As the sun heats up the thin air in the Khost province of Afghanistan, a constant mountain breeze swirls the lifeless dirt into a dervish-dance of dust. In the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, 18 miles from the Pakistani border, beyond which lies the Federally Administered Tribal Areas another 270 miles from Islamabad, center of Pakistani governmental authority; four CIA officials and their three contracted bodyguards meet with Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid of Mukhabarat, Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate.
The topic of discussion, al-Qaeda's No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. One of Zeid's handles had urgent intelligence to pass along.
Less than a year before Dec. 30, Zeid "recruited" Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, 32, to travel into Afghanistan and infiltrate al-Qaeda to help track down key al-Qaeda leaders, stated the Financial Times and NBC News.
Traveling alone in a car, al-Balawi approached the Forward Operating Base Chapman to which he was allowed entrance without a formal search at the front gate, al-Balawi's first and only visit to the CIA base.
As the team of intelligence officials headed towards al-Balawi, he detonated an explosive device killing them all, while injuring another six. The greatest loss of life to the Agency since the 1983 bombing in Beirut; now a total of 91 stars adorn the wall dedicated to deceased members of the CIA at their headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
However, a severe breakdown in intelligence and espionage occurred to bring about this latest tragedy in the perpetual martyrs-crusade of al-Qaeda, to whom al-Balawi was affiliated.
Mukhabarat initially detained al-Balawi after he signed up with a group of doctors determined to aid Palestinian's during Israel's invasion last January, stated Newsweek.
After three days of detention, stated Defne Bayrak, 31, al-Balawi's widow, he was released. Collective offers of up to $600,000 from the CIA and the Jordanians' may have persuaded al-Balawi to accept his task as a Jordanian spy, said Bayrak, yet she never doubted her husband's true intentions towards Jihad.
After the United States invaded Iraq during 2003, al-Balawi "started to change," Bayrak told Newsweek.
"He was constantly reading and writing. He was crazy about online forums. He would go onto them and write severe, extremely hardline comments. He would cite verses from the Quran that talked about the need for jihad, and then write very tough comments based on those verses or on the sayings of the Prophet," said Bayrak.
Math time. 2009 - 2003 = 6 years
Six years that al-Balawi filled web pages and message boards with virulent voracity in regards to Jihad against the United States. So how could someone so passionately spiteful towards the Western World because of religious inclination be so easily swayed into their aid? All within three days?
Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. government consultant who monitors jihadi Web forums, believes al-Balawi was the brain behind the online handle Abu Dujinah. Although Kohlmann could not prove without a doubt al-Balawi commented online as Abu Dujinah, he has, "compelling reasons to believe it's the same person."
Those reasons include age, background, and a lengthy interview of Abu Dujinah published in, Vanguard of Khorasan, a Taliban magazine, Kohlmann told Newsweek.
"“He was actually an administrator on the now-defunct Al-Hesbah forum, previously al-Qaida's main chat forum," Kohlmann told NBC News.
Despite the fact, al-Balawi commented for half a decade in favor of Jihad, his allegiance stood firmly within the camp of infidels?
Yet al-Balawi somehow galvanized enough trust with his handler Zeid, that he not only gained entrance to a CIA base, but also lured CIA officials from Kabul to the remote location for the meeting.
That turn of events smells more like the hot barrel of a smoking gun rather than quality intelligence work.
Alas, this is the state of affairs the CIA has been in for a decade. The reliance on human intelligence (HUMINT) has been put on the back burner as signals intelligence (SIGINT) has heated up due to technological advancements in the arsenal of espionage.
Now armed with overhead satellite photography, radar imagery, predator drones, and audio monitoring programs with increasing sophistication, the CIA has laminated their old-fashioned past with a shiny array of devices utilized to keep CIA operatives off the streets.
Camp Chapman for example, provided intelligence for locating and choosing Predator drone targets, reported CBS News.
With more than a year of stunning success by Predator drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing dozens of high-valued al-Qaeda targets, you'd have to ask yourself why drop your guard in the middle of nowhere less than 100 miles from the areas al-Qaeda roams at the base where you decide to kill them? With an "agent" who's trust had been "proven" through a stream of low-key targets with furious and scathing fingers towards your way of life?
The problem is a paradigm shift in tradecraft (CIA security protocol) reliance. Many intelligence experts in the United States believe the CIA has begun to rely far too heavily on SIGINT, or "TECHINT" while neglecting the backbone of their business, human intelligence gathered through human interaction, reported BBC News.
Even former CIA director George Tenet believed technology would offer no benefit to intelligence without case officers on the ground. During 2001 alone he began training 10 times the amount of case officers within the CIA's ranks, reported Bob Woodward in, Bush at War. During the 1990s, when Tenet began his impressive rise through the intelligence hierarchy, the CIA had but 12 case officer trainees.
What this incident goes to show more than anything, is how little the United States has progressed in rooting out true terrorism in the world and how desperate it has made our intelligence service in getting concrete information as to al-Qaeda's location.
It has been years since the CIA has had a definitive location on al-Zawahiri, but how could they expect someone within the ranks of al-Qaeda for less than a year to gain conclusive information on the location of their No. 2? Considering the CIA has decades of experience in the country, this incident does not go to show Americans that hearts and minds have been won over there during those decades.
With the volume of case officers who've served in Afghanistan and the amount of intelligence gathered through their own relationships with local contacts and the CIA's close relationship with the mujahideen turned al-Qaeda you'd expect to have a well-oiled network by now.
But thus far the war on terror has shown to be no more than a lame nurturer of dissent.
Is it true? Are we still here? Back at the beginning?
While on the battlefield of espionage, the front line remains to be everywhere.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Informed Screening
Monday morning airport security workers around the globe took deaf ears towards United States concerns to work.
As the recent bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 has raised a scare on U.S. psyche, fingers have been thrust in multiple directions and criss-crossed patterns on Capitol Hill.
Many accuse Obama of relaxed security operations. Yet Umar Abdullmatallab, 23, the Nigerian bomber-intent of Flight 253 flew from Nigeria onto Amsterdam and then into Detroit.
He never crossed through American airport security precautions until he was apprehended.
To accuse Obama of relaxed security operations would be unwise, or foolish if taken out of context. Such as former vice president Dick Cheney who accused Obamas' Administration of, "“trying to pretend we are not at war,” with terror; referring to the attempted bombing while tangenting to the closing of Guantanamo Bay, reported politico.com.
Clearly, security operations in other countries have been proven to be accessible to terrorist attacks, as our own; and not just for years; but decades.
No matter how the operations are changed or upgraded, the systems are eventually compromised. Yet an endless struggle to progress security measures is a health prolonged investment.
However standards must be spread to international flights that reflect the utmost scrutiny, without offending the passengers privacy by respecting cultural differences when possible.
Despite the Muslim view of dogs, they offer keen advantages to certain senses which can easily sniff out substances threatening to a plane while maintaining good behavior; they're trained to.
Yet the Christmas Caper Abdullmatallab slipped through the system, but not an American system. Despite their subtlety; signs were present that some odd intent drove Abdullmatallab's journey to America.
The tickets were one-way trips, yet his temporary visa issued on June 16, 2009 stated the reason for travel as a "religious seminar," stated abc.go.com. That visa expires June 16, 2010.
These are signs that must be taught to airport gatekeepers globally that can be aggetated with simply inferences.
"A religious seminar? What city is it in Mr. Abdullmatallab? What is the seminars theme? When is it taking place?"
"When do you plan on returning Mr. Abdullmatallab? You only have six months to schedule a return flight"
Converse with your passengers my terminal technicians around the world, listen to them intently. Informally screen them and see what they come up with, you never know. A slip here or there is suspicious and could be a crack in the cover of a malicious agent.
For it is not just American security precautions that need constant consideration, but all security precautions.
If anything this even showcases how globally interdependent the world has become. We rely on the security measures of other countries in regards to international flights, shipping, and quality control.
