Year: 2007

In America, Leaving a Tip is Felony Support of Terrorism

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Someone needs some face time on the nightly news, and this guy is brought up on charges.

I wish I lived in America, but that place seems to be gone now.

Loose mouth and loose change – $5 tip leads to terror finance rap

By George Smith, Dick Destiny
Published Thursday 12th April 2007 13:15 GMT

In the terror case against Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall – sailor on the destroyer Benfold, the US government has another mangy cat in the GWOT.

“Material support of terrorism and disclosing previously classified information” are the beefs in the indictment against Abujihaad, according to a government press release from March. It sounds serious and the newsmedia did its usual listless job in reporting on it.

“Hassan Abujihaad, 31, is accused of supporting terrorism by disclosing secret information about the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them,” wrote Associated Press. “Investigators say he provided those secrets, in classified documents, to a suspected terrorism financier.”

If one looks at the indictment and evidentiary exhibits logged against Abujihaad, it’s thinner cloth.

Abujihaad bought videos from Azzam Publications and Babar Ahmad*, a London computer programmer locked up since 2004 and awaiting extradition for trial to the US, for running a website that promoted Islamic fighters in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, according to the press.

As for sending classified documents to Ahmad, what Abujihaad did do, and we’ll get to it in detail in a bit, is send rash e-mail, including video orders from the Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer upon which he served.

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Apparently, no plot. Abujihaad received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 2002 and wound up in Arizona, perhaps an unhappy young man, eventually acutely aware that he might be in trouble for his e-mails to Azzam.

However, when the US government argues that Abujihaad gave material assistance to Ahmad, one expects not to see the equivalent of mail order of three videos reclassified as terrorist activity. Yet this is exactly what is meant.

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In August, Abujihaad sends Ahmad thirty dollars for another video, Bosnian War.

In this order, he has overspent by five dollars. Ahmad writes “Please tell us what you want done with the remaining $5.”

“Dear Brothers, you guys can keep the remaining $5.00 and [add it] to the funds that you Brothers are spending in the way of Allah and the great Websites .. Azzam Pub.”

Material assistance to terror groups is, you read right, ordering three videos, overpaying slightly and telling the seller to keep the change. “By stating that he watched the video, [Abujihaad] demonstrated that he knew Azzam supported acts of terrorism.” Hmmm, maybe, but logically it seem to indicate many people not normally considered terrorists must now be included in the definition, too.

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It is a tale, and a bit of a sad one, in which someone which the book against, so far, does not show any serious involvement in terrorism. It is the story of a man who ordered videos and had loose lips when he should have kept his virtual mouth shut, a case of extraordinarily bad timing just prior to 9/11.

But since there is no shortage of experts who can be called upon by the government to insist, true or not, that Azzam Publications was allied with al Qaeda for the courts, Abujihaad’s fate looks grim.

Bloomberg: It’s About Greedy Political Consultants, Stupid

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Who wants Michael Bloomberg to run for president?

The press, leaves the important information at the end.

YAHOO FOR MIKE SWITCHEROO: BUBBA

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

June 22, 2007 — Former President Bill Clinton congratulated Mike Bloomberg yesterday for quitting the Republican Party – and predicted his wife will still be the next president even if the mayor joins the race.

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Experts estimated that with a half-billion-dollar campaign budget, at least $300 million would be spent on television commercials, $75 million for direct mail, and tens of millions more for high-end travel arrangements and operations around the country.

“Bloomberg would want to try to put 60 percent of $500 million on paid advertising – broadcast, cable, Internet, minority outreach, radio,” said GOP consultant Scott Reed.

Yep, it’s the political consultants, who get 30%-40% of each media buy by a campaign.

Scott Reed is drooling right now like the ghoul he is.

American gamble or bluff: WTO members bet on Antigua | The Register

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When you look at the legislation, and the debate in the Congress, it was clearly about protecting US race tracks and casinos.

There are some movies that I would dearly love to download form Antigua, and they could manufacture some very cheap generics of high demand drugs.

The drug tourism should more than make up for the loss of gambling revenue.

