On the Road Again: "No, I am not in fact in favor of travestying anyone’s rituals or insulting their holy books. Even as a means of interrogation in a life or death situation, such an action (while possibly necessary) would be disgusting. But even if the story is true, Newsweek’s story is completely out of bounds during a period of war and emergency. Any sensible person should have better sense than to stir up Islamic believers into further acts of rioting and terrorism. It is worse than shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, and while I am completely out of sympathy with the Bush administration’s bully little war, I should think that no normal or decent person would wish to stir up violent riots simply for the sake of selling more nasty little magazines."

Ah, news is immoral. That explains it.

(Via Hard Right!.)

U.S. Denounces Release of Candid Hussein Photos - New York Times: "The United States military and the White House expressed anger and dismay today over the unauthorized release of photographs of a jailed Saddam Hussein in his underwear and performing mundane activities.

'These photos were taken in clear violation of Department of Defense directives and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals,' a military statement issued in Iraq said, promising an investigation. 'The source of these photos is unknown at this time. It is believed the photos were taken a year ago.'

President Bush expressed doubt that publication of the pictures in The Sun of Britain and The New York Post would further inflame anti-American sentiment in Iraq, but the White House communications office was taking no chances, forcefully condemning the publication as a violation of a prisoner's privacy."

(Via NY Times.)

In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths - New York Times: "Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face."

(Via NY Times.)

Salon.com Politics: "Considering that only 28 percent of Americans support the Republican effort to do away with the Senate filibuster rule, the GOP leadership, suffering a severe case of foot-in-mouth disease, has not done much this week to improve those numbers.

First, on Wednesday, the same day a federal judge whose family was assassinated was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about courthouse safety, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., described Democratic efforts to opposing some of President Bush's judicial nominees as 'leadership-led use of Cloture vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.'"

(Via Washington Post.)

Bidding Opens for Managing Los Alamos: "The government released its proposal yesterday for bids to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory amid concerns among some members of Congress that new management could lead to resignations of senior scientists at what is considered the nation's premier scientific research complex.

The final proposal released by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) offers a fixed seven-year contract with an option for an additional 13 years and the potential for making as much as $79 million yearly. That is almost 10 times the fee now received by the University of California, which has managed the facility since 1943, during the Manhattan Project."

(Via Washington Post.)

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF: "The Environmental Protection Agency decided yesterday to abandon a proposed rule aimed at relaxing federal standards for sewage treatment. The proposal, which the administration offered in November 2003, would have allowed sewage-system operators to dump partially treated wastewater after heavy rains, even though it might still contain viruses, parasites and toxic chemicals.

The proposal 'is not a long-term solution,' said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Water. 'Our goal is to reduce overflows and increase treatment of wastewater to protect human health and the environment.' Environmentalists hailed the decision."

(Via Washington Post.)

The Nation | Blog | Editor's Cut | Sweet Victory: CPC Gets in Gear | Katrina vanden Heuvel: "If you don't know much about the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), you should. With 50-plus members, it's the single largest caucus in the House, and according to a study by Chris Bowers of MyDD, by far the most loyal to core Democratic values. 

At a time in which too many Dems have lost their way (read: spine), CPC members--from co-chairs Barbara Lee (CA) and Lynn Woolsey (CA) to outspoken figures like founder (and Senate hopeful) Bernie Sanders (VT), Dennis Kucinich (OH),  Jan Schakowsky (IL), John Conyers (MI), Maurice Hinchey (NY) and Barney Frank (MA)--continue to fight for working Americans, stand against the war, and discuss honorable ways out of Iraq."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

The Nation | Blog | The Daily Outrage | Newsweek Was Right | Ari Berman: "The Bush Administration's aggressive response to a Newsweek story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed the Koran down the toilet in front of Islamic detainees displays the height of hypocrisy. After Newsweek clumsily issued an apology, followed by a retraction, White House spokesman Scott McClellan called on the magazine to 'help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region,' by explaining 'what happened and why they got it wrong.' Maybe the Bush Administration should do the same, by opening up its secret facilities for inspection to the Red Cross and other third-party observers. We are printing below a letter from reader Calgacus--a pseudonym for a researcher in the national security field for the past twenty years--that shows how the desecration of the Koran became standard US interrogation practice."

