In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians.

Among the 50 withdrawn documents that Mr. Aid found in his own files is a 1948 memorandum on a C.I.A. scheme to float balloons over countries behind the Iron Curtain and drop propaganda leaflets. It was reclassified in 2001 even though it had been published by the State Department in 1996.

Another historian, William Burr, found a dozen documents he had copied years ago whose reclassification he considers "silly," including a 1962 telegram from George F. Kennan, then ambassador to Yugoslavia, containing an English translation of a Belgrade newspaper article on China's nuclear weapons program.

The program's critics do not question the notion that wrongly declassified material should be withdrawn. Mr. Aid said he had been dismayed to see "scary" documents in open files at the National Archives, including detailed instructions on the use of high explosives.

But the historians say the program is removing material that can do no conceivable harm to national security. They say it is part of a marked trend toward greater secrecy under the Bush administration, which has increased the pace of classifying documents, slowed declassification and discouraged the release of some material under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to this article, sometime today, researchers will be posting some of the discovered re-classified documents on GWU's National Archive page.

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review - New York Times

Fukuyama has a new book. It goes on sale in March.

As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly.

What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is to relate to the rest of the world — ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of American power and hegemony to bring these ends about.

I'll be looking forward to this...

After Neoconservatism

Is this an Information Operation? I'd like some other opinions about this. Something doesn't add up...

We know that Al Qaeda works like a MNC, but its only really useful as an analogy. MNCs don't make people swear oaths of loyalty and require them to lay down their lives for jihad. There is a point where the analogy stops. Its somewhere around a Keiretsu. Al Qaeda is not a "professional career". I noticed the employment contract didn't specify a pension that includes a bunch of virgins in the afterlife. However, I'm 100% positive that such a thing figures into every Al'Q's view of the "employment" bargin. I wonder how much of this is being placed in order to get more of an upper hand in the "PR battle" Bush has been speaking of lately. Or rather, to make Al'Q appear cooky, while Al'Q gets the idea that we don't know which way is up...

Much of this sounds exactly like the type of thing that we would not want to leak unless there was a strategic reason for it. Let me reference the last lines of this article, which resemble bullets in a Powerpoint presentation, for an example of why:

* Jihadists look for insights in Western thought and U.S. strategic planning.

According to the study, the United States should counter these efforts by "establishing a think tank staffed with highly trained experts on the Middle East and counterinsurgency whose sole purpose would be to identify the major jihadi thinkers and analyze their works."

"We would appreciate it if you would continue to conduct your own information operations, because from what we have seen of your speeches and how they have effected the western public, you are not that good at it. Just keep paying attention to what we are saying and assuming we are very, very, very stupid."

I think Al'Q looks to CNN too. I have no doubt that CIA DI is looking over al-Zawahiri's last spoken word album. And for that matter, every damn Islamist cleric that they can find. I'm also sure Al'Q has already assumed thats the case. The result of that line of study is an understanding of the ideology, not the strategic and tactical thinking of the operational groups planning attacks. Not making efforts to counter the ideology would be stupid, and I can't buy into the idea that anyone in psyops would be ignoring it.

Going with the assumption that the other bullets here all have intended secondary effects...

* Direct engagement with the United States has been positive for the movement because it rallies locals, drains U.S. resources and puts pressure on Washington's allies.

To counter the first trend, the study says the United States "should avoid direct, large-scale military action in the Middle East. If such fighting is necessary, it must be done through proxies whenever possible."

"We can safely assume the infidels are going to do the same damn thing they have done in the past."... [ Read More (0.5k in body) ]

CNN.com - Studies: Al Qaeda both complex and dull - Feb 16, 2006

On January 2, the image of the Shenzhen Internet Police, presented by Shenzhen Public Security Bureau's Internet Surveillance Division, officially went online for the first time in China.

Now, whenever netizens visit Shenzhen's websites and online forums, they will see these two cartoon police figures floating on their screen.

Apart from a managing function, the online police duo, which is soundly
equipped with a blog, a photo album, and an interactive section, also feature a
great helping hand to mass netizens.

Through the outlet, netizens have access to systematic Internet-related laws
and legal regulations, which are routinely updated with the latest net policies
and warnings of typical online crimes. At the same time, the two cartoon images
can also answer questions from netizens.

Hmm.. Maybe for April 1st, we should have the CryptoKids from the NSA's kids website bounce around MemeStreams using some highly annoying Javascript thing. Every so often, one of them says "Don't mind me, I'm just looking for terrorists!"

