Sticks and Stones

Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's #2 man, insulted President elect Barack Obama.

The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect--along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice--"house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the latest message was just "more despicable comments from a terrorist."

James Joyner at OTB writes-

Despicable, indeed. Comments like this lead to insensitive behavior. Shame, shame al Qaeda.

Ayman al-Zawahri will be in for a real grilling at his next press conference. Maybe he'll go into some rehab clinic. Otherwise his poll numbers are liable to drop. Cue the sarcastic laughter.

War, Democrats, Taxes

Pretty much the standard spiel heard from the democrats for a generation or more.

JOHNSTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopefuls called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations Thursday and agreed in an unusually cordial debate that any thought of balancing the federal budget would have to wait.


"We're not going to be able to dig ourselves out" of Bush-era deficits in the next year or two, said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, one of six Democratic rivals sharing a stage for the final time before Iowa's leadoff Jan. 3 caucuses.

Asked about the importance of eliminating deficits, Democrats responded by criticizing President Bush's economic policies, including some of his tax cuts.

"I want to keep the middle class tax cuts" that Congress passed during President Bush's tenure, said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. But she said she favors raising taxes for the wealthiest.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina readily agreed. "The truth of the matter is the tax policy has been established by the big corporations and the wealthiest Americans," he said. "What we ought to be doing instead is getting rid of those tax breaks."

This is an unpopular view, but I've believed the War on Terror has never been approached right from a fiscal standpoint. Whether it is not properly funding it, causing further requests to Congress by the President, or the fact little or no sacrifice has been asked from the American public. If we're fighting a war to preserve our way of life, it should be funded adequately. Namely raising taxes in order to do it. Wasn't there a income tax imposed during the civil war? Were not taxes raised to fund World War II? I think they were, if I'm mistaken feel free to correct me.

Linked to- Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Washington Times newspaper. They get the award for the following.

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

[…]

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 “or the equivalent in weapons” for the cartel’s assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later.

Dr. Taylor at Poliblog made several good points when questioning this news on Monday.

Several things struck me as I read this. First, if there was evidence of a terrorist plan to attack a military base in Arizona, it would be all over the media. The 24/7 cable news nets live for this sort of thing. Second, and along the same lines, if such a plan had been found and halted, the Bush administration would be letting us all know of its success (not to mention the fact that Republican candidates for president would be jumping all over the story as proof that what we need is a strong defense and sealed borders). Third, why in the world would a Mexican cartel do business like this for a mere $20,000? That strikes me as chump change for even a low-level drug lord.

Terrorists getting help from drug cartels has been a subject of much fiction and Dr. Taylor is dead on perfect when saying what cartel would do this kind of business for $20,000? Especially since it would have negative ramifications for the drug smuggling business when uncovered or when the method of the attacks was discovered.

As we find out, the story is hogwash.

A plot by dozens of foreign terrorists who purportedly planned to attack Fort Huachuca with rocket propelled grenades and mines has proved unfounded, an FBI spokesman said Monday.

The threat, detailed by a local television station and The Washington Times after information was recently leaked to them, involved Iraqi and Afghan terrorists working with a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle themselves and weapons across the U.S. border.

*****

But the attack never occurred and was the result of bad information, said Manuel Johnson, an FBI spokesman based in Phoenix.

“A thorough investigation was conducted and there is no evidence showing that the threat was credible,” he said.

The Washington Times deliberately or accidentally published a fabricated story. A few conservative bloggers fell for it, Captain Ed(Granted Ed was skeptical to start with) for one, but since the truth came out no one is going after the Times. Rest assured if the NYT did this, there would be a mass gang tackle by conservative bloggers. No such thing is happening now, why is that? Could it be that the Washington Times is a conservative publication?

For perpetuating a journalistic hoax, The Washington Times is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Note- A columnist at the Times is a candidate for tomorrow's award too. For this piece of work.

Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Bright & Early, Commonsense America, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Third World County, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

Malacca Pirates

No we're not talking about a professional sports team but this news.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Armed pirates attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped two Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy waterway in more than two years, a global maritime watchdog said Tuesday.

