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Battlefield Breakdown
Aired July 8, 2007 - 20:00 ET
MELISSA LONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, I'm Melissa Long at the CNN Center in Atlanta. "SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN" begins in a moment. First, a check at the headlines for you: Police have conducted searches and raids near Glasgow and in central England today, as they continue their terror probe. They have five suspects in custody in connection with the incidents in Glasgow and London. Police today found a suspicious vehicle outside the hospital where one of the suspects is being cared for, and conducted a controlled explosion. Responding to the incidents in Britain, the Transportation Security Administration, the TSA, has stepped up security at U.S. airports. Officials say, it's merely a precaution, and there are no indications of any specific security threat in the U.S. And despite security concerns in London, tens of thousands turned out for an all-star tribute to Princess Diana. Elton John kicked it off. The concert marks the tenth anniversary of Diana's death and comes on what would have been her 46th birthday. Her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, thanked the crowds for coming. Flash flooding and evacuations in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas, following heavy rain. The Kansas governor has declared a state of the disaster in 12 counties. Farther west, floods have forced evacuations of two neighborhoods in Wichita Falls, Texas. And President Bush is putting out the welcome mat at the Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is due there later in the day for talks aimed at easing strained U.S./Russian relations. We are starting to learn much more about how much money the presidential candidates raised in the second quarter. And Democrat Barack Obama set a record for the Democrats in an announcement released just today. The campaign says it raised $32.5 million between April and June. We will have more news for you at the top of the hour. BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN starts now. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ride around waiting to get blown up by IEDs. JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unprotected. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an ambush. Two IEDs detonated on my column of unarmored Humvees. KING: Unprepared. ALLEN VAUGHT, CAPTAIN, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): The price of the lack of planning: dead Americans, crippled Americans -- it's a big price. KING: Under enormous stress. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lot of dreams, nightmares. KING: Yet sent back to fight again. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She found me wandering across the house, you know, yelling and screaming, you know, Get down. KING: And unable to move past the pain. K. CASTNER: Why did it happen to Stephen? I want the Army to tell us what happened. KING: Through the eyes of those on the frontlines: BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN, the full price of war in Iraq. CNN ANNOUNCER: Now John King: BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN. JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): July 24th, 2006, Stephen Castner's third day in Iraq and his first mission: protecting a two-mile long convoy on the dangerous highway from Kuwait to Baghdad. Specialist Castner kept watch as the convoy approached Toledo from the south, using his camera and his perch in the Humvee gunner's target to capture the moment. The photos stopped at the point a grieving father's questions begin. STEPHEN CASTNER, FATHER: When the IED went off, there was a huge cloud of smoke. And when the truck behind went through this cloud of smoke, they noticed that the Humvee was no longer there. There was a great deal of confusion on the radio. She answered the door, and she said, "Steve, there are two men here in Army uniforms." I think we both knew what it meant. KING: Parents aren't supposed to bury their children. And it hurts even more when you are convinced it should not have happened. KAY CASTNER, MOTHER: We love you. KING: Stephen Castner's story is, on the one hand, sadly unremarkable. By the Defense Department's count, number 2,558 on a list of more than 3,500 names -- knocks at the door, and gold stars for the window. On the other hand, Stephen Castner's short experience in Iraq is a telling reflection of how our war in its fifth frustrating year has strained the Army to its breaking point, forcing third, even fourth deployments, stressing equipment, and leaving an alarming number of active duty and National Guard units rated "not ready for combat." MAJ. GEN. DENNIS HARDY, DEPUTY COMMANDING GENERAL, 3RD ARMY: Five years into a war fight, you're putting a lot of extra hours, a lot of extra miles, a lot of extra demands on your equipment. KING: Major General Dennis Hardy, the deputy commanding general of ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, worries most about a mounting physical and psychological toll unique to this war. HARDY: Some of the injuries that we're suffering over here, though, concussions, the effects on the brain, it's a lot less obvious in terms of what the impact and what some of the effects are. KING: To understand the true cost of this war, we travel to the frontlines in Iraq, support bases in Kuwait, and a handful of Army and National Guard installations stateside. A visit to Stephen and Kay Castner's home north of Milwaukee brings you face to face with the ultimate price of war -- and the questions that cloud their morning... S. CASTNER: I think that this situation was a classic example of using National Guard troops who were not prepared in any sense. KING: ... questions about exactly what happened after their son's last photo. K. CASTNER: I don't feel that somebody calling my son a hero answers my questions for me. I want the Army to tell us what happened. KING: This part is not in dispute: An explosively fired projectile pierced Castner's Humvee, causing it to careen off the road and into a ditch. Castner was wounded, yet the convoy kept rolling north for at least 10 minutes, more than 20 by some accounts. S. CASTNER: They didn't know how to react; they didn't know how to respond. They didn't take care of their own. KING: It was at least 35 minutes before comrades returned and called for a MedEvac helicopter. Even Castner's breathing was initially reported as strong. But 30 seconds before landing in an Army field hospital, Castner went into cardiac arrest. S. CASTNER: The cause of death was he bled to death. So the time was critical. KING: Stephen Castner was 27. (on camera): His dad thinks that his son died in a raw deal. He thinks, number one, that he didn't get good training. LT. GEN. STEVEN BLUM, CHIEF, NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU: There is nothing that we could have done in training that would have prevented the loss of Stephen Castner. KING (voice-over): Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the commander of the National Guard, told CNN, the confusion after the IED attack was a sad example of the fog of war. BLUM: The only way I can make that whole for his father and his family is to reload a tape and make the IED not go off and the casualty not occur and the loss -- the painful loss for his family -- just didn't happen. That is -- that's not -- I cannot do that. No human being can do that. KING: An Army investigation of the incident said the commander kept the convoy moving because a radio check found "all gun trucks were mission capable." S. CASTNER: In other words, he would have said, "B-12." And B- 12 would have said, "Present," or something in more military terms. KING: Castner's Humvee was truck B-41. Its radio was destroyed in the blast. An officer in the unit, in a letter to Castner's father, wrote there was one more Humvee than normal attached to the convoy that day. So when the count came back, they thought they had everyone and continued to move north. The questions make coping harder. The Castners tend to their farm while pressing the Pentagon to reopen the investigation. The Pentagon says it has provided as much information as it can. But Castner says the Army refuses to give him copies of the radio logs and refuses to say whether the commander now concedes he forgot how many Humvees were in his convoy. S. CASTNER: It's consistent with other reported cover-ups of how many fatalities are over there. KING (on camera): Cover-up is a strong word. CASTNER: It's a very strong word. There's absolutely no other explanation for it. KING (voice-over): Up next... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Hajis (ph) right side! KING: ... night on the edge with an Army stretched thin. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk to Sgt. Wolf (ph) today? KING: Staff Sgt. David Bess is a chain smoker, prone to cursing; a no nonsense type who keeps a quick pace. But before each mission, he stops to bow his head and lead Bravo Company in a few moments of silent prayer. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What goes through your mind when you're doing that? STAFF SGT. DAVID BESS, BRAVO COMPANY, 1-16TH INFANTRY: I pray to Jesus, and I just, I thank him for everything and have him -- ask him to please bless me and everyone that's going on the patrol. And then, I always say a blessing for my wife and kids at home. I try to focus it towards that, just, you know, bring safety on us. KING: It is a lot to ask for. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going through their final checks. KING: Bravo Company performs one of Iraq's most dangerous missions, convoy security, which means night after night on Iraq's perilous roads. Night after night on the edge. This night, we went with them -- 60 to 100 major convoys a week in Iraq. At least one in 10 will encounter roadside bombs, not to mention snipers and small arms fire. Tonight's destination is Baqubah, only about 30 miles from Bravo Company's base in Balad. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it -- AA (ph) positive in universal receiver? KING: Yet the conversation in the lead Humvee tells you there's no guarantee of getting there and back. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dangerous. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can give you a transfusion if I have to. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, roger. KING: In Iraq, exhausted troops spend spring nights talking blood types, not baseball. Staff Sgt. Bess, the office for the next eight to 10 hours is the cramped passenger seat, radio in hand, eyes darting left to right on dark roads, where every shadow, pothole, or pile of trash is a potential enemy. BESS: Two Hajis (ph) right side in a parking lot. KING: David Bess is happy to be in Iraq, just not here. In sports jargon, Bess is playing out of position in more ways than one: an infantry man riding shotgun on a convoy security mission... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, go. KING: ... and an E-6, an enlisted man in a command role that would normally fall to an officer, a lieutenant, or higher. BESS: It's always there in my mind that, you know, hey, I am responsible for a lot as an E-6. KING: In e-mails and calls home to his wife, Patricia, there are questions about how the girls are doing and some grumbling about convoy duty. But out here, his decisions could be the line between life and death. So duty trumps pride. BESS: It's not necessarily my preferred mission, but it's an important mission, and I want to do the best I can at it. KING: Bess is just one of many examples of an Army juggling to cope with manpower shortages. These air force drivers haul supplies in Army trucks, and 400 Navy reservists run a wartime customs operation. It is grimy, thankless work. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You might find some dirt. KING: But Lt. Cmdr. Michael Mason didn't hesitate when he asked why men trained to serve on ships and submarines find themselves sweating in the Kuwaiti desert. LT. CMDR. MICHAEL MASON, NAVAL RESERVIST: The Army is able to send more troops north in to the fight. If we weren't here, the Army would have to fill this role, and so they would be minus about 400, 450 people. KING: Stephen Castner found out firsthand what happens when the Army scrambles. He did a stint in the Air Force straight out of high school and was trained in electronics and sensitive communications systems. After that, it was off to the University of Wisconsin, until the weekend he came home with a surprise. S. CASTNER: He had enlisted in the Guard without telling us, and the Guard promised him that his MOS, his Military Organization Specialty, his job specification, would be the same as he had in the Air Force. KING: Castner, though, was assigned not to electronics or communications work, but to a military regiment. And then, just as the unit was being mobilized for Iraq, another switch. S. CASTNER: All their job classifications were changed, and they were all dumbed (ph) down to combat infantry men without their consent, and the entire battalion was converted from artillery to infantry, to man and operate gun trucks. KING: He complained before shipping out that training was rushed, something his father believes contributed to Castner's death on the unit's first Iraq mission. S. CASTNER: They did not have an adequate number of Humvees to train. The time of the individual squads on the Humvees was severely limited. BLUM: The enemy gets a vote, and that enemy votes every day, and that enemy changes and adapts every day. And so we need to do the same. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be yourself. KING: But Pentagon and Congressional sources tell CNN that while he publicly defends re-tasking units, Guard Commanding Gen. Steven Blum has complained to superiors that his units need more notice and more training before a major assignment shift like the one faced by Castner's unit. (on camera): They didn't think they were going to Iraq to provide convoy security. BLUM: He became a combat casualty doing a task that any soldier could be asked to do, but it was not the task the unit anticipated they would have to do. KING (voice-over): Ahead on BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN, the questions of men sent into harm's way. ALLEN VAUGHT, CAPTAIN, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): It shocked me that we didn't have body armor. We didn't have enough food. We didn't have enough water. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: Shattered ballistic glass, twisted and punctured steel -- it is the vulnerability the Pentagon doesn't want you to see. On bases across Iraq, Humvees damaged by IED attacks are covered with tarps. Troops can be punished for e-mailing photographs of significant battle damage. The Pentagon says releasing images like these could help the enemy, and CNN carefully chose these shots to take those concerns into account. But critics say the Pentagon restrictions, just like limits on images of caskets, are part of a concerted effort to keep the American people from seeing the worst of this war; seeing just how vulnerable the most high-tech army in the world is to the crude weapons of a resilient and resourceful enemy. It is a vulnerability that can be traced back to the very beginning. It was March 2003 when Dallas trial lawyer Allen Vaught got his call-up. A month later, Army Reserve Capt. Allen Vaught deployed to Fallujah. VAUGHT: I don't think we were more than three days without either an RPG being fired at us or an AK-47 being fired from around the corner or mortars coming in at night. KING: Back then, riding in a Humvee in Iraq meant canvas or fiberglass doors -- sometimes, no doors at all. In one letter home to his mother, just a month into the war, Capt. Vaught wrote: "It is getting worse here in Fallujah, and we don't know why. I have done my past few missions in this town by riding inside of a Bradley instead of my Humvee with canvas doors. Seems like everywhere we go, nobody likes us. I thought we were supposed to be welcomed as liberators." The insurgency was gaining steam. Roadside bombs, IEDs, became the weapon of choice against a suddenly vulnerable superpower. Capt. Vaught had little doubt where they were coming from. VAUGHT: There were munitions all over this country. I have pictures of just tank rounds and artillery rounds and RPG rounds just lying everywhere, in open fields and bunkers. And the fact that we did not have enough troops to secure those sites in the early days of the war has led to a lot of the IEDs being used on our troops now, because the Iraqis went in and looted that equipment. KING: After six months in Fallujah, Vaught was transferred to the Baghdad slum of Sadr City. Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began railing against the U.S. occupation. There, Vaught was ordered to take a dangerous mission in unarmored Humvees, to taxi a prominent Shiite leader's daughter to a hospital in central Baghdad. VAUGHT: You know, your options are pretty limited. Your options are to disobey the order and not go on the mission -- I guess, be court-martialed for cowardice -- or you go on the mission. So we went on the mission. KING: One IED exploded; then a second. VAUGHT: It was an ambush. It happened so quickly, and it just -- all of a sudden, your ears go deaf, and you know something's happened, but you don't know what just happened. KING: The explosion and gunfire ripped through Vaught's Humvee. His back was broken. Two of his comrades had shrapnel injuries. VAUGHT: It's funny how you come to your senses and realize, "Oh, my God, I just got hit by a roadside bomb, and now people are shooting at me." KING: The vulnerability was no secret. In the Blackhawk Down incident in Somalia back in 1993, 18 Army Rangers were killed in their vehicles, leading to the first generation of armor upgrades. But the Iraq plan assumed just a few weeks of high intensity combat. Recommendations to send a larger, better protected force were dismissed. Instead, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld settled on a lean invasion force of about 148,000 troops. And of the thousands of Humvees sent to Iraq with them, only 235 -- 235 -- were armored. Allen Vaught recalls packing the floor and cabin walls with sandbags and any scrap metal they could find. VAUGHT: That's all we had. I mean, we crudely armored our Humvees. Any metal we could get, we could find, we would put in critical areas, we thought, of the Humvee. KING: "Hillbilly armor," they called it. Troops in the world's greatest army left to scavenge for sheet metal. SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: It all traces back to a lack of a coherent plan when they went in, understanding this might evolve into some insurgency. KING: Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island is a Vietnam era veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division. He went to Iraq in July of 2003. The lack of armor was the biggest complaint from troops. By September, as Congress debated the war budget, the Pentagon had conceded it needed more up-armored Humvees. More than 1,400 for Iraq -- not nearly enough was Reed's conclusion. REED: My information indicated they need at least 3,400, and I wanted to start that process, jump start that process. KING: Reed proposed transferring money from Iraq reconstruction funds to buy 800 more Humvee armor kits. The Pentagon told Congress it didn't need any more. REED: I think they were still in the stages of denial, saying, Well, this is not necessary. Why do we want to invest in these armored Humvees because, frankly, we won't be needing them when we leave Iraq in the next several months. KING: Four years later, Pentagon data show IEDs and similar explosive devices cause nearly six of every 10 deaths in Iraq and nearly six of 10 of the major injuries, like the broken back suffered by Capt. Vaught. VAUGHT: Armored Humvees will stop most of the munitions the Iraqis were using on us at that particular time. KING: It was an IED that killed Stephen Castner. Among his father's memories, a conversation in which his son told a friend of his shift to convoy security duty. S. CASTNER: And the friend said, "Well, that's pretty safe, isn't it?" And Steve said, "No, it's not. You ride around waiting to get blown up by IEDs." HARDY: Our Humvee, the utility vehicle, was never intended to be a fighting vehicle. KING: The same Pentagon that sent only 235 armored Humvees to Iraq at the start of the war now has roughly 8,000 there. And says it needs 2,000 more. HARDY: This is an evolutionary sort of process in some cases. We started the war, trained, organized, equipped for what we thought the war would require. KING: Lt. Gen. Blum, whose Guard units tend to come last when the Army assigns new equipment, calls it a waste of time to look back and assign blame. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go, go, go! KING: Yet he told CNN, there is no doubt the initial Iraq force had too few troops and too little armor -- to him, a major breach of war doctrine. BLUM: And the lesson is a very fundamental lesson of all prudent military planners: Plan for the worst case. You hope for the best, but you plan for the worst. KING: When we come back, the war in Iraq destroys equipment at an alarming rate. COL. ROBERT SWENSON, CMDR., LETTERKENNY ARMY DEPOT: For example, on Humvees, we're getting six years of use in one year in Iraq. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: This is progress, but it comes late, and at a hefty price. As many as 30 Humvees a day get new armor at this facility we visited in Baghdad. Work once done only back in the States, now at the war front. DAVID STEWART, DEFENSE DEPT. CIVILIAN: It came in with probably about that much protection, going out with a whole -- KING (on camera): It's going out with a whole handful more? STEWART: Yes. KING (voice over): David Stewart runs the show here, and keeps the math simple. STEWART: Every time we turn out 30 vehicles, that's 30 soldiers that have a chance of going out the gate, and coming back alive. That's what that means to me. KING: This facility in Balad (ph), 50 miles north of Baghdad, is another new addition. But still not enough to handle the enormous repair and armoring challenge. So Humvees, tanks, and other heavy equipment, beaten by heavy use in a hostile climate, not to mention damaged by IEDs and hostile fire, are lined up, logged in, and shipped home. Then logged in on the other end. Before being stripped, cleaned, and rebuilt to battle ready. COL. ROBERT SWENSON, CMDR., LETTERKENNY ARMY DEPOT.: It initially took us 274 hours to produce a Humvee. It's now taking us less than 160 hours to produce the same Humvee. KING: It is an efficiency born of repetition. Back home we visited Colonel Robert Swenson of the Letterkenny, Pennsylvania Army Depot. He's in charge of restoring Humvees beaten by an unyielding combat temp in harsh desert conditions. SWENSON: In Humvees, we're getting six years of use in year in Iraq, which is significantly reducing the life cycle of how we expect to be able to use that Humvee. KING: The desert is equally unkind to helicopters. This frontline repair work on helicopters is done in Balad, Iraq. But the bulk of aviation work comes here to Corpus Christi, Texas. Where we saw robots help increase the productivity of a depot Colonel Tim Sassenrath says is getting more and more work as the war drags on. COL. TIM ASSENRATH, CMDR., CORPUS CHRISTI ARMY DEPOT: It's triple because the soldiers in the field, the aviation flying hours, are about seven times the normal amount. So seven times the normal amount, you've got that much more wear on the aircraft, and the parts have to turn faster. KING: The faster turnaround is welcome at the war front, but it doesn't come cheap. Taxpayers have already poured $500 billion into Iraq. And at least $17 billion is budgeted this year just for equipment repairs. And it will take at least that much every year as long as the war continues, just to keep things as they are. But today warehouses in Iraq and Kuwait are full, and most critical parts and supplies available, a dramatic turnaround. CAPT. ALLEN VAUGHT, U.S. RESERVIST: You ready? KING: Captain Allen Vaught, the reservist injured in a Sadr City ambush, now lives with his family in Dallas. He says shortages were common when he arrived in Fallujah just weeks after the war started. VAUGHT: There was a supply problem, so much that our troops were rationed to one big bottle of water for every eight days and one MRE per day. Now, of course, you would die if that's all the water you had, one bottle for every eight days, because the temperature was 120 degrees usually, sometimes more. KING: They were forced to purify river water. One of many problems that can be traced back to early miscalculations that the war would be swift and the Iraqi people welcoming. A government accountability office study reported the Pentagon was unable to accurately forecast supply requirements for armored vehicle track shoes, lithium batteries, meals ready-to-eat and tires. In some cases they underestimated the actual demand, which resulted in supply shortages during combat operations. Assessments of armor shortages are equally damming. In 2004, the manufacture of the Humvee armor kits was producing 460 a month. But a government an audit found the signed agreement with the manufacturer indicated an increase to 500 vehicles. The days of canvas, or fiberglass doors on Iraq's perilous roads are passed. No soldier can leave a forward base unless in an armored Humvee or better. But even fully armored, a Humvee is vulnerable, and vehicles that provide better protection are still in short supply. The M-1117 armored security vehicle, for example, fell out of favor before Iraq because the army was shifting to a lighter, more mobile force, but it is back in production now and in Iraq in limited numbers because its V-shaped bottom helps direct explosions away from the passenger cab. SPEC. RYAN MARTENS, 21st FIELD ARTILLERY, WIS. NAT'L. GUARD: This is a better form of protection for some troops that are lucky enough to get them. KING: That Specialist Ryan Martens' unit was lucky enough to get several armored security vehicles is telling. He is in the Wisconsin National Guard. Stephen Castner's unit, the unit had only Humvees for patrols at the time of Castner's death. But several Wisconsin Guard members CNN encountered in Kuwait talked to us off camera. They believe the unit later received armored security vehicles and other equipment upgrades because Castner's father complained to Congress and the Pentagon. (On camera): They say they have some armored support vehicles now. And they have full frag-5 up-armored Humvees, they think, because of that, because of the political trouble the father caused. LT. GEN. STEVEN BLUM, CHIEF, NAT'L. GUARD BUREAU: I think they -- I would say there's some veracity to that. I would say there's some validity to that. Stephen may have saved other people's lives, and if it gives them any solace that his loss may have prevented the loss of some other soldiers down the road, then I would say he probably did not die in vain. Although, it doesn't take any of the pain for the loss away from the family, never will. Never will. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire! KING: When BATTLEFIELD BREAKDOWN returns, as the war eats into the National Guard, who's left to serve the homeland? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question is how long do you want to wait for your fire department? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING (voice over): Training is a staple of military readiness. A free-fall jump from a Chinook helicopter, part of the regimen special forces units rely on to prepare for the rigors and stress of combat. On the ground, the images are less dramatic but critical in assessing Iraq's debilitating toll on America's military might. One snapshot, near empty lots at National Guard armories. The best equipment is in Iraq. Rifles that can't be used because they need repairs is another. Many in congress believe it is a deepening crises. SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: What we've done in terms of stripping the stores, the war stocks, in terms of concentrating so much in Iraq is that we don't have the strategic flexibility to respond to other problems. KING: Pentagon numbers shared in private meetings with lawmakers hammer home the devastating domino effect of pouring so many resources into Iraq. The situation now is even worse than when this chart was provided to Congress back in 2006, showing more than two-thirds of the Army's 42 active brigades are rated unable to perform their missions because of equipment and manpower shortages. In fact, sources tell me that at one point the Iraq Study Group was leaning towards a recommendation of 100,000 additional troops to pacify Baghdad. But in a private briefing, the Pentagon said it would have trouble coming up with 20,000. MICHELE FLOURNOY, MILITARY ANALYST: Right now, the United States doesn't have any depth of strategic reserve in our ground forces. Meaning we don't have ground force units ready and waiting to go deter a conflict, or keep a small problem small, or stop aggression against an ally or interest anywhere else. KING: Military analyst Michelle Flournoy calls that a dangerous state of decay for a super power worried about a nuclear Iran and an unpredictable North Korea. FLOURNOY: That's the kind of contingency that should keep people up at night because of the kinds of forces that are required to execute that war plan are not available right now. KING: The cost is not just a military strained overseas. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Line up in the center of the fox hole. KING: Iraq's deployments have devastated the National Guard, the country's first line of homeland defense. Nearly 90 percent of stateside guard units are rated not ready for deployment. Overwhelming problems is equipment ordered left behind in Iraq. So once home, units lack trucks, weapons, helicopters, and other vital tools needed in case of a terrorist attack, or more traditional challenges like a major hurricane or earthquake. BLUM: The question is how long do you want to wait for your fire department to get all the equipment it needs to put out your house fire? That's really the question that each senator and each congressman has to ask, is how much risk do I want to assume in the zip code where my constituents live? KING: General Blum recently told Congress it would take $40 billion to replace the equipment guard units have lost to the Iraq war. BLUM: And we need some help. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By order of the president of the United States, the 1113th Transportation Company is activated to federal active service in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. KING: The California Guard is a case study. It has had to refuse some state missions because so much of its equipment is left in Iraq. And now, as First Sergeant Steven Howell, and others in the 1113th Transportation Company, prepare to go back to Iraq, their training is compromised. FIRST SGT. STEVEN HOWELL, 113 TRANSPORTATION CO.: One of the biggest disadvantages we have as a unit getting prepared to mobilize is the equipment training assist that we have are not fully up- armored. So that kind of limits our ability to train in what we're actually going to be doing the mission in. KING: Stephen Castner had similar concerns when he videotaped his Wisconsin Guard unit training for Iraq. STEPHEN CASTNER, FATHER: They didn't have enough time. Some of the soldiers have told us they had only about an hour in the seat driving Humvees, and they were going to be sent over to Iraq to drive these things. They're not your average SUV. KING: And there are other shortcuts. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got one down, one down. KING: This simulated IED attack is in a mock Iraqi village we visited at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. Before its first deployment, the 3rd Infantry Division trained here, the Ft. Irwin, California, desert base, where heat, sand, and other punishing conditions of the Iraq battlefield can be closely replicated. But training this time in the Georgia woods is a compromise that gets these soldiers to Iraq faster. Another compromise, the Humvees, tanks, and Bradley fighting vehicles awaiting the newest troops in Iraq are borrowed from the Army's already severely depleted emergency reserves. FLOURNOY: We really aren't training and preparing for any other mission set. And over time that may degrade the capability and competency of the force, for other challenges we may face, other contingencies we may face in the future. That is not a comfortable or wise position for a super power to be in. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a big fire fight out here, right outside Baghdad. KING: Four years later, a third deployment, and a sergeant with a secret. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want them to know that, hey, when I come back, I'm going to be messed up. KING: Ahead, the cost that can't be counted. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING (voice over): Like the Army he proudly serves, Sergeant Chris Tucker is hurting. He can't walk in his military-issued combat boots. Both feet need surgery. He is near deaf in his right ear. And if the nightmares don't wake him up, his wife Nicky often nervously chases him down sleepwalking. STAFF SGT. CHRIS TUCKER, CHARLIE CO., 64th ARMOR REGIMENT: The next morning when I wake up finding out that Nicky made me go back to bed because she found me wandering across the house, you know, yelling and screaming, you know, get down, and playing Army with people. It's kind of frustrating. NICKY TUCKER, ARMY WIFE: He's in this dream of being in battle. So it is scary because I'm not going to be over there with him in Iraq to stop him from waking up in the middle of the night. TUCKER: My uniform's in there somewhere. KING: Chris Tucker is 24 years old, and despite his mangled feet, failing hearing, nightmares and depression, he's off to Iraq, for the third time in four years. The Army promises help but says Sergeant Tucker is needed on the battlefield. TUCKER: You would hope that they would take care of you better, but some things are just out of your hands. KING: Some measure Iraq by the death toll; more than 3,500 and counting. Others by the number of wounded, 25,000 plus, so far. The financial cost is another barometer, $500 billion in four-plus years. Current spending at a rate of $2 billion a week. But how do you count what you can't comprehend? TUCKER: This is on your right sleeve, you have your combat stripes. KING: Like the toll on people like Tucker, who are toughing it out. Perhaps, Tucker's wife Nicky worries, at an enormous cost down the road. N. TUCKER: When he first went in, and from now, he's not the same. He's always trying to be the bigger man and take care of himself, but there's a point where enough's enough, and he needs to be looked at, and he needs to be taken care of. But the mission always comes first, and he has to worry about himself later. KING: According to the Army, 12.5 percent of soldiers on their first Iraq tour reported acute stress. It jumped to more than 18 percent among soldiers on their second tour. Roughly 200,000 members of the Army and National Guard have been deployed to Iraq at least twice. And those heading back now face extended tours of 15 months. TUCKER: It's kind of depressing in some ways. It makes you realize that we're stretched kind of thin. KING: Stretched thin and constantly stressed. MARTENS: Numerous times we've been hit with IED strikes, small arms fire. KING: Specialist Ryan Martens is with the Wisconsin National Guard unit that lost Stephen Castner on its first mission, a unit that has come under fire many times in its year in Iraq. MARTENS: I've been knocked unconscious from one blast, but that was just due to the fact that it blew up pretty close to the truck. So I mean, it's just from the concussion. MAJ. GEN. DENNIS HARDY, DEP. COMMANDING GEN., 3rd ARMY: We're all continuing to learn about the implications, the effects of operations, continuous operations, multiple deployments. And then some of the situations, the explosions, the roadside bombs that our soldiers find themselves in. KING: More and more, commanders worry brain injuries could be to Iraq what agent orange was to Vietnam. The extent of the problem hidden for years. General Dennis Hardy is among those pushing for a more detailed monitoring system, even after soldiers leave Iraq and the Army, for that matter. HARDY: We probably got to do a more formal sort of tracking process to understand who has been in the vicinity of some of the explosions, monitoring behavior, to see if there's been any changes, any indicators. KING: Chris Tucker's first exposure came during the march on Baghdad back in 2003. C. TUCKER: What's up? We're in a big fire fight here, right outside Baghdad. It's kind of hot. KING: When then-private Tucker mounted a camera on his tank. CNN has kept in touch since the beginning. The flashbacks and nightmares started between the first and second deployments. TUCKER: I'll wake up places, and I don't even know where I'm at. It freaks you out. You're like, wow, that just can't be safe. You know, I -- I had a big problem with my anger and depression. KING: Counseling and medications have helped some, Tucker told us when we visited just before he shipped out the third time. C. TUCKER: There's not many other places I'd rather be on the battlefield than on this baby. KING: He showed off his tank with pride and tries to hide his physical and psychological scars, especially when a new recruit has questions about combat. C. TUCKER: Just the other night, I had one of my soldiers, you know, he was kind of upset, and he said -- he said, hey, Sergeant T, what's it like, man? I'm scared. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not too bad so far. C. TUCKER: I told him, I understand. It's OK to be scared. Because the first time I went, I was scared. I was a baby, just like you. KING: That baby of the initial march on Baghdad has aged a lot in just four years. Moving up the enlisted ranks into a critical position in the Army, a sergeant with the trust of his men, and experience under fire. Experience that is irreplaceable. SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: You lose a lot more than just an individual captain, or individual sergeant. You lose a lot of experience. A lot of what makes this Army and Marine Corps the best in the world. KING: So far the Army shows a respectable bottom line from a recruitment and retention standpoint. To meet goals, the services have increased the use of generous bonuses, lowered their educational standards, raised age limits, and issued more waivers for those with criminal convictions. And many of those who have stayed in proudly are increasingly war weary. TUCKER: Take the bolts off and put a new one on. KING: People like Chris Tucker. First the Army told Tucker he must stay in Iraq five additional months after his commitment runs out next March. TUCKER: Yeah, I'm kind of banged up, but I think there are many other people in the same position as me. KING: Banged up, and now, feeling a bit betrayed. Just as he deployed, this bomb shell. His tank unit was retasked, assigned to Humvee patrols with Iraqi troops. Not the mission they spent months training for. Two men in his company died in the first two weeks back. This is it. No more Army for Chris Tucker. TUCKER: You'll always see me push myself, you know, beyond a breaking point for me. I don't think we're busted. I think we're stretched thin. It starts to wear you out. You start to lose good soldiers because -- like myself. I'm tired. KING: Tired, stressed, and hurting. Like the Army he proudly serves. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com


text:
Rhode Island State Emblems
State Seal
State Seal First adopted in 1664
There shall continue to be one seal for the public use of the state; the form of an anchor shall be engraven thereon; the motto thereof shall be the word "Hope"; and in a circle around the outside shall be engraven the words, "Seal of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1636".
Arms of the State
First adopted in 1882
The arms of the state are a golden anchor on a blue field, and the motto thereof is the word "Hope".
State Flag
First adopted in 1877
The flag of the state shall be white, five feet and six inches fly and four feet and ten inches deep on the pike, bearing on each side in the center a gold anchor, twenty-two inches high, and underneath it a blue ribbon twenty-four inches long and five inches wide, or in these proportions, with the motto "Hope" in golden letters thereon, the whole surrounded by thirteen golden stars in a circle. The flag shall be edged with yellow fringe. The pike shall be surmounted by a spearhead and the length of the pike shall be nine feet, not including the spearhead.
Pledge of Allegiance To The Rhode Island State Flag
I pledge allegiance to our State Flag, and to the Republic of which Rhode Island forms a part; one Union inseparable, with honor and reverence for both State and Nation.
Source: Second Annual Program for Patriotic Exercises In Schools, May Fourth, 1910. The Commissioner of Public Schools, Rhode Island Department of Education, 1910.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Kerry to Russians: This is not a game
Tensions between American and Russian leaders are high even as they begin talks on a deal to head off U.S. military strikes in Syria.
As Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart began talks Thursday on a Russian proposal to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, the long-simmering mistrust between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin was on full display.
The latest jousting was triggered by an opinion piece published in Thursday's edition of TheNew York Times, in which Putin challenged the Obama administration's claim that Bashar Assad's regime was responsible for deploying chemical weapons. Putin also took umbrage with Obama for pointing to American exceptionalism in a nationally televised address earlier this week as a reason the United States should support a military strike if diplomatic efforts fail.
White House press secretary Jay Carney responded by calling Putin's claim that rebels were responsible for deploying chemical weapons "wholly unsubstantiated" and said the Russians are "isolated and alone" in blaming the opposition for the Aug. 21 chemical attack that left more than 1,400 civilians dead.
"We are not surprised by President Putin's words, but the fact is that Russia offers a stark contrast that demonstrates why America is exceptional," Carney added. "Unlike Russia, the United States stands up for democratic values and human rights in our own country and around the world. We believe our global security is advanced when children cannot be gassed to death by a dictator."
Obama and Putin have long had a strained relationship, marked most recently by disputes over differences on Syria and the Russians' decision to offer asylum to Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of U.S. surveillance programs.
The sharp exchange comes as Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began two days of meetings in the neutral setting of Geneva to discuss a Russian proposal to establish international monitoring of Syria's chemical stockpile.
Kerry said that American patience with the proposal, aimed at heading off U.S. military action, is limited. Kerry, Lavrov and a group of technical experts will meet again on Friday to discuss the Russian plan.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Thursday about the Russian proposal to secure Syria's chemical weapon stockpile. VPC
"Expectations are high," Kerry said in a joint appearance with Lavrov. "They are high for the United States, and perhaps even more so for the Russians, to deliver on the promise of this moment. This is not a game, and I said this to my friend Sergey, when we talked about this initially."