...

"The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:

"Ehsannullah, 29, said American soldiers who initially questioned him in Kandahar before shipping him to Guantanamo hit him and taunted him by dumping the Koran in a toilet. It was a very bad situation for us, said Ehsannullah, who comes from the home region of the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar. We cried so much and shouted, Please do not do that to the Holy Koran. (Marc Kaufman and April Witt, "Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment," Washington Post, March 26, 2003.)

Also citing the toilet incident is testimony by Asif Iqbal, a former Guantanamo detainee who was released to British custody in March 2004 and subsequently freed without charge:

"The behaviour of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it." (Center for Constitution Rights, Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, August 4, 2004.)"

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

Secrecy News for 05/20/05: "The full text of the report of the Overseas Basing Commission, which was removed from a government web site after the Department of Defense said it contained classified information, is now available on the FAS web site.

The partial version of the report described in Secrecy News yesterday included only 92 of the report's 262 pages, and lacked several of the detailed appendices.

The full 262 page report was obtained from InsideDefense.com. It is available (at the same URL given yesterday) here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/obc.pdf"

(Via Secrecy News.)

Blame Pakistan’s Imran Khan and the Bush Administration, Not "Newsweek": "There have been many disturbing allegations that interrogators at Guantanamo and other prisons under U.S. supervision have desecrated the Muslim holy book. That anyone would have grounds to believe such allegations fills me with shame.

But how can any reasonable person not entertain the possibility that officials permitted to hurt and humiliate human beings might also maltreat a sacred text? The Bush administration, from top to bottom, has created a climate of credibility for these allegations."

(Via WhirledView.)

DEATH BY POWERPOINT: "Guerilla snipers in Iraq are now polishing their craft online, with a web-based training manual. 'If you had only one shot, who should you kill?' the primer asks, leading its students through a series of grisly scenarios. If you see a line of Soldiers, kill the one who you think is the officer. Then, shoot the communications officer, then the MG [machine–gunner] – then the doctor – if he’s there, you’ll know by the red cross on his arm – (you don’t need to respect the Geneva Treaty as long as the enemy does not respect it) and shoot at the Soldiers. "

(Via Defense Tech.)

Why Jacoby is Wrong: "Jeff Jacoby argues that there is something peculiar about the reaction of Muslims to the allegations that the Koran was disrespected at Guantanamo prison by US military interrogators.

Jacoby's position is pure bigotry. We have to be clear about this. Anti-muslimism is a form of racial prejudice no different from any other. If Jacoby said, 'What is wrong with those people of African descent, that they are so violent all the time when nobody else is?' he'd probably be fired. It is not all right for him to do the same thing to Muslims. While Muslims are a religious group, in the contemporary United States they most often are racialized. It comes to the same thing."

(Via Informed Comment.)

Salon.com | Dump the filibuster!: "Let's start by acknowledging the obvious: The nuclear option is unprincipled. There's nothing commendable about the Republicans' attempt to steamroll the slightest opposition to their authority, and you can't have much respect for a team that wants to illegally change the rules in the middle of the game.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's an idea to consider: Republicans may not be wrong to want to eliminate the filibuster, and Democrats have nothing to lose by letting the GOP win this one. The filibuster is, after all, one of the more anti-democratic parliamentary maneuvers in the federal government's most undemocratic body, the Senate. A tactic not envisioned by the founders, and most famously used by Southern racists to frustrate the passage of civil rights legislation, the filibuster doesn't exactly have a savory tradition.

More than that, the filibuster is no friend to Democrats, whose policies, if not politicians, appeal to a majority of the American public. They may be in the minority now, but Democrats can win again. They can take the Senate and they can take the White House, possibly both, possibly soon. "

(Via Salon.)

