Another Method of Dealing With Wikileaks

I've made my position on Wikileaks clear in previous posts. In my opinion it's a hostile foreign entity that the U.S. should destroy through covert action. But in reality, there is no chance that the Obama administration will act forcefully to eliminate the threat. At best the administration will be able to impose some legal difficulties on Wikileaks. I'm highly skeptical that it can be shut down through legal action. Given that situation, maybe we should try something else.

Since we know Wikileaks is targeting the U.S., and has already obtained information from a U.S. traitor, why not take advantage of that for our own purposes? The FBI regularly conducts sting operations designed to ensnare terrorists. Would-be bombers like the latest Islamist in Portland put their plans together only to find that their supposed collaborators are actually FBI fronts. It's an effective way to disrupt terrorists before they strike. Something similar could easily be done with Wikileaks.

The U.S. could have another apparent traitor or traitors contact Wikileaks with new troves of classified documents. The supposed traitors would be FBI (or some other agency) agents. The documents would be a mix of real but harmless material, combined with false or altered data. The false data would be disinformation designed to advance U.S. foreign policy goals. This would serve two purposes. First, depending on what information was planted, the U.S. might reap certain advantages before the authenticity of the documents was called into question. Second, if and when the fake documents were discovered to be fake, the credibility of Wikileaks would suffer. It would be revealed as a dupe of the United States. The authenticity of any future document releases from the U.S. would automatically be greeted with suspicion. Idiotic conspiracy theorists around the world are willing to believe almost anything, no matter how crazy. It's even possible that some would start to view Wikileaks as a CIA front and a tool for U.S. propaganda. Discrediting the organization and turning it into a laughing-stock would be almost as good as destroying it.

HOT5 Daily 12/16/2010

1. "5 Ways to Win the War in Afghanistan" Suggestions worth considering. 

Representative Sample: right now, the massive amount of money flowing into Kabul is fueling the conflict. In a bizarre way, both the Taliban and the Afghan government currently have an interest in perpetuating this conflict: Both parties are making millions of dollars from the aid and development money saturating the country. These funds are distorting incentives and presenting ample opportunities for kickbacks, bribes, and other forms of corruption.

2. "Why I Want More People to Be Rich" Having more rich people is a good ting. 

Representative Sample: Your higher level of spending on goods and services will almost certainly increase the market for whatever I produce. Your increased saving and investment will lead to more capital and more inventions and almost certainly allow me to produce more within an hour’s worth of work.

3. "Apophatic Atheists" Links to an interesting article which is countered pretty effectively in the comments of this post.  

Representative Sample: atheism need not be a definite position. Atheism is about belief, not knowledge. So one can be agnostic atheist, meaning one doesn’t claim to know whether or not gods exist, but one doesn’t believe gods exist.

4. "Duck and Cover!" Pessimistic speculation on why the Obama administration is reviewing what's best to do in the event of a nuclear attack. 

Representative Sample: It’s a blast from the past, it is. I’m old enough to remember “duck and cover”, and for a while there fallout shelters were the “in” thing to have in a fancy new house. The Civil Defense trefoil could be found in all kinds of cellars and the lower floors of strong buildings, and people treated the situation alternately as being a remote risk and an inevitability.

5. "Unreasonable Requests For Religious Accommodation" No matter how stupid they are, if they're based on religion there's someone who thinks everyone has to accomodate them.

Representative Sample: This man, who was convicted of drug possession is a health nut. Hey, if you want to stay healthy, why don’t you quit the drugs?

To submit a blog post for HOT5 Daily, please e-mail me at unrright@NOSPAMgmail.com. Put HOT5 in the subject.

Knife-Wielding Criminals Meet Gun Owner

Right on the heels of my recent post about self-defense shootings in Kansas I happened upon another incident report, this time in Georgia. Two men attempted to rob a man at knifepoint in a parking lot. Unfortunately for them -- particularly for one of them -- their intended victim had a handgun.

a shopper was getting out of his car when he was attacked and held at knifepoint by two male suspects. ... Investigators say he struggled with the two men and was able to fire a weapon, killing Williams. According to the report, the robbery victim told a deputy "This guy tried to rob me and I shot him."

The man was injured during the struggle, but apparently not seriously. He's alive and un-robbed, thanks to the fact that he had a gun handy. Guns get quite a bit of bad publicity any time some nut goes on a shooting spree. But the fact is that guns are also routinely used in self-defense throughout the country. Many of the incidents garner little attention except for a mention in local news sources. And any day some violent criminal picks the wrong victim and ends up in the morgue is a good day in my book.

And here's a note for any pro-criminal apologists who have foolish sympathy for the poor attacker who supposedly didn't deserve to die for just a mere theft attempt... People like the shooter in this incident, and the apartment residents in the other, don't have the luxury of examining their options and trying to assess the motives of criminals. If someone breaks into your house, or grabs you and tries to put a knife to your throat you have to make an immediate decision under tremendous pressure. You don't know whether the criminal is simply going to take your money and go, or whether he's the type that doesn't want to leave any witnesses to his crime. If he's in your house it's even worse, because if you have a family, they are also at risk. In these situations a gun is a tremendous benefit to self-defense. It gives the weaker, the elderly and the outnumbered at least a fighting chance against a potentially lethal criminal, who may himself be armed with a firearm or other weapon. As I mentioned in the previous post, the fact that criminals in America have to fear being shot by their potential victims is a good thing.

