reuters.com Fri February 28, 2003 09:30 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - If you thought Venezuela's political crisis seemed to be dragging for an impossibly long time -- you were right.

In a bizarre mass-malfunction, Venezuela's clocks are ticking too slowly due to a power shortage weakening the electric current nationwide. By the end of each day, the sluggish time pieces still have another 150 seconds to tick before they catch up to midnight.

"Everything that has to do with time-keeping has slowed down. If it's an electric clock, it's running slow," said Miguel Lara, general manager of the national power grid.

"Your computer isn't affected. Your television isn't affected. No other devices ... just clocks," he added.

The meltdown has taken a total 14 hours and 36 minutes from Venezuela's clocks over 12 of the past 13 months, he said.

www.voanews.com VOA News 27 Feb 2003, 23:13 UTC

Venezuelan authorities say a device has exploded near the home of Colombia's ambassador in Caracas.

Investigators say the blast happened Thursday, 40 meters from the home of Ambassador Maria Angela Holguin. The explosion damaged nearby buildings, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The trouble comes two days after twin explosions ripped through Colombia's consulate in Caracas, and the Spanish Embassy there.

At least four people were injured in the attacks that supporters and opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have blamed on each other.

Two days before the Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions were attacked, President Chavez accused Colombia, Spain and the United States of meddling in his country's internal affairs. The U.S. embassy in Caracas also closed for one day Thursday after receiving a threat.

The three nations had expressed concern about the recent arrest of a Venezuelan business leader, Carlos Fernandez, who helped organize a two-month general strike against Mr. Chavez. The two-month walkout was aimed at forcing the Venezuelan president to resign and call early elections.

Venezuela's government and the U.S. State Department have condemned the attacks on the diplomatic missions.

In a related development, the Reuters news agency says the six-member "Group of Friends" of Venezuela will meet in Brasilia March 10 in another bid to help the troubled Andean nation resolve its political crisis.

Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States comprise the group that was formed several weeks ago to help facilitate a dialogue between Venezuela's government and opposition.

www.serverworldmagazine.com

Following a tough year throughout the region, the Latin America server market suffered declines in shipments and revenue in 2002, according to Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Inc. Server shipments in Latin America declined 15.6 percent in 2002, while server revenue dropped 19.2 percent from 2001.

"While mostly large corporations are keeping up with their IT purchasing plans, medium and small-sized businesses are strongly affected by the contraction of the economies," said Lillian Alvarado, senior industry analyst covering servers for Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Latin America group.

Hewlett-Packard maintained the No. 1 position in server shipments, despite a 23.6 percent decline in shipments. Dell experienced the strongest growth rate in server shipments, as it grew 29.5 percent in 2002. Dell had strong growth in every country in the region, and increased its penetration in all segments of the market, including small business and government.

Argentina experienced a tremendous decline in shipments of 76.8 percent and 66.8 percent in revenue due to the financial crisis from which it is still suffering. Brazil also suffered negative growth in shipments and revenue as elections created wide speculation, which reflected on the volatility of the exchange rate toward the end of the year, making purchases of imported equipment more expensive. Conditions in Venezuela also deteriorated during the fourth quarter of 2002, as social unrest virtually paralyzed the country affecting shipments and revenue.

Reports can be accessed on the Internet at www.gartner.com.

www.computerworld.com By CAROL SLIWA FEBRUARY 24, 2003 Content Type: Story Source: Computerworld

Microsoft Corp. is counting on the virtual machine software that it acquired last week from Connectix Corp. to appeal to Windows NT Server 4.0 users who are interested in server consolidation and migration.

The Connectix Virtual Server software lets users run multiple distinct copies of server operating systems—including Windows, Linux and Unix—on a single physical machine.

But it's unclear how receptive users will be to the new Microsoft offering, since it won't become generally available until year's end and its arch competition, GSX Server from VMware Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., has been shipping for more than two years.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Connectix recently said its Virtual Server product would ship this quarter. But Jim Hebert, general manager of Microsoft's Windows server product management group, said security and code reviews, tuning and localization work will cause Microsoft to delay the product until the fourth quarter.

"Do I wait? They've never hit a deadline yet," said Tom Pane, a vice president of technology at New York-based AnnTaylor Stores Corp., which has been exploring server consolidation with VMware.

Cognizant that support is winding down for Windows NT Server 4.0, Pane said that the retailer has already begun its conversion to Windows 2000 and that he doesn't want to wait until next January to get off of NT.

"If they came out tomorrow with it, I'd buy it and evaluate it right away, because it solves my problem of trying to at least consolidate testing environments," Pane said.

Diane Greene, CEO of VMware, acknowledged that Microsoft had approached her company and that there were some discussions, but they didn't come to an agreement. She said VMware already has thousands of customers, adding that Microsoft's acquisition of Connectix "just amplifies our focus on delivering and continuing with our innovation and quality and providing full choice for our customers."

