Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Thanks for that info.

1,121 posted on 04/29/2004 8:12:29 PM PDT by Cindy

To: DAVEY CROCKETT

Davey, was that you :)

1,122 posted on 04/29/2004 8:14:03 PM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

OH! someone posted some of it at Liberty Forum!

Grab this Cindy! It is actually longer than this...but the full article is subscribe only. I scanned it in as a bitmap; but it is huge!

Category: News & Opinion Topic: Computers & Internet
Synopsis:
Source: www.investors.com
Published: April 27, 2004 Author: BY DOUG TSURUOKA
For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials

BY DOUG TSURUOKA

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs.

Blogs, short for Web logs, are personal online journals. Individuals post them on Web sites to report or comment on news especially, but also on their personal lives or most any subject.

Some blogs are whimsical and deal with "soft" subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion.

As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what's reported in some blogs is questionable.

Still, a panel of folks who work in the U.S. intelligence field — some of them spies or former spies — discussed this month at a conference in Washington the idea of tracking blogs.

"News and intelligence is about listening with a critical ear, and blogs are just another conversation to listen to and evaluate. They also are closer to (some situations) and may serve as early alerts," said Jock Gill, a former adviser on Internet media to President Clinton, in a later phone interview, after he spoke on the panel.

Some panel and conference participants, because of their profession, could not be identified. But another who could is Robert Steele, another blog booster. The former U.S. intelligence officer said "absolutely" that blogs are valid sources of intelligence and news, though he said authenticating the information in blogs "leaves a lot to be desired."

Steele is founder and CEO of consulting firm OSS.Net, which organized the conference. The OSS '04 conference focused on public sources of intelligence. (OSS stands for open source solutions. In this case, open source is an intelligence term, not a reference to Linux and open source software.)

China Wants To Block Blogs

The CIA and FBI haven't publicly commented about use of blogs in their work, but many D.C. observers believe both agencies monitor certain blogs.

At least one nation, China, is actively tracking blogs. It's also reportedly trying to block blogs. Several press reports earlier this year said the government shut two blogging services and banned access to all Web logs by Chinese citizens.

Many journalists write blogs and use other blogs to help find sources or verify facts and rumors. Blogs hail from just about any spot on the globe. They can provide first-hand insights into local events and thinking, even in parts of the world where there's little official information.

One example is the "Baghdad Blogger."

In March 2003, as U.S. forces stormed Iraq, one of the few sources on the Iraqi viewpoint was a blog written by a person who turned out to be 29-year-old Iraqi architect Salam Pax, though it's not certain that is his real name.

Some reporters followed his blog daily, which gave gritty insights into how the war was shaking the lives of Iraqis.

The U.S. military never publicly acknowledged Pax, but people at the conference say they believe U.S. military officers read the blog.

Some news organizations valued the blog. Britain's Guardian newspaper was so impressed that it hired Pax in May 2003 to write a biweekly column on life in Baghdad. He's still writing it.

Blogs last year also provided information during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. In China, where the SARS outbreak began, the government at first said little. But health officials and reporters were able to get a sense of what was happening through blogs, as well as from e-mail and cell phone text messages sent to people outside China. This might have spurred China's blog crackdown.

Gill says blogs are a good way to uncover news that regular media aren't covering or can't cover. "Blogs may be the best and only channel for such news stories," Gill said.

NGOs Already Get Attention

Various U.S. agencies already scan the Web sites of so-called nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, for information on political, economic and environmental issues. So tracking blogs isn't a big step. And there are software products and online services for this task.

While blog postings are voluntary and available to anyone to read, some observers say blog monitoring by governments or the media raises civil liberties and privacy issues. One such critic is James Love, director of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Consumer Project on Technology.

"When you're conducting surveillance where you have no expectation of illegal activity, there has to be some threshold to justify such surveillance," Love said.

Some point to other dangers in using blogs for intelligence or news. Blogs can be used to spread lies or disinformation.

It's hard to fact check a blog account of an event in a remote area like Mongolia. Plus, many bloggers don't use their real names. Confirming identities can be hard.

In Baghdad last September, guerillas fired two surface-to-air missiles at a U.S. military transport, but missed. A blogger in Baghdad who goes by the name "Riverbend" wrote that the plane carried Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was then in Iraq.

The report proved false, but it confused the media.

Determining blog accuracy is the crucial first step to taking it further, warned Tim Witcher, who spoke at the conference. He's the former Seoul, Korea, bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, a news service. "A blog only becomes news when we can be 100% sure that it's true," he said.

1,123 posted on 04/29/2004 8:15:31 PM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

NO
Just saw it on the news.

Not me not me. LOL

1,124 posted on 04/29/2004 8:16:56 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT (Let your adversary talk. When he has finished, let him talk some more.)

Thanks for posting that. I'm not falling for the North Korean officials explanation. Something else happened. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer needs dynamite or a fire to make it blow not just contact with an electrical line.

1,125 posted on 04/29/2004 8:17:22 PM PDT by Oorang ( If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?)

1,126 posted on 04/29/2004 8:17:57 PM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

Sounds like a simple hardware failure. Not much else would fry a mother board. Not even a virus. The most they could do is to get access to the bios and render it inoperatable, but that could be repaired. This is even more serious than that.

1,127 posted on 04/29/2004 8:18:08 PM PDT by Revel

***Names not released

***No drugs were found

Hmmmmmm.

You wouldn't think it was anything besides smugglers now wouldya? Using a hacksaw to go through a grate sounds like a little more than the typical illegal alien or drug runner to me! Doesn't matter now though, they'll be successful next time they try it because I'm sure they've learned from this mistake:)

1,128 posted on 04/29/2004 8:19:10 PM PDT by MamaDearest (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.)

My bios did disappear Revel.

I even tried making a new one with Max Blast.

No good.

It was an older Compaq Presario workstation from a fire sale that I upgraded.

Older compaqs can only be recycled for so long (by a novice).

1,129 posted on 04/29/2004 8:20:28 PM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

Snippet: "The CIA and FBI haven't publicly commented about use of blogs in their work, but many D.C. observers believe both agencies monitor certain blogs."

OPINION: While I don't have a blog, I have a lot of web pages that are online. Online means public. Public means not private. Not private means anyone can read them including the government.

I have absolutely no problem at all with LEOs, the Military, FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, DEA, etc visiting any of my sites.

Bottom line, at least for me, if I wanted my web pages to be private; they would be subscriber only or wouldn't be online at all.

Just my 1.5 cents.

1,130 posted on 04/29/2004 8:22:13 PM PDT by Cindy

Good grief! Notice the RED SODA CANS. Remember all the red drinks in the twexus photots?

One of the older jihadi posts had wording about coca cola if my memory serves me right. Does anyone remember that one?

1,131 posted on 04/29/2004 8:24:31 PM PDT by MamaDearest (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.)

LOLOLOLOLOLLL! and giggling....

Well, of course some of those groups don't want their "blogs" monitored.

1,132 posted on 04/29/2004 8:25:26 PM PDT by Cindy

But what is the movie, I can't do movies on this old machine............

Thanks for sending it on and all the work that you did to finish this off, I sent another to you earlier tonight, in your freep mail.

1,133 posted on 04/29/2004 8:26:39 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (google search: begin our Jihad in the English Forums)

To: Quix; Old Sarge

1,134 posted on 04/29/2004 8:33:06 PM PDT by Oorang ( If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?)

To: nw_arizona_granny

Odd thing about the movies that are threaded through the NJ0Y, Twexus and Clipgate.

All that I found are done through QuickTime. I have Quicktime an still receive and error about missing components and the movie doesn't run.

I know part of the software that is used to do custom filtering with Twexus is Movable Type.

I wonder if Movable Type carries the missing piece of software to view these movies?

I guess I will never know. :(

1,135 posted on 04/29/2004 8:34:11 PM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

I hope our Canadian neighbors know what they are getting into by approving Sharia law up to relieve their crowded court system. The article you posted about the Sharia effect on Nigeria is one good indication the Canadians didn't do their homework prior to making the decision authorizing Sharia courts.

1,136 posted on 04/29/2004 8:38:04 PM PDT by MamaDearest (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.)

They were not going to be re-selling the weapons as they were. They were going to be broken down and sold for parts.

But under ATF regulations, a properly licensed company can ship such weapons to a "custom bonded warehouse" in the United States. There, they are disassembled and their key firing components destroyed. The remaining parts can then be reconfigured into a weapon that will meet the letter of the 1994 law and can be sold legally in the United States.

1,137 posted on 04/29/2004 8:38:30 PM PDT by Oorang ( If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?)

To: Jill St Claire

Thanks for the update Jill - it is appreciated!

1,138 posted on 04/29/2004 8:40:45 PM PDT by MamaDearest (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.)

Ammonium nitrate fertilizer needs dynamite or a fire to make it blow not just contact with an electrical line.

Ammonium nitrate is just the oxidizing element. It needs fuel. Standard "gunpowder" employs powdered charcoal. The OKC bombers mixed the ammonium nitrate with diesel fuel oil. Normally the fuel and oxidizer are homogenously combined for optimal results. It is hard to believe that sufficient amounts of separately shipped reagents on individual rail cars mixed correctly by "accident". I suspect high explosives (C4/Semtex/TNT) were purposely loaded on a rail car for the utilitarian purpose of eliminating Kim Jong Il.

The coal cars for my project in Birmingham carry 110 tons of coal each. Replace that with TNT and you get a yield close to what has been reported.

1,139 posted on 04/29/2004 8:41:10 PM PDT by Myrddin

To: Rushmore Rocks

I believe it to be supreme arrogance to assume that we are the only intelligent life in this incredible universe.

You will get no argument from me. I agree with you. But, I really want to know about the Wyoming cattle.

1,140 posted on 04/29/2004 8:46:52 PM PDT by Oorang ( If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?)

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