Generals Offer a Sober Outlook on Iraqi War - New York Times: "American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government.

In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday that American military involvement could last 'many years.'"

(Via NY Times.)

Quick Note on the Qu'ran Story

In case it isn't already obvious, the White House and their lackies aren't trying to appease Iraqis about the possibilities of desecration. There's no point in that, the other undisputed reports of equally horrible acts prove as much. There are, however, two parties that they do care about:

• Muslim Voters in the U.S.
• Other Muslim Sources of Oil.

Maintaining deniability over the most blatant acts is important.

Ok, back to the regularly scheduled blog...

Baghdad Burning: "…She stood in the crowded room as her drove of minions stood around her...…A huddling mass trying to draw closer to her aura of evil. The lights flashed against her fangs as her cruel lips curled into a grimace. It was meant to be a smile but it wouldn't reach her cold, lifeless eyes… It was a leer- the leer of the undead before a feeding...

The above was not a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- it was just Condi Rice in Iraq a day ago. At home, we fondly refer to her as The Vampire. She's such a contrast to Bush- he simply looks stupid. She, on the other hand, looks utterly evil. "

...

"Now Newsweek have retracted the story- obviously under pressure from the White House. Is it true? Probably… We've seen enough blatant disregard and disrespect for Islam in Iraq the last two years to make this story sound very plausible. On a daily basis, mosques are raided, clerics are dragged away with bags over their heads… Several months ago the world witnessed the execution of an unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque. Is this latest so very surprising?

Detainees coming back after weeks or months in prison talk of being forced to eat pork, not being allowed to pray, being exposed to dogs, having Islam insulted and generally being treated like animals trapped in a small cage. At the end of the day, it's not about words or holy books or pork or dogs or any of that. It's about what these things symbolize on a personal level. It is infuriating to see objects that we hold sacred degraded and debased by foreigners who felt the need to travel thousands of kilometers to do this. That's not to say that all troops disrespect Islam- some of them seem to genuinely want to understand our beliefs. It does seem like the people in charge have decided to make degradation and humiliation a policy.

By doing such things, this war is taken to another level- it is no longer a war against terror or terrorists- it is, quite simply, a war against Islam and even secular Muslims are being forced to take sides."

(Via Baghdad Burning.)

Technocrat.net | Blackbox Voting Update: " The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of national groups concerned with voting integrity filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a seminal e-voting case brought by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler and others. Florida law requires manual recounts in close races. Rep. Wexler's case argues that when Florida election officials purchased touchscreen voting machines that do not leave a paper trail, they prevented true manual recounts and violated this law. The Congressman also argues that the touchscreen voting machines violate federal constitutional law."

(Via Technocrat.net.)

Technocrat.net | Terrorists Use Libraries: "I will ignore Is W more Catholic than the pope? for the technical article Terrorists use libraries, in which Deroy Murdock discovers that terrorists use libraries: I began my research on this topic three weeks ago by typing the words ‘Atta’ and ‘library’ into Google. I was nearly as amazed by articles I found tying the hijackers to libraries as by the fact that these pieces had vanished down the memory hole. I know it must be shocking to all of you, but thank goodness we have dedicated investigative reporters like Mr. Murdock to track down these links.

Mock surprise aside, Mr. Murdock brings up the terrorist-library connection to defend the Patriot Act. He claims that the FBI was unable to track the terrorists before 9/11 because they did not have the extended powers granted by the Act. He also points out that since the passage of the Patriot Act, the FBI has never used it's new powers to investigate a library. Does this bother anyone else? If investigating libraries is critical to stopping terrorists from causing 9/11 type disasters, and the FBI has never investigated a library, are we really safe? Perhaps the best option is to just close down all public libraries. Or we could bring in the same people who do security at airports to screen library patrons. Any other ideas?'"

...

"hmmm...perhaps we ought to have a good old-fashioned book burning? It has the benefit of bypassing all the symptoms (terrorist acts, educated dissent, intelligence, etc.) and eliminating the source. Right"

(Via Technocrat.net.)

