NEW YORK -- The sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain arrived in New York on Monday, smiling for a gaggle of cameras and reporters as federal agents led him into custody to face charges in the attack.
Abduhl Wali-i-Musi was handcuffed and had a chain wrapped around his waist. His left hand was heavily bandaged from the wound he suffered during the skirmish on the ship two weeks ago.
The smiling teenager seemed poised as he entered a federal building in a rainstorm, but he didn't say anything in response to reporters' shouted questions about whether he had any comment about the pirate episode. OK- so far, so good. But at the end of the article, we get this:
Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somalian. "I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas," said Kuby. "This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age." If a troll left that as a comment here, I would assume it was one of you joking around. YJCMTSU.
The Somali teenager accused of participating in the hostage-taking of an American ship captain was on his first pirating mission, his father said early Tuesday.
Abdiqadir Muse (AHB'-dih-KAH'-dir moo-SAY') told The Associated Press that his son had been outside the family's home in Galka'yo (GOCK'-ahl-ya) town in Somalia when armed pirates came to get him.
His son, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse (AHB'-dih-WAH'-lee AHB'-dih-KAH'-dir moo-SAY'), left with the pirates about a week and a half before he surrendered to the U.S. Navy and ship captain Richard Phillips was rescued on April 12, he said.
Muse said by telephone through an interpreter with the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center that the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money. The family is penniless, he said.
"He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," Muse said.
He gave his son's age as 16, which the boy's mother had previously said. A law enforcement official said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
Muse called his son a good boy and a "very well-disciplined young kid." He had been going to an Islamic school at the time he left with the pirates, Muse said.
The teenager is in custody in New York awaiting a Tuesday court hearing where he is expected to face piracy and hostage-taking charges.
#2
Make sure the pirate's clan hires a top lawyer. Drain them so bad that they realize real piracy begins with a law degree.
Posted by: ed ||
04/21/2009 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
Ron Kuby is an admitted Communist who defended El Sayyid Nosair, the Egyptian terrorist who assasinated a rabbi in NY in 1990. Got him acquitted, too. Judge in the case said it was "a rape of this country, of our Constitution, and of our laws".
Nosair was later convicted for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Last year, Kuby was hired by AirAmerica to replace Randi Rhodes. My guess is he'll take the case on a pro bono basis.
At home in central Somalia, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse studied English, frequented a dusty, outdoor cinema after school where he watched Bollywood films dubbed into his native Somali and, his mother says, "was wise beyond his years."
The neighborhood where he grew up in the central Somali town of Galkayo is one of small homes with corrugated iron roofs, and no running water or electricity.
Now Muse the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain is a world away in New York City to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century. He smiled but said nothing Tuesday as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.
"The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform," the teen's mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, 40, told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday from her home in Galkayo. "He was brainwashed. People who are older than him outwitted him, people who are older than him duped him."
She said he was "wise beyond his years" a child who ignored other boys his age who tried to tease him and got lost in books instead.
"He took all his books the day he disappeared, except one, I think, and did not come back," she said, adding that she did not know which book he was reading Hassan is illiterate.
Muse's personal details are murky, with his parents in Somalia insisting he was tricked into getting involved in piracy. His age also remained unclear. His parents said he is only 16, but U.S. law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
Muse's mother said she has no records to prove his age, but she and the teen's father say he is 16. "I never delivered my babies in a hospital," she said. "A traditional midwife helped me deliver."
A classmate, however, said he believed Muse could be older and that he studied English at school.
"I think he was one or two years older than me, and I am 16," said Abdisalan Muse, reached by telephone in Galkayo. "We did not know him to be a pirate, but he was always with older boys, who are likely to be the ones who corrupted him."
It is rare for Somalis to have formal birth records, and U.S. officials did not say on what basis they believe him to be 18 or older.
The teenager was flown from Africa to New York, where he was being charged under two obscure federal laws that deal with piracy and hostage-taking, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.
Muse grew up poor in a one-room home, the eldest child of a divorced mother, in one of the most impoverished, violent countries in the world. A nation of around 8 million people, Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5 and nearly every public institution has collapsed.
Muse's mother sells milk at a small market every day, saving around $6 every month for school fees for her oldest son. She pays 15 dollars a month in rent.
