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To: greenspirit who wrote (128852)	7/31/2005 5:33:20 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793957

Finger points to British intelligence as al-Qaeda websites are wiped out July 31, 2005 timesonline.co.uk Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell. Someone has cut the line of communication between the spiritual leaders of international terrorism and their supporters. Since 9/11 the websites have been the main links to disseminate propaganda and information. The Israelis detect the hand of British intelligence, determined to torpedo the websites after the London attacks of July 7. The web has become the new battleground of terrorism, permitting a freedom of communication denied to such organisations as the IRA a couple of decades ago. One global jihad site terminated recently was an inflammatory Pakistani site, www.mojihedun.com, in which a section entitled How to Strike a European City gave full technical instructions. Tens of similar sites, some offering detailed information on how to build and use biological weapons, have also been shut down. However, Islamic sites believed to be “moderate”, remain. One belongs to the London-based Syrian cleric Abu Basir al-Tartusi, whose www.abubaseer.bizland.com remained operative after he condemned the London bombings. However, the scales remain weighted in favour of global jihad, the first virtual terror organisation. For all the vaunted spying advances such as tracking mobile phones and isolating key phrases in telephone conversations, experts believe current technologies actually play into the hands of those who would harm us. “Modern technology puts most of the advantages in the hands of the terrorists. That is the bottom line,” says Professor Michael Clarke, of King’s College London, who is director of the International Policy Institute. Government-sponsored monitoring systems, such as Echelon, can track vast amounts of data but have so far proved of minimal benefit in preventing, or even warning, of attacks. And such systems are vulnerable to manipulation: low-ranking volunteers in terrorist organisations can create background chatter that ties up resources and maintains a threshold of anxiety. There are many tricks of the trade that give terrorists secure digital communication and leave no trace on the host computer. Ironically, the most readily available sources of accurate online information on bomb-making are the websites of the radical American militia. “I have not seen any Al-Qaeda manuals that look like genuine terrorist training,” claims Clarke. However, the sobering message of many security experts is that the terrorists are unlikely ever to lose a war waged with technology.

To: greenspirit who wrote (128852)	7/31/2005 5:52:38 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793957

a culture is either growing or slowly dying. It's amazing how all things we do can be reduced to Physics. In this case, the three laws of thermodynamics. The British scientist and author C.P. Snow had an excellent way of remembering the three laws: 1. You cannot win (that is, you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved). 2. You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases). 3. But you have to keep trying. (because absolute zero is unattainable). I posted earlier that I use the definition, "life is an open, thermodynamic system that organises energy." That is what we as individuals do, and the sum of our effort is what our society/culture does. The minute we quit pushing that pebble up the hill with our noses, it rolls down to the bottom again.

To: greenspirit who wrote (128852)	7/31/2005 10:21:14 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 793957

If you think of Athens as an idea, not a place, then Athens never died, even when the highest and best expression of Athenian ideals were people who spoke Latin, or English. If you think of Rome as an idea, not just a place, then Rome never died, not even when the Holy "Roman" Empire was populated by Germanics with blond hair and blue eyes, not even when "Latin" Americans became people with bronze skin, hawk noses, jet black hair and eyes, not even when the shining city on the hill was Washington, DC. Memes survive, even when gene pools die. If you focus on gene pools, then you're stuck mourning the passing of the Thracians and the Illyrians and the Etruscans, and rooting for the Basques.