FCC says emergency alerts should move online | CNET News.com

FCC says emergency alerts should move online | CNET News.com: "The concept isn't exactly new; the portal Terra Lycos proposed a Web-alert system back in 2002 but was ignored by the Department of Homeland Security. Still, it's unclear how it would work in practice. Would the FCC hand Web sites like News.com, CNN.com, Google.com and Yahoo.com mandatory text to post, for instance? Might millions of e-mail messages be sent to customers of U.S. Internet providers?"

.: Legal Challenge To Subway Bag Searches 1010 WINS -

~~~ This is an important case.

The Losing side will appeal.

I expect the Supreme Court with get

the final say here.

This is also a tough case. The balance

between security , random searches,

and privacy is a tight legal knot of

Constitutional Rights

vs.

Communal Sercurity. ~`

~ TP

: Legal Challenge To Subway Bag Searches: "Nov 1, 2005 6:14 am US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK)" In a perfect world, all the people who enter the subways would have their possessions searched in an effort to prevent terrorism, a police official testified Monday at the start of a civil liberties trial."

Internet satellite imagery under fire over security - Yahoo! News

Internet satellite imagery under fire over security - Yahoo! News: "South Korean government officials have said they will contact officials in Washington to express their security concerns about the Google Earth product.

Among the buildings that can be seen on Google Earth, with a high-resolution package, are the South Korean president's residence, military bases and the defense security command. The government restricts information about the location of these facilities and their construction."
TECHNOLOGY UNSTOPPABLE

Sri Lanka's military spokesman, Brigadier Daya Ratnayake, said it was a serious concern if anyone could get detailed images of sensitive installations and buildings. "But this is a new trend, we will first have to see whether, in this day and age, if this a considerable threat to national security."

"In this era of technology -- you have to live with the fact that almost everything is on the Internet -- from bomb-making instructions to assembling aircraft. So it's something the military has to learn to live with and adapt," Ratnayake said.

A security official in India said the issue of satellite imagery had been discussed at the highest level but the government had concluded that "technology cannot be stopped."

Firms testing Web-based immigration check

Firms testing Web-based immigration check: "
But across the country, a small group of businesses is quietly testing a Department of Homeland Security program that can check immigration status with a few clicks on the Internet. The program will likely be at the heart of any federal immigration reform, even as critics say it needs improvement.

'It's not a question of 'can we fix this?' It's 'when and how?'' said Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank who specializes in immigration.

Many businesses, however, oppose making the program mandatory because it would stop them from hiring illegal workers and force them to pay higher wages, said Maria Echeveste, an immigration expert and political consultant who worked as a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House."

"U.S. Sells the Most Weapons to Others" : Congressional Research Service: http://www.crs.gov

~~ Oh what a surprise.

I never would have guesed this one.

I would have guessed Texas.

{ Well Texas used to be a country.}
~` tp
--------------

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083001353.html
"U.S. Sells the Most Weapons to Others"

"Developing countries are the weapons' primary buyers. And the U.S. has been the most active seller for the past eight years, resulting mainly from agreements made in the aftermath of the first Gulf War.

The U.S. was responsible for more than 42 percent of the deliveries to developing nations in 2004.

Russia, which ranks second, sells mostly to China and India, as well as a number of smaller, poorer countries.

The CRS study, which is done each year, was written by national defense specialist Richard Grimmett.

___

On the Net:

Congressional Research Service: http://www.crs.gov
===================

"What Price Homeland Security?" Jack M. Germain ,www.newsfactor.com ;;;

~~~ Could the whole Internet could go "pooof " in a millisecond ?

I for one got to remember to save my data OFF Line too.

Now I back must everything up in email or blog or post .

I guess it is not that smart for me rely on the internet as a data back-up tool.

