Target Centermass

Category: General

  • Looking Around at the News

    Feds: Science paper a terrorist’s road map

    The federal government has asked the National Academy of Sciences not to publish a research paper that feds describe as a “road map for terrorists” on how to contaminate the nation’s milk supply.

    The research paper on biological terrorism, by Stanford University professor Lawrence M. Wein and graduate student Yifan Liu, provides details on how terrorists might attack the milk supply and offers suggestions on how to safeguard it.

    The paper appeared briefly May 30 on a password-protected area of the National Academy of Science’s Web site.

    […]

    The paper “is a road map for terrorists and publication is not in the interests of the United States,” HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson wrote in a letter to the science academy chief Dr. Bruce Alberts.

    The paper gives “very detailed information on vulnerability nodes” in the milk supply chain and “includes … very precise information on the dosage of botulinum toxin needed to contaminate the milk supply to kill or injure large numbers of people,” Simonson wrote.

    Obviously, more thought is needed by a great many on how not be our own worst enemy. The Information Superhighway needs a few more common sense speedtraps.

    Grandmother of 80 accused of running call girls

    An 80-year-old woman who shuffles around her home with a zimmer frame and an oxygen tank has been charged with running a prostitution business.

    Vera Tursi ran an “escort” business from her two-bedroom flat in Lindenwold, New Jersey – taking telephone calls from clients and sending out girls to meet them.

    Police said they suspected Mrs Tursi’s age when they spoke to her on the phone during an undercover operation. She could be heard catching her breath and used old-fashioned language.

    In her defense, at least … well … I’ve got nothing. This is just creepy. Maybe it could be used as an argument for Social Security reform.

    Election 2004: Election is finally over

    Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire now has a full four-year term to finish serving as governor. For Republicans, the 2004 election is over.

    For Washington voters, yesterday’s court ruling means a chance to see whether Gregoire can sustain the remarkably strong leadership she displayed during the first legislative session. There’s no reason for overconfidence: Early in his governorship, Gary Locke looked like he might be on his way toward large accomplishments and even national office.

    Voters also have an opportunity to demand changes in slipshod election procedures brought to light by the examination of Gregoire’s narrow victory over Republican Dino Rossi. Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges said the “voters of this state are in a position to demand” improvements.

    Rossi could have pursued an appeal to the Washington Supreme Court. That was his right, and until now, we have fully supported his exercise of legal avenues to contest the election.

    After the clear ruling from a respected jurist, however, it finally came time for Rossi to order an end to the legal expense and arguments. His decision to walk away from a last-ditch fight was right. But he spoiled his moment of grace with a cheap shot, claiming the “political makeup of the Washington state Supreme Court” would not allow him to prevail on appeal.

    Old-time Chicago-style pizza — good. Old-time Chicago-style politics in the state of Washington — bad. The state’s election system needs desperate work.

    Man Arrested in Ariz. for Ricin Possession

    A man was being held Monday on a charge of possessing the deadly poison ricin, but authorities said they do not think he had any connection to terrorism.

    Casey Cutler, 25, told authorities he carried the poison in vials around his neck to use as a possible weapon, according to a criminal complaint. He said he had been attacked last year by three men while walking to his apartment, and that he intended to use the ricin in self-defense if attacked again, the complaint said.

    Cutler, of Mesa, faces a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the single count of producing and possessing a deadly toxin for use as a weapon.

    Might I also suggest a psych eval?

    We do not need urgent reforms, says Syrian leader

    Ignoring international pressure and rising domestic frustration, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, failed yesterday to announce broad and imminent reforms as he opened an eagerly awaited conference of the ruling Baath party.

    In an address lasting barely ten minutes, Mr Assad told the 1,250 delegates: “We are convinced the ideas and precepts of the Baath party are still of relevance and respond to the interests of the people and the nation in its desire for unity, freedom, justice and development.”

    For the six Syrian opposition activists — middle-aged businessmen, engineers and former army officers — who had gathered in a smoke-filled office to watch the speech on television, Mr Assad’s address was predictable and disappointing.

    “The President has no vision, no programme and said nothing about the suffering of the Syrian people,” one man, who, like his colleagues, declined to be identified, said. “That’s why I’m not optimistic that this congress will produce anything.”

