charging the canvas

Saturday, November 09, 2002

Alaska quake made a scar 145 miles long

1:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Interesting lil' slip o' the tongue there Senator

Sen. Warren Rudman's fulsome praise of FBI disinfo shill Jim Kallstrom reveals truth about TWA 800? [u]

They're talkin' here on the US's readiness for a terrorist attack:
MARGARET WARNER: Senator Rudman, go back to something Senator Hart raised earlier which is about sort of state and local, these first responders and how basically ill equipped they are and what they lack. How would you fix that?

FORMER SEN. WARREN RUDMAN: Margaret, we were very fortunate to have on this remarkable panel at the Council of Foreign Relations put together -- Jim Kallstrom who I think is known to you and most Americans an extraordinary FBI agent who as you know was involved in the TWA shootdown and in the last year has been helping Governor Pataki of New York and those enormous problems in that city. [Editor's Note: Former Sen. Warren Rudman said he did not mean to use to word "shootdown" to describe the TWA crash off Long Island in 1996.]
That's my emphasis there.

Just amazing.

1:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

It's "voluntary" unless you want to go to jail

Tennessee offers "thrice-weekly meetings with church counselors and job training instead" of up to a year in jail for misdemeanor drug offenses [u] (scroll to 14)

1:11 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Maybe they got lucky. I know it looks strange, but we had nothing to do with it"

Last member of the Symbionnese Liberation Army nabbed in South Africa -- one day after 4 other members plead guilty in Sacramento

Right. Just a coincidence.

Like, "Wow, Agent Torres, is that weird or what?!? When it rains, it really does pour!"

And after only 27 years!

Don't worry America, we're on the terrorist tip! Just a few oil wells to appropriate first, then we'll swoop down. . .

The question is: who were they trying to impress with this, and who cares at this point?

10:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Half a million protest Iraq War in Florence, crowd still swelling

10:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

If you're still as fascinated by the Vietnam War as I am, you'll want to check out Daniel Ellsberg's new account of his passage from DoD analyst to whistleblower Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Ellsberg gives us plenty of dirt on the nut cases in the Oval Office, Richard Nixon in particular, but in the end he tells us that the fault is in the system. It has become the status quo to leave questions of war and peace in the hands of a small coterie of individuals who are not accountable to Congress, the judiciary, or the American people, he argues. And the motives they have for engaging in wars are neither economic (as people suspect) or moral (as they claim). Johnson was motivated by his conviction that his place in history would be "determined by the resolution of the Vietnam conflict." Nixon, meanwhile, had "become publicly committed to the course [of increased bombing of Vietnam] once he saw his own credibility and honor at stake." U.S. presidents had access to the greatest military and intelligence operations in the Free World--or the world itself--but when it came to shoring up their reputation, presidents of both parties proved themselves to be as contemptuous of the advice of the military as they were of Congress.

To all those who feel that Vietnam was a coming-of-age story, Ellsberg reminds in stark but laborious prose that we killed a shitload of people in the process. And lest we forget, the death toll wasn't 50,000; it was in the hundreds of thousands. Those who led us into the war were not held accountable; those who fought in it didn't know what they were getting into. And as long as the executive is given the power to get us into wars without congressional authorization, the buck doesn't stop anywhere. Ordinary Americans aren't above trashing their presidents. And as long as the Oval Office has the sanction for declaring war, presidents aren't above returning the favor.

I remember reading The Pentagon Papers when it was published and thinking "We were right! We were right! The CIA knew this was a potential quagmire in '54!"

No parallels with a certain Current Situation, of course. . .

Another very good book on the war is William Prochnau's Once upon a Distant War: David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett - Young War Correspondents and Their Early Vietnam Battles. I really liked this book and have to reread it. This is another perspective that you don't see represented often, yet the exotic, depraved and deceptively dangerous allure of SE Asia for Americans is clearly articulated here. You feel the young journalists' innocence melting away -- not just about the situation there, but about how impervious to reality decision-makers were if it didn't suit their hubristic vision and political agenda.

