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But Alexed, even if one has employees it does not mean one has influence. However, take those professional dog walkers in New York City, the ones who walk twelve dogs at a time--now those are people with influence! AK
Koi, yesterday a woman came to our door. The dog bolted out, and she called the dog back. The dog listened. I just knew I was talking to a person of influence. AK
Looks like you got what you asked for. Good luck! AK
Wonder why? AK
==========================
Related Quote
ASMI 15.09 +2.09
delayed 20 mins - disclaimer
Quote Data provided by Reuters
Tuesday July 30, 11:38 am Eastern Time
Dow Jones Business News
Dutch ASMI/Sales-2: Gave Vague Growth Forecast Monday
AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International NV Tuesday wouldn't say when it might break even or how steep its anticipated revenue growth in coming quarters will be.
The company also said it may need additional financing. However, officials wouldn't say how much, when and whether the funding will come from existing credit lines or via the issuance of shares.
In a telephone conference call with investors, ASM Chief Financial Officer Robert de Bakker declined to elaborate on the company's statement Monday that its revenue and bottom line would improve in the second half of 2002 and continue improving in 2003.
The company Monday said it swung to a EUR6.4 million net loss in the second quarter from a profit of EUR9.3 million a year earlier. Revenue tumbled to EUR140.9 million from EUR153.1 million. That loss was expected.
ASMI also didn't say Monday whether the anticipated improvements would be over year-earlier levels. In 2001, the company had EUR6.1 million of net profit on $ 561.1 million of sales, but the company suffered a net loss of EUR9 million in the fourth quarter last year and has been losing money since.
De Bakker said the company doesn't intend to give a specific indication of trends in its bottom line for 2002 or 2003, and said he won't comment on how steep he expects its revenue growth to be in coming quarters.
In the telephone conference call, ASMI Chairman Arthur del Prado forecast " reasonable growth" in orders in 2003 in most of the company's product lines.
He said orders in the company's front-end products may outstrip growth of those in the back end in percentage terms.
The general order trend in the next two quarters is for improved rates over first two quarters, and this improvement will continue over early quarters in 2003. Again, the company didn't say whether that growth will be quarter to quarter or year on year.
Del Prado said the company hasn't felt the recent slowing of capital spending by the semiconductor industry, since cutbacks in general haven't impacted producers of leading-edge technologies, like ASM.
However, company officials on the conference call weren't specific about order trends in the remainder of the year.
-By A.H. Mooradian, Dow Jones Newswires; 31 20 626 0770; art.mooradian@
dowjones.com
If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.
--Will Rogers
Who said I was "tinking"? LOL. Well, that reminds me:
SWIM COMPETITION
A Swedish woman competed with a French woman and an English woman in the breast Stroke division of an English Channel swim competition. The French woman came in first, the English woman second. Then the Swede finally reached shore, completely exhausted. After being revived with blankets and coffee, she remarked, "I don't vant to complain, but I tink dose other two girls used deir arms."
Thanks CM! The things you learn, but gee, does Google know? Maybe it was further down in the search--New Ulm MN is one of the first hits. But the real question, do you think Ole and Lena are from New Ulm MN, or New Ulm TX? <g> AK
Not "Bingo!" -- Google
A friend in Stacy MN sent me the story. He says they have deerflies in the summer. If that's what the "center of the universe" is like in summertime, I'm happy to be on the fringe <g>. AK
Attention, bacon shoppers...
Warning: this is definitely not Kosher...
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/01/14/image/0000014314
AK
Colt, I see your point, but at my age I must be realistic...<g/ng> AK
Now this is good news!
http://www.bumperdumper.com/bumper2.htm
Be sure to scroll down the page <g.
AK
No pate tonight...
=====================
AFLAC Rep Pays Bills for Duck
Mon Jul 29, 8:10 AM ET
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Police say they have quacked the case of a stolen duck.
Rita Cane came forward after seeing a story in the newspaper about the stolen pet, a white duck named Peepers. She said she scooped the duck out of the street last week to rescue him. She's no ducknapper, she said.
