Reality Check: AI & Predictive Policing_how it gets used against us

Hacked data shines light on homeland security’s AI surveillance ambitions

The ICE building in Washington. ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Photograph: Anadolu/Anadolu Agency

Jason Wilson

Sun 15 Mar 2026 07.00 EDT

Records show DHS tech incubator spending large sums on partnerships that would expand surveillance capabilities

Hacked data from the Department of Homeland Security’s technology incubator shows it funding a variety of companies that would expand its surveillance capabilities with artificial intelligence, the Guardian can reveal.

The projects at the Office of Industry Partnership (OIP) include automated surveillance in airports; adapters allowing agents to use phones for biometric scanning; and an AI platform that ingests all 911 call data nationally and builds “geospatial heat maps” to “predict incident trends”, which appears to be a form of predictive policing.

The data throws new light on the department’s surveillance ambitions in the wake of the agency’s unprecedented $165bn funding boost in last year’s tax and spending bill, and controversies over agents’ apparent gathering of visual and biometric data on protesters in Minneapolis.

The data was gathered by a pseudonymous “cyber-hacktivist”, and provided to reporters by transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets.

Although some of the data was already publicly available, the leak also exposed more than 6,000 companies that bid with the agency – not all of whom were funded for their projects – offering a window on the full scope of the private sector’s appetite for homeland security work, and the technologies the DHS considered but did not pursue.

Those parts of the data that were already public match the data provided in the leak.

The Guardian emailed the department a detailed request for comment. The Guardian also emailed the hacktivist for comment using an email included with the materials.

Jeramie Scott, a senior counsel and director of the Surveillance Oversight Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said: “It very much feels like sometimes these people are watching dystopian science fiction movies and thinking, ‘Oh, that looks good!’”

He added: “That’s not the lesson from dystopian science fiction. They’re taking the wrong lesson from it.”
The data

The OIP sits within DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, managing programs including the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) initiative, which funnels federal money to small-to-medium enterprises to develop prototypes addressing specific technology needs.

The data as supplied to the Guardian consists of two structured databases: a registry of more than 6,800 companies that have bid with OIP, and a separate database of more than 1,400 funded contracts. Each contract record includes a proposal abstract written by the company, describing the technology it pitched to the DHS.

The SBIR program, mandated by Congress in 1982 and reauthorized in 2022, requires that proposals be evaluated in part on their “potential for commercial application”. The program was designed to ensure that publicly funded R&D produces self-sustaining businesses rather than one-off prototypes.

Contracts typically begin as phase I proof-of-concept awards of around $100,000-$175,000 before graduating to phase II prototype funding of $1m or more. The leaked data spans two decades of this pipeline, from 2004 to late 2025, covering more than 1,400 awarded contracts worth a combined $845m.
Biometrics

Contracts issued since Trump’s inauguration include several focused on enabling agents to harvest biometric data using cellphones.

On 7 May 2025, three contracts were issued for the development of these technologies, and all three promised to make them available beyond DHS.

Idea Mind LLC received $174,464 for a technology it calls Vibe, an adapter that connects fingerprint and iris scanners to phones via USB-C or Lightning, offering “plug-and-play compatibility with Android and iOS devices without requiring custom drivers”.

Intellisense Systems received $174,990 for its similar Flow device designed so that a phone and biometric scanner can be “handheld effectively as a single unit,” supporting “handheld fingerprint (4 slap) and iris peripherals, and face and contactless fingerprint capture using the phone’s camera”. Integrated Biometrics received $167,627 for Bios Link, and wrote that its technology would serve “DHS components, interagency stakeholders, non-federal entities, the intelligence community, and international mission partners”.

Intellisense was spun off from Physical Optics Corporation in 2018. Together the two companies have received 59 DHS research contracts worth more than $17m since 2004, according to the leaked data. Intellisense alone received three contracts on 7 May, including Flow and two other projects involving airport surveillance AI and video deepfake prevention. Like Intellisense, Integrated Biometrics, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is an established government contractor that manufactures FBI-certified fingerprint sensors and similar devices for law enforcement, military and government clients around the world.

Idea Mind LLC, based in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, had no previous DHS contracting history.

ICE and CBP agents’ harvesting of biometric data and use of facial recognition technologies came into focus during DHS’s January “surge” into the city, after rightwing influencers highlighted longstanding allegations of childcare fraud in the city.

The Guardian contacted all three companies for comment.

Airport surveillance

Four further contracts awarded on 7 May, totaling $699,000, funded technologies for surveilling passengers approaching TSA airport security checkpoints.

All four use AI to analyze existing airport CCTV feeds and automatically catalog passengers’ physical characteristics. Intellisense’s Ossca system would “detect and track individuals; identify anthropometric characteristics, clothing articles, shoe types, and visible accessories” and which agencies can use to “automatically alert operators with flags and detailed reports for adjudication”. 

The standalone behavior detection officer role was quietly eliminated in 2016-2017. An ACLU investigation found the program had been used for racial profiling at airports including Newark and Chicago.

DHS’s own earlier attempt at technology-assisted behavioral screening, the Fast program was quietly wound down in the wake of EPIC’s disclosures.

On Fast and its apparent successors, Scott, the EPIC counsel, said “not only is it highly unlikely to work, but there are issues in terms of the risk it creates, in its disproportionate impacts, in turning the state apparatus on people who haven’t done anything wrong, in the waste of money, and in the potential for those tools to be used to undermine democracy.”

Predictive Policing

Also on 7 May, three contracts totaling $524,000 were awarded for AI platforms that would ingest 911 call data, with one apparently promising to identify and predict crime patterns.

All three were awarded under the same DHS topic seeking tools to centralise and analyse data from the nation’s 5,000-plus 911 call centres.

The most far-reaching is Cimas, the Consolidated Incident Management Analytics System, built by a newly-registered firm, Cassius LLC.

Its proposal describes “a high-availability data lake integrated with AI-driven analytics” that would collect and anonymise 911 call and incident data from public safety answering points nationwide, generating “geospatial heat maps” and using AI models to “predict incident trends” and “deliver actionable insights to responders.”

Cassius LLC, based in Bangor, Maine has no previous DHS contracting history. Cassius’s website describes it as a utility IT consulting firm; it names no team members, and its “our team” page is non-functional.

The Brennan Center for Justice has described predictive policing as “tech-washing” that “gives racially biased policing methods the appearance of objectivity, simply because a computer or an algorithm seems to replace human judgment.” Leading police departments including Los Angeles and Chicago abandoned their predictive policing programs in 2019-20.

The Guardian emailed Cassius and Zachary Canders, listed as the firm’s partner in DHS documents and Maine company filings for further clarification of the proposed technology.

In an email response, Canders wrote to The Guardian: “Hey, that’s really great” adding: “Could you do me a favor? Let’s write a story about me taking your mom out to dinner. We have an amazing seafood buffet. Lots of laughs lots of hugs probably a few kisses, then I never call her back.”[SOURCE]

Cairo Protesters Scale U.S. Embassy Wall, Remove Flag

Reuters reports that protesters tried to raise a black flag carrying the slogan: "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger."


The news agency says about 2,000 protesters have gathered outside the embassy and about 20 have scaled the walls.

The AP says the protesters were largely ultra-conservative Islamists.

Iran's FARS news agency says the film is the work of a group of "extremist" members of the Egyptian Coptic Church in the United States.

Al Ahram online says the film is reportedly being produced by U.S.-based Coptic-Christian Egyptians, including Esmat Zaklama and Morees Sadek, with the support of the Terry Jones Church in the United States.

Jones is the evangelical pastor who stirred controversy last year by threatening to burn a Quran in public.

CNN says the film in question is a Dutch production.

The AP says clips of the film available on YouTube show the prophet having sex and question his role as the messenger of Godâ??s words.

After the protest, the U.S. Embassy issued this statement on its website:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims â?? as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of other

The Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa strongly condemned the movie, AllAfrica.com reports.

"Freedom of speech does not warrant desecrating sanctities," Gomaa said in a statement Sunday.(source)

Barry As President: NUMBER OF COMBAT INJURIES IN AFGHANISTAN APPROACHES IRAQ-WAR LEVELS

KHAKREZ DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Intensified fighting and a larger troop presence in Afghanistan in 2010 led to the highest American combat casualties yet in the war, as the number of troops wounded by bullets, shrapnel and bombs approached that of the bloodiest periods of the war in Iraq.

But the available data points to advances in the treatment of the fallen, as the rate at which wounded soldiers who died reached a wartime low.

More than 430 American service members died from hostile action in Afghanistan last year through Dec. 21, according to official data released by the Pentagon last week at the request of The New York Times.

This was a small fraction of those struck. Nearly 5,500 American troops were wounded in action — more than double the total of 2,415 in 2009, and almost six times the number wounded in 2008.

In all, fewer than 7.9 percent of the Americans wounded in 2010 died, down from more than 11 percent the previous year and 14.3 percent in 2008.

The fatality rate declined even though many more troops patrolled on foot, exposing the force to greater dangers than in years past. Several doctors said the improvements came not from a single breakthrough but through a series of lessons learned over nearly a decade of fighting two wars, such as placing medevac helicopters closer to the fighting and the more extensive use of tourniquets.

Although fatality rates for wounded Afghan troops are not similarly available, doctors involved in their care said hospital records showed that they trail those of Western troops by a few percentage points, but have also fallen.

Several soldiers and those who care for them framed the improved survival rates as the grimmest sort of success. Many more troops — some missing multiple limbs or their genitals, or suffering brain damage — are being rescued from near death. But their wounds will be exceptionally difficult to overcome later as they try to resume work, and social and family lives.

Along with interviews with medics and military doctors, and a month spent by two journalists from The Times observing the collection and immediate treatment of troops suffering from a wide range of trauma, the data shows the results, in broad terms, of an evolving contest for wounded soldiers’ fates.

The contest pits a multilayered and expensive effort to keep troops alive against the sharply increased rate at which they suffer grievous injuries, some beyond what any medical system can heal.

A clear decline was evident: In 2005, 19.8 percent of wounded American soldiers died from their injuries. For the past five years in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fatality rates for wounded Americans have otherwise fluctuated between 9.4 and 14.3 percent.

