Starting Points

Apr 5, 2010

The Associated Press: Web chats point to al-Qaida's Indonesian links

By CHRIS BRUMMITT (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — It plays out like any ordinary chat between friends on Yahoo Messenger, but the subject matter is chilling: "thekiller" is looking to mesh his Indonesian militant network more deeply with al-Qaida in its Pakistani heartland.

"Come to Pak," he is told by "SAIF-a", the Pakistani at the other end. "The seniors say, send one of your boys here to represent your group."

But beware, "SAIF-a" warns. With the U.S. stepping up its rocket attacks, "The brothers are very worried, in Waziristan all missiles hit very accurately. It means someone inside is involved."

The exchange appears in transcripts of Internet chat sessions recovered from the computer of Muhammad Jibriel, identified in the documents as the man suspected of using the screen name "thekiller". Jibriel, a 26-year-old Indonesian and well-known propagandist for al-Qaida, is currently on trial, accused of helping fund last year's twin suicide bombings at luxury hotels in his country's capital, Jakarta. He claims the transcripts are fabricated.

The 40 pages of conversations are in a police dossier that provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asia's main extremist group, suggesting it and allied networks in the region have more international links than was previously assumed.

Since the chats took place, from mid to late 2008, a sustained crackdown on Southeast Asian groups has continued, resulting in the arrest of Jibriel and the execution of the man identified in the police dossier as one of his most prominent conversationalists.

But the chats refer to other people engaged in contact with international extremists, and experts believe such ties likely continue.

"The transcripts are a wake-up call," said Sidney Jones, a leading international expert on Southeast Asian terror groups. "They show that Indonesian links to Pakistani and Middle Eastern terror groups are real and dangerous, even if limited to a few individuals."

The 800-page police dossier was given to lawyers and judges involved in Jibriel's juryless trial but is not part of the indictment. It was obtained by The Associated Press from someone close to Indonesian law enforcement who requested anonymity because the disclosure is sensitive.

Indonesian police declined to discuss the chat sessions, or say whether any Indonesian militants had left for Pakistan since the conversations took place.

Image by Mathieu Struck via Flickr

The participants talk about sending money and recruits to al-Qaida. They discuss in detail the progress of a credit card fraud involving several Western banks to fund terror activities. They refer to allied militant cells or contacts in Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The man identified as Jibriel reminisces fondly about time spent in "Kash" (Kashmir), where he says he was taught to fire sniper rifles and shoulder-held rockets. He mentions a trip he made in late 2007 to the Pakistani region of Waziristan where he met with al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, including someone called Abu Bilal al Turki, who he says was "still looking young."

The chats are in a mix of Indonesian, English, Urdu and Arabic. Some of what is said seems to be in code. Slang, shorthand and "smiley face" emoticons stud the text.

The communications take an extraordinary turn as they are joined by "istisyhad," identified in the police dossier as Imam Samudra, a mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. At the time of the chats he was on death row, yet he was communicating from his cell on a smuggled laptop.

The police dossier says Jibriel used several aliases to talk to Samudra, even seeking advice on his turbulent relationship with a militant sympathizer he wants to marry. At one point he asks Samudra "to pray that she and I stay strong and become a great jihad partnership."

In another chat he offers to help Samudra keep in touch with al-Qaida from death row. "If you want to send an e-mail to AQ directly there, I can arrange that," he writes. Samudra was executed by firing squad in 2009.

The prosecution is leaning heavily on an e-mail hacked by the FBI at the Indonesians' request in which Jibriel allegedly asks his brother in Saudi Arabia for money to finance what he claims will be the biggest attack since 9/11, and talks about giving the funds to the organizer. The reference is to the twin hotel attacks, in which seven people died.

Jibriel has claimed the e-mail is fabricated, and says the same of the chats.

"The police have made this up," he said, speaking to the AP through the bars of a cell before a recent court hearing. "I know about technology and I know how easy it is to create something on a computer."

Occasionally a mordant sense of humor creeps into the chatter. "Thekiller" talks with someone offering to forge an ID for him. What name would he like — "that of an unbeliever or a Muslim"?

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the late founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, he jokingly replies. "There is no way that will arouse suspicions."

In one conversation with Samudra, "irhaab _007", another name allegedly used by Jibriel, dwells on sending recruits to Waziristan, apparently to work with al-Qaida's media wing.

"I have still got my 'pass' to Pakistan, his name is Muhammad Yunus," he writes. "But the big AQ (al-Qaida) guys here do not agree that everyone should leave. We have to look at our guys and choose, based on their abilities because people there don't want any hassle.