"I'm a good Christian woman and I plan to stay that way," the 62-year-old Des Moines woman said. "I'm a good Samaritan."
Duck owner Brad Moureau said he got a call early Thursday that Peepers was safe — and that he owed $41 to get the duck out of the animal shelter.
That's when the insurance man stepped in. Bill Robertson, a regional sales coordinator for AFLAC, heard that Peepers resembles the company's TV spokesduck and that passers-by often yell "AFLAC, AFLAC" when they see Peepers in Moureau's yard.
Robertson paid the shelter's fee.
"Maybe we can make Peepers our local mascot," he said.
Don't you think everyone should have their own asteroid zapper?
========================
Scientist Touts Laser to Zap Asteroid
Mon Jul 29, 1:51 PM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian scientist said Friday that a massive asteroid said to be heading for Earth could be destroyed with the help of a powerful laser.
He was speaking after space experts warned this week that an asteroid, spotted from several different countries, could hit Earth in 2019, destroying life as we know it.
Boris Kartogin, general director and designer at rocket producer Energomash, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying the asteroid could be thwarted, using a powerful laser installation based in space.
"Defenses for the Earth can be designed," Kartogin told a news conference.
Lasers in space were hugely controversial during U.S. President Ronald Reagan ( news - web sites)'s term in office in the 1980s. His scheme to shoot down Soviet nuclear missiles was dubbed "Star Wars" after the cult science fiction film series.
The 1.2-mile wide asteroid was first detected earlier this month by the United States Linear sky survey program.
But NASA ( news - web sites) scientists are downplaying the danger of a collision, saying the odds are minimal.
Kartogin said the laser defense scheme would require the assembly of 10 to 12 platforms in Earth's orbit, which would then be equipped with powerful, chemical lasers capable of destroying the approaching asteroid.
He added that "a laser of such power does not yet exist, but the international community is already seriously talking about the need to create one."
Energomash is carrying out work on laser technology.
Scientists from several countries, including Russia, are already studying ways to defend the planet from an asteroid collision.
Minnesota <</
http://www.newulmweb.com/
AK
Ole and Lena (shaggy dog story)
=====================================
Vell, Ole and Lena went to the same Lutheran Church. Lena went every Sunday and taught Sunday School. Ole went on Christmas and Easter and once in a while, he went on one of the other Sundays.
On one of those Sundays, he was in the pew right behind Lena and he noticed vhat a fine looking woman she was. Vhile dey were taking up the collection, Ole leaned forward and said, "Hey, Lena, how about you and me go to dinner in New Ulm next Friday?"
"Yah, Ole, dot vould be nice," said Lena.
Well, Ole couldn't believe his luck. All week long he polished up his old Ford, and on Friday he picked Lena up and took her to the finest restaurant in New Ulm.
When they sat down, Ole looked over at Lena and said, "Hey, Lena, vould you like a cocktail before dinner?"
"Oh, no, Ole," said Lena. "Vat vould I tell my Sunday School class?"
Vell, Ole was set back a bit, so he didn't say much until after dinner. Then he reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
"Hey, Lena," said Ole, "vould you like a smoke?"
"Oh, no, Ole," said Lena. "Vat vould I tell my Sunday School class?"
Vell, Ole vas feeling pretty low after that, so he yust got in his Ford and vas driving Lena home ven dey passed the Hot Springs Motel. He'd struck out twice already, so he figured he had nothing to lose.
"Hey, Lena," said Ole, "how vould you like to stop at that motel with me?"
"Yah, Ole, dot vould be nice," said Lena.
Vell, Ole couldn't believe his luck. He did a U-turn right then and there across the median and everything, and drove back to the motel and checked in vith Lena.
The next morning Ole got up first. He looked at Lena lying there in the bed, her hair all spread out on her pillow. "Vat have I done? Vat have I done?" thought Ole.
He shook Lena and she woke up. "Lena, I've got to ask you von tinge," said Ole. "Vat are you going to tell your Sunday School class?"
