I keep saying
"I only read Playboy for the articles"
Giggle - thanks for this!
A con man fooled US spooks into grounding international flights by selling them "technology" to decode al-Qaeda messages hidden in TV broadcasts, it's claimed. A long and highly entertaining Playboy article explains that in 2003, 50-year-old Dennis Montgomery was chief technology officer at Reno, Nevada-based eTreppid …
Do you remember 'project for the new American century'? The think tank that wanted the US to take over the world by force. Capture key assets, regimen change in Iraq, and economically dominate the world for the 2000-2099 century?
The Bush faction, Cheney, Jeb, Rumsfeld, Libby etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
What a complete and utter mess they made of everything. It's domain name is a search spam parking page now, that's how badly they screwed up:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
So to find out that this lot were soooo GULLIBLE as to buy fake technology like this, does not surprise anyone.
Actually, I think the most amazing aspect was that he was apparently able to keep selling the Busheviks on one scam after another. I only got this story secondhand, but my source said his latest (but last) government contract was one issued early THIS January of 2009.
I'd probably find this funnier if I hadn't been reading a piece in Salon yesterday in which Glenn Greenwald touched on the case of an Al Jazeera journalist who was locked up in Guantanamo, held for 7 years without charge and tortured. Clearly, episodes like this fraud contributed to an atmosphere in Washington in which "Al Jazeera journalist" was understood to mean "enemy combatant". Hilarious, no?
...is a <sarcastic> </sarcastic> typeface option. When the article was described as 'entertaining' I think our Reg hack probably meant it in the same way that Dad's Army was entertaining - dealing with a grim historical subject through cynical, world-weary laughter. I think kudos goes to El Reg for bringing yet another example of the innate stupidity of "our leaders" to our attention.
(BB isn't really watching *me* - I'm feeding a looped cctv tape of me, sitting quietly at my pc, into the central monitoring system to give me a good alibi whilst I go and do something nefarious. I don't think anyone's noticed yet.)
The info that's been released about CIA activities in the 50s and 60 (and later) show that they are willing to investigate all sorts of downright ludicrous claims and possibilities. For instance: all the psychics they had trying to do remote viewing, ESP and all that other stuff.
It seems to me that the only thing that differentiates this from the americans' other trips into the world of paranoid fantasy is that this was instigated by an outsider - rather than with the secret services, themselves.
At least now we know what they means by "credible sources": anyone who has conned them into believing things a 6 year-old would be embarrassed to admit thjinking were true!
>> Frances Townsend, a homeland security adviser to Bush, said she did not regret having relied on Montgomery's mysterious intelligence. "It didn't seem beyond the realm of possibility. We were relying on technical people to tell us whether or not it was feasible," she said.
Right. Technical people such as this one, perhaps?
>> ... one counter-intelligence official briefed on the programme said: "We were fucking livid. I was told to shut up. I was saying, 'This is crazy. This is embarrassing.'"
Seems like the PHBs and neocons teamed up to spend tax dollars on twisted dreams and silence the sane. Yet again.
How could the US public vote such clowns into government??? Oh, wait, sorry ... they didn't.
It amazes me that the branch of the government that ostensibly keeps us safe from threats would fall for something like this...
Still, you gotta at least somewhat admire the chutzpah it takes to successfully scam rooms full of people whose business it is to be paranoid and mistrusting... and that can likely arrange for very bad things to happen to you.
Is there a "giant brass balls" icon?
Nothing changes.
But how come el'reg hasn't run a story on the magic bomb detectors being sold to Iraq by a British company?
Is the British company in question Lewis Page Industries?
At $15K each for a box with a flashing LED it's a pretty good business, could we get a cheaper version in the reg shop for next christmas.
Well, after the French intelligence told the Yanks there will be a large attack on American soil somewhere in 2nd half of 2001 and that there are no WMDs in Iraq since 1991 - and seeing 9/11 and Iraqi scientists swearing that they have stopped working on any form of WMDs in 1991 - maybe someone finally realized the French intelligence usually embarrassingly outclasses anything USA has in field.
I have a feeling that at least the technical branches of French Intelligence are pretty good. One of my ex-students went that way and he was technically awesome. I'll never forget the look on the face of the IT security expert for a major jewellers when this guy broke into his system in under 2 minutes :-)
It might also be worth remembering that the French do have extensive contacts in Lebanon and Syria for historical reasons.