Look at the product scare last year regarding certain Chinese products that had resources and materials within them which caused hazards to humans and their pets.
What breakdown led to toys and food produced half way around the world harming those who didn't even purchase them? Did anyone care to blame W. for letting those products slip through customers? No, it would be foolish to blame the President for the quality standards of another nation's production.
Yet we as a world must now see that it is not a globalized society we make today, but an interdependent society on a global scale. If the nations of the world cannot stand together, the only one that shall fall is humanity.
Look where we find ourselves today, look where our ancestors have tread.
Civilization may be thousands of years in it's expanse, but our finite lifetimes keep humanity forever young within it.
As the recent bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 has raised a scare on U.S. psyche, fingers have been thrust in multiple directions and criss-crossed patterns on Capitol Hill.
Many accuse Obama of relaxed security operations. Yet Umar Abdullmatallab, 23, the Nigerian bomber-intent of Flight 253 flew from Nigeria onto Amsterdam and then into Detroit.
He never crossed through American airport security precautions until he was apprehended.
To accuse Obama of relaxed security operations would be unwise, or foolish if taken out of context. Such as former vice president Dick Cheney who accused Obamas' Administration of, "“trying to pretend we are not at war,” with terror; referring to the attempted bombing while tangenting to the closing of Guantanamo Bay, reported politico.com.
Clearly, security operations in other countries have been proven to be accessible to terrorist attacks, as our own; and not just for years; but decades.
No matter how the operations are changed or upgraded, the systems are eventually compromised. Yet an endless struggle to progress security measures is a health prolonged investment.
However standards must be spread to international flights that reflect the utmost scrutiny, without offending the passengers privacy by respecting cultural differences when possible.
Despite the Muslim view of dogs, they offer keen advantages to certain senses which can easily sniff out substances threatening to a plane while maintaining good behavior; they're trained to.
Yet the Christmas Caper Abdullmatallab slipped through the system, but not an American system. Despite their subtlety; signs were present that some odd intent drove Abdullmatallab's journey to America.
The tickets were one-way trips, yet his temporary visa issued on June 16, 2009 stated the reason for travel as a "religious seminar," stated abc.go.com. That visa expires June 16, 2010.
These are signs that must be taught to airport gatekeepers globally that can be aggetated with simply inferences.
"A religious seminar? What city is it in Mr. Abdullmatallab? What is the seminars theme? When is it taking place?"
"When do you plan on returning Mr. Abdullmatallab? You only have six months to schedule a return flight"
Converse with your passengers my terminal technicians around the world, listen to them intently. Informally screen them and see what they come up with, you never know. A slip here or there is suspicious and could be a crack in the cover of a malicious agent.
For it is not just American security precautions that need constant consideration, but all security precautions.
If anything this even showcases how globally interdependent the world has become. We rely on the security measures of other countries in regards to international flights, shipping, and quality control.
Look at the product scare last year regarding certain Chinese products that had resources and materials within them which caused hazards to humans and their pets.
What breakdown led to toys and food produced half way around the world harming those who didn't even purchase them? Did anyone care to blame W. for letting those products slip through customers? No, it would be foolish to blame the President for the quality standards of another nation's production.
Yet we as a world must now see that it is not a globalized society we make today, but an interdependent society on a global scale. If the nations of the world cannot stand together, the only one that shall fall is humanity.
Look where we find ourselves today, look where our ancestors have tread.
Civilization may be thousands of years in it's expanse, but our finite lifetimes keep humanity forever young within it.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Bono's "Ohno"
Lately, Bono (Paul David Hewson) has had to say a lot...about what other people think about the world. Much to the familiar fantasy of Team America World Police, Bono is acting like a real-life member of FAG.
What's that Bono? Global warming is an inconvenient truth? Thanks for bringing that discovery to the world's attention! I'm sure because of your brilliant expertise on the subject we can stop some chemical-bullets hellbent on penetrating the blue sky and really cool things out here on planet Earth.