"Lena said, "The same ting I alvays tell dem. You don't have to smoke and drink to have a good time!"
Hung Chow
====================
Hung Chow: "Hey, boss I not come work today, I really sick. I got headache, stomach ache and my legs hurt, I not come work."
The boss says: "You know Hung Chow I really need you today. When I feel like this I go to my wife and tell her to give me sex. That makes me feel better and I can go to work. You should try that."
Two hours later Hung Chow calls: "Boss, I do what you say and I feel great, I be at work soon. You got nice house."
Would you provide a source or link please? Thanks. AK
The Lone Ranger
==================================
The Lone Ranger and Tonto are camping in the desert, they set up their tent, and are asleep. Some hours later, The Lone Ranger wakes his faithful friend.
"Tonto, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." Tonto replies, "Me see millions of stars."
"What does that tell you?" ask The Lone Ranger. Tonto ponders for a minute.
"Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three.
Theologically, it's evident the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
What it tell you, Kemo Sabi?" The Lone Ranger is silent for a moment, then speaks: "Tonto, you Dumb Ass, someone has stolen our tent.
New quiz: Match the sign on the door with the type of business. <g> AK
http://www.pressanykey.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/pak/doorsigns.cgi
MM, is this why you guessed "wife"?
==========================
A young couple got married and left on their honeymoon. When they got back, the bride immediately called her mother. "Well," said her mother, "so how was the honeymoon?" "Oh, mama," she replied, "the honeymoon was wonderful! So romantic".
Suddenly she burst out crying. "But, mama, as soon as we returned Sam started using the most horrible language--things I'd never heard before! I mean, all these awful 4-letter
words! You've got to come get me and take me home...PLEASE MAMA, PLEASE!"
"Sarah, Sarah," her mother said, "calm down! Tell me, what could be so awful. WHAT 4-letter words?"
"Please don't make me tell you, mama," wept the daughter, "I'm so embarrassed they're just too awful! COME GET ME, PLEASE!"
"Darling, baby, you must tell me what has you so upset. Tell your mother these horrible 4-letter words!"
Still sobbing, the bride said, "Oh, mama, words like 'dust, wash, iron, cook, ..."
"I'll pick you up in ten minutes," said the mother.
Softechie, did you short the SANS and housing stocks today? Thanks. AK
Marginnayan, I'm with you, and thanks for your posts.
I actually reviewed Syl's posts here on iHub, and he made three buys, 7/24 and 7/25, and it would appear he sold them today, as he said.
Poor guy, he can't even keep track of his own posts <g>.
AK
Gosh Koi, I was just asking who the Commander's Wife is <g>. Bet you were making several posts at the same time and got one of us mixed up? Anyway, I think you are saying the Commander's Wife is PMS Witch? If so, that would clarify it all for me. Thanks. AK
p.s. And you are correct, PMS' answer was with decorum <g>.
Please explain "The Commander's Wife"?
Fred, contrary to what you may think, I am not literate or well-read. I rely on my wife so I can bluff you out, but, unfortunately for me, she is at work now.
J
PMS Witch was on the right track with the reasoning. Here's the absolute give away for the solution:
You can beat an (?),
You can beat a (?),
You can beat your (?),
But you can't beat (?)
Koi,
Sent the following to my kids former high school principal yesterday:
>Mother: "Why are you home from school so early?"
>Johnny: "I was the only one who could answer a question."
>Mother: "Oh, really? Good for you! What was the question?"
>Johnny: "Who shot the spitball at the principal?"
Received the response this morning:
"An enjoyable quick-hitter, and let the child be commended for his choice of target."
AK
Alexed, pursuant to your request, here are some quotes, although they are obviously a few years old. Enjoy. AK
===========================
"I would not live forever, because we should not live forever,
because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
--Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.
"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff,"
-- Mariah Carey
"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
---Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal antismoking campaign.
"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
-- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.
"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates."
-- Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.
"We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees,"
-- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks.
"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it,"
-- A congressional candidate in Texas.
"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."
-- John Wayne
"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
-- Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the
impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
-- Al Gore, Vice President
"If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet,"
-- Former British foreign minister, Ernest Bevin.
