Sen. Shelby the subject of probe on 9/11 intelligence leak

Why is it embarasssing? The leaked documents came from an al Queda channel we were surrepticiously monitoring. On Sept. 10, it intercepted two messages. An individual was overheard saying, "The match begins tomorrow" while in another that same day, a second person said, "Tomorrow is zero hour." Both were from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia. The messages were not translated until Sept. 12!!

I wonder what Tenet's response was when he read those words, "Tomorrow is zero hour" on Sept. 12. Why, when there is such ample proof that members of this Administration did not do their duty to protect us, did no one resign over 9/11? They may have been well-meaning but well-meaning, simply trying your best, is not good enough. The decent, honorable thing to do would be to remove yourself so that you do not make a bad decision again that costs lives. If your poor decision-making processes, your inept focus, resulted in the deaths of thousands, who would want to remain in that position where you might be given that opportunity again? What sort of Administration would leave such people in place to possibly repeat the procedure?

This Administration badgers honest people, prevents scientists from presenting their work, makes environmental decisions based on its political needs, but it will not sack people whose procedures and lack of focus have brought us to where we are. An honest person has to ask why. Is it because they want it to all happen, to permit fear to give them the power that they were not able to get from the ballot box? I do not believe that is the case. I think they do not remove these people because they are just as culpable. If they get rid of one, they would all have to go and they can not have that. So ow we have a group that has a horrible secret that it can never allow to get out. Not even one little sliver of it. So we continue to hear Cheney talk about Iraq-al Queda connections when none are there. We hear about WMDs when none are there. The apparent need of this Administration to maintain its own perceptions, in contrast to objective truth, verges on the psychological.

Which, after all, is human. Who could deal with the thought that your decisions lead to the death of several thousand people? It is much easier to compartmentalize it, to wall it off, to create a new reality. It is what people with multiple personalities do because they have been dealt a horrible trauma. They do whatever they can to prevent themselves from actually dealing with that trauma. That is what I do fear. What happens to such a traumatized person or organization when its false reality is shown to be false? Not a pretty picture. Now imagine they have their fingers on the military and WMD?   comment []4:49:05 PM    

Mapping the Tour de France Riders from Space. It was just a matter of time before someone gets the idea of using satellite localization to map the positions of the cyclists of the Tour de France. In a first test on July 21 during the ascension to l'Alpe d'Huez, ten riders were equipped with receivers and tracked by the EGNOS European satellite positioning system, a preparatory programme for the Galileo system. The European Space Agency (ESA) reports about this first test in "The best view of the Tour is from space." It's highly possible that all riders can get receivers as soon as next year. And this data will be available on the Web, so you will know in real time the exact location of your favorite champion. [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]

Here is something showing some imagination that will appeal to bicycling fans. Using European satellites and small electronic devices, it may be possible to monitor a racer's progress in the Tour de France in realtime. It was tested in the recent time trial (the report mkaes it sound like Lance was involved but it is hard to know.). Maybe we will not have to listen to OLN commercials (they seem to alway break right when something usefil, nteresting happens) in the near future. At least if we still have a future. (see below ;-)  comment []1:20:14 PM    

A failure of vision. Gen John Keane, Army Vice Chief of Staff (the Army's #2) in testimony before the House Armed Services Committe on July 15th.

[base "]The intellectual capital to prepare ourselves properly for an insurgency was not there,[per thou]

[base "]There were very few people who actually envisioned, honestly, before the war, what we are dealing with now after the regime went down.[per thou] 

[base "]We have a lot of young folks that paid the price for that lack of foresight. Am I correct?[per thou] Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), the committee[base ']s ranking Democrat, asked.

[base "]Right, yes, sir,[per thou] Keane replied.

NOTE:  Of course, not everyone had a failure of vision on this. [John Robb's Weblog]

Of course, it was not a failure of vision, of imagination. They simply did not listen to those who had the vision and had the imagination. What processes are they going to put into place to completely change their viewpoint and allow those who can imagine to have any say? We are not safer today from creative terrorists because creativity is not a high priority for this Administration. Ashcroft admits that he made a poor assumption, an assumption that has cost the lives of tens of thousands, when he did not check to see what the FBI was really doing about the threats the CIA was hearing in the summer of 2001. He did not shake the trees. For his tremendous lack of judgement, he should be canned. Doesn't matter why or whether he was doing his best. His poor decision-making process should earn him early retirement. But he isn't and he won't. Such is the viewpoint of this Administration. If they do not remove those who can not see, how will they ever be able to find those who can. They keep those with no imagination then whine about how the lack of imagination is the problem. They remove those with a vision, one that turns out to be correct, then complain about a failure of vision. This adinistration set itself up for a tradegy by its viewpoint. I'm sure this is not what they were trying to let happen. I do not believe they are that evil. But, their very approach to this complex world foreardained that SOMETHING bad would happen. Crushing alternate viewpoints, removing those who had vision, disenfranchising those who had imagination, may have garnered this Administration poltical power, but brought the US tragedy.

Two of the important works of the last few years are The Cathedral and the Bazzar and the Cluetrain Manifesto. They examine the differences between the old hierarchical model and a newer networked one for a wide range of possible circumstances. Are we now entering a bazaar of violence? If so, we will not succeed against it using hierarchical approaches.Where is our bazaar of freedom, of democracy? That is how we will win this fight.

EM> And in order to do that, our political institutions must learn how to think in a different fashion. We have seen some embryonic steps this campaign season. I have little faith that this Administration, the most hierarchical I have lived through, can make this sort of adjustment. In fact, its rigidly formulated processes may be the last fling of the old ways. It may soon pass. But they can kill thousands or million until they do. The asteroid has hit. The dinosaurs are doomed. But they can still do a lot of damage during the transition.

  comment []1:13:45 PM    

Global guerrillas in Iraq's bazaar of violence swarm to take hostages.  An Egyptian diplomat was taken hostage on Saturday by the new "The Lions of Allah Brigade."  A hostage crisis is turning into a good way to announce the existence of a new group.  It's a way of saying:  we are here, we are actively producing results, we want funding... [John Robb's Weblog]

I had not thought about the hostage taking as a way to advertise your terror group. Marketing for the New Age? Not good.  comment []12:49:10 PM    

Market Disruption Metrics. Halliburton's KBR deathtoll in Iraq reaches 42 people (out of 24,000 + employees).  Today, the CEO (general director) of the state owned Al-Mansour construction was taken hostage. Global guerrillas are working on breaking (or distorting) the market for construction and transportation services (in addition to electricity and oil services/production). So far, I would rate the effort a ~5 out of 10 in effectiveness in this area (they are getting better quickly due to networked/stigmergic learning and market reinforcement -- I wouldn't be surprised if they are 8/10 by the end of the year since much of the damage is cumulative).

Formalizing disruption metrics for these markets would be useful.  Of course, the DoD is focused on bodycounts (despite claims to the contrary), when metrics like this are much more useful as a means of measuring progress or failure. [John Robb's Weblog]

And all that money from KBR is not helping its bottom line. Hallibuton lost money this quarter, even when KBR's Middle East Operations are becoming more important to the bottom line. Revenues were $5 Billion, up 38% but the KBR operations (which were $1.7 Billion of revenues) only added $23 million to operating income. Compare with a competitior, Schlumberger, which had an income of $350 million on revenues of $3 billion. Sounds like a better run company. At least one that may not find itself in a quagmire like Halliburton.  comment []12:46:44 PM