Kerry also rejected Assad's suggestion — which the Syrian president made in a television interview that aired Thursday — that he would begin submitting data on his chemical weapons arsenal one month after signing an international chemical weapons ban. Assad claimed that the 30-day lead time would be standard. The Syrians also formally informed the United Nations on Thursday that they wished to join an international chemical weapons ban treaty.
"There is nothing standard about this process," Kerry said. "The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough."
Kerry reiterated that Obama could still order a U.S. military strike if the Russian proposal is unsuccessful and Assad doesn't dismantle his chemical weapons arsenal.
"There ought to be consequences if it doesn't take place," he said.
Lavrov, who spoke briefly before Kerry, appeared surprised by the length, and perhaps, the substance of Kerry's remarks.
"I'm not prepared with an extended political statement," Lavrov said after Kerry's remarks. "Diplomacy likes silence."
Meanwhile, Obama told reporters ahead of a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House on Thursday that he was "hopeful" the talks would be fruitful, but he then quickly turned his attention to domestic matters.
"Even as we have been spending a lot of time on the Syria issue and making sure that international attention is focused on the horrible tragedy that occurred there, it is still important to recognize that we've got a lot more stuff to do here in this government," said Obama, who noted looming deadlines to pass a budget, raise the debt ceiling and implement his signature health care legislation. "We got a lot of stuff to do."
The president's desire to keep expectations low for the talks is understandable. After the Russians this week floated the idea of taking a role in securing Syria's chemical weapons, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were highly skeptical, noting that Russia and Iran are the Syrians' chief patrons.
Putin's commentary in TheNew York Times did nothing to help the situation. U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they were angered by Putin's commentary. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called Putin's writing "an insult to the intelligence of every American."
The Russians are insistent that the U.S. and other United Nations Security Council members agree to end any threat of a U.S. military strike — something that Obama is unlikely to agree to.
But the two sides may look to get around their differences by building an ambiguously worded resolution that would leave plenty of room for interpretation, said Jim Walsh, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's security studies program.
"It will be vague," Walsh said. "It will be watered down in the areas where both sides agree to disagree and leave it to interpretation. But the U.S. is not going to (formally) forfeit the option to strike."


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GRITS II Telecommunications Services
January 2019 Special Alert:
GSA is in the process of pursuing extending the Networx, Local Service Agreements (LSAs) and Washington Inter-agency Telecommunications System (WITS) contracts for an initial base year, plus two one-year options. Agencies should remain focused on releasing solicitations to industry by March 2019. Read more from Alan Thomas, GSA FAS Commissioner.
GSA's Integrated Telecommunications Services (GRITS II) enables federal agencies to realize significant savings off tariff rates for local telecommunication services. The discounted negotiated rates are better than those offered by previous contracts.
Agencies seeking more information can email email@example.com.
Orders for local telecommunication services must originate within Georgia, South Carolina, Florida , North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi but may terminate anywhere in the Continental United States (CONUS) and Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS).
GRITS II Benefits:
- New Direct Order, Direct Bill (DODB)– nominal 5 percent fee assessed on value of each order.
- Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), multiple-award, fixed price, performance-based contract with an Economic Price Adjustment.
- Wide Range of Services: Voice, Data, Video, Converged Services, and Other Wired Telecommunication Services (within NAICS code 517110).
- Integrated solutions can be implemented allowing seamless connectivity for agency voice, data, and video.
- Competed Prices. Significant savings through discounted negotiated prices, which may provide up to 67 percent savings off tariff rates.
- Technologies through OC 192 SONET available in addition to voice services.
- Contracting Officers receive a delegation of authority for DODB.
- GSA Assisted Ordering and Billing – GSA partners with customers to:
- Define requirements, identify solutions, order services.
- Manages provision of services, manages billing operations.
More Benefits:
- Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) compliant.
- Contracts are pre-competed and easy to use.
- Shorter procurement lead-time.
- 3-year base period with two, three-year options to extend.
- Hardware, software and related supplies and services may be procured as part of integrated technology solutions via modification.
All Local Telecommunications services were competitively advertised and awarded to the following providers:
- Core Technologies *
- Frontier Communications
- Futron *
- Level 3 Communications
- SBC Global Services d/b/a AT&T
- Windstream Communications
- Verizon Federal
*Futron and Core Technologies are small businesses. Set-asides within the Simplified Acquisition Threshold apply for some services, contact the telephone number provided for more details.
GSA currently supports over 2,000 federal agencies covering 445 cities, within the Southeast Sunbelt Region.


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Traverse City Events: Bay Area Big Band to perform at Dennos Museum Center
Traverse City Events: The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will swing with the jazz sounds of the Bay Area Big Band on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 8 PM in Milliken Auditorium. The Bay Area Big Band, with guest artists Randy Gelispie and Rob Smith, generates an electricity and excitement guaranteed to bring the Traverse City audience out of their seats. Building on a proud tradition of such historical bands as; Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, and more the Bay Area Big Band creates a musical experience not to be missed.
This Traverse City concert will feature living jazz legend Randy Gelispie on drums. Randy is currently instructor of jazz drums at the Michigan State University College of Music. Mr. Gelispie has traveled on the road and performed with historical jazz legends that include; Wes Montgomery, Sonny Stitt, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Dinah Washington, Etta Jones, Lou Donaldson, and more.
Another special featured guest artist at the Dennos Museum Center concert is Rob Smith on trumpet and saxophone. Rob is currently the assistant professor of jazz studies at Central Michigan University. Mr. Smith performs regularly on trumpet and saxophones throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with several notable jazz groups, including: The Woody Herman Jazz Orchestra, The Kirk MacDonald Quintet, The Steve Haines Quintet. Rob recently toured with Terri Lyne Carrington, Nancy Wilson and Dianne Reeves in a tribute to Billie Holiday, performing on trumpet and tenor saxophone.
This benefit concert is a collaborative effort between the 2010-2011 Dennos Concert Series and the Bay Area music Foundation. Proceeds will benefit the Dennos Museums Center's Educational tour fund to provide scholarships for public and private K-12 school groups to attend guided tours and educational concerts.
Tickets are $25 advance, $28 at the door and $22 for museum members plus ticket processing fees of $2 per ticket. Tickets may be purchased on line at dennosmuseum.org or by calling the box office at 231-995-1553.


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Optimization: Calling By Value Or By Reference To Const?
Last week, I talked about architectural optimization, which I claimed must be taken into account as part of design. I would like to continue that discussion with another reason for thinking carefully about optimizations rather than making them automatically.
You are probably aware that if we define a function with a parameter that is not a reference, the corresponding argument will be copied when we call the function. For example:
class Thing { // … }; void foo(Thing t) { /* … */ }
Because the parameter to
foo has type
Thing, rather than type
Thing& (with or without
const), calling
foo causes the C++ implementation to copy the object that we are passing to
foo, thereby making the value of
t inside
foo distinct from the object that we gave
foo as its argument.
Of course, without reading the definition of
Thing, we don't know how long it takes to copy an object of that type. For that reason, many programmers are in the habit of defining functions such as
Foo to take parameters of type
const Thing& rather than of type
Thing as an optimization.
I wish such optimizations were always so easy — but of course, if they were, the compiler would be doing it for us and we wouldn't need to worry about it. Alas, there are at least two problems that make it far from automatic to pass arguments to functions by reference. The following example illustrates both of these problems:
void scale(vector<double>& v, const double& x) { for (size_t i = 0; i != v.size(); ++i) v[i] /= x; }
This function divides every element in a
vector<double> by a given value,
x. The author of this function intended to avoid having to copy
x each time through the loop by making
x a reference to
(const) double rather than a
double directly. However, suppose we call the function this way:
scale(v, v[0]);
We want to divide each element of
v by
v[0]. Presumably we have ensured that
v has at least one element and that
v[0] is not equal to zero. If you look carefully at the code, however, you will see that it sets
v[0] equal to
v[0]/v[0] (i.e., to
1.0), and then divides every other element of
v by
1.0, leaving those elements unchanged. By making
x a reference, we have defined
x as an alias to what, in this case, turns out to be an element of
v itself.
Not only does this use of
scale work incorrectly, but a compiler that compiles this code as we've written it will have to copy
x each time through the loop anyway — even though we made
x a reference to avoid just that possibility. The reason, of course, is that the compiler must cater to the possibility that
x is an alias to an element of
v, so it cannot store
x in an internal register as it might otherwise have done.
If we were to define
x as
double rather than as
const double&, we would be insisting that the program copy
x at the beginning of the
scale function. This copy would ensure that
x would not be an alias for an element of
v; so not only would the program now work as expected, but it would do so more quickly.
Defining a function parameter as a reference is a common optimization that avoids copying values that would otherwise have to be copied. However, like all optimizations, it should not be made automatically. Next week I shall discuss some other reasons that this optimization might not be as useful as it appears at first.