"At the very least they have to be prepared to stay a long time, 2 or 3 years," he writes. Both men also talk about being asked to send sums of $1,500 to $2,000 to al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Jemaah Islamiyah was formed by Indonesians after they returned home from fighting and training in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. After 9/11, when al-Qaida began expanding into Southeast Asia, it used those connections to send money and expertise and to recruit volunteers, but was assumed to have largely given up after the crackdown that followed the Bali bombings.

Jibriel's father is an Afghan-trained cleric accused by the U.S. of being a Jemaah Islamiyah leader. In the early 2000s, Jibriel and a small group of other Southeast Asians lived in the Pakistani city of Karachi, and some of them were detained on suspicion of having al-Qaida links.

In Karachi, Jibriel attended a boarding school later linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group accused of being behind the 2007 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died. The Australian government, which closely watches Indonesian militant groups, has said the Southeast Asians also attended Lashkar training camps in Pakistani Kashmir when they were living in Karachi.

Returning to Indonesia in 2004, Jibriel made no attempt to hide his profile. He set up a well-funded online network with content praising terrorist attacks around the world, as well al-Qaida and Taliban propaganda videos. He also met several times with an AP reporter over the years.

As he arrived at a recent trial session he was greeted by supporters brandishing their fists and praising God.

To the AP, Jibriel claimed that in Karachi he knew Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed 9/11 mastermind. Yet he also revealed a love of Hollywood films and a taste for expensive Western restaurants.

Throughout the chats, participants reveal the ever-present fear of infiltrating spies.

"It is difficult to trust anyone. Many of our men are in jail," "thekiller" tells "SAIF-a, adding: "Even the fact a guy has memorized the Quran is no guarantee."

Associated Press Writer Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report from Jakarta.

News Analysis - The West Has Little Room to Respond to Karzai’s Criticism - NYTimes.com

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By ALISSA J. RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — As President Hamid Karzai made more antagonistic statements over the weekend toward the NATO countries fighting on behalf of his government, the West was taking stock of just how little maneuvering room it has.

There are no good options on the horizon, many analysts say, for reining in Mr. Karzai or for penalizing him, without potentially damaging Western interests. The reluctant conclusion of diplomats and Afghan analysts is that for now, they are stuck with him.

Many fear the relationship is only likely to become worse, as Mr. Karzai draws closer to allies like Iran and China, whose interests are often at odds with those of the West, and sounds sympathetic enough to the Taliban that he could spur their efforts, helping their recruitment and further destabilizing the country.

“The political situation is continuing to deteriorate; Karzai is flailing around,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul with long experience in the region. “At the moment we are propping up an unstable political structure, and I haven’t seen any remotely plausible plan for building consensus.”

The tensions between the West and Mr. Karzai flared up publicly last Thursday, when Mr. Karzai accused the West and the United Nations of perpetrating fraud in the August presidential election and described the Western military coalition as coming close to being seen as invaders who would give the insurgency legitimacy as “a national resistance.”

Despite a conciliatory phone call to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday, his comments over the weekend only expanded the discord.

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On Saturday, Mr. Karzai met with about 60 members of Parliament, mostly his supporters, and berated them for having rejected his proposed new election law. Among other things, the proposal would have given him the power to appoint all the members of the Electoral Complaints Commission, who are currently appointed by the United Nations, the Afghan Supreme Court and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. The Electoral Complaints Commission, which reviews allegations of voting fraud and irregularities, documented the fraud that deprived Mr. Karzai of an outright victory in the presidential election.

At the meeting, Mr. Karzai stepped up his anti-Western statements, according to a Parliament member who attended but spoke on condition of anonymity.

“If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban,” Mr. Karzai said, according to the Parliament member.

A spokesman for Mr. Karzai, Waheed Omar, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

In a speech in Kandahar on Sunday, Mr. Karzai promised local tribal elders that coalition military operations planned for the area this summer would not proceed without their approval.

“I know you are worried about this operation,” he said, adding: “There will be no operation until you are happy.”

Given his tone in the last few days, it was unclear whether he was literally extending the elders veto power over the offensive, or merely trying to quell their fears and bring them on board.

Interviews with diplomats, Afghan analysts and ordinary Afghans suggest that the United States and other Western countries have three options: threaten to withdraw troops or actually withdraw them; use diplomacy, which so far has had little result; and find ways to expand citizen participation in the government, which now has hardly any elected positions at the provincial and district levels.

Threatening to withdraw, which Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the “nuclear deterrent” option, would put the United States and other Western countries in the position of potentially having to make good on the promise, risking their strategic interest in a stable Afghanistan. Few experts think the country would remain peaceful without a significant foreign force here. Moreover, withdrawal could open the way for the country to again become a terrorist haven.

Some Western critics of Mr. Karzai believe that the West has no choice but to threaten to leave.

