Paul E. Ester's Flogger

On Wednesday, Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, denounced Mr. Maher, saying of news organizations, and all Americans, that in times like these “people have to watch what they say and watch what they do.”

When the White House later released the official transcript of Mr. Fleischer’s briefing, the portion of his comments urging people to “watch what they say” was not included. When that sparked yet another round of discussion over Mr. Fleischer’s comments, Anne Womack, an assistant to Mr. Fleischer, said yesterday that the transcript did vary from the remarks Mr. Fleischer made. She called it “a transcription error.”
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Is Farrakhan Next?
Federal authorities prevailed Friday in court as they sought the detention of a Charlotte County man they claim is a leader of an Islamic extremist group.

ÊÊÊ During the charged hearing in federal court in Roanoke, Thomas Gallagher, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, linked Vincente Rafael Pierre to Al-Fuqra, a group he described as a “violent black Muslim group that acts out jihads.” Gallagher said the group was responsible for 17 bombings and 12 murders across the nation. … Rest of Article

Big Brother? With many concerned about civil liberties being encroached by new anti-terrorism legislation, Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to add some levity to a high-level meeting on the Hill last week.

At the meeting in the LBJ room, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told Ashcroft that officials had to very careful in crafting the legislation to make sure they didn’t trample on the Constitution.

“You should see some of the e-mails I’m getting,” Leahy said. “People are very concerned about this.”

“I have seen the e-mails,” quipped Ashcroft, as if he had been secretly using his investigative powers to read the Senator’s correspondence.

“It’s the first time many of us have heard laughter in that room for many, many days,” Leahy told HOH. … Rest of Article

17-year old high school student Eliza Gauger’s drawing of Mommy Liberty spread across the Internet in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the U.S.… Rest of Article

Now, then. We wondered how long it would be our mailbox started filling up with concerned readers citing any of the above?

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In its vast investigation of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and New York, the Justice Department is making extraordinary use of its power to arrest and detain individuals, taking the unusual step of jailing hundreds of people on minor traffic and immigration violations and arresting more than a dozen “material witnesses” not charged with any crime.

Law enforcement officials have exercised such authority before, but never on such a broad scale, according to former prosecutors, immigration lawyers and legal scholars.

While some said the scope of the activity is not surprising in light of the enormity of the crime being investigated, others questioned whether those detained have had adequate access to lawyers or been unfairly denied bail. Information about the detentions is difficult to obtain because the proceedings have been held in secret or with no public notice from authorities.… Rest of Article

“Fearing Ridge Lacks Clout, Lawmakers Float Proposals for Super-Agency”
Proposals for creating a super-agency to oversee intelligence, law enforcement and domestic security activities are gaining support on Capitol Hill as an alternative to President Bush’s plan for a White House homeland defense office headed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R).… Rest of Article

Hackers, virus-writers and web site defacers would face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole under legislation proposed by the Bush Administration that would classify most computer crimes as acts of terrorism.

The Justice Department is urging Congress to quickly approve its Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), a twenty-five page proposal that would expand the government’s legal powers to conduct electronic surveillance, access business records, and detain suspected terrorists.

The proposal defines a list of “Federal terrorism offenses” that are subject to special treatment under law. The offenses include assassination of public officials, violence at international airports, some bombings and homicides, and politically-motivated manslaughter or torture.

Most of the terrorism offenses are violent crimes, or crimes involving chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. But the list also includes the provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that make it illegal to crack a computer for the purpose of obtaining anything of value, or to deliberately cause damage. Likewise, launching a malicious program that harms a system, like a virus, or making an extortionate threat to damage a computer are included in the definition of terrorism.

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John C. Dvorak with a little perspective on the role of the web in recent events.
”Once you get into this materialÑand there is plentyÑyou begin to understand the incredible complexities of the Middle East and its odd politics. You also begin to understand that it wasn’t just the U.S. Intelligence agencies that failed us, but the U.S. news media as well. We get nothing from the media but bland pap and Hollywood reports. If you want to read excellent coverage of the New York attack and its aftermath, you must go to the London Times, the Daily Telegraph, or the Times of India. All are on the Web. Even Pravda has better coverage of some aspects of the current situation. A Pakistani paper reported Tuesday that 25 warships from Britain, France, and the U.S.A. were parked off the coast. The U.S. media has reported nothing about that. The British papers have numerous reports coming straight out of Peshawar and Islamabad. American reporters are asking bland questions at orchestrated press conferences. You know the drill. “… Rest of Article

When a Cleveland-based business-to-business start-up failed several months ago, executives planned to follow a well-paved dot-com death pattern: Lay off workers, sell assets and reimburse creditors.

Employees had a different plan. Between the layoffs and the asset auction, they apparently walked off with $35,000 worth of laptops, handheld computers, monitors and laser printers. That left some executives, venture capitalists and other uninsured creditors in a financial lurch. … Rest of Article