U.S. led naval 'excercises' taunt, aim to intimidate Iran

A naval training exercise led by the U.S. and aimed at blocking smuggling of nuclear weapons began in the Persian Gulf Sunday.

"From Iranian news reports we know the exercise got the attention of Iran," said Robert Joseph, the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said Friday. Why would you want Iran to notice, unless you were trying to intimidate and instigate a situation?

The maneuvers were taking place under the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which is designed to counter trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related materials, the U.S. Navy said.

Iran called the two-day maneuvers "adventurist," but the Foreign Ministry said the Islamic Republic's response would be "rational and wise." Also, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, "We are watching their movements very carefully."

South Korea watched but did not get involved, "because there is a high possibility of armed clashes if the PSI is carried out in waters around the Korean peninsula," Smart, but why can't the Bush Administration try to avoid these confrontations? Oh! They don't want to avoid them, they want to create them.

Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown said the exercise was not openly aimed at any country and would not affect Iranian vessels or ships heading to Iran. But we have no reason to believe this since the Administration has a consistent history of pathologically lying. Full article via IHT

Citing Improvements to Law, ACLU Withdraws Section 215 Case But Vows to Fight Individual Orders

The ACLU announced on Friday that they were dropping their case against the US Government over the highly contested section 215 of the Patriot Act. ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson stated: 'While the reauthorized Patriot Act is far from perfect, we succeeded in stemming the damage from some of the Bush administration's most reckless policies. The ACLU will continue to monitor how the government applies the broad Section 215 power and we will challenge unconstitutional demands on a case-by-case basis.

ACLU via Slashdot

American Muslims hold back on giving to charities for fear of being linked to terrorism

Zakat, or charity, is a part of the Muslim faith. The month of Ramadan is a time of giving for Muslims. However, stories of significantly lowered contributions to American Muslim charities are becoming more common. There is fear that sending money to a Muslim charity will spark an unwanted investigation for a link to terrorism.

Many people are admitting they don't want to be asked over the phone to give money because they worry the government is eavesdropping. Fear for potential raids onto their properties, into their homes, and investigations of their lives are keeping donations at bay.

"The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department has shuttered five major Muslim charities in the United States since 2001, seizing millions of dollars in assets, yet not a single officer or organization has been convicted of anything connected to terrorism. " (New York Times)

You have to think about the fact that many Muslims came the United States looking for freedom from government intelligence forces, and having the same worries over here only intensifies their fear more. According to The New York Times, the offices of Life for Relief and Development were raided in September on the basis of a sealed affidavit. The government has said that the raid was not terrorism-related, although agents of the Joint Terrorism Task Force were along on the raid. The hanging questions put a damper on fund-raising. How is there freedom of religion when Muslims are afraid to contribute to charities only because they are Muslim?

Airport security whistleblower being scrutinized, questioned?

The FBI was at security researcher Christopher Soghoian's house today. Soghoian, a Ph.D of Indiana University, decided to create a Fake Boarding Pass Generator (apparently made to shutdown by the FBI today) to bring attention to a serious security risk to airports. Soghoian had no intention of using a fake pass, and no intention of breaching airport security. In fact, as Soghoian states, ". I haven't even printed one out."

Despite Soghoian's intentions, his arrest was called for by Rep. Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts), a member of the House Homeland Security committee. And as Ryan Singel of Wired writes, "Even if Soghoian's site is shut down, any boarding pass purchased over the web can still be easily edited in any browser." Got a computer? Got a printer? You've got a fake boarding pass!

This specific loophole is not new. Bruce Schneier wrote about it in 2003, and Slate covered it in 2005. Soghoian points out that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) made the same security hole public in April 2006. "Perhaps Sen. Schumer will end up being my cellmate," Soghoian said.

I believe that this sort of "testing" should actually be encouraged. It's how security firms create better products and systems, by having hacker's test them and try bypassing them. It's raw and it works. The only thing the FBI should be "investigating" is ways to make it more difficult to make fake boarding passes, and Christopher Soghoian should be praised.

Via Christopher Soghoian's Slight Paranoia and Wired

Bush's lies endanger us all

As Keith Olbermann puts it, "A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from." And I couldn't agree more.

Yummy Links of the Day

Bush: Iraq War May Be Like Vietnam
Bush said in aninterview with ABC News that a newspaper column comparing the current fighting in Iraq to Vietnam might be accurate. (ABC News)

More...
French to Israel: Buzz Lebanon, We Open Fire (Haaretz)
Decrease in Mid-East Students Since Bush, Iraq War (BuzzFlash)
UK courts start to accept that Iraq War is a crime (Guardian)

Chertoff: Internet turning people into terrorists

Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.

"We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police. "They can train themselves over the internet. They never have to necessarily go to the training camp or speak with anybody else and that diffusion of a combination of hatred and technical skills in things like bomb-making is a dangerous combination," Chertoff said. "Those are the kind of terrorists that we may not be able to detect with spies and satellites."

