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সোমবার, ২৪ জুন, ২০১৩
রবিবার, ২৩ জুন, ২০১৩
Book: Wallenberg also helped armed resistance
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary, may also have had a secret military mission during World War II, a new book claims.
Citing documents from Hungarian archives, Swedish-Hungarian writer Gellert Kovacs says Wallenberg, whose fate remains shrouded in mystery, had closer links with Hungary's non-Communist resistance movement than previously thought.
That, Kovacs said, could shed new light on why the Soviets arrested Wallenberg in Budapest in 1945 and why supposedly neutral Sweden remained so passive following his disappearance.
"For me it is very clear that it was also Wallenberg's mission to act as some kind of coordinator between the resistance forces and the Allies," Kovacs told The Associated Press.
Other researchers investigating Wallenberg's fate called the information significant, but said it wasn't enough to conclude that Wallenberg gave military support to Hungarian resistance fighters.
It's well known that Wallenberg's work as Sweden's envoy in Budapest was a cover for a humanitarian mission as secret emissary of the U.S. War Refugee Board, created in an attempt to stem the annihilation of Europe's Jews. He saved at least 20,000 Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses.
In his book, whose Swedish title could be translated as "Dark skies over Budapest," Kovacs says documents he found in Hungary's military history archives show how a member of the resistance movement communicated the position of Nazi Germany's ships in the Danube river to the allies via radio equipment in the Swedish embassy. British planes based on Malta then bombed the ships.
While there is no documentation that links those activities directly to Wallenberg, Kovacs says his research shows Wallenberg had frequent contacts with leaders of the non-communist resistance movement including Kalman Zsabka and Zoltan Miko. Swedish assistance to the Hungarian resistance movement in military operations with the allies would have run counter to Sweden's neutrality.
Previous research has also shown Wallenberg was in contact with high-ranking resistance leader Geza Soos.
Part of Kovcac's work is based on research by Hungarian historian Jozsef Gazsi during the Cold War. Gazsi interviewed several former members of the resistance movement who said they had met Wallenberg. One of them, Ferenc Kalmanffy, even said that Wallenberg had given them "hand-grenades, pistols and some machine guns," according to Hungarian documents that Kovacs cites in his book.
Susanne Berger, a long-time Wallenberg researcher, called that information significant.
"This is clearly a military political activity and that really stirs up a whole new hornet's nest," she told AP.
"The sources and contents Gellert cites obviously have to be critically evaluated, but I see nothing in this material that would indicate that the alleged actions could not be true," she added.
Swedish author Ingrid Carlberg, who published a biography of Wallenberg last year, said Kovac's book "paints an entirely new and very interesting picture" of the resistance movement's use of radio equipment in the Swedish embassy.
However, she said those activities were probably set in motion by the first secretary at the Swedish legation, Per Anger, who she said worked closely with the leader of the resistance group that used the radio equipment.
Wallenberg vanished after being arrested by the Red Army. The Soviets initially denied he was in their custody, but then said in 1957 that he died of a heart attack in prison on July 17, 1947.
If Wallenberg's activities in Hungary extended beyond humanitarian work, that would make it easier to understand why the Soviets kept him in custody, Kovacs said.
"From their point of view it's entirely rational," he said. "They probably believed he had important information and saw him as a threat."
The information also provides a broader context to Sweden's passive reaction to Wallenberg's disappearance, Kovacs said.
Sweden has been widely criticized for prioritizing its relations with the Soviet Union over finding out what happened to Wallenberg.
"He breached all existing diplomatic conventions. If he had made it back I think he would have been scolded by the Foreign Ministry and he would never have gotten another job there," Kovacs said about Wallenberg. "I think this is the biggest reason why the foreign ministry was so feeble in the first years. They felt Wallenberg put the embassy at risk."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/book-wallenberg-helped-armed-resistance-100118900.html
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Hillary Clinton says she wants America to have a woman president. Surprised? (+video)
'I really do hope that we have a woman president in my lifetime,'?Hillary Rodham Clinton?said this week.?Was that a hint about her own possible candidacy?
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Chicago last week. Her speech was a broad-brush address heralding the power of women and talking education and opportunity.
Scott Eisen/AP
EnlargeShe didn?t say she?s going to run for the White House in 2016. But, to many listeners, the latest words of Hillary Rodham Clinton certainly hint that it?s a strong possibility.
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?Let me say this, hypothetically speaking,? she said, ?I really do hope that we have a woman president in my lifetime.?
Members of the audience, at a women?s lecture series in Toronto, cheered.
To get beyond the ?hypothetical," a quick follow-up question: Isn?t it possible that, when voters get the opportunity to see a woman on the presidential ballot as a major contender, the initials of that nominee might be H.R.C.?
Answer: Yes, it looks very possible.
Mrs. Clinton currently gets a ?favorable? rating from 6 in 10 Americans, is widely known, and has been making moves you might expect of someone positioning herself for a presidential run.
After being Secretary of State, she?s bowed out of public service for President Obama?s second term. She?s showing her interest in domestic affairs by engaging in an initiative for early childhood education. Having been a strong contender for the Democratic nomination back in 2008, she knows a lot about campaigning.
Some other major democracies have had female chief executives, including people like Margaret Thatcher in Britain and, currently, Angela Merkel in Germany. For more than two centuries, America hasn?t broken that gender barrier.
?I think it would send exactly the right historic signal to girls and women, as well as boys and men,? Clinton told the Thursday crowd in Toronto. Video?footage of the comments, captured by an audience member, was posted on YouTube.com by the Associated Press Friday.
?It really depends on women stepping up and subjecting themselves to the political process,? Clinton added.
Quoting another former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, Clinton said women need Rhinoceros-thick skins to be in politics.
She also said electing a woman would require a ?leap of faith? for US voters.
Some polls have found Americans saying they have no problem with the idea of a woman as president. A?Gallup poll?in 2006, for example, found 6 in 10 saying Americans are ?ready? for that.
