:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 10.27.2008 ::

:: Analysis: Syria raid suggests new US stance ::

Associated Press
By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bold U.S. raids into Pakistan and Syria show the stark choice the Bush administration is putting to both friends and adversaries in its final weeks: Clamp down on militants and terrorists or we'll do it for you.

Raids like the one in Syria on Sunday hold the potential to kill or capture wanted al-Qaida terrorists or other militants, but they also risk killing civilians and angering foreign governments and their citizens.

Selective U.S. military action across the borders of nations friendly and unfriendly suggests a new strategy, if not a wholly new counterterrorism doctrine. It's a demonstration of overt military strength that the U.S. has been reluctant to display in public for fear it would backfire on U.S. forces or supporters within the governments of the nations whose borders were breached. Now, senior U.S. officials favor periodic use of the newly aggressive tactics, seeing more upsides than down. They reason that whatever diplomatic damage is done will be mitigated when President Bush leaves office and a new president is inaugurated.

That may work in Syria, where the government has already said it is looking forward to a better relationship with the next U.S. president, said Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In Pakistan, however, special operations raids could box in the new American president by inflaming an already outraged public.

Read more here.

A L S O

US crossing more borders in terror war?
Christian Science Monitor

posted by me

:: 5:14:00 PM [+] ::
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:: U.S. Allegedly Listened In on Calls of Americans Abroad ::

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer

The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee is looking into allegations that a U.S. spy agency improperly eavesdropped on the phone calls of hundreds of Americans overseas, including aid workers and U.S. military personnel talking to their spouses at home.

The allegations, by two former military intercept officers assigned to the National Security Agency, include claims that U.S. spies routinely listened in on intimate conversations and sometimes shared the recordings with each other. At least some of the snooping was done under relaxed eavesdropping rules approved by the Bush administration to facilitate spying on terrorists.

The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), yesterday termed the accusations "extremely disturbing" and said his staff had begun gathering information and may consider holding hearings. "Any time there is an allegation regarding abuse of the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, it is a very serious matter," he said.

The alleged intercepts were described by two linguists who said they witnessed the activity while assigned to the NSA's giant eavesdropping station known as Back Hall at Fort Gordon, Ga. Adrienne Kinne, 31, a former Army reservist, was an intercept operator at the site from 2001 to 2003, while Navy linguist David Murphee Faulk, 39, held a similar position from 2003 to 2007. Both provided accounts to investigative journalist James Bamford for his book "The Shadow Factory," due for release next week (here is an audiobook excerpt), and also in interviews with ABC News.

Both said the NSA's intercept program was intended to pick up intelligence about terrorists and their plans -- which sometimes happened. But the operators also would frequently tap into phone calls by Americans living abroad -- usually satellite phone calls made from the Middle East, or routine calls made by U.S. military personnel from phones in Baghdad's Green Zone, they said in interviews broadcast yesterday.

Faulk said some of his fellow operators, after stumbling upon a titillating conversation, couldn't wait to let their friends in on it.

"There's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk -- pull it up, it's really funny," Faulk told ABC, recalling conversations between operators.

While declining to give specifics, an NSA spokesman said some of the allegations were currently under investigation, while others had been "found to be unsubstantiated."

A L S O

Panel to Study Military Eavesdropping
New York Times

NSA spied on US aid workers, officers, and journalists in Baghdad
Register, UK

Major shock: Eavesdropping powers abused without oversight
Salon

Posted by me

:: 1:43:00 PM [+] ::
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:: FCC Probes Pentagon Analysts ::

By Paul Bedard
Washington Whispers
US News & World Report

The Federal Communications Commission has begun notifying several TV military analysts that it is probing congressional complaints that the pundits did not properly disclose their ties to the Pentagon when reviewing the war in Iraq on air. According to a copy of the October 2 FCC letter to one of the pundits, the probe was prompted by Reps. John Dingell and Rosa DeLauro, who filed a complaint with the agency after the New York Times reported that some of the pundits were working on or bidding on Pentagon contracts and had also taken free military trips to Iraq. "When seemingly objective television commentators are in fact highly motivated to promote the agenda of a government agency, a gross violation of the public trust occurs," the duo wrote to the FCC. Copies of their May 6 complaint, above, and the FCC letter were provided to Whispers. The Times story discussed the so-called military analysts program, where many former military officials were briefed about the war in Iraq by the Pentagon.

At issue is that some of them were also linked to Pentagon contracts, raising the issue of conflict of interest. In its letter signed by the chief of the investigations and hearings division enforcement bureau, the FCC suggests that TV stations and networks may have violated two sections of the Communications Act of 1934 by not identifying the ties to the Pentagon that their military analysts had. The FCC is so far reaching out to the analysts mentioned in the New York Times article and asking for each to respond to the allegations of wrongdoing within 30 days.

We wrote about this recently when we reported that the Defense Department's inspector general was looking into the program, also at the request of Congress.

posted by me

:: 12:53:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Meteor Predicted to Hit Earth's Atmosphere Tonight ::

By Betsy Mason
Wired News

A meteoroid around the size of a Smart Car is predicted to burn up in Earth's atmosphere over Sudan tonight, marking the first time scientists have made such a forecast. There's no danger from an object this size, but the burn-up could be spectacular for those who witness it.

"A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," Gareth Williams of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which made the prediction, said in a statement Monday. Objects this size are what cause the nighttime streaks that many people think of as shooting stars. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!"

For perspective, the meteoroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona was probably 150 feet across.

Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center are among the scientists working to keep track of any potentially dangerous asteroids, known as Near-Earth Objects. The Center is tasked with collecting all the observations from around the world, checking them, calculating orbits and then disseminating the information.

The small meteoroid was discovered earlier today by the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, and quick calculations showed it was headed for Earth.