American gamble or bluff: WTO members bet on Antigua

By Burke Hansen in San Francisco

Antigua yesterday filed for formal trade sanctions against the United States, demanding $3.4 billion in compensation from the truculent, recalcitrant super power for failing to open its domestic market to remote gambling services. Antigua, as expected, was not alone; the hottest online gaming market in the world, the EU, also filed for sanctions.

Antigua has been embroiled in a four year battle with the US over the provision of remote gambling services, and the WTO has repeatedly ruled against the US, in increasingly stern terms. After the US tried to insist to the WTO that it had brought itself into compliance without doing anything at all – a novel argument that riled the WTO compliance panel – the WTO issued a definitive and far reaching ruling in favor of Antigua, opening the door for sanctions for the tiny Caribbean country that has seen one of its principal industries pummeled repeatedly by the American Department of Justice (DOJ).

The rules of the WTO typically provide for traditional tit-for-tat trade sanctions, but for tiny countries like Antigua that depend heavily on imports, such an approach can be economically devastating, while doing virtually nothing to penalize the offending nation. The WTO thereby provides an alternative: countries may suspend their own obligations to the offending country. Antigua thus could sell unlicensed copies of American movies or software, for example, to compensate itself for losses resulting from the American actions.
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Indian Navy prepares for MiG-29-21/06/2007-Paris-Flight Daily News

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It’s beginning to look like the Russians may have a growing business in providing low cost carrier capability to nations like India.

Indian Navy prepares for MiG-29

Only the first prototype of the Indian Navy’s new MiG-29s has flown, but the force’s preparations for the new aircraft are proceeding apace.
The Indian Navy has not operated conventional carrier -based aircraft since the withdrawal of the Hawker Sea Hawk in 1983, after which the STOVL BAE Systems Sea Harrier became the service’s only carrier-based fighter.
Captain GM Gopakumar of the Indian Navy told Flight Daily News that Indian Navy pilots are already flying exchange tours on Indian Air Force MiG-29s, and though delivery of the first INAS MiGs has been delayed from November 2007 until March or April 2008, pilot conversion training in Russia will commence in August.

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More power and more payload for Gripen demo-21/06/2007-Paris-Flight Daily News

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The Gripen can already supercruise clean, and the additional thrust should allow it to do so while carrying more.

More power and more payload for Gripen demo-21/06/2007

By Jon Lake
Saab chose the Paris Air Show to reveal details of its new Gripen Demonstrator programme. The Gripen Demo aircraft will act as a technology demonstrator and testbed for an upgrade configuration for the Swedish air force, and as the prototype for planned ‘Future Gripens’, including the Gripen N for Norway, the Gripen DK for Denmark, and perhaps even for a variant to meet India’s MMRCA requirement.

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The Gripen Demo aircraft will have a revised configuration, with a new forward-retracting main landing gear that frees up internal volume for extra fuel, and with distinctive bulged wingroot fairings underwing providing further increases in internal volume. The use of these fairings replaces the upper fuselage conformal tanks seen on previous studies, and will provide an extra 38% of internal fuel, taking the total to 3,130 kg.

The relocated and beefed-up undercarriage will allow a 2-tonne increase in maximum take off weight, to 16t. This in turn will allow the aircraft to carrier heavier warloads (up to 6,000kg), and to facilitate this, the Gripen Demo will have new side by side under-fuselage pylons (augmenting the single centreline pylon) and underwing hardpoints capable of carrying twin pylons.

The aircraft will be powered by a new 22,000lb engine, provisionally dubbed the F414G. ….. The F414G will deliver some 4,000lb more thrust than the RM-12, giving a useful boost in performance. Some sources give the new engine a 26,000lb thrust rating – doubling the advantage.

The aircraft will also be fitted with an AESA radar, probably based on Ericsson’s long-running NORA and Saab/Selex’ M-AESA programmes.

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More Housing Bubble Contagion

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As shown by this article, no one actually knows how much these collateralized debt obligations are actually worth.

What happens if the $800 million of securities sells for $700 million? What if they sell for $400 million? What if they sell for less?

A number of funds, and possibly firms, could become insolvent over night.

Bear Stearns Fund Collapse Sends Shock Through CDOs

By Mark Pittman

June 21 (Bloomberg) — Merrill Lynch & Co.’s threat to sell $800 million of mortgage securities seized from Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds is sending shudders across Wall Street.

