China Denies Plan to Hack into U.S. Computers CNN An annual Pentagon report to Congress said Monday that China's total military spending in 2007 was between $97 billion and $139 billion, but because of a lack of transparency, it's hard to tell exactly how much was spent and on what.
Eavesdropping a Quiet Menace The Carlisle Sentinel As someone who’s been writing a liberal column for a largely conservative readership for nearly seven years now, I’m quite familiar with the old saying about tilting at windmills. Nevertheless, I press on, because I learned all the way back in elementary school that popularity and accuracy are mutually exclusive concepts. For example, I opposed the Iraq war in columns going back to 2002, in the days when President 30 Percent was President 80 Percent.
German Court Limits Cyberspying The BBC Under the technique, software sent in an email enables the authorities to spy on a suspect's computer hard drive. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said cyber spying violated individuals' right to privacy and could be used only in exceptional cases.
Prime Minister to Address Spying Charges Grenada Broadcasting Network Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Keith Mitchell plans to address very soon, the issue of alleged spying by a member of the Royal Grenada Police Force. The officer was caught reportedly recording the proceedings of a meeting of the opposition National Democratic Congress on Tuesday night. Dr. Mitchell said he will address the issue as soon an official report on the incident is handed to him by the Police.
March 06, 2008
Remember the Zimmerman Telegram? The diplomatic note passed between Germany and Mexico during World War I. Brought the U.S. into the fray. Set the course for the rest of the 20th century.
We have the Brits to thank for all this.
It was January 1917. Britain, France and Germany had been slaughtering each other on the Western Front for going on three years. Cut off by a British naval blockade, Germany decided to unleash its U-boats on North Atlantic shipping. The U.S., meanwhile, was still heeding George Washington's admonishment about "foreign entanglements."
So on Jan. 16, 1917, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to Heinrich von Eckhardt, Germany's ambassador to Mexico, which said, in part:
"We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona."
How do we know all this? British Intelligence had not only broken the German code, they were also spying on the Americans.
As a symbol of its neutrality, the U.S. was allowing Germany to use its secure diplomatic cable to send messages from Berlin to the German Embassy in Washington. So the Germans thought it was a safe way to send the message - first to Washington by diplomatic cable, then by Western Union to Mexico City using an old German code.
So if the Brits were listening to U.S. diplomatic communications, why is it called "the Zimmerman Telegram"? This is where it gets interesting.
The cable was good news for the British. They'd long wanted to lure the U.S. into the war, tilting the balance in their favor. The communiqué would do just that. But they had to do it without letting the Germans know they'd cracked their code, and without letting the Americans know they'd been eavesdropping.
So they contacted one of their spies in Mexico City, "Mr. H." (his true identity is still unknown). He bribed someone in the Western Union office in Mexico City. It was the perfect solution.
The Americans were already angered by German U-boats attacks on their ships. With the Zimmerman Telegram in hand, it was easy for President Woodrow Wilson, who'd been elected on the slogan, "He kept us out of the war," to do an about-face.
The Zimmerman Telegram was released to the public on Feb. 26, 1917. On April 6, the U.S. declared war on Germany and General Pershing started packing his bags for Europe.
Now I don't bring all this up as a way of endorsing or criticizing any country's spying efforts. As the curator of our little endeavor here, that's not my job.
But given the current goings-on, it does, regardless of your politics, make for interesting observations. Don't you think?
Salient Tours www.salienttours.com Peace has returned and today the battlefields of the Great War hide their terrible secrets well, over eighty years of farming and quiet industry by the local people means that on the surface there can often be very little to show for the carnage and destruction of the Great War.
The Western Front Association WFA The Western Front Association has supported many remembrance and research projects, from the renovation of battlefi
International Spy Museum spymuseum.org The International Spy Museum is the first and only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to espionage and the only one in the world to provide a global perspective on this all-but-invisible profession.
House Dems Near Surrender on Bush Spying Huffington Post Unlike the Senate leadership, senior House Democrats have been fighting Bush's demand that telecommunications companies receive blanket amnesty for warrantless surveillance. Even when Bush refused to sign an extension of the surveillance bill without amnesty, the Democrats held firm and let the measure expire.
The Zimmerman Telegram is interesting for what it left out -- California. It's interesting to n...
— ExPat
March 06, 2008 6:55 PM
Should we spy on our friends, as well as our enemies?
11% 11% 78%
TeamCosmo said...
It's amazing how 1 bribe can change the entire course of history. I think that it just goes to show that the outcome of war or any situation, for that matter, can not be predicted based on the information that appears itself. You never know what's going happen.
Whatever has to be done I say..."for the greater good..." ....not really though. I am one of the few that think sometimes you can have too much information...and the means by which some people obtain it is cruel and unusual punishment...don't we have better things to do in our own country with our own money??
thecatalyst said...
I like Texas. I'm glad it's still ours. Better that we were let in on this bit of information, even if it had to come through the mysterious "Mr. H.".
Having people in our country like "Mr. H" is the reason why we are such a superpower in today’s society! Can you imagine what would have happened if he did not step in and just as stated above "change the course of history with one single bribe."? I believe that we would have a few less states and one less republican presidential nominee, considering of course that Mr. McCain is from the great state of Arizona. Now granted I am a pretty hardcore Democrat, I respect Mr. McCain and his upcoming challenges in the general election. Back on track... "Mr. H" our 007 of the 20th century, did a great thing and perhaps saved a great portion of the America we know today... quite literally. Mr. H, a man whom I would love to have met, but of course in complete secrecy.
The Zimmerman Telegram is interesting for what it left out -- California. It's interesting to note that a possible alliance between FARC in Columbia and Chavez in Venezuela has been discovered in the emails on a laptop captured in a raid on FARC in Ecuador by Columbian troops.
Actually, I'm interested in how FARC gets a laptop to work in the Ecuadorian jungle? Sounds like a great wireless system. Perhaps it's the same one that Bin Laden uses in his cave in the mountains of Afghanistan (or Pakistan) for his Mad Mahdi ramblings. I admire Mr H., but where's Errol Flynn and the Bengal Lancers when you need them?
more on the honor roll