Welcome to Kenya, or as we say here, Karibu! This is a special ICCM for me. I grew up in Nairobi; in fact our school bus would pass right by the UN every day. So karibu, welcome to this beautiful country (and continent) that has taught me so much about life. Take “Crowdsourcing,” for example. Crowdsourcing is just a new term for the old African saying “It takes a village.” And it took some hard-working villagers to bring us all here. First, my outstanding organizing committee went way, way above and beyond to organize this village gathering. Second, our village of sponsors made it possible for us to invite you all to Nairobi for this Fifth Annual, International Conference of CrisisMappers (ICCM).
I see many new faces, which is really super, so by way of introduction, my name is Patrick and I develop free and open source next generation humanitarian technologies with an outstanding team of scientists at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), one of this year’s co-sponsors.
The next generation hackers may be taking to sound waves, and the Navy is understandably spooked.
Speaking at last week's Defense One conference, retired Capt. Mark Hagerott cited recent reports about sonic computer viruses as one way that hackers could “jump the air gap” and target systems that are not connected to the Internet.
“If you take a cybernetic view of what's happening [in the Navy], right now our approach is unplug it or don't use a thumb drive,” Hagerott said. But if hackers “are able to jump the air gap, we are talking about fleets coming to a stop.”
For a long time the thought was that an air gap (systems that are not connected to the Internet) rendered networks pretty much impenetrable.
Then the Stuxnet virus happened — an Iranian nuclear scientist with an infected thumb drive walked a virus through the air gap and unknowingly uploaded a destructive virus onto a network controlling nuclear centrifuges. This attack not only damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, but it also signaled the dawn of kinetic cyber attacks (the kind that cause physical damage) and the revealed the vulnerability of air gaps.
It's not just thumb drives though. Hagerott cited reporting by Arstechnica's Dan Goodin on a virus that supposedly transmitted via high-frequency sound waves.
Goodin called the malware “the advanced persistent threat equivalent of a Bigfoot sighting.”
Privacy: The Swedish citizens will get all their phone calls and e-mail traffic wiretapped in real time not just by the Swedish NSA branch, but also by police, customs, the tax authority, and others. These plans were revealed today by the Ny Teknik magazine, sending shockwaves among civil rights activists. This follows a previous law change that gave the Swedish NSA branch, the FRA, realtime access to all Internet traffic that crossed the country borders – effectively wiretapping everybody warrantlessly all the time.
Circumventing the entire legislative process and every democratic shred of oversight, the Swedish Police are demanding voluntary agreements from telecom operators to give the Police and other Swedish authorities direct and real-time access to phone call data, mail traffic, and much more. This is not just the slippery slope into an Orwellian society that civil rights activists have warned about: this is a slippery precipice.
We’re now officially past the point where “national security” (and the the ever-present disgusting child porn/terrorism argument) is used to justify bulk warrantless wiretapping of everybody, all the time. We’ve arrived at the point where the Police justify the complete elimination of entire classes of civil liberties with nothing more than “because it can be done, and we want it”.
The authorities that would get direct real-time access to most communications aren’t just the Police, but also the Customs Office, the Security Police, and the Tax Authority (!!).
A key difference between a functioning democracy and a police state is, that in a functioning democracy, the Police don’t get everything they point at. While the border between the two is arguably a lot of gray area, and subject to a lot of polemic, it can no longer be reasonably stated that police powers are under checks and balances.
According to the Ny Teknik article, followed up by manyothers in Swedish oldmedia, it’s not just real-time data on phone calls and mail that the Police are demanding. A sample of other things included in the proposed mass surveillance package:
How telecom bills are paid – cash, credit, direct deposit. If credit card, which one, and if direct deposit, from which bank account.
The subscriber’s PUK code, enabling a police authority to activate the cellphone’s SIM card without the subscriber’s PIN code.
There are hints in the article that many other items may be covered by the realtime wiretapping, referring to a wiretapping standard called ITS27.
The only telecom operator to say a blank never, this is completely unthinkable to the Police demands is the Swedish Tele 2.
The fact that the Swedish regime isn’t immediately firing everybody in the Police demanding this wholesale abolition of civil rights is practically an endorsement of the plans – and one that goes hand in hand with the much-criticized Swedish FRA Law that legalized warrantless bulk wiretapping in the first place.
Beirut Bombing: Attacks Target Iranian Embassy, 23 Killed, 146 Injured: “An Act of War by Saudi Arabia Against Iran”
Two blasts near the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed at least 23 people, injuring 146 and causing havoc and a massive fire in the Lebanese capital. Six buildings were reportedly destroyed in the embassy compound.
The harrowing scene was primarily caused by 100lb (50kg) of explosives loaded into a car, according to AP. Security sources on the ground said there were two blasts – the first caused by a person on a motorbike carrying some 4.4lbs (2kg) of explosive, while the second was by a suicide bomber who tried to ram the compound with the car.
However, there are conflicting reports as to how the initial blast unfolded. Eyewitnesses claimed that a man was mounted on a motorbike, while a Lebanese official told Reuters that the man wearing an explosives belt was seen rushing towards the embassy’s outer wall before blowing himself up.
Witnesses at the scene reported that the explosions occurred within one or two minutes of each other.
Injured people and destroyed buildings were seen on very disturbing pictures circulated by Lebanese media in the immediate aftermath.
Witnesses speaking to Al Arabiya reported seeing smoke rising from the battered embassy compound, while footage from the bloody scene showed raging fires, with the death toll rising by the minute.