The incident late Monday marked the third pirate attack in the strait this year, but the first since July 2005 in which ship crew were kidnapped, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

The barge was carrying steel billets from Malaysia's northern state of Penang to Belawan in Indonesia when it was raided by some 10 gun-toting pirates, Choong said.

They destroyed all communication equipment on board before fleeing with the ship master and chief engineer, both Indonesian, he said. Another six Indonesian crew were unharmed, he said, adding that the vessel is now in Belawan for investigation.

The strait is notorious for robberies and hijackings, but the number of attacks has fallen since Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, which share the waterway, launched coordinated maritime and air patrols in recent years to curb piracy.

Some 65,000 vessels pass through the Malacca Strait each year, carrying half the world's oil and more than a third of its commerce.

The Malacca Straits is one of the most travelled and most visited shipping channels in the world. Approximately twenty to twenty-five percent of the world's sea trade pass through these waters.

Pirates are a perennial nuisance in that part of the world. They can still be found in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and The Philippines. When all is said and done, pirates pose nothing but a local threat.

The greatest in these straits would be a terrorist. The sinking or venting of a large oil tanker, could have catastrophic consequences.(The waters are as shallow as 25m) Some people dismiss the threat, terrorists like Bin Laden prefer dramatic targets. How about a strike lets say close to Singapore? Singapore has a population of over 4.5 million people, and has a very busy port. A terrrorist attack near there would be certain to gain the dramatic television coverage many terrorists seek along with death and destruction.

Bottom line- Terrorists can attack anywhere, that's why a defensive strategy is unlikely ever to work. There are just many vulnerable spots in the world.

Linked to- Adam, Amboy Times, Big Dog, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove,

Lost car keys

Some news from Poland. Didn't anyone think of putting one of those beeper gizmos on them.

Linked to- Big Dog, Jo, Samantha Burns,

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's 1,200 troops assigned to NATO forces in Afghanistan will not achieve full combat readiness for up to several weeks due to stolen vehicle keys, the defense ministry said Thursday.

"We had been told a 10 percent theft rate was likely in convoys brought in from Pakistan, but we had not expected the spare car keys to go missing," defense ministry spokesman Jaroslaw Rybak told news channel TVN24.

"We shall have to send away for spares, so it may take from several days to several weeks for our contingent to become combat ready."

According to media reports, Polish troops taking part in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan have been assigned to patrol the mountainous border area with Pakistan to search for Taliban guerrilla activity.

The military vehicles used by Polish forces include Poland's Land Rover-like Honkers and U.S.-built Humvees.

Heightened threat

From AP-

BERLIN - U.S. diplomatic facilities have increased their security due to a "heightened threat," the U.S. Embassy in Berlin said Friday.

Robert Wood, a U.S. embassy spokesman, noted that German authorities had said Germany faces an increased threat of terrorism because its military takes part in missions in
Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities in Germany are increasing their security posture," the embassy said in a statement. "We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation."

The embassy refused to say whether there were specific threats.

Earlier this month, the State Department issued a "Worldwide Caution" saying there had been no change from previous warnings about the possibility of al-Qaida attacks in Europe, Asia, Africa or the Middle East.

"These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings," the statement said.

I always felt terrorists will stick to the tactic of attacking US interests abroad. These men and women are cowards, they don't attack the strong, just the vulnerable aka soft Targets. 9-11 was an anomaly, for such dramatic attacks are not easy to execute. That doesn't mean the US can let its guard down. Complacency is never a strategy for success.

Linked to- Basil, Cao, Right Wing Nation,

The Day of the Sea lion

From ABC News-

SAN DIEGO Feb 12, 2007 (AP)— Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.

LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.

Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

I am wondering where the Animal Rights people are on this issue. Maybe I should drop PETA's President Ingrid Newkirk a message. TFM has her email address.

Oh and will they make a modern remake of this 1973 movie but based on this program with Sealions? I prefer the original movie's ending. I'd rather see the bad guys blown up with their own bombs than brought in for questioning.

