Reid Stott makes a damn good point about human intelligence (spies): "We all know the US rules the world of electronic intelligence, and we also know our intelligence services have sometimes been found lacking in the area of human intelligence, meaning agents on the ground, often undercover. Afghanistan was a glaring example of that, with the claim made that there's just no way for an American to infiltrate organizations like Al Qaeda. "The criminal complaint alleges Walker Lindh learned this past summer from one of his instructors at a terrorist training camp that Osama bin Laden 'had sent people to the United States to carry out several suicide operations.' "Jihad Johnny arrived in Afghanistan in March of 2001. By June or July, he had obtained critical intelligence, and been in the presence of Osama himself. What were the "bonafides" that got him there? Some time spent studying the Koran in Yemen and Pakistan. Otherwise, he was just a 20 year old kid from California. I'm hoping there's some folks at Langley quietly kicking themselves and rethinking their obviously faulty assumptions. "
Weblogs.com is down and so are the thousands of Radio weblogs hosted there. Unfortunately, this is what happens when we all put our eggs in one basket. Things go down for awhile. Then (hopefully) then come back up. Dave says, "We have an outage on one of our static servers. Scripting News doesn't look so hot with all the broken images. Weblogs.Com is down. Lots of content flows through that server."
"San Francisco International Airport has reopened after it evacuated thousands of travelers from a United terminal for 21/2 hours this morning after security guards detected explosive residue on the shoes of a man who disappeared into the crowd... The man was not found, airport spokesman Ron Wilson said, but passengers were allowed to re-enter the terminal starting at 9:30 a.m. PST."
NASA warned all of the southern hemisphere and some of the northern to beware a falling satellite. "Engineers said that as many as nine pieces of debris weighing up to 100 pounds each could survive as NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer plunges through the atmosphere. The space junk could hit an area bordered by Orlando on the north and Brisbane, Australia, on the south."
The White House will have to two anti-terror ads during the Super Bowl. "[The] two 30-second spots... suggest illegal drug sale profits may help fuel terrorism."
Thousands of people were evacuated from a United terminal at San Francisco International Airport this morning after a man left a security gate with explosive residue on his shoes.
The USA Freedom Corps website has come online this morning. Even more interesting is the new Citizen Corps. Its website also just came online. Citizen Corps is described as "A national system for concerned workers to report suspicious activity... Operation TIPS - the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (part of Citizen Corps) - will be a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity. Operation TIPS, a project of the U.S. Department of Justice, will begin as a pilot program in 10 cities that will be selected."
Bill Simoni started weblogging for the same reason I did: "It's pedestrian - it is acting as a reminder of what I found interesting. I don't bookmark like I probably should and am constantly wondering, "What site was that where I read X?" Well, now I have a way of tracking it. That's a good enough reason for me." I soon discovered that weblogging is more than a way to maintain a link list. Its a way of learning and teaching at the same time.
Hello webloggers webring neighbours. To my left the logfiles. To my right Starry Eyes.
The full text of the State of the Union address: "Evil is real, and it must be opposed."