The Attorney-General’s department, struggling to explain why ASIO needs wider powers, chooses the fish.
Intelligence
Wikileaks New powers mean ASIO could spy on WikiLeaks
A new bill that has received little attention will dramatically expand ASIO’s powers to spy overseas, including on organisations like WikiLeaks.
Spy games: Mossad agent ousting
pre-arranged?
A former top-level spy says the Rudd Government’s ousting of a Mossad agent from Canberra was almost certainly brokered behind the scenes by top-level Israeli and Australian officials.
The US hasn’t had any good bin Laden intel in years
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has admitted the government hasn’t had any good intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden “in years”. So where the bloody hell is he?
The 25 smartest people of the decade
The Daily Beast names its picks for the 25 greatest minds of the noughties, including Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Arianna Huffington and Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
Why a high IQ doesn’t mean you’re smart
Why do “smart” people do stupid things? IQ tests are good at measuring things like logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity — but they can’t tell if you’re a dumb-ass.
Bush wasn’t dumb, just superficial
A new paper analysing George Dubbya Bush’s psyche says it’s a myth he’s stupid — his IQ is in the top 10% of the population — he’s just “intellectually lazy”, and thus prone to make stupid decisions.
How Cuban spies sent the US on a post-9/11 wild goose chase
In the six months after 9/11, Cuban agents around the world sent US intelligence on a wild goose chase by providing them with false terrorism tip-offs. It’s allegedly all part of a wider Cuban espionage plot to “mislead, misinform and identify” US spies.
Machines will be smarter than humans within 10 years
Artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence by 2020, according to one expert. Is the human race engineering our own demise? Is civilisation nearing the Singularity? All hail our new robot overlords.
Cloaks, daggers and keffiyehs: the Middle East’s most powerful spooks
Meet the five intelligence chiefs who wield the most power and influence in the Middle East, a region renowned for its “cutthroat espionage”.
Beautiful brainiacs
Jeremy Taylor rounds up the Hollywood starlets who’ve plucked greedily from the genetic pile, grabbing both beauty and brains.
Obama administration: too smart for their own good?
The thing to remember about smart people is how dumb they can be, writes David Von Drehle.
