Dear Internet

At this time, WXXX initiates a new format to not replace, but to supplement its usual editorial policy. Though we cannot claim this to be a genuine news outlet, it was the intention to avoid simply repeating stories posted elsewhere unless if there were some detail, aspect or synthetic copula with another story or stories that warranted the making of the observation.

Now, we will not refrain simply repeating, or merely linking to stories that strike as worth noting, if only for the sake of archiving them where they can be easily accessed for future reference. The reason being that there is so much out there... on the internet... that we cannot begin to digest it all and add to, analyze or synthesize it in order to meet the editorial injunction to be unique.

For the time being, until it grows weary, posts under this format shall go by the title...

"Dear Internet!!!"

...in honor of Conan O'Brien, who delivered these words in his inimitable style on his last night with The Tonight Show, thus summing up the utter futility of my-opinion-matters! internet publishing. We know this. Get on youtube, twitter, or blogger & give 'em a piece of your mind!

Oddly enough, at around the same time, John Young of cryptome offered a similar observation, though with a decidedly acerbic tone, describing the site in response to inquiries of an internet scholar researching wikileaks and the like...

Cryptome aspires to be a library not a social media mosh pit, or worse, a blog... It hosts documents for study and informed action to offset ineffective opinionating. Most of its documents are not controversial, attention-mongering leaks, breaking news, ideology peddling, product spin, fund-raising, and to the extent possible, not intended as reputaion flogging for readers and the site operator -- the most pervasive addiction of the Internet.

Alright then. A library, by no means complete, but of as many stories worth noting that we come across as we scan the internet - without the benefit of massive Cray computers such as the NSA has at its disposal, but with that old-fashioned information processing device: a human brain.

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Chris Strohm: Terrorism watch lists don't necessarily bar entry

At a Senate hearing last Wednesday, in response to questions about Abdulmutallab, the Christmas undie bomber, boarding Northwest flight 253 in spite of being on a terrorist watch list, Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said:

"I will tell you, that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another."

The "some reason or another" in the case of Abdulmutallab slipping through the homeland security panopticon could refer to the "alternative agenda" of a certain faction within intelligence agencies wishing to deal the Obama Administration a grave political blow on national security, as an unofficial Obama spokesman, Dick Wolff, suggested Jan. 4 on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Well, I was speaking to White House folks earlier today and it‘s clear the president is still deeply concerned and troubled, even angry at the intelligence lapses... ...the question here is: why didn‘t the centralized system of intelligence that was set up after 9/11, why didn‘t it work? Is this conspiracy or cork up?... It seems that the president is leaning very much towards thinking this was a systemic failure by individuals who maybe had an alternative agenda.

Of course, the next day, Wolff was on to deflate the trial balloon that he had just floated. Nevertheless, the President airing conspiracy theories, even if by proxy, is significant. Mr. Sunstein should have a talk with him.

Webster Tarpley: Obama White House Probing Rogue Network of Moles...

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Nafeez Ahmed: Yemen. Energy Crisis, and the Nigerian Crotch Bomber: The Privatization of Security and the Militarization of Society - Part I - Part II - Part III

An excellent series on some of the geo-political machinations afoot in Eurasia, and the roles Al Qaeda plays within these machinations.

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Daily Mail: David Kelly post mortum to be kept secret for 70 years as doctors accuse Lord Hutton of concealing vital information

In follow-up to The Death of Dr. Keeley

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Secrecy News: Book: Change of State

A central claim of the book is that the very nature of government has been altered and transformed from the bureaucratic welfare state into what may be called the informational state, in which governments "deliberately, explicitly, and consistently control information creation, processing, flows, and use to exercise power."

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Robert Eringer: Spy Lord 9

Some interesting observations by former KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov on then Director of CIA (and current Defense Secretary) Robert Gates, who correctly predicted the demise of the Soviet Union, though ten years later than it happened. Also: "We had information that he was particularly concerned with our improved relations to China." This is noteworthy, particularly as the Nafeez Ahmed stories linked above essentially argue that much of the current geopolitical maneuverings ultimately boil down to engaging China by proxy.