With all due respect, I am shocked (shocked!) that you are "shocked" that the USG and its intelligence services would refrain from engaging in exactly the kinds of activities described by Carle. After all, the USG has a very different definition of what constitutes the "national security" than you, or many other Americans do. As you know, the American people are the most heavily propagandized domestic population on earth, and for good reason. Anyone who's not serving the Government's mission is to be marginalized one way or another.
Frankly, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I would not be surprised if this type of activity played at least some small part in the Yale process. Perhaps I'm I'm wrong, but I'm just saying...
"Apple says it has never tracked the locations of iPhones and iPads, but admits a software fault means data is still sent to the company"
Oooops!!
Now I respect Jobs as a creator and as a businessman. However, I find it hard to believe that code that 1) creates a database on a phone; 2) synchs that database with a computer; and 3) transmits that data to a third party server is a glitch.
I also love my iPhone and have been an Apple fan from jump, however...we cannot seriously believe that Apple did not know exactly what it was doing here - this was no accident, glitch, blip or oversight:
"Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google"
The data goes back to Apple's servers. This about privacy, surveillance, marketing, profiling and making money off data gathered from unsuspecting customers. It needs to stop, and stop now.
I appreciate Cole’s arguments, and I am concerned about civilians lives, however I must ultimately disagree with Juan’s “unabashed” support for this US-led Western intervention.
In my view, the military action in Libya does reeks of realpolitik “Military Humanism”. While there are concerns about the lives of civilians, I believe that, as Achcar and Tariq Ali (link to guardian.co.uk ) have pointed out, at bottom this intervention is really about oil and an attempt to assert Western control over events in the region in order to achieve “stability”, and that to achieve this goal the US and the West is engaged in selective, cynical vigilantism. The hypocrisy of our intervention is too much to stomach on this score. Do we really think that the US under Obama has committed us to a new and enlightened foreign policy? A kindler, gentler empire? To ask the question is to answer it.
Cole’s contrast in his discussion with Vijay Prashad on Democracy, Now! (link to democracynow.org) between Libya and Bahrain is flawed in 2 ways: the fact that the scale of the uprisings in Libya vs. Bahrain is different in size and that the civilian casualties suffered is higher in Libya than Bahrain does not eliminate the anti-democratic logic of the West’s intervention, nor that of the despotic monarchy’s that the West props up.
Finally, Cole’s claim that Obama does not want to overthrow Gaddifi “directly” but not putting boots on the ground is laughable from a “practical” military point of view: An A-10 Warthog and a C-30 Gunship will do just fine, thank you very much.
Thanks for the piece. Good summary overall. Yes, McChrystal must go in a Truman McCarthur-like moment for Obama. Counter-insurgency, nation building, putting an Afghan “face” on a US war will simply not do. The Afghan army and police forces are both corrupt and compromised. It’s time to leave and commit money towards reconstruction and aid.
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Someone on Twitter are ready said it best: Stop killing muslims should be No. 1
Juan:
I second this. In fact, I'd ask for expedited processing.
Juan:
With all due respect, I am shocked (shocked!) that you are "shocked" that the USG and its intelligence services would refrain from engaging in exactly the kinds of activities described by Carle. After all, the USG has a very different definition of what constitutes the "national security" than you, or many other Americans do. As you know, the American people are the most heavily propagandized domestic population on earth, and for good reason. Anyone who's not serving the Government's mission is to be marginalized one way or another.
Frankly, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I would not be surprised if this type of activity played at least some small part in the Yale process. Perhaps I'm I'm wrong, but I'm just saying...
In any event, it was Yale's loss.
"Apple says it has never tracked the locations of iPhones and iPads, but admits a software fault means data is still sent to the company"
Oooops!!
Now I respect Jobs as a creator and as a businessman. However, I find it hard to believe that code that 1) creates a database on a phone; 2) synchs that database with a computer; and 3) transmits that data to a third party server is a glitch.
Juan:
I also love my iPhone and have been an Apple fan from jump, however...we cannot seriously believe that Apple did not know exactly what it was doing here - this was no accident, glitch, blip or oversight:
"Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google"
See WSJ: link to online.wsj.com
The data goes back to Apple's servers. This about privacy, surveillance, marketing, profiling and making money off data gathered from unsuspecting customers. It needs to stop, and stop now.
I appreciate Cole’s arguments, and I am concerned about civilians lives, however I must ultimately disagree with Juan’s “unabashed” support for this US-led Western intervention.
In my view, the military action in Libya does reeks of realpolitik “Military Humanism”. While there are concerns about the lives of civilians, I believe that, as Achcar and Tariq Ali (link to guardian.co.uk ) have pointed out, at bottom this intervention is really about oil and an attempt to assert Western control over events in the region in order to achieve “stability”, and that to achieve this goal the US and the West is engaged in selective, cynical vigilantism. The hypocrisy of our intervention is too much to stomach on this score. Do we really think that the US under Obama has committed us to a new and enlightened foreign policy? A kindler, gentler empire? To ask the question is to answer it.
Cole’s contrast in his discussion with Vijay Prashad on Democracy, Now! (link to democracynow.org) between Libya and Bahrain is flawed in 2 ways: the fact that the scale of the uprisings in Libya vs. Bahrain is different in size and that the civilian casualties suffered is higher in Libya than Bahrain does not eliminate the anti-democratic logic of the West’s intervention, nor that of the despotic monarchy’s that the West props up.
Finally, Cole’s claim that Obama does not want to overthrow Gaddifi “directly” but not putting boots on the ground is laughable from a “practical” military point of view: An A-10 Warthog and a C-30 Gunship will do just fine, thank you very much.
Actually, after Conyers realized that birther/anti-immigrant Carol Swain was to testify he changed his mind.
Juan:
Thanks for the piece. Good summary overall. Yes, McChrystal must go in a Truman McCarthur-like moment for Obama. Counter-insurgency, nation building, putting an Afghan “face” on a US war will simply not do. The Afghan army and police forces are both corrupt and compromised. It’s time to leave and commit money towards reconstruction and aid.