Their different approaches include financial warfare (subverting banking systems and stock markets), drug warfare (attacking the fabric of society by flooding it with illicit drugs), psychological and media warfare (manipulating perceptions to break down enemy will), international law warfare (blocking enemy actions using multinational organizations), resource warfare (seizing control of vital natural resources), even ecological warfare (creating man-made earthquakes or other natural disasters).

This isn't just loose talk. There are signs of this strategy being implemented. The anti-Japanese riots that swept China in April? That would be psychological warfare against a major Asian rival. The stage-managed protests in 1999, after the U.S. accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, fall into the same category.

China's stealth war on the U.S.

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.

“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu.

Well, that is certainly disturbing. Does "draw their * and * on to the target zone" mean if we put weapons systems in striking range and on alert, they would attack us with nukes? "Hawk" may not go far enough to describe this guy..

The Bush Administration will likely just sit and watch if China makes a move on Taiwan.

FT.com / World / Asia-Pacific - Top Chinese general warns US over attack

The current military strategy is known by a numerical label, 1-4-2-1, with the first number representing the defense of American territory. That is followed by numbers representing the ability to deter hostilities in four critical areas of the world, and to swiftly defeat two adversaries in near-simultaneous major combat operations The final number stands for a requirement that the military retain the capability, at the same time, to decisively defeat one of those two adversaries, which would include capturing a capital and toppling a government.

"We have 1-4-2-1 now, and we are going to look at that," said Ryan Henry, who serves as principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy.

Strange, that's my Bank of America (California) ATM pin. There is no money in that account.

Pentagon Weighs Strategy Change to Deter Terror - New York Times

THE American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.

Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 “carefully selected targets” before the war officially started.

General admits to secret air war - Sunday Times - Times Online

Acidus gives Elonka a run for the money. Way to go Acidus!

How scary. And how refreshing.

Make, a new quarterly put out by O'Reilly Media, is a throwback to an earlier time, before personal computers, to the prehistory of geekiness - the age of how-to manuals for clever boys, from the 1920's to the 50's.

The technology has changed, but not the creative impulse. Make's first issue, out in February, explained how to take aerial photographs with a kite, a disposable camera and a rig of Popsicle sticks, rubber bands and Silly Putty. It also showed how to build a video-camera stabilizer - a Steadicam, basically - with $14 worth of steel pipes, bolts and washers; how to boost a laptop computer's Wi-Fi signal with foil from an Indian take-out restaurant; and how to read credit card magnetic stripes with a device made with mail-order parts and a glue gun.

Congratulations to Acidus on being the first MemeStreams user to make the New York Times op-ed page. And on a Sunday, no less! (14:59, 14:58, 14:57, ...)

A New Magazine's Rebellious Credo: Void the Warranty!

] Two small explosions went off in a large cement planter
] outside a building housing the British Consulate on Third
] Avenue in Midtown Manhattan early today, causing some
] property damage but no injuries.

Small Explosives Go Off Outside British Consulate in Manhattan

] A Providence detective was killed with his own gun at
] police headquarters Sunday by a suspect who was not
] handcuffed and managed to get hold of the weapon, the
] police chief said.

] The chief would not say how Carpio managed to get
] Allen's weapon, and would not discuss other details
] leading up to the shooting, including whether there
] were witnesses

17% of all police killed in the line of duty are killed by their own firearms.

Industrial Memetics is currently working on a SmartGun platform which aims to solve this problem.

Tyler Morning Telegraph | Providence Detective Killed Inside Police HQ By His Own Gun

] Beginning in mid-May, pilots who intrude into restricted
] airspace over the nation's capital will be warned by
] pulsating red and green laser beams, part of a government
] effort to prevent a terrorist attack.

] The lasers are harmless, say authorities, who are quick
] to distinguish them from the high-intensity laser
] pointers that have vexed some pilots in recent
] months.

] "This is good laser, if you will," said U.S. Air
] Force Col. Ed Daniel of the North American Aerospace
] Defense Command. "It is very eye safe."

CNN.com - Lasers to warn pilots in restricted D.C. airspace - Apr 15, 2005

] Thousands of people rioted this week in a village in
] southeastern China, overturning police cars and driving
] away officers who had tried to stop elderly villagers
] protesting against pollution from nearby factories.
]
] By this afternoon, three days after the riot, witnesses
] say crowds had convened in Huaxi Village in Zhejiang
] Province to gawk at a tableau of destroyed police cars
] and shattered windows. Police officers outside the
] village were reportedly blocking reporters from entering
] the scene but local people, reached by telephone, said
] villagers controlled the riot area.

] "The air stinks from the factories," said a villager, Wang
] Yuehe. She said the local river was filled with pollutants
] that had contaminated surrounding farmland.

] "We can't grow our crops. The factories had promised to
] do a good environmental job, but they have done
] almost nothing."

NYT | Thousands of Chinese Villagers Protest Factory Pollution

] Police tackled and forcibly dragged away a man dressed in
] black and carrying two suitcases Monday after he
] stationed himself in front of the west side of the U.S.
] Capitol.

] CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports that the man
] was Asian and did not appear to understand the security
] guards when they questioned him. There was never any
] actual threat.

Visit The District of Columbia! Take the opportunity to stand and reflect! Have your luggage blown up by Capitol Police!

There seems to be some dispute on what this guy said to the police, if anything. Some reports say that he did not talk to the police. This article says they approached him, but he was unable to understand them. CNN is reporting that he said he wanted to talk to the President.

I am sure that this Chinese national fellow could have handled himself in a less suspicious manor, but this is still amusing as hell. It might have been a good idea to stow his luggage somewhere else. He might not have had his socks blown up.

I feel a Johnny Cash moment coming on:

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

CBS News | 'Man in Black' Nabbed In Capitol Bomb Scare | April 11, 2005