Puppet MastersS

Propaganda

Habeas Corpus!: Bin Laden buried at sea, Saudis refuse body

Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
Mon, 02 May 2011 09:09 UTC
Image

Washington - A U.S. official says Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.

After bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.

The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, did not immediately say where that occurred.
Read More...
Info

Osama bin Laden killed: death will not signal end of insurgency

Ben Farmer
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 02 May 2011 02:08 UTC
Osama bin Laden
© EPAOsama bin Laden
America and its allies invaded Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden, but his death will not signal the end of the Taliban-led insurgency facing Nato troops.

While his death is powerfully symbolic and will be widely welcomed in Afghanistan, his al Qaeda network has held little sway in the country for several years.

A decade after the Taliban regime gave him safe haven and refused to hand him over following the September 11 attacks, many in the Taliban are reportedly now ambivalent toward their former guest and his network.

The Taliban have denied they share the international jihadist ambitions of al Qaeda and the CIA has long estimated the network has fewer than 100 fighters and operatives inside Afghanistan.

Instead the Taliban say their insurgency is a home-grown nationalist campaign of resistance waged not by international terrorists, but waged by Afghans against a puppet government and its foreign backers.

Nato commanders often state that 80 per cent of Taliban foot soldiers are local men fighting within 20 miles of their homes.
Read More...
Bad Guys

After Osama Bin Laden, is the world a safer place?

Julian Borger
The Guardian, UK
Mon, 02 May 2011 05:41 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse / Getty ImagesOsama Bin Laden
Declarations of outright victory in the 'war on terror' may be premature

The killing of Osama Bin Laden provided a moment of catharsis that had eluded America for a decade. Flag-draped crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House and at Ground Zero in Manhattan, singing the national anthem. On television, Peter Bergen, an expert on al-Qaida and one of few people in the field to have actually met its leader, declared: "Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror."

The mood this morning is likely to be more sober, as Americans cast their minds back on past premature declarations of victory, in Afghanistan at the end of 2001 and at George W Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" triumphalism over Iraq in 2003.

The struggle against terrorism does not give itself easily to neat beginnings and endings. In one sense, the "war on terror" ended in March 2009 when the incoming Obama administration decided it was a counter-productive phrase in the first place, bringing America's enemies together rather than dividing them.

After being driven from Afghanistan in 2001, al-Qaida's response was to transform itself into a far looser global network that would be harder to destroy. In its most dilute form, al-Qaida is little more than a franchise that alienated groups around the world can sign up for, exchanging formal oaths of allegiance for the dread that the name inspires in their enemies.
Read More...
Question

What's next for al Qaeda?

Chelsea J. Carter
CNN
Mon, 02 May 2011 04:50 UTC
For much of the world, Osama bin Laden was the face of al Qaeda. He was, after all, the man who oversaw the September 11, 2001, attacks.

With bin Laden gone, the question now becomes "What happens to al Qaeda?"

Within hours of bin Laden's death, questions began to emerge about who would take the helm of the organization and whether it would create an opportunity for other Islamic organizations to step up.

"Al Qaeda is weakened. But it doesn't mean that the United States has no challenges," Steven L. Spiegel, director for Middle East development at the University of California Los Angeles, said early Monday.

Standing behind bin Laden for more than two decades has been an ideological army that stretches around the world, where militants have set up their own "al Qaeda franchises," analysts say.

"He was very good at coming up with messages that would unify al Qaeda," said Paul Cruickshank, a CNN analyst for terrorism and an alumni fellow at the New York University's Center on Law and Security.

"Now without bin Laden, they will likely lose some of that unity."
Read More...
Attention

Bin Laden's death is justice for Canadians: Harper


CBC News
Mon, 02 May 2011 12:51 UTC

The death of Osama bin Laden has brought justice for the 24 Canadians who died on Sept. 11, 2001, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday night.

However, he added, the threat of international terrorism continues, which is why Canada remains in Afghanistan.

