829 articles on Politics

  • Super-Silent Owl Drone Will Spy on You Without You Ever Noticing
    For spy tools, drones are pretty easy to spot. And hear, because they're as loud as a gut-busting rock concert. But now the intelligence community's research division, Iarpa, plans to start designing a silent drone inspired by quiet, creeping, flying owls.
    07.19.12
  • Bibi Blames Iran for Terror Attack While U.S. Navy Waits Offshore
    For at least a year, the U.S. has tried to keep Israel from attacking Iran, usually by arguing that sanctions on Tehran are working and that American can hit harder if it comes to a fight. It's a delicate balance, especially since President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu trust each other only slightly more than ...
    07.18.12
  • Military's New Disaster Relief Tools: Robo-Cranes, Paraglider Drones
    The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and defense contractor Raytheon want to turn regular cargo ships into high-tech humanitarian aid platforms equipped with propeller-driven paraglider drones, easily mountable robotic cranes and unmanned amphibious cargo boats.
    07.18.12
  • Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
    Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, one 16 years old, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution.
    07.18.12
  • Newest U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: Trolling
    Inside the State Department, a Silicon Valley veteran has quietly launched an improbable new initiative to annoy, frustrate and humiliate denizens of online extremist forums. The idea is nothing less than to teach Muslims around the world how to become effective trolls. It's hardly a substitute for drone strikes and commando raids, but as terrorist recruitment has moved online, it might prevent al-Qaida from attracting new terrorists. The only thing missing is a strategy.
    07.18.12
  • Study: WikiLeaked Data Can Predict Insurgent Attacks
    Insurgencies are amongst the hardest conflicts to predict. Insurgents can be loosely organized, split into factions, and strike from out of nowhere. But now researchers have demonstrated that with enough data, you might actually predict where insurgent violence will strike next. The results, though, don't look good for the U.S.-led war.
    07.17.12
  • How the Navy's Incompetence Sank the 'Green Fleet'
    On Wednesday, the Navy will sail its eco-friendly "Great Green Fleet" for the first time -- and maybe the last. The Navy has screwed up its once-promising biofuel plan with a blend of bad politics and questionable analysis, alienating Congress and Pentagon insiders alike. And that's before they get socked with a $1.8 billion annual bill for all that green fuel.
    07.17.12
  • NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate
    In 2008, a team of software coders inside the National Security Agency started reverse-engineering the database that ran Google. They closely followed the Google research paper describing BigTable -- the sweeping database that underpinned many of the Google's online services, running across tens of thousands of computer servers -- but they also went a little further. ...
    07.17.12
  • Never Mind: Military Doesn't Think Iran's Missiles Will Reach U.S. After All
    Another year, another Pentagon report on Iran's military power. Which means another round of imprecise predictions about when Iran may first test an intercontinental ballistic missile. But this time, the Pentagon no longer believes a future Iranian missile will be able to strike America. And another reason not to worry: Even if Iran does develop one, it'll probably suck.
    07.12.12
  • U.S. Has No Idea Who's a Taliban 'Leader,' Still Boasts About Killing Them
    Since January 2011, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan claims it's killed or captured over 100 insurgent "leaders." Too bad it doesn't have any clear idea what "leader" means. Any insurgent who commands another person apparently qualifies. And worse, by that criteria, Taliban and aligned insurgents have killed twice as many U.S. troops in the same time period.
    07.12.12
  • How to Fly the U.S.' Trillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter Jet
    Inside the demonstrator cockpit, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter looks like the stealth-jet equivalent of a luxury car. It better be: the trillion-dollar plane is the most expensive weapons system in the history of mankind. And that might kill the F-35 program before any real pilot from ever steps into an actual Joint Strike Fighter cockpit for a mission.
    07.12.12
  • Darpa Wants You to Be Its Hackathon Guinea Pig
