Slashdot Mirror

The second link is to "World Net Daily", a site that has about as much credibility as the John Birch Society.

Allow me -

Chinese step up computer espionage against United States
The Evolution of Espionage: Beijing’s Red Spider Web
Chinese telecom firm tied to spy ministry

Pervasive espionage.

Chinese step up computer espionage against United States
FBI estimates there are currently more than 3,000 corporations operating in the United States that have ties to the PRC and its government technology collection program.
Chinese telecom firm tied to spy ministry

The report by the CIA-based Open Source Center states that Huawei’s chairwoman, Sun Yafang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department before joining the company.

The report on Huawei’s board members states that Ms. Sun used her connections at MSS to help Huawei through “financial difficulties” when the company was founded in 1987.

Based in part on Chinese media reports and Huawei’s website, the report reveals that the Beijing government paid Huawei $228.2 million for research and development during the past three years.

I'm sure you can figure out why this might be important. . . well, maybe not.

Well, anything except actual threats. We are continually told on Slashdot that they don't exist despite continuing arrests and convictions. The lack of terrorist attacks isn't because there aren't terrorists, or that they don't wish to attack, but because they have been generally foiled to date due to good intelligence, hard work, and luck.

North of the border:
Canadian Charged in Iraq Bombing
Few Details Given as 4 Canadians Are Held in Terrorist Plot
Alleged terrorist arrested at Pearson
Canadian police arrest couple on terrorism charges
Government links boat passengers to terrorism, arrests made
Terror Arrests Reveal Reach of Canada's Surveillance Powers

South of the border:
FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012
Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization
Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center
Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012
Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa
Baltimore: Former Army Solider Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending December 9, 2011
Seattle: Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Attack Military Processing Center

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending December 2, 2011
San Diego: Woman Guilty of Conspiring to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab

More here.

Keep in mind that Al Qeda has called off attacks that would have likely killed hundreds or thousands of people because they weren't spectacular enough for their tastes. ( New York Subway Plot and al-Qaeda's WMD Strategy )

This is interesting, but the premise of the story is old news. There were reports on this when the White House report came out came close to two weeks ago. Some relevant quotes: Countries “have an inherent right to self-defense that may be triggered by certain aggressive acts in cyberspace ... When warranted, the United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country." http://joshuaphilipp.com/2011/05/us-faces-a-long-road-in-implementing-new-cyberstrategies/ Also, the Chinese regime openly announced its cyberwarfare command back in July 2010, and it's cyberwarfare units have been known about as early as 2003. A relevant quote: "The stated missions of the new cyber base appear to complement the PLA's information warfare (IW) units, which the PLA has been developing since at least 2003. The PLA's IW strategy was largely spearheaded by Major General Dai Qingmin, then-director of the PLA’s electronic warfare department (Fourth Department), who advocated a comprehensive information warfare effort (Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2009)." http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=36658&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=4b1746fecc Adding to this though, it will be interesting to see how much the U.S. actually enforces its new cyberstratey, given that government networks and critical infrastructure are almost constantly hit with cyberattacks from state actors. Back in 2007, Netwarcom was already saying cyber conflicts with China was already at the level of "campaign-style, force-on-force engagement." http://www.grc.com/sn/files/FCW_on_%20Cyber_Warefare.pdf

How many terrorist attacks of any sort have taken place in Sweden or The Netherlands?

Sweden had its first suicide bombing this last weekend. The Netherlands have seen a number of killings, perhaps to some disturbing views: Dutch Muslim: 'Murder is normal'.

How many middle class persons of any country - people two or three times above that country's poverty line - have parked an explosives-laden truck next to a building and blown it up?

The middle class are strongly represented among terrorists and leaders of terrorist organizations. Here are just a few examples, there are many more:

“Doctor’s Plot” Trial Examines Unexpected Source for UK Terrorist Attacks
MOHAMMED ATTA - 9/11 Ring Leader
Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri (MD) - Al-Qaeda's theological leader

It might be easier if this was all about poverty and social safety nets, but that isn't the case. Increasing numbers of young Muslims born and raised in the West are taking up arms and bombs to kill in the name of what they call Jihad. They are being radicalized in Western Europe.

The poverty/terror myth

The Israelis, yet again, demonstrate that their nation is part of the West. Israel is a Western democracy that safeguards civil rights and, in general, human rights. Wafa Sultan, a prominent American of Syrian ancestry, correctly and firmly praises the achievements of the Israelis.

Israel, not Turkey, deserves to be a member of the European Union (EU).

The Turks have long attacked human rights. In Turkey, suppressing free speech on and off the Internet is almost a national sport. You can be arrested and imprisoned for claiming that the Turks are responsible for the Armenian genocide.

After a Congressional committee approved a resolution ascribing responsibility for the genocide to the Turks, the Turks withdrew their ambassador from the USA.

This sort of behavior is not what we Westerners want to see in the European Union. The Israelis act more like Europeans than the Turks and deserve EU membership far more than the Turks.

ah ?!

Israel is a racist country which violets human rights and international law.
Our army top officers ordered solders to ignore our Bagats (which is the highest authority in our court system.) orders and to ignore the law.

As one that live in Israel I can say FUCK NO, my country doesn't deserve to even be called a democracy, my friends has been arrested for saying stuff like what I write to Israelis.

Israel, not Turkey, deserves to be a member of the European Union (EU).

The Turks have long attacked human rights. In Turkey, suppressing free speech on and off the Internet is almost a national sport. You can be arrested and imprisoned for claiming that the Turks are responsible for the Armenian genocide.

After a Congressional committee approved a resolution ascribing responsibility for the genocide to the Turks, the Turks withdrew their ambassador from the USA.

This sort of behavior is not what we Westerners want to see in the European Union. The Israelis act more like Europeans than the Turks and deserve EU membership far more than the Turks.

So in Israel's case where the genocide is ongoing, it's somehow better, not worse, than a genocide that happened in the past?

Israel, not Turkey, deserves to be a member of the European Union (EU).

The Turks have long attacked human rights. In Turkey, suppressing free speech on and off the Internet is almost a national sport. You can be arrested and imprisoned for claiming that the Turks are responsible for the Armenian genocide.

After a Congressional committee approved a resolution ascribing responsibility for the genocide to the Turks, the Turks withdrew their ambassador from the USA.

This sort of behavior is not what we Westerners want to see in the European Union. The Israelis act more like Europeans than the Turks and deserve EU membership far more than the Turks.

Lagom? lol, first time ever I've seen the word spread outside of Sweden :D

It's finally happening! After hundreds of years borrowing english, latin, german and french words our time has come! If only we built some new castles to! (On that topic, how nice to know we are shutting down all our military really fast nowadays while the russians are mobilising (though probably not to invade us :D))

Somewhat off-topic I know, but I can handle the negative moderation for spreading this awesome news about how we'll take over the world thru lagom!

A body with a knife in a back with Hans' prints on it?

If you actually had one of those - and, indeed, any evidence at all that Nina was actually stabbed with it - Hans might very well be guilty.

But honestly I'm very interested in what appears to be a completely novel line of prosecutory reasoning - "in an alternate universe, where we have a bloody knife with Hans' prints and Nina's blood on it, he'd be guilty; therefore, in this universe where we have none of that, he's guilty too." Very interesting. Is that how it works in Canada?

Are you actually insinuating that such knowledge requires residence and is unavailable abroad?!

No, but such knowledge requires actually having it, and you've made it abundantly clear that you don't, like when you asserted that American criminal trials require nothing more than the preponderance of evidence, which is obviously false.

As to my "speculations" they were all either patently obvious observations or statistical data.

You haven't presented any relevant statistical data.

Also never did I indicate anything about "confidence beyond all doubt".

Sure you have. You've implied it in ten different posts. The slightest argument that Hans might actually be innocent sends you literally off the rails. Prosaic explanations for the not-at-all-incriminating "evidence" earns your unmitigated scorn.

There's something profoundly wrong with you. Either Hans said something mean to you once - at which point it's hardly seemly for you to agitate for his conviction on inadequate evidence simply for a few flames on the Internet - or he's essentially nobody to you, at which point your obvious bloodlust for a man who's done nothing to you is even more perverse.

Hans is "the nearest man"?! You gotta be kidding.

Why would I be? That's your argument, after all - when a woman goes missing, it's her most intimate male acquaintance who's the immediate concluded perpetrator, to the exclusion of all others. Especially if he said something mean on the internet, once. Why, that and a missing car seat - proof positive!

To wit, one needs to present a pasport with a valid Mexican entry visa

Except, of course, when one doesn't.

Again, there was no official investigation

It's amazing how you get the burden of proof so completely wrong. Maybe it's a function of living in Canada, but here in America, it's the prosecution who has the burden of evidence - and therefore you who shares it - not the defense. Whether or not there's evidence of Nina's embezzlement, her flight to Russia, or anything else is irrelevant - it's up to the prosecution to prove that those things aren't true, just as it's the prosecution's defense to prove that she was actually murdered, and that Hans did it. For every "suggestive" piece of evidence you and the prosecution has, Hans and his defenders have a plausible explanation. The prosecution can't disprove those explanations.

Thus, Hans must be found innocent. That's the result of the presumption of innocence in our criminal justice system. If it works differently under yours, remind me not to visit Canada.

We do not know what actual means he used

So you can't establish that Hans had those means, or that he had the opportunity to use those means. That's two out of the three required elements of the crime that you simply don't have. That necessitates a finding of not guilty. Sorry, but that's how it works under our system.

Us the "bloodthirsty" ideologues who insist upon such heretical notions as addmitance of circumstantial evidence and comparing the probabilites of events

Oh, now you're comparing probabilities? And what are those probabilities? Be specific. Show your math. (I think this is the second time I've asked you to do that.

"or an associated terror group" so someone like anyone that doesn't like them.. i see

So, when it says "an associated terror group", instead of thinking of groups like Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat, the Monotheism and Jihad group in Morocco, or Jemaah Islamiyah, your mind turns to "someone like anyone that doesn't like them", by which I take it you mean, as is often directly stated when this line of thinking is presented on Slashdot, either Democrats or those further left who protest administration policy. In the process you are willing to try and blur the difference between thugs who engage in mass murder of innocent people as part of an attempt to force their extremist brand of religion on people around the world and loyal Americans with different views on some policy questions like preferring tax rates a few percent higher? What is wrong with you? You clearly don't "see".

But only one discussed sacking those responsible for the "victory".

They both claimed victory. They both claim they sacked the other side. Where's your source anyway?

While Israel spent over $9 billion on defense last year, and also receives aid from the U.S. On paper, it isn't supposed to be a contest. Based on Israel's boasting before the war, it wasn't supposed to be a contest. They've faced the full-fledged national armies of recognized modern states. This is a "rogue terrorist group" that despite its role in politics and de-facto rulership of the south, is not part of the Lebanese military.

Again, cite your sources. The point I made was that Hezbollah is certainly not a "Ragtag militia" as the parent suggested.
"Ragtag militias" don't get an annual funding of $100M.

Yes, they have anti-tank missles (the majority being RPG-29s, not wire-guided) and just enough anti-ship weapons to keep Israel on their toes.

They did indeed have wire-guided missles. Where is your source that proves otherwise?

Wow, that's even more than I thought! I had last heard it was less than 20. You do realize that is a lot of tanks, don't you? That's 50 MBTs in 38 days. That's more than twice what the U.S. has lost in three years of fighting. For a tank that's touted as having even more survivability than most other MBTs, that is a truly sad showing.
That's more than 1% of their entire tank force, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment, in just over a month in combat vs an enemy that can field neither armor nor air power. You're distrubingly disconnected from reality if you think "only" losing 50 tanks is anything but a disaster for Israel.

Again, where are your souces?

30km is pathetic when you're chasing after a guerilla force, who routinely retreat and give up villages and then come around to re-take the village you just left. That just means the farthest they drove into Lebanon was 30k, not that this actually represented military gain. Your second statement makes it look like you think Hezbollah actually wanted to invade Israel, which is retarded. Hezbollah didn't want to invade Israel, they wanted Israel to invade Lebanon so they could fight the IDF in their home turf where all their tunnels, pill boxes, and kill zones were prepared.

Do I even have to ask for sources again? The point is Hezbollah lost ground. Period. If Israel was doing badly and lost ground, you can bet Hezbollah would have taken that ground from them. If Hezbollah's master plan was to let themselves be invaded by Israel (which Nasrallah didn't expect would happen) then you would have to admit it was a pretty stupid plan.

Those 30km were Hezbollah's killing grounds, and as long as the IDF was stuck there they were in fact at a standstill.

Sources? The IDF was not fought to a standstill - they could have completely rolled over Lebanon. Yet it is true to say the politicians (especially Olmert) were fought to a standstill and forced the IDF to stop as a result. Weak politicians != weak military.

Your conflation of "is present in" with "controls" is rather amusing. Funny that the article you cite doesn't make it sound like Israel "controls" the land ...

Almost as funny as you citing absolutely nothing at all!

...usually, if one of your helicoptors crashes in land you control, you're able to send rescuers to get the crew. I guess the problem was that Hezbollah didn't agree that IDF controlled it!

...except that your wrong and Israel does control it.

Um... Notice how very few Israelis are actually disagreeing with that assesment? Victory isn't making piles of rubble. If you look at the larger picture, this was a victory for Hezbollah without a doubt.

There was no way Hezbollah, some rag-tag little militia, was supposed to be able to stand up the IDF.

What happened is that Israel got hit very hard. They lost a lot of soldiers, and worse a lot of tanks.

Hezbollah was able to fight the ground forces of Israel to a standstill,

Sure, Israel destroyed a lot of infrastructure with a little "shock and awe" air power. Doesn't really do much other than harm the citizenry and piss them off. In the end, Israel couldn't do what mattered, and that's occupy the land that was and still is controlled by Hezbollah.

Make no bones about it. Hezbollah lured Israel into a fight at the time and place of their choosing,

...handed Israel an unexpected spanking, and sent them packing without giving up much of anything.

At the strategic level, this was a stunning victory for Hezbollah and all the nations/groups that oppose Israel. It would be very foolish to view it otherwise.