Chertoff pointed to the July 7, 2005 attacks on London's transit system, which killed 56 people, as an example a home-grown threat. To help gather intelligence on possible home-grown attackers, Chertoff said Homeland Security would deploy 20 field agents this fiscal year into "intelligence fusion centers," where they would work with local police agencies.

Link to t-shirt thumbnailed above. Wired via BoingBoing

President Bush Seeks to Block Enemies From Space

The revision was signed on October 6 -- with details not being revealed until now

US President George Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that is designed to emphasize space security and encourage private enterprise in space. Most notably, the country’s right to deny access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests” is what has drawn support from some and displeasure from others. One line of the policy states: “Freedom and action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power.” Government officials have been quick to point out that the latest revisions are not leading up to militarization of Earth’s orbit.

Michael Krepon, a co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, believes that the policy change will further the idea that the United States wishes to develop, test and deploy space weapons. And since the United States has continually declined to enter talks with other nations about space militarization, Krepon believes this only amplifies the idea of U.S. weapons being deployed in space. Theresa Hitchens, the director of the Center for Defense Information in Washington, also believes the new policy may lead to possible space war strategies.

The revision is the first one in 10 years, and was needed to “reflect the fact that space has become an even more important component of U.S. economic, national and homeland security,” according to National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones. Via DailyTech

Electricity Levels In Baghdad at Lowest Levels Since U.S. Invasion

In Sept. 2003, President Bush promised that he would help Iraqis “restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore, to our own security.”

But three years later, electricity levels in Baghdad are at an all-time low. Residents of Baghdad are receiving just 2.4 hours of electricity this month, compared to an average of 16-24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. The lowest level prior to this month was 3.9 hours/day.

According to our chart — using data compiled by The Brookings Institution — electricity levels have been steadily going down in the past two years (data for parts of 2003-2004 were unavailable) and are now at their lowest point since the U.S. invasion:

Via ThinkProgress

FBI and EU want your internet freedoms

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year.

This should come as no surprise to us as the government is already taking watch over internet bloggers themselves.

"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

The speech to the law enforcement group, which approved a resolution on the topic earlier in the day, echoes other calls from Bush administration officials to force private firms to record information about customers. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for instance, told Congress last month that "this is a national problem that requires federal legislation."

Also, the EU has proposed a directive which could extend broadcasting regulations to the internet, hitting popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube., reports the London Times. This would mean that websites and mobile phone services that feature video images would have to conform to standards laid down in Brussels.

Yummy Links of the Day

Planespotting
Nerds with binoculars bust the CIA's torture taxis. (Village Voice)

More...
Bush signs bill on terror prosecution (AP)
President Bush's Grave Misconduct (Huffington Post)
Iraqi Death Rate May Top the U.S. Civil War (E&P)
Poll: Democrats lead in Republican districts (Raw Story)

Sanctions always a dangerous deadend for U.S.

The U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test are a declaration of war, and the country will "deal merciless blows" if the nation's sovereignty is violated, the North's central government said Tuesday in its first response to the U.N. measures. Thanks U.S./UN! This recent news brings me to the point that Sanctions against other countries have always turned out bad for the U.S and our reputation throughout history. Period.

The North wants "peace but is not afraid of war," says N. Korea's Foreign Ministry. And so have said many previous nations that have been dealt harsh sanctions by the U.S. and it's minions throughout history.

When the U.S. placed sanctions on countries like Cuba and Iraq, they did more damage than good. In Cuba, the people are forced to confide in Castro and to flee the country. The same was the result of harsh sanctions against Iraq, people forced to trust and obey Saddam, and deterioration of their economy.

All resulting in very angry and pissed of people around the world (some a.k.a. terrorists). “The number of Iraqi people who have died in the last eight years as a result of the sanctions exceeds the death toll due to all the weapons of mass destruction used in human history,” said Noam Chomsky to MIT's 'The Tech' in April 1999. And Pat Buchanan states, "sanctions may have caused the deaths of 500,000 [Iraqi] children. When Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State under President Clinton was asked if this horrific toll of Iraqi children was justified, she replied, 'We believe the price is worth it.' "

In the case of Iran, we are again warned by Mohamed ElBaradei (IAEA cheif) back in March, that Iran is not an imminent and sanctions against them is a "bad idea" and "we need to lower the pitch."

The sanctions imposed by the U.S. also deals hard blows to our domestic economy, as "...firms and workers in the United States also pay an immediate price when [sanctions are brought against other nations]. Even though the aggregate cost in relation to our GDP is usually very small, the costs may be significant for individual firms or industries." This is one of the facts that Jeffrey Schott, of the Institute for International Economics, stated to the Committee on International Relations at the House of Representatives on June 3, 1998. We are also told this by Richard Haass of The Brookings Institute, "...often sanctions turn out to be little more than expressions of U.S. preferences that hurt American economic interests without changing the target's behavior for the better."