A sale would give banks, brokerages and investors the one thing they want to avoid: a real price on the bonds in the fund that could serve as a benchmark. The securities are known as collateralized debt obligations, which exceed $1 trillion and comprise the fastest-growing part of the bond market.

Because there is little trading in the securities, prices may not reflect the highest rate of mortgage delinquencies in 13 years. An auction that confirms concerns that CDOs are overvalued may spark a chain reaction of writedowns that causes billions of dollars in losses for everyone from hedge funds to pension funds to foreign banks. Bear Stearns, the second-biggest mortgage bond underwriter, also is the biggest broker to hedge funds.

“More than a Bear Stearns issue, it’s an industry issue,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. Hintz was chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the largest mortgage underwriter, for three years before becoming an analyst in 2001. “How many other hedge funds are holding similar, illiquid, esoteric securities? What are their true prices? What will happen if more blow up?”

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This is Why I Supported Howard Dean.

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From the Democratic Party, Dean’s radio address.

I know he won’t run for president this year, but I would like him to.

Dean: Democratic Candidates for President will End the War in Iraq, Republicans will Stay the Course

Governor Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, delivered the Democratic radio address this week. Chairman Dean outlined the stark differences between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the Iraq War. He noted that all the Democratic contenders are dedicated to responsibly ending the war while the Republican field continues to embrace President Bush’s ineffective escalation of the war.

Dean also re-framed the debate about the war in Iraq and the War on Terror by drawing a contrast between the ineffective policies pursued by Republican leaders that have bogged us down in Iraq and Democrats who offer the American people an effective offensive strategy that puts America on the offensive against al Qaeda, by responsibly re-deploying our troops from the civil war in Iraq and into the fight with global terrorists.

To listen to his remarks, click
here.

Text of Radio Address:

Good Morning. I’m Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Last week, President Bush compared the Iraq War to our ongoing commitment in South Korea, suggesting a plan for a 50-year presence in Iraq. By saying this, President Bush and the Republicans showed once again that they simply do not get it.

It’s time to end the war, not escalate it. A 50-year plan for Iraq is a continuation of an ineffective strategy and it is not acceptable.
Our brave men and women in uniform deserve better. They have served with honor and distinction, but its time for the mission to change. It’s time for the mission in Iraq to focus on a political solution, not a military one. It’s time for a responsible end to this war.

This week the American people had the chance to see for themselves the crystal clear difference between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the number one issue our nation and our next President will face.

Iraq.

Right down the line, we saw Republican contender after Republican contender embrace President Bush’s escalation of the war and now defend the 50-year plan for Iraq. The Republican field of presidential candidates only offer more of the same ongoing support for the President’s failed, ineffective strategies.

The Democratic candidates for president all stood united and firmly committed to responsibly ending the war in Iraq. This week, they each spoke passionately against any misguided stay-the-course plan that keeps our men and women in uniform policing a civil war.

The Democratic candidates have made it clear that they will not ignore the will of the American people and our military experts.

Democrats in Congress have stood up to this President and fought hard to keep him accountable. They passed a bill that established benchmarks with consequences and set deadlines to bring our troops home.

But the President vetoed it.

The American people hired Democrats last November to ensure that we end this war. So let me be clear, we know that if we don’t keep our promise, we may find ourselves the minority again.

But we have to face the reality that Republicans in Congress are standing with President Bush as he stubbornly wields his veto pen in the face of overwhelming opposition to this war from the American people.

Democrats in Congress will continue to work hard to hold the President accountable and to pressure him to responsibly end this war. We want to ensure that we refocus our military efforts on fighting terrorist networks which are resurging in Afghanistan and that our brave troops have the resources they need both on the battlefield and when they come home.

But there is one way to truly ensure we end this war.

Elect a Democratic president in 2008.

There is one way to ensure that we have a commander in chief who understands that America needs a defense policy that is tough and smart, and ensures an effective strategy to keep America safe at home and around the world.

Elect a Democratic president in 2008.

Republican leaders have pursued ineffective policies that have bogged us down in Iraq for years and led to the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Democrats offer the American people an effective offensive strategy that takes the fight to our real enemies abroad.

