The date at the top is in the format "9/11/01". Only Americans write dates this way (everyone else writes "11/9/01"). Someone who lived here for a while would know we do that, but wouldn't they be more inclined to write "September 11, 2001" or some variation to avoid confusion? Why would they bother to do it our way?
The letters clearly imply they are from Islamic fundamentalists, but do not begin "bismillah al-rahman al-rahim (in the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful)". Pious Muslims, fundamentalists and otherwise, begin every document, from class notes to business correspondence, this way.
How come the writer can keep his lines nice and straight on the letter but not on the envelopes?
The language seems kind of stilted, like what an American would suppose a foreign terrorist would say. "We have this anthrax. You die now." An Arabic-speaker would be likely to say, "we have the anthrax" as that is how you would say it in Arabic. "You will die now" is a construction that exists in Arabic, so it is an error an Arabic speaker is less likely to make.
"Allah is great" is kind of an awkward construct. A Muslim might write "Allahu akbar" without translation, or "Allah is greatest," which is a better translation. The point of the phrase "Allahu akbar" is that God is greater than anything else, and this is not a distinction that would be lost on a dedicated Muslim whose English is good enough to write these letters.
al-Qaeda never warned anyone about the embassies, the Cole, the WTC, or any of the failed attacks on other targets. So why do the letters announce they have anthrax in them and advise the recipients to "take penacilin now?"
Not only does the author know what a 4th grade is (i.e., that we call it 4th grade and not 4th form, 4th year, etc.), but he/she realizes that it is a usual practice for a 4th grade class to write a Senator's office. A recent immigrant from an Arab country might come to know these things, but they would not come naturally to him/her. I would think the author would pick something he/she could feel more sure of.
Also, some of the targets seem strange to me. A tabloid newspaper? That appeared to be, if not the first target, an early target, and is not exactly a symbol of America to people around the world. If I were an investigator, this is the one I would be looking at most closely. If I were a terrorist wanted to sow fear and confusion, I would send anthrax to random people's homes, or I would steal a load of Publishers' Clearinghouse sweepstakes applications and load them with the bacteria before returning them to the mails.
It's all circumstantial, of course, but the al-Qaeda angle doesn't seem right to me. I'm betting it's some American guy or guys with a B.Sc. in microbiology.
I think the experience of the last decade should give us a very clear answer to this question. Technology will not solve this problem, or its like, for us.
Our gadgets might be very useful in immobilizing an opponent that relies on sophisticated infrastructure, like we do. But when Rumsfeld and his generals speak of knocking out "command and control structures" in Afghanistan, the US Government's structural inability to even understand this kind of situation gets a nice bright underline. It's the same kind of mentality that insists the best road to security for the US is a multi-trillion dollar shield against ICBMs.
We've destroyed Afghanistan's meager air and air defense capabilities. All our cruise missiles and precision munitions can do for us now is make us look like cowards attacking what must rank as one of the most unfortunate countries on earth, with goals that are clear to no one.
Re:What can be done about terrorism?
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More On Tragedy
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· Score: 2
I've lived in the Middle East for four years and I am currently on a short-term assignment in Aqaba, Jordan. About 60% of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin, and from almost any given place in Aqaba, you can see prosperous Eilat across the border at any time of day. There are a lot of people here who have good reason to be upset about Israeli and American policy, which negatively affect their lives every single day.
But what I am hearing is an overwhelming and unanimous expression of disgust and horror at the events of this week. I have not heard or seen any evidence of support for what happened in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, but I have had many people approach me and offer their very sincere condolences and express their sadness at what has happened. Not a few of them have pointed out that the actions of the perpetrators are entirely contrary to any thinking person's understanding of Islamic principles.
Blind hatred and the blaming of entire nationalities and ethnic groups for the destructive actions of a few is exactly what drove the incidents of this week. Do not succumb to the temptation to respond in kind. If we are truly a nation of justice, now is the most important time to embody those values.
I'd personally like to see the cockpit isolated from the rest of the plane, a big metal shield. If you can't get to the cockpit, hijacking the plane becomes hard, forcing the pilot to do this becomes impossible.
I don't know about that. If the hijackers, say, kill a passenger every minute or two the door remains closed, I don't think many pilots would hold out for long.
Which is not to say it isn't a good idea for purposes of air rage, casual attempts or whatever.
Personally, I hope we never have to goto war. I don't feel its a good way to solve anything but extremists and irrational people don't responsd to logic and sometimes it takes a good-old-fashioned buttkicking to get it through there heads, ie Saddam Hussein.
And how well did that work?
However there are a special breed of people who don't think about consequences of their actions and are willing to die for their cause.
How do you deal with someone that committed? Is there any good military solution to that problem? Can you solve it with outrageously expensive, unreliable, brute force technological measures?
