As per usual, “anonymous” officials have made public particularly damning statements about the United States’ and Israel’s involvement in the cyber attacks against the Iranian nuclear program . Reverse engineers around the globe have speculated about the involvement of the two nations in both Stuxnet and Duqu, but there has never been any proof positive towards either other than coincidental political goals. New York Times’ article Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran basically lays out an affirmation the program began under the Bush Administration but was continued and ramped up under the Obama Administration as an alternative solution to derailing the Iranian nuclear weapons program in lieu of a pre-emptive military strike by the Israelis. Considering the stance America recently took on what it considers acts of war in the cyber domain, it’s particularly disturbing the officials would admit to performing those very acts against an adversary. Naturally, the “anonymous” officials won’t face a lifetime in prison for such a breach of national security, a punishment reserved for everyone else (such as Bradley Manning).

In the U.S. – China Economic and Security Review Commission annual report, the United States Congress called into question motives behind an Internet based event on April 8, 2010. During the incident mentioned in the report, a Chinese ISP hijacked approximately 15% of all Internet traffic for 18 minutes and intentionally rerouted traffic for malicious purposes.¹

With all of the publicity from the Google vs. China incidents, I was surprised this was not widely publicized when it initially happened since it once again involved China and such a large portion of the Internet.² An accusation like this, especially contained within an official government report before Congress, is fairly significant. Whenever I read a government based technical analysis I wonder about its accuracy, so I want to investigate the claims made in the report.

On May 22nd, the Senate approved a spending package for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, they also included several domestic spending packages as well as the bipartisan updated G.I. Bill initiatives proposed by Senator Jim Webb.

Despite the bipartisan nature of the proposal and the fact that the bill is the single largest overhaul of the G.I. Bill system since its inception after World War II, both President Bush and Senator John McCain have expressed opposition to the proposal by stating it will "entice soldiers and Marines to leave the overburdened military rather than reenlist."

Following in the footsteps of Radiohead and The Charlatans, British bands Jamiroquai and Oasis are also considering a free release of their next album. David Enthoven, a music management executive, stated "[W]hy would you sign your career away to a record label when CD sales are falling so rapidly?”

According to an article in the Telegraph, Radiohead’s website has seen an 11 fold increase in traffic since the announcement, making it the most visited music site in the U.K. A band spokesman also stated most visitors are opting to pre-order the box set, rather than pre-order the downloadable version.

During a lecture on "Faith and Reason" at the University of Regensberg in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI used a conversation between Byzantine Emporer Manuel II and and educated Persian as the starting point for his reflections on the topic at hand. Quotes from the conversation harshly questioned the teachings of Mohammed, but the Pope’s main focus was to point out the differences between Christian and Muslim thinking, primarily in the use of violence to spread one’s faith.

Just after the military’s decision to rewrite their policy on interrogation and harsh tactics, President Bush announced that the CIA secret prison program has come to an end with the transfer of 14 detainees to Guantanamo Bay. The high profile prisoners include the supposed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The President’s announcement included new legislation to restrict the rights of the detainees; a few of the requests were previously overturned in a 5-3 decision by the Supreme Court.

Another round of lawsuits is pending for Apple as Creative Labs is going to sue them over their iPod interface.

The Creative Patent covers ways to "overlap" aspects of songs so that an assortment of songs is easily accessible, having multiple functions for buttons on the digital music player, and having the music player/menu access information that is stored in the MP3 ID Tag.

Congress was taken aback by another method of intelligence gathering used by the Bush Administration in the War on Terror; President Bush admitted that he approved spying on American Citizens in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

The news that the intelligence committees were ordered to expand their roles by the President should not surprise anyone. The fact that the agencies were operating with ‘few, if any, controls placed on the activity by anyone outside’ the NSA is the reason Congress is mulling more oversight for the Administration’s handling of the war.

Today the AP is reporting that the U.S. may reduce the number of troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of the Global War on Terrorism. This will be accomplished by reducing the number of brigade combat teams that are deployed to the region. Even Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is suggesting that troop levels could dip below the 137,000 after the elections.

The Washington post is reporting that the CIA is holding terrorist suspects in prisons around the globe (also available from Muslim American Society). The Post did not reveal the locations due to security concerns; claiming the the same defence, the CIA is not commenting on the report.

With the current problems at Guantanamo and accusations of detainee abuse this may be another public relations nightmare for the governments war effort. How can the United States justify holding prisoners indefinitely and shipping them around the world to unknown locations?