    Sometimes one is to close too to the water, too tied to the moment or the past to notice a shift in tides. Events in the Middle East are threatening to flood a Syria hoping to return to its domination of Lebanon and bloodily hold back history in Iraq. A two-front war against the future may well be too much for Assad. At least the terrorists of Hezbollah still like him. Speaking of which …

    Hezbollah Ticket Sweeps Elections in Southern Lebanon

    In the second stage of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, a pro-Syrian coalition, led by the militant group, Hezbollah, won all 23 seats at stake in the southern region where voting was held Sunday. The results in the south were in stark contrast to the result of the previous Sunday’s voting in Beirut, where a ticket headed by the anti-Syrian opposition parties swept all the seats at stake in and around the capital.

    Unsurprisingly, round two stood directly against the path of the Cedar Revolution.

  • Fake Bin Laden E-mail Hides Virus

    Forewarned is forearmed.

    Users are being warned not to open junk e-mail messages claiming Osama Bin Laden has been captured.

    The messages claim to contain pictures of the al-Qaeda leader’s arrest but anyone opening the attachment will fall victim to a Microsoft Windows virus.

    Since 1 June anti-virus companies have been catching the junk mail messages in large numbers.

    Security firms fear that interest in Bin Laden’s whereabouts could spark a big outbreak.

    […]

    James Kay, chief technology officer at Blackspider, said that the company had stopped more than a million copies of the message since it first appeared.

    “We’ve seen a lot of it overnight when the US was awake,” said Mr Kay.

    “We kind of expected that it would be targeted at the US because of the language used in it,” he said.

    Warnings about the fake Bin Laden arrest virus have also been issued by Panda Software and F-Secure.

    The vulnerability exploited by Psyme is found in Windows 2000, 95, 98, ME, NT, XP and Windows Server 2003. Users were urged to update their version of Windows to close the loophole.

    This latest virus is the third to use the name of the al-Qaeda leader to trick people into opening it.

    According to the article, known subject lines for the virus-laden emails are as follows:

    God Bless America!
    God Bless!
    Captured
    Captured! Finally!
    Finally!
    Finally! Captured!
    He has been captured
    God Bless the USA!

    A good rule of thumb is to be wary of any incoming attachments and to keep anti-virus software up to date.

  • Brief Looks at Today’s News

    Airmen Killed in Crash Were Special Ops

    The four U.S. airmen who perished Monday in the crash of an Iraqi aircraft were commandos from special operations units based in Florida, the Pentagon disclosed on Wednesday.

    Their deaths brought to 20 the number of Air Force members who have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Nine of the 20 were killed in action; the other 11 were classified as “non-hostile” deaths.

    Although the Pentagon has announced no cause for Monday’s crash, the Air Force has classified the four deaths as non-hostile.

    Killed in the Iraqi aircraft crash were Maj. William Downs, 40, of Winchester, Va.; Capt. Jeremy Fresques, 26, of Clarkdale, Ariz.; Capt. Derek Argel, 28, of Lompoc, Calif.; and Staff Sgt. Casey Crate, 26, of Spanaway, Wash.

    My best wishes to the families, and my gratitude to these men who gave their lives on Memorial Day.

    Dutch Reject EU Constitution

    The Netherlands has become the second country to reject a proposed constitution for the European Union, three days after the French turned the proposal down, leaving the EU in disarray over what steps to take next.

    A provisional final result posted by Dutch news agency ANP shows a comprehensive 61.6 percent of voters were opposed to the charter, while only 38.4 percent approved.

    Expected, though I am somewhat surprised by the crushing margin.

    Annan Fires Official over Oil for Food

    The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has sacked a senior staff member for “serious misconduct” in the oil-for-food scandal.

    Joseph Stephanides is the first dismissal stemming from alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar programme, a UN spokesman said.

    Well, it’s a start.

    Rumsfeld Warns Countries Not to Help Zarqawi

    U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned countries near Iraq not to provide sanctuary or medical treatment to Iraq’s al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have been wounded by coalition forces.

    […]

    “Any country that decides it wants to provide medical assistance or haven to a leading terrorist, al-Qaida terrorist, is obviously associating themselves with al-Qaida, and contributing to a great many Iraqis being killed, as well as coalition forces in Iraq. And that’s something that people would want to take note of,” he said.

    Obviously, medical assistance would be fine as long as Zarqawi was detained and handed over to either Iraq or the U.S.

    “Active” Hurricane Season Predicted for U.S.

    Meteorologists think a decade-long trend of active Atlantic hurricane seasons will continue this summer. That’s bad news for U.S. coastal residents who took a 45-billion-dollar (U.S.) pounding from the storms last year.

    Forecaster William Gray of Colorado State University expects a busy summer in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Gray, a pioneer in long-range hurricane forecasting, thinks eight hurricanes will form during the season, which officially began today and runs to November 30.

