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related issues
> architecture
:: december 12, 2001
learning
from urban disasters
"workshop hosted by new york university's institute for civil infrastructure
systems (icis) to bring together researchers, public officials and other
experts to address the september 11th response, recovery, and rebuilding
efforts."
:: december 3, 2001
structural
engineer describes what went wrong
inside the world trade center on sept. 11
"while acknowledging the many innovations that went into the design
of the wtc towers in the 1960s - including one of the earliest applications
of computer stress analysis - several features made the buildings vulnerable
to the intense fires that ultimately caused their collapse... the question
is, should fire protection standards be changed in some significant way
in the aftermath of sept. 11 and should structural engineering designs
include consideration of fire load and the response of structures? right
now, structural engineers know very little about fire."
:: november 22, 2001
rebuilding
of wtc site to start next year
"real-estate mogul larry silverstein has promised new york mayor-elect
michael bloomberg to start rebuilding the world trade center complex as
soon as next year... silverstein, with partner westfield america inc.,
paid $3.2 billion in july for the 99-year lease on the world trade center
from the port authority of new york and new jersey just a few weeks before
the september terror attacks."
:: november 16, 2001
damage
to buildings near world trade center towers caused by falling debris and
air pressure wave, not ground shaking, seismologists report
8:46:26 a.m. edt [1240 utc] aircraft impact - north tower magnitude
0.9 9:02:54 a.m. edt [1302 utc] aircraft impact - south tower magnitude
0.7 9:59:04 a.m. edt [1359 utc] collapse - south tower magnitude 2.1
10:28:31 a.m. edt [1428 utc] collapse - north tower magnitude 2.3
:: october 25, 2001
buildings
system withstands impacts at over 100 mph
"a new protective building system designed to reduce the impact of man-made
or natural disasters has been developed by barrier construction systems
of colorado and recently tested at the missile impact facility."
:: october 22, 2001
buildings could be built to make jet planes bounce off
"describe a system they envision that is capable of reducing the amplitude
of a physical impact it receives by at least 95-98 percent ... it may
be possible to turn the dissipated energy from a shock wave into usable
thermal energy."
> armament
:: december 12, 2001
afghan
'kamikaze camels' warning
"during their war with soviet forces during the 1980s afghanistan's mujahideen
were known to strap explosives to camels and send them towards enemy positions."
:: november 8, 2001
send
in the drones
"the conflict in afghanistan is a testing-ground for unmanned-aircraft
technology."
:: october 26, 2001
boeing's
pilotless fighter could make jsf obsolete
by david bowermaster, the seattle times
"could cost two-thirds less and eventually render jsf and the pilots who
fly them obsolete. indeed, the quickly advancing capabilities of unmanned
combat aerial vehicles, or ucavs, has led many defense experts to predict
jsf could be the last manned fighter ever built."
:: october 26, 2001
lockheed-martin
team wins joint strike fighter competition
by jim garamone, american forces press service
"has won the largest military contract ever, a possible $200 billion competition
to build the joint strike fighter... is scheduled for delivery in fiscal
2008. the f-35 is actually a family of three aircraft designed to replace
aircraft in the air force, navy, marine corps and the british military."
:: october 21, 2001
secret
weapons: sting-ray weapon could be used against taliban
the sunday times
"new weapons, such as stealth helicopters and "directed energy weapons",
which drive off approaching infantry with painful rays, are already in
the arsenal of military planners... up to $500 billion has been spent
in 20 years on such weapons as part of what are known as 'black projects'."
> bioterrorism
:: november 11, 2001
bin
laden denies knowledge of anthrax mail
:: october 29, 2001
anthrax
dectectors are coming
:: october 29, 2001
sandia
decontaminant cleaning up anthrax locations
:: october 27, 2001
usps
begins buying electron beam systems to sanitize the mail
:: october 24, 2001
air
cleaning system destroys anthrax, other pathogens
:: october 23, 2001
researchers
discover secrets of anthrax's killer toxin
"these reports greatly increase our understanding of how anthrax toxin
destroys cells and offer promising ways to develop treatments for advanced
disease by attacking the toxin itself."
:: october 21, 2001
anthrax
attacks now being linked to u.s. right-wing cranks
by chris blackhurst, the independent
"the letters could have been sent by a right-winger, trying to stir up
racial tension in the wake of 11 september and using the hijackings as
cover ... the anthrax used ... are all from the ames strain, a variety
of anthrax developed in the u.s. but also exported overseas ... anthrax
terrorism is not a new phenomenon, especially in the u.s."
:: october 3, 2001
the
invisible nightmare
by andrew leonard, salon.com
"if not osama bin laden, then someone, somewhere, sometime... that an
event of bioterrorist horror will happen seems inevitable. the question
then becomes how to defend against it... the best thing we can do is invest
in public health."
:: may 12, 1999
about
the potential for biological terrorism articles
- smallpox, anthrax, plague, botulinum toxin and tularemia as biological
weapons -
source= journal of
the american medical association
> computing
:: october 25, 2001
is
xp an open door for open source?
by jane black, business week
"analysts doubt that companies with suddenly tight technology budgets
will upgrade quickly from earlier versions of windows. additionally, system
upgrades make many chief information officers leery, since a changeover
often causes crashes and requires extra training -- two things no one
wants to deal with during a budget crunch."
:: october 10, 2001
association
for computing machinery's committee on u.s. public policy expert, eugene
spafford, takes computer security to congressional committee
"the incredible growth of our society's deployment of computing has too
often been conducted with concerns for speed or lowest cost rather than
with concern for issues of safety, security and reliability... of more
concern, in recent years cost-cutting measures have driven funding agencies
to focus more on short-term research than on basic research... researchers
also need more access to real-world data for analysis and validation...
in several instances, research into novel forms of information security
has been curtailed because patent holders have threatened researchers."
source= committee
on science sobering news on nation's cyber-security
> economics
:: december 13, 2001
final
world trade center deals
"german computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the
truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just
before two hijacked planes crashed into new york's world trade center
on september 11. were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit
card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the wtc
shortly before the planes hit the twin towers? or was it coincidence that
unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed
through the computers as the disaster unfolded? a world leader in retrieving
data, german-based firm convar is trying to answer those questions and
help credit card companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in
new york recover their records from computer hard drives that have been
partially damaged by fire, water or fine dust."
:: november 30, 2001
pakistan,
iran agree to lay gas pipeline
"pakistan and iran have agreed on construction of a multi-million
dollar gas pipeline between the two countries which would ultimately supply
gas to india."
:: november 26, 2001
the
business-cycle peak of march 2001
"the nber's business cycle dating committee has determined that a peak
in business activity occurred in the u.s. economy in march 2001. a peak
marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. the determination
of a peak date in march is thus a determination that the expansion that
began in march 1991 ended in march 2001 and a recession began... before
the attacks of september 11, it is possible that the decline in the economy
would have been too mild to qualify as a recession. the attacks clearly
deepened the contraction and may have been an important factor in turning
the episode into a recession."
:: november 1, 2001
the
next society
by peter drucker, the economist
"the new economy may or may not materialise, but there is no doubt that
the next society will be with us shortly. in the developed world, and
probably in the emerging countries as well, this new society will be a
good deal more important than the new economy (if any). it will be quite
different from the society of the late 20th century, and also different
from what most people expect. much of it will be unprecedented. and most
of it is already here, or is rapidly emerging."
:: september 10, 2001
internet
II: rebooting america
by michael s. malone, forbes asap
"(we come towards) a breakout in IT. we've seen such conjunctions before--in
1958, 1970, 1976, and 1996--and each (the integrated circuit, the microprocessor,
the PC, and the Web) set off an explosion that reverberated throughout
the world... we can do the same now for the convergence of 2004-2005,
and give it a name: internet II, the great global grid... there's only
one problem: It might not happen. america's infrastructure is already
crumbling... the great economic boom of the 1990s, the largest and most
sustained in u.s. history, was built on the foundation of america's investment
in infrastructure in the 1950s and 1960s... internet II is coming, but
we aren't ready. if we aren't ready soon, we may have to wait until 2015
or 2020, and perhaps visit frankfurt or shanghai to see what we missed."