"I cried when I saw the picture of him," Hassan said, referring to the photo of her son being led in handcuffs in New York. "Relatives brought a copy of the picture to me. Surely he is telling himself now, 'My mother's heart is broken.'"
She said the last time she saw her son in person, she was pushing him out the door so he would not be late for school.
Since that day weeks ago, he simply disappeared. Asked why she believed he left, Hassan was at a loss.
"A young man, at his age, could say he needed money, perhaps," she said. "I used to give him his school fee because I could not afford more than that. But of course he needed money."
#6
The teenager's arrival came on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She says her son was coaxed into piracy by "gangsters with money."
"I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial," Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galka'yo town in Somalia.
The age and real name of the young pirate remained unclear. The mother said he is only 16 years old and is named Abdi Wali Abdulqadir Muse. The law enforcement official says he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to put him on trial in a U.S. court.
His worried family asked the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center to help get him a lawyer, said the organization's executive director, Omar Jamal.
"What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all," Jamal said. Wali-i-Musi speaks no English and may never have attended school, he said.
The suspect was taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship shortly before Navy SEAL snipers killed three of his colleagues who had held Capt. Richard Phillips hostage.
#9
When Abduhl was a little lad
He proved so brave and daring,
His father thought he'd 'prentice him
To some career seafaring.
I was, alas! his nurserymaid,
And so it fell to my lot
To take and bind the promising boy
Apprentice to a pilot
A life not bad for a hardy lad,
Though surely not a high lot,
Though Im a nurse, you might do worse
Than make your boy a pilot.
I was a stupid nurserymaid,
On breakers always steering,
And I did not catch the word aright,
Through being hard of hearing;
Mistaking my instructions,
Which within my brain did gyrate,
I took and bound this promising boy
Apprentice to a pirate.
A sad mistake it was to make
And doom him to a vile lot.
I bound him to a pirate you
Instead of to a pilot.
THE rising number of fat people was yesterday blamed for global warming.
Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet.
Overweight people are also more likely to drive, adding to environmental damage.
Dr Phil Edwards, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: Moving about in a heavy body is like driving in a gas guzzler.
Each fat person is said to be responsible for emitting a tonne more of climate-warming carbon dioxide per year than a thin one.
It means an extra BILLION TONNES of CO2 a year is created, according to World Health Organisation estimates of overweight people.
The scientists say providing extra grub for them to guzzle adds to carbon emissions that heat up the world, melting polar ice caps, raising sea levels and killing rain forests.
The environmental impact of fat humans is made even worse because they are more likely to travel by car another major cause of carbon emissions.
Battle
And researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say wealthy nations like the US and Britain are getting fatter by the decade.
Dr Phil Edwards said: Food production accounts for about one fifth of greenhouse gases.
We need to do a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness. It is a key factor in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change.
It is time we took account of the amount we are eating.
This is about over-consumption by the wealthy countries. And the world demand for meat is increasing to match that of Britain and America.
It is also much easier to get in your car and pick up a pint of milk than to take a walk.
The study by Dr Edwards and colleague Ian Roberts is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Dr Edwards went on: We are not just pointing the finger at fat people. All populations are getting fatter and it has an impact on the environment.
UK health surveys estimate fatness has increased from an average body mass index of 26 to 27 in the last ten years.
Thats equivalent to about half a stone for every person.
Anyone with a BMI above 25 is overweight, while more than 30 is obese.
A staggering 40 per cent of Americans are obese, among 300 million worldwide.
Disasters
Australian Professor Paul Zimmet predicted a disastrous obesity pandemic back in 2006.
And Oxfam warned yesterday that the number of people hit by climate-related disasters will soar by more than half in the next six years to 375million.
The impact of more storms, floods and droughts could overwhelm aid organisations.
Sun doctor Carol Cooper said last night: Im not sure which came first, people getting fat and driving or the other way around. It is true fat people eat more food than average.
A few obese people have a hormone problem, although most simply dont use enough calories and eat too many. But making them feel guilty antagonises them and may not help.
#1
"It is time we took account of the amount we are eating.
Skinny little men in spandex riding expensive bicycles....why do they hate us?
