SECTION II - CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE

RED ALERT -- The Department of Homeland Security defines RED ALERT as a severe risk of terrorist attack and the highest level of anti-terrorist preparedness posture. According to Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director of the office of counter-terrorism, if the nation escalates to RED ALERT, it means that YOU can be suspected by authorities to be the enemy if you venture outside your home. The former FBI agent said that RED ALERT would shut the state down. "Red means all non-critical functions cease. Non-critical would be almost all businesses, except those that are health-related. The government agencies would run at a very low threshold. The state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways. You literally are staying home, is what happens, unless you are required to be out."

Terrorism's principal weapon is fear. Our authorities frequently go overboard on incidents - one unarmed tobacco farmer on a tractor (representing a message of Government duplicity in tobacco policies - subsidies on the one hand and prosecution on the other), paralyzed traffic in downtown Washington DC for two days this past week. We may anticipate authorities going over the top on Red Alert. The authorities and the media feed on fear, and also stimulate it, as has been done in previous wars. For individual citizens the bottom line simply is that one must be prepared to deal with it, both terrorist threats and federal, state and local over-the-top reactions. Do not dismiss those admonitions of stocking the house with a few days worth of supplies. (Jonkers)(Gannett State bureau, Trenton, South Jersey News, 16 March 03 //T. Baldwin) http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/march/m031603e.htm

TOP IRAQI DEFECTOR DISAPPEARS -- The highest-level officer to defect from Saddam Hussein.s army disappeared from his home in Denmark on Monday under mysterious circumstances. General Nizar al-Khazraji, Saddam.s former head of Iraq.s armed forces (1987 to 1990), has been fighting charges of war crimes in a Danish special court, which was investigating the general.s role in Saddam.s efforts to establish government control over Iraq.s Kurds in the 1980s. He therefore was under special Danish police supervision. Khazraji earlier said that he was being targeted by Iraqi security agents. He blamed Saddam.s agents for smearing his name and fabricating information used in the Danish prosecutor.s investigation. In 1995, Khazraji, having fallen out of favor with Saddam, fled to northern Iraq and then Jordan. He survived assassination attempts . blamed on Iraqi intelligence working on Saddam.s orders . in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and later in Spain. In 1999, he sought political asylum in Denmark. Khazraji has spoken bitterly about his own failed attempts to overthrow Saddam in the 1990s, which he blamed on botched CIA support for the Iraqi opposition. It may be a minor footnote, but my guess is we'll see General Khazraji again soon in the top echelons in the new Iraq. (Jonkers) (MSNBC 17 March 03 //P. Mendenhall) http://www.msnbc.com/news/886388.asp?cp1=1

MILITARY RESTRICTS E-MAIL FROM TROOPS -- Concerned that sensitive information might leak out, some units of the United States military are starting to clamp down on e-mail communication from their soldiers and sailors, who have been using it from ships, major bases and even desert outposts around Iraq to stay in touch with family and friends, a terrific morale booster.

       E-mail and Internet communications raise several potential problems: It is voluminous and thus hard to monitor; it can convey not only words but images; and it is immediate, meaning that an enemy could conceivably tap into real-time updates of, say, troop movements, the presence of a general officer, or a military outpost's perimeter defenses. The Air Force warned last week that it might limit or start blocking electronic messages because some people had sent home sensitive information, including digital images that might have compromised unit safety. The navy has said that on submarines, it is monitoring all e-mail traffic. And the army, while generally maintaining open access to e-mail, is restricting some Internet connections from certain bases.

      Although the issue is valid, it appears that in the current instance one does not particularly need to be concerned that Iraqi forces would devote much attention to trying to hack into e-mail communications from U.S. troops. For the future, Defense Department policy needs to address the issue in more detail. (Jonkers) The International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com (NYT 12 Mar 03 //M. Richter)

UBIQUITOUS PUBLIC SURVEILLANCE -- Telephone bugs were discovered in offices used by French, German, and other delegates, in a building in Brussels designated to host a prospective European Union leaders' summit. Said Dominique-Georges Marro, head of the EU Council press service, "I can confirm that in the course of regular inspections, interception devices have been found .... which do not only affect France and Germany & I don't know who was on the other end of the line."

      Whodunit? Who is bugging the EU? The old game is obviously alive and well. It reminds one of the story of a restaurant/bar in London, a well known place for "spies" to meet and relax. When the restaurant suddenly went out of business a plethora of British, US and Soviet mikes were found in chairs and tables. Those were the good old days, obviously still practiced by all. For the future the indications are more ominous. For example, in streets, offices and shops within cities such as London and Washington, video/audio surveillance is rapidly growing and almost ubiquitous. The world is getting more and more transparent. Technology in general, and public surveillance technology in particular, is irrevocably changing our environment, and probably our values. (Jonkers) (CNN - March 19) http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/19/eu.bugs/