    Gray said four of those storms will become major hurricanes, with winds exceeding 111 miles an hour (178 kilometers an hour).

    I hate “inactive” hurricanes.

  • I Had a Dream

    I had the idea. The market was definitely there and needed to be filled.

    One of the military’s new wartime challenges is dealing with global media that can instantly spread around the world information that may be false or damaging to U.S. interests, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

    I just missed the boat. Looking at the result, I’m cool with that.

    Inspired by the recent atrocious performance of the mainstream media, I had a thought over the weekend for a new website. I had hoped to gather a group of military veteran bloggers to contribute to a new site, with the planned intention of serving as a counter to negative coverage in the media. I came close to sending out an email to members of my blogroll like Eric, Guy and another Eric.

    I even looked into a possible URL, thinking Covering Fire would be a supportive site name that said, “Hey, guys, we’ve got your back.” It turns out some rock dude has coveringfire.com. I didn’t check to see if he was worth a damn, tied as I am to dial-up at home.

    Anyways, it seems my dream has been pre-empted by bigger names in the blogosphere. Blackfive brings the news that a new site has been launched with the same purpose, though not with the plan of contribution exclusively by military veterans.

    The goal of Media Slander is to hold journalists and bloggers to high ethical standards regarding coverage of the War on Terror and other military-related issues. We plan to achieve this by highlighting bias, rumor and falsehoods that have been creeping into military coverage under the guise of objective news.

    Looking at the bright, shiny new Media Slander, I feel no bitterness that my dream was achieved by others. The goal is, by far, the important matter in this case.

  • Caught in a Meme Crossfire

    I’ve been hit by another meme. Actually, I’ve been double-tapped by it, as both Phil at Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum) and JohnL at TexasBestGrok have tagged me with the same book meme.

    Total Number of Books I’ve Owned
    I have no idea how many I’ve owned through my life, but it would easily top a grand. I currently own 250-300, scattered throughout my apartment, my car, the office and my girlfriend’s house.

    Last Book I Bought
    Ghost Wars, after Chad at In the Bullpen emailed me with an enthusiastic recommendation.

    Last Book I Read
    The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though it was actually a re-read. The last book I read for the first time was Band of Brothers.

    Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me
    The Lord of the Rings — I first read it in fourth grade. I first re-read it in fifth grade. I have no idea how many times I have turned back to it. This was the only sure thing on my list and, were one to travel back through the history of this meme, I would wager that Tolkien’s masterpiece would appear on more lists than any other book. Well, maybe a lot of people went with the Bible.

    1984 — I read it in 1983 at the height of the Cold War. It provided a chilling reason to believe in the need to fight against the Evil Empire.

    UNIX in a Nutshell — An incredible reference for my working world, one that I still turn to frequently after years in the biz.

    Dune and Stranger in a Strange Land — Okay, yeah, that’s two. Still, I cannot decide which of the two is my favorite sci-fi. Both are amazing in very different ways.

    The Pillars of the Earth — Never has a book that sounded so disinteresting gripped me in the manner as this one did. A historical epic about the building of a cathedral in 12th century England? No thanks. Man, was I ever wrong! As much as this would seem like a book that would have a relatively small target audience, I would heartily recommend it to anyone. Actually, I have recommended it to quite a variety of people, and all that have read it have been extremely engrossed by the story, the scope and the characters, so real that you root for them or despise them to a surprising degree.

    I’m now allowed to stick five others with this meme, but I think I’ll pass on this one. I think almost everybody on my blogroll that does memes has already had a shot at this one.

  • Sorry, Folks

    Work kept me all night ’til now. Stupid oncall pager.

    All I’ve got for you right now is a Texas terror arrest. Just a heads up, it’s already been seen that the “moronic clown” defense won’t fly in such cases.

  • Last WWI Cavalryman Dies

    And off a brave man goes to Fiddler’s Green.

    The last surviving British cavalryman from the First World War has died at the age of 108.

    Albert Marshall lied about his age to sign up for service in the Great War and even volunteered to return to the front line after being injured and sent home to convalesce.

    In 1998, he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honour, in recognition of his gallantry.

    He was believed to be the second oldest man in England.

    His son, John Marshall, 73, said his father died in his sleep on Monday at his home in Ashtead, Surrey, from pneumonia and old age.

    He added: “He went to join up (in 1915) and the man behind the desk said ‘How old are you lad?”’.