> emergency response
:: september 28, 2001
mceer researchers study structural engineering and emergency response
in wake of world trade center attacks.
source= multidisciplinary
center for earthquake engineering research
:: september 26, 2001
proposing
a national emergency technology guard (net guard)
net guard would repair, restore communications in crisis
source= wyden
issues call for emergency technology corps
[senator wyden chairs the senate commerce subcommittee on science, technology
and space]
> geopolitics
:: december 13, 2001
bush:
u.s. pulls out key 1972 missile treaty
"i have concluded the abm [anti-ballistic missile] treaty hinders our
government's ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue
state missile attacks... my decision to withdraw from the treaty will
not, in any way, undermine our new relationship or russian security...
the 1972 abm treaty was signed by the united states and the soviet union
at a much different time, in a vastly different world. one of the signatories,
the soviet union, no longer exists. and neither does the hostility that
once led both our countries to keep thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger
alert, pointed at each other... today, as the events of sept. 11 made
all too clear, the greatest threats to both our countries come not from
each other, or other big powers in the world, but from terrorists who
strike without warning, or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction."
:: november 29, 2001
musharraf
a big loser, says paper
by latafat ali siddiqui. dawn
"musharraf has ended up at a disadvantage on the political chessboard...
has few allies in the interim afghan government that was fashioned out
of anti-taliban opposition groups last week. he has not won political
support for pro-pakistani independence groups fighting against indian
rule in occupied kashmir. and he has not been able to counter the strengthening
of u.s. relations with india... we are looking at a picture of fundamental
realignment at the international level, where the u.s., india, israel
and russia seem to be coming together on a variety of issues and poor
pakistan is left out in the cold."
:: mid june, 2001
declaration
of shanghai cooperation organization
kazakhstan, china, the kyrgyzistan, russia, tajikistan and uzbekistan
agreement on fighting terrorism and extremism.
"to maintain global strategic balance and stability under the international
circumstances at present is of special significance." "we declare once
again that the threat facing central asia today is a threat facing the
whole of eurasia. the source nourishing terrorism and extremism is the
instability in afghanistan."
source = people's
daily online
:: winter, 1998
the
geopolitics of oil in central asia
by constantine arvanitopoulos
"energy resources are reshaping the geopolitical map in eurasia. eventual
control of the development of oil deposits as well as the eventual pipeline
routing will determine the political and economic future of russia, turkey
and the central asian states; it will determine iran's position in the
region and its relations with the west; it will determine the realignment
of the strategic triangle among the us, russia and china; and it will
have strategic consequences by lessening dependence on persian gulf oil."
source = a journal of foreign
policy issues
> network
:: december 12, 2001
fbi
confirms 'magic lantern' project exists
"an fbi spokesman confirmed that the u.s. government is working on
a controversial internet spying technology, code-named "magic lantern'',
which could be used to eavesdrop on computer communications by suspected
criminals."
:: november 28, 2001
u.s.
assumes global cyber-police authority
by mark rasch. the register
"every country has the right to protect its own citizens, property and
interests. no country has the right to impose its will, its values, its
mores or laws on conduct that occurs outside its borders even if they
may have a tangential effect on that country. the new legislation permits
the u.s. government to do just that, and is unwise and unwarranted."
:: november 23, 2001
u.s.
shuts down somalia internet
"somalia's only internet company and a key telecoms business have
been forced to close because the united states suspects them of terrorist
links... both companies have stated they are not linked to terrorists.
along with denying all internet access to somalis, the closures have severely
restricted international telephone lines and shut down vitally needed
money transfer facilities...80% of somalis depend on money they receive
from relatives outside the country."
:: october, 2001
chilling
effects of anti-terrorism
eff page
"attempts to convey the chilling effect that responses to the terrorist
attacks of september 11, 2001, have had on information availability on
the internet as well as some sense of the effect on people trying to provide
this information."
:: october 18, 2001
beyond carnivore: fbi eyes packet taps
by max smetannikov, interactive week
"fbi has spent the last two years developing a new surveillance architecture
that would concentrate internet traffic in several key locations where
all packets, not just e-mail, could be wiretapped. It is now planning
to begin implementing this architecture using the powers it has under
existing wiretapping laws."
