Comment

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on March 30, 2010 at 12:41am

A curious incident involving a graduate student in China has highlighted American cyber-security concerns, as well as exposing the serious vulnerability of America's infrastructure.

Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist, recently drew attention to the paper.

Last spring, Wang Jianwei, a graduate engineering student in Liaoning, China, and his professor published a paper entitled "Cascade-Based Attack Vulnerability on the U.S. Power Grid" in the international journal "Safety Science." The paper is a generic engineering exercise, examining ways to enhance the security of power grids by exploring possible cyber-attacks that would cause cascading power failures. Jianwei said he chose the U.S. grid because it was easy to obtain data, as China does not publish data on its power grids but the U.S. does.

A Chinese student, Wang Jianwei, above, and his professor, wrote an academic paper on the vulnerability of the American power grid to a computer attack. Scientists said the paper was merely a technical exercise.

Needless to say, the paper aroused concern in the U.S. security community. On March 10, China specialist Larry Wortzel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "Chinese researchers at the Institute of Systems Engineering of Dalian University of Technology published a paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S." Jianwei explained that he was only trying to find ways to protect, not attack, power grids by exploring their cyber vulnerabilities -- a reasonable conclusion given that the paper was actually published.

Regardless of Jianwei's intent, however, China's recent dust-ups with Google over Internet censorship and cyber-attacks suspected of originating in China should be reason enough to compel U.S. security experts to keep China high on their list of potential cyber-adversaries. Perhaps we shouldn't make our own infrastructure information so accessible, either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/world/asia/21grid.html?src=me

http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/03/26/digest/

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on March 26, 2010 at 1:16am

Oklahoma House Advances Legislation Banning Sharia Law...

http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2010/03/oklahoma-house-advances-l...
OKLAHOMA CITY – State lawmakers have voted to allow Oklahoma voters to prevent judicial rulings in foreign countries from impacting local court decisions through approval of the "Save Our State" constitutional amendment.

House Joint Resolution 1056, by state Rep. Rex Duncan, would allow Oklahomans to vote to amend the Oklahoma Constitution to require the courts to "uphold and adhere to the law" as provided in the United States Constitution, the Oklahoma Constitution, the United States Code and federal regulations, Oklahoma Statutes and rules, and established common law.

The proposed amendment would prohibit all Oklahoma courts from considering the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, even in cases of first impression.

"Unfortunately, some judges in other states and on the federal bench have begun to cite international law in their court decisions, effectively undermining our own democratic system of government," said Duncan, a Sand Springs Republican and attorney who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. "Our nation’s laws were developed through a democratic process and should not be undermined by haphazard reliance on foreign rulings developed in autocratic societies. Oklahoma court decisions should be based on the U.S. Constitution, Oklahoma Constitution, and our state and national laws—period."

The proposed amendment declares that courts "shall not consider international law or Sharia Law."

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on March 20, 2010 at 2:59am

*INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS: China could program U.S. collapse*

Semiconductors used in U.S. weapons systems that come from China and other
countries could be pre-programmed for failure. In an exclusive interview with G2
Bulletin, a high-level Pentagon technical expert who asked to remain anonymous
warned that such tampering is virtually undetectable. His revelation
underscores a growing concern in the U.S. military that with the dwindling
manufacture of domestic chips and electronics combined with the burgeoning
growth of supplies, especially from China, there is virtually no way to trace
the source of any electronic tampering.

Read the full report:

http://g2.wnd.com

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on February 26, 2010 at 2:22am

In-Justice! Furor over O's 'Gitmo' appointees

By JENNIFER FERMINO

Last Updated: 2:16 PM, February 23, 2010

Posted: 2:42 AM, February 23, 2010

The Justice Department's disclosure that nine of President Obama's appointees had either represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees has touched off a firestorm of criticism.

The surprising admission came three months after Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa asked Attorney General Eric Holder for a list of names of Obama DOJ appointees who had been involved in legal work for Gitmo prisoners.

Holder, in a letter to Grassley, admitted that nine of the agency's appointees had done some kind of work on behalf of terror suspects.

"To the best of our knowledge, during their employment prior to joining the government, only five of the lawyers who serve as political appointees in those components represented detainees," said Holder in the letter, which is dated Feb. 18.

"Four others either contributed to amicus briefs in detainee-related cases or were otherwise involved in advocacy on behalf of detainees."

Holder refused to reveal the names of any of the DOJ lawyers who worked on behalf of terrorists or their positions in the department, except for two officials whose advocacy for Gitmo detainees had already been reported.

