terrorist

Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War. Here are the editors' top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2008:

The North Caucasian republic of Dagestan has been shocked by the case of nine medical students, some from well-off families, who have apparently joined up with Mujahideen fighters in the mountains.

Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people's privacy. Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don't need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning.

US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has announced the conduct of major war games under Vigilant Shield 2008 (VS-08). Vigilant Shield 2008 (15 to 20 October, 2007) is designed to deal with a "terrorist" or "natural disaster" scenario in the United States. The operation will be coordinated in a joint endeavor by the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. Yet, VS-08, which includes a massive deployment of the US Air Force resembles a war-time air scenario rather than an anti-terrorist drill. The VS-08 war games extend over the entire North American shelf. Canadian territory is also involved through Canada's participation in NORAD. (See Nazemroaya, October 2007) These war games are being conducted at an important historical crossroads, amidst mounting US pressures and threats to actually declare a "real war" on Iran.

An amazing new scanner will be able to root out terrorists and even detect cancers without any health risks:

Besides being a little worrying, it's hard not to smirk just a tad when you see someone being marched off to be strip searched at the airport. But behind the smirk there is usually a sense of relief - that it is them and not you.

Data mining is certainly in vogue with government agencies and the private sector, so why not make something available to the individual consumer? A patent issued this month goes one step beyond casual Google-stalking, and would allow users to identify anyone from a petty criminal to a dangerous terrorist.

WASHINGTON - Claiming that federal investigators are missing key information on terrorists because of an outdated spying law, the top U.S. intelligence official called on lawmakers on Tuesday to revamp the foreign surveillance act and make it easier to eavesdrop on non-citizens in the U.S. with suspected links to terrorism.

The government's top intelligence agency is building a computerized system to search very large stores of information for patterns of activity that look like terrorist planning. The system, which is run by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is in the early research phases and is being tested, in part, with government intelligence that may contain information on U.S. citizens and other people inside the country.

It encompasses existing profiling and detection systems, including those that create "suspicion scores" for suspected terrorists by analyzing very large databases of government intelligence, as well as records of individuals' private communications, financial transactions, and other everyday activities.

Crooks&Liars

Brit Hume and Bill Kristol want unilateral action in North Korea and in Iran. George W. Bush isn't willing at all to initate any military action in N. Korea. These two are complaining that the president has abandoned the PNAC doctrine. Brit Hume is so drab and tiresome that he it is painful to watch him. The Straussian slug Bill Krisol wants your sons and daughters to die in needless wars so that he can make more speeches at universities and sling his neoconservative rag, The Weekly Standard.