text:
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Bond 11+: Verbal Reasoning: Standard Test Papers
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Bond Verbal Reasoning 11+ Standard Test Papers Pack 1 are realistic 11+ timed test papers, with full answers included. Each mock test paper enables children to simulate the test, developing critical exam techniques of following instructions, reading the question carefully and time management that will build confidence ahead of the test.
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A Conversation with Ron Rivest
A Conversation with Ron Rivest: How important is cryptography and computer security?
Ron Rivest leaped into the computer-science limelight in 1977 when, along with fellow MIT assistant professors Adi Shamir and Leonard Adelman, he invented the RSA public-key cryptosystem. For more than two decades now, this cryptosystem has withstood extensive cryptanalysis, inspiring confidence in the theoretical underpinnings of the algorithm. The RSA cryptosystem also formed the foundation of RSA Data Security, a company Rivest helped launch and of which he still serves as a director.
Still, Rivest is first and foremost an educator. He is currently the Webster Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, an Associate Director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, and a leader of that lab's Cryptography and Information Security research group. With Thomas H. Cormen and Charles E. Leiserson, Rivest is coauthor of Introduction to Algorithms, a comprehensive introduction to the modern study of computer algorithms that has been identified by DDJ as a fundamental book for computer programmers (and included on Dr. Dobb's Essential Books on Algorithms and Data Structures CD-ROM). Rivest published his paper "The RC5 Encryption Algorithm" in DDJ (January 1995), and is also the recipient of DDJ's 1997 Excellence in Programming Award (see DDJ, May 1997).
We're pleased that Professor Rivest recently had time to sit down with frequent DDJ contributor Jack Woehr to talk about cryptography, computer science, and a host of other topics. (Rivest's home page, located at http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/ ~rivest/homepage.html, is also rife with interesting technological resources and bibliographical references.)
DDJ: Can you define computer security?
RR: Computer security covers a broad range of activities. The two primary goals are information confidentiality, seeing that information is not disclosed to parties it shouldn't be disclosed to; and authentication, making sure that a message has integrity and that you know who wrote it. Information security may branch out into other things, too, if you've got computers that are controlling things like dams and telephone systems. When you get into payment systems, you're talking application-level now, where you've got a variety of specified system objectives about how a payment system should work.
In general, security consists of implementing the policies of someone who designed the system, policies regarding who should have access to, and who should control, various kinds of information.
DDJ: A Nielsen survey released March 12, 1997 showed that people fear buying things on the Internet because they don't think their credit card numbers are safe.
RR: They're probably safer using their credit card for Internet transactions than they are using it in a local restaurant. It's a question as to what the risk is; the risk in a restaurant is that the waiter/waitress you give the credit card number to copies it down, keeps a copy of the carbon, whatever, sells it to a friend...My personal guess is that this is more likely to happen in a restaurant than on the Internet. Not that this situation couldn't turn around at some point, but currently, the number of credit card thefts carried out over the Internet is probably very small compared to the number carried out in ordinary institutions like a restaurant or a shopping center.
DDJ: Is our world coming to mirror that genre of dystopic science fiction that depicts infinite opportunities for corruption, people picking your pocket in the street, people picking your pocket electronically, and so on?
RR: To evaluate such a risk, you have to evaluate how many people out there have both the motive and the means to carry out an attack. It's much easier for the clerk with a credit card slip to make off with your number than it is for someone to mount a sophisticated attack against an encrypted Internet line.
DDJ: And suppose the information arrives intact and authenticated: Could the legitimate electronic recipient of consumer transactions be trying to rob you?
RR: Absolutely. Someone is manning the store. If it's totally automated, then it's a question of whether the people implementing the system are engaged in widespread fraud. This seems much less likely than individual fraud, when you have lots of people handling individual transactions. This is why some proposed protocols don't even show the credit card number to the merchant: It's encrypted all the way to the bank.
DDJ: How about logistical scams, such as the one last spring when the online pornography service in Moldova was taking a cut from the Moldovan phone company? (DDJ, "News & Views," May 1997). The software to access their service would turn off the user's modem speaker, dial direct to Moldova, and incur telephone charges that AT&T is obligated by international treaty to pay without demur.
RR: I love examples like that! They illustrate basic attacks. People have to learn that there are risks, just like they learn to keep their wallet in their front pocket rather than in their back pocket. There are concerns, when you have a system where you can download software and execute it on your machine. You have to be pretty careful about who you download the material from, or what constraints you set upon your operating system when such applications are allowed to run.
DDJ: Does Java solve this problem?
RR: Java has as a goal solving this problem, and is getting nearer to it. I think it's got a way to go yet. In terms of allowing an operating system to specify what are the conditions under which a Java program may execute, you may want a variety of policies for different Java applets. You need a good way of specifying and enforcing what your policy is for the different kinds of applets.
DDJ: Is the "you" that is enforcing such policies "you" the user, "you" the operating system designer, "you" the software provider, or all of them?
RR: In some cases, the user might want to get directly involved, might need to be asked, "Here's a program that's attempting to access one of your files, may we acquiesce in that?" The user might be trying an experimental word-processing program and want to grant access. He may not need to be involved; it may be an explicit policy of his operating system that every applet digitally signed by Manufacturer "X" can be executed without further checking with the user.
Digital certificates are valuable; people want assurance that the applets they are loading are what they pretend to be, at least in terms of authorship. The applets may have further qualities; for example, they need access to files, qualities which themselves may be the subject of a signature. I think the manufacturer stepping up and taking responsibility for these qualities is a good thing. It allows the user side, the browser side, to start making policy decisions based on those qualities that can be authenticated.
DDJ: How do these certificates work and how good are they?
RR: Digital certificates are based on public-key cryptography, which has been around for a long time now. We have a very high level of confidence that it works well and does what it's supposed to do; that is, create a signed document that may include such things as a program or an applet, even assert certain things about the applet, if you like. This is a technology that is pretty well understood even though it is still evolving.
Standards are essential. If a manufacturer is signing applets, the browser needs to understand the public-key technology used in the signatures. A modest number of standards are needed just to make the system work. It doesn't need to be one standard, two or three might emerge.
As usual, there is chaos as all the companies rush ahead to be first to market. In this case, the World Wide Web Consortium, which is housed at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, has coordinated the industry's attempt to get together on a digital signature initiative for this kind of application. I think that the industry as a whole will get behind that. It's not one of those things where there's any particular market advantage for a company to be different.
DDJ: Will people ever vote in elections via the Internet?
RR: I have students working on an electronic voting project. We're refining a protocol by Fujioka, Okamoto, and Ohta of Japan, trying to make it as practical and scalable as we can.
The protocol posits a variety of parties involved. There are one or more administrators that know the list of authorized voters; there are the voters themselves; there's an anonymizer for sending anonymous mail to a counter who tallies the mail and publishes the results. There are a variety of steps whereby you get your authorization to vote: You download a web page that has the ballot on it, you fill it out, there's a hash, the hash gets blinded and sent to the administrator who signs it for you, you unblind it and send it back, an anonymizer sends it to the counter and it gets published, with some checking to make sure everything's okay.
In a way, this is tinkertoys compared to some of the protocols that have been proposed. We'd like to implement it and see how it works in practice.
DDJ: The voting system has traditionally been weak on technical integrity. There are many known voting scams.
RR: With electronic voting, you can tell that your vote has been counted.
DDJ: Until the "bad guys" figure out the next way to spoof it?
RR: When you've got cryptography, it's hard for the bad guys to get in the middle of it. The difficult scenario with electronic protocols is where you've got the bad guys corrupting the insiders, corrupting the registrar of voters, who can stuff the ballot box with imaginary voters.
DDJ: There have appeared fairly well documented reports of attempts to influence Congress by deluging members with phony constituent mail generated by other branches of the government. If all voting is done online, will we find government agencies deciding the presidential election surreptitiously?
RR: I would hope they wouldn't be able to generate spurious voters. Each registrar of voters is independent. If there were attempts at voting time to deluge the systems with phony e-mail, you might need fast machines to dump it in a timely fashion. You may need to declare a delay in the election if someone manages to bring down the whole network, which I suppose could be done. But by and large, with electronic elections, you can tell when it's working properly.
DDJ: So you're saying that the partition of the conceptual network of American elections, in that there are individual human registrars as nodes of this network, will protect the system, that it's not all going to a big computer in Washington?
RR: Well, it could all go to a big computer in Washington. But these results all get published. You can take your own PC and download these results, and see that each of the votes that is there has actually been signed by an appropriate administrator, a registrar of voters, in a blinded manner. You can see that your own vote is there.
You could have several administrators, one from each major party, one from the ACLU, and so on. Then you'd need to corrupt all three administrators to vote the same way on the same day to forge one single vote.
