Free Republic

Tiny dots produced by some laser printers are a secret code that can allow the government to track down counterfeiters, a new study concludes, raising the hackles of privacy advocates. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said its researchers recently broke the code behind the tiny tracking dots and said the US Secret Service confirmed that the tracking is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers to identify counterfeiters. "We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of...

DOVER, Del. - In a decision hailed by free-speech advocates, the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court decision requiring an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official. In a 34-page opinion, the justices said a Superior Court judge should have required Smyrna town councilman Patrick Cahill to make a stronger case that he and his wife, Julia, had been defamed before ordering Comcast Cable Communications to disclose the identities of four anonymous posters to a blog site operated by Independent Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Delaware State...

     Inman on the Culture of Leaks 07/26 06:04 PMI recently asked Admiral Bobby R. Inman (USN Ret.), a professor at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs who served as both Director of the National Security Administration and former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, what he thought about Wilson, Plame and the leaking of classified information. Inman brought up an episode that has been overlooked in the recent debate — the CIA leaks during the 2004 election cycle, particularly the book Imperial Hubris, published by former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer under the pseudonym Anonymous. Inman said: I was utterly...

Newsweek floundered in journalistic purgatory over the weekend, unable to confirm or completely retract the "Periscope" item from its May 9 issue that incensed rioters in Afghanistan and Pakistan; 16 people died in the melees. I wonder why Newsweek wasn't more skeptical about Quran-desecration charges. Muslims so venerate the Quran that they are outraged if anyone touches one without first washing their hands, let alone put it into a dung-hole. Compare the ubiquity of the toilet story with other kinds of Quran desecration. In my Nexis sifting I found only a handful of examples from the last 25 years: A...

To avoid "potential harm" to eight people who have joined avowed atheist Michael Newdow in a quest to strike "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, a federal judge agreed Tuesday to allow them to remain anonymous during what is sure to be a closely-watched legal fight over highly-charged issue. Newdow, who filed the lawsuit using pseudonyms for all the plaintiffs except himself, proposed in a motion to keep anonymous the names of the parents and students in Sacramento County and San Joaquin County school districts. Attorneys for the defendants - Congress, the federal government, California, and five school districts...

Because the media do not always remember that nothing should be too dangerous to talk about in America, I would first like to thank TCS for allowing Mr. Apostolou to publish his essay on my work and ideas ("Michael Scheuer's Bloody Logic", TCS, 3/17/05). I am indeed an old-fashioned conservative nationalist, stuck with the quaint belief that U.S. foreign policy should protect Americans first, last, and always. I of course never said anything remotely resembling "America must kill innocent Muslims because of its relationship with Israel" -- although that's a clever way of diverting attention from the arguments of my...

Michael Scheuer, whose book Imperial Hubris lambasts US strategy in the war against al Qaeda, has attracted attention for recent public statements on Israel. The former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, Scheuer claimed at the Council on Foreign Relations in February that Israel controls the debate on US foreign policy. As important as Scheuer's hostility to Israel is his underlying message: that to keep Israel happy, the US must kill innocent Muslims. While Scheuer's views on the Middle East are unpleasant, they are not far from the orthodoxy among retired diplomats. The view of the superannuated foreign service...

Al-Qaeda's Completed Warning Cycle - Ready to Attack?   03/03/2005 - By Michael Scheuer DCI Porter Goss's testimony before Congress on February 16 that Soviet nuclear material could be in al-Qaeda's hands is a troubling coda to speeches by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in late 2004. Bin Laden's October 30 speech was treated by the media as an attempt to influence the election. Most post-speech commentary also claimed the speech moved bin Laden away from war and toward political discourse. That the speech was directed to the American people is clear. What received little notice, however, is that...

My first personal encounter with the CIA came in 1989. I was living in Washington, D.C., editing a new publication about Communist affairs under the auspices of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There had been a spate of violence directed against the Communist authorities in Russia; I was among the first to discuss and analyze these events, publishing my findings not only in my own research bulletin but also, to wider attention, in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Shortly after my articles appeared I got a phone call from a second secretary of the Soviet...

"...According to Scheuer, the tiny nation of Israel is not a valuable ally in the Middle East, but instead the author of a vast conspiracy to hijack the direction of American foreign policy. Scheuer explained to the CFR crowd that Israel dictates the course of its relationship with the United States. He explained, "we can no longer afford to be seen as the dog that's led by the tail." Scheuer further warned, "I don't think we can afford to be led around, or at least appear to be led around by them." So, not only has Israel "covertly" targeted the...

Remember Michael Scheuer? He's the former CIA analyst who penned an anonymous book called "Imperial Hubris" attacking the Bush administration's approach to terrorism. When we last saw him, in November, he was explaining to Tim Russert that American support for Israel is to blame for anti-American terrorism, and that Osama bin Laden is "in many ways . . . an admirable man."....

PORTER GOSS was confirmed as director of central intelligence on September 22, 2004. That day, acting CIA director John McLaughlin said, "I know I speak for my colleagues at CIA and throughout the intelligence community in congratulating Porter Goss on his confirmation by the Senate as director of central intelligence." It was a gracious statement from a man who had wanted the job. But in terms of accuracy it should go down as the latest in a long line of bogus CIA assessments. McLaughlin was not speaking on behalf of many of his colleagues at the CIA when he congratulated...

It wasn't long ago the story line coming out of Afghanistan was that the country was sliding toward warlordism and anarchy. This, it was said, was just one example of how the Bush Administration's war in Iraq was causing reverses in the broader war on terror. Or not. Earlier this month, Pakistan's Daily Times reported that the U.S. military has been contacted by Taliban fighters seeking to lay down their arms in exchange for an amnesty. Barring some bitter-enders, it seems many former Taliban fighters now realize their future lies within the country's democratic political process, not against it. We...

Fair use for education/discussion purposes: Yahoo! News News Home - Help AFP CIA renditions of terror suspects are 'out of control:' report Sun Feb 6, 5:57 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)'s 'rendition' of suspected terrorists has spiralled 'out of control' according to a former FBI (news - web sites) agent, cited in a report which examined how CIA (news - web sites) detainees are spirited to states suspected of using torture. Michael Scheuer a former CIA counterterrorism agent told The New Yorker magazine "all we've done is create a nightmare," with regard...

BuzzFlash interview: Michael Scheuer. Ex-CIA bin Laden unit chief explains why insurgents are willing to die fighting us I’m very much frustrated with the inability of our leaders to make more than a superficial effort to understand the enemy, not because we need to sympathize with them or empathize with them, but because he’s so dangerous. We really need to take the measure of the enemy and why the enemy is fighting us.... Islamic militancy is a complex issue, but it’s not impossible for Americans to understand if they’re talked to directly and frankly. So far, we’ve gone through 12...

Due to the overwhelming response to an earlier thread, a resource is available as a "online email meeting" (email list)Feel free to check in or join up if you wish.One Day At a Time.... Click here

ON SUNDAY'S Meet The Press Tim Russert asked his guest, Michael Scheuer, to respond to questions concerning his first book from 2002, Through Our Enemies' Eyes. In it, as I pointed out in an earlier article, Scheuer cites numerous pieces of evidence that substantiate the Bush administration's claim that Saddam's Iraq had a relationship with al Qaeda. However, in his recent media appearances, Scheuer now gives the impression that there is no evidence that there was a relationship. Tim Russert asked Scheuer about this apparent contradiction; his response left much to be desired. Scheuer's response does, however, illustrate one of...

For more than two years, Rev. Jim Potter has fought Anderson County officials for the right to leave up a giant Christian cross he erected near I-75. On Monday, a judge sided with the county, ordering Rev. Potter to remove the cross. County officials argued that the cross, located on private property near exit 122, violated building and zoning regulations. But Rev. Potter said he believed that because of the significance of religious structures, his cross should be exempt from the zoning regulations. "I think it (the cross) should bring to knowledge the fact that Jesus Christ did die for...

ON NOVEMBER 9, ex-CIA counterterrorism officer Michael Scheuer gave an interview to the Washington Post's Dana Priest. Scheuer, who ran the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996-99, and whose latest book, Imperial Hubris (published under the pseudonym "Anonymous"), criticizes the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies in general and the Iraq war in particular, wanted to talk about his former employer. Scheuer told Priest that his bosses at the CIA (he gave the interview prior to leaving the agency) had "diluted the pool that supports our people overseas," which meant that "in the long term, we're less safe than we should be."...

‘Anonymous’ resigns from CIA * Says will now serve the national interest by talking publicly about Bin Laden and 9/11-Commission Report WASHINGTON: A CIA analyst who wrote a book criticising the US war on terror resigned from the spy agency after it banned him from publicly discussing his views, his publicist said on Thursday. Michael Scheuer wrote the book “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror” under the pen name “anonymous” and formally resigned from the intelligence agency on Friday, after 22 years of service. In a statement to the press, Scheuer said that he blamed...