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| Current Topic: Current Events |
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It's Lucent to the Rescue at the FBI |
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| Topic: Current Events |
11:55 pm EDT, Jun 21, 2002 |
FBI director Robert Mueller: "It's important not to go too far too fast." ... The director said the FBI's new Trilogy computer system will take several years to install ... He has hired computer experts from Lucent Technologies and elsewhere to upgrade the FBI's relatively primitive computer systems ... Lucent is now running the FBI. Got fear? It's Lucent to the Rescue at the FBI |
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Six Men Who Could Be Contenders to Lead Palestinians if Arafat Goes |
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| Topic: Current Events |
10:13 am EDT, Jun 15, 2002 |
Yasir Arafat has remained the Palestinian leader for more than 30 years in part by not cultivating a long-term lieutenant, avoiding a threat to his pre-eminence by dividing up power beneath himself and encouraging rivalries among his top political and security aides. That strategy has also left him without a clear successor. ... Despite Mr. Arafat's maneuverings, a varied, experienced group of potential leaders waits in the wings. Mahmoud Abbas, Lawyer and historian, late 60's
Marwan Barghouti, Politician, 42
Muhammad Dahlan, Security official, 40
Ahmed Qurei, Economic adviser, mid-60's
Jibril Rajoub, Security official, 49
Sheik Ahmad Yassin, Hamas's spiritual leader, mid-60's Six Men Who Could Be Contenders to Lead Palestinians if Arafat Goes |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:35 am EDT, Jun 12, 2002 |
Quick quiz: Which Muslim Middle East country held spontaneous candlelight vigils in sympathy with Americans after Sept. 11? Kuwait? No. Saudi Arabia? No. Iran? Yes. You got it! You win a free trip to Iran. And if you come you'll discover not only a Muslim country where many people were sincerely sympathetic to America after Sept. 11, but a country where so many people on the street are now talking about -- and hoping for -- a re-opening of relations with America that the ruling hard-liners had to take the unprecedented step two weeks ago of making it illegal for anyone to speak about it in public. The Best of Enemies? |
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Asymmetries and Consequences [PDF] |
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| Topic: Current Events |
1:12 pm EDT, Jun 11, 2002 |
This is a ten page paper presented by Richard Szafranski of Toffler Associates at "The Glocal Strategy" Conference in Italy in May 2002. The author is a retired Air Force colonel; Toffler Associates is the strategic planning and advisory firm run by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. If terrorism intends to influence an audience, then the targets of terrorism, no matter how terrorism reifies as physical acts of violence, are human minds hosted by human bodies. Others in this session will explore specific tools that our bodies and brains apply to combating terrorism: information operations, network analyses, seizing finances, and so forth. My aim in these remarks is to illuminate more basic ways to use the tool of our brain to deflate terror and defeat terrorism. The most basic way to rob terrorism of its potency is to be unafraid of it, even while jointly and methodically employing all the tools at our disposal to eradicate it and to remedy the causes from which terrorism springs. Many things are necessary and must be done. We must, of course, harden our networks, add physical security and access control to our buildings and networks, have accurate inventories and inventory controls for dangerous materials -- tracking and controlling the ingredients of weapons of mass destruction -- and become more sophisticated in recognizing the precursor patterns of behavior and the kinds of interactions that may auger attacks. We also must work to eliminate the wide gaps between the rich and the poor. All of these are necessary, and we will cover them in this conference, but they are not sufficient. At the risk of appearing glib, let me assert that terrorism works because we fear it and that we simply must cease fearing it. How? Asymmetries and Consequences [PDF] |
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Agency Teamwork, Bin Laden Aide's Clues Led to Arrest |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:24 am EDT, Jun 11, 2002 |
Less than three weeks after the CIA and FBI received fragmentary information from a captured senior al Qaeda operative about two men interested in exploding a "dirty" radioactive bomb in the United States, a worldwide investigation tracked down and arrested Abdullah al Muhajir, 31, according to senior administration officials. The second man, described as a Pakistani but otherwise not identified by authorities, was discovered to have already been in custody of Pakistani police for travel document violations, one administration source said. "Give me a 'P'! Give me an 'R'! Give me some good PR!" Agency Teamwork, Bin Laden Aide's Clues Led to Arrest |
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Counterterror's Management Style |
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| Topic: Current Events |
3:37 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
President Bush's proposed new Department of Homeland Security, bringing together scattered agencies with roles in protecting against terrorism, provides laudable managerial tidiness. Its creation will focus these agencies on their new priority of protecting the country. But the basic problem of overall strategy and coordination remains, and inserting a new agency into the mix will not solve it. ... With the Defense Department, FBI and CIA still separate, the reorganization won't remedy what Congressional intelligence committees have been investigating this week: the failure of various agencies to work together effectively in the past to prevent terrorism. ... There is also reason to question whether the Bush administration is prepared for the sheer scale of managerial virtuosity it will take to create this new department. ... Does President Bush have a take-no-prisoners manager ...? If not, we could end up with a system even more chaotic than today's. Ashton Carter, a Harvard professor, former assistant SecDef, and National Academy member, with an editorial in the New York Times. Counterterror's Management Style |
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Bush, as Terror Inquiry Swirls, Seeks Cabinet Post on Security |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:25 am EDT, Jun 7, 2002 |
Responding to widespread criticism of the government's handling of terrorist threats, President Bush called tonight for the creation of a cabinet department for domestic defense that would combine 22 federal agencies into a single one intended to prevent attacks [crimes] against the United States. ... Mr. Bush asked Americans to "add your eyes and ears" to the counterterrorism effort. [Remember, "only you can prevent terrorism." If it happens again, just blame yourself. Because you've got to blame someone, right? Poster on wall of Nelson's bedroom: "Nuke the whales."
