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POPSNewsweek's editorial staff on when journalists should say "terrorist" If you fly a plane into a building and kill people, apparently, that's not enough to make you a terrorist. You have to "be foreign" and "hate Americans" to qualify. In other words, Joseph Stack is not a terrorist. He's a "separatist/protester/activist", in the words of one journalist. Another points out that the media are afraid of suggesting that the radical fringe of the anti-tax movement in this country (in other words, the Tea Party people) is, for all purposes, actually connected with domestic terrorism.
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POPSWhy we didn't catch the underwear bomber: too much information, too little analysis
Since the passage of the PATRIOT act and the creation of related data-gathering efforts, various U.S. intelligence agencies have amassed mind-bogglingly huge collections of data (at an unprecedented cost to privacy and constitutionally-protected civil liberties, I might add, but let's forget about that for now). The problem is, no one really knows what to do with all that information. We have half a million "suspected terrorists" on a list. But, as one official said, a name on a list is just a name. You have to do something with it before it's useful. But no one really knows where to start, and no one agency wants to be the first to tip its own hand. It's interesting how often the author of this article mentions Google in connection with his discussions of how to manage large amounts of information well (in the sense of, "What we need is the equivalent of a Google search for all this data"). Wonder how long it's going to be before Google is contracted out to handle U.S. national secur
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POPSListening in on the everyday lives of jihadis Thomas Bartlett, "Before Martyrdom, Breakfast," The Chronicle of Higher Education (Jan. 24, 2010). On the research of Flagg Miller, a linguistic anthropologist who has been studying a cache of audiotapes that reveal something about the day-to-day life of jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As an example, the article relates a conversation involving a veteran militant Abu Hamza, which veers from how to fry eggs on a camp stove, to wet dreams, to "the rivers of paradise."
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POPSIntroducing: The Mind-Reading Anti-Terror Detector
screening. “One by one, you can screen out from the flow of people those with specific malicious intent,” Givon said. For civil libertarians, attempting to read a person’s thoughts comes uncomfortably close to the future world depicted in the movie “Minority Report,” where a policeman played by Tom Cruise targets people for “pre-crimes,” or merely thinking about breaking the law. LIE DETECTORS One system being studied by Homeland Security is called the Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST, and works like a souped-up polygraph. It would subject people pulled aside for additional screening to a battery of tests, including scans of facial movements and pupil dilation, for signs of deception. Small platforms similar to the balancing boards used in the Nintendo Wii would help detect fidgeting. The system could be made to work passively, scanning people as they walk through a security line, according to Burns. Field testing of the system, which will cost
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POPSWhite House Briefed On Flight 253 Bomb Technology Two Months Prior It turns out the White House was also briefed in October regarding this exact same explosive device " and its ability to make it pass airport screening systems: White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was briefed in October on an assassination attempt by Al Qaeda that investigators now believe used the same underwear bombing technique as the Nigerian suspect who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence and administration officials tell NEWSWEEK. The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. What is wrong with the people in the White House? You get a briefing on a bomb attack that almost succeeded in killing a key Saudi ally, then the same type of bomb shows up one month later in Somalia. All the while warning signs are blaring about a possible holiday attack and a distraught father is shooting off warning flares about his son’s
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POPS Bush Bad Most important, the American people will quickly lose faith in a war that they conclude their Commander in Chief is ambivalent about fighting. Reports of puzzled commanders and troops in the field are already multiplying as they wonder why they’re risking death by IED if Mr. Obama isn’t sure about the mission. AP, apparently getting it: “Karzai’s election increases pressure on Obama.” It’s getting bad when even the AP wants to know what gives with the “marathon deliberations.” GOP’s Boehner actually gets in the first and only opinion on those deliberations in this AP article … “The White House has no further pretext for delaying the decision on giving Gen. McChrystal the resources he needs” … a highlighting which I can assure you, based on long experience reading between AP’s lines, is not insignificant.
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POPSPakistan Dawn, Pakistan Trutherism Obama's military problem is getting worse President Obama is presiding over a slow-motion civil-military crash occasioned by his meandering Afghanistan strategy review. The crash has not yet happened and is avoidable, but it also foreseeable. Of concern, the latest reports out of the White House suggest that Obama's team is not yet fully aware of the dangers. If it happens, it will be a problem entirely of Obama's own making and it could have a lasting impact on the way his administration unfolds. As Rich Lowry has observed, President Obama rarely misses a chance to blame a challenge he is confronting on his predecessor. This rhetorical tic served Obama well during the campaign and probably still resonates with partisans who post anonymous comments on blogs or who suffer from chronic Bush Derangement Syndrome. . . .