"It's a pretty large market," Greene said.

Tony Adams, a technology analyst at J.R. Simplot Co. in Boise, Idaho, said his company pared 30 physical servers to five boxes running VMware's GSX software during the past eight months. That move helped the company reduce the time needed to purchase, configure and deploy a server from two weeks to a couple of hours, according to Adams.

The company was so happy with the consolidation project that it's now planning to deploy 15 to 20 physical servers running VMware software for new applications.

Adams has seen Connectix, but he said Microsoft "would really have to do a much better job to win us over," since VMware has been a great fit. Plus, Adams said, he runs VMware's GSX software on Linux—something he wouldn't be able to do with the new Microsoft product.

Alejandro Bombaci, CIO at Empresas Polar, a consumer goods manufacturer and distributor in Caracas, Venezuela, said he would prefer to see hardware makers or third parties provide the virtual machine functionality, "so there will be more independence on the support for each operating system under the partitioning software."

Despite those sentiments, some analysts said they anticipate that many users will be more comfortable going with Microsoft's virtual machine software.

"You really want one vendor to deal with when you're dealing with operating systems," said Rob Enderle, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Giga Information Group Inc. Plus, Enderle said, he expects Microsoft to eventually build the virtual machine software into its operating system "to the point where they're almost giving the stuff away."

Hebert said that over time, the product might be included with the operating system. Virtualization software has become an increasingly popular consideration for Microsoft users coping with the problem of Windows server sprawl, since the software can help them reduce hardware expenses and operating costs.

"We were hearing from customers that getting a supportable virtual machine solution from Microsoft would be an attractive thing," Hebert said.

NT Server users often run a single application on each of their Windows servers, either because software vendors require it or because they worry that problems with or changes to an application will cause others to crash.

Hebert noted that as a result, much of the hardware running Windows NT Server 4.0 has gone underutilized. Yet because the hardware is nearing the end of depreciation schedules, some customers want to replace it, he said.

Rather than moving Windows NT applications onto new hardware that will be even more severely underutilized, the user can move it to new, faster hardware running the Virtual Server product, Hebert said. That would let several Windows NT servers be consolidated on a single box.

And there's an added benefit for Microsoft. Hebert noted that the Virtual Server software requires its own underlying operating system, and Microsoft hopes customers will choose to run the Virtual Server software on Windows Server 2003, due in April.

But not every company will be rushing to do Windows server consolidation. Jim Prevo, CIO at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. in Waterbury, Vt., said companies pay a premium for the larger servers. Plus, he said he would rather have less functionality off-line if a server crashes or needs to be taken down for an application upgrade.

Rick Stiegler, chief technology officer at Lending Tree Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., said his company's applications perform better on two-way servers than larger four-CPU boxes, so consolidation isn't in his company's plans.

Shopping List Microsoft last week acquired three software products from Connectix, in addition to its engineering and support teams. Virtual Server: Native Windows-based server application that enables users to run a broad range of operating systems in virtual machines - including Windows, Linux, Unix and OS/2 - concurrently on a single physical Intel server. Product is currently in beta-testing phase.

Virtual PC for Windows: Client software that allows users to run multiple PC-based operating systems - including Linux, NetWare, OS/2, Solaris and Windows - and applications simultaneously on a single workstation.

Virtual PC for Mac: Client software that lets Macintoshes run Windows applications, access PC networks and share files with PC-based users. Product provides functionality and compatibility of a Pentium PC through software emulation of the standard Intel chip set and other hardware components.

www.weeklystandard.com by Mansoor Ijaz 02/19/2003 12:00:00 AM

OSAMA BIN LADEN, or some good likeness of him, spoke from the ether again on two occasions last week, releasing two undated audiotapes as Muslims completed their pilgrimages to Mecca. His call to Jihad did not stop at tying himself to Iraq's people, by which he had clearly hoped to provoke Washington into immediate unilateral military action against Saddam Hussein. Nor did it end with his messianic recitation of verses in the Koran that clearly demonstrated he knows the end game is near. Predicting his martyrdom this year, he vowed to die in "the belly of the Eagle," an Islamist reference to ending his life in a final act of terror against the United States on our soil. The man, put simply, is on the run.

Bin Laden's cowardice shines through his rhetoric. For the first time since the September 11 attacks against the United States, bin Laden demonstrated fear through his choice of words. In setting forth plans for his suicide, he probably came to the conclusion that al Qaeda's retaliation infrastructure around the world had been so effectively and systematically dismantled by western intelligence that his terrorists may not be able to mount a credible response to any planned U.S. military action in Iraq in the near future. Like many Mafia bosses before him, he appears to have decided that when the going looks tough--the poison network in Europe, for example, has been decimated by defections and confessions--it's better to exit stage left.

While bin Laden's vision of dividing the West and driving a wedge between the United States and her allies, whether Arab or European, has become a political reality, his terrorist acts have not yet reached their intended crescendo--to use a weapon of mass destruction against civilians. That is why bin Laden spoke and why we need to quickly and effectively decipher what he is really trying to tell us.

A plethora of available but seemingly unconnected evidence provides important clues for what may be bin Laden's final act. To understand the data, we must be imaginative and accept that al Qaeda's highest military objective is the economic paralysis of the West--killing us softly, to quote Roberta Flack. Hardcore acts of terrorism against civilian targets that cause mass casualties are certainly a part of the al Qaeda Jihad thesis, but these acts are designed more for recruitment than long-term debilitating impact.

Constructing the Tools of Armageddon

AL QAEDA has explosives expertise that is unsurpassed in non-military circles. It gets military-grade C4 charges from China and Iran; it employs Hezbollah and Hamas guerillas trained in the fine arts of detonation devices (witness particularly the maritime attacks against the USS Cole and the French oil tanker); and it has brainwashed legions of men who are willing to die for the cause.

What's missing? Plutonium, and the scientific expertise to build a crude but highly explosive nuclear bomb. (Plutonium is more easily transported without detection and offers a bigger bang for the buck than typical enriched uranium devices.)

Who's supplying the material and expertise? North Korea, and, surprisingly, our ally in the war against al Qaeda, Pakistan. Pyongyang--with a lot of help from China (which is supplying key chemicals to separate plutonium from depleted uranium) and Pakistan (which gave North Korea its uranium enrichment centrifuges and tutored its nuclear scientists)--will be able to churn out Coke cans of plutonium at the rate of one per week by the end of March.

According to my intelligence sources in the Far East, the outlying renegade provinces of Indonesia (Aceh, for example) and the Philippines (where al Qaeda affiliate Abu Sayyaf rules) are infested with senior al Qaeda leaders. Each one is financially empowered to purchase North Korea's plutonium the moment it is reprocessed. Ayman Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, was reportedly in Indonesia last September, a month before the Bali bomb blast that killed 200 mostly Australian tourists. He could easily be there again.

We also know from published--and so far undisputed--reports that from February 2000 until July 2002, eight senior Pakistani nuclear scientists left their country without obtaining the required No Objection Certificates needed for travel abroad. They remain unaccounted for and at least some are reported to have traveled to Australia and Indonesia.

In a worst case scenario, al Qaeda could construct a crude but effective nuclear device in weeks, if not a month, from Hezbollah C4, North Korean plutonium, and a little nuclear expertise from disaffected Pakistani scientists. Making a "dirty" radiological dispersion device with Strontium or Cesium also remains an option, although it is clear that al Qaeda has the intent and resources to go for weapons that cause maximum collateral damage.

Add to this troubling possibility the fact that the terror group has resorted to the use of seafaring vessels to move its people around, and now has a fleet large and diverse enough that one or two could seamlessly move into a large harbor or congested waterway undetected, and a picture emerges of an unparalleled potential threat to the global economy from the paralysis that could be caused by a crude plutonium bomb exploding in the belly of an al Qaeda ship with bin Laden onboard.

The Targets

THE EASIEST TARGETS today for such an al Qaeda plot are Singapore harbor--the world's second largest seaport and the gateway to and from all trade done in the Far East--and the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which if irradiated could disrupt the normal flow of reasonably priced oil for half a century, no matter how much oil Alaska, Russia and Venezuela produce. There have been reports that easily accessed Australian ports, possibly even Sydney harbor, might be the target of an al-Qaeda dirty bomb plot. There are other potential targets with more symbolic value: the Panama Canal, to demonstrate al Qaeda can hit us again in our hemisphere; the Suez Canal, to hurt what bin Laden perceives as the traitorous Arab governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia simultaneously; and the Straits of Gibraltar, where al Qaeda cells in Morocco tried to launch an attack last year.

But the target closest to bin Laden's heart likely remains a seaport that would allow him to go to his Allah in the belly of the Eagle--perhaps on the western seaboard of the United States. One thing is sure: Bin Laden's ego and ethos will compel him to go out in a blaze of glory that will secure the recruitment of his legions for decades to come and enshrine him as one of history's most evil beings.

America has a moral responsibility to the rest of the world to get on with the onerous task of dismantling and destroying those who enable al Qaeda's evil designs. To delay or fail in this task is to watch the destruction of humanity, bit by bit, by men who never understood God or His teachings, and with whom we can never achieve peaceful co-existence.

Mansoor Ijaz, chairman of Crescent Investment Management in New York, negotiated Sudan's counterterrorism offer of data on al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and other terrorist groups to the Clinton administration in 1997. He also worked closely with Mujahedeen and Islamist leaders in Pakistan to enact the July 2000 cease-fire in Kashmir between Muslim separatists and India's security forces.