Yesterday I explained that the definition of "unlawful enemy combatant" (UEC) in the latest draft of the detainee bill was so ridiculously broad and open-ended that it could not possibly be intended to establish the authority of the Executive to militarily detain all persons so defined. But it appears I underestimated the gall and recklessness of the Administration and Congress, because there seems to be a fairly widespread understanding that the definition would do just that.

There is a healthy debate in the thread here about just exactly what these words mean, and lots of good links to more information.

Balkinization: Imagine Giving Donald Rumsfeld Unbounded Discretion to Detain You Indefinitely

BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

Oh Fuck...

Hard To Do Any Worse

Islamist terrorists are adapting to global counterterrorism efforts, as the "jihadist movement" is becoming more decentralized and spawning offshoot organizations with anti-American agendas, according to a declassified intelligence document released Tuesday.

The movement lacks a global strategy, but new terror cells are likely to emerge, making it "harder to find and undermine jihadist groups," states the National Intelligence Estimate on global terrorism trends.

The report adds that the U.S.-led Iraq war has become a "cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."

It's not the "Pentagon Papers v2.0", but it's a start...

The report credits four factors with facilitating the spread of the jihadist movement: 1) "entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice and fear of Western domination;" 2) jihad in Iraq; 3) the torpid pace of economic, social and political reforms in Muslim nations; and 4) a "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment among Muslims.

Among ways to combat the growing Islamist terror movement are exposing the jihadists' radical ideology and urging respected Muslim leaders to denounce terrorist tactics, according to the report.

For instance, the idea of a government based in ultraconservative Islamic law, or Sharia, doesn't sit well with the majority of Muslims, the report states. Exposing the jihadists' "ultimate political solution" would help divide jihadists "from the audiences they seek to persuade."

"I hear it paints a grim picture. And because it does, I am told it is being held until after the November elections. If this estimate is finished, it should not be stamped 'draft' and hidden from the American people until after the elections," Harman said in a statement.

Allah forbid American voters be handed a clue...

CNN.com - National Intelligence Estimate summary declassified - Sep 26, 2006

This just in via the LA Times... Apparently, Live Nation, the bastard child of Clearchannel, is pondering taking it's ticket sales away from TicketMaster.

This is a cross-post from the MOG Music Community, where I've started a page. I've been meaning to post more of my musings about music industry related topics. I've been encouraged by several people to do it there, although I'm going to cross post everything. [Update: There is a followup post too with more details about how live booking in the corporate promotion world works.. ]

Here is the rest of the post:

The article cites the current high cost of ticket prices as the primary reason behind Live Nation's thinking. They want to bring down the ticket prices so they can grow the number of people coming out to shows. I'm not so sure about that... I have trouble believing that they want to charge less money, they just want to pocket more of it. I can think of several way they can accomplish that, here are a few of them:

1) MERCH MERCH (concessions and) MERCH!

TicketMaster, being the monopoly it is, has very little reason to innovate. Not much has happened since buying tickets over the Internet became all the rage. There isn't much in the way of "package deals" going on. I'm guessing that Live Nation is looking at their experience with the House of Blues (which they own now too), and thinking how to maximize their revenue by pushing more merchandise and concessions at their first point of sale. People pay a lot more money for their own table and dinner at the HoB shows. Would you be more likely to plunk down $60 for a ticket if you got your concert t-shirt, in your size, at the same time as you picked up your ticket on will-call? Sure you would.. The result would be Live Nation getting further into the merch revenue stream. What about if you got a few drink tickets with orders of six or more tickets? Damn straight..

2) Work the most scarce and sought after for all it's worth...

The VIP booths/boxes, the best seats, etc.. What if there was an auction system for this stuff? In most large venues, the VIP booths/boxes are largely given to corporate sponsors or gotten via deals offered by American Express to their high-rollers. What if you and 30 of your friends (or your company) could put in bids for a booth/box when everyone favorite act is in town? If they can foster competition for those prized spaces, it's a safe bet the overall price paid for them would go up. Is TicketMaster going to make something like this happen? Pro... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Live Nation to dump TicketMaster | MOG Crosspost

Trend Micro has declared war on botnets, opening a zombie PC pest control service for ISPs and other big network providers.

The security software firm's weapon of choice uses in-house-developed software called the Behavioral Analysis Security Engine (BASE). This is bundled with a hardware appliance and per-seat pricing to form the InterCloud Security Service (ISS). A team of Trend Micro researchers identifies botnets for this service.

ISS goes live in Q4 and will have some as yet unnamed first day customers trading up from the beta program, Trend says. Pricing is not on the table at time of writing.
According to Trend's CTO, Dave Rand, ISS represents the first phase of a multi-year project for the company. "We expect to kick butt on botnets," he declared today. But he readily acknowledges that the enemy is resourceful and the fight won't be easy.

