Aug. 10, 2006: #5

Security: Cargo containers

St. Lawrence "Seaway sets sail ... for the 21st century" , Peter Morton, Financial Post, August 05, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost
/story.html?id=232c0182-0aa1-43d1-a512-f3ecefe189e7&k=92428

CORNWALL, Ont. - Richard Corfe .... president and CEO of The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. ... the 3,700-kilometre transportation system, the world's longest inland waterway, that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

[....] have a marine version of global positioning.

[....] In addition to grain, iron ore, coal and steel that have been the Seaway's staples for the past 47 years, more exotic products are moving up the St. Lawrence -- semi-finished steel from Russia and Turkey, rum coming from Brazil "and we even have wind turbines from Europe going to a wind farm in Oswego [N.Y.]."

[....] The plan is to begin bringing in cargo from China, loaded with containers jammed with consumer goods, destined for the key markets of Toronto, Cleveland, and as far away as Duluth, Minn., the end of the Seaway line.

Unveiled slightly more than a year ago, the strategy is part of a massive marketing campaign called HwyH2O, which aims to highlight the economic and environmental advantages of using the Seaway. It takes in Mr. Corfe's company and its Washington, D.C.-based counterpart, the St. Lawrence Development Corp., as well as the 41 ports along the seaway from Montreal to Duluth.

The goal is to nearly double the traffic on the St. Lawrence in the next few years, with much of that increase coming from previously untapped Chinese markets. [....]

Caveat: This is not from a source I recognize so check further. It interested me because I have read more than once lately about a return to coal ... Warren Buffet, for example, has acquired coal lands, I believe. This might or might not be significant.

A Liberal coalbed methane gift to corporate friends -- The Liberals giveth (to 4 big corporate coal rights owners) and the Liberals taketh away (from 600 small landowners who weren't even told they were being ripped off) , Oct 22, 2004
staging3.onenw.org/DogwoodInitiative/bulletins
/a_liberal_coalbed_methane_gift_to_corporate

In November 2002, the provincial government sold the drilling rights for coalbed methane in the Princeton coalfield, to a consortium of three companies led by Petrobank Energy and Resources of Calgary. This included rights to coalbed methane in the coal that sits under the Hopes' land - coal that itself belongs to the Hopes!

In April 2003, the government issued the Coalbed Gas Act. The objective of the Act is to remove coalbed methane rights from coal rights.

The Act is a revenue grab, intended to add a new revenue stream to government from something that previously, and reasonably, could be assumed to be included in "coal rights". Coal and coalbed methane, after all, are both hydrocarbons. They are formed over the same lengthy period of time, in the same place from the same ancient plant matter. The coal is both the source and host for the methane.

If coalbed methane is separated in law from coal, however, the government has two products it can sell, and the opportunity for royalty income in the future. [....]

Search: coal rights owners

On the same website:

The apprehension is unavoidable that the Liberals are appeasing a large corporate donor. TeckCominco is the largest single contributor of money to the BC Liberals, handing over some $678,511 between 1996 and 2002. Fording Coal gave another $105,450. With Elkview Coal Corp, these companies formed the Elk Valley Coal Partnership which is the largest holder of coal rights in BC. And for whom, it is perceived, the government back-doored its own Coalbed Gas Act and cooked up a sweetheart of a deal.

Memory Lane: Hacking

The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies (And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them) -- An exclusive look at how the hackers called TITAN RAIN are stealing U.S. secrets , By Nathan Thornburgh, August 29, 2005, With reporting by Matthew Forney/Beijing and Brian Bennett, Timothy J. Burger and Elaine Shannon/Washington
www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1098961,00.html

The whole article from Time is also here
marc2.theaimsgroup.com/?l=isn&m=112534186814399&w=2

It was another routine night for Shawn Carpenter. After a long day analyzing computer-network security for Sandia National Laboratories, where much of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is designed, Carpenter, 36, retreated to his ranch house in the hills overlooking Albuquerque, N.M., for a quick dinner and an early bedtime. He set his alarm for 2 a.m. Waking in the dark, he took a thermos of coffee and a pack of Nicorette gum to the cluster of computer terminals in his home office. As he had almost every night for the previous four months, he worked at his secret volunteer job until dawn, not as Shawn Carpenter,...

