Friday, July 30, 2010
U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks, 18 Mar 2008
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This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. ``The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses ``trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers, the report recommends ``The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that ``Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks---U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay.
Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010
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25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Pakistan's E-Govternment - a joke!
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ABOUT EGD
In October 2002 the Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) was established in pursuance to a decision of the federal cabinet. Converting the former Information Technology Commission, the Government formed the EGD as a cell within the Ministry of Information Technology.
Vision
Efficient and Responsive Public Sector to bring in Transparency in Government processes.
Mission
Our aim is to help public sector organizations in increasing efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness with the use of Information and Communication Technology. We are committed to build a robust e-government framework to make the government more responsive in delivering the public services to citizens and businesses. Major focus of E-government includes Infrastructure development of government departments, implementation of wide area networks, maximum usage of technology in delivering public services. The objectives of e-government are to
• Create more accountability and transparency in the public sector
• Modernize public services in which joined-up Government institutions communicate and work more effectively and efficiently
• Increase responsiveness of Government sector in delivering public services
• Bring Government close to citizen by providing them with easier access to information through personnel computers ,kiosks, telephone and other resources.
http://www.e-government.gov.pk/ that has too non-functional as to be...
In October 2002 the Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) was established in pursuance to a decision of the federal cabinet. Converting the former Information Technology Commission, the Government formed the EGD as a cell within the Ministry of Information Technology.
Vision
Efficient and Responsive Public Sector to bring in Transparency in Government processes.
Mission
Our aim is to help public sector organizations in increasing efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness with the use of Information and Communication Technology. We are committed to build a robust e-government framework to make the government more responsive in delivering the public services to citizens and businesses. Major focus of E-government includes Infrastructure development of government departments, implementation of wide area networks, maximum usage of technology in delivering public services. The objectives of e-government are to
• Create more accountability and transparency in the public sector
• Modernize public services in which joined-up Government institutions communicate and work more effectively and efficiently
• Increase responsiveness of Government sector in delivering public services
• Bring Government close to citizen by providing them with easier access to information through personnel computers ,kiosks, telephone and other resources.
http://www.e-government.gov.pk/ that has too non-functional as to be...
A new curroption scandle in FBI !!!
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FBI Director Robert Mueller will likely be asked about a cheating scandal that may have taken place among hundreds of FBI agents when he testifies in front of Congress on Wednesday.
The investigators are being investigated.
The Justice Department is trying to find out if hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test on new rules governing the bureau to conduct surveillance and when agents are permitted to open cases without evidence, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities are suspicious because some agents took the open-book test in groups, which is prohibited. Others also finished the extensive test in a suspiciously short amount of time.
"There are similar stories for practically every office, demonstrating the pervasive confusion and miscommunication that existed," Konrad Motyka, president of the FBI Agents Association wrote to the Justice Department in a letter dated on May 18.
Motyka suggested the agents not be punished. He said the problem was due to a lack of communication about the rules.
When the FBI received more freedom to open investigations and obtain information in recent years, it promised Congress that it would instruct and test agents on what they were—and were not— allowed to do.
For example, for the first time the FBI was allowed to conduct surveillance without proof that a crime took place. They were also granted permission to consider race when opening early investigations.
Improprieties about the testing came up as early as last year when Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, head of the FBI's Washington D.C. office, which examines congressional wrongdoing and crime in the capital, retired during an investigation alleging that he cheated during an open-book test in 2009.
The latest probe seems limited to the D.C. office. Depending on the result of the investigation, the agents could be disciplined or even canned from their jobs.
Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before Congress. The alleged cheating scandal is expected to come up.
The Justice Department is trying to find out if hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test on new rules governing the bureau to conduct surveillance and when agents are permitted to open cases without evidence, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities are suspicious because some agents took the open-book test in groups, which is prohibited. Others also finished the extensive test in a suspiciously short amount of time.