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
-- Dan Quayle
"It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another"
-- George Bush, US President
"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we
need?"
-- Lee Iacocca
"I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version,"
-- Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony.
"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein,"
-- Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.
"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
-- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.
"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- Bill Clinton, President
"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
-- Al Gore, VP
"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
-- Keppel Enderbery
"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have is that I didn't study my Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
-- Dan Quayle, VP
"It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago!"
-- Dan Quayle, VP
"Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation."
-- Dan Quayle, VP
"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."
-- Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina
"We apologize for the error in last week's paper in which we stated that Mr. Arnold Dogbody was a defective in the police force. We meant, of course, that Mr.Dogbody is a detective in the police farce."
-- Correction Notice in the Ely Standard, a British newspaper
"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."
-- Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman
Koi, actually, for those that even attempt an answer, your logic is the one typically followed. PMS Witch is obviously a cook <g>. AK
Alexed, I've been working on Poet and Koikaze <g>. I'll look to see what I can find. Do you have some particular person or theme in mind? AK
Smoking. Koikaze, in honor of your 10+ years as a non-smoker, I give you the following. AK
=====================
Two elderly ladies were outside their nursing home, having a smoke, when it started to rain. One of the ladies pulled out a condom, cut off the end, put it over her cigarette, and continued smoking.
The lady asked, "What's that?"
"A condom," the other lady responded. "This way my cigarette doesn't get wet."
"Where did you get it?" the other lady asked.
"You can get them at any drugstore."
The next day, the first lady hobbled herself down to the local drugstore and announced to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms. The guy looked at her kind of strangely (she is, after all, over 80 years of age),but politely asks what brand she prefers.
"It doesn't matter as long as it fits a Camel."
Poet, today's word challenge. Pick the word that does not belong, and explain your reason:
Rug
Egg
Sex
Wife
(Not so easy, eh?)
AK
Oracl: My point in posting the article was to show that some people were starting to see the markets as a possible buying opportunity, but not necessarily that this would happen in the next few weeks. Interestingly, Donald Trump, who has not been in stocks, having made his fortune(s) in real estate, was talking about the markets in a Fox interview today. It may well be that some are perceiving that real estate is overvalued relative to stocks, not that stocks themselves are cheap. IMHO. AK
Angst? <g AK
Time to buy stocks? A perspective from the NY Post. (Thanks to Smart Money on SI for the link.) AK
http://www.nypost.com/business/53461.htm
==========================
STOCKS ON $ALE!
By ISABELLE SENDER
GIANT DISCOUNT SALE:
Values in the stock market are so good right now that some shoppers, who previously sought sales in shoe shops and used-car lots, are now putting their money to work in the market.
- Helayne Seidman
July 28, 2002 --
Mike Martone is so excited about the great values in the stock market he's talking about selling his car just to raise cash to invest.
He said the recent sell-off, bringing many stocks to prices that haven't been seen in 15 years, made him "much more confident" about putting long-term money into the market.
And Martone, who lives in Rockland County, is truly thinking about the long term. He is only 22 now, so he's got a good 40 years before he will need to tap his investments for retirement income.
Martone is not the only New Yorker who's using the recent market sell-off as an opportunity to get in cheap.
Another investor, who asked that his name not be published, is selling his $400,000 vacation home with plans to use $200,000 of it to add to his existing portfolio of blue-chip stocks.
Although risk-averse investors might consider that move insane, he thinks he's being smart by selling high and buying low. His vacation home has appreciated nicely in the time he's owned it, so now he's swapping it in for cheaper assets.
And stocks are cheap now.
"I've been telling my clients with an investment time horizon of more than five years to think about taking sidelined cash and buy some beat-up stocks," said Nancy E. Frank, a certified financial planner with Frank Advisory Services.
Her own clients - and many, many others - are taking that advice.
"I think long term so I've been continuing to invest these past weeks. I look for the 20- to 30-year rise. And I think now would be a great time to put some more money in the market," said individual investor Kirby Frank, a 36-year-old technology consultant from Atlanta.
