Words of Power: 2006

Saturday, December 30, 2006

GS(3) Intel Briefing 12-30-06: Updates on Human Trafficking, the Great Game, World's Oil Economy, Deforestation, Net Neutrality, and More!

Image: Salvador Dali's One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate

GS(3) Intelligence Briefing 12-30-06: Updates on Human Trafficking and Gender Bias in Eastern Europe, the Great Game, the World's Oil Economy, Deforestation, Net Neutrality and more!

Edited By Richard Power

Life on this planet is a Oneness. And although this Oneness is rich in bio-diversity and a myriad of human cultures, the truth of it is increasingly difficult to escape.

Looking out for the health and evolution of this Oneness in the 21st Century demands a bold, holistic approach to security and risk.

GS(3) Intelligence explores the interdependence of security, sustainability, and spirit.

This particular GS(3) intel briefing provide insights on important global issues and trends, including human trafficking, the Great Game, the world's oil economy, deforestation, and the struggle to preserve the freedom of the Internet.

It consists of highlights from a collection of nine news stories and op-ed pieces from eight diverse and international sources: Reuters Alternet, Inter Press Service, Moscow Times, Asia Times, Mercosur, Bloomberg News, Daily Yomiuri, and Save the Internet.

The items are organized by region, excerpted with links to the full texts, and introduced with analytic overviews.

Customized analysis is provided for clients.

NOTE: Some issues, e.g., global warming and the crisis in Darfur, are areas of focus for Words of Power and are covered on an ongoing daily and weekly basis in Hard Rain Journal entries, etc. So you won't typically see them reflected in the bi-weekly intel briefing.

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

The rise of organized crime in the aftermath of the Eastern bloc's collapse is one of the great stories and most urgent issues of our time. If it is not dealt with decisively over the next few years, it could lead to regional destablization and even mass destruction. Bulgaria and Romania have just entered the EU, and yet, the issues of organized crime and corruption in both societies are so serious that Brussels has decreed that "Romania and Bulgaria will in some respects still be treated by the EU as if they were only candidate members, with the European Commission even slapping a painful "third country" status on Sofia in the area of aviation safety....Commission officials will still be prying into their Romanian and Bulgarian counterparts' work to monitor "progress," particularly in the areas of crime and corruption, food safety issues and - as it emerged just before the Christmas holidays - aviation safety in Sofia's case." (EU Observer, 12-21-06) Whether in the Balkans or East Asia or anywhere else (perhaps I should say "everywhere else") on Earth, no aspect of organized crime (other than black market WMD) is more damaging to the web of life than human trafficking, particularly the sexual slavery of women and children. How can the industrialized nations of the North promote the Millennium Goals (which call for the raising up and protecting of women and children) to the developing world when its own tourism and currencies perpetuate this kind of exploitation in the heart of Europe itself? Of course, part of the answer is serious trans-border law enforcement efforts. But aggressive awareness and education campaigns both in the East and in the West are also a vital component. And yes, an enlightened realism demands rights for sex workers and regulation of the sex industry as a third essential element.

Anca thought girls who spoke on television about being sold into sex slavery were paid to invent such stories to boost tv show ratings. That was until she answered a friend's invitation to join her in Germany and work as a dishwasher in a town near Hamburg. When she arrived, her passport was taken away and her captors forced her to work as a prostitute for their clients. Three months later she slid down two floors on a drainpipe, ran several kilometres (miles) through a forest and finally found a taxi that took her to a police station and safety....As they prepare to join the European Union, Romania and Bulgaria are struggling to contain human trafficking and smuggling, particularly in drugs, which is endemic in the Black Sea region that will soon become the EU's eastern border.
Every year, thousands of women such as Anca, some as young as 13, are kidnapped or lured by promises of well paying jobs or marriage and sold to gangs who lock them up in night clubs and brothels or force them to work on the streets...Justyna Pawlak, Sex slavery plagues Romania and Bulgaria, Reuters Alternet, 12-27-06

A study 'Stereotyping: Representation of Women in Print Media in South-East Europe' has studied the portrayal of women in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. The study was carried out by the MediaCentre in Bosnian capital Sarajevo....Analysts studied leading publications from the region of former Yugoslavia for almost a year, and concluded that "the public sphere remains the domain of men, as politics and other 'serious' matters remain reserved for men, while women are assigned roles in the private sphere and entertainment."
"In 80 percent of the text, it is men who are represented in all the issues the dailies tackled," said co-author Ivana Kronja at a presentation of the study in Belgrade last week. "Women are almost invisible; they appear when one goes to the entertainment, fashion or TV section."
South-East Europe print media marginalise women even in areas and professions where they dominate, such as healthcare, education and municipal administration, the study shows....
"This clearly shows that media people also need a kind of education -- journalists of both genders," Tamara Skrozza, coordinator of the women section of the Independent Association of Journalists (NUNS) told IPS....Vesna Peric Zimonjic, Women Fight Prejudice in Balkans, Inter Press Service, 12-27-06

ASIA PACIFIC

Russia is not simply a European power or an Asian power; it is a Eurasian power. And its importance, and the geopolitical challenges it presents, must be understood in this context. While the USA staggered around in Iraq, wasting its blood and wealth in a foolish military adventure predicated on a neo-con wet dream, Putin's Russia -- shrewd, ruthless and opportunistic -- got stronger and stronger with each increase in the price of oil and each downtick in the USA's prestige around the world. Tremendous potential for global good has been squandered in the years since the fall of Communism. It did not have to be this way. Here are two important pieces, one is a look ahead at Russia in 2007, and the other is an update on the Great Game being played out in Central Asia. It is vital that you understand the forces at work in this region, since a profound misunderstanding of them is behind much of the world's present precarious circumstances.

It has been a banner year for Russian stocks, but analysts expect to see that banner waver in 2007, when volatility picks up on local markets and the looming State Duma and presidential elections shake up the ties between business and power. The giants of the local markets reigned this year as Russia became the 10th-largest economy in the world, reaching a gross domestic product of $960 billion this month...
Oil exports have been the lifeblood of the country's economy since it took its first steps on the free market. Since 1999, it has been widely seen as the main force behind the economic growth rate topping 6 percent each year....Alfa Bank strategist Erik DePoy said this assumption hinged on a pair of highly unpredictable factors -- "the two Ws: weather and war." On both fronts, analysts expect local investors to indulge in more than a little schadenfreude over the oil price, hoping for fierce weather to raise demand and international conflict to hinder supply....The continuing standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions will put regular upward pressure on oil prices. In April 2007, all eyes will be on the Nigerian elections. Africa's largest oil producer has already been forced to cut about one-quarter of its daily output after repeated rebel attacks against foreign-owned refineries and pipelines. Pre-election violence in the country could force further export cutbacks ahead of the U.S. summer driving season, when oil prices usually peak.
For every dollar increase in oil prices, Russia's export revenues grow by $3.6 billion and the federal budget jumps $1.7 billion, Renaissance Capital said in a report this month....
The upcoming State Duma and presidential elections will be the single-biggest source of volatility on Russian markets, said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital....Elections and Oil Hold Key to 2007, Moscow Times, 12-29-06

The Great Game in Central Asia itself may appear to have considerably slowed down in 2006. But nothing could be more deceptive an impression. True, we've witnessed nothing like the cataclysmic events of the previous year - "Tulip Revolution" or the Andizhan uprising in Uzbekistan. Yet great-power rivalries most certainly continued - passions that were largely driven underground, where they simmered without taking a confrontational character.
Partly this was because the bickering over geopolitical influence became somewhat manifestly lopsided, with Russia and China not only retaining their gains of yesteryear but also consolidating them, and the US painstakingly attempting to recoup its lost influence in the region....
During the five-year period since its birth in 2001, the SCO, which has as members a number of underdeveloped countries including some desperately poor ones with nothing ostensibly to bind them together except their common geography, has not only held together but has grown in size and influence.
Initially drawing on the Chinese tri-fecta of "terrorism, separatism and extremism", the SCO speaks today about the establishment of a free-trade area and about common energy projects such as exploration of hyrdrocarbon reserves, joint use of hydroelectric power and water resources. But from the US perspective, the SCO agenda continues to be laden with a heavy cloud of suspicion regarding the United States' geostrategic intentions in the Central Asian region....
Without doubt, a palpable sense of urgency is already apparent in US thinking to the effect that the Chinese-Russian strategic partnership poses a serious threat to the United States' geopolitical position in Central Asia, and second, that China is actively remaking Central Asia's order. Last September, the US Congress held a special hearing titled "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Is it Undermining US Interests in Central Asia?" M K Bhadrakumar, The Great Game on a razor's edge, Asia Times, 12-23-06

AMERICAS

Those who value deep democracy take courage from many recent developments in South America. The struggle for the soul of the future is quickening below the Equator. Here is some good news from Ecuador and some bad news from Argentina.

Ecuadorian President-elect Rafael Correa appointed this week seven women to his Cabinet, including the country’s first female Defence minister, saying he wanted to promote gender equality....
"Ecuador will really become a democracy when all the institutions of the state are clearly subject to civilian society," Correa told reporters. "That is why it is very important to break the tradition of having a former officer in charge of the Defence Ministry and naming a civilian, and if possible a woman." In other appointments to his 17-member Cabinet, Correa named women to head Foreign Affairs, Health, Housing, and Social Welfare ministries. He said he would keep outgoing President Alfredo Palacio`s ministers of Tourism and the Environment, the only women in the current Cabinet. Seven women in Ecuador’s incoming cabinet, Mercosur, 12-28-06

Despite the continued destruction of Argentina's forests due to the advance of the agricultural frontier, a draft law that would have declared a "state of emergency" for the country's forests was postponed until next year.
In an initial vote, the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill in November, and further debate on it was about to begin when the bloc of lawmakers from the Frente para la Victoria -- President Néstor Kirchner's faction of the ruling Justicialista (Peronist) Party -- split on the issue.
In the last legislative session of the year, the bill, which had been drawn up with the participation of environmental organisations, was left without a quorum. The debate had already been put off three times...
Deputy Marta Maffei of the centre-left opposition party Alternative for a Republic of Equals explained to IPS that the Frente para la Victoria is now divided between those who are in favour of rationally administering the country's forestry resources and those who are opposed to controls on deforestation.
"The deputies from the northern provinces want the forests to be administered at the discretion of the governors. But we already know how that ends, because so far the forests have been exploited and plundered by private economic groups, without any controls,"she said.
Marcela Valente, ARGENTINA: Continued Green Light for Destruction of Forests, Inter Press Service, 12-27-06

GLOBAL

The oil producers are moving away from the US dollar. The code-word is "diversification." Bloomberg reports on the 2007 plans of the UAE and other nations. How long will the propapunditgandists of the US mainstream news media ignore this aspect of the Bush-Cheney debacle, and who will they blame when they are forced to acknowledge it -- Bill Clinton? Meanwhile, from Tokyo, the Daily Yomiuri offers a readers survey of the top stories of 2006 and an editorial perspective assesses our dismal circumstances, i.e., global destablization, lack of real international leadership, etc.

The United Arab Emirates plans to convert 8 percent of its foreign-exchange reserves to euros from dollars before September, the latest sign of growing global disaffection with the weakening U.S. currency....The Gulf state is among oil producers, including Iran, Venezuela and Indonesia, looking to shift their currency reserves into euros or sell their oil, which is now priced in dollars, for euros. The total value of the reserves held by the U.A.E. is $24.9 billion, Suwaidi said....Central banks in Russia, Switzerland and New Zealand are also diversifying away from the dollar and into yen after the Japanese currency reached a 10- month low against its biggest trading partners in October. Matthew Brown, U.A.E. to sell dollars for euros, Bloomberg News, 12-27-06

This year likely will be remembered as one in which the international community further destabilized.
Many of the Top 10 international news stories as voted by readers of The Yomiuri Shimbun dealt with this destabilization, both regionally and globally. The stories include North Korea, which selfishly argues for the continuation of its nuclear program; the United States, as it struggles with the continuing chaos in Iraq; and a Middle East peace process in utter disarray.
Amid the anxiety and confusion, the international community is about to enter 2007 with no clear sense of how to proceed...
The nightmarish scenario in which North Korea would someday conduct a nuclear test became reality this year, and was chosen as the top international news story of 2006....
The political power map changed in the United States, which, as the only superpower, holds the key to maintaining international order. In November's midterm elections, the Democratic Party succeeded in obtaining majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years. This news ranked fifth among readers' top international stories. The Democrats also made significant gains in nationwide gubernatorial elections....
News of terrorist attacks have flooded in from around the world. In Mumbai, the almost-simultaneous bombings of seven trains and stations killed 179 people in July, a story that ranked No. 10 in our poll. In Britain, a foiled plot to blast transatlantic airliners out of the sky in August ranked 13th....The No. 9 story of the year according to our readers was that of Alexander Litvinenko--a former lieutenant colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin--who died in London in November, where he had been in exile....
The spread of avian influenza, meanwhile, does not seem to be waning. Human deaths from bird flu topped 100 in March and 150 by the end of October. The news ranked eighth on our list.
In May, Indonesia, the origin of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 230,000 people, suffered another major earthquake, this time killing about 6,000 residents of central Java. This sad news ranked second in the Yomiuri survey. In the Philippines, 11,000 were killed in a major landslide in February. This came in at No. 22....
The year 2007 will probably prove to be a year of milestones as world leaders must guide the increasingly uncertain international community toward stability. 2006 a year of further global destabilization, Yomiuri Shimbun, 12-29-06