"There are similar stories for practically every office, demonstrating the pervasive confusion and miscommunication that existed," Konrad Motyka, president of the FBI Agents Association wrote to the Justice Department in a letter dated on May 18.
Motyka suggested the agents not be punished. He said the problem was due to a lack of communication about the rules.
When the FBI received more freedom to open investigations and obtain information in recent years, it promised Congress that it would instruct and test agents on what they were—and were not— allowed to do.
For example, for the first time the FBI was allowed to conduct surveillance without proof that a crime took place. They were also granted permission to consider race when opening early investigations.
Improprieties about the testing came up as early as last year when Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, head of the FBI's Washington D.C. office, which examines congressional wrongdoing and crime in the capital, retired during an investigation alleging that he cheated during an open-book test in 2009.
The latest probe seems limited to the D.C. office. Depending on the result of the investigation, the agents could be disciplined or even canned from their jobs.
Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before Congress. The alleged cheating scandal is expected to come up.
Pakistan world leader in porn searches: Google
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By Junaid A.. Ranjha:
Lahore:
Pakistan has banned content on more than a dozen websites because of offensive and blasphemous material. The Muslim country, which has laws on dress codes, ranks as the top country to proportionally search for certain sex-related terms, writes Kelli Morgan at FoxNews.com.
The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.
“You won’t find strip clubs in Islamic countries. Most Islamic countries have certain dress codes,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It would be an irony if they haven’t shown the same vigilance to pornography.”
So here’s the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.
Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for “horse sex” since 2004, “donkey sex” since 2007, “rape pictures” between 2004 and 2009, “rape sex” since 2004, “child sex” between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, “animal sex” since 2004 and “dog sex” since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.
The country also is tops — or has been No. 1 — in searches for “sex,” “camel sex,” “rape video,” “child sex video” and some other searches that can’t be printed here.
Google Trends generates data of popular search terms in geographic locations during specific time frames. Google Insights is a more advanced version that allows users to filter a search to geographic locations, time frames and the nature of a search, including web, images, products and news.
Pakistan ranked No. 1 in all the searches listed above on Google Trends, but on only some of them in Google Insights.
“We do our best to provide accurate data and to provide insights into broad search patterns, but the results for a given query may contain inaccuracies due to data sampling issues, approximations, or incomplete data for the terms entered,” Google said in a statement, when asked about the accuracy of its reports.
The Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan did not reply to a request for an interview.
In addition to banning content on 17 websites, including islamexposed.blogspot.com, Pakistan is monitoring seven other sites — Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, MSN and Hotmail — for anti-Islamic content, the Associated Press reported in June.
But it’s not to censor the Pakistani people, Reynolds said. It’s to shut out the rest of the world.
“[It] could lead to conversion, which would undermine the very order of the state,” he said. “Part of protecting the society is making sure that there is no way it could be undermined in terms of foreign influences.”
Pakistan temporarily banned Facebook in May when Muslim groups protested the page containing blasphemous material. The page remains on Facebook, but Pakistani users are unable to view it, said Andrew Noyes, manager of Facebook’s Public Policy Communication.
And while Pakistan is taking measures to prevent blasphemous material from being viewed by its citizens, pornographic material is “certainly” contradictory to Islam, too, Reynolds said.
The country’s punishment for those charged with blasphemy is execution, but the question remains what — if anything — can be done about people who search for porn on the Web. “It’s a new phenomenon,” Reynolds said.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/12/data-shows-pakistan-googling-pornographic-material/
The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.
“You won’t find strip clubs in Islamic countries. Most Islamic countries have certain dress codes,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It would be an irony if they haven’t shown the same vigilance to pornography.”
So here’s the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.
Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for “horse sex” since 2004, “donkey sex” since 2007, “rape pictures” between 2004 and 2009, “rape sex” since 2004, “child sex” between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, “animal sex” since 2004 and “dog sex” since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.
The country also is tops — or has been No. 1 — in searches for “sex,” “camel sex,” “rape video,” “child sex video” and some other searches that can’t be printed here.
