IRAN secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles, the German daily Die Welt reported in its issue to appear today.

On January 28, Safavi said that Iran would use its ballistic missiles if it was attacked.

"Iran has a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres," he said on Iranian public television.

"We do not intend to attack any country, but if we are attacked, we are capable of effectively responding. Our position is defensive."

The Australian: Iran launched 'secret' rocket test [February 04, 2006]

There's historic precedence for this. Everyone knows SinnFein is the political wing of the IRA, and this has been a bone of contention for some for decades. As Winston Churchill once said "To jaw-jaw is always better than war-war," and the political solution in Ireland has been better than the continued bombings and riots that characterized Ulster for years.

I fully agree with this assertion. Having Hamas join the political process is way better than remaining a terror group. However, I have serious doubts that they can follow-through like the IRA/SinnFein did.

This article in Foreign Affairs tackles the issue. Its written by a Brigadier General in the Israel Defense Forces, so take that into account, but it makes some valid points about how its not likely to happen like it did in Ireland, and is likely representative of the Israeli and US State Department perspective.

The statement from Mousa Abu Marzook sounds good, but it also has that "telling you want you want to hear" propaganda vibe dripping from it. I'm not sure if it can even remotely be taken seriously, by anyone other than a Palestinian public at large, which may be in the process of being further marginalized, pushed into the dark, and manipulated for all we can tell right now.

I don't feel I have enough information to form a good opinion about if Hamas will de-radicalize. Since there is nothing I can do about the situation personally, I'm actually thankful to be only watching it play out, being able to keep a (somewhat) open mind, and not having to form a firm opinion. Being in the role of making decisions regarding these issues is impossibly tough if honestly holding to a pragmatic perspective.

There is a seious problem in policy here. There is the statement that "we do not negotiate with terrorists," which conventionally meant, you take hostages, we aren't going to negotiate for their release. The current batch of asshats running Washington have extended this to mean we don't talk to them period. This is not an approach that has been taken before and one that ensures the "War or Terror" NEVER ends. At that level it is neither something that will reach a state of "peace" nor is it winnable.

This situation, and other similar ones, will likely present a resolution to that policy problem. We may not negotiate with terrorists, but we do with controlling political parties. Since Hamas now has control of the PA, we will certainly negotiate with them. This can be used to provide incentive for extremist groups to get involved in the political process. The local political process can regulate to what degree disarming is necessary. The internal dynamics of a given nation-state can figu... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

RE: What Hamas Is Seeking

The Senate confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Tuesday by a vote of 58-42, a day after an attempt by some Democratic senators to block his nomination fizzled.

And thus was the beginning of Roberts Court lineup . . . likely to be Bush's most lasting achievement.

CNN.com - Senate confirms Alito to the Supreme Court - Jan 31, 2006

In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, Mousa Abu Marzook, a political spokesman for Hamas, explains their victory in the recent elections. Can we take this seriously?

Alleviating the debilitative conditions of occupation, and not an Islamic state, is at the heart of our mandate (with reform and change as its lifeblood).

A new breed of Islamic leadership is ready to put into practice faith-based principles in a setting of tolerance and unity.

We do desire dialogue.

The Post describes the author thusly:

The writer is deputy political bureau chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He has a U.S. doctorate in engineering and was indicted in the United States in 2004 as a co-conspirator on racketeering and money-laundering charges in connection with activities on behalf of Hamas dating to the early 1990s, before the organization was placed on the list of terrorist groups. He was deported to Jordan in 1997.

Note, as well, that "Paradise Now" has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

What Hamas Is Seeking

Despite protests from other countries, the United States is expanding a top-secret effort to kill suspected terrorists with drone-fired missiles as it pursues an increasingly decentralized Al Qaeda, U.S. officials say.

Current and former intelligence officials said they could not disclose which countries could be subject to Predator strikes. But the presence of Al Qaeda or its affiliates has been documented in dozens of nations, including Somalia, Morocco and Indonesia.

"We have the plans in place to do them globally," said a former counter-terrorism official who worked at the CIA and State Department, which coordinates such efforts with other governments.

"In most cases, we need the approval of the host country to do them. However, there are a few countries where the president has decided that we can whack someone without the approval or knowledge of the host government."

Well, for better or for worse, the age of Nintendo warfare has arrived. Not only are NSA robots conducting searches, but CIA robots are conducting air strikes.

CIA Expands Use of Drones in Terror War - Los Angeles Times

This is an update to an earlier story about Locatecell

In response to disclosures about phone records being sold on the Internet, politicians want federal regulators to verify that the biggest service providers are adequately protecting their customers' information.

Locatecell.com was offline Thursday, its site replaced with a message from GoDaddy.com asking the site's owner to call the domain registrar. Meanwhile, Celltolls.com had a note on its site saying that it was not currently accepting queries regarding Cingular Wireless phone numbers.

Occasionally, Congress works?

Politicians call for better phone record privacy | CNET News.com

The leading US-based Internet companies are showing little interest in attending a Congressional briefing on worries that the firms are bending to the wishes of China's censors.

We have heard from Microsoft that no representative from the company will attend the briefing. So, with Cisco Systems, this makes two companies that have confirmed they're opting out," Lynne Weil, spokeswoman for caucus co-chairman Democratic Representative Tom Lantos told AFP.

As the briefing date gets closer, "others are still unfortunately keeping us in suspense," she said. "It is mystifying why these companies would not want to take part after all this is an opportunity to clear their names," Weil said.

"It is a sham that the American Internet firms are refusing to be accountable to US Congress and at the same time working hand in glove with the Chinese authorities," said T. Kumar, Amnesty's advocacy director for Asia.

"It is also a paradox that while US multinational companies are for example prohibited from doing any business or trade with Myanmar following human rights sanctions there, Google and others are colluding with the Chinese government in human rights abuses," he charged.

The reasoning behind this paradox is simple, Myanmar doesn't have China's economic growth. These companies know damn well that a large portion of their future growth is dependent on being involved with China's "economic miracle".

This unwillingness by major Internet companies to be involved in Congressional activities pertaining to human rights issues should result in less government sales, contracts, or something that hurts them in the pocket. This would not provide much leverage with Google or Yahoo, but it certainly would with Cisco and Microsoft. However, I doubt the legislature has the balls to do it.

US Internet companies snub Congressional hearing - Yahoo! News

Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, has suggested that the Islamic group could create a Palestinian army that would include its militant wing.

"We are ready to unify the weapons of Palestinian factions, with Palestinian consensus, and form an army like any independent state," he said.

This turkey will not fly.

Aljazeera.Net - Hamas leader wants Palestinian army

Cryptome has posted an eyeballing series on its .cn domain with a large number of pictures of the events during and the leaders of the student movement, along with a large collection of new documents.

The student movement and the Tiananmen Square Massacre are historical events that should be understood better by most people. The image of the student standing in front of the column of tanks may be burnt into the memory of the world, but few realize the overall scale of that event. It was China's Woodstock, only more so. The lasting effects did change China forever.

I've long considered the Goddess of Democracy to be a powerful and inspiring symbol. I have trouble thinking of a better example of another culture picking up a more important meme and running with it. Since awareness of this, every time I see the Statue of Liberty, I'm drawn to thoughts in stronger way than before of the global struggle for liberty, freedom, and every peoples natural right to control their own lives. So goes the mutually supporting nature of memes.

Eyeballing Tiananmen Square Massacre

Hear BellSouth's scream - "You sunk my battleship!" - as Noteworthy blows their airline analogy out of the water:

Would these new fees imposed by carriers alter the basic nature of the Internet by putting bumps and detours on the much ballyhooed information superhighway? No, say the telephone companies. Giving priority to a company that pays more, they say, is just offering another tier of service -- like an airline offering business as well as economy class. Network neutrality, they say, is a solution in search of a problem.

Any business practice that even vaguely resembles the airline industry should be met with a hefty dose of skepticism. Obviously, these telco spokespeople have some homework to do. Let me help:

Changes In Demand For Air Travel

Overall, passengers have become more empowered due to transparency in price and service information, and it appears that passengers are becoming more value conscious, demanding choice, and flexibility. However they are prepared to give up frills, choice or flexibility in return for lower prices. This is certainly very evident on short haul routes.

Making sense of the airline business

The key to survival, then, is an economic limbo dance that allows the carriers to keep seats as full as possible while driving costs as low as they’ll go — while knowing too much pressure on either end brings the risk of losing customers and scuttling your business. At this point, travelers are discovering that real, qualitative differences in service are ever harder to find on the shorter-haul flights that make up most domestic air traffic.

Even premium travelers have begun to flirt with low-cost options, and low-cost airlines have won at the expectations game, educating customers beforehand so they’re happy when they deplane.

This article by Hal Varian merits further study:

Differential Pricing and Efficiency, by Hal Varian

The classic prescription for economically efficient pricing---set price at marginal cost---is not relevant for technologies that exhibit the kinds of increasing returns to scale, large fixed costs, or economies of scope found in the telecommunications and information industries. The appropriate guiding principle in these contexts should be that the marginal willingness to pay should be equal to marginal cost. This condition for efficiency can be approximated using differential pricing, and will in fact, be a natural outcome of profit-seeking behavior.

Perhaps we should write to him and ask him to writ... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

Who really gets hurt by 'prioritization' of the Internet