:: october 10, 2001
govnet
planned to protect critical government i.t. functions from cyber attacks
"at the request of the president's cyberspace security advisor, the u.s.
general services administration today released a request for information
(rfi) to the u.s. telecommunications industry seeking information and
suggestions for the development of a special telecommunications network.
akey feature of this network, called govnet, is that it must be able to
perform its functions with no risk of penetration or disruption from users
on other networks, such as the internet. govnet is planned to be a private
voice and data network based on the internet protocol (ip), but with no
connectivity with commercial or public networks."
source= u.s.
general services administration
> psychology
:: december 21, 2001
did
kohl around bin laden's eyes poison his brain?
"many arab cultures have a history of prolonged lead exposure through
kohl [black makeup made with lead], lead poisoning should especially be
considered a possible factor in recent events because many arab fighters,
including some of the taliban, traditionally use kohl around their eyes.
some pictures of osama bin laden certainly suggest he might be wearing
kohl, and it is known that he suffers from kidney problems. lead poisoning
could explain bin laden's kidney problems and could only contribute to
the madness of suicide bombers under the influence of malignant religious
views... earlier studies revealed that hyperactive children and criminal
offenders have significantly elevated levels of lead, manganese, or cadmium
compared to controls; high blood lead at age seven predicts juvenile delinquency
and adult crime."
:: november 29, 2001
checking
attitude changes about arab muslims online
"how much they changed is difficult to assess, but individuals have
the opportunity to measure their own level of unconscious prejudice toward
arab muslims by taking a test on the internet - http://www.tolerance.org
- developed by university psychologists... the new test is a spin-off
of a psychological tool called the implicit association test... measures
unconscious or automatic associations that underlie prejudice... our minds
may be more contaminated than we recognize."
:: november 8, 2001
trauma
resource
online information and resources for those who are having personal difficulty
coping with the sept. 11 terrorist attack and its aftermath. the site
can be found at this url: <http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/Trauma.htm>
and is intended both for mental health professionals and the general public.
:: october 7, 2001
new
study offers insight to why many are having trouble with concentration
and normalcy after terrorist attack.
"during heightened anxiety, people have difficulty turning their
attention away from threatening stimuli."
source= american psychological
association
> security agencies
:: november 28, 2001
ex-fbi
officials criticize tactics on terrorism
detention of suspects not effective, they say
by jim mcgee. washington post
"justice department is resurrecting tactics the government rejected in
the late 1970s because they did not prevent terrorism and led to abuses
of civil liberties."
:: november 8, 2001
secret
cia units playing a central combat role
by bob woodward. washington post. november 18, 2001
"the cia is mounting a hidden war in afghanistan with secret paramilitary
units on the ground and predator surveillance drones in the sky that last
week provided key intelligence for concentrated u.s. airstrikes on al
qaeda leaders... on sept. 27, one of these units was the first u.s. force
to enter the country... the units are part of a highly secret cia capability,
benignly named the special activities division."
:: november 2, 2001
if
cia and the goverment weren't involved in the september 11 attacks
what were they doing?
by
michael c. ruppert, from the wilderness magazine
a "timeline listing crucial events both before and after the september
11th suicide attacks, which have been blamed on bin laden, establishes
cia foreknowledge of them and strongly suggests that there was criminal
complicity on the part of the u.s. government in their execution. It also
makes clear that the events which have taken place since september 11th
are based upon an agenda that has little to do with the attacks."
:: october 21, 2001
cia
told to do 'whatever necessary' to kill bin laden
by bob woodward, washington post
"president bush last month signed an intelligence order directing the
cia to undertake its most sweeping and lethal covert action since the
founding of the agency in 1947 ... the president also added more than
$1 billion to the agency's war on terrorism, most of it for the new covert
action. the operation will include what officials said is "unprecedented"
coordination between the cia and commando and other military units ...
the cia has studied bin laden and his al qaeda network for years. a special
unit or "bin laden station," created in 1996, works round the clock at
headquarters."
:: october 14, 2001
attackers
did not know they were to die
by david rose, the observer
intelligence failure in context
:: april 27, 2000
intelligence
challenges through 2015
by john c. gannon.
source= cia
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