Google Trends generates data of popular search terms in geographic locations during specific time frames. Google Insights is a more advanced version that allows users to filter a search to geographic locations, time frames and the nature of a search, including web, images, products and news.
Pakistan ranked No. 1 in all the searches listed above on Google Trends, but on only some of them in Google Insights.
“We do our best to provide accurate data and to provide insights into broad search patterns, but the results for a given query may contain inaccuracies due to data sampling issues, approximations, or incomplete data for the terms entered,” Google said in a statement, when asked about the accuracy of its reports.
The Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan did not reply to a request for an interview.
In addition to banning content on 17 websites, including islamexposed.blogspot.com, Pakistan is monitoring seven other sites — Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, MSN and Hotmail — for anti-Islamic content, the Associated Press reported in June.
But it’s not to censor the Pakistani people, Reynolds said. It’s to shut out the rest of the world.
“[It] could lead to conversion, which would undermine the very order of the state,” he said. “Part of protecting the society is making sure that there is no way it could be undermined in terms of foreign influences.”
Pakistan temporarily banned Facebook in May when Muslim groups protested the page containing blasphemous material. The page remains on Facebook, but Pakistani users are unable to view it, said Andrew Noyes, manager of Facebook’s Public Policy Communication.
And while Pakistan is taking measures to prevent blasphemous material from being viewed by its citizens, pornographic material is “certainly” contradictory to Islam, too, Reynolds said.
The country’s punishment for those charged with blasphemy is execution, but the question remains what — if anything — can be done about people who search for porn on the Web. “It’s a new phenomenon,” Reynolds said.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/12/data-shows-pakistan-googling-pornographic-material/
What PDDC says regarding the report?
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The Ministry of Special Initiative said a report published by The News on Saturday titled “Rs 7 billion more for clean drinking water on PM’s verbal approval” is baseless.
It said in a press release: “The Ministry for Special Initiatives wants to make it clear that neither any approval was sought nor any approval was given by the Prime Minister. In fact, the project director was not even present during that presentation and his claim is totally baseless. The project director has also falsely accused that the prime minister was “quoted” during the Contract Award Committee meeting as having given this approval. The fact is that the prime minister was never quoted during this meeting. The meeting was chaired by the federal minister for special initiatives and attended by additional chief secretary, Balochistan; secretary local government, Punjab; member P&D, Punjab; secretary public health, Sindh; secretary Local Government, Balochistan. The minutes of the meeting also prove this fact.
“The revised PC-I of the project is yet to be prepared as per instruction of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) that had directed that revised PC-I should be put before ECNEC after tenders for Punjab had been finalised.
“It would be pertinent to note that the press release of the meeting issued by the Prime Minister’s Media Office carried by the press on May 09 said, ‘The PM, however, noted with concern that the project was initiated in haste, without proper feasibility study and due consultative process with provincial and district governments. He underscored the need for developing a sense of ownership of the programme, taking all the stakeholders on board.’ “The prime minister had issued such instructions from time to time before as well. In compliance of these directions of the prime minister, various committees comprising of senior officers from each province and concerned federal ministries were formed for pre-qualification of firms and award of tender. Since the project is to be implemented by the provinces, the Ministry of Special initiatives gave complete autonomy to these committees, particularly the provincial representatives. All decisions were taken with consensus and in case of any difference of opinion, the majority view always prevailed.”
Rauf Klasra adds: The clarification deals with the allegation of the director project and does not contradict the story. I stand by the story.
It said in a press release: “The Ministry for Special Initiatives wants to make it clear that neither any approval was sought nor any approval was given by the Prime Minister. In fact, the project director was not even present during that presentation and his claim is totally baseless. The project director has also falsely accused that the prime minister was “quoted” during the Contract Award Committee meeting as having given this approval. The fact is that the prime minister was never quoted during this meeting. The meeting was chaired by the federal minister for special initiatives and attended by additional chief secretary, Balochistan; secretary local government, Punjab; member P&D, Punjab; secretary public health, Sindh; secretary Local Government, Balochistan. The minutes of the meeting also prove this fact.