Technocrat.net | Self Cleaning Atmosphere: "Chemists at UCSD using low ultraviolet wavelength lasers have outlined some processes whereby harmful pollutants in the atmosphere appear to be scrubbed by naturally occurring compounds."

(Via Technocrat.net.)

Defense Tech: RC TOYS VS. IEDs: "How do you handle a roadside bomb, when there's no robot nearby? Simple: you use one of those remote-controlled cars that kids have been playing with for decades."

...

"A young private [named "E.S."] in that platoon has one of those radio-controlled toy cars. When they find unidentifiable debris in the road, E.S. sends out his little RC car and rams it. If it's light enough to be moved or knocked over, it's too light to be a bomb, so we can approach it and get rid of it. If it's heavy, we call EOD [explosive ordnance disposal -- the military's bomb squad]. At night, they duct tape a flashlight to the car."

...

"I've suggested to E.S. that he put some fancy paint and a couple of LED lights on his toy car, demonstrate it to some Army brass at the Pentagon, and sell it to them for $80,000. He won't actually try that, but it's fun to imagine."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Has Newsweek Retracted?: "Update: Riverbend weighs in with an Iraqi nationalist point of view on the allegations of Koran desecration in US military prisons. She points out that many Iraqis will find them plausible, given that we know that the interrogators have not shown respect for basic human dignity. Occasional US mosque invasions likewise lend credence to the charges, especially to Sunni Iraqis."

...

"So far this is the same 'retraction' as Sunday's, which is that they were wrong to source the story of Koran desecration to a forthcoming Southern Command white paper on Guantanamo. It says nothing about whether the Koran desecration occurred, or whether their government source accurately reported seeing a US government text documenting it."

(Via Informed Comment.)

Martini Republic - White House demands Fealty of the Press — freedom of the press outdated : "In a fit of totalitarianistic opportunism, the White House has declared Newsweek's retraction of its story that a Pentagon investigation revealed desecration of a quran to be only a 'first step' in the venerable news weekly becoming a full-on propaganda tool of the Bush administration.  Scottie 'watch me lie' McClellan sets out the compelling case for Fealty of the Press"

(Via Martini Republic.)

oil for votes: "Per Kevin Drum, the new Senate report says that 'the US treasury failed to take action against a Texas oil company, Bayoil, which facilitated payment of 'at least $37m in illegal surcharges to the Hussein regime'.'     Let's see - and we broke the story here on April 14 that Bayoil contributed to the campaign of Rep. Sen. Don Nickles, who baited Clinton over ... oil-for-food.   The pieces are coming together now.   Bayoil may yet turn out to be the scandal Republicans say it is - but as a Republican scandal."

(Via Night Light.)

Revenge of the Stiff Or, He Asked for It: "These remarks inspired the little satire, below. Note: Anyone can play. Just copy the [sic] the script treatment for Star Wars III from this site, paste it into a text file, and perform a quick series of 'find-and-replace' maneuvers. I advise 'George W.' for Anakin, 'Frist' for Palpatine, 'Obi-Colin' for Obi-wan Kenobe and Obi-wan, 'Laura' for Padme, 'Saddam' for Count Dooku and Dooku, 'Tariq Aziz' for General Grievous,and 'Yo-Brentscocrow' for Yoda. You can also accomplish the same thing at Get Me a Rewrite."

(Via Informed Comment.)

Salon.com News | "A democracy can die of too many lies": "First, let me assure you that I take in stride attacks by the radical right-wingers who have not given up demonizing me although I retired over six months ago. I should put my detractors on notice: They might just compel me out of the rocking chair and back into the anchor chair.

