5 Hurt in Palestinian School Bombing
A bomb exploded in a Palestinian school near the West Bank town of Hebron on Tuesday, injuring five students in what the Palestinians said was an attack by Jewish extremists.
The main Jewish settlers organization condemned the blast. The bomb went off near a water cooler in the courtyard of the Ziff secondary school south of Hebron, military officials said. A second explosive device was found and safely detonated by Israeli explosives experts.
Palestinian officials said they believed Israeli militants planted the explosives.
Earlier this year, police uncovered a plot by Israeli extremists to plant a car bomb near a Palestinian school in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem. Several people were arrested, but they have not been prosecuted. In March, a bomb went off in another Palestinian school in east Jerusalem, injuring a teacher and four children. Jewish militants claimed responsibility for that attack, but no one has been arrested.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said he held the Israeli government responsible for Tuesday's bombing. Israel ``failed to bring any of those who kill Palestinians in cold blood to justice,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops arrested 23 Palestinians and destroyed what the army said were nine machines for making weapons during a raid on the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Soldiers have been carrying out almost nightly raids of Palestinian neighborhoods in Gaza, searching for wanted militants and weapons workshops.
Palestinian security officials said soldiers searched about 60 houses, destroyed two metal workshops and damaged a car garage and several textile and plastics factories.
Troops also blew up the two-story house of a man whose son, a Hamas activist, was killed eight months ago during an attack on an Israeli settlement near Khan Younis. Sixteen people were left homeless, Palestinian officials said.
In the Askar refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank, Israeli troops enforcing a curfew fired from tanks toward a main street, witnesses said. Three students were lightly hurt by shrapnel. The army said it was checking the report.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Web / Authoring / Graphics / Backgrounds - WebReference.com
When light and used in moderation, tasteful background graphics can add a touch of warmth and/or originality to an otherwise dull page or HTML table.
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/graphics/backgrounds.html
When light and used in moderation, tasteful background graphics can add a touch of warmth and/or originality to an otherwise dull page or HTML table.
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/graphics/backgrounds.html
Monday, September 16, 2002
U.S. Trying to Market Itself to Young Arabs
Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, combined with news at the top of the radio hour, as a way to sell the United States in a skeptical Arab world?
Nice try but try again, says Mr. Sabbagh of Washington's effort to convince skeptical young Arabs of America's good intentions through a new radio station that combines pop music with news snippets and is now broadcasting in five Arab nations.
"You cannot create a product out of an image," said Mr. Sabbagh, the director of Middle East Marketing and Research and who has plugged cigarettes, colas and cars across the region. "You can only promote a product if you have one."
The hostility of young Arabs to the United States is based on policies, he said, and unless Washington modifies its stand on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and backs off unilateral action against Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the administration faces an uphill sell, he said. While American diplomacy might be influencing some moderate governments, the people remain unconvinced.
Public opinion surveys in Egypt and Jordan — rarely published in these countries but reviewed by officials and foreign diplomats — show that many people feel under assault by American policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and now on Iraq, American and Arab officials who have seen the surveys said.
The intensity of those feelings makes trying to sell the United States far more complicated than playing music and offering scholarships, several said.
Adding to the difficulties is the limited array of tools available to the State Department. Gone are the days of handsome cultural centers with libraries run by the United States Information Agency in foreign capitals. The independent agency, deemed an unneeded relic of the cold war, was shut in 1999 and melded into the State Department.
Here in Amman, for example, a popular American cultural center at a major traffic circle was closed. It was replaced by an auditorium and small library in the new United States Embassy, which is away from the city center and built like a fortress. The heavy security searches to enter the building have discouraged Jordanians from visiting.
As a substitute for the stand-alone libraries, the State Department is urging embassies in the region to open "American corners" in university libraries and other institutions. Such a "corner" is being tried in Bahrain, but for the most part embassies have resisted the idea because of its limited impact, American diplomats said.
Another program that is facing problems is the $25 million Middle East Partnership Initiative, devised by Liz Cheney, the daughter of the vice president and a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Near East bureau. The program includes scholarships enabling students from the Arab world to come to the United States.
But with severe new restrictions on visas, particularly for men from Arab countries between the ages of 18 and 45, the scope of the study program is probably limited, a State Department official said.
"This will need a long lead time," the official said.
One idea of Ms. Beers's — to provide commercial-length spots to Arab television stations about how Muslims in the United States are respected — has been put on hold, the official said. There was some nervousness, he said, that the favorable portrayal of American Muslims would be seen as "pandering."
Mr. Sabbagh, the market researcher, said he supported showing the role of Muslims in American life, provided the portrayals were believable. "This would be very useful," he said. "But it's all in the execution. It has to be real-life situations. That way you get credibility."
He also suggested that Washington try to put a more human face on events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He was sure, he said, that the Agency for International Development was doing worthwhile work to help the Palestinians. That should be talked about, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/international/middleeast/16ARAB.html
Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, combined with news at the top of the radio hour, as a way to sell the United States in a skeptical Arab world?
Nice try but try again, says Mr. Sabbagh of Washington's effort to convince skeptical young Arabs of America's good intentions through a new radio station that combines pop music with news snippets and is now broadcasting in five Arab nations.
"You cannot create a product out of an image," said Mr. Sabbagh, the director of Middle East Marketing and Research and who has plugged cigarettes, colas and cars across the region. "You can only promote a product if you have one."
The hostility of young Arabs to the United States is based on policies, he said, and unless Washington modifies its stand on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and backs off unilateral action against Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the administration faces an uphill sell, he said. While American diplomacy might be influencing some moderate governments, the people remain unconvinced.
Public opinion surveys in Egypt and Jordan — rarely published in these countries but reviewed by officials and foreign diplomats — show that many people feel under assault by American policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and now on Iraq, American and Arab officials who have seen the surveys said.
The intensity of those feelings makes trying to sell the United States far more complicated than playing music and offering scholarships, several said.
Adding to the difficulties is the limited array of tools available to the State Department. Gone are the days of handsome cultural centers with libraries run by the United States Information Agency in foreign capitals. The independent agency, deemed an unneeded relic of the cold war, was shut in 1999 and melded into the State Department.
Here in Amman, for example, a popular American cultural center at a major traffic circle was closed. It was replaced by an auditorium and small library in the new United States Embassy, which is away from the city center and built like a fortress. The heavy security searches to enter the building have discouraged Jordanians from visiting.
As a substitute for the stand-alone libraries, the State Department is urging embassies in the region to open "American corners" in university libraries and other institutions. Such a "corner" is being tried in Bahrain, but for the most part embassies have resisted the idea because of its limited impact, American diplomats said.