If you want to talk about Cold War thinking, don't forget to mention building a massive defense against ICBMs. ICBMs! I can scarcely think of a more unlikely killer maniac than one who chooses to take the time, expense, and risk of developing or even purchasing ICBM technology, especially knowing full well that there's a multi-trillion dollar missile shield that might defend against it. Faced with this problem, who here would not put their warheads on a jetliner, or a suitcase, or a boat in New York harbor? ICBMs are a weapon designed for a different kind of conflict altogether.
Incidentally, do not presume that Saddam Hussein is irrational just because you don't understand his thinking. For some reason this is a common mistake.
The problem in this specific case is that the FBI had a search warrant, not a wiretap authorization. There's a distinct difference: the suspect knows that his home or office has been searched when a search warrant is acted upon. In the case of a wiretap, the suspect necessarily knows nothing.
...search for and seize key related information from Nicodermo S. Scarfo's computer in the TARGET LOCATION
by deploying recovery methods which will allow the Government to read and interpret data that was previously seized pursuant to a search warrant on January 15, 1999, as well as those to be seized under this present Court Order. (Emphasis mine.)
It seems from this that the judge indeed intended for a device to be used to get the private key. Scarfo's lawyers are just trying to argue that he should have specifically said "wiretap" if the device actually transmitted information. It's lawyerly semantics.
We've been told for years that encryption must be controlled because it gives Bad Guys the power to evade law enforcement in a way that was not possible using traditional means of telecommunications. This arrest puts lie to that claim. You can have publicly-available encryption without disrupting law enforcement's existing ability to conduct court-ordered surveillance.
I know some of you have a beef with court-ordered surveillance, and that's cool. But if you don't, then how is this case any different from surreptitious voice recording?
If it's a non-profit of some resources, you might look at VITAsat, run by Volunteers for Technical Assistance. If your problem were running the other direction, I would suggest Worldspace, which sells some nifty satellite radio receivers specifically for the developing world. They offer data downlink through their receivers, but I don't think they've figured out the uplink part yet. But I know they've been investigating options, including Iridium, so it might be worth watching them.
I'm an international development professional. I live in the developing world. I'm a believer in the potential for IT for the developing world, though as with everything else Internet-related it has been way overhyped in the last few years.
IT will not spontaneously feed the hungry or cure the sick, but everyone here knows from their own lives what a uniquely multipurpose tool it is. If people in developing countries can use IT to find and share solutions to their own problems, get the latest information on medical, economic, agricultural, political, and other developments, and smooth over some of the inefficiencies in their economies, then it will be a real tool for development. None of that is unrealistic.
The UN Development Programme, the Markle Foundation, and a consulting firm called Accenture recently put out a report on potential applications for IT in the developing world. It gives real-world examples to support its conclusions. Please give it a look before you contribute yet another comment to the effect that nobody in Africa can type because their hands have been cut off, they have no water, etc. You might not agree with the relentlessly cheerleadery tone of the report -- I'm not sure I do -- but it shows you what people are really proposing to do with the technology.
There are tons of people here in Egypt getting them. Any other certification is almost unheard of, but we have MCSEs coming out of our ears. It is interesting to reflect on what this says about Microsoft's marketing strategy.
Lets say I was to go to Africa, put up with e-bola, aids, malaria, violence, insane governments, and rebel factions; what would they pay me. I mean, come on, it would have to be a pretty large number...
Don't worry about it. You just bombed the interview.
First of all, comparing the lack of legal Windows licenses to AIDS in Africa is stupid at best and unbelievably offensive at worst. It's not like people in South Africa are whining because they want GlaxoWellcome anti-AIDS cocktails rather than some Indian version that also works. They have no alternative. Then there is the minor point that nobody is likely to die for lack of Freecell. There are perfectly legal, free alternatives to Windows that work very well. You don't like the alternatives? That is unfortunate, but I cannot think of any other area where you can choose not to play by the rules just because you do not like the readily-available alternative that you can afford.
The fact that this complaint is taken seriously shows that Microsoft has managed to convince an awful lot of people that Windows is a necessity.
As I understand it, the problems with British railways have a lot less to do with engineering than with finance and administration. Maybe all those kids who grew/are growing up on Railway Tycoon will be better equipped to realize that half-assed privatization is not a good idea.
Believe it or not, the slaves-built-the-Pyramids thing is very political in Egypt. The concern is that the Israelis will lay claim to Egypt based on the historical theory that Hebrew slaves built the Pyramids.
If that sounds far out and paranoid, that's because it is. But given that many Israelis take the Bible to be a divine land deed, it's not entirely inconsistent with the weirdness on the ground.
That doesn't mean those who worked on the Pyramids were slaves, it just means that Zahi Hawass, the head of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, is under a lot of pressure to find (and allow excavation permit-seekers to find) evidence that supports certain theories more than others. As long as the modern political influences are there it will be difficult to get good objective data.