“There is no point in having troops in a mission that cannot be accomplished,” said Peter W. Galbraith, former United Nations deputy special representative for Afghanistan, who was dismissed after a dispute with his superiors over how to handle widespread electoral fraud and what senior U.N. officials later said was his advocacy of Mr. Karzai's removal. “The mission might be important, but if it can’t be achieved, there is no point in sending these troops into battle. Part of the problem is that counterinsurgency requires a credible local partner.”

Diplomacy has so far failed to achieve substantial changes, although some analysts, like Mr. Biddle, who opposes the so-called nuclear option, believe that the West should demand concessions before spending any more money on development projects like digging wells and building schools.

“We do millions of things in Afghanistan, and any of those things can become a source of leverage,” he said. “Far too much of what we do in Afghanistan we just do without asking for anything explicit in return.”

That approach can backfire, some argue, hurting those the West most wants to help.

Greater power sharing, while promising, faces structural obstacles. Under the Constitution, provincial governors, local judges, district governors and most other offices are appointive rather than elective. In some areas, Afghan and American programs have begun to involve communities in local budgeting, but progress is slow and it would probably take several years to expand it to higher levels of government.

“There are no better angels about to descend on Afghanistan,” said Alex Thier, a senior Afghan analyst at the United States Institute of Peace. “Unless some drastic action is taken, Mr. Karzai is the president of Afghanistan, and he was just elected for another five years.”

That prospect leaves some Afghans uneasy. In interviews with more than a dozen people around the country, there was apprehension and dismay over Mr. Karzai’s clash with the international community, and the specter of renewed chaos it could lead to.

“Karzai delivered this speech based on his own difficulties with the foreigners,” said Gulab Mangal, a tribal leader in the Musa Khel area of Khost Province.

“When the international community criticized his brother, he started to raise these problems,” he said, referring to Ahmed Wali Karzai, a prominent figure in southern Afghanistan. “It shows the relation between Karzai and the international community is deteriorating day by day, and that should not be allowed to happen.”

Mehram Ali, a man from Wardak Province who was shopping in Kabul over the weekend, voiced a similar qualm. “We need the international community to keep supporting us and our government,” he said.

“In this recent situation we do need foreign soldiers to help us in bringing peace and stability for our country, and if the foreigners leave us, then the people of Afghanistan will face adversity from every direction, and Afghanistan will return to what it was like 10 years ago when we had the Taliban government.”

Reporting was contributed by Richard A. Oppel Jr., Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sharifullah Sahak from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.

Masha Lipman - How Russia nourishes radical Islam - washingtonpost.com

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By Masha Lipman
Monday, April 5, 2010; A11

MOSCOW

After the bombings in this city's subway system last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that we all "face the same enemy." No one -- whether in Moscow, London, Madrid or New York -- can be fully secure against acts of terrorism. In Russia, however, the problem of terrorism is arguably more difficult than in Europe or the United States. We have radical Islam right inside our borders, in the North Caucasus. There is no getting away from it: People who live in this territory are Russian citizens; its provinces are financed by the Russian federal budget. It is as though Afghanistan, with its insurgent activity, were a U.S. state within the borders of the Lower 48.

But while the challenge of terrorism cries for long-term, consistent strategy, Russia's system of heavy-handed and unaccountable governance precludes strategic thinking.

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin's government responded to armed secessionists in Chechnya by waging a full-scale war. Russia's armed forces were undertrained and undersupplied; horrific atrocities ensued on both sides. The 1996 peace agreement was evidence of Russia's humiliating weakness: A former superpower failed to subdue its own tiny region.

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"Peace" in Chechnya entailed frequent kidnappings for ransom, hostage-taking and terrorist attacks. In 1999, a Chechen force invaded the neighboring province of Dagestan, about the same time explosions of apartment buildings in three Russian cities famously took the lives of roughly 300 people.

When Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, his solution was a new war. With it came more atrocities, deeper brutalization and, in Russia at large, growing xenophobia against "those from the Caucasus." This time federal forces defeated the Chechen fighters, but terrorist attacks continued through 2004. The most horrific of these was the seizure of Beslan school where more than 330 hostages, over half of them children, were killed that September.

By the mid-2000s, secession was no longer the issue in Chechnya, but a new problem was building: Militant Islam was on the rise all over the North Caucasus. In the early '90s Islam had still been weak in this traditionally Muslim territory; adults had secular Soviet educations, and the attraction of Russian culture was still strong. But the new generation growing up in the Chechnya devastated by the Russian army, and in neighboring provinces such as Dagestan and Ingushetia, were increasingly influenced by Islamic culture and Islam, not infrequently its radical strains. Clandestine extremist groups called for jihad across the territory of Russia. Training centers for suicide bombers reportedly operate in the North Caucasus.

