Recently in War Category

In a not so surprising move, The Register posted several articles this week showing they still have a problem with Google, the world’s most popular search engine. The first article is one suggesting that Sun Systems may have paid to have certain search results(the example is of a search for "+Sun storage", Duh!) come up with Sun's, instead of their competitors such as the HP, IBM, and other companies. This follows closely behind some articles last week where Google has been attacked for various practices including their inclusion of press releases and other promotional materials from companies and lobby groups as well as certain problems that the Register had with search results.

The second article is accusing that certain articles from The Register had been eliminated from the Google Search index, or at the very least have been lessened in prominence when doing searches that have been fairly obvious. When one looks up the term Googlewash on Google itself, one is hard pressed to find the article that brought the term to existence, but the writer had to admit it is in there. Really, it seems, the second article is another in a series of attacks, and only leads the reader to believe that The Reg is simply upset that it is not in the #1 spot for the term. Whether it is jealousy or bitterness, it shows a lack of professionalism and outright biased reporting by a formerly treasured news source.

Mike Hawash, a 38 year old programmer at Intel whose detainment at the Sheridan federal prison without a trial, hearing, or evidence, will be there until at least the end of April. "Hawash, detained as a witness by federal authorities in what appears to be a terrorism probe, will be held until at least the end of April, according to a court order released on Monday afternoon. The order was issued following a secret detention hearing at a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on Monday morning. Another secret detention hearing will be held on April 29, the order said."

I was speaking on this matter with a coworker on our walk home(he lives across the street) after work, and he seems to feel this is fine, that an American citizen can be held for no clear reason, and with no evidence. Mind you, this person also seems to agree with the clear endgame of the current US push in the layers of government, that any crime that makes someone afraid, be it robbery, hacking, or even simple possession of a pocket knife, should be labeled as terrorism and dealt with in the same manner as would Osama bin Laden. I then seemed to surprise him by saying, that by his logic, the American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, the entirety of the Israeli troops, and every police force in the world should be put in the same execution line, simply due tot he fact all use terror in their current actions. He didn't seem to have a reply.

As the war seems to be wrapping up in Iraq, the censorship by hackers and webmasters grows and is unceasing. The Al Jazeera network's english language web site is again having problems, this time it is that the current host, Akamai, has tossed them off their servers under strong pressure from other customers. The Al Jazeera people claim it was political pressure that forced Akamai's move, and if so the bush government should be ashamed of itself. In other news, site rumored to be the online base of al Qaeda, which has been attacked by weak kneed hosts and free speech canceling hackers, is yet again online, though for how long, no one knows. I am against censorship in all forms, and these moves, no matter how much I disagree with the sites message, are cowardly and underhanded.

The blog world was rocked by of it's first scandals when the owner of war blog site The Agonist, Sean-Paul Kelley, admitted that the majority of content he has provided about the war on his blog is stolen directly by him from the U.S.-Iraq War.com a paid news service put out by Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor. The dishonesty was revealed by a blogger called General Roy, also a subscriber to the service, and Dan Petty, a Stratfor newsletter subscriber and undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Champaign, also added to it with pointing out how Kelley does not attribute the material correctly. Wired's article on the deception mentions that Stratfor has agreed to allow Kelley to post only 2 items form the service per day, and it seems The Agonist has far less content than one would have seen a few weeks ago, and all of it is attributed.

So, what does this mean for bloggers? Well, our credibility in the mainstream media, like CNN, MSNBC and other networks both TV and radio, is hurt. This person was asked onto many TV and radio shows for his knowledge of how the war was going, and all he was doing was copying someone else's paid service, taking cash from their company by making that many fewer visitors. Personally I am not surprised, this was bound to happen as the demand on bloggers increased and grew to the point of people having to remain on the cutting edge any way they can. Now the community has to recover. I am certain that many people who have blogged about this guy's site have removed such links, and Kelley will really need to work hard to regain the trust of his readers. We will make it, I know the community can do it.

As I watch the news, and they talk about how some stuff was taped before the war, and other stuff is not him, just one of his puppets. The news agencies are gobbling up what the Pentagon and Centcom briefings say about the subject, but they clearly ignore the likelihood that the briefings are simply a way to draw Hussein out so they can kill him for sure, and that these examinations could simply be BS. In the Afghan war, the Donald Rumsfeld announced an office that would be in the disinformation business, providing false info to the media in an attempt to confusing their enemies. Why is it not conceivable that the US war mongers have been doing the same thing, without a specific office from which to do it? I think it is quite possible, and thus any info not seen on TV is in doubt.

