Current Intelligence

Original Robots

Mike Innes — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:37:34 +0000

Rumor has it that production has begun on a film version of R.U. R., the Czech play where the word "robot" was invented. It's about genetic engineering and robot rebellion, and it could be the best robot movie ever.

Amos Guiora on Israeli Administrative Detention

Kenneth Anderson — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:24:56 +0000

CTLab readers might be interested in checking out the very interesting series of posts on administrative detention on the Israeli legal model at the international law blog Opinio Juris. Professor Guiora (Univ of Utah law faculty) was an Israeli JAG officer for 19 years, and is able to bring a detailed expertise to the comparative issues of detention in counterterrorism. I raise a question to him about how comparable the US and Israeli and European situations are from a legal and strategic standpoint. Start here and scroll upwards for the posts.

Who's Running the Show?

Mike Innes — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:03:47 +0000

David Axe has got an interesting piece up at DR on the incoming Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), US Navy Admiral James Stavridis. Axe makes some interesting points about the relevance of Stavridis' narco-busting experience in South America, but what struck me was how details about his and General Stanley McChrystal's respective roles have gotten garbled.

David Rohde Escapes Taliban Captivity

Mike Innes — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:39:38 +0000

One of the more interesting stories not reported since late 2008 has been the abduction of NYT reported and Pulitzer winner David Rohde while researching a book in Afghanistan. Rohde escaped from captivity yesterday, after being held for seven months. The NYT:

Mapping The Arabic Blogosphere

Mike Innes — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:32:06 +0000

The project’s initial case studies investigated three frequently cited examples of the Internet’s influence on democracy. The first case looked at the user-generated news site OhmyNews and its impact on the 2002 elections in South Korea. The second documented the role of technology in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. The third analyzed the network composition and content of the Iranian blogosphere. Fall 2008 saw the release of a new series of case studies, which broadened the scope of our research and examined some less

Car Bomb Kills Police Official In Spain

Mike Innes — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:43:52 +0000

MADRID — Spanish authorities blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for a car bomb that killed a police inspector Friday when it exploded in a town near Bilbao, in northern Spain. The inspector, Eduardo Pueyes García, was in his car in a parking lot in the Santa Elena neighborhood of Arrigorriaga, about six miles south of Bilbao, when it blew up just after 9 a.m., a spokesman for the Basque regional police said. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity under police rules, said, “The characteristics of the attack pointed to it being the work of ETA.”

Read the full article...

Pakistan's "Invisible Refugees"

Mike Innes — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:57:17 +0000

The NYT has an interesting piece on "invisible refugees" in Pakistan, Pashtun families who've fled south to escape the fighting between Pakistani forces and militants. They're "invisible" because instead of taking refuge in camps, they're turning to their fellow Pashtun for support. The result is families of 10, 20, 40 and more cramped into unbelievably tight quarters, sometimes displacing their own hosts, and stretching the limits of both Pashtun hospitality and local infrastructure:

Guard Of Key Terror Witness Killed In Greece

Mike Innes — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:48:49 +0000

ATHENS — Masked gunmen on Wednesday ambushed and killed an undercover police officer who was guarding a key witness in a terror trial in what the authorities said was an escalation in attacks by domestic terrorists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the police said that some of the bullets used in the killing matched those used in a shooting carried out by a far-left militant group called the Sect of Revolutionaries.

Where Do Security Concerns Stop?

Kenneth Anderson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:47:34 +0000

At what point does "security" concerns stop being a useful point of reference for policy? It's a question that has been raised in the war on terror, but long predates it as a justification for public policy, legislation, government spending, etc. After all, the US interstate highway system - a magnificent achievement, yes, in providing uniform road transport links across a continental country, but surely mostly about economic development? - was justified as a tax expenditure partly in Cold War terms of

The Green on the Football Field

John Matthew Barlow — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:56:50 +0000

But more important is what the Iranian players wore: green armbands. Green is a provocative colour in Iran right now, as it is the colour of the losing presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Mousavi. According to reports, at least 5 players, including captain Mehdi Mahdavikia wore the green armband. Midfielder Ali Karimi wore two, one on each arm.