On a happier note

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The photo lab finally found my negatives. Phew. Posted a few early shots from Kristin's wedding.
Ran after work today, and my left shin was throbbing. I realized that I hate running. It's painful, unpleasant work. I like the idea of running, the fitness it provides, the physical effort it requires--but running itself gives me little pleasure. I am a lousy runner, to boot. The good thing is it helps me to sleep better. Yesterday I was out cold.
Watched Keeping the Faith on cable. I've got to admit, I'm a sucker for romance films set in New York. It's why I will definitely go see Serendipity. I must try it someday, the whole falling in love in New York City thing. Anyway, Keeping the Faith did not offer any insights into religion, but it handled the two guys in love with the same girl love triangle very well. Me? Yes, I'm the Ed Norton character. Sucker.

Grounded

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Despite lots of flight schedule manipulation and waiting, I never made it out Friday to Rob's wedding. I kept swinging emotionally, from wanting to go no matter what just to prove a point, I'm not sure what, to wanting to stay home and seeth. I feel for Rob, who planned the wedding so far in advance and now won't be able to share it with so many of his friends and family.
I feel quite helpless. I want to be on the front lines, chasing down these killers. Bill and I were out at sushi tonight, and we both decided to check out the CIA to see if we could secure employment as top analysts. Wouldn't be much fun to be some entry-level grunt, but would be great to recruit some top-notch programmers and engineers and develop ways to infiltrate these terrorist organizations and expose their plans.
Religious fanaticism scares me.
Being stuck here in Seattle was not ideal, as the events of this week have left me with a craving for the company of friends, lots of them. Thankfully a few people were available for my last-minute plans. Went running with Dave, Jeff, Anthony, and new Seattle-ites Mandy and Clay this morning. It made me realize how much I dislike running, how painful it is, and how out of shape I am. Then Le Bean and I checked out a photography exhibit at the Frye Art Museum.

Grey

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A profile of Osama bin Laden from the Jan 24, 2000 issue of The New Yorker.
I wanted to post some happy pictures for a change, from Greg and Kristin's wedding. Unfortunately, I realized the photo studio gave me the right contact sheet but the wrong negatives. Sigh. I had some good shots, too.
Supposed to hop a flight to Atlanta tomorrow. It's looking doubtful. Poor Rob. Supposed to be the happiest weekend of his life, and now so many won't make it out to his wedding.

It's incredible, Amazon has now

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It's incredible, Amazon has now collected over $580,000 for the Red Cross. That's in just over 12 hours.
Found this in an article at the Chicago Tribune:
"Once on a plane, access to the cockpit is not as difficult as some passengers may think. Cockpit doors in U.S. jetliners are designed to be easily broken down in case a pilot is incapacitated or there is other emergency.
"It has to be unjammable and it has to be able to be opened from both inside and outside the cockpit in case the flight crew became unconscious," said Mary Jean Olsen, a spokeswoman for Boeing Co.
What this means, as American Airlines Capt. Bruce Killips noted, is that "just about anybody intent on getting into the cockpit could."
George Bush's first speech last night did not impress me. His demeanor was not comforting--he seemed worn, timid, a bit distraught. A president needs to express sorrow but also strength in a situation like that. This morning he seemed stronger. Still, he lacks a commanding presence when he speaks. I can feel his grief, but I also want him to stand tall, to fill the shoes he fought to wear.

Hotline

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The FBI has established a toll-free telephone number for anyone with information regarding the incidents on September 11 in New York City and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Please call 1-866-483-5137 with any information. A form has also been placed on the Internet at www.ifccfbi.gov to report information. Visit the FBI's press release section for recent press releases about these events.

James and Jeff are safe

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James and Jeff are safe in New York. So is Rich. Relief.
Sharon reports that while people crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on foot, several robbed her dad's Dunkin Donuts store. Sick to think people would take advantage of a situation like that to do some looting.
It appears that some people on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania may have realized what was happening and
helped to crash the airplane far from the terrorists' intended target in Washington, D.C. It's amazing to hear about some of the individual heroism that occurred all day.
Fascinating to read some of the coverage of the event in international papers, many of which are linked here.

It's the most horrifying event

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It's the most horrifying event I've witnessed in my lifetime. I still can't sleep, can't turn off the television. The personal
tragedies, stories from specific individuals, are starting to filter out, and these stories only heighten the sense of tragedy.
The terrorists must be looking at all this coverage, the panic on people's faces, and feeling victorious. Other than the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, it appears their plans have succeeded in every way.
More from around the web:
The Boston Herald reports five men have been identified as suspects. Their rental car contained air flight training manuals. The article contains a lot more info about what went on inside some of the airplanes.
Henry Kissinger recommends Destroy the Network
An analysis of possible suspects and motives in Jane's Intelligence Digest. They identify likely suspects as:

  • Osama bin Laden and Al-Qa'eda ("the Base")

  • The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

  • Saddam Hussein


Contribute to the Red Cross--Amazon.com is waiving its usual fees, and already the Red Cross has received over $170,000 to aid in its efforts to help those in New York and Washington, D.C. Every time I hit refresh the total rises by several thousand. It's a heartwarming thing to witness.
A good article about why the WTC towers collapsed.

I've been fighting back tears

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I've been fighting back tears all day. That's not normal for me. But then I see things lik this image of a person who jumped or was thrown from tens of stories in the air, from the World Trade Center, to his or her death, and my heart cramps--I want vengeance.
Can you fight a terrorist without being one yourself? They say terrorism is the tactic of the weak. What, then, is the method of the strong?
We clearly have much to learn when an event like this can inspire some in the world to celebrate.
The moral dilemna played out: if you knew that one of those airplanes was headed for the White House, or the World
Trade Center, would you shoot it down? Was that what happened to the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania?
A survey of coverage from around the web:
Transcript of George Bush's speech
The most popular news outlets:NYTimes, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post
Some non-conventional news outlets: Stratfor, Slashdot, Wired, CNET
Interesting interview with terrorism expert Jim Walsh.
The most horrific footageof the second plane crash--shows the plane hitting the building head on.
Barbara Olson was aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. She and other passengers were ordered to phone their relatives to inform them they were about to die. Olson was not even supposed to be on that flight, but it was her husband's birthday today and she wanted to be there to have breakfast with him in the morning. As mentioned in the article, flight attendants know not to allow anyone in the cockpit in the event of a highjacking. We may never know what happened on those planes.
CTO of Akamai was killed in the Boston to Los Angeles American Airlines flight that hit the World Trade Center.
Companies occupying Tower 1 of the World Trade Center
Companies occupying Tower 2 of the World Trade Center
US Government strongly suspects Osana bin Laden. In this same article, a dropdown box halfway down the page includes details of many failed acts of terrorism by Osana bin Laden. Even if it turns out it wasn't bin Laden, his image has been branded in the public image, and it will be hard for him to continue to evade capture.
A comprehensive compilation of images, including one of George
Bush being informed of the incident as he read to a class of 2nd graders in Florida.
Colin Powell: "A great, great tragedy has befallen my nation..."
An explanation of airport security at How Stuff Works.
A more skeptical view of airport security at Cryptome.
An odd and disturbing coincidence--this album cover by the hip hop band The Coup pictures the WTC Towers exploding in similar locations to today's tragedy.
In July, the New Yorker published an article by Jeffrey Goldberg titled The Martyr Strategy: What Does the New Phase of Terrorism Signify? Various transcripts of the article have been posted all over the web.
Comdisco flooded with calls about IT disasters.
Some are reporting that gas prices have skyrocketed.
Some thoughts from engineers on Slashdot about why the WTC towers collapsed.
Even X10 suspended its pop-under ads.