The scary part of this to me is how many of these phone numbers are still etched in my head from the mid-late eighties. I'm sure I could have something useful in the space those are taking up...
Collecting the same kind of information for all the BBSes around the world sounds like a pretty big job. I don't think the guy can be blamed if he's not interested in taking it on.
Of course, in the spirit of the old BBSes, you could always do it yourself, since it is such an issue for you, rather than just bitching about it.
America's civilization wasn't built upon the hard work of others. It was built by hand through the ethic of self help and self work. If you don't reinvent the wheel, you can't understand anything.
Yeah, which is why we're all so against open-source software!
Why has nobody come out with an update of Robosport? It had a madly devoted cult following, and it would be almost uniquely well-suited to Internet play.
You can find the original on some of the abandonware sites, but the copy-protection scheme (one of those wheel match-up things) has thus far foiled me from reliving the good old days.
It's not illegal to possess that rod bent at a certain angle.
It is illegal to possess that rod bent at a certain angle _while committing a crime_.
In many states and the District of Columbia, it is illegal to possess lockpicks, even if you never use them. I guess you could say they are illegal circumvention devices.
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I actually strongly suspect the anthrax attacks are not originating with al-Qaeda.
For one thing, the letters strike me as funny:
Also, some of the targets seem strange to me. A tabloid newspaper? That appeared to be, if not the first target, an early target, and is not exactly a symbol of America to people around the world. If I were an investigator, this is the one I would be looking at most closely. If I were a terrorist wanted to sow fear and confusion, I would send anthrax to random people's homes, or I would steal a load of Publishers' Clearinghouse sweepstakes applications and load them with the bacteria before returning them to the mails.
It's all circumstantial, of course, but the al-Qaeda angle doesn't seem right to me. I'm betting it's some American guy or guys with a B.Sc. in microbiology.
I think the experience of the last decade should give us a very clear answer to this question. Technology will not solve this problem, or its like, for us.
Our gadgets might be very useful in immobilizing an opponent that relies on sophisticated infrastructure, like we do. But when Rumsfeld and his generals speak of knocking out "command and control structures" in Afghanistan, the US Government's structural inability to even understand this kind of situation gets a nice bright underline. It's the same kind of mentality that insists the best road to security for the US is a multi-trillion dollar shield against ICBMs.
We've destroyed Afghanistan's meager air and air defense capabilities. All our cruise missiles and precision munitions can do for us now is make us look like cowards attacking what must rank as one of the most unfortunate countries on earth, with goals that are clear to no one.
I've lived in the Middle East for four years and I am currently on a short-term assignment in Aqaba, Jordan. About 60% of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin, and from almost any given place in Aqaba, you can see prosperous Eilat across the border at any time of day. There are a lot of people here who have good reason to be upset about Israeli and American policy, which negatively affect their lives every single day.
But what I am hearing is an overwhelming and unanimous expression of disgust and horror at the events of this week. I have not heard or seen any evidence of support for what happened in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, but I have had many people approach me and offer their very sincere condolences and express their sadness at what has happened. Not a few of them have pointed out that the actions of the perpetrators are entirely contrary to any thinking person's understanding of Islamic principles.
Blind hatred and the blaming of entire nationalities and ethnic groups for the destructive actions of a few is exactly what drove the incidents of this week. Do not succumb to the temptation to respond in kind. If we are truly a nation of justice, now is the most important time to embody those values.
I don't know about that. If the hijackers, say, kill a passenger every minute or two the door remains closed, I don't think many pilots would hold out for long.
Which is not to say it isn't a good idea for purposes of air rage, casual attempts or whatever.
And how well did that work?
How do you deal with someone that committed? Is there any good military solution to that problem? Can you solve it with outrageously expensive, unreliable, brute force technological measures?
If you want to talk about Cold War thinking, don't forget to mention building a massive defense against ICBMs. ICBMs! I can scarcely think of a more unlikely killer maniac than one who chooses to take the time, expense, and risk of developing or even purchasing ICBM technology, especially knowing full well that there's a multi-trillion dollar missile shield that might defend against it. Faced with this problem, who here would not put their warheads on a jetliner, or a suitcase, or a boat in New York harbor? ICBMs are a weapon designed for a different kind of conflict altogether.
Incidentally, do not presume that Saddam Hussein is irrational just because you don't understand his thinking. For some reason this is a common mistake.
Here are some numbers stations links.
Wiretap or no wiretap, the indeed Feds had permission to enter surreptitiously in this case.
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The court order is here. It grants permission to:
It seems from this that the judge indeed intended for a device to be used to get the private key. Scarfo's lawyers are just trying to argue that he should have specifically said "wiretap" if the device actually transmitted information. It's lawyerly semantics.