It's fascinating to me that these losers focus on such arcane ideas as messages hidden in TV broadcasts, when anyone planning a terrorist attack has much more mundane and reliable methods of communicating. Didn't it occur to these folks that encoding the Al Jazeera video stream would be a complex undertaking, requiring the complicity of Al Jazeera (very unlikely), and be of limited use, since its signal is not widely available? That they thought that the Terrorists would go to such lengths in this day of cell-phones, IM, email, and the Web, just shows that they have been watching too many James Bond movies--or too many episodes of 24.
He is the one who managed to "misplace" the embassy staff in Teheran for more than a year. On the other hand, he did make mean statements about the Soviet's and stop the Olympic team from competing in Moscow. DUH! This guy was (and still is) a very dim bulb on the Christmas tree of history.
Anyone remember the claims the Soviet Union had a silent MHD based submarine drive technology?
CIA ordered to go looking for it. When they state after exhaustive investigation that it does not exist (and the physics why it's damm difficult to do) the were told "Look harder."
According to Shannon's information theorem *all* information is a subset of noise. Guess what, if you filter a white nosie channel some of (every now and then) *makes* sense.
It's not a code, it's random BS.
I get how non experts could be fooled by this guff but are the CIA so lacking in radio and video comms specialists they could not spot this is rubbish?
Or is it they did not want to talk to the NSA (who I'm quite sure have quite a few people on the payroll who know about such things) and be made a laughing stock of.
Again.
whose the bigger crook. Him for cooking it up or the decision makers who fell for it without (it seems) applying *any* test to check this nonsense.
Tell them there worst fears are true, then sell them special tinfoil.
Just like the sites that tell you how bad cell phones are and what they are doing to you. Then offer to sell you copper mesh hats, house paint that blocks RF, magic black boxes that protect you from RF...
Proof that Fran Townsend and the rest of the ignorati "executives" in my government were completely unqualified for the work they were doing. That's what outsourcing everything but the washroom attendant's position gets you -- oh, wait I think he was a contractor too! As I've said before, the fact that our largest city and miltary's own headquarters were so successfully attacked says volumes about how much incompetence trillions of dollars over 50 years can buy you.
The US military bombed al Jazeera facilities twice that I recall, “accidentally.” It is not hard to believe that idiots convinced by this nonsense ordered these bombings.
This is what happens when people who do not believe in logic or proof or science control the government.
I don't think the previous U.S. administration attacked and/or abducted Al Jazeera buildings and employees because a hoaxster made it look as though Al Jazeera was passing messages to terrorists. I think they attacked and abducted because Al Jazeera is a news organisation that was and is willing to publish information that is unfavourable to the previous U.S. administration. Having said that, Osama bin Laden sends all his tapes to Al Jazeera and apparently they broadcast them - we should have his Christmas message around now. Well, does anyone else still have a cassette player?
Cos our suave, brilliant, after-shave scented British leaders would never fall for any old pitch that went: "Psst, I've got this bit of hush hush kit that does things you just wouldn't believe - bit pricey, but worth every billion. Sorry, but we really can't let you take it apart or have it tested; commercial confidentiality, don't you know. Go on, You know you want to, you love it. Be the first declining nation on the block with this and be the envy of every intellectually mediocre head of government from Paris to Brusssels"
Frankly so ridiculous a story, it may as well be satire.
Replaced by more greedy delusional morons of the lowest calibre. Much like the greedy delusional morons in our government.
Ahahahahha...... this is hysterical. How much money did they spend? Without checking? Still why should they care, it's only you and me that pay for it in taxes - they can afford to be retards thanks to the rest of us.
Al-Qaeda....yea right - try watching the BBC documentary by Adam Curtis - The Power of Nightmares and then come back to me about Al-Qaeda and it's massive `terror network`. Sure there's an idea there now, and a few nutjobs have jumped on it, but largely a neo-con fabrication... there's no evidence to the contrary kids...
The Bible. There has been LOTS of work in thes area, by taking letters and puting them in nice neat rows and reading the columns. All sorts of "messages" were decoded. Of course the Bible mess was made easier by using Hebrew, and the "no vowel" version.
Nothing new. finding something where nothing exists, been done for ages.
Wait I heard a voice that said.........
The PNAC website lives on, at least in part, as do many many others, courtesy of www.archive.org. It's not the fastest of websites sometimes, but at least it's there.
E.g. http://web.archive.org/web/20020330141552/http://newamericancentury.org/ (random choice)
Happy New Year (unless you're a wet behind the ears lefty liberal, in which case, thank you, and have a *very* happy new year).