Linked to- Amboy Times, Common Folk, Pirate's Cove,

Computer War

From IDG News Service-

Online attackers have briefly disrupted service on at least two of the 13 "root" servers that are used to direct traffic on the Internet.

The attack, which began Tuesday at about 5:30 a.m. Eastern time, was the most significant attack against the root servers since an October 2002 distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, said Ben Petro, senior vice president of services with Internet service provider Neustar Inc. Root servers manage the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), used to translate Web addresses such as Amazon.com into the numerical Internet Protocol addresses used by machines.

The attack appeared to have been launched by a group of compromised PCs, called a botnet, Petro said.

Two of the root servers suffered badly, although they did not completely crash; some of the others also saw heavy traffic," said John Crain, chief technical officer with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN), in an e-mail interview


The two hardest-hit servers are maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense and ICANN, he added.

I remember the 2002 attack. It is on a much larger scale. Cyber attacks can be the next type of warfare. Our financial community and power grids for just two examples are heavily dependent on internet. Damaging these Ricks servers and cause a internet disruption would have serious consequences not just financially but to many things people take for granted.

Brian Krebs at the Washington Post puts forth other reasons for what happened Tuesday.

A number of technologists I spoke with who helped defend against the attack said it's too early to say definitively where the attack came from, but this perspective from an operator responsible for maintaining one of the root servers suggests that South Korea, China and the United States were the biggest source of computers used in the attack (the initial analysis suggest that 13 percent of machines involved in the attack were located here in San Francisco, the site of the RSA Security Conference, from which I'm currently blogging.)

Someone arrest Mr. Krebs. He is planning to take over the world!(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

In the news coverage so far, theories about the motives behind the attack varied widely, from speculation that it was just hacker mischief to notions that it was cooked up by curious criminals bent on testing their ability to extort the many wealthy and powerful interests that rely on a functioning Internet.

What news coverage? These stories were buried at Yahoo news and I've even forgotten how I found. Instead of Root Servers attacks and the danger of them, the MSM is too busy talking nonsense in the aftermath of Anna Nicole Smith's death. I so wanted to throw something at a television this afternoon(Betsy also commented on this wondering how those in 24 hours news can respect themselves.) as MSNBC, CNN and Fox all babbled on at that story.

Back to the servers and why they were attacked. Krebs theories are plausible and I'm no computer expert. However the DOD attacks have to regarded with alarm. They were also attacked in 2002. Call me paranoid,(I'm not but I just think everyone is against me) but I just don't believe in too many coincidences.

Note- Now I remember where I got the link to the WAPO story. Hat tip to R. Elgin at Marmot's Hole.
Linked to- Basil's Blog, Bullwinkle, Cao's Blog,

Another Madrid Bombing

From CNN-

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain has blamed a powerful bomb explosion at the country's busiest airport Saturday on Basque separatist group ETA, declaring it a violation of a nine-month cease-fire.

Several people suffered minor injuries when a stolen van exploded in a parking lot near terminal four at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, which had been evacuated after police received a warning.

One man is reported missing after the explosion. If found dead, he would be the first fatality caused by ETA in three years.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government condemned the attack, "which breaks nine months without violence on the part of ETA, which breaks the permanent ceasefire."

But the head of Batasuna, a political party banned for links with ETA said the peace process would continue.

"The peace process...is not only not over, but now it is more necessary than ever," Arnaldo Batasuna told a news conference in the Basque city of San Sebastian, Reuters reported.

In terrorist speak that means- "Concede all our demands or we keep up the violence." Terrorists are fanatics and rarely seek compromises.

Fortunately casualties were light today. Spain may not be as lucky next time.

Dr. Taylor is also blogging on the bombing.

I will note, that after the Madrid commuter train bombing it struck me (here, also) that ETA would have a very hard time using bombings as an effective tool in their fight for Basque independence. Along those line, bombing an airport (or even just a parking lot) strikes me as a potential PR nightmare for the organization.

Yes I'd think an airport bombing makes little sense from a PR point of view. Then fanatics aren't necessarily logical in their actions.

Hat tip- James Joyner at OTB.
Linked to- Third World County, Wakeup America, Uncooperative Blogger,