Clipmarks | Intelligence Clips

Now The Surge Is Succeeding?

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:13:43 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: .......continued... But the National Intelligence Estimate of Jan 2007 said this:

Coalition capabilities, including force levels, resources, and operations, remain an essential stabilizing element in Iraq. If Coalition forces were withdrawn rapidly during the term of this Estimate, we judge that this almost certainly would lead to a significant increase in the scale and scope of sectarian conflict in Iraq, intensify Sunni resistance to the Iraqi Government, and have adverse consequences for national reconciliation.

OK, so Obama opposed a surge that succeeded and advocated a policy that the NIE said at the time would lead to a disaster in Iraq.

As to whether anyone could have predicted that the surge would be effective - well, Bush did introduce it this way in his January 2007 speech:

President's Address to the Nation

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html

Clip Source: justoneminute.typepad.com

As recently as July, the Democratic presidential candidate declined to rate the surge a success, but said it had helped reduce violence in the country. On Thursday, Obama acknowledged the 2007 increase in U.S. troops has benefited the Iraqi people.

Here is an old post with links to the vast Obamafuscations last July when Obama struggled to pretend that (a) the surge was not successful and (b) he had always said the surge would succeed as it had. John Dickerson raised an excellent question about Obama's judgment:

If Obama was wrong about the tactical gains that would be made by the new strategy and wrong about how the Iraqi political leaders would react, can his larger theory about how Iraqis will respond to a troop pullout remain intact? Perhaps, but he has the burden of explanation.

Right - Obama will be in a big hurry to tackle that hypothetical "what if?" puzzle - how might Iraq have developed if his "surrender now" policy had been adopted in the winter of 2007? Who can tell?

Tags: obama concedes, surge successful

Geoducks are Strange

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:05:43 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

They are definitely not "ducks", nor do they have any relation to "geo"-logy. In fact, they seem alien enough to be "from Mars" and, for all I know, possess a malign intelligence.

They are found mostly around Pacific Coast of the US and Canada, and in Japan they seem to serve as inspiration for "manga" of certain tentacled variety. A good info page is definitely in order to get the facts straight, but nothing can prepare you for the shock of seeing them for the first time:

Modern biologists easily classify it as large saltwater clam, a bivalve mollusk with a huge "neck", or a "siphon". How huge, you'll ask? Up to two meters in length.

Tags: nature, clams, photos

The Evolving AI Ecosystem

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:13:38 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: He takes his theory further, all the way in to the tubes of the internet. In collaboration with Professor Tim Berners-Lee – the co-inventor of the World Wide Web – the pair have been investigating the next generation Web. “What is emerging now is a digital ecosystem,’ says Professor Shadbolt, ‘involving lots of simple systems which connect millions of complex ones – humans!”

And there begins to be a certain amount of logic and a lessening of the fear I feel for the day when I am some robots whipping boy. We see such developments already in websites such as Facebook and Flickr, and programs such as Google Earth and World of Warcraft. We are being linked together, ever so slowly by a collective consciousness.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

One of the greatest fears of many is the underlying knowledge that of all the wonderful advances of technology, the internet and robotics is simply bringing us closer to being subservient to our robotic overlords.

However British Computer Society President and ECS Professor of Artificial Intelligence Nigel Shadbolt, believes differently.

Shadbolt believes that the future of artificial intelligence will be much different, though no less exciting, than previously expected.

Instead of intelligence that is a “brain in a box”, we are seeing intelligence that is assistive, adaptive and flexible.

In other words, instead of an intelligence that is “…agonizing about their existence or whether we are about to switch them off” we are seeing the growth of intelligence that, in years to come, will immerse us and center around humans, rather than feel the need to enslave humans.

There will be micro-intelligences all around us – systems that are very good and adaptive at particular tasks

Tags: ai, the web, futurism, man machine interface

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:31:17 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state.

Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding.

Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."

Tags: humor

A-Space: Social-networking site designed for the super-secret world of spying

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:05:40 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

When you see people at the office using such Internet sites as Facebook and MySpace, you might suspect those workers are slacking off.

But that's not the case at the CIA, FBI and the National Security Agency, where bosses are encouraging their staffs to use a new social-networking site designed for the super-secret world of spying.

"It's every bit Facebook and YouTube for spies, but it's much, much more," said Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis. The program is called A-Space, and it's a social-networking site for analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Instead of posting thoughts about the new Avenged Sevenfold album or Jessica Alba movie, CIA analysts could use A-Space to share information and opinion about al Qaeda movements in the Middle East or Russian naval maneuvers in the Black Sea.

The new A-Space site has been undergoing testing for months and launches officially for the nation's entire intelligence community

Tags: social networking, spy, cia, fbi

Women under siege in Afghanistan

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:10:11 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

For the past three months, Afghan female MP Shukria Barakzai has been receiving a letter saying she may be targeted by a suicide bomber in the next six months.

The cryptic government letter contains an intelligence warning that Ms Barakzai's life is under threat and she should be careful. She is one of six MPs getting such a letter these days

"That is all that the government does - send a letter by mail once every month saying my life is under threat. There isn't talk of even providing security

Ms Barakzai says she is being targeted by "various elements" because of her speeches against the country's warlords, her support for women's rights and for her criticisms of Pakistan.

When you consider that two women journalists have been killed recently in and around Kabul, you realise that even women of influence and power in Afghanistan live and work in fear under threats from warlords, the Taleban and other insurgent groups

Grim stories

Ms Tooarpekay has not been paid her salary for three months

Humility, Schmumility

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:50:11 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Clip Source: cafehayek.typepad.com

Dear Editor:

When I saw your headline "Obama Practices Humility Preached to Him" (August 24), I thought that the accompanying story must be a satire. But then I read the story and discovered that you're serious.

Get real. No truly humble person - no person who understands the limits of his own intelligence and capacity - parades around posing as the first plural pronoun in the outrageously narcissistic chant "we are the change we have been waiting for." No one with genuine humility utters anything so cocksure as Mr. Obama's promise to get one million 150-mpg cars on the road by 2015, or his vow to reduce Americans' carbon emissions by 80 percent (!) by 2050. Genuinely humble people don't presume to know how much profit earned by private companies is "windfall" - and they certainly don't formulate plans to confiscate such profits.

Indeed, no one within a light year of humility wants the kind of power and gaudy glory that Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain so desperately seek.

Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of the Human Mind

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:50:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Subtle refinements in brain architecture, rather than large-scale alterations, make us smarter than other animals

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

The human brain lacks conspicuous characteristics—such as relative or absolute size—that might account for humans’ superior intellect.

Researchers have found some clues to humanity’s aptitude on a smaller scale, such as more neurons in our brain’s outermost layer.

Human intelligence may be best likened to an upgrade of the cognitive capacities of nonhuman primates rather than an exceptionally advanced form of cognition.

As far as we know, no dog can compose music, no dolphin can speak in rhymes, and no parrot can solve equations with two unknowns. Only humans can perform such intellectual feats, presumably because we are smarter than all other animal species—at least by our own definition of intelligence.

Of course, intelligence must emerge from the workings of the three-pound mass of wetware packed inside our skulls

Thus, researchers have tried to identify unique features of the human brain that could account for our superior intellectual abilities

Tags: brain, mind, evolution, intelligence

'Autonomous' Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:05:05 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers.

The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own.

The stunts are "by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer controlled helicopter,"

The dazzling airshow is an important demonstration of "apprenticeship learning," in which robots learn by observing an expert, rather than by having software engineers peck away at their keyboards in an attempt to write instructions from scratch.

Tags: ai

Cheney/Bush are War Criminals and Pelosi Enables their crime to continue

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:51:55 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Pelosi is contemptible--and oes to show how corrupt our leaders are...

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

By Amy Goodman

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on a book tour in which she is being hounded by activists and questioned about her declaration that “impeachment is off the table.” She responded on the TV talk show “The View,” “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind may have provided the evidence she doesn’t want to see. Suskind has just published a book called “The Way of the World.” He makes an explosive charge: that the Bush administration instructed the CIA to forge a letter that would support its claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to al-Qaida. He also charged that the person whose name is on the forged letter, the former head of Iraqi intelligence, the man who was the jack of diamonds in the U.S. military’s “most wanted” deck of cards, Tahir Jalil Habbush, was given $5 million in hush money.

it came from the vice president.

The era of the American Internet is ending.

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:45:18 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “There is an ongoing concern that U.S. intelligence agencies will gather this information without legal process. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The era of the American Internet is ending.

Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe. During the network’s first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the United States.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

“Because of the nature of global telecommunications, we are playing with a tremendous home-field advantage, and we need to exploit that edge,”

Tags: net, traffic, routing, us

Speaking whales

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:46:43 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Uplifting is on its way...
I wonder when will us humans learn some things from the whales?

Clip Source: current.com

Japanese scientists teach whale to talk

Scientists in Japan have given a beluga whale a vocabulary of three words, the first time a marine creature has been able to link a sound to an object and then repeat the sound as a 'word'.

"Right now Nack only knows three words, but we are working on the whale recognising different people and giving them a sound as well.

After that, we want to teach it to express likes and dislikes, something that is interesting instead of boring, and be able to say if something is painful," he said.

Professor Murayama said the breakthrough is the first conversation with a cetacean and that he hoped it might lead to humans and whales exchanging greetings in the not-too-distant future.

Tags: whales, intelligence, language

Russia May Stir Mid-East Pot With Advanced Missile System

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:24:02 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: We're screwed if it comes down to this because our wonderful Israeli-Zionist allies will take us down with them.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to Tehran if Washington pushes through Nato membership for its pro-Western neighbours Georgia and Ukraine.

The proposed deal is causing huge alarm in the US and Israel as the S-300 can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

That would make it a "game-changer", greatly improving Iranian defences against any air strike on its nuclear sites, according to Pentagon adviser Dan Goure. "This is a system that scares every Western air force," he said.

Senior US intelligence operatives believe that Russia is planning to use a stand-off over the S-300 to create a foreign policy showdown that would test the mettle of a new US president.

A senior Iranian military commander warned

"Any aggression against Iran will start a world war,"

"The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

Report: US about to strike Iran; Tehran warns of World War III

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:02:58 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.israeltoday.co.il

A major Dutch newspaper reported on Monday that the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD recently pulled all of its operatives out of Iran after learning that an American air strike on Iranian nuclear and missile production facilities is imminent.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that AIVD had previously been conducting a very successful sabotage operation against Iran's production of medium and long-range missiles.

According to the report, AIVD pulled out of Iran after being warned that the country's missile factories would be among the targets hit by unmanned American bombers "within weeks."

Israel's Ma'ariv daily newspaper reported on Friday that Jerusalem had reached a strategic decision to deny Iran nuclear weapons at all costs and by any means.

Responding to the latest reports, the deputy chief of staff of the Iranian military, General Masoud Jazayeri, said on Saturday that any attack on his nation would result in World War III.

Dutch sabotage agent recalled from Iran over “impending” US attack - report

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:58:41 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Two indicators of an attack in the last couple of days ... Will it be before or after Christmas with George WS doing the dirty work for his successor.

Clip Source: www.debka.com

A Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas, known for his good intelligence contacts, in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The AIVD operation aimed to infiltrate and sabotage the weapons [and nuclear] industry in the Islamic Republic.

According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] was expected to make a decision within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft, used to avoid risking the lives of air crews and warplanes.

necessary in Israel’s case to hold its air fleet and flight crews ready to defend the country against reprisal from Iran’s allies. Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah have stockpiled thousands of rockets for this purpose.

Tags: politics, i-policy, i-war, i-attack, i-forecast