What's coming next.....caloric intake taxes? Food stamps permits? Girth based procreational restrictions? A permanent ban on Anglo-American Renaissance Feasting? Beer and fried foods tax disincentives? Special federal client licensing and eating permits for Hooters and other resturants? A ban on golf carts? Smaller, more compact, mass restrictive airline seating? I recommend The Army Field Manual Army Regulation 600-9, selective weigh-in, marriage licensing weigh-ins, body scanning, pinch tests, height-weight credits. Mandetory Saturday Volksmarching?
#2
Just ignore that 'fat' people are far more effective in storing usable food when famine hit. The only survivors in the collapse of the system that makes society possible [as seen in Ethiopia, Somalia, etc] are those who's bodies can squeeze the last bit of nutrient from something that passes as food. Tens of thousands of years of evolution in an environment that was just as much famine as feast made it a survival mechanism for being around to reproduce. These 'bright' people assume that their environment is not subject to collapse because their 'history' only starts with their adolescent awareness.
#3
Moving about in a heavy body is like driving in a gas guzzler.
so.many.damn.people.in.many.sizes.
Billions and billions and billions and billions and billions being born round the clock. If it didnt conflict with my faith, I'd say sterilization programs sound good.
To reduce population, I offer a few alternatives:
How about no more quarter beer nights, no more male/female mixers, no more scanty or tight clothing, no co-ed colleges. Bring back a modernized chastity belt. Keep men and women separated, that way they'll become depressed and eat even more. Then when they become supersized to like 300 pounds, nobody will be able to easily get in their pants, not even themselves. The new celebrities will be farmers, because they'll be out growing everyones food and be some of the only skinny people.
Maybe the global warming experts should conduct a study on burgeoning pants, and the extra industrial by-products to make all them elastic waist pants.
Bottom line, to play devil's advocate, would sneaking birth control in the water supply really be that bad?
#11
But people getting fat is a means of sequestering carbon. CO2 leaves the air to become grass, grass becomes a cow, cow becomes food, food becomes a fat person's belly. It's the skinny people who are the problem, they keep buring all the food they consume and return it to the atmosphere as CO2. Do the earth some good, eat a bag of Cheetos and take a nap.
My logic is just as sound as that which the environuts spew...
#13
In truth Im skinny and save money on account of it because it costs a hell of a lot less at my feedings because my stomach is not stretched out and grumbling for food all the time.
Im also not completely unfortunate in the looks department, so less "poodle fat" made at chemical plants ends up smeared on my face to make me look okay.
I also consume less oxygen because Im aerobically fit, whereby my lung efficiency means I take less breathes per minute, with better absorbtion. As for greenhouse gas, hey Im just like the average Joe.
And hell yea, I drive my CO2 happy ass to sales in my combustion engine car, just so ya know. My car seats dont have indentations from my fat ass though. Chew on that Gore, your logic is flawed...Fat and thin people drive, and emit CO2 imagine that.
#16
hell yea, I hate food, if it could come in a convenient one-a-day tablet, i'd love it.
but on the Greenhouse gas, I fear we're all going to be forced by the gummint to drive those boxy looking fiberglass CAT (compressed air technology) engine cars theyve developed in France. They're actually purdy cool if they could make them look a little better.
#19
Yes, they are to a point. But thin women can actually bend over to do tasks like gardening, picking up things, and shaving their legs without grunting. I guess it depends where the locale is in terms of usefulness.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's Ministry of Religious Endowments has launched a campaign against wearing the full face veil known as a niqab in government jobs claiming it is not an obligation for Muslims.
The latest crackdown on the niqab follows a prohibition against nurses wearing the full face veil in hospitals.
In the first in a series of seminars aimed at eradicating the niqab from public posts held under the auspices of the Ministry of religious endowments Dr. Salem Abdel-Gelil, Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments for Preaching, explained to the ministry's face-veiled female employees that niqab is not an obligation in Islam and that the headscarf is enough. "[N]iqab is a custom that has no basis in religion whether directly or indirectly," he told AlArabiya.net. "[A]ccording to the four schools of thought in Islam the face is not awra [a body part that has to be covered]."
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[Maghrebia] Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika outlined his legislative priorities in a public address on Sunday (April 19th) after he was officially sworn into office for this third five-year mandate. He said he would pursue the national reconciliation initiative, boost investment in the public sector, and fight corruption. To deter the country's youth from choosing the path of illegal migration or armed fighting, he also promised to create three million new jobs in the next five years. Two former rival candidates - Ahd 54 chief Ali Faouzi Rebaine and Workers' Party (PT) leader Louisa Hanoune - boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, Echorouk reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian Energy Minister Energy Minister Chakib Khelil favours a further petrol production cut by OPEC. "We are taking a big risk if we do not re-adjust supply." Liberté quoted Khelil as saying on Sunday (April 19th). Petrol prices will likely fall further before the cartel's next meeting on May 28th and then increase to $60 per barrel as summer demand grows, Reuters quoted Khelil as saying on national television Saturday.
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04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
No need. Bambi will do it you in the US.
Posted by: ed ||
04/21/2009 0:59 Comments ||
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#2
Bambi will do it FOR you in the US.
Shoulda went to bed earlier.
Posted by: ed ||
04/21/2009 10:42 Comments ||
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[Maghrebia] Mauritanian police forcibly dispersed a group of female protesters gathered in front of the UN office in Nouakchott on Sunday (April 19th), local and international press reported. The National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD) and the Rally of the Democratic Forces (RFD) organised the demonstration to protest the June 6th presidential elections planned by the ruling military junta.
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04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe's central bank governor admitted on Monday that he took hard currency from the bank accounts of private businesses and foreign aid groups without permission, saying he was trying to keep his country's cash-strapped ministries running.
In a statement that would be unthinkable coming from most central banks, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono appeared to be issuing a plea to keep his job in the face of growing criticism. Gono said it was time "to let bygones be bygones" now that Zimbabwe has a new coalition government dedicated to reversing its economic decline.
"So let me keep the money."
The central banker said gave the money he took from the hard currency accounts as loans to various ministries, and those private accounts would be reimbursed when the ministries repaid the loans.
Sorta like how the mob 'loans' money ...
He said the bank's efforts "sustained the country" in its hour of need.
Gono's statement showed the practice was widespread. It was first hinted at last year, when the international aid agency Global Fund threatened to cut off funds to Zimbabwe for fighting Aids, tuberculosis and malaria unless money taken from its account was returned. The central bank returned $7,3-million to Global Fund.
The raiding of foreign currency accounts is just one of the highly questionable actions for which Gono has been sharply criticized.
In the past two years, Gono slashed 25 zeros from the local currency, printed more local money without backup reserves or assets and distributed agricultural equipment to many in President Robert Mugabe's party who were given farms seized from whites.
Gono declared Monday that the criticism of his office had reached "ridiculous dimensions ... in the name of trying to show how evil, unworthy and incompetent the governor is." "All this is being done to in an effort to show the central bank governor killed the economy single-handedly," his statement said.
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04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't laugh. Timothy Geithner is probably asking the question, "And how long did he get away with it?"
[Mail and Globe] Madagascar government soldiers killed and wounded several people on Monday when they fired into a demonstration in the capital, Antananarivo. The report said that one of those killed was a policeman.
Unconfirmed media reports at the scene spoke of at least three people killed and several others seriously wounded, as several cars and a building went up in flames.
The violence occurred when some 10,000 demonstrators sought to march to the Senate building in Antananarivo in a march to protest against the shutdown of two radio stations.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) ransacked the administrative building of Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University in the capital yesterday demanding postponement of the Masters in Sociology (MS) final part examinations scheduled for April 21 and 22.
Around 40 BCL activists led by Oliul Alam alias Tuel, Saiful, and Ovi attacked the first floor of the administrative building of the university at around 1:00pm, damaging furniture, windowpanes of the building and flowerpots. Police later brought the situation under control.
Campus sources said three MS Thesis Defence examinees Tuel, Saiful and Ovi -- all BCL activists -- beat up another examinee Al-Amin earlier in the morning to prevent him from appearing for the exams.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mahbubur Rahman of Tejgaon Police Station told The Daily Star that following the violence; police along with university authorities conducted a raid in three student dormitories of the university and recovered several hockey sticks used during the violence. They also detained two BCL activists, Arun Chandra Roy and Zulfikar Ali, from Sher-e-Bangla Hall in this connection. The raid lasted for about three hours, ending at around 4:30pm.
Proctor Sekandar Ali of the university told The Daily Star that Tuel, Saiful and Ovi, declaring themselves as belong to the 'ruling party' had been creating disturbance on the campus for the last couple of days and demanding the postponement of the exams. He claimed that the BCL activists wanted the exams to be postponed so that they could linger their studentship to continue their 'student politics' on the campus.
The proctor said that the university would be taking punitive actions against them and would also be filing a case against these students.
The police, however, were not able to arrest the three men.
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The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived Tuesday.
The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers said Tuesday that it lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.
The results in the most recent quarter included charges totaling 18 cents per share to cover the costs of jettisoning employees and other one-time accounting measures.
Even with those charges stripped out, the loss was much worse than analysts expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted the New York-based company would lose 4 cents per share.
Revenue for the period dropped 19 percent to $609 million -- about $22 million below the average analyst estimate.
New York Times Co. shares fell 83 cents, 14 percent, to $5.02 in morning trading.
The disappointing performance was driven by a nearly $124 million decline in the Times Co.'s ad revenue from the same time last year. While most of the erosion was concentrated in the Times Co.'s newspapers, its Internet ad revenue also sagged by 8 percent, or $3.6 million.
Like other major newspaper publishers, the Times Co. is being hit with a devastating double whammy -- a 16-month-old recession and a marketing shift that has diverted more ad spending to less expensive Internet alternatives. At the same time, many readers are canceling their newspaper subscriptions because they can read much of the same information for free on the Web.
The Times Co. did manage to increase circulation revenue slightly in the first quarter, by raising newspaper prices.
#4
much worse than analysts (including the NYT) expected.
Clueless even in joining in their own prognosis. When everybody sez: "you're gonna die", you probably are. At least have some dignity, dammit. Lib drama queens always wanna pretend they never saw it coming.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2009 21:53 Comments ||
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#5
$74.5 million a quarter gets them three more quarters on Slim's money.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2009 22:43 Comments ||
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Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project -- the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever -- according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.
The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together. The revelations follow a recent Wall Street Journal report that computers used to control the U.S. electrical-distribution system, as well as other infrastructure, have also been infiltrated by spies abroad.
Attacks like these -- or U.S. awareness of them -- appear to have escalated in the past six months, said one former official briefed on the matter. "There's never been anything like it," this person said, adding that other military and civilian agencies as well as private companies are affected. "It's everything that keeps this country going."
Many details couldn't be learned, including the specific identity of the attackers, and the scope of the damage to the U.S. defense program, either in financial or security terms. In addition, while the spies were able to download sizable amounts of data related to the jet-fighter, they weren't able to access the most sensitive material, which is stored on computers not connected to the Internet.
#5
I saw an ad yesterday by Homeland Security asking for hackers to help find weak spots. Wonder if they'll allow H1B visas, especially Chinese techies, to apply?
#6
The Chinese have jumped generations of research and testing by stealing our data on virtually everything. When they confront us, not very far in the future, a lot of Americans are going to die because we let them steal so much of our intellectual treasure. This isn't just annoying or disturbing, it is lethal. What will it take to stop these thieving SOB's from doing this?
The first bank affiliated with the Hamas movement running Gaza opened on Tuesday in the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip which lies outside the Palestinian Authority's control.
"We are opening the bank today and are beginning to offer our services to the public," Alaa al-Rafati, head of the National Islamic Bank, told AFP. You have a friend...at National Islamic. Whether you like it or not.
The National Islamic Bank has 20 million dollars in start-up capital and will operate under Islamic finance rules, he said. So... you want a loan for a 55 gallon drum of acid do you?
With offices on four floors of a building in central Gaza City, the bank will hold the accounts of 6,000 Hamas employees whose salaries are to be deposited in the bank. Yes, Mahmoud. Let us "hold" that for you. What? You don't want to? Perhaps I should introduce you to our Complaint Department...