Come again Bono? Trouble in Africa? We had no idea the cradle of civilization had problems! Lions, and tigers, AK's and AIDS on my! Boy am I glad we have you to bring these travesties to our attention Bono!
In a recent Op-Ed column for the New York Times Bono commented briefly on the net neutrality debate, a decade after Napster and Metallica lit that powder keg.
So Bono, what's illegal about doing things with the internet it was designed for? File-sharing is the bud of the internet through which it has blossomed. The systems that eventually developed into the world wide web of today were constructed by universities in an effort to share research and data...you know files.
But at least your understand of American lawmaking helps shed more light on the travesty that has befallen the music industry.
"The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of '24' in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free." Well, many already get it for free.
What we have here my fellow Americans, is a foreign citizen who has never sought to study the due process of Americas Congress. Along with a misconception that a few contracts with a record studio makes one a legal expert.
The system of bringing forth legislation in America was designed to move slowly through a bureaucracy of consideration before coming law, to ensure it didn't infringe the promises within the preamble of the Constitution.
Through the Declaration of Independence, Paul, the founding fathers sought to ensure for the Americans to come, a guarantee of unalienable rights endowed by the Creator of their beliefs. One of which is a right to free will. Hence our American obsession with freedom.
So what if a few rotten eggs are spoiling your profit margins, you have no right to infringe upon the freedom of American citizens who abide by copyright laws by targeting our internet service providers, we pay for that bandwidth it doesn't come for free.
We also have an obsession with due process over here Paul. Simply calling out red-herrings in your catatonic crusade to save the music industry will get your thoughts through to nothing but the scathing tongues of our public discussion.
Are the internet service providers truly at fault here Paul? No, they offer a paid service to willing customers. How can you even relate Robin Hood's moral to their service?
He robbed wealth from the rich and distributed it to the poor, ISP's rob no one and give nothing for free.
Yet you called them "reverse Robin Hoods", who would rob from the poor and give to the rich? Have those tinted glasses truly blocked your ability to see the light of reason?
"A decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators..."
Math time.
2009 - 10 = 1999
mIRC released 1995
1995 - 1999 = -4
That's some sloppy research Paul.
For those of you who don't use mIRC. mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat program which allows computers through an internet connection or local access network to connect, communicate, and share between each other within a chatroom setting; peer to peer. Remember the p2p programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus, perhaps Limewire or Frostwire? Guess where the abbreviation came from.
Aside from chatting, we could share files of any sort with each other. At the time, based upon the speed of connection, the only worthwhile files to share were music and word processor files.
Did we illegally take copywrited material and release it illegally by deriving profit? No, we ripped music we had received by willing creator or store clerk and shared it with the world free of charge.
Yet you claimed, "...the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business."
When in fact, a fledgling artist who shares his music with a passerby leading to it's publication and distribution online will give that artist notoriety as his music spreads. Once people connect with that music they will feel a calling to purchase the music once it hits a store shelf or iTunes browser.
Precocious conclusions of another mans' thoughts are but one of many failures in logic. For the music industry didn't suffer severely until certain technologies for delivery and other advancements in access turned sour to the bloated appetites of an industry based upon talent before vision.
Look at the price of a U2 iPod compared to a Walkman cassette or CD player. Then look at the model of access for the iPod. Don't need to buy the whole album anymore do you? The whole thing's become a customized single beckoning the preference of a cash-strapped consumer.
I used file-sharing over the internet this weekend to obtain music from a friend's computer which was purchased and ripped to his hard drive. Is there anything illegal about that? No. Did that musician miss out on my $20? Yes Why? Because I don't have that $20 and neither has the average American for a decade.
Didn't care to clean those tinted glasses of yours and see the real world over the last 10 years did you?
Just bought another pair when their euphoric-shine faded?
Purchasing power is down man! Shot to pieces like a barrel of fish at the business-end of a barrel of gun.