CYBERSPACE

The Net Neutrality story line is a do-or-die issue for the rejuvenation of the democratic institutions in the USA and other industrialized societies as well as for the establishment of vibrant democratic institutions in the developing world. This recent positive development in the story line highlights the profound and sweeping significance of the USA's 2006 mid-term elections (i.e., the voter repudiation of corporatism) and underscores the desperate need to get the new Congress sworn in and to hold its feet to the populist fire once it takes power under the Capitol dome. AT&T has committed to Net Neutrality -- for 24 months. Clearly, the media and telecommunications monopolies are hoping that the-shell-of-a-man-formerly-known-as-John-McCain or Rupert Murdoch's friend Hillary Clinton (First Lady of the 1996 Telecommunications Act) will save them after the 2008 presidential election.

To the lay reader the AT&T merger agreement may appear highly technical. It is, however, a milestone, and may even be remembered as an important moment in Internet history. Most notable is the agreement's striking inclusion of the first strong Network Neutrality language yet seen in any broadband regulatory device.
The language in the agreement is written for a purpose: to preserve the most attractive features of the Internet as it now exists....
Strikingly, AT&T commits to a basic set of Network Neutrality principles that establish a baseline of great importance. They do not create a pure "bit-discrimination rule," but this language is crafted as a practical implementation of neutrality....
Network Neutrality rules prohibit discrimination on broadband networks. The second paragraph states:
"AT&T/BellSouth also commits that it will maintain a neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service. This commitment shall be satisfied by AT&T/BellSouth's agreement not to provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers, including those affiliated with AT&T/BellSouth, any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth's wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination."
This is a strong but not extreme form of a basic Network Neutrality rule (it has similarities to a bill proposed by Senator Olympia Snowe last year)....
The agreement lasts two years or until Congress passes a Network Neutrality bill. The two-year framework should provide time to assess the impact of the rule, and consider its extension to other carriers or a broader array of wireless networks. One possibility is that AT&T will, in time, find the rule to its liking, as it provides a corporate pre-commitment against ill-advised "value-added" schemes that may prove financially disastrous. However, much remains to be seen.
What is clear is that this agreement marks a critical moment in the recent history of Network Neutrality and big step forward for its supporters. Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University, Why AT&T's Net Neutrality Concession is a Milestone in the History of the Internet, www.savetheinternet.com, 12-29-06

Five Most Recent GS(3) Intelligence Briefings:

GS(3) Intel Brief 12-9-06: Updates on Chirac TV, the Great Game, Cetacean Rights, Zhang Yu, the Green Cross and More!

GS(3) Intel Briefing 11-24-06: Updates on Open Society, Geopolitics, Energy Security, Human Rights, Alternative News Media and More!

GS(3) Intel Brief 10-13-06: Updates on Energy Security, Environmental Security, Gangster States, Geopolitics, Human Rights and Corporate Espionage

GS(3) Intel Brief 9-5-06: Resource-Rich Norway as Ethical Model, Over-Population in Uganda, Chinese Eco-Cities, Australian Water Woes, & More!

GS(3) Intel Brief 8-20-06: Climate Change, the Great Game, Cyber War & Corruption from China, Bosnia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iberia, US & Pipelinistan

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

NUNS, Bulgaria, Romania, SCO, Balkans, Serbia, Croatia, Central Asia, Dollar, Euro, UAE, Geopolitics, North Korea, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Net Neutrality,Human Trafficking, Russia, China, Deforestation, Ecuador, Argentina, News Media Millennium Goals

Friday, December 29, 2006

Hard Rain Journal (12-29-06): Stalking Cyber Terrorists in Sofia, Secrets Stolen/Fortunes Lost, Ten Years in the Wilderness -- An Existential View

Image: Statue of St. Sofia in Sveta Nedelja Square, Sofia, Bulgaria

NOTE: I do not write much about my cyber security work on this blog. But for the last two years, my friends and colleagues at Peltier Associates have asked me to contribute to their Year in Review publication. Here is an expanded version of the piece I wrote for this year's edition.]

Hard Rain Journal (12-29-06): Stalking Cyber Terrorists in Sofia, Secrets Stolen/Fortunes Lost, Ten Years in the Wilderness -- An Existential View

By Richard Power

There I was, standing in the dark of night, on a deserted street in Sofia, with Romania to the North, the Black Sea to the East, Greece and Turkey to the South, Macedonia and Serbia to the West.

I felt the whole of it pulsating underneath me – strata below strata spiraling backward -- eight thousand years of the human struggle to live, to live free and to savor this life, eight thousand years: a strange swastika made of frog legs carved into the stone by some unknown ancient culture, its name lost long ago, then the Thracians, who gave us the Orphic Mysteries, and after them wave after wave of conquest, migration and melting pot -- the Roman Empire, the Bulgar tribes, Ottoman Empire, the Nazis, the Soviet Red Army and now the Economic Hit Men of the West.

Eight thousand years swirling in a single breath.

The richness and potency of this incredible saga is embodied in the statue of the voluptuous goddess Sophia (a.k.a. “Saint Sofia”); she carries a bird of prey on her right arm and an olive branch in her left hand, and stands on a high pedestal overlooking downtown Sofia.

Not far away there is a cathedral with seven bells. The bells were forged from the bullets fired in the great battle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. When those bells were tolled for the first time they shattered all the windows in the vicinity of the cathedral.

Why was I in Sofia?

I was there to speak at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Cyber Terrorism as a New Security Threat.

The two-day event was hosted by Bulgaria’s Center for Law of the Information and Communications Technologies (CLICT), in collaboration with the Computer Crime Research Center (CCRC), which is based in the Ukraine. The workshop provided a forum for researchers and practitioners from NATO and Partners for Peace countries, particularly new NATO member states (e.g., Bulgaria) and potential NATO member states (e.g., Ukraine).

Participants exchanged ideas, established personal contacts and explored avenues for future cooperation.

Stalking Cyber Terrorists

[NOTE: Here is an excerpt from "Stalking Cyber Terrorists in Sofia," co-authored by my friend and colleague Dario Forte (who also spoke at the NATO workshop) and I for our monthly column, War and Peace in Cyberspace, in Elsevier’s Computer Fraud and Security Journal. The piece is based on our presentations in Sofia.]

We cannot afford to assume “Cyber Terrorism” won’t occur because it hasn’t (or perhaps merely because it hasn’t been acknowledged to already have happened).