Do'oh !! ~ ~ `~ tp

{ and oh , yeah , this article here also says

everybodys internet could go down too ,

not just only mine.]
~~~~
` ` ` :~ ```do ' oh ``` ``~~~~~~TP

"What Price Homeland Security?
Jack M. Germain,
www.newsfactor.com

Tue Aug 23, 1:58 PM ET

How safe is the Internet's aging infrastructure? If recent events in the computer industry itself are any indication, the answer to this question is that the infrastructure is not safe at all.

A sobering report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued earlier this year declared that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is failing to secure vital Internet-infrastructure components. That report concluded that the U.S. is unprepared for major emergencies related to the Internet."

National Government ID cards

****************************************
~~~National Government ID cards have the potential for serious abuse. Recent hacking incidents into the data bases of both Gov't , and Commmercial , shows that while national security is important , a certain wall of privacy for American Cittzens needs be maitained to keep America a truly free place. Write to you legislators to oppose the bill .{On the Net: http://thomas.loc.gov/, Information on the bill, H.R. 418} ~ ~ TP

Groups Share Concerns About House-Passed Bill That Rewrites

By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=535662

WASHINGTON Feb 27, 2005 --
"But in Montana, members of the state House are refusing to cede

their driver's license authority to Washington. Last week, they

approved a bill that prohibits the adoption of federal driver's

license standards for noncommercial licenses.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., was one of eight

Republicans who voted against the bill."In our efforts to protect

our homeland and increase our border security we must move

forward with solid measures. At the same time, our individual civil

rights are nonnegotiable," Pombo said in a statement. "The

establishment of a national ID card, I believe, has the possibility of

violating those rights."

On the Net:http://thomas.loc.gov/ Information on the bill, H.R. 418:Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=535662


----------------------------------
----------------

Associated Press : Microsoft Corp. offered Wednesday to begin alerting the world's governments early to CyberThreats....."l

Microsoft Corp is big , very big. ~~tp

Microsoft Offering Gov'ts Early Warnings
02.02.2005, 04:25 PM

Associated Press : Microsoft Corp. offered Wednesday to begin alerting the world's governments early to cyberthreats and security flaws in its attack-prone software.

So far three countries, Canada, Chile and Norway, as well as the U.S. state of Delaware, have been engaged in the new project, Vanzini said.
"Prevention of cyberdisruptions and improving our capacity to respond to incidents are critical to securing both our economy and public safety," Anne McLellan, Canada's Minister of Public Security and Emergency Preparedness, said in a statement.

Microsoft said it is currently in discussions with a number of countries about their possible participation in the program.
Governments currently under a trade embargo with the United States are not eligible to sign up to the program, which is provided free of charge.

