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Smart University designs and delivers high level ICT training through Europe. Its focus: the latest technologies that will drive future growth and innovation of enterprises and organizations.
The Sophia Antipolis session offers 17 trainings, one or two day long, intended to engineers, executives, academics and every professional involved in the design and implementation of projects leveraging latest ICT advances.

e-Smart Program
Outline and discuss the future of digital security technologies with the whole Smart Security Industry: industry leaders, research labs and universities, associations, standards and government bodies. e-Smart will present latest smart security advances from the labs and concrete solutions to ensure an adequate level of security for every use cases. At the forefront this year, smart grids, the “cloud”, contactless issues, Java Card, new USIM apps.

And more.  Conference Home Page

PENTAGON DELAYS PUBLICATION OF NEW BOOK

The Department of Defense says that a forthcoming book about the war in Afghanistan contains classified information, and that it should not be put on the market in its current form.  Instead, the Pentagon is considering whether to purchase and destroy the entire first printing of the book, “Operation Dark Heart” by Anthony A. Shaffer, while a revised edition is prepared.  The controversy was first reported by the New York Times in “Pentagon Plan: Buying Books to Keep Secrets” by Scott Shane, September 10.

Shaffer, the book's author, is a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer and Army lieutenant colonel.  He submitted the manuscript to the Army for prepublication review and received permission to proceed earlier this year.  The book was printed and prepared for release at the end of August by the publisher, St. Martin's Press.

But prior to the publication date, a copy of the manuscript was obtained by DIA and other intelligence agencies, all of whom raised new objections to its publication.

Continue reading “Secrecy New Extract: DIA Seeks to Classify Reality”

Some seats remain for AFIO's large FALL LUNCHEON

FRIDAY, 24 September 2010  1 p.m. speaker

Michael J. Morell, Deputy Director CIA

who follows….  11 a.m. speaker

Stewart A. Baker

former General Counsel, NSA,
1st Undersecretary DHS, and author of important new book,
Skating on Stilts: Why We Aren't Stopping Tomorrow's Terrorism

Lunch served at noon

R E G I S T R A T I O N

EVENT LOCATION: The Crowne Plaza 1960 Chain Bridge Road • McLean, Virginia 22102

Driving directions here or use this link: http://tinyurl.com/8228kw

Turkey Update. Prime Minister Erdogan declared victory on Sunday, 12 September, as voters approved a constitutional reform package in a highly debated referendum that will restructure the judiciary and curb military powers.

The referendum was regarded as a vote of confidence in Erdogan's government. Prime Minister Erdogan dismissed concerns about his government moving towards an establishment of Islam, saying he is committed to the country's 87-year-old secular state. Following the referendum victory, Erdogan committed himself to further reform, including a completely new constitution.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The referendum exposed how Turkey has become tri-furcated under the AK Party. The Party has little room for the educated sophisticated urbanites who live along the northwest coast. It has no place for the Kurds. Both groups only prosper in a tolerant, secular environment. That era is close to ending.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: Interpreting Turkey's Vote”

The buzz continues—agile, cloud computing, text analytics, virtualization, open source, cool BI, Web 2.0, social media, mobile BI. But what do these terms really mean for business intelligence and data warehousing? It’s been difficult enough to implement effective and valuable BI/DW solutions with existing technologies. Will these emerging technologies make your job easier or harder? TDWI is offering six days of in-depth education from industry thought leaders on how these technologies work, how you can deploy them, and the benefits they can bring to your organization.

Phi Beta Iota: Way too many people are forgetting that there are FOUR quadrants in commercial intelligence and organizational intelligence.  “Business intelligence” is code for internal data mining, nothing more.  It is important as the foundation for the other three quadrants, but nothing by itself.  “Competitive Intelligence” take place in Quadrants II and III but if focused only on the competition, misses 75% of the value to be harvested.  IOHO.  To understand this, look at Graphic: Four Quadrants J-2 High Cell SMS Low.

STATE SECRETS VS. THE RULE OF LAW

The inherent tension between the state secrets privilege and the rule of law reached the breaking point last week when an appeals court dismissed the claims of several persons who said they were illegally transported and tortured through a CIA “extraordinary rendition” program.  They would not be permitted to litigate their case, the court decided, because to do so would place “state secrets” at risk.

“This case presents a painful conflict between human rights and national security,” the 9th circuit court of appeals noted in its September 8 opinion (pdf) in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, and by a 6-5 majority the judges determined that security considerations would take precedence.

Phi Beta Iota: We recommend the full editorial commentary by Steve Aftergood.  This puts the USA on a level with the Guatemalan era of genocide against the indigenous, the “patriotic wars” in which “anything goes.”

See Also:

Continue reading “Secrecy News Headline: State Secrets vs. Rule of Law”