It works as follows: Iranian agents (or businessmen) contact friends or allies in foreign countries. These friends / allies use a company in their country as a front to buy technology from the U.S. When they receive the products, they send it to their Iranian buddies who then use them in bombs and other weapons.

The above is an admitted simplification of quite a complex scheme:

While illegal trafficking in weapons technology has occurred for decades — most notably in the case of the nuclear smuggling ring operated by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan — the new documents suggest that recent trading is nearly all Internet-based and increasingly sophisticated.

Many of the schemes unknowingly involve U.S. companies that typically have no clue where their products are actually going, the records show.

“The schemes are so elaborate, even the most scrupulous companies can be deceived,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and co-author of a forthcoming study of black markets for weapons components.

Albright said the deceptions can be even more elaborate when the target is nuclear technology. “That’s where the stakes are the highest,” he said. “If Iran is successful, it ends up not with an IED but with a nuclear weapon.”

Rare details about the illicit markets emerge in court records from the Justice Department’s investigation of Iran’s Dubai network, as well as in the ISIS study, which tracks four years of secret trading by Iranian and Pakistani front groups. The study includes copies of invoices and the contents of e-mails from companies looking to buy Western technology.

The good news is that the U.S. knows that Iran is doing this, and mostly how. The bad news is that this does not make it much easier to prevent Iran from purchasing goods it is not allowed to purchase.

It should be rather obvious that a lot of resources and manpower should be allocated to those intelligence officials and departments who deal with this problem. These weapons are used by terrorists in Iraq; American technology is killing American soldiers.

This too will be a major challenge for an Obama administration, albeit perhaps one he does not have a whole lot of direct influence on himself.

©2009 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

Fresh from the talented pen of Joel Watson from HijiNKS Ensue - his efferverscent comics are well worth following. [Republished with permission]

Wonder what Obama thinks of Oz’s rather more fiercesome drop bears?

The screenshot below is taken from obamacto.org, where voting on the new CTO’s priorities, as you can see, has already commenced:

See: not just new-fangled, but transparent and a presidency of the people, too. As promised. Although it could be argued that, by definition, the site appeals to the already technologically savvy. Meaning that either a) those voting really know what they’re talking about - hurrah! or b) those voting aren’t exactly the right target audience for a new CTO - boo! *Cut to a child somewhere, handwriting and posting a letter which reads ‘I’d like a computer please’.*

These voting sites seems to be all the rage, in fact - as I also recently stumbled across an identical one set up for Republicans, whereby they can suggest and vote on what they need to do to turn their party around (*insert gag here*).

Speaking of Republicans and technology - Monday night’s Daily Show included footage of George Bush at the G20 summit, giving a speech about the free market and its great technological advances. Like, y’know, the aeroplane… and the CAT scan… and, well, watch for yourself (from around 3:05):

Equating the iPod with the steam boat? I mean, I’m a big fan of the Shuffle function, but really…
*Can you just do that? Invent any post you like? Apparently so.

“Demand for solar energy remains dependent on government subsidies, because it costs more than conventional forms of electric-power generation,” said James Hines, research director at Gartner and lead analyst for solar energy technologies. “However, the new US administration could help encourage
investment in solar energy projects if it succeeds in implementing some of its plans, which is more likely with majorities in both houses of Congress.

This increased emphasis on renewable energy and the extension of the 30 per cent investment tax credit for solar projects ‹ passed last month ‹ could finally help realise the US’s vast potential for solar energy. As a result, the US could overtake Germany as the largest photovoltaic market within a
few years.”

President-elect Obama’s New Energy for America plan could have a significant
impact on the US solar industry. The plan’s provisions include:

· A federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that requires 10 per
cent of electricity consumed in the US to come from renewable sources by
2012

Greek-American blogger nicegreekboy commented on the electronic voting machines, which have already caused problems in early-voting-state North Carolina:

“These are used in multiple states, and all you seem to ever hear about them are problems. For one thing, computers crash. A lot. And these are some shitty, poorly kept-up computers. For another thing, there are fears that these things are very easy to hack…since they’re, you know, computers. Most of all, though, the biggest problems with electronic voting machines are sometimes caused by outside forces. For instance, in North Carolina, the state only offers machines; there are no paper ballots at polling places (there’s currently a push to get “emergency paper ballots,” but each polling place likely won’t get more than a 100). So, theoretically, if a polling place has its voting machines crash, then voters are up shit creek - they simply can’t vote. And if there are only 100 emergency paper ballots, a huge number of people still won’t get to vote.”

While Canadian blogger, L-girl, believes the election will be rigged.

“The 2000 election was stolen.



The 2004 election was stolen.

There were huge questions about the validity of both the 2002 and 2006 midterm elections.

And nothing has changed. As all problems left untended will, it has only gotten worse. There is evidence voting machines were tampered with in the primaries.

