Thursday, June 24, 2004

Recently Samizdata.net has demonstrated an amusing talent for unintentional irony. In one post an Englishman complains about Iran seizing British citizens off of their boats, and in another post an American Crusader complains about Iran not following the Geneva Convention. Fortunately for the captured people, they were released today--without being enslaved in the service of the Iranian navy, and most likely without having been tortured. 11:21:35 PM    comment () Carbon 15 rifles now sold by Bushmaster. I'm sure this is old news now, but I just found out that the ultralightweight carbon-fiber Carbon 15 rifle is... [Survival Arts] It's not old news to me. The original AR-15 was made using a very lightweight material called "bakelite," and its weight was supposed to be one of its advantages over the M-14. It turned out that bakelite was too flimsy for use in the field, and the M-16 ended up weighing about as much as an M-14. These new carbon-fiber rifles mark a return to the original concept of the AR-15, and given my preference for lightweight rifles I'd very much like to try one. Unfortunately they probably won't ever be sold in California. 1:25:13 PM    comment () Space.com has a section devoted to SpaceShipOne. 12:38:20 PM    comment () Techworld: "Mac OS X security myth exposed" A Techworld article on security says that Mac OS X is no more secure than other operating systems...[The Macintosh News Network] However, the article doesn't make any mention of Mac OS security, only Windows and various Unices (including OS X). 12:30:18 PM    comment () # Duncan Campbell and Suzanne Goldenberg at Guardian Unlmited - 'They said this is America . . . if a soldier orders you to take off your clothes, you must obey' - You think things were bad at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay? They were worse in Afghanistan. [whatreallyhappened] In some ways, the abuses in Afghanistan are more troubling than those reported in Iraq," said John Sifton, the Human Rights Watch representative in the area. "While it is true that abuses in Afghanistan often lacked the sexually abusive content of the abuses in Iraq, they were in many ways worse. Detainees were severely beaten, exposed to cold and deprived of sleep and water. "Moreover, it should be noted that the detention system in Afghanistan, unlike the system in Iraq, is not operated even nominally in compliance with the Geneva conventions. The detainees are never given an opportunity to see any independent tribunal. There is no legal process whatsoever and not even an attempt at one. The entire system operates outside the rule of law. At least in Iraq, the US is trying to run a system that meets Geneva standards. In Afghanistan, they are not." [End the War on Freedom] 10:46:10 AM    comment () NYT.  New book by the former CIA manager of the "bin Laden station" says the US is losing the war on terrorism. "U.S. leaders refuse to accept the obvious," the officer writes. "We are fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency -- not criminality or terrorism -- and our policy and procedures have failed to make more than a modest dent in enemy forces." "There is nothing that bin Laden could have hoped for more than the American invasion and occupation of Iraq," he writes.  See global guerrillas for more on this. "After the next attack," he adds, "misled Americans and their elected representatives will rightly demand the heads of intelligence-community leaders; that heads did not roll after 11 September is perhaps our most grievous post-attack error." I concur with these statements.  Over time, it won't just be Islamicists we are fighting. [John Robb's Weblog] I agree as well. I would only add that it should not only have been the heads of intelligence-community leaders, but also the Presidents who have been poking hornet's nests for decades, and everyone responsible for turning our airports and airplanes into defenseless victim zones. 10:01:55 AM    comment ()

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