain.
Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered himto be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and
added, "I hate people like that", the sources
say. That remark reportedly came after
Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks
that Fallon interpreted as trying to
ingratiate himself with a superior.
That extraordinarily contentious start of
Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more
meetings marked by acute tension between the
two commanders. Fallon went on develop his
own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation
for continued high levels of U.S. troops in
Iraq during the summer.
F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets
The F.B.I. declined to say exactly what datahad been turned over. It was limited to
people and phone numbers “once removed”
from the actual target of the national
security letters, said a government official
who spoke on condition of anonymity because
of a continuing review by the Justice
Department.
The bureau had declined to discuss any aspect
of the community of interest requests because
it said the issue was part of an
investigation by the Justice Department
inspector general’s office into national
security letters. An initial review in March
by the inspector general found widespread
violations in the F.B.I.’s use of the
letters, but did not mention the use of
community of interest data.
Framing the War on Terror
While 6% of Americans think attacks in whichcivilians are targets are 'completely
justified,' in both Lebanon and Iran, this
figure is 2%, and in Saudi Arabia, it's
4%. In Europe, Muslims in Paris and London
were no more likely than were their
counterparts in the general public to believe
attacks on civilians are ever justified and
at least as likely to reject violence, even
for a 'noble cause.'
Report: U.S. officials confirm IAF strike in Syria
Senior CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour,citing Middle Eastern and Washington sources,
said aircraft and possibly even ground
forces, who may have directed the planes to
their target, took part in the operation.
The attack left "a big hole in the desert,"
the report said. CNN quoted U.S. government
and military sources as saying they were
"happy to have Israel convey to both Syria
and Iran the message that they can get in and
out and strike when necessary.
U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan
Consequently, according to a well-placed Bushadministration source, "everyone in town" is
now participating in a broad discussion about
the costs and benefits of military action
against Iran, with the likely timeframe for
any such course of action being over the next
eight to 10 months, after the presidential
primaries have probably been decided, but
well before the November 2008 elections.
Surrender Should not be an Option
The neo-cons claim surrender should not be anoption. In the same breath they claim we
were attacked because of our freedoms. Why
then, are they so anxious to surrender our
freedoms with legislation like the Patriot
Act, a repeal of our 4th amendment rights,
executive orders, and presidential signing
statements? With politicians like these, who
needs terrorists? Do they think if we
destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they
will no longer have a reason to attack us?
This seems the epitome of cowardice coming
from those who claim a monopoly on patriotic
courage.
Newsweek: Internal Pentagon report
contradicts Petraeus' testimony to
Congress
Even some supporters of the surge effort wonder whether Petraeus isn’t thinking as
much about selling the war as winning it....
John Arquilla, an intelligence and
counterinsurgency expert at the Naval
Postgraduate School, is even harsher in his
assessment of Petraeus. “I think Colin
Powell used dodgy information to get us into
the war, and Petraeus is using dodgy
information to keep us there,” he
said. “His political talking points are
all very clear: the continued references he
made to the danger of Al Qaeda in Iraq, for
example, even though it represents only
somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of the
total insurgency. The continued references to
Iran, when in fact the Iranians have had a
lot to do with stability in the Shiite
portion of the country.
Researcher: Bin Laden's beard is real, the video is not
More important though are the edits. Atroughly a minute and a half into the video
there is a splice; bin Laden shifts from
looking at the camera to looking down in less
than 1/25th of a second. At 13:13 there is a
second, less obvious splice. In all Krawetz
says there are at least six splices in the
video. Of these there are only two live bin
Laden segments, the rest of the video
composed of still images. The first live
section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The
second section begins at 12:29 and continues
until 14:01. The two live sections appear to
be from different recordings "because the
desk is closer to the camera in the second
section."
Then there's the audio edits. Krawetz says
"the new audio has no accompanying 'live'
video and consists of multiple audio
recordings." References to current events are
made only during the still frame sections and
after splices within the audio track. "And
there are so many splices that I cannot help
but wonder if someone spliced words and
phrases together. I also cannot rule out a
vocal imitator during the frozen-frame
audio. The only way to prove that the audio
is really Bin Laden is to see him talking in
the video,." Says Krawetz.
Rogue Nodes Turn Tor Anonymizer
Into Eavesdropper's Paradise
Egerstad discovered the problem about two months ago when he signed up five servers he
owns in Sweden, the United States and Asia to
be Tor nodes, and started peeking at the
traffic. He was surprised to discover that 95
percent of the traffic that passed through
his Tor nodes was not encrypted.
Even more surprising was the number of
embassies and other government agencies that
were using Tor, and using it incorrectly.
TPMmuckraker September 11, 2007 3:45 PM
In the hearings' most stunning moment so far,Sen. John Warner (R-VA) asked Gen. Petraeus
if success in the Iraq war will make America
safer. His response -- by far the most
surprising moment of the hearings -- was a
blunt "I don't know." This is the first time
that any general officer, let alone the
commanding general in Iraq, has ever
equivocated on whether success in Iraq will
contribute to U.S. security.
Daily Kos: Petraeus on Making Us Safe
Soon aware that that answer was not going tomake him very popular in the White House,
Petraeus backtracked, courtesy a soft-ball
from Sen. Evan Bayh
Anti-War Minister Is Attacked, Gets
Leg Broken for Trying to Enter Petraeus
Hearing
After waiting in line throughout the morning for the hearing that was
scheduled to start at 12:30pm,
Rev. Yearwood was stopped from entering
the room, while others behind him were
allowed to enter. He told the officers
blocking his ability to enter the room,
that he was waiting in line with everyone
else and had the right to enter as
well. When they threatened him with
arrest he responded with "I will not be
arrested today." According to witnesses,
six capitol police, without warning,
"football tackled him. He was carried off
in a wheel chair by DC Fire and Emergency
to George Washington Hospital.
Rev. Yearwood was examined for possible
head and leg injuries then transferred to
Central Processing. He has been charged
with "assaulting a police officer."
Rev. Yearwood said as he was being
released from the hospital to be taken to
central booking, "The officers decided I
was not going to get in Gen. Petreaus'
hearing when they saw my button, which
says 'I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.'"
America’s Guardian Myths
Susan FaludiSuch reversions have led us in some terrible
and self-destructive directions--loss of
civil liberties, endorsement of torture and a
misbegotten war paramount among them--
because they are based on a need to deny, not
address, a disturbing national reality. But
we shouldn’t be so afraid to countenance the
ghosts of our Mary Rowlandsons.
The founders of our country were steeped in
the experience of Metacom’s Rebellion. In the
Revolutionary era, Rowlandson herself had a
curtain call as an American icon: her book
was reissued in the 1770s and once again
achieved popularity, along with the
narratives of a number of other women who had
endured trials in the embattled
wilderness. It was in these very times, with
recent knowledge of domestic attack, that our
founders expanded, not contracted, the
concept of democracy, authoring the very
liberties we have been tempted to renounce in
our own time of "troubles."
Neck Deep: The Real 9/11 Scandal
On Sept. 6, 2001, Defense Secretary DonaldRumsfeld threatened a presidential veto of a
proposal by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan,
seeking to transfer money from strategic
missile defense to counterterrorism.
Hell Yes
Real History Blog
One of the most disturbing developmentsduring the WTC disaster response was the fact
that private tests repeatedly found higher
levels of hazards than government tests. As
explained in Pollution and Deception at
Ground Zero, EPA used an older "Polarized
Light Microscopy" (PLM) method rather than
the more modern Transmission Electron
Microscopy (TEM) method to analyze dust
samples for asbestos fibers. TEM equipment is
much better at identifying the thinner, as
well as shorter, asbestos fibers that
occurred in Ground Zero dust. In doing so,
EPA failed to follow its own best practices,
as it touted in its response to the asbestos
contamination in Libby, Montana, even though
EPA was actually dealing with the same
asbestos, because the World Trade Center was
insulated with asbestos that came from the
mines in Libby.
war games on the grandest scale
Alok Chaturvedi wants SWS to match everyperson on the planet, one-to-one.
Right now, the 62 simulated nations in SEAS
depict humans as composites, at a 100-to-1
ratio.
One organisation has achieved a one-to-one
level of granularity for its simulations,
according to Chaturvedi: the US Army, which
is using SEAS to identify potential recruits.
Chaturvedi insists his goal for SWS is to
have a depersonalised likeness for each
individual, rather than an immediately
identifiable duplicate.
Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle
Tanks,The Quest to Impose a Single World
Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions
"you had democracy, which you can use to vote for your leaders, and then you had a single
economic model. Now, the catch was that you
couldn't use your vote, you couldn't use your
democracy to reshape your economy, because
all of the economic decisions had already
been decided."
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community
Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized videoaddress to the American people has a
peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its
authenticity: the video freezes at about 1
minute and 36 58 seconds, and motion only
resumes again at 12:30. The video then
freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until
the end. All references to current events,
such as the 62nd anniversary of the
U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and
Brown being the leaders of France and the UK,
respectively, occur when the video is frozen!
The words spoken when the video is in motion
contain no references to contemporary events
and could have been (and likely were) made
before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Reporting From Baghdad
Posted on Sep 6, 2007By Scott Ritter
There is an al-Qaida presence in Iraq.
However, the majority of what is known as
“al-Qaida in Iraq” is composed of
Iraqis, not foreigners. The whole phenomenon
is a direct result of the American occupation
of Iraq, and would dissipate the moment
America left the country. Likewise, the
accusation of direct Iranian involvement in
anti-American violence is questionable.
Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors
In humans, sarcomas, which strike connectivetissues, can range from the highly curable to
"tumors that are incredibly aggressive and
can kill people in three to six months," he
said.
Langley jets grounded
next week for safety review
Langley Air Force Base will ground its jets next week.
The Air Force says the service's Air Combat
Command has ordered all jet fighters and
bombers to remain grounded so airmen can
review safety procedures and protocol.
Langley is home to three fighter squadrons,
which fly the F-15 Eagle and F-22A Raptor.
The Myth of AQI - Andrew Tilghman
This scenario has become common. After astrike, the military rushes to point the
finger at al-Qaeda, even when the actual
evidence remains hazy and an alternative
explanation--raw hatred between local
Sunnis and Shiites--might fit the
circumstances just as well. The press blasts
such dubious conclusions back to American
citizens and policy makers in Washington, and
the incidents get tallied and quantified in
official reports, cited by the military in
briefings in Baghdad. The White House then
takes the reports and crafts sound bites
depicting AQI as the number one threat to
peace and stability in Iraq. (In July, for
instance, at Charleston Air Force Base, the
president gave a speech about Iraq that
mentioned al-Qaeda ninety-five times.)
Thompson, Harman, Carney Call for
Moratorium on Spy Satellite Program
September 6, 2007 – Today, Committee on Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie
G. Thompson (D-MS), Subcommittee on
Intelligence, Information Sharing, and
Terrorism Risk Assessment Chair Jane Harman
(D-CA), and Subcommittee on Management,
Investigations, and Oversight Chairman
Christopher P. Carney (D-PA) sent the
following letter to Michael Chertoff,
Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security, and Charles Allen, Assistant
Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis,
Department of Homeland Security regarding the
Department’s new spy satellite program.
Daily News probe finds WTC
contractors with mob ties, fraud
All of the companies work for the Port Authority, the Dormitory Authority or
the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. on
taxpayer-funded contracts worth millions
of dollars.
The list starts with the John Galt Co., the
shell company at the heart of growing
investigations into the Aug. 18 fire at the
Deutsche Bank tower that killed two
firefighters.
Galt has ties to Safeway Environmental, a
company with a lousy safety record that has
been barred from city work because one of its
directors is a reputed mob associate.
Coleen Rowley: Never Doubt That a Small
Group of Thoughtful, Committed Neocons Can
Destroy the World (If We Let Them) - Politics
on The Huffington Post
No matter what you may think of their ideology or ethics, one cannot help being
shocked and awed at the ability of this
relatively small group to control the papers
and politics of our country against all odds
and against all reality. So they are hardly
ready to Rest In Peace despite such
predictions after the 2006 elections --see
Salon article "Neoconservatism-RIP" for good
analysis but lousy prediction. They have, in
fact, proven so pre-eminently powerful that
their next apparent task of rolling out this
new campaign for pre-emptive massive bombing
of Iran, seems nothing but a formality, a
cakewalk if you will. Yes, while the rest of
us mere mortals were caught up in the real
reality of these first two terrible war
quagmires, the neocons were already bent on
making a third new war our reality.
Microchip implants cause fast-growing,
malignant tumors in lab animals: Damning
research findings could spell the end of
VeriChip
The Associated Press will issue a breaking story this weekend revealing that microchip
implants have induced cancer in laboratory
animals and dogs, says privacy expert and
long-time VeriChip opponent Dr. Katherine
Albrecht.
As the AP will report, a series of research
articles spanning more than a decade found
that mice and rats injected with
glass-encapsulated RFID transponders
developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal
cancers in up to 1% to 10% of cases. The
tumors originated in the tissue surrounding
the microchips and often grew to completely
surround the devices, the researchers said.
The politics of blind hatred:
Who are the fanatics?
There is no such thing as Islamofascism. This is a coined propaganda word used to inflame
the ignorant. There is no factual basis for
the hatred that neoconservative Islamophobes
instill in Americans. God did not tell
America to destroy the Muslims for the
Israelis.
Bush-Bin Laden Symbiosis Reborn
"I found it interested that on the tape Iraqwas mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq
is part of the war against extremists. If
al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it’s
because they want to achieve their objectives
in Iraq, which is to drive us out."
Except that U.S. intelligence has long
concluded that al-Qaeda really wants the
opposite: to bog the United States down in a
hopeless, bloody war in Iraq that has been a
boon for recruiting young jihadists, raising
money and protecting al-Qaeda’s leadership
holed up in base camps inside Pakistan.
Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act
A federal judge struck down a key part of theUSA Patriot Act on Thursday in a ruling that
defended the need for judicial oversight of
laws and bashed Congress for passing a law
that makes possible "far-reaching invasions
of liberty."
ZOGBY POLL: 51% Want Congressional Probe
into 9/11 Actions by Bush and Cheney
Zogby Poll: 51% of Americans Want Congress to Probe Bush/Cheney Regarding 9/11 Attacks;
Over 30% Seek Immediate Impeachment
67% also fault 9/11 Commission for not
investigating the anomalous collapse of World
Trade Center 7
DHS ends criticized data-mining program
Pilot tests of the program were quietlysuspended in March after Congress' Government
Accountability Office warned that "the ADVISE
tool could misidentify or erroneously
associate an individual with undesirable
activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."
Since then, Homeland Security's inspector
general and the DHS privacy office discovered
that tests used live data about real people
rather than made-up data for one to two years
without meeting privacy requirements. The
inspector general also said ADVISE was poorly
planned, time-consuming for analysts to use
and lacked adequate justifications.
B-52 mistakenly flies with nukes aboard
Air Combat Command will have a command-wide
mission stand down Sept. 14 to review their
procedures in response to this oversight, he
said.
German engineer found guilty in
South Africa nuclear smuggling ring
The state agreed to suspend Wisser's sentence for five years, but under the terms of the
agreement he would have to do three years
correctional supervision.
Craig supporters call for
boycott of Minneapolis airport
Supporters of Sen. Larry Craig with the American Land Rights Association are calling
for a boycott of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul
Airport.
The Battle Ground (Washington) based
association says airport police who arrested
the senator in a men's room sex sting are
responsible for weakening private property
rights in the West. Craig is a Republican
member of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee.
Court Rejects Wiretapping Secrecy Claims,
Orders New Index of Documents and More
Detailed Reasons for Withholding
Congress Asks Archive to Testify About
Overclassification of Records
Washington, DC, September 5, 2007 --The United States District Court for the District
of Columbia today largely rejected the
government’s attempt to withhold without
explanation all records concerning its
warrantless wiretapping surveillance program.
In a Freedom of Information Act law suit
brought by the National Security Archive,
along with the Electronic Privacy Information
Center and the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Court rejected the summary
explanations and declarations of the
government.
Selling War with Iran: Next Week at AEI
First, the administration "does not believethe war on terror is a war against al-Qaeda."
Al-Qaeda would probably be the greatest
beneficiary of U.S.-Iranian hostility thanks
to a lack of administration focus on it. (It
would also place the U.S. in the awkward
position of fighting an affirmed enemy of the
jihadist organization.)
US Hegemony Spawns Russian-
Chinese Military Alliance
The neoconservative idiots have actually written papers, read by Russians and Chinese,
about why the US must use its military
superiority to assert hegemony over Russia
and China.
Real History Blog: Priorities - YES on HR 811
The bill in question, HR 811, the bill RushHolt put forward, offers a substantial hand
count of 100% of the ballots (defined as the
paper, not electronic, record, in the bill's
explicit language) in from 3-10% of the
precincts, depending on the margin of the
victory. The closer the victory, the more
ballots will be counted. The wider the
margin, the fewer ballots to audit to verify
the results. So Holt's bill offers my dream
solution - a system in which machine counts
and hand counts are used to count our votes.