Democrats understand that the Iraq war has kept us from devoting the resources we need to hunt down and capture the terrorists who are plotting to attack America. We no longer can afford to be pinned down in a war that has created more terrorists and made America less safe, as recent intelligence reports have shown. That is why we favor shifting more forces back to Afghanistan to win the fight there against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

We also want to make sure our military has the resources they need. And equally importantly, we want to restore our alliances around the world and regain America’s moral leadership.

Our men and women in uniform on the frontlines in Iraq have done their job with extraordinary courage and determination. They deserve an effective offensive strategy, one worthy of their dedication and skill, and one that can be executed successfully.

The best way to do that is to get them out of the middle of a civil war in Iraq.

And the best way to do that is to elect a Democratic president in 2008.

I’m Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Thanks for listening.

Women of the IDF

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Let’s understand this. One of the things concerning people wanting to make aliyah to Israel is the mandatory military service.

Now, people will look forward to it.

Andrew Sullivan calls it Porn For Neocons, which is vaguely amusing.

BABES IN OY LAND SCUFFLE By ANDY SOLTIS

BABES IN OY LAND SCUFFLE

The New York post is trash, but I love their headlines.

By ANDY SOLTIS

June 19, 2007 — Israeli female legislators are baring their anger over what they call a “pornographic” tourism campaign – featuring a bikini-clad Israeli beauty queen.

The racy photo of 2004 Miss Israel winner Gal Gadot appears on formal invitations to an event hosted in New York tonight by the Israeli Consulate in conjunction with Maxim magazine.

The affair is to “celebrate” the magazine’s “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” article in the July issue.

But prominent Israeli women say using sex to market the Land of Milk and Honey is “an outrage.”

Former Consul-General Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament, yesterday demanded an urgent meeting with the Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to get an explanation of what she called the “pornographic campaign,” the newspaper Yediot Achronoth reported.

The consulate in New York says the campaign is just seeking good demographics.

“We found that Israel’s image among men 18-38 is lacking,” David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs said.

“So we thought we’d approach them with an image they’d find appealing.”

That’s the wrong image, said Zahava Gal-On, a Knesset member and chairwoman of the Meretz Party.

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Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation

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I am appalled.

Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation, As Military Searches For Kidnapped Soldier In Iraq, U.S. Threatens To Send Wife Back To Dominican Republic

(CBS/AP) While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Her husband’s request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.

She now faces deportation, reports CBS station WBZ correspondent Beth Germano, and would be barred from applying for a green card for 10 years.

Her attorney is seeking a hardship waiver, which so far the government won’t grant.

“I can’t imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting [the wife of] someone who is fighting and possibly dying for our country,” Kolken told WBZ.

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State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering

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Ordinarily, I’m concerned about a misuse of the RICO statutes, but I think that “criminal enterprise” is a good description of insurance companies.

State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering

Federal lawsuit claims insurance company manipulated damage reports
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:39 p.m. ET June 20, 2007

NEW ORLEANS – State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. engaged in a “pattern of racketeering” by manipulating engineering reports on Hurricane Katrina damage so the company could deny policyholder claims, lawyers for a group of Mississippi homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The federal suit against State Farm represents a new legal strategy for attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who has played a prominent role in challenging the insurance industry for its handling of Katrina claims.

Hundreds of homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana have sued their insurers for denying their claims after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The suits typically accuse insurers of bad faith and breach of contract for refusing to pay for damage from Katrina’s storm surge.

Wednesday’s lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners is the first in which Scruggs and his legal team accused an insurer of violating the civil Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, commonly known as RICO.

Scruggs, who helped negotiate a multibillion dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s, said he had filed similar civil RICO suits against tobacco companies. They are tougher cases to build, but can carry stiffer penalties, he added.

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I love Manual Transmissions.

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But I’ve never thought of them as an anti theft device.

US car thieves floored by manual gearbox

By Lester Haines
Published Thursday 21st June 2007 10:06 GMT

Two US would-be car thieves failed dismally to make off with a Honda Accord after discovering it had a mysterious manual gearbox, RTÉ reports.

