More searching around indicates there may be some credence to the Richard Sale post asserting that Negroponte was forced out of his role due to a spat over domestic spying. If that was the key issue at hand, McConnell seems like exactly the type of guy he would be replaced with.

Still, some of McConnell's longtime associations may cause him headaches during Senate confirmation hearings, especially with the Democrats taking over Congress. One such tie is with another former Navy admiral, John Poindexter, the Iran-contra figure who started the controversial "Total Information Awareness" program at the Pentagon in 2002. The international consultancy that McConnell has worked at for a decade as a senior vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton, won contracts worth $63 million on the TIA "data-mining" program, which was later cancelled after congressional Democrats raised questions about invasion of privacy. McConnell will be named by week's end to replace John Negroponte, who will move on to become Condoleezza Rice's deputy secretary of State, according to a White House official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. While his role in the TIA program is unlikely to derail McConnell's nomination, spokespeople for some leading Democratic senators such as Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden of Oregon say it will be examined carefully.

McConnell was a key figure in making Booz Allen, along with Science Applications International Corp., the prime contractor on the project, according to officials in the intelligence community and at Booz Allen who would discuss contracts for data mining only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "I think Poindexter probably respected Mike and probably entrusted the TIA program to him as a result," said a longtime associate of McConnell's who worked at NSA with him. Poindexter, who lives in Rockville, Md., did not answer phone calls. Booz Allen spokesman George Farrar said McConnell was not speaking to the media prior to his nomination. Farrar also had no comment on the TIA program.

McConnell connection to Poindexter/TIA/Booz Allen - MSNBC.com

The following quoted material is a post by UPI intelligence corespondent Richard Sale on Ret. Colonel W. Patrick Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis blog. Sale does not reveal any of his sources, so there are questions about its accuracy. This is some of the only speculation I've seen about the Negroponte move, and it seems to be getting attention from a number of intelligence focused blogs, such as ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson's No Quarter.

This post by Larry Johnson about the changes in the intelligence community leadership is also recommended reading.

The general theme I've seen in all this commentary is that the intelligence community leadership is taking a firm swing in the direction of being under the DoD. Throughout all of it, there is a negative view of the Bush Administration's leadership choices, with all fingers pointing at Dick Cheney. The speculation is that the Bush Administration wants the intelligence community to produce the information it wants, rather than what it feels is correct, a la the pre-Iraq war intelligence. This isn't the least bit shocking.

Talk about weaknesses within the State Department pertaining to understanding of the Middle East has been abound for quite some time now. If nothing else, the Negroponte move is addressing those concerns.

My gut feeling is that there is a big piece of the picture missing, and sometime this week an interesting angle to this story will emerge. Maybe someone will go on the record with some details about the alleged domestic spying spat... (Update: It might be easier to connect the dots than I thought. Let's hope the Senate does so during confirmation hearings.)

Contrary to the bland stories in The New York Times and Washington Post of Friday, Negroponte did not go voluntarily to State from his job as director of intelligence. In fact, there was tremendous administration pressure to get him out of his current job. The chief cause of the quarrel involved Negroponte's balking at at request from Vice President Cheney to increase domestic collection by the National Security Agency on U.S. citizens.

Negroponte flatly refused, Cheney bridled, and from then on the pressure built to get rid of him. (The White House did not return phone calls, but there is nothing new is that.)

The Bush people, chiefly Cheney and the president, were already annoyed by the fact that the Negroponte group has been busy producing drafts of reports that predict utter disaster in Iraq and which are utterly opposed to any increase of troops. Cheney and Bush both flared in wrath over this. Of course, intelligence is simply evaluate... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

Sic Semper Tyrannis 2007: Sale on Negroponte Move

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran - Sunday Times - Times Online

Rick Wesson, left, is chief executive of the data-gathering company Support Intelligence; Adam Waters is chief operating officer. “We are losing this war badly,” Mr. Wesson said of the growing threat from botnets.

Awesome! I have not spoken to Adam in years. It's a real trip to see him pop up in the NYT.

Attack of the Zombie Computers Is a Growing Threat, Experts Say - New York Times

This music downloading service has an interesting business model. It's long overdue that someone try this.