Trend Micro to kick butt on botnets | The Register

Check out the photos of the crowd.

Hundreds of thousands of people stood Friday and chanted "God, God, protect Nasrallah." It was the moment they had waited for: Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in person, declaring that his militia was stronger than ever and that no army in the world could force it to disarm.

The crowd was mammoth, packing every corner of the 37-acre square in the southern suburbs of Beirut. There was a plastic chair for nearly everyone, and a baseball cap for protection from the sun. Hezbollah’s martial choir belted out chest thumping music.

"Hello, is this Partyland? Yes, I'd like to see about renting some plastic chairs for an event this weekend ..."

"We came to show the American administration, the British administration, the French administration, that the resistance population is increasing, not decreasing."

You can see the plastic chairs being set up.

Pro-Western Lebanese politicians have watched with dismay as Iranian influence has spread across the region, largely with the help, they say, of American foreign policy. Iran extended its reach into western Afghanistan and has secured a deep hold in Iraq.

Even if the current government remains in power, its influence has suffered severely.

Sheik Nasrallah has emerged as a hero of defiance against American influence and Israeli might for many people across the Middle East.

The group has made much of an incident in the southern town of Merj ’Uyun where the Israeli Army occupied a Lebanese Army barracks and detained the soldiers inside without resistance. Lebanese television aired a videotape of the Lebanese general in charge having tea with Israeli Army officers.

Lebanon Throng Hails Hezbollah Chief, Who Calls Militia Stronger

Via noteworthy...

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan tried to convince President Bush on Friday that a deal he approved with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would rid the areas of Qaeda and Taliban influence, rather than give the groups more freedom to operate.

Mr. Bush and his national security aides were clearly skeptical, according to administration officials, but at a news conference, Mr. Bush appeared to take General Musharraf’s assurances at face value. General Musharraf knew that there were enough questions in the air about the accord that he felt compelled to explain that “this deal is not at all with the Taliban; as I said, this is against the Taliban, actually.”

I'm sure that's just what he was telling the mullahs across the negotiating table. To the extent his statement is true, it is of this nature: "If you would be so kind as to refrain from the use of the words "Taliban" and "Qaeda" in your written correspondence, telephone calls, emails, IM sessions, etc., that would really help me out. TIA, Mushy :)"

General Musharraf, who has a book coming out on Monday ...

I read that and thought, Whaa?

Indeed, Musharraf's book, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, is currently at #46 on the Amazon top sellers list. Among books in pre-order status, it's #9. Among non-fiction pre-orders, it's #4.

I found this amusing:

General Musharraf said the agreement had "three bottom lines."

But not as amusing as this exchange:

When asked about the issue at the East Room news conference, General Musharraf refused to answer the question — not on national security grounds, but on the grounds that it would violate his book contract. “I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honor-bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book before that day,” he said.

After laughter subsided, Mr. Bush said, “In other words, buy the book.”

Presumably it's Bush's recommendation that has propelled the book to its present status. Still, they're no match for the duo of Chomsky and Chavez.

For the backstory on this exchange, see this; the "issue" mentioned above is the alleged threat issued by the US to Pakistan in the wake of 9/11.

As ever, I got as much out of the last sentence in a story as the first:

On Thursday, asked if he knew the whereabouts of Mr. bin Laden, Mr. Karzai smiled and said: “If I said he was in Pakistan, President Musharraf would be mad at me. And if I said he was in Afghanistan, it would not be true.”

Musharraf Defends Deal With Tribal Leaders

Hezbollah guerrillas were able to hack into Israeli radio communications during last month's battles in south Lebanon, an intelligence breakthrough that helped them thwart Israeli tank assaults, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials.

Wow! Key management problem?

According to this comment in a post about this on Defense Tech, it appears you are correct:

I trained Soldiers and Marines on the every facet of the SINCGARS system for 6.5 years, from Korea to California. I guarantee it was a lack procedure. You do the math, minus the freq hopping element, if this radio system is properly deployed, it provides 128 bit encryption! No matter how powerful your computer(s), you do NOT break that on the fly.

Even though I know fairly little about how these systems work, I still have trouble imagining anything that could lead to this happening other than a procedure problem related to key management. The way cryptography works in these situations isn't exactly rocket science.

If not a procedure issue, than Hezbollah was able to get the communication keys from within the IDF somehow...

Hezbollah cracked the code (followup)

This website will let you create your own South Park characters.

Neat. So, is this accurate?

Update: Woohoo for Bi-polar disorder!!

Rattle as a South Park Character?

Hezbollah guerrillas were able to hack into Israeli radio communications during last month's battles in south Lebanon, an intelligence breakthrough that helped them thwart Israeli tank assaults, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials.

Wow! Key management problem?

Hezbollah cracked the code