What, exactly, are they buying?
For the most part, investors are showing the greatest interest in stocks with strong growth characteristics, which just happen to be available at value prices right now.
"I don't think we're at a bottom, but this could be one of the best buying opportunities for some since the 1970s," noted Rick Wayman, director of research at ResearchStock.com.
Wayman likes value stocks with solid balance sheets such as Huffy Corp. and Cardinal Health.
Every Wall Street guru has a list of stocks that were too expensive a few months ago, but look like great deals now.
For William L. Valentine, president of Valentine Ventures, the list includes Checkpoint Software and American Eagle Outfitters. He believes they are trading at deep discounts to their projected growth.
"Investors are making far too big a deal out of this bear market," said Valentine. "Even someone going into retirement next year probably has 10 or more years before they'll need to convert their bulk savings into an income-producing investment."
In other words, take advantage of the sale prices and buy, buy, buy.
FBI needs new computers. Although this is not a new story, given national security concerns, and press such as the following from the L.A. Times today, one might think there will be a dramatic jump for technology spending in the U.S. Government's new fiscal year. AK
=====================
SUNDAY REPORT
War on Terrorism Highlights FBI's Computer Woes
Janet Reno warns of national security risks because of poor equipment.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and CHARLES PILLER
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
July 28 2002
WASHINGTON -- First of two parts.
In the frantic days after the terrorists struck, FBI agents scrambled to box up investigative files at their New York office a few blocks from the World Trade Center and haul them to safety. In the FBI's paper-driven culture, many of the documents had never even been downloaded into the bureau's aging computer system.
In Tampa, Fla., meanwhile, agents were scurrying to send photos of the 19 hijackers by overnight mail to 56 FBI offices around the country so agents could chase down possible conspirators. Frustrated agents had been unable to e-mail the photos because the FBI's computer system wasn't designed to handle such a basic task.
The Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath have exposed the FBI's computers as a national laughingstock, a system so antiquated and inefficient that U.S. senators quip that their kids get more bang for their byte than the nation's vaunted G-men.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III has laid out an ambitious three-year plan for overhauling the bureau's beleaguered system. But the severity of the problem, and its threat to national security, have long been known to top FBI officials.
Indeed, newly disclosed records and interviews show that years of warnings at the highest levels of the FBI often have gone unheeded and that the bureau allegedly diverted tens of millions of dollars from computer upgrades to manpower needs that it deemed more important.
Former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno became so frustrated by the FBI's inertia that she wrote then-Director Louis J. Freeh a highly unusual and strongly worded series of internal memos about the problem. In a May 2000 memo obtained by The Times, titled "Threats to U.S. National Security Interests," Reno told Freeh that it was "imperative that the FBI immediately develop the capacity" to search its files, analyze security threats and be able to share information with other intelligence agencies.
"I think our national security requires that we get started immediately on this effort," Reno told Freeh in a memo foreshadowing the intelligence failures that would be revealed 16 months later by the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Yet not much has changed, and the threat to national security looms even greater. How the FBI reached such a state of technological lethargy is a story of institutional arrogance, misguided priorities, missed warning signs, overmatched technical advisors and a soured relationship with increasingly distrustful benefactors in Congress.
Dating back nearly a decade, officials warned in private communication and in public reports that the bureau was severely hampered by agents' inability to do such basic tasks as thoroughly searching case records and receiving e-mail. The shortcomings have played a part in virtually every high-profile misstep by the FBI in recent years, including missing Oklahoma City bombing documents, the Robert Philip Hanssen spy scandal and the Wen Ho Lee espionage investigation.
Investigations are still largely paper-driven, and many agents use dinosaur-era computers or even write reports longhand in this era of high-speed Pentium processors. The FBI has 42 databases that often run on incompatible software and hardware. Simple searches--allowing an agent in Minneapolis, for instance, to see whether the words "flight training school" show up in case files--are unwieldy, if not impossible.
Experts inside and outside of the FBI say myriad financial, political, technological and cultural factors explain the logjam, among them:
The FBI, unable to pay the top salaries the private sector doled out through the 1990s, lacked the in-house technical expertise to manage complex upgrades. Until the last few years, officials often believed, mistakenly, that their people could do the job themselves without the help of outside experts.
A distrustful Congress, grown weary of huge cost overruns after doling out $1.7 billion on FBI computer projects since 1993, has kept the bureau on a tighter financial leash, refusing to fund new projects until higher standards were met.
And, perhaps most critical, the bureau experienced cultural resistance to letting machines take the place of solid, old-fashioned police work, an attitude shared by many top officials and street agents alike.
As one veteran agent said, the FBI has been dominated by an old-school attitude that "real men don't type. The only thing a real agent needs is a notebook, a pen and gun, and with those three things you can conquer the world. That was the mind-set for a long time, and the computer revolution just passed us by because of it."
Sept. 11 Attacks Provideda 'Sense of Urgency'
The FBI itself realized as early as 1996 that a newly installed case-file system had glaring holes. It sent in a special "red team" of experts and agents to analyze the problems, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the review. Six years later, the case system, with many of the same holes, has not yet been replaced.
FBI officials acknowledge that the Sept. 11 attacks forced them to rethink their priorities in rebuilding their information system. "There was always the recognition that we needed to do this. The sense of urgency is what's different now," said Mark Tanner, the FBI's deputy chief information officer.
Mueller's overhaul plans--built around "paperless" files and artificial intelligence to "predict" terrorist activity--call for a full-speed sprint. But first, "we've got to get walking," Robert J. Chiaradio, one of the FBI's top systems gurus, admitted in a recent interview before leaving for the private sector. "You cannot [use technology to fight terrorism] unless you've got the foundation. So we're building this foundation."
The stakes are enormous. Many believe the FBI's success or failure, after more than a decade of fits and starts, will be a pivotal factor in deciding the outcome of the war on terrorism.
"I do not think the FBI can manage its responsibilities in the intelligence arena and the law enforcement arena, where national security's involved, without being sure that its technology is successfully upgraded to perform its mission," said William H. Webster, a former director of the FBI and CIA who is widely respected in Washington.
CIA officials have indicated in recent closed-door testimony that they are reluctant to share some sensitive information with the FBI because of concerns about safeguarding the data, according to a congressional source.
And FBI agents in the New York field office have simply refused to put some national security information into the system for fear it could be compromised, according to a review in March by the Webster Commission, appointed by the Justice Department to look into security issues. The concerns were driven home several years ago when an FBI college intern, given ordinary access to the system to test its vulnerabilities, penetrated restricted files in a single afternoon.
In recent weeks, scrutiny of the FBI's dilapidated system has set off a gut-wrenching exercise in "what if" scenarios: What if the FBI had a nimble, secure, well-integrated system in place before Sept. 11?
Could agents in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Oklahoma City, each harboring suspicions about Middle Eastern flight students, have pooled their resources to detect a pattern? Would the FBI, working more quickly with the CIA, have found two of the 19 hijackers-in-training who were living quietly in San Diego after showing up on a watch list? Would FBI analysts have been able to decipher a spike in terrorism intelligence "chatter" to predict an attack?
"It just makes my jaw drop to think that on 9/11 ... the kind of technology that is available to most schoolkids, and certainly every small business in this country, wasn't available to the FBI," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has pressed the FBI for years on the issue, told Mueller at a recent hearing.
Unless the FBI overhauls its system--and does it even more quickly than Mueller's three-year timetable--the nation risks "another horrible attack," Schumer warned.
Computers Were Not a Priority for Ex-Director
Mueller admitted he was shocked to find the bureau's system in such disarray when he took over last year, a week before Sept. 11. "We are way behind the curve," Mueller told lawmakers.
With millions of pieces of information collected by FBI investigators but no good way to sort it all out, officials admit that "we don't know what we know."
Many blame former Director Freeh for fostering an anti-computer attitude during his tenure from 1993 through last year.
Freeh, a dogged investigator who rose from the ranks of FBI agents and took an active role in top-priority probes as director, eschewed the use of computers himself. "I never saw him use one," said Robert "Bear" Bryant, his top deputy.
To Freeh's credit, the FBI's ranks grew significantly under his leadership, as he gave the bureau a much-expanded international presence. But his perceived lack of interest in the FBI's computer woes became a growing source of frustration for Reno, according to officials familiar with their discussions.
"She was always pushing them to do more in that area and, sadly, she was right," said a former high-ranking official at the Justice Department under Reno, who asked not to be identified. "The results just weren't there."
Jamie Gorelick, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department in the mid-1990s, said in an interview: "Director Freeh's priorities were putting agents on the ground and building the [FBI's overseas] operations. He was simply less interested in, frankly, what was the more boring work, of infrastructure development."
Reno became particularly incensed in 1997 when the FBI began investigating allegations that the Chinese government had tried to illegally buy influence in U.S. elections, several former aides said. Congress wanted relevant documents on the issue from the Justice Department for its own investigation, but the FBI repeatedly missed records from its own files, aides said. At one point, CIA Director George J. Tenet told an embarrassed Reno that his agency had found a relevant FBI document in its own files and was turning it over to Congress. The FBI apparently didn't even know of the document's existence, aides to Reno said.
Freeh declined requests for an interview. Bryant and several other former aides said that Freeh, contrary to his critics' perceptions, did understand the importance of upgrading the FBI's computer capabilities.
But, according to a former aide who supports Freeh, "it would never be a top priority. He didn't care about it enough to devote his own time to it" because he was so often immersed in major investigations.
Money Intended for Technology Was Diverted
Publicly, Freeh spoke of the need to ramp up FBI technology. But privately, law enforcement sources disclosed, he allowed the FBI to raid its computer budget repeatedly, taking money intended by Congress for systems and infrastructure upgrades and using it instead to fund shortfalls in staffing and international offices.
The diverted money, much of it designated for vital computer upgrades, totaled $60 million in 2000, with millions more in other years, according to a former senior official at the Justice Department.
Members of Congress referred to the practice as "hollow" budgeting because it allowed the FBI to artificially inflate its manpower budget. Tensions became so great that the Bush administration, under pressure from Congress, last fiscal year quietly cut the maximum number of authorized agent positions by more than 400 to prevent the bureau from diverting more computer money, officials said.
"Louis Freeh wanted more cops on the beat, and he was robbing from the equipment side to pay for people," said Rob Nabors, an FBI budget specialist with the Republican staff of the House Appropriations Committee. "We saw it as an end run around the appropriations process. Legally, he didn't do anything wrong, but he was clearly violating the will of the appropriations committees."
FBI officials denied that they improperly diverted any money, but they declined to discuss the issue in detail or provide a breakdown of how computer money has been spent.
By the late 1990s, members of Congress were fed up with the money pit that the FBI's computer overhaul had become. The agency had suffered two black eyes in the development of its fingerprinting and criminal background check systems, which came in years behind schedule and $300 million over budget, according to Justice Department figures.
"It was just unconscionable," according to the former senior official.
With in-house people running the programs, the official said, "the bureau suffered from the mentality that an FBI agent can do anything .... This was the great myth. The FBI has always presented itself as the RoboCop of law enforcement, but when it came to technology, it was always last or next to last." Even in a federal law enforcement bureaucracy notorious for being slow to implement changes, "it was in a race for the bottom with the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service]," the official said.
Part of the problem, officials said, is that systems jobs were, until recently, not seen as plum assignments. The bureau often relied on agents with limited technical backgrounds who were at or near the bottom of the career ladder.
"The FBI agents want to do cases. [Top officials] have not traditionally paid much attention to getting the best people in these jobs," said Harvard University management professor Steven Kelman, who oversaw federal procurement in the Clinton administration.
Frustrated, Congress placed tight restrictions on FBI computer funds in the late 1990s and demanded unprecedented scrutiny of how the money would be spent. With Congress reluctant to give the green light, the FBI shelved two plans for replacing its problem-riddled case system, which was only a few years old.
