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For 35 years, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD ) stood in the shadow of archrival Intel Corp. (INTC ) AMD churned out lower-priced clones of the tech leader's chips and occasionally enjoyed a hit that helped boost its meager profits. But bad times easily outweighed the good. Again and again, Intel used its manufacturing muscle and pricing power to stymie AMD's ambitions, preventing it from gaining a foothold in lucrative markets such as servers and corporate PCs. Wave goodbye to the great imitator. In what may prove to be an historic reversal of fortune, AMD Chief Executive Hector de Jesus...

French connection armed Saddam By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES The United States stood by for years as supposed allies helped its enemies obtain the world's most dangerous weapons, reveals Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, in the new book "Treachery" (Crown Forum). In this excerpt, he details France's persistence in arming Saddam Hussein. First of three excerpts New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq. The intelligence reports showing French assistance to Saddam ongoing in the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An emerging wireless communications technology called WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet connections, will rival DSL and cable as the preferred way to connect homes and businesses to the Internet, Intel Corp. said on Tuesday. "I think that WiMAX could be to DSL and cable what cellular was to landline (phones) not too long ago," Intel President Paul Otellini said at a technical conference hosted by the Santa Clara, California-based company. Intel has begun shipping samples of WiMAX chips to customers and has committed to building WiMAX into its Centrino notebook computer chips...

With all the criticism of negative political TV ads - and their potential to backfire - you've got to hand it to the candidate who's willing to put his name on a tough attack ad.       That voters hear George W. Bush's personal approval of a new ad about John Kerry's attendance record at Senate Intelligence Committee meetings actually adds to its punch, perhaps because such backing is so rare this election season.       We don't normally get too worked up about an elected official's attendance record at congressional committee meetings. The real work of legislating often gets done elsewhere....

[snip]The purpose of Hastert's comments was to increase Republican pressure on Kerry over his Senate record on intelligence, a major issue for both presidential candidates. They also coincided with the first broadcast in 19 battleground states of a new Bush television ad, titled ''Intel," that highlights Kerry's attendance record and questions his commitment to intelligence spending. And in a separate press statement, the Bush side tweaked Kerry counterparts for erroneously asserting Friday that the Democrat was once vice chairman of the intelligence committee. (Former senator Robert Kerrey held that position.) Hastert yesterday, echoing previous comments from six GOP senators, called...

August 16, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — President Bush is unleashing a new ad today bashing rival John Kerry for trying to gain political points by capitalizing on the hot issue of intelligence reform. Kerry has embraced the sweeping recommendations to overhaul the U.S. intelligence community put forth by the 9/11 commission, while Bush recently backed a modified form of the proposals. In the new ad, titled "Intel," the Bush team ridicules Kerry as a Johnny-come-lately who only now — after 19 years in the Senate — is trying to beef up the U.S. intelligence system. It opens with a replay...

Script for "Intel" President Bush: I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message. Voice Over: John Kerry promises ... Graphic: John Kerry promises ... John Kerry: I will immediately reform the intelligence system. Voice Over: Oh really... As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Kerry was absent for 76 percent of the Committee's hearings. Graphic: John Kerry... ABSENT 76% of public Senate Intelligence Committee Hearings Voice Over: In the year after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Kerry was absent for every single one. Graphic: John Kerry... ABSENT every single public Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing...

ARLINGTON, VA -- Bush-Cheney '04 announced today the release of the campaign's newest television advertisement, "Intel."  The new advertisement highlights John Kerry's proposals to cut intelligence funding and his poor attendance record on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The advertisement will begin airing Monday on national cable and in select local markets.Script for "Intel"President Bush:I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.Voice Over:John Kerry promises ... Graphic:John Kerry promises ...John Kerry:I will immediately reform the intelligence system.Voice Over:Oh really... As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Kerry was absent for 76 percent of the Committee's hearings.Graphic:John Kerry...ABSENT76% of publicSenate...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) assails rival Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) on intelligence reform, arguing in a new television ad that the Democrat's pledge to fix the system is at odds with his record and concluding, "There's what Kerry says, and then there's what Kerry does." The commercial, which begins airing Monday, claims that Kerry promises to "immediately reform the intelligence system" but was absent for many of the intelligence committee's public hearings and proposed cuts in the intelligence budget after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. Kerry, like other Senate Republicans...

Seven hours after the White House offered to brief him, Kerry, who'd been unwilling to bump any campaign events, was finally parked in one place long enough so that a secure phone line could be set up in his bus. After playing softball with firefighters and autoworkers in Taylor, Mich., Kerry boarded his bus next to the field, and, still wearing his TEAM KERRY jersey, heard what lay behind last week's terror warnings. He may talk tough, but Kerry still faces his biggest challenge convincing voters he'd be a better commander in the war on terror than Bush. Polls show...

BusinessWeek excerpt - [snip] Why is Intel overpromising and underdelivering? The problems stem from mistakes made five years ago in the design of its Pentium chip. Execs misjudged, believing PC makers and consumers would continue to embrace ever faster, power-hungry chips. Now the latest iterations are ill-suited to today's corporate desktops, as well as the new multimedia home PCs that are the focus of a major Intel push this year. Intel says the problems are only temporary. "We continue to expect to exit the year with the vast majority of our desktop and notebook processors on the (new) technology," says...

Intel has decided to push back the launch date for its 4-GHz Pentium 4 desktop processor to the first quarter of 2005, after reviewing its launch schedules and determining it would not be able to introduce the product in sufficient volume, a company spokesperson says. President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini first told financial analysts last year that Intel would raise the clock speed of the company's flagship Pentium 4 processor to 4 GHz by the end of 2004. There are no manufacturing or design issues behind the delay, like the ones that have recently caused Intel to recall...

Iranian Intel Officers Captured in Iraq By Bret Baier | FOX News | July 7, 2004 WASHINGTON — American and Iraqi joint patrols, along with teams, captured two men with explosives in Baghdad on Monday who identified themselves as Iranian intelligence officers, FOX News has confirmed. Senior officials said it was previously believed that Iran had officers inside Iraq stirring up violence, but this is the first time that self-proclaimed Iranian intelligence agents have been captured within the country. The Defense officials also confirmed to FOX News that in recent days there has been significant success in tracking down "known...

(It appears the Japanese TV crew were able to get in to film activity that may have been difficult for US TV crews to do, thus perhaps the potential, open-source intelligence value.)

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a U.S. judge has the power to force the world's largest computer chip-maker, California-based Intel Corp., to turn over records to foreign regulators. Justices decided on a 7-1 vote that a federal law gives American judges discretion to help people or governments obtain testimony or information for use in foreign or international tribunals, like overseas criminal prosecutions. The decision was a victory for a smaller competitor of Intel, which wants Intel documents to use before the European Commission, a regulatory board that enforces European Union antitrust laws.

Intel, China Co. to Cooperate on Systems SHANGHAI, China (AP) - U.S. semiconductor giant Intel Corp. (INTC) and Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. plan to cooperate on software development, focusing on online home entertainment systems for the China market, the companies said Tuesday. Intel and Shanda, a game developer whose shares are listed on the Nasdaq, have agreed to develop "online interactive entertainment" - mainly games - for a variety of devices, including computers, televisions and mobile phones, the companies said in a statement. The statement gave no financial details or timetable for the deal, which is the first software...

“We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." — President George W. Bush, September 20, 2001 Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime indisputably harbored terrorists and supported terrorism. Under the Bush Doctrine that won resounding bipartisan assent in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and that remains as worthy today as...

Terrorist organizations have always been interested in targeting oil and gas facilities. Striking pipelines, tankers, refineries and oil fields accomplishes two desired goals: undermining the internal stability of the regimes they are fighting, and economically weakening foreign powers with vested interests in their region. In the past decade alone, there have been scores of attacks against oil targets primarily in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. These attacks have never received much attention and have been treated as part of the ‘industry’s risk.’ However, after the attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbols of U.S.' economic and...

Revisiting the Technology Generals A look at the Technology Generals, posted on October 9, 2003 included my fundamental overview of Intel Corp., and technical analyses of the large capitalization technology leaders of the rally from the October 2002 “bottom.?At that time Intel and Dell Computer were looking technically strong, while Cisco was facing technical resistance, which it subsequently broke to the upside. Microsoft and Oracle were weak; however, with the backdrop of a strong Nasdaq continuing into mid January of 2004, each of the five stocks posted significant gains, before topping with the broader market. Tonight I will revisit the...

The strange decline in relations between the US military and its one-time Iraqi ally, Ahmad Chalabi, took a new twist yesterday when Iran admitted having had regular dialogue with the former Pentagon favourite. The authorities in Tehran - and Mr Chalabi - were quick to deny suggestions that he had handed US secrets to Iran. But an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told reporters that Tehran had maintained "continuous and permanent dialogue with Chalabi and other members of the Iraqi governing council". He added that spying charges were "unfounded and baseless". Mr Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi...