A must-see ad

Facing questions about potential conflicts of interest, Henry Kissinger resigned Friday as chairman of the September 11 commission.

President Bush named Kissinger to lead the 10-member commission last month, dropping his longstanding opposition to an independent probe of the events leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter to the president, Kissinger, 79, said he was stepping down from the appointment to remove any questions about even the appearance of a conflict of interest regarding his ties to several organizations and public figures.

If this letter is indeed genuine it is a remarkable view into the mind of a deranged but, to his followers — presumably — a cogent and deeply religious man:

Q. Why are we fighting and opposing you? 
A. Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.

Q. What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
A. The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam. The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

The full letter, at nearly 4000 words, contains many grievances against the Jewish-American conspiracy that bin Laden sees, replete with plenty of justifications for killing civilians in “self-defense”. Much to despise, yet also containing some truth exposing the hypocrises of the West. For example:

It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions, and you did not show concern. Yet when 3000 of your people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down.

Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts.

What [is happening] in Guatanamo is a historical embarrassment to America and its values, and it screams into your faces – you hypocrites, “What is the value of your signature on any agreement or treaty?”

I pick these examples because the mainstream media will of course provide all the (plentiful) ammunition contained therein to justify their continued support of the war effort as espoused by Bush, Sharon and bin Laden himself.

That is, if the mainstream (US) media report it at all.

Source: Observer

Canada has declined to comment on reports a senior Canadian official at the NATO summit in Prague has referred to US President George W Bush as a moron.

Newspaper The National Post says a top Canadian official has expressed frustration President Bush seems more keen on building up moral support for a possible assault on Iraq, rather than concentrating on NATO expansion – the official focus of the summit.

A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien says he will not comment on the incident.

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend: all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as “a virtual, centralized grand database.”

Grounded

A federal agency confirms that it maintains an air-travel blacklist of 1,000 people. Peace activists and civil libertarians fear they’re on it.

Source: John Robb’s Radio weblog

All-electronic voting: a very scary proposition.

How do we know the motives of those who make (and sell) the voting machines? For example, what if even one disgruntled employee with a cause decides to alter a line of code or two in the system to favour one side? How can we know that the systems have not been tampered with after delivery? When there’s no paper trail, how can we be sure that the totals have been tallied correctly, let alone be sure that voters’ true intentions were captured in the first place? And when there’s no transparency in the system (by the use of closed-source code, for example) how can such a system be properly audited?

There many reasons why I think ANY form of all-electronic voting is probably a bad idea. The KISS ethos probably applies to election technology more than any other area of progress. What is wrong with an X on a paper ballot? It’s simple, open, and very difficult to defraud when observers on all sides can query the count at any stage. As long as all sides are happy that enough of their own supporters are observing each count, it doesn’t matter how many times the votes have to be recounted to get a consistent result. With enough counters per ward and per constituency the process can be both quick and accurate. Witness the UK parliamentary elections, for example.

A couple more stories on the subject:
Chip glitch hands victory to wrong candidate
Voting into the void

Sources: “mta”, Houston Chronicle, Salon

Source: “mta”

Source: NoWarBlog

Moscow Times 1 Nov 2002:

There will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we so sure?

Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary.

LA Times 27 Oct 2002: The global war on terrorism “requires new strategies, postures and organization.”

Rumsfeld’s influential Defense Science Board 2002 Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism recommends creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception.

Among other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at “stimulating reactions” among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction — that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to “quick-response” attacks by U.S. forces.

Sources: metafilter, Moscow Times, LA Times

I think the answer’s obvious, but for two examples see Tara Grubb and the following viral email I received:

> —–Original Message—–
> From: The Executive Committee Against Uppity Citizens
> Sent: Monday November 03 7:37 AM
> To: MoveOn.org
> Subject: Please don’t vote.

> Dear friend,

> On behalf of Shell, Mobil, and Exxon; Boeing, Lockheed-Martin,
> and GE; all the Enrons, Halliburtons, and Harkens; President
> Bush, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the other CEOs
> of the Cabinet; and thousands of us who are working for a better
> life for the wealthiest Americans, we have one simple request:
> Could you please just stay home tomorrow?

> See, we have things to do. Nations to invade. Wetlands to
> destroy. Oil to drill. Courts to pack. Corporate taxes to cut.

> What’s frustrating for us is that we’re coming up against some
> pretty stiff resistance. We’ve spent hundreds of millions of
> dollars to secure the Senate, but it looks like we just may lose
> it. Heck, we may even lose the House. We don’t quite get what it
> is about our agenda that you people don’t like, but it’s clear
> that this time, you may be upset enough to actually do something
> about it.

> That’s why we’re writing this message to you today. Please don’t
> vote. Ask your friends not to vote. What could the harm be in
> sitting this round out? If you could just stay home on Election
> Day, we can get back to the important business of running the
> nation for you, and we won’t have to bother you again.