“The revised PC-I of the project is yet to be prepared as per instruction of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) that had directed that revised PC-I should be put before ECNEC after tenders for Punjab had been finalised.
“It would be pertinent to note that the press release of the meeting issued by the Prime Minister’s Media Office carried by the press on May 09 said, ‘The PM, however, noted with concern that the project was initiated in haste, without proper feasibility study and due consultative process with provincial and district governments. He underscored the need for developing a sense of ownership of the programme, taking all the stakeholders on board.’ “The prime minister had issued such instructions from time to time before as well. In compliance of these directions of the prime minister, various committees comprising of senior officers from each province and concerned federal ministries were formed for pre-qualification of firms and award of tender. Since the project is to be implemented by the provinces, the Ministry of Special initiatives gave complete autonomy to these committees, particularly the provincial representatives. All decisions were taken with consensus and in case of any difference of opinion, the majority view always prevailed.”
Rauf Klasra adds: The clarification deals with the allegation of the director project and does not contradict the story. I stand by the story.
Pakistan Diary Development Company: PDDC- lacks capability, commitment to
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Public-private venture for upgrading livestock sector ends up as grazing ground for misappropriations, embezzlements
By Junaid A. Ranjha:
Lahore:
The Pakistan Dairy Development Company set with a vision to modernise the dairy sector of the worlds fifth largest milk producers has turned out to be a wanton waste of public resources, taxpayers money and foreign grants. The PDDC under its current management neither has the capability nor the commitment to work for the development of livestock sector in the country, says the Ministry of Special Initiatives, the parent ministry of PDDC, in its report sent to the Prime Minister s Secretariat.The multi billion rupees project with primary objective to develop the dairy sector of the country proved to be a sanctuary for foreign consultants and an investing arm for the local dairy processing company reveals The News investigation on Tuesday. The reports prepared by the Ministry of Special Initiatives (MoSI) and the Planning Commission (PC) and interviews of PDDC staff reveal that the management of the PDDC diverted its resources and allocations for the provision of cool tanks to the top milk processing units in the country. The PDDC provided 1,140 cool tanks to a particular dairy processing company s supply chain of milk producers whereas these tanks were supposed to be provided to small dairy farmers on highly subsidised rates, an insider of PDDC told this correspondent.
The MoSI report states that out of the established cooling tanks, only 25 ordinary small farms have benefited from this scheme while the rest have been provided to multi-national processors through PDDC s funding. The company also mobilized major chunk of allocations for developing an infrastructure to set up dairy processing units for a former federal minister, the PDDC source further added.Secretary Special Initiatives, Abdul Shafiq refused to comment on the issue after repeated attempts to get ministry s side on the questions raised by two separate reports of MoSI and PC.The Pakistan Dairy Development Company commonly known as Dairy Pakistan is a public-private joint initiative to bring about long-term structural change in the dairy industry in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world, the PDDC project was envisioned to turn Pakistan into one of the top five dairy processing countries. Dairy Pakistan is embarking on the White Revolution - a phased plan targeting all the key players in the dairy sector.The implementation of White Revolution was designed in three phases - Horizon one, two and three.The Prime Minister has allocated Rs2 billion for Horizon I. The Horizon II costing Rs5.86 billion will focus on increasing productivity of rural areas and create a link between the value-chain.The White Revolution has PSDP funding of Rs2.654 million for Horizon-II that aims to develop community farms, milk pockets, military farm upgrades, bulk milk vending, training of master trainers for management practices, rural contractors, biogas program, regulation development program and breeding farms.The company has spent Rs182.59 million in 2008-09 with throw-forward amount of Rs2.471 billion and has an allocation of Rs100m for the current fiscal 2009-10. For the year 2007-08, Rs500m were allocated for the project, out of which Rs313m were released whereas Rs200m were utilised.The reports of PC and MoSI clearly state that the project failed to achieve its set targets and some of the interventions