In regard to the Who and Why of Cyber Terrorism, my intelligence analysis offers a rather different perspective and prioritization for the list of usual (and unusual suspects):

• Jihadists bent on delivering crushing economic and psychological blows
• Nation States, i.e., hegemons and rogues, bent on distracting and debilitating the adversary
• Cults and loners bent on hastening the apocalypse, or tearing down the social order
• Criminal elements bent on extortion or reprisal
• Corporate enemies bent on foiling competitors
• Political enemies bent on subverting democratic institutions

Although most conventional wisdom focuses on cyber terrorism related to Jihadists or Nation States, in our view, it is quite likely that the world will experience acts of Cyber Terrorism perpetrated by cults and loners in furtherance of their bizarre world-views.

The Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult, which was responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and Theodore Kaczynski (aka the Unibomber), who was responsible for sixteen letter bomb attacks over a span of years from 1978 until 1995, exemplify these threats.

Perhaps the most extraordinary twist in the Aum Cult story is that it didn’t end with the capture of Shoko Asahara and other cult leaders. In 2000, the BBC reported: “Japan’s Defense Agency delayed deployment of a new computer system after discovering that it used software developed by members of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult. The Defense Agency was only one of 90 government organizations and private companies that unknowingly ordered software produced by the cult. “(BBC, 3-1-00)

As recently as September 2006, the cult was still a source of concern: Japanese security officers today raided 25 offices of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attacks, after its founder lost a last appeal against his death sentence. Since his death sentence was finalized, we are afraid that his followers may possibly plan something illegal, said a Public Security Intelligence Agency spokesman....(The Australian, 9-16-06)

Just as the story of Aum Shinrikyo provides a stunning example of what a cult bent on wreaking havoc and mayhem could do, using Cyber Terrorism as a tool, the remarkable tale of Ted Kaczynski, the Unibomber, illustrates what one profoundly disturbed individual can carry out on his own. Working without accomplices, living in seclusion in a shack in the mountains of Montana, without a telephone or a car or electricity or running water, Kaczynski eluded a nation-wide FBI manhunt for many years.

All the while, he never betrayed himself, even as he crafted meticulous letter bombs and delivered them, undetected, to commit numerous acts of murder and attempted murder -- until he sent his “Unibomber Manifesto” to the newspapers for publication, and in reading it David Kaczynski thought the ideas and writing style bore a striking resemblance to his brother.

Imagine what a Cyber Unibomber could do using Cyber Terrorism to target critical infrastructure. Imagine how long he could elude identification and capture.

Just as plausibly, I also suggested we could see acts of Cyber Terrorism come from elements of organized crime -- either in pursuit of profit or in an effort to intimidate governments and societies.

Consider this excerpt from a recent news story:

Cyberscams are increasingly being committed by organized crime syndicates out to profit from sophisticated ruses rather than hackers keen to make an online name for themselves, according to a top U.S. official….Christopher Painter, deputy chief of the computer crimes and intellectual property section at the Department of Justice....The FBI estimates all types of computer crime in the U.S. costs industry about $400 billion while in Britain the Department of Trade and Industry said computer crime had risen by 50 percent over the last two years....A growing worry is that cybercrooks could target emergency services for extortion purposes or that terrorists may be tempted to attack critical utility networks like water and electricity. Painter said there was a recent case in the U.S. where two young hackers inadvertently switched off all the lights at the local airport. (Reuters 9-15-06)

Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost

The NATO event was one of the highlights of a seven venue speaking tour, which also included key-noting the Santa Fe Institute’s Adaptable and Resilient Computing Conference (ARCS), moderating an expert panel on incident response and crisis management at Emerging Trends in Information Security & the Law: “Plausible Deniability is Dead, sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and playing the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for The Day After: 2010 (a updated version of RAND’s historic war game) that the Pentagon’s Jim Christy conducted for his graduate students at George Washington University.

I also key-noted at Secure Computing Magazine’s SC Forum in Silverado, California along with another collaborator, Christopher Burgess, who recently retired after a distinguished thirty year career in the Central Intelligence Agency, which included service as Chief of Station and Senior Operations Officer.

Our SC Forum presentation was based on our shared interest and exploration of the issues of economic espionage and intellectual property theft.

In March 2006, we published a four-part series, Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost: How Economic Espionage & Intellectual Property Theft Destroy Businesses & Endanger the Global Economy, for CSO Magazine:

Economic espionage is as real a threat as terrorism or global warming. But it is subtle, insidious and stealthy. Even if the United States finds the will to come to grips with the many threats it faces, this silent, invisible hemorrhaging of intellectual know-how and trade secrets could deliver the death blow to our pre-eminent place in the global economic world before we even wake up to the magnitude of the danger....USA could win the war on terrorism, overcome the challenges of global warming, balance the federal budget, strengthen the United Nations, end global armed conflict and restore our edge in science and engineering, and still end up behind China, India, Japan, Russia or Brazil in several vital sectors of the economy, and at a serious, if not fatal, disadvantage within the global marketplace.

In Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost, Burgess and I articulated two misconceptions we found prevalent among corporate executives and security professionals:

Misconception #1: The threat of economic espionage or trade secret theft is a limited concern, i.e., that is it only an issue if you are holding on to something like the formula for Coca-Cola or the design of the next Intel microprocessor. The case studies included in Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost illustrate the fallacy of thinking that this threat is someone else’s problem.

Misconception #2: Another great misconception, held by many of those business leaders who do acknowledge the danger to their trade secrets and other intellectual property, is that the nature of this threat is sufficiently understood and adequately addressed. Often, on closer inspection, the information protection programs these business leaders rely on are mired in Industrial Age thinking, i.e., they have not been adapted to the dynamic and dangerous new environment forged by Globalization and the rise of the Information Age.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back or Two Steps Forward One Step Back?

It was poignant for me to conclude my 2006 tour at Eugene Spafford’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

At CERIAS, I delivered One Step Forward, Two Steps Back or Two Steps Forward One Step Back? A Ten-Year Retrospective on Cyber Crime & Cyber Security 1996-2006. The presentation, the same one I delivered at the Santa Fe Institute, explores the ground gained and the ground lost in the battle for cyberspace since those historic US Senate hearings on “Security In Cyberspace,” chaired by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) held over a decade ago.

At the Nunn hearings, I testified on the nature of the threat and on the importance of awareness and education:

Human beings are building systems, deploying them and breaking into them. So it is human beings that we have to reach in terms of training, awareness, and understanding their responsibility, not only to their corporations, or to their own job security, but to their country, and to the world.

I also invoked the names of some heroes, most notably Eugene Spafford, who were, with dedication, integrity and clarity of mind, making a profound difference on the side of the Good.

Well, here it is over a decade later, and awareness and education is still under-funded, under-tasked, under-utilized, largely misrepresented, misused and misunderstood; and Eugene Spafford is still out there fighting the Good Fight.