    If living in a college dorm for two months while you're prodded by government officials in a "short-fuse, crucible-style environment" is your idea of summer fun, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency would like a word with you. Oh, and there's $50,000 to be earned if you can help them algorithmically crack the problems they've run into while trying to interpret the massive amounts of surveillance data the Pentagon is now capable of collecting.
    07.11.12
  • Doubt Is Good for Science, But Bad for PR
    The world appears suddenly engulfed in an epidemic of uncertainty. Uncertainty plagues banks and the economy, the Middle East, elections in the U.S. and other countries, the Euro, and of course the weather. But now it has cropped up in a most unexpected place: science.
    07.11.12
  • Exclusive Pics: Inside Yemen's Shadow War
    For more than a year, Abyan province has been the epicenter of an intensifying covert war against Ansar al-Shari'a, a new al-Qaida affiliate spreading along the remote shores of the Gulf of Aden in southern Yemen. In an exclusive reporting trip to the war-ravaged Abyan, Danger Room caught a first glimpse of Washington¿s latest shadow war.
    07.11.12
  • Spy Sat Agency Let Child Molesters in Its Ranks Go Free
    The National Reconnaissance Office -- the secretive Pentagon agency in charge of spy satellites -- is supposed to safeguarding Americans and American interests from foreign threats. But the agency has done an incomplete job, at best, at protecting American children from its own employees and job applicants.
    07.11.12
  • Exclusive: Darpa Gets a New Boss, and Solyndra Is in Her Past
    Until last year, Arati Prabhakar worked for the venture capitalists who backed Solyndra, the green-tech firm that imploded in a scandal described by Mitt Romney as an example of the White House's "crony capitalism." Now Prabhakar has a new job, this one in the Obama administration: running the Pentagon's most important research agency. But being the geek-in-chief requires investing billions on risky, high-tech bets that aren't so different from Solyndra.
    07.10.12
  • A Start Up Trek - Global Scale
    There is a lot more to research about the globe option. How many projectors will I need? If I only illuminate around the equator then then the top and bottom of the globe will see little light. How will I coordinate the projectors from a single image? What sort of distorting lens will I need? And most importantly, will I be able to find enough uses for the globe to justify the expense? I could go on, but its time to medicate again. Besides, I think maybe Phineas and Ferb built one of these before. Maybe I can get some hints.
    07.10.12
  • Observation Deck: Science vs. Politics Edition
    Which is more important: The presidential election or the discovery of the Higgs boson? I suppose the answer depends on what we mean by "important," and individual temperament. In this week's Observation Deck, I try to figure out the answer, by way of some thinking about the differences between science journalism and political journalism as I've practiced them.
    07.09.12
  • Mobile-Phone Surveillance by Police Targets Millions Annually
    Mobile carriers responded to a staggering 1.3 million law enforcement requests last year for subscriber information, including text messages and phone location data, according to data provided to Congress.The companies said they were working around the clock and charging millions in fees to keep up with ever-growing demands. At least one of the carriers urged Congress to clarify the law on when probable-cause warrants were required to divulge customer data.
    07.09.12
  • 5 Ways to Stop National Security Leaks (But Do You Really Want To?)
    The Senate and House intelligence committees are mad as hell about national security programs leaking to the press, and they're mulling measures that would penalize leaking. Just one problem: what they're considering won't stop leaks; they'll just make routine journalism harder. The measures that actually would making leaking harder would give politicians, journalists and citizens pause. (Hint: one of them is an alcohol ban.)
    07.09.12
  • After U.S. Says Sorry, Pakistan Reopens Border
    For seven months, Pakistan has blocked ground convoys from resupplying troops based in Afghanistan. Pakistan wanted an apology for the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers -- killed in U.S. airstrikes last November -- and a new fee for every shipping container transiting the country. Until Pakistan got its apology, the border would remain closed, forcing the U.S. into a costly aerial resupply route through Kyrgyzstan.
    07.03.12


 

 

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