Will Clinton herself ?step up? for the 2016 contest? We?ll see. Her popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years, but since early 2008 a majority of Americans have given her a favorable rating in Gallup polls.
She has lots of fans. But as she departed from her role as Secretary of State, Clinton?s aura of success in that job was tarnished by?controversy?over the State Department?s handling of events in Benghazi, Libya, in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack.
And she has long been a magnet for conservative criticism. On Thursday, the Republican group America Rising launched a?StopHillary2016.org?website to raise funds in opposition to her potential candidacy.
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The Technical Interview Is Dead (And No One Should Mourn)
Allow me just a little self-congratulation. Two years ago I wrote "Why The New Guy Can't Code," about my contempt for the standard industry interview procedure for software engineers, condemning Microsoft and Google in particular for their brain-teasing riddles and binary search questions. And lo and behold, this week Google's head of HR admitted: "Brainteasers are a complete waste of time." But wait. Let's just unpack that interview a little further:Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QFt6ozpQ1XQ/
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শনিবার, ২২ জুন, ২০১৩
Skyjacker of the Day
Illustrations by Ellie Skrzat.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States suffered through a skyjacking epidemic that has now been largely forgotten. In his new book, The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking, Brendan I. Koerner tells the story of the chaotic age when jets were routinely commandeered by the desperate and disillusioned. In the run-up to his book?s publication on June 18, Koerner has been writing a daily series of skyjacker profiles. Slate is running the final dozen of these ?Skyjacker of the Day? entries.
Name: Raffaele Minichiello
Flight Info: Trans World Airlines Flight 85 from Baltimore to San Francisco, with scheduled stops in St. Louis; Kansas City, Mo.; and Los Angeles
The Story: With the exception of an inebriated oil worker who wished to visit his estranged wife in Arkansas, the first several dozen American skyjackers were interested solely in obtaining passage to Cuba. The airlines thus geared their hijacking protocols toward getting planes to Havana as quickly and safely as possible. All planes were outfitted with navigational maps of the Caribbean, for example, and pilots were issued phrase cards to help them communicate with Spanish-speaking hijackers. These measures proved useless, however, when Raffaele Minichiello inaugurated the skyjacking epidemic?s second, more chaotic phase.
A native of Melito Irpino, Italy, who had immigrated to Seattle as a teen, Minichiello earned a Purple Heart as a Marine in Vietnam. Upon his return to California?s Camp Pendleton in April 1969, he came to believe that his unit?s paymaster had shorted him $200 in salary. Despite the relative pettiness of the disputed sum, the 19-year-old Marine considered himself the victim of a great betrayal.
One night in May 1969, Minichiello decided to exact his own form of justice. He guzzled eight cans of beer and broke into the Camp Pendleton post exchange, where he took precisely $200 worth of radios and wristwatches. When he was court-martialed for the burglary in September, Minichiello opted to flee the country rather than face trial.
Carrying a bag containing a disassembled M1 rifle and 250 rounds of ammunition, Minichiello took a bus to Los Angeles International Airport and bought a ticket for TWA Flight 85 to San Francisco. After downing two shots of Canadian Club aboard the Boeing 707, he put together his gun in a lavatory, then pointed it at a stewardess and asked to be taken to New York.
The plane stopped in Denver first, where Minichiello released the passengers. As the jet refueled, he informed the captive crew that New York was not his ultimate destination: He was actually trying to get back to Italy, a country that would understand why he considered the Marines? $200 slight such a grave affront to his honor.
The FBI tried to stop Minichiello at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where the jet made a second refueling stop. Agents in bulletproof vests surrounded the parked plane, hoping either to frighten Minichiello into surrendering or to mount a decisive assault. Minichiello responded by firing an M1 round into the roof of the fuselage. The startled agents backed off and allowed the plane to depart on its long journey to Rome, via Bangor, Maine, and Shannon, Ireland.
Minichiello avoided capture at Rome?s airport by taking a carabiniere officer hostage and stealing the policeman?s car. He found brief sanctuary in a rural church, where police tracked him down on Nov. 2, 1969. ?Pais?, perch? m?arresti?? he asked as he was hustled away??Countryman, why are you arresting me??
The Italian public lauded Minichiello as a folk hero, and girls swooned over his brooding good looks. ?He?s even better than Giuliano Gemma,? one 17-year-old
admirer squealed to an Italian reporter, referring to a handsome star of spaghetti Westerns. ?I would like to marry him!? Movie producer Carlo Ponti, the man behind such hits as Doctor Zhivago, vowed to make a hagiographic film about Minichiello?s life entitled Pais?, perch? m?arresti?.
The Upshot: After the Flight 85 affair, American skyjackers realized they were free to divert planes to locations other than Cuba. The Italian government, meanwhile, refused to extradite Minichiello to the United States, deciding instead to try him in Rome?though only for relatively minor offenses such as weapons possession. Minichiello was convicted of a single charge and ended up serving just 18 months in jail. After his release, he signed a contract to star in a spaghetti Western, though he ended up working as a waiter when his movie career didn?t pan out. He now lives in his native Melito Irpino, where he maintains a small yet charming YouTube channel.
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Federal prosecutors charge Edward Snowden over NSA leaks
The US government has filed a sealed criminal complaint Friday against Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked secrets about American telephone and internet surveillance programs.
A bus drives past a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping US surveillance programs, at Central, Hong Kong's business district, June 17.
Kin Cheung/AP
EnlargeU.S. prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint charging Edward Snowden, who disclosed American telephone and internet surveillance programs, with espionage, theft and conversion of government property, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
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The United States also has asked Hong Kong to detain the former National Security Agency contractor on a provisional arrest warrant, the Post reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials. Snowden is reported to be in hiding in Hong Kong.
The criminal complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is located, the Post reported.
Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S. security services had monitored data about phone calls from Verizon and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook as part of counterterrorism efforts.
U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong Kong, the Post reported. The prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment and can then take steps to secure Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong for a criminal trial in the United States, the newspaper reported.
