Thursday, September 08, 2005

Dropping Some Science on the Left


Rising Tide : The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed AmericaThe best quote yet on the reaction to Katrina comes from Greg Hanke:

The earliest official date on the two Louisiana Governor's 'Emergency Evacuation by Buses' orders is August 31, 2005. This is apparently an order to move those at the Superdome, as well as other places.

The hurricane hit NOLA on August 29.

Seems a tad late for an emergency order, no? Why wasn't a similar order put into effect before the disaster? It may have prevented this.

I swear, if President Bush had shown up like Moses, parted the waters and led the people to safety, the liberals would have sued him for violating the separation of church and state.


Would it be trite to say... 'Indeed'? I have evidence that Governor Blanco was hard at work during the crisis, though. That much is clear:

On the afternoon of Aug. 27, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco held a press briefing in which she answered a question about what could be done to avert disaster: "We can pray very hard that the intensity will weaken. We don't know what it's going to be yet, but we're all watching the weather service. I believe that's the best we can do right now."


Yes, the best strategy Governor Blanco could recommend was to pray. No, she couldn't bother following the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Plan -- and thereby deploy hundreds or thousands of buses -- that wasn't necessary. Just prayer.

Can you imagine if Blanco were a Republican? How long would it have taken Maureen Dowd to call her 'Governor Falwell'? Or the Times' other shameless, tag-team DNC mouthpieces -- Herbert & Krugman -- to claim the Governor's admonition was violating the separation of church and state?

Greg also drops some science on the crowing, baying group of liberals anxious to pin something (anything!) on George W. Bush. Greg points to the Post-Chronicle, which notes:

It is against the law for any President to order troops into a city or across state lines without a request and permission from the Governor of that state.

John Armor, a First Amendment lawyer... told me, "Federal law prevents the President from sending in the National Guard until the Governor gives the order. It is little known, but the Commanding General of the National Guard in every state reports to the Governor, not the President, until the Governor says otherwise. U.S. military units (regular Army, not the Guard) cannot be used because of the Posse Comitatus law, until the Guard has been authorized."


Translation for the geniuses on the Times' Op-Ed page: the President can't do jack-squat unless authorized to do so by the Governor.

The key questions we must related to a simple, underlying premise: Louisiana has a required emergency response plan... why was it not followed?

o Why did the Governor abandon the City of New Orleans for the safety of Baton Rouge, before the Plan was Executed?

o Why, when the federal Government was acting in accordance with the Stafford Act, did the State of Louisiana, by its Governor's acts, delay making requests when being told this storm was going to hit?

o Why did Mayor Nagin or Governor Blanco, delay while "sleeping on it" Saturday night, the mandatory evacuation spelled out in the Louisiana Emergency Plan? On Saturday the Mayor said he may order an evacuation, "tomorrow" (Sunday).

o Where were the Parish Presidents who were signatories to the Louisiana Emergency Plan, and why did they fail in the execution of the plan?

o After the Parish's obvious failure to implement, why didn't the State take over as required by the plan?

o Why were the Hospitals, nursing homes, etc. not evacuated since the plan required them to do so?

o Why did the mandatory evacuation only occur AFTER President Bush called, and why did Governor Blanco stress that it was only after President Bush's call urging the evacuation order? Was she concerned for the citizens, or was she grandstanding so she could blame the President if the storm didn't hit?


Maybe the proposed Hillary Commission could get to the bottom of this (after its requisite orgy of Bush-bashing). And after, of course, its inclusion of Ray Nagin and/or Governor Blanco on the commission itself -- 9/11, Jamie Gorelick-style.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Plenty of Blame, Alright



Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present The Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool. New Orleans owns about 205 school buses and 364 public transit buses.

Estimates indicate upwards of 30,000 people could have been evac'ed in one trip. That is, of course, assuming there had been sufficient planning and execution at the local level. Think about it. In a single trip, most of the folks at the Superdome and Convention Center could have been sent to Houston or other venues.

But, no, the buses sit unused in flooded parking lots, leaking a delightful concoction -- made up of diesel fuel and motor oil -- into the toxic soup soaking the city. But, hey, maybe the Left can figure out a way to blame that on President Bush, too. Along with the hurricane, global warming, Governor Blanco's deer-in-the-headlights performance, and runny catsup in the relief centers.

Thank God for the U.S. Military and for President Bush. I shudder to think what would have happened had the President not called the Governor and personally requested a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, an act called 'unprecedented':

...a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin... The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should... Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding...


And, yes, all pre-evacuation plans for New Orleans called for using buses and organized assistance to those who do not have private transportation. May I quote from the State of Louisiana's Emergency Operations Plan?

The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating...



Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool

The Washington Post, no friend of the administration, is also reporting that Governor Blanco resisted a centralized command-and-control structure requested by the President on Friday. That night, the administration had sent Blanco a legal memorandum requesting a federal takeover of the New Orleans evacuation.

In other words, the administration wanted centralized command-and-control over the police, state National Guard, and related local units that report to the governor. According to the Post's report, Louisiana officials rejected the request, apparently fearing a political backlash to any de facto declaration of martial law.

Furthermore, the Post reports that, "Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said."

From all appearances, Governor Blanco did everything in her power to resist asking anyone for help. And her motivations -- at this point -- appear politically motivated.

And what of the failed levee? Can federal authorities be blamed for that? AFF notes:

[One] eye-witness quoted on Fox News today... said that he saw floating grain barges hit the 17th St. canal and cause that breach, not just flood waters. This is pure conjecture, but regardless, the breaches of the 17th St. levee occurred at the newly reconstructed and restored part of the levee, not the old decrepit part.


Hmmm. Ben Stein also relates, in a brilliant, brief summary, his opinions:

Why is it that the snipers who shot at emergency rescuers trying to save people in hospitals and shelters are never mentioned except in passing, and Mr. Bush, who is turning over heaven and earth to rescue the victims of the storm, is endlessly vilified?

...What special abilities does the media have for deciding how much blame goes to the federal government as opposed to the city government of New Orleans for the aftereffects of Katrina?

If able-bodied people refuse to obey a mandatory evacuation order for a city, have they not assumed the risk that ill effects will happen to them?

When the city government simply ignores its own sick and hospitalized and elderly people in its evacuation order, is Mr. Bush to blame for that?


Meanwhile, the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool percolates in a thick, soupy mush, awaiting deployment orders that will never come.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Gas: 33% Off


Biodiesel: Growing A New Energy EconomyTwo nights ago, my brother-in-law calls me, breathless, "Get over to the BP station on the corner. Gas is $2.09!" Yeah right, I retort. After all, Katrina has bumped the price of gas in our area to a uniform $3.09 a gallon. Why would a station be selling gas for 33% off?

Just get over there, he insists. I take the short drive from our neighborhood and my daughter drives her car over as well. The illuminated sign on the corner reads, "Unleaded: $3.09". I pull next to a pump. The LCD on the pump displays the price for each grade. Premium is $3.39. Plus is $3.19. Unleaded is $2.09. What the... ?

I whip out an Amex and fill both cars. Drive back to the house and get my wife's car. And fill that up. While her car refuels, I walk into the small station/convenience store. I ask the lady behind the counter: what's up with the $2.09 gas? She reponds that she had received a call to change Unleaded to $2.09. Uncertain, she said she'd called back to another office to make sure. Yup, they had said, it's $2.09.

Hmmm. The next day, I drive by the same station. Unleaded is now $2.99. Looks like someone from corporate had gotten their wires crossed, albeit for only a few hours or so.

The whole frenzy about fuel prices and the nature of our automobiles got me thinking about Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. It is outrageous, on a variety of levels, that the government hasn't gotten more aggressive with CAFE standards. These regulations, which were designed to regulate and -- over time -- improve fuel efficiency for vehicles have not substantially changed in decades.

Hybrid and biodiesel vehicles demonstrate that alternatives to traditional fossil fuel-burners are emerging. And it's literally disgusting that huge tax incentives exist for business owners to buy giant SUVs such as Hummers.

Furthermore, the domestic auto industry would have been far better off being pushed to compete on fuel economy. Instead of lobbying for standards that have essentially remained static, they could have used those funds and resources to greatly improve efficiency in order to compete at a higher level. Today, Toyota and Honda dominate the hybrid landscape. And the domestic manufacturers have only themselves to blame.

No matter. The market will mandate its own fuel-efficiency standards. It's just a shame the Government didn't work with the domestic industry to gain more efficiencies over the past twenty years. Competing on fuel-efficiency would have been a net benefit for GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

***

In honor of such an automobile-focused topic, the following reprises a December, 2003 entry that describes a very personal automotive history: the cars I've owned since my first auto purchase.


1982 Honda Prelude - It was my senior year in college when I first spotted the gen-I Honda Prelude. I was smitten. Sports-car? I don't know, but I loved the lines, the sun/moon-roof (this, when the only way to get such a roof in a GM car was to use a blowtorch), the five-speed. When my '77 Nova was finally paid off, I went to Joy Stillpass at the old Stillpass Honda and bought a stripped, burgundy Prelude.

1985 Saab 900 Turbo - My Dad introduced me to Saabs: they were certainly very rare in the Midwest. He had a gorgeous company car: a blue 900S four door. When I was close to paying off the Prelude, I decided to switch. I bought a black 900 Turbo 16-Valve (woo-hoo, 16 valves!) with the factory whale-tail spoiler. I also had a company car, so I could leave my baby in the garage for long stretches. At the time, these cars were so uncommon that I pulled into a McDonald's drivethrough once, only to have the guy at the window ask me, "is that a masserrattee?".

1991 Mazda Miata - With a young child, my wife sent me to get a sedan in October of '91. I came back with a Miata. An Indian Summer test drive left me captivated with ragtop driving. Rear-wheel drive, manual transmission, with no limited-slip - in snowy Boston - truly teaches you how to drive. My first attempted fast-lane pass in the snow resulted in me doing 360's on Route 128. Over the years, I spun the Miata out three times. Each time, the car touched nothing. Yes, I was lucky - not good.

1994 Cadillac Eldorado - My brother-in-law Marc introduced me to the comfort of Cadillacs, taking me to a dealership for some test drives. After about a six-hour negotiating session - after which both Marc and the salesman ("G") were near tears, I drove away in the Eldo. The seats were the most comfortable I'd ever felt. The 275 horsepower Northstar engine was a delight: torquey, responsive and turbine-like. The downsides? Handling (non-existent) and the 'sploded fuel-pump that left me stranded partway to Indianapolis. After a few years of spotty reliability, I'd had enough.

1999 Volvo S70 T5 - My Dad had a T5 five-speed, which I thought was very cool ("it looks like a Nazi staff car"). I'd never thought of springing for one until Tommy (again, from Stillpass) called with a deal I couldn't refuse. They would take the Eldo in trade (strangely enough, no other dealership seemed to want to take Cadillacs!) and cut me an end-of-the-month deal on a T5 that had been on the lot awhile. Powerful and luxurious, without any ostentatiousness, the T5 did have some downsides: it was plagued with a variety of electrical problems including starting, burned out bulbs and the dreaded "check-engine light".

2003 Infiniti G35 Coupe - What can you say about the G35C that hasn't been said by the automotive press? I compare it to a Porsche 911 Coupe for a fraction of the cost. 280 HP, tremendous handling and grip, back seats that are actually usable - at least by my kids - and the most 'looks' per mile I've ever experienced while driving. A black coupe with 18" rims is simply a moving piece of art. I'm going to be an Infiniti driver from this point forward. At least until a fuel pump 'splodes.

 

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Did President Bush Personally Save Hundreds of Thousands of Lives?


The Unofficial Guide to New OrleansThe folks at Powerline are making a case that the President is truly a hero. Their key point: the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans prior to the storm, which had never occurred before despite numerous near-misses:

A number of our readers have been highly critical of state and local authorities in Louisiana. However, it must be acknowledged that they did one important thing that saved countless lives: they ordered the mandatory evacuation on Sunday that caused most people to leave the city. This mandatory evacuation order was a departure from past practice, when evacuations in the face of approaching hurricanes have always been voluntary.

So what prompted the order that prevented Hurricane Katrina from being a natural disaster of unprecedented magnitude?

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.


The City of New Orleans and its residents owe the President a profound debt of gratitude.


