Bush's press conference was fascinating in its generation of a new core justification for the Iraq campaign: building a democratic Iraq. It is unclear why Bush would find this a compelling justification for the invasion, but it is more unclear why the administration continues to generate unconvincing arguments for its Iraq policy, rather than putting forward a crisp, strategic and -- above all -- real justification.

What was the US hoping to achieve when it invaded Iraq, and what is it defending now? There are good answers to these questions, but Bush stays with platitudes.

The problem is that no one will know how the US is doing, because it has not defined a conceptual framework for what it is trying to accomplish in Iraq -- or how Iraq fits into the war on the jihadists.

Stratfor said in its annual forecast that the election was Bush's to lose. We now have to say that he is making an outstanding attempt to lose it.

The Bush administration has adopted a two-tier policy: a complex and nearly hidden strategic plan and a superficial public presentation.

RealNetworks made a direct appeal last week to Apple Computer, its Internet music rival, suggesting that the two companies to create a "tactical alliance" to form a common front against Microsoft in the digital music business.

But if an alliance with Apple could not be struck, Real might be forced to form a partnership with Microsoft.

A man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden offered a "truce" to European countries that do not attack Muslims, saying it would begin when their soldiers leave Islamic nations, in a recording broadcast Thursday on Arab satellite networks.

To be blunt, if you're a technologist, there's a chance that your position will be outsourced sometime down the road. If you want to ensure that no one sees you as a commodity, consider these six items:

1. Don't plan to write code for your entire career.
2. Learn to communicate effectively.
3. Develop people skills.
4. Move into the people part of the business.
5. Learn how to sell.
6. Consider consulting.

With the release on Friday of Kill Bill Volume 2, Tarantino's grand design becomes clear: where the first part of his epic took place under the sign of the East, the second is largely devoted to the West.

With the dense network of references in "Kill Bill", Tarantino is at once playing a game and making a point, demonstrating how Eastern and Western popular culture have so strongly influenced each other over the years that the new style in action filmmaking is an inseparable blend of the two.

The myriad endemic shortcomings of the FBI are at the center of what went wrong with American intelligence.

Louis Freeh was hostile to computerization; agents were eager to use "the wall" as an excuse.

Two and a half years after 9/11, no real work has been done on getting to the core of the FBI's problems.

CALEA simply permits the FBI to maintain court-approved access to digital communications and stored data. Another technical challenge called encryption then and now threatens to make court-authorized interception orders a nullity. Robust and commercially available encryption products are proliferating and no legal means has been provided to law enforcement to deal with this problem, as was done by Parliament in the United Kingdom. Terrorists have been able to exploit this huge vulnerability in our public safety matrix.

In 1998, HPSCI adopted a substitute bill to S.909 which effectively addressed all of law enforcement’s public safety and terrorism-related concerns regarding encryption products. Unfortunately, this needed counter-terrorism assistance was not enacted. As we know from Ramzi Yousef's encrypted computer files found in Manila, terrorists are exploiting this technology to defeat our most sophisticated methods to prevent their attacks. I have long said that this unaddressed problem creates a huge vulnerability in our nation's counter-terrorism program. Neither the Patriot Act nor any other likely-to-be-enacted statute even attempts to close this gap. Resolving this issue is critical to homeland security.