For a 10 year retrospective roundtable Dario and I conducted for Computer Fraud and Security Journal, I asked Spaf three big questions:

#1: Where are attacks and countermeasures today vis-à-vis ten years ago, or even five years ago? What are you seeing out there today that surprises you?

SPAFFORD: “What is surprising is that the countermeasures we are using are basically the same as a decade ago. We have not advanced much in that regard -- the technology has simply become more widespread, and a little more robust. The threats have gone from proof of concept and "hobbyist" to very wide-scale, organized criminal activity. Instead of bragging rights, the goal is now widespread, major fraud. What also surprises me is how we have seen business and government standardize on what may be the most vulnerable products and configurations rather than promoting research, diversity, and investing in safer products.”

#2: What kind of evolutionary or revolutionary spirals can be expected in attacks for the next two to three to five years?

SPAFFORD: “I expect to see continued development of software that is highly stealthy and incredibly difficult to remove once present. The criminal activities we are seeing now will escalate as world population increases. Furthermore, I think we'll see some competition and maybe even consolidation of the criminal groups behind all this. The online population will grow, provide more fertile ground for crime -- and for growing criminals. I think we'll see more cases of extortion of one kind or another, perhaps including threats against other kinds of businesses (it is primarily against financial institutions right now). We will see growing international issues, both for countries that are threatened, and for those that harbor cyber criminals.”

#3: In general, in terms of cyber security and cyber crime, would you say "one step forward two steps back" or "two steps forward one step back"? Or would you characterize it some other way?

SPAFFORD: “It's almost like we are making no steps. We have kept adding new technologies that are dangerous, seen our decision-makers choosing the path of least cost but significant danger, and they have consistently applied band-aides for the most current threat but failed to heed long-term advice, or provide investment for research to really break out of the rut they have gotten into.
Overall, I'm not very optimistic about the future.”

Yes, it was a poignant moment, just as poignant as standing on that dark street in Sofia and feeling eight thousand years swirling under the earth beneath me.

Although I still write and consult extensively on cyber security, my work has expanded to other dimensions of the risk and threat matrix, I now also write and consult now on crisis management, counter-terrorism, the security implications of global warming, sustainability and other environmental issues.

But it all started for me in the wilds of cyberspace.

Stephanie Salter was an Op-Ed page columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, back before it decided it didn't want to be real newspaper anymore. Now she is home in Indiana, where she writes for Terra Haute's Tribune Star (that's where most of the real journalism is now, at the local and regional level).

Salter covered my talk at CERIAS, and here are a few excerpts from her piece:

When people ask Richard Power what cyber security concerns we should have, he usually asks them questions. A favorite set of queries is this:
“What if the last thing you heard and saw was the second plane going into the World Trade Center? Then your TV screen went blank and your land line and cell phone wouldn’t work? What if the FAA hadn’t been able to communicate to land all those planes that were in the air?”
Such total chaos is unthinkable for most of us. Power says it is entirely possible — with no new technology necessary.
“Using all known methods available, those things can happen now, today,” he said. “And it doesn’t have to be some trans-national, high-financed terror institution. A cyber Uni-bomber or Timothy McVeigh, working with a couple of people, could do this.”
The really scary news: To Power and many other information security wonks, cyberspace is only a sliver of the big glass ball of vulnerability we call contemporary life.
Just ask them about global warming.
I have known Power since the mid-1980s when he was among many p.c. software pioneers who made the San Francisco Bay Area a magnet for cyber creativity. About 15 years ago, he turned his attention to information security....
His short conclusion: From first-responder systems to computerized vote tabulators, the world has not spent a very productive decade trying to close its windows of cyber vulnerability. Money? That’s a different story. Billions have been spent with little to show but a new wealthy class of information security consultants and product marketers selling mostly “hokey” solutions....
The lack of progress since 1996 is not due to a skill shortfall in cyber space, he said. Rather than juvenile or show-off “martial arts” hackers, disgruntled former employees or even terrorists, the worst enemy of public and private information security forces lurks within business and government structures.
High within.
“It’s leadership failure on every level. Corporate and government failure of leadership is our most dangerous adversary,” Power said.
The failure is evident in the particular: the cyber security czar was downgraded from a White House position to just one of the crowd at Homeland Security. And it is evident in the general: multi-billion-dollar corporations tend to apply a return-on-investment approach to information security.
“I ask them, ‘Do you consider return on investment with your sprinkler systems? With fire escapes?’ Of course they don’t,” Power said. “You think this is different?”
...After the Purdue event, I asked Spafford how many information security experts share his and Power’s general view.
“No more than 50 in the United States have this big-picture view and perspective of history,” he said.
Generally not among that group are folks with the purse strings, corporate and government officials who fund research — or don’t. Less money than ever is going for genuine cyber security research.
Stephanie Salter: What if we don’t fix cyber, Terre Haute Tribune Star, 12-2-06

Richard Power writes and consults on Security, Sustainability and Spirit. For more information, go to http://www.wordsofpower.net.. Power blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com. With Dario Forte, Power co-authors a monthly column for Computer Fraud and Security Journal (Elsevier). Power also contributes a monthly column on crisis management, travel security and personnel security issues for the Research and Technology Protection (RTP) program on the FBI InfraGard site.

Cyber Crime, Information Security, Cyber Security, Cybercrime, Cyber Terrorism, Information Warfare, Economic Espionage, Sam Nunn, Aum Shinrikyo, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Unibomber, Timothy McVeigh, Stephanie Salter, Gene Spafford,Sofia, CCRC, CLICT, NATO, ARCS, CERIAS, Richard Power, Words of Power 

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Hard Rain Journal 12-27-06: Climate Crisis Update -- Lohachara is Gone, the Bears in Spain are Not Hibernating, Wall Street Wonders What It All Means

Image: Mouths of The Ganges - NASA STS61B

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. (Independent, 12-24-06)

Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world. (Independent, 12-21-06)

Planet Earth had its sixth hottest year on record and a deluge of severe record-breaking weather....The findings come from the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) preliminary report on global climate data for 2006... (Stop Global Warming!, 12-14-06)

Hard Rain Journal 12-27-06: Climate Crisis Update -- Lohachara is Gone, the Bears in Spain are Not Hibernating, Wall Street Wonders What It All Means

Richard Power

Four or five years ago when I began factoring global warming and the resultant climate change crisis into my briefings, it was met with murmured surprise and confusion: "Why is this man talking about the impact of rising temperatures on rice and maize yields? Is it really that serious? And even if it is, what does it have to do with security? And even if it is both very serious and has profound security implications, what could a single business or individual do about such a problem?"