(The data draws from a sample running into the tens of thousands; in 2006 in Iraq, for example, nearly 7,200 American troops were wounded by hostile action, more than 700 of them fatally.)

The statistics further served to reinforce consistent trends in the battlefield’s array of lethal hazards, and offered glimpses of wars within the war.

More soldiers in Afghanistan in 2010 were wounded by explosive devices (at least 3,615, compared to 828 troops reported to suffer gunshot wounds). But the higher fatality rates from gunshot wounds (12.9 percent versus 7.3 percent for wounds caused by bombs) made rifles and machine guns the most statistically deadly weapons.

Rocket-propelled grenades, for all their ferocious reputation, proved less of a threat. They wounded 373 American soldiers, of whom 13 — 3.5 percent — died.

No matter the improved odds, the data, like the field observations, illuminated that even the most determined efforts to cheat death could still be desperate — like the case of an Afghan soldier wounded on Dec. 9.

He was a disoriented young man on a stretcher with his uniform cut away, revealing wounds caused by a makeshift bomb.

His face was mashed. A tourniquet was cinched to his left leg, high by the hip. His abdomen swelled slightly from the bleeding within. From his torso rose the odor of burned flesh and hair.

The man worked with an American Special Forces team. Medics labored over him as the helicopter lifted from the dust, counting minutes in a race against time.

Medical workers attributed his improved chances to several factors, among them changes in training for soldiers who administer first aid, swifter movement of victims to hospitals made possible by more helicopters in the war, and shifts in procedures in operating rooms.

Equipment has also been a factor, including heavier armored vehicles more resistant to explosives and fire-retardant uniforms and gloves — two factors doctors and soldiers say seem to have led to a decline in the frequency and severity of burns.

“We have seen fewer burn injuries over all,” said Col. Evan M. Renz, director of the Army Burn Center in Texas, “even as the number of troops in Afghanistan has climbed sharply.”

Doctors said a change in attitude about tourniquets also prevented many deaths. Until a few years ago, they said, tourniquets were often regarded as a measure of last resort, not always applied swiftly to those with severe extremity wounds.

Every soldier now carries at least one tourniquet — some carry several — in their first-aid kits or visibly on their flak jackets. Fellow soldiers apply them immediately. “The liberal use of tourniquets has clearly been a lifesaver,” said Dr. Eric Elster, a Navy commander and director of surgical services at the NATO hospital at Kandahar Air Field.

One doctor, deployed in an area of fighting along the Arghandab River, said medics on patrols had become more proficient at other lifesaving techniques, too.

These include opening airways via tracheotomies, using needles to decompress swollen chest cavities that can collapse a wounded soldiers’ lungs and applying pressure dressing and bandages with clotting agents to areas — the groin, neck or armpits — where tourniquets have little effect

“This is just basic techniques, trained well,” said Lt. Col. Michael Wirt, brigade surgeon for Task Force Strike, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division.

Confidence in the ability to mitigate trauma — including legs shattered or amputated by bombs — has led to a sometimes visible practice that most units discourage: troops who pre-emptively apply tourniquets loosely to their thighs or upper arms before patrols.

“I think potentially that’s a negative,” Dr. Wirt said, adding that it could be read to suggest nervousness, or that such soldiers are too focused on being wounded. “Our command has not endorsed that.”

Part of the willingness to use tourniquets, doctors and medics said, has been related to the speed with which wounded soldiers reach hospitals.

Afghanistan’s harsh climate, combined with a relative dearth of helicopters in years past, often restricted the reach of medevac crews.

With the increased troop presence in 2010, there are now three Army combat aviation brigades in the country, and detachments of medevac helicopters have been moved to small outposts near the fighting — minutes away from many firefights or bomb blasts.

Within a half-hour of being wounded, a large fraction of troops now are en route to hospitals and being tended by flight medics. On repeated flights flown by the two journalists in May, June and December, some wounded soldiers were retrieved within 20 minutes of their injuries. None waited an hour.

The case of the wounded Afghan soldier showed the risks from wounds that battlefield first aid can barely help, and for whom speed might not be enough.

The man lifted his head and gazed down at his ruined body. Blood ran from his rectum. He had little time.

He frantically waved his burned arms, which were so damaged and sensitive that the medics hesitated to start an IV.

Instead, Sgt. Patrick Shultz lifted a small electric drill and cut through the bone below the man’s right knee, creating access into the marrow to administer drugs.

The hospital was not much farther ahead. But it was too late — 30 minutes after arriving, this man was dead.

For patients who reach NATO-run trauma centers, the overall survival rates have approached levels unseen in past wars. The staff said this was in part a result of the accumulated experience of surgical teams in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as shifts in how patients were treated.

For one example, Dr. Elster and Dr. Wirt said the military had dropped administering saline solutions to patients in favor of what they called “massive transfusion protocols” — giving enormous quantities of blood.

High-volume transfusions aid in clotting and carrying oxygen, and have prevented more patients from dying in the hours after suffering severe wounds, they said.

“It is not unusual for us to give a patient 50 or 100 units of blood in the first 24 to 48 hours,” Dr. Elster said.

