Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
I take it Iran is willing to trade blood for oil.
Meanwhile, many Iranian young people, especially women strive for their freedom.
"An American civilian contractor revealed shocking evidence about how Filipino construction workers were tricked last year into building the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, according to an article on The Times Online. The 51 men were originally told that they’d travel to Dubai to construct hotels there, but instead found themselves in a Baghdad-bound plane!"
The story is based on the statement of Rory Mayberry testifying before a congressional committee.
The Filipinos were reportedly upset at being deceived but their protests were quelled by: "a gun-toting air steward [not named, emphasis mine] ordered them to sit down. . . . [and a] security guy [not named, emphasis mine] working for First Kuwaiti waved an MP5 [sub-machinegun] in the air that people settled down."
On the other hand, the same story ran on the AP by Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press Writer. The gun-toting enforcers are not mentioned and a reasonable person would conclude that the guns are a complete fabrication.
The upshot of the story is that a Philippine special envoy is traveling to the Middle East to investigate allegations that a Kuwaiti contractor took Filipino workers to Iraq without their knowledge to build the U.S. Embassy. The meat of the story is that Filipinos, contracted by the First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., thought they were going to work in Dubai and ended up in Baghdad instead.
The story really involves the Filipoino workers and a Kuwaiti company.
You don't get that impression from Al-Jazeera with the shock tactic of the U.S. kidnapping people.
People believe what they want to believe. In fact, jobs in Iraq have been a boon for many Filipino workers.
The troop ideas are then evaluated by Gestalt, the technology consulting firm and government contractor that operates the site. Gestalt will either work to develop the tool itself or route the information to the best suited areas within the U.S. Department of Defense, stated William Loftus, Gestalt's president and CEO, in a story carried yesterday by Computerworld.
George Kennan (1904-2005)
The roots of American involvement in the Middle East go back so much deeper than the current contentious debates about "George," actually, the American people should be talking about George, but George Kennan, not Bush. Kennan is a key figure in the development of U.S. Cold War policy as the "father of containment" in the newly founded CIA in 1948.
Kennan saw a new type of warfare for Americans in the Post-War period.
The Problem
The inauguration of organized political warfare.
Analysis
1. Political warfare is the logical application of Clausewitz's doctrine in time of peace. In broadest definition, political warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation's command, short of war, to achieve its national objectives. Such operations are both overt and covert. They range from such overt actions as political alliances, economic measures (as ERP--the Marshall Plan), and "white" propaganda to such covert operations as clandestine support of "friendly" foreign elements, "black" psychological warfare and even encouragement of underground resistance in hostile states.
2. The creation, success, and survival of the British Empire has been due in part to the British understanding and application of the principles of political warfare. Lenin so synthesized the teachings of Marx and Clausewitz that the Kremlin's conduct of political warfare has become the most refined and effective of any in history. We have been handicapped however by a popular attachment to the concept of a basic difference between peace and war, by a tendency to view war as a sort of sporting context outside of all political context, by a national tendency to seek for a political cure-all, and by a reluctance to recognize the realities of international relations--the perpetual rhythm of struggle, in and out of war.
3. This Government has, of course, in part consciously and in part unconsciously, been conducting political warfare. Aggressive Soviet political warfare has driven us overtly first to the Truman Doctrine, next to ERP, then to sponsorship of Western Union [1-1/2 lines of source text not declassified]. This was all political warfare and should be recognized as such.
4. Understanding the concept of political warfare, we should also recognize that there are two major types of political warfare--one overt and the other covert. Both, from their basic nature, should be directed and coordinated by the Department of State. Overt operations are, of course, the traditional policy activities of any foreign office enjoying positive leadership, whether or not they are recognized as political warfare. Covert operations are traditional in many European chancelleries but are relatively unfamiliar to this Government.
5. Having assumed greater international responsibilities than ever before in our history and having been engaged by the full might of the Kremlin's political warfare, we cannot afford to leave unmobilized our resources for covert political warfare. We cannot afford in the future, in perhaps more serious political crises, to scramble into impromptu covert operations [1 line of source text not declassified]. . . .
What is proposed here is an operation in the traditional American form: organized public support of resistance to tyranny in foreign countries. . . . Our proposal is that this tradition be revived specifically to further American national interests in the present crisis. . . .
d. Preventive Direct Action in Free Countries.
Purpose: Only in cases of critical necessity, to resort to direct action to prevent vital installations, other material, or personnel from being (1) sabotaged or liquidated or (2) captured intact by Kremlin agents or agencies.
Description: This covert operation involves, for example, (1) control over anti-sabotage activities in the Venezuelan oil fields, (2) American sabotage of Near Eastern oil installations on the verge of Soviet capture . . . .
Reference:
269. Policy Planning Staff Memorandum
Washington, May 4, 1948.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 273, Records of the National Security Council, NSC 10/2. Top Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text. An earlier, similar version, April 30, is ibid., RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Policy Planning Staff Files 1944-47: Lot 64 D 563, Box
11. The Policy Planning Staff minutes for May 3 state: "There was a discussion of the Planning Staff Memorandum of April 30, 1948 on the inauguration of organized political warfare. This paper was generally approved and Mr. Kennan will present it tomorrow for discussion at a meeting of NSC consultants." (Ibid., Box 32)
Based on the book by Norman Solomon, you may look in vain for any mention or sound bite of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter, or Ford but you will not see them or hear any references to them in this film. If I'm not mistaken they were American Presidents of the past 50 years. Nonetheless, bad boys LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton all have their cameos but the real targets are the Bushes, father and son.
As an attempt to review the past 50 years of American warmaking it fails miserably. It is tolerable if you like the sort of presentation that claims to be an expose of recent wars under the Bushes and to a lesser extent, Clinton. As a competitor to the Michael Moore style of film making it has the obligatory repetition of key quips, and quotes thought to be particularly germane and cutting.
One of the typical refrains is about the lack of WMDs as is to be expected. No reference is made to the other popular refrain at the time which was "No Blood for Oil," you don't hear that old canard much any more. And, the lack of expression is for good reason. Gas prices hit the highest level in American history. And, judging by the number of filmgoers who used cars, trucks, and SUVs to attend the same screening as I, the insatiable American thirst for oil is not abating.
If Americans were truly sincere about getting the U.S. out of Iraq, then they should sell their cars, and the next likely event to occur is that American politicians will stop the war drumbeats. In the meantime, as any president Republican or Democrat is bound by the Constitution, they will continue on the war course mapped out. Americans are tied to their inefficient internal combustion engines and American politicians are acting in the national interest, that is, keeping the flow of oil to the U.S.
In the film history is reviewed in the person of Senator Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) who is acclaimed as one of few American lawmakers who was brave enough to oppose the war in Vietnam. He makes a particularly embarrassing point about the President simply being "an administrator of the people's foreign policy."
God bless you Senator but not in my Constitution.
The film is on a bit better ground as an analysis of how the corporate media has echoed Washington's drumbeats during Persian Gulf I and II. The struggling print media, newspapers, are in dire straits and they are being eclipsed by digital communications, infotainment, the internet, and other new media. The new media is not directly as a result of government control but recent administrations have been savvy enough to adjust their message catered to the new media.
There are alternatives: turn off the TV, read bloggers, watch clips on YouTube, read foreign newspapers, catch Al-Jazeera, this works for me and I stay informed thusly.
The film is for the liberal choir exclusively so they can hum along to the old gospel song that gained some popularity during the Vietnam era, "Down by the Riverside," whose chorus echoes a heart-felt desire of people:
"I ain't gonna study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more
Study war no more…"
A good introduction can be seen on how to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art with Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu).
The second service, Google Translate, seems less promising although I have not taken it for a spin just yet. I still have to get over my bad experience with DragonDictate, c. 1998, when I spent an inordinate amount of time teaching a recalcitrant program and computer how to talk like me. Come to think of it, that may have been the problem.
Graph source: Source: Robert Half Technology, May 2007
Mary Brandel published a story in the 6 August 2007 issue of Computerworld reviewing what technology skills are in short supply. The list of skills follow below: Machine learning, Mobile applications, Wireless networking, Project management, General networking, Network convergence, Open-source programming, Business intelligence, and Embedded security.
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. has never sued a copyright violator and the Foundation has no plans to sue Baidu but this looks like an attempt to shame the company into compliance. All Wikipedia needs is the company to respect its copyright license by simply attributing Wikipedia entries on Baidu Baike, the company's Chinese-language Web encyclopedia.
"They do not respect the license at all," said Florence Nibart-Devouard, chairman of the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation.
The report has some good news and some bad news. The Pentagon is praised for its "resilience, learning and adapting to the IED threat." It credits JIEDDO's chief, retired General Montgommery Meigs, with "vision [and] leadership." And the paper notes that "casualty rates per IED attack are down, indicating that the cumulative effort of training, better protective equipment, and improved intelligence [have] had a positive effect."
On the other hand, what we hear in American journalism is true as well. The paper states that the American effort against improvised bombs has been an "unsatisfactory performance [with] an incomplete strategy." What's more, the JIEDDO-led struggle against the hand-made explosives has a "strategic flaw" that may keep the U.S. from ever gaining the upper hand on the bombers, Adamson notes: The lack of authority to knock bureaucratic heads. He recommends instead establishing a separate, Executive Branch agency with a "laser-like concentration on the hostile use of IEDs."
I'd like to be knocking some bureaucratic heads and it would be helpful if journalists would be carrying stories that reveal how insurgents can be effectively met, and defeated.
Go ahead, check them out, I won't be offended if you read the second best blogs in the world.
This past Friday though, the bakery and its related businesses, a chain of bakeries, a security service, and a school among other businesses, was raided after the killing of 57-year-old Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey.
Seven people associated with the organization were arrested in connection with the killing and other violent crimes.
Bailey was working on an expose of the organization's finances when he was killed in a daring broad daylight murder by a masked gunman.
The gunman is believed to be Devaughndre Broussard, an employer of the group.
The Muslim group's headquarters at the original bakery and three Oakland houses tied to the group were raided.
Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said the raids were part of a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, including two homicides this year and a kidnapping and torture case.
Yusuf Bey elicited ire from the public in 1994 when he ran for mayor of Oakland. He received less than 5 percent of the vote after a campaign in which he said that women "belong back in the home" and that gays should not be allowed to teach school.
In 2002, Bey was accused of raping a girl but he died of colon cancer in 2003 while awaiting trial.
Bey tapped Waajid Aljawwaad Bey as his successor in his multimillion-dollar empire.
Five months later, Aljawwaad Bey's body was found buried in an unsolved homicide.
The group was plagued by additional violence. In 2005 the leader of the Bey security service, John Bey, was shot outside his Oakland home. He survived, and his attacker was never found. In 2005, Bey's 23-year-old son, Antar Bey, the organization's heir apparent, was killed in what police called a botched carjacking attempt at a gas station in North Oakland.
Shortly after Antar's murder, his brother, Yusuf Bey IV, took over the bakery empire.
Yusuf has pending charges stemming from a 2005 case in which he is accused of leading a Black Muslim group caught by surveillance cameras in November 2005 smashing up two Oakland corner stores. The men berated the stores' Muslim owners for selling alcohol to the black community even though alcohol is forbidden by Islam.
Your Black Muslim Bakery filed for bankruptcy last year.
After Friday's raid, county health inspectors shut down the bakery for health-code violations.
I often hear about how Muslims are targeted in the post 9/11 period but in any other circumstances, Your Black Muslim Bakery would be standard law enforcement activity.
The story reminds me how the Black Panthers, starting out with the best of intentions, dissipated to impotence by internal squabbles, violence, and police enforcement. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
I always liked Oakland, despite its grittiness, its an interesting mix of cultures, pleasant scenery, and working-class ethos. I stayed there this summer near Jack London Square while visiting San Francisco. I wish the city well.
Haitham al-Badri plotted and carried out the 2006 and 2007 attacks on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, which destroyed its golden dome and minarets.
Badri, allegedly the leader of al-Qaeda in Salahuddin Province, was eliminated on Thursday by US troops east of Samarra.
The attacks on the mosque horrified Shias which set off a wave of sectarian violence which claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.
While U.S. troops continue to do their job, the Iraqis are failing to create a viable and unified governmental structure.
Enrollment decline has been precipitous: the archdiocese's Catholic elementary schools has dropped from 78,921 students to 62,559 over the past six years, while high school enrollment declined from 23,249 to 20,749 during the same period.
Upon reading though, just the panoply alone of drugs and injections was enough to convince me that Kennedy at least suffered a great deal. The evidence that he was conclusively and negatively effected by the drugs is not clear, it may never be. But, I found it alarming that so many physicians ruthlessly medicated the man without offering genuine relief.
Kennedy may be likened rather to a well-trained athlete who is medicated and medically treated beyond the norm. People can still function, even out-perform those around them. Kennedy had an incredible will; I think he really rose to the situation, he really was a war hero on PT 109. His endurance and commitment to his men after his boat was split in two by a Japanese warship is impressive. On the other hand, I don't think sinking into hero worship is sound, he certainly had his share of mistakes such as the Bay of Pigs, he just seemed to be a high-performing individual, warts and all.
As to the sex, well, I certainly was not aware of it at the time but enough evidence came to light over the years. I guess he enjoyed himself.
Dallek obtained documents indicating Kennedy had an affair with a 19-year-old intern in the White House: shades of Bill Clinton. He discovered 17 blacked-out pages in an oral history by Barbara Gamarekian, who was an aide to Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger.
Gamarekian refused to give him the name of the former intern to protect the woman but the pages were from 40 years ago so authentic enough. In fact, the New York Daily News subsequently learned the woman's identity and published an interview with her.
Many Americans consider Kennedy to be among the greatest presidents, but Dallek says most historians would dispute that, he fell well short of great or even near great. He failed to win passage for civil rights legislation and other major legislative initiatives and he stumbled in foreign policy with the Bay of Pigs and an escalation of the Vietnam War, Dallek stated in interviews about the book.
The assassination colors our perception. Kennedy has tended to be idolized as a result. Since I finally got around to the book I believe it is well worth reading and certainly presents a human presidential figure.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause (the Copyright and Patent Clause, the Intellectual Property Clause, and the Progress Clause), empowers the United States Congress:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
A number of United States Supreme Court cases interprets the text. The Court has determined that because the purpose of the clause is to stimulate development of the works it protects, its purpose is not to inhibit such progress.
After an author creates, they retain the rights, though not exclusively of course, fair use doctrine, while related, is primarily a First Amendment doctrine. It permits certain unauthorized uses of copyrighted material in the name of greater freedoms. In teaching for example, obtaining authorized use from every author would be ludicrous. No practical teaching could be done.
In instances of disagreement, who should prevail?
Here is one such example: "I understand that before I started volunteering with [insert academic JOURNAL here], there were some tensions between your editorial team and the [insert academic JOURNAL here] board."
So who owns the work? The guiding principle here seems to be the stimulation of works, not to prohibit "progress" however ill-defined and unwieldy. Especially in a democracy it seems one would want to err on the side of controversy and expression, unless one's intent was to inhibit such progress.
If the author of an unpublished work specifically objected to inclusion in an archive, I would argue that they retain that right.
However, the work of editors, redactors, and others have a creative aspect as well. That is their original contribution to the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Therefore, I would strenuously object to the statement that "many of the items [archived materials] fall in to the category of [insert academic JOURNAL here] papers, as opposed to personal correspondence or work."
In this instance the editor did of course, "work," their creative contribution; in addition, the editor in question also has academic credentials, a Masters of Library Science, or their promotion of scientific endeavor. Thus, on two grounds I would argue that the editor is on sound constitutional ground.
The premise of the succeeding editor or board reveals the weakness of their position; they have to ask permission.
With the above in mind, we'd like to ask you to advise [insert University Archivist here] at the
[insert University's Library here] that items in the {insert original Editor's name here] Papers other than your personal correspondence be removed from the archive.
So who owns the work?
The original editor of course.
Nearly all the laser printers fingered by researchers for spewing particulate matter into offices and homes are sold by HP.
The article in the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) journal, measured emissions of 58 laser printers, including models from Canon Inc., HP, Ricoh Co. and Toshiba Corp. Particle emissions, believed to be related to the ultrafine powdered toner, were measured and the printers ranked in several categories.
Of the "high emitters" at least for me, they do not effect me personally. I don't have any of the offending models: the Color LaserJet 4650dn; Color LaserJet 5550dtn; Color LaserJet 8550n; LaserJet 1320n; LaserJet 2420n; LaserJet 4200dtn; LaserJet 4250n; LaserJet 5; LaserJet 8000dn; and the LaserJet 8150n.
Anyone want to go back to carbons? Elementary kids got high from those.
In the old days of colonialism, a person who committed a crime in a colony was taken back to the home country, where presumably they would get a more sympathetic hearing. Today, this is a twist on the old legal principle.
In cyberspace, where is the crime?
Gary McKinnon is accused of causing $961,000 worth of damage to computers by hacking into the Pentagon, NASA, and U.S. military systems. McKinnon, an ex-systems administrator allegedly conducted the largest military hack of all time. He won the right to have his case against extradition to the U.S. heard by the U.K. House of Lords.
McKinnon maintains that the alleged offenses took place in the U.K. and that is where he should stand trial.
He could face a life sentence in jail with no chance of repatriation if he is extradited to the U.S.
The U.S. may be particularly adamant about prosecution since McKinnon hacked he systems shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The U.S. government may want to make an example of him as a warning to would be or potential terrorists.
That deterrent seems specious but I suppose he could be useful to analyze what he did to probe weaknesses in U.S. defense, goodness knows they are chronic.
Let's see how the new one does.
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