Having menaced the owner with a gun outside a pizza restaurant in Georgia, and relieved him of his wallet and car keys, the pair of teen master criminals prepared to make good their escape. However, according to an employee of the pizza outlet, “they could not start it because it had stick shift”.

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“Bloodbath” In Housing

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The crash is here, it’s just not yet being reported on by the papers, because realtors buy too many ads.

Rate Rise Pushes Housing, Economy to `Blood Bath’
By Kathleen M. Howley

June 20 (Bloomberg) — The worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point to 6.74 percent in the past five weeks is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. The national median home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression, and the supply of unsold homes is at a record 4.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“It’s a blood bath,” said Mark Kiesel, executive vice president of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the manager of $668 billion in bond funds. “We’re talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit.”

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The increase in mortgage rates meant an 8% decrease in buying power in about a month.

Mortgage Woes `Tip of Iceberg,’ Bank of America Says

By Sebastian Boyd

June 22 (Bloomberg) — Losses in the U.S. mortgage market may be the “tip of the iceberg,” Bank of America Corp. analysts said today in a note for clients.

Higher interest rates have yet to affect many home owners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said. Interest payments on about $900 billion of the riskiest subprime home-loans are due to increase this year and next, the analysts wrote.

Bear Stearns Cos., the second-biggest underwriter of mortgage bonds, plans to assume $3.2 billion of loans to stop creditors from taking over assets of one of its hedge funds, people with knowledge of the proposal said. Concern about the collapse of the funds, which made bad bets on mortgage-backed securities, sent bonds and stocks of finance companies lower.

“The demise of two Bear Stearns managed leveraged mortgage funds could be the tipping point of a broader fallout from subprime mortgage credit deterioration,” wrote Bank of America analysts led by Robert Lacoursiere in New York.

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This is where the housing crash infects the rest of the financial markets.

News Flash, Harvard Graduates a Complete Moron

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Let us just say that the writers at the Register are more deliciously snarkalicious than I ever could be.

Phyllis Schlafley, you raised a moron.

Need hard facts? Try Conservapedia

By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 10:50 GMT

The Wikipedians among you should take note that your days of punting liberal bias may be numbered. Enter stage right Conservapedia, a “conservative encyclopedia you can trust”, which has been enjoying a certain amount of attention stateside for its unashamedly and decidedly non-liberal content.

Conservapedia (Motto: “The truth shall set you free”) is the brainchild of Andy Schlafly, who was moved to act when “teaching a history class to home-schooled teens” and confronted with the term “BCE”, or “before the common era”, in one student’s assignment. “Where did that come from?” he asked, only to receive the chilling reply: “Wikipedia.”

At this moment, according to the LA Times, Schlafly “knew he had to act”. While Wikipedia was “written and edited by self-appointed experts worldwide” and “riddled with liberal bias”, it was also drier than a nun’s chuff in the Jesus Christ Our Lord department.

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Brits, meanwhile, will doubtless enjoy the entry on our very own Iron Lady, described as “a strong supporter of the the United States”, who was “a good friend of President Ronald Reagan”, and who united with him “in actions against the Communists”. Whether the latter is a reference to Nicaragua’s Sandinista government or the National Union of Mineworkers is not noted.

You have to love the snark on Maggie.

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The Stegosaurus, for example, was “a dinosaur with plates on its back and spines on its tail”. The entry continues: “Some creationists believe the spines on its tail were to stop other dinosaurs from treading on it before the Fall.”

Hmmm. Here’s more:

Young Earth Creationists believe, based primarily on Biblical sources, that dinosaurs were created on day 6 of the creation week, approximately 6,000 years ago, along with other land animals, and therefore co-existed with humans. As such, they reject the Theory of Evolution and the beliefs of evolutionary scientists about the age of the earth.

Bootnote

We at El Reg are looking forward to the final, Ragnarök (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k)-style confrontation between Conservapedia, RationalWiki and Wikipedia. The outcome of this titanic battle will be decided by either natural selection or according to God’s will, depending on which one of them is really telling the truth.

A Quick Post on Republithug Criminality.

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Jay Garrity, who is director of operations on Romney’s presidential campaign has impersonated a police officer.

Guiliani adviser is a priest suspended for allegations of child abuse.

