Blogdigger and Feedster:  Two RSS search engines.  Feedster has some services to add to blogs (e.g., "search this blog" or "search my sources").  11:03:10 PM    

Former U.N. Inspectors Cite New Report as Validation: "Duelfer said he believed when Hussein first began discussions with the United Nations in late 2000 about readmitting inspectors, "to me that was a very key indicator that there probably wasn't large stocks there to be found." When the U.S. troop buildup began in the Gulf, it became "clear that Saddam chose not to have weapons at a point in time before the war," he added. "  10:15:26 PM    

UN role in Iraq elections at risk:  "Two UN staff associations, representing 60,000 members, yesterday asked Kofi Annan, the secretary general, to withdraw all staff because of the "unprecedented" risk to their lives. They said the organisation "has become a direct target". But the UN Security Council Resolution 1546, passed in June, saysthe UN should play a key role in helping the Iraqi interim government to hold elections, scheduled for January. The US, Britain and the European Union stress that UN involvement will give the poll credibility.

There are just 35 UN international personnel in Iraq. They returned two months ago after Mr Annan pulled all staff out of the country last year following a spate of attacks, including one in which the UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others were killed. Fred Eckhard, a UN spokesman, said: "We will need more than 35 in there to do what we want to do on the elections." ..

A spokesman for the US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, said that "we would hope the secretary general would recognise that the UN exists to help governments in crisis".  A UN staff member in Baghdad said: "Are they seriously saying that it is safe for people to go out and about and organise elections with suicide bombings every day? The EU are offering some money, but we notice they are not sending one single election monitor." The EU recently agreed to contribute €30m (£20m) for the UN mission.

So far not a single country has offered to provide troops for such a mission. So the UN team is protected by US troops, something which, they say, identifies them with the occupying power, and puts them at greater risk. "

  8:28:29 PM    

Magic Mirror (p2p) Backup: "Magic Mirror Backup works by copying the files and folders on your computer to other computers within your office. In exchange, these other computers also copy their own files onto your computer. This sharing of backups has quite a few advantages not the least of which are that it is extremely convenient and cost effective. "  Linux and Windows versions.  Free through v1.0.  8:09:03 PM    

Terrorism & Security: Review linked to many stories about Al Queda's and Zarqawi's  use of the net.  "Al Qaeda has a "virtual university" that teaches "electronic jihad." .. 'They lost their base in Afghanistan, they lost their training camps, they lost a government that allowed them do what they want within a country. Now they're surviving on Internet to a large degree. It is really their new base,' says terrorism expert Peter Bergen." .. [It gives] new awful meaning to the words 'online community.' "  Specific example of use of YouSendIt file transfer service for videos.

  6:06:11 PM    

Afghans vote, ready or not: "The darkest assessment may be the refusal of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send election monitors to Afghanistan, because "the present conditions in Afghanistan are significantly below the minimum regarded by OSCE ... as necessary for credible election observation." The UN, for its part, agrees that this election will have its flaws, but says these flaws are manageable. "

  6:00:40 PM    

UCLA International Institute :: Are the Jihadists Losing the War? Gilles Kepel Thinks So: Interesting recent history, reviewing a 2001 Al Queda booklet, the Palestinian intifadas, and Iraq:  "Despite car bombings, beheadings, and kidnappings, French scholar Gilles Kepel says the jihadists are losing their hold on the Muslim masses. ..

Gilles Kepel concluded that he saw cause for optimism in the failure of the jihadists to gain a mass base. "We now see as we saw in the 1990s, civil society turning its back on violence, and mobilizing to oppose it." Now, he said, it will be crucial for an American leadership to be perceptive enough to effectively speak to Muslim civil society. "

  5:50:27 PM    

Another sign that blogging is becoming mainstream: "Hoover's collects information about companies and sells it to other companies. Last year, they were acquired by Dun and Bradstreet. D&B was founded in 1841 and is .. "mainstream" in the business world. Yesterday I was surprised to learn that the Hoover's overview on SourceGear contains information which could only be found on my weblog. The byline says we are covered by an analyst named Jeff Dorsch, and I have never spoken with this gentleman personally. In the course of researching SourceGear, he not only visited my weblog, but also my silly Not-A-Legend site. I recognize that weblogs have obviously been steadily gaining traction over the last few years, but this still comes as a pleasant shock. I would have assumed that it would take several more years before firms like Hoover's and D&B would use weblogs in their research."  9:07:14 AM