    “My father replied 17, but the man said ‘Would you leave the room’. He went outside then came back in after a bit and the man asked him again how old he was. ‘Eighteen,’ my father said, and was allowed to join up.

    “We as a family never knew a thing about his war experiences. We knew he was in the First World War, obviously, but it was not a subject spoken about.

    “It was only when he joined the veterans’ association and all the media attention he received after his 100th birthday that we learnt about what he did.”

    Mr Marshall, known as Smiler, was born on March 15, 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, in Elmstead Market, a small Essex village.

    He had a life-long passion for working with horses and in January 1915, aged 17, joined the Essex Yeomanry.

    His carer, Graham Stark, a volunteer from the World War One Veterans’ Association, said: “The young men that joined up didn’t think they were being brave.

    “The old Victorian values just kicked in. People didn’t put themselves first – it was a duty. We consider them heroes but they wouldn’t consider themselves in that way.”

    ‘Tis a far different story than what is so common these days.

    The soldier took part in his first major battle during the autumn of 1915 at Loos in northern France.

    Mr Marshall once said: “The cavalry’s job in winter was to hold the front line. There were three lines of trenches, mud and devastation.”

    Mr Stark said the old soldier told him he worked in small mounted units of four. One man would hold the reins of the other three horses while his comrades fought the enemy on foot.

    While serving in Flanders he was shot through the hand and spent 1917 convalescing in a Newcastle hospital but volunteered to return to the front and was back in position by spring 1918, now with the Machine Gun Corps.

    Sleep well, Albert Marshall. You’ve earned the rest.

    By the way, Fiddler’s Green is a reference to an old poem, embraced by American cavalrymen and carried on today by some tankers and scouts. It goes as follows:

    Fiddler’s Green

    Half way down the trail to Hell
    In a shady, meadow green,
    Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
    Near a good, old-time canteen,
    And this eternal resting place
    Is known as Fiddler’s Green.

    Marching past, straight through to Hell
    The Infantry are seen,
    Accompanied by the Engineers,
    Artillery, and Marines,
    For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
    Dismount at Fiddler’s Green.

    Though some go curving down the trail
    To seek a warmer scene,
    No trooper ever gets to Hell
    Ere he’s emptied his canteen.
    And so rides back to drink again
    With friends at Fiddler’s Green.

    And so when horse and man go down
    Beneath a saber keen,
    Or in a roaring charge or fierce melee
    You stop a bullet clean,
    And the hostiles come to get your scalp

    Just empty your canteen,
    And put your pistol to your head
    And go to Fiddler’s Green.

  • Iraqi Family Starts Anew in North Dakota

    Here’s a little bit of good publicity for National Guardsmen, and definitely nobly earned.

    The Iraqi woman had been in hiding with her children since her husband was pulled from his truck and shot in front of one of his sons.

    This weekend, they began a new life, brought to America with help from soldiers who befriended the slain man and were tormented by the idea that their relationship contributed to his death.

    The woman and her seven children arrived in Fargo on two flights Friday and early Saturday. One of the boys greeted waiting North Dakota National Guard soldiers with a cheery ”Hi, guys.”

    The children were presented with gifts, including toys and a soccer ball.

    ”They didn’t kick it,” said Sgt. 1st Class Shayne Beckert. ”They just sat there and stared at it.”

    The Guardsmen have been working on this gift of a new beginning since their return in February. I would imagine this moment was truly magical for them.

    Beckert and a fellow guardsman, Capt. Grant Wilz, worked for months to bring the family to the United States, appealing for help on radio and television and contacting Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., who helped arrange the trip.

    Pomeroy, who met the family earlier this month during a trip to Iraq, described them as ”bright and strong and wonderful,” and said their resourcefulness would help them adjust to life in the United States.

    Pomeroy said the mother described the journey as ”her birthday … the beginning of a new life.”

    ”This isn’t the end of the story. This is the beginning of the story,” Pomeroy said. ”They don’t know English. They have never seen winter.”

    Wow! Iraq to North Dakota — that’s quite a climate shift. I doubt these new residents will be concerned about global warming in the near future. Methinks the next charitable drive for the Guardsmen will be for parkas and firewood.

    Seriously, this is a touching story. Go read the rest, especially if you have any doubts about who the good guys are in this war.

  • France’s Media Problem

    I’ve posted before that French approval of the European Union’s constitution is in jeopardy, though even a non vote will probably not stop the EU. The issue has spawned a controversy among the French about representation of the pending vote among its public media.

    The debate over the benefits and the drawbacks of the treaty has not only divided France, it has also bitterly split France’s journalists over the nature of their coverage.

