Free Republic

The world is returning to the 1970s on most economic policies, so why not antitrust too? Judging by events this week, antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and Europe is in for a major comeback, whether or not consumers benefit. Yesterday in Brussels, the European Commission imposed a record antitrust fine of $1.45 billion on Intel for the heinous crime of discounting computer chips in its fierce and long-running competition with AMD. Meanwhile on Monday, President Obama's new antitrust chief, Christine Varney, issued a radical revision of the Department of Justice's own antitrust enforcement standards. Ms. Varney's ambition seems to be...

Most likely, we grant you, it was coincidence. But we couldn’t help notice the timing: Two days after the DOJ’s new antitrust head, Christine Varney, publicly repudiates her predecessors by pledging to ramp up enforcement on so-called “single-firm” monopolistic behavior, the European Union takes a sledgehammer to Intel Corp., fining it $1.45 billion for alleged monopolistic activity. The fine is the largest ever assessed for monopoly abuse. [snip] The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Intel broke EU rules by using the threat of withdrawing rebates it offered to large computer manufacturers, its customers, to pressure to them to...

The verdict is in and it's huge. As expected, the EU is fining Intel a record €1.06 billion or $1.45 billion (Billion!) dollars due to violations of antitrust rules in Europe. The record fine surpasses that of the €497 million fine originally levied against Microsoft. The EU ruled that Intel illegally used hidden rebates to squeeze rivals out of the marketplace for CPUs. In a statement issued by European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the EC said,

Intel chairman says US education lacking By SANDRA CHEREB Associated Press Writer May. 12, 2009 RENO, Nev. -- The outgoing chairman of the world's largest computer chip maker says the United States needs to rethink its approach to public education and raise the bar for academic achievement in mathematics and science if it hopes to be competitive in a 21st century world. "We haven't even chosen to compete in this area yet," Craig Barrett, retiring chairman of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp., said Monday. "We're still operating as though we're the only game in town."

At the Central Intelligence Agency, it's known as "slow rolling." That's what agency officers sometimes do on politically sensitive assignments. They go through the motions; they pass cables back and forth; they take other jobs out of the danger zone; they cover their backsides...in the words of one veteran officer, "hit the agency like a car bomb in the driveway." President Obama promised CIA officers that they won't be prosecuted for carrying out lawful orders, but the people on the firing line don't believe him. They think the memos have opened a new season of investigation and retribution. The lesson...

<p>WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.</p>

President Barack Obama's intelligence chief confirmed Thursday that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on US soil and receive assistance to return to society. "If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life," said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first press conference. "You can't just put them on the street," he added. "All that is work in progress

This is the scariest, stealthiest, and most dangerous exploit I've seen come around since the legendary Blue Pill! No, I'm not just trying to sensationalize this or spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. This is serious and represents a massive new security threat for us all. Security Researchers Joanna Rutkowska and Loic Duflot are planning to release a research paper + exploit code for a new SMM (System Management Mode) exploit that installs via an Intel® CPU caching vulnerability. Joanna, of blue pill fame, reported this on her blog Joanna cleared it up for me that they are not releasing a...

Our health-care system may well be ripe for a major overhaul, as are our energy and environmental policies. Widespread recognition that all of these reforms are overdue contributed to Barack Obama's victory in November. But if the chaos that resulted from initiating such an overhaul were piled on top of the unresolved status of the financial system, society and government would become exhausted. Instead, the administration must adopt a discipline; not initiating a second wave of chaos before we have a chance to rein in the first. The point is, all administrations, including this one, have a finite capacity to...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's appointment as head of a U.S. intelligence council has been identified by the Center for Security Policy as a member of the 'Iran lobby'. Also, government sources said Charles Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and appointed to head the National Intelligence Council, has expressed anti-Semitic views in government meetings. At one meeting, the sources said, Freeman turned to Jewish staffers of Congress and questioned their loyalty to the United States. A report by the Center for Security Policy identified Freeman as a member of the so-called Iran lobby, which has been pressing...