I have sen the lady who is the tough talker in some of the Pentagon briefings on the war, no idea what her name is, talk repeatedly about how Saddam has not come live on Iraqi TV to tell his country he is alive. I wouldn't either. Would you come on your national TV network in a location frequently bombed and tell the world 'here I am, come bomb me' whilst your country is attacked by an invader who clearly has you outgunned and out teched? I know I wouldn't be so stupid, and their goading him into a reaction is not going to solve anything. He is a target, they have said as much, so why would he give them a perfect opportunity to get him and do a lot to solve this thing right now? The answer, my readers, is that he wouldn't, and he would be stupid to take their challenge.

In a report today that was likely in response to an earlier piece, Wired told the story of old school hacker's, those who believe in the ideal of freedom, who believe that true hackers would never have done what was attributed to hackers in the earlier piece, more specifically bringing down the english language site for the Al-Jazeera TV network located in the middle east. I have given up on correcting the difference between hacking and cracking, hackers, cracks and skript kiddies. The hackers believe censorship is bad, and freedom is good. The attackers of that site clearly hold neither of these ideals as a basis.

In a cowardly and underhanded act, the Hearst Corporation, owners of The San Francisco Chronicle, suspended writer Harry nor after he was arrested along with many others in an anti war protest in San Francisco. The Register reported this yesterday, and the reaction from all but the company itself has been swift. The problem is one of not applying correct punishment for his actions. He is not a political writer, he is a computer columnist. This is yet another example of the 'if you are not with us, you are against us' mentality that was so popular in the McCarthy era of US politics, and this simply proves how closed minded that some US citizens can be, that they not only agree, but follow this rule of the moron.

In an apparent ongoing battle of the site hacks, the war has been brought to the web, but not in the sense of one side of the war against the other, but instead a battle of pro and anti war hackers battling it out in support of their side of the discussion, be it pro or anti war. The Wired articlemakes a point of suggesting that this may be the future of protest, and if that is true then there are truly dark days ahead for the web as the US makes war on one country after the other. Many sites have been on the hit list, and many more are destined to be added to this list. Hopefully mine is not one on that list, though I am one of the smaller voices in the sea.

In a war when it seems only one side's dead are counted, this site is a welcome relief for those on the less technological side of the battle, where they can truly keep some semblance of a record of those lost. Wired reported on this site today, and it is one I am almost certain that CNN or MSN would have completely ignored. The two page story covers the goal of the site, and covers how it seems to be becoming an authority on the deaths so far on the Iraqi side. I would post it here, but I doubt you all want more reminders of al those lost so far.

CNet reported on the 20th in an article by Declan McCullagh that Israel was trying to tell sites what coverage they can and cannot show, which seems to follow well along the lines of the US coalition trying desperately to control the media and all things that they think the Iraqi's can use against them. "Chief Censor Rachel Dolev said editors must contact official censors in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before posting information online. "In addition, censors will be working 24 hours a day in the two media centers--in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, and in the David Intercontinental in Tel Aviv--and you may also turn to them," the letter said." I am sorry, but not even they have the right to censor people.

So, another day of war brings us a few interesting bits of news. The first is that there have been more deaths of coalition forces that were caused by fellow coalition forces, than deaths by Iraqi hands or weapons, assuming there has been at least one. Among those deaths, the 2 chopper incidents, the announcement during the Saturday news cycle that a Patriot missile appears to have taken out a British jet, and a US soldier who threw 2-3 grenades into command tents killing 1 and injuring 13. The other big story of the day was that marches continued around the world, the majority being against the war including bad ones in San Francisco and New York. I think both the cops and some protesters bent on violence are to blame for the end result.

I have been watching CNN's coverage of a grenade attack at Camp Pennsylvania in the Kuwaiti desert, and they keep referring to it as a Terrorist attack attempting to take out the camp's commander. I would choose to call it rightful return of fire, also attacking opposition leadership. The reports are that 10 have been injured, 6 of them seriously, and even if all 10 had died it would only be 31 coalition troops, compared to the estimated 2,000 soldiers and civilians on the Iraqi side. 31 to 2,000. I hate to see anyone die, but I have to wonder why the CNN broadcasts are virtually ignoring any and all injuries on the Iraqi side. I begin to wonder if there is not credence to be given tot he claims that the news are simply pawns of the US government in this unjustified attack.

After one helicopter crashed last night, killing around a dozen 'coalition forces', which is to say 4 Americans and 8 British troops, and now today 2 Sea King helicopters, very much like the ones that the Canadian military have had many problems with costing dozens of Canadian lives, collided in the Persian Gulf and seem to have killed another 7 coalition forces. As well, there have been miscellaneous reports about the US and British invaders being lost, but the two chopper incidents involving 3 helicopters are the only ones I have heard about. As well, the US is starting rumors that they believe that Saddam Hussein and his sons were indeed in the bunker they hit on the opening day of the strike, with one or more injured or lost. No exact word or proof about that.