Rafati did not say how the Islamist movement acquired the start-up capital in a territory under Israeli embargo since Hamas, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in 2007. It...fell out of a steamer trunk.
Because of the blockade, which has prevented all but essential humanitarian goods from entering the territory, Gaza's banks have faced a virtually constant liquidity crisis.
Rafati said no such problems would plague the new bank. ...or else.
"We have absolutely no crisis of liquidity, be it shekels or dollars. This will allow us to win the confidence of customers." No confidence in us, Mahmoud? Perhaps a bullet wound in the foot might instill some, yes?
Although the vast majority of the board of directors are members of Hamas, including Rafati, he said the bank was "a private enterprise aimed at making profit and is not associated to Hamas or to the government in Gaza." No, no, no. Except, perhaps, in our aforementioned Complaint Department...
The Palestinian Authority which Hamas loyalists booted out of Gaza in a week of deadly street fighting in June 2007 has refused to issue the bank a licence and called for it to be boycotted.
The Gaza Strip has been outside the control of the PA and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas since the Hamas takeover.
The days of an open, largely unregulated Internet may soon come to an end.
A bill making its way through Congress proposes to give the U.S. government authority over all networks considered part of the nation's critical infrastructure. Under the proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the president would have the authority to shut down Internet traffic to protect national security.
The government also would have access to digital data from a vast array of industries including banking, telecommunications and energy. A second bill, meanwhile, would create a national cybersecurity adviser -- commonly referred to as the cybersecurity czar -- within the White House to coordinate strategy with a wide range of federal agencies involved.
The need for greater cybersecurity is obvious:
-- Canadian researchers recently discovered that computers in 103 countries, including those in facilities such as embassies and news media offices, were infected with software designed to steal network data.
-- A Seattle security analyst warned last month that the advancement of digital communication within the electrical grid, as promoted under President Obama's stimulus plan, would leave the nation's electrical supply dangerously vulnerable to hackers.
-- And on Tuesday the Wall Street Journal reported that computer spies had broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project and had breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system.
Nonetheless, the proposal to give the U.S. government the authority to regulate the Internet is sounding alarms among critics who say it's another case of big government getting bigger and more intrusive.
Silicon Valley executives are calling the bill vague and overly intrusive, and they are rebelling at the thought of increased and costly government regulations amid the global economic crisis.
Others are concerned about the potential erosion of civil liberties. "I'm scared of it," said Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group.
"It's really broad, and there are plenty of laws right now designed to prevent the government getting access to that kind of data. It's the same stuff we've been fighting on the warrantless wiretapping."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va, who introduced the bill earlier this month with bipartisan support, is casting the legislation as critical to protecting everything from our water and electricity to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records.
"I know the threats we face." Rockefeller said in a prepared statement when the legislation was introduced. "Our enemies are real. They are sophisticated, they are determined and they will not rest."
The bill would allow the government to create a detailed set of standards for cybersecurity, as well as take over the process of certifying IT technicians. But many in the technology sector say the government is simply ill-equipped to get involved at the technical level, said Franck Journoud, a policy analyst with the Business Software Alliance.
"Simply put, who has the expertise?" he said. "It's the industry, not the government. We have a responsibility to increase and improve security. That responsibility cannot be captured in a government standard."
A spokeswoman from Rockefeller's office said neither he nor the two senators who co-sponsored the bill, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., will answer questions on cybersecurity until a later date.
Obama, meanwhile, is considering his own strategy on cybersecurity. On Friday, the White House completed a lengthy review of the nation's computer networks and their vulnerability to attack. An announcement is expected as early as this week.
"I kind of view [the Rockefeller bill] as an opening shot," said Tien. "The concept is cybersecurity. There's this 60-day review underway, and some people wanted to get in there and make their mark on the White House policy development."
IT leaders hope the president will consider their argument that their business is not only incredibly complex and static, but that it also spreads over the entire globe.
If the United States was to set its own standard for cybersecurity, they say, it would create a host of logistical challenges for technology companies, virtually all of which operate internationally.
"Any standards have to be set at an international level and be industry led," said Dale Curtis, a spokesman for the Business Software Alliance. "This industry moves so fast, and government just doesn't move that fast."