It is not clear who was behind the attack at this time, but the area where the blasts occurred is significant in two ways: it is considered to be a stronghold for the Lebanese Shiite faction, Hezbollah. And secondly, it is a popular area and a home to many families of Iranian diplomats working in Lebanon.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon reacted promptly to the situation, saying that it was beyond any doubt that the embassy was the target of the attack and placing blame on a “Zionist entity.” He added that such attacks only “keep us strong and proves the righteousness of our stances.” Minutes before it was reported that the Iranian cultural adviser for Lebanon was wounded in the blast, but shortly thereafter succumbed to his injuries.
Later in the day Al-Manar found out that the Yemeni ambassador was lightly injured in the blasts.
Iran’s foreign ministry subsequently added that the blast was the work of Israeli mercenaries. Syrian information minister Omran Zoabi to Al-Manar has come out with a similar opinion, saying that Israeli and Saudi intelligence are behind the explosions. Later in the afternoon Reuters reported that Al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam brigades have claimed responsibility for the double suicide bombing.
There are so many things I dislike about the Obama Administration but this story, which broke today, is appalling, and almost unbelievable. We have millions of Americans literally unclear where their next meal is coming from. We have the developed world's! highest rate of child abuse. Our infrastructure is falling apart, and we have 50 million people in poverty. So where does this administration choose to spend its money — why rebuilding and defending Afghanistan. It is an endless war that has produced nothing but death, maiming, and destruction. The Afghans hate us, their government makes the Mafia look like the Red Cross, and nothing, nothing, has been accomplished in over a decade. And now Obama appears to be committing to more of the same.
Pakistan: Update. Pakistan on Tuesday set up a special court to try former president Pervez Musharraf for high treason, an official statement said. The announcement came hours after the Supreme Court forwarded the names of five judges suitable to sit on the special court, following a government request on Monday.
Comment: The Chief Justice and the Prime Minister both have major complaints about their treatment when Musharraf governed. The four outstanding criminal charges against him attest to his cavalier attitude towards civilian laws.
The Chief Justice is determined to use his office to establish the rule of law in Pakistan, including over the Pakistan Army, and the independence of the judiciary. The Prime Minister appears to be out for punishment, if not justice, for Musharraf's overthrow of Sharif in 1999.
This is a serious matter that could lead to military unrest once again because it will tarnish the senior staff of the Pakistan Army as it existed in 2007. That explains why the government has decided to bring the first treason charge against a former Chief of Army Staff for constitutional crimes while the incumbent, General Kayani, remains in office – until 28 November.
Kayani's six-year tenure has been characterized by attention to soldierly duties and open military support for elected civilian government. He has held the post of army chief long enough to fill the senior positions with men he judges are of like mind and whom he thinks he can trust to respect the constitution.
One the other hand, a treason charge against a former army chief potentially is destabilizing because Musharraf also has cronies in the officer corps. That explains why Sharif has not yet named Kayani's successor. This trial, if it proceeds, could be the greatest test of Pakistan's democracy and judiciary ever.
Syria: Syrian Arab Army units with assistance from Hizballah fighters captured the town of Qarah, which is a stopping point on the main highway from Damascus to the Syrian coast. The army launched its offensive on Friday, carrying out a series of air strikes and helicopter attacks. Thousands of Syrians fled into Lebanon.
Rebel group Jabat al-Nusra (the al-Nusrah Front) said that it and other groups had withdrawn from the area, after sustaining serious losses.
Qarah is located 100 kms (60 miles) north of Damascus on the main highway to the coast. It is 175 kms from Latakia in northwestern Syria, the heartland of regime supporters.
The Syrian government now controls the road linking the coast to the capital via Homs. This means that the pro-government forces have broken the back of the opposition fight in the west because the opposition supply line from Lebanon has been severed.
A blog reported from a “reliable source” that about 6,000 government forces and 2,500 Hizballah fighters supported by tanks, artillery and air strikes defeated about 3,000 opposition fighters
Rebels responded by shelling Damascus with mortar rounds that have hit the city almost every day during the past two weeks, leaving dozens dead or wounded. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, state TV reported that troops were “in full control of Qarah after wiping out all terrorist units in it”.
Comment: This is a significant setback for the opposition whose fighters had held Qarah for over a year. It served as an opposition arms smuggling distribution point from Lebanon.
The rebellion in the west central region along al Qalamoun Mountains that run along the Lebanon border appears to have fragmented, if not collapsed. An al-Nusrah Front spokesman promised a counterattack, but the main battle appears to have ended in a government victory. The government now should have a relatively secure line of communication to the coastal ports of Tartus and Latakia.
Provided the government can maintain security on the highway, this development should facilitate the transport for destruction of chemical weapons agents from sites near Damascus.
This review is from: War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (Paperback)
War is a Force that Gives us Meaning
When cultures of violence get mixed up with myths of war
Chris Hedges is a scholar of immense talents, who has “been there, done that;” (and bought the Tee shirt). He is as familiar with the art of war as is Sun Tzu, and arguably much smarter. Plus his sensibilities are different: keener, and in the right place — more refined and more severely tilted towards an instinct for building a better more humane world. With his own considerable experiences as a war correspondent as backdrop, Hedges uses his award-winning literary skills and his “over-sized” intellect to enlighten us about things that we already should know about: That war is hell; and that everything that glorifies it is a monumental but soothing lie!
