Blackwater's new name and Prince's resignation come following the State Department's recent announcement that it would not be renewing Blackwater's security contract in Iraq. Some have speculated that many of its operatives may be rehired by the State Department through other companies or the Department itself. Moreover, Blackwater still holds lucrative government contracts in Afghanistan and elsewhere and is marketing "CIA-type services" to Fortune 1000 companies through Prince's Total Intelligence Solutions. And a 184-foot vessel operated by the company (named the MacArthur) is reportedly heading for the Gulf of Aden to fight pirates. Nevertheless, some see the recent developments as Blackwater's funeral.
Still, the company clearly remains concerned with activist campaigns against the "new" company and is taking the necessary precautions. In April 2008, almost a year before "Xe" was officially launched, Blackwater bought the URLs xewatch.com, .org and .net. But activists who have mobilized against Blackwater have launched a rebranding campaign of their own. While Blackwater beat them in the URL game, the folks at BlackwaterWatch.net -- whose homepage currently reads: "DON'T BE FOOLED -- XE IS Blackwater!" -- recently reaffirmed their activism, sending out an e-mail saying:
"Xe Watch (formerly Blackwater Watch) was formed in 2007 as a spin-off of North Carolina Stop Torture Now. Headquartered in Blackwater's home state of North Carolina, Xe Watch seeks to shine a light on Blackwater USA specifically, and private armies/mercenaries generally, with respect to their human rights violations, absence of accountability and their profiteering at the expense of, and lobbying for, war and conflict. Xe Watch represents a growing contingent of concerned individuals and groups including, but not limited to, human rights and peace activists, people of faith, civil libertarians, and veterans. We are in solidarity with the people in San Diego, California, Mount Carroll, Illinois and Coeur d' Alene, Idaho who are fighting Xe's mercurial growth and expansion."
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Still the same underneath
Jeremy Scahill on the resignation of Prince from Xe formerly known as Blackwater:
Monday, March 02, 2009
Just put the kids over there and get your ass to Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A soldier who reported for duty with her children in tow has been granted her request for a discharge, her lawyer said Monday.Well that was right good of them. I guess they had to actually see the children to realize what she was talking about...
Lisa Pagan, of Davidson, North Carolina, reported for duty Monday morning at Fort Benning, Georgia, with her two preschool children. She had been honorably discharged from active duty at the rank of specialist nearly four years ago but was recalled as part of the Individual Ready Reserve program.
The former Army truck driver asked for a reprieve from deployment because her husband travels for business and they would have no one to care for their children if she was sent overseas. Until Monday, her request had been denied.
Late Monday afternoon, Pagan's lawyer told CNN the Army would grant her request and begin the process of discharge again, this time for good.
Update 3/4: Posted my response to comments here.
Strange...
People seem not to be buying cars right now. I wonder why that is...
UNSOLD CARS AROUND THE WORLD by Barry Ritholtz. Several photos from around the globe of cars that are stacking up by ports and on lots.
UNSOLD CARS AROUND THE WORLD by Barry Ritholtz. Several photos from around the globe of cars that are stacking up by ports and on lots.
Why can't we bail out the homeowners
Who would then pay off the bank loans and everybody would be happy?
Brave New Foundation Asks 1.3 Million Supporters to Urge Congress to Pass 'Helping Families Save Their Homes' Act
LOS ANGELES - Yesterday, Brave New Foundation asked its email list of 1.3 million people to call their Congressional Representatives and ask them to support H.R. 1106, Rep. John Conyers' new bill authorizing judges to modify home loans in bankruptcy proceedings.
As part of its "Fighting For Our Homes" campaign, Brave New Foundation has released a new online documentary video featuring a former subprime lender speaking anonymously about the mortgage sales industry, describing club promoters and drug dealers being hired and trained to deliberately mislead people into taking out loans they could not afford.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNBqP5j1FZQ
Over the last several weeks, Brave New Foundation's "Fighting For Our Homes" campaign has collected dozens of stories in text and video of people all over the country who are impacted by the housing meltdown. These stories are aggregated at FightingForOurHomes.com, a website that seeks to put a human face on the foreclosure crisis.
Now, the Fighting For Our Homes campaign is encouraging people to take action in support of struggling homeowners.
