Sponsoer by :

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty (AP) : Technet

Sponsored

Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty (AP) : Technet

Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty (AP)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 08:48 PM PST

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Frances D'emilio, Associated Press – 23 mins ago

VATICAN CITY – Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.

That the Holy See used its diplomatic-immunity status as a tiny city-state to try to thwart the Irish fact-finding probe has long been known. But the WikiLeaks cables, published by Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, contain delicate, behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situation.

The Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables Saturday, but decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme seriousness."

The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See also condemned the leaks and said the Vatican and America cooperate in promoting universal values.

One leaked document published Saturday, authored in February 2010 by Rome-based diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes, cited her conversations with Irish Ambassador Noel Fahey and his deputy, Helena Keleher, about the diplomatic bind Ireland found itself in.

Ireland wanted to be seen as fully supportive of the independent probe into child-abuse cover-ups in the Dublin Archdiocese, but its Rome officials also didn't want to intervene in the probe's efforts to get information from the Vatican, Noyes' report said.

Noyes reported that Irish diplomats in Rome decided not to press Vatican officials to respond to questions from the panel, which was led by an Irish judge and operated independently of Ireland's government. It sent letters to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland seeking information on Vatican officials' knowledge of cover-ups, but got no replies.

Noyes, citing a conversation with a Holy See official, wrote that the investigators' letters "offended many in the Vatican" because they were viewed as "an affront to Vatican sovereignty."

The diplomat wrote that "adding insult to injury, Vatican officials also believed some Irish opposition politicians were making political hay with the situation by publicly calling on the government to demand that the Vatican reply."

"In the end the Irish government decided not to press the Vatican to reply," the U.S. diplomat wrote, citing Keleher.

Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, the Dublin Archdiocese and the Vatican's ambassador in Rome, Giuseppe Leanza, also declined to comment.

But one of Ireland's most prominent campaigners against the Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse, Andrew Madden, said the leaked document offered more evidence that the Vatican was concerned only about protecting itself, not about admitting the truth.

"The only issue for the Vatican has been the supposed 'failure' of the Irish government to protect the Vatican from intrusive questions. Self-interest ruled the day when their priests were raping children," said Madden, a former altar boy who was molested by a Dublin priest. In 1995 Madden became the first person in Ireland to go public with a lawsuit against the church, opening the floodgates for hundreds of lawsuits.

The Dublin Archdiocese report, published in November 2009, found that senior church officials had kept detailed files on child-abuse reports involving 170 suspected pedophile priests since 1940 — but all the abuse was covered up until 1995, and many files were kept secret until 2004 when Dublin received a new reform-minded archbishop, Diarmuid Martin.

Saturday's official Vatican press statement said the WikiLeaks cables "reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself." It added that the report's "reliability must, then, be evaluated carefully and with great prudence."

The cables also contain information regarding the Vatican's relations with the Anglican Communion, which includes the Church of England and its affiliates in more than 160 countries.

One cable reports that Britain's ambassador to the Vatican warned that the pope's invitation to disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic church had chilled relations between the two churches and risked inciting a violent backlash against British Catholics.

A November 2009 file from U.S. Embassy at the Vatican quotes British envoy Francis Campbell as saying that "Anglican-Vatican relations were facing their worst crisis in 150 years as a result of the pope's decision."

The Vatican moved last year to make it easier for traditional Anglicans upset over the appointment of female priests and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church, whose teaching holds that homosexual activity is sinful.

The pope invited Anglicans to join new "personal ordinariates," which allow them to continue to use some of their traditional liturgy and be served by married priests.

A cable quotes Campbell as saying the move put the Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, "in an impossible situation." And he worried that the crisis could aggravate "latent anti-Catholicism" in majority-Protestant England.

"The outcome could be discrimination or in isolated cases, even violence, against this minority," the cable said.

____

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Infinity Blade for iPhone/iPad looks incredible, what there is of it (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 10:40 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Sat Dec 11, 1:40 am ET

Want a glimpse at what the future of mobile gaming looks like? Take a gander at Infinity Blade, a just-released game for the iPhone and iPad that looks like it belongs on a console.