Another program that is facing problems is the $25 million Middle East Partnership Initiative, devised by Liz Cheney, the daughter of the vice president and a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Near East bureau. The program includes scholarships enabling students from the Arab world to come to the United States.
But with severe new restrictions on visas, particularly for men from Arab countries between the ages of 18 and 45, the scope of the study program is probably limited, a State Department official said.
"This will need a long lead time," the official said.
One idea of Ms. Beers's — to provide commercial-length spots to Arab television stations about how Muslims in the United States are respected — has been put on hold, the official said. There was some nervousness, he said, that the favorable portrayal of American Muslims would be seen as "pandering."
Mr. Sabbagh, the market researcher, said he supported showing the role of Muslims in American life, provided the portrayals were believable. "This would be very useful," he said. "But it's all in the execution. It has to be real-life situations. That way you get credibility."
He also suggested that Washington try to put a more human face on events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He was sure, he said, that the Agency for International Development was doing worthwhile work to help the Palestinians. That should be talked about, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/international/middleeast/16ARAB.html
U.S. Satellite Channel Offers Unfiltered Views From the Middle East
"We feel we are telling a counter-narrative to what Americans are bombarded with," said David Michaelis, director of current affairs for WorldLink TV, a nonprofit satellite channel based here that re-broadcasts news programs, with English voice-over, from the Muslim world for satellite TV subscribers in the United States.
"There are no coded messages from the Middle East," Mr. Michaelis said. "It is very much in your face. These broadcasters are constantly questioning the supremacy of the United States."
Mr. Michaelis, a journalist from Jerusalem, and his colleague, Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian-American producer born in the same city, have been scrutinizing the broadcasts of Middle East countries since last November. They use the material to produce a daily news program for WorldLink called Mosaic. Except for the English translations, the programming is left in its original form, with no introductions or analyses from the San Francisco staff.
Mr. Dajani said the hands-off approach was central to Mosaic's purpose of providing Americans with a different and unfiltered window to the Middle East.
"Since Sept. 11, we have had the story of the victim and the accused," Mr. Dajani said. "Every American is making the link to the Middle East, so it is very relevant to see what they are saying there. We are looking at the attitudes of roughly 280 million people in 22 countries."
During this past week, the Mosaic program was expanded from its normal half-hour slot to one hour to keep up with the intense news coverage of the Sept. 11 anniversary and President Bush's speech to the United Nations. Still, the images broadcast on Mosaic were nothing like those seen on most American channels.
Little attention was given to the formal remembrances at ground zero. Instead, the programming focused on the fallout — considered largely negative — of the Sept. 11 attacks for Muslims, including those living in the United States.
Al Manar TV in Beirut reported about discrimination against Arab Americans. A segment from Iraqi State TV criticized American media coverage of the 9/11 commemorations, suggesting that it was intended to create fear and panic.
Though much of the programming would be considered anti-American, Mr. Dajani and Mr. Michaelis said their representative sample of what is being shown in the Middle East invariably included other viewpoints. On Wednesday and Thursday Mosaic presented a report from the Palestine Broadcast Company that opened with the words "No to terrorism." It went on to show interviews with Palestinian children who said they felt the pain of Americans on Sept. 11 because of their own encounters with terrorism at home.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/international/middleeast/16SATE.html
"We feel we are telling a counter-narrative to what Americans are bombarded with," said David Michaelis, director of current affairs for WorldLink TV, a nonprofit satellite channel based here that re-broadcasts news programs, with English voice-over, from the Muslim world for satellite TV subscribers in the United States.
"There are no coded messages from the Middle East," Mr. Michaelis said. "It is very much in your face. These broadcasters are constantly questioning the supremacy of the United States."
Mr. Michaelis, a journalist from Jerusalem, and his colleague, Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian-American producer born in the same city, have been scrutinizing the broadcasts of Middle East countries since last November. They use the material to produce a daily news program for WorldLink called Mosaic. Except for the English translations, the programming is left in its original form, with no introductions or analyses from the San Francisco staff.
Mr. Dajani said the hands-off approach was central to Mosaic's purpose of providing Americans with a different and unfiltered window to the Middle East.
"Since Sept. 11, we have had the story of the victim and the accused," Mr. Dajani said. "Every American is making the link to the Middle East, so it is very relevant to see what they are saying there. We are looking at the attitudes of roughly 280 million people in 22 countries."
During this past week, the Mosaic program was expanded from its normal half-hour slot to one hour to keep up with the intense news coverage of the Sept. 11 anniversary and President Bush's speech to the United Nations. Still, the images broadcast on Mosaic were nothing like those seen on most American channels.
Little attention was given to the formal remembrances at ground zero. Instead, the programming focused on the fallout — considered largely negative — of the Sept. 11 attacks for Muslims, including those living in the United States.
Al Manar TV in Beirut reported about discrimination against Arab Americans. A segment from Iraqi State TV criticized American media coverage of the 9/11 commemorations, suggesting that it was intended to create fear and panic.
Though much of the programming would be considered anti-American, Mr. Dajani and Mr. Michaelis said their representative sample of what is being shown in the Middle East invariably included other viewpoints. On Wednesday and Thursday Mosaic presented a report from the Palestine Broadcast Company that opened with the words "No to terrorism." It went on to show interviews with Palestinian children who said they felt the pain of Americans on Sept. 11 because of their own encounters with terrorism at home.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/international/middleeast/16SATE.html
Three Detained Muslim Students Have No Hard Feelings, One Insists
Insisting that he and his friends harbored no resentment, one of the three Muslim medical students detained in a terror scare on a Florida highway said today that the situation had been a misunderstanding.
The student, Kambiz Butt, 25, said the men simply wanted to clear their names and be allowed to continue their education in the United States.
"We're medical students; we are not terrorists," said Mr. Butt, flanked at a news conference by the other students, Ayman Gheith, 27, and Omar Choudhary, 23. "Our concern in life is to become doctors. We want to help people. We do not want to hurt."
"We're in a state of shock and we are scared," Mr. Butt said. "But I'd like to tell the American people that we are not a threat."
"Not once did we mention 9/11," Mr. Butt said. "Not once did we mention anything about 9/13, nor did we joke about anything of that sort. She was probably just eavesdropping on our conversation and might have heard a few key words that she misconstrued."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/national/16SCAR.html
Insisting that he and his friends harbored no resentment, one of the three Muslim medical students detained in a terror scare on a Florida highway said today that the situation had been a misunderstanding.
The student, Kambiz Butt, 25, said the men simply wanted to clear their names and be allowed to continue their education in the United States.
"We're medical students; we are not terrorists," said Mr. Butt, flanked at a news conference by the other students, Ayman Gheith, 27, and Omar Choudhary, 23. "Our concern in life is to become doctors. We want to help people. We do not want to hurt."