The Kremlin shifted tactics a few years ago, installing pro-Moscow leaders in these Muslim provinces and reducing the federal government's mission to allocating funds and occasional anti-terrorist operations. It turned a blind eye to subversive attacks, explosions, and assassinations of area police and local administrators, which have become routine in Ingushetia and Dagestan. The central government also ignored the brutal practices local leaders used against Islamic radicals and other criminal or extremist groups. As long as violence was contained within the North Caucasus, the thinking went, the bulk of Russia remained relatively safe. But last week's attacks underscore just how flawed and shortsighted this policy is.

Today, the rise of radical Islam in the North Caucasus is inevitable, especially with such forces active in many parts of the world. Russia's only strategic option is a long-term and multi-pronged government commitment to the problem. It is critical that the Russian government and the nation treat the people of the North Caucasus as their fellow countrymen -- no easy task given that today they are seen as a suspect culture or simply unwanted intruders. Other urgent needs are to improve security in Russia at large as well as to increase the efficiency of anti-terrorism practices. But these missions will be next to impossible in a country where the violent behavior of police officers makes them a threat to the people, rather than a force from which citizens can draw protection.

Strains of official rhetoric echo the language of 1999: After the infamous blasts of Moscow apartment buildings, Putin pledged to wipe out terrorists in outhouses. Now he vows "to drag them out of the sewer and into broad daylight." But large-scale use of force is not an option. As happened in the '90s, it is bound to start another vicious circle of punitive measures and extremists' efforts to exact revenge.

Reasonable calls have also been heard. President Dmitry Medvedev spoke last week about the need to create in the North Caucasus "the right kind of modern environment for education, for doing business, for overcoming cronyism . . . and, of course, for confronting corruption." But corruption plagues more than the North Caucasus; it's the texture of the Russian system of governance, which is built on political monopoly and unaccountability. Unless Russia makes systemic reforms, good intentions will not translate into stronger policies.

Masha Lipman, editor of the Carnegie Moscow Center's Pro et Contra journal, writes a monthly column for The Post.

Aggregators help media professionals keep on top of digital content trends | Media | The Guardian

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by Kevin Anderson

The internet is not like trying to drink from a firehose but rather like trying to drink from Niagara Falls. For any media professional trying to remain up to speed on digital content trends, it is often overwhelming. I've had to develop a lot of methods and constantly change the tools I use to manage this torrent of information. I've mentioned Popurls before as an easy one-stop shop to follow internet buzz, and once registered you can personalise the site to show your favourite digital content sites first.

You can log into Popurls using your user name and password from several other services such as Google or Yahoo. You can create your own Popurls sharing page and automatically post items you share to Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed or mini-blogging sites Tumblr or Posterous.

However, if you don't want to take the time to personalise Popurls, there are a number of aggregators that pull together a great sample of digital trends. Sites such as Original Signal are good if you want a single page to have a quick glance at sites covering web 2.0 developments, such as TechCrunch, GigaOm, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. There is a North American bias to a lot of the content because most of the aggregators operate from there, but it's a good start for a filtered view of the web based on the interests of a digital media professional.

Image via CrunchBase

These sites cover the world of web 2.0 with great depth, but if your interests are even more specific, you may want to check out the aggregator Alltop. It takes Popurls to the next level, not just featuring buzz and top-level topics but aggregated pages from sites and blogs covering a wide range of subjects. For instance, you can quickly find blogs and sites covering such specialist topics as web analytics, virtual worlds, rich internet applications or mobile. You can even filter Alltop based on location.

The newest addition to these media news aggregators is also the newest addition to the popular TechMeme family, MediaGazer. TechMeme uses an algorithm and human editors to filter tech stories that are generating conversation. MediaGazer takes the TechMeme model and focuses on media coverage, and it has a very good transatlantic spread, at least in terms of English-language media reporting.

Aggregators are just one way to manage information but, with a little tweaking, they can help the flood of information seem more manageable and relevant.

10 Simple Google Search Tricks - NYTimes.com

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By SIMON MACKIE of GigaOm

I’m always amazed that more people don’t know the little tricks you can use to get more out of a simple Google search. Here are 10 of my favorites.