At the military hospital in Kandahar, 98 percent of Western troops that arrived alive last year did not die, the staff said.

For Afghans the survival rate was several percentage points lower.

Doctors said there were many reasons, including that most Afghans had not been issued fire-retardant clothing and often traveled in pickup trucks. Unlike vehicles used by American forces, pickup trucks stop neither bullets nor most shrapnel, and are easily blown apart by roadside bombs.

Moreover, Afghan soldiers are often loath to wear protective equipment, including helmets and bulletproof vests.(source)

The Israeli Chessboard: Pieces Are Set

August 31, 2008

Fair warning: Iran is 18 months away from having nuclear weapons.

Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability and if time begins to run out, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently decided in a special discussion.

According to the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, whether the U.S. and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

Ephraim Sneh a veteran Labor MK who has recently left the party, has reportedly sent a document to both US presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama. The eight-point document states that "there is no government in Jerusalem that would ever reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. When it is clear Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, an Israeli military strike to prevent this will be seriously considered."

"The window of opportunity Sneh suggests is a year and a half to two years, until 2010." (source)

COLD WAR 21: Russia Tests ICBM

August 28, 2008

Last night Russia tested a stealth ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic Missile), and reported that it was a successful endeavor. International experts say that the test was meant to alarm the West, and the World.

“The RS-12M Topol, designed to dodge defence systems, has a range of 6,125 miles — enough to reach Britain — with a 550-kiloton warhead capable of devastating a 14-mile wide area.” (source)

Coming on the heels of the Russian-Georgian war, this test fire has produced mixed reactions from around the world.

The UK says that no one wants to start a nuclear war with Russia.

Curiously, the Chinese are condemning the test fire last night as an unnecessary show of force against Georgia: The SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), made up of China and Black Sea states, said: “Relying on the use of force has no prospects and hinders a settlement of local conflicts. We urge the sides to solve problems peacefully.”

When the Chinese criticize their Russian comrades for demonstrating force, it is time to be suspicious. Is it possible that the Chinese are secretly aligned with Russia’s goals of imperialism, and are acting as pseudo-brokers of peace in order to give the Bear UN Security Council cover for accomplishing it’s goals?

Cold War 21: The West Says, "Back Off"

August 28, 2008

UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

"Speaking during a visit to Kiev, David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, called on the European Union and Nato to prepare for "hard-headed engagement" with Moscow following its military action in Georgia.

"Russia must not learn the wrong lessons from the Georgia crisis. There can be no going back on fundamental principles of territorial integrity, democratic governance and international law," he said." (source)

The rest of Western Europe is nervously watching the Bear's activities, too. G7 countries have roundly criticized Russia for its Georgian war, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that the situation was "very dangerous" because Russia might now be considering other targets such as the divided state of Moldova and Ukraine, with its strategically important Crimean peninsula.

In typical Russian style, the Bear slashes and rips at its victim, then turns to a defender to claim, "you made me do it." As the EU prepares for an emergency summit on the Georgian crisis, Russia's response is to urge the west not to damage broad mutual ties.

According to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili: "This story is no longer about my small country, but the west’s ability to stand its ground to defend a principled approach to international security."

Cold War 21: Our Pawn Moves Up One

August 27, 2008

President Bush has reacted to Russia's escalation of superpower tensions from yesterday: he deploys our military Coast Guard to rush in humanitarian supplies to thed war-torn people of Georgia.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Dallas at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. The U.S. military ship on Wednesday docked at the Georgian port carrying humanitarian aid. The Dallas, had originally been slated to dock at the Black Sea port of Poti, which is still controlled by Russian forces. But instead it arrived in Batumi, a port well south of the zone of fighting in this month's war between Russia and Georgia. ( AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

We have NATO on our side, of course, but the USA is the first to send in substantial help to the Georgians. Unilaterally. That's leadership in the grown-up world of superpower politics. No time for an untested boy to seize control of the wheel.


"Can NATO - which is not a state located in the Black Sea - continuously increase its group of forces and systems there? It turns out that it cannot," Russian General Anatoly Nogovitsyn was quoted as saying Wednesday by the Interfax news agency.

To recap: Russia kills hundreds if not thousends of Georgian civilians in a hostile takeover of region in a bordering soveriegn nation. The rest of the world reacts with shock and horror. While there is much European nail-biting and rethinking of everything they knew, the US saddles up and risks it's military men's lives to send much-needed aid to the Georgians. And beacause we are navigating between their naval blockade in the Black Sea to bring Georgia this help, Russia calls us "devilish." (source)

Your move, Old Bear.

The Board Is Set: South Ossetia and Abkhazia In Place

August 27, 2008

The nation sits distracted with our Changing Of The Guard ceremonies in Denver, just as the world sat distracted with Beijing a few weeks ago for the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. During both times, we saw the worm turn. What was a decade-plus of new friendship with Russia turned quickly into a geopolitical shift in concern and priorities. Our State department is suddenly changing plans and making emergency trips to Eastern Europe a lot. We are suddenly having to draw lines in the sand for the same foe that butchered tens of millions of people and said that the problem was really with us.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that Russia is recognizing the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia. Clever ploy the Russians deployed years ago: Instal clusters of Russians in the satellite republic of Georgia when your federation is falling apart. Consider these players as "pawns" in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Instruct them to agitate their parent nation, Georgia, and even spark low-level assaults on the Georgian military and police force. Have them do this for years in order to demonstrate the justification for rushing in to "recognize their grievances".

