Friday 10-22-10

This is absolutely great stuff

Founding Fathers' papers to be accessible online

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - History buffs will soon be able to explore the private thoughts and official writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in a public, online clearinghouse of their letters, journals and other documents.

The University of Virginia Press is putting the published papers of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin on a National Archives website that is expected to be accessible to the public in 2012.

When complete, the website will allow users to read, browse and search the text of tens of thousands of documents from the period.

"There's great interest in the founding era now, more than there has been for the last 30 years," said Penny Kaiserlian, director of the Charlottesville, Va.-based publisher. "People want to go back to what the founders said, rather than what people say they said. This will give people the ability to check out quotations and get documents, and in general, get a picture of the daily life of the founders."

Offering the texts online and free of charge helps takes the Founding Fathers' correspondence out of the scholarly realm and move it into the hands of the public, including history teachers and students, said Edward Lengel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington, at the University of Virginia.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, part of the National Archives, will provide up to $2 million for the project.

The archive will give people direct access to primary sources that tell the stories of the men in the context of the times during which they lived and helped shape. Some of the collections also include documents from their childhood and retirement years, giving fuller glimpses into their lives.

Among the Founding Fathers' documents is Washington's letter in April 1777 to Elizabeth Mallam Neil, widow of a captain killed at the Revolutionary War's Battle of Princeton. At the time, Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army and the Continental Congress hadn't yet enacted any measures to compensate the families of soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Washington closes his letter: "In the meantime, as I sincerely feel for your distress, I beg your acceptance of the Inclosd as a small testimony of my inclination to serve you upon any future occasion." His final notation: "Fifty Dollars sent."

"But he was not just a hero who strutted about performing great deeds," Lengel said of Washington. "He was a human who had his foibles, and could be jealous, angry and even crude at times. But he was a man who, despite all his flaws, walked the road to greatness."

The papers also serve as a reflection of American society at the time, Lengel said.

"You had thousands of people from all walks of life _ slaves, workmen, pioneers and politicians _ showing up" in documented interactions with the first president.

James Madison is primarily known as a principal architect of the Constitution's Bill of Rights. But records and correspondence from his service as Jefferson's secretary of state, and later as the nation's fourth president, will offer the public a more thorough picture of his accomplishments, said J.C.A. Stagg, editor-in-chief of the Papers of James Madison.

"He did a lot of significant things after he finished the Bill of Rights," Stagg said. "It was not downhill after that. The picture enshrined in the popular imagination is very misleading."

The U.Va. Press already has published volumes of print editions of the founders' papers, and a number of the documents appear online on its subscription-only digital site, Rotunda. U.Va. archivists will use the online documents as the framework for the National Archives' searchable database. The original documents are housed at the Library of Congress.

When complete, the website will include the complete contents of 242 printed volumes, including all of the existing document transcriptions and editors' explanatory notes.

A prototype website that includes the print editions of the papers of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison is expected to be ready in about a year. A full, publicly accessible version that includes volumes from the Papers of Alexander Hamilton is expected to go live by June 2012, and by the following year, the collection is expected to include published volumes of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin.

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Online:

http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/FOEA.html

Pentagon Will Help Homeland Security Department Fight Domestic Cyberattacks
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has adopted new procedures for using the Defense Department’s vast array of cyberwarfare capabilities in case of an attack on vital computer networks inside the United States, delicately navigating historic rules that restrict military action on American soil.
The system would mirror that used when the military is called on in natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. A presidential order dispatches the military forces, working under the control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the new rules, the president would approve the use of the military’s expertise in computer-network warfare, and the Department of Homeland Security would direct the work.

Officials involved in drafting the rules said the goal was to ensure a rapid response to a cyberthreat while balancing concerns that civil liberties might be at risk should the military take over such domestic operations.

The rules were deemed essential because most of the government’s computer-network capabilities reside within the Pentagon — while most of the important targets are on domestic soil, whether within the government or in critical private operations like financial networks or a regional power grid.