Many Silicon Valley executives remain hopeful that the White House's recommendations will be more industry-friendly, following what Journoud said was a good dialogue with former Bush administration official Melissa Hathaway, who is leading the White House review and is considered a likely candidate for cybersecurity czar.
[Straits Times] THAI anti-government protesters will continue their campaign against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, one of their leaders said on Monday from an unknown location abroad where he is in hiding. Jakropob Penkair, a senior member of the so-called 'Red Shirt' protest movement loyal to ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, said he had fled the country to avoid an arrest warrant for inciting violence.
'We have got ourselves in a safe place and we are setting up an office which we will obviously use to continue the movement,' Mr Jakropob told AFP in a telephone call diverted by an assistant to avoid detection.
'We have developed some strategies so we have had to spend time analysing the situation,' said Jakropob, who was briefly a minister in a previous, pro-Thaksin government last year.
Pro-Thaksin demonstrators shut down an Asian summit in the beach resort of Pattaya on April 11 and then clashed with troops in Bangkok on Monday. Two people were killed and 123 injured in the unrest in the capital.
The Red Shirts want Mr Abhisit to quit and call elections, saying that he came to power unfairly in December after a court toppled Thaksin's allies from power.
Thai authorities have issued arrest warrants for Thaksin, who is living in exile, and 12 other senior members of the movement accused of inciting violence, including Jakropob.
Mr Jakropob said that there had been disagreement within the Red Shirts over whether to abandon their three-week vigil outside Mr Abhisit's offices last Tuesday, although he was not there at the time it dispersed.
'The decision to call off the gathering was not consensus but I respect the decision taken by those in the field because I was not there myself,' he said. 'Because I couldn't monitor the situation from outside I decided when it became the way (to disperse the protest) to leave the country.'
He said that he was 'in touch' with Thaksin, who was until recently in Dubai, 'but he's not instructing what we do here.'
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] THAI Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday ruled out holding any talks with exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra after clashes between troops and anti-government protesters last week. His government had earlier this month raised the possibility of negotiations with the fugitive ex-premier, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006 that triggered three years of political unrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A HINDU woman is challenging her husbandŽs conversion of the coupleŽs three young children to Islam, the womanŽs lawyer said on Monday - the latest interfaith dispute over minors in Muslim-majority Malaysia. The conversion of children has been the subject of growing legal challenges by non-Muslims who say they face discrimination by Muslims who comprise nearly two-thirds of MalaysiaŽs population and dominate the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why fight it?
The kids could worship 100 gods, or one mean, insecure nasty one with an identity crises.
#2
Well, back to SSB and encrypted RTTY on shortwave bands. Or bouncing signals off the moon, or a myriad of interesting things to do. Don't pi$$ off the geeks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/21/2009 22:19 Comments ||
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A sad tale in which a dying, elitist metropolitan newspaper cries in their brandies with students of an elitist college looking at their silver spoon future going down the tubes. High-flying Harvard students get tips on how to rebound from the inevitable 'thanks but no thanks' Of the 2 Harvard guys I grew up with, one is an unemployed bank teller and the other is doing fifteen years in a Club Fed for running his own Ponzi scheme. So color me unimpressed...
CAMBRIDGE - They have managed to get into one of the world's most selective colleges. Which is the hardest part of Harvard...
Opportunity is knocking at their door. But at some point in their life, though perhaps later than most, Harvard students will face the stinging slap the rest of the world feels regularly: rejection. The horror...the horror...
The dirty secret is out. Harvard students fail sometimes. They are denied jobs, fellowships, A's they think they deserve. They are passed over for publication, graduate school, and research grants. And when that finally happens, it hurts. Big time. Mommy! Hold me!
To help students cope, Harvard's Office of Career Services hosted a new seminar last week on handling rejection, a fear job-seekers are feeling acutely in the plummeting economy. The advice from panelists could have come from a caring, patient parent. No rejection is the end of the world, they said, even though it might feel that way at the time. You're special, you're good enough...and people like you.
Participants, who wore snappy buttons with the word rejected stamped in red, also received a road map of sorts on handling failure, a pink booklet of rejection letters and personal stories from Harvard faculty, students, and staff members. ...and, someday, when things are better, you will probably be in a position to crush those that reject you like bugs! So cheer up!
Among the tales of woe: the 2004 alumnus and aspiring actor rejected for a barista gig at a Los Angeles Starbucks for being overqualified and the medical school professor who was wait-listed at every medical school he applied to. Should've majored in philosophy. Or Womens Studies. I'll bet that'd get you that Starbucks job.
Senior Olga Tymejczyk arrived at the seminar early. With just a month and a half until graduation, Tymejczyk has applied for 10 jobs, but has no offers. "Rejection is inevitable sometimes, even if you go to Harvard," said Tymejczyk, a Latin American studies major who wants to work in higher-education administration or healthcare research. She has two more interviews this week, and she is hoping for the best but bracing for more bad news. Honey, what do you expect? You majored in LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, fer crissakes. Maybe you could get that Starbucks job your fellow alumnus got screwed outta.
Panelist Pat Hernandez knows a thing or two about setbacks. The 2004 Harvard graduate was rejected by all three graduate schools she applied to two years ago, after losing out on numerous consulting jobs. "It's something many people are ashamed or reluctant to talk about," said Hernandez, who serves as a resident tutor for Harvard undergraduates. "Those who deal with rejection more frequently take it in stride and bounce back better." Or....shudder...they could become plumbers. Or electricians. And make tons of money. They'd actually have to earn it of course, but tough times call for tough sacrifices
Hernandez spent the last two years conducting academic research and applied to graduate schools again. She plans to attend Harvard Business School in the fall for a doctorate in organizational behavior and management. Yes, well they always take care of their own.
Another panelist, Harvard statistics professor Xiao-Li Meng, took a humorous approach on the sore subject. His two-page take on rejection, printed in the pink booklet, starts with this theorem: "For any acceptance worth competing for, the probability of a randomly selected applicant being rejected is higher than the probability of being accepted." He sounds like the Scarecrow after he got his brain...
Hernandez and Meng said students should learn to see rejection as an opportunity to improve themselves, so that by the time they summon the courage to try again, they will be better candidates. Or they can view failure as a blessing, like the would-be barista who reconsidered his goals and launched a tutoring company called, appropriately enough, Overqualified. Ha ha ha, how...droll.
But how does one move forward, implored another graduate student facing rejection after rejection, when everyone else in the world thinks: "Surely, you have a Harvard degree. You'll get a job." Yes, how does one? Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps...
Abigail Lipson - director of the Bureau of Study Counsel, which cosponsored last week's seminar - had some advice in the pink bulletin: "We learn to recognize our bad feelings as an indication that we care, we have high standards and high hopes, and we expect a lot of ourselves and of the world, rather than assuming that we are hopelessly untalented or unworthy." Unlike those peasants who don't know who we are...
Hard as it is for some to believe, there are candidates more worthy than Harvard students, Professor Meng quipped, in language befitting his field. "Statistically you are rejected, and probablistically it is fair." No! It can't BE...
#1
"Statistically you are rejected, and probablistically it is fair."
Given that so many of those applicants rejected by Harvard and other name schools are precisely as qualified as those accepted...This, my dears, is what happens during a recession, and why it's important to at least minor in a salable skill. Honestly -- what qualification does a degree in Latin America studies provide for college administration or health care research? Should she not have at least minored in business administration or biology?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's Ministry of Religious Endowments has launched a campaign against wearing the full face veil known as a niqab in government jobs claiming it is not an obligation for Muslims.
[Maghrebia] Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika outlined his legislative priorities in a public address on Sunday (April 19th) after he was officially sworn into office for this third five-year mandate. He said he would pursue the national reconciliation initiative, boost investment in the public sector, and fight corruption. To deter the country's youth from choosing the path of illegal migration or armed fighting, he also promised to create three million new jobs in the next five years. Two former rival candidates - Ahd 54 chief Ali Faouzi Rebaine and Workers' Party (PT) leader Louisa Hanoune - boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, Echorouk reported.
The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived Tuesday.
The first bank affiliated with the Hamas movement running Gaza opened on Tuesday in the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip which lies outside the Palestinian Authority's control. 
The days of an open, largely unregulated Internet may soon come to an end.