But we may have turned a corner in 2006, as the Guardian reports:

Not before time, the west awoke in 2006 to the vast economic, political and social implications of climate change - and twigged that it presented as many opportunities as threats to humanity. As temperature and rainfall records tumbled, and unseasonal, intense heatwaves, droughts and floods struck many countries, local and national politicians scrambled to beef up their green policies and credentials, some businesses found they could make a packet from trading carbon, and a broad-based global social and ecological movement emerged, linking climate change to social justice, as well as to poverty and lifestyles. The year the world woke up, Guardian, 12-20-06

The response from government and industry is still too slow and too piece-meal, but there is a growing concern and a deepening cognizance among the people on the street, and it is the people that will hold those governments and businesses accountable if they fail to act responsibly in these last few years of opportunity.

The good news from the recent Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) conference is that the business community is talking about the problem.

The bad news is how limited their perspective is, at least as reflected in this Reuters story:

"The insurance industry has historically taken on social issues. I know of no social issue that is bigger than this one," said Tim Wagner, director of insurance for the state of Nebraska.
The consensus of Wagner and others addressing the conference of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) was that institutional investors are still too near-sighted to factor climate change into their investment decisions.
While there will be costs to the U.S. economy from climate change, the problem for Wall Street is that those costs are unknown and in the future. Many drew a parallel to the asbestos and tobacco industries, which were hit by lawsuits after the fact. (Reuters, 12-13-06)

The likening of the climate change to the asbestos and tobacco problems would be laughable, if it weren't so sad. They cannot seem to see beyond liability. Climate change isn't about liability. Climate change isn't simply a problem comparable to the suffering and death resulting from tobacco or asbestos; no, climate change is about the survival of the human race.

It is also bitter irony to hear insurance executives, especially ones in government like Nebraska's Walker, talking about how the industry has "historically taken on social issues."

Drive around the Gulf Coast and talk to those who lost their homes and then were told that since it was destroyed by wind their flood insurance couldn't help them or that since it had been destroyed by flood their storm insurance couldn't help them.

This post is the last climate crisis update of 2006 (links to my related writings over 2006 and 2005 are listed in reverse chronological order at the end of this post).

Here are brief excerpts from four important stories with links to the full texts:

Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.
In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain's Cantabrian mountains, when normally they would already be in their long, annual sleep. Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating, Independent, 12-21-06

Friday, December 22, 2006

Words of Power #31: Ghosts of Christmas Past (Katrina) and Future (Iran)

Image: Heronymus Bosch, Hell, Courtesy of Radio Netherlands

Whatever you’ve heard about New Orleans, the reality is much worse. Think of it as a vast open wound, this once-great American city that is still largely in ruins, with many of its people still writhing in agony more than a year after the catastrophic flood that followed Hurricane Katrina....
The recovery in New Orleans has gone about as well as the war in Iraq.
Bob Herbert, America’s Open Wound, New York Times, 12-21-06

The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it’s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he’s getting from big business, who are saying, “We can’t afford to go to war with Iran.”
Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, Democracy Now, 12-21-06

Words of Power #31: Ghosts of Christmas Past (Katrina)
and Future (Iran)

By Richard Power

Two story lines haunt me as I look forward to 2007 and back on 2006: Katrina and Iran, i.e., one catastrophe that was gamed for political advantage and corporatist gain, and another one which has not befallen us yet, but may be closer than many people assume.

To put both catastrophes -- the one that lingers un-redressed and the other that looms ominously -- in their proper context, consider two chilling remarks from Bush Women: one from W. Jong Il's mother, the other from his au pair.

Touring the Astrodome in the aftermath of Katrina, Bush's mother, the former First Lady, said: "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."(Editors & Publishers, 9-5-05)

Blogging for the Huffington Post, James Zogby quotes Condoleeza Rice: "The old Middle East was not going to stay. Let's stop mourning the old Middle East. It was not so great and it was not going to survive anyway." (James Zogby, Friedman and Rice - Seeking Absolution through Arrogance and Bigotry, Huffington Post, 12-21-06)

As Zogby writes, "the condescension and arrogance at work here is stunning."

The same condescension and arrogance oozes from Barbara Bush's mouth concerning the fate of those made homeless in the destruction of New Orleans.

If the women of what Mike Malloy calls "the Bush Crime Family" have such a cynical and cavalier perspective on human suffering, imagine how shriveled and atrophied the conscience of the Manchurian Candidate himself has become?

Katrina, like 9/11, was gross incompetence and criminal negligence at best. And what was it at worst? Was it the willful exploitation of a natural disaster, i.e., ethnic cleansing in pursuit of an Electoral College edge?

And Iran? Few people in the USA know how close we are to an attack, which will likely lead to a real WW III (though some neo-con fantasists claim we are already in WWIII, or even WWW IV, ala Gingrich and Woolsey respectively). Even fewer people in the USA know that the recent election results from Iran (yes, although cruel and theocratic, Iran is a democracy, unlike Saudi Arabia) were a rebuke to Ahmadinejad and his ugly agenda.

Seizing the oil of Iraq and Iran by force of arms, and establishing hegemony over the oil and gas of Central Asia by persuasion and intrigue, is the sinister not so secret agenda that propelled the Bush-Cheney cabal to power in 2000 and has led to every subsequent woe.

The coming crisis will be contrived (ala Gulf of Tonkin) and it will be thrown at us early in the new year -- unless they are checked. Confronting these madmen, and those who have sold their souls to take over from them (e.g., McCain and Lieberman) will be very difficult for the Democratic Party as it takes control of both Houses, especially when those who want war pretend it is in Israel's best interest.

In recent years, the Party has shown a tragic lack of courage.

Perhaps this time -- with the will of the people clearly exercised in the November 2006 mid-term elections, and with much of the US military, as well as much of the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities, and yes, even a few Republicans, already standing against this insanity -- the Party leadership will defy the cabal that seized the White House in 2000 and its patrons in the US mainstream media (yes, they seem to want to go down with the ship).

Perhaps this time, the Congress will refuse to capitulate.

Remember Katrina and Iran as this Julian calendar year ends, and the new one begins. If you do not speak out against what is being perpetrated in your name, then you are complicit.

