"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe | Mail Online
Topic: Miscellaneous
8:10 am EST, Jan 13, 2010
But many of those tourists and business travellers are likely to be unaware of the strict zero-tolerance drugs policy in the UAE.
One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport.
If suspicious of a traveller, customs officials can use high-tech equipment to uncover even the slightest trace of drugs.
In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google...
As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted.
As part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.
AFAIK this is the first time a major U.S. entity has publicly admitted the widespread attacks that China has been launching against a wide range of U.S. interests for years. In some respects whats most interesting about this is that it is an act of foreign policy by a corporation. Typically it would be governments that publicly call out other nation states for their actions. Our government, for some reason, has not done so regarding this spying activity.
Would millimeter wave scanners have detected Abdulmutallab?
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:36 pm EST, Jan 12, 2010
In today's USA Today there are two opeds on the use of millimeter wave scanners. The first, from their editorial staff seems to argue that the scanners would have caught Abdulmautallab:
The machines can reveal objects that metal detectors miss, such as plastic firearms, ceramics knives and, yes, possibly explosives hidden in a person's underwear.
But liquid and powder explosives, of the type involved in the recent attack, are not so easily detected. Attackers know this, which is why they have favored materials that can get through the scanners. Explosives are also easily concealed in body cavities, diapers and tampons.
As they say, you are entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts - one of these two perspectives must be wrong.
The online version of the USA Today links an analysis from the Washington Post. It seems to argue that a pat down wouldn't work but the millimeter wave scanners "probably" would. Its worth noting that as deployed, people can opt for a pat down instead of going through the scanners, so unless that rule is lifted, the scanners can be bypassed with this kind of bomb.
The question is, can you go through the scanners with this type of weapon or a comparable weapon? There is a right answer to this question.
Adding More Names to Watch Lists Isn’t Change, It’s a Step Back | Threat Level | Wired.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:57 pm EST, Jan 11, 2010
The State Department told the FBI to put Abdulmutallab on the terrorist watch list. But the State Department failed to revoke his visa because they didn’t think he had one, due to a spelling mistake. As sister blog Danger Room points out, that’s just embarrassing.
Twitter vs. Terror - By Richard Lugar | Foreign Policy
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:31 pm EST, Jan 8, 2010
Terrorists and other anti-American propagandists have for some time been using the Internet and other techniques to communicate and recruit. America needs to beat them at their own game, especially since we invented most of the technology.
I would encourage the administration and our diplomats to be nimble, flexible, and innovative as they pursue a wide range of foreign-policy initiatives that use these new communication and connection techniques. Diplomacy and development are our best means of winning the global war of ideas, and we must come to the battle armed with the most modern tools at our disposal.
U.S. lowers threshold for inclusion on no-fly lists - CNN.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:30 am EST, Jan 7, 2010
"Based on the criteria, he fell below the line and went into our database, but not a watch list or no-fly list, and his visa wasn't revoked based on the analysis of the threat," one senior official said. "We have a new standard now, which will allow us to capture more people."
Under the new standard, officials said, AbdulMutallab would have been put on a no-fly list and his visa likely would have been revoked...
Since the attempted attack, the intelligence community has scrubbed the entire Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database of more than 500,000 suspects with the new criteria, adding additional individuals to the U.S. watch lists and no-fly lists as a result. Several visas have also been revoked...
But the officials suggested the new standard is much lower than before December 25. For example, decisions could be taken to put someone on a no-fly list or a watch list based on one credible source, instead of the previous standard of using multiple sources.
They are trying to make people happy that they've made their standards more stringent without simultaneously doing something thoughtless like banning the whole 500,000 person list from airplanes. I think this is the best you could ask for from a political perspective... Its hard to arm chair quarterback it from a security standpoint without more information.
Survivor of 2 Atomic Bombs Dies at 93 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:09 am EST, Jan 7, 2010
Mr. Yamaguchi, as a 29-year-old engineer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was on a business trip in Hiroshima when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. He was getting off a streetcar when the “Little Boy” device detonated above Hiroshima.
Mr. Yamaguchi said he was less than 2 miles away from ground zero. His eardrums were ruptured and his upper torso was burned by the blast, which destroyed most of the city’s buildings and killed 80,000 people.
Mr. Yamaguchi spent the night in a Hiroshima bomb shelter and returned to his hometown of Nagasaki the following day, according to interviews he gave over the years. The second bomb, known as “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, killing 70,000 people there.
