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The Full Outsourcing Discussion
GileadGreene writes "Thomas Friedman of the New York Times recently did an interesting Op-Ed piece about the "silver lining of overseas outsourcing": the growth that it generates in the US job market as Indian companies outsource work that US workers are better at. Apparently total exports from US companies to India have grown from $2.5 billion in 1990 to $4.1 billion in 2002 as well. So maybe this outsourcing thing isn't so bad after all." Ultimately, free trade works out well; I think one of the issues is that white collar jobs are just beginning to feel the pinch, and are acting like manufacturers did in the 1970s and 1980s.
don't they know what deodorant is??
Memoir reveals CIA role in blast
FLAW WAS PLANTED TO SABOTAGE SOVIETS
By David E. Hoffman
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - In January 1982, President Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural-gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
Thomas Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in ``At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War,'' to be published next month by Ballantine Books. Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of ``cold-eyed economic warfare'' against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William Casey during the final years of the Cold War.
KGB insider's tip
At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There also were signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology. Then, a KGB insider revealed the specific shopping list and the CIA slipped the flawed software to the Soviets in a way they would not detect it.
``In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,'' Reed writes.
``The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space,'' he said, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.
``While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy,'' he writes. ``Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end. In time, the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus.
``All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the entire operation.''
`Farewell Dossier'
Reed said he obtained CIA approval to publish details about the operation. The CIA learned of the full extent of the KGB's pursuit of Western technology in an intelligence operation known as the Farewell Dossier. Portions of the operation have been disclosed earlier, including in a 1996 paper in Studies in Intelligence, a CIA journal.
The paper was written by Gus Weiss, an expert on technology and intelligence who was instrumental in devising the plan to send the flawed materials and served with Reed on the National Security Council. Weiss died Nov. 25 at age 72.
The sabotage of the gas pipeline has not been previously disclosed, and at the time was a closely guarded secret. When the pipeline exploded, Reed writes, the first reports caused concern in the U.S. military and at the White House. ``NORAD feared a missile liftoff from a place where no rockets were known to be based,'' he said, referring to North American Air Defense Command. ``Or perhaps it was the detonation of a small nuclear device.''
``Before these conflicting indicators could turn into an international crisis,'' he said, ``Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow NSC staffers not to worry.''
If you steal something, don't be surprised if it blows up in your face.
Remember the old motto: "007 emptor" translated as "Spy beware".
FLAW WAS PLANTED TO SABOTAGE SOVIETS
By David E. Hoffman
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - In January 1982, President Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural-gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
Thomas Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in ``At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War,'' to be published next month by Ballantine Books. Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of ``cold-eyed economic warfare'' against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William Casey during the final years of the Cold War.
KGB insider's tip
At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There also were signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology. Then, a KGB insider revealed the specific shopping list and the CIA slipped the flawed software to the Soviets in a way they would not detect it.
``In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,'' Reed writes.
``The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space,'' he said, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.
``While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy,'' he writes. ``Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end. In time, the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus.
``All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the entire operation.''
`Farewell Dossier'
Reed said he obtained CIA approval to publish details about the operation. The CIA learned of the full extent of the KGB's pursuit of Western technology in an intelligence operation known as the Farewell Dossier. Portions of the operation have been disclosed earlier, including in a 1996 paper in Studies in Intelligence, a CIA journal.
The paper was written by Gus Weiss, an expert on technology and intelligence who was instrumental in devising the plan to send the flawed materials and served with Reed on the National Security Council. Weiss died Nov. 25 at age 72.
The sabotage of the gas pipeline has not been previously disclosed, and at the time was a closely guarded secret. When the pipeline exploded, Reed writes, the first reports caused concern in the U.S. military and at the White House. ``NORAD feared a missile liftoff from a place where no rockets were known to be based,'' he said, referring to North American Air Defense Command. ``Or perhaps it was the detonation of a small nuclear device.''
``Before these conflicting indicators could turn into an international crisis,'' he said, ``Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow NSC staffers not to worry.''
anyone see the new way that slashdot lists previous comments in /~username?
This is the NYT doing a hatched job on John Edwards the day before Super Tuesday. The East-Coast liberal media has selected it's champion. John Edward's eloquent denunciation of so called free trade is getting the full court press from the upper class, Ivy educated elite.
NYT says: "losing middle class jobs is good".
...like go on dates with our "Canadian girlfriend."
Believe it or not I actually had a Canadian girlfriend.... no, really I did!
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
They come from the Labor Department's. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
... from '83 to '03 a total of 38 million jobs have been created by private businesses in the United States. No other industrialized country in the world has matched this number.
* The peak unemployment rate during the recession that began in Clinton's term was 6.4 percent. The current unemployment rate is 5.6 percent.
* In the last year more than 2,000,000 new jobs have been added in the United States.
* Between 1983 and 2003 outsourcing went from 6.5 million jobs to about 10 million jobs.
* Between 1983 and 2002 jobs in-sourcing -- jobs coming TO the United States -- went from 2.5 million to 6.5 million.
* If you subtract the jobs coming to the United States every year from the jobs going out every year you come up with a "net" figure. The net outsourced jobs reached its peak in the early 1980's; a peak of about 4 million jobs. In other words, things were worse at the end of the Carter Administration then they are right now.
* During this same period
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.