During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax -- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."

ABC News' claim -- which they said came at first from "three well-placed but separate sources," followed by "four well-placed and separate sources" -- was completely false from the beginning. There never was any bentonite detected in the anthrax (a fact ABC News acknowledged for the first time in 2007 only as a result of my badgering them about this issue).

That means that ABC News' "four well-placed and separate sources" fed them information that was completely false -- false information that created a very significant link in the public mind between the anthrax attacks and Saddam Hussein....

I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it....

That applies to much of the Beltway class, including many well-connected journalists, who were quietly popping cipro back then because, like Cohen, they heard from Government sources that they should. Leave aside the ethical questions about the fact that these journalists kept those warnings to themselves. Wouldn't the most basic journalistic instincts lead them now -- in light of the claims by our Government that the attacks came from a Government scientist -- to wonder why and how their Government sources were warning about an anthrax attack?

The 9/11 truthers may now have something a bit more substantive to sink their teeth into. I have to say that I am not convinced that there is nothing to this connection.

Its worth noting that people who knew Ivins aren't buying the story. Its not clear what evidence the FBI actually has.

WaPo says:

The claim , as we discussed in first posting, is that he was upset about the lack of research into anthrax, the development of a vaccine, and fear about the country's vulnerability. And this mailing certainly did terrify Americans, so it could help alert the public to this weakness on biological weapons.

This was one of the FBI and investigators' early theories from the start: a disgruntled scientist upset about lack of focus on bio-weapons.

Apparently Ivins would have benefitted financially from a decision to manufacture vaccines.

Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

It occurred to me when driving home that there are two assertions made in this editorial that aren't true.

As a practical matter, travelers only go to secondary when there is some level of suspicion.

That is a lie. Customs selects people at random and they have quotas for secondary screening that they must meet. I know this because I was personally selected for secondary screening at LAX and the officer who did so indicated to another officer at the time that they had met their quota.

Yet legislation locking in a particular standard for searches would have a dangerous, chilling effect as officers' often split-second assessments are second-guessed.

That is also a lie. Reasonable Suspicion is a standard that is so thin that really any rationalization that an officer had for flagging someone would likely be upheld. The reason it ought to be required is so that they cannot perform searches at random and they cannot operate quotas.

Chertoff's lies

He isn't running on a "one man, one robot" policy yet but he is running.
Rufus For Mayor

Rufus For Mayor

I HATE the use of the word "neocon" in the title of this article as it attempts to contort these issues through the prism of American politics with a connection that is tenuous at best. However, the essay represents a significant truth - totalitarian states have supporters. I've encountered young Chinese nationalists, too.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of M.I.T.’s Media Laboratory and one of the early ideologists of the Internet, once predicted that the global reach of the Web would transform the way we think about ourselves as countries. The state, he predicted, will evaporate “like a mothball, which goes from solid to gas directly,” and “there will be no more room for nationalism than there is for smallpox.” In China, things have gone differently.

I think things have gone differently in America. The Internet has brought massive domestic political polarization by enabling echo chambers and eliminating former barriers that kept the ideas of kooks to niche circles. The Internet is more free but the people have yet to learn what attitude is required to handle it. And in the broader world, the end of the Cold War puts America in a position where "critical thinking" is automatically equated with disdain for what America represents. We're "the man" and our present misadventures in due process, checks, and balances are no help. This is sending gobs of young people into the welcoming arms of various totalitarian ideologies. Behold the Orwellian rationalizations of 21st century fascism:

“Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed,” he said. “We are always eager to get other information from different channels.” Then he added, “But when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed.”

Our minds are free because we live in a system of thought control! Its the thought control that enables us to think freely!

“Do you live on democracy?” he asked me. “You eat bread, you drink coffee. All of these are not brought by democracy. Indian guys have democracy, and some African countries have democracy, but they can’t feed their own people.

“Chinese people have begun to think, One part is the good life, another part is democracy,” Liu went on. “If democracy can really give you the good life, that’s good. But, without democracy, if we can still have the good life why should we choose democracy?”

Because if its not democracy, then you didn't choose it, of course, but more importantly, because this attitude is immoral. I really think this statement translates to "We're willing to support leaders who commit atrocities in our name because we think they are going to cut us in on the spoils." Thats deeply evil.

Letter from China: Angry Youth: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

When the British sought to expand their hold on Hong Kong in 1898, with a 99-year lease covering the whole of Kowloon Peninsula and all the nearby islands, most of Kowloon City was subsumed under the new jurisdiction. Under the terms of the lease, however, it was agreed that the small, walled magistrates' fort to the north of the town would remain Chinese territory until the new colonial administration had been properly established and all the details of land ownership, held within the fort, had been transferred.

The situation was never resolved, and for the next 90 years of British rule the City remained an anomaly: within British domain, yet outside British control. The Chinese officials left for good in 1899, but whenever the colonial authorities tried to impose their will, the remaining residents threatened to turn the attempt into a diplomatic incident...

And so, the Walled City became that rarest of things, a working model of an anarchist society. Inevitably, it bred all the vices. Crime flourished and the Triads made the place their stronghold, operating brothels and opium 'divans' and gambling dens. Undoubtedly, these few (and it always was a small proportion) kept the majority of residents in a state of fear and subjection, which is why for many years outsiders trying to penetrate were given the coldest of shoulders.

GSAPP: Kowloon Walled City

As no repairs have been carried out for 34 years, all of the buildings are slowly falling apart. Nature is reclaiming the area, as metal corrodes, windows break, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavements.

10 Most Amazing Ghost Towns

Seems that the city of St. Louis, like many cities, allows the police to confiscate the cars of people suspected (but not necessarily convicted) of certain crimes. They have a contract with a city towing firm, and said firm was allowing police officers and their families to "rent" confiscated cars free of charge, sometimes for months on end. Officers and their families could also sometimes purchase the confiscated cars at a fraction of the cars' value.

At the same time that this kind of thing is going on this city gets rated one of the most dangerous in the US.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run - St. Louis Cops Turn Forfeiture Policy Into Free Car Rental Service

The Google-Viacom showdown over the handover of YouTube user data appears to be over. The two sides agreed to changes in a previous ruling that would have required Google to hand over user id's, IP addresses and a list of all viewed YouTube videos to Viacom in connection with their ongoing copyright infringement litigation.

After an online uprising against the order, Viacom tried to assert that they never requested personally identifiable information (they did), and later promised not to use the information to sue individuals. The value of that promise was questioned by us and many others.

Google/Viacom Agree To Preserve User Anonymity In Data Shakedown - washingtonpost.com

A coded letter sent last year to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois has the lab, and outside coders stumped. The letter was sent anonymously last March in a hand-addressed envelope via regular mail to the physics lab's public affairs office.

After sitting on the letter for more than a year, the lab posted it on a physics blog in May, hoping to get help cracking it.

Mystery Crypto Letter Has Coders Stumped | Threat Level from Wired.com

``Atlanta is a second-tier city,'' said Jessica Harlan, 36, who relocated two years ago. ``New York is cooler and more exciting in every respect.''

``If my kids have a Southern accent, I will kill myself,'' said Brooklyn native Jodi Fleisig, an Atlanta resident since 1998. Fleisig said she tends to socialize with ex-New Yorkers, and finds inviting Southerners to lunch can be troublesome.

``Being Southern means you wait for someone to finish a sentence,'' she said.

New Yorkers on Atlanta