A week or so Wired reported that independent war correspondent Christopher Allbritton, a former New York Daily News reporter, had decided to take his blog, Back to Iraq 2.0, to Iraq with him, not having any doubt war would happen. I felt this story worthwhile of mention today. "Allbritton says he wants to cover the humanitarian effects the likely U.S.-Iraq war will have on civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is protected by a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over northern Iraq." II have not had a chance to read it much, but it will be a good place to check out as things progress over there.

It has become obvious to me as of late that while I am willing to hear and read about other people's opinions about the war, no matter the side they take, many of those that are for the war seem to be getting very tired, and increasingly restrictive about the rights of others. I am disturbed that some feel that 'it is fine to protest, but stay out of my way' is an acceptable attitude, and that other's feel that since the war is on, those who disagree should just shut the hell up and just accept that war is on. I feel this is both fascist, and an increase in the feeling that the world is increasingly becoming an 'agree with me or go fuck yourself' place to be, and in that case, I wanna get off this train before it self annihilates itself.

Well, I just got an IM while watching Angel on the WB from a co worker, the word is that they have already begun the bombing in Iraq, the President will go on the air in about half an hour, and the world's powers are now at war with Iraq. This is a sad day indeed, and it will go down, I have no doubt, as the beginning of the war against tyranny, the tyranny of the USA over the world where they are right, and screw everyone else. They have long acted as the world's policeman, now they are the world's bully. I ask that the citizen's of the US to rise up against their leader and give him no option but to withdraw your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers from a war he has begun, and the one only the world may be able to finish.

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but just as with the rest of the world, I have been more than a little distracted by the war mongering and reporting. CNN, instead of Tech TV or CMT, is the channel I am tuned to for the most part. Saddam has rejected the Ultimatum. Bush is planning invasion. Troops have already moved into Iraq, and Iraqi soldiers have already begun surrendering. The clock is ticking to the deadline, which is now about two and a half hours away from now, and the bombs could begin falling anytime. Troops on both sides, 250K on the coalition side, 350K or so on the Iraqi side, but far less prepared and armed. Yesterday a 16 mile long train of vehicles moved through Kuwait to the border with Iraq. God help us all when this war begins.

So, while we were sitting at work, a co worker came back from lunch and told us of President Bush's speech, and that began a quest. We found a transcript on CNN, and the area went silent while we all read what he had to say at 7 PM our time. As a center that takes calls for American companies, talking to American consumers, it has been a frightening fence we have been forced to sit on. We are all surely afraid of insulting a customer by taking one side of the war or another. However, we need to also stay up to date on American news and current events, especially in the area we are supposed to be located, and this is very difficult to do many days. Therefore, I will use another outlet, GeekMeltdown, to get my opinions on today's events out there.

Ok, I got home last night to a CNN BReaking News alert in my email saying that Bush had said that diplomatic measures would end today. I woke up just now to 3 straight alerts from the same source, the first stating the US has advised weapons inspectors to leave Iraq, the second about the announcement that the three countries in the 'coalition of the willing' had decided to not put their proposal to a UN security council vote, and the third that Bush will address the nation at 8 PM tonight, and he is likely to say that either Saddam leaves Iraq, or war will commence. I personally feel that war is likely to begin tonight, based on the stuff on CNN.

We must consider timing in this matter. Just days before the head weapons inspectors, Al Baradei and Blix were to speak in front of the council, likely to say that Iraq was cooperating and there was no longer a need for war. As well France's decision to reiterate it will use it's veto power to kill off the resolution had a major impact on the decision to cancel the vote, and I really think that the bombs will fall within a few days, if not tonight around the point when Bush speaks. I would say it is clear that George W Bush and Tony Blair will be effectively and solidly killing their political careers. Blair was already on shaky ground, even in his own party, and the resignation of the leader of the House of Commons over this only adds to the troubles for Blair.

Bush, like his father, will go down as a war time president, and this time, unlike his father, there is no provocation nor any reason for the war. He will also go down at the President that caused,. instigated, and can be solely blamed for the next 09.11. This time I will not feel sorry for the American leadership for having to deal with such horror, nor for the American people who have supported, marched and ranted for war. Many Americans have marched against it, but clearly their leaders are ignoring them, only keeping on the war blinders that allow them to justify starting a war. I know Andrew, who has a grotesque animated gif on his site, will disagree, but that is the joy of blogging.