You'll end up in the same situation, in that if the people running the elections are corrupt, you've got problems. But you can divide the problem: having several mutually mistrusting parties having to cooperate to spoof the election gives you some assurance the election's running properly.
DDJ: So in electronic voting, and in electronic commerce, there's no one big, friendly technology that's going to guarantee that everything is safe.
RR: One has to be aware of the risks involved in having sensitive information used in a global network. We have to lose our naïveté. Some measures may be taken automatically to protect you, while others you may have to be aware of.
DDJ: And how many consumers understand the phrase, "sensitive data on a global network"?
RR: How many people in the year 1950 understood a credit card? People now use credit cards, and understand the risk of credit cards. It's an education process.
DDJ: How painful an education process?
RR: Stories wherein there's a modest amount of damage, as it appears in the Moldovan episode, which are also highly publicized, can have a great educational effect.
Security is a cat-and-mouse game. You can't afford perfect security. Companies make investments to ameliorate the risks. Over time, the technologies improve, it gets harder for the bad guys. Breaking into bank vaults isn't done much today: It's gotten really hard to do. It went through a series of stages, and now you've got vaults that are really elaborate. We'll see the same evolution with Internet security.
DDJ: What does the commercial turmoil of general computing look like from inside Academe?
RR: There's a great deal of creativity and turmoil indeed. At the Laboratory for Computer Science we see the industry close up, because we work with them on emerging technical problems with the Internet, the Web, advanced hardware specs, whatever.
DDJ: It seems that computer science used to be LISP, Prolog, Knuth, but you're telling me it's much more sophisticated than it was 15 to 20 years ago.
RR: The character of what computer science is about has changed quite a bit. Analyzing algorithms and programming language issues are still talked about, but the existence of the Internet and the World Wide Web have changed the focus of some of the research. People are looking at caching algorithms for the Internet, secure transactions, lots and lots of Internet-related stuff. The hardware has gotten to the point where parallel computation is a very hot topic as people look at how to harness all this silicon power that we're capable of assembling in a single machine.
Our students are going out there and founding companies and being successful. A recent report found that companies that were spun off from MIT have had a tremendous impact on the economy. We have a paternal relationship to some of these companies, which are run by people who have come through the MIT educational process with the Computer Science department, through the Laboratory for Computer Science, through the AI lab.
The amount of programming that goes on in universities has gone down compared to the amount that goes on in industry. There are interesting things that industry does that couldn't take place in academia, just because they take too much effort. The applications have gotten quite large. You can't have such a large-scale effort within a university.
DDJ: No more situations like Berkeley writing whole operating systems?
RR: There's still a lot of that going on. Universities are still the seedbed for this, they do the initial designs, the prototyping, the feasibility studies. When these things become a little bit more real, they get spun off in a technology transfer, which works quite well in this country.
DDJ: My son lasted one year in computer engineering, then was seduced into a job and left school. Will the demands of industry let the kids finish school these days?
RR: I think the students realize it's usually in their own best interests to complete through the degree program. We see more students going to the master's level than before, the number of Ph.D. students is the same, or may have gone down a little bit. Some of that's industry pull, I'm sure.
DDJ: Do you have a warm feeling for academia? Is it what you wanted?
RR: I certainly enjoy working for MIT and the Lab for Computer Science and for the department here. It's a very exciting place to work. I've also enjoyed the opportunity to have one foot in industry and to consult and found companies. It's a nice blend of activities.
DDJ: I remember 30 years ago going with my mother to see the Foucault pendulum at Temple University in Philadelphia. At that time, a university really was a temple, it had the atmosphere of a mystical temple of learning. Are universities still like that?
RR: Some of them may be. MIT has the character of being very dynamic, very embedded in and integrated with industry and working with government on policy issues. MIT is interesting because, in some ways, it's not an ivory tower that's cut off, It's a place where you can choose to shut your office door and think about problems quietly if you wish, but it's also got opportunities for making connections with lots of places outside MIT.
DDJ: What's the most interesting part of your work?
RR: On the whole, cryptography. Cryptography is fascinating from many angles. It's got beautiful mathematics, it has gamesmanship of good guys and bad guys, and it's got real applications.
For the past decade, I've done quite a bit of research in machine learning.
DDJ: How smart is Deep Blue when it beats Gary Kasparov at chess?
RR: Computers are getting very good at playing chess. I don't know if you want to apply the word "smart" to that, because "smart" has a general intelligence flavor to it, and this is not general intelligence. This is very good specialized intelligence.
DDJ: Is it possible that computers are aware?
RR: That's a very excellent and deep question. I spent quite a bit of my time trying to figure out what that means. I think most computers are not aware in any useful sense of the word, but trying to make computers aware, in whatever sense one means that, is a fascinating research goal. I don't think we've gotten very far along that at all.
DDJ: As a cryptographer, do you feel as Phil Zimmerman, our local Colorado hero, does?
RR: He's more than a local hero these days. Phil and I go back a long ways. I like Phil, and he's done a lot of interesting stuff. I think he and I share a lot of the same concerns. The ability of the government to have surveillance over nearly everything is very worrisome. It's appropriate for individuals to be able to have private conversations protected by cryptography.
If you're having a voting system, the government should not have the means or the right to see what you're voting, for example, if the means exists to do that privately. Et cetera. I think there are lots of places the government should be restricted from listening into.
Cryptography is -- computer security is -- essential to the modern science of information processing. I would urge Dr. Dobb's readers to find out more about those areas.
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text: On Thu, 21 Jun 2001, Jared Hodge wrote: > The questions: > > What is your hardware setup (processor, motherboard, network, etc.)? 20 dual PIII 500, 256 megs RAM, SuperMicro P6DBE, Intel EtherExpress Pro 100, 3com 100 switch > Did you have any problems with the hardware or configuration? What is > your evaluation of the cause and solution? Only problem so far has been the PBS setup. Condor, Antsd, MPI and PVM work fine. > Are you pleased with the performance and reliability of your cluster? > Please explain. Oh yes.. Only problems that have occured in 1.5 years in use, is 1 P6DBE power pin overheated and burnt the power connector. Ordered a replacement and its been working fine ever since. I would also consider a better cooling system than leaving the cases off. > What has been your experience with the following hardware and financial > tradeoffs (assuming you've had some experience with them)? > Intel vs. AMD processors: Strictly Intel for now but we are thinking about ordering a dual Athlon from VA Linux for testing to see if it will handle a clustering load. -- Jeremy Mann jeremy at bioc09.v19.uthscsa.edu


text:
Firebug 1.12 beta 1Friday, June 28th, 2013
getfirebug.com has Firebug 1.12 beta 1 (archive).
We have just switched to beta phase, which means that releases are solid, we are focusing only on bug fixing, no new features at this point and we appreciate feedback from beta testers.
Firebug 1.12 beta 1 fixes 19 issues
Firebug 1.12 beta 1 is compatible with Firefox 22-25
All users subscribed to the AMO beta channel will be automatically updated. See the Development Channel section at the bottom of the page.
A highlight from this release
- New command: getEventListeners() (issue 6522)
This command returns the event listeners registered on a given object. The object is usually an element, but it can also be e.g. a 'window'.
The return object can be further inspected in the DOM panel as depicted on the following screenshot.
The screenshot shows an array with two listeners registered for the 'load' event. If you click on the
f1() or
f2() function, you'll be automatically navigated to the Script panel to see the implementation.
You can try an example online.
Please post feedback in the newsgroup, thanks
Jan 'Honza' Odvarko


text:
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text:
(Reuters) - Recently released Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has agreed on terms with the Washington Redskins, it was announced on Tuesday.
Jackson, an electrifying playmaker, was cut loose by the Eagles last week amid concerns about his attitude and off-field activity.
The NFC East rival Redskins did not take long to lure him and will add him to an offense that features quarterback Robert Griffin III and NFL receptions leader Pierre Garcon.
Jackson reacted to the news by tweeting: "Its goin down!! Burgundy & Gold."
Terms of Jackson's contract have yet to be disclosed, according to the NFL's website.
The 27-year-old Jackson is coming off a career-best season that saw him catch 82 passes for 1,332 yards and nine touchdowns.
Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Sudipto Ganguly


text:
N.M. Geology magazine Studies Espanola Basin, June 28, 2001
SOCORRO, N.M., June 28, 2001 -- The newest issue of New Mexico Geology focuses on a geologic study of the depositional environments which make up the alluvial slopes found in a section on the east side of the Española Basin, about 25 miles directly north of Santa Fe.
"Alluvial-slope deposition of the Skull Ridge Member of the Tesuque Formation, Española Basin, New Mexico" details a study of the geologic setting of the sedimentary deposits which have formed along the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a study which may eventually aid in basin analysis, delineation of rift-basin hydrocarbon reservoirs, and evaluating groundwater flow and contaminant transport in other areas in the western United States.
