Looked at office space today for a project of mine that's getting funded. That was cool. [ remind me to tell you about that, James ]
In other news, more of my family is dying. My 80-year-old cousin in law who I refer to as Uncle Jesse just had a brain hemmorage the other day, and is in ICU. My grandmother is terminally ill with cancer.
Furthermore, I'm sad because of some personal drama going on in my life.
On the other hand though, tonight is New Year's Eve. Party time yay or something.
I'm reading a good book right now by Donald E. Knuth called Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About. As I read more I'll tell you some about it.
/rizzn
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Monday, December 29, 2003
The End of Freedom as We Know It
On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shuttng down the federal government the following Monday.
By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.
[ Full Article ]
On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shuttng down the federal government the following Monday.
By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.
[ Full Article ]
Tricked Brain Cells Live Hours without Oxygen
December 26, 2003 From Betterhumans: Exploiting their discovery about a mechanism that causes brain cells to die from stroke, researchers have found a way to keep brain cells alive for more than three hours without oxygen and nutrients.
The researchers found that when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and vital nutrients as a result of stroke, a channel called TRPM7 that resides on the surface of those brain cells is activated, triggering a lethal chain reaction. The researchers report that they have found a way to disrupt this cycle by interfering with the channel’s activity. While brain cells can only survive for a few minutes without oxygen, interfering with the activity of TRPM7 allows brain cells to survive for more than three hours without oxygen and vital nutrients. The researchers predict that it will take about three years to develop medications bases on these findings. The study is reported in the journal Cell. [ View source ] (posted by gpmap)
December 26, 2003 From Betterhumans: Exploiting their discovery about a mechanism that causes brain cells to die from stroke, researchers have found a way to keep brain cells alive for more than three hours without oxygen and nutrients.
The researchers found that when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and vital nutrients as a result of stroke, a channel called TRPM7 that resides on the surface of those brain cells is activated, triggering a lethal chain reaction. The researchers report that they have found a way to disrupt this cycle by interfering with the channel’s activity. While brain cells can only survive for a few minutes without oxygen, interfering with the activity of TRPM7 allows brain cells to survive for more than three hours without oxygen and vital nutrients. The researchers predict that it will take about three years to develop medications bases on these findings. The study is reported in the journal Cell. [ View source ] (posted by gpmap)
PopoBawa, the Sex-Mad Ghost
» From the Necrophilia Department
"Fear has struck residents of the ZanzibarIslandsafter rumours of the re-emergence of a sexually voracious ghost that attacks people while they sleep in their beds at night... The ghost or genie goes by the name of Popo Bawa and people believe that it sodomises its victims, most of whom are men. In recent years the residents on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands claimed that Popo Bawa only visited the islanders during voting, such as in the contentious general elections in 1995 and 2000. But to the surprise of many this current ghost has reappeared when there is no polling of any kind." — BBC (UK)
Usually you think of necrophilia as sex with dead bodies, but here you have a kind of supernatural variant: sex with dead spirits. It would be tempting to say they're all gay dead spirits, since they go around sodomizing men in their beds. But the political angle gives you pause. Hm, who doesn't wake up the morning after an election — particularly in these two-bit countries where all the elections are corrupt anyway — feeling as though he's been sodomized? Here in America, a lot of Democrats could no doubt sympathize with anyone claiming to be ass-raped by Popo Bawa, since they seem to feel like they were raped by a demon themselves. Call him Popo Dubya, maybe.
[PervScan]
Satellite Radio Subscriptions Rising
Posted by timothy on Sunday December 28, @09:33PM
from the radio-free-space dept.
aSiTiC writes "Apparently, satellite radio is finally catching on. I'm an avid internet radio listener on stations such as KEXP, BBC 6Music and SomaFM. I am looking for a more portable alternative and I wonder if eventually my favorite MP3/RM/WMA internet stations will be ever be carried on satellite."
Posted by timothy on Sunday December 28, @09:33PM
from the radio-free-space dept.
aSiTiC writes "Apparently, satellite radio is finally catching on. I'm an avid internet radio listener on stations such as KEXP, BBC 6Music and SomaFM. I am looking for a more portable alternative and I wonder if eventually my favorite MP3/RM/WMA internet stations will be ever be carried on satellite."
Pseudo-Intellectual Opinions Affirmed With Vague References
Springfield, MA–Steve Nyman, 31, a waiter at a local fish and chips shoppe, once again validated his uneducated opinion with vague, unarguable references Monday, sources reported.
[Rizzn's Note: reminds me of countless 'debates' I've had over my lifetime]
Springfield, MA–Steve Nyman, 31, a waiter at a local fish and chips shoppe, once again validated his uneducated opinion with vague, unarguable references Monday, sources reported.
[Rizzn's Note: reminds me of countless 'debates' I've had over my lifetime]
I'm Back y'all.
And I'm back, y'all. And I'm back and I'm back and I'm back y'all.
I'm bicketybacketybicketybackety bickety bickety back y'all.
Hope your Festivus was as good as mine.
/rizzn
And I'm back, y'all. And I'm back and I'm back and I'm back y'all.
I'm bicketybacketybicketybackety bickety bickety back y'all.
Hope your Festivus was as good as mine.
/rizzn
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Am I just out of the loop or am I reading too narrow of a news stream or something? I just found this on Slashdot in a discussion thread about a highspeed internet connection between Russia, China, and the US:
Re:Politically odd? (sorry, OT) (Score:5, Insightful)
by afidel (530433) on Tuesday December 23, @07:34PM (#7799613)
As of this week China can be officially declared a FORMER communist country. The upper house introduced a bill that is sure to pass guarenteeing private property rights. This is the end of any idea of communism in China and the beginning of their own brand of socialist capatalism more along the lines of Europe.
I found some more info on the news item here and here.
A fellow named Jon Martin (home page) followed up with this comment (quotes in italics):
Don't you mean a quasi capitalist totalitarian regime? China is nothing like Europe, and still doesn't respect human rights. If anything, it'll become a model for what corporations want America to be like: a country ruled by the corporations for the corporations with no rights given to the individual.
Close, but it is a country ruled by the military backed elite for the corporations with no rights given to the individual. We have a word for this merging of totalitarianism and corporatism: fascism. The only deviation from the standard definition of fascism is the absence of a single, demigod-like leader (ie. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin). Though it could be argued that the memory of Mao serves this purpose.
Regardless, the person who compared China to Europe is spectacularly stupid. Unless they meant Europe of the 1930s.
[/end quote]
The article in the India Times starts out with: "China’s national legislature moved to amend the constitution on Monday to protect private property rights, the first time the Communist Party has formally protected private wealth since taking power 55 years ago. The change, expected to be enacted early next year, is a milestone in China ’s 25-year economic reform effort. "
The concluding paragraph in the article is telling: "Corruption is rampant in China and intellectuals have warned against steps that would make it easier for well-connected people to take control of public property. The watered-down amendment also seems geared to give the state continued sway over wealthy businessmen. "
This deserves more research. I shall do the work. Expect an update on this.
Re:Politically odd? (sorry, OT) (Score:5, Insightful)
by afidel (530433) on Tuesday December 23, @07:34PM (#7799613)
As of this week China can be officially declared a FORMER communist country. The upper house introduced a bill that is sure to pass guarenteeing private property rights. This is the end of any idea of communism in China and the beginning of their own brand of socialist capatalism more along the lines of Europe.
I found some more info on the news item here and here.
A fellow named Jon Martin (home page) followed up with this comment (quotes in italics):
Don't you mean a quasi capitalist totalitarian regime? China is nothing like Europe, and still doesn't respect human rights. If anything, it'll become a model for what corporations want America to be like: a country ruled by the corporations for the corporations with no rights given to the individual.
Close, but it is a country ruled by the military backed elite for the corporations with no rights given to the individual. We have a word for this merging of totalitarianism and corporatism: fascism. The only deviation from the standard definition of fascism is the absence of a single, demigod-like leader (ie. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin). Though it could be argued that the memory of Mao serves this purpose.
Regardless, the person who compared China to Europe is spectacularly stupid. Unless they meant Europe of the 1930s.
[/end quote]
The article in the India Times starts out with: "China’s national legislature moved to amend the constitution on Monday to protect private property rights, the first time the Communist Party has formally protected private wealth since taking power 55 years ago. The change, expected to be enacted early next year, is a milestone in China ’s 25-year economic reform effort. "
The concluding paragraph in the article is telling: "Corruption is rampant in China and intellectuals have warned against steps that would make it easier for well-connected people to take control of public property. The watered-down amendment also seems geared to give the state continued sway over wealthy businessmen. "
This deserves more research. I shall do the work. Expect an update on this.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
a post I put up on /. a while back...
How can you say Democracy works in a nation like this affected by and act like the US PATRIOT?
That's too specific of an example.
Around the world, government policies are still dominated by the few, not the many. It's dominated by rich families. By coporate lobbiests. By insane dictatorial families. By religious leaders. Generally, though, not the will of the people.
In fact, it is that the will of the people is so underwhelming that these things happen in dictatorships, democracies, republics, mob-states, communes and the like. The will of the people generally involves: "does my car work?" or "are the trains on time?"
As long as these things continue to be unaffected in day to day life for the common man (and by that I mean everyone who's life isn't involved in the goings on of D.C., or your respective nation's capitol), then people will tend to still not care about what goes on there.
If the change in government types happens gradually enough, people will not notice. We are gradually becoming more and more fascist, arguably. Ask your friends and family. Chances are most of those whom you ask won't see it that way. Show them how the government is becoming fascist thru things like the patriot act and other recent developments like this, and they might agree with you.
Will they do anything about it?
Probably not.
How can you say Democracy works in a nation like this affected by and act like the US PATRIOT?
That's too specific of an example.
Around the world, government policies are still dominated by the few, not the many. It's dominated by rich families. By coporate lobbiests. By insane dictatorial families. By religious leaders. Generally, though, not the will of the people.
In fact, it is that the will of the people is so underwhelming that these things happen in dictatorships, democracies, republics, mob-states, communes and the like. The will of the people generally involves: "does my car work?" or "are the trains on time?"
As long as these things continue to be unaffected in day to day life for the common man (and by that I mean everyone who's life isn't involved in the goings on of D.C., or your respective nation's capitol), then people will tend to still not care about what goes on there.
If the change in government types happens gradually enough, people will not notice. We are gradually becoming more and more fascist, arguably. Ask your friends and family. Chances are most of those whom you ask won't see it that way. Show them how the government is becoming fascist thru things like the patriot act and other recent developments like this, and they might agree with you.
Will they do anything about it?
Probably not.
SUCK!
bprotas: today I am giving presentations to a bunch of Indians who by this time next month will be doing my job, so that this company no longer has to pay me to do it.
bprotas: I love America
RznDoUrdn: suck!
bprotas: they don't understand why i'm so "unfriendly towards" them
bprotas: ahahahahahahaha
bprotas: today I am giving presentations to a bunch of Indians who by this time next month will be doing my job, so that this company no longer has to pay me to do it.
bprotas: I love America
RznDoUrdn: suck!
bprotas: they don't understand why i'm so "unfriendly towards" them
bprotas: ahahahahahahaha
[ Rizzn's Note: It's more likely that the network technician thought that they would never be missed and wanted to upgrade his home network. I mean how badass would nine high-capacity disks from LANL be to have on your network? ]
Los Alamos Employees Placed On Leave After Security Gaffe
Tue Dec 23 @ 19:00
Source: Internet Week
Los Alamos National Laboratory employees and managers have been placed on paid investigative leave as a result of security problems that surfaced at the lab earlier this month, a lab spokesman confirmed Friday. The trouble stems from missing storage devices, which may or may not have been properly destroyed. Officials said earlier this month that they can't account for a high-capacity disk and nine diskettes used at the lab. Spokesman Kevin Roark said laboratory officials won't say how many employees have been placed on investigatory leave The gaffe is yet another embarrassing security lapse involving the loss of electronic storage devices. While some of the disks were marked classified, the "initial laboratory review indicates that national security was not jeopardized by this incident," the lab said in a statement issued Dec. 9. An independent federal analysis of the incident is expected.
Los Alamos Employees Placed On Leave After Security Gaffe
Tue Dec 23 @ 19:00
Source: Internet Week
Los Alamos National Laboratory employees and managers have been placed on paid investigative leave as a result of security problems that surfaced at the lab earlier this month, a lab spokesman confirmed Friday. The trouble stems from missing storage devices, which may or may not have been properly destroyed. Officials said earlier this month that they can't account for a high-capacity disk and nine diskettes used at the lab. Spokesman Kevin Roark said laboratory officials won't say how many employees have been placed on investigatory leave The gaffe is yet another embarrassing security lapse involving the loss of electronic storage devices. While some of the disks were marked classified, the "initial laboratory review indicates that national security was not jeopardized by this incident," the lab said in a statement issued Dec. 9. An independent federal analysis of the incident is expected.
Monday, December 22, 2003
DMCA Does Not Require ISPs to Turn Over Names
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, December 19 @ 15:31:15 EST
Good news for filesharers, bad news for the RIAA today, as the D.C. Circuit interprets the DMCA to preclude the use of subpoenas to force ISPs to turn over the names of suspected filesharers.
In a significant setback for the recording industry, a federal appeals court ruled today that Internet service providers cannot be forced to turn over the names of subscribers who are suspected of illegally sharing music on line. The ruling by a three-judge panel expressed sympathy for the recording industry, which has been hit hard by piracy and file-sharing among computer users. But it concluded that nothing in the law authorizes special subpoenas against Internet service providers compelling them to identify customers who might be engaging in copyright infringement.
The case is RIAA v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc.. The holding of the case is succinctly stated:
The issue is whether §512(h)applies to an ISP acting only as a conduit for data transferred between two internet users, such as persons sending and receiving e-mail or, as in this case, sharing P2P files. . . . We conclude from both the terms of §512(h)and the overall structure of §512 that, as Verizon contends, a subpoena may be issued only to an ISP engaged in storing on its servers material that is infringing or the subject of infringing activity.
Amusingly, there is also a small jab at the RIAA's legal arguments in the decision.
Finally, the RIAA argues the definition of "[internet ] service provider" in §512(k)(1)(B)makes §512(h)applicable to an ISP regardless what function it performs with respect to infringing material . . . This argument borders upon the silly. The details of this argument need not burden the Federal Reporter. . . .
It's worth emphasizing that the D.C. Circuit ruled this way solely as a matter of statutory interpretation. Congress could very easily reverse this case by simply revising the language of the DMCA.
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, December 19 @ 15:31:15 EST
Good news for filesharers, bad news for the RIAA today, as the D.C. Circuit interprets the DMCA to preclude the use of subpoenas to force ISPs to turn over the names of suspected filesharers.
In a significant setback for the recording industry, a federal appeals court ruled today that Internet service providers cannot be forced to turn over the names of subscribers who are suspected of illegally sharing music on line. The ruling by a three-judge panel expressed sympathy for the recording industry, which has been hit hard by piracy and file-sharing among computer users. But it concluded that nothing in the law authorizes special subpoenas against Internet service providers compelling them to identify customers who might be engaging in copyright infringement.
The case is RIAA v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc.. The holding of the case is succinctly stated:
The issue is whether §512(h)applies to an ISP acting only as a conduit for data transferred between two internet users, such as persons sending and receiving e-mail or, as in this case, sharing P2P files. . . . We conclude from both the terms of §512(h)and the overall structure of §512 that, as Verizon contends, a subpoena may be issued only to an ISP engaged in storing on its servers material that is infringing or the subject of infringing activity.
Amusingly, there is also a small jab at the RIAA's legal arguments in the decision.
Finally, the RIAA argues the definition of "[internet ] service provider" in §512(k)(1)(B)makes §512(h)applicable to an ISP regardless what function it performs with respect to infringing material . . . This argument borders upon the silly. The details of this argument need not burden the Federal Reporter. . . .
It's worth emphasizing that the D.C. Circuit ruled this way solely as a matter of statutory interpretation. Congress could very easily reverse this case by simply revising the language of the DMCA.
Re:Winter Solstice (Score:5, Informative)
by ShadowBlasko (597519) on Sunday December 21, @01:01PM (#7780024)
(http://www.shadowsrealm.com/)
Since it seems applicable, I thought I would drop this in again.
Insert Fun Facts Here....
As you sit back in your chair this Christmas:
(the biggest holiday of the Ancient Roman World called Saturnalia and the birth of the Persian Sun God Mithras was named the birth festival of Jesus by Pope Leo the Great in 885 A.D. December 25th was also the Feast of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, a cult popular to Romans like Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Modern estimates based on the census records of Augustus calculate Jesus' actual birth in July although Christians had started to use the Saturnalia as the birthday feast as early as the 300's A.D.)
by your yule log:
(pagan German custom),
wrapping your presents in pretty paper:
(Roman Saturnalia custom)
with your house all decorated with lights:
(Roman New Year custom)
under your mistletoe:
(Druid custom),
drinking from your Wassel Bowl:
(Anglo-German hot beer with toast floating
in which is why we "toast" with the words "was-heil" -- here's to ya).
You're looking at your Christmas tree:
(besides the Celtic tree worship, the 24th of December was the feast day of Saints Adam and Eve
when Medieval Churches act out the Genesis story and set up a tree representing the "tree of life" with glass balls representing the fruit. This custom was later associated with Christmas and was taken from Germany to England by Prince Albert and to America by Hessian soldiers and later German immigrants)
(In an 1883 editorial about the newfangled custom the New York Times called the Christmas Tree -- "A rootless, lifeless corpse -- unworthy of the Day..."),
And you dream of a visit from Santa Claus
(a hybrid of anglo-dutch customs appearing in it's modern form in New York in the late 1850's.
The English form was St. Nicholas, a big jolly Bishop in a red suit and the Dutch had Kris Kringle, the elf who dropped down your chimney and was also known as "Klaus-in-the-Cinders" or "Cinder-Klaus'". The first image of him was drawn in 1859 in the New York Sun by cartoonist Thomas Nast for the Clement Moore poem (Nast also created the Democratic Donkey and Republican elephant). The modern image was created for a 1930's ad
campaign for Coca-Cola by illustrator Haddon Sundblom.)
(A Welsh friend told me the Druid priest who distributed magic mushrooms wore a red robe with white fur trim. The reindeer had a habit of eating these mushrooms which gave you a high when you drank their urine.}
So here's wishing you hopes for a "White Christmas" (song written by Russian-Jewish composer Irving Berlin)
and a very Happy New Year:
(courtesy of the 12 month calendar reformed by the Hellenic-Egyptian Sosigenes for Julius Caesar and modified by Pope Gregory in 1582, else we'd be celebrating in March.)
Merry Christmas, Freylich Chaunnakah, Happy Solstice, Happy Birth of Mithras, Io, Saturnalia, Joyeux Noel, Bozego Narodzenia, Frohe Weinacht, Happy Birth of Sol Invictus the Sungod, Happy death and rebirth of Baldur son of Odin, Happy beginning of the rise of Porsephone back from
Hades to her mother Demeter, and pass the reindeer pee!
Thank you, I'll be here all week...
magnae clunes mihi placent, nec possum de hac re mentiri.
by ShadowBlasko (597519) on Sunday December 21, @01:01PM (#7780024)
(http://www.shadowsrealm.com/)
Since it seems applicable, I thought I would drop this in again.
Insert Fun Facts Here....
As you sit back in your chair this Christmas:
(the biggest holiday of the Ancient Roman World called Saturnalia and the birth of the Persian Sun God Mithras was named the birth festival of Jesus by Pope Leo the Great in 885 A.D. December 25th was also the Feast of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, a cult popular to Romans like Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Modern estimates based on the census records of Augustus calculate Jesus' actual birth in July although Christians had started to use the Saturnalia as the birthday feast as early as the 300's A.D.)
by your yule log:
(pagan German custom),
wrapping your presents in pretty paper:
(Roman Saturnalia custom)
with your house all decorated with lights:
(Roman New Year custom)
under your mistletoe:
(Druid custom),
drinking from your Wassel Bowl:
(Anglo-German hot beer with toast floating
in which is why we "toast" with the words "was-heil" -- here's to ya).
You're looking at your Christmas tree:
(besides the Celtic tree worship, the 24th of December was the feast day of Saints Adam and Eve
when Medieval Churches act out the Genesis story and set up a tree representing the "tree of life" with glass balls representing the fruit. This custom was later associated with Christmas and was taken from Germany to England by Prince Albert and to America by Hessian soldiers and later German immigrants)
(In an 1883 editorial about the newfangled custom the New York Times called the Christmas Tree -- "A rootless, lifeless corpse -- unworthy of the Day..."),
And you dream of a visit from Santa Claus
(a hybrid of anglo-dutch customs appearing in it's modern form in New York in the late 1850's.
The English form was St. Nicholas, a big jolly Bishop in a red suit and the Dutch had Kris Kringle, the elf who dropped down your chimney and was also known as "Klaus-in-the-Cinders" or "Cinder-Klaus'". The first image of him was drawn in 1859 in the New York Sun by cartoonist Thomas Nast for the Clement Moore poem (Nast also created the Democratic Donkey and Republican elephant). The modern image was created for a 1930's ad
campaign for Coca-Cola by illustrator Haddon Sundblom.)
(A Welsh friend told me the Druid priest who distributed magic mushrooms wore a red robe with white fur trim. The reindeer had a habit of eating these mushrooms which gave you a high when you drank their urine.}
So here's wishing you hopes for a "White Christmas" (song written by Russian-Jewish composer Irving Berlin)
and a very Happy New Year:
(courtesy of the 12 month calendar reformed by the Hellenic-Egyptian Sosigenes for Julius Caesar and modified by Pope Gregory in 1582, else we'd be celebrating in March.)
Merry Christmas, Freylich Chaunnakah, Happy Solstice, Happy Birth of Mithras, Io, Saturnalia, Joyeux Noel, Bozego Narodzenia, Frohe Weinacht, Happy Birth of Sol Invictus the Sungod, Happy death and rebirth of Baldur son of Odin, Happy beginning of the rise of Porsephone back from
Hades to her mother Demeter, and pass the reindeer pee!
Thank you, I'll be here all week...
magnae clunes mihi placent, nec possum de hac re mentiri.
[Rizzn's Note: On the one hand, it is interesting and commonplace theory that there's something fishy about the capture of Saddam. On the other hand, it's very difficult to trust an article that uses debka.com as one of it's primary sources.]
Revealed: Who Really Found Saddam?
[Excerpt: "But perhaps the mother of all conspiracy theories, is the one about the pictures distributed by the Americans showing the hideout with a palm tree behind the soldier who uncov ered the hole where Saddam was hiding. The palm carried a cluster of pre-ripened yellow dates, which might suggest that Saddam was arrested at least three months earlier, because dates ripen in the summer when they turn into their black or brown colour." ]
Sunday Herald - 21 December 2003
Revealed: who really found Saddam?
Saddam’s capture was the best present George Bush could have hoped for, and then Gaddafi handed a propaganda gift to Blair. But nothing’s ever that simple
By Foreign Editor David Pratt
It was exactly one week ago at 3.15pm Baghdad time, when a beaming Paul Bremer made that now-famous announce ment: “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!”
Saddam Hussein: High Value Target Number One. The Glorious Leader. The Lion of Babylon had been snared. Iraq’s most wanted – the ace of spades – had become little more than an ace in the hole.
In Baghdad’s streets, Kalashnikov bullets rained down in celebration. In the billets of US soldiers, there were high fives, toasts and cigars. In the Jordanian capital Amman, an elderly woman overcome by grief broke down in tears and died. Inside a snow-blanketed White House, George W Bush prepared to address the nation.
“There’s an end to everything,” said a sombre Safa Saber al-Douri, a former Iraqi air force pilot, now a grocer in al-Dwar, the town where only hours earlier one of the greatest manhunts in history had ended under a polystyrene hatch in a six foot deep “spider hole.”
But just how did that endgame come about? Indeed, who exactly were the key players in what until then had been a frustrating and sometimes embarrassing hunt for a former dictator with a $25 million (£14m) bounty on his head?
For 249 days there was no shortage of US expertise devoted to the hunt. But the Pentagon has always remained tight-lipped about those individuals and groups involved, such as Task Force 20, said to be America’s most elite covert unit, or another super-secret team known as Greyfox, which specialises in radio and telephone surveillance.
Saddam, of course, was never likely to use the phone, and the best chance of locating him would always be as a result of informers or home-grown Iraqi intelligence. On this and their collaboration with anti-Saddam groups the Americans have also remained reticent.
Enter one Qusrat Rasul Ali, otherwise known as the lion of Kurdistan. A leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Rasul Ali was once tortured by Saddam’s henchmen, but today is chief of a special forces unit dedicated to hunting down former Ba’athist regime leaders.
Rasul Ali’s unit had an impressive track record. It was they who last August, working alone, arrested Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan in Mosul, northern Iraq. Barely a month earlier in the al-Falah district of the same town, the PUK is believed to have played a crucial role in the pinpointing and storming of a villa that culminated in the deaths of Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay.
In that mixed district of Mosul where Arabs, Kurds and Turkemen live side by side, PUK informers went running to their leader Jalal Talabani’s nearest military headquarters to bring him news on the exact location of the villa where both Uday and Qusay had taken shelter.
Armed with the information, Talabani made a beeline for US administration offices in Baghdad, where deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz was based for a week’s stay in Iraq at the time.
The Kurdish leader and US military chiefs conferred and decided that PUK intelligence would go ahead and secretly surround the Zeidan villa and install sensors and eavesdropping devices. The Kurdish agents were instructed to prepare the site for the US special forces operation to storm the building on July 22.
American officials later said they expected that the $30m bounty promised by their government for the capture or death of the Hussein sons would be paid. Given their direct involvement in providing the exact location and intelligence necessary, no doubt Talabani’s PUK operatives could lay claim to the sum, but no confirmation of any delivery or receipt of the cash has ever been made.
The PUK and Rasul Ali’s special “Ba’athist hunters” have, it seems, been doing what the Americans have consistently failed to do. In an interview with the PUK’s al-Hurriyah radio station last Wednesday, Adil Murad, a member of the PUK’s political bureau, confirmed that the Kurdish unit had been pursuing fugitive Ba’athists for the past months in Mosul, Samarra, Tikrit and areas to the south including al-Dwar where Saddam was eventually cornered. Murad even says that the day before Saddam’s capture he was tipped off by PUK General Thamir al-Sultan, that Saddam would be arrested within the next 72 hours.
Clearly the Kurdish net was closing on Saddam, and PUK head Jalal Talabani and Rasul Ali were once again in the running for US bounty – should any be going.
It was at about 10.50am Baghdad time on last Saturday when US intel ligence says it got the tip it was looking for. But it was not until 8pm, with the launch of Operation Red Dawn, that they finally began to close in on the prize.
The US media reported that the tip-off came from an Iraqi man who was arrested during a raid in Tikrit, and even speculated that he could get part of the bounty. “It was intelligence, actionable intelligence,” claimed Lt General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq. “It was great analytical work.”
But the widely held view that Kurdish intelligence was the key to the operation was supported in a statement released last Sunday by the Iraqi Governing Council. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, said that Rasul Ali and his PUK special forces unit had provided vital information and more.
Last Saturday, as the US operation picked up speed, the Fourth Infantry Division moved into the area surrounding two farms codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 near al-Dwar, the heart of the Saddam heartland – a military town where practically every man is a military officer past or present. It is said to have a special place in Saddam’s sentiments because it was from here that he swam across the Tigris River when he was a dissident fleeing arrest in the 1960s.
Every year on August 28, the town marks Saddam’s escape with a swimming contest . In 1992, Saddam himself attended the race. It was won by a man called Qais al-Nameq. It was al-Nameq’s farmhouse – Wolverine 2 – that about 600 troops, including engineers, artillery and special forces, surrounded, cutting off all roads for about four or five miles around.
Next to a sheep pen was a ramshackle orange and white taxi, which US officials say was probably used to ferry Saddam around while he was on the run, sometimes moving every three or four hours.
Inside the premises was a walled compound with a mud hut and small lean-to. There US soldiers found the camouflaged hole in which Saddam was hiding.
It was 3.15pm Washington time when Donald Rumsfeld called George W Bush at Camp David. “Mr President, first reports are not always accurate,” he began. “But we think we may have him.”
First reports – indeed the very first report of Saddam’s capture – were also coming out elsewhere. Jalal Talabani chose to leak the news and details of Rasul Ali’s role in the deployment to the Iranian media and to be interviewed by them.
By early Sunday – way before Saddam’s capture was being reported by the mainstream Western press – the Kurdish media ran the following news wire:
“Saddam Hussein, the former President of the Iraqi regime, was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace. Qusrat’s team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!”
By the time Western press agencies were running the same story, the emphasis had changed, and the ousted Iraqi president had been “captured in a raid by US forces backed by Kurdish fighters.”
Rasul Ali himself, meanwhile, had already been on air at the Iranian satellite station al-Alam insisting that his “PUK fighters sealed the area off before the arrival of the US forces”.
By late Sunday as the story went global, the Kurdish role was reduced to a supportive one in what was described by the Pentagon and US military officials as a “joint operation”. The Americans now somewhat reluctantly were admitting that PUK fighters were on the ground alongside them , while PUK sources were making more considered statements and playing down their precise role.
So just who did get to Saddam first, the Kurds or the Americans? And if indeed it was a joint operation would it have been possible at all without the intelligence and on-the-ground participation of Rasul Ali and his special forces?
If the PUK themselves pulled off Saddam’s capture, there would be much to gain from taking the $25m bounty and any political guarantees the Americans might reward them with to keep schtum. What’s more, Jalal Talabani’s links to Tehran have always worried Washington, and having his party grab the grand prize from beneath their noses would be awkward to say the least.
“It’s mutually worth it to us and the Americans. We need assurances for the future and they need the kudos of getting Saddam,” admitted a Kurdish source on condition of anonymity. It would be all to easy to dismiss the questions surrounding the PUK role as conspiracy theory. After all, almost every major event that affects the Arab world prompts tales that are quickly woven into intricate shapes and patterns, to demonstrate innocence, seek credit or apportion blame. Saddam’s capture is no exception.
Of the numerous and more exotic theories surrounding events leading to Saddam’s arrest, one originates on a website many believe edited by former Israeli intelligence agents, but which often turns up inside information about the Middle East that proves to be accurate.
According to Debka.com, there is a possibility that Saddam was held for up to three weeks in al-Dwar by a Kurdish splinter group while they negotiated a handover to the Americans in return for the $25m reward. This, the writers say would explain his dishevelled and disorientated appearance.
But perhaps the mother of all conspiracy theories, is the one about the pictures distributed by the Americans showing the hideout with a palm tree behind the soldier who uncov ered the hole where Saddam was hiding. The palm carried a cluster of pre-ripened yellow dates, which might suggest that Saddam was arrested at least three months earlier, because dates ripen in the summer when they turn into their black or brown colour.
Those who buy into such an explanation conclude that Saddam’s capture was stage-managed and his place of arrest probably elsewhere. All fanciful stuff. But as is so often the case, the real chain of events is likely to be far more mundane.
In the end serious questions remain about the Kurdish role and whether at last Sunday’s Baghdad press conference, Paul Bremer was telling the whole truth . Or is it a case of “ladies and gentlemen we got him,” – with a little more help from our Kurdish friends than might be politically expedient to admit?
Copyright © 2003 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088
Revealed: Who Really Found Saddam?
[Excerpt: "But perhaps the mother of all conspiracy theories, is the one about the pictures distributed by the Americans showing the hideout with a palm tree behind the soldier who uncov ered the hole where Saddam was hiding. The palm carried a cluster of pre-ripened yellow dates, which might suggest that Saddam was arrested at least three months earlier, because dates ripen in the summer when they turn into their black or brown colour." ]
Sunday Herald - 21 December 2003
Revealed: who really found Saddam?
Saddam’s capture was the best present George Bush could have hoped for, and then Gaddafi handed a propaganda gift to Blair. But nothing’s ever that simple
By Foreign Editor David Pratt
It was exactly one week ago at 3.15pm Baghdad time, when a beaming Paul Bremer made that now-famous announce ment: “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!”
Saddam Hussein: High Value Target Number One. The Glorious Leader. The Lion of Babylon had been snared. Iraq’s most wanted – the ace of spades – had become little more than an ace in the hole.
In Baghdad’s streets, Kalashnikov bullets rained down in celebration. In the billets of US soldiers, there were high fives, toasts and cigars. In the Jordanian capital Amman, an elderly woman overcome by grief broke down in tears and died. Inside a snow-blanketed White House, George W Bush prepared to address the nation.
“There’s an end to everything,” said a sombre Safa Saber al-Douri, a former Iraqi air force pilot, now a grocer in al-Dwar, the town where only hours earlier one of the greatest manhunts in history had ended under a polystyrene hatch in a six foot deep “spider hole.”
But just how did that endgame come about? Indeed, who exactly were the key players in what until then had been a frustrating and sometimes embarrassing hunt for a former dictator with a $25 million (£14m) bounty on his head?
For 249 days there was no shortage of US expertise devoted to the hunt. But the Pentagon has always remained tight-lipped about those individuals and groups involved, such as Task Force 20, said to be America’s most elite covert unit, or another super-secret team known as Greyfox, which specialises in radio and telephone surveillance.
Saddam, of course, was never likely to use the phone, and the best chance of locating him would always be as a result of informers or home-grown Iraqi intelligence. On this and their collaboration with anti-Saddam groups the Americans have also remained reticent.
Enter one Qusrat Rasul Ali, otherwise known as the lion of Kurdistan. A leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Rasul Ali was once tortured by Saddam’s henchmen, but today is chief of a special forces unit dedicated to hunting down former Ba’athist regime leaders.
Rasul Ali’s unit had an impressive track record. It was they who last August, working alone, arrested Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan in Mosul, northern Iraq. Barely a month earlier in the al-Falah district of the same town, the PUK is believed to have played a crucial role in the pinpointing and storming of a villa that culminated in the deaths of Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay.
In that mixed district of Mosul where Arabs, Kurds and Turkemen live side by side, PUK informers went running to their leader Jalal Talabani’s nearest military headquarters to bring him news on the exact location of the villa where both Uday and Qusay had taken shelter.
Armed with the information, Talabani made a beeline for US administration offices in Baghdad, where deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz was based for a week’s stay in Iraq at the time.
The Kurdish leader and US military chiefs conferred and decided that PUK intelligence would go ahead and secretly surround the Zeidan villa and install sensors and eavesdropping devices. The Kurdish agents were instructed to prepare the site for the US special forces operation to storm the building on July 22.
American officials later said they expected that the $30m bounty promised by their government for the capture or death of the Hussein sons would be paid. Given their direct involvement in providing the exact location and intelligence necessary, no doubt Talabani’s PUK operatives could lay claim to the sum, but no confirmation of any delivery or receipt of the cash has ever been made.
The PUK and Rasul Ali’s special “Ba’athist hunters” have, it seems, been doing what the Americans have consistently failed to do. In an interview with the PUK’s al-Hurriyah radio station last Wednesday, Adil Murad, a member of the PUK’s political bureau, confirmed that the Kurdish unit had been pursuing fugitive Ba’athists for the past months in Mosul, Samarra, Tikrit and areas to the south including al-Dwar where Saddam was eventually cornered. Murad even says that the day before Saddam’s capture he was tipped off by PUK General Thamir al-Sultan, that Saddam would be arrested within the next 72 hours.
Clearly the Kurdish net was closing on Saddam, and PUK head Jalal Talabani and Rasul Ali were once again in the running for US bounty – should any be going.
It was at about 10.50am Baghdad time on last Saturday when US intel ligence says it got the tip it was looking for. But it was not until 8pm, with the launch of Operation Red Dawn, that they finally began to close in on the prize.
The US media reported that the tip-off came from an Iraqi man who was arrested during a raid in Tikrit, and even speculated that he could get part of the bounty. “It was intelligence, actionable intelligence,” claimed Lt General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq. “It was great analytical work.”
But the widely held view that Kurdish intelligence was the key to the operation was supported in a statement released last Sunday by the Iraqi Governing Council. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, said that Rasul Ali and his PUK special forces unit had provided vital information and more.
Last Saturday, as the US operation picked up speed, the Fourth Infantry Division moved into the area surrounding two farms codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 near al-Dwar, the heart of the Saddam heartland – a military town where practically every man is a military officer past or present. It is said to have a special place in Saddam’s sentiments because it was from here that he swam across the Tigris River when he was a dissident fleeing arrest in the 1960s.
Every year on August 28, the town marks Saddam’s escape with a swimming contest . In 1992, Saddam himself attended the race. It was won by a man called Qais al-Nameq. It was al-Nameq’s farmhouse – Wolverine 2 – that about 600 troops, including engineers, artillery and special forces, surrounded, cutting off all roads for about four or five miles around.
Next to a sheep pen was a ramshackle orange and white taxi, which US officials say was probably used to ferry Saddam around while he was on the run, sometimes moving every three or four hours.
Inside the premises was a walled compound with a mud hut and small lean-to. There US soldiers found the camouflaged hole in which Saddam was hiding.
It was 3.15pm Washington time when Donald Rumsfeld called George W Bush at Camp David. “Mr President, first reports are not always accurate,” he began. “But we think we may have him.”
First reports – indeed the very first report of Saddam’s capture – were also coming out elsewhere. Jalal Talabani chose to leak the news and details of Rasul Ali’s role in the deployment to the Iranian media and to be interviewed by them.
By early Sunday – way before Saddam’s capture was being reported by the mainstream Western press – the Kurdish media ran the following news wire:
“Saddam Hussein, the former President of the Iraqi regime, was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace. Qusrat’s team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!”
By the time Western press agencies were running the same story, the emphasis had changed, and the ousted Iraqi president had been “captured in a raid by US forces backed by Kurdish fighters.”
Rasul Ali himself, meanwhile, had already been on air at the Iranian satellite station al-Alam insisting that his “PUK fighters sealed the area off before the arrival of the US forces”.
By late Sunday as the story went global, the Kurdish role was reduced to a supportive one in what was described by the Pentagon and US military officials as a “joint operation”. The Americans now somewhat reluctantly were admitting that PUK fighters were on the ground alongside them , while PUK sources were making more considered statements and playing down their precise role.
So just who did get to Saddam first, the Kurds or the Americans? And if indeed it was a joint operation would it have been possible at all without the intelligence and on-the-ground participation of Rasul Ali and his special forces?
If the PUK themselves pulled off Saddam’s capture, there would be much to gain from taking the $25m bounty and any political guarantees the Americans might reward them with to keep schtum. What’s more, Jalal Talabani’s links to Tehran have always worried Washington, and having his party grab the grand prize from beneath their noses would be awkward to say the least.
“It’s mutually worth it to us and the Americans. We need assurances for the future and they need the kudos of getting Saddam,” admitted a Kurdish source on condition of anonymity. It would be all to easy to dismiss the questions surrounding the PUK role as conspiracy theory. After all, almost every major event that affects the Arab world prompts tales that are quickly woven into intricate shapes and patterns, to demonstrate innocence, seek credit or apportion blame. Saddam’s capture is no exception.
Of the numerous and more exotic theories surrounding events leading to Saddam’s arrest, one originates on a website many believe edited by former Israeli intelligence agents, but which often turns up inside information about the Middle East that proves to be accurate.
According to Debka.com, there is a possibility that Saddam was held for up to three weeks in al-Dwar by a Kurdish splinter group while they negotiated a handover to the Americans in return for the $25m reward. This, the writers say would explain his dishevelled and disorientated appearance.
But perhaps the mother of all conspiracy theories, is the one about the pictures distributed by the Americans showing the hideout with a palm tree behind the soldier who uncov ered the hole where Saddam was hiding. The palm carried a cluster of pre-ripened yellow dates, which might suggest that Saddam was arrested at least three months earlier, because dates ripen in the summer when they turn into their black or brown colour.
Those who buy into such an explanation conclude that Saddam’s capture was stage-managed and his place of arrest probably elsewhere. All fanciful stuff. But as is so often the case, the real chain of events is likely to be far more mundane.
In the end serious questions remain about the Kurdish role and whether at last Sunday’s Baghdad press conference, Paul Bremer was telling the whole truth . Or is it a case of “ladies and gentlemen we got him,” – with a little more help from our Kurdish friends than might be politically expedient to admit?
Copyright © 2003 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088
Friday, December 19, 2003
Thursday, December 18, 2003
This may fly in Australia, but never in America
.
CSIRO, a research organisation in Australia just released information about a new UAV called the Mantis.
Quote from the press release: "Australian scientists have developed a 'brain', which enables the production of a world-first low-cost, intelligent small helicopter, set to end many difficult and dangerous tasks undertaken by humans."
On the site there is a video link to watch it in action.
SMH reports that 'Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will monitor traffic, inspect buildings for maintenance problems, map bushfires, look for faults in powerlines, and join search-and-rescue missions.'
This is all well and good for most of the world, but they could be looking at patent infringement from Airborne Autonomous Systems who's utility patent on what they call the SFD covers functionality of a Flight Director (whether or not it's called AI) in an unmanned aircraft.
Regardless, though, the FAA has made it clear before that commercial UAVs must not have exposed rotor blades, so it is unlikely that something like this will ever be sold or used in America
CSIRO, a research organisation in Australia just released information about a new UAV called the Mantis. Quote from the press release: "Australian scientists have developed a 'brain', which enables the production of a world-first low-cost, intelligent small helicopter, set to end many difficult and dangerous tasks undertaken by humans."
On the site there is a video link to watch it in action.
SMH reports that 'Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will monitor traffic, inspect buildings for maintenance problems, map bushfires, look for faults in powerlines, and join search-and-rescue missions.'
This is all well and good for most of the world, but they could be looking at patent infringement from Airborne Autonomous Systems who's utility patent on what they call the SFD covers functionality of a Flight Director (whether or not it's called AI) in an unmanned aircraft.
Regardless, though, the FAA has made it clear before that commercial UAVs must not have exposed rotor blades, so it is unlikely that something like this will ever be sold or used in America
Robot Laws.
Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Saddam betrayed by his wifeBy Gordon Thomas in London
17dec03
SADDAM Hussein was captured in a filthy underground hole because of the demands of the one woman he still trusted.
She is Samira Shahbander, the second of his four wives. And now she may receive part of, if not all, of the $US25million ($33.8 million) bounty the US Government promised for information that led to the capture of the Iraqi dictator. Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had been tailing her since she fled to Beirut, Lebanon, before the US invasion.
[ Source: Australian Herald-Sun ]
NY Times
December 14, 2003
Bite-Size Nukes
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
For 50 years the United States has maintained nuclear weapons with the express intention of not using them. Nukes keep the peace, the thinking goes; they are more about threatened payback than military utility. But there's a new school of thought among military thinkers: maybe we should all learn to stop worrying and love the Bomb -- at least in miniature.
With America battling new enemies, some Pentagon hawks want to reimagine the nation's nuclear arsenal on a smaller and more usable scale, building more precise ''low yield'' nuclear weapons with payloads a fraction of the 15 kilotons of explosive force that erased Hiroshima. And these hawks have influence. At the Bush administration's urging, Congress not only voted this year to lift a 10-year U.S. ban on research and development of new forms of nuclear weapons; it also approved financing for the research.
One argument for mininukes, of five kilotons or less, is a new version of an old concept: deterrence. The old nukes built during the cold war to roast millions of Russians are probably too destructive to se before Doomsday, and our potential enemies know that. Sub-Hiroshima bombs, however, could be used on limited targets -- the suspected hideout of Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora region a couple of years ago, say.
Bite-size nukes could be the answer to another one of the military's most worrisome problems: the suspicion that Axis of Evil types, like Iran and North Korea, are brewing their most sinister weapons in superhardened bunkers deep underground. Some planners think that only a nuclear payload can deliver the punch needed to knock them out. What's more, the ferocious heat of a nuclear blast would incinerate deadly stocks of chemical and biological agents, rather than spread them into the air (although there may be a trade-off -- critics claim that substantial radioactive fallout would be impossible to avoid).
Democrats are having bad cold-war flashbacks. Ted Kennedy says that ''you're either for nuclear war or you're not.'' On the stump, John Kerry has warned that the Bush administration is ''poised to set off a new nuclear arms race.'' And others fret that even a ''precision'' nuclear strike requires absolute certainty about your target. ''It turns out that this is still about having great intelligence,'' says Joseph
Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ''What if we'd detonated one on what we thought were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?''
December 14, 2003
Bite-Size Nukes
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
For 50 years the United States has maintained nuclear weapons with the express intention of not using them. Nukes keep the peace, the thinking goes; they are more about threatened payback than military utility. But there's a new school of thought among military thinkers: maybe we should all learn to stop worrying and love the Bomb -- at least in miniature.
With America battling new enemies, some Pentagon hawks want to reimagine the nation's nuclear arsenal on a smaller and more usable scale, building more precise ''low yield'' nuclear weapons with payloads a fraction of the 15 kilotons of explosive force that erased Hiroshima. And these hawks have influence. At the Bush administration's urging, Congress not only voted this year to lift a 10-year U.S. ban on research and development of new forms of nuclear weapons; it also approved financing for the research.
One argument for mininukes, of five kilotons or less, is a new version of an old concept: deterrence. The old nukes built during the cold war to roast millions of Russians are probably too destructive to se before Doomsday, and our potential enemies know that. Sub-Hiroshima bombs, however, could be used on limited targets -- the suspected hideout of Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora region a couple of years ago, say.
Bite-size nukes could be the answer to another one of the military's most worrisome problems: the suspicion that Axis of Evil types, like Iran and North Korea, are brewing their most sinister weapons in superhardened bunkers deep underground. Some planners think that only a nuclear payload can deliver the punch needed to knock them out. What's more, the ferocious heat of a nuclear blast would incinerate deadly stocks of chemical and biological agents, rather than spread them into the air (although there may be a trade-off -- critics claim that substantial radioactive fallout would be impossible to avoid).
Democrats are having bad cold-war flashbacks. Ted Kennedy says that ''you're either for nuclear war or you're not.'' On the stump, John Kerry has warned that the Bush administration is ''poised to set off a new nuclear arms race.'' And others fret that even a ''precision'' nuclear strike requires absolute certainty about your target. ''It turns out that this is still about having great intelligence,'' says Joseph
Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ''What if we'd detonated one on what we thought were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?''
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
LIBERIA: Preparing for the transition from war to normal life
[This article is part of an IRIN web special on the issue of child soldiers published today. In addition to this story, the web special includes a special report on the issue of child soldiers, other country-specific features, background documents and links to resources available for further reading on the Internet. To access the web special please go to: www.IRINnews.org/webspecials/childsoldiers/]
MONROVIA, 12 December (IRIN) - Abdulai Kanneh, 15, used to wear a talisman around his neck and carry an AK-47 rifle in his right hand. The talisman, he said, was for protection from enemy bullets and the gun for defending the rebel checkpoint he used to man at the Po River, 17 km north of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
He chuckled when IRIN asked him to relate his conscription by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement two years ago. "I was in a refugee camp in Macenta [Guinea] when they [the LURD] came," Kanneh said. "They gave me a gun to fight for my country because [former President Charles] Taylor was against Mandingo people."
Guinea was widely accused by diplomats of supporting LURD, which draws most of its support from the Mandingo people of northern Liberia.
Convinced that Taylor's government was against his ethnic group, Kanneh became a battle-hardened killer and learnt to love the rough and tumble of war. "I enjoyed fighting. I want to be a soldier when war finished," he told IRIN in September.
Relief workers believe the majority of fighters recruited in Liberia during the past 14 years of civil war were children, who were often conscripted by force. Most of the guns were given to boys, but many girls were also recruited to cook and provide sexual favours for fighters in the bush.
Ross Mountain, the United Nations Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia told IRIN in October: "It is estimated that 70 percent of all the fighters are child soldiers below 18 years of age."
The exact figure is still unknown because the total number of combatants remains elusive. Relief workers reckon there are thousands of so far unseen militiamen bearing arms in remote villages.
At the height of fighting between LURD and government troops in June-July, military experts in Monrovia believed that LURD had 20,000 soldiers. Then President Charles Taylor said his army was 35,000 strong.
Defence Minister Daniel Chea vehemently denied that children were made to fight for the government. "We have no child soldiers - except in one or two cases where local commanders have received young volunteers eager to defend their country," he told IRIN in September. "We have a strict policy against using child soldiers and we follow it," Chea said.
Asked why many of the militia fighters manning roadblocks on the main highway from Monrovia to Gbarnga, 150 km to the north, during the height of the war appeared to be children, Chea told IRIN: "Those are the one or two cases of volunteers I talked about."
Andy Brooks, Save the Children's Regional Protection Programme Manager for West Africa, rubbished Chea's claims. "All the warring parties in Liberia are guilty of using children - both girls and boys. It is an enormous problem," he told IRIN.
Brooks said over 70 percent of the fighters carrying weapons in Monrovia in September before UN peacekeepers restored order in the city appeared to be children. Save the Children was trying to put together numbers in order to determine the exact situation.
Unlike Kanneh however, not all the children enjoyed fighting. Dressed in combat fatigues, Johnny Sankoh, aged 11, stood guard one August day at a checkpoint set up by pro-government forces in Monrovia. He said he had been brought against his will from Nimba County in north central Liberia to help the government fight rebels attacking the capital. "I am fighting for survival. Don't ask me any more questions," he told IRIN, his blood-shot eyes flashing angrily.
Liberia's second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), had also been a major recruiter of child soldiers since it emerged on the scene in March. Roman Catholic missionaries who visited MODEL-controlled areas near the port city of Buchanan said many of the rebel fighters there were minors.
Sister Barbara Brilliant, an American nun who was at the forefront of the church's relief efforts, told IRIN: "Most of MODEL's fighters are children. Even some commanders are young men. Those we have talked to are tired of it all. Many simply want to go back to school."
The child soldiers have killed, looted and plundered alongside their older comrades. They were also widely linked to a wave of widespread sexual violence against women and young girls living in camps for displaced people in and around Monrovia.
Amnesty International documented cases where boy fighters as young as 12 have raped women and girls sheltering in camps for displaced people.
The human rights group gathered evidence on 40 cases of sexual attacks against women and a further 20 against young girls at the Samuel Doe sports stadium during one week in August. "Many of the cases occurred amidst threats of being shot and killed by the armed rapist," Harry Evans of Amnesty Liberia told IRIN.
Some children earned a reputation of being brave and fearless as a result of their prowess on the battlefront. "Some of the child fighters have been the most courageous, fighting hardest at the frontlines," one Liberian journalist who had witnessed numerous fire-fights remarked. "In all the fighting groups, children as young as 15 became commanders because of their courage," he added.
Child soldiers tired of fighting
Relief workers said that following a peace agreement between the government, LURD and MODEL on 18 August, many child soldiers saw no reason to continue fighting.
The peace accord led to a truce and the deployment of a West African peacekeeping force in the country. Later a UN peacekeeping mission took over from the West African peacekeepers, deploying an initial 6,500 troops out of a planned 15,000-strong force, around Monrovia.
The UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL) expects to attain full strength early next year, take full responsibility countrywide for security and disarm the warring factions ahead of elections to be organised in 2005 by a broad-based transitional government that took office on 14 October 2003.
"Most of the children are now looking for alternatives. They want to get on with their lives," said Brooks at Save the Children. "Many talk about education and jobs. It is a critical time for all child protection agencies in Liberia," he added.
One of the key options is a return to the classroom. The United Nations Children's Educational Fund (UNICEF) launched an intensive Back-To-School programme in November to get 750,000 Liberian children back into school. These include thousands of former child soldiers.
Before launching the programme, UNICEF had demanded that the Liberian government and rebel groups free the child soldiers. "Liberian children associated with fighting forces must be released and demobilised. Recruitment of children for armed combat and sexual abuse are the most graphic violations of childrens' rights," UNICEF-Liberia said in a situation report issued on 8 October.
"A rapid assessment conducted [in Liberia] in June 2003 found that there has been an escalation in forced recruitment of children," the report said.
UNICEF said it would assist the release of the child soldiers by providing basic education and life-skills training to those who would leave the battlefield so as to facilitate their reintegration into Liberian society.
"UNICEF and other child protection groups have been holding regular consultations so as to have child soldiers demobilised as part of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program in Liberia," UNICEF said.
But in a country whose government and economy collapsed, where illiteracy, unemployment and poverty are high, and which ranks at the bottom of UNDP's Human Development Index, it will be a while before the child soldiers find positive roles.
Many of the children were until recently toting weapons or hanging precariously on the back of trucks in Monrovia, as fighting for the control of the city raged. The fighting died down after the peacekeepers began arriving on 4 August and Taylor resigned and flew into exile in Nigeria a week later.
Worldwide, UNICEF estimates that there are 300,000 child soldiers. "Children are more likely to become soldiers if they are separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in combat zones or deprived of school," UNICEF says.
It defines a child soldier as any person under 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or group in any capacity. It includes cooks, porters, messengers and camp followers such as girls recruited for sexual purposes.
Relief workers said Liberian commanders kept many of their child fighters drunk and stoned to encourage them to fight fearlessly. "Reintegrating them into society will have to include programmes to get off drugs and alcohol," relief workers told IRIN.
According to UNICEF, the key to reintegrating former child soldiers and preventing their re-recruitment is long-term education programmes and psycho-social support.
Relief agencies trying to help
Don Bosco Homes, a Roman Catholic Children welfare institution in Monrovia, has established Interim Care Centers to cater for child soldiers and other war-affected children.
Paul Najue, the director, said that by early September Don Bosco's four centers in Monrovia had received and provided shelter and other assistance for 35 child soldiers who had returned from fighting in other parts of Liberia.
"The issue of children being conscripted by armed groups in Liberia poses a serious threat to the survival of children in the war-torn country," Najue said. "The number has increased […] since the outbreak of fighting four years ago."
He added that statistics from a previous disarmament process showed that more than 15,000 child soldiers fought in rebel groups during the first phase of the civil war, which ended with elections that brought Taylor to power in 1997.
"Out of this amount only 4,319 children were fully demobilized, disarmed and reintegrated into the community," Najue said.
"If child soldiers are not fully demobilized and disarmed and provided with the necessary skill training, our fear is that there could be more conflicts in the future since they have been exposed to war," he warned.
It is for this reason that while launching the demobilisation programme on 1 December, Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy to Liberia said special attention would be given to children, women and disabled combatants.
"We will establish interim employment and training activities for the ex-combatants [such as] apprenticeships and micro-entrepreneurial activities," Klein said.
According to the disarmament plan, the fighters are supposed to hand in their guns to UNMIL at special demobilisation centres. The first three are being set up in Monrovia, Tubmanburg, a LURD-held town 60 km northwest of the capital, and Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia.
[ENDS]
IRIN-WA
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
LIBERIA: Preparing for the transition from war to normal life
[This article is part of an IRIN web special on the issue of child soldiers published today. In addition to this story, the web special includes a special report on the issue of child soldiers, other country-specific features, background documents and links to resources available for further reading on the Internet. To access the web special please go to: www.IRINnews.org/webspecials/childsoldiers/]
MONROVIA, 12 December (IRIN) - Abdulai Kanneh, 15, used to wear a talisman around his neck and carry an AK-47 rifle in his right hand. The talisman, he said, was for protection from enemy bullets and the gun for defending the rebel checkpoint he used to man at the Po River, 17 km north of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
He chuckled when IRIN asked him to relate his conscription by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement two years ago. "I was in a refugee camp in Macenta [Guinea] when they [the LURD] came," Kanneh said. "They gave me a gun to fight for my country because [former President Charles] Taylor was against Mandingo people."
Guinea was widely accused by diplomats of supporting LURD, which draws most of its support from the Mandingo people of northern Liberia.
Convinced that Taylor's government was against his ethnic group, Kanneh became a battle-hardened killer and learnt to love the rough and tumble of war. "I enjoyed fighting. I want to be a soldier when war finished," he told IRIN in September.
Relief workers believe the majority of fighters recruited in Liberia during the past 14 years of civil war were children, who were often conscripted by force. Most of the guns were given to boys, but many girls were also recruited to cook and provide sexual favours for fighters in the bush.
Ross Mountain, the United Nations Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia told IRIN in October: "It is estimated that 70 percent of all the fighters are child soldiers below 18 years of age."
The exact figure is still unknown because the total number of combatants remains elusive. Relief workers reckon there are thousands of so far unseen militiamen bearing arms in remote villages.
At the height of fighting between LURD and government troops in June-July, military experts in Monrovia believed that LURD had 20,000 soldiers. Then President Charles Taylor said his army was 35,000 strong.
Defence Minister Daniel Chea vehemently denied that children were made to fight for the government. "We have no child soldiers - except in one or two cases where local commanders have received young volunteers eager to defend their country," he told IRIN in September. "We have a strict policy against using child soldiers and we follow it," Chea said.
Asked why many of the militia fighters manning roadblocks on the main highway from Monrovia to Gbarnga, 150 km to the north, during the height of the war appeared to be children, Chea told IRIN: "Those are the one or two cases of volunteers I talked about."
Andy Brooks, Save the Children's Regional Protection Programme Manager for West Africa, rubbished Chea's claims. "All the warring parties in Liberia are guilty of using children - both girls and boys. It is an enormous problem," he told IRIN.
Brooks said over 70 percent of the fighters carrying weapons in Monrovia in September before UN peacekeepers restored order in the city appeared to be children. Save the Children was trying to put together numbers in order to determine the exact situation.
Unlike Kanneh however, not all the children enjoyed fighting. Dressed in combat fatigues, Johnny Sankoh, aged 11, stood guard one August day at a checkpoint set up by pro-government forces in Monrovia. He said he had been brought against his will from Nimba County in north central Liberia to help the government fight rebels attacking the capital. "I am fighting for survival. Don't ask me any more questions," he told IRIN, his blood-shot eyes flashing angrily.
Liberia's second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), had also been a major recruiter of child soldiers since it emerged on the scene in March. Roman Catholic missionaries who visited MODEL-controlled areas near the port city of Buchanan said many of the rebel fighters there were minors.
Sister Barbara Brilliant, an American nun who was at the forefront of the church's relief efforts, told IRIN: "Most of MODEL's fighters are children. Even some commanders are young men. Those we have talked to are tired of it all. Many simply want to go back to school."
The child soldiers have killed, looted and plundered alongside their older comrades. They were also widely linked to a wave of widespread sexual violence against women and young girls living in camps for displaced people in and around Monrovia.
Amnesty International documented cases where boy fighters as young as 12 have raped women and girls sheltering in camps for displaced people.
The human rights group gathered evidence on 40 cases of sexual attacks against women and a further 20 against young girls at the Samuel Doe sports stadium during one week in August. "Many of the cases occurred amidst threats of being shot and killed by the armed rapist," Harry Evans of Amnesty Liberia told IRIN.
Some children earned a reputation of being brave and fearless as a result of their prowess on the battlefront. "Some of the child fighters have been the most courageous, fighting hardest at the frontlines," one Liberian journalist who had witnessed numerous fire-fights remarked. "In all the fighting groups, children as young as 15 became commanders because of their courage," he added.
Child soldiers tired of fighting
Relief workers said that following a peace agreement between the government, LURD and MODEL on 18 August, many child soldiers saw no reason to continue fighting.
The peace accord led to a truce and the deployment of a West African peacekeeping force in the country. Later a UN peacekeeping mission took over from the West African peacekeepers, deploying an initial 6,500 troops out of a planned 15,000-strong force, around Monrovia.
The UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL) expects to attain full strength early next year, take full responsibility countrywide for security and disarm the warring factions ahead of elections to be organised in 2005 by a broad-based transitional government that took office on 14 October 2003.
"Most of the children are now looking for alternatives. They want to get on with their lives," said Brooks at Save the Children. "Many talk about education and jobs. It is a critical time for all child protection agencies in Liberia," he added.
One of the key options is a return to the classroom. The United Nations Children's Educational Fund (UNICEF) launched an intensive Back-To-School programme in November to get 750,000 Liberian children back into school. These include thousands of former child soldiers.
Before launching the programme, UNICEF had demanded that the Liberian government and rebel groups free the child soldiers. "Liberian children associated with fighting forces must be released and demobilised. Recruitment of children for armed combat and sexual abuse are the most graphic violations of childrens' rights," UNICEF-Liberia said in a situation report issued on 8 October.
"A rapid assessment conducted [in Liberia] in June 2003 found that there has been an escalation in forced recruitment of children," the report said.
UNICEF said it would assist the release of the child soldiers by providing basic education and life-skills training to those who would leave the battlefield so as to facilitate their reintegration into Liberian society.
"UNICEF and other child protection groups have been holding regular consultations so as to have child soldiers demobilised as part of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program in Liberia," UNICEF said.
But in a country whose government and economy collapsed, where illiteracy, unemployment and poverty are high, and which ranks at the bottom of UNDP's Human Development Index, it will be a while before the child soldiers find positive roles.
Many of the children were until recently toting weapons or hanging precariously on the back of trucks in Monrovia, as fighting for the control of the city raged. The fighting died down after the peacekeepers began arriving on 4 August and Taylor resigned and flew into exile in Nigeria a week later.
Worldwide, UNICEF estimates that there are 300,000 child soldiers. "Children are more likely to become soldiers if they are separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in combat zones or deprived of school," UNICEF says.
It defines a child soldier as any person under 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or group in any capacity. It includes cooks, porters, messengers and camp followers such as girls recruited for sexual purposes.
Relief workers said Liberian commanders kept many of their child fighters drunk and stoned to encourage them to fight fearlessly. "Reintegrating them into society will have to include programmes to get off drugs and alcohol," relief workers told IRIN.
According to UNICEF, the key to reintegrating former child soldiers and preventing their re-recruitment is long-term education programmes and psycho-social support.
Relief agencies trying to help
Don Bosco Homes, a Roman Catholic Children welfare institution in Monrovia, has established Interim Care Centers to cater for child soldiers and other war-affected children.
Paul Najue, the director, said that by early September Don Bosco's four centers in Monrovia had received and provided shelter and other assistance for 35 child soldiers who had returned from fighting in other parts of Liberia.
"The issue of children being conscripted by armed groups in Liberia poses a serious threat to the survival of children in the war-torn country," Najue said. "The number has increased […] since the outbreak of fighting four years ago."
He added that statistics from a previous disarmament process showed that more than 15,000 child soldiers fought in rebel groups during the first phase of the civil war, which ended with elections that brought Taylor to power in 1997.
"Out of this amount only 4,319 children were fully demobilized, disarmed and reintegrated into the community," Najue said.
"If child soldiers are not fully demobilized and disarmed and provided with the necessary skill training, our fear is that there could be more conflicts in the future since they have been exposed to war," he warned.
It is for this reason that while launching the demobilisation programme on 1 December, Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy to Liberia said special attention would be given to children, women and disabled combatants.
"We will establish interim employment and training activities for the ex-combatants [such as] apprenticeships and micro-entrepreneurial activities," Klein said.
According to the disarmament plan, the fighters are supposed to hand in their guns to UNMIL at special demobilisation centres. The first three are being set up in Monrovia, Tubmanburg, a LURD-held town 60 km northwest of the capital, and Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia.
[ENDS]
IRIN-WA
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci
Quotes from a friends sigfile ...
"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
"Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" - Pierre Abelard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- Arthur C. Clarke
"Bobby Layne never lost a game. Time just ran out." -- Doak Walker
"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
"Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" - Pierre Abelard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- Arthur C. Clarke
"Bobby Layne never lost a game. Time just ran out." -- Doak Walker
Rock. On.
[Rizzn's Note: This is why SAC rocks.]
Interview with Sir Arthur C. Clarke - Humanity will survive information deluge
December 16, 2003 From One World South Asia: On the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and days before his 86th birthday, Sir Arthur Clarke spoke with science writer Nalaka Gunawardene
at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
I think it is technologically impossible for any one government to (directly) control, let alone ban, transmissions coming from earth orbit. Some countries have banned personal satellite dish antennas, others have experimented with Internet blocking, but in the long term, people will find ingenious ways to circumvent these controls.
A major concern is that not every one of us benefits equally from these technologies. The communications revolution has bypassed tens of millions of people, and something needs to be done about it. Virtually everything we wish to do in the field of communications is now technologically possible. The only limitations are financial, legal or political.
What lies beyond - direct inputs to the brain? Yes, the ultimate input-output device would bypass all the body’s sense organs and provide signals directly into the brain. Exactly how this would be done I leave to biotechnicians to figure out. [ View source ]
[Rizzn's Note: This is why SAC rocks.]
Interview with Sir Arthur C. Clarke - Humanity will survive information deluge
December 16, 2003 From One World South Asia: On the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and days before his 86th birthday, Sir Arthur Clarke spoke with science writer Nalaka Gunawardene
at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.I think it is technologically impossible for any one government to (directly) control, let alone ban, transmissions coming from earth orbit. Some countries have banned personal satellite dish antennas, others have experimented with Internet blocking, but in the long term, people will find ingenious ways to circumvent these controls.
A major concern is that not every one of us benefits equally from these technologies. The communications revolution has bypassed tens of millions of people, and something needs to be done about it. Virtually everything we wish to do in the field of communications is now technologically possible. The only limitations are financial, legal or political.
What lies beyond - direct inputs to the brain? Yes, the ultimate input-output device would bypass all the body’s sense organs and provide signals directly into the brain. Exactly how this would be done I leave to biotechnicians to figure out. [ View source ]
Monday, December 15, 2003
A Soviet citizen stands in line for three days to requisition a car. On the fourth day he reaches the counter. At last he concludes his transaction.
“Congratulations, comrade!” says the Soviet official. “Your automobile will be delivered to you on the fifth of March in the year 2005.”
“Morning or afternoon?” inquires the citizen.
The official is puzzled. “Why do you ask?”
The citizen explains: “The plumber is coming in the morning.”
- Ronald Reagan (via Jeffrey Zeldman)
“Congratulations, comrade!” says the Soviet official. “Your automobile will be delivered to you on the fifth of March in the year 2005.”
“Morning or afternoon?” inquires the citizen.
The official is puzzled. “Why do you ask?”
The citizen explains: “The plumber is coming in the morning.”
- Ronald Reagan (via Jeffrey Zeldman)
Friday, December 12, 2003
Conversation with at Yahoo Sex Bot
dinamictwat: hi... anyoone there?
dinamictwat: well ahyway, guess your not there?
rizzn.geo: hallo
rizzn.geo: i'm here
rizzn.geo: are you?
dinamictwat: oh your theere :) hi...
rizzn.geo: yep
dinamictwat: a/s/l (age sex locattion)?
rizzn.geo: 24/m/underdark
dinamictwat: im 27/f/USA. was lookin at your profile. thought you might like to chat.
rizzn.geo: sure.
dinamictwat: so what have you been up to rrizzn.geo?
rizzn.geo: not much. i'm at work right now
dinamictwat: cool. i was jut hangin out watching tv. i was getting kinda horny :) (*blushes)
dinamictwat: oh no not work... thats a 4 letter word you knnow..
rizzn.geo: well, gotta pay the bills.
dinamictwat: feel like a little cyber fun with me ? please please...
rizzn.geo: sure.
rizzn.geo: what do you have in mind? Spades?
dinamictwat: lol. the website is just something i do to make ends meet. theres lots of free pics on there anyyway.
rizzn.geo: I never would have guessed you had a pay pr0n website
dinamictwat: alright :) howw bout i get down on my knees in front of you and help you out of your pants?
rizzn.geo: !! how did you know I was wearing any? Is there a camera hidden in my office?
dinamictwat: just lounging around in my uneies.... u?
rizzn.geo: well, i was just wearing my professional clothes, although now, obviously, my pants are off.
dinamictwat: tell me what you want me to do eith you while i slip out of my panties
rizzn.geo: well, I need a proposal written up for one of my projects, do you know anything about wireless internet?
dinamictwat: oh yeah babe.. dont stop. while i slide my hand down between my legs and part my moiist lips
rizzn.geo: well, like i was saying, if you were to attend to that, i'd be a happy camper.
dinamictwat: yeah I havee one hooked up on my homepage, cyberfungirls dot com
rizzn.geo: what, wireless internet?
dinamictwat: oh it feels so goodd. Im holding your pulsing cock in my hand, my shiny red fingernails dig gently into your balls, while my full, soft lips engulf the mass of your meat
rizzn.geo: um, this conversation is degenerating quickly.
dinamictwat: open my website so you can look at me while im sucking you. use the link in my profile!
rizzn.geo: i already checked, there's no link in your profile.
dinamictwat: cyberfungirls doot com. look for me on that page
rizzn.geo: I must say, you are pretty talkative for a bot, though.
dinamictwat: bot? whats that? some kinda inwult or something?
rizzn.geo: heh... no. unless your creator didn't tell you.
dinamictwat: what do you think of my pics?
rizzn.geo: well, i've never met a sexier bot, that's for sure.
dinamictwat: oh you mean one of those auto tallk things or something right.. lol. well if you were in my apartment right now id lift up my skirt for you and i think youd be convinced real quick
rizzn.geo: so you're like a computer inside a realdoll or something? I was wondering when they'd get around to doing that.
dinamictwat: shit the phone. dontt stop stroking it. hold on...
rizzn.geo: i wasn't stroking it.
dinamictwat: sorry, I have to take this call, probly take bout five minutes. If you want, come to my page and lets finish this. I have my cam on there cyberfungirls dot com look for me on there
rizzn.geo: quick: what are the three robot laws?
rizzn.geo: please tell me you know the three robot laws.
rizzn.geo: I'm not going to your site unless you tell me the three robot laws.
rizzn.geo: fine. Don't expect me to look at pr0n for some bot that can't even cite the three robot laws. Ciao.
dinamictwat: hi... anyoone there?
dinamictwat: well ahyway, guess your not there?
rizzn.geo: hallo
rizzn.geo: i'm here
rizzn.geo: are you?
dinamictwat: oh your theere :) hi...
rizzn.geo: yep
dinamictwat: a/s/l (age sex locattion)?
rizzn.geo: 24/m/underdark
dinamictwat: im 27/f/USA. was lookin at your profile. thought you might like to chat.
rizzn.geo: sure.
dinamictwat: so what have you been up to rrizzn.geo?
rizzn.geo: not much. i'm at work right now
dinamictwat: cool. i was jut hangin out watching tv. i was getting kinda horny :) (*blushes)
dinamictwat: oh no not work... thats a 4 letter word you knnow..
rizzn.geo: well, gotta pay the bills.
dinamictwat: feel like a little cyber fun with me ? please please...
rizzn.geo: sure.
rizzn.geo: what do you have in mind? Spades?
dinamictwat: lol. the website is just something i do to make ends meet. theres lots of free pics on there anyyway.
rizzn.geo: I never would have guessed you had a pay pr0n website
dinamictwat: alright :) howw bout i get down on my knees in front of you and help you out of your pants?
rizzn.geo: !! how did you know I was wearing any? Is there a camera hidden in my office?
dinamictwat: just lounging around in my uneies.... u?
rizzn.geo: well, i was just wearing my professional clothes, although now, obviously, my pants are off.
dinamictwat: tell me what you want me to do eith you while i slip out of my panties
rizzn.geo: well, I need a proposal written up for one of my projects, do you know anything about wireless internet?
dinamictwat: oh yeah babe.. dont stop. while i slide my hand down between my legs and part my moiist lips
rizzn.geo: well, like i was saying, if you were to attend to that, i'd be a happy camper.
dinamictwat: yeah I havee one hooked up on my homepage, cyberfungirls dot com
rizzn.geo: what, wireless internet?
dinamictwat: oh it feels so goodd. Im holding your pulsing cock in my hand, my shiny red fingernails dig gently into your balls, while my full, soft lips engulf the mass of your meat
rizzn.geo: um, this conversation is degenerating quickly.
dinamictwat: open my website so you can look at me while im sucking you. use the link in my profile!
rizzn.geo: i already checked, there's no link in your profile.
dinamictwat: cyberfungirls doot com. look for me on that page
rizzn.geo: I must say, you are pretty talkative for a bot, though.
dinamictwat: bot? whats that? some kinda inwult or something?
rizzn.geo: heh... no. unless your creator didn't tell you.
dinamictwat: what do you think of my pics?
rizzn.geo: well, i've never met a sexier bot, that's for sure.
dinamictwat: oh you mean one of those auto tallk things or something right.. lol. well if you were in my apartment right now id lift up my skirt for you and i think youd be convinced real quick
rizzn.geo: so you're like a computer inside a realdoll or something? I was wondering when they'd get around to doing that.
dinamictwat: shit the phone. dontt stop stroking it. hold on...
rizzn.geo: i wasn't stroking it.
dinamictwat: sorry, I have to take this call, probly take bout five minutes. If you want, come to my page and lets finish this. I have my cam on there cyberfungirls dot com look for me on there
rizzn.geo: quick: what are the three robot laws?
rizzn.geo: please tell me you know the three robot laws.
rizzn.geo: I'm not going to your site unless you tell me the three robot laws.
rizzn.geo: fine. Don't expect me to look at pr0n for some bot that can't even cite the three robot laws. Ciao.
What's new?
I up and got a day job. I'm working at A Affordable Credit Services as their Chief Network Guy (CNG). Basically I'm doing all the computer stuff that the COO doesn't have time to do anymore. They seemed anxious to have me on here, and they do appear to be a pretty cool office to work at.
The Radio Project has some serious movement. Sunday, there is a scheduled meeting with the French investors who want to put up the money for it -- they seem to be leaning heavily toward a yes. You could be talking to a potentially very rich Rizzn soon. We'll see, though. I've heard this song and dance before, and we'll see what actually pans out of it. I hope to be very pleasantly surprised with a check on Sunday.
In other news, my mind is in blah blah mode as I get back my net-legs. It's been a while since I've had an unmetered connection to the internet, so I'm pretty happy about that. I should probably get back to doing something productive though, so ttfn and all that.
/rizzn
The Radio Project has some serious movement. Sunday, there is a scheduled meeting with the French investors who want to put up the money for it -- they seem to be leaning heavily toward a yes. You could be talking to a potentially very rich Rizzn soon. We'll see, though. I've heard this song and dance before, and we'll see what actually pans out of it. I hope to be very pleasantly surprised with a check on Sunday.
In other news, my mind is in blah blah mode as I get back my net-legs. It's been a while since I've had an unmetered connection to the internet, so I'm pretty happy about that. I should probably get back to doing something productive though, so ttfn and all that.
/rizzn
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
What do I need right now?
I need constancy. I need things I can count on. I need less manic-depressive episodes from people. I need people to believe in me.
Today is a big day. I've gotten two job offers locally, and a couple out of state, both of them pay for relocation fees. I also I have two meetings scheduled with investors this afternoon I'm going to attend. I don't see money reaching my pocket today, honestly, but there is that possibility. It's starting to feel a bit like 1999.
Emotionally, however, I'm a bit confused. I'm beginning to feel a bit like a cornered rodent or something. I find it difficult to explain to people how life works. I just know how it works. I've lived a self-reliant life much much more than your average bear -- I know how to survive, I know what to do to succeed. That people fail to realize that about me is unfortunate. That's OKay, though. I just hope those that want to get on board for the big win do so quickly. I have little tolerance for fairweather fans.
I know every move I'm making right now. I'm at the crux point. I'm not as "flying" as everyone has the impression of me being. Just because I don't spell every last thing out for everyone doesn't mean I don't know the details of everything going on in my life. Just because my hair may be messy or my clothes wrinkled doesn't mean I don't know how to make a buck or don't know how to comb my hair or iron my clothes. (these are metaphors: look beyond the words I say; look into my actions, look into my track record, look into my abilities).
Be careful. Just because I don't talk about the amount of stress I'm under doesn't mean I'm blissfully unaware, it just means my breaking point is much higher than a normal person's breaking point.
Do not underestimate me. All of you -- you seem to underestimate me.
"Look at Rizzn -- he's a savant. He can create perpetual motion machines but he can't tie his shoes." I have weaknesses but underestimate me at your peril.
Don't get offended if you think this is targeted towards you. I am getting things off my chest because there are many things frustrating me now, and the most constructive thing I can do is rant into the ether about them.
Today is a big day. I've gotten two job offers locally, and a couple out of state, both of them pay for relocation fees. I also I have two meetings scheduled with investors this afternoon I'm going to attend. I don't see money reaching my pocket today, honestly, but there is that possibility. It's starting to feel a bit like 1999.
Emotionally, however, I'm a bit confused. I'm beginning to feel a bit like a cornered rodent or something. I find it difficult to explain to people how life works. I just know how it works. I've lived a self-reliant life much much more than your average bear -- I know how to survive, I know what to do to succeed. That people fail to realize that about me is unfortunate. That's OKay, though. I just hope those that want to get on board for the big win do so quickly. I have little tolerance for fairweather fans.
I know every move I'm making right now. I'm at the crux point. I'm not as "flying" as everyone has the impression of me being. Just because I don't spell every last thing out for everyone doesn't mean I don't know the details of everything going on in my life. Just because my hair may be messy or my clothes wrinkled doesn't mean I don't know how to make a buck or don't know how to comb my hair or iron my clothes. (these are metaphors: look beyond the words I say; look into my actions, look into my track record, look into my abilities).
Be careful. Just because I don't talk about the amount of stress I'm under doesn't mean I'm blissfully unaware, it just means my breaking point is much higher than a normal person's breaking point.
Do not underestimate me. All of you -- you seem to underestimate me.
"Look at Rizzn -- he's a savant. He can create perpetual motion machines but he can't tie his shoes." I have weaknesses but underestimate me at your peril.
Don't get offended if you think this is targeted towards you. I am getting things off my chest because there are many things frustrating me now, and the most constructive thing I can do is rant into the ether about them.
Monday, December 8, 2003
Going to Orlando
I'm going to Orlando today. All you Paris Hilton freaks chew on this for a while. By the way, I'm not answering my phone this weekend because Gainesville shows up as "Extended Area" on AT&T. This means they charge me roaming. Therefore I don't use it. You can paypal me one dollar for every minute you plan to talk to me and I'll answer your call for the appropriate number of times/minutes.
This offer ends the moment I get back into AT&T calling area. At this point you can continue to run up my Daytime minutes at no extra charge.
In other news, the US Military is no longer accounting for ten percent of my site's hits. They now only account for .03%. Which means they still visit regularly, just not 7 or 8 times a day like they used to.
/rizzn
This offer ends the moment I get back into AT&T calling area. At this point you can continue to run up my Daytime minutes at no extra charge.
In other news, the US Military is no longer accounting for ten percent of my site's hits. They now only account for .03%. Which means they still visit regularly, just not 7 or 8 times a day like they used to.
/rizzn
Sunday, December 7, 2003
Update from Northern Florida and these USEFUL links from Blogger.com
How to not get fired from your job from Blogger.com - Blogger keeps posting these interesting news articles -- how to not get fired from your job from your blog postings or what to do if your mom finds your blog. These are interesting articles that I would have looked for in the Onion a few years ago, but are actually relevant news items today. Weird that truth is stranger than fiction, yes? How long till our news headlines are either completely divorced from reality only to keep our sense of sanity and familiarity to entertain us.
Regardless, I did watch Matrix Revolutions last night. Despite what many people might say, I honestly believe that if you are a true believer, you catch the drift and were not dissappointed. I can see how the fairweather fans were disappointed simply because the format of the movie appeared on the surface to be more of an action flick. This, however, hid within the fast and furious action moments many recurring characters and a culmination of the different motifs at play within the entire trilogy. The Christ Motif was most apparent, but of course hidden beneath all that was the Erisian motif (discordian), the OT Motif (old testament), the Hindi and Eastern motifs all coming together into what essentially could be interpreted as a very complex one world-ian type intellectual religion.
I need to analyze it a few more times in my mind before I come out with a very definitive review, but needless to say there was enough meet within the movie to keep me chewing on it for a while... so it was definately worth the price of admission (although I didn't pay for admission, thank you my love for the wonderful gift of the ticket).
Regardless, I did watch Matrix Revolutions last night. Despite what many people might say, I honestly believe that if you are a true believer, you catch the drift and were not dissappointed. I can see how the fairweather fans were disappointed simply because the format of the movie appeared on the surface to be more of an action flick. This, however, hid within the fast and furious action moments many recurring characters and a culmination of the different motifs at play within the entire trilogy. The Christ Motif was most apparent, but of course hidden beneath all that was the Erisian motif (discordian), the OT Motif (old testament), the Hindi and Eastern motifs all coming together into what essentially could be interpreted as a very complex one world-ian type intellectual religion.
I need to analyze it a few more times in my mind before I come out with a very definitive review, but needless to say there was enough meet within the movie to keep me chewing on it for a while... so it was definately worth the price of admission (although I didn't pay for admission, thank you my love for the wonderful gift of the ticket).
Saturday, December 6, 2003
the matrix. finally... ?
There's a real decent chance I might get to see Revolutions tonight. Finally.
I'm in Gainesville, FL, visiting some of Slimee's friends. I'm tired, but I'll stay up for the Matrix.
I'm in Gainesville, FL, visiting some of Slimee's friends. I'm tired, but I'll stay up for the Matrix.
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
FlyDLUX Update
I got this email today >>
From: Yutkanany@aol.com
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 23:52:28 EST
Subject: flydlux
To: mailto:markhopkins@broadcast.net
DEAR MARK,
I HOPE YOU NOW KNOW WHO YOU'RE GOOD FRIEND "THE RABBI" IS
HE WOULD EVEN BURY YOU, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WISEN UP AND SPILL THE BEANS. HE DOES NOT DESERVE YOUR DEVOTION, OR PROTECTION......DO EVERYONE A BIG SERVICE AND HELP PUT HIM AND HIS FRIENDS BEHIND BARS, AND HELP EVERYONE RECOUP THEIR MONIES
I'm a bit tired of you people not understanding the concept of what is being put in front of you. There are reasons for the things that are going on. I'm going to start putting up some audio blogs if I can set this up properly tonight with full details ... but let me send you here (go to the downloads section) -- what you see here is all the documents relating to FlyDLUX's finances that I've pulled together -- it indicates that the burden of proving innocence lies not with me, or Rabbi, but with Tony. Tony is the person all this money went to. Tony is the one holding hostage all the tickets. Tony is the one who should provide an accounting. If anyone of you has ANY viable arguments to that, speak up now on this public or private forum with cogent, well designed arguments, or stop lobbing baseless accussations at me or anyone else.
As always, be well, and stay tuned here for details.
/rizzn
PS: Apparently, Paypal has once again decided to steal money from me. Again. This time fifty bucks. For no reason. I hate my life.
From: Yutkanany@aol.com
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 23:52:28 EST
Subject: flydlux
To: mailto:markhopkins@broadcast.net
DEAR MARK,
I HOPE YOU NOW KNOW WHO YOU'RE GOOD FRIEND "THE RABBI" IS
HE WOULD EVEN BURY YOU, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WISEN UP AND SPILL THE BEANS. HE DOES NOT DESERVE YOUR DEVOTION, OR PROTECTION......DO EVERYONE A BIG SERVICE AND HELP PUT HIM AND HIS FRIENDS BEHIND BARS, AND HELP EVERYONE RECOUP THEIR MONIES
I'm a bit tired of you people not understanding the concept of what is being put in front of you. There are reasons for the things that are going on. I'm going to start putting up some audio blogs if I can set this up properly tonight with full details ... but let me send you here (go to the downloads section) -- what you see here is all the documents relating to FlyDLUX's finances that I've pulled together -- it indicates that the burden of proving innocence lies not with me, or Rabbi, but with Tony. Tony is the person all this money went to. Tony is the one holding hostage all the tickets. Tony is the one who should provide an accounting. If anyone of you has ANY viable arguments to that, speak up now on this public or private forum with cogent, well designed arguments, or stop lobbing baseless accussations at me or anyone else.
As always, be well, and stay tuned here for details.
/rizzn
PS: Apparently, Paypal has once again decided to steal money from me. Again. This time fifty bucks. For no reason. I hate my life.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
What to do if your mom finds your blog!
I should have had this back in the day.
Quote of the Entry: "Bigamy: One too many wives. Monogamy: See Bigamy"
Quote of the Entry: "Bigamy: One too many wives. Monogamy: See Bigamy"
Update ...
I'm at a Kinko's. I still don't have access to any mail but my broadcast.net account, so send your mail there for the time being.
My place is actually starting to look like a place to live. On the other hand, I'm very very much missing my slimee. She is in Canada for her MA graduation. I wanted to join her up there, but I think I have too much work to do.
I wound up giving Rabbi most of his stuff back. I wanted to hold on to it for back-pay, but he was about to march into a police station and file a police report on me for holding on to the office equipment. I just don't need that right now -- so I caved and gave him most of the stuff back. I kept a desk and a few old misc. items that I could sell.
I'm very very tired. I'm going to finish the work I came up here to do and go back to sleep.
/rizzn
My place is actually starting to look like a place to live. On the other hand, I'm very very much missing my slimee. She is in Canada for her MA graduation. I wanted to join her up there, but I think I have too much work to do.
I wound up giving Rabbi most of his stuff back. I wanted to hold on to it for back-pay, but he was about to march into a police station and file a police report on me for holding on to the office equipment. I just don't need that right now -- so I caved and gave him most of the stuff back. I kept a desk and a few old misc. items that I could sell.
I'm very very tired. I'm going to finish the work I came up here to do and go back to sleep.
/rizzn
Finally, Some Sort of Victory for Privacy
Court limits in-car FBI spying
Thu Nov 20 @ 22:06 (Reads: 16) Source: Security Focus
An appeals court this week put the brakes on an FBI surveillance technique that turns an automobile driver's on-board vehicle navigation system into a covert eavesdropping device, after finding that the spying effectively disables the system's emergency and roadside assistance features. The case arose from a 2001 FBI surveillance operation in Las Vegas, in which agents obtained a court order compelling a telematics company to secretly activate the stolen vehicle recovery feature in a customer's car. The feature, designed to listen-in on car thieves as they cruise around in a stolen auto, turns on a dashboard microphone and pipes conversations out over a cell phone connection -- normally to the company's response center, but in this case to an FBI listening post. After initially complying for 30 days, the company asked a federal judge to block the order. It lost, and filed the appeal with 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while complying with the order. The proceeding were handled in strict secrecy, and the text of the final ruling omits the name of the company. Geri Lama, a spokesperson for General Motors subsidiary OnStar, says it wasn't them.
Thu Nov 20 @ 22:06 (Reads: 16) Source: Security Focus
An appeals court this week put the brakes on an FBI surveillance technique that turns an automobile driver's on-board vehicle navigation system into a covert eavesdropping device, after finding that the spying effectively disables the system's emergency and roadside assistance features. The case arose from a 2001 FBI surveillance operation in Las Vegas, in which agents obtained a court order compelling a telematics company to secretly activate the stolen vehicle recovery feature in a customer's car. The feature, designed to listen-in on car thieves as they cruise around in a stolen auto, turns on a dashboard microphone and pipes conversations out over a cell phone connection -- normally to the company's response center, but in this case to an FBI listening post. After initially complying for 30 days, the company asked a federal judge to block the order. It lost, and filed the appeal with 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while complying with the order. The proceeding were handled in strict secrecy, and the text of the final ruling omits the name of the company. Geri Lama, a spokesperson for General Motors subsidiary OnStar, says it wasn't them.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Quick Update
I'm in Miami -- meeting with investors in a few minutes. At Assaf's house. Super secret project looks good.
I'll be out of pocket -- not checking my email except for my broadcast.com address. If you have something important to send me, put it there.
Over and out
/rizzn
I'll be out of pocket -- not checking my email except for my broadcast.com address. If you have something important to send me, put it there.
Over and out
/rizzn
Monday, November 17, 2003
my friend rizzn
My good friend rizzn-
You seem to be going through some difficult times. I feel inclined to let you know that you are loved. Just remember the good times. Tortilla soup, walking to seven eleven, camel cash everywhere, steve petty, an emaciated joel, tons of cigarettes, tons of coffee, bologne, matthew, pedicures, hiding from robert, almost getting an apartment together, getting together at midnight to put together financial reports, farkash, farkash at georgios, shimmy-shimmy and all the danke stylings. kiss
You seem to be going through some difficult times. I feel inclined to let you know that you are loved. Just remember the good times. Tortilla soup, walking to seven eleven, camel cash everywhere, steve petty, an emaciated joel, tons of cigarettes, tons of coffee, bologne, matthew, pedicures, hiding from robert, almost getting an apartment together, getting together at midnight to put together financial reports, farkash, farkash at georgios, shimmy-shimmy and all the danke stylings. kiss
6/4/2004
RIAA SUES ARTISTS
NEW YORK -- In a surprising twist of events, the RIAA has sued the artists themselves for producing works which are pirated. This comes fresh on the heels of the MPAA filing an injuction against 4 major films studios to halt production on movies the public does not care enough about to see in the theatre, but mind-numbing enough to want to see, leading to rampant piracy. Sources close to the RIAA expect this to be the death of popular music as we know it.
And in other news the RIAA and MPAA are filing suit against employees of all of the regional phone carriers.
"These employees know of the vast amounts of illegal information flowing through the systems and have remained silent. It is whole sale conspiracy to defaud the artist of the meager rations the subsist upon, not to mention that there are undoubtably the locations of all of the terrorists and WMD secreted in these illegal communcations. And while we realize that most of these employees and employers have hidden their involvement behind a thin veil of legality, we call upon the judiciary to set aside these frivolous laws so that we might bring these criminals to justice, swiftly and profitably."
/rizzn (*grin*)
RIAA SUES ARTISTS
NEW YORK -- In a surprising twist of events, the RIAA has sued the artists themselves for producing works which are pirated. This comes fresh on the heels of the MPAA filing an injuction against 4 major films studios to halt production on movies the public does not care enough about to see in the theatre, but mind-numbing enough to want to see, leading to rampant piracy. Sources close to the RIAA expect this to be the death of popular music as we know it.
And in other news the RIAA and MPAA are filing suit against employees of all of the regional phone carriers.
"These employees know of the vast amounts of illegal information flowing through the systems and have remained silent. It is whole sale conspiracy to defaud the artist of the meager rations the subsist upon, not to mention that there are undoubtably the locations of all of the terrorists and WMD secreted in these illegal communcations. And while we realize that most of these employees and employers have hidden their involvement behind a thin veil of legality, we call upon the judiciary to set aside these frivolous laws so that we might bring these criminals to justice, swiftly and profitably."
/rizzn (*grin*)
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Brazil Moves Away From Microsoft
Kasparov Wins Game 3 Against X3D Fritz
by timothy (30% noise)
View Skip
Vulcao writes “Garry Kasparov just brilliantly won game 3 in the Kasparov vs. X3D Fritz chess match, which pits man against machine. Kasparov created a positional advantage on the queen side with a very strong pawn structure to which Fritz didn’t have an answer. The result is now 1.5 - 1.5, and the last game will be this Tuesday, Nov. 18.”
maybe Kasparov should be an Action Ranger
by dandelion_wine (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Al Gore: You already know Stephen Hawking. Also with us is Nichelle Nichols a.k.a. Commander Uhura.
Nichols: Incoming transmission from MCI one rate department. It sounds like a limited time offer.
Gore: Tell them I’m in the tub! To my left you’ll recognise Gary Gygax, inventor of dungeons and dragons.
Gygax: Greetings! It’s a…[rolls dice.]…pleasure to meet you!
Gore: And our summer intern, Deep Blue. The world’s foremost chess playing computer.
Deep Blue: Bishop to knight 4.
Gore: Not all missions can be solved with chess, Deep Blue. Someday you’ll understand that.
Is Fritz learning?
by LostCluster (Score: 5, Interesting)
Thread
Does Fritz learn from today’s defeat… or could Kasparov repeat today’s win simply by repeating today’s move sequence on Tuesday?
[via AlterSlash]
Last Update for a While
This is my last update for a while. I'm moving out tonight or in the morning, depending on your perspective of AM/PM relationships, and until DSL or Internet of some kind gets installed, I obviously won't be able to post. If you need to urgently need to contact me, my number is, as always, 903-530-7925.
/rizzn
This is my last update for a while. I'm moving out tonight or in the morning, depending on your perspective of AM/PM relationships, and until DSL or Internet of some kind gets installed, I obviously won't be able to post. If you need to urgently need to contact me, my number is, as always, 903-530-7925.
/rizzn
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 20:22:19 -0500
From: DoD News
Subject: DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections
No. 851-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 15, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)
DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the Department to provide the reports from the Intelligence Community to which he referred in his testimony before the Committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.
The letter to the committee included a classified annex containing a list and description of the requested reports, so that the Committee could obtain the reports from the relevant members of the Intelligence Community.
The items listed in the classified annex were either raw reports or products of the CIA, the NSA, or, in one case, the DIA. The provision of the classified annex to the Intelligence Committee was cleared by other agencies and done with the permission of the Intelligence Community. The selection of the documents was made by DOD to respond to the Committee's question. The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions.
Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.
From: DoD News
Subject: DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections
No. 851-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 15, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)
DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the Department to provide the reports from the Intelligence Community to which he referred in his testimony before the Committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.
The letter to the committee included a classified annex containing a list and description of the requested reports, so that the Committee could obtain the reports from the relevant members of the Intelligence Community.
The items listed in the classified annex were either raw reports or products of the CIA, the NSA, or, in one case, the DIA. The provision of the classified annex to the Intelligence Committee was cleared by other agencies and done with the permission of the Intelligence Community. The selection of the documents was made by DOD to respond to the Committee's question. The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions.
Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.
Saturday, November 15, 2003
OSINT: US helicopters downed in N Iraq
Two US helicopters have crashed in northern Iraq, US military officials have said.
Initial reports indicated that a single UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter had come down in the town of Mosul.
Minutes later a second helicopter crashed - although it is not clear if it was in the same incident.
A rapid reaction force was reported to be securing the area and investigating, but there was no confirmed reports of casualties.
Five days earlier, an American Chinook helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad, killing 16 soldiers in the deadliest single strike on American troops since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein.
Witnesses to the latest incident said the helicopter was in flames as it came down.
Two US helicopters have crashed in northern Iraq, US military officials have said.
Initial reports indicated that a single UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter had come down in the town of Mosul.
Minutes later a second helicopter crashed - although it is not clear if it was in the same incident.
A rapid reaction force was reported to be securing the area and investigating, but there was no confirmed reports of casualties.
Five days earlier, an American Chinook helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad, killing 16 soldiers in the deadliest single strike on American troops since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein.
Witnesses to the latest incident said the helicopter was in flames as it came down.
[via Mike Lee @ Saturday, 15 November, 2003, 18:13 GMT ]
[Listening to: The Silence (Radio Edit) - Mike Koglin - (03:37)]
Robin Kish - Factchecker Extraordinaire
Robin Kish - Factchecker Extraordinaire - brings you her slandereport about FlyDLUX!
Care to see the atrocious FlyDLUX report that aired on WFOR? Click Here.
Disclaimer: Just because the report is full of incorrect facts and slander does not mean it is true or I purport to believe it.
Care to see the atrocious FlyDLUX report that aired on WFOR? Click Here.
Disclaimer: Just because the report is full of incorrect facts and slander does not mean it is true or I purport to believe it.
[Listening to: LOFI Richtig by Rizzn Phitt - Rizzn and Phit - (04:19)]
// Now playing: Pi Soundtrack - Pi Soundtrack - (T03) Kalpol I //
Farscape is Back - by CowboyNeal (46% noise) View Skip
cioxx writes “FilmForce has substantiated rumors of Farscape, widely popular TV miniseries, returning as a standalone project with no new episode commitment attached, independent of Sci-Fi Channel.” Previously, some rumors had been flying around that the original series would be finished off in this way, but many Farscape fans are just happy to see more of the show on the way.
Re:“Widely popular” - by TTMuskrat (Score: 4, Informative) Thread
If it was widely popular, why does it have to be resurrected?
Because its cancellation was all about money and ownership of the show, not its popularity. (Kinda like the original Battlestar Galatica).
SciFi Channel (owned by USA networks) did not own the rights to the show as it was made by the Jim Henson company (who is owned by a German conglomerate whose name escapes me now). When the USA network changed leadership, they wanted shows that they made and produced to be shown so that all the monies from said show would go to them. Since this was not the case with Henson-owned Farscape, and the fact that the show was not cheap to make, USA (and SciFi) opted out of the 5th season. So now, all you get is USA network made crap programming on the SciFi channel as if the entire USA Network itself wasn’t bad enough
[via AlterSlash]
[ Rizzn's Note: the article makes no mention as to why we would affect such a policy. It really makes no sense at all. In a time when we are creating this nuke the moon persona for our country, why would we want to let up even a little bit to a country like Libya, where there is clear evidence they are a nation of terrorism (unlike countries like Iraq and Iran, their policies are obfuscated in the fine print of their country's legislation).]
OSINT: U.S. may ease travel ban to Libya
Ahead of an upcoming deadline, the United States may depart from its customary full-year extension of a two-decade old policy that attempts to prevent Americans from traveling to Libya, Bush administration officials say.
INSTEAD, THE OFFICIALS say a much shorter extension — possibly 90 days — is possible to reflect changed circumstances.
In the recent past, the United States has lifted prohibitions on use of U.S. passports to travel to Iran and Lebanon. Libya is now the only country where the U.S. government applies such a restriction.
[ MSNBC ]
OSINT: U.S. may ease travel ban to Libya
Ahead of an upcoming deadline, the United States may depart from its customary full-year extension of a two-decade old policy that attempts to prevent Americans from traveling to Libya, Bush administration officials say.