Snowden would be able to challenge the U.S. request for his extradition in court in Hong Kong, the Post reported.
The newspaper noted the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong has an exception for political offenses, and that espionage has been viewed as a political offense.
An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.
(Editing by Jim Loney)
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Tigers reach Bailey, rally to beat Red Sox
By NOAH TRISTER
AP Baseball Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 10:21 p.m. ET June 20, 2013
DETROIT (AP) - Jhonny Peralta's ninth-inning homer gave the Detroit Tigers a joyful break from all that talk about their beleaguered bullpen.
It was Boston's closer who lost this game, and now the Red Sox have some relief issues of their own to sort out.
Peralta hit a two-run homer off Andrew Bailey in the bottom of the ninth to give the Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Red Sox on Thursday night. Boston led 3-2 when Victor Martinez drew a leadoff walk off Bailey, and Peralta followed with a line drive over the fence in left field for his seventh homer of the year.
"I don't try to hit a home run, but I try to have good contact with the ball," Peralta said. "That's what happened when I had good contact."
Detroit manager Jim Leyland said before the game he was ready to use Joaquin Benoit to close instead of struggling Jose Valverde - although he stopped short of officially naming Benoit as the closer for the long term.
After the game, Red Sox manager John Farrell said Bailey would be given a break from closing.
"We're going to back him out of there right now and try to get him fixed, so we'll look at some other internal options to close," Farrell said. "His velocity hasn't come back since the DL stint, and although he says he feels fine, the results obviously aren't there."
Bailey (3-1) missed time in May because of a bicep problem. Joel Hanrahan, Boston's top choice to close, is out for the season after elbow surgery.
David Ortiz homered and drove in a tiebreaking run with an eighth-inning single to put Boston up, but Drew Smyly (3-0) replaced Phil Coke for Detroit and prevented any further scoring by the Red Sox. He struck out four in two innings of relief.
Detroit improved to only 2-19 when trailing after eight innings.
The Red Sox wasted a nice performance by John Lackey, who allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings. Koji Uehara pitched a perfect eighth, but Bailey didn't get an out.
Detroit's Jose Alvarez allowed two runs and five hits in five innings in his second big league start, and Luke Putkonen got five straight outs in relief.
Then Leyland brought in Coke, the left-hander who has struggled against right-handed hitters. Coke struck out the left-handed hitting Jacoby Ellsbury to end the Boston seventh, but he walked switch-hitting Shane Victorino and right-handed hitting Dustin Pedroia to start the eighth.
The lefty-swinging Ortiz followed by pulling a base hit to right to give the Red Sox the lead.
Ortiz was 1 for 15 off Coke before that hit, which is why Leyland stuck with the left-hander and hoped he could get out of trouble.
"He didn't do very good, because he walked guys," Leyland said. "He gets those two guys out, he probably gets Ortiz out. But he walked them, and that's a no-no."
Peralta made up for that with one swing and was of course mobbed at the plate.
"I see everybody at home plate, it's a good feeling, hitting a walk-off home run," Peralta said. "It's the best that I can feel."
Smyly, one Detroit reliever who has been terrific this year, kept the deficit at one and gave the Tigers a decent chance at a comeback.
"It's too late to score three or four runs. You've got to keep it where it's at," Smyly said. "I'm glad I was able to do that."
Alvarez, who held Cleveland to a run in six innings in his major league debut earlier this month, handled Boston's lineup reasonably well, but Ortiz went deep in the fourth for his 15th homer of the season, a solo shot to open the scoring.
Jose Iglesias led off the fifth with a triple and scored on Ellsbury's single to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, Torii Hunter's soft line drive with the bases loaded fell in for a two-run single, tying the game.
Alvarez is expected to make at least one more start for the Tigers in place of the injured Anibal Sanchez.
NOTES: Detroit scratched OF Matt Tuiasosopo before the game because of a mildly strained intercostal muscle. ... Farrell announced that RHP Allen Webster will start Saturday night's game against the Tigers. ... Boston LHP Jon Lester (6-4) faces Detroit RHP Doug Fister (6-4) on Friday night.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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??HBT Daily: O's teammates Chris Davis and Manny Machado lead the early AL MVP race. Who does Craig Calcaterra favor for the award?
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Instagram Launches 15-Second Video Sharing Feature, With 13 Filters And Editing
Instagram, the immensely popular photo-sharing app that was acquired by Facebook in a $1 billion deal last year, is not just for photos anymore. At a press event at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters, Instagram's co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom debuted a new feature called, simply, "Video On Instagram." This lets people create 15-second videos to share on the service. The feature includes simple editing capabilities as well as 13 new filters, which were specially created for video. "What we did to photos, we just did to video," Systrom said.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/iqRn6uGPaG8/
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Special Report: Deepening ethnic rifts reshape Syria's towns
By Alexander Dziadosz and Oliver Holmes
IDLIB PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - The villages that dot the valleys and terraced hills of Syria's northwest used to epitomize the country's diversity. Each one was dominated by a different religion or sect. The settlements coexisted - sometimes peacefully, sometimes less so - for centuries, a patchwork of distinct but interwoven communities that, for many Syrians, was central to the nation's identity.
Over the past two years, that order has fallen apart.
In Zambaki, a concrete-block village in a valley near the border with Turkey, Sunni families have moved into homes abandoned by Alawite owners; Sunni instructors teach in the Alawite elementary school; and Sunni religious slogans in black paint mark the walls.
Mohamed Skafe, a 40-year-old Sunni maths instructor remembers how the Alawites began to flee nearly a year ago. As government troops withdrew and rebels took over, he phoned a friend in the village and pleaded with him to stay.
"He told me, ?Can you protect me?'" Skafe recalled, holding his hands out, palms upward. "I said, ?I have no guarantee.'"