HOT5 Daily 12/15/2010

1. "Conservatives Demolish Democrats During Mid-Terms & This Is What We Get? More Spending, More Pork, And More Class Warfare" Pretty much. It's just another example of the GOP as only the lesser evil.

Representative Sample: We took more seats away from Democrats then we have in four decades and this is what we get? There was a reason Conservatives demolished the Democrats last month and this deal WAS NOT IT. In fact it was the exact opposite. The tax rates going up would be disastrous for this economy and no one wants that. We had the leverage in this deal….but gave it away.

2. "Obama’s war on drilling is also a war on the poor" That's ok, as long as environmentalists are happy.

Representative Sample: The number of jobs destroyed by the ban is staggering, not to mention the loss of revenue to the federal government and the fact that it will make us more dependent on foreign oil. But the worst thing is what it’s doing to the poor in America. It’s devastating.

3. "The afterlife of Sayyid Qutb" An interesting look at an Islamist theorist and his continuing impact.

Representative Sample: Why has the Muslim Brotherhood's new leadership made a point of bringing to the fore aspects of Qutb's ideology? What aspects of Sayyid Qutb's discourse do they find appealing and/or politically useful?

4. "Israel general drops missile defense bombshell" Yet another example of why telling the truth and politics are often incompatible.

Representative Sample: Eisenkot's uncompromising statement did nothing to ease a spate of dire warnings by political and military chiefs in recent weeks that Israel's cities, particularly Tel Aviv and its densely populated environs, will be major targets in any new conflict.

5. "Lawmakers Grill Navy On New LCS Plan" As well they should.

Representative Sample: Despite the changes, McCain said, program costs escalated, leading to cancellations and an overall restructuring. About six years and $8 billion into the program, the Navy only has two ships, two partially completed ships and a raft of cancellations

To submit a blog post for HOT5 Daily, please e-mail me at unrright@NOSPAMgmail.com. Put HOT5 in the subject.

Don't Break Into Apartments in Topeka

For the second time this month, a home invader was shot dead by a resident while breaking into a Topeka, Kansas apartment. Each incident was ruled self-defense, and no charges were filed. That's two less criminals roaming the streets and looking for places to rob. There's no telling what might have happened had those apartment residents been unarmed. Unlike in some countries where self-defense is penalized and the populace disarmed, would-be home invaders in the U.S. have to fear being shot. That's a good thing.

Torture Works Again

Yet another criminal has demonstrated that torture can be an effective tool for extracting accurate information. This time the criminal in question used starvation and dehydration to break his victim over a period of six days, leaving the poor man, Neil Varley in this condition:

malnourished, dehydrated and suffering from kidney failure after he was deprived of food and water during his ordeal

So what did this torture accomplish? In addition to forcing the victim to write out checks, the torture also extracted some accurate information.

Police later recovered CCTV of Kizajev using Mr Varley's bank card to top up his mobile phone and withdraw cash.

As in previous cases, torture was used to obtain a PIN number, a type of specific, verifiable information. Unlike some people who claim to be experts on interrogation, criminals are well-aware that torture can be a viable tool for getting accurate information from a reluctant prisoner. Like all interrogation methods, success or failure depends on the who is asking the questions, the subject, the information in question, and various other factors that may differ in each case.

HOT5 Daily 12/14/2010

1. "Serious" Despite what Nancy Pelosi thought.

Representative Sample: Here’s something that politicians of both parties at the federal level are going to have to accustom themselves to: They can have good ideas born of the noblest intentions that serve laudable public policy goals that are not constitutional

2. "On the death of a wise man" Nice article on Richard Holbrooke. Even if I disagreed with him on policy, I always viewed Holbrooke as someone worthy of respect.

Representative Sample: He created a shop in the State Department that was a prototype of how the U.S. government should be run. It brought together people from every agency into one unified team that defied the old maxim of government that "where you sit is where you stand."

3. "“The Wisdom of Repugnance”" Why the "yuck factor" isn't necessarily a good basis for law.

Representative Sample: social practices that violate various taboos can be revolting even if on reflection the taboos prove mistaken. Accounts of historical attitudes towards interracial sex and marriage, for instance, suggest that people in the past have found that “yucky.”

4. "Averages" Good points.

Representative Sample: the differences matter — and in many situations the actual spread of values is much more important than an average (which can be very misleading).

5. "Wanted: Space Strategy" We need to pay a lot more attention to space in general.

Representative Sample: the Secure World Foundation’s National Space Strategy Project seeks the establishment of a space strategy taking into account the nation’s military, civilian government and commercial space needs in a way that reflects the county’s overall strategic goals

To submit a blog post for HOT5 Daily, please e-mail me at unrright@NOSPAMgmail.com. Put HOT5 in the subject.