    A group of journalists from French state TV and radio are so angered by what they see as one-sided propaganda campaign being broadcast on the airwaves on behalf of the government and the Yes campaign that they have set up an online petition, signed by more than 15,000 people since 1 May.

    They presented it to President Jacques Chirac, the heads of French TV and radio and to the director of the CSA French broadcasting standards authority, Dominique Baudis.

    “This is a grotesque situation,” says Jacques Cotta, a well-known TV correspondent for France 2 who is one of the leaders of the campaign for fair coverage in the lead-up to the referendum.

    “Publicly-owned media in France are broadcasting sheer propaganda to the public, and this absence of any pluralism or any attempt to represent and discuss the point of view of those who want to vote No to the Treaty is profoundly undemocratic”

    He and his colleague Jean-Marc Surcin, a documentary-maker for France 2, agree that French newspapers have been no different, with most overtly supporting the Yes campaign.

    However, it is the role of publicly-funded and publicly-accountable state broadcasters which angers them most.

    “These are broadcasters paid for by the public, and they should be reflecting both sides of the debate fairly,” Jean-Marc Surcin tells me.

    They were granted a lengthy meeting with Mr Baudis, in which the journalists pointed out that according to their figures, French TV and radio had given 71% of its time to the Yes campaigners, and devoted a mere 29% to the No campaign between 1 January and 31 March.

    Opponents have become embittered by the one-sided treatment of the debate by the government and the publicly-owned media.

    France’s best-known Eurosceptic MP, Philippe de Villiers, has warned his supporters that they face what he called an “incredible bludgeoning” by the political and media elite.

    “On the radio, in the newspapers, on the television channels, there is just one single editorial voice: in favour of the Yes,” Mr de Villiers told one rally.

    He brandished a copy of the draft constitution which has been posted to every single household in France, along with an explanatory leaflet. That leaflet, say No campaigners, is deeply biased in favour of the treaty.

    Mr de Villiers suspects a plot. “It’s unreadable, in tiny print, and that’s not an accident. People are going to say, ‘I can’t read this, I’ll just read the helpful synopsis’. It’s a trick worthy of Fidel Castro,” he claims.

    Interestingly, the story turns to how constitution opponents are succeeding to get their message out to some — blogs.

    So instead – with accusations of media bias springing up daily on all sides – the No campaigners are using the web as never before.

    This is the first major campaign in France in which the internet has become a key weapon, with bloggers and internet-users becoming the No campaign’s front-line troops – not just in terms of influencing public opinion but also in rallying the French public to attend its campaign events.

    The Socialist MP Jack Lang – spokesman for the left’s official Yes campaign – has already warned that his side is in danger of losing the “cyber-debate” because of the strength of the No campaign on the web.

    As I’ve pointed out before, a French “no” may mean little eventually to the EU, but all of the intrigue has made for interesting theater. Besides, any setback for Chirac that doesn’t harm us is a good thing.

  • White Farmers Reject Mugabe Plea to Return

    An interesting case of reaping what you sow.

    White farmers evicted by Robert Mugabe’s government have reacted with contempt to an offer that they should return to Zimbabwe to take part in “joint ventures” with those who brutalised them and stole their land.

    Gideon Gono, the governor of the country’s central bank, suggested the idea last Thursday as a possible solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

    Greg McMurray, a tobacco farmer who fled Zimbabwe in 2001 and is now a grinder at a factory in Wiltshire, said: “These are empty promises. We have had all the assurances before and then they just turn around and change their minds.

    “I had them coming into my garden and threatening my fiancée. Men with a bit of beer in their bellies told me, ‘We’ll come and burn you and your wife and your house’.

    “I would love to go back but the economy’s in ruins. The place is a shambles. So many professional people have left. It would need a new regime before most of us would think seriously about going back.”

    Actually, make it a case of not reaping what you failed to sow.

    During the evictions, some white farmers were murdered and many others were beaten and their families abused. The evictions prompted the collapse of the agriculture sector, the traditional engine of the economy.

    Those who took over the farms had no specialist knowledge – and most farmland now lies uncultivated. The machinery has been stolen, buildings have been plundered and the former workers are starving.

    Eddie Cross, the economics spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change – which was heavily defeated by the ruling Zanu-PF party in recent parliamentary elections that were widely condemned as being rigged – said that Mr Gono was desperate.

    As long as Mugabe reigns without major reforms, the white farmers are correct in declining their burden. Besides, Kipling was so nineteenth century.