As the revolt against Bashar al-Assad that began as a mostly secular call for democratic reform descended into civil war, communities have split along religious and ethnic lines. Majority Sunnis have come to dominate the opposition, while Shi'ites and Alawites, the offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam that Assad belongs to, have largely sided with the government. Other minorities, such as the Christians, Druze and Kurds, have split or tried to stay neutral.
Across the country, violence and fear have emptied entire villages, forced millions of people to flee their homes, and transformed the social landscape.
The involvement of Shi'ite power Iran on one side and the ascendancy of hardline Islamists, including groups linked to al Qaeda, on the other has accelerated the process. For some fighters, the war has taken on an apocalyptic overtone. For others, enmity is rooted in old resentments and suspicions.
During a 10-day journey through rebel-held territory, Reuters saw first-hand how the sectarian divisions are transforming the country. Those splits, and the risk of large-scale communal retribution, are one reason Western powers have hesitated to intervene.
Now, as the United States prepares to arm the rebels, it risks getting entangled in an intricate conflict that often pits neighbor against neighbor. As in Yugoslavia or in neighboring Iraq, where conflicts were marked by sectarianism and ethnic cleansing, Syria is unlikely to go back to the way it was. Even when the war ends, the reordering of villages and towns will leave behind a very different country, a change which could reverberate through the region.
In Zambaki, in a house once owned by Alawites, a Sunni family of 10 has moved in after fleeing their own homes outside Hama, in central Syria. "The whole village was completely empty. We were in a Turkish camp, but it was so crowded. We decided to come back," one man in the family said, asking not to be named.
"The regime is playing a big game, a very big game. We had Alawite neighbors and I swear we were living like brothers. But the regime played with their minds, and frightened them. We were neighbors."
THINGS FALL APART
The Ammar bin Yassir mosque, a turquoise and white complex of Persian-style domes, minarets, arabesques and tile mosaics, stands out among the short brown-and-beige breezeblock buildings of Raqqa. The city is the largest held by Syria's rebels and the mosque was once a destination for Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq.
Now it is filled with Sunni fighters who call themselves al-Muntasereen Billah, or "God's Victors."
Bearded men guard the front gate, next to what they say is the carcass of a Scud missile fired by President Assad's army. Inside, rebels in camouflage fatigues with Kalashnikov rifles walk through the tiled courtyard, laughing and chatting. When they enter the mosque's carpeted interior, they leave their shoes on, a sign of disrespect.
The rebels took over the mosque in March and smashed open tombs said to contain figures revered by Shi'ites, said Abu Hazem, a tall, chain-smoking leader of one of the brigade's units. "They used to say there were important people in here," he said. "But there was nothing. They're empty."
Raqqa, always overwhelmingly Sunni, is now all but empty of Alawites. Homsi al-Hamada, a 73-year-old Sunni Islamic law scholar, said recent developments, notably the intervention of Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah on the government's side, had "stoked the flames of sectarianism." The feelings were always there, but they used to be "covered up," he said, sitting in his home lined with bookcases packed with religious texts.
"At the beginning of the game, the ball was freedom and democracy. The protesters and the regime were playing with this ball," Hamada said.
"Now there are two teams - the first is the regime, Russia, China, Iran, Hezbollah and the Shi'ites, the other is the rebels, the United States, Germany, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Sunnis. Syria has become the ball."
Walking through Ammar bin Yassir, past rooms once used by pilgrims but now housing rebel fighters, Abu Ziad, a 23-year-old student at the university across the road, pointed to pictures of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, on the floor of the mosque's library.
He disappeared for a moment and reemerged with a painting of a black-shrouded figure slumped dead over a white horse, a depiction of Imam Hussein, a central figure in Shi'ite history whose death 1,300 years ago at the battle of Kerbala in Iraq is commemorated with an annual day of mourning.
"All of these pictures came from Iran," Abu Ziad said.
A Sunni fighter standing nearby chimed in: "And they are lies."
UNITY AND DIVISION
The question of identity has always been heated in the Levant, the land at the heart of the Middle East that includes modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and parts of southern Turkey. French and British colonial administrators partitioned the region into nation-states after World War One and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled since the 16th century.
The division was traumatic. After Damascus gained independence from France in 1946, many Syrian politicians spoke of creating a "Greater Syria." Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser called for Arab states from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Aden to unite. Syria and Egypt briefly did.
Modern Syria is an amalgam of diverse religious and ethnic groups. About three quarters of Syria's roughly 23 million people are Sunni Muslim; the rest are Christians, Shi'ites, Alawites, and smaller, sometimes overlapping communities such as the Druze, Ismailis, Kurds, Armenians and Palestinians.
Historian Patrick Seale once wrote that the way Syria's communities coexist described one of the essential puzzles of the Middle East. "Is that world a mosaic, a bewildering babble of ancient communities each at odds with the other? Or is it a unit, essentially one in way of life, language and aspirations?" he wrote in his biography of Assad's father, Hafez, who was president from 1971 until his death in 2000.
Like his father, Assad exploited the threat of a violent breakup of the country to justify the continuation of an authoritarian police state. An overtly secular Alawite, Assad married a Sunni woman. References to sect were not included in censuses in an attempt to foster an inclusive Syrian identity.
When the revolt started, Sunni activists tried to reach out to minorities, framing the uprising as a collective move against oppression for all Syrians.
Opposition figures blame the failure of those efforts on government propaganda characterizing the rebels as violent extremists and on the use of Alawite paramilitary militias known as "shabbiha" to harass, maim and kill unarmed protesters.
AN OPEN, BLOODY WAR
The threat of a sectarian war has been self fulfilling. Pro-government militias have massacred hundreds of Sunnis in villages from Damascus to the Mediterranean, which some analysts say could be intended to carve a corridor from the capital to the historical Alawite homeland near the coast.
In rebel-held regions, radical insurgents have desecrated Shi'ite holy places and speak of war against "infidels" and "apostates". This month, Sunni rebels killed about 60 Shi'ites in an eastern town in the Deir al-Zor province. "This is a Sunni area, it does not belong to other groups," one fighter shouted in a video purportedly of the attack in the town of Hatla.
The Sunni-led revolt has emboldened the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda, a radical Sunni militant group, to carry out attacks against Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government in recent months. Sunni insurgents in Iraq are reclaiming former strongholds in the desert near Syria. Shi'ites in Gulf Arab countries have started to worry they will be blamed and targeted for Syria's violence.
Lebanon, with its intertwined history, huge population of Sunni Syrian refugees, and dysfunctional central government, has been particularly vulnerable to the spread of sectarian fighting. Dozens have died in clashes between Alawite and Sunni factions in the coastal city of Tripoli, and missiles have been launched at Hezbollah strongholds in Baalbek and Hermel in the Bekaa valley.
Hezbollah's intervention has embroiled Lebanon in the war and nourished sectarian hatreds. As fighters from the Iran-sponsored Shi'ite group joined a campaign to capture Qusair, a Sunni town near Lebanon, Colonel Abdel-Hamid Zakaria, a Free Syrian Army spokesman, said on live television that Shi'ite and Alawite villages would be "wiped off the map" in retaliation if it fell.
"We don't want this to happen at all, but it will be out of everyone's control," he said. "It will be an open, bloody, global sectarian war until the end."
Foreign fighters have arrived to aid both sides. Hardline Sunni Islamists have come from countries as far-flung as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Britain, Sweden and China. In government-held Damascus, young Lebanese men in fatigues have arrived to defend the shrine of Sayeda Zeinab, a site visited by Muslims of all sects, but particularly revered by Shi'ites. The fighters say rebels often shoot at the shrine, damaging minarets.
Near the shrine, one man, speaking with a clear Lebanese accent, sat in his office surrounded by pictures of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Iranian Shi'ite clerics. When asked if he was a member of Hezbollah, he smiled and said he could "neither deny nor confirm" it.
The man, who asked not to be named, described a proxy war of ideologies between Iran and Saudi Arabia playing out in Syria, and blamed the influence of ultraconservative ideologues like Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school on violence against the shrine. "This is not a war between Sunnis and Shi'ites. It's a war against extremism," he said.
AFRAID TO TALK
Syria's Christians occupy an uneasy middle ground in the shifting political and military landscape. Some Christians have fled to government-held territory, while others have stayed to take their chances with the rebels. Some have bought guns and joined the insurgency.
The dominance of al Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra and other radical Islamist brigades has evoked memories of recent attacks on Christians in Egypt and Iraq. Still, there have been relatively few instances of violence by Sunni fighters against Christians, who the rebels see as less close to Assad than the Alawites and Shi'ites.
In Yaqubiyeh, a village of a few hundred people in Idlib province, Yacoub, an olive farmer, smiled and waved as bearded rebels drove by. "We've been living together for hundreds of years," he said. "We have problems with theft. But what the media says about Jabhat al-Nusra is not true. They are good people. They are very religious, but that's fine."
Abu George, a Christian from the nearby village of Jdeide who farmed plums and olives before the revolt, now works with the Sunni-led Liwa al-Hurra battalion, mostly in the town. He said there were about 15 other Christians in the brigade, accounting for around 5 percent of the fighters. "Many Christians participate in the revolution. When the army left we joined the revolution," he said.
Others in Yaqubiyeh, where thousands of displaced Sunnis have settled in recent months, were more circumspect. One woman, a 40-year-old Catholic, said Christians were mostly left alone, but were still nervous.
"We're living normally, we go pray, we come back, no one bothers us," she said, then leaned closer to a visiting journalist. "There is some theft on our land. They come and go, and none of us knows who does it. We're afraid to talk. Christians can't speak out. You understand me."
AN AIR OF PERMANENCE
In war, such suspicions and resentments can harden quickly. Rebels do not always acknowledge acts of ethnic violence as such. Instead, some describe them as legitimate military actions, or righting historical wrongs.
When Alawites flee insurgent-held areas, rebels and non-fighters alike often say the sect only settled in the area over the past few decades as the result of state favouritism. In Raqqa, a university student described the province's Alawites as "security families," who came to staff Syria's manifold intelligence and police agencies. In Idlib province, a doctor said Alawites were not "original residents," and came because of government land reforms that encouraged them to move into the plains from the coast.
When asked about the destruction of the tombs at the Ammar bin Yassir mosque, Hamada, the Islamic law scholar, claimed Iran had set up Shi'ite centers with government help on what he called Sunni land and prevented Sunnis from studying their religion. "The economic and political interests of Shi'ites and Alawites require them to stand with the regime," he said.
In Zambaki, the new arrangement has an air of permanence. Skafe, the maths instructor, teaches lessons to about a dozen Sunni children in the school, which doubles as a barracks for rebel fighters. Another man, the one living in the Alawite house, sells cigarettes, biscuits and soda out of the old pantry. Across the street, children play and a pregnant woman walks with a child.
The man said he hoped the owners could return one day, and said a court should be set up to determine who worked with Assad and who did not.
"Some people should be allowed to return, the people who haven't worked with the regime. But if you are a criminal, how could you return?" he said.
But Skafe says it would be impossible for any Alawite to come back soon. "Not now. If the circumstances change," he said. What exactly? "I don't know. Right now, I don't know."
(This Special Report is the third in a three-part series. The first part may be accessed here http://reut.rs/1as0KmH and second part here http://reut.rs/19k7phb )
(Edited by Simon Robinson and Richard Woods)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-deepening-ethnic-rifts-reshape-syrias-towns-065043751.html
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শুক্রবার, ২১ জুন, ২০১৩
Samsung ATIV One 5 Style AIO hands-on (video)
Welcome Samsung's new (but kind of familiar-looking) all-in-one PC. The ATIV One 5 Style is a white, metallic 21.5-inch desktop that, naturally, looks huge next to Samsung's more portable range. With some familiar curved corners and the glossy finish of a Galaxy device, Samsung has knowingly transferred the styling of its very successful smartphones to this new PC -- like it's also done with the new ATIV Tab 3. The 1080p display is suitably bright, and the viewing angles suggest it could double up as a respectable media hub. Storage options will go up to 1TB, and it'll ship with 4GB of RAM. There are also plenty of ports for connecting removable media or games consoles. Dotted around both the left and right edges and the stand are two USB 3.0 connections, two USB 2.0 sockets and HDMI in and out, as well as a 3-in-1 card reader.