have not been reported even to date.The MoSI in its report dispatched to the PM s secretariat says that the PDDC management lacks the capability and commitment to work for the development of livestock sector.The PC report lays bare the facts that PDDC was assigned to establish 100 community farms at the cost of Rs542m but it has set up only seven farms. For milk pockets development with cost of Rs408m that include four HTST plants and 25 small plants none of them were developed even after spending Rs1.32m.The company was to upgrade military farms with cost of Rs284m but no break through has been reported and this component of the project has been put on hold. The setting up of five pasteurisation plants with associated vending outlets at a cost of Rs331m is still in the initial stage, the PC report added.About training of 300 master trainers and training of 8,250 farmers with cost of Rs406m, the report said that no progress has been made for master trainers while only 500 farmers were trained.Linking of finance program of executing middlemen with cost of Rs116m is yet to be initiated, it said, adding that creation of rural businesses contractors for equipment and servicing, only a single unit is operational and 10 application in process.For the establishment of biogas program with cost of Rs61m, the report highlighted that only 215 plants have been installed, said the report and no progress have been made to produce 200 heifers with cost of Rs506m.
The MoSI report states that out of the established cooling tanks, only 25 ordinary small farms have benefited from this scheme while the rest have been provided to multi-national processors through PDDC s funding. The company also mobilized major chunk of allocations for developing an infrastructure to set up dairy processing units for a former federal minister, the PDDC source further added.Secretary Special Initiatives, Abdul Shafiq refused to comment on the issue after repeated attempts to get ministry s side on the questions raised by two separate reports of MoSI and PC.The Pakistan Dairy Development Company commonly known as Dairy Pakistan is a public-private joint initiative to bring about long-term structural change in the dairy industry in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world, the PDDC project was envisioned to turn Pakistan into one of the top five dairy processing countries. Dairy Pakistan is embarking on the White Revolution - a phased plan targeting all the key players in the dairy sector.The implementation of White Revolution was designed in three phases - Horizon one, two and three.The Prime Minister has allocated Rs2 billion for Horizon I. The Horizon II costing Rs5.86 billion will focus on increasing productivity of rural areas and create a link between the value-chain.The White Revolution has PSDP funding of Rs2.654 million for Horizon-II that aims to develop community farms, milk pockets, military farm upgrades, bulk milk vending, training of master trainers for management practices, rural contractors, biogas program, regulation development program and breeding farms.The company has spent Rs182.59 million in 2008-09 with throw-forward amount of Rs2.471 billion and has an allocation of Rs100m for the current fiscal 2009-10. For the year 2007-08, Rs500m were allocated for the project, out of which Rs313m were released whereas Rs200m were utilised.The reports of PC and MoSI clearly state that the project failed to achieve its set targets and some of the interventions have not been reported even to date.The MoSI in its report dispatched to the PM s secretariat says that the PDDC management lacks the capability and commitment to work for the development of livestock sector.The PC report lays bare the facts that PDDC was assigned to establish 100 community farms at the cost of Rs542m but it has set up only seven farms. For milk pockets development with cost of Rs408m that include four HTST plants and 25 small plants none of them were developed even after spending Rs1.32m.The company was to upgrade military farms with cost of Rs284m but no break through has been reported and this component of the project has been put on hold. The setting up of five pasteurisation plants with associated vending outlets at a cost of Rs331m is still in the initial stage, the PC report added.About training of 300 master trainers and training of 8,250 farmers with cost of Rs406m, the report said that no progress has been made for master trainers while only 500 farmers were trained.Linking of finance program of executing middlemen with cost of Rs116m is yet to be initiated, it said, adding that creation of rural businesses contractors for equipment and servicing, only a single unit is operational and 10 application in process.For the establishment of biogas program with cost of Rs61m, the report highlighted that only 215 plants have been installed, said the report and no progress have been made to produce 200 heifers with cost of Rs506m.
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