The new approach will begin with a Department of Homeland Security team deploying to Fort Meade, Md., home to both the National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic espionage, and the military’s new Cyber Command. In exchange, a team of military networking experts would be assigned to the operations center at the Homeland Security Department.

The rules were detailed in a memorandum of agreement signed in late September by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, but they were not released until last week.

Robert J. Butler, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy, said the memorandum was intended to cut through legal debates about the authority for operating domestically, and to focus on how best to respond to the threat of attack on critical computer networks.

Mr. Butler said teams of lawyers would watch for potential violations of civil liberties. “We have put protection measures in place,” he said.

The Pentagon is expected to release a full National Defense Strategy for Cyber Operations this year, to be followed by broader interagency guidance from the White House, perhaps in the form of a presidential directive, in 2011.

Congress also is weighing legislation that would update domestic law to deal with advances in computer-based surveillance and cyberwarfare.

William J. Lynn III, the deputy defense secretary, underscored the Pentagon’s “need to protect our military networks,” but said that “it’s a national challenge as well.” In an interview with Charlie Rose broadcast Monday by PBS, Mr. Lynn added: “We need to protect our critical infrastructure. We need to protect our intellectual property. And that’s a whole-of-government effort.”

During a visit last week to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr. Gates lobbied for new partnerships to combat computer threats, while warning that the NATO networks were vulnerable.

“On cybersecurity, the alliance is far behind,” Mr. Gates said. “Our vulnerabilities are well known, but our existing programs to remedy these weaknesses are inadequate.”

Mr. Gates said he was not concerned that secret intelligence shared with allies would be compromised, but he said NATO had weaknesses in its defenses for computer networks at its headquarters and throughout the shared command structure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/21cyber.html

Va. man behind ‘South Park’ threat faces terror charge

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A man known for posting an online warning that the creators of “South Park” risked death by mocking the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a Somali terror group linked to al-Qaida.

Zachary A. Chesser, 20, of Oakton, Va., told FBI agents that he twice tried to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a fighter. On the most recent attempt, earlier this month, Chesser brought his infant son with him as he tried to board a flight from New York to Uganda so he would look less suspicious, according to an FBI affidavit.

Chesser was barred from the July 10 flight and told by the Transportation Security Administration that he was on the no-fly list, according to the affidavit.

While Chesser told the FBI that he had intended on July 10 to join al-Shabab, he told them in a July 14 interview that he changed his mind because of the July 11 bombing in Uganda that killed more than 75 people watching the World Cup, for which al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

But leading up to July 10, Chesser said he had corresponded with al-Shabab members and expected to undergo a six-week basic training and then serve as a “foreign fighter” with al-Shabab in Mogadishu. According to the affidavit, Chesser expected he would be asked to serve as a propagandist but that he had been willing to fight on the front lines.

The affidavit also states that Chesser corresponded with the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last year. Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen who has recently been designated a terrorist by the U.S. government. Al-Awlaki is believed to have corresponded with several alleged terrorists, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November at Fort Hood, Tex.

Chesser also told authorities that he used several online profiles to spread terrorist propaganda.

The affidavit makes only a brief mention of Chesser’s warnings to the “South Park” creators, saying that Chesser told authorities his parents were no longer speaking to him because of death threats they received after Chesser posted his warnings.

In April, Chesser posted a warning on the revolutionmuslim.com website that Trey Parker and Matt Stone could face the same fate as a Dutch filmmaker who was killed after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad’s teachings. An episode of the show depicted Muhammad in a bear costume.

At the time, Chesser said his online posting was not a threat.

“It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome,” Chesser told FoxNews.com. “They’re going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It’s just the reality.”

The charges against Chesser do not involve the postings about “South Park.”

“This case exposes the disturbing reality that extreme radicalization can happen anywhere, including Northern Virginia,” Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “This young man is accused of seeking to join al-Shabab, a brutal terrorist organization with ties to Al-Qaida. These allegations underscore the need for continued vigilance against homegrown terror threats.”