So, did Bruce Springsteen do his cover of Edwin Starr's "War" on his recent tour? No?

2:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, November 08, 2002

Extremist Israeli/Christian cabal readies new propaganda broadside after election boost, waning of popular support in US for Iraq War [a]
The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which is setting up its office on Capitol Hill this week, plans to announce its formal launch next week, according to its president, Randy Scheunemann, a veteran Republican Senate foreign policy staffer who until recently worked as a consultant to Rumsfeld on Iraq policy.

The committee appears to be a spin-off of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a front group consisting mainly of neo-conservative Jews and heavy-hitters from the Christian right, whose public recommendations on fighting the war against terrorism and US backing for Israel in the conflict in the occupied territories have anticipated to a remarkable degree the administration's own policy course.
Love that last dry phrase. A "remarkable degree," indeed.

11:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Less scrutiny seen for security, Iraq [a]
Republican control of the presidency and Congress means less scrutiny and oversight of the Bush administration's plans for war against Iraq and how it combats terrorism abroad and at home, congressional analysts said Wednesday.

The GOP takeover of the Senate means no more Democratic chairmen holding hearings or probing administration policies, from the handling of intelligence data and analysis about Iraq to how the Patriot Act is being used in counterterrorism.

"Inevitably there will be weaker and more accommodating oversight, until something goes badly wrong," said Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an authority on Congress.

"Holding hearings, focusing attention on Iraq or how the Patriot Act is working -- sometimes that's as important as legislation, and now that's not likely to happen," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University professor who has studied the Senate for years.

10:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Joe McMoneagle, the most successful remote viewer, has a new book, a refreshingly honest and gripping memoir, it seems

Sounds like an essential account of the government's StarGate program, as well as an unvarnished account of McMoneagle's challenging and ultimately triumphant life, before and after the RV bit.

He'll be interviewed by Whitley Strieber on Saturday.

More links on remote viewing at the post on planing lakes.

2:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

An Egyptian TV series based on the life of journalist Nafez Haguib that follows his (probably fictional) attempt to discover if the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion has any truth to it, ran despite efforts by the US (under pressure from Israel no doubt) to prevent its broadcast

The series takes place in the late forties, as the country of Israel is founded. Mohammed Sobhi, who plays the Haguib in the show, acknowledges the Protocols are apocryphal, but claims that "only a small portion of the series is based on the work."

12:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Republican short-sellers hitting the markets today, after their party wins Congress?

2:42 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

xymphora analyzes the curious history of the sniper rifle

StratiaWire's Jon Rappaport sent up a flag about this last week (you can sign up for a free trial, it's sub only). xymphora doesn't seem to separate the 2 gun stores involved -- Welcher's and Bull's Eye. Near as I can tell, this is what happened:

John Allen Muhammad bought a Bushmaster .223 at Welcher's in December '99. He sold it back to the same gunseller in May '00. Then (supposedly) he purchased the same kind of rifle -- but not the same rifle -- at Bull's Eye in June '00, though they're still tracking the paperwork on that apparently (Bull's Eye's records being incomplete or something).

Muhammad and Malvo were only seen with a handgun in Baton Rouge and Montgomery. So someone else used the rifle there?

Read the above sources for more. The whole thing has an Oswald/construct feel to it. I think there's a 50/50 chance this was a setup/patsy situation at this point.

And they seem to be getting sloppier about it.

2:23 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Per capita rate of wiretapping in Australia 20 time that of US

3:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hartford Courant columnist Bill Olds claims the FBI is monitoring library computers [og]

Notice that I have to link to the google cache. The story originally appeared on November 3rd.

1:58 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Young travelers abroad are sometimes including visits to prisoners from their home country in Thai jails on their itinerary

12:38 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Nice page expanding on the talion piece on voting fraud and electronic voting [u]
Summary of concerns regarding voting machines: (detailed info below)

Constitutional issue: Violation of the 14th and 15th Amendment. Voting machines constitute a secret vote that cannot be observed by Federal Examiners or others in order to assure that voting rights are not being abridged.

Partisan influence: Republicans appear to dominate the voting machine business. Many would say that this is an obvious conflict of interest.

Technical problems: All federal standards are VOLUNTARY. Voting machines can be easily rigged and impossible to audit. Offsite manipulation of voting tabulation can take place. ES&S voting machines use modems which can, theoretically, "fix" voting results during an election from remote locations, even from satellites. Other companies using voting machines that can electronically "manipulate" vote tabulations from an offsite location before or after an election.

Private ownership: very little disclosure about the people and entities that own the companies that count citizens votes.

Overlapping ownership, management, and equipment usage: This makes it difficult to separate many of the companies from each other. (i.e., ES&S, Sequoia, Diebold-Global, Danaher-Guardian, and Advanced Voting Solutions-Shoup)

Financing: Funding sources for many of these companies involves international banks, media, and telecommunications.
Criminal histories: Potential organized crime influence at many of these companies.

Oversight/regulations: Insufficient by the Congress, law enforcement, or the media. Felons and foreigners can and do own voting machine companies. Federal laws governing machine standards are voluntary. In the case of ES&S, Nebraska's largest newspaper is an owner of the only voting machine company certified to count votes in that state. There is also the question of the news network's role in Voter News Service.

4:11 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Election is a site that's chronicling issues around the process of voting -- or trying to. . .

I think this election kind of seals my new existential position outside the political mainstream -- or sidestream for that matter. I can't say I feel like there's some disaster that's upon us because the elephants beat the donkeys. But I'm so far skirting the exhaustion I know I'll feel when I get around to the fact that I need to define myself politically in a way I never have, because my old muddy self that figured things would just somehow be better under the Demos has no credibility anymore, in my mind.

No surprise, but I haven't really faced the music yet. And this will take away a portion of lazy pleasure I've enjoyed for years.

Until I can articulate this more clearly, I'll leave you with:

Let it come down.

1:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Evidence that the US is, as expected, more interested in the dollars under Afghanistan than the plight of the Afghanis [Sassafrass]
"In the original briefing we gave Ambassador Finn, we outlined water, environment, oil and gas, coal, minerals and earthquakes," Medlin explained. "At the close of the meeting, he requested on the proposal that it address oil and gas, coal and minerals."

The list of areas of concern is critical, he continued, because "it sets the stage for how the whole reconstructive effort is being viewed by different groups within our government. By taking basically the oil and gas and coal and minerals, it (became) pretty obvious that the ambassador was interested in those things which would spur the economy and spur international investment into those sector in Afghanistan."

The unspoken message is issues such as water resources development, and environmental cleanup and protection -- that require funding but produce little or no return on investment -- are relegated to the background.

11:12 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Elections

Well we're 100% Republican now.

My thought right now is that this tells the rest of the world that Americans support whatever the White House is doing.

Better check those State Department travel advisories.

Interesting how they bagged Pitt in all the hubbub, very quietly.

I haven't seen -- have there been any signs of weirdness with the voting machines? Not that I don't think this was a fair election, just wondering.

So . . . we have no one to blame but the Republicans from here forward, eh?

What a feast.

10:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Panama blocks IP ports used for Net telephony, citing losses in phone revenue [og]

12:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Amnesty Int'l renews claims Israel committed war crimes in Nablus and Jenin

12:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

French envoy working behind the scenes in Baghdad to avert war [og]

He was behind the surprise release of political prisoners, supposedly.

12:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Following a Rumsfeld suggestion last spring, NATO quietly decided to shift its focus to terrorism and mobilize a force with a mandate beyond Europe, as the original anti-Soviet Cold War focus fades into history
"We're deconstructing the old NATO to build a new one to meet the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance. Burns is one of a group of NATO officials pressing for changes they believe will preserve its importance. That means being willing and able to confront threats to the security of NATO members wherever they arise -- very likely far from Europe. NATO's board of directors, the North Atlantic Council, quietly negotiated a new agreement to this effect earlier this year, which NATO foreign ministers ratified, without much publicity, at a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, last spring. After years of debate over whether NATO should operate "out of area," meaning out of Europe, the foreign ministers agreed that "NATO must be able to field forces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed" so that the alliance can "more effectively respond collectively to any threat of aggression against a member state." This was an important step toward the new rapid deployment force idea. "It was done by stealth, but everyone was conscious of its significance," said a West European ambassador to NATO who asked to remain anonymous. "No one wanted it to become a controversial political matter at home."
After all, thay have to have something to do.

How this is going to stop terrorism exactly, I don't know.

11:41 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sharon's call for early elections will probably put the Iraq War on hold too, since the US slavishly follows Israel's lead and has precious few allies on the issue

I think we're going to see a time of indecision, impotence, denial and perhaps disaster in the first half of 2003.

11:31 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

US Intelligence report claims Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France have stores of smallpox

May be. But it's interesting that Russia and France -- the 2 countries most intransigent about the Iraq resolution -- should be on this list. Particularly France, since it seems likely that Russia has stuff stashed away because of the extent of their biowar program in years past.

Like with the "Axis of Evil," there's a whiff of Imperial Arbitrariness about this. As well as the same vague insinuations that the White House has used to get people to think Iraq was involved in 9/11 -- this time to boost Cheney's plan to inoculate the entire population, like it or not.

And it's looking right now like the Republicans will take control of the whole Congress in January.

This is going to be fun. Sick fun, but fun nonetheless.

11:14 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

al-Qaeda search takes a back seat to White House's Iraq Obsession

11:01 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Unbelievable

Postal Service realizes it overpaid pension fund, billions now freed, no postal hike for 4 years

Which makes you wonder where else billions are hiding. . .

2:37 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Despite the utter lack of evidence, shrub's propaganda has apparently convinced two out of every three people that Iraq was involved in 9/11 [u]

2:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hey -- who knows him better, right?

So let me get this straight: Harvey Pitt is being investigated by a guy who works for him?

Of course we're waiting til shrub's minions find a person who's better at hiding the fact that the SEC won't regulate anything at all, if they have anything to say about it.

11:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ethel the Blog wonders why we don't have the same health program Congress does

2:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

I missed this Tom Tomorrow from last month, but it's too tasty if you haven't seen it

2:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Please get me the hell out of Britain

A misleading article in a policing publication that gave the idea Canadian police were looking to hire UK officers drew 4000 responses

2:09 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Meritocracy: Beyond Good and Evil

The Guardian is running excerpts of Robert Bryce's new book Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron
As soon as Skilling moved on to the 50th floor, he began a hiring binge that didn't stop until the company went bankrupt. But give him credit: he attracted the best and the brightest. Harvard, West Point, Rice, University of Chicago - every prestigious school in the country began feeding their best MBAs, engineers and maths wonks to Enron. At the same time, Skilling began raiding Wall Street, stealing traders, investment bankers, information technology whizz kids, programmers and every other skill-set that Enron needed.

The fleet of newly hired hotshots were never short of confidence or the belief that they were working at the best, smartest, fastest-moving company in the world. One longtime Enron employee (who held a PhD from the University of Maryland) said: "There's no question that Enron people arrogantly thought they were smarter than everybody else. There's no excuse for that. But they were smarter than everybody else."

2:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

In case you didn't catch this, Jon Stewart pretty much had his way with Howard Kurtz the other night
STEWART: Yes, exactly, breaking news. Although, quite frankly, you guys broke it. I mean, let's face facts. I mean, breaking news -- the words breaking news I don't even think can be used any more.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: ... they've been overused?