Indeed.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Tragedy on the Gulf Coast


The Great Hurricane: 1938 (Hardcover)The unimaginable scope of suffering on the Gulf Coast shows no signs of abating. On last night's O'Reilly Factor, Shephard Smith and Bill O'Reilly squabbled on-air. Smith expressed his doubts that New Orleans could ever be rebuilt. When O'Reilly challenged that contention, Smith -- who has been in the belly of the beast from the onset -- implied that O'Reilly could simply not comprehend the scale of destruction and suffering without being on the ground.

James Taranto points to a similar opinion expressed by City Journal's Nicole Gelinas, a recent resident of New Orleans. She questions whether New Orleans can ever recover:

No American city has ever gone through what New Orleans must go through: the complete (if temporary) flight of its most affluent and capable citizens, followed by social breakdown among those left behind, after which must come the total reconstruction of economic and physical infrastructure by a devastated populace.

And the locals and outsiders who try to help New Orleans in the weeks and months to come will do so with no local institutional infrastructure to back them up. New Orleans has no real competent government or civil infrastructure--and no aggressive media or organized citizens' groups to prod public officials in the right direction during what will be, in the best-case scenario, a painstaking path to normalcy.


The New Orleans crime rate during normal times is 10 times the national average, Gelinas writes, and "the city's economy is utterly dependent on tourism. . . . New Orleans has experienced a steady brain drain and fiscal drain for decades, as affluent corporations and individuals have fled, leaving behind a large population of people dependent on the government. Socially, New Orleans is one of America's last helpless cities--just at the moment when it must do all it can to help itself survive."

There's another, even simpler reason for pessimism. Many residential areas in New Orleans are below sea level, so that it was only a matter of time before they ended up in the soup. Having experienced this horror firsthand, will residents of New Orleans (and its suburbs, which are also devastated) be eager to return and face future hurricane seasons? Would you be?


Remember, for years New Orleans was known as "Murder Capital, USA" and was world-famous for its levels of internal corruption. Certainly, there's no easy recipe for reconstruction and many observers have -- for good reason -- questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city built on a soup-bowl-shaped swamp. But combine these geographic vulnerabilities with local governments that are, in the best of times, barely competent... and we have a recipe for continued, repeated suffering.

Taranto notes that the MSM, in predictable fashion, has pinned everything from local government response to the hurricane itself on the feet of -- who else? -- President Bush:

[A] New York Times editorial: "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. . . . Since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal." ...

Last year, when hurricane Charley struck Florida, the complaint was that Bush was too responsive. "Even before the storm hit, the president declared four counties disaster areas to speed federal money to victims," CBS News reported a year ago. "But that quick response fueled suspicion that he is using disaster politics to help his campaign in one of the most critical battleground states."


Back in realityville, prior to Katrina making landfall, President Bush had already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and officials from FEMA, coodinating with state authorities, had prepositioned supplies in four states on the coast. In Louisiana, it would appear that a complete breakdown of city and state government has left FEMA and the arms of the DOD on their own to coordinate all activities, from search-and-rescue, to security, and logistics.

Contrast the Louisiana authorities with last year's extended hurricane season in Florida. In those instances, time after time, state and federal authorities were joined at the hip to prepare for repeated onslaughts. Prior to Hurricane Dennis, for example, the News Herald reported:

...state law enforcement agencies will perform multiple duties - including manning checkpoints, conducting patrols and securing storm damaged areas - should the need arise, Ford said. He said many of these agencies already have their officers prepositioned outside the area of the storm and waiting for requests from the EOC for deployment...


At this point, we're talking about split milk. People need help now. Click here for the Red Cross and contribute what ever amount you can spare.

James Taranto: Best of the Web

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

iTunes and BlueTooth: the Potential for a Major Boo-Boo


InternetNews reports that Cingular will be offering iTunes on a Motorola Phone:

Apple is set to announce a Cingular mobile phone loaded with special iTunes software, Ovum analyst Roger Entner confirmed...

Motorola and Apple initially announced the phone partnership in July 2004. The plan is to let people transfer songs from the iTunes jukebox on the PC or Mac to Motorola handsets via a USB or Bluetooth connection, as well as to buy songs directly over the air from the iTunes Music Store...


Why did I highlight the word BlueTooth?

  • Weaknesses in the BlueTooth pairing process: recently discovered flaws in the BT protocol may result in sniffing or hijacking of your "private" BT traffic. When we combine these vulnerabilities and powerful hacking tools like the BlueSniper rifle... well, you get the picture.

  • Thieves are already using BT phones to find enabled laptops in parked cars, which they then break into and steal. There's no reason that thieves couldn't sniff out highly desirable iTunes phones.

  • Advertisers are already spamming unsolicited content to BT phones at a distance of 100 meters (with longer distances possible).

  • Bruce Schneier notes:

    Sure, it's annoying, but worse, there are serious security risks. Don't believe this:

    Furthermore, there is no risk of downloading viruses or other malware to the phone, says O'Regan: "We don't send applications or executable code." The system uses the phone's native download interface so they should be able to see the kind of file they are downloading before accepting it, he adds.


    This company might not send executable code, but someone else certainly could. And what percentage of people who use Bluetooth phones can recognize "the kind of file they are downloading"?

    We've already seen two ways to steal data from Bluetooth devices. And we know that more and more sensitive data is being stored on these small devices, increasing the risk. This is almost certainly another avenue for attack.


    Unless these phones are shipped with (a) BlueTooth disabled by default; and (b) the ability to patch BT-firmware, I think I'd take a rain-check. As President Reagan used to say, "Trust, but verify."

    I'd want to be sure about BT support in any phone, especially a leading-edge, iTunes-enabled one.

    Monday, August 29, 2005

    Soldiers' Angels, Beslan Coverage, and a Car


    Gates of Fire : An Epic Novel of the Battle of ThermopylaeLatest family news: we adopted a soldier through Soldiers' Angels. While families who adopt soldiers should not expect a note back, our adoptee -- a Marine serving in Afghanistan -- wrote a very nice reply to our introductory letter. A care package will go out after Labor Day, based upon our interpretation of what's allowed by the Post Office and DOD. I would encourage anyone reading this to consider adopting a soldier. Their sacrifices make possible all the freedoms we enjoy.