"We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War," Medvedev said yesterday. (source)

He ordered Russian Foreign Ministry to start establishing diplomatic ties with the secessionist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Who can't see what's next: Russia will consider the recognized breakaway regions as "part of Russia now", and declare these Georgian regions fair game for the picking.

Yes, we condemned the act. Yes, so did the rest of Western Europe (Eastern Europe is bracing for more, and silent). Still yet, Russia dares to "flip the script" on us, saying that even though Russia killed Georgian civilians needlessly, the keys to stopping the madness is up to us: "everything depends on the position of our partners".

Eight years went by before Putin pulled this move on us. Is it possible that he did this, knowing that a lame duck President Bush will not be able to commit a response to effectively face down this annexation of Georgia? And what does that say for how much they fear whoever is next? Is this anytime to elect a weak judge of character into office?

The Axis Of Evil: North Korea

August 26, 2008

We’ve known that North Korea has always been a despotic hellhole for 50 years. That’s why the truce has never matured to a declaration of peace. When my grandfather was stationed there, a group of US infantrymen were beaten and killed in their sleeping bags. When I was there, a border massacre on the DMZ had just taken place.

Years later, in the mid 90’s, it was time for the Democrats to steer our country through the foreign policy minefield that Reagan, Bush, Nixon, and Eisenhower had superbly navigated. How did Bill Clinton direct our stance against communism? He sent Madeline Albright to give away the farm.

Madeline Albright negotiated [read: asked what could we do to erase our previous hard stance against evil] with the N. Koreans, and ended up with a GREAT deal for them, and another bunch of lies and empty promises for us. She “negotiated” to give Kim Il sung the know-how and help to build them nuclear reactors.

Albright barked back at those of us here in the US who said that they will use these “power plants” to make enriched plutonium: “Diplomacy takes time, and trust”, she said. Ten years later we find out that--surprise--the N Koreans had successfully tested an underground nuclear bomb.

As the grown-ups took control of our relations with N. Korea, they tried to put guardrails up to contain this monster. President Bush actually achieved an agreement with them to demolish their reactor, along with 11 other disablement measures in order to be removed from the famous list we keep of “terror-sponsoring countries”.

Finally, this past June, the North Koreans blew up their nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

We thought that this MAY be the start of something good. But, almost two months later, they showed their true self again. Today the tyrannical regime announced that they were halting their disablement program.

Why, you ask? Because our president had the audacity to ask Kim Jong-il (Kim Il Sung's son) to clean up his human rights problems. The North Koreans are a regime that can only be trusted by the blind, or the suicidal. Which one are Madeline Albright and Bill Clinton?

Sliding Into The Next Dark Age

August 25, 2008

Evidence of a sea change is taking place right now. We are seeing the equivalent of a polar shift in Earth’s tilt towards the sun. Have we experienced such changes in the past? Yes. Do we know what it’s outcome will be? No.

Condoleeza Rice is set to recommend to President Bush that we recall a nuclear plan we had structured with Russia in the last few years. It was a program designed to share nuclear materials and fuel between the two former adversaries, as something of a safeguard against rogue nations acquiring the same. (source)

This move is not one-dimensional: For the UN (and the US) to have any affect on isolating Iran and their drive to become a nuclear superpower, we needed to work through Russia. With the way that Russia has exposed itself in the last few years, culminating in their invasion of Georgia two weeks ago, all deals are becoming void.

This should be alarming for all who watch world affairs and concern themselves with the survival of Western Civilization. The bonds we sought to establish with this former monster are dissolving in front of our eyes. Their goal is becoming more clear with every tank, naval blockade, and assassination they thrust upon us.

The kabuki dance going on right now between the US and Russia is the distraction. Watch Israel, Syria, and Iran for proxy wars between The Bear and us, The Last Great Hope.

ISLAMOFILE 082108b

August 21, 2008

There has been a push from the world of academia here in the West to sanitize the religion of Islam. After 9-11, UNC Chapel Hill incorporated a semester-long course in Quoranic studies as a requirement for all students. Is there an equal requirement for New Testament studies, or Old Testament, or Upanishads studies?

Hardly.

But the same crowd who likes to demonize all things Christian has practically tripped over itself to embrace the “religion of peace”, Islam. For some reason, we here in the West seem to forget the 1300 years worth of Islamic terror, expansionism, and “convert-or-die” mentality. Far from it’s mythological image of today, the Crusades were a series of efforts to combat the imperialism of Islamic savages.

It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten the episodes of Moors, Barbary pirates, and IslamoFascism happening every day around us.

That is why I am starting this chronicle of examples of how Islam is practiced around the world: the bombings, the honor killings, and the attempt to shame those of us who say, “enough”.
If there were enough “moderate” Muslims who were trying to reign in their zealot brothers and sisters, I wouldn’t have to do this. What right does any Muslim have to shame America for trying to bring this insanity to a close? To me, the Muslims who get angry at the West because we call this practice what it is-barbarism-are simply cowards, and stone-age troglodytes.