So why is everyone assuming the 2008 election will be fair? I’m still not convinced there will even be a 2008 election in the US. I'm not making a prediction; I'm not in that line of work. But let's put it this way: if the election goes ahead as it's supposed to, I'll be relieved. If it doesn't, I won't be surprised.


But if it's more expedient for the Cheney junta to hold elections, but keep them rigged, then they will.”

Fellow Canadian blogger, Paul Bryant, also comments on the U.S. voting system and lists five problems, including: the different ballot systems in each states and that there isn’t an independent voting commission. He writes about the Canadian voting system.

“The United States could learn from the Canadian election system. In Canada Federal elections are run by Elections Canada an independent body that decides on changes to the composition of ridings, how ballots are handled, identification required at the polls, campaign financing rules etc. Elections Canada is non-partisan and reports to Parliament. The Head and Deputy Head of Elections Canada cannot vote or be a member of a political party and are generally well regarded for their neutrality.”

While, Duncan McFarlane in the UK, writes about the past elections and states that voter irregularities are still considered a conspiracy “by most of the media.” McFarlane also comments on the distribution of the voting machines.

“Fewer voting machines were provided in districts with high numbers of low income, black or student (i.e Democrat) voters. In at least one Ohio precinct there were no working machines. Voters were told they’d be phoned to come back later. They weren’t. In some precincts they were offered provisional ballots – but under Ohio electoral law provisional ballots can’t be counted until 10 days after the election – long after the election had been ‘called’ for Bush (38,39,40,41).”

He then compares the election to the 2004 elections of Ukraine, where it was also suspected of being rigged.

“Perhaps its because the rigged results of the Ukrainian elections favoured Russian businesses at the expense of US and EU based ones – the US Presidential election results were those desired by the owners and chief executives of these companies – not least media conglomerates. The media is meant to provide viewers with the facts and let them decide – instead they present viewers and readers with a conclusion that’s good for business accompanied by as few facts as possible. So much for objectivity.”

Over in the Philippines, Mike comments on the mailed New York ballots that had “Osama” on the ballot instead of “Obama.”

“It is inexplicable for some that Osama Bin Laden, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, and certainly New York’s most wanted fugitive in respect to the horrible terror attacks of the September 11, 2001, would be on a ballot in upstate New York where the stigma of 9/11 is still strong and some scars are still raw over post 9/11 alleged ‘crackdowns’ and law enforcement scrutiny of the large Muslim-American population in communities there.”

He further adds that the misspelling is offensive to the Democratic nominee.

“That’s both an insult and injury to a Senator who has earned the right to have his name spelled and put right on the ballot, even the electronic ones.”

Finally, blogger of American Buddhist Net, writes about the $100,000 reward offered by Velvet Revolution to anyone who can prove Karl Rove and Michael Connell rigged the 2004 election.

“I doubt that's enough. Maybe $10 million and a really good witness protection program would get results.”

Perhaps as much as its friends around the world, Africa is especially interested in how the upcoming American elections will pan out with a number tuning in to watch the Presidential debate on September 26, 2008 (which almost didn't happen). Blogger and Ushahidi co-founder Ory Okolloh encourages Americans to really think about their choices and the potential outcomes by participating in the “Dear American Voter Project”:

“Dear American Voter” is inviting you to be a part of a global dialogue featuring responses from around the world to the question, “What should Americans think about as they cast their ballot? ” (Uumm…if you vote for McCain…goodbye USA, hello Russia and China).

Meanwhile, Blackyard notes that Barack Obama's performance at the debate appears to have given him a slight boost in the Gallup Polls. Everest Chiali wrote about the night's exchange in Swahili.

But there are other concerns as well. Siasa Duni suggests that the McCain-Palin ticket suffers from a lack of transparency and wonders if Sarah Palin is being protected from scrutiny by advisers who recognize that she isn't ready for serious questions from reporters, especially after one of Palin's first national interviews with Katie Couric drew an uproar of criticism when Palin embellished her own diplomatic record as Governor of Alaska:

In order to minimize the fallout from the Hail Mary selection of Ms. Palin, the Republican presidential campaign organizers have been limiting Ms. Palin’s exposure to scrutiny. While reporters are allowed to ask her questions, she’s never placed in a situation where she has to answer. In the past four weeks, I have only seen two reporters who have been blessed with access to Ms. Palin. There was the much ballyhooed interview with Charles Gibson of ABC News who was careful to handle Ms. Palin with the softest of kid gloves, even though he still managed to expose her as having limited-to-no understanding of international issues with a question about the Bush Doctrine and its interpretation (America has the right to preemptively attack other nations perceived as threatening).