    AutoRantic Virtual Moonbat

    A few miscellaneous notes:

    Beslan

    You would think that the trial of an accused terrorist -- captured after a vicious, senseless attack on a school -- would merit some news coverage by the mainstream media. Of course, you'd be dead wrong. The MSM, best as I can tell, is completely ignoring the Beslan terror trial and, most egregiously, the heartwrenching testimony of the child-victims.

    Once again, it's up to the blogosphere to cover important world events -- don't look to "real journalists" like Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, for goodness sake. After all, they've got better things to do. Like claim Al Gore won in 2000, and suggest that we train the Iraqis to defend themselves, respectively. I'm pretty sure that you could replace either columnist with our friend, the AutoRantic Virtual Moonbat (pictured at right), and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

    Back to Beslan. GatewayPundit has been covering the trial. Caution: the following testimony ain't pleasant.

    "On the second day, we were all very thirsty. Women told us, the boys, to pee into plastic bottles so that the children could then drink our pee," the boy said, bursting into tears. "I peed into a bottle, and small children -- even babies -- drank it."

    "Listen, Kulayev, listen," Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov angrily ordered the defendant, who showed no emotion as he sat in a steel cage with bulletproof glass behind the testifying children.

    As the boy tried to stop sobbing, the courtroom spectators, mostly women wearing black clothes and black headscarves, swore at Kulayev. "Give this terrorist to us! We will tear the bastard apart!" the women shouted...

    A 10-year-old boy testified Thursday, August 25th in the trial of the one lone terrorist to be captured alive after the siege in Beslan. One of the female terrorists ... told us that if she found a phone on anyone, that person would be killed and three more people near him or her would be killed too.


    Yes, the bottom-feeders and mouth-breathers that represent the majority of the MSM have better things to do. Who could expect them to cover the trial of the sole surviving accused terrorist in a brutal schoolhouse attack that killed hundreds, including scores of children? The Video Music Awards were on, for Pete's sake... they can't be expected to ignore all those celebrities!

    Photo
    Mitsubishi Lancer ES (MSN)

    Car

    I went out and got my daughter a car. It's a heck of a lot nicer than the '71 Chevelle Wagon (Caprice Classic) that was my first ride. It's a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer ES -- not the wickedly powerful Evolution -- and was highly rated in terms of both reliability and safety. As an aside, I did the majority of my research on MSN's Auto Site. It is pretty darn comprehensive and is, quite literally, a bible of auto purchasing for both new and used vehicles.

    I'd been given some advice from some other recent purchasers of cars for younger drivers. Paramount tip: don't buy a new car. Those who'd done it were... shall we say... disappointed in the ding, scratch, and dent factor. Especially with the high school parking lots these days, which are less parking-lot and more minor-league demolition derby. This particular car has a bit of wear and tear on it (a couple of scratches on the sides and a small gravel ding on the hood), but is otherwise a pretty fine-looking unit. Here's hoping all who ride in it do so in good health.

    Sunday, August 28, 2005

    Hitchens Unleashed


    The pages of the Weekly Standard are graced by Christopher Hitchens, who provides wonderful perspective on the "Bush... lied... WMD" literalists.

    Childishness is one thing... But puerility in adults is quite another thing, and considerably less charming. "You said there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam had friends in al Qaeda. . . . Blah, blah, pants on fire."

    I have had many opportunities to tire of this mantra. It takes ten seconds to intone the said mantra. It would take me, on my most eloquent C-SPAN day, at the very least five minutes to say that Abdul Rahman Yasin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center attack in 1993, subsequently sought and found refuge in Baghdad; that Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, Saddam's senior physicist, was able to lead American soldiers to nuclear centrifuge parts and a blueprint for a complete centrifuge (the crown jewel of nuclear physics) buried on the orders of Qusay Hussein; that Saddam's agents were in Damascus as late as February 2003, negotiating to purchase missiles off the shelf from North Korea; or that Rolf Ekeus, the great Swedish socialist who founded the inspection process in Iraq after 1991, has told me for the record that he was offered a $2 million bribe in a face-to-face meeting with Tariq Aziz.

    And these eye-catching examples would by no means exhaust my repertoire, or empty my quiver... the only real strategy of deception has come from those who believe, or pretend, that Saddam Hussein was no problem...

    ...a positive accounting [of the war] would include:

    (1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

    (2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.

    (3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

    (4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.

    (5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)

    (6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.

    (7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region--the Kurds--and the spread of this example to other states.

    (8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy...


    Go ye and read of it, for it is good.

    Weekly Standard: A War to Be Proud Of

    Friday, August 26, 2005

    What have we done to deserve such heroes?


    Danger Close, Second Edition by Michael YonFirst person war-blogging the likes of which has never been seen. Ever. Michael Yon, former special forces operator, is an author and blogger operating on the front-lines in Mosul:

    ...the Deuce Four has killed well over 150 terrorists in this neighborhood in the past 10 months. But almost none of those made the news, and those that did had a few key details missing.

    Like the time when some ISF were driving and got blasted by an IED, causing numerous casualties and preventing them from recovering the vehicle. The terrorists came out and did their rifle-pumping-in-the-air thing, shooting AKs, dancing around like monkeys. Videos went 'round the world, making it appear the terrorists were running Mosul, which was pretty much what was being reported at the time.

    But that wasn't the whole story. In the Yarmuk neighborhood, only terrorists openly carry AK-47s. The lawyers call this Hostile Intent. The soldiers call this Dead Man Walking.

    Deuce Four is an overwhelmingly aggressive and effective unit, and they believe the best defense is a dead enemy. They are constantly thinking up innovative, unique, and effective ways to kill or capture the enemy; proactive not reactive. They planned an operation with snipers, making it appear that an ISF vehicle had been attacked, complete with explosives and flash-bang grenades to simulate the IED. The simulated casualty evacuation of sand dummies completed the ruse.

    The Deuce Four soldiers left quickly with the "casualties," "abandoning" the burning truck in the traffic circle. The enemy took the bait. Terrorists came out and started with the AK-rifle-monkey-pump, shooting into the truck, their own video crews capturing the moment of glory. That's when the American snipers opened fire and killed everybody with a weapon. Until now, only insiders knew about the AK-monkey-pumpers smack-down...


    Michael Yon: Just go read it. Now. Do it. You know you want to. And, after reading the blog, go visit Soldiers' Angels and adopt a soldier.

    Democrats + Mainstream Media = Demedia


    Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at the New York Times (Hardcover) by Jayson BlairThe distinguished Jack Kelly just nails the New York Times to the wall. The gist: a pro-active attempt by the Army to improve its body-armor -- before any terrorists had had a chance to exploit it -- was mercilessly spun as a negative story by the Times' Michael Moss.

    Drink deeply from the sweet chalice of wisdom and read the whole thing.

    ...[the old] vests weighed 24 lbs each. The interceptor ensemble — which can stop an AK-47 bullet fired from just 10 feet away — weighs just 16 lbs. But the best isn't perfect. There are some special types of ammunition that can penetrate the boronic carbide plates. Last year Army leaders became aware of improvements that could be made to the SAPI plates that would protect against most (though not all) of these special types of ammunition.

    There is little evidence insurgents in Iraq are using the special types of ammunition that can defeat the "Interceptor." But the Army wanted to be proactive, to defeat a potential threat before it emerged...

    ...Here's how the story was presented by Moss in the New York Times Aug. 14th: "For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks of insurgents.

    "The ceramic plates in vests worn by most personnel cannot withstand certain munitions the insurgents use. But more than a year after military officials initiated an effort to replace the armor with thicker, more resistant plates, tens of thousands of soldiers are still without the stronger protection because of a string of delays in the Pentagon's procurement system."

    Spoehr told Moss all the things he told me, but there is not a single positive quote in his story.

    "You would get the impression that our soldiers were in harm's way or at risk," Spoehr said. "That is not true."


    Ah, the Old York Times. Just as relevant as Dan Rather's Air National Guard coverage. And, just as timely.

    Jack Kelly: Unspinning the NY Times' military mendacity

    Hubbert's Peak


    Hubbert's Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage (Paperback) by Kenneth S. DeffeyesEver heard of "Peak Oil?" or "Hubbert's Peak"? Wikipedia's definition:

    The Hubbert peak theory, also known as peak oil, is an influential theory concerning the long-term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion. The Hubbert peak theory is named for American geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who created a model of known reserves and proposed the theory. In 1956, Hubbert predicted that oil production in the continental United States would peak in the early 1970s. U.S. oil production did indeed peak in 1970, and has been decreasing since then.


    So... is Saudi Arabia really experiencing 'peak oil'? Some experts believe that's the case:

    Speculation over the actual size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves is reaching fever pitch as a major bank says the kingdom's - and the world's - biggest field, Gharwar, is in irreversible decline.

    The Bank of Montreal's analyst Don Coxe, working from their Chicago office, is the first mainstream number-cruncher to say that Gharwar's days are fated.

    Coxe uses the phrase "Hubbert's Peak" to describe the situation. This refers to the seminal geologist M King Hubbert, who predicted the unavoidable decline of oilfields back in the 1950s.

    "The combination of the news that there's no new Saudi Light coming on stream for the next seven years plus the 27% projected decline from existing fields means Hubbert's Peak has arrived in Saudi Arabia," says Coxe, referring to data compiled by the International Energy Association's (IEA) August 2004 monthly report...

    ...Since [1990], despite pumping around 9mbpd, Saudi Aramco says the size of its reserves have not only remained the same but increased slightly from 258gb to 259gb thanks to better extraction techniques.

    However, Simmons believes Gharwar, responsible for about 5mbpd of Saudi output, may have been damaged by poor management.

    Pumping large amounts of oil at the maximum rate can damage the geological structure of the field, usually referred to as "rate sensitivity". Basically the hole falls in on itself, making large amounts of oil within it un-extractable...

    In other words - by their own admission - Saudi Arabia will have added only 800,000bpd of supply in the next seven years. That is the best-case scenario...

    Thursday, August 25, 2005

    Doing what Democrats do best: Losing Elections


    Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt:

    No matter how many elections they lose, or how many elections the Iraqis and the Afghans hold, or how many al Qaeda are captured or killed, the left will always be against the war and for retreat.

    The good news is that the American electorate isn't stupid, and that new media exists where it didn't in 1969.


    I'm just wondering if, and not when, the Democratic party will get the message. Will it take scores of dead civilians inside America? Take, for example, the reported Islamic Jihad plot, which was broken up by the FBI:

    The Palestinian Islamic Jihad planned an attack inside the United States, but it might have been thwarted by federal law enforcement, an FBI agent testified Tuesday afternoon...

    “I can tell you there was a plot to commit terrorist acts in the United States,” he said. “It was interdicted, I believe.”

    Moffitt asked when that happened.

    “It’s classified,” Myers said, drawing chuckles from defendants’ relatives and supporters in the courtroom gallery.


    Chuckles. Yes, it's just another lighthearted day in court for the alleged brethren of Al-Qaeda.

    And... shhhhhhhhhhhhh... no one tell the Left, these are groups similar to the ones funded by Saddam Hussein (Abu Nidal, Ansar al Islam, Arab Liberation Front, Hamas, Kurdistan Workers Party, MEK, Palestine Liberation Front, etc.) prior to the Iraq War.

    But, no, according to the Left, we should never have invaded Iraq. We should have simply located the country of Al-Qaeda-istan and invaded. And, then, we should have arrested anyone carrying a laminated "Al-Qaeda Member" card. And all of our troubles would have been over.

    If you're wondering why the current Democratic leadership -- consisting of Boxer, Dean, Feinstein, Kennedy, Biden, Schumer, etc. -- can't be allowed anywhere near the levers of government power, I think we have our answer.

    Wednesday, August 24, 2005

    Infowar


    Giap: The Victor in VietnamThere's a guy I know named Mike. Mike believes himself a patriot, yet won't hesitate to spout a Moore-ism or Hollywood canard ("WMDs!", "War-for-Oil!", "Halliburton!") at the drop of a hat. Mike thinks, for example, that the Associated Press is credible, that the mainstream media is distinct from the Democratic National Committee, and -- apparently -- that Santa Claus really does live in a toy factory near the North Pole.

