] The National Cryptologic Museum provides a "peek behind
] the curtain" at a once-secret world -- the exploitation
] of enemy cryptology and the protection of American
] communications.

Website of the NSA's Cryptologic Museum. Includes pictures and descriptions of some cryptographic machines and systems over the years.

NSA - National Cryptologic Museum

A lengthy list of Iraqi opposition groups, with short descriptions of each one, including history and current goals.

Iraqi opposition groups and individuals

Silent since March 24th, Salam Pax ("Where Is Raed?") is back online, blogging from Baghdad! He Emailed a document with all of his backdated blogs to a friend, and they were posted today.

Day by day stream of thought of the attack on Baghdad, from an articulate Iraqi civilian being forced to live through it. The whole thing is well worth reading, but here are some of the highlights:

March 24th:
The air raid sirens are not really that dependable, when they don’t sound the all clear after a whole hour of silence you get fidgety. The better alarm system is quite accidental. It has become a habit of the mosque muezzins (the prayer callers) to start chanting "allahu akbar - la illaha ila allah" the moment one of them hears an explosion. The next muezzin starts the moment he hears another calling and so on. It spreads thru the city pretty fast, and soon you have all the mosques doing the "Takbir" for five minutes or so. Very eerie but works well to alert everybody.

March 30th:
No good news anywhere, no light at the end of the tunnel and the Americans’ advance doesn’t look that reassuring. If we had a mood barometer in the house it would read "to hell with saddam and may he quickly be joined by bush". No one feels like they should welcome the American army. The American government is getting as many curses as the Iraqi.

April 1st:
There is one item which I have not thought I would need a big supply of: antacids. Air raid sirens start wailing or the heavy bombs start falling; five minutes later I go for the drawer with the antacids. Now every time the bombing starts my brother starts humming Nirvana’s "Pennyroyal Tea"

The streets are more crowded by the day and more shops are opening. Can you imagine having to stop all your work for two weeks? A huge part of the population, especially shop owners, groceries and the like all depend on a daybyday income. Two weeks is a lot of time with no money. Most manual labor is paid by the day and all these people have to sit at home because there is no work. Shop owners who live near their shops are opening; banks are open even private banks and life goes on. Things cost double their normal price but we are happy that you can still buy what you need from shops because this means we can keep what we have stored for harder days which are sure to come.

April 2nd:
Pachechi was on all the Arabic news stations with interviews and talk shows. If it is a choice between him and Chalabi. I go for Pachechi. (Elonka's Note: Search on this second name with the spelling of "Pachachi")

April 7th:
Since the day the Airport was seized we have no electricity and water is not reliable, at times if you have a tap that is higher than 50cm you won’t get water from it. . . . Right after that we saw Al-Sahaf denying once again what we have just seen minutes ago. He kept insisting that there are no American troops in ... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Salam Pax Is Back!

] The Greenbook shows a complete historical record of
] United States (U.S.) foreign aid to the rest of the
] world. The Greenbook reports all loans and grants
] authorized by the U.S. Government for each fiscal year
] from 1945 to 2000, and reports the assistance by purpose
] and by country.

Curious about how much money that the U.S. has given to which country, and when? Here's an online database to check.

USAID: U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants [Greenbook] 2000

I'd been concerned that with the looting of the museums in Baghdad, that the 8-foot-high stone carving of the "Code of Hammurabi" had been lost. There were indeed some reports that it was one of the things taken, but evidently the one in Baghdad was a copy, and the original is still safe in the Louvre in Paris (I guess the French do occasionally have their uses).

This page has a picture and a description of the stele, from the Louvre website. You can also click on the image for a close-up view. A list of the 282 laws there inscribed can be found here:
 http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM

A lot of the laws have to do with fines for stealing property and livestock or for hurting or causing hurt to others ("Eye for an eye," "Tooth for a tooth.") The fines in "minas" and "shekels" are of course no longer valid, but there are some laws that would be tempting to reinstate today, such as #5:

If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.

Code of Hammurabi

I found this page amusing. In some parts, it's possible to see the usual demographic/ethnic statistics, for example I went there to look up the following info:

] Ethnic groups: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%
] Religions: Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

But then in the sections under "Government type", "Constitution", "Legal System", "Political Parties" and several other categories, they're all toggled to simply, "in transition following April 2003 defeat of SADDAM Husayn regime by US-led coalition".

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Iraq

Under the title of "Arab-American denies plotting with al-Qaeda against US", Hawash's story has found its way to the Arab world's press:

] Maher Mofeid Hawash, 39, also known as Mike Hawash,
] appeared in court in Portland in the northwestern state
] of Oregon to deny the charges that have landed him in
] jail along with six co-accused.
 . . .
] All seven are charged with violating federal US laws by
] providing material support to a foreign terrorist group
] and conspiring to contribute services to al-Qaeda, which
] launched the September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets.

Arab Times: Hawash pleads not guilty

] In 1988, the (United States) Library of Congress
] established the National Film Preservation Board, to
] preserve film deemed "culturally, historically, or
] esthetically important". Each year, the board selects 25
] films to add to the National Film Registry. Herein is the
] complete list of those films so honoured to date.

All the movies which the Library of Congress sees fit to preserve, so far.

U.S. National Film Registry -- Titles

] A few hundred yards away, the team found more equipment
] that scavengers had tried to drag toward a parking lot.
]
] Next to a heavy lathe were 19 small yellow cylinders and
] four large gray ones. They were emitting so much gamma
] and neutron radiation that the team could not interpret
] the results

More information on Tuwaitha.

Washington Post: Iraqi Nuclear Site (Tuwaitha) Is Found Looted

] Today's visit was the team's second to Tuwaitha. It
] located and identified four radioactive areas. The first
] was a storage building in what appeared to be a research
] area. There, the team found a lead-lined container that
] held Cesium-137, which measured the highest source of
] radiation detected today -- about 2.8 millirem per
] hour. Normally, it takes about 1 rem per hour before
] health hazards are a concern.

More information about the area where the looting of radioactive material at Tuwaitha took place.

New York Times: U.S. Experts Find Radioactive Material in Iraq