Letters to the Editor
Jebbie
Published Letters: 1037
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"...return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...
[Read the article: The leak designed to save Alberto Gonzales]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](cue The William Tell Overture)
John Poindexter rides again!
See - http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/exclusive_fbi_d.html
also
DARPA
On January 16, 2003, Senator Russ Feingold introduced legislation to suspend the activity of the IAO and the Total Information Awareness program pending a Congressional review of privacy issues involved. A similar measure introduced by Senator Ron Wyden would have prohibited the IAO from operating within the United States unless specifically authorized to do so by Congress, and would have shut the IAO down entirely 60 days after passage unless either the Pentagon prepared a report to Congress assessing the impact of IAO activities on individual privacy and civil liberties or the President certified the program's research as vital to national security interests. In February of 2003, Congress passed legislation suspending activities of the IAO pending a Congressional report of the office's activities (Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, No.108–7, Division M, §111(b) [signed Feb. 20, 2003]).
Despite the withdraw of funding for the TIA and the closing of the IAO, the core of the project survived. Legislators included a classified annex to the Defense Appropriations Act that preserved funding for TIA's component technologies, if they were transferred to other government agencies. TIA projects continued to be funded under classified annexes to Defense and Intelligence appropriation bills. However, the act also stipulated that the technologies only be used for military or foreign intelligence purposes against foreigners.
TIA's two core projects are now operated by Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) located among the 60-odd buildings of "Crypto City" at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. ARDA itself has been shifted from the NSA to the Disruptive Technology Office (run by to the Director of National Intelligence). They are funded by National Foreign Intelligence Program for foreign counterterrorism intelligence purposes.
One technology, now codenamed "Baseball" is the Information Awareness Prototype System, the core architecture to integrated all the TIA's information extraction, analysis, and dissemination tools. Work on this project is conducted by SAIC through its Hicks & Associates, consulting arm that is run by former Defense and military officials and which had originally been awarded US$19 million IAO contract to build the prototype system in late 2002.
The other project has been re-designated "TopSail" (formerly Genoa II) and would provide IT tools to help anticipate and preempt terrorist attacks. SAIC has also been contracted to work on Topsail, including a US$3.7 million contract in 2005.
While I am not normally prone to lay awake at night pondering various and assorted conspiracy theories, it's quite possible that we are witnessing some inter-agency bureaucratic infighting between the FBI and NSA and it certainly wouldn't be the first time. Such "turf battles" have been going on since the days of J. Edgar Hoover and "Wild Bill" Donovan.
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Preconditions are necessary
[Read the article: What Beltway media stars mean by "centrism" and "extremism"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]to any successful meeting between heads of state.
The problem arises when one defines what is meant by the word "pre-condition".
If one side demands what amounts to a capitulation on an issue prior to agreeing to talks, that is unreasonable and that is what Bush has been doing with Iran when he insisted that Iran stop it's uranium enrichment program before the US would agree to talk about it.
However, if one side demands that a certain issue must simply be on the table as a precondition for talks, that is reasonable. Thus, had Bush told Iran that talks would be possible if those talks include the issue of enriching fuel to the point where it becomes weapons grade, that would have been an acceptible precondition.
Define "is".
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@bjobotts
[Read the article: The leak designed to save Alberto Gonzales]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"In public testimony Comey would not reveal the details when asked but surely he did in private testimony."
Comey would not necessarily reveal classified information to a Congressional committee unless all the members (and staff) of that Committee were cleared for such information - even in closed session.
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Gooooooooooood Morning, Shooter!
[Read the article: The leak designed to save Alberto Gonzales]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Welcome to yet another week of getting your rhetorical ass kicked and another week of our country coming closer to the End of an Error.
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Icing on the Cake
[Read the article: The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Matthew Yglesias reports that O'Hanlon has a long term personal relationship with Gen. Petraeus.
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/07/war_supporters_the_war_is_grea.php
Wouldn't it have been more ethical to advise their readership of this potential conflict of interest?
Ethics?
New York Times?
Not so much.
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-- casual_observer
[Read the article: The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"When, I wonder--when are we going to get some really high-quality propaganda?"
Probably about the same time we get some really high-quality trolls.
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-- casual_observer
[Read the article: The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Jeez. I guess it turned out OK. He was with Prime Minister Brown at Camp David. They were holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes. Kept him (and us) out of trouble."
If Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah sees that, he's gonna be really pissed about George Two-Timing him.
Sez George, "Good Job, Brownie!"
Sez Brownie in reply, "Blow me, Georgie Porgie. You owe me big time."
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Does Anyone Know
[Read the article: The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How often it is that an article is published in the NYT on a Monday morning and then ALL the major political talk shows book the authors that very same afternoon?
I'm aware that late Friday afternoon is the preferred time for the government to release bad news. Is Monday morning the preferred time to release news charitable to the government?
What are the odds that the authors and detractors (pseudo and otherwise) of a piece appearing in the NYT Monday morning edition would be booked on Monday afternoon talk shows?
I have a feeling that this entire exercise is no coincidence.
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Our Shooter
[Read the article: A new low of mindlessness for our media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bless his heart.
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-- Seixon
[Read the article: A new low of mindlessness for our media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Oh no, what kind of war-mongering letter did O'Hanlon sign?"
Where did Glenn say that the particular letter O'Hanlon signed had "war mongering" language in it?
If so, I missed that part. Please link me to the statement to which you refer.
Absent that, I'll just go through life understanding that the organization to which Glenn refers (Project for New American Century) is most assuredly a war mongering bunch of loonies, not necessarily O'Hanlon (in that instance).
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-- michilines
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"As far as you influence on Glenn, I'd say waning, but what do I know?"
As someone who has known them both since the days of 1200 baud rates, I'd say you know nothing.