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months," Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement Monday. "The unique aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object during its final approach."

posted by me

:: 12:41:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The destructive policies of President Bush ::

Boston Globe OP-ED
By H.D.S. Greenway

IT IS HARD to believe how far this republic has fallen since President George W. Bush took office. Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, peace and prosperity reigned, and America was universally respected. True, Bill Clinton had besmirched the office of the presidency by his self-indulgence. In his memoir, he would put down his dalliance with a White House intern to the worst of all possible motives. He did it because he could. But that pales in comparison to what Bush has done to the country.

I believe that the decision to invade Afghanistan was the right one. But instead of finishing what he started, Bush botched the job and hared off into Iraq, which was not a threat, never committing the necessary resources and attention to Afghanistan. Iraq is, and always was, a diversion to the struggle against Islamic extremism. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia didn't exist before Bush invaded. And Iran has been immensely empowered.

Remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about hitting Iraq after 9/11, not because there was any connection between Iraq and 9/11 but because there were more things to bomb in Iraq than in Afghanistan? And no discussion, no dissent, no word of caution would be allowed to influence Bush's decision.

When all the various reasons for a preemptive war against Iraq are examined - the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, spreading democracy, helping Israel, etc., etc. - it all boiled down to the worst of all possible reasons: Bush invaded Iraq because he could.

Bush promised a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict before he left office, but his efforts have been half-hearted, sporadic, and pathetic - almost designed to fail.

The hubris and arrogance of Bush's first term still poisons the wells of good will this country once enjoyed. The undermining of the Constitution, the secret torture chambers have besmirched this administration more than any tawdry intern scandal ever could. Today we are bogged down in two wars and an unprecedented deficit, with a financial crisis of a magnitude not seen since the days of Herbert Hoover. The president has so little respect it's as if he has already left the stage.

The economy founders, and it may yet bring the world down with it. The same ideologically driven, hopelessly incompetent administration that brought you Iraq and "mission accomplished" was responsible for the sweetheart deal that the Security and Exchange Commission allowed the investment brokers to increase their debt in proportion to their capital, and then failed to police them.

That deal, according to The New York Times, "fitted squarely" into the broader Bush culture of deregulation that savaged everything from the "Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, to worker safety and transportation agencies."

There was a time when deregulation made sense, but, as in so much else in the life of this administration, Bush took it to extremes.

"I will seize the opportunity to achieve big goals," Bush told Bob Woodward back in 2001. But now, in his fourth book on the Bush presidency, "The War Within," Woodward concludes that in the last eight years Bush has "displayed impatience, bravado, and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness, and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut. . . . By his own ambitious goals of 2001, Bush has fallen short."

Whereas he once said he would unite the country, he has been deliberately and destructively divisive. Strangely detached, he has let his vice president run rings around him, and outsourced decisions that should have been his. As Woodward says, in the final days of his hapless presidency Bush "had not rooted out terror wherever it existed. He had not achieved world peace. He had not attained victory in his two wars."

And now this: a great financial meltdown coming down on his watch in the twilight hours of what history will judge as among the worst administrations in our history. When you think of Bush and his team, it's hard to believe so much harm could be done to so many by so few.

posted by me

:: 3:10:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Web Radio Bill Passed ::

By BEN SISARIO; Compiled by Dave Itzkoff
Arts, Briefly
New York Times

Internet radio services are breathing a sigh of relief after the Senate approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow them to renegotiate a royalty rate that Web broadcasters say is too high. By law, Web sites like Pandora.com and Live365.com have to pay the performers and owners of the recordings they broadcast, and have been in a tug-of-war with record companies over the size of these payments. (Songwriters and music publishers are paid a royalty by radio stations and Web broadcasters; Web broadcasters also pay the performer.) Under the terms of the Webcaster Settlement Act, which was passed by the House on Saturday and now goes to President Bush for his signature, Web broadcasters have until Feb. 15 to negotiate with SoundExchange, the agency that collects and distributes the royalty. Under the current rate set by federal statute last year, said Tim Westergren, one of Pandora’s founders, his site has had to pay 70 percent of its gross revenue for this performance royalty, and will have to shut down if it is not reduced.

A L S O

Internet Radio Lives To See Another Day
CRN

Analysis: Webcaster Settlement Act -- What Does It Mean?
By David Oxenford
Digital Media Wire

posted by me

:: 11:43:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Smart Slime, Ovulating Strippers Among 2008 Ig Nobels ::

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

Some fake drugs are better than others, armadillos are assaulting our history, and slime mold is smarter than we think—these and other offbeat scientific triumphs were honored Thursday night at the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

The prizes celebrate "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think."

More than 1,200 people attended a raucous affair at Harvard University, dubbed the "18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony" in honor of this year's theme—redundancy.

William Lipscomb, who had won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1976, dispensed prizes to the ten honorees. He himself was the prize in the Win a Date With a Nobel Laureate contest.

The gala is thrown every year by the science/humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

(Related: "Poop Vanilla, Endless Soup Among 2007 Ig Nobels" [October 5, 2007].)

Generics and Jerks

Duke University business professor Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, took home the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine.

In one study covered in the book, a group of people took placebos—fake pharmaceuticals—that they were told were expensive. Another group took the same pills but was told the drugs were inexpensive.

The "expensive" pills were found to be more effective pain relievers than the "cheap" ones.

The study could have implications for patients given generic, instead of brand-name, medications.

An eight-year-old girl, Miss Sweetie-Poo, chased Ariely from the podium when he delivered an acceptance speech longer than the allotted 60 seconds.

Organizers employed the child to loudly repeat "Please stop! I'm bored!" when winners exceeded the time limit.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 3:04:00 PM [+] ::
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