[....] Within the U.S. military, Titan Rain is raising alarms. A November 2003 government alert obtained by TIME details what a source close to the investigation says was an early indication of Titan Rain's ability to cause widespread havoc. Hundreds of Defense Department computer systems had been penetrated by an insidious program known as a "trojan," the alert warned. "These compromises ... allow an unknown adversary not only control over the DOD hosts, but also the capability to use the DOD hosts in malicious activity. The potential also exists for the perpetrator to potentially shut down each host." The attacks were also stinging allies, including Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where an unprecedented string of public alerts issued in June 2005, two U.S. network-intrusion analysts tell TIME, also referred to Titan Rain--related activity. "These electronic attacks have been under way for a significant period of time, with a recent increase in sophistication," warned Britain's National Infrastructure Security Co-Ordination Center. [....]

More here: Guard against Titan Rain hackers, Ira Winkler, Oct. 20, 05
www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime
/story/0,10801,105585,00.html?source=x581

Given the skill and the size of the operation, there could be only two sources of the attack: the Chinese intelligence agencies or the Chinese triads (a.k.a., the Chinese Mafia). As I describe in my book, Spies Among Us (Wiley, 2005), China as a government vacuums up whatever information it can for potential value. Chinese triads examine whatever they can get for profit potential, whether it's to extort money or to sell to the highest bidder. Even worse for non-Chinese entities, the Chinese government cooperates and exchanges information with the triads.

[....] Given the current diplomatic situation between the U.S. and China, Titan Rain attacks will continue to proliferate in the foreseeable future. It's essentially a vacuum of cyberspace by the Chinese. Unfortunately, we are relying on uberhackers, like Shawn Carpenter, who are few and far between, to protect us.

[....] The sad fact is that if you're hit by the Titan Rain hackers, you'll likely never know about it. Even worse, though, is that you are more likely to be hit by other attackers who will cause blatant damage to your systems and business. The good news is these attackers are less talented and can more easily be stopped by basic security measures.

Do you think they haven't improved their hacking skills since then?




Teachers face schoolhouse sweatshops in China -- Contract breaches, unpaid wages and poor working conditions on the rise , AP, Aug. 6, 2006
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14155896/

[....] Jobs offers teem on the Internet. On Dave's ESL Cafe, one of the most popular sites, more than 340 were posted in three months, ranging from positions in prosperous Zhejiang province in the east to the poverty-stricken grasslands of Inner Mongolia in the north.

But also on Dave's ESL Cafe is an anonymous warning from a teacher about a school in China's south.

"They will use you, abuse you, cheat you, and disrespect you," it says. "You will hear it all when they want you to sign the contract. Then after it's oh sorry that isn't in your contract or a bunch of excuses that go on and on." [....]

In depth interview with 3 former terrorists who now speak out for tolerance. They shoot straight about cultural indoctrination. Fair warning to those on dial-up, it's 16 minutes long. This is a must see. Go to no-pasaran.blogspot.com, scroll down to the Friday, August 4 post titled Terror cult clue time posted by Joe Noory @ 6:15 PM.

Posted by: Tom Penn at August 5, 2006 01:02 PM



Memory Lane: What happened to the application for broadcasting rights in Canada?

Coming to Canada: China Spy TV? -- TV Exec Arrested in U.S.; Station Applying for Canadian Broadcast Rights , Jan Jekielek, Epoch Times Toronto Staff Nov 11, 2005
www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-11-11/34419.html

Reports surfaced this month that four Chinese-Americans arrested on October 28 had managed to funnel secret U.S. military technology to Communist China for as long as 15 years. One of the four is a top executive of the North American division of Phoenix TV, the purportedly independent Hong Kong-based Chinese network that is now applying for broadcasting rights in Canada.

That man, Tai Wang Mak, .... were arrested. [....]

Liu, a military officer during the Cultural Revolution, started his journalism career with the PLA. A report in the Washington Post says he gained favour with Communist Party leaders by producing extensive propaganda singing the praises of Mao Zedong and the like.

In the late 1980’s, Liu moved on from his military appointment (having gained a rank of colonel) to start work at a state oil firm. Making use of high-level connections, Liu amassed business assets worth an estimated $USD 500 million. He used this fortune to build his media empire.

Censorship Is Central [....]

It is not only Phoenix that is a concern. Media in Canadian-Chinese communities have faced significant pressure—financial and political—to toe the communist line, in Canada.

Beijing’s four-pronged strategy for controlling overseas Chinese media was clearly documented in a November 2001 issue of China Brief, a publication by the U.S.-based NGO Jamestown Foundation. First, direct control through complete or majority ownership of media outlets; second, influencing the content of independent media through pressuring its economic ties with China; third, purchasing print space or buying air time to broadcast “obvious propaganda content of Chinese communist authorities;” fourth, planting state personnel in independent media operations in order to exert pro-Beijing influence from within.

