Comments on: Rapid Fire 01/27/06

By: Zmeya

Zmeya — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 18:04:52 +0000

About Moscow's lunar mines: One really easy way to spot a scam is to look for "helium-3," "fusion," and "lunar" in the same sentence. Someday, just maybe, the technology might be available to make it a serious prospect, but that's many decades away at best. So for the moment, remember that another term for "helium-3" is "snake oil."

By: FirstCav

FirstCav — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:52:42 +0000

WMDs in Syria? Spare me. My advice to any Iraqi looking for a free, all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC, is to head for the nearest U.S. emmbassy and tell them you know — you really, really know this time — where Saddam’s WMDs are: Liechtenstein.
Doesn’t matter how loopy your claims are, there’ll be some halfwit GOP/neocon functionary to wine you and dine you at U.S. taxpayer expense while you’re in town, and if youu’re really good/out there you’ll get to hang out with GWB at the WH (although, “The Preznit does not recall ever meeting Mr…”).
Then the CIA’ll put you on the payroll with a generous stipend and a cool secret agent name like “Oddball”. It’ll be great! Just tell ‘em what they want to hear.
After the dust settles we’ll leave behind six Marines and a goat to keep the peace (Rumsfeld says that’s plenty, and if the Marines want more goats all they have to do is ask), and to show our gratitude we’ll make sure youre democratically elected Minister of Cheese — or whatever it is they produce there.
No WMDs in Liechtenstein, either? No problem. Those sneaky little Liechtensteinies probably put them all in a Chevy conversion van just before we invaded and drove them to… to… ARUBA! Just say your cousin Ahmed (CIA codename Whifflebat) saw them do it.
Whatever.

By: James

James — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 23:25:44 +0000

The Helium-3 idea has been floating around for a while, but from what I remember, it’s easier to acheive D-T fusion than He-3 fusion. Since they haven’t harnessed the first, the second is pretty unlikely. 2020 is a pretty tight timeframe and the Russian space programs are always scrounging for cash. Bottom line: it’s a trial balloon, looking for investors it will not find.
As for the NSA: I judge them on the facts when they give me some. For now, I’ll suspect the worst about secret government, as the Founding Fathers strongly advised us to do.

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 22:34:08 +0000

NSA program falls to pieces?
Yeah. Yawn. A still-classified program is ‘deconstructed’ by alawyer during his lunch-break.
Spare us the Sophistry, focus on defense technology.

By: Phila

Phila — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:03:46 +0000

I had a problem with the cites in my post below. Here they are:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030315-satellites01.htm
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2002w46/msg00021.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/11/wsadd11.xml

By: Phila

Phila — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:58:31 +0000

Re: the Syria story, I think it's nonsense. But if it's not, I'd say it represents Bush's single biggest failure in his dealings with Iraq. In the run-up to the war, we claimed to know where the stockpiles were. Consider this article from November of 2002: "American spy satellites scanning key targets throughout Iraq at least once every two hours in a concentrated surveillance operation which can pick out objects as small as six inches across in daylight and two to three feet wide at night....The giant craft orbit over Iraq at regular, predictable intervals, snapping high-resolution digital pictures of "sites of military interest" and providing the Pentagon and the CIA with continually updated records of major ground and air activity." There are many other articles from the same time period, describing the unprecedented level of air and ground surveillance in Iraq (here's an example). If I were Bush, I'd much rather have people think I was misled by Chalabi and Co, than to have them believe I let Saddam smuggle thousands of tons of WMD to Syria...especially after Rumsfeld said "We know where they are."). Also, the willingness to believe former high-ranking officials in Saddam's regime is puzzling, too. I wouldn't take any of 'em at face value, personally. People who act as toadies to dictators find it very easy to switch allegiances when the balance of power shifts.

By: rutiger

rutiger — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:57:12 +0000

Should read: “Winger Deconstructs NSA’s Legal Defense“
How is it that all these people can claim that the NSA has broken the law but cant give an example? They may have, I’ll admit that, but none of these jabber-boxes knows for certain one way or the other. Spare me your action-news-style speculation. I’ll wait for the facts.

By: TrustButVerify

TrustButVerify — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:16:37 +0000

It’s certainly taken long enough for someone in the (Western) MSM to take note of Syria’s apparent acquisition of Iraqi WMD. The story broke some time ago on Strategypage and in several Middle Eastern channels; see http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20040107.aspx
for instance. I’m glad to see it covered here on DT at last.