This is in addition to his SC campaign chair dealing cocaine.

And for Romney? Robert Lichfield, co-chairman of Romney’s Utah finance committee owned or operated residential boarding schools for troubled teenagers where students were “subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse.

Catholic Church to Abandon Italy

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Seriously. Sane driving in Italy is about as likely as a corruption free Washington, DC, or a profanity free New York city.

The only way the Catholic Church can follow these rules is to leave Rome.

Forgive me, Father, for I have tailgated

For L.A. drivers already in gridlock hell, Vatican’s new road commandments strike little fear.
By Bob Pool and Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writers
June 21, 2007

n a city that worships the automobile, it may take divine intervention to get motorists to live by the Vatican’s new Ten Commandments for drivers.

That was the view of motorists as they contemplated “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” — and whether it was faster Wednesday morning taking the 5 or the 101 between the San Fernando Valley and downtown.

The new road rules call for “courtesy, uprightness and prudence” and condemns the use of cars as “an expression of power and domination” or for sinful purposes.

But while some drivers acknowledged they pray that they’ll find a parking space, they wondered if Vatican guidelines are really the solution to stopping that black Hummer from tailgating on the Santa Monica Freeway.

This week, the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers issued commandments, along with a suggestion that drivers perform the sign of the cross before switching on the ignition. It also recommended reciting the Catholic rosary, whose “rhythm and gentle repetition does not distract the driver’s attention,” as the council put it.

Roadways “shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm,” states the second commandment.

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Swedish man gets benefits for Black Sabbath addiction

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Ummmm….I gots to get me to Sweden

Swedish man gets benefits for Black Sabbath addiction

By Jan Libbenga
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 12:52 GMT

A Swedish man is to receive sickness benefits for his addiction to heavy metal music.

The lifestyle of 42-year-old dishwasher Roger Tullgren from Hässleholm in southern Sweden has been classified as a disability by the Swedish Employment Service, which has agreed to pay part of Tullgren’s salary, and his new boss has given him special dispensation to play loud music at work.

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Gripen to get AESA

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I’ve always thought that the Gripen has the possibility of being the Mirage III of its generation, as it is the smallest, cheapest, and cheapest to operate of the 4th generation aircraft.

Gripen to get AESA in mid-life upgrade
Keeping pace with the technology trend, Saab’s JAS39 Gripen is to be fitted with a multi-channel active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, likely to be introduced under a planned mid-life upgrade (MLU) that could come along as early as 2010.

Development of the AESA radar for Gripen started out under the Saab Ericsson NORA (Not Only a RAdar) programme, and has been underway for several years, including test flying aboard a specially-retained Saab JA-37 Viggen testbed. One of the main benefits of the NORA concept was the provision of improved long-range tracking as a result of the combination of longer detection range and electronically-steered beam control. The AESA radar programme is directly linked to MIDAS (Multifunction Integrated Defensive Avionics System), which will also add electronic attack and advanced datalinking capabilities.

Aerion refines supersonic business jet

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I find it rather odd that they are using a 43 year old engine on a supersonic jet. The JT8D first flew in in64.

PICTURE: Aerion refines supersonic business jet design
Aerion has enlarged the cabin of its supersonic business jet as it continues to fine tune the design in a bid to reassure potential manufacturing partners that the aircraft will achieve its weight and performance targets.

Meanwhile the forward fuselage has been reshaped to increase cabin height and width and improve the cockpit and windshield design.

The aft fuselage has been stretched and the tail shrunk to improve take-off performance and reduce weight and cruise drag.

Electrical and pneumatic system architectures have been studied in conjunction with United Technologies, while fuel system layout and sizing has been performed by Argo-Tech under contract to Aerion.

Engine reliability, operability and noise have been studied with Pratt & Whitney, manufacturer of the aircraft’s JT8D-219 turbofans, and Aerion says the inlet and nozzle designs are ready for a series of subscale noise and performance validation tests.

Aerion has still to decide how to validate the design tools developed to predict the extent of supersonic natural laminar flow achieved in flight, and critical to meeting the performance targets.

The company conducted supersonic rocket-sled tests last year, but encountered problems (Flight International, 17-23 October 2006).

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