August 2005

From

CNN

FBI probes for Chinese cyber spies

 From Terry Frieden CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and the Pentagon are investigating whether
Chinese spies have been hacking into U.S. government computer systems, U.S.
officials said Thursday.

Officials are trying to determine whether the continuing hacking efforts
are sponsored by Beijing or merely involve hackers using Chinese Web sites to
mask their origins, they said.

In recent years units in the FBI Cyber-crime Division, established to
combat computer intrusions, have seen hundreds of cases in which hackers using
Chinese Web sites have compromised unclassified official U.S. networks.

One U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified, said
government investigators had been involved for several years in "working this
problem."

"You can't just jump on a plane and go to China and start questioning
people," another government official said.

The FBI declined to comment because of the sensitive nature of the
investigations.

Government officials acknowledge many of the attacked Web sites have been
unclassified Defense Department sites.

Several other agencies involved with national security, including the
departments of Energy and Homeland Security, also have been targeted, the
officials said.

The investigation into the hacking and the debate about the origin were
first reported by Federal Computer Week and The Washington Post.

From the AP

Iraqis Miss Third Constitution Deadline

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

The speaker of Iraq's Parliament announced a one-day extension early Friday
in talks on Iraq's new constitution — a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab
approval for the draft. But he said that if no agreement is reached, the draft
would be presented to the people in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Hajim al-Hassani, speaking minutes after the midnight deadline, said that
after meeting for three days, "we found that time was late and we saw that the
matters will need another day in order to reach results that please everyone."

Earlier, however, a Sunni Arab negotiator said Shiites didn't even show up
for a late-night meeting, and two Shiite delegates told reporters they saw no
reason why the draft presented to the legislature Monday could not be
forwarded to the people for a referendum.

Although the constitution requires only a simple majority in the
referendum, if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces
vote against it, the charter will be defeated. Sunni Arabs are about 20
percent of the national population but form the majority in at least four
provinces.

Shiites and Kurds had accepted a draft on Monday but Sunni Arabs opposed
it, and al-Hassani granted three more days to try to bring the Sunnis on
board.

The parliament speaker said that discussions in the past three days were
"very good in which points of views were exchanged." He said they discussed
federalism, references to Saddam Hussein's Baath party and the constitution's
introduction.

Remember a little over two years ago when we heard the claims of WMD and how
Iraq was trying to obtain uranium yellow cake from Niger? Also remember how we
heard that the basis of these claims were well founded because most of them came
from a Iraqi defector? Finally, remember how it all was proven wrong after we
had already entered our first pre-emptive war in history?

You think we would of learned something from those harsh lessons. Not only
has those mistakes cost us close to 2,000 American soldiers, hundreds of
billions of dollars, over 10,000 Iraqi live, and alienation from the world, but
they have also put us into the quagmire we call Iraq.

Now we are slowly hearing the same stories repeat themselves, this time not
about Iraq, but involving Iran.

Reuters has a report out today that has a eerie mimic to the reports we
heard in early 2003.

Iranian agents have tried to obtain from South Korea a substance that can
be used to boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, an Iranian exile group
said on Thursday.

Wow! Maybe making a claim that it is coming from South Korea would prevent
another Joe Wilson from traveling abroad to find out the truth.

But who are these exiles that are giving us this information? They are the
National Council for Resistance of Iran, a group the state department has had
listed on their terrorist watch list since 2002. They are also a group that
would love nothing more than to see the United States go into Iran and create
the same situation we have done in Iraq.

The NCRI has a
website that lists some of their visions for Iran and their purpose.

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that
statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who
thinks the U.S. is out to kill him." (from

AP)

Seems Robertson went home and watched the video of his comment earlier this
week when he did call for the assassination of President Chavez. Funny how only
a few hours ago he was denying making that comment and blaming it on the medias
"misinterpretation of the facts":

Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces
should, quote, "take him out," and "take him out" can be a number of things
including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from
power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens
all the time. (via
Media Matters)

No Pat. It does not happen all the time. We are not living in colonial times.
We have cool, high-tech devices like VCR's now that can keep actual proof of
what you say. The entire country is not your flock and there are those of us who
think freely and realize that your comments were inappropriate and not
misinterpreted by any means. Much like your constant

prayer vigils for the removal of Supreme Court Justices.