Some time back I wrote on why invading foreign countries creates chaos, and fuels terrorism.

Every day, there is growing evidence that this is more true than before ...

Iraq

On the Iraq front, there is a very real risk of civil war emerging from the sectarian strife that is going on there. The chaos created there have caused the country to become a haven for terrorist groups and figures (like Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi). More importantly, invading Iraq hasa caused terrorism to become a cause that many flock to.

The UN Secretary General, now nearing the end of his term, says that the Iraq war is a disaster for the Middle East, and warns of a full scale civil war there.

A humorous self-critical look at an Egyptian:

A nice list of programming quotes with some that are thoughtful, some amusing, some interesting and some just plain fun.

Business Week has a very telling article on click fraud: the dark side of online advertising.

The article reveals how a parasitic underground has developed around internet advertising.

See also the click fraud slideshow and botnet slideshow.

ClickMonkey: a click fraud example

A chilling example is ClickMonkey, a company specializing in just clicking on ads. They claim they have 20,000 "monkeys" clicking on ads from an offshore ship. Each monkey has three computers, and the connection cycles through various ISPs.

Someone from India was searching Google on australian lotto lottery inc head office. Google made him land on this email scam winning a fake lottery page on my site. He then sent me the following query:

From: vivek <...@yahoo.co.in> To: meDate: Sep 23, 2006 1:43 AMSubject: BE: for my fuducial agent Rev. johnson james.i am unable to contact to Mr. johnson james.i has alredy send you to mailform ...@rediffmail.com .as soon as possible please send me anacknowledgement that you has been recived my mail or not. thanks

Kimveer Gill, a 25 year old Montreal man marched into Dawson College carrying three pieces of weapons, including a semi automatic carbine. He fired tens of shots. One student was killed. Two are still in critical condition, and many others wounded. Gill shot himself in the head after the police shot him in his arm.

Gill was wearning combat boots and a black trenchcoat. His online profile was on a Goth web site (vamiprefreaks.com).

Several interesting observations on the aftermath:

• Some blame the Goth culture,
• Some blamed the internet site he frequented.

Guilt by association, and seeking simplistic answers for complex issues.

• Some praised his actions online.
• Some blamed the police for killing him (ignoring that it was Gill who barged in and started shooting at people).
• Some say he died a good deed.
• Others belittle the "deed" for the low count of the victims, as well as not going out the way it should.

The interesting part is that there was no cause, and no motivation. Still some glorify the atrocity.

Interesting parallels with terrorism, and its aftermath ...

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Catholic Church ecumenical representative had an interview with Spiegel magazine in Germany on the relation with Islam, and the Pope's recent speech where he quoted a medieval text that is offensive to Muslims.

There are several points in the article that are disturbingly inaccurate. Just today, I heard a person of authority making the comment : "Islam is different" like the cardinal did.

Here are the parts that are inaccurate and responses to them:

Distinguished author and ex-nun Karen Armstrong has written a good article in the Guardian titled: "We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices on Islam" in response to Pope Benedict XVI's speech where he quoted a medieval text disparaging Islam and prophet Muhammad.Here are some selected quotes:

The public inquiry into Maher Arar's case is finally out.

Maher Arar is a Canadian Syrian engineer. After spending a vacation in Tunisia (where his wife is from), he was travelling from Tunisia to Zurich to New York to Canada on Sept 26, 2002. On his stop in New York he was detained by US authorities and taken to Syria, via Jordan. There he was interrogated and tortured for more than a year, and then freed with no charges.

An inquiry was held to investigate the role of Canadian authorities, in his being detained by the Americans and being sent to Syria.

Salma is distinct in the family for her curly hair.If I was to take on a kunya it may well be أبو الشعثاء Abu Al-Sha3tha2 ("Father of the girl with the curly hair"). Here is a picture of her: