Cyber Attack, Google and the Georgian War

In the new web 2.0 era, preparation for physical warfare is preceded by cyberattattacks and by cyberdefence.

Here is the Georgian’s war cyberdefence ‘provided’ by Google, (from InformationAge)

…”Yesterday, it emerged that the company had removed details of all roads, towns and cities in Georgia from its Google Maps online mapping service, as well as from the maps of neighbouring countries Azerbaijan and Armenia. According to the Azerbaijan Press Agency, the relevant maps went blank as soon as fighting broke out. However, satellite information was still available earlier today.

Several observers highlighted the fact that Google co-founder Sergey Brin is Moscow-born.

Meanwhile, Google is involuntarily providing cyber-refuge to Georgian web sites that have been disrupted by Russian hackers. Georgian news site Civil.ge  (now restored) relocated to a domain on Google’s Blogger blogging infrastructure after a cyber-attack, reportedly originating in Russia, took the web site down.

Even Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is using the Blogger infrastructure to disseminate information:see here “…… For the full article see here. For the map see here.

As for the Cyberattacks, the NYT published yesterday (August 12, 2008) that …

….”Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.”…

An image from the Web site of the Georgian Parliament after it had been defaced showing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili together with leaders of the Nazi regime

   

Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.”

Other Internet experts in the United States said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests — known as distributed denial of service, or D.D.O.S., attacks — that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers.

Researchers at Shadowserver, a volunteer group that tracks malicious network activity, reported that the Web site of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been rendered inoperable for 24 hours by multiple D.D.O.S. attacks. They said the command and control server that directed the attack was based in the United States and had come online several weeks before it began the assault.

As it turns out, the July attack may have been a dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Georgia. According to Internet technical experts, it was the first time a known cyberattack had coincided with a shooting war. See here the full article.

So, perhaps the Holy Grail of anticipating an imminent war, is to monitor unusual Internet activity  on the globe, before there is any real troops displacement

Georgia war 2008

Russian soldiers on top of an APC pass by a burning house on the way to Tskhinvali, capital of Georgian

The Talkback Syndrome and the Jerusalem Bulldozer Attack

 After the bulldozer terrorists attack in Jerusalem on Thursday July 22, I published  on NowPublic.com an article named  “The Jerusalem syndrome :bulldozer runs wild in Jerusalem”.

The article was pure news not yet colored by personal opinion, and was immediately followed by updates from witnesses who almost get wounded or killed or where under heavy stress due to the murderous event they eye witnessed.

 The point for republishing here hot news from 4 days ago is what I call te biased talkback syndrome of some commentators.  No matter what you are writing about, those armchair commentators live in a world without causes, they sniff only effects and  instill their so ‘called impartial  views’ for the Palestinian side.

I would almost say that they don’t need the news any  blank page of news will do the job,for the full article and his 36 comments see here: NowPublic

 

Here is an excerpt from the original article . After the article come the relevant comments, with poor or no relevance to the news.They are in bold  letters. My own replies are in italic.

.

 Source: ynetnews.com

 The police on Tuesday morning reported of shots heard on Jerusalem’s King David Street after a bulldozer began running wild in the area.The police reported that the terrorist was shot dead and two people were injured.At around 2 pm, eyewitnesses reported seeing a bulldozer driver running wild in the city and overturning cars. Large rescue forces were dispatched to the area.

Dina, who works near the scene of the incident, told Ynet, “There are a lot of ambulances and police cars here. We heard three or four shots fired at the bulldozer driver.

At the beginning of the month, three people were murdered when an east Jerusalem terrorist travelling on a bulldozer, crashed into cars and buses in central Jerusalem.

Arik Blum, the manager of a nearby restaurant, added, “He overturned two vehicles. This bulldozer was smaller than the one used to carry out the attack at the beginning of the month. The bulldozer’s window is full of bullets.”

Source: ynetnews.com

 

 Here are the relevant comments and replies:

   Heritage at 09:37 on July 22nd, 2008

“Every industrial tool has become possible instrument of terrorism.” This statement rings very true.

 The D9 is the IDF’s main tool to destroy civilian homes. Israeli soldiers often give Palestinians no warning before they crash the massive vehicle through the walls of their homes. The rear blade, known as “the ripper,” tears up roads, pulling up water and sewage pipes. At least three Palestinians have been killed in recent years by the bulldozer and falling debris because they could not flee their homes in time.

Human rights organizations have documented the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) systematic use of the D9 bulldozer in illegal demolitions throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The IDF has demolished over 2,500 Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip alone, most of them without military justification. Nearly two-thirds of those homes were in Rafah, a town and refugee camp on the southern border with Egypt. The Israeli military has used the Caterpillar bulldozer to raze over 10 percent of the town, and plans to demolish up to 20 percent more in connection with the government’s Gaza “disengagement” plan.

Source: hrw.org

  korzac at 15:00 on July 22nd, 2008

 Your source is hrw.org headed by Kenneth Roth.

Look at “Ken Roth’s blood libel” published in the ‘Jerusalem Post’. Here are the opening lines …”A Malaysian newspaper recently published an article headlined “Israel deliberately targeting civilians, says Human Rights Watch.”     Turkish newspapers ran similar items, repeating HRW’s statements that “Israel intentionally bombs civilians.” During the Lebanon War HRW’s press releases, opeds and interviews with officials were cited in hundreds of newspapers around the world, providing seeming legitimacy from a “neutral source” to the violent anti-Israel protests and calls for revenge.      For HRW and executive director Kenneth Roth, Israel is a highly emotional focus, and their reports are often biased and unreliable.”…see more.

This was writen in 2006 at the time of the second Lebanon war. I suppose that hrw.org headed by Kenneth Roth, since then, has not changed his mind…So why should I believe that your today ‘emotional and biased’ source is better than the Israeli source, Professor Gerald Steinberg  the Political Studies Department Chair at Bar Ilan University, who write the ” “Ken Roth’s blood libel” article. His credentials are excellent..see here.

BTW, why don’t you observe what president Abbas said “and we condemn any attack against civilians from both sides [of the Israeli-Arab conflict],” . Or what Barak Obama said “The Democratic senator also said that his “thoughts and prayers go out to all who were injured, and to their families”, .

This is a war Heritage, with victims on both sides…

And a final word, if you want to know better the Arab side of human rights violation not only the ‘Israeli side’, visit ‘Emnisty International”….see here.

  Heritage at 07:24 on July 24th, 2008

Why is a bulldozer a legitimate weapon for Israel and not the Palestinians?

Hi Korzac,

HRW is about as credible as they come. I understand that inside Israel they are dismissed as ‘emotional and biased’. But your post and these comments are not about HRW, they are about bulldozers used as weapons against civilians.

Why is a bulldozer a legitimate weapon for Israel and not the Palestinians?

If the men in the Jerusalem bulldozer attacks are terrorists, what are the IDF forces and contractors who use them on a daily basis against civilians?

Thanks for the Amnesty International links, I’ve read many of their reports. HRW also has many reports about Palestinian human rights violations. You should check them out, perhaps you may find out why they are so respected in the rest of the world.

 From Amnesty Inernational’s website:

  korzac at 11:39 on July 24th, 2008

 Hi heritage ,

Always good to see your comments about good causes but for the wrong points.

Here is a short story about bulldozers. Many years ago, when the Golan Heigth was Syrian, I worked with a bulldozer near the border, in plain Israeli territory, and was almost killed by Syrian snipers.. So we welded a few iron plate on the bulldozer, and see how nice, it becomes a defence bulldozer to save my life….

Well what you call a weapon is indeed a weapon in the hands of Muslim terrorist in Jerusalem. In the Israeli hands, among other tasks, if a bulldozer is needed it is for defence not for killing people…as in my case.

And see what Barack Obama has to say about defence:

“Israel should not negotiate with Hamas so long as the Islamist group poses a threat to Israeli citizens, US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Wednesday during his visit to the town of Sderot.

Obama said that if someone were firing on his home, where his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything to stop the attacks – and that this is how he expects Israel to act as well.

 During his brief visit to Sderot Obama also noted the terror attack in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Hezbollah attacks and the Iranian nuclear program, saying that all of these were genuine threats Israel faces alongside the Qassam rockets from Gaza. “

And for your …”Perhaps you may find out why thy are so respected in the rest of the world”.. So if Obama understand the Israeli situation is he not respected by the rest of the world, he the new messiah. And the Arab countries do they respect the Palestinians” for example Egypt with the blockade on her side of the Gaza Strip or Saudi with her petro-dollars is she respecting the Palestinians, and so on.

“The rest of the world’ is a slippery phrase. Are you entitled to speak for the rest of the world..I think that  your “rest of the world”, in the western world, is a minority and nothing more, it is a modern arena where some armchair gladiators fights  their ‘Israeli visions’, well as said in Arabic ‘Mabrouk’.

BTW. I am glad that you did discover Amnesty.org . Bring us some news from the Hamas, Palestinian human rigths violations. 

A few concluding words. In general no matter what your arguments are, they are dismissed as irrelevant, mutilated and thrown away.  

Sarkozy’s 2008 New Mediterranean Future

 The Mediterranean 43 nations gathering under the auspices of President Sarkozy, is a well staged show.

 Speaking from my own Israeli view, I dond’t feel a great enthusiasm when seeing the  receptions at the Champ Elysee. The pictures are well know pictures of politicians accolades and handshaking with in the background, limousines, french soldiers in fancy uniforms and security men. Something like the G8.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Bastille Day 2008

Sarkozy is trying to make his ‘grand coup’ especially with the Maghreb countries to minimise their emigration to France. As for Syria and Lebanon, old french protectorates and today in some way francophone countries, his involvement is perhaps useful but the main Israeli talks channel with Syria are via the Turkish mediators. Bashar Assad is one of the winner of this gathering, appearing together with all the other Arab countries, after a long period of isolation. But the Egyptian president Mubarak didn’t even give a look at Assad and some time later they are seen together, in a TV shot with president Sarkozy… And Syria’s Bashar Assad, two meter away from Israeli PM Olmert refuse to see PM Olmert. Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi didn’t like the whole idea and stayed home. This is a shortcut to the ‘sociology’ of this gathering.

Syrian President Bashar Assad refuse to ‘see’ Israeli PM Ehud Olmert.

In Israel we know what is the real ‘cash value’ of talks, ceasefire and signed treaties in the Middle East. With the Hamas there is a ceasefire broken every day. With Syria there are talks, but via Syria there is the gigantic rearmament of the Hezbollah. With the Hezbollah there is the prisoners swap this week, but the Israeli press predict that after the swap Hezbollah is ready to attack: according to their accounting they owe Israel a revenge for Mugniyah’s dead. 

The call of President Sarkozy for a free nuclear middle east (Mediterranean is not possible: France has nuclear weapons,,) is at most not serious. The principal addressee is Iran and is not a part of the Mediterranean but her missiles and their firing range grant her a threatening participating ticket on the presidency stage.

 So, the President Sarkozy’s show is a french romance a la Enrico Macias , the warm-up band, until the real world star and his band,  McCain or Obama will begin their world tour show.

And after all this, I hope that deeds, not words and gala banquets, will be the output of this gathering.

PA Mahaboud Abbas, French President Sarkozy and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, Bastille day 2008.

Albert Einstein and the new Berlin-Brandenbourg International Airport

“Yedioth Ahronot”. published yesterday (6.24.08) on his Hebrew printed edition: “Berlin considering to name it’s new international airport ‘Albert Einstein’ “.To be more precise Der Spiegel  already hinted on October 18, 2007 to additional names  Dietrich, Willy Brandt or von Stauffenberg? see here.

Construction of the new Airport Berlin Brandenburg International, see here, has started at Schönefeld and the new airport is scheduled for opening in 2011. It will be one on the bigest airport in Europe, and  his greatness and vastness demands  the name of an illustrious great men of fame, and Albert Einstein is a perfect candidate.

Photos source.

Well at a first glance, this is indeed a great honor for the Jewish people, to propose the name of Albert Einstein for the new Airport Berlin Brandenburg International, (what today is called the Schönefeld airport) ; in good accordance with the German restitution policy  funded by millions of euros given to the holocaust survivors and  other more discrete help for Israel’s security.
 
But I feel some uneasiness about this possible nomination. Because this is more a German issue than a Jewish or Israeli issue. Einstein lived in Berlin, and in 1933 was at his apogee as a scientists and as an international celebrity. I quote, …” Einstein was elected to the Prussian Academy of Science in Berlin in 1913. When he accepted the professorship of physics at the University of Berlin in 1914, he once more assumed German citizenship. The same year, he became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in Berlin. He occupied both positions until 1933.”…
 
 And then  began the great debacle, I quote , …”After the rise of NAZI in Germany, Einstein left for USA. Einstein and relatives left Europe for the United States, on December 9, 1930. In 1933, the Nazi government took his property and deprived him of his positions and citizenship.”…see here.

 
It is only natural that in actual Germany, Albert Einstein’s destitution under the Nirenberg decrees, the calling of the ‘The General Theory of Relativity’ and his seminal contribution to the birth of quantum mechanics  ‘Jewish Physics‘, finally leading to his escape from Germany’s Third Reich in 1930, is considered as an unbearable shame.  
 
The Times, in 2000, nominated Einstein as the ‘Person of the Century’: he was the person whose vision reshaped the view of the universe. The Times only ratified a latent choice of a vast majority of people.

All this to say: Berlin is eager to restitute to Albert Einstein his citizenship and property in the form of a grandiose entrance gate  “Albert Einstein (Berliner) International Airport”. But can you bargain such a deal for the  name of the new Berliner  airport?   Is it not better to remember him as Albert Einstein who opened the gates of our cosmos, not the gates of an airport.

G.ho.st between Ramallah and Modiin

The Israeli-Gaza truce is a sort of ‘cooperation’ between enemies. But here, for a change, is a story of a cooperation between friends. Palestinians from Ramallah and Israelis from the town of Modiin works as partners in a start up company named  G.ho.st. ,(Global Hosted Operating System).

The interesting points in this story is, that when Israelis and Palestinian put away the fumes of mistrust and fear, and create a reasonable environment of normality and flowing reciprocal good feelings, then the sky is the limit. Many will objects that the  West  Bank is not the best place to travel and to hold meetings between the 40 members of the Israeli-Arabic team ..But  Zvi Schreiber , G.ho.st.’s British-born Israeli chief executive , who initially joined with Tareq Maayah, a Palestinian businessman, to start the Ramallah office in parallel to the Modiin office in Israel, found together the solutions to ‘abolish’ the wall by a virtual connection between their respective offices.

• I quote,…”[Instead,] they trade ideas across flat screen monitors, their images broadcast through a video conference hook-up that connects their two offices, one in the West Bank, the other in Israel, in the first joint technology venture of its kind between Israelis and Palestinians.”..
• …”No walls,” said Rami Abdulhadi, the company’s marketing director, a Palestinian, cheerfully quoting the company’s motto, noting their product “goes through the walls of the separation wall and the desktop that is on-line.”…
• ….”The Palestinian office, located here and staffed by about 35 software developers, is responsible for most of the research and development. A smaller Israeli team works about 21 kilometers, or 13 miles, away in the central Israeli town of Modiin. The stretch of road between the offices is separated by checkpoints, watch towers and a barrier made mostly of chain link fence and in some areas soaring concrete walls, built by Israel with the stated goal of preventing the entry of Palestinian suicide bombers.”…
• ….”It’s the first time I met Palestinians of my generation face-to-face,” Rothman said of her work with G.ho.st. “It shows how on the people-to-people level you can really get things done.” The company’s budget is a relatively paltry $2.5 million. Employing Palestinians means money goes farther; salaries for Palestinian programmers are about a third of what they are in Israel.”…
• …” ‘We are one team, employed by the same company and everyone has shares in the company’ he said.”…
• ” ‘We are doing something across cultures and across two sides of a tough conflict. I was prepared for the possibility that it might be difficult, but it hasn’t been,’ Schreiber said.”…. see here for the full article.

Zvi Schreiber.

Tareq Maayah.

Purposely I didn’t mention the details of G.ho.st, a web-based virtual computer so that users can access their desktop, files and documents from any computer with an Internet connection…. etcetera. The details are on their site here. The rarity of their achievement is that, in a time of dangerous cultural and political unrest, Israelis and Palestinians can work together on topnotch hi-tec projects.

.

And what after the Gaza Truce?

Until yesterday, it seems that before truce will begin, Hamas tries to show that he will have the last word. Yesterday morning IDF prevented a terror attack by the Army of Islam (an al Qaeda affiliate). In the evening ( 06.17.08, 21:25), 7 qassams where fired on Sderot, see here.

And today..:.”Despite the formal announcements from Jerusalem, Gaza and Cairo announcing the ceasefire agreement will go into effect at 6:00 am on Thursday, it was the routine of incessant attacks Israel’s South awoke to on Wednesday.

With less than 24 hours to go, Palestinian terror groups opened fire at Israelis on the border and launched Qassam rockets towards the western Negev”…, see here,

I, as most people in Israel, consider the proposed 6 months truce as an interlude serving the specific interest of both sides, and afterward, if the truce will last, the Hamas will find his way to embark on a new round of belligerence.

The Israeli press confirm, from his own sources, what most of us think:

..”Less than 24 hours before going into effect, officials say truce expected to be ‘short-lived and fragile.’ Olmert’s office says issue of Gilad Shalit part of understandings. ‘We want to make the most of any opportunity to bring peace and quiet to residents of the South, but no one here is cracking open the champagne and declaring Hamas has beaten its swords into plowshares, see here.

And Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar confirm it with his own words:

..”Speaking after another Hamas official outlined details of the truce at a news conference in Gaza City, Zahar said Hamas would not put down its weapons, because he did not believe Israel would implement the cease-fire. “We don’t trust them, but let’s see,” he said, see here.

A major cause of the Israeli disbelief derive from terrorist fractions as the al-Qiadia affiliate receiving directives from outside The Gaza Strip.

..”Despite the imminent truce, security officials said there was concern that other Palestinian terror factions such as Islamic Jihad or the Army of Islam would try to sabotage the deal by perpetrating a major attack that would force Israel to respond.” see here.

The feeling that the truce is only is only a preparatory act in the future great drama is best expressed by Vice Premier Ramon:

“I oppose the lull, because it’s another victory for radical Islam,” Ramon said. “It won in Lebanon and now it will be winning in Gaza. So why be moderate? After all, why is Hamas seeking an agreement? Because this will be its chance to represent Gaza as Hamastan state.”, see here.

Well what can be anticipated? Al the local actors take their respective place on the stage. Hamas exploit the truce for consolidating his rockets armament to threaten the whole Negev. Hezbollah restoring his grip on south Lebanon under the nose of the UN forces, and rearmed with a formidable arsenal of rockets to threaten north Israel. Syria in peace talks standby. Nuclear Iran, their acknowledged sponsor, funding and arming them, with in her sleeve the belligerent Ahmadinejad.

And Israel, I quote ..”We are giving a chance to the cease-fire, but we are preparing for action,” IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said during a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.” see here.