15
Jun 02

Interesting article on the worldwide arms industry

From the BBC:

    Russia has overtaken the United States to become the world’s leading conventional arms exporter for the first time, increasing deliveries sixfold over the last five years. Russian exports rose 24% in 2001

Of course, the U.S. coincidently removed its arms embargo against India which currently receives 80% of its weaponry from Russia. Maybe they are threatened by the idea of Russia dominating the global arms industry. The Russians always had a very robust and effective educational system when it came to science and engineering. A seldom reported fact, the CIA often purchases Russian made helicopters because American made helicopters are widely held to be unsafe. Remember all those recent military helicopter and plane accidents? American-made. The CIA refuses to use the American military’s helicopters.


14
Jun 02

The Beast has its weaknesses

A 17-year old Austrian lad was able to hack into the Pentagon and accessed ‘sensitive’ information:


    But from the computer in his bedroom, Markus was able to get into the most classified Pentagon sites, including the one which details the silos where missiles with multi-megaton warheads are kept.

    “Cracking into the Pentagon was child’s play,” said the teenager. “I know my way round the internet.”

    Markus, who lived with his mother in Germany for a while when his parents split up, eventually moved into a small flat in Vienna where he now lives alone.

    He added: “I don’t know anyone here, apart from my granny, so I surf all night on the internet.”

Thank God for the young. They’re so inventive.


14
Jun 02

Good Ole American Style Fascism

Wow. Bush is sounding more and more like a really scary Big Brother figure. In a commencement speech at Ohio State University, our debauched and stupid leader urged graduating seniors to embrace a “culture of service”.


    “Your class and generation understand that the responsibility which begins in your life must extend to your nation,” he said. “And so you will make a culture of service a permanent part of American life.”

He then went on to urge all Americans to heed the call of duty to the Homeland.

More ominously attendees were told not to heckle or disrupt the Fuhrer: “But immediately before class members filed into the giant football stadium, an announcer instructed the crowd that all the university’s speakers deserve to be treated with respect and that anyone demonstrating or heckling would be subject to expulsion and arrest. The announcer urged that Bush be greeted with a “thunderous” ovation.”

So, protest and get arrested. Der Kommissar geht um – oh, oh, oh.


14
Jun 02

Assorted Links

Some good stuff from here and there:

  1. New ‘T-ray’ Space Camera Also Sees Through Clothes, Walls
  2. Awesome op-ed by Charley Reese: Pre-Emption Is The Word:

    But let’s review now: One, we are in a global war, although the war looks like a one-person marriage at the moment; two, the rest of the world is on notice that they are either with us or against us (neutrality has no place in the Bush Doctrine); three, the rest of the world is also on notice that we might use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear country; and four, now the rest of the world is on notice that we will strike without warning, even against nations that think they are at peace with us.

  3. ‘US had role in Taleban prisoner deaths’: US SOLDIERS took part in the torture of Taleban prisoners and may have had a role in the “disappearance” of around 3,000 men in Mazar-i-Sharif in north-west Afghanistan, according to a new documentary.
  4. Iraq strike likely by winter: The Bush administration needs to get busted on corruption charges.
  5. Gulf buildup: U.S. has doubled troops in Kuwait this year
  6. Army unit to bar women: I guess women aren’t quite ruthless enough to be hired killers. Plus there’s that whole homoerotic male-bonding thing that goes on when men kill together.
  7. Via Antiwar.com, The FBI Unleashed.
  8. U.S. sends spy drones into Iran.

14
Jun 02

Fuck tha police

Interesting article on the Top 10 List of Police Database Abuses:


    Your address, telephone number, Social Security number, date of birth, criminal record — all this information and more can be accessed by police officers if they have basic information about you. Not surprisingly, some cops abuse their privilege and use their database access for less-than-honorable reasons. This week on “CyberCrime” we show you how some corrupt cops used police databases to harass exes and even get telephone numbers of pretty girls they see in cars.

14
Jun 02

U.S. Continuing to Build Case for Iraq Invasion

Today the Bush administration expelled an Iraqi diplomat of the UN, Abdul Rahman I. K. Saad, who they say had been spying. One of the many shadowy, unnamed U.S. officials made this accusation:“He was engaging in activities that are incompatible with being a diplomat. He was spying. We found sufficient evidence, overwhelming evidence.”

What’s the evidence? Where is it? This is getting old. Groundless accusations just for political purposes. And U.S. officials are never giving their names so they can’t be held accountable for lies and erroneous information. They popup like mushrooms long enough to spread rumor and then they vanish. This is adept propaganda.


14
Jun 02

Backtracking

14 Jun, Fri, 10:56:08 laksatxpr2e.lackland.af.mil MSIE 6 Windows 2000

Interesting google search from Lackland AFB in San Antonio. Someone at Lackland was searching for info using the search terms ” “CREOLE” medina rsoc” By the way, I used to live right down the street from Lackland. Nice PX, and it’s not that far from Medina.

The RSOC refers to the Regional Security Operating Centre which is in Medina, TX. I’m guessing “CREOLE” could refer to some operation codename? I say this only because it was typed in all caps and surrounded by quotes. This is not normal for most search terms.

The RSOC was also involved in the attempted Chavez coup:


    The National Security Agency (NSA) supported the coup using personnel attached to the US Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force East (JIATF-E) in Key West, Florida. NSA’s Spanish-language linguists and signals interception operators in Key West; Sabana Seca on Puerto Rico and the Regional Security Operating Centre (RSOC) in Medina, Texas also assisted in providing communications intelligence to US military and national command authorities on the progress of the coup d’etat.

I did my own googling and found some interesting information via Cryptome. It turns out that the facility in Medina is actually a high-security offshoot of Lackland AFB so this makes sense. They get up to some serious spook business:


    Close to San Antonio is the Medina Annex of Lackland Air Force Base. Here, Air Force staff of the Consolidated Security Operations Center process communications from around the world. Like the real Area 51, Medina is one of the US government’s highest security facilities. San Antonio is home to the Electronic Security Command, the US Air Force section of the intelligence agency NSA. It also now hosts an Information Warfare Centre.

As hosting an Information Warfare Centre it would make sense that they were involved in the blackbag stuff that went on in Venezuela.


13
Jun 02

My new hobby

13 Jun, Thu, 11:21:10 136.205.16.3 MSIE 5 Windows 2000

This one resolved to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. They were searching google for “otto comanche helicopter grip”. Obviously a reference to something with Comanche helicopters.

Al Martin, former CIA insider, often reports on the fraud taking place at Redstone:


    Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama — where illegal foreign arms merchants enjoy sumptuous lobster and prime rib lunches at US taxpayers’ expense.

    The Huntsville, Alabama complex is one of the four United States National Arsenals. It’s also the headquarters of the United States Central Missile Production Command, where most of the United States missile systems are produced and tested.

    During the last year, there have been reports in the media about two congressional investigations, one by the US Senate Defense Oversight Committee and the other by its companion committee in the House, regarding illegal sales of extremely sophisticated US military technology and weapons systems to embargoed foreign countries.


13
Jun 02

Interesting

In case you have noticed already I like keeping track of how .gov and .mil hits get here. I also like to backtrace the domains to see roughly where in the government or army they are. I had this one early this morning at 4:30 which would make sense as I think it is from some Army location in or near the Balkans in Kosovo. The subdomain “areur” seems most likely to be some combination of army and europe. Anyway, they got here via google looking for “stats on Islamic fundamentalists operating in Macedonia”. I wish some of these guys would leave comments sometimes. I’m curious to know how they view things.

13 Jun, Thu, 04:30:27 sko-bfce.areur.army.mil MSIE 6 Windows 2000


11
Jun 02

IRC 0WNZ

Some hilarious quotes from IRC:

    * dregan kicks Yamucha in the nuts
    * dregan stamps on Yamucha’s neck
    *** ChanServ sets mode: +o Yamucha
    <dregan> Oh shit.

    <Raize> can you guys see what I type?
    <vecna> no, raize
    <Raize> How do I set it up so you can see it?

    <tatsumi> I wish I could look up and see the stars.
    <Toen> you can, if you go outside
    <tatsumi> …… go where?

    <erno> hm. I’ve lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can’t figure out where in my apartment it is.