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2/25/04
The book on Rumsfeld
A new book out this week detailing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's preparation for the anti-terror war reveals a top-secret report that includes war predictions in several regions around the globe, notably between Turkey and Greece, and possible government collapses in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Indonesia.
In Rumsfeld's War, The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander, Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough unearths a Defense Intelligence Agency report full of intelligence on how the Pentagon views military buildups and instability around the world. One element of the report has already come true: Predictions of the depth of Iran's secret nuclear weapons program.
The report, "A Primer on the Future Threat," also backs up concerns in the administration that a terrorist group will use a weapon of mass destruction against a U.S. target by 2020. Just as interesting is the DIA's view of a potential war between longtime rivals Greece and Turkey, seemingly forever locked in a tug-of-war over the Aegean island of Cyprus. The report suggests that while both prefer peace, sovereignty issues on Cyprus could erupt into a regional war. "In the event of hostilities," it says, "Turkey and Greece expect and plan for a short conflict, 3-4 days, and assume that the international community would intercede by then to stop the fighting." However, DIA warns, NATO might not jump in as fast as Athens and Ankara think, and that could lead to a longer war.
See Rumsfeld's War here: www.amazon.com
2/20/04
The politics of eating an Oreo
Yummy Oreos turn out to be the bipartisan snack of choice among Republicans and Democrats. But Republicans and Democrats tend to eat an Oreo in vastly different ways. Thanks to Oreo's national quiz asking Americans how they eat the cream-filled cookie, we learn that the country is divided into four groups: twisters, lickers, biters, and dunkers.
Oreo and Nabisco provided the political elements of the poll to Whispers. One key finding: Sen. Jon Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, is a dunker. He prefers milk, as do most dunkers. Corzine's membership in the Dunker Club, which makes up about 20 percent of the country, is typical in that they hail from the Northeast and make lots of money. But he won't like this detail. Dunkers tend to be Republicans, and Corzine isn't just a Democrat but head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Meanwhile, biters come from the South, are more likely to characterize themselves as independents, and tend to make the least amount of money. Twisters have the highest percentage of Democrats, with many residing on the West Coast.
2/19/04
Time to reboot the intelligence computers
During a recent speech at Georgetown University, CIA Director George Tenet gave a fiery defense of his agency's handing of the prewar intelligence on Iraq. Yet inside the U.S. intelligence community, the spooks know that a lot of mistakes were made–some of them pretty basic. Take, for example, the Defense Intelligence Agency analysts who based part of their conclusions that Saddam Hussein had built mobile biological weapons trailers on the assertions of a defector from the Iraqi military. The defector's claims about bioweapons were entered into the DIA database, but so was another report that the defector was making everything up. Yet the Iraq analysts never saw the "fabricator report," and the defector's assertions made it into Secretary of State Colin Powell's now infamous speech at the United Nations.
To prevent such techno-lapses, our Mark Mazzetti reports, the intel community is changing its computer systems. One change is known as "XML tagging." The goal: From now on, all reports from the same source will be "tagged", or linked together, so analysts can differentiate credible from bogus sources. There's also a push for "horizontal fusion," which would consolidate classified, nonclassified, and top-secret databases into one system–allowing operatives in the field to access sensitive information more easily. As one intelligence officer describes it, it will be like an "Orbitz travel site" for spooks.
2/13/04
Clark still stroking the 'draft' team
Hours after Wes Clark bowed out of the presidential race this week, he phoned up to say thanks to the group who put him on the map: the Draft Clark network. We hear that he took pains to credit the draft effort with helping him get so far, noting that even his professional team of advisers “still didn’t get it” that the draft effort was the key to his limited success. The retired general said that "Campaigns are fluky, and you never know if something weird is going to happen–and it did. The leading candidate (Howard Dean) folded."
Clark, who is now rumored to be considering a run for governor of Arkansas, said he wanted the draft movement to retain "our own identity," and its goal should be to get "George W. Bush out of there. That's the most important thing for our country."
In the meantime, Clark and his wife are going on vacation, even though aides said he used to avoid them because they were boring. But, he told his troops, he’s ready to be bored for a change.
2/5/04
Oops at Post shuts down E-mail
The Washington Post E-mail system went dark Thursday after the company let its domain name expire, a shocking mistake for the company that considers its Internet operation the best in the biz. In a memo to staffers, Managing Editor Steven Coll revealed that Network Solutions, which manages Internet addresses, "apparently notified the Post of the pending expiration via a drop-box that was not being monitored."
Spokesman Eric Grant said once the company figured out the glitch, a call was made to Network Solutions to renew the domain and the system was slowly put back on line. It’s expected to be fully operational by Friday.
Staffers said the crash–which came as deadline approached–sent the news desks into a tizzy. It was especially hard on Style, Metro, and National desks, which rely on E-mail reporting, and the photo department, which receives digital pictures from photographers via email.
Read Coll’s memo:
"Early this morning, the domain name washpost.com expired. Network Solutions, which manages Internet addresses, apparently notified the Post of the pending expiration via a drop-box that was not being monitored. The domain name has now been restored, but it will take an unknown period of time–at least a few hours–to propogate [sic] across the network. In the meantime all external E-mail has been disrupted and external senders are receiving delivery failure notices.
While this problem persists, it is possible to access the Post's VPN network via the Internet by typing in the direct IP address of a network server. . .We'll keep you updated as we learn more. COLLS."
2/4/04
Clark had 'I quit' speech in OK
Democratic presidential Wes Clark would make the "Be prepared" Boy Scouts of America proud. Insiders tell our Suzi Parker that he wasn't so sure he'd win Tuesday's Oklahoma primary. So he was given two speeches: One, the victory address he delivered, the other an exit speech. His victory was so small–just 1,220 of 296,169 votes–that he better keep that exit speech close by.
Meanwhile, we hear that the old Draft Clark movement is getting back into the action, raising money via an E-mail campaign to help the retired Army general play through to the March 2 Super Tuesday series of primaries and caucuses.
2/3/04
Clark plans to soldier on to Michigan
Democratic presidential candidate Wes Clark will play through until the Michigan primary even if rival John Kerry blows him out in the Oklahoma primary Tuesday where Clark was favored. What's more, insiders say that Clark has enough money to stay in through Super Tuesday, the March 2 showdown in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and Minnesota. Insiders say the campaign is confident of getting a victory soon, though new polling suggests that no challenger may be able to stop the Massachusetts senator from winning the nomination.
More budget busting: $50 Million for Osama
Want to pick up a quick $50 million? Deliver Osama bin Laden to U.S. authorities and the money may be yours–at least under a proposal Rep. Henry Hyde is readying for Congress. The Illinois Republican, chairman of House International Relations Committee, wants to give the State Department the option to hand out up to $50 million to informers who provide information leading to the capture of bin Laden. As things now stand, State has the authority under its counter-terrorism rewards program to pay a bounty of up to $25 million for bin Laden and other terrorists. Bin Laden, Hyde figures, may be worth a lot more. His bill, scheduled to be introduced this week, also would offer other inducements–"door prizes" such as motorcycles and cars, one aide says–for information on lower-level terrorists.
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