STEWART: Well, during the sniper thing, they just left it up there. They just literally left up the "breaking news" graphic. And what's the difference between breaking news, by the way, and "news alert"? What is the difference between a news alert and breaking news?

KURTZ: A news alert makes you think that there might be breaking news. Breaking news means that there actually is some sort of oozing thing called news.

STEWART: Oh, OK.

[...]

KURTZ: What did you make of the sniper coverage? Were the media trying to scare people? (CROSSTALK)

STEWART: I thought it was the media's finest hour, the sniper coverage.

KURTZ: Finest hour?

STEWART: Absolutely, by watching the 24-hour news networks, I learned that the sniper was an olive-skinned, white- black male -- men -- with ties to Son of Sam, al Qaeda, and was a military kid, playing video games, white, 17, maybe 40.

KURTZ: They really nailed it, didn't they?

STEWART: I thought they did great. And I thought it was really responsible to put them on.

I thought CNN, MSNBC, FOX, did a great job putting on -- you know what they should've called the coverage, "You know what I heard?" and just have people randomly showing...

(LAUGHTER)

KURTZ: What should happen to all of these experts who came and filled the airwaves with all of these predictions that turned out to be completely and totally wrong?

STEWART: Well, it's not their fault.

KURTZ: It's not their fault?

STEWART: No.

KURTZ: Shouldn't they have to resign from the talking head society?

STEWART: Shouldn't CNN have to pay a penalty for putting them on the air? You're Paulie Walnuts. You're vouching. You brought a guy in, and you put him on the air and you vouched. You said, "No, Tony, this guy, he's good people, he's credible." So whatever they say, I mean, they're called profilers.

If you watched the coverage, you would have thought that that's what the police do, is they literally have two guys sort of almost like psychics sitting around going, "What do you think he is?" "I don't know, maybe he's white, maybe he's black. Maybe he's with al Qaeda, maybe he's Son of Sam."

They're actually following real leads. I don't understand the idea of -- you know I heard a guy talking -- actually on your show -- saying, "Well, the public really wanted information. They had a real thirst for information. So because we didn't really have that much information, we had to just speculate."

KURTZ: We made it up.

STEWART: Right. Which seems insane. That's like saying, "You know, the kids were real thirsty, and we didn't have any water, so we just gave them beer, because we figured that would work."

(LAUGHTER)

KURTZ: Well, you're right. The cable folks who put these folks in front of the camera have to bear some of the responsibility.

STEWART: Not some, all.

1:48 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Voting

I remember the one Poli Sci class I had in college, we learned that voting is the least effective way of changing or affecting the country/government. I don't remember much else, the instructor wasn't very inspiring. I guess lobbying etc. was near the top of the list. This was in '74 or so.

I never did become a US citizen, so I've never voted (I was born in Canada, my folks moved to NJ when I was 5). I'm still deciding. Vancouver still looks pretty good.

Anyway, I suggest voting anyway, since if a lot of people vote, it will speed up the Inevitable.

If the waterheads in DC suddenly think people area actually watching what they do, half of them will resign "for family reasons" immediately, the other half will be consulting with their lawyers or getting jobs in the private sector, and the resulting moratorium on legislation will probably improve the quality of life for everyone.

Or else there will be another "terrorist" attack, and Congress will give the Corporatocracy complete control of the country, with the military to Enforce Their Will. Senators and Congressmen will simply be liaisons between The Oligarchs and the Proles (at least it'll be official). Church and military service will be mandatory and we will be forced to buy on credit to boost the economy. Indentured Servants with implanted chips to track our every breath, keystroke and thought.

So please go out and vote.

Let Freedom Ring.

1:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

AOL resists common platform for messaging, tries to scrape a few bucks together by selling a "secure" version of AIM so companies can monitor employees' messages

1:06 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thailand, Indonesia, Republic of Congo: Axis of pachyderm-keeping, oil-producing, bug-eating, border-disputing, frequently lightning-struck countries

Funny applet from the Whitney CodeDoc exhibit I posted about a while back [Temple Furnace]

12:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

KaZaa is selling as well as sharing
A growing group of online marketers have a new name for the millions of people who use Internet file-trading software to steal music: "customers."

The ranks of these marketers include independent bands with little to lose and established companies like Microsoft Corp. What they have in common is that they are starting to view the masses of Internet pirates as a possible source of revenue. They have begun to experiment with promoting their wares on file-trading services, which are typically used to obtain unauthorized copies of music, movies or software.

Some entertainment industry executives condemn those marketing efforts as giving support to services that encourage the theft of other people's intellectual property. But the organizations promoting file-traders see it as a way to lure people away from piracy by providing them with authorized material to download - and, in some cases, asking them to pay for it.
Plus -- more schizophrenic hilarity from the MusicMobsters:
"At a time when the public is especially hungry for good corporate citizens," said Carey Sherman, a lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America, "it's surprising that any legitimate interest would consider giving financial support to a pirate service like KaZaA that illegally traffics in the copyrighted works of others."

One executive at a major record company said that he and many colleagues would like to use a service like Altnet to distribute their material but that their lawyers would not allow it.
But its all about the Artist, don't you know. . .

12:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, November 04, 2002

Blatantly Orwellian transit posters in England [a]

11:39 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

A new history of the Salem witch trial era dissects the stormy political environment of Indian attacks and verge-of-Enlightenment anxiety
Her perfectly reasonable thesis, which she characterizes as radical, is that Indian attacks on the northern frontier created a climate of panic at a time when Massachusetts had lost its charter and was being ruled by a shaky interim government.

That tense atmosphere led usually skeptical men to accept the hysterical claims of young girls, which they ordinarily would have dismissed. What's more, she continues, the leaders of Massachusetts, having failed to protect their citizens from Indians -- the devil's minions -- "quickly became invested in believing in the reputed witches' guilt, in large part because they needed to believe that they themselves were not guilty of causing New England's current woes."

10:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The author of The Botany of Desire disses our over-cultivation of corn
We're producing way too much corn. So, we make corn sweeteners. High-fructose corn sweeteners are everywhere. They've completely replaced sugar in sodas and soft drinks. They make sweet things cheaper. We also give it to animals. Corn explains everything about the cattle industry. It explains why we have to give [cattle] antibiotics, because corn doesn't agree with their digestive system. It explains why we have this E.coli 0157 problem, because the corn acidifies their digestive system in such a way that these bacteria can survive.

And we subsidize this overproduction. We structure the subsidies to make corn very, very cheap, which encourages farmers to plant more and more to make the same amount of money. The argument is that it helps us compete internationally. The great beneficiaries are the processors that are using corn domestically. We're subsidizing obesity. We're subsidizing the food-safety problems associated with feedlot beef. It's an absolutely irrational system. The people who worry about public health don't have any control over agricultural subsidies. The USDA is not thinking about public health. The USDA is thinking about getting rid of corn. And, helping [businesses] to be able to make their products more cheaply -- whether it's beef or high-fructose corn syrup. Agribusiness gives an immense amount of funding to Congress.

10:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Germany looks back on a time when being a "leftist" meant being a "terrorist"
The RAF emerged in West Germany in late 1960s as the militant wing of the student-led protest movement. The protesters took aim, above all, at their parents' generation, those who had participated in World War II. The student radicals charged that their elders had failed to take to heart the lessons of the past, and that the West German state preserved many of Nazi Germany's structures.

The Red Army Faction militants went a step further, as did like-minded groups in postwar Italy and Japan, branding the state as a reincarnation of its fascist predecessor. The only way to change it, they argued, was by overthrowing it through armed struggle.