Another article in the periodical highlights several abstracts of award-winning research projects presented earlier this year at the 2001 New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair, which also were bestowed with "Excellence in Geoscience" awards from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR). Nearly 50 young scientists from middle and high schools throughout the state presented geoscience-related research projects at this year's science fair.
In addition, another article in New Mexico Geology's popular New Mexico State Park series describes the history and geology of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park, which is located just north of Carlsbad.
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park, which was established in 1971 to preserve and display the wide variety of animals, plants, and natural environments found in the Chihuahuan Desert, currently offers several outdoor and indoor exhibits, a museum gift shop, information booth, restrooms, picnic tables and mineral displays. Camping, however, is not allowed within the confines of this particular state park.
New Mexico Geology is published quarterly by NMBGMR, a service division of New Mexico Tech. A subscription to the award-winning journal costs $10 per year or $18 for two years.
For more information about New Mexico Geology, or any other NMBGMR publications, write to the Bureau Publications Office, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, or call (505) 835-5410, or visit the Bureau's website at http://geoinfo.nmt.edu.


text:
A Swiss company called IMI has been putting its "Intelligent Retinal Implant System" through clinical trials for the past three years. When it's ready, it could help restore sight to the blind.
The use of a high-speed digital signal processor allows the provision of "intelligent information" to the implant (and the nerve cells) by using tuneable software to approximate the information processing normally carried out by the healthy retina. The entire process enables patients to optimise their visual perception during the learning phase. Indeed, using the patient's feedback on perception as an input for the tuning of The Pocket Processor is the unique, patent-protected feature of the System and constitutes the 'learning' capability of the Learning Retinal Implant System.
The next logical step is, of course, enhancing vision beyond what we're born with. When these things become optional for people with healthy vision, you'll know we're really living in the future. [IMI Devices]


text:
With movies like Food Inc which expose the way food and meat are produced in the US and fears of Global Warming brewing, vegetarianism is growing. In fact in 2008, there are 7.3 million Vegetarian Americans and 22.8 million Americans eat a vegetarian inclined diet. In 2008 Vegetarian Times conducted a study on the statistical breakdown of vegetarians. This interesting study broke down the statistics on vegetarians in America. The study reported that about 1% of the population are vegetarians, with a million of those following a strict vegan diet.
And if you are curious to who is a vegetarian the study broke down this diet by gender, age, and the length of their commitments. It was shown that more women and younger Americans have chosen vegetarianism. 59 percent of reported vegetarians are female while only 41 percent are male. It was appears that the majority of vegetarians are between 18 and 34 years old. 42.0 percent of vegetarians are age 18 to 34 years old while 40.7 percent are 35 to 54 and 17.4 percent are over 55. And on top of the showing that vegetarians are made up of mostly a younger female population, the study reported that most of these committed vegetarians have been following this diet for 10 years or more. 57.1 percent have followed a vegetarian diet for more than 10 years while 18 percent for 5 to 10 years; 10.8 percent for 2 to 5 years, and 14.1 percent for less than 2 years. These figures are compelling because it is evident that most Americans who decide to follow a plant based diet do so as a long or lifelong commitment.
As well as showing who is a vegetarian in America, the study explained the reasons most Americans are choosing to live an herbivorous lifestyle. The 2008 study reported that over half, 53 percent, are currently vegetarian for health reasons. Environmental factors were also played a huge part in American's decision, showing 47 percent as their reason to become vegetarian. It was also shown that 39 percent cited " natural approaches to wellness" while 31 percent cited food-safety concerns, 54 percent cited animal welfare; and finally 25 percent cited weight loss while 24 percent reported weight maintenance as a reason. There are so many reasons to chose a vegetarian diet, as it is clear by this data, but it seems that most Americans choose to live a meat free life for a variety of reasons.
The study provides great information about those Americans who are eating a vegetarian or vegetarian inclined diet. Perhaps the most encouraging statistics to come out of this study is that the 11.9 million non vegetarians who were surveyed stated they are "definitely interested" in eating a vegetarian diet in the future: meaning more and more people are interested in the lifestyle. Finally, the editor of Vegetarian Times, Elizabeth Turner said "the vegetarian sector is one of the fastest-growing categories in food publishing," In fact magazine sales for Vegetarian Times has been growing after the last few years while the mainstream publishing industry has been hurting.
Now that we know the breakdown of Vegetarian Americans it makes fact that this trend is growing incredibly exciting. Looking at concrete data showing that more and more Americans are changing their lifestyles, makes the excitement all the more real. So in the words of Brain, we vegetarians are "trying to take over the world." Look out, American we are taking over…well in the end at least we are a growing population.


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text:
Be a Part of Holiday Giveaway 2011!
Dear Readers, Friends, Designers and Store Owners,
As October gets under way, we want to get the word out to all of you that we're taking submissions for a few more days (through Tuesday, October 11th) for our 2011 Holiday Giveaway, which will kick off in November. It's our way of saying thank you to the stores and designers we love. Last year was our biggest year ever, with over 120 gifts given away...
... from small and large homes shops across the country in just four weeks. If you're interested in knowing more, or if you're ready to submit a gift for consideration now, please scroll down to the very bottom of this post.
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and the Apartment Therapy Team
1. Can I submit a gift certificate in the place of a gift?
This is an opportunity for you to highlight one of your products, and we prefer actual product submissions to gift certificates.
2. Can I see a proof of the post beforehand?
Similar to an editorial post, we do not provide you with a proof before we publish the post. With over 100 gifts, we aren't able to accommodate that request. We will be using the image and copy that you submit. If you would like to see an example of what the post will look like, click here.
3. What should the picture look like?
Our readers prefer active, colorful, illustrative pictures, not plain product shots. Please select an image that will best show off your gift. Here is an example.
4. How does the gift get to the winner?
Once the winner is selected, you will be notified with their name and mailing address. It is then your responsibility to ship the gift to the winner within 30 days of notification. We will also provide you with a link to a form where we would like you to fill in the date the gift was shipped and the tracking number in case follow-up is needed.
5. If my one item is less than $100 can I submit more than one?
We are looking for gifts of value and $100 is our minimum. If your gift has a value of less than $100, but is a part of a set or collection you may complete the set to reach the $100 minimum.
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Regardless of the dollar amount we request that you complete the set or collection in order to make it a gift of value for our readers.
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text:
Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center have now identified a link between the tyrosine kinase, c-Abl, and impaired parkin function. The scientists found that c-Abl was activated in cultured neuronal cells and the striatum of adult mice when subjected to oxidative and neuronal stress. They also identified parkin as a specific substrate for c-Abl and that the tyrosine-phosphorylated parkin lost its ubiquitin ligase activity.
The c-Abl inhibitor, imatinib (STI-571) was able to block the phosphorylation of parkin in vitro and in vivo, restoring ligase activity. Since there are several c-Abl inhibitors approved for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia, tools are available to further explore the neuroprotective potential of c-Abl inhibition in sporadic PD.
The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.


text:
International Rugby
Stage set for latest rankings battle
ESPN Staff
November 14, 2012
France upset Australia and the rankings last weekend to climb into the top four © PA Photos
England will go into their clash with Australia on Saturday knowing that a big victory could propel them into third place in the International Rugby Board rankings and put them on course for a favourable World Cup pool draw.
The top four sides in the ranking - currently New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and France - following the completion of the end of year internationals will be kept apart in the pool stages of the sport's next showpiece event with the draw scheduled for December 3 in London.
France climbed above England into fourth thanks to their comprehensive 33-6 victory over higher-ranked Australia in Paris on Saturday night. But a similar victory for England over the Wallabies at Twickenham this weekend could see Stuart Lancaster's side rise to third place in the rankings if France were to be beaten by Argentina.
A victory for both England and France would see Australia slip out of the top four and should they fail to regain their place, with further games scheduled against Italy and Wales, they face the prospect of being pooled with one of the top four at RWC'15.
An equally intriguing battle is being played out to secure a place within the second group of seeds, those placed 5th-8th, with any side falling out of that bracket set to face two of the sides above them in pool play at the 2015 tournament.
England, Wales, Argentina and Ireland currently occupy those spots but with only an Ireland XV taking on Fiji, a non-Test game that will therefore not count towards ranking points, 9th placed Scotland have a chance to usurp their celtic rivals. Any kind of victory for the Scots over South Africa at Murrayfield on Saturday will see them climb above Ireland with a winning margin of more than 15 points providing the biggest possible boost.
If the Pool Allocation Draw was to happen today (14 November), the bands would be as follows:
Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France
Eleven of the 12 automatically qualified teams are in action this weekend, with only Ireland not playing a full international.
How this weekend's results could affect the automatically qualified teams' ratings points:
Wales v Samoa, Cardiff
England v Australia, Twickenham
Scotland v South Africa, Murrayfield
Italy v New Zealand, Rome
Tonga v USA, Colwyn Bay
France v Argentina, Lille
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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