Look at CompUSA. Computer sales have remained consistent, the overall price has even decreased offering the consumer more choices! Video game sales are doing better than ever, and with the sexy in-bed relationship game developers have fostered with third-party performance parts manufactures, CompUSA offered under one roof everything needed to put that game on your monitor for $20 less than Circuit City or Best Buy. Yet they went belly up.
Did file-sharing of video games lead to CompUSA's demise? No, purchasing power within their market of inventory dried up. Many games have become too resource-demanding for the pay checks average gamers receive.
Music devices that put your "work" in our ears are getting there as well. At the price of an iPod today I could score a new CD player plus $250 worth of CDs. Today, since mp3 has taken over the format, that luxury has turned archaic.
"Not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content." ...Certainly if it works for a communism it works for democracy.
Yet Paul, failed within that hinting to realize his tinting has blinded his foresight. China controls internet content for one reason, censorship. Not in the protection of industry, but to censor the marketplace of ideas within it's society. Not for ignoble means, but for control.
In that respect, the American government has very limited right to toy with net neutrality. For our marketplace of ideas is to remain free and unhinged based upon the First Amendment.
Does that grant us the right to in certain cases, share files across the internet under illegal pretense? Of course not. What is does give us the right to uncensored discourse. For tracking internet content is a slippery slope at Mount Privacy.
Yet your foresight of technological advancement is at least looking in the right direction Paul.
"Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files."
Warning! It only takes but an hour to download a full length HD-quality movie onto my computer from the internet....times sure have changed since I started file-sharing through mIRC. I can even play an online game without suffering a drought in bandwidth while I'm downloading that movie.
For if your beloved music industry, Paul, operated by the wings of creativity, average consumers would have had the ability to purchase music online since TCP/IP went live to them through Windows 95. Instead they stuck to their compact disc format until Apple released iTunes.
So until Irishmen are granted unconditional American citizenship, lobby your own government with your plagiarized ideas and leave innovation to the truly creative.
You want an example of media creativity Paul?...Radiohead's In Raindows.
What's that Bono? Global warming is an inconvenient truth? Thanks for bringing that discovery to the world's attention! I'm sure because of your brilliant expertise on the subject we can stop some chemical-bullets hellbent on penetrating the blue sky and really cool things out here on planet Earth.
Come again Bono? Trouble in Africa? We had no idea the cradle of civilization had problems! Lions, and tigers, AK's and AIDS on my! Boy am I glad we have you to bring these travesties to our attention Bono!
In a recent Op-Ed column for the New York Times Bono commented briefly on the net neutrality debate, a decade after Napster and Metallica lit that powder keg.
So Bono, what's illegal about doing things with the internet it was designed for? File-sharing is the bud of the internet through which it has blossomed. The systems that eventually developed into the world wide web of today were constructed by universities in an effort to share research and data...you know files.
But at least your understand of American lawmaking helps shed more light on the travesty that has befallen the music industry.
"The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of '24' in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free." Well, many already get it for free.
What we have here my fellow Americans, is a foreign citizen who has never sought to study the due process of Americas Congress. Along with a misconception that a few contracts with a record studio makes one a legal expert.
The system of bringing forth legislation in America was designed to move slowly through a bureaucracy of consideration before coming law, to ensure it didn't infringe the promises within the preamble of the Constitution.
Through the Declaration of Independence, Paul, the founding fathers sought to ensure for the Americans to come, a guarantee of unalienable rights endowed by the Creator of their beliefs. One of which is a right to free will. Hence our American obsession with freedom.
So what if a few rotten eggs are spoiling your profit margins, you have no right to infringe upon the freedom of American citizens who abide by copyright laws by targeting our internet service providers, we pay for that bandwidth it doesn't come for free.
We also have an obsession with due process over here Paul. Simply calling out red-herrings in your catatonic crusade to save the music industry will get your thoughts through to nothing but the scathing tongues of our public discussion.
Are the internet service providers truly at fault here Paul? No, they offer a paid service to willing customers. How can you even relate Robin Hood's moral to their service?
He robbed wealth from the rich and distributed it to the poor, ISP's rob no one and give nothing for free.