Na.. Too much work. There are other things we need to do that are more important. Not to mention, it would be a trademark violation. I can just imagine the phone call from Decius telling me we got a C&D from the NSA for Trademark misappropriation... "We just have to argue fair use. Its parody. Its fair comment. We are not profiting. Its not creating customer confusion. . ." [cuts me off] "NICK, LISTEN TO ME CAREFULLY.. IT'S THE FUCKING NSA! THE N-S-A!"

China's 'ever-existing online police embodied in cartoon figures' (China Daily)

The Global Online Freedom Act is sponsored by Smith and five of his colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. It would make the free exchange of ideas on the Internet a central concern of US foreign policy.

For example, no US firm could locate its Internet server computers inside one of these countries. Smith said that China or other repressive countries would still be able to subpoena an American Internet provider. But the subpoena would pass through the US legal system.

In addition, the bill would make it illegal for any US company to censor Internet information hosted on a US government website. Thus, Google Inc., which offers censored Internet searches inside China, would be barred from blocking access to the website of the Voice of America or Radio Free Asia.

The bill could mean trouble for US firms like Cisco Systems Inc., which sell Internet switching hardware. It calls on the Commerce Department to set up export controls on such equipment.

Bill aims to fight Net censorship - The Boston Globe

Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC "Nightline" program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service.

The tapes are being called the "smoking gun" of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Loftus has been tight-lipped about the tapes, telling the Sun only that he received them from a "former American military intelligence analyst." However, on Wednesday he told Cybercast News Service, "Saddam's tapes confirm he had active CW [chemical weapons] and BW [biological weapons] programs that were hidden from the UN."

This should be interesting. The key figure here is John Loftus, who organizes an intelligence conference that takes place this weekend.

This is from a press release on the Intelligence Summit website:

A former military intelligence analyst, who currently works as a civilian contractor, believes he has found a cache of extremely confidential--and very shocking--audio recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings. The audiotapes, which had apparently been overlooked, were found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files. These tapes are extremely significant, since they may be the best evidence yet of Saddam's secret intentions concerning weapons of mass destruction.

Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special -- 02/15/2006

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a prominent Austin lawyer while the two men were on a quail hunting expedition in South Texas on Saturday, firing shotgun pellets at the man while trying to aim for a bird, his spokeswoman confirmed today.

Mr. Cheney, a practiced hunter, sprayed the lawyer, Harry Whittington, with shotgun pellets on an outing on the Armstrong ranch in South Texas. Mr. Whittington, 78, was flown by helicopter to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition today, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman.

Its a good thing he wasn't hunting with Scalia this time out.

Cheney Accidentally Shoots a Fellow Hunter

First it was Napoleon. Now it is Jesus Christ. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has compared himself to both, prompting the open scorn of his political opponents and even the quietly raised eyebrows of his coalition partners.

"I am the Jesus Christ of politics," Italian media quoted him as saying at a dinner with supporters on Saturday night. "I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone."

Berlusconi is quite a character...

He is not only the current Prime Minister, he is Italy's richest man, and he owns most of Italy's media. His political party, which he founded, is named "Forza Italia" (translation: Go Italy), after the chant used to support a local footbal team, which he owns. When not running the government or making billions in advertising, insurance, food and construction, he deals with the fallout from getting caught bribing judges.

CNN.com - Berlusconi: I'm Christ of politics - Feb 12, 2006

The most recent Hajj occurred during the first half of January 2006.

There were a number of stampedes, called "tragedies" in the press, during the Hajj which killed several hundred pilgrims.

These were not unavoidable accidents, they were the results of poor planning by the Saudi government.

And while the deaths of these pilgrims was a mere blip on the traditional western media's radar, it was a huge story in the Muslim world. Even the most objective news stories were suddenly casting Saudi Arabia in a very bad light and they decided to do something about it.

The 350 pilgrims were killed on January 12 and soon after, Saudi newspapers (which are all controlled by the state) began running up to 4 articles per day condemning the Danish cartoons.

There rarely is a clearer case of "Death to the West" being used to divert attention away from local problems.

Daily Kos: Muslim Cartoon Controversy: What the Media Isn't Telling You

Follow this link.

For great justice!

Update: The original Hamster Dance, and its eventual mutation to the Jesus Dance. Celebrate the evolution, growth, and diversity of mutually supporting memes. Free your expression.

Mohammed Dance