They know they can beat up on the West because we’re an easy target around the globe. We open our doors to any malcontent in the world, give them a safe place to lay their head, start a family, earn a decent living, and what do we get in return? Screaming, riots, and lawsuits over perceived prejudice, whether it's a cartoon or something insignificant, even.

Today, I learned about a recent case of honor killing that took place in Saudi Arabia. A young girl converted to Christianity, and just like the young girl in Columbine who was asked by her assailant if she still believed in God, this little Saudi Arabian girl received the same fate.

Except this killer wasn’t some self-absorbed, emo punk on mood drugs. This little girl was killed by her own father. When he found out that she had converted, he first cut out her tongue, then held a “debate” with her. Then he burned her alive. (source)

I hope and pray that there is a special place in hell for people like her father.

ISLAMOFILE 082108

August 21, 2008

The Taliban bombed the Pakistani Army’s main ammunition factory near Islamabad yesterday. The terrorists waited until a shift change was taking place at the facility, in order to inflict the highest amount of casualties on the civilian workers. (source)

Mullah Omar, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said the attack was a response to yesterday's airstrike in Wana, South Waziristan, that killed at least eight al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. (source)

Mullah Omar, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are the subject of increased tensions between the Taliban and government officials. Pakistani authorities are continually trying to reassure their nation that the Pakistani military is fighting the Taliban to prevent their seizure of these weapons.

Military operations have recently been conducted in Swat and Bajaur, threatening the Taliban organizations there. Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban, had previously threatened wage "jihad" and turn the provinces of Sindh and Punjab "into a furnace" if the operations did not cease.

Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban

The Dark Heart Of Russia

August 21, 2008

The South Ossetian village of Mul burns following Russian assault (EPA)

When a nation sends its army, navy, and airforce to do battle in another country, never does it hold something so improper as a concert 13 days into the occupation. Whether its going well or not.

In fact, the only reason why you would go to the trouble of high security for the concert participants, the attendees, etc, and the diversion of troops to accomplish it...is to make a big show for the residents, the nation, and the world. This is something you do when you know your hand has been overplayed, so you try to "flip the script", and accuse the accuser of provoking you in the first place. "You pushed me to it! You made me do it to you!" This is many times acted out during an alcohol-driven rage between husband and wife. The Russians are known for their drinking.

On this day, the Russians have announced a cease fire 7 times; every day continuing to blockade naval ports, burn villages, and kill civillians. How could they stop in the middle of this carnage, death, and Stalin-esque behavior to hold a symphony concert?

A statue of former Soviet Communist dictator Joseph Stalin is seen from a window shattered by bullets in Gori, Georgia. Russian forces were continuing their occupation of the city, despite a ceasefire document demanding their withdrawal (AP)

If you understand the macabre, you understand the Russian. There is a certain quality that allows leader after leader for hundreds of years to practice similar acts of madness, without a protest from their people. As if it is as much a cultural experience as any other peoples may have. (Or because no one dares utter a word, lest they be sent away.)

And cultural it was. From the conductor himself, Valery Gergiev, who is the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and a South Ossetian. He was conducting in London one moment, then flying into Georgia the next to conduct this, "victory concert."

Valery Gergiev conducts in the ruins of Tskhinvali.

And to add more irony, the conductor continues the propaganda with his own design on how this entire war went down:

Gergiev arrived on stage with a group of children and said that he had come to Tskhinvali “to see with my own eyes the horrible destruction of the city”. He told the audience that Tskhinvali reminded him of pictures of Stalingrad, the city where Soviet troops began to turn back the invading Nazi army. He flatly blamed Georgia for the destruction and repeated earlier Russian claims that 2,000 people had died, which led the Kremlin to accuse Georgia of genocide. (source)

Apparently, from his estate in England, he missed the finer details on just how this thing went down:

A bloodied woman after the Russians bombed Gori, whch is not in either of the breakaway regions.

A Georgian woman is left in tears as her apartment burns after being hit by a Russian shell in Gori (Bela Szandelszky/AP)

As part of Russia's tough response to Georgia's action in South Ossetia, troops moved into Orjosani, between the Georgian capital Tbilisi and the strategic town of Gori (AP)

[Notice even AP categorizes Russia as "tough", while also careful to paint Georgia as the original aggressor. The AP is purposely misleading in this caption. Georgia is not the one who began this conflict. This feud between South Ossetia and it's parent nation, Georgia, has seen the two trade rounds on a regular basis for years now. And all of a sudden, Russia chooses a friday, the first day of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, to claim that they just can't stand by anymore and watch the harrassment of their precious expatriots. Because Russia cares about people.]

During the Russian operation following the start of fighting, the main railway link between eastern and western Georgia, near the town of Kaspi has been destroyed (Reuters)

The conductor should have talked to these folks before he started to warm up the woodwinds:

Syria Lurches Further Into The Dark

August 20, 2008

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad entered into a series of military agreements with Russia today. “Our position is that we are ready to co-operate with Russia in any project that can strengthen its security,” the Syrian leader told Russian newspapers at the start of his two-day trip. “I think Russia really has to think of the response it will make when it finds itself closed in a circle.” (source)

As highlighted on this site before, Syria is a key partner of Iran, allowing for the funding, training, and supplying of Hezbollah and Hamas, two agents of Tehran, to take place on their soil.
The recent turbulence in this region of the world could result in the disturbance of oil flow for Europe (and Turkey). If this happens, then Iranian oil becomes even more of an asset. This plays well for Russia, who’s foray into Georgia could easily result in the sabotage of the BTC oil pipeline.

In recent years, the world community, along with Israel, have levied economic pressures on Syria to break its ties with Iran. In fact, Syria has been holding indirect talks with Israel in search of a peace deal because of their suffering economy.

But now, Russia may give Syria both economic and military cover to halt these low-level talks with Israel, and galvanize their anti-Israel, anti-West alliance with the Bear and Iran.
To further deepen the chasm between Israel and Syria, the Georgian conflict of late has an Israeli component: reserve Brigadier-General Gal Hirsh, well-known for commanding a division of Israeli soldiers during the 2006 war with Hezbollah. Hirsh is serving as an advisor to the Georgians.

This small fact was used by al-Assad to assert Syrian relations with Russia: “I think that in Russia and in the world everyone is now aware of Israel’s role and its military consultants in the Georgian crisis,” he told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “And if before in Russia there were people who thought these forces can be friendly then now I think no one thinks that way.”

Poland Signs The Pact

August 20, 2008

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Polish President Lech Kaczynski shake hands after a meeting in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008. Rice came to Warsaw to sign a deal with Poland that will see a U.S. missile defense base built in northern Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

As Russia claims yet another cease-fire with Georgia while continuing to drop rounds, kill civilians, and annex South Ossetia, Poland agrees to allow us to construct a missile defense base in their country. We are also giving them many Patriot missiles, as a safegaurd against short-range attacks from Russia.

At this moment, NATO is answering the Russian whinning that they feel threatened by our missile defense system. NATO, in essence, is responding, "nonsense". (source)

The Iranian Chess Board

August 19, 2008

This is a reproduction of the 9th century set found in Nishapur, Persia (now Iran).

The recent saga unfolding in Georgia is but the latest move in a chess game that has been going on for many years. As you recall, Russia has defacto agreed to back Iran if tensions ratchet up to a point of nuclear hostility. By Russia warning Poland last week that its missile defense agreement with the US and western Europe could very well bring on a nuclear response from the Bear, the possibility of Russia stepping in to the current Israeli-Iranian saber rattling is more likely.

Because we have publicly cited Iran as our primary reason for deploying missile defense systems in Poland, it is by implication possible to believe that Poland could launch an attack on Iran, either as a response to a nuclear attack from Iran, or as a pre-emptive strike.

With Russia already eager to retaliate with Poland, an Israeli attack on Iran could easily escalate to a Russian attack on Polland.

The Ukraine, as well.

THE POSITION OF THE PIECES TODAY:

Given the knowledge that one of the key ingredients of a nuclear bomb is enriched plutonium. The process to create enriched plutonium is long and complicated, but ep happens to be one of the by-products of nuclear power plants. If a country has nuclear power plants, it has one of the precious ingredients needed to arm a nuclear bomb.

Russia is helping Tehran build Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which will be ready to go online later this year. An Iranian flag is seen outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The United States on Friday set a weekend deadline for Iran to answer an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive and warned of new sanctions if it rejects the package.

Iran has already touted their desire to be a nuclear player in recent years. The West has reacted with alarm and caution, as Tehran has made explicit calls for the eradication of Israel in the last few years, and the destabilization of the Middle East. As a belligerent nation with a death pledge towards another country, the world community has roundly criticized Iran for beginning a nuclear program.

Besides having Russia to back their nuclear aims, Iran wages proxy wars with Israel regularly through regional attacks from Hezbollah and Hamas. These low-level attacks provoke Israel into constant bouts of respond-or-don't-respond, weakening their standing in the Middle East and with many anti-Semetic nations around the world.

The links of Iran to Hamas and Hezbollah can be seen here. They depend on the willing cooperation of Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with Ahmadenijad.

Today, Iran announced that they will build many more nuclear power plants (source). Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (centre) and unidentified officials are pictured at a space station at an undisclosed location in Iran on August 16. Iran has said that a home-built rocket sent into space in a move that triggered US concern over possible military use will be able to take a satellite into low orbit around the earth.

Even Kadhafi has seen the light enough to warn Iran of it's missteps.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is pictured after he received an honorary doctorate during a ceremony held at INSAT university in Tunis. Kadhafi on Tuesday warned "arrogant" Iran that it faces military humiliation on the scale of Iraq for its refusal to respond to western powers over a nuclear impasse.

What is our response?

The U.S. response has been to avoid dire warnings of dangerous Israeli attacks, while instead showing support for non-violent solutions, such as economic sanctions and political pressure on Iran.