Neal Katyal, the department's principal deputy solicitor general, was once the lawyer for Osama bin Laden's driver. Jennifer Daskal, part of Obama's Detention Policy Task Force, advocated for detainees at Human Rights Watch.

Holder insisted that there was nothing unusual about government counsel having once worked on the opposing side, and compared it to lawyers who represented tax cheats going to work for the agency's tax division.

"A prosecutor of white-collar fraud cases may have previously represented defendants in such cases. This familiarity with and experience in the relevant area of law redounds to the government's benefit," he wrote.

But the revelation that the DOJ had staffers who had once backed America's enemies left many critics fuming.

"It's like they're bringing al Qaeda lawyers inside the Department of Justice," said Debra Burlingame, who lost her brother on 9/11 and a board member of the advocacy group Keep America Safe.

Long Island GOP Rep. Peter King said he was perplexed why Holder didn't reveal the names of appointees who had worked for terrorists.

A DOJ rep reiterated that no ethics codes were broken.

"The department's attorneys are subject to ethics and disclosure rules . . . which are the strongest in history," said spokesman Matthew Miller.

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/in_justice_furor_over_gitmo_a...

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on February 26, 2010 at 2:21am

"When It Comes to Analyzing the Middle East, We Live in an Age of Idiocy"

By Barry Rubin*

February 24, 2010

www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/02/when-it-comes-to-analyzing

Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox.

After more than 30 years of watching people write dumb things about the Middle East, I believe that in the last month I've seen more nonsense than at any previous time. The problem arises from ignorance, lack of understanding of the region by those presented as experts; plus arrogance, treating the region and the lives of people as a game (Hey, let's try this and see what happens!), fostered by the failure of such control mechanisms as a balanced debate and editing that rejects simplistic bias or stupidity; as well as a simple lack of logic.

To put it another way, I am reading material that simultaneously has no connection with the real world, is full of internal contradictions, and often seems deliberately tailored to misrepresent events in order to prove a false thesis. Fortunately, this stuff has not done actual damage in the real world--much of it has not been implemented in policy--yet but may in future.

As examples:

--The former director of for Gulf and South Asia affairs at President Bill Clinton's National Security Council writes that al-Qaida will go away if a Palestinian state is created. (This article is so astonishingly bad in reshaping the facts and leaving out anything that proves the contrary point I kept thinking it was a forgery meant to discredit him. Alas, in these days people actually do write in this intellectually dishonest style all too often.)

--The most famous American columnist writing on the Middle East says the United States is responsible for radicalization in Saudi Arabia and Europe is to blame for Iran's Islamist revolution;

--The New York Times publishes an op-ed by a U.S. Air Force analyst arguing that Iran getting nuclear weapons will be good for the U.S. position in the Middle East.

--France's foreign minister in an interview explains that Israel's allegedly killing a Hamas terrorist in Dubai proves there must be a Palestinian state as fast as possible, regardless of whether Israel agrees, a bilateral peace treaty is made, or even that state's boundaries are defined. Charmingly, he adds that he might be wrong, which suggests that if such a policy resulted in total disaster and a massive number of deaths he'd just give a Gallic shrug of the shoulders and say, "Tant pis." (Too bad.)

--Numerous people who should know better, ranging from the president's advisor on terrorism to the former senior director for transnational threats at the National Security Council, say Hizballah is now moderate even though it has not changed in any real way.

--A prestigious foreign policy blog carries an article from a professor at a Washington, DC, university calling for an end to any restrictions on imports by the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip despite its openly declared intention of commiting genocide, repression of its own people, and clear goal of returning to war as soon as possible because this will supposedly strengthen the hand of the Palestinian Authority government which Hamas is trying to overthrow.

What are the main themes being constantly purveyed? Blame America, blame Israel, blame the West, say that radicals are moderates, insist that making concessions and holding dialogues with ideologically-directed extremists will work, blocking serious discussion of the Islamist threat, refusing to recognize the unalterably aggressive intentions of the Iran-Syria bloc, arguing that radical states and movements will act in a "rational" manner by following Western conceptions of what is in their true interest rather than their own world view.

What themes are there no room for in the prestigious foreign affairs journals and newspapers, with rare exceptions?

--The strategic disaster for Western influence that would ensue if Iran got nuclear weapons even if it never fires them.

--Revolutionary Islamism doesn't exist mainly to get revenge on the West but to seize state power and transform their own societies.