====================================
===

"The Bush administration suffered a legal setback over its conduct of the war on terror yesterday..." : Guardian www.guardian.co.uk ;;;

~~~ Below another example of how the Bush Team really does not understand to foundations of American Democracy. Dictatorships do detention without trial. In the USA , everyone --- no matter their legal or citizenship standing --is entitled to their day in PUBLIC courts when accused of a crime. ~` ~~~ ~` TP

Guantánamo tribunals ruled Illegal
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday February 1, 2005
Guardian / http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The Bush administration suffered a legal setback over its conduct of the war on terror yesterday when a US federal judge ruled that the special military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay were unlawful.
The judgment was seen as a victory for the 540 detainees in Guantánamo, and for civil rights organisations which have campaigned for three years for inmates to have the right to challenge their detentions in court.
"This means that these folks are actually going to get a hearing," said Barbara Olshansky, of the Centre for Constitutional Rights. "[The judge] is saying that the rule of law in this country cannot be disregarded by executive fiat - despite what this administration might want."
The judgment was highly critical of the Pentagon's military tribunals, set up in June last year to decide whether to continue holding the inmates at Guantánamo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------

Reuters: .."...but no WMD have been found in Iraq and U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer i...."

~~ Saddam Hussein while in power easily qualified as one of the worlds most dangerous men. He killed tens – if not hundreds – of THOUSANDS of his own country men every year, and Saddam was the major obstacle to the political & democratic stabilization of the Mid-East. But did that justify going in after him with the full force of the U.S military? Well maybe it did.
But the Bush administration did not think Saddam slaughtering his own people, nor his perpetual torturing the Kurdish nation, was a strong enough argument to justify toppling Saddam. So the Bush Administration exaggerated --and it seems even fabricated --the Weapons of Mass Destruction [WMD] threat, which today the CIA admitted never were there. ~~ tp

CIA Rectifying Prewar Estimates on Iraq WMD
Tue Feb 1, 2005 06:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA is publishing a series of classified reports revising its prewar intelligence assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, an intelligence official said on Tuesday.

A Jan. 18 report, titled "Iraq: No Large-Scale Chemical Warfare Efforts Since Early 1990s," concludes that Saddam Hussein abandoned major chemical weapons programs after the first Gulf War in 1991.

Former CIA Director George Tenet, who resigned last July, told Bush that finding WMD in Iraq would be a "slam dunk" according to journalist Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack."

But no WMD have been found in Iraq and U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer is expected this month to issue a final addendum to his September report concluding that prewar Iraq had no such stockpiles.

"The CIA has finally admitted that its WMD estimates were wrong," Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said in a statement.

--------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------

By WILLIAM SAFIRE ; Rights of Terror Suspects

July 5, 2004

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Rights of Terror Suspects

By WILLIAM SAFIRE

ARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — "Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens."

So wrote a purpling libertarian kook on Nov. 15, 2001, the day after President Bush issued an executive order cracking down on suspected terrorist captives. "At a time when even liberals are debating the ethics of torture of suspects," this soft-on-terror wimp went on, "weighing the distaste for barbarism against the need to save innocent lives — it's time for conservative iconoclasts and card-carrying hard-liners to stand up for American values."

They did not, of course; hard-line commentators dismissed the wimp as a "professional hysteric" akin to "antebellum Southern belles suffering the vapors." Attorney General John Ashcroft said such diatribes "aid terrorists."

At the same time, most liberals — supposed advocates of the rights of the accused — did not want to appear to be insufficiently outraged at terrorists. Only two months after the shock of 9/11, with polls showing strong public approval of Bush's harsh measures to protect us, these liberals turned out to be civil liberty's summer soldiers. No senator from Massachusetts rose promptly to challenge Bush's draconian order, thereby to etch a profile in courage.

But one cabinet member reacted curiously. Despite the White House order to give enemy combatants no legal rights in what the vaporing wimp sniffled were "kangaroo courts," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld convened a panel of serious outside lawyers aware of the wartime mistakes of Lincoln, Wilson and F.D.R. They reshaped the Bush order to give accused noncitizens before military tribunals the rights to counsel, public trial, appellate review and other protections in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Then Ashcroft Justice dug in its heels and the system stalled for years. Military tribunals of aliens captured in Afghanistan were placed in abeyance while Justice claimed in court that the president has the authority to impose open-ended detention on citizens and noncitizens alike. Such wholesale denial of due process is what the soft-on-terror professional hysteric had called "the seizure of dictatorial power."

Last week the Supreme Court that helped put Bush in office intervened to prevent his abuse of it. "The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in agreement with the majority, "has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the executive."

The right of a prisoner — even a noncitizen suspected of plotting to blow up a city — to take his case before some sort of judge has been reaffirmed. The panicked Ashcroft and the hapless White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, clearly misadvised the president; both should depart in a second term. Separation of powers lives, and we should extend habeas corpus to all four corners of the earth.