JERUSALEM – The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family – including dealings after Sept. 11, 2001. Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Freeman has come under fire in the Israeli media and on some pro-Israel blogs for his sharp criticism of the Jewish state. He also reportedly heavily criticized American anti-terrorism policy. Now Ashley Rinsdberg, a Jerusalem-based researcher and blogger for the Daily Beast website has dug up...

Vienna, one of the spy capitals of the world by Philippe Schwab Fri Feb 20, 9:06 pm ET VIENNA (AFP) – Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, Vienna remains a spy haven, swarming with foreign agents who think nothing of killing in broad daylight, while the Austrian authorities turn a blind eye, experts say. Vienna formed the backdrop to Orson Welles's legendary spy thriller "The Third Man" in 1949, but even today it remains a hive of secret service activity. "Austria is still a favourite place for agents. They're frequently known to the authorities, but rarely hindered....

President Barack Obama lobbied the head of Intel Corp. to talk up the more than $800 billion economic recovery package moving through Congress, the chief executive of the world's biggest chip maker said Tuesday. Paul Otellini said Obama "encouraged" him in a brief phone call Monday to publicly support the stimulus plan that includes billions in public spending to create jobs as well as for unemployment benefits, food stamps, health care and other programs to help victims of the worst recession in decades. The legislation cleared the Senate Tuesday afternoon and pointed toward House-Senate negotiations that are expected to be...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Semiconductor maker Intel Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the U.S., a major capital investment at a time of uncertainty in the chip industry. Intel shares rose briefly Tuesday on the announcement, but were down 3.5% at last check. The announcement comes just a few weeks after Intel announced that it was closing five facilities worldwide, and mounting concerns of declining demand in the industry. The move could also be good news for makers of chip manufacturing tools, which have...

...the Santa Clara, Calif., company is hoping for another coup like the one it staged at Apple, where Nvidia bumped Intel silicon out of the Apple MacBook because of underperforming graphics. The goal this time is to replace the Intel silicon that supports the Atom processor. Currently, Netbooks from companies such as Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell use the Atom and accompanying Intel silicon called a chipset. Nvidia has always stayed well ahead of Intel on the graphics performance curve... said Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research, a firm that tracks the graphics chip market. "First, because Nvidia is in...

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Produced by Wild Eyes Prods. Executive producers, Carl H. Lindahl, David Keane; producers, Ryan Spyker, Aaron Cowden; director, Keane; writers, Bowden, Terrence Henry. Narrator: Bill Lloyd. Editor, Justin Inda; music, Michael Plowman. Running time: 120 Min. “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Wide Release Theater Movie) Genres: Comedy, Drama, Adaptation, Biopic and War Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min. Release Date: December 21st, 2007 MPAA Rating: R for strong language, nudity/sexual content and some drug use. Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution Production Co.: Icarus Productions, Participant Productions, Relativity Media, Playtone Studios: Universal Pictures Filming Locations: Morocco Los Angeles, California USA Produced in: United...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is in line to become the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The opening was created Friday amid a chairmanship shuffle sparked by the announcement that Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was stepping down as head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A number of gavels will change hands as a result, sending the current Intelligence Committee chairman, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to the Commerce Committee, and opening up the powerful Intelligence Committee post for Feinstein, according to a former Hill aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were ongoing. Feinstein,...

Mexican authorities have been holding 35 officials since July for selling intelligence to drug cartels, for payments of up to 400,000 dollars, the federal prosecutor revealed on Monday. "Thirty-five public officials have been pulled out of the SIEDO (elite anti-organized crime unit) as well as other support staff. The process of the cleaning up and revision of staff and proceedings will continue in a permanent manner," Eduardo Medina Mora told a news conference. The investigation into the SIEDO officials began in 2004 "after thwarted operations and a formal declaration that public service officers were passing on information from the Sinaloa...

MONTEREY, Calif., Oct. 23, 2008 – Every Afghan soldier on a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, wants to shoot at Army Capt. Nathan Iglesias. Army Capt. Nathan Iglesias, an embedded trainer with the 2nd Brigade, 201st Afghan National Army Corps, poses in front of the Middle East School I building Oct. 21, 2008, on the campus of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif., where he learned the Afghan language Dari. DoD photo by Samantha Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Luckily for Iglesias -- a proficient speaker of the Afghan language Dari -- these volleys...