Lisa [to Nelson]: "Nuke the whales?"
Nelson: "Gotta nuke somethin'."
Lisa: "Touchè."] White House official: "They missed it before, and under this structure, there's nothing to suggest they wouldn't miss it again." ... There were considerable signs that the proposal was put together quickly ... And now, for something completely different ... Lisa: Look at all these great ideas for preventing crime!
I know they're oversimplified and can't possibly work, but wow!
Marge: Hmmm, if only we didn't already have a precrime solution.
Bart: Speaking of precrime, I don't care about precrime. I'll meet you ladies back here in half an hour. ftp://ftp.smoovenet.com/pub/lardlad/sounds/season9/york6.mp3 Bush, as Terror Inquiry Swirls, Seeks Cabinet Post on Security |
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FBI Director, Facing Criticism, Plans New Focus on Terror Fight |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:05 am EDT, May 29, 2002 |
The FBI, facing intense criticism over its performance before 9/11, is planning a series of changes intended to alter its mission fundamentally, from solving crimes like bank robbery to countering terrorism. ... Changes include the transfer of more than 600 agents assigned to investigating narcotics, bank robberies, kidnappings and other traditional crimes to investigating and analyzing the terrorist threat to the United States, the officials said. In addition, CIA officers will be spread to field offices to help with analysis of intelligence about terrorist threats. ... Mr. Mueller has begun the transformation of a law enforcement agency into what will be at its core a domestic intelligence agency. ... A Fed said: "We can no longer be all things to all people in law enforcement." ... Responsibilities for some types of crimes will be shifted to the DEA, state police, and local police, who already complain they are overwhelmed. ... Congressman Charles Grassley: "The reorganization effort must shift the FBI's mind-set from arrest and prosecution to prevention." I can just picture Tony Soprano, smiling and singing: "It's the end of the Bureau as we know it, ... and I feel fine." Can you? Well, now they've gone and done it. It's "so long, farewell" to Hoover's FBI. Mobsters everywhere are no doubt breathing great sighs of relief. And, soon enough, disappointed FBI agents will be taking early retirement, to be replaced by young post-9/11 recruits with uncertain motivations. FBI Director, Facing Criticism, Plans New Focus on Terror Fight |
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Losing the Intelligence War Overseas |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:46 am EDT, May 28, 2002 |
The controversy over who knew what when before Sept. 11 reveals at least one thing clearly it is very easy to get lost in a side debate. While it is important to know whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled information, that inquiry should not keep us from having the far more important public inquiry into whether the Central Intelligence Agency has learned through failure how to collect information on Islamic terrorist groups. If Washington is going to win the war on terrorism, it will have to do so overseas. Losing the Intelligence War Overseas |
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Taliban and Qaeda Believed Plotting Within Pakistan |
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| Topic: Current Events |
6:33 am EDT, May 28, 2002 |
Virtually the entire senior leadership of Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been driven out of eastern Afghanistan and are now operating with as many as 1,000 non-Afghan fighters in the anarchic tribal areas of western Pakistan. Intelligence reports indicated that the Qaeda and Taliban leaders now in Pakistan were plotting terrorist attacks, including car and suicide bombings, to disrupt the selection of a new national government in Kabul next month. Taliban and Qaeda Believed Plotting Within Pakistan |
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