Congressman John Conyers, the author of the new bill, was recently interviewed by Brave New Foundation about his legislation in a state-of-the-art newscast that appeared exclusively online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GTqpTKddk
Prior to that interview, Rep. Marcy Kaptur from Ohio also spoke to Brave New Foundation about the foreclosure crisis, stating that if not repaired soon, the housing crisis "will crush finance in this country for years to come." See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHl_tXvBmO4&feature=channel_page
Contact:
Nathan Havey
310-204-0448 x231
nhavey@bravenewfoundation.org
Keep your eyes peeled
He'll pop up again somewhere else...
(CNN) -- Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater Worldwide security firm, announced Monday he has resigned as head of the company, recently renamed Xe.
Prince, in an e-mail to employees and independent contractors, said Danielle Esposito will become chief operating officer and executive vice president. Esposito has worked for the firm and its partners for nearly 10 years.
Blackwater/Xe's president, Gary Jackson, is also retiring, Prince said.
The position of CEO will remain open, the company said.
Prince did not elaborate on what he planned to do next, saying only that "I will be taking on new challenges that I have not yet had the chance to tackle."
The State Department has decided not to renew Blackwater/Xe's contract in Iraq when it expires in May, a State Department official told CNN in late January.
That followed a refusal by the Iraqi government to renew the firm's operating license because of a 2007 incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards -- then employed by Blackwater -- fired upon and killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
And so's your mom...
HAZEL PARK, MI—In a statement made to reporters earlier this afternoon, local idiot Brandon Mylenek, 26, announced that at approximately 2:30 a.m. tonight, he plans to post an idiotic comment beneath a video on an Internet website.
"Later this evening, I intend to watch the video in question, click the 'reply' link above the box reserved for user comments, and draft a response, being careful to put as little thought into it as possible, while making sure to use all capital letters and incorrect punctuation," Mylenek said. "Although I do not yet know exactly what my comment will entail, I can say with a great degree of certainty that it will be incredibly stupid."
Mylenek, who rarely in his life has been capable of formulating an idea or opinion worth the amount of oxygen required to express it, went on to guarantee that the text of his comment would be misspelled to the point of incomprehension, that it would defy the laws of both logic and grammar, and that it would allege that several elements of the video are homosexual in nature.
"The result will be an astonishing combination of ignorance, offensiveness, and sheer idiocy," Mylenek said.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Kinda like the Terminator?
What could possibly go wrong with a big push to electronic warfare?
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the Army is updating its plans for electronic warfare, calling for more use of high-powered microwaves, lasers and infrared beams to attack enemy targets and control angry crowds.Maybe they should read this article by Nicholas Carr, The Artificial Morality of the Robot Warrior:
The new manual, produced at Fort Leavenworth and set for release Thursday, also is aimed at protecting soldiers against remote-controlled roadside bombs and other nontraditional warfare used by increasingly sophisticated insurgents.
"The war in Iraq began to make us understand that there are a lot of targets that we should be going after in the offensive or defensive mode to protect ourselves," said Col. Laurie Buckhout, chief of the Army's electronic warfare division in Washington, D.C.
The 112-page manual, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press before its release at the Association of the United States Army meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., doesn't offer specifics on new equipment or gadgetry but lays out in broad terms the Army's fear that without new equipment and training, U.S. forces may be at a deadly disadvantage.
I guess if your name isn't Sarah Connor, you don't have anything to worry about....Related major research efforts also are being devoted to enabling robots to learn from experience, raising the question of whether we can predict with reasonable certainty what the robot will learn. The answer seems to be negative, since if we could predict that, we would simply program the robot in the first place, instead of requiring learning. Learning may enable the robot to respond to novel situations, given the impracticality and impossibility of predicting all eventualities on the designer’s part. Thus, unpredictability in the behavior of complex robots is a major source of worry, especially if robots are to operate in unstructured environments, rather than the carefully‐structured domain of a factory.Troubling Failures.
The authors also note that “military robotics have already failed on the battlefield, creating concerns with their deployment (and perhaps even more concern for more advanced, complicated systems) that ought to be addressed before speculation, incomplete information, and hype fill the gap in public dialogue.”