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POPS It’s A Complex, Complex, Complex World Along with the Predator strikes on compounds full of women and children, it should be good for a while. Knock on wood. Maguire, snarking cruelly, suggests Obama “will have to try harder to make the case that his current approach will keep America safe.” I dunno, he seems to have been handed a free throw. At least for now, absent, you know … The WaPo Takes Cheney's Side On Enhanced Interrogation by Tom McGuire WaPo sidles up to Dick Cheney. . . Let's just go back in time to the summer of 2008 when Scott Shane of the NY Times covered a lot of this ground. It appears that Obama will have to try harder to make the case that his current approach will keep America safe. right now all interrogations must comply with the Army Field Manual; Obama has a group still studying the belly slap, annoying rock and roll, walling, sleep deprivation, and the waterboard. I stand by my guess that when he thinks no one is looking Obama will re-instate everything except
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POPS Extraordinary Powers What the Goracle Giveth the Messiah May Taketh Away It's worth noting that this kind of "safeguard" is exactly how Skynet got its foot in the door. When Mother Jones and Jules Crittenden agree, isn’t that a sign of the apocalypse? Both take a hard look at the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, S.773 sponsored by Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill addresses the need to protect vital networks from cyber attack, but it gives a lot of power to the executive branch — perhaps too much power. http://www.suitablyflip.com/suitably_flip/2009/04/what-the-goracle-giveth-the-messiah-may-taketh-away.html suitably flip.com
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POPSObama's European Vacation Part 2 Napolitano tells the German news site Spiegel Online that while she presumes there is always a threat from terrorism: "I referred to "man-caused" disasters. The Orwellian World of Doublespeak of Barack Hussein Pbama, Junior and His Fascist Pigs, where War means Peace, Civil Liberties means Illegal Spying, Surveillance and Wiretapping and Economic Prosperity equals Massive Depression. Freedom equals Slavery. This is Barry's World of Doublespeak. Where is the outrage over Obama securing a $500K book advance days before being sworn in as president, thereby allowing him to circumvent disclosure laws? Washington Times: President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows. Ol' Barry sure has his Cultists hoodwinked into thinking he cares about anyone other than himself and his own personal enrichment. Classless Barry. Classless.
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POPS "Who You Gonna Blame?" in the handling of cases that almost makes it sound like, I dunno, a government health-care system or something. Anyway, if they are looking for excuses not to close the place, here’s a good one. All that international pressure on Bush to let jihadis out? Here’s a couple. There’s an 11 percent recidivism rate for former Gitmo detainees that they know about. There’s two ways of looking at that number. It’s actually not bad as criminal recidivism rates go, and tends to undercut the argument that imprisoning terrorism suspects creates terrorists. Much like this report from last spring on Iraqi detainees. Maybe Gitmo isn’t so bad after all. The other way of looking at it is, it’s a war, what’s the rush to let jihadis return to the battlefield?
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POPS So Good The Washington Independent on the prospect for “Church-Pike” hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, another great idea to hamstring and distract intelligence services in wartime that Obama may discover, sort of like closing Guantanamo, isn’t the greatest idea. Human rights groups want some drama with their national angst. Detainee Truth Commissions, please. Because fighting al-Qaeda = Apartheid.
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POPSNew CBS/NYT Polls Asks about Iraq More comments from troops; What I can't believe (0.00 / 0) is that ONLY 53 percent now realize that Iraq has nothing to do with the "GWOT." That's pretty depressing actually. After everything we know now, you would expect that percentage to be closer to 80, at least--well, I would...
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POPSChristianity Today on torture David Gushee for the evangelical Christian magazine Christianity Today on five theological grounds for the unequivocal and universal condemnation of torture by Christians, and why, from a Christian perspective, no exceptional circumstances can ever justify the use of torture. From February 2006.
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POPSWar on Terrorism is a Pretext Do you remember the changing list of reasons for going to Iraq ? WMD investigators said they hadn't found any both before and after Occupation.Did you know the U.S. has sent forces and weapons into Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan for years and years ? Now there are many 'Super Bases' in Iraq and 'terrorism' is worse. Something's not right.
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POPSGAO: Faulty defense accounting, 3rd year in a row Little accountability, transparency; cites large contractor billings in "miscellaneous" category; we really don't know how our money is being spent, or if contractors are taking us to the cleaners in the GWOT (global war on terror)
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POPSThoughts on Nangarhar from an ex-Marine An interesting and nuanced perspective, combining an appreciation for the culture of the Marines (and its flaws), an awareness of the high strategic stakes involved in any civilian killings by U.S. troops, and a much-needed reminder that U.S. forces have generally respected the law much more rigorously than any previous occupying or counterinsurgency force in history.
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POPS 2008: THE GAS MASK ELECTION John McCain is WELL to the Left of the Bushes. So, conservative voters won't be able to even get into the voting booths - let alone PULL THE LEVER for the liberal McCain - without wearing a GAS MASK!
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POPS"24": Life imitates art (sort of) According to author Judith Warner, a new book of essays on the TV series "24" shows how policymakers and military officials have been taking cues from Hollywood on how to do their jobs. Not only chilling, but surreal to boot.
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