"Canada receives the news of the death of Osama bin Laden with sober satisfaction," Harper said in British Columbia, shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sunday that the world's most wanted terrorist had been killed in a compound in Pakistan. Bin Laden's demise ends the 10-year manhunt for the terrorist who masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"Sadly, others will take his place," Harper said.

"This does remind us why Canadian Armed Forces personnel have been deployed to Afghanistan," he said. "Through their operations there to cut off terror at its root, our men and women in uniform have made an enormous contribution to Canadian security at home and abroad."
Read More...
Family

Anonymous set to target Iranian sites with denial of service attacks on 1 May

Phil Muncaster
V3
Sat, 30 Apr 2011 01:47 UTC
Online hacktivist collective Anonymous has announced OpIran, a new campaign set to coincide with International Workers' Day on 1 May and designed to launch denial of service attacks at Iranian web sites.

In a post on the AnonNews site, the group urged the Iranian people to join an "era of change" sweeping the world.

"We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you," the statement read.
Read More...
Laptop

Appeals Court: No Hacking Required to Be Prosecuted as a Hacker

David Kravets
Wired
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:50 UTC
keyboard
© Wired
Employees may be prosecuted under a federal antihacking statute for taking computer files that they were authorized to access and using them in a manner prohibited by the company, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The case decided 2-1 Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerned the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Congress adopted the CFAA in 1986 to enhance the government's ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.
Read More...
Magnify

Microsoft admits that Windows Phone 7 collects location data

Dean Wilson
The Inquirer
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:59 UTC
Tries to reassure users that details are safe

Microsoft has admitted that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) tracks users' locations.

With concern growing over revelations that all of the major mobile operating systems, including Apple's IOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, collect location data, Microsoft has released an FAQ about the issue.

Microsoft revealed that it collects data such as the BSSID, which is the MAC address of the device, the signal strength, the radio type, and if GPS is available it also logs latitude, longitude, direction and speed.

However, the company said it does not collect information sent over private, non-protected wireless networks, otherwise known as payload data. It said that its software specifically only picks up publicly broadcast data from WiFi access points and that packets sent over encrypted or unencrypted networks remain safe from its location tracking.
Read More...
Radar

TomTom sorry for giving customer driving data to cops

Dan Goodin
The Register
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:01 UTC
'Anonymous' info used to set speed traps

Navigation device maker TomTom has apologized for supplying driving data collected from customers to police to use in catching speeding motorists.

The data, including historical speed, has been sold to local and regional governments in the Netherlands to help police set speed traps, Dutch newspaper AD reported here, with a Google translation here. As more smartphones offer GPS navigation service, TomTom has been forced to compensate for declining profit by increasing sales in other areas, including the selling of traffic data.

On Wednesday, Europe's biggest satnav device maker apologized, saying it sold the data believing it would improve traffic safety and reduce bottlenecks, The Associated Press reported.
Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Has Bin Laden been dead for 7 years - and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on terror?

Sue Reid
DailyMail.Co.Uk
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:59 UTC
The last time we heard a squeak from him was on June 3 this year.

The world's most notorious terrorist outsmarted America by releasing a menacing message as Air Force One touched down on Saudi Arabian soil at the start of Barack Obama's first and much vaunted Middle East tour.

Even before the new President alighted at Riyadh airport to shake hands with Prince Abdullah, Bin Laden's words were being aired on TV, radio and the internet across every continent.
Image
© EPAGenuine picture: Osama Bin Laden in October 2001

It was yet another propaganda coup for the 52-year-old Al Qaeda leader. In the audiotape delivered to the Arab news network Al Jazeera, Bin Laden said that America and her Western allies were sowing seeds of hatred in the Muslim world and deserved dire consequences.

It was the kind of rant we have heard from him before, and the response from British and U.S. intelligence services was equally predictable.

They insisted that the details on the tape, of the President's visit and other contemporary events, proved that the mastermind of 9/11, America's worst ever terrorist atrocity, was still alive - and that the hunt for him must go on.
Read More...