After the string of failures, "there was some skepticism [in Congress] as to whether we could actually deliver a major project," the FBI's Tanner acknowledged.
Retired IBM Executive Changed the Culture
A sea change came in 2000, when Freeh brought on retired IBM executive Bob Dies to oversee technical operations. Dies is credited with restoring the FBI's battered credibility in Congress and freeing up tens of millions of dollars for new automation systems before leaving the bureau this spring.
"Bob Dies was really the beginning of an evolution in terms of bringing substantial numbers of people in from the private sector," said Assistant FBI Director John Collingwood.
But the scars from years of neglect remain, much to the frustration of agents who believe their warnings have fallen largely on deaf ears.
One FBI agent complained that he didn't have access to office e-mail to communicate with the parents of a kidnapping victim, so he resorted to using his personal e-mail account.
Another agent said he recently couldn't get access to PowerPoint software to give an important presentation on weapons of mass destruction, so he had to bootleg the software.
And still another agent said that after the FBI finally gave him a new laptop, he couldn't get requisition authority for a battery to operate it.
Nancy Savage, president of the FBI Agents Assn., said agents often waste hours trying to resolve technical glitches.
"This is a problem we've been screaming about for years," she said.
"You're not getting your bang for your buck when you're paying agents to deal with faulty automation instead of putting people in jail."
Savage's predecessor, Agent John Sennett, also hammered that theme repeatedly in internal communications, warning in a 1999 bulletin that the FBI "is stuck in the slow lane."
But the response was minimal, and the results were often disastrous.
In 1999, for instance, when Angel Maturino Resendiz was caught sneaking across the New Mexico border, U.S. Border Patrol agents sent him back to Mexico--even though the FBI had a warrant out for his arrest in connection with three slayings in Texas and Kentucky.
The so-called railway killer went on to kill four more people in the United States in a cross-country railroad trek of murder and rape before his surrender.
Although the INS bore the brunt of the criticism for allowing Maturino Resendiz to get away, a March 2000 report by the Justice Department inspector general concluded that the failure of the FBI and the INS to integrate their fingerprinting systems was a critical problem in the deadly chain of events. The two systems are still not fully integrated.
Less than a year later, computer troubles haunted the FBI again with the arrest of longtime agent Hanssen, who had given the Russians reams of secrets on his way to becoming one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history.
It turned out that Hanssen, an adept computer user, had routinely plugged his own name and spy terms such as "dead drop" into the FBI's computer system to determine whether the FBI was onto him.
The FBI lacked basic computer-auditing safeguards that might have caught such suspicious activity, helping Hanssen's espionage go undetected for 22 years.
And in the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI's inability to find more than 4,000 pages of documents and properly turn them over to Timothy J. McVeigh's attorneys forced a delay in McVeigh's execution last year.
Many victims' families, who had been hoping for a sense of finality, waited in anguish for nearly a month before the execution was allowed to proceed.
Again, the FBI promised reforms. But for all the major lapses the FBI has suffered in its computer systems, critics say it shouldn't have taken a crisis of the magnitude of Sept. 11 to light a fire under the bureau.
"It defies logic to think that an agency with the world at its feet has let things deteriorate to this point," said Nabors of the House Appropriations Committee.
"There was a train wreck coming, and they should have seen it coming from a mile away."
Trivia: SPAM and the Internet
http://www.spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm
More factoids at the home page:
http://www.spam.com
"and now, turkey SPAM, with only 4 grams of fat"
Enjoy,
AK
Hi Matt, gee, as long as Bob is going to have seconds showing on the time clock, looks like you are off by 3 seconds. Check this site:
http://www.time.gov/
Actually, you could be dead on, and there could be latency to and from my time zone. It's a good link to have, though not necessary for setting your Movado watch.
AK
See #msg-434894. The carat showed properly in Preview. AK
Missing right carat. This has been going on for a while, and even if corrected in preview, problem still happens. See #msg-420578 <g AK [The "quick fix" is to use (g).]