"We're in a state of shock and we are scared," Mr. Butt said. "But I'd like to tell the American people that we are not a threat."
"Not once did we mention 9/11," Mr. Butt said. "Not once did we mention anything about 9/13, nor did we joke about anything of that sort. She was probably just eavesdropping on our conversation and might have heard a few key words that she misconstrued."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/national/16SCAR.html
Science Slow to Ponder Ills That Linger in Anthrax Victims
For far longer than anyone had predicted, these two postal workers and many of the 15 other survivors of the anthrax attacks that began a year ago this week have been ill with symptoms their doctors cannot explain — fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, memory loss. In interviews, many say they communicate very little with one another, most fighting their battles alone, often confused, at times frightened.
These survivors are of great scientific interest, especially those who had the inhaled form of the illness, because in the past nearly everyone with inhalation anthrax died, and doctors have almost no information about recovery.
But only now is the government beginning to study their progress. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has drawn blood from survivors to measure changes in their immune systems, it has not conducted comprehensive follow-ups or physical examinations. The reason, officials say, include a lack of trained personnel, red tape and a surfeit of competing demands.
Now another agency, the National Institutes of Health, has developed a plan to study the survivors. But some leading anthrax experts say that the work should have begun a year ago and that valuable information may have been lost in the meantime.
"It's very peculiar to me that these people haven't had the million-dollar work-up that they deserve," said Dr. Meryl J. Nass, an anthrax expert in Freeport, Me., who has advised one victim. "Nobody has made an attempt to gather them together and test them all for the same things and compare the results. That's how you make a determination of what's wrong with them."
Critics like Dr. Nass say survivors offer a rare chance to map the course of recovery and try to determine whether the disease has any long-term effects that might help explain the problems now confronting some of the survivors. Such information could help not only the survivors themselves but also future victims, should anthrax ever be used as a weapon again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/national/16LIMB.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
For far longer than anyone had predicted, these two postal workers and many of the 15 other survivors of the anthrax attacks that began a year ago this week have been ill with symptoms their doctors cannot explain — fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, memory loss. In interviews, many say they communicate very little with one another, most fighting their battles alone, often confused, at times frightened.
These survivors are of great scientific interest, especially those who had the inhaled form of the illness, because in the past nearly everyone with inhalation anthrax died, and doctors have almost no information about recovery.
But only now is the government beginning to study their progress. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has drawn blood from survivors to measure changes in their immune systems, it has not conducted comprehensive follow-ups or physical examinations. The reason, officials say, include a lack of trained personnel, red tape and a surfeit of competing demands.
Now another agency, the National Institutes of Health, has developed a plan to study the survivors. But some leading anthrax experts say that the work should have begun a year ago and that valuable information may have been lost in the meantime.
"It's very peculiar to me that these people haven't had the million-dollar work-up that they deserve," said Dr. Meryl J. Nass, an anthrax expert in Freeport, Me., who has advised one victim. "Nobody has made an attempt to gather them together and test them all for the same things and compare the results. That's how you make a determination of what's wrong with them."
Critics like Dr. Nass say survivors offer a rare chance to map the course of recovery and try to determine whether the disease has any long-term effects that might help explain the problems now confronting some of the survivors. Such information could help not only the survivors themselves but also future victims, should anthrax ever be used as a weapon again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/national/16LIMB.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
ZDNet: Story: How the Web beat TV on 9/11 anniversary
…each Web site commemorating the events of 9/11 provided a slightly different perspective. Taken as a whole, they offered a rounded, more realistic view of the tragedy than TV, radio, newspapers, or motion pictures could ever hope to. And I still think they're worth a visit, even as we move on from the anniversary itself.
FOR EXAMPLE, I encourage you to visit Hold the Door for Others. There you can read accounts of true-life hero Ron Fazio, who literally held the door open and evacuated his co-workers from the World Trade Center, delaying his own exit until it was too late. Or try You Will Never Be Forgotten for some photos of, and simple tributes to, 9/11 victims, posted by friends and family.
For the story of a typical New York couple and their experiences near Ground Zero the day of the attacks, take a look at Reflections of Sept. 11 by Barb and Ed. Their simple narrative begins, "We saw the second plane hit on TV. It happened only a few miles from us." It then follows them through that horrific day. ("After walking to the car, we turned to look at the towers again and all we saw was a huge cloud of white smoke...Karen felt ill. We all felt ill.") While you're there, be sure to peruse the guest book, where 413 people from all over the country and the world have left their respects.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project estimates that as many as 30,000 of these commemorative Web pages were created in the three months following the attacks. In her report for the nonprofit Pew organization, researcher Erica Siegl of the University of Washington's Department of Communication wrote, "For many, the Internet afforded an opportunity for users to respond to the crisis personally. For those whose only contact with the attacks came through a television set, the Internet provided a way to connect emotionally with a 'virtual community' whose ties were not geographic, but bounded by common experience."
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2880227,00.html
…each Web site commemorating the events of 9/11 provided a slightly different perspective. Taken as a whole, they offered a rounded, more realistic view of the tragedy than TV, radio, newspapers, or motion pictures could ever hope to. And I still think they're worth a visit, even as we move on from the anniversary itself.
FOR EXAMPLE, I encourage you to visit Hold the Door for Others. There you can read accounts of true-life hero Ron Fazio, who literally held the door open and evacuated his co-workers from the World Trade Center, delaying his own exit until it was too late. Or try You Will Never Be Forgotten for some photos of, and simple tributes to, 9/11 victims, posted by friends and family.
For the story of a typical New York couple and their experiences near Ground Zero the day of the attacks, take a look at Reflections of Sept. 11 by Barb and Ed. Their simple narrative begins, "We saw the second plane hit on TV. It happened only a few miles from us." It then follows them through that horrific day. ("After walking to the car, we turned to look at the towers again and all we saw was a huge cloud of white smoke...Karen felt ill. We all felt ill.") While you're there, be sure to peruse the guest book, where 413 people from all over the country and the world have left their respects.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project estimates that as many as 30,000 of these commemorative Web pages were created in the three months following the attacks. In her report for the nonprofit Pew organization, researcher Erica Siegl of the University of Washington's Department of Communication wrote, "For many, the Internet afforded an opportunity for users to respond to the crisis personally. For those whose only contact with the attacks came through a television set, the Internet provided a way to connect emotionally with a 'virtual community' whose ties were not geographic, but bounded by common experience."
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2880227,00.html
Sunday, September 15, 2002
Religious and Public Stations Battle for Share of Radio Dial
Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests.
It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of 95,000 people into the most populous place in the country where "All Things Considered" cannot be heard.
In place of that program — and "Morning Edition," "Car Talk" and a local Cajun program called "Bonjour Louisiana" — listeners now find "Home School Heartbeat," "The Phyllis Schlafly Report" and the conservative evangelical musings of Mr. Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss.
The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals — the equivalent of the varsity team kicking the freshmen out of the gym.
This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town.
Religious broadcasters have done this to public radio stations in Oregon and Indiana, too, and many large-market public radio stations, like WBEZ in Chicago, complain that new noncommercial stations, most of them religious, are stepping on the signal at the edge of their transmission areas.
Public radio is belatedly fighting back. Last year, a national nonprofit organization was set up to fend off the new hardball competition. Called Public Radio Capital, it raises money through tax-exempt bonds to help local public stations end their reliance on translators and buy full-power stations.
Public Radio Capital, created with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a federally financed agency, has since helped public radio stations in Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Tacoma, Wash., to outbid their competition.
In Tacoma, the organization bought a noncommercial FM station from a local technical college for $5 million. Money to operate the station will come from major public stations in the area.
"Until recently, public radio had been completely dependent on local initiative to protect its signal and acquire new stations," said Marc Hand, the managing director of Public Radio Capital, which is based in Denver. "A lot of times, local radio is not aware of how to compete. We are stepping in when we can to help."
For many of NPR's 273 member organizations, the legal and administrative costs of competing against religious broadcasters are sponging up millions of dollars that they might otherwise spend on news and other local programming.
"It is, like, nuts," said Torey Malatia, general manager of WBEZ, which has the country's third-largest public-radio audience. "Starting about four years ago we realized that if we didn't learn how to fight back, our coverage area would effectively shrink by a million people."
As NPR itself acknowledges, religious broadcasters are often far better prepared for the radio wars. "They have employed a long-term strategy, where we have failed to do that," said Dana Davis Rehm, vice president for member and program services at NPR in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/national/15RADI.html
Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests.
It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of 95,000 people into the most populous place in the country where "All Things Considered" cannot be heard.
In place of that program — and "Morning Edition," "Car Talk" and a local Cajun program called "Bonjour Louisiana" — listeners now find "Home School Heartbeat," "The Phyllis Schlafly Report" and the conservative evangelical musings of Mr. Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss.
The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals — the equivalent of the varsity team kicking the freshmen out of the gym.
This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town.
Religious broadcasters have done this to public radio stations in Oregon and Indiana, too, and many large-market public radio stations, like WBEZ in Chicago, complain that new noncommercial stations, most of them religious, are stepping on the signal at the edge of their transmission areas.
Public radio is belatedly fighting back. Last year, a national nonprofit organization was set up to fend off the new hardball competition. Called Public Radio Capital, it raises money through tax-exempt bonds to help local public stations end their reliance on translators and buy full-power stations.
Public Radio Capital, created with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a federally financed agency, has since helped public radio stations in Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Tacoma, Wash., to outbid their competition.
In Tacoma, the organization bought a noncommercial FM station from a local technical college for $5 million. Money to operate the station will come from major public stations in the area.
"Until recently, public radio had been completely dependent on local initiative to protect its signal and acquire new stations," said Marc Hand, the managing director of Public Radio Capital, which is based in Denver. "A lot of times, local radio is not aware of how to compete. We are stepping in when we can to help."
For many of NPR's 273 member organizations, the legal and administrative costs of competing against religious broadcasters are sponging up millions of dollars that they might otherwise spend on news and other local programming.
"It is, like, nuts," said Torey Malatia, general manager of WBEZ, which has the country's third-largest public-radio audience. "Starting about four years ago we realized that if we didn't learn how to fight back, our coverage area would effectively shrink by a million people."
As NPR itself acknowledges, religious broadcasters are often far better prepared for the radio wars. "They have employed a long-term strategy, where we have failed to do that," said Dana Davis Rehm, vice president for member and program services at NPR in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/national/15RADI.html
DOJ Accused of Abusing Wiretap Powers
Senators charged with overseeing the Department of Justice lambasted the agency this morning for over-stepping expanded wiretap powers granted last fall following the Sept. 11 attacks. The harsh criticism from Congress came as the Bush Administration prepares for next week's launch of an ambitious new strategy for securing cyberspace—another response to the terrorist attacks, and one that is also raising concerns.
The Senate Judiciary Committee met this morning to review the Justice Department's use of expanded electronic surveillance powers enacted in the USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress passed last October. Several committee members lamented that the arcane wiretap provisions were voted in a climate of fear before lawmakers understood the ramifications.
"In our haste to develop legislation to help America, we went too far in some areas," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., charging that the Justice Department abused the language of the act. "We must carefully examine what we have done."
The expanded wiretap powers pertain to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which exempts foreign-intelligence gathering from the probable cause requirements and privacy protections that govern wiretaps conducted for criminal prosecutions. Previously, the FBI and other federal agents could use the more lenient FISA standard for investigations when "the purpose" was foreign-intelligence gathering, but the USA PATRIOT Act gave the government greater latitude to use the standard when foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose."
In May, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review unanimously knocked down the Justice Department's interpretation (although the decision did not come to light until Aug. 20 in response to an inquiry from the judiciary committee) that the government could use the FISA standard when the sole purpose of an investigation was a criminal prosecution. The department's appeal of the court order is pending.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,526772,00.asp
Senators charged with overseeing the Department of Justice lambasted the agency this morning for over-stepping expanded wiretap powers granted last fall following the Sept. 11 attacks. The harsh criticism from Congress came as the Bush Administration prepares for next week's launch of an ambitious new strategy for securing cyberspace—another response to the terrorist attacks, and one that is also raising concerns.
The Senate Judiciary Committee met this morning to review the Justice Department's use of expanded electronic surveillance powers enacted in the USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress passed last October. Several committee members lamented that the arcane wiretap provisions were voted in a climate of fear before lawmakers understood the ramifications.
"In our haste to develop legislation to help America, we went too far in some areas," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., charging that the Justice Department abused the language of the act. "We must carefully examine what we have done."
The expanded wiretap powers pertain to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which exempts foreign-intelligence gathering from the probable cause requirements and privacy protections that govern wiretaps conducted for criminal prosecutions. Previously, the FBI and other federal agents could use the more lenient FISA standard for investigations when "the purpose" was foreign-intelligence gathering, but the USA PATRIOT Act gave the government greater latitude to use the standard when foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose."
In May, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review unanimously knocked down the Justice Department's interpretation (although the decision did not come to light until Aug. 20 in response to an inquiry from the judiciary committee) that the government could use the FISA standard when the sole purpose of an investigation was a criminal prosecution. The department's appeal of the court order is pending.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,526772,00.asp
Saturday, September 14, 2002
Federal Judge Drops Charges of Perjury in Chicago
A federal judge in Chicago today threw out a perjury indictment against an Islamic charity and its leader, who were accused of lying about ties to Osama bin Laden and whether they had secretly funneled money to his terrorist network, Al Qaeda.
