Copyright 2010 Clifford May Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:40:02 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Clifford May :: Writings http://www.cliffordmay.org cliff@defenddemocracy.org (Clifford May) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.cliffordmay.org/7013/cyberwar-is-hell-too Thu, 4 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST If a top intelligence expert said America was not prepared for war and, indeed, that if we went to war "we would lose," that would worry you, wouldn't it? Start worrying. The expert is Mike McConnell, who served as director of the National Security... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6973/how-to-stifle-speech Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST There's an old Soviet joke in which an American tells a Russian: "In my country we have freedom of speech. I can stand in front of the White House and yell, 'Nixon is an idiot!' and nothing will happen to me." The Russian replies: "In my country, we have... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6944/losing-iraq Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST "I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration." Vice President Joseph Biden's comments to CNN's Larry King sparked a brouhaha for an obvious reason: When they were senators, Biden and... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6922/iran-unhappy-anniversary Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Iran's Islamic Revolution took place 31 years ago today. The country's monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, missed it. He had gone abroad in mid-January promising that, when he returned, he would only reign — not govern. That wasn't good enough for the... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6916/geert-wilders-trial Mon, 8 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST I used to think of the Netherlands as a land of tulips, windmills, Anne Frank, and a little boy with his finger in the dike. Increasingly, I think of it as the place where Theo van Gogh was murdered in broad daylight, Aayan Hirsi Ali was betrayed, and... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6901/eye-to-eye-on-iran Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Washington's partisan divide is as wide as it's ever been. Democrats and Republicans bitterly disagree on fundamental points of principle and policy. So it should not go unremarked: Last week, the Senate passed — unanimously — a bill that would impose... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6878/the-sun-also-flares Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Had the earthquake that hit Haiti shaken Florida instead, the death toll would not have been so tragically high — over 150,000 at last count. In Haiti, as in other impoverished countries, buildings are often shoddily constructed, infrastructure is weak,... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6853/war-against-infidels Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST In 2001, the monumental 6th-century buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited on orders from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The United States and other Western governments issued protests. Afghanistan's Islamist rulers shrugged them off. In 2010, Al-Kifl,... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6817/reinventing-airport-security Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have done us a favor. More than eight years after 9/11, he revealed that our multi-billion-dollar airport-security system doesn't work. It doesn't work because it was conceptualized as a search for weapons — or anything that... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6769/nineteen-thirty-something Thu, 7 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST A few days of vacation in the Rocky Mountains is a good time to catch up on one's reading. But if I was looking for escape from the issues on which I spend most of my time, I didn't find it in Churchill, the brief but penetrating biography by Paul... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6747/a-new-approach-to-airport-security-needed Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST No one was killed in the Christmas Day terrorist attack aboard Delta/Northwest Flight 253. But that doesn't mean the al-Qaida operation failed. On the contrary, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab beat a multibillion-dollar security system. He... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6740/flying-lessons Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Several hundred men, women, and children will live to see the New Year thanks to good luck: The terrorist on Delta/Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit was inadequately trained, and one passenger turned out to be remarkably quick-thinking and... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6706/save-the-seals Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST What can the Navy brass be thinking? On December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, a Navy SEAL — one of an elite band of highly skilled and extraordinarily brave American warriors — faced arraignment. The charge: He punched a terrorist. To be precise, he punched a... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6674/through-our-enemies-eyes Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST We've heard a lot in recent days about how conservatives and liberals are responding to President Obama's plans for Afghanistan. But what does the enemy think? Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Afghan Taliban leader, clearly would have been happier had Obama... http://www.cliffordmay.org/6647/desert-mirage Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Because the Obama administration is keen to restart negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a ten-month freeze on West Bank settlements. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has...