Developed by the hardcore, blood-drenched gamers at Epic, which brought you Gears of War for the Xbox 360, Infinity Blade is the first iPhone game I've seen that truly could be mistaken for a console game. Others have come close (take Gameloft's sci-fi shooter N.O.V.A., for example, or Archetype, a fine multiplayer shoot-em-up) but this new swords-and-sorcery role-playing game takes the cake — in the looks department, at least.

With visuals powered by the Unreal 3 gaming engine, Infinity Blade ($6, available as a universal app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) takes place … well, a long time ago in a land far, far away, where an evil king lurks in a dark tower guarded by all manner of brutish guards, cutthroat assassins, and hulking monstrosities — and yes, they're armed to the teeth.

As the hero, your quest is to (single-handedly, of course) storm the castle, eliminate a parade of bloodthirsty creatures along the way, break into the king's chambers, kill his champion, and finally take out the king himself. Your motivation? How's this: He killed your dad. And your dad's dad. And your dad's dad's … well, more about that in a moment.

Unlike many other iPhone action games (including Epic Citadel, an Unreal engine-powered proof-of-concept created by Epic prior to this new title) in which you control your movement using a pair of virtual joysticks (one for movement, the other for looking around), you move about in Infinity Blade by tapping the pulsating circles that appear here and there during the action. Tap a circle, and your character will walk to the designated location: a treasure chest, a doorway, a flight of stairs, or a foul-tempered opponent.

When it's time to pull out your sword and fight, you swing your blade by swiping the screen left, right, up, or down, or you can tap buttons to raise your shield, cast a spell, or activate a "super" battle mode.

The action is fast and furious — split-second timing is required to parry blows from your opponent or conjure a bolt of lightning between attacks. You can also string your swipes into devastating combos, and if you prevail, you can end the combat with a frenzy of finishing moves.

Being the action-oriented role-playing game that it is, Infinity Blade lets you customize your character with dozens of accessories, ranging from swords and armor to magic rings and potions, and as you level up, you can add points to your strength, magic, health, and defense (or "shield") attributes.

All very nice, but the main attraction of Infinity Blade is, as I've already said, how it looks: in a word, awesome. The creatures in the game have been painstakingly rendered, with rich, detailed textures, smooth character movement, and realistic environmental elements, like swaying trees and flags that flap in the wind. Animations that in other iOS titles might normally be handled by Quicktime movies are (handily) rendered here using Infinity Blade's in-game engine. We're talking eye candy galore, particularly on the iPad's 9.7-inch display.

To my mind, Infinity Blade represents the future of mobile gaming — and I mean that literally, because (if you ask me) the current game, as it stands, isn't quite there yet.

One of the joys of the Epic Citadel demo was how you could take your time, wandering from a dark, foreboding monastary to an ivy-covered street with laundry pinned to a clothesline, swaying in the breeze. In Infinity Blade, there is no leisurely wandering; instead, you topple a bad guy, tap your way to the next treasure chest or doorway, and battle again. You could almost say it's on rails, like the recent Rage HD from Id.

And here's the other thing … although I should warn you right now: Spoilers ahead.

Still here? Good.

The conceit of Infinity Blade is that you're avenging your father's death at the hand (or the sword, rather) of the evil God King. From the moment you start the game, it takes about, oh … half an hour or so to battle your way to the God King Himself, and he'll most likely clean your clock the first time you meet him.

After which … the screen fades to black, and you start all over — in another "bloodline," as the game calls it. You have the same abilities and equipment as you did before, although this time through, you're playing as your "son," avenging the death of the father … whom you'd been playing just a few moments before. And if you lose to the king again (you probably will), you — once again — start over, in a new bloodline. Rinse, repeat.

So wait — that's it? You just play the game over and over again until you beat the God King? I haven't finished the game yet, but I checked with reviewers who have, and yes … that's it. Hmmm. (This "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" style of gameplay will be familiar to anyone who played last year's "Demon's Souls" on the PlayStation 3.)

Now, this isn't to say that Infinity Blade isn't worth the mere six bucks that Epic's charging on iTunes. It's a thrilling look at how mobile games of the future will look — and, if you ask me, anyone interested in portable gaming would be doing themselves a disservice by skipping it.

Infinity Blade also happens to be a universal application, meaning it'll work on both the iPhone and the iPad (although owners of older iPhones might see diminished performance) — so no need to buy both regular and "HD" versions of the same game.

Still, the game's limitations are frustrating, although many of those frustrations (like no wandering around using clumsy virtual joysticks) are likely borne out of design decisions intended to keep the game fun on a touchscreen tablet like the iPad.

But what about bringing graphics like these to a turn-based RPG, or a real-time strategy game, where you don't have to worry about fast-twitch accuracy or hard-to-handle joysticks? How about something like Chaos Rings — the addicting fantasy RPG from Square Enix, which is already looking a little dated — or Galaxy on Fire 2 (a satisfying Eve Online clone), powered by the Unreal engine? Count me in.

Anyway, that's my (long-winded) take on Infinity Blade. Buy it, I say — but know what you're in for.

So, tried Infinity Blade yet? Got other suggestions for those of us hunting for eye-popping mobile games? Fire away below.

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

Follow me on Twitter!

6 Great Gloves for Touchscreen Gadget Lovers (Mashable)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 11:37 AM PST

Amy-Mae Elliott Amy-mae Elliott – Sat Dec 11, 2:37 pm ET

Well, the weather outside is frightful (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), so you just might be regretting your choice of a touchscreen-equipped handset as your portable phone. Take your gloves off to send a text? Not in this weather.

As many of you will know, capacitive touchscreen devices (such as the iPhone, iPod touch, Droid, Pre, Storm, etc.) require tiny amounts of charge from your fingertips to operate. Because of this, sticking a great big glove between your finger and the screen kills the conductivity.

Never fear! An entire industry has sprung up to stop you from getting cold hands when using your touchscreen phone outdoors. We've hand-picked (see what we did there?) the best six pairs of gloves for gadget-lovers this winter, so have a look through our choices below and let us know your faves in the comments.

1. Freehands Mens' Gloves

Arguably the market leader in gloves for gadgeteers, Freehands offers a wide range of styles including cashmere, wool, ski styles and these warm-looking recycled, fleecy efforts. Every pair of gloves has a fold-back tip for the thumb and forefinger, and rather cunningly boasts a magnet to stop the tip from flapping around.

Cost: From $18

2. The North Face ETIP Glove

Perfect for those in really cold climates, The North Face's contribution to the gadget-glove marketplace boasts fingertip-replicating "Xstatic fingercaps" so you don't have to expose even the tippy tops of your fingers to the cold. With a gripper palm to ensure you have a firm hold of your favorite gadget, the ETIPs are available in a range of sizes, for men and women.

Cost: $40

3. Dots Gloves

Made from 100% merino lambswool, the Dots Gloves range is small but perfectly formed. Available in men and women's sizes in just four colors, the classic-looking gloves are indistinguishable from "ordinary" gloves. However, they cleverly boast thumb, index, and middle fingertips that operate touchscreens with "skin-like responsiveness."

Cost: $20

4. Etre Touchy Gloves

The funky, unisex Etre Touchy range is all about what isn't there, namely the "missing" thumb and index fingertips, leaving you free to touch away while keeping the bulk of your hands warm. This design is best suited for climates that are "cold," rather than frigid or frostbite-inducing. The range includes some great contemporary colors so it's perfect for anyone who doesn't want to sacrifice style in the name of functionality.

Cost: From around $32

5. Freehands Women's Gloves

Freehands offers an equally diverse women's range of gloves including wool, fleece, softshell, cashmere and these "microfur" options that were the most popular version for women in 2009. Available in a range of colors and sizes, if you're looking for a glove with a flip-back index finger and thumb flap, you're not going to go wrong here.

Cost: From $18

6. AGloves

Although they may not be the most fashionable offering, the affordable, unisex "Agloves" are ideal for anyone with an iPad or other touchscreen tablet, as the silver-coated nylon fibers knitted into the fabric put the conductivity back in your touch for every single digit. Stay cool!

Cost: $17.99

More Gadget Resources from Mashable:

- 10 Unique iPhone Photography Accessories
- 5 Fun iPhone Accessories for Kids
- 5 Fun Products to Personalize Your iPhone
- 10 Fun iPod Speakers for Listening in Style
- 5 Matching iPhone and iPad Cases

Nexus S Aims To Advance Android, Not Fight iPhone (NewsFactor)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 10:47 AM PST

Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com – Sat Dec 11, 1:47 pm ET

For as long as there has been an iPhone there have been phones presented as potential iPhone killers. The Nexus One, manufactured by HTC and released with great fanfare by Google in January, was one of the first in the ring against Apple's champion smartphone. But almost a year later, Google's first branded phone is out of the market with the iPhone stronger than ever.

Now comes the Nexus S, Google's newest contender, from a new manufacturer, Samsung, and running the latest Android 2.3 -- the only current smartphone to use the Gingerbread OS -- and again the iPhone killer talk has begun. "Is The Nexus S iPhone's Nemesis?" asks a headline in The Telegraph of London.

The phone was unveiled last month by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 Summit and will be available in the U.S. from T-Mobile and retail stores beginning Dec. 16, and in the United Kingdom on Dec. 20.

Light, Curved and Fast

A variant of Samsung's Galaxy S devices that are available on all major carriers, the Nexus S's super AMOLED four-inch multi-touch screen is bigger than the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch display. The Nexus S is also slightly lighter, 4.5 ounces compared to 4.8, and has a contoured back designed to fit smoothly in the hand. Both smartphones have front and back cameras, and both use an ARM Cortex A8 processor. Neither has a physical keyboard.

While Android phones collectively have given Apple a run for its money -- Google boasts that 300,000 Android phones are activated daily -- individual devices, however attractive, haven't measured up to the challenge, said Alex Spektor of Strategy Analytics.

"The Nexus S, like the Nexus One, will be a very-low-volume device designed to be more of a tech showcase to push out the latest versions of Android first," said Spektor. "Before you can get the hottest version on a Motorola or HTC phone, you get it on a Nexus phone. It's for early adopters and tech enthusiasts, which are a pretty low-volume segment, so it won't be an iPhone killer in any way."

Buzz Maker

Spektor added that Google's plan with Nexus phones is to help promote the Android brand across the ecosystem and generate buzz. "It also allows developers to get their hands on it early so they can get their applications ready for a mass market," said Spektor.

Android was developed to let phones competing with the iPhone mimic its touchscreen-based interactivity. "What they did was define the next generation of user experience after the iPhone," he said. "The iPhone, in consumers' eyes, was considered a benchmark, and when it came out all the Windows phones, RIM phones, and Symbian phones that were leading in volume started feeling the impact."

But because Apple doesn't license its operating system to other manufacturers, the only choices for competitors were to make their own OS or adopt Google's free software.

"Android gave device vendors the ability to bring a similar usability touch interface to their phones," Spektor said. "To design their own would be too costly and time-consuming."

34 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed (Mashable)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 07:49 AM PST

Zachary Sniderman Zachary Sniderman – Sat Dec 11, 10:49 am ET

Mashable's back with another round up of new social media tools and resources from the past week or so. With all the holiday madness, we understand if you somehow missed one or two of these great posts, so read on for the full list.

Our Social Media section dives into the top viral video ads of 2010, an early screening review of TRON: Legacy, and stats on what the world Googled this past year. Tech & Mobile highlights 10 Chrome web apps worth checking out, tips for backing up your Tumblr blog, and how Operation Payback executes its DDoS attacks. Business rounds out the list with lessons businesses can learn from entrepreneurs, how social media is changing television, and -- most importantly -- how to keep your business running through the holidays.

Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time.

Social Media

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable's social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable's tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable's business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Image courtesy of Webtreats Etc.

NASA Engineer Shows YouTube "Best of the Best" Shuttle Videos (Mashable)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 05:11 AM PST

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Sat Dec 11, 8:11 am ET

Matt Melis, a longtime NASA engineer, has take to the 'Tube to show off what he calls "the best of the best" imagery from shuttle launches, including hi-definition video

Melis has been in the launch analysis game for quite some time. His 45-minute tribute to space shuttle launches is incredibly educational and a fascinating watch for fans of space programs.

You'll get to hear NASA engineers explain every imaginable detail of a shuttle launch as footage from the ground and from the shuttles themselves show what goes into the first phase of a successful space mission. You'll get to see launches for STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions.

In short, if you're really into space stuff, this YouTube video is the director's commentary of your dreams.

"Photographic documentation of a space shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission," Melis writes on the YouTube video page.

"Motion and still images enable shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success... Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the shuttle imaging team and the 30 years of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program."

Melis has been at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, for many years. He was part of the ballistics team that analyzed the Columbia launch accident, for example.

Here's the full video. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Who Will Win in Holiday Mobile Sales? [POLL] (Mashable)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 10:31 AM PST

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Sat Dec 11, 1:31 pm ET

Here at Mashable, we've got quite a few mobile devices of all stripes on our various holiday wishlists and shopping lists, too. And now, we want to know what's on yours.

Whether you're hoping for -- or planning to buy -- a new Droid, a slick Windows Phone 7 device, a handy BlackBerry or a shiny iPhone 4, you're a big part of the fourth-quarter sales and revenue figures for major tech and hardware companies.

And with the iPhone/Android battle for dominance becoming increasingly difficult to call, this year's Q4 numbers are going to be more telling than ever. For the first time since the Android platform's inception, Android devices outsold iPhones in the first half of 2010.

Nor have sales slowed for the seemingly endless parade of new Android devices this year; Google's Android chief Andy Rubin recently tweeted that a whopping 300,000 Android devices are activated every day.

But the blockbuster launch of the iPhone 4 over the summer had fans lining up for hours to get their hands on Apple's iconic device. The company ended up selling 1.5 million units in the first day of the device's launch and a total of 4 million devices in the first three weeks.

So, in the poll below, tell us how your participation in global mobile sales is shaping up: Are you buying (or planning to buy) or receiving (or hoping to receive) a new mobile device this year? And if so, what's the platform?

We look forward to getting these poll results and hearing your comments on the topic.

Oracle Tries to Pull Apache Back to Java Group (PC World)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 09:27 AM PST

Chris Kanaracus and Joab Jackson Chris Kanaracus And Joab Jackson – Sat Dec 11, 12:27 pm ET

Oracle has asked the Apache Software Foundation to reconsider its decision to quit the Java SE/EE Executive Committee, and is also acknowledging the ASF's importance to Java's future.

The ASF announced its departure from the committee on Wednesday in a blog post, saying Oracle has too much control over Java. "The commercial concerns of a single entity, Oracle, will continue to seriously interfere with and bias the transparent governance of the ecosystem," reads the ASF blog.

The foundation was also irked by FOU (field of use) restrictions Oracle places on the Java Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK), which the ASF uses to test compliance of its own Apache Harmony open-source Java run-time against the Java standard. The restrictions block the open source Harmony's use on mobile platforms.

In a message released late Thursday, an Oracle executive made conciliatory gestures to Apache.

"Last month Oracle renominated Apache to the Java Executive Committee because we valued their active participation and perspective on Java," wrote Adam Messinger, vice president of development.

"Oracle has a responsibility to move Java forward and to maintain the uniformity of the Java standard for the millions of Java developers and the majority of Executive Committee members agree. We encourage Apache to reconsider its position and remain a part of the process to move Java forward. ASF and many open source projects within it are an important part of the overall Java ecosystem," Messinger wrote.

Indeed, the ASF sponsors some 100 open-source projects tied to Java in some manner, among them the Tomcat and Geronimo application servers. Oracle's olive branch-like response to the foundation could be an indication the company realizes its Java road map would suffer without Apache's participation.

At least for now, the ASF doesn't seem eager to rejoin the committee.

"Give us a reason why the ASF should reconsider other than 'please,'" ASF president Jim Jagielski said in a Twitter post Thursday.

The Java Community Process is "dead," Jagielski said in a blog post, also on Thursday. "All that remains is a zombie, walking the streets of the Java ecosystem, looking for brains."

"But maybe, from this death, a new, true community process might arise somewhere, with a different collection of people, one with no entity 'more equal than others.' That is something I think the ASF would be quite interested in seeing," he added.

Jagielski elaborated on his position in an email to IDG News Service.

"Without Oracle removing the FOU and thus abiding by the [Java Specification Participation Agreement], there is nothing really to talk about. If they want to really restart communications, and the ASF would be more than open to it, then remove the FOU," he wrote.

Apache officer Geir Magnusson Jr. also responded to Oracle's statement in an e-mail.

"What we're doing here is standing up for the idea that Java specifications should be open for anyone to implement and distribute under -- but not limited to -- free software and open source licenses. The terms that Oracle proposed for Java SE 7 simply preclude that, and it's interesting that Oracle won't even try to defend it in their response," he wrote. "If you read the voting statements, you'll see that we're not alone in this position."

Magnusson emphasized that the ASF is "in favor of Java moving forward," and noted its prominence in the Java ecosystem. "But it must be the case that our software can be distributed under the Apache License and our users must be able to use them without reasonable fear of IP litigation."

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

Pentagon Bans Removable Drives on Classified Network (NewsFactor)

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 10:43 AM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Sat Dec 11, 1:43 pm ET

In an effort to thwart future unauthorized releases of government documents, the Pentagon is now banning the use of removable drives on its classified network. The move comes after thousands of classified documents and several military videos were released to the WikiLeaks web site earlier this year.

The order, initially from the Air Force and reportedly from the other services as well, prohibits users of its classified network, SIPRNet, from using what the Air Force described as "removable media on all systems, servers and stand-alone machines" on the network. Removable media include thumb drives, DVDs, CDs and similar devices.

'The Insider Threat'

The order noted that "unauthorized data transfers routinely occur on classified networks using removable media and are a method the insider threat uses to exploit classified information."

The Pentagon conducted an internal review this summer, which suggested that all computers storing classified information have the ability to write to removable media disabled. But excluding removable media makes the logistics of the system more difficult, since computers storing classified information are sometimes disconnected from a network, or in areas where the network connection is spotty or slow.

"Users will experience difficulty with transferring data for operational needs, which could impede timeliness on mission execution," according to the Pentagon order. But this isn't the first time removable drives have been banned. In 2008, they were prohibited following a widespread worm infection on the Pentagon's computers, but the ban was removed last February.

In a statement after WikiLeaks published diplomatic cables, the military said "the theft of materials traces to the lack of sharing of information and intelligence prior to and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

9/11 Info Easing 'Backfired'

According to the statement, issued by the American Forces Press Service, a commission report following the terrorist attacks "found that agencies weren't sharing enough information with each other," but the effort to improve information flow "backfired in that it made it easier for individuals and groups inside the process to steal the information."

Earlier this year, Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, admitted to an ex-hacker he met online that he had downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents from this network to a CD he labeled Lady Gaga. The classified U.S. diplomatic cables were then turned over to WikiLeaks. Manning, who was stationed in Iraq, was later arrested by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division.

Manning is also accused of being the source of a video posted on WikiLeaks in April, which showed a U.S. air strike in Iraq that took the lives of several civilians.

Following publication of the leaked documents, WikiLeaks has had its accounts shut down by Amazon.com, PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, and founder Julian Assange is currently in a U.K. jail on an unrelated charge. On Friday, his lawyer indicated to news media that a U.S. indictment against his client, possibly for espionage, is expected soon.
at 9:42 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Blog List