Who are they? I mean the people obsessed with control using the government to intimidate; I mean the people who are hollowing out middle-class security even as they enlist the sons and daughters of the working class to make sure Ahmad Chalabi winds up controlling Iraq's oil; I mean the people who turn faith-based initiatives into Karl Rove's slush fund, who encourage the pious to look heavenward and pray so as not to see the long arm of privilege and power picking their pockets; I mean the people who squelch free speech in an effort to obliterate dissent and consolidate their orthodoxy into the official view of reality from which any deviation becomes unpatriotic heresy. That's who I mean. And if that's editorializing, so be it. A free press is one where it's OK to state the conclusion you're led to by the evidence."

...

I decided long ago that this wasn't healthy for democracy. I came to see that news is what people want to keep hidden, and everything else is publicity. In my documentaries, whether on the Watergate scandal 30 years ago, or the Iran-contra conspiracy 20 years ago, or Bill Clinton's fundraising scandals 19 years ago, or five years ago the chemical industry's long and despicable coverup of its cynical and unspeakable withholding of critical data about its toxic products, I realized that investigative journalism could not be a collaboration between the journalist and the subject. Objectivity was not satisfied by two opposing people offering competing opinions, leaving the viewer to split the difference. I came to believe that objective journalism means describing the object being reported on, including the little fibs and fantasies, as well as the big lie of people in power.

In no way does this permit journalists to make accusations and allegations. It means, instead, making sure that your reporting and your conclusions can be nailed to the post with confirming evidence.

This is always hard to do, but it's never been harder. Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell's '1984.' They give us a program vowing no child will be left behind while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged children; they give us legislation cheerily calling for clear skies and healthy forests that give us neither, while turning over our public lands to the energy industry."

(Via Salon.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Despite the Republican Braying: "And the force exerted on Newsweek to make it semi-sorta-kinda retract, the original item about flushing the Koran was, of course, true. Or are we really supposed to think that those who will torture POWs draw the line at dissing their religion? The point of the censorship campaign, of course, is to keep ever-more true war news from the Americans who care what is done in their names (and from the rest of the world too)"

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

the qu'ran story: "UPDATE:     Per Cookie Jill at skippy,  this link to Daily Kos, where there's info to suggest that  a) the mistreatment of the Qu'ran did take place, b) Gen. Myers suggests the riots over there have other causes, and c) Newsweek was put under brutal pressure to retract its initial story (surprise, surprise)."

(Via Night Light.)

Defense Tech: RAY GUN TWO STEP: LASERS TO IRAQ?: "Maybe -- just maybe -- the U.S. is going to get laser weapons in Iraq, after all. Last week, Reuters reported that the Army had 'balked' at deploying Northrop Grumman's Tactical High Energy Laser air defense system. But a Defense Tech informant, pointing to this MIT Technology Review article, says Reuters may have blown the story.

The Pentagon hasn't announced its decision on deployment of the prototype laser, [so] it can't be said that it 'balked'... Lt. Col. [Jeff] Souder, [who manages directed energy projects at the Army's Redstone Arsenal] said 'We're exploring our options in how to put chemical lasers in the hands of our soldiers as soon as possible.'"

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Oil-for-Food Benefited Russians, Report Says: "Top Kremlin operatives and a flamboyant Russian politician reaped millions of dollars in profits under the U.N. oil-for-food program by selling oil that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein allowed them to buy at a deep discount, a Senate investigation has concluded.

The allegations -- which also include descriptions of kickbacks paid to Hussein -- are detailed in hundreds of pages of reports and documents made public last night by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in advance of a hearing tomorrow.

The documents outline a trail of oil and money that leads directly from Iraq to the Kremlin and the former chief of staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former president Boris Yeltsin. The report said Iraq sought to influence and reward the Russian government because it sits on the powerful U.N. Security Council that oversaw sanctio"

(Via Washington Post.)

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Bush's House Homophobe: "Three million employees of the federal government rely on one fairly obscure office for protection against job discrimination, retaliation for whistle-blowing, political hackery, secrecy, and partisanship. Tragically, the man who runs that agency, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), is a gay-hating, secretive, partisan, political hack.