All songs start off as free downloads, and the prices rise based on their popularity, maxing at 98 cents a track. If users recommend songs that become popular, users get a chunk of the revenue.

Amie Street

Like looking to see if a rifle is loaded by peering down the barrel, your screen can turn from a breathtaking visage of insight into a Gatling Gun of mind-scarring infinity-pain within the literal blink of an eye.

Or, as they say: ONCE YOU CLICK, YOU CANNOT UNCLICK.

This is a very entertaining and well written adventure.

Consider, then, what was going on here. Myspace, a site which is being used by people who don't know how to host or design, ends up with a gaping ass provided by a design firm which can't understand the nature of hotlinking (or of spelling), who have written to someone who can host, design and spell but are doing so with a demand that this person take action.

And this, my friends, is ass.

I love the analogy Jason makes in the post about pilots, passengers, and users of the Internet. I'd argue that running a site like this is a little like being an air traffic controller, making sure things don't collide mid-air. Taste and security collide with things on a regular basis over at MySpace.

Read more about the incident at Jason's blog.

Jason Scott Goatses MySpace

North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.

"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official tells ABC News.

The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive on whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test, but said the preparations are similar to steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test on Oct. 9.

Two other senior defense officials confirm that recent intelligence suggests the North Koreans appears to be ready to test a nuclear weapon again, but the intelligence community is divided about whether another test is likely.

"Somebody pay attention to me!! So lonely.. So lonely..." - Kim Il Jong

ABC News: North Korea Prepping Nuclear Weapons Test

RSnake is a fucking genius. Using a file:/// URL pointed at the manual PDF installed with Acrobat, you can execute JavaScript in the local zone. Oh yeah, local file access, program execution, completely uncrippled XmlHttpRequest.

This is not good.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet has left the building...

The first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, attacked for planning to use the Koran at his swearing-in instead of a Bible, will use a copy of the Muslim holy book once owned by Thomas Jefferson, an official said on Wednesday.

Representative-elect Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, requested the 18th century copy of the Koran for the unofficial part of his swearing in on Thursday, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Ellison, a Muslim convert who traces his U.S. ancestry to 1741, wanted a special copy of the book to use, Dimunation said, and approached the library for one.

The third U.S. president, serving from 1801 to 1809, Jefferson was a collector with wide-ranging interests. His 6,000-volume library, the largest in North America at the time, became the basis for the Library of Congress.

I've been ignoring all the silly bickering about Ellison getting sworn in using a Koran, because frankly, it's too damn stupid for me to take seriously. As far as I'm concerned, the item used in any oath should have significance to the individual taking the oath. What is the use of taking an oath on something you don't find personally significant? He could use a picture of his mother for all I'd care.. However, I do think it's really neat that he is using Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Koran.

First Muslim in U.S. Congress to use Jefferson's Koran - washingtonpost.com

The Air Force is bankrolling a Hollywood screenwriting class. A screenwriting class for PhDs. No, seriously.

Now, the government has dabbled in the movie business before. The CIA, for instance, produced an animated version of Animal Farm. After 9/11, the BBC notes, Die Hard screenwriter Steve de Souza was one of two dozen writers and directors who were "commissioned to brainstorm with Pentagon advisers" about possible terror plots. The Army currently works with a bunch of Hollywood types at USC to build next-generation simulators.

And this isn't the only unusual source the Pentagon is tapping for its know-how. As USA Today reports, Defense Department officials are growing increasingly interested in Craigslist, YouTube, and other fast-moving start-ups, for ideas about how terror groups operate.

Read the original DefenseTech article for quotes from relevant articles. DefenseTech is a great blog, which I suggest reading regularly.

If the DoD is increasingly interested in technology companies for ideas about how terrorist groups operate, they should contact The Industrial Memetics Institute. We know a thing or two about a thing or two. We have "cells" in several states, maintain no physical offices, require all "operatives" to be able to communicate using strong encryption, and have our own media outlet. However, none of it is "underground" because there is no need. We are very much a "scene" interested in security...

Defense Tech: Pentagon Pays Screenwriters, Eyes MemeStreams