The adjustable hinge was satisfyingly rigid as we tapped through Windows' Modern UI, while the wireless keyboard (included in the box) didn't distract us much as we typed away. It's a simple chiclet affair, but one we're used to. It's also one of the rare new ATIV products to arrive without a stylus, but it will come with a mouse when it ships later this year.
Filed under: Desktops, Samsung
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/AU2_NfmBeJI/
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Weekly US jobless aid applications rise to 354K
In this Thursday, May 30, 3013 photo, a job seeker stops at a table offering resume critiques during a job fair held in Atlanta. The Labor Department reports on the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week Thursday June 20, 2013. (AP Photo/John Amis)
In this Thursday, May 30, 3013 photo, a job seeker stops at a table offering resume critiques during a job fair held in Atlanta. The Labor Department reports on the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week Thursday June 20, 2013. (AP Photo/John Amis)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by 18,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 354,000. Despite the gain, the level remains consistent with moderate job growth.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average increased by 2,500 to 348,250.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs. Since January, they have fallen 6 percent. That suggests companies are cutting fewer jobs.
At the same time, hiring has been steady, despite an increase in taxes on Jan. 1 and steep federal spending cuts that began in March. Solid consumer spending and a rebound in housing have helped the economy weather the fiscal drag.
Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the increase in applications makes it less likely that hiring will accelerate this month but job growth remains moderate.
"The overall U.S. labor market is improving," Lee said.
Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, nearly matching the average monthly gain for the past year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent, but for a good reason: More Americans were confident they could find work and began searching for a job.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday offered a brighter outlook for the job market and economy. Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed is likely to reduce its bond purchases later this year and end them in the middle of next year if the economy continues to strengthen.
The Fed expects the unemployment rate will fall to between 6.5 percent and 6.8 percent by the end of 2014. That's lower than their March forecast of 6.7 percent to 7 percent.
About 4.5 million Americans received unemployment benefits in the week ending June 1, the latest data available. That's 18,000 more than the previous week. But the number of recipients has fallen 28 percent in the past year. Some have likely gotten jobs, but many have used up all the benefits available.
The Labor Department said last week that more Americans quit their jobs in April compared with March. That points to confidence in the job market, since most workers don't quit until they have another job or are sure they can find one. More quits also opens up jobs for other workers, or the unemployed, to take.
Also last week, a survey of chief executives at the largest U.S. companies showed that they are more optimistic about sales in the next six months and plan to add more workers.
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Watchdog faults background check of NSA leaker
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A government watchdog testified Thursday there may have been problems with a security clearance background check conducted on the 29-year-old federal contractor who disclosed previously secret National Security Agency programs for collecting phone records and Internet data ? just as news media disclosed more information about those programs.
Appearing at a Senate hearing, Patrick McFarland, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's inspector general, said USIS, the company that conducted the background investigation of former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, is now under investigation itself.
McFarland declined to say what triggered the inquiry of USIS or whether the probe is related to Snowden. But when asked by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., if there were any concerns about the USIS background check on Snowden, McFarland answered: "Yes, we do believe that there may be some problems."
Meanwhile, new details emerged about the scope of two recently disclosed NSA programs ? one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.
Two new documents published Thursday by The Guardian newspaper ? one labeled "top secret" and the other "secret" ? said NSA can keep copies of intercepted communications from or about U.S. citizens indefinitely if the material contains significant intelligence or evidence of crimes.
McFarland declined after the Senate hearing to describe to reporters the type of investigation his office is conducting. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she was told the inquiry is a criminal investigation related "to USIS' systemic failure to adequately conduct investigations under its contract."
"We are limited in what we can say about this investigation because it is an ongoing criminal matter," said McCaskill, chairwoman of the Senate subcommittee on financial and contracting oversight. "But it is a reminder that background investigations can have real consequences for our national security."
McCaskill's panel conducted the hearing jointly with Tester's subcommittee on efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs.
USIS, based in Falls Church, Va., said in a statement that it has never been informed that it is under criminal investigation. USIS received a subpoena from the inspector general's office in January 2012 for records, the statement said. "USIS complied with that subpoena and has cooperated fully with the government's civil investigative efforts," according to the company.
USIS declined to comment on whether it conducted a background investigation of Snowden. The company said it performs thousands of background investigations each year for OPM and other government agencies. "These investigations are confidential and USIS does not comment on them," the USIS statement said.
The background check USIS performed on Snowden was done in 2011 and was part of periodic reinvestigations that are required for employees who hold security clearances, according to McFarland and Michelle Schmitz, the assistant inspector general for investigations at OPM.
Schmitz said the investigation of USIS commenced later in 2011.
Booz Allen Hamilton, the company where Snowden was working at the time of the disclosures, fired him for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy. The company said he had been a Booz Allen employee for less than three months.
Snowden worked previously at the CIA and probably obtained his security clearance there. But like others who leave the government to join private contractors, he was able to keep his clearance after he left and began working for outside firms.
Of the 4.9 million people with clearance to access "confidential and secret" government information, 1.1 million, or 21 percent, work for outside contractors, according to a January report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Of the 1.4 million who have the higher "top secret" access, 483,000, or 34 percent, work for contractors.
OPM's Federal Investigative Services division performs almost all the background investigations for federal agencies and nearly 75 percent of the investigators who perform background checks are contractors, according to information on the agency's website.
At the hearing, McFarland called for much closer oversight of the investigators who conduct background checks. He said that 18 background investigators and record searchers have been criminally convicted since 2006 for fabricating information in background reports.
McFarland's office is actively working on 11 fabrication cases and another 36 cases involving background investigators are pending, according to data he provided to the subcommittees.
Of the 18 investigators who were criminally convicted, 11 were federal employees and seven were contractors. Of the 47 active and pending cases, six involve federal employees and 41 involve contractors, according to McFarland.
The new documents revealed by The Guardian were signed by Attorney General Eric Holder. They include point-by-point directions on how an NSA employee must work to determine that a person being targeted has not entered the United States. If NSA finds the target has entered the U.S., it will stop gathering phone and Internet data immediately, the documents say.
If supervisors determine that information on a U.S. person or a target who entered the U.S. was intentionally targeted, that information is destroyed, according to the documents.
But if a foreign target has conversations with an American or a U.S.-based person whom NSA supervisors determine is related to terrorism, or contains significant intelligence or evidence of crimes, that call or email or text message can be kept indefinitely. Encrypted communications also can be kept indefinitely, according the documents.
Administration officials had said the U.S. phone records NSA gathered could only be kept for five years. A fact sheet those officials provided to reporters mentioned no exceptions.
The documents outline fairly broad authority when the NSA monitors a foreigner's communications. For instance, if the monitored foreigner has been criminally indicted in the U.S. and is speaking to legal counsel, NSA has to cease monitoring the call. The agency, however, can log the call and mine it later so long as conversation protected by attorney-client privilege is not used in legal proceedings against the foreigner.
The NSA had no comment when asked about the newly revealed documents.
___
Follow Lardner on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rplardner and Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/watchdog-faults-background-check-nsa-leaker-235639806.html
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Witness Ragnarok Tonight on Netflix
The world hasn't ended yet, contrary to John Hodgman's predictions. But because the coming global superpocalypse hasn't happened, we can all experience Ragnarok. No not that Ragnar?k. This one is just a John Hodgman special, streaming exclusively on Netflix as of today.
The hour-long "film" is taken from Hodgman's national book tour promoting his utterly false (and totally fantastic) tome detailing the end-of-days: That Is All. According to Hodgman, you can expect tales of "mayonnaise, hockey instruction, tips on raising sperm whales on your home survival compound" and more.
If there's anyone who knows how to spit blatant flasehoods, it's the Hodg, so check it out. It's no Arrested Development Season 4, but awesome little gets like this are what stand to make Netflix a real powerhouse of cool, but slightly offbeat content. So batten down the hatches and prepare for the end tonight. It'll be a blast. [Netflix via John Hodgman]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/witness-ragnarok-tonight-on-netflix-523320969
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বুধবার, ১৯ জুন, ২০১৩
Orders top $100 billion as Ryanair gives Boeing a boost
By Alwyn Scott and Maria Sheahan
PARIS (Reuters) - Orders at the Paris Airshow surpassed $100 billion on Wednesday, as planemakers Boeing and Airbus cashed in on demand for fuel-efficient jets and growth in both budget carriers and emerging markets.
Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost airline, finalized an order for 175 Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth around $15.6 billion at list prices on day three of the aerospace industry's showcase event, the largest single order ever placed by a European airline with the U.S. group.
Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said he was also working on an order for 200 or more of Boeing's next-generation 737 MAX planes that could be concluded this year, potentially worth around $20 billion at list prices.
Not to be overshadowed, Airbus sealed a long-awaited order for 25 of its lightweight, wide-body A350 planes from Air France-KLM worth $7.2 billion at list prices, as previously reported by Reuters.
It also firmed up a deal worth $8.6 billion for 30 more A350-900s from Singapore Airlines, taking the total on order from the carrier to 70.
The A350, which made its maiden flight on Friday, is Airbus' answer to Boeing's popular carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner, and the battle between the two models has been a key feature of the Paris show as the planemakers jostle to meet soaring demand for air travel in emerging markets, especially Asia and the Middle East.
"This show is about wide-bodies," said Kelly Ortberg, president of Rockwell Collins, which supplies major systems to the 787 and A350. "And really good news for wide-bodies."
Boeing bagged nearly $30 billion in orders as it launched the 787-10 on Tuesday, a stretched variant of its high-tech Dreamliner.
Wednesday's dealmaking took the order count for the show so far to more than $100 billion at list prices, although many of the agreements were provisional and most sizable deals are struck at a significant discount.
Nonetheless, the activity confirmed plenty of work for civil aircraft manufacturers for years to come.
AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
Ryanair's O'Leary said the planned purchase of Boeing 737 MAX jets later this year would be "all growth" and not replacements for aircraft currently in its all-Boeing fleet.
If the order was not at least 200 planes, "it wouldn't be worth doing," he added, in typically forthright style.
But some analysts took this with a pinch of salt. While Ryanair could afford to use a large MAX order to expand, it is not under pressure to buy next-generation jets, said Espirito Santo analyst Gerald Khoo, and will likely wait until prices are at a cyclical bottom to get the best deal.
The 737 MAX is Boeing's answer to the Airbus A320neo, a new version of the European planemaker's best-selling model.
Boeing earlier on Wednesday moved forward by six months the date of the plane's planned entry into service, saying it would be in the third quarter of 2017, almost two years after the A320neo.
O'Leary said a senior team from Boeing and Ryanair was working on a 737 MAX order and that the airline was giving serious consideration to rival Airbus' A320neo jet, though Ryanair has not purchased any Airbus jets and the European planemaker has repeatedly dampened the idea.
"We're hopeful that we can reach agreement on price of a MAX order sometime before the end of the year," O'Leary said, adding that the 737 MAX offered better fuel economy than the A320neo and room for nine extra seats.
O'Leary said he was interested in launching a transatlantic, low-cost airline, but that there was no opportunity for a significantly sized operation until Boeing and Airbus had worked through their delivery backlog for wide-body jets.
Airbus also clinched an order for six A330-300 aircraft and commitments to buy four A350-900s from SriLankan Airlines on Wednesday in a deal worth $2.6 billion at list prices.
