His name is Pedro "Kid Irish" Goldfarb.

Or something like that.

Federal authorities are accusing a former engineer at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station of illegally taking software codes to Iran and downloading details of control rooms, reactors and designs of the nation's largest nuclear plant.

Officers arrested Mohammad "Mo" Alavi, 49, in Los Angeles this month and charged him with one count of violating a trade embargo, which prohibits Americans from exporting goods and services to Iran.

Authorities say there is no evidence to suggest the use of the software was linked to terrorists or the Iranian government, which has clashed with the U.S. over attempts to develop a nuclear program.

"The investigation has not led us to believe this information was taken for the purpose of being used by a foreign government or terrorists to attack us," FBI spokeswoman Deborah McCarley told The Arizona Republic on Friday. "This does not appear to be terrorist-related."

Giving nuclear related software to an enemy regime which sponsors terrorism and is currently attempting to build terror nukes? Nah, not terrorist related at all.

I get the definition they're using, but it's a stingy definition, and they always trot out these unconnected-to-"terrorism" (as they define it) claims to downplay such incidents.

Officials with Arizona Public Service Co., which operates Palo Verde, said the software does not pose a security risk because it doesn't control any of the nuclear plant's operating systems and is mostly used to train employees.

Surely no terrorists would want to know how to control -- or sabotage -- an American nuclear plant, and surely Iran has no need of additional knowlege about the workings of a nuke.

...

Alavi, an Iranian native who has lived in the United States as a naturalized citizen since 1976, is being held without bail in California. Alavi's lawyer said Friday that he denies any wrongdoing.

"Mr. Alavi is a U.S. citizen. He respects the court process, and he asserts his innocence," said Milagros Cisneros of the Federal Defender's Office in Phoenix. She said the government's indictment of her client is "more smoke than fire."

She declined to address specific allegations in the indictment, including whether Alavi gained unauthorized access to software and bought a laptop computer weeks before he resigned and moved to Iran.

...

Wake said Alavi intended to immediately return to Iran to live.

"He has no intention of resuming residence in the United States," Wake said. "He is seeking employment in Iran, having invested $60,000 in a company with the expectation of getting employment. Alavi owns a house in Tehran valued at $150,000, in which relatives live."

Maximum sentence: 21 months.

And that's only on the table if they can prove the information fell "into the wrong hands."

Posted by: Ace at 10:36 AM | Comments (27)
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Gee, didn't a lot of people fret that giving Cho his Great Moment of Eternal Fame might spur on other bad actors with similar bad wiring and similar bad ambitions?

Two men have been killed in a siege at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

One of the dead men is believed to be the gunman and the other is thought to be a hostage.

A female hostage survived the siege.

Thanks, NBC.

NBC -- Proud as a Copycat.

Posted by: Ace at 03:19 PM | Comments (90)
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Everyone's got his own hobbyhorse, I guess.

So there's the movies-are-too-violent one. We've already heard the videogames-are-too-violent one, and of course the guns-are-too-violent one.

Rorsharch. Everyone sees what's already in their minds.

Posted by: Ace at 03:17 PM | Comments (56)
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God bless 'er.

On everyday ways to stay green: “Every time I go to the grocery store carrying my grocery sacks back from the time before, I feel happy. All the tiny things, I think, really do make a difference.”

Of course, she's building a $20 million "eco-friendly" home. Built chiefly out of, I guess, formerly "eco-friendly" dead trees. How many grocery bags you think she'll have to re-use to make up for putting so many carbon-sinking trees into the arboreal abattoir?

Of course, Sheryl Crowe's not going to be upstaged by Julia Roberts. She's got an even bolder idea. Limit on squares of toilet paper used per restroom visit? One.

Either she's thinking she doesn't need to wipe much more with her high-powered, water-wasting, energy-intensive superbidet (a modified form of the high-pressure showers they use to clean the genitals of circus bears), or I've got to think she's got a bad case of what's-gone-sour down south.

Correction: I've been emailed by representatives of Ms. Crowe that she does not in fact have a nasty case of junk-funk as I implied.

Her publicist assures me "Ms. Crowe shits lobster Thermidore and pisses melted butter."

So there you go. She doesn't need toilet paper so much as a bib.

Posted by: Ace at 02:44 PM | Comments (71)
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Hollowpoint asked what Fred Thompson's negatives were; Entropy posted this in response.

My favorite kind of post -- one I had nothing to do with at all, and one that isn't about cats (LauraW), videogames (AndrewR.), or the relentless stalkcourtship of Mary Katharine Ham (JackM.).

He voted for McCain-Feingold.

He's OK with affirmitive action with a mixed record.

His position on immigration has tracked hard right since his senate career. He now says this...

...but his senate record says this.

You have to note though he hasn't done a 180, just a 90. His record is bad on stuff like interior enforcement, asylum, and frivolous work visas, but his record was allways very good on border enforcement.

Also, there are some complaints about his effectiveness as a comitee chairmen during Clinton scandals and investigations, and though he's certainly been around washington, (campaign manager, counsel to intelligence comitees, US attorney, lobbyist, and senator, member of 'think tanks' and policy research centers, helped with the nomination of John Roberts, ect ect) he has no actual executive experience.

He's been divorced once and all his girlfriends were smoking hot with huge boobs even though he's old and bald.

He had lymphoma.

There all the substantial negatives I've found.

He's pro life, free trade, federalist, pro-gun, as hawkish as McCain or Guiliani, anti-tax, anti-spending, anti special rights (like gay marriage), anti-regulation, and pro-Israel. I mention because any one of these things might be considered a negative depending on your point of view - they sound pretty nifty to me.

So there you have it.