Dr. So told The Epoch Times, “Don’t think Canada is a free and democratic society that we could avoid the shadow of the Communist Party…. The influence by foreign countries’ forces of media [in Canada] is a very serious matter.”

Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party




Oil & Total

Total says full steam ahead on oilsands -- Plans 100,000 b/d , Jon Harding, Financial Post, August 05, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost
/story.html?id=43c5378c-bafb-4aa6-b070-c947e7ed121b

CALGARY - Total SA and its smaller partner in a major oilsands venture are sending conflicting signals about why they're changing development plans for the project's mine.

Michael Borrell, president of Total's Calgary-based Canadian subsidiary, Total E&P Canada Ltd., said the company is not delaying efforts to build the Joslyn project's North Mine.

He said yesterday the Paris-based supermajor is, in fact, considering [....]

Search: purchased Deer Creek Energy Ltd. , Jean-Luc Guiziou, who returned to Paris , [Enerplus president and CEO] Gordon Kerr




Energy, Oil, Revenue & Newfoundland / Labrador

I have read that Husky Energy / Li Ka-shing's White Rose development company is expanding off Newfoundland to an area near Terra Nova. (CTV or Globe and Mail, Business section, this week ... check this.)

Big oil standoff in Newfoundland, Tara Brautigam, Aug. 6, 06
www.team.gc.ca/english/publications/team_200305/conventional.asp

[....] For four months, Premier Danny Williams has put the long-term growth of the province's offshore energy industry on the line in his fight against ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) for higher royalties from the proposed Hebron oilfield.

[....] In 1972, when the Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador was completed with Quebec's help, Newfoundland soon found itself stuck with a lopsided deal that would cost the province billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Under the infamous deal with Quebec, set to expire in 2041, $750 million has flowed into Newfoundland's coffers as of 2004, the most recent figures available. Quebec has pocketed almost $1 billion annually.

"Now, what a billion dollars would do to our bottom line," Williams mused in his office. "We wouldn't even be close to being a have-not province."

Newfoundland's economic conditions were ripe for a lopsided agreement when premier Joey Smallwood signed the Churchill Falls deal in 1969. Like today, the province was coping with a high unemployment rate and desperate for economic development. [....]

Memory Lane: [Former Liberal] Government of Canada Invests in Clean Heavy Oil Recovery Technology

Technology Partnerships Canada - Government of Canada Invests in ... Government of Canada Invests in Clean Heavy Oil Recovery Technology. Calgary, Alberta April 1, 2005.
tpc-ptc.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/intpc-ptc.nsf/en/hb00425e.html

Climate Change Solutions for Canada and the World - Other TEAM ... Syncrude This project piloted a new technology that thickens oil sands tailings ... recovery from three of the largest heavy oil fields in Saskatchewan, ...
www.team.gc.ca/english/publications
/team_200305/conventional.asp

[....] As a result of the progress made on the Alberta pilot project, ARC is leading a Canadian consortium in a CIDA-supported project in northern China which has successfully completed a single-well test to demonstrate this technology. The next step is to design and implement a multi-well pilot. The ultimate goal of the China project is to reduce CO2 emissions and to provide a clean energy source for China.

Other TEAM Highlights and Success Stories – Enhanced Conventional Energy Production , May 2003
www.team.gc.ca/english/publications
/team_200305/conventional.asp

Canada is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. These resources make an important contribution to Canada’s economy, but they are also large contributors of GHG emissions. TEAM continues to invest in demonstrating cleaner energy production technologies to reduce Canada’s reliance on fossil fuels and to make their consumption less harmful to the environment. Canadian leadership in this area is important in assisting other countries achieve more efficient production and utilization of fossil fuels, which, in turn, could earn offset credits.

Syncrude

A smaller footprint in the oilsands [....]

Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC)

Vapour extraction efficiencies [....]

Alberta Research Council

Adding value to coalbed methane with carbon dioxide injection [....]

Who / what companies were poised to make money from these taxpayer $$$ infusions?






I believe that this story has since been reported as correct: Life-long Liberal power couple switching to Cons? silver_paladin, 8/05/2006 03:29:33
www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/11714.html

One of the most powerful and influential in Canadian business today, Gerry Swartz [Schwartz?], head of Onex company, is happy with the Cons [Conservatives] and upset with the Libs [Liberals]. His wife, Heather Reisman (former Liberal policy chair-woman) is so upset with the Liberals, that she is now publically stating that she will be leaving the Libs and joining the Cons. Not only that, she is urging her friends and other powerful Liberal members to give the [Conservatives] a better chance.