--The fact that the Palestinian Authority neither desires nor is capable of making a comprehensive peace with Israel no matter what the West does.

--The specific things that Israel wants in a peace agreement and why it needs them.

--That Syria, for very solid interests of its own, will never break its alliance with Iran.

--The situation of Arab governments which want the United States to be tough against Iran, Syria, and the Islamists, and are rapidly losing faith that it will protect them.

--The steering of Turkey toward as much of an Islamist state as possible plus as close an alignment with Iran and Syria as posible by the regime there which pretends to be moderate but clearly is engaged in transforming the country..

--Most bad ideas, crises, radical movements, and conflicts in the Middle East are locally generated and not just reflections of wrong Western policies or misdeeds.

--The West can do only a very limited amount to solve the problems of the Middle East. Coming up with some clever gimmick, flattery, apology, concession, appeasement, or higher level of understanding isn't going to do it.

Should I link to each of the above-mentioned articles and refute them point by point? I'm not sure. On one hand, that would be intellectually and emotionally satisfying, but would it be worthwhile?

I don't like spending time and space talking about how someone else is so silly, how we are deluged with far more people speaking stupidity from power than speaking truth to it. I can't help but feel that it is better to use the chance to explain what's really going on and perhaps develop some accurate or useful ideas. But it is necessary to talk about some of the insanity just to give a sense of its all-encompassing scope.

Only events will teach these people anything, like the completely ignorant New York Times writer who had no experience in the Middle East whatsoever, became an apologist for the Iranian regime, and then was forced by the stolen election and subsequent repression to rethink his position.

Rudyard Kipling wrote (is it still acceptable to quote Kipling?):

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you....
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating....,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Kipling's son of course was killed in World War One, which shows that no matter how well we perform we aren't immune for suffering from the mistakes of others.

I rewrote it to suit modern circumstances:

IF you can accurate be when everyone with power
writes nonsense and blames conflicts just on you....
You rarely will be quoted or be published,
For speaking truth's a foolish thing to do.
What's most important are the views in fashion,
Repeating them makes certain your career.
Just hope that history justifies your passion,
The sole reward you'll get, that's what I fear.


*Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org.

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on February 23, 2010 at 3:13am

Dutch Government Falls Over Afghanistan Debate – Is Geert Wilders In As PM?2010 FEBRUARY 20
tags: Afghanistan, Diana West, Geert Wilders, Islamization, Warby John L. Work


I’m up out of my chair again. DutchNews.nl has a breaking story: The Dutch government collapsed early Saturday morning, setting up new elections for March.

The Dutch government collapsed in the early hours of Saturday morning over Labour’s insistence that the Netherlands pull out of Afghanistan this year.

After two days of intensive talks and a bitter parliamentary debate, it had become increasingly clear the gulf between prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and deputy prime minister Wouter Bos was too great to bridge…

…’I have to conclude that there is no fruitful path to allow this cabinet to continue,’ Balkenende said in a short statement…

…The prime minister will now offer his government’s resignation to the queen, who is skiing in Lech, Austria.
Diana West had it first here.

This event sets up the real possibility that the outspoken Parliamentarian (photo above) Geert Wilders, who is under criminal indictment and in trial by his own government, could become the Prime Minister of The Netherlands and his PVV Freedom Party, which advocates stopping the flood of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of The Netherlands, could come to power.

Maybe it’s not over yet in Europe.

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/02/20/dutch-government-will-tender...

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on February 3, 2010 at 1:21am

Cracks in the Islamist Curtain

Posted by Jamie Glazov on Jan 29th, 2010

Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and is the co-editor (with David Horowitz) of The Hate America Left. He edited and wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s Left Illusions. His new book is United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror. Email him at jglazov@rogers.com.

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is None Darwish, the co-founder of FormerMuslimsUnited.com and the author of Cruel and Usual Punishment.

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/29/cracks-in-the-islamist-curtain/

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on January 28, 2010 at 12:52am

FROM THE GOD & COUNTRY MIDEAST NEWS group

Yemen 'to host Guantanamo rehab centre'

Yemen and Washington are in talks to set up a rehabilitation centre in the Arab state for Guantanamo detainees.

The move would help President Barack Obama achieve his elusive goal of closing the controversial US prison.

The issue will be raised for the first time in an international setting on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in London on Wednesday.

The conference, which will be attended by seven Gulf states, all the G8 foreign ministers, the European Union and World Bank, was called in haste after it was revealed that the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda had trained the young Nigerian who failed to blow up a US passenger jet on Christmas Day.