INSTEAD, THE OFFICIALS say a much shorter extension — possibly 90 days — is possible to reflect changed circumstances.
In the recent past, the United States has lifted prohibitions on use of U.S. passports to travel to Iran and Lebanon. Libya is now the only country where the U.S. government applies such a restriction.
[ MSNBC ]
[Listening to: Dedicated Melody - TbO&Vega feat.DRF - (04:07)]
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 is one of the forgotten wars of the United States. The war lasted for over two years, and while it ended much like it started; in stalemate; it was in fact a war that once and for all confirmed American Independence. The offensive actions of the United States failed in every attempt to capture Canada. On the other hand, the British army was successfully stopped when it attempted to capture Baltimore and New Orleans. There were a number of American naval victories in which American vessels proved themselves superior to similarly sized British vessels. These victories coming after victories in the Quasi War (an even more forgotten war) launched American naval traditions.
The following entries were taken from the War of 1812 section of the MultiEducator CD Rom entitled:"New Nation: America 1787-1820" chronicles the history of the United States from the writing of the Constitution through to the War of 1812.
In the program itself the the painting and drawings are larger, every entry is narrated. Nearly every major battle includes an in-depth battle narration that usually include animated battle maps.
oo come back proud canadians
before you had tv
no hockey night in canada
there was no cbc
in 1812 madison was mad
he was the president, you know
but he thought he tell the british where they ought to go
he thougth he'd invade canada
he thought that he was tough
instead he went to washington
and burned down all his stuff
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
and we're the ones that did it
it burned burned burned
while the president ran and cried
it burned burned burned
and things were very historical
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
wa wa waaaa
in the war of 1812
now hillbillies from kentucky
dressed in green and red
left home to fight in canada
but they returned home dead
its only war the yankees lost
except for vietnam
and also the alamo
and the bay of... ham
the loser was america
the winner was ourselves
so join right in and gloat about
the war of 1812
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
and we're the ones that did it
it burned burned burned
while the president ran and cried
it burned burned burned
and things were very historical
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
wa wa waaaa
in the war of 1812
in 1812 we were just sittin' around
mindin' our own business
puttin' crops into the ground
we heard the soldiers coming
and we didnt like that sound
so we took a boat to washington
and burned it to the ground
oh, oh...
we burned our guns
but the yankees kept on coming
there wasn't quite as many
as there was a while ago
we fired once more
and the yankees started runnin
down the mississippi to the gulf of mexico
they ran through the snow
and they ran through the forest
they ran throught the bushes where the beavers wouldn't go
they ran so fast that they forgot to take their culture
back to america, gulf, and texico
So, if you go to Washington, its buildings clean and nice,
Bring a pack of matches, and we’ll burn the White House twice!
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
but the americans won't admit it
it burned, burned, burned,
it burned and burned and burned
it burned, burned, burned,
now, i bet that made them mad
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
waa waa waah!
in the war of 1812!
The War of 1812 is one of the forgotten wars of the United States. The war lasted for over two years, and while it ended much like it started; in stalemate; it was in fact a war that once and for all confirmed American Independence. The offensive actions of the United States failed in every attempt to capture Canada. On the other hand, the British army was successfully stopped when it attempted to capture Baltimore and New Orleans. There were a number of American naval victories in which American vessels proved themselves superior to similarly sized British vessels. These victories coming after victories in the Quasi War (an even more forgotten war) launched American naval traditions.
The following entries were taken from the War of 1812 section of the MultiEducator CD Rom entitled:"New Nation: America 1787-1820" chronicles the history of the United States from the writing of the Constitution through to the War of 1812.
In the program itself the the painting and drawings are larger, every entry is narrated. Nearly every major battle includes an in-depth battle narration that usually include animated battle maps.
[Listening to: Arrogant Worms - The War of 1812 - - (04:00)]
oo come back proud canadians
before you had tv
no hockey night in canada
there was no cbc
in 1812 madison was mad
he was the president, you know
but he thought he tell the british where they ought to go
he thougth he'd invade canada
he thought that he was tough
instead he went to washington
and burned down all his stuff
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
and we're the ones that did it
it burned burned burned
while the president ran and cried
it burned burned burned
and things were very historical
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
wa wa waaaa
in the war of 1812
now hillbillies from kentucky
dressed in green and red
left home to fight in canada
but they returned home dead
its only war the yankees lost
except for vietnam
and also the alamo
and the bay of... ham
the loser was america
the winner was ourselves
so join right in and gloat about
the war of 1812
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
and we're the ones that did it
it burned burned burned
while the president ran and cried
it burned burned burned
and things were very historical
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
wa wa waaaa
in the war of 1812
in 1812 we were just sittin' around
mindin' our own business
puttin' crops into the ground
we heard the soldiers coming
and we didnt like that sound
so we took a boat to washington
and burned it to the ground
oh, oh...
we burned our guns
but the yankees kept on coming
there wasn't quite as many
as there was a while ago
we fired once more
and the yankees started runnin
down the mississippi to the gulf of mexico
they ran through the snow
and they ran through the forest
they ran throught the bushes where the beavers wouldn't go
they ran so fast that they forgot to take their culture
back to america, gulf, and texico
So, if you go to Washington, its buildings clean and nice,
Bring a pack of matches, and we’ll burn the White House twice!
and the whitehouse burned burned burned
but the americans won't admit it
it burned, burned, burned,
it burned and burned and burned
it burned, burned, burned,
now, i bet that made them mad
and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies
waa waa waah!
in the war of 1812!
[Listening to: Arrogant Worms - The War of 1812 - - (04:00)]
Rough set of few days -- real rough. Laura and I took it semi-easy today. I didn't answer the phone much. Just couldn't take it anymore. I shut down all the phones and turned on some music, and did relaxing things. As a consequence, I'll be up until daylight doing my work, but damnit, it was worth it.
Oh, and all you people in Miami afraid of this FTAA stuff might be interested in learning about the Anarchist Movement.
/rizzn
One more day, and I reveal a secret.
Oh, and all you people in Miami afraid of this FTAA stuff might be interested in learning about the Anarchist Movement.
/rizzn
One more day, and I reveal a secret.
[Listening to: Rocked By Rape - The Evolution Control Committe - 7" single (04:30)]
Friday, November 14, 2003
OSINT: CIA sounds new warning on North Korea missile that could hit US
The CIA is sounding a new alarm that North Korea may be ready to flight test a nuclear capable multi-stage missile capable of reaching parts of the United States.
[ Space Daily ]
The CIA is sounding a new alarm that North Korea may be ready to flight test a nuclear capable multi-stage missile capable of reaching parts of the United States.
[ Space Daily ]
From FuzzOnWall:
What does a kiss taste like? One day a teacher had a taste test with her students. She picked a little boy to do the first test. She blindfolded him, put a Hershey kiss in his mouth and asked, "Do you know what it is?"
"No, I don't," said the little boy. "Okay, I'll give you a clue. It's the thing your daddy wants from your Mom before he goes to work."
Suddenly, a little girl at the back of the room yelled, "Spit it out! It's a piece of ass!"
What does a kiss taste like? One day a teacher had a taste test with her students. She picked a little boy to do the first test. She blindfolded him, put a Hershey kiss in his mouth and asked, "Do you know what it is?"
"No, I don't," said the little boy. "Okay, I'll give you a clue. It's the thing your daddy wants from your Mom before he goes to work."
Suddenly, a little girl at the back of the room yelled, "Spit it out! It's a piece of ass!"
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Feelings on the FlyDLUX Report
I really don't like how they portrayed me as a liar -- FlyDLUX piece portrays me as some sort of a crook -- I'm not a crook.Neither is Rabbi. I'm faxing, this evening, a list of the customers we actually flew, and maybe a photocopy of my genitalia. I'm a little perturbed by her unbalanced report.
Okay -- I've had time to think about this report, and soak it in, and watch it a second time. I really feel insulted. There are a number of facts that were completely wrong and reported incorrectly. First of all, we issued a refund to Yoram Maimoni (the jeweler in the report) if memory serves. Second of all, from the time of the report until it's airing (a time span of several months) we have issued no tickets, nor have we sold any. This is because we knew we couldn't deliver. We couldn't deliver because a man by the name of James Anthony Wimmer took all our money, and never delivered tickets we could sell. We have paid Mr. Wimmer right around a million dollars -- and we haven't recieved this fabled block of "3500 tickets" he was supposed to deliver to us to sell.
I am hurt and afraid this will permanently damage my reputation as a businessman -- look at my bio. I'm a respectable fellow. I've got a lot of big accomplishments. This report is almost purely slander. If I come up with the time to think about dealing with this, it will be more widely and publicly addressed.
/rizzn
FlyDLUX Grand Send-Off
The FlyDLUX.com, Inc Grand Send Off
Well, I really don't have a minute to do an update, but I'm going to do one anyways. I'm taking a break (as the picture indicates) from the rigors of moving. Yes folks I'm moving. Don't get excited, I'm not moving to Texas just yet (although I will be coming back for a visit during the holidays). Well, down to what this update is about.
FlyDLUX is being featured tonight on Miami's CBS4 tonight -- the lead video showed Rabbi going into his apartment. I'm watching the news now -- they haven't gotten to the segment yet, but I'm sure they'll be using part of the segment where they interviewed me, and we'll see how badly they twist my words. The lady who interviewed me was very cordial and presented it as if she was going to present a balanced report, but that's already not panning out as the title of the report indicates that it won't. I'll post an addendum to this post after the report airs.
Where am I moving to? I'm moving within the area. If we were such a fraud, how come I don't have money to pay rent? Simply put, because we aren't a fraud. I haven't been paid by FlyDLUX.com since the third week I've been in Florida. As to the cause of this problem, pay attention to this website. We are going to the FBI and the appropriate DA's and AG's offices this week.
I just know our phones will be ringing off the hook this evening. I hope this doesn't ruin my reputation. I'm as much a victim of this as all these purported victims interviewed by Robin Lish or Dish or whatever her name is.
/rizzn
Well, I really don't have a minute to do an update, but I'm going to do one anyways. I'm taking a break (as the picture indicates) from the rigors of moving. Yes folks I'm moving. Don't get excited, I'm not moving to Texas just yet (although I will be coming back for a visit during the holidays). Well, down to what this update is about.
FlyDLUX is being featured tonight on Miami's CBS4 tonight -- the lead video showed Rabbi going into his apartment. I'm watching the news now -- they haven't gotten to the segment yet, but I'm sure they'll be using part of the segment where they interviewed me, and we'll see how badly they twist my words. The lady who interviewed me was very cordial and presented it as if she was going to present a balanced report, but that's already not panning out as the title of the report indicates that it won't. I'll post an addendum to this post after the report airs.
Where am I moving to? I'm moving within the area. If we were such a fraud, how come I don't have money to pay rent? Simply put, because we aren't a fraud. I haven't been paid by FlyDLUX.com since the third week I've been in Florida. As to the cause of this problem, pay attention to this website. We are going to the FBI and the appropriate DA's and AG's offices this week.I just know our phones will be ringing off the hook this evening. I hope this doesn't ruin my reputation. I'm as much a victim of this as all these purported victims interviewed by Robin Lish or Dish or whatever her name is.
/rizzn
OSINT: CIA Rejects Claim It Sought Osama Deal Before 9/11
The CIA rejected as fantasy claims in a new book that it tried to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Osama bin Laden just two months before the September 11, 2001 airliner attacks against the United States.
[ Reuters ]
The CIA rejected as fantasy claims in a new book that it tried to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Osama bin Laden just two months before the September 11, 2001 airliner attacks against the United States.
[ Reuters ]
BBSmates is a place to search for members of all y ...
BBSmates is a place to search for members of all your old BBSes.
[ Rizzn's Note: More on this later why it is relevant to my life -- in other words, big news a'brewin'! ]
Internet Radio To Have Global License
According to Reuters, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has come up with a single license agreement that Internet radio broadcasters can sign to gain the right to broadcast music around the world.
Previously, online radio broadcasters, or Webcasters, had to secure approval from an alphabet soup of national collection agencies.Broadcasting a single song online to European listeners across the continent, for example, would require a Webcaster to obtain dozens of licensing contracts. . . .
Rechardt added that while the approval process has been streamlined, the old fee structure is still intact. Webcasters will still have to pay a national body a fee for songs broadcast into each individual country.
While the license has yet to be finalized, it promises to be a good private solution to the morass of global copyright law. Read the article here.
[via LawMeme]
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
OSINT: Arab experts desperately needed in Iraq
US intelligence is desperate to find Arab speaking experts it can trust enough to help in the interrogation of accused terrorists and to crack codes that indicate a looming attack.
[ Middle East Online ]
US intelligence is desperate to find Arab speaking experts it can trust enough to help in the interrogation of accused terrorists and to crack codes that indicate a looming attack.
[ Middle East Online ]
OSINT: Taliban form 4 bodies
Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime, said to be regrouping in Afghanistan, have formed four committees to make their resistance against the collation forces more effective, sources privy to the development told Daily Times on Wednesday.
[ Daily Times ]
Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime, said to be regrouping in Afghanistan, have formed four committees to make their resistance against the collation forces more effective, sources privy to the development told Daily Times on Wednesday.
[ Daily Times ]
OSINT: Intelligence Experts Comb Web for Terror Clues
Cyber investigators are scouring the World Wide Web for clues on any future suicide bomb attacks, deploying satellites and other high-tech wizardry to hone in on suspicious Web surfing activity.
[ Yahoo! (Reuters) ]
Cyber investigators are scouring the World Wide Web for clues on any future suicide bomb attacks, deploying satellites and other high-tech wizardry to hone in on suspicious Web surfing activity.
[ Yahoo! (Reuters) ]
From the Can-He-Do-That Department:
OSINT: US wants ban on protests during Bush visit
Anti-war protesters claim that US authorities have demanded a rolling "exclusion zone" around President George Bush during his visit, as well as a ban on marches in parts of central London.
[ Belfast Telegraph ]
OSINT: US wants ban on protests during Bush visit
Anti-war protesters claim that US authorities have demanded a rolling "exclusion zone" around President George Bush during his visit, as well as a ban on marches in parts of central London.
[ Belfast Telegraph ]
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