They point to a mysterious 2008 incident when “several TALON SWORDS units—mobile robots armed with machine guns—in Iraq were reported to be grounded for reasons not fully disclosed, though early reports claim the robots, without being commanded to, trained their guns on ‘friendly’ soldiers; and later reports denied this account but admitted there had been malfunctions during the development and testing phase prior to deployment.”
They also report that in 2007 “a semi‐autonomous robotic cannon deployed by the South African army malfunctioned, killing nine ‘friendly’ soldiers and wounding 14 others.” These failures, along with some spectacular failures of robotic systems in civilian applications, raise “a concern that we … may not be able to halt some (potentially‐fatal) chain of events caused by autonomous military systems that process information and can act at speeds incomprehensible to us, e.g., with high‐speed unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Thief! Thief!
Why does this article make me think of the old fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk?:SEATTLE - Stolen laptop? Now you can tell those thieves exactly what you think of them.
Front Door Software Corp.'s Retriever program displays your contact information as your computer boots up. There's even space for a plea to a Good Samaritan — "$50 for my safe return," maybe.
In most cases, that's enough to help an honest person return the machine, said Carrie Hafeman, chief executive of the five-person company based in Evergreen, Colo.
But in the darkest scenarios, Retriever takes off the kid gloves.
You can log on to a Web site and check a box indicating the computer is missing. Now during start-up, a big yellow and red banner appears on the screen, boldly declaring the laptop lost or stolen. This message is set to reappear every 30 seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes the window.
You can remotely switch on a second password prompt if you fear the thief has also stolen your regular Windows, Macintosh or Linux login.
Behind the scenes, Retriever uses built-in Wi-Fi to sniff out nearby networks, then suss out what Internet service providers power them. With that information in hand, Hafeman said, you can file a police report and get help locating the criminal.
While waiting for law enforcement to come through, you can even let off steam by sending new messages to the nagging "Stolen Computer!" screen.
"You are being tracked. I am right at your door" was one, Hafeman said, adding that she could not bring herself to say others that came to mind. Customers have also tried to induce fear or guilt by switching their contact info to "Secret Service" and "Catholic church."
The latest version of Retriever, which costs $29.95 for three years of use, is even more aggressive.
Now, when the "stolen" screen pops up, the laptop cries for help. Use a canned message ("Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, please report me now.") or record your own.
"You can say, 'Get your hands off me, you S.O.B.'" Hafeman said.
After breakfast was over, the ogre called out: "Wife, wife, bring me my golden harp." So she brought it and put it on the table before him. Then he said: "Sing!" and the golden harp sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the ogre fell asleep, and commenced to snore like thunder.I think having a laptop that clamps the lid down on the thief's fingers and won't let go would be a good thing too... Maybe we could develop something like this:
Then Jack lifted up the copper-lid very quietly and got down like a mouse and crept on hands and knees till he came to the table when he got up and caught hold of the golden harp and dashed with it towards the door. But the harp called out quite loud: "Master! Master!" and the ogre woke up just in time to see Jack running off with his harp.
Jack ran as fast as he could, and the ogre came rushing after, and would soon have caught him only Jack had a start and dodged him a bit and knew where he was going. When he got to the beanstalk the ogre was not more than twenty yards away when suddenly he saw Jack disappear like, and when he came to the end of the road he saw Jack underneath climbing down for dear life. Well, the ogre didn’t like trusting himself to such a ladder, and he stood and waited, so Jack got another start. But just then the harp cried out: "Master! Master!" and the ogre swung himself down on to the beanstalk, which shook with his weight. Down climbs Jack, and after him climbed the ogre. By this time Jack had climbed down and climbed down and climbed down till he was very nearly home. So he called out: "Mother! Mother! bring me an axe, bring me an axe." And his mother came rushing out with the axe in her hand, but when she came to the beanstalk she stood stock still with fright, for there she saw the ogre just coming down below the clouds.
But Jack jumped down and got hold of the axe and gave a chop at the beanstalk which cut it half in two. The ogre felt the beanstalk shake and quiver so he stopped to see what was the matter. Then Jack gave another chop with the axe, and the beanstalk was cut in two and began to topple over. Then the ogre fell down and broke his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after.
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