WASHINGTON (April 2008) — A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies demonstrates that most H-1Bs are ordinary people doing ordinary work, not the geniuses claimed by industry lobbyists.

Those arguing for an increase in the number of H-1B visas (ostensibly temporary visas for ’specialty occupations,’ many of them in the computer industry) claim that continued U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics hinges on our ability to import the world’s best engineers and scientists. But this new data analysis shows that the vast majority of H-1B workers — including those at most major tech firms — are not the innovators industry portrays them to be.

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by Jonathan Spyer

The Lebanon war of 2006 failed to resolve any of the issues over which it was fought. Ultimately, the  war may be understood as a single campaign within a broader Middle Eastern conflict–between pro-Western and democratic states on the one hand, and an alliance of Islamist and Arab nationalist forces on the other. The latter alignment has as one of its strategic goals the eventual demise of the State of Israel. While such a goal may appear delusional, the inconclusive results of the 2006 war did much to confirm the representatives of the latter camp in their belief that they have discovered a method capable of eventually producing a strategic defeat for Israel.

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By Jeffrey Breinholt*

This last week while I was on vacation in California, two articles caught my attention. On the Counterterrorism Blog, Roderick Jones described how virtual worlds are helping Western governments combat terrorism, by offering realistic computer-based simulations to government personnel involved in operational decisionmaking, and as communication platforms. Meanwhile, an article in LifeScience, by Heather Whipps describes the utility of academic mathematics to fighting al Qaida.

These articles pick up on something I have been writing about - the need for more empiricism in counterterrorism. They came at a time when I was diving into a number of new books on applied math.

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By Steven Shamrak

You might be surprised, but I do like receiving messages from people who disagree with ideas I express, as long as they are able to support their views with facts and intelligibly present them. It gives me an opportunity to revisit my own ‘pre-conceived’ ideas and analyse them from an antagonist’s point of view. While doing so, I have been finding more supporting facts and ideas for the main point I advocate — the right of Jews to the land of Eretz-Israel — which I might not look for otherwise.

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Break-time for a good laugh. The filmmaker uses a recent, petty row over technology as a back-drop to show Hitler for what he was — a pathetic, puny, lunatic bully (surrounded by equally petty acolytes):

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by Shannen Rossmiller*

On September 3, 2004, a nine-member officer’s panel at Fort Lewis, Washington, found Specialist Ryan G. Anderson guilty of five counts of seeking to aid the enemy during a time of war and attempted espionage. The court martial subsequently sentenced him to five concurrent life terms for his crimes. To date, the sentence represents the most severe penalty meted out to a U.S. citizen in President George W. Bush’s global war on terror. The case also marked the triumph of the new field of cyber counterterrorism, which I helped develop. Working from my home computer, I enabled Anderson’s capture. There have since been more than 200 other cases although many of these were intelligence cases that, for various reasons, did not result in criminal prosecution.

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By RA Sprinkle

Globalization: A Catalyst for Terrorism and Global Destabilization?

The object here is not to lay blame on globalization for the hostilities to it, nor to excuse hostile or malevolent reactions. It is, however, worthy of understanding, not only the sources of global instability today, but the catalyst setting these forces into an aggressive-defensive mode. It is for this purpose I propose the question: Is the increase of terrorism and the radicalization of Islam over the past few decades an effect of globalization? Furthermore, are many of the tensions between nations today related to the transition from self-dependent, sovereign states into a world of nations which are becoming increasingly interdependent, while looking to establish global security and world order through international consensus in a multi-polar, global society?

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Are you part of the iPod phenomena? If so, then you can’t be without your iTunes when sitting on the can. Keep in mind that if you do purchase the Atech Flash iCarta Stereo Dock with Bath Tissue Holder, and use it a lot, my pseudo-diagnosis is that you may have digestive problems, or a touch of Freud’s anal retentiveness:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

When I asked Google Maps to “Get directions” from New York to London, step #23 advised me to “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi,” get out of the water on the shores of northern France, drive 200 miles up the coast, and then cross the Channel to the UK. The map even shows me which pier I should jump off into the Atlantic to start my epic Leif Ericsson quest.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

During the week of February 5, the Internet’s root-servers were targeted by cyber-criminals using a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. The Internet survived because of its resilient, distributed (redundant) nature. The threat posed by cyber-terrorists is not so much to the entire Internet, but to individual companies and organizations, as “no one corporation has the kind of replication and bandwidth that the [Internet] infrastructure has at this point.” Think of the economic repercussions a DoS attack would have if it shut down the Air Force, on-line brokerages, energy/utility companies, or ebay. The U.S. government is prepared to retaliate:

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