(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher, Siva Govindasamy and Brenda Goh in Paris, and Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by James Regan and Mark Potter)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/orders-top-100-billion-ryanair-gives-boeing-boost-130920243.html
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M.I.A. Brings The 'Noize' On New Single, Continues To Battle Record Label
'Bring the Noize' is the first single off Matangi, but M.I.A. has no idea when her album will be released.
By James Montgomery
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709218/mia-bring-the-noize-single.jhtml
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West Seattle road work: ?Bonus? during California SW repaving
June 18, 2013 at 9:34 pm | In Transportation, West Seattle news | 1 Comment 
Tomorrow is scheduled to be the second day of repaving work on California SW south of Morgan Junction. While SDOT only announced work for the block between Frontenac and Myrtle, Ron A shares the photo and says the city crews have already done something extra:
Looks like we got a bonus ? they filled in the slumps in the road to the north and south of Mills this morning! FYI, there are underground springs in those locations that slowly erode whatever material is under the roadbed. The section in the picture was patched about 5 years ago.
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Source: http://westseattleblog.com/2013/06/west-seattle-road-work-bonus-during-california-sw-repaving
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Jeff Ubben, Mick McGuire to Speak at Value Investing Congress ...
It's been announced that ValueAct Capital's Jeff Ubben and Marcato Capital Management's Mick McGuire will both be speaking at the Value Investing Congress in New York City on September 16th.? These are two highly successful activist investors and they'll be presenting their latest investment ideas at the event.
Special Offer For Market Folly Readers
Market Folly readers receive a 36% discount to the event by clicking here and using discount code: N13MF2
Take advantage of this special offer because it expires in just over one week (June 27th).
Full Speakers List
There will be a ton of hedge fund managers presenting investment ideas at this year's New York event.? Here's the full list:
Jeff Ubben, ValueAct Capital
Mick McGuire, Marcato Capital Management
Alexander Roepers, Atlantic Investment Management
Guy Gottfried, Rational Investment Group
Evan Vanderveer & David Shapiro, Vanshap Capital
Mark Boyar, Boyar Value Group
Rahul Saraogi, Atyant Capital India
Chris Mittleman, Mittleman Brothers
Carl Chen & Tom Lu, Temple Honor Asia (Taiwan)
Chris Mayer, Capital & Crisis
Joe Altman & Chris Kyriopoulos, COMPOUND Capital
Whitney Tilson, Kase Capital
Even more speakers will be announced in the coming weeks as well.
Why Attend?
- Hear the latest investment ideas from top hedge fund managers
- One successful pick will easily more than cover your cost of admission
- Huge networking opportunity with other investors/managers
- Discounted registration prices for being a Market Folly reader
Save $1700 off the normal admission price by registering here with our special offer code: N13MF2
Source: http://www.marketfolly.com/2013/06/jeff-ubben-mick-mcguire-to-speak-at.html
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মঙ্গলবার, ১৮ জুন, ২০১৩
U.S. Bioterror Detection Program Comes under Scrutiny
A national air sampling system tasked with picking up terrorist biological attacks faces scrutiny
Francisella tularensis. Image: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
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Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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A cutting-edge biological terror alert system detected a potential threat in the air one morning back in 2008, threatening to derail then-Sen. Barack Obama?s acceptance speech in Denver for his party?s presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Initial results from a pricey national air sampling system suggested that bacteria that could cause tularemia had been detected. The microbe, Francisella tularensis, might have been weaponized to cause the infectious disease.
Public health officials sprang into action and tested further samples from the area that triggered the system, but turned up negative results. The alert, like others issued by the system in the past decade, was ruled to be a false alarm. Obama still made his acceptance speech that night, of course, in an open-air stadium as planned. But the system?s critics say BioWatch has repeatedly triggered an alarm when no threat has existed. Now the program faces the scrutiny of Congress.
BioWatch, an alert system designed to be an early detection system for airborne threats such as anthrax and smallpox, was unveiled in 2003 by Pres. George W. Bush. In his State of the Union address, he talked about the system, saying he was, ?deploying the nation's first early warning network of sensors to detect biological attack.? Since then the system has cost $1 billion and been met with mixed reviews. A committee convened by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC) said in a 2011 report no expansion of the program should be made without better collaboration with the existing public health system. The panel also called for further analysis of the program and how it could be used to reduce mortality and morbidity.
The network of outdoor and select indoor air samplers was installed, under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in more than 30 U.S. metropolitan areas to sniff the air for potential threats. The filters from those aerosol collectors are retrieved for analysis in state or county public health laboratories.
Whereas technically the potential threats detected by the system in the past were not false positives?they did accurately pick up tiny, background amounts of DNA from organisms naturally present in the environment? in effect, they were false alarms because they signaled the potential occurrence of a terrorist attack when none had occurred. Some public health officials have said they are hesitant to rely on the program. Others say it is an important piece of the bioterror response puzzle.
?The way I look at BioWatch is that it is a tool,? says Umair A. Shah, executive director of the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services Department in Texas. ?It is one of many tools that are available to public health decision?makers and needs to be kept in the context of that paradigm. The sum of all those tools is really how we go about making sound public health decisions.? Sensors in area around Houston and Harris County had the first-ever positive result through BioWatch in 2003. Like the later DNC incident, BioWatch picked up indications of F. tularensis. Those readings also turned out to be a false alarm; BioWatch again had detected organisms naturally present in the environment.
The value of the system, even with its false alarms, is that it could give public health officials the first clues of a bioterror attack. ?You don?t necessarily want to make [BioWatch] less sensitive to avoid false positives,? says Seth Foldy, a physician who works on public health informatics and served on the NRC?IOM panel looking at the program. The tricky part, he says, is finding a way to make the system sensitive enough so that it would pick up actual disease-causing agents in the event of a bioterror threat, but specific enough to be able to distinguish them from very closely related bacteria that may exist in the environment but do not lead to human disease.
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-bioterror-detection
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It?s almost like an election is upon us soon?
Comment by Mike ? 10:38 pm June 18, 2013 #