It is aimed at consolidating international support for Yemen, which is facing two uprisings as well as al-Qaeda's growing presence, and is likely to set up a Friends of Yemen contact group to oversee aid and coordinate the international community's dealings with Sanaa.

A source close to the Obama administration said the Yemenis had agreed in principle to the establishment of a Reintegration and Risk Reduction Initiative, which would be internationally funded and monitored.

Aimed at steering detainees back into society, it would be modeled on previous efforts in Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The project has support from within the US state department and is gaining ground among White House advisers, said the source, because it would help the president dig himself out of a large h*** created by his pledge to close the prison while trying to avoid releasing terror suspects back into the militant fold. Having missed his Jan 22 deadline to close the detention centre, as things stand Guantanamo is unlikely to shut this year.

Yemenis currently account for nearly half of the remaining 196 Guantanamo inmates. Within months that proportion will rise to three quarters as detainees from other countries are sent home because following the underwear bomber's botched attack, Mr Obama has blocked the release of any of the 60 Yemenis already cleared for a return home, amid fears that they might be enlisted by al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula.

The president has argued that keeping Guantanamo open continues to help al-Qaeda and other terror groups win over new recruits.

But backers of the rehabilitation plan said that argument only supported the case for a concerted US and international effort to receive detainees in Yemen.

"If Guantanamo was a recruitment tool before, it will be a super-recruitment tool once Yemenis are the majority there," said Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that has helped draft the proposal.

"Obviously we don't want a situation where former detainees could just leave or where they simply faced indefinite detention in Yemen rather than in a US facility," she added. "But programmes that include job skills, family support and carefully watched re-integration have been shown to work."

The administration wants to move 53 Guantanamo detainees to a federal prison in Illinois who are judged too dangerous to free but lacking the evidence against them for a trial, prompting accusations that Mr Obama would merely create a "Guantanamo North".

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on January 14, 2010 at 6:06pm

Subject: Before they remove it pass along Fort Hood explanation

http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?aid=11991

Comment by Kathryn McEwen on January 14, 2010 at 5:55pm

from NO WE WON'T Eagle Eyes On My Hometown group

Kimberly 1 day ago A friend of mine sent me this email...
It has been verified...
Please everyone, when flying anywhere, we need to be protect ourselves, be safe and proactive!

True or not, makes you think twice about flying...

-----


: TERRORIST DRY RUN... FLT. 297, ATLANTA TO HOUSTON, 11/17/2009..

Must be our liberal news media seem to think terrorists deserve better treatment than Americans do!



Quite a narrative of what happened on this flight with 11 Muslim men...
This is unbelievable. The article in the below link does not indicate in the least what really happened.
http://www.khou.com/news/Phone-call-delays-Houston-bound-AirTran-fl...

I, Gene Hackemack, received this email from my good friend Tedd Petruna, a diver at the NBL facility [Neutral Buoyancy Lab], at NASA Houston, whom I used to work with. Tedd happened to be on this same Flt. 297, Atlanta to Houston.

In my opinion, the muslims are all getting very brave now, since they have one of their own in the white house......read Tedd's story below.

Semper Fi
Gene Hackemack

PS...can you imagine, our own news media now are so politically correct that they are afraid to report that these were all muslims...unbelievable. Thank God for people like Tedd Petruna.
A. Gene Hackemack
979-251-2310 cell & home
buttonbox01@gmail.com
8725 Hwy 290 W
Brenham TX 77833

One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father. On Tuesday, November the 17th, I returned home. If you read the papers the 18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone before takeoff. It was on Fox.
This was NOT what happened.
I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she was not there.
The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now….they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don’t ask me….I don’t make the rules, but I’ve studied) The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said “shut up infidel dog!” She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say “I got your back.” I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said “you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!” As I “led” him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, “You WILL do the same!” He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.
We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and told the agent “we and our crew will not fly this plane!” After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. 5 minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.
Again…..this is where I had had enough!!! I got up and asked “What the hell is going on!?!?” I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly. I said “I’m getting off this plane”. The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off. (now I’m mad!) I said “I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who’s time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I’m going through that door with you under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!” And I heard a voice behind me say “so am I”. Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same. Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got here at 12:30am.
Look up the date. Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.
If this wasn’t a dry run, I don’t know what one is. The terrorists wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the passengers would handle it.
I’m telling this to you because I want you to know….
The threat is real. I saw it with my own eyes….
-Tedd Petruna

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