Letter Never Sent

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.

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, 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, 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.

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

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.

From Reuters:

“It is finished. The assembly has voted for me,” Karzai told Reuters.

But many delegates streaming out of the German beer hall tent that is housing the Loya Jirga expressed anger that Karzai was anointed without a vote, with no consultation and no other candidates allowed to speak.

Well, this is no surprise. Ex-Unocal corporate stooge Hamid Karzai has been tapped by the US to rule Afghanistan since the US invaded the country. It would not be surprising if he had been picked before September 11th. There’s no reason to believe the US had any intention of letting someone else run things there despite all the lip service about letting the Afghan people manage their own affairs. And let’s be honest, the real reasons behind the American takeover of Aghanistan have to do with the unfortunate fact that out of that region they were the weakest government not on good terms with the US. It is really that simple. No Afghans bombed the World Trade Center. All of the bombers were Saudis, but then Saudi Arabia is one of our closest allies in the Mid East, so that’s no good. Presumably, the Taliban did provide assistance to bin Laden and other Islamic militants, but then so did Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and none of them were subjected to military action. Iraq will be subject to military attack, but it actually had nothing to do with bin Laden. Osama actually opposes the secular style government of Ba’athist Iraq. Just remember nothing is black and white despite what you hear on TV and read in the newspaper. A good rule of thumb is to assume that when you hear Bush or anyone in the Whitehouse speak they’re FOS. Lies, damn lies.