Americans in greater danger than

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Americans in greater danger than believed, report says
Thursday, September 16, 1999

By DAVID BRISCOE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Americans are at more risk than they think, facing possible terrorist attack and other new dangers that superior military power cannot prevent, a Pentagon-appointed panel reported to Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday.
If the nation is drawn into war, it will bring "casualties and carnage, and combat will not be like a video game, even for Americans," concluded the bipartisan, independent commission headed by former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman and former Democratic Sen. Gary Hart.
"Americans will become increasingly vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeland, and our military superiority will not entirely protect us," the report offers as its No. 1 conclusion.
Rudman of New Hampshire cited "the spreading ability of terrorists to strike Americans at home and abroad."
Hart of Colorado said, "Non-military threats, such as those concerning the global economy, environment and health may become as serious and life-threatening to us as traditional military threats."
Members of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century said America needs to restructure forces to meet 21st century challenges -- a topic the panel will continue to address. The commission will propose a national strategy next year and offer final recommendations to achieve national safety to the next president in 2001.
"Even excellent intelligence will not prevent all nasty surprises or protect Americans from all efforts to harm them," the report stated.
The commission also includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, who is set to head the National Council of Churches; retired Gen. John Galvin and other diplomatic, military, academic, media and business leaders.
It is one of several panels set up in recent years to assess post-Cold War defense needs. Commission members acknowledged that they reached no conclusions that have not been suggested by others, but said they are obligated to follow up with specific recommendations for restructuring U.S. defenses for the next quarter century.
The last such sweeping reassessment was made in 1947 at the end of World War II, and the same basic defense structures remain, Rudman said.
Gingrich said no one on the panel believes the current setup makes any sense for the future.
"While we are the most powerful nation in the world, in some ways we are becoming more vulnerable," Gingrich said.
"The commission believes Americans are going to be less secure than they believe themselves to be," said commission member Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The report also predicted:
Rapid advances in information and biotechnologies will create new vulnerabilities for U.S. security, as new technologies divide the world as well as draw it together.
State sovereignty will endure, but some states will fail or fragment and some borders will bend or break.
Foreign crises will continue to spawn atrocities and terrorism.
Outer space will become a "critical and competitive military environment."

Prepared Statement of the Honorable

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Prepared Statement of the Honorable Warren B. Rudman before the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, March 27, 2001

Mr. Chairman,
I am honored to be here today on behalf of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, which I co-chaired together with Senator Gary Hart. Senator Hart regrets that he cannot be with us today.
Sir, I want to get directly to the question that your letter of invitation posed to us:

Hart/Rudman -- 21st Century Commission

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Hart/Rudman -- 21st Century Commission Recommends New Anti-Terror Cabinet Agency

Feb 2, 2001
A bipartisan panel led by former US senators Warren B. Rudman and Gary Hart on Wednesday called for the creation of a Cabinet-level agency to assume responsibility for defending the United States against the increasing likelihood of terrorist attacks in the country. The commission making the recommendation included high-ranking military and former Cabinet secretaries. Their report warned bluntly that terrorists probably will attack the US with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons at some point within the next 25 years.
The commission proposed a complete redesign of the National Guard to provide the proposed new "Homeland Security Agency" with U.S.-based troops to combat those who threaten a nation that for more than two centuries was isolated from attack by two oceans. The panel outlined a far-reaching reorganization of the Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and other agencies, saying that they have become bloated and unfocused. The report even urged Congress to streamline its own committee structure to keep interference in national security matters at a minimum.
The commission acknowledged that implementing the recommendations would be difficult. Congress would have to pass legislation authorizing the changes. If all of the recommendations were to become law, it would mark the most sweeping renovation of US defense and foreign policy operations since approval of the landmark National Security Act of 1947. Like that measure, which refocused World War II-era agencies on the challenges of the Cold War, the commission's plan is intended to ready the nation for starkly different threats in a new century.
The panel, in what many are calling a radical departure from "conventional wisdom," recommended folding the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Customs Service, Border Patrol and Coast Guard into the new "Homeland Security Agency." It said that the National Guard should be "reorganized, properly trained and adequately equipped" to cope with natural disasters and attacks on U.S. targets by weapons of mass destruction. The commission said that the National Guard should be relieved of the responsibility of participating in overseas deployments and concentrate on security at home.
The report said: "The combination of unconventional weapons proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the US homeland to catastrophic attack. A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century. The risk is not only death and destruction but also a demoralization that could undermine US global leadership. In the face of this threat, our nation has no coherent or integrated governmental structures."
US armed forces now are organized and trained to have the capability to fight two major overseas wars at the same time, a contingency the commission called "very remote." The report recommended abandoning the two-war strategy to permit the Pentagon to prepare for situations like the recent wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, which it characterized as far more likely. The panel said that both the State Department and the Pentagon "need substantial bureaucratic remodeling."

STATEMENT "HOMELAND DEFENSE: EXAMINING THE

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STATEMENT
"HOMELAND DEFENSE: EXAMINING THE HART-RUDMAN REPORT"
TECHNOLOGY, TERRORISM, AND GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION SUBCOMMITTEE
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
APRIL 3, 2001
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am glad that we are having a hearing on the Phase III report of the Hart-Rudman Commission.
I very much appreciate the appearance today of Senator Gary Hart and Senator Warren Rudman, the co-chairmen of the commission, as well as of Congressman Lee Hamilton, a member of the commission.
The three of them can collectively boast of almost 60 years in Congress working on national security policy and protecting our country from terrorism.
Let me say first of all that I agree with the thrust of the commission's recommendations: that we need to make fundamental changes in our counterterrorism policy.
I could not agree more that our current counterterrorism policy is fragmented, uncoordinated, and unaccountable.
As I see it, a main problem here is that we don't know who is in charge of preparing for and responding to a catastrophic terrorist attack.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) recently found that federal, state, and local governments had not agreed on a clear chain of command for dealing with a terrorist incident.
I disagree with those who suggest that such a clear chain of command is impossible. Or that bureaucratic turf wars would prevent us from designating a lead agency to take charge in the event of a terrorist attack.
After all, other Western industrialized countries facing terrorists have met this challenge.
A recent GAO report found that of six countries surveyed - the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and the UK - only the U.S. has failed to determine clearly who would be in charge of responding to a terrorist incident.
Another problem is that the government has spread counterterrorism assets over at least 45 agencies, and these agencies are not coordinated to prevent or protect against or respond to a major terrorist attack.
One result is that terrorism has a tendency to drop off the radar screen of the national security establishment.
As former U.S. Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly has said, "The whole issue of counterterrorism needs an advocate, a high-level person-perhaps ... a Cabinet [officer] - to make certain that there's consistent attention to the issue." [CNN, Jan. 31, 2001]
Another problem is that agencies tend to duplicate each other's efforts, thus getting in each other's way and wasting taxpayer dollars.
As former FEMA chief James Lee Witt said recently, "You've got too many agencies doing the same thing." [Quoted in The St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 10, 2001]
In addition, many federal agencies seem to be focusing on general vulnerabilities rather than credible threats and on worse-case scenarios instead of likely probabilities.
For example, HHS has recently tried to establish a national pharmaceutical and vaccine stockpile that doesn't match intelligence agencies' judgments of the most likely chemical and biological agents that terrorists might use.
Such problems are not just bureaucratic. They could result in the needless loss of tens of thousands of lives in a catastrophic terrorist attack.
Many experts, including members of the Hart-Rudman Commission, believe that a catastrophic terrorist attack is virtually inevitable in the next 25 years.
Such an attack could take many forms.
The most likely one would be a terrorist assault on a large city with a germ weapon or a cyberattack on the East Coast air traffic control system.
In fact, as a witness told us last week at a subcommittee hearing, a group or nation with a budget of around $10 million and a team of about 30 computer experts could wreak billions of dollars of damage to U.S. infrastructure.
And we also cannot forget the most obvious and probable terrorist threat: that from simple conventional weapons.
The terrorists who bombed the U.S.S. Cole, our African embassies, the Atlanta Olympics, the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, and the World Trade Center all relied on a range of readily available, easily obtainable bombmaking materials.
For example, the urea nitrate bomb used at the World Trade Center costs about $400 to make. That bomb caused at least a half billion dollars in damages.
To be sure, America has always viewed itself as relatively safe from terrorist attack-surrounded as it is by friendly neighbors and large oceans.
However, the threat of terrorist attack on our nation remains quite real.
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses on the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission report and on the problem of terrorism.
And I look forward to working with you on this important issue.
Thank you.
Senator Feinstein

Coming Around

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What a fun wedding!
Saturday, Greg and Kristin tied the knot against the backdrop of Mount Hood in Oregon. Forgot popcorn flicks, this was the crowd-pleasing event of the summer thus far. I'm too exhausted (not to mention staggered by some residual intoxication) to write too much, but some highlights:
--Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood was a great place for the wedding. Plenty to do for guests while awaiting official events, and what a beautiful backdrop. I went hiking, mountain biking, star-gazing.
--Very short ceremony. I'm not against long ceremonies, but long religious ceremonies tend to lose me. Don't obscure the point of the gig, which is to share the love of groom and bride with all.
--All star lineup of bridesmaids. Hubba hubba (oops, did I write that? Symptom of the unfreezing process, or perhaps the 6000 foot altitude at Mount Hood).
--Lots of fun folks, who wanted to dance, and good music from Kevin and Pete. I hate wedding where the music is lousy, and the dancing ends early. Kristin, being the dancing machine that she us, didn't let us down, switching to white sneakers beneath her wedding dress to close down the dance floor.
--Lots of fun, young folks. Lots of familiar faces, and just enough unfamiliar ones.
--Good weather, good food, and an open bar. At the end of the night, I single-handedly rescued many an orphaned drink. I had an altitude-amplified hangover which a heart-bursting climb up the mountain on my mountain bike pumped out of my system.
And of course, Greg and Kristin are cool people. Greg is just a good guy, and Kristin is just cool. Before her many knee
surgeries, she was very fast. Ranked in the country in the 100m dash, I think, and then she played soccer at UConn. Now that's cool.
Brought the big lens, so hopefully I'll have some good shots to post soon. Wish I had some color film in the camera to capture some of the scenery, but black and white for weddings seems appropriate, timeless.
Passing out.

U.S. Open

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That Sampras-Agassi match tonight was about as good as modern tennis gets. Not quite the subtlety of a Borg Mcenroe match, but today's game is power, and in that game, baseline winners and aces are common. As a tennis fan, you have to enjoy compressed moments of power. Aesthetically, it lacks the same drama as a long rally in the olden days. The opponent is merely a prop, standing there helpless as one of Sampras' serves flies by to bounce off the back wall, or as Agassi bends at the knees, rotates, and shoots a groundstroke that zips about two inches above the net and ends up in the back corner of the court.
The game also appears more violent. With modern rackets permitting greater power and spin, and the advent of shots like the Western forehand which permit more controlled application of power and to the ball, players attack the ball with short, violent motions rather than the long, picturesque strokes you picture in old black and white tennis videos in which aristocrats played in sweaters and slacks, barely breaking a sweat.
Sampras has many more grand slams than Agassi, yet I can't shake the feeling that Sampras is always the underdog out there. Sampras has the classic game, the long strokes and serve and volley game of the old school. The one-handed backhand, the long, elegant service motion. A lot of power, a great all court game. But he doesn't have the fearsome face of a guy who wants to dominate his opponent. It is a tragic face, and you sense that he is physically fragile, that heat and long rallies will break him down.
Agassi, on the other hand, is the epitome of the modern day tennis player. Power groundstroke game. A freak of nature with hand eye coordination that allows him to hit balls on the rise, to do all sorts of things normal people are taught not to do, like volley with full swings. He rarely seems physically fragile. It's always a miracle to me when Sampras beats him. Even when Agassi loses, it doesn't move me. It always feels as if Sampras has survived Agassi's game, rather than defeated him. Andre seems indomitable, and when he loses he doesn't mope. He just shrugs it off, compliments his opponent (though it never sounds sincere; it feels like he's implying his opponent was lucky), and trudges off, as if he has enough energy to go another few sets.
Sampras has a ton of game, and the trophy prom-queen wife, but it seems like he still lacks confidence. I root for him because of his one-handed backhand, his classic style. Not too many play like him today. All those two-fisted backhand bombers in the game today remind me of Suzuki-taught robot violinist hordes I used to encounter at recitals.
The most tragic player out there, to me, is Monica Seles. Forget Capriati and her teen angst. Seles was dominating the tennis world, and then some psychotic runs out on the court and stabs her. She's never been the same. To lose out on a great career to some unbelievable incident like that--it's an absurd tragedy. No hubris, as in some Greek play. Unfortunately, while she was rehabilitating her mind and body, folks like the Williams sisters came along. Venus has serious game. I'll be surprised if she loses.