That man, Scott Bloch, is decimating the ability of government employees to turn in their bosses for wrongdoing -- which is apparently the way George W. Bush wants it. After all, Bush has spent five years replacing the government's inspectors general -- each agency's watchdog for investigating whistleblower complaints -- with partisan hacks. (See Rep. Henry Waxman's report.) That means more waste, more fraud, and more abuse of taxpayer dollars. It also means less accountability for Bush-administration appointees who pursue their own ideologically driven prejudices."

(Via AlterNet.)

Arab allies test US 'freedom' agenda | csmonitor.com: "Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief's meeting with President Bush Wednesday comes at a troubling time for the president's Middle East agenda. The administration's calls for radical change in the region are now butting up against clear resistance from its closest Arab allies.

Some, like the monarchies of Bahrain and Jordan, simply continue to limit political competition. Others, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are cracking down on reformists. Egypt has arrested thousands of political opponents in the past two weeks, while Saudi Arabia sentenced three activists on Sunday to up to nine years in jail for 'sowing dissent.'"

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

Where Congress agrees | csmonitor.com: "Despite the long-awaited showdown over judges expected in the Senate as early as Wednesday, powerful forces are at work against partisan gridlock, both within and without Congress.

From the business lobby to elements within the parties themselves, pressure is growing to make progress on major legislation at a time when the public perception of Congress is often one of almost total stasis.

And, underneath the posturing and political infighting, work is getting done. Take roads. They run through every state and congressional district in the nation, and economists say that every $1 billion spent on roads creates 40,000 jobs. The Senate version of the bill proposes at least $284 billion in spending on the nation's highways and ground transportation.

That's why both parties are moving the highway bill for a vote on the Senate floor before the expected blowup over a rule change that would make it easier to confirm judges."

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

Dueling views on Army size: Congress vs. Rumsfeld | csmonitor.com: "Wednesday Congress will again take up what, in many ways, is the most fundamental military question of the Iraq war and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's tumultuous tenure: Is the Army big enough to do its job?

For more than two years, Congress has hammered the Pentagon on this point, claiming that the reliance on more than 60,000 National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq is a sign of an Army stretched dangerously thin. And for more than two years, Mr. Rumsfeld has remained unshakable in his conviction that the answer to any manpower problems lay in ongoing efforts to transform the military from its cold-war excesses into a leaner and more efficient fighting force."

Q: What's the difference between a car salesman and a computer salesman?
A: The car salesman knows when he's lying.

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

BEST OF ANTI-MISSILES AXED: "The most successful part of the star-crossed missile defense system has been the one based at sea. So, naturally, the Pentagon has decided to cut the program's budget, Defense Daily reports. Launched from cruisers off the Hawaiian coast, the Standard Missile-3 interceptors have managed to hit their targets in five out of six recent tests. Land-based anti-missiles, on the other hand, couldn't even make it into the air during two recent exercises over the winter. But never mind all that. The sea-based interceptors have been slated for a $95 million cut. That could keep a key signal processor from coming on line, which might 'set back the whole program at least a year,' Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) complained in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. (Here's the transcript.)"

(Via Defense Tech.)

Newsweek Apologizes: "Newsweek apologized yesterday for an inaccurate report on the treatment of detainees that triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 15 people died.

Editor Mark Whitaker expressed regret over the item in the magazine's 'Periscope' section, saying it was based on a confidential source -- a 'senior U.S. government official' -- who now says he is not sure whether the story is true.

The deadly consequences of the May 1 report, and its reliance on the unnamed source, have sparked considerable anger at the Pentagon. "

(Via Washington Post.)

Schneier on Security: Surveillance Cameras in U.S. Cities: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested more than $2 billion to finance grants to state and local governments for homeland security needs. Some of this money is being used by state and local governments to create networks of surveillance cameras to watch over the public in the streets, shopping centers, at airports and more. However, studies have found that such surveillance systems have little effect on crime, and that it is more effective to place more officers on the streets and improve lighting in high-crime areas. There are significant concerns about citizens' privacy rights and misuse or abuse of the system."

(Via Schneier on Security.)