"As I've said before, the fact that our largest city and miltary's own headquarters were so successfully attacked says volumes about how much incompetence trillions of dollars over 50 years can buy you"
You might note the method of the attack as well. No bombers, cruise or ballistic missiles. No CBW.
However you *should* also note it was only *partially* succesful, due to the actions of the United 93 passengers. On the day this bunch of fairly average airline passengers proved to be the first, last and *only* line of defense.
You might like to know that according to a "Panorama" report on the BBC the estimated unaccounted cash "lost" in Iraq is roughly $13 *trillion*. That sounds like quite a lot of money even for the US government, which seemed quite happy to be swindled on a regular basis by its suppliers (Cost plus payment for a cafateria and cleaning contract?). I understand US governents retain the right to unilateraly cancel governemnt contracts *without* compensation. Perhaps the GAO should investigate with a view to this power being used a little more often.
Just a thought.
@ 13:54 GMT, AC said "this lot were soooo GULLIBLE"
Not only gullible, but stupid, ignorant, and simple-minded in the bargain.
Let us all be grateful that they were (are) so! Can you imagine what would have happened if the American right wing had been staffed with astute, smart, well-informed people who understood that society is complex beyond words?
Clearly, neocon ideology (particularly as represented by "The New American Century") is yet another piece of intellectual junk to throw on the rubbish heap of history. There it can join (inter alia) the ideologies of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Henry George, Milton Friedman, Adam Smith, Wolfowitz, and any other ideologist, great or small, you care to add to the list.
It seems like every ideologist, whether of the left, right, or middle, grossly oversimplifies his understanding of society, history, economics, and politics, then comes up with a cockamamie analysis which amounts to ignoring the obvious and calls for pounding square pegs into round holes.
Ideology of all stripes: a failure from start to finish.
Keeping assorted taxi drivers, cocktail waitresses, croupiers, bar staff and pit bosses gainfully employed..
Unlike government employees none of these people *has* to be employed and all could be fired if the economy turned down further.
Now that's what I call fiscal stimulus.
Might be useful for movie theatres - would stop that ass behind me yelling down his phone and annoying most of the patrons. Too bad the staff are nowhere to be seen when this happens...
On the main subject - the guy has cojones the size of basketballs selling this kind of "tech" to paranoid nutters with guns. Let's just hope it gets more publicity than just Playboy.
For those americans who are so quick to say "omg if only you swapped the word "america" for "britain".
Look, we accept that you're not ALL universally stupid.
We also accept that Britain has it's fair measure of stupid. I mean srsly.. look at our Government..
Ok also look at the Queen and her offspring.
Fine.. I admit it.. Harrods wasn't our most special moment.
But in the spirit of Christmas let's accept.. this was one of "those"moments that whilst none of us are especially proud of them.. this one was brought to us by Playboy and is courtesy of the C I of A.
Hey if it was anyone else we'd all be ganging up right? This one.. we should all sit back and just shake our heads. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone reading this article. It's ftw in any community. Except the defense community. You people should be profoundly ashamed of yourselves.
Everybody knows that the DHS is a joke. A joke hoisted on us by Bush & Cheney. I am somewhat surprised that they did not call Katrina (the Hurricane) that almost wiped out New Orleans an Al Qaeda attempt at terrorism. Bush and company badly botched the effort to restore the area to normality. All they have to do is blame it on terrorism.
Seriously terrorism is an issue but when they create rules like the article talks about tells me that Bush and company still control the US Government. I have asked my Senator to not to vote to retain DHS so I will be asking again next year. Seriously we have to put a stake in DHS and bury it once and for all, along with TSA and any other idiots that were employed by DHS.
Only I thought the idea was to get all these different (26?35?) agencies to better share information and avoid stuff getting lost in the cracks
Perhpas it's time for the GAO to access their effectiveness. It's been running how long?
Still putting a smile on my face. He'd obviously read from the MS corporate sales guide. Don't pitch the techs (they know this is BS) pitch their (technically ignorant and way too arrogant to admit it) bosses.
I would imagine the CIA has a huge technology budget, and a calibre of expertise that would astound most people. This report certainly does it no favours, but you have to question why Playboy of all publications sprung this one on the public, in that possibly no-one would take it seriously?
Therein lies its brilliance. Fashion a report detailing CIA failings in a respected girlie mag that is still the number one read for all terrorists in oddball countries. CIA is more cunning than a hungry rat.