Here are two important pieces, one from Bob Herbert on New Orleans, the other a dialogue on Iran between Sy Hersh and Scott Ritter -- please read them and share them with others:

It’s eerie. The air is still. There is no noise. Night is falling....Welcome to the Lower Ninth Ward. You won’t find much holiday spirit here. In every direction, as far as it is possible to see, is devastation....Whatever you’ve heard about New Orleans, the reality is much worse. Think of it as a vast open wound, this once-great American city that is still largely in ruins, with many of its people still writhing in agony more than a year after the catastrophic flood that followed Hurricane Katrina.
Enormous stretches of the city, mile after mile after mile, have been abandoned. The former residents have doubled-up or tripled-up with relatives, or found shelter in the ubiquitous white trailers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or moved (in some cases permanently) to Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and beyond. Some have simply become homeless....
The recovery in New Orleans has gone about as well as the war in Iraq. Bob Herbert, America’s Open Wound, New York Times, 12-21-06

SEYMOUR HERSH: ....One last question, which is, OK, briefly, we go to war. We begin a massive bombing campaign. Take your pick. Odds are it’s going to be systematic, at least three days of intense bombing, decapitation probably, which -- that is one of the things you do when you begin a bombing attack, like we did against Saddam twice and like the Israelis did against Hezbollah when they targeted Nasrallah. And I think we and the Israelis are now 0-for-8, almost as bad as Shrummy and his elections. But anyway, so the question then is -- we go to war -- tell us what happens next, in your view.

SCOTT RITTER: Well, it’s, you know -- it’s almost impossible to be 100% correct, but I’ll give you my best analysis. The Iranians will use the weapon that is the most effective weapon, because the key for Iran -- you know, Iran can’t afford, if this -- remember, the regime wants to stay in power, so they can’t afford a strategy that gets the American people to recognize three years in that, oops, we made a mistake. I mean, if that was Saddam’s strategy, it failed for him, because he’s out of power. Yeah, we realize we made a mistake now in Iraq, but the regime is gone. So the Iranians realize that they have to inflict pain upfront. The pain is not going to be inflicted militarily, because we're not going to commit numbers of ground forces on the ground that can cause that pain. The pain will come economically.
Our oil-based economy is operating on the margins, as we speak. We only have 1.0% to 1.5% excess production capacity. If you take the Iranian oil off the market, which is the first thing the Iranians will do, we automatically drop to around minus-4%, which means there ain’t enough oil out there to support the globe’s thirst for oil, especially America’s thirst for oil. And we're not the only ones drinking it? You think for a second the Chinese and the Indians, the world’s two largest developing economies, are going to say, “Hey, Uncle Sam, we’ll put everything on hold, so we can divert oil resources, so you can feed your oil addiction, because you attacked Iran”?
And it’s not just Iranian oil that will go off the market. Why do you think we sent minesweepers up there? We’ve got to keep the Straits of Hormuz open. The Iranians will shut it down that quick. They’ll also shut down oil production in the western oil fields of Saudi Arabia. They’ll shut down Kuwaiti oil production. They’ll shut down oil production in the United Arab Emirates. They’ll shut down whatever remaining oil production there is in Iraq. They’ll launch a massive attack using their Shia proxies in Iraq against American forces. That will cause bloodshed.
The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it’s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he’s getting from big business, who are saying, “We can’t afford to go to war with Iran.” Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh on White House Plans for Regime Change, Democracy Now, 12-21-06

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

News Media, Barbara Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Seymour Hersh, Scott Ritter, Bob Herbert, John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Cheney, Bush, James Zogby, New Orleans, Security, Iraq, Politics, Risk, Geopolitics, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Katrina, Iran, Richard Power, Words of Power

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

GS(3) Thunderbolt 12-19-06: Another Way to Celebrate the Solstice -- Support Words of Power

Image: Planet-Terre.ens-lyon.fr

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Ecclesiastes, Bible (King James)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As global climate change accelerates, the weather associated with the Earth's solstices and the equinoxes is already changing dramatically from place to place, but the solstices and the equinoxes will remain powerful natural and mystical events.

They articulate the transitions from one season to another.

The fact that the opposite events are experienced simultaneously in the northern and southern hemispheres -- i.e., this Winter Solstice in San Francisco, Paris and Seoul is actually the Summer Solstice in Sydney, Johannesburg and Beunos Aires -- only intensifies the power and deepens the meaning.

The planetary truth of the solstices and the equinoxes is a divine paradox.

Can you feel darkness and light both growing at once? Can you feel the Yin and Yang swirling like great storms, penetrating each other, each one with a dot of the other at its core? Can you feel the turning of the Earth in its totality?

It is both the beginning and the end, the nadir and the zenith.

To celebrate this turning of the wheel, I have chosen this moment to debut a new dimension to Words of Power.

We are now accepting contributions via credit card or Paypal. Look just for the VISA/Master Card and "Donate" logo in the upper right-hand corner of this home page.

Subscriptions and on-line access to Words of Power will continue to remain FREE of charge, of course, BUT...

If you value of alternative news and analysis and want to support this work, and you can afford it, please contribute $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 this holiday season (your contribution is not tax-deductible).

Funds received will be used to expand the service and evolve the infrastructure required to deliver this vital content to a broader audience.

As if in tune with this personal decision, the power of the Blogosphere and the Alternative Media has just been underscored by Time’s Magazine’s selection of YOU as the Person of the Year: “In 2006, the World Wide Web became a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.”

Two other recent news stories further amplify the importance of this undertaking:

-- The US Census Bureau's annual Statistical Abstract reports that people in the US will spend more time using the Internet than reading newspapers (for good reason).

-- Likewise, a Jupiter Research report indicates that “the time European consumers spend online has, for the first time, overtaken the hours they devote to newspapers and magazines.”

Words of Power delivers alternative news and analysis on geopolitics, risk, security, the environment, human rights, religion and philosophy.

Words of Power is updated via Hard Rain Journal entries and/or GS(3) Thunderbolts every 24 to 48 hours.

GS(3) Intelligence Briefings and Words of Power Commentaries are posted on an alternating, bi-weekly basis.

And don't be concerned about perpetual fund-raisers, I will only reach out to you four times a year -- on the Solstices and the Equinoxes.

All the Best,

Richard Power
GS(3) Intelligence & Words of Power
http://www.wordsofpower.net
http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Global Warming, Climate Change, Human Rights, Environment, Southern Hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere, Solstice, Extreme Weather, Eqquinox,Magazines, Newspapers, News Media, Statistical Abstract, US Census Bureau, Europe, Jupiter Research, TIME Magazine Person of the Year, Blogosphere, Alternate Media, Security, Science, Politics, Risk, Geopolitics, Philosophy, Religion, Richard Power, Words of Power

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Hard Rain Journal 12-17-06: The Scientists are on the Ramparts -- 52 Nobel Laureates & 10,000 Other Scientists Demand Freedom from Thought Control

Image: Albert Einstein, Person of the Century, Time Magazine

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...
I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind....
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. It is no mere chance that our older universities developed from clerical schools. Both churches and universities — insofar as they live up to their true function — serve the ennoblement of the individual. They seek to fulfill this great task by spreading moral and cultural understanding, renouncing the use of brute force....
Some Quotes from Albert Einstein

