In Database Nation, Simson Garfinkel writes: “The terrorist of tomorrow is the irrational terrorist. This new terrorist does not particularly want to change the enemy’s mind. Instead, he ‘sees the sheer physical annihilation of the enemy as a productive result,’ says Louis Rene Beres, a professor of political science at Purdue University… These new terrorists frequently aren’t interested in negotiation, don’t rationally consider the long-term consequences of their actions, and frequently aren’t even concerned with their own survival–in fact, they may actively work towards their own death. ‘An irrational terrorist might simply be an insane group that sees mass death as a desirable end from an ecological point of view,’ says Beres. ‘Or an irrational terrorist might see an act of terror and loss of life as causing some other political event.'”
“‘If somebody wants to do it, you can’t stop them,’ says [Kathleen C. Bailey, a former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.] ‘If it is a terrorist group, you may be able to infiltrate them. But if it is a single individual, it is going to be extraordinarily hard to know in advance what that individual is doing in their garage, closet, or basement… There are no emissions. With current technology, we have no way of sniffing out who is making anthrax in their basement.’… Even if Congress burned the Constitution and turned the U.S. into a police state, it could not eliminate the bioterrorism threat. ‘Do you really think that you could catch the individual who wants to terrorize the population by making biological weapons? How are you going to know?'”
Important points, in my opinion.
[via A Boy and His Basement]
2:32:32 AM
Doug Bedell: “While traditional media provided most of the world with news of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new form of war zone coverage took shape on the World Wide Web…” [via JD Lasica]
2:17:23 AM
I agree with Flangy: A bigger mixer is always better, and CodeWarrior dishes out a big-ol’-can-o-whoopass on Visual Studio 6. 😉
2:09:32 AM
The Motley Fool Reduces Staff.
2:02:35 AM
AP: Holy War Has Funds, Bin Laden Says. Bin Ladin: “Freezing of the assets or accounts of al-Qaida or any other jihad (holy war) organization won’t make any difference… By the grace of God, al-Qaida has got three alternate financial systems, which are separate and independent…”
2:01:35 AM
Wired: It’s Teleportation — For Real. “‘A teleportation machine would be like a fax machine, except that it would work on three-dimensional objects as well as documents. It would produce an exact copy rather than an approximate facsimile, and it would destroy the original in the process of scanning it,’ wrote quantum teleportation pioneer Charles Bennett.”
1:56:51 AM
Salon: Get educated. “For those hungry to learn more about the crisis facing the U.S., a reading list.”
1:53:30 AM
Dictionary.com Word of the Day: frangible.
1:48:13 AM
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