Victories! Life for the Constitution

This week the Democratic-led Congress work from its slumber and shook off its fear to provide two victories:
The House refused to pass a surveillance bill that gave telecom companies RETROACTIVE immunity. They let the new FISA bill expire rather than accept that provision. Hurray! Additionally, at least while there is more wrangling over the bill, [...]

President Bush Doesn’t Need Permission Slip for Gitmo

Recently, the mainstream media have uncritically quoted President Bush, Secretary of State Rice and other officials as saying they wish the United States could close down our prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, but we can’t until other nations agree to take the remaining prisoners. In addition to taking the remaining prisons, it’s been reported that [...]

Roosevelt Was Right: Fear vs. Terrorism

Security consultant and author Bruce Schneier recently highlighted a new study that shows an elevated heart attack risk for people fearful and stressed about terrorism.
He quotes from a New York Times article about a report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry:
After controlling for various factors (age, obesity, smoking, other ailments and stressful life events), [...]

WTC FAQs for the rest of us

I believe the official story about 9/11. That a group of mostly Saudi hijackers flew planes into the two towers of New York’s World Trade Center. I believe that undeniable evidence of a conspiracy would have come out by now if 9/11 was an “inside job.”
But some people do believe that 9/11 was an inside [...]

Refuse the Terror

Refuse The Terror

Watch this video, then send this message to your Congressional Delegation:
I am not afraid of terrorism, and I want you to stop being afraid on my behalf. Please start scaling back the official government war on terror. Please replace it with a smaller, more focused anti-terrorist police effort in keeping with the rule [...]

The Global War on Terrorism: A Religious War?

This new 24 page paper out of the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College is a nice followup to my last post about the “war on terror”:
The Global War on Terrorism: A Religious War?Authored by Lieutenant Colonel Laurence A. Dobrot.http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=822
Summary:
The United States has been actively engaged in prosecuting the Global War on [...]

Are we winning war on Terror? Signs say no

You might have heard about the American Security Project’s efforts to measure progress in the US’s “War on Terror.” While as of this writing I’ve seen stories talk about how we’re failing in a number of metrics, I hadn’t seen coverage of the metrics themselves. So I went to the actual report:
Are We Winning?: Measuring [...]

Movie Review: V for Vendetta

You know that Hugo Weaving has to be a great actor when he can carry off wearing a mask for an entire movie in V for Vendetta. He expressed a wide range emotions through his voice and his non-verbal body cues. I found the movie to be very good and unpredictable. Naturally the movie was [...]

The War on the Unexpected

Bruce Schneier explains the latest front on the War on Terror, which has been visible to me since 2002:

The War on the Unexpected

via Schneier on Security on 11/1/07
“We’ve opened up a new front on the war on terror. It’s an attack on the unique, the unorthodox, the unexpected; it’s a war on [...]

Egypt: Security, Political, and Islamist Challenges

Here is a link to a new publication from the Army Sponsored Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College.

Egypt: Security, Political, and Islamist Challenges. Authored by Dr. Sherifa D. Zuhur.
Contemporary Egypt evidences severe failures of governance and political and economic development. Along with the continued strength of moderate Islamists and [...]