Angry African likens America's current dilemma to gangs terrorizing a neighborhood:

So you got a guy who was a bit stupid but you liked having him around for a barbeque. Never a good reason to select him, but hey, there you go. You thought, “How bad can it get?” And boy did it get bad. He started fights with neighbouring communities even though they did nothing to your community. Oh, they talked tough, but you knew their community is way to weak to do anything. But he started fighting them in any case. Instead of those guys who kept on throwing bombs over your fence. The fights started sucking you dry and the place started falling apart. The houses started to crack, the lights went off in the streets, and the roads are falling to pieces. Basically your little community is just not the same anymore. And almost everyone agrees that this guy sucked big time. He is not coming to the next barbeque. It’s time to select someone else to run the show and fix up the place again.

So it has come down to two guys you can vote for. One is a guy who doesn’t look a lot like you, he is a bit young, tell you he has all these big ideas to make it better, but also tells you that you will have to pull your weight to make it better. Now he might be a bit shaky.

Apparently some hackers are have hacked her personal email and have posted screenshots thereof. They even boast that they went so far as to call daughter Bristol on her phone using the information on the email, just to be sure it really was Palins mail.

Knowing how some hackers operate, I would tend to think they were attracted to Palin because a- She, being inexperienced on the national stage doesn’t know how to protect her data as well and b- messing with her will get them a ton of attention.

Regardless it’s an unacceptable (not to mention illegal) invasion of personal privacy, something I hope the police can explain to them as soon as they can be found and arrested.

©2008 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

The invasion of privacy comes at a time when Palin and her husband are being questioned about the firing of Alaska’s former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin’s campaign manager released a statement saying: “This is a shocking invasion of the Governor’s privacy and a violation of law.”

World bloggers agree.

English blogger Graham Cluely wrote in his blog, although using a Yahoo! account for government work was “silly of her,” the hack was an offensive.

“Breaking into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account is an offence. Yes, there may be interest in what she has been doing in her “private” email account but that is no excuse for breaching security and breaking the law.”

Cluely, who is a technology consultant, added his tech-savvy expertise in the matter.

“Of course, none of this explains exactly how Palin’s email account was hacked. Did she access her Yahoo account from an insecure PC? Had she logged into her account using an unencrypted Wi-Fi connection in a public place? Had she chosen an easy-to-guess or easy-to-crack password (like a dictionary word)? Had she chosen the same password for every website she used? (Our research shows that 41% of people do precisely that).”

Israeli Avi Green wrote in his blog, Tel-Chai Nation, about what extremes certain people will go to reach their objectives.

“Palin Derangement Syndrome has reached a pure low now, as this shows that leftists are willing to commit federal crimes to achieve their goals. The criminals who committed this offense must be caught and jailed and made to pay considerable fines for their crime.”

Spanish-American blogger Claudia, writes in PoliGazette, that the incident was “nasty” and begged for attention from the hackers, themselves.

“Apparently some hackers have hacked her personal email and have posted screenshots thereof. They even boast that they went so far as to call daughter Bristol on her phone using the information on the email, just to be sure it really was Palin's mail.

Knowing how some hackers operate, I would tend to think they were attracted to Palin because a- She, being inexperienced on the national stage doesn’t know how to protect her data as well and b- messing with her will get them a ton of attention.

Regardless it’s an unacceptable (not to mention illegal) invasion of personal privacy, something I hope the police can explain to them as soon as they can be found and arrested.”

Twitter is an amazing tool; living in Ireland one of my biggest dislikes is that the time difference screws up me watching certain political events that occur in America. A great function of twitter until a few weeks ago was that you could follow certain people like Barack Obama on your mobile phone and twitter would send you an SMS:

politifact Joe Biden: Says McCain “supported George Bush’s policies 95 percent of the time.” http://tinyurl.com/5c4bxe about 19 hours ago from twitterfeed

The problem for international users like myself is that it was costing Twitter $1,000 a person so they don’t offer that service anymore unless you live in America. Regardless, Twitter is an example of a social service Senator Obama’s media team has used to keep his supporters informed when he makes speeches and on other events like his choice of a VP.  Senator McCain does not need to use technology because his focus is on the seasoned voter, the older voter etc… however does this lack of technology use reduce involvement with his campaign?

Senator Obama can maintain a level of involvement with his supporters through social media that allows him to keep up donations while reminding his supporters to spread the word, get their neighbors involved or make people aware about any nasty smear by right-wing organizations.Senator McCain on the other hand has to rely on TV and the radio which is not as fast, or personal as spreading issue awareness compared to a simple SMS to a cellphone or a post on Senator Obama’s  Facebook group.

Will this new method of involvement make the difference, only the next two months will tell the whole story but I believe the McCain camp is at a distinct disadvantage:

Foliofn Investments launched in May of this year help customers automatically screen out companies on the Genocide Intervention Network’s “highest offenders” list of firms that operate or trade in Sudan and thereby, according to the network, share complicity in marginalizing portions of the country’s local population.

On the web.