Chesser is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria Thursday. A spokesman for the prosecutors’ office said he had no information on whether Chesser currently has a lawyer.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/07/22/news/aa5southpark3072210.txt


Geithner's Goal: Rebalanced World Economy
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he would use weekend meetings of G-20 finance ministers to advance efforts to "rebalance" the world economy so it is less reliant on U.S. consumers, to move toward establishing "norms" on exchange-rate policy, and to persuade others the U.S. doesn't aim to devalue its way to prosperity.

David Wessel discusses his conversation this week with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and why the U.S. seems to be supporting a weaker dollar while officially pushing for a stronger U.S. currency. Plus, a big day for earnings and China cools off.
.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Geithner said the world sorely needs to agree on guidelines for exchange-rate policy. "Right now, there is no established sense of what's fair," he said.

He also said the U.S. is pressing the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations to adopt numerical gauges to judge whether individual trade surpluses or deficits are "sustainable," a way to measure progress towards the goal of more balanced global growth.

Mr. Geithner is to meet G-20 counterparts in South Korea this weekend amid widespread skepticism about whether the organization of economies as diverse as Argentina, France and the U.S. can defuse exchange-rate tensions. Brazil's finance minister has warned of "an international currency war." India's prime minister has said he is "worried about the global situation." The governor of the Bank of England has warned of protectionism unless "the need to act in the collective interest" is recognized.

U.S. officials played down the likelihood of a substantial communique after Saturday's meeting of finance ministers. The Koreans preferred to hold any major announcements for the November meeting of G-20 leaders in Seoul.

"People are trying to figure out what is in their self-interest," Mr. Geithner said. "It's not a test you solve in two weeks. It'll take three to five years. We want to move the G-20 toward an institution with more promise."

On currencies, Mr. Geithner said, "We would like countries to move toward a set of norms on exchange-rate policy."

U.S. officials say conditions aren't ripe for a global accord on currencies like the 1985 Plaza accord to push the dollar down. The goal, another senior Treasury official told reporters, is an agreement to "pursue a cooperative approach" that would, even without explicit pledges, lead China and smaller countries in its shadow to let their exchange rates appreciate.

Mr. Geithner divided world currencies into three groups. In one, he put countries with currencies "undervalued by any measure," especially China. He said, though, that if the pace of appreciation seen since September were sustained, it would help correct the undervaluation. Other emerging markets play a role, he said.

China Refutes 'Manipulator' Label. Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More ."If China knew that if it moved more rapidly, other emerging markets would move with them, it would be easier for them to move," Mr. Geithner said.

In a second group, he put "emerging economies with flexible exchange rates that intervene or impose taxes to try to reduce the risks of significant overvaluation, of bubbles and of inflationary pressures." The U.S. isn't objecting to such efforts.

In the third group, he put "the major currencies, which are roughly in alignment now," a suggestion that he sees no need for the dollar to sink more than it already has against the euro and yen. Mr. Geithner emphasized that the U.S. is not pursuing a deliberate policy of devaluing the dollar. Earlier this week, speaking in Palo Alto, Calif., he said that no country can "devalue its way to prosperity and competitiveness."

Ultimately, a sounder global economy demands efforts to restrain trade surpluses in export-driven countries like China and reduce trade deficits in import-hungry countries like the U.S.

"The rest of the world wants us to save more—and that means less U.S. demand for the rest of the world. Demand is going have to come from other sources," Mr. Geithner said.

G-20 countries agreed to norms for fiscal policy at their Toronto summit. Now the U.S. is seeking the same for the broadest measure of trade flows, current account balances.

"We're encouraging our partners to put a little more flesh on the skeleton of the rebalancing commitment," Mr. Geithner said. "We are exploring whether we can agree to commit to keep the external imbalances to levels that are more sustainable, making allowances for different kinds of countries, such as commodity producers."

U.S. officials are hopeful that China, which projects that its current-account surplus will hover around 4% of gross domestic product in the next few years, will go along. But a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Yao Jian, said last week, "Other countries have no right to comment on what is a reasonable level for a country's trade surplus."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304011604575564661615005500.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection