This Week's Report: "Computer Hacking"

Staff writer Marcia Clemmitt delves into the secretive worlds of computer hacking and cyber crime in this week’s CQ Researcher report. Malicious cyber attacks are causing billions of dollars in damage per year to corporate, government, military and other computer systems, and hacking skills are in rising demand as tech companies and police try to fight back, Marcia reports. “Ironically…,” she writes, “the only way to thwart the attacks is to hire people possessing many of the same technical skills and personality traits as the perpetrators. The trick, though, is to hire hackers who want to do good rather than ill.”

One telling fact: One computer-security company finds that in just three months of Web surfing, the average computer user has a 95 percent chance of visiting a site infected by malicious software. Technology classes and students writing papers on cyber ethics and online security will find this report of special interest.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/12/2011

The 9/11 Decade: Three views

The 9/11 Decade
The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 10, 2011

Don’t underestimate what America has achieved since 9/11
The Washington Post, Sept. 11, 2011

Get smarter on security
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 11, 2011

Synopsis: The 10th anniversary of Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2011, attacks on the United States prompted an outpouring of remembrances of that awful day and analyses and commentaries of the decade since. In editorials, three of the nation’s leading newspapers offer differing views. The Wall Street Journal praises the Bush administration’s “serious and sustained response,” including the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that the newspaper credits with producing much of the intelligence collected about al Qaeda; it credits President Obama with carry having preserved “the most part” of the Bush policies. The Washington Post acknowledges “some truth” to the critique of U.S. policy as an “overreaction,” but it sees “no large-scale assault on personal freedoms” and finds achievements overall outweighed mistakes. But the Los Angeles Times says the country has done “some things” right and “many things” wrong and has been “remarkably disinclined to learn from our mistakes.”

In addition to their regular daily news coverage, both the New York Times and Washington Post published special 9/11 sections on terrorist attacks.

For CQ Researcher coverage, see my report “Remembering 9/11” (Sept. 2) and the 9/11-related reports cited at the end, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011090200.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Last Moderate
Joe Nocera, The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2011

Synopsis: Veteran Blue Dog Dem Rep. Jim Cooper, Tenn., a House member since 1982, mostly blames former Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for the era of intransigence that’s gradually taken over Congress since the mid-1990s. As House speaker, Gingrich ushered in an era of party unity and lockstep legislating that led directly to today’s take-no-prisoners “Lord of the Flies”-style congressional battles, Cooper argues. Emblematic of the change is the fact that, in the past, each party introduced multiple versions of legislation on hot issues, leading to both intra- and inter-party debate on which provisions to approve. Under Gingrich, Republicans were expected to unite immediately in support of a single, ideologically focused bill – and battle to the death for its passage in full. Today, both parties take this tack, greatly diminishing the complexity of legislative debate and the possibilities for compromise.

Takeaway: “Gingrich was a new kind of speaker: deeply partisan and startlingly power-hungry,” Nocera writes. As Cooper recalls, “ ‘His first move was to get rid of the Democratic Study Group, which analyzed bills and was so trusted that Republicans as well as Democrats relied on it. This was his way of preventing us from knowing what we were voting on. Today, the ignorance around here is staggering. Nobody has any idea what they’re voting on.’”

For more, see my report on “Gridlock in Washington,” April 30, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010043000; Peter Katel’s “Democrats’ Future,” Oct. 29, 2010,
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010102900, and “Tea Party Movement,” March 19, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010031900; and Alan Greenblatt’s “Future of the GOP,” March 20, 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2009032000.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Christopher Hitchens: A Man of His Words
Bill Keller, The New York Times, Sept. 9, 2011

“Christopher Hitchens: A Man of His Words”
A review of Hitchens’s new book, “Arguably”

Synopsis: Bill Keller’s writing is simply sublime, and the essays by the prolific Hitchens – “who writes as fast as some people talk”-- are mind-boggling in their scope and erudition. Keller is the former executive editor of the Times who stepped down to become an op-ed columnist and writer for the Times’ Magazine. As Keller writes: “Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened — possibly both — but in any case not to be missed. He is our intellectual omnivore, exhilarating and infuriating, if not in equal parts at least with equal wit.” Hitchens, the feisty, hard-drinking Brit who became a U.S. citizen, is fighting what is likely a losing battle with esophageal cancer, and this may be his last book.

Takeaway: If you are familiar with Hitchens, just read it; you know what I’m talkin’ about. If you’re new to Hitchens (or Keller), read it. That’s an order. You’ll thank me.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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The Buck Stays Here
Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Policy, Sept. 7, 2011

Synopsis: The 2008 financial meltdown and the recent political meltdown in Washington have many questioning the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Some banks have predicted that the Chinese yuan will rival the dollar sometime within the next decade.

Takeaway: The obstacles to shifting away from the dollar are formidable. The amount of official dollar currency reserves in the world and the frequency of international transactions using the dollar confirm that the dollar by far surpasses any other currency in providing a medium of exchange. Thus, the dollar doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon.

For background see Peter Behr’s CQ Global Researcher report “The Troubled Dollar” (subscription required), http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2008100000

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

This Week's Report: Extreme Weather

This week’s CQ Researcher report, “Extreme Weather,” comes on the heels of Hurricane Irene, which ravaged the Eastern Seaboard – particularly New England – and, according to experts, ranks among the costliest catastrophes in U.S. history. The United States has endured a drumbeat of severe weather in recent months: massive floods along the Mississippi River; deadly tornadoes, including one that devastated Joplin, Mo.; blinding blizzards in the Midwest and New England, and drought conditions in the Southwest that have led to catastrophic wildfires in Texas. Why all this is happening is a matter of debate among scientists. Some point directly to human-induced global warming as the reason. Others caution that while warming is real, no definitive link exists between it and, for instance, the hurricanes and tornadoes we’ve been seeing. That robust debate plays out in our pro/con “At Issue” between scientists Jay Gulledge of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Richard A. Muller of the University of California, Berkeley. This report may be a good entry point for discussions or papers on climate change, environmental history and the economics of natural disasters.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/6/2011

Top Secret America: A look at the military’s Joint Special Operations Command
Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, The Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2011

Synopsis: The team of U.S. Navy SEALS who took out Osama bin Laden was part of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command – known by the acronym JSOC – that has grown tenfold over the past decade in near complete obscurity. Priest, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner with the Post, and Arkin, a Post columnist and reporter, detail the expanded role that this elite force has played in capturing, imprisoning or killing suspected terrorists. JSOC has grown, they write, from “a rarely used hostage rescue team into America’s secret army.”

Takeaway: “We’re the dark matter,” an unidentified Navy SEAL is quoted as saying. “We’re the force that orders the universe but can’t be seen.”

Note: The article is excerpted from Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State by Priest and Arkin, being published Sept. 6 by Little Brown. A four-part series that formed part of the basis of the book was published by the Post in 2010.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Europeans Talk of Sharp Change in Fiscal Affairs
Louise Story and Matthew Saltmarsh, The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2011

Synopsis: America’s failed early effort to operate as a loose confederation of 13 states appears increasingly relevant for many officials in Europe. They are beginning to realize – as experts suggested in our May 17 CQ Global Researcher -- that the lack of strong central coordination of economic policies in the eurozone’s member states is a major reason why Europe has been unable to resolve its financial crisis.

Takeaway: Europe’s leaders appear to be inching closer to a more centralized approach, with some even saying so publicly. “If today’s policy makers want to successfully stay the course, they will have to press ahead with structural changes and deeper economic integration,” António Borges, director of the International Monetary Fund’s European unit, said in a recent speech. “To put the crisis behind us, we need more Europe, not less. And we need it now.”

See Sarah Glazer, “Future of the Euro,” CQ Global Researcher, May 17, 2011 (subscription required).

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

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What the Left Doesn't Understand About Obama
Jonathan Chait, The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2011

Chait pushes back at the consensus view taking hold among members of President Barack Obama's eroding base. Increasingly, Obama's left-wing and liberal supporters argue that he is allowing himself to be overwhelmed by a more determined Republican opposition. Drew Westen, an Emory University psychologist and political consultant, had summed up that embittered position in a widely read piece in The New York Times last month. Now Chait, an editor of The New Republic - a venerable liberal weekly - takes apart the critique, finding it long on indignation and short on reality. Obama has consistently wrung as much economic stimulus and relief as he can from recalcitrant Republican lawmakers, Chait writes. He acknowledges in passing that he too wanted Obama to call Republicans' bluff during the debt-ceiling showdown -- forcing them to confront the risk of pushing the world into financial meltdown. But Obama's compromise did make economic recovery a priority, Chait argues. He does notdirectly address another source of disillusionment: Obama's seeming lack of enthusiasm for political combat. But Chait does insist that unhappy Democrats focus on the nuts and bolts of legislating and policy-making. Still, he concedes that emotion can overwhelm analytical rigor.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

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Letter from Prison: Tim DeChristopher Speaks
Tim DeChristopher, Grist, Aug. 29, 2011

Synopsis: From environmental activist and convicted felon Tim DeChristopher come interesting musings on the power of political protest. DeChristopher was sentenced this summer to two years in federal prison after he disrupted an oil and gas leasing auction in 2009 to protest drilling on public lands.

Takeaway: “As is generally the case with civil disobedience, it was extremely important to the government that I come before the majesty of the court with my head bowed and express regret. So important, in fact, that an apology with proper genuflection is currently fair trade for a couple years in prison…But perhaps we should be asking why the government is willing to make such a deal….By its very nature, civil disobedience is an act whose message is that the government and its laws are not the sole voice of moral authority….Government whose authority depends on an ignorant or apathetic citizenry is threatened by every act of open civil disobedience, no matter how small. To regain that tiny piece of authority, the government either has to respond to the activist’s demands, or get the activist to back down with a public statement of regret. Otherwise, those little challenges to the moral authority of government start to add up.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Survivor Who Saw the Future
Susanne Craig, The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2011

Synopsis: When American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, three out of every four people who worked for Howard W. Lutnick at the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald died – a total of 658 employees. Lutnick survived; he was taking his son Kyle to his first day of kindergarten. Four days after the attack, Lutnick, who was shown crying on television, cut off payments to the families of his dead and missing employees, before it was known conclusively how many had died. Critics at the time called Lutnick’s actions disgusting and hard-hearted. They scoffed when he promised to give 25 percent of Cantor’s profits over the next five years to employees, and to provide health insurance coverage to families for 10 years. Cantor’s demise was widely predicted.

Takeaway: Lutnick, now 50, defied the critics. Ten years later, he has rebuilt his firm, and enlarged it, in fact. And many of his critics -- especially parents and spouses of employees who had died – now say he did the right thing. And yes, he kept his promises. “By almost any measure,” writes Susanne Craig, “it is a remarkable turnabout.”

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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9/11 in Perspective
Richard N. Haass, Al Jazeera, Sept. 6, 2011

Synopsis: The 9/11 attacks were a tragedy by any measure, writes the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, but they were not a historical turning point in which terrorists with a global agenda prevailed. Instead, the most notable developments have between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, globalization and the upheavals in the Middle East.

Takeaway: It would be wrong for responsible governments to make opposition to terrorism the centerpiece of any agenda. Terrorists, as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 shows, remain outliers at best.

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

CQR Report, "Remembering 9/11"

CQ Researcher is publishing a special 32-page report this week titled “Remembering 9/11,” and I invite you take a look at it. Associate Editor Ken Jost is the author. The report examines a wide range of issues related to the terrorist attacks a decade ago – whether the U.S. has done enough to prevent new attacks, whether liberty has been sacrificed for safety over the past decade, whether Al Qaeda remains a substantial threat, how 9/11 is being memorialized, and much more. The report includes two chronologies and four sidebars, including a profile of a survivor and an overview of memorials open or planned in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, plus a graphic detailing casualties in the three attacks. Sidebars by Staff Writer Peter Katel and Assistant Editor Darrell Dela Rosa round out the package. Ken visited Ground Zero in August and took four of the photos used in the report. He put many extra hours into shaping, reporting and writing this report, and I congratulate him on his excellent work.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor