CAMP DAVID, MD — Gordon Brown has paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by telling George Bush he would not delay their exit in order to show unity with the United States. After four hours of one-to-one talks with the US President at his Camp David retreat, Mr Brown told a joint press conference he would make a Commons statement in October on the future of the 5,500 British troops in the Basra region. The Bush administration, under mounting domestic pressure to produce an exit strategy from Iraq, has been nervous that a full British withdrawal would add to the criticism. But Mr Brown made clear – and President Bush accepted – that Britain would go its own way, even if that gave the impression the two countries were diverging. Mr Brown’s willingness to pursue an independent British policy in Iraq will be seen as an important break with Tony Blair. Mr Brown said the two leaders had had ‘full and frank discussions’ – diplomatic code for some disagreements. President Bush heaped praise on Mr Brown after their first meeting since he became Prime Minister, playing down suggestions that Mr Blair’s […]
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s parliament adjourned Monday for an August recess without receiving from the government a series of U.S.-backed draft laws designed to promote national unity and stem support for the Sunni-led insurgency. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the three-hour session without a quorum present and declared it would not resume work until Sept. 4. Legislators blamed the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to construct compromise versions of the key pieces of legislation such as the so-called oil law, intended to ensure a fair distribution of Iraq’s considerable oil wealth. ‘We were supposed to discuss important issues in the month of July, but we did not. Sitting in August is unconstitutional and even if we sit next month, that’s no guarantee that the important business will be done,’ said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker. ‘There are Iraqi-Iraqi and Iraqi-American differences that have not been resolved. The government throws the ball in our court, but we say that it is in the government’s court and that of the politicians. They sent us nothing,’ he said. The U.S. military said three soldiers had been killed in fighting in Anbar province west of Baghdad […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Hackers hired to evaluate the security of e-voting machines used in California found serious flaws that could allow for vote tampering in all three systems studied. The defects included the ability to overwrite firmware, install malicious applications, forge voter cards and gain access to the inside of voting machines by unfastening screws that were supposed to be inaccessible. The defects were found in machines provided by Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart Intercivic and Diebold Elections Systems. The team was unable to test equipment sold by Election Systems & Software because the vendor dragged its feet in cooperating with the review, which is authorized under California law. The e-voting machine assessment was part of a ‘top-to-bottom’ review that Secretary of State Debra Bowen undertook earlier this year into all ballot machines used in the state, whether or not they are computerized. Several ‘red teams’ were given access to the source code and user manuals of e-voting machines and directed to hack them if possible. ‘The red teams demonstrated that the security mechanisms provided for all systems analyzed were inadequate to ensure accuracy and integrity of the election results and of the systems that provide those […]
Federal regulators today are scheduled to pass new rules aimed at breaking open the tightly controlled wireless market, potentially making it easier for consumers to use any handset and software they choose with certain services. But some analysts are skeptical that the Federal Communications Commission’s rules for an upcoming airwaves auction will loosen the grip of big wireless carriers that may be intent on steering consumers to their own cellphones and services. FCC commissioners were negotiating late Monday on ways to prevent that from happening. ‘Open-access’ requirements are expected to be imposed on about a third of the airwaves sold in January’s auction. That means the winner of that spectrum would have to offer a service that lets subscribers use any handset and download any software they wish. For example, a consumer could buy a cellphone from Google and use it on, say, Verizon’s network to download Google games or video from the Web. Google, which itself has expressed interest in bidding, has led the push for open access. Today, big wireless carriers strictly control the devices and applications that work on their networks. The iPhone, for instance, works only on AT&T’s network. Analyst Blair […]
Crime-fighting beats privacy in public places: Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras a measure decried by some civil libertarians, but credited in London with helping to catch a variety of perpetrators since the early 1990s. Given the chief arguments, pro and con a way to help solve crimes vs. too much of a government intrusion on privacy it isn’t close: 71 percent of Americans favor the increased use of surveillance cameras, while 25 percent oppose it. London’s surveillance network, known as the ‘Ring of Steel,’ is said to have aided in the capture of suspects, including those accused of a pair of attempted car bombings in June. A similar system is coming to New York City, which plans 100 new surveillance cameras in downtown Manhattan by year’s end and 3,000 public and private by 2010. Chicago and Baltimore plan expanded surveillance systems as well. Critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have opposed such systems, arguing that they invade privacy, and could be used to track innocent people. Nonetheless, majority support for surveillance cameras crosses political, ideological […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