    Bryan Preston, posting at Michelle Malkin's blog, provides one of the best history lessons regarding the nature of "Infowar" and why the rhetoric of the hard Left is not only the antithesis of patriotism... but essentially borders on the original definition of sedition.

    Mike, exactly what would be worth fighting for?

    1) To defeat Communism, which killed approximately 100,000,000 and threatened to "bury" the West?
    2) To defeat Nazism, which killed tens of millions and threatened to slaughter and enslave the West?
    3) To defeat the current brand of religious fascism, which is currently waging war in Indonesia, Lebanon, Chechneya, Yugoslavia, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, the Phillipines, etc. etc. and has promised to kill 4,000,000 Americans?

    Mike, how many innocents have to die before you think it's worth getting involved? And, if a vision of democratizing the crossroads of terror represented by Iraq isn't the right strategy... what is the Left's grand plan for defeating religious fascism? I'm still waiting for an answer.

    In the meantime, immerse yourself in the spa of wisdom and read both articles:

    ...General Vo Nguyen Giap... commanded the North Vietnamese army from the 1950s through the 1970s. In that time he defeated in succession France (at that time a world power), the United States (a superpower) and China (a rising regional power)...

    How did Giap do it? In short, he discovered how to make his own troops expendable proxies, while he waged the actual war in the mind of his opponent... [against the US], he played to the US anti-war movement, using it as a psychological nuclear weapon to devastate our will to fight... It can happen again today. We premised this war... on our moral superiority over the enemy... our war premise had the effect of leaving us vulnerable to any flimsy charge either the caliphascist enemy or the anti-American agitators in the West could throw at us, and they have managed... quite a lot...: Abu Ghraib, false allegations of mistreatment at Gitmo, old charges of US crimes in the MidEast, our support for Israel... Once our moral superiority is punctured, our rationale for war loses much of its steam. And absent a coherent and consistent counter message from our own leadership, the enemy's narrative begins to take hold: We're bogged down in a fruitless war in Iraq, we should never have invaded in the first place, our leaders are liars, etc...


    John at Powerline polishes the message in splendid fashion:

    ...The sins of the news media in reporting on Iraq are mainly sins of omission. Not only do news outlets generally fail to report the progress that is being made, and often fail to put military operations into any kind of tactical or strategic perspective, they assiduously avoid talking about the overarching strategic reason for our involvement there: the Bush administration's conviction that the only way to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism, long term, is to help liberate the Arab countries so that their peoples' energies will be channelled into the peaceful pursuits of free enterprise and democracy, rather than into bizarre ideologies and terrorism...

    One wonders how past wars could have been fought if news reporting had consisted almost entirely of a recitation of casualties. The D-Day invasion was one of the greatest organizational feats ever achieved by human beings, and one of the most successful. But what if the only news Americans had gotten about the invasion was that 2,500 allied soldiers died that day, with no discussion of whether the invasion was a success or a failure, and no acknowledgement of the huge strategic stakes that were involved? Or what if such news coverage had continued, day by day, through the entire Battle of Normandy, with Americans having no idea whether the battle was being won or lost, but knowing only that 54,000 Allied troops had been killed by the Germans?

    ...We are conducting an experiment never before seen, as far as I know, in the history of the human race. We are trying to fight a war under the auspices of an establishment that is determined--to put the most charitable face on it--to emphasize American casualties over all other information about the war.

    ...Even in peacetime. The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

    That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern--any concern--about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996.

    ...What is the President's responsibility? To expend our most precious resources only when necessary, in service of the national interest. We would all prefer that our soldiers never be required to fight. Everyone--most of all, every politician--much prefers peace to war. But when our enemies fly airplanes into our skyscrapers; attack the nerve center of our armed forces; bomb our embassies; scheme to blow up our commercial airliners; try to assassinate our former President; do their best to shoot down our military aircraft; murder our citizens; assassinate our diplomats overseas; and attack our naval vessels--well, then, the time has come to fight. And when the time comes to fight, our military personnel are ready. They don't ask to be preserved from all danger. They know their job is dangerous; they knew that when they signed up. They are prepared to face the risk, on our behalf. All they ask is to be allowed to win.

    Tuesday, August 23, 2005

    Miscellania: Moonbats on the Right, Able Danger, and Krugman


    Click here for AmazonFrom Wizbang Blog:

    ...there are moonbats on the right too. The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that on the right side, we call out our (few) crazies... The Democrats make them party chairmen.


    On the topic of Able Danger, two new members of the team have materialized -- and are backing the story of Lt. Col Shaffer.

    ...we now have three witnesses saying pretty much the same thing. Contrary to popular belief over the past few days, Shaffer hasn't changed history on the Atta ID. And contrary to the skeptics' take, Rep. Weldon just keeps putting up instead of shutting up...


    Last Friday, DNC propagandist and Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman spewed the exhausted canard that Gore won the 2000 election. For his troubles, Richard Baehr at American Thinker fisked Krugman into submission, using everything but tactical nuclear weapons. Krugman responded to be the beating with a milquetoast aplogia, which was half-hearted at best. Baehr wasn't satisfied; he blistered Krugman again in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Kahn:

    Paul Krugman, tries to respond today to withering attacks on his column from last Friday in which he declared that a full statewide manual recount would have given Al Gore the victory in Florida in 2000. Somebody at the New York Times may have gotten concerned about how far from the truth Krugman was straying....

    ...Krugman's admission that the US Supreme Court DID NOT change the result in Florida is important. He now admits that the recount that had been ordered by the very Gore friendly Florida Supreme Court would have shown Bush to be the winner, had it not been interrupted by the US Supreme Court. There are quite a few partisans on the left who still have not "received" this message. If they won't believe Paul Krugman, who will they believe?


    If you've ever wondered about the definitions of "MSM/DNC" or "Demedia", Krugman pretty much provides the answer. He's such a transparent shill you can't see him on a sunny day.

    Monday, August 22, 2005

    An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan


    From a friend -- retired Air Force -- I received the following open letter who had received it from the author's wife. Buddy is a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel and their daughter Tara is enlisted in the Marines and about to get deployed overseas. Slake your thirst with the nectar of wisdom and read the whole thing.

    Ms. Sheehan,

    By your actions over the past two weeks it is clear that you missed an important aspect of Civics 101: With rights come responsibilities. You certainly have the right to voice your opinion against the war in Iraq and the President’s policies. You even have the right to camp outside the President’s home in Crawford and demand he meet with you. Your status as a mother who has lost a child in the war also gives your words and actions a credibility and a larger audience than otherwise would be the case. Now that your supporters have given you a broad forum from which to be heard, making you a national figure, it's time you considered your responsibilities to all of us. I have a daughter set to deploy to Fallujah in two weeks and I have a serious concern with how your irresponsible and short sighted actions might impact on her. She is, after all, a volunteer, like your son, and she is going in harm’s way because she believes it is her responsibility to protect your rights and freedoms.

    Well meaning people like you always seem to forget the law of unintended consequences and in your vanity and arrogant self-righteousness never bother to think through what it is you are trying to do versus what you may actually accomplish. I am here to inform you, Ma’am, that you will not change the policy of our government by sitting outside Crawford making a spectacle of yourself in the name of your rights to free speech; what you will do is provide more propaganda for our enemies and cost the lives of even more brave and selfless American warriors. How long do you think it will be before you become a star on Al Jazeera? For all I know, it may have already happened. One thing is certain, though, and that is that your actions and words will further embolden a ruthless and evil enemy and more American blood will be shed and some of it will be on your hands. I pray that my daughter will not be one of them. If she is, then I will hold you and those like you partly responsible. Yes, my daughter's fate will depend mostly on her own courageous decision to serve, but only the most naive among us can deny the impact our own words and actions here in America have in a world grown smaller by the revolution in communications technology.

    I am sure you believe that you are serving some great cause by putting our servicemen and women in more danger and that you can, by your irresponsible exercise of free speech, help end a policy you disagree with. Your emotion may be compelling but the reality is that you will not set in motion any process that will change or undo what has been done. The war will go on because to end it now would dishonor the sacrifice of all of our fellow countrymen who have died in the cause of fighting terrorism. Rational Americans will not allow that. Too much is at stake. Unfortunately, shallow and irrational ones, such as yourself, will continue to put the lives of our sons and daughters in danger by aiding and abetting an enemy who sees propagandizing in the mass media as its main weapon in a war it could otherwise not win standing on its own wretched and evil justification of radical Islam, or by force of arms. You, Ma’am, have joined forces with an evil you neither understand nor apparently have tried to comprehend. You direct your anger toward our country while the enemy plots to kill and maim the innocent. You make a mockery of responsible free speech while thousands of young men and women fight desperately to preserve your safety. Instead of honoring your son’s sacrifice you are inspired to comfort an evil enemy.

    You clearly do not understand the challenge we face as a nation and have not tried to put it in historical perspective. It is a sad fact that it is those of your thinking that have led us to where we are today. Decades of appeasement to these haters of everything we hold dear has cost thousands of American lives from Beirut to New York and in dozens of other forgotten places. Remember Lockerbie? The Achille Lauro? The USS Cole? We as a people were dragged into this war, much like December 7th, 1941, and we must fight and win it wherever the enemy hides and against whomever would support him. Make no mistake about Iraq. It is both a legitimate and crucial campaign in this much larger, global war of radical Islam’s making. These people hate us for who we are, not what we have done. We did not bring this on ourselves, as many would have us believe, by our policies and actions abroad. We brought this on ourselves in 1775 when the Founding Fathers embarked on a course of freedom, tolerance, and liberal democratic and social ideals. These haters of all we hold dear strive to destroy forever a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” that Abraham Lincoln hoped would never “Perish from the earth”. They would replace it with an oppressive world theocracy unlike anything modern history has ever seen for its ruthless disregard for personal freedom and liberty. If more appeasement is your answer for an alternative policy, spare us. We have suffered enough from cowardice and inaction.

    An historical analogy screams to be let out here. It is one of two men, both named Chamberlain. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a school teacher turned soldier in the American Civil War, found himself in the crosshairs of history on a warm July day in 1863 on a small hill in Pennsylvania. Commanding the 20th Maine Regiment on the extreme Union left at Gettysburg he was in a most perilous position. Should he fail to hold against a strong Confederate attack, the Union could be lost. You see, he was serving in an increasingly unpopular war at home against a resurgent enemy, and for a President fighting for his political life. Colonel Chamberlain, stoic but determined, refused to yield. His small regiment held against an onslaught of Confederate attacks, an action many historians believe turned the tide of the war. He was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The other half of this analogy focuses on Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the years preceding World War II. His story is widely known. Through his policy of appeasement and a lack of moral courage, he handed Adolf Hitler much of Europe. Which side of history have you chosen, Ma’am?

    Your son died in the service of freedom and my daughter will go in harm’s way to protect and preserve it. Honor their sacrifice, Ma’am, by exercising it responsibly.
    I will pray with you and I will grieve with you but I will not stand by silent while you needlessly and arrogantly endanger the life of my daughter and her comrades in arms. Please bless us with your silence and go home.

    Brantley Smith
    Proud father of a United States Marine
    email: (withheld for the spam-bots)

    Sunday, August 21, 2005

    Book Review: The Sea Shall Embrace Them


    The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic (Hardcover)Fateful tale of cowardice and courage at sea

    The fateful voyage of the Titanic was not the first time a luxury liner went to the bottom taking the cream of society with it. Decades before, the steamship Arctic, the pride of the Collins line, had suffered a catastrophic collision that resulted in 400 souls lost. The behavior of the crew was hardly the model of civility, though. The fact that only 22 passengers survived the ordeal, along with 65 crewmen, hints at the panic-stricken, near-mutinous conditions aboard the Arctic prior to its demise. Not a woman or child survived.

    Collins, backed by private and -- controversially -- US Government funds, had created the first credible competitor to Cunard's line of packet ships. When the Crimean war forced Cunard to convert his ships to British naval use, the Collins line had a chance to establish itself as the predominant Transatlantic packet service. But the final voyage of the Arctic helped seal Collins' fate: its foolhardy rush through heavy fog, intended to maintain speed records, resulted in a massive collision with a French, iron-hulled fishing vessel: the Vesta.

    While the damages to the Arctic initially appeared slight, all too soon its wooden hull (with no watertight compartments) was discovered to have been holed in three distinct areas. And because the Vesta had left a jagged portion of its bow sticking in the steamship's hull, the traditional methods of patching at sea were rendered impossible. As the ship foundered, panic-stricken crew-members and passengers fought for the all-too-limited number of seats on the lifeboats.

    Shaw has done impressive work chronicling a non-fictional story that reads like fiction. But there's a reason Shaw didn't write this work as a novel: there are so many bizarre coincidences and events involved that only a strict recitation of the known facts could have resulted in a believable story. The demise of the Arctic is a chilling tale and one with every bit the controversy, mystery, heroism and cowardice of its much better known counterpart.

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    MSM MIA Part 723: AQ gas attack on Parliament foiled


    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueToo occupied by the all-important (yet prurient!) Natalie Holloway and BTK Killer stories, the mainstream media misses still another important story: Al Qaeda was planning, among other things, a chemical weapons attack against UK's Parliament.

    Media in Australia, Canada, India and the UK have covered the story, but so far... nothing in the US media. Maybe the MSM is still working on a breaking news report concerning Abraham Lincoln and the Ford Theater.

    SCOTLAND YARD believes it has thwarted an Al-Qaeda gas attack aimed at ministers and MPs in parliament. The plot, hatched last year, is understood to have been discovered in coded e-mails on computers seized from terror suspects in Britain and Pakistan.

    Police and MI5 then identified an Al-Qaeda cell that had carried out extensive research and video-recorded reconnaissance missions in preparation for the attack...


    Times Online: Police foil gas attack on Commons

    Thursday, August 18, 2005

    Light blogging: Phishing, Seven Phases, and Working Out


    Click here for AmazonThe small, hardy band of subscribers to this blog may have noticed the extremely light blogging of late. Truth be told: vacation time is here. The family -- that is, the entire extended family, sans my brother and his wife, who are visiting Japan -- are on an island off South Carolina. Hot-spots and broadband connections here on the isle are about as common as hit movies starring Mickey Rourke.

    Thus, I've had to resort to my old school AT&T Worldnet dialup connection. Speeds average around 50 kilobits per second, which is actually pretty good for dialup. I feel like I've time-warped back to 1995 when I used GNN (Global Network Navigator), only now I have a much better browser (Firefox, if you must know).

    Even with limited bandwidth, a couple of articles caught my eye over the past few days:

    On Phishing: From the Stanford School of Engineering comes an article entitled, "Stanford security experts unveil defenses against ‘phishing’ attacks." I eagerly devoured the article, hoping for some sort of unique solution for the phishing scourge. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to find the proposed defenses were standard fare: another "boil-the-ocean" approach:

    [The Stanford research group] has developed an extension to popular Web browsers that completely overhauls the security of passwords with only the slightest change in the daily Web-surfing experience—one or two keystrokes before entering a password activates their software...


    Guys, it's a neat idea, but requiring everyone in the world to 'fix their browser' to defeat phishing is about as practical as requiring all web surfers to change their home page to microsoft.com -- and just as likely to happen.

    How about a solution that can be implemented strictly on a financial institution's servers, like the anti-phishing captcha I wrote about a while back?

    The aims of Al Qaeda - the seven phases of the base: Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail analyzes a fascinating article in Spiegel Online by Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein. The article describes the seven phases of Al Qaeda's plans, which extend out for decades. The source of the articles was Saif al-Adel, an AQ military leader, who is reportedly operating in Iran (hmmm).

    Greatly abbreviated, the seven phases are:

    The First Phase Known as "the awakening" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby "awakening" Muslims...

    The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is... the period we are now in and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the "Islamic community." Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaida wants an organization to develop into a movement...

    The Third Phase... "Arising and Standing Up"... should last from 2007 to 2010. "There will be a focus on Syria," prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and -- even more explosive -- in Israel are predicted... countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.

    The Fourth Phase [2010-2013]... will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments... At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.

    The Fifth Phase... will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.

    The Sixth Phase... from 2016 onwards... will a period of "total confrontation." As soon as the caliphate has been declared the "Islamic army" it will instigate the "fight between the believers and the non-believers" which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.

    The Seventh Phase... [the] final stage is described as "definitive victory."... the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the "one-and-a-half million Muslims," the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn't last longer than two years.


    Roggio concludes with some ominously frank assessments:

    [if the US] ...loses its political will and pursues a policy of isolation from the Muslim world, an inevitable showdown with al Qaeda would ensue. Open confrontation with the West, as well as the possibility of a nuclear armed Caliphate, would bring the full military might of the Western World... The current operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, Southeast and Central Asia and within the borders of Western nations would be tame in comparison to what would come...

    The West would basically have two options: (1) blitzkrieg 21st Century style - the full mobilization of its military and an accompanying sweep of the Islamic crescent, without regards for Politically Correct warfare; (2) nuclear war. Both campaigns would be designed to fully eliminate the Islamist threat, and the Muslim infrastructure, which allowed for the rise of al Qaeda's ideology.


    Anoint yourself in the sacred oil of wisdom and read the whole thing.

    Vacation workouts: my Dad rented some bikes for us while we're on the island. A couple of times a day I've been blasting down the beach, ten to twelve miles round-trip. It usually takes about 40 minutes. Not a great pace, but wet sand and a stiff wind make it -- ahem -- quite challenging. Good workout. And one I can't get back home.

    Wednesday, August 17, 2005

    350 Simultaneous Bombs


    Ahmed RashidThe latest Cryptogram newsletter from Bruce Schneier is -- as usual -- filled chock-full with interesting security news and insights. For good or bad, though, Schneier comes off a tad on the liberal side with various anti-war missives such as this:

    An absolutely fascinating interview with Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who has studied every suicide terrorist attack since 1980. "The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland."


    James Taranto, in today's edition of the invaluable 'Best of the Web' notes:

    A series of bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in dozens of cities across Bangladesh Wednesday, striking regional capitals as well as the national capital, Dhaka," CNN reports: "According to police, at least 115 people were injured with 350 bombs detonating. Bangladeshi media reported at least one fatality."

    Three hundred fifty bombs? Wow, someone's really mad about the Bangladeshi occupation of Iraq!


    And no word from Pape regarding the nearly 3,000 fatalities on 9/11 and whether the terrorists had claimed Manhattan in the name of Jihad (as they have London, for instance).