Though coverage of the Supreme Court's rulings led with "a state of war is not a blank check for the president," its decisions were also deferential. Provided that an accused combatant has a chance to rebut, there should be "a presumption in favor of the government's evidence"; hearsay might be allowed. With military tribunals now tilted toward the prosecution, we should stop delaying and start prosecuting.

Liberals, in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and now with Supreme Court restraints on executive power, are piling on. It's safe; civil liberty is suddenly in vogue, at least until the next terror strike. That's why the bosoms of Bush critics are now heaving in hypocritical hyperventilation. But where were they on Nov. 15, 2001, when due process needed them? In spider holes all their own.

There's a lesson, too, for conservatives and other hard-liners: Libertarians are not to be despised even when infuriatingly contrarian. Remember our Jeremiah-like presence in your ranks on the privacy issue when you demand a national ID, or when you hamstring embryonic stem-cell research, or when you make a show of festooning the Constitution with a marriage amendment.

Why do I fear no libel suit from that wimpish professional hysteric, that antebellum Southern belle suffering the vapors, that aider of terrorists? Because I'm him. (It's uncool to say I told you so, but I have not had many chances to say it lately.)

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

The War on the Web Sites to see on the road to Baghdad.

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2080407/
The War on the Web
Sites to see on the road to Baghdad.
By Avi Zenilman
Updated Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 3:05 PM PT

The Iraq invasion will be the first major war on the Web. When the bombs start dropping, millions of Americans will crowd the Internet to catch up on the latest news, see pictures, and send e-mail to loved ones in danger. After you've checked out Slate—your first stop, right?—here's where you should you go for updates, speculation, on-the-ground blogging, official statements, and even war comedy.

Mainstream Media
The special Iraq Web sites for the Washington Post, the New York Times, MSNBC, and CNN are all good sources for late-breaking news, streaming video, maps, and nifty interactive backgrounders.

If you find the American Iraq pages overwhelming, then jump across the Atlantic to England's Guardian newspaper's Special Report: Iraq. The page's efficient organization and solid reporting make it easier to use than the American news sites. Don't miss the Guardian's "Weblog," which is less a blog than a portal to the day's best journalism. Track the effects of the war on the global economy and on oil markets at Bloomberg's energy markets page.

Background Information
What exactly is a BLU-118 Thermobaric bomb? How about a GBU-16 Paveway II? Globalsecurity.org has an excellent encyclopedia of the weapons and vehicles the United States will use in the war. Its Target Iraq page is jam-packed with links and specific military information. The site also publishes U.N. documents and resolutions.

Defensetech.org is a blog that provides a boatload of information on new military technologies and national security. While not organized in any systematic way, it always has something new and interesting.

The Council on Foreign Relations runs a superb Iraq Resource Center with everything from a timeline to journal articles.

The Official Story
(Almost) daily State Department briefings can be found here. The White House posts free video of all presidential speeches and announcements (as well as Ari Fleischer's press briefings). Britain's official briefings are also available.

Also online is the Iraq News Agency, a mouthpiece for Saddam's positions and propaganda.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Iraq crisis section shows how the U.S. government is conveying the news to the people of the Middle East.

The United Nations' official Iraq page is hopelessly cluttered and often unresponsive (not unlike the organization itself), but if you can get it to work, it's a great clearinghouse.

Blogwar
Dear_raed is a must-read blog by a current Baghdad resident. Read his fascinating March 16 ramble about how he reluctantly supports the U.S. march to war and doubts the influence of fundamentalist Islamism in Iraq. It's not clear how the author manages to evade Saddamite censorship and scrutiny. We sent an e-mail asking how he does it. If he replies, we will tell you.

Www.kevinsites.net is a blog by Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent stationed in northern Iraq. Sites' reporting is unvarnished, direct, and full of the nitty-gritty details of war reporting A March 17 post, "Whispers of War," is a window on the professional rivalries that persist, even a war zone.

The Middle-East Reaction
Arab News is an English-language, semiofficial Saudi media outlet. Although its reporting may not always be reliable, it suggests how this war is playing in Riyadh. Lebanon's Daily Star is more trustworthy but much less entertaining. For a quick digest of how the Middle-East media portrays the war, the World Press Review's Middle-East section is excellent.

Al Jazeera video is available at www.favo.tv, an English-language Web site that streams from various TV and radio stations worldwide. It is often unreliable, so if you understand Arabic, the official Al Jazeera site may be a better source for the broadcasts.

Ha'aretz's special Iraq section will be a valuable source of news if Saddam decides to attack Israel. For a more offbeat Israeli view of the war, check out the Iraq-centric ribbityfrog.blogspot.com.

If Chatterbox's Kurd Sellout Watch isn't enough, visit KurdMedia, a news site/portal for all things Kurdish.

Curiosities
We can't find any real-time satellite photographs on the Web that would help track the war, but Terraserver posts satellite images of nearly every world city, including Baghdad. It's hard to make out what exactly is going on in the pictures, but it's very cool nonetheless.

Should United States troops worry about sandstorms? Check out this Iraq weather map.

Who's going to lead Iraq after the war? What are the odds of capturing Osama Bin Laden by October? What will the terror alert level be in June 2003? At Tradesports you can now bet on international politics, with nothing at stake but fake money and bragging rights.

Humor
If you need a brief respite from the grim news, take a breather at Iraq Humor Central. Be sure not to miss the parody slide show. Also, check out the Saddam games section, where you can do everything from playing the role of a crazed U.N. weapons inspector to creating a goofy press conference.

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2080407