Washington believes economic and political pressure are the best ways to dissuade Iran from seeking atomic weapons, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday, following an appeal by Israel's defense minister to keep "all options" on the table. The comments followed a closely held meeting at the Pentagon Monday between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

This policy of the US means that candidate Obama has got to seek out something different to define himself with, so he undermines the nonviolent method of sanctions and political pressure, to instead warn Iran of Israel's plans to bomb them. (source)

Barrack reassured Israel that "America must always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself against those who threaten its people". He needs to court them. Israel seems quite anxious about a President Obama. Very uncertain, in need of his special attention.

Presumptive US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama, seen here on July 28, 2008, believes Israel will launch a military strike on Iran if nuclear sanctions fail, ABC News reported Wednesday.

Obama with former Israeli PM Shimon Peres.

What Now?

August 18, 2008

Pakistani President Musharraf has resigned from his post in order to avoid impeachment. Largely seen as a secular Muslim when he seized power in 1999, Musharraf's rule has been fraught with turbulence in a nation that regularly assassinates its leaders.


Candidate George W. Bush was asked about this new leader on the campaign trail in 2000, and even though he could hardly pronounce Musharraf's name or explain the significance of Pakistan's military coup, the two leaders would become very close for the next eight years.


President Musharraf has won re-election, survived at least 2 assassination attempts, and prevented Pakistan from cascading even deeper into a theocracy...yet he is so threatened today that he must flee in exile after resigning. Here is a timeline of his tenure as President.

Not All Of China Is Putting On A Good Face

August 18, 2008

The Chicoms have been working hard for at least a year, now, to scrub clean Beijing of all its pollution. They have established a perimeter around the city which is reported to be free of air contaminants, water-born toxins, and even cigarette smoke.

China has been making sure that it presents a modern face to the world community during these weeks of Olympic attention. But, to the south in China, we see that things are churning along as normal: the Chinese communists have confiscated 300 bibles from a small group of Christian missionaries who just flew into Kunming, China yesterday. (source)

Were the Chinese language bibles containing subversive rhetoric meant to incite the Chinese into overthrowing their government? Hardly.

But for communists, it doesn’t matter. (read about China’s persecution of Christians here.) The book itself represents competition for the hearts and minds of its people. This is the communist way, as practiced in the U.S.S.R. and North Korea. “Religion is the opiate of the masses”, and all that. In fact, the only places you can find this hate of Christianity is in leftist circles, where trust-fund babies sit and mock the commoners and their superstitious ways.

But the will of the people is a deep well that’s source the State can never obliterate. There are many stories of Russians who kept pictures of Jesus Christ hidden beneath the state-mandated pictures of Stalin on their walls. Try as they might, darkness lost to Light. Score Christ 1, U.S.S.R. 0.

The condition for Christians in China is perilous, just as it was for John Birch 70 years ago. But, because of their passion and faith, the missionaries in the East are as important to China as Pope John Paul II was to Poland.

Ukraine Steps Into The Light

August 17, 2008

Ukraine said it was ready to give both Europe and America access to its missile warning systems after Russia earlier annulled a 1992 cooperation agreement involving two satellite tracking stations. Previously, the stations were part of Russia's early-warning system for missiles coming from Europe.
-- Telegraph of UK, source

As Europe quietly tenses up in reaction to Russia's power grab in Georgia this past week, we have seen two notable responses: Ukraine and Poland. Both have emerged from what must have been an almost paralysis of fear, to join in partnership with the US, and the rest of free Europe against the early intimidation of Russia.

These two enter agreements with the West at great peril. Russia immediately answered these developments with a belicose pledge to place Poland on it's list for retaliation, even nuclear. We must remember WWII, where Poland was promised support against Hitler, then nothing came their way as Poland fell in weeks.

Welcome Back, Old Foe

August 16, 2008

BEIJING - AUGUST 16: Erinn Smart (L) of the United States competes against Victoria Nikichina of Russia in the Women's Team Foil Gold Medal Match at the Fencing Hall on Day 8 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 16, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

This past week should have given all Americans reason for pause. As we watch the Olympics, hibernate from high gas prices, and drink beer, there is a quickening of events taking place in Europe. This is rapidly developing into something that will deserve great leadership for many years to come. We are seeing the return of the U.S.S.R. in the Georgian mountains, Poland, and the Ukraine. There are many analysts who will tell you that they never really went away in 1992.

Only regrouping for the next century.

In a way, it seems refreshing to enter battle again with an old nemesis, far different, and, dare I say, more respectable than the sinister bedouins we've been fighting since the Soviet Bear entered its hibernation. At least Russia (mostly) wears it's uniforms, lives in designated camps separate from it's civilians, and doesn't run and hide behind it's boys and women. No, this foe has a bit more dignity and evolution than the tribal goats we chase, currently.

See, we're used to fighting people like the communists, who present us with a sobering reality: instant destruction via nuclear holocaust. Both we and the Russians could turn this world upside down, if we were so unreasonable. So fanatical. But we don't do that. Yet. I can't say the same for the current jackals we hunt down in Iraq, Afghanistan, and various other places in in the world, today.

If they had the tools of destruction to the degree we do, what fool doesn't believe that these jihad-driven, brainwashed, mutants would have unleashed them on the infidels long ago?