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...I actually think this is a good thing.
We've been told for years that encryption must be controlled because it gives Bad Guys the power to evade law enforcement in a way that was not possible using traditional means of telecommunications. This arrest puts lie to that claim. You can have publicly-available encryption without disrupting law enforcement's existing ability to conduct court-ordered surveillance.
I know some of you have a beef with court-ordered surveillance, and that's cool. But if you don't, then how is this case any different from surreptitious voice recording?
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Yes they did. See for yourself.
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Services? Exactly what light saber services is Lucasfilm marketing?
I smell an innovative business model.
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If it's a non-profit of some resources, you might look at VITAsat, run by Volunteers for Technical Assistance. If your problem were running the other direction, I would suggest Worldspace, which sells some nifty satellite radio receivers specifically for the developing world. They offer data downlink through their receivers, but I don't think they've figured out the uplink part yet. But I know they've been investigating options, including Iridium, so it might be worth watching them.
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I'm an international development professional. I live in the developing world. I'm a believer in the potential for IT for the developing world, though as with everything else Internet-related it has been way overhyped in the last few years.
IT will not spontaneously feed the hungry or cure the sick, but everyone here knows from their own lives what a uniquely multipurpose tool it is. If people in developing countries can use IT to find and share solutions to their own problems, get the latest information on medical, economic, agricultural, political, and other developments, and smooth over some of the inefficiencies in their economies, then it will be a real tool for development. None of that is unrealistic.
The UN Development Programme, the Markle Foundation, and a consulting firm called Accenture recently put out a report on potential applications for IT in the developing world. It gives real-world examples to support its conclusions. Please give it a look before you contribute yet another comment to the effect that nobody in Africa can type because their hands have been cut off, they have no water, etc. You might not agree with the relentlessly cheerleadery tone of the report -- I'm not sure I do -- but it shows you what people are really proposing to do with the technology.
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There are tons of people here in Egypt getting them. Any other certification is almost unheard of, but we have MCSEs coming out of our ears. It is interesting to reflect on what this says about Microsoft's marketing strategy.
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Don't worry about it. You just bombed the interview.
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So you're suggesting that only the rich should have an economy, lest the poor undercut our consulting rates?
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First of all, comparing the lack of legal Windows licenses to AIDS in Africa is stupid at best and unbelievably offensive at worst. It's not like people in South Africa are whining because they want GlaxoWellcome anti-AIDS cocktails rather than some Indian version that also works. They have no alternative. Then there is the minor point that nobody is likely to die for lack of Freecell. There are perfectly legal, free alternatives to Windows that work very well. You don't like the alternatives? That is unfortunate, but I cannot think of any other area where you can choose not to play by the rules just because you do not like the readily-available alternative that you can afford.
The fact that this complaint is taken seriously shows that Microsoft has managed to convince an awful lot of people that Windows is a necessity.
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As I understand it, the problems with British railways have a lot less to do with engineering than with finance and administration. Maybe all those kids who grew/are growing up on Railway Tycoon will be better equipped to realize that half-assed privatization is not a good idea.
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FWIW, the same is true in Egypt -- if your mobile provider is Mobinil, you cannot send SMS messages to Click subscribers, and vice versa.
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Believe it or not, the slaves-built-the-Pyramids thing is very political in Egypt. The concern is that the Israelis will lay claim to Egypt based on the historical theory that Hebrew slaves built the Pyramids.
If that sounds far out and paranoid, that's because it is. But given that many Israelis take the Bible to be a divine land deed, it's not entirely inconsistent with the weirdness on the ground.
That doesn't mean those who worked on the Pyramids were slaves, it just means that Zahi Hawass, the head of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, is under a lot of pressure to find (and allow excavation permit-seekers to find) evidence that supports certain theories more than others. As long as the modern political influences are there it will be difficult to get good objective data.
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The scary part of this to me is how many of these phone numbers are still etched in my head from the mid-late eighties. I'm sure I could have something useful in the space those are taking up...
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Collecting the same kind of information for all the BBSes around the world sounds like a pretty big job. I don't think the guy can be blamed if he's not interested in taking it on.
Of course, in the spirit of the old BBSes, you could always do it yourself, since it is such an issue for you, rather than just bitching about it.
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Yeah, which is why we're all so against open-source software!
Oh, hey, wait a minute...
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Why has nobody come out with an update of Robosport? It had a madly devoted cult following, and it would be almost uniquely well-suited to Internet play.
You can find the original on some of the abandonware sites, but the copy-protection scheme (one of those wheel match-up things) has thus far foiled me from reliving the good old days.
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In many states and the District of Columbia, it is illegal to possess lockpicks, even if you never use them. I guess you could say they are illegal circumvention devices.
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