Use the “site:” operator to limit searches to a particular site. I use this one all the time, and it’s particularly handy because many site’s built-in search tools don’t return the results you’re looking for (and some sites don’t even have a search feature). If I’m looking for WWD posts about GTD, for example, I could try this search: GTD site:webworkerdaily.com.
Use Google as a spelling aid. As Rob Hacker — the WWD reader I profiled last week — pointed out, entering a word into Google is a quick way to see if you have the right spelling. If it’s incorrect, Google will suggest the correct spelling instead. Additionally, if you want to get a definition of a word, you can use the “define:” operator to return definitions from various dictionaries (for example, define: parasympathetic).
Use Google as a calculator. Google has a built-in calculator — try entering a calculation like 110 * (654/8 + 3). Yes, your computer also has a calculator, but if you spend most of your day inside a browser, typing your calculation into the browser’s search box is quicker than firing up your calculator app.
Find out what time it is anywhere in the world. This one’s really handy if you want to make sure that you’re not phoning someone in the middle of the night. Just search for “time” and then the name of the city. For example, try: time San Francisco
Get quick currency conversions. Google can also do currency conversion, for example: 100 pounds in dollars. It only has the more mainstream currencies, though — if you’re trying to see how many Peruvian nuevos soles your dollars might buy, you’ll be out of luck.
Image by shannonpatrick17 via Flickr
Use the OR operator. This can be useful if you’re looking at researching a topic but you’re not sure which keywords will returnÂ the information you need. It can be particularly handy in conjunction with the “site:” operator. For example, you could try this search: GTD or “getting things done” site:webworkerdaily.com
Exclude specific terms with the – operator. You can narrow your searches using this operator. For example, if you’re looking for information about American Idol but don’t want anything about Simon Cowell, you could try: “american idol” -cowell
Search for specific document types. Google can search the web for specific types of files using the “filetype:” operator. If you’re looking for PowerPoint files about GTD, for example, you could try: GTD filetype:ppt
Search within numerical ranges using theÂ .. operator. Say, for example, you want to look for information about Olympic events that took place in the 1950’s, you could use this search: Olympics 1950..1960
Area code lookup. Need to know where a phone number is located? Google will let you know where it is, and show you a map of the area, too. For example: 415

What are your favorite Google search tricks?

At Snopes, a Quest to Debunk Misinformation Online - NYTimes.com

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By BRIAN STELTER

It is one of the paradoxes of the Internet.

Along with the freest access to knowledge the world has ever seen comes a staggering amount of untruth, from imagined threats on health care to too-easy-to-be-true ways to earn money by forwarding an e-mail message to 10 friends. “A cesspool,” Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, once called it.

David and Barbara Mikkelson are among those trying to clean the cesspool. The unassuming California couple run Snopes, one of the most popular fact-checking destinations on the Web.

For well over a decade they have acted as arbiters in the Age of Misinformation by answering the central question posed by every chain letter — is this true? — complete with links to further research.

The popularity of Snopes — it attracts seven million to eight million unique visitors in an average month — puts the couple in a unique position to evaluate digital society’s attitudes toward accuracy.

After 14 years, they seem to have concluded that people are rather cavalier about the facts.

In a given week, Snopes tries to set the record straight on everything from political smears to old wives’ tales. No, Kenya did not erect a sign welcoming people to the “birthplace of Barack Obama.” No, Wal-Mart did not authorize illegal immigration raids at its stores. No, the Olive Garden restaurant chain did not hand out $500 gift cards to online fans.

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The Mikkelsons talk matter-of-factly about why these stories spread the way they do.

“Rumors are a great source of comfort for people,” Mrs. Mikkelson said.

Snopes is one of a small handful of sites in the fact-checking business. Brooks Jackson, the director of one of the others, the politically oriented FactCheck.org, believes news organizations should be doing more of it.

“The ‘news’ that is not fit to print gets through to people anyway these days, through 24-hour cable gasbags, partisan talk radio hosts and chain e-mails, blogs and Web sites such as WorldNetDaily or Daily Kos,” he said in an e-mail message. “What readers need now, we find, are honest referees who can help ordinary readers sort out fact from fiction.”

Even the White House now cites fact-checking sites: it has circulated links and explanations by PolitiFact.com, a project of The St. Petersburg Times that won a Pulitzer Prize last year for national reporting.

The Mikkelsons did not set out to fact-check the Web’s political smears and screeds. The site was started in 1996 as an online encyclopedia of myths and urban legends, building off the couple’s hobby. They had met years earlier on a discussion board about urban legends.

Mr. Mikkelson was a dogged researcher of folklore. When he needed to mail letters requesting information, he would use the letterhead of the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, an official-sounding organization he dreamed up. They would investigate the origins of classic tall tales, like the legend of the killer with a prosthetic hook who stalked Lovers’ Lane, for a small but devoted online audience.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, users overwhelmed the Mikkelsons with forwarded e-mail claims and editorials about the culprits and the failures of the government to halt the plot, and the couple reluctantly accepted a larger role. They still maintain a thorough list of what they call “Rumors of War.”

Less than a year later, Snopes became the family’s full-time job. Advertisements sold by a third-party network cover the $3,000-a-month bandwidth bills, with enough left over for the Mikkelsons to make a living — “despite rumors that we’re paid by, depending on your choice, the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee,” Mr. Mikkelson said.