Hard Rain Journal 12-17-06: The Scientists are on the Ramparts -- 52 Nobel Laureates & 10,000 Other Scientists Demand Freedom from Thought Control -- 2+2=4

Several important stories emerged from the American Geophysical Union's recent annual fall meeting in San Francisco:

Former Vice President Gore...urged scientists to communicate the climate crisis "in ways that arouse appropriate alarm that can motivate changes in behavior.''..."For civilization as a whole, we've somehow persuaded ourselves that we don't have to care about what happens to future generations,'' he said to about 7,000 scientists, including 3,000 in an overflow room...(San Francisco Chronicle, 12-15-06)

A statement by Nobel laureates and other leading scientists calling for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy making has now been signed by 10,600 scientists from all 50 states, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced... (Union of Concerned Scientists, 12-12-06)

The U.S. administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who study everything from caribou mating to global warming, subjecting them to controls on research that might go against official policy. (Associated Press, 12-14-06)

The right-wing has been waging a war on science since the Bush-Cheney regime was unconstitutionally installed by a 5-4 of decision of the US Supreme Court in 2000.

Why?

The answer is as simple as 2+2=4. That's the mathematical law that the Thought Police wanted Winston Smith to forsake in George Orwell's 1984.

War is peace, love is hate -- it is all easy to accept once you have accepted the lie that 2+2=5. Eventually, they broke Winston Smith (with torture).

Will they break you?

Who are they?

There are three types of people involved in the effort to suppress freedom of scientific thought and compromise the integrity of scientific research:

-- Christian religious extremists who seek to escape the nature of the universe and the contents of their own psyches in an strange Christianity that has little at all to do with the teachings of Jesus either in the Bible (whether you use the King James or the Jefferson) or the Gnostic Gospels;

-- Corporatists whose greed has blinded them even to knowledge that would benefit their own enlightened self-interest;

-- Political leaders who manipulate the Christian religious extremist constituency to serve the appetites of the corporatists.

Surely true conservatives can join with centrists, progressives, and libertarians in protecting the integrity and freedom of scientific thought, speech and research?

Here are brief excerpts from seven stories, with links to the full texts, including the three AGU conference news items mentioned, and four other news items from the last several years, all of which underscore the Orwellian effort to suppress knowledge and hamper its pursuit:

Former Vice President Gore, presidential candidate turned climate crusader, spoke at the annual meeting of the world's largest scientific society, the American Geophysical Union.
He urged scientists to communicate the climate crisis "in ways that arouse appropriate alarm that can motivate changes in behavior.''..."For civilization as a whole, we've somehow persuaded ourselves that we don't have to care about what happens to future generations,'' he said to about 7,000 scientists, including 3,000 in an overflow room.... Jane Kay, Gore implores scientists to raise alarms  Ex-VP calls for research to be used for policy change, San Francisco Chronicle, 12-15-06

A statement by Nobel laureates and other leading scientists calling for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy making has now been signed by 10,600 scientists from all 50 states, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The announcement came as the scientists group released an "A to Z" guide that documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science....
The integrity of science statement has grown steadily since it was first released in February 2004. Signatories now include 52 Nobel Laureates, 63 National Medal of Science recipients, and almost 200 members of the National Academies of Science. Union of Concerned Scientists, 12-12-06

The U.S. administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who study everything from caribou mating to global warming, subjecting them to controls on research that might go against official policy.
New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, documents show....
"I feel as though we've got someone looking over our shoulder at every damn thing we do," said Jim Estes, an internationally recognized marine biologist who works for the geological unit...."Our findings could be embarrassing to the administration." John Heilprin, Scientists Worried about Bush Clampdown at Publication, Associated Press, 12-14-06

Under President Bush’s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition to the libraries, the agency will pull the plug on its electronic catalog which tracks tens of thousands of unique documents and research studies that are available nowhere else....
EPA currently operates a network of 27 libraries operating out of its Washington, D.C. Headquarters and ten regional offices across the country. The size of the cuts will force the Headquarters library and most of the regional libraries to shut their doors and cease operations. Each year, the EPA libraries –
Handle more than 134,000 research requests from its own scientific and enforcement staff;
House and catalog an estimated 50,000 “unique” documents that are available nowhere else; and
Operate public reading rooms and provide the public with access to EPA databases.
“Access to information is one of the best tools we have for protecting the environment,” added Ruch, calling the cuts the “epitome of penny wise and pound foolish.” “By contrast, closing the Environmental Protection Agency libraries actually threatens to subtract from the sum total of human knowledge.” BUSH AXING LIBRARIES WHILE PUSHING FOR MORE RESEARCH — EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), 2-10-06

The Bush administration's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has dangerously undermined U.S. scientific enterprise and national security by abridging the constitutional and academic freedoms that have long fostered the nation's technical superiority, according to a report released yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Rick Weiss, 9/11 Response Hurting Science, ACLU Says, Washington Post, 6-22-05

From environmental hazards to sex education, the federal government in the past several years has been twisting science to political ends. The ends are sometimes ideological - as in the suppression of information about condoms and sexual safety - and sometimes simply take the form of favors to business interests that would like to see less environmental, public health, or workplace safety regulation. But the pattern has become so pervasive that much of the scientific community is up in arms. The question is, what can be done to stop it?
Concern about the current administration's manipulation and distortion of science goes back at least to July 2003, when the Interior Department introduced a new book into the Grand Canyon National Park's official bookstore. Titled Grand Canyon: A Different View, the book takes issue with extensive geological evidence that the canyon evolved over several million years, and instead argues that the canyon was forged by a single "catastrophic" event only a few thousand years ago: the great flood of biblical fame.
Marjorie Heins, The Attack on Science, Common Dreams, 12-21-04

The American people depend upon federal agencies to promote scientific research and to develop science-based policies that protect the nation’s health and welfare. Historically, these agencies — such as the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency — have had global reputations for scientific excellence.
However, leading scientific journals have questioned whether scientific integrity at federal agencies has been sacrificed to further a political and ideological agenda. As the editor of Science wrote in early 2003, there is growing evidence that the Bush Administration “invades areas once immune to this kind of manipulation.”
In August 2003, at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the Democratic staff of the Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives assessed the treatment of science and scientists by the Bush Administration. The resulting report -- Politics and Science in the Bush Administration -- found numerous instances where the Administration has manipulated the scientific process and distorted or suppressed scientific findings. The State of Science Under the Bush Administration, Committee on Government Reform Minority Office, Presented by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, 8-03

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Extreme Weather, Crisis Management,Carbon Freeze, NASA, EPA, NOAH, Rep. Henry Waxman, Albert Einstein, PEER, ACLU, AGU, Corporatism, Religion, Science, Politics, U.S. Geological Survey, Union of Concerned Scientists, Bush, Cheney, Richard Power, Words of Power 