Yet you called them "reverse Robin Hoods", who would rob from the poor and give to the rich? Have those tinted glasses truly blocked your ability to see the light of reason?
"A decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators..."
Math time.
2009 - 10 = 1999
mIRC released 1995
1995 - 1999 = -4
That's some sloppy research Paul.
For those of you who don't use mIRC. mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat program which allows computers through an internet connection or local access network to connect, communicate, and share between each other within a chatroom setting; peer to peer. Remember the p2p programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus, perhaps Limewire or Frostwire? Guess where the abbreviation came from.
Aside from chatting, we could share files of any sort with each other. At the time, based upon the speed of connection, the only worthwhile files to share were music and word processor files.
Did we illegally take copywrited material and release it illegally by deriving profit? No, we ripped music we had received by willing creator or store clerk and shared it with the world free of charge.
Yet you claimed, "...the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business."
When in fact, a fledgling artist who shares his music with a passerby leading to it's publication and distribution online will give that artist notoriety as his music spreads. Once people connect with that music they will feel a calling to purchase the music once it hits a store shelf or iTunes browser.
Precocious conclusions of another mans' thoughts are but one of many failures in logic. For the music industry didn't suffer severely until certain technologies for delivery and other advancements in access turned sour to the bloated appetites of an industry based upon talent before vision.
Look at the price of a U2 iPod compared to a Walkman cassette or CD player. Then look at the model of access for the iPod. Don't need to buy the whole album anymore do you? The whole thing's become a customized single beckoning the preference of a cash-strapped consumer.
I used file-sharing over the internet this weekend to obtain music from a friend's computer which was purchased and ripped to his hard drive. Is there anything illegal about that? No. Did that musician miss out on my $20? Yes Why? Because I don't have that $20 and neither has the average American for a decade.
Didn't care to clean those tinted glasses of yours and see the real world over the last 10 years did you?
Just bought another pair when their euphoric-shine faded?
Purchasing power is down man! Shot to pieces like a barrel of fish at the business-end of a barrel of gun.
Look at CompUSA. Computer sales have remained consistent, the overall price has even decreased offering the consumer more choices! Video game sales are doing better than ever, and with the sexy in-bed relationship game developers have fostered with third-party performance parts manufactures, CompUSA offered under one roof everything needed to put that game on your monitor for $20 less than Circuit City or Best Buy. Yet they went belly up.
Did file-sharing of video games lead to CompUSA's demise? No, purchasing power within their market of inventory dried up. Many games have become too resource-demanding for the pay checks average gamers receive.
Music devices that put your "work" in our ears are getting there as well. At the price of an iPod today I could score a new CD player plus $250 worth of CDs. Today, since mp3 has taken over the format, that luxury has turned archaic.
"Not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content." ...Certainly if it works for a communism it works for democracy.
Yet Paul, failed within that hinting to realize his tinting has blinded his foresight. China controls internet content for one reason, censorship. Not in the protection of industry, but to censor the marketplace of ideas within it's society. Not for ignoble means, but for control.
In that respect, the American government has very limited right to toy with net neutrality. For our marketplace of ideas is to remain free and unhinged based upon the First Amendment.
Does that grant us the right to in certain cases, share files across the internet under illegal pretense? Of course not. What is does give us the right to uncensored discourse. For tracking internet content is a slippery slope at Mount Privacy.
Yet your foresight of technological advancement is at least looking in the right direction Paul.
"Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files."
Warning! It only takes but an hour to download a full length HD-quality movie onto my computer from the internet....times sure have changed since I started file-sharing through mIRC. I can even play an online game without suffering a drought in bandwidth while I'm downloading that movie.
For if your beloved music industry, Paul, operated by the wings of creativity, average consumers would have had the ability to purchase music online since TCP/IP went live to them through Windows 95. Instead they stuck to their compact disc format until Apple released iTunes.
So until Irishmen are granted unconditional American citizenship, lobby your own government with your plagiarized ideas and leave innovation to the truly creative.
You want an example of media creativity Paul?...Radiohead's In Raindows.
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