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Much of the site’s resources are spent on investigating political claims, even though the Mikkelsons say politics is the last subject they want to write about. (Barbara cannot even vote in American elections; she is a Canadian citizen.) Claims relating to President Obama are now the top searches on the site but “even when there were Republicans in the White House, the mail was still overwhelmingly anti-liberal,” Mr. Mikkelson said.

In late August, Mr. Mikkelson studied an e-mail chain letter titled “The Last of the Kennedy Dynasty” purporting to explain why the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy was unfit for acclaim. Some of its 10 bullet points were true (yes, Mr. Kennedy was cited for reckless driving while in college), but others were misleading assumptions (no, his accomplishments were not “scant”).

Mrs. Mikkelson rolled her eyes at her husband’s plans to fact-check the chain letter. “That’s ephemera,” she said.

He agreed, but the Kennedy report wound up being the Web site’s most-searched subject the next weekend.

The Mikkelsons employ two others full time to manage the enormous volume of e-mail to the site. Increasingly, curious readers are sending videos and photos as well as e-mail, requiring even more investigation. They publish on average one new article each day.

The enduring articles are the ones about everyday fears: computer viruses, scams, missing children. Some e-mail chain letters, like the one offering users $245 for forwarding the message, never fade away.

“People keep falling for the same kind of things over and over again,” Mr. Mikkelson said. Some readers always seem to think, for instance, that the government is trying to poison them: Mrs. Mikkelson said rumors about AIDS have been recycled into rumors about swine flu vaccines.

For the Mikkelsons, the site affirms what cultural critics have bemoaned for years: the rejection of nuance and facts that run contrary to one’s point of view.

“Especially in politics, most everything has infinite shades of gray to it, but people just want things to be true or false,” Mr. Mikkelson said. “In the larger sense, it’s people wanting confirmation of their world view.”

The couple say they receive grateful messages from teachers regularly, and an award from a media literacy association sits atop the TV set in Mr. Mikkelson’s home office.

It is not just the naïveté of Web users that worries the “Snopesters,” a name for the Web site’s fans and volunteers. It is also what Mr. Mikkelson calls “a trend toward the opposite approach, hyper-skepticism.”

“People get an e-mail or a photograph and they spot one little thing that doesn’t look right, and they declare the whole thing fake,” he said. “That’s just as bad as being gullible in a lot of senses.”

But even though Snopes pays the bills for the couple now, through advertising revenue, they doubt they are having much of an impact.

“It’s not like, ‘Well, we have to get out there and defend the truth,’ ” Mrs. Mikkelson added. “When you’re looking at truth versus gossip, truth doesn’t stand a chance.”

CQ - Behind the Lines for Monday, April 5, 2010

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By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Citizen action: Anti-government group's threatening letters to 30-plus governors "could provoke violence," FBI warns local police . . . Secretary as scapegoat: DHS's Napolitano "may have the worst job in Washington -- where even minor missteps can prove professionally calamitous," New Republic remarks . . . Waiting to inhale: BioWatch sensors detect the bacterium that causes tularemia in Columbus, Ohio, air supply. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group’s call to remove governors from office could provoke violence, The Associated Press’ Eileen Sullivan and Devlin Barrett relate. At least 30 state executives have received the Guardians of the Free Republics’ demand that they cede office within three days, the Los Angeles Times’ Kathleen Hennessey adds. The man at the center of the affair seems to be Texas talk show host Sam Kennedy, The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson reports — though Mother Jones’ Adam Weinstein traces the Guardians’ Web address to “one Clive Boustred of Soquel, California — a British-educated former South African soldier with an apparent knack for ‘anti-terrorist warfare.’”

Barack O’Bush: Current and former counterterrorists see little difference between President Obama’s policy on remote-control drone attacks and that of his predecessor, save for his greater openness, Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball surveys. While welcoming an Obama administration effort to legally justify drone strikes on suspected terrorists, “human rights groups say critical questions remain unanswered,” Jim Lobe, relatedly, writes for Inter-Press Service. Last week’s court ruling on warrantless wiretapping may force on the table discussion of how aggressively the administration should continue to defend Bush-era counterterror policy from judicial review, The New York Times’ James Risen and Charlie Savage assess.

Homies: The leaderless TSA and embattled Federal Air Marshals suffered a personnel shake-up Thursday, CBS News’ Pia Malbran relates, posting “internal emails explaining the new management changes.” For all of DHS boss Janet Napolitano’s “vaunted assets, she may have the worst job in Washington — one where keeping the public safe is only part of the battle and where even minor missteps can prove professionally calamitous,” Michelle Cottle mulls in a New Republic profile. Aviation experts and officials say that the administration’s new screening protocols for air passengers coming to the United States are a marked improvement over the regime imposed immediately after the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, the Times’ Scott Shane notes — as The Village Voice’s Jen Doll terms the new rules “vague as all get out,” and The Hill’s Susan Crabtree airs Rep. Pete King’s fury at White House homeland adviser John Brennan for not briefing Congress about the changes.

State and Local: DHS’s Napolitano last week announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the murder of an Arizona border rancher, The Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News notes — as The Providence Journal sees her in flood-ravaged Rhode Island on Friday reserving judgment whether “local match” rules will be waived on FEMA disaster aid. The Pentagon is investigating the second sighting within three weeks of a Mexican military chopper flying in U.S. airspace over rural Zapata County, The San Antonio Express-News notes — while CBS News has two more explosive devices turning up in a post office collection box and a mailbox in East Texas last week. For much of Thursday morning, those who needed an ambulance or a police officer in Nebraska’s capital city got only a busy signal when they called for help, The Omaha World-Herald relates.

Bugs ‘n Bombs: Columbus, Ohio, health officials announced last week that the bacterium that causes tularemia was found during routine air sampling, NBC4i News notes — while The Columbus Dispatch spotlights the BioWatch program that detected the potential bioterror agent. The ACLU of Michigan has filed a brief trying to get the court to drop bioterror charges against an HIV-positive man accused of biting his neighbor, The Detroit Free Press reports — and see a new CRS Report: “Federal Efforts to Address the Threat of Bioterrorism: Selected Issues for Congress.” Last week’s cancellation of a terror nuke response simulation in Las Vegas and reconsideration of next year’s National Level Exercise play into a quiet debate about the future of the large-scale national exercises, The Washington Post reports.

Know Nukes: The United States faces a critical shortage of atomic arms mavens, needed to manage an aging arsenal and monitor world stockpiles, The Boston Globe spotlights. “If we want to stop Burma’s atomic ambitions, we should engage the regime and encourage political liberalization,” The National Interest advises. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed Saturday that new nuclear sanctions would only strengthen the country’s technological progress by encouraging it to become more self-sufficient, the Post reports — as the L.A. Times learns that Iranian scientists plan to launch at least one new nuclear facility by September, and check The Weekly Standard on “The CIA’s Curious Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program.” Jonathan Schell, meantime, ponders in The Nation, “How can nuclear weapons be abolished when nuclear technology has gone global?” — and The Times of London previews this week’s nuclear posture review release.

Close Air Support: “Finally, in the changed travel environment following the foiling of the Christmas Day bomber, United States security officials are taking a holistic approach,” The San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune applauds. Cleveland Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers pleaded innocent Saturday to trying to board with a loaded handgun at Hopkins International Airport, The Plain Dealer records. “With the summer flying season throttling up, the feds are cracking down locally and nationally on passengers looking to cash in on spurious luggage-theft claims,” The Boston Herald leads. Every year, more than 50,000 personal items — including a wedding dress, a prosthetic leg and $10,000 in cash — are abandoned at Orlando airport screening areas and turned in to lost and found, the Sentinel says.

Coming and Going: A new report paints a gloomy picture of the nation’s ground transportation system, reaching the “unnerving conclusion that security . . . is ‘inefficient’ and ‘poorly coordinated,’” ABC News notes. Oregon’s largest transit agency says it will use a $1.9 million DHS grant to install closed-circuit cameras at nine more light-rail stations, The Bend Bulletin relates. An anti-terrorism exercise next month will test Melbourne’s underground rail network’s responses to a full-scale attack, The Herald Sun says. The U.S. Maritime Administration has warned cruise lines that pirate attacks are likely to increase in the waters off the Horn of Africa and in the Indian Ocean over the next two months, USA Today tells.

Courts and Rights: A Colorado woman was indicted Friday for her role in a terrorist plot to kill a Swedish artist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, “while toting her 6-year-old son around with her to European terrorist camps,” The Denver Post reports. A federal court last week ordered Iran to pay $1.3 billion to the victims of the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the latest in a series of enormous verdicts against rogue nations, ABC News notes —while Stars and Stripes has another fed bench ruling that Camp Lejeune can’t ban anti-Islamic decals while allowing bumper stickers that say “Islam Is Love” or “Islam Is Peace.” Assailing “predatory exploitation of U.S. courts by Islamists,” Daniel Pipes wonders in The American Spectator, “How can this abuse of the U.S. legal system be prevented?” See also The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer on the death of an Afghan detainee in U.S. custody.

From Russia With Loathe: Other countries’ leaders would pay a political price for not preventing a startling attack like the Moscow metro suicide attacks on March 29, but not in Russia, where terrorism has long served to strengthen Vladimir Putin’s hand, The New York Times assesses. The subway blasts could have been planned and executed by people trained in Pakistan’s tribal areas, jihadi circles there believe, Asia Times tells — as Reuters reports that one of the two bombers was the 17-year-old widow of a North Caucasus insurgent, and AP says the “Black Widows” may have been motivated by a forest massacre in which garlic-picking villagers were slain by Russian government forces. Two bombs that derailed a freight train in Russia’s Dagestan province Sunday are linked to the Moscow blasts, RIA Novosti notes.

Qaeda Qorner: In recent years, “a crop of American citizens have sympathized with, or, in some cases wholeheartedly embraced, the Taliban and al Qaeda,” Newsweek notes, offering a rogues gallery of “the newest breed of traitor.” A noted Pakistani journalist, who has twice interviewed Osama bin Laden, insists there is no evidence to prove he is dead, and moreover al Qaeda would never hide its chieftain’s death, ANI notes — while The Daily Telegraph has Pakistani forces “launching an offensive in North Waziristan, believed to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden,” and check Foreign Policy, relatedly, on “al Qaeda’s ground zero.” U.S. and Iraqi troops have killed or arrested at least six suspected al Qaeda leaders allegedly involved in an extortion and assassination ring in northern Iraq, Reuters reports. At least 20 civilians were killed and dozens injured in clashes between al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants and government forces in the Somali capital, CNN has hospital officials saying Saturday.

Parlez Vous Barbeque: “Officials from the United States and Canada gathered today in Canada’s capital city to sign an historic agreement whereby the countries agree to exchange the province of Quebec for the state of Texas,” CAP News notes. “‘It’s basically an even-steven swap,’ said U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson. ‘Texas already seceded from the United States once, back in the 1800’s, and they’ve been talking about doing it again for a while. Likewise, Quebeckers have been clamoring for a break from Canada for years. For both governments, this was an easy play,’ added Jacobson. ‘Our feeling is, if you don’t like being part of this country, maybe you’ll like being part of theirs better, and vice versa.’ The move is expected to be a boon for the trucking industry, whose vehicles begin rolling almost immediately to start swapping the two locations piece by piece. Officials said that while some things may break or be lost in transit, they expect both Texas and Quebec to be delivered mostly intact.”

Source: CQ Homeland Security

Apr 4, 2010

Advertising on a Wall, Not a Web Site - NYTimes.com

Image by j klo via Flickr

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

MANY people hustle right past the wall pasted with paper fliers on Forsyth Street, in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge. But others make pilgrimages to this easternmost reach of Chinatown, where scores of advertisements, most handwritten in Chinese, are posted, their phone-number strips curling like beckoning fingers.

The wall functions as an offline Craigslist — a Craigswall, if you will — where Mandarin and Cantonese speakers do brisk business renting rooms to longtime residents and newly arrived immigrants for whom English and the Internet are as yet unnavigable. There is a similar wall inside a grocery store in Flushing, Queens.

Though the wall on Forsyth Street advertises mostly apartments, Margaret Chin, who represents Chinatown on the City Council, said she had seen all kinds of fliers around the neighborhood, including complaints about particular lawyers.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

“If you have something to say,” she said, “you write it up and you just post it up.” The custom of hawking goods and ideas by poster and placard took hold in China after the 1949 revolution, said Lincoln Cushing, co-author of “Chinese Revolutionary Posters: Art From the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.”

In rural towns, “You would have this wall that would be taken over” by placards, he said. “People stand in front of this wall and read this, and they respond by putting up their own character poster.” Flier-covered Chinatown, he said, is quite likely “an echo of that.”

The wall in Flushing, inside the A & N Food Market at 4179 Main Street, has been up for about 20 years. It’s “a landmark, like the Empire State Building,” said Tem Shieh, 60, the market’s manager. Unlike the wall on Forsyth Street, it is highly organized: advertisers must use a certain form and pay $1.50 for three days. Occasionally, landlords have spats over covering up one another’s ads, Mr. Shieh said; some even stand guard for hours by the roughly 12-by-14-foot wall, making sure their ad remains visible.

Image by ohad* via Flickr

A & N Food Market sells 100 forms a day and, as on Forsyth Street, many of the ads are for a room or rooms within people’s homes. As with the Chinatown wall, rents are rarely listed — they are negotiated — but people say they are generally low.

Image by Pinachina via Flickr

In Chinatown, Nancy Lin, who works at the Internet cafe on the second floor of the building with the ads, said the caretakers there tear them down once or twice a week. But “they’re back up” within minutes, she said. “Not in an hour, in a half-hour, maybe 20 minutes.”

Juanjuan Li, 46, who recently moved to New York from China, was apartment hunting at the wall one cold weekday afternoon, on the recommendation of someone in her English class. The scene was far from her American dream. “This is not New York like in the ‘Gossip Girls,’ ” she said.

Jeffrey E. Singer contributed reporting.