The violence culminated a quarter century ago this month, when the movement's imprisoned leaders were found dead in their jail cells. The cause of their deaths -- suicide or murder -- remained controversial for years after the event. While the RAF dissolved itself in 1996, former activists are still serving prison sentences for the bombing campaigns and assassinations.

"Back in the 1970s, you were either on the side of the RAF or you were on the side of the state. It's hard to comprehend now, but the left-right dichotomy in postwar Germany was that strict," says Stefan Reinicke, who has written extensively about the movement.
It felt like the US was heading in a similar direction (pro-war/anti-war in this case) after 9/11, but things have shifted dramatically in the last 4 months or so.

10:40 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

After their scientists finish a study of GM food, Zambian officials say "No thanks!" to US corn, even in the face of starving citizens
Its refusal to accept thousands of tons of genetically modified gift corn from the US stands, despite a deepening food shortage affecting almost 3 million people, Zambia's government said. The announcement confirmed a preliminary rejection based on the recommendation of Zambian scientists, who subsequently undertook a fact-finding mission on the matter to the US, Europe, and elsewhere. The Agriculture Ministry said the corn "might adversely affect human and animal health [and] harm the environment." The donated corn, already in government storage, will be withdrawn, the ministry said.
(The page has moved to the paid Archives section of CSM, so the link is to the home page.)

Can't say I blame them, though that's a tough decision.

10:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Shayler convicted, story seemingly ignored

9:44 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

7.9 Denali quake in Alaska biggest of the year worldwide (so far)

12:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Just saying "no" to Windows

The Extremadura region of Spain has gone open source, an experiment being followed closely by many other countries -- and Bill Gates

11:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

3-time Booker prize nominee Rohinton Mistry cancels US book tour over abuse due to racial profiling at US airports

He's not a Muslim, and isn't from one of the targeted countries.

3:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Saudis give US the high hat: no US base there for Iraq War

3:25 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Army -- under pressure from the White House -- is considering farming out one out of every six Army jobs to defense contractors
If successful, the Army's initiative -- undertaken in the name of focusing more of the military's resources on national defense -- could affect more than one in six Army jobs around the world. And it could provide a major boost to the Bush administration's efforts to move large blocs of government work into the private sector.

[...]

Federal unions denounced the Army plan as a thinly veiled attempt to do away with their jobs and benefit defense contractors. And some analysts said it raised questions about the Defense Department's capability to adequately manage its growing workforce of contract personnel.

"It's not about saving money, it's about moving money," said Bobby L. Harnage Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "They're going to turn over as many jobs as they can to these contractors, who are their major political contributors. . . . Their mission is to privatize. They don't give a damn about national security."

[...]

"The fact that the Army has so little grasp on how many people it is already employing raises basic questions about its ability to account in the future for all this stuff," Guttman said. "The relevant question is not, 'Is there competition?' The issue is who is going to be there after the [contract] workforce is established to supervise it and hold it to account."

John Anderson, assistant deputy assistant secretary for manpower management, said the Army has a pilot program that requires contractors to report costs and workforce sizes back to the department.

"We're working on that right now," he said.
This brings up other questions too, more than I can collate in my little brain right now. Like what is the effect of blurring the lines between the military and the private sector (and civilians) to such an extent? Is war going to be the only growth industry in the next decade?

11:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Better Marketing Through Science

Someone's search page (for ""unholy alliance" professors Enron") pointed me to this interesting page of non-profits with ties to industry

10:55 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thomas B Ross -- co-author with David Wise of the first exposé of the US Intel community in '64 -- died last week

He ended up embedded in the corporatocracy and later became a spokesman for the Pentagon under Carter and Reagan.

Meanwhile, David Wise's new book on Robert Hanssen looks like the dope. Hanssen himself called Wise "the best espionage writer around."

2:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Intelligence agencies are secret societies by nature -- and threaten security

From the Oct 28 FAS Secrecy newsletter
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SECRECY

With unusual self-awareness, a CIA author noted in a newly declassified study that the Agency's secrecy system for handling highly classified intelligence information could have unintended psychological effects.

The March 1977 study, entitled "Critique of the Codeword Compartment in the CIA," was formally declassified (with redactions) and accessioned at the National Archives on October 21. The 67 page document was obtained by Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive, who kindly shared a copy.

"We know that secrecy by its very nature may affect the personality of its practioners," the unnamed author wrote.

"This is true of all forms of secrecy from the primitive secret society to the codeword compartment. The latter is a heightened form of secrecy that resembles the former in many ways. It has the aura of a secret society. It has its initiation, its oaths, its esoteric phrases, its sequestered areas, and its secrets within secrets. And in place of passwords and hand signs, there are letter designations on badges. There are in-groups and out-groups. No wonder, then, if the codeword compartment has unintended psychological effects."

Among other effects identified, cleared personnel tend to assign undue accuracy and weight to highly classified information, and to equate access levels with professional status.

"On balance, the psychological side effects of the codeword compartment seem to diminish rather than enhance security," the author concludes.

2:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Directed again to Edward Jay Epstein's site by Steven Baum this time: the anthrax attack and the Bioport connection shows how tangled and messy the answers probably are

The connections between US and British military, intelligence and State Dept. officials and US business interests and their Arab (particularly Saudi) counterparts (as well as "freedom fighters" who are now "terrorists") can only make one deeply skeptical of the White House's proclamations about "protecting freedom" and daft, disingenuous "us against them" diatribes. (Brisard and Dasqié's Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden takes a stab at unravelling the Saudi-US skein, but clearly there is a lot more to be uncovered. The relationship between Arab business moguls and radical Islamic organizations is undeniably real and far more pervasive than I realized -- or than the US political/media complex lets on. It is also as old as the establishment of the Saudi kingdom.)

It's the money, stupid. The manipulation of fundamentalist, apocalyptic ideologies of Christians, Jews and Muslims is the means, but is ultimately secondary to Machiavellian power plays between actors in the various theaters who stand to gain from the sales of oil, munitions, vaccines and war-related business opportunities. (Though some of these characters really do believe what they say at least some of the time, I imagine.)

1:45 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Long, unusually forthcoming response to Select Intelligence Committee questions on Worldwide Threat from the CIA
While we are striking major blows against al-Qa'ida -- the preeminent global terrorist threat -- the underlying causes that drive terrorists will persist. Several troublesome global trends -- especially the growing demographic youth bulge in developing nations whose economic systems and political ideologies are under enormous stress -- will fuel the rise of more disaffected groups willing to use violence to address their perceived grievances.

These trends are fueling a growing backlash against globalization itself. Although we view globalization as having been the driver of the world economy in recent years, it has come under attack from those who see it as the source of income disparities, unemployment, slower growth, and financial crises.
Some of this is clearly what they want to see, like the situation in Afghanistan. Some seems aimed at finding favor with the Warheads (Iraq). Some is informative and probably true (Chechnya, Syria).

In short, some interesting material, but not much more reliable than the major news organs, by my lights.

1:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mexican potlords move operations to the US, corporate pot-growing eclipsing hippie farms
It wasn't just the size of the operation -- some 6,000 plants on three separate plots within a 2-square-mile area -- but that the people who worked there had built shacks where they slept and cooked, had lugged in workout equipment and built an elaborate, sophisticated irrigation and misting system to keep the plants growing and blossoming.

"It was really well-established," Anderson said. "It was almost like a miniature Gilligan's Island. They took the time to make a comfortable, livable site. I was highly impressed with everything from the amount of labor to the engineering in that water system that was put in."

The massive operation that agents found in the forest on state land in Klickitat County, producing a crop estimated to have a street value of as much as $9 million, is part of a trend that law enforcement officials from Washington to South Carolina have seen growing over the last half dozen years.

1:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

charging the canvas

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