Judge Joan Gottschall of Federal District Court said that the Justice Department erred in using the perjury statutes to charge the charity, the Benevolence International Foundation, and its director, Enaam M. Arnaout, when they asserted they were not affiliated with terrorist organizations. They made the statements in a lawsuit filed in January against the federal government after officials investigating the Sept. 11 attacks seized the foundation's assets.
Judge Gottschall said today that perjury charges were inappropriate because the statements by Mr. Arnaout and the group were not made in connection with a specific court proceeding as required by the statute. Mr. Fitzgerald said he would use the same statements to bring new charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements.
Mr. Arnaout remains imprisoned in Chicago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/14/national/14PERJ.html
A federal judge in Chicago today threw out a perjury indictment against an Islamic charity and its leader, who were accused of lying about ties to Osama bin Laden and whether they had secretly funneled money to his terrorist network, Al Qaeda.
Judge Joan Gottschall of Federal District Court said that the Justice Department erred in using the perjury statutes to charge the charity, the Benevolence International Foundation, and its director, Enaam M. Arnaout, when they asserted they were not affiliated with terrorist organizations. They made the statements in a lawsuit filed in January against the federal government after officials investigating the Sept. 11 attacks seized the foundation's assets.
Judge Gottschall said today that perjury charges were inappropriate because the statements by Mr. Arnaout and the group were not made in connection with a specific court proceeding as required by the statute. Mr. Fitzgerald said he would use the same statements to bring new charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements.
Mr. Arnaout remains imprisoned in Chicago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/14/national/14PERJ.html
A Simple Click Stirs a Lot of Outrage
For some time, travelers browsing the State Department Web site for helpful tips about Guadalajara, Mexico, found much more than they bargained for when they clicked on a photograph of President Bush.
The click transported them to a partisan playground, where they were told how to get involved with the Republican Party and even how to donate money to it.
The State Department site, it turns out, had been providing a link to a Web site run by the Republican National Committee despite federal laws prohibiting government resources from being used for partisan purposes.
The link was not removed until late this afternoon, after a reporter asked about it. State Department officials said they were not sure how long the link had been operating. But one person who noticed it said it was operating as early as Sept. 5.
The site, which had a red, white and blue Republican National Committee logo, also gave visitors an opportunity to register to vote, sign up as a party volunteer and donate money, all with a click of the mouse.
"Help the R.N.C. support the Republican Party and win elections nationwide," the Web site said. "Help us give President Bush a stronger working majority in Congress."
The discovery of the link on the State Department site prompted protests from politicians and good-government advocates, who called it blatantly political and demanded an investigation into who was behind it.
It is unclear whether other government Web sites provide such links, though critics have long maintained that government sites themselves are often thinly veiled promotional tools for politicians.
"We've been saying for years that the principal purpose of many Congressional Web sites is just to promote members of Congress," said Gary Ruskin, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Accountability Project.
Election law experts say the link to the Republican site may violate several laws, including the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan activities "while on duty or in government offices."
The experts also say the Web site and its link may also violate campaign finance laws that impose penalties for soliciting campaign contributions from government property.
The situation has prompted Representative Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, to send a letter to the White House urging the administration to remove the link to the site.
Mr. Mendendez, the ranking Democrat on a House committee that oversees the State Department, also called for an investigation by the Federal Elections Commission, the Justice Department and the State Department's inspector general.
In an interview this afternoon, Mr. Menendez scoffed at the State Department's contention that the link was a mistake.
"You cannot create a link like this by accident," he said. "No way. It takes a lot of thought to create such a link. It cannot be inadvertent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/politics/13WEB.html
For some time, travelers browsing the State Department Web site for helpful tips about Guadalajara, Mexico, found much more than they bargained for when they clicked on a photograph of President Bush.
The click transported them to a partisan playground, where they were told how to get involved with the Republican Party and even how to donate money to it.
The State Department site, it turns out, had been providing a link to a Web site run by the Republican National Committee despite federal laws prohibiting government resources from being used for partisan purposes.
The link was not removed until late this afternoon, after a reporter asked about it. State Department officials said they were not sure how long the link had been operating. But one person who noticed it said it was operating as early as Sept. 5.
The site, which had a red, white and blue Republican National Committee logo, also gave visitors an opportunity to register to vote, sign up as a party volunteer and donate money, all with a click of the mouse.
"Help the R.N.C. support the Republican Party and win elections nationwide," the Web site said. "Help us give President Bush a stronger working majority in Congress."
The discovery of the link on the State Department site prompted protests from politicians and good-government advocates, who called it blatantly political and demanded an investigation into who was behind it.
It is unclear whether other government Web sites provide such links, though critics have long maintained that government sites themselves are often thinly veiled promotional tools for politicians.
"We've been saying for years that the principal purpose of many Congressional Web sites is just to promote members of Congress," said Gary Ruskin, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Accountability Project.
Election law experts say the link to the Republican site may violate several laws, including the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan activities "while on duty or in government offices."
The experts also say the Web site and its link may also violate campaign finance laws that impose penalties for soliciting campaign contributions from government property.
The situation has prompted Representative Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, to send a letter to the White House urging the administration to remove the link to the site.
Mr. Mendendez, the ranking Democrat on a House committee that oversees the State Department, also called for an investigation by the Federal Elections Commission, the Justice Department and the State Department's inspector general.
In an interview this afternoon, Mr. Menendez scoffed at the State Department's contention that the link was a mistake.
"You cannot create a link like this by accident," he said. "No way. It takes a lot of thought to create such a link. It cannot be inadvertent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/politics/13WEB.html
Departing Rights Commissioner Faults U.S.
"The United States could be a leader in combating terrorism while upholding human rights," Mrs. Robinson said in an interview here on Monday. "Instead it has sought to put all the emphasis on combating terrorism and has not been fully upholding human rights standards. And that's having a ripple effect on other less democratic countries."
She cited the United States' use of immigration laws to detain foreigners within its borders for indefinite periods, the racial profiling of people of Arab descent in searches and the prosecution of American citizens as enemy combatants, limiting their rights to legal representation. She also mentioned severe restrictions placed on the prisoners taken during the military campaign in Afghanistan and now being held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
Mrs. Robinson, the United Nations' top human rights official, said that over the last year, when she questioned other governments on repressive measures, they responded by pointing to the United States and saying, in her words, "For goodness sakes, standards have changed."
A number of developing nations have copied antiterrorism measures adopted by the Justice Department in the past year but have applied them to suppress opponents, Mrs. Robinson said. She mentioned new laws and political crackdowns in the name of fighting terrorism in Egypt, Zimbabwe and Pakistan, among others.
In February, Mrs. Robinson joined the International Committee of the Red Cross in asking the administration to clarify whether the Guantánamo prisoners would be allowed the protections of the Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war. The administration did not respond to the query, and appears to have applied the conventions "á la carte," she said.
She lamented the loss of Washington's help after Sept. 11 in pressing other countries about human rights. "The United States used to play a strong role in raising human rights concerns in its bilateral relations," she said. "Now the United States is more focused on getting coalition partners against terrorism and is not necessarily raising human rights."
Mrs. Robinson said she viewed the terrorist attacks a year ago as crimes against humanity, the most grave form of human rights crime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/international/12RIGH.html
"The United States could be a leader in combating terrorism while upholding human rights," Mrs. Robinson said in an interview here on Monday. "Instead it has sought to put all the emphasis on combating terrorism and has not been fully upholding human rights standards. And that's having a ripple effect on other less democratic countries."
She cited the United States' use of immigration laws to detain foreigners within its borders for indefinite periods, the racial profiling of people of Arab descent in searches and the prosecution of American citizens as enemy combatants, limiting their rights to legal representation. She also mentioned severe restrictions placed on the prisoners taken during the military campaign in Afghanistan and now being held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
Mrs. Robinson, the United Nations' top human rights official, said that over the last year, when she questioned other governments on repressive measures, they responded by pointing to the United States and saying, in her words, "For goodness sakes, standards have changed."
A number of developing nations have copied antiterrorism measures adopted by the Justice Department in the past year but have applied them to suppress opponents, Mrs. Robinson said. She mentioned new laws and political crackdowns in the name of fighting terrorism in Egypt, Zimbabwe and Pakistan, among others.
In February, Mrs. Robinson joined the International Committee of the Red Cross in asking the administration to clarify whether the Guantánamo prisoners would be allowed the protections of the Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war. The administration did not respond to the query, and appears to have applied the conventions "á la carte," she said.
She lamented the loss of Washington's help after Sept. 11 in pressing other countries about human rights. "The United States used to play a strong role in raising human rights concerns in its bilateral relations," she said. "Now the United States is more focused on getting coalition partners against terrorism and is not necessarily raising human rights."
Mrs. Robinson said she viewed the terrorist attacks a year ago as crimes against humanity, the most grave form of human rights crime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/international/12RIGH.html
Spam Hits Some Anti-Spammers, Who Think They Have a Culprit
Tens of thousands of readers of e-mail newsletters have recently been inundated with unsolicited overtures from pornography Web sites and get-rich-quick schemes, the newsletter publishers say, and they are blaming the company that manages and distributes the newsletters for them.
Particularly galling to some of the publishers is that the newsletters they send out are about ways to use e-mail to market responsibly and about the dangers of sending unsolicited e-mail, known as spam.
The publishers are blaming a company called SparkLIST.com, which offers services they use to distribute their e-mail newsletters. The reason for the accusation is that the spam has been sent to private, otherwise undisclosed e-mail addresses that are used only to receive the publishers' newsletters.
"The 10,000 people using our newsletter are now getting porno spam, and they think it's coming from me," said Andy Sernovitz, who runs GasPedal Ventures, a New York company that consults on using e-mail as a marketing tool. "I am freaking out."
Publishers are asking whether the database at SparkLIST, which is operated from Green Bay, Wis., has been broken into by hackers or otherwise compromised.
But there is no proof that the database has been breached, according to Lyris Technologies, a maker of software for anti-spam and e-mail marketing software; Lyris acquired SparkLIST in August. Steven Brown, the chief operating officer for Lyris, based in Berkeley, Calif., said the spammers might not have stolen the database at all but might instead have acquired the addresses some other way.
For instance, he said, they may be using computer programs that randomly generate e-mail addresses that, coincidentally, include addresses that belong to recipients of the newsletters. "We're trying to figure out where this has come from," Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Sernovitz and other customers of SparkLIST, which says it sends out 750 million e-mail messages on behalf of clients each month, say they are not sure what happened to SparkLIST's database, but they speculate that it has been broken into by hackers or that the data has been stolen by an employee.
The flood of unsolicited messages to recipients of the newsletters, which have hundreds of thousands of readers, comes at a time when the amount of unsolicited e-mail is already exploding. The Radicati Group, a market research group in Palo Alto, Calif., estimated earlier this year that 32 percent of the 7.3 billion e-mail messages sent each day were unsolicited commercial messages.
But the issue takes on added significance in the case of SparkLIST because a handful of SparkLIST's clients are among the best-known publishers and consultants who preach the responsible use of e-mail for marketing. Mr. Sernovitz, for instance, started the Association of Interactive Marketing, an early anti-spam organization.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/technology/12MAIL.html
Tens of thousands of readers of e-mail newsletters have recently been inundated with unsolicited overtures from pornography Web sites and get-rich-quick schemes, the newsletter publishers say, and they are blaming the company that manages and distributes the newsletters for them.
Particularly galling to some of the publishers is that the newsletters they send out are about ways to use e-mail to market responsibly and about the dangers of sending unsolicited e-mail, known as spam.
The publishers are blaming a company called SparkLIST.com, which offers services they use to distribute their e-mail newsletters. The reason for the accusation is that the spam has been sent to private, otherwise undisclosed e-mail addresses that are used only to receive the publishers' newsletters.
"The 10,000 people using our newsletter are now getting porno spam, and they think it's coming from me," said Andy Sernovitz, who runs GasPedal Ventures, a New York company that consults on using e-mail as a marketing tool. "I am freaking out."
Publishers are asking whether the database at SparkLIST, which is operated from Green Bay, Wis., has been broken into by hackers or otherwise compromised.
But there is no proof that the database has been breached, according to Lyris Technologies, a maker of software for anti-spam and e-mail marketing software; Lyris acquired SparkLIST in August. Steven Brown, the chief operating officer for Lyris, based in Berkeley, Calif., said the spammers might not have stolen the database at all but might instead have acquired the addresses some other way.
For instance, he said, they may be using computer programs that randomly generate e-mail addresses that, coincidentally, include addresses that belong to recipients of the newsletters. "We're trying to figure out where this has come from," Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Sernovitz and other customers of SparkLIST, which says it sends out 750 million e-mail messages on behalf of clients each month, say they are not sure what happened to SparkLIST's database, but they speculate that it has been broken into by hackers or that the data has been stolen by an employee.
The flood of unsolicited messages to recipients of the newsletters, which have hundreds of thousands of readers, comes at a time when the amount of unsolicited e-mail is already exploding. The Radicati Group, a market research group in Palo Alto, Calif., estimated earlier this year that 32 percent of the 7.3 billion e-mail messages sent each day were unsolicited commercial messages.
But the issue takes on added significance in the case of SparkLIST because a handful of SparkLIST's clients are among the best-known publishers and consultants who preach the responsible use of e-mail for marketing. Mr. Sernovitz, for instance, started the Association of Interactive Marketing, an early anti-spam organization.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/technology/12MAIL.html
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Israeli Forces Destroy Palestinian Homes in Raids
Israeli forces destroyed eight Palestinian houses in pre-dawn raids in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the home of a dead militant's family, witnesses said.
Shooting erupted between the Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen as tanks and armored bulldozers moved into the Shijaia neighborhood east of Gaza City. One Palestinian was seriously hurt, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has added house demolitions to its measures to combat the almost two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hoping this will deter militants behind suicide bombings and other attacks.…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast-demolitions.html
Israeli forces destroyed eight Palestinian houses in pre-dawn raids in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the home of a dead militant's family, witnesses said.
Shooting erupted between the Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen as tanks and armored bulldozers moved into the Shijaia neighborhood east of Gaza City. One Palestinian was seriously hurt, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has added house demolitions to its measures to combat the almost two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hoping this will deter militants behind suicide bombings and other attacks.…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast-demolitions.html
Council Deals Arafat a Blow by Forcing Cabinet to Quit
Confronted by demands for democratic change from a newly defiant legislature, Yasir Arafat was compelled today to accept the resignation of his entire cabinet.
The dramatic retreat by a leader who has in the past treated the Palestinian Legislative Council largely with disdain followed two days of animated debate, in which the 72 deputies present resisted every maneuver and appeal by Mr. Arafat's lieutenants and made clear that they were determined to vote no-confidence in his cabinet.
When it became clear that a vote could not be avoided, Mr. Arafat's representative in the council, Tayeb Abdul Rahim, rose and announced that out of "deep respect for the legislative branch and the decisions it has taken," the cabinet had submitted its resignation, and Mr. Arafat accepted it. The council broke into sustained applause.
The deputies, a majority of them from Mr. Arafat's own Fatah movement, declared the session a triumph for the democracy and openness that the United States and other foreign governments have been demanding of the Palestinians. The defeat was also striking evidence of the erosion of Mr. Arafat's once-unquestioned political power.
But it was far from clear that the exercise in democracy was what the Bush administration or Israel had intended. The ousted cabinet, installed by Mr. Arafat in June, included ministers — most notably Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh — who had been named by Mr. Arafat as a result of Israeli and American pressure.
The legislators also forced Mr. Arafat to set presidential and parliamentary elections for Jan. 20, though the Bush administration had hoped to push the balloting back so more amenable leaders would have time to come to the fore.
"This is a message also to the Americans and Europeans," said Salah Taamari, a deputy from Bethlehem who was among the leaders of the fight for change. "If they are really sincere in their call for reform, they should make Israel allow the Palestinian Legislative Council to meet and function."
However satisfying their victory, the deputies were constantly reminded that they were still functioning under the iron grip of Israel, which had the final word on what powers they would be allowed to exercise. The session was held in two venues, Ramallah and Gaza, linked by video, because Israel had not permitted several Gaza deputies to travel. Ramallah was still under nighttime curfew.
Midway through the session, the speaker announced that the Israeli cabinet had decided to "annex" Rachel's Tomb, a holy site near Bethlehem.
In fact, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had proposed to include the site in the area to be enclosed by a wall that officials are considering building around Jerusalem. But the news still served as a reminder that the Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza were far from finished.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/international/middleeast/12MIDE.html
Confronted by demands for democratic change from a newly defiant legislature, Yasir Arafat was compelled today to accept the resignation of his entire cabinet.
The dramatic retreat by a leader who has in the past treated the Palestinian Legislative Council largely with disdain followed two days of animated debate, in which the 72 deputies present resisted every maneuver and appeal by Mr. Arafat's lieutenants and made clear that they were determined to vote no-confidence in his cabinet.
When it became clear that a vote could not be avoided, Mr. Arafat's representative in the council, Tayeb Abdul Rahim, rose and announced that out of "deep respect for the legislative branch and the decisions it has taken," the cabinet had submitted its resignation, and Mr. Arafat accepted it. The council broke into sustained applause.
The deputies, a majority of them from Mr. Arafat's own Fatah movement, declared the session a triumph for the democracy and openness that the United States and other foreign governments have been demanding of the Palestinians. The defeat was also striking evidence of the erosion of Mr. Arafat's once-unquestioned political power.
But it was far from clear that the exercise in democracy was what the Bush administration or Israel had intended. The ousted cabinet, installed by Mr. Arafat in June, included ministers — most notably Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh — who had been named by Mr. Arafat as a result of Israeli and American pressure.
The legislators also forced Mr. Arafat to set presidential and parliamentary elections for Jan. 20, though the Bush administration had hoped to push the balloting back so more amenable leaders would have time to come to the fore.
"This is a message also to the Americans and Europeans," said Salah Taamari, a deputy from Bethlehem who was among the leaders of the fight for change. "If they are really sincere in their call for reform, they should make Israel allow the Palestinian Legislative Council to meet and function."
However satisfying their victory, the deputies were constantly reminded that they were still functioning under the iron grip of Israel, which had the final word on what powers they would be allowed to exercise. The session was held in two venues, Ramallah and Gaza, linked by video, because Israel had not permitted several Gaza deputies to travel. Ramallah was still under nighttime curfew.
Midway through the session, the speaker announced that the Israeli cabinet had decided to "annex" Rachel's Tomb, a holy site near Bethlehem.
In fact, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had proposed to include the site in the area to be enclosed by a wall that officials are considering building around Jerusalem. But the news still served as a reminder that the Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza were far from finished.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/international/middleeast/12MIDE.html
Palestinian Council Debates Arafat's Cabinet, and Leadership
"This is a huge debate," said Salah Taamari, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Bethlehem, as it went into the second day of its first session since May.
"The tension within the council reflects the tension of the Palestinian people," Mr. Taamari said. "Now is our chance to tell the world we represent our people."
While the council met, Israeli news organizations gave prominent play to what was described as a declaration that Fatah, Mr. Arafat's movement, was about to make, rejecting attacks against Israeli civilians.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/11/international/middleeast/11MIDE.html
"This is a huge debate," said Salah Taamari, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Bethlehem, as it went into the second day of its first session since May.
"The tension within the council reflects the tension of the Palestinian people," Mr. Taamari said. "Now is our chance to tell the world we represent our people."
While the council met, Israeli news organizations gave prominent play to what was described as a declaration that Fatah, Mr. Arafat's movement, was about to make, rejecting attacks against Israeli civilians.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/11/international/middleeast/11MIDE.html
Baseline - Print Article FBI Bureaucracy Hobbles Tech Adoption
In the same month the twin towers fell, supervisors at the FBI's Computer Analysis Response Team ordered 83 copies of a software program that reveals the contents of images and files deleted from hard drives on personal computers, as well as visits to Web sites and the destinations of e-mail messages sent from those machines.
The software, known as Encase, had been used by several government agencies to process evidence seized during investigations of terrorist activity after Sept. 11. Earlier this year, Encase helped find the murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. His captors had sent e-mails to government and news organizations on a computer later seized by the Pakistani police.
Encase is easy to use. Examiners attach a small cable, known as a dongle, to the parallel or USB port on a target computer or enter through the computer's Network Interface Card. The connection allows investigators to preview the contents of a hard drive and to create a virtual image. The drive's original data is undisturbed.
Encase is a leader in its field, according to Charles Kolodgy, research manager for International Data Corp.'s Internet Security Program. Plus, it meets court-accepted standards for technical evidence, a critical factor in prosecuting or defending a case.
But the software was not used by the analytical response unit, which investigates such computer-related crimes as child pornography. It got a cold shoulder from the FBI, which appears to prefer to build similar software itself.
Despite a six-month backlog in collecting computer-based evidence for court cases, the FBI held up the distribution of those 83 licenses, according to a letter written in February by Marc Zwillinger, a Kirkland & Ellis attorney who represents Guidance Software, Encase's manufacturer.
By February, the chief of the team's unit, Mark Pollitt, was trying to block Encase, according to Zwillinger's letter, which was circulated to several government agencies and viewed by Baseline. Pollitt's goal, according to the lawyer's missive, was to preclude the software from being published in the FBI's Standard Operating Procedures, which lay out which products—whether software, hardware, or guns—the FBI has tested and validated for internal use.
Meanwhile, the FBI continues to try to develop its own alternative to Encase, called the Automated Computer Examination System (ACES). Whether it is available is unknown.
Putting already-available (and already-ordered) commercial software through the wringer is one small example of the many issues the Bureau faces as it struggles to bring its information systems out of what Robert Chiaradio, a former FBI Executive Assistant Director, describes as "a 1950s-style office culture." Chiaradio retired in June to manage KPMG Consulting's Homeland Security practice.
Two highly critical reports released in March allege the FBI's information systems are in complete disarray.…
http://www.baselinemag.com/print_article/0,3668,a=30966,00.asp
In the same month the twin towers fell, supervisors at the FBI's Computer Analysis Response Team ordered 83 copies of a software program that reveals the contents of images and files deleted from hard drives on personal computers, as well as visits to Web sites and the destinations of e-mail messages sent from those machines.
The software, known as Encase, had been used by several government agencies to process evidence seized during investigations of terrorist activity after Sept. 11. Earlier this year, Encase helped find the murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. His captors had sent e-mails to government and news organizations on a computer later seized by the Pakistani police.
Encase is easy to use. Examiners attach a small cable, known as a dongle, to the parallel or USB port on a target computer or enter through the computer's Network Interface Card. The connection allows investigators to preview the contents of a hard drive and to create a virtual image. The drive's original data is undisturbed.
Encase is a leader in its field, according to Charles Kolodgy, research manager for International Data Corp.'s Internet Security Program. Plus, it meets court-accepted standards for technical evidence, a critical factor in prosecuting or defending a case.
But the software was not used by the analytical response unit, which investigates such computer-related crimes as child pornography. It got a cold shoulder from the FBI, which appears to prefer to build similar software itself.
Despite a six-month backlog in collecting computer-based evidence for court cases, the FBI held up the distribution of those 83 licenses, according to a letter written in February by Marc Zwillinger, a Kirkland & Ellis attorney who represents Guidance Software, Encase's manufacturer.
By February, the chief of the team's unit, Mark Pollitt, was trying to block Encase, according to Zwillinger's letter, which was circulated to several government agencies and viewed by Baseline. Pollitt's goal, according to the lawyer's missive, was to preclude the software from being published in the FBI's Standard Operating Procedures, which lay out which products—whether software, hardware, or guns—the FBI has tested and validated for internal use.
Meanwhile, the FBI continues to try to develop its own alternative to Encase, called the Automated Computer Examination System (ACES). Whether it is available is unknown.
Putting already-available (and already-ordered) commercial software through the wringer is one small example of the many issues the Bureau faces as it struggles to bring its information systems out of what Robert Chiaradio, a former FBI Executive Assistant Director, describes as "a 1950s-style office culture." Chiaradio retired in June to manage KPMG Consulting's Homeland Security practice.
Two highly critical reports released in March allege the FBI's information systems are in complete disarray.…
http://www.baselinemag.com/print_article/0,3668,a=30966,00.asp
Law-Enforcement Tech: Online Resources
Law-Enforcement Tech: Online Resources
Below is a list of links to reports, congressional studies and sites dedicated to understanding and improving the state of the nation's law enforcement technology as it relates to crime fighting, the New York Police Department, the FBI and the Office of Homeland Security.…
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,3959,525625,00.asp
Law-Enforcement Tech: Online Resources
Below is a list of links to reports, congressional studies and sites dedicated to understanding and improving the state of the nation's law enforcement technology as it relates to crime fighting, the New York Police Department, the FBI and the Office of Homeland Security.…
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,3959,525625,00.asp
I've Been Framed
Israeli-based security firm Grey Magic Monday issued a warning that a new vulnerability discovered in Microsoft's (Quote, Company Info) Internet Explorer (IE) could allow attackers to compromise your computer through a Web site's frames.
All versions of the popular Web browser 5.5 and above are vulnerable to the flaw, as well as any other application that uses IE's engine, such as Outlook and MSN Explorer.
The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute script on any page that contains frame or iframe (inline frame) elements, ignoring any protocol or domain restriction set forth by IE.
By executing script, an attacker could steal cookies from almost any site, access and change content in sites and in most cases also read local files and execute arbitrary programs on the client's machine.…
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/1459341
Israeli-based security firm Grey Magic Monday issued a warning that a new vulnerability discovered in Microsoft's (Quote, Company Info) Internet Explorer (IE) could allow attackers to compromise your computer through a Web site's frames.
All versions of the popular Web browser 5.5 and above are vulnerable to the flaw, as well as any other application that uses IE's engine, such as Outlook and MSN Explorer.
The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute script on any page that contains frame or iframe (inline frame) elements, ignoring any protocol or domain restriction set forth by IE.
By executing script, an attacker could steal cookies from almost any site, access and change content in sites and in most cases also read local files and execute arbitrary programs on the client's machine.…
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/1459341
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