] Critics of the Patriot Act say the 2001 law, which was intended
] to enhance police powers to track terrorists, has recently been
] misused to investigate a political scandal in Las Vegas.
 . . .
] (they) say the Las Vegas case is
] the first -- but certainly not the last --
] example of federal law enforcement using its broadened
] surveillance powers to prosecute domestic criminals who
] do not threaten national security.

I'm not entirely thrilled with linking this particular article, because it's heavy on accusations and short on facts or details. And it's on Fox News, which I'm often inclined to rate in believability somewhere around the level of the National Enquirer.

But, if the story is true, it's something that would raise a red flag for me. I don't have time to check the veracity now, but am meme-ing it for later research. If anyone else has checked out the details and would like to post a summary of what actually happened, please let me know.

FoxNews: Did the FBI use the Patriot Act to investigate a non-terrorist crime?

Excellent collection of several free translation utilities. Translate a phrase, a webpage, or insert some unidentified text and it'll give you a best guess as to which language it is.

Free Automatic Website Translation

This is fun to watch, and doesn't take up *too* much bandwidth. It also lets you watch the NASA side of the broadcast as they're answering questions from foreign interviewers. Like I watched one segment, where I didn't get to hear the questions that were being asked, but did watch the NASA scientist reply to their questions in Spanish!

Today they're talking about how they're going to name the Mars Rover's landing site after the astronauts who died in the shuttle disaster: "Columbia Memorial Station".

Live stream from NASA TV

] Insight on the News is a national biweekly newsmagazine
] published in Washington by the Washington Times Corp. As
] Newsweek is the sister publication of the Washington
] Post, Insight is the sister publication of the Washington
] Times.

Insight Magazine

] In a mission that has been remarkably problem free, one
] glitch has been difficulty in pointing the craft's main
] antenna at Earth to establish a direct, higher-speed
] communications link. So far, pictures and other data have
] been beamed at intervals by a smaller antenna to one of
] two Mars orbiters as they pass overhead.

Um, next time should we include a Pringles can? :)

Mars rover has antenna glitch

] Durham, NC - January 5th, 2004 -- Internet Gaming
] Entertainment Ltd. (IGE), the worldwide
] leader in the market for buying and selling virtual
] property, announced today that it has retained the Themis
] Group to develop and implement a worldwide marketing
] campaign for IGE's portfolio of MMORPG services.

Okay, I've never heard of IGE, so take this "worldwide leader" stuff with a grain of salt. Themis Group, however, has an excellent reputation, and I'm baffled. They signed to represent a company that sells characters and power-leveling utilities?? These are the kind of things that *unbalance* the games that Themis Group contracts to manage.

Color me confused . . .

Character-Selling Company Retains Themis Group for Marketing Campaign

] An American official said part of the concern over the
] London-Dulles flights was driven by intercepted
] communications that contained phrases believed to refer
] to British Airways Flight 223, the London-Dulles flight
] that has been the focus of the heaviest American and
] British security. Last Wednesday, Flight 223 was escorted
] to Dulles by American fighter planes, and flights on
] Thursday and Friday were canceled.

This sounds plausible. For September 11th, Atta and Binalshibh and the others used codephrases for their targets. The Pentagon was "the Faculty of Fine Arts." The WTC was "the Faculty of Town Planning." Another interrogated Al Qaeda member who was looking into plans to destroy a bridge, said that he was instructed to use the word "gas stations" when reporting back about the gas cutters that he was trying to obtain.

I'd be very curious to learn more about this story . . .

More Al Qaeda Codephrases?

Rattle wrote:
] ] The FBI demanded Las Vegas hotels turn over their guest
] ] lists leading up to New Year's Eve to check against a
] ] U.S. master list of suspected terrorists, a law
] ] enforcement official said on Sunday.
] ]
] ] The demand for "patron information" went to all major
] ] hotels in the Nevada casino and entertainment city, said
] ] the official who declined to be named.
]
] What was the money line in all the recent Vegas advertising?
] "What happens here, stays here." Well, not this New Years..
]
] ] A second U.S. government official said to his knowledge
] ] only one hotel had balked at providing its bookings list.
] ] Newsweek, the first to report the FBI demand, said one
] ] big hotel had refused and was "slapped with a subpoena."
]
] I would really like to know what the hotel was that required
] the subpoena.

I'd like to know too.

(gears up for a big vent)

But I also think that there's probably much more to this story than is in print. For example, suppose the FBI has a list of 1,000 possible suspects. Yes, they could go to each hotel and say, "Here's a list of 1,000 names, can you please run through the names of everyone in your guest list, and let us know if any of the names appear there?" That kind of request would put a sizable administrative burden on the hotel, which would be multiplied by the number of hotels that would each have to run their own search. It would also tip the FBI's hand as to just who it was that they were keeping an eye on!

Much easier is for the FBI to say, "Hi, we're worried that someone's trying to blow up your city this week. Can you please give us a list of names of who's at your hotel, so we can check it against our criminal database?" It's pro-active in a time of crisis, it doesn't put the burden on the hotel to do law enforcement's job, and it doesn't plaster long lists of confidential suspect names in every hotel backroom.

If I were a hotel manager, I wouldn't have any trouble providing the list, though I would ask for a "friendly" subpoena (subpoenas aren't always "slapped"), to verify that the request was coming from a bonafide law enforcement agency, and, yes, to address privacy concerns.

As a related subject, the concept of hotels keeping track of who's staying at their establishment, and working with law enforcement to track down criminals, is nothing new. I'd love to see some statistics that show how often that major hotels work with law enforcement -- my guess is that for the big hotels, it's probably a daily basis, which would also affect (in my opinion) the ease with which they'd hand over a patron list. If it's *not* something that's routinely asked for, the fact their FBI contacts were asking for it would probably have a great deal of weight.

I know this is putting me way out on the conservative side of our community here, but I feel strongly about this.

Okay, done venting,

Elonka :)

The debate about the FBI obtaining Las Vegas Jan 1 room lists with no court auth.

] The International Space Station is experiencing a slow,
] steady drop in air pressure, and American and Russian
] flight controllers are investigating possible causes of
] the leak.

Uh oh. I wonder if this has anything to do with the "thud" that they heard a few weeks ago? They never did figure out where that came from.

Space Station Experiencing Drop In Air Pressure

Here it is folks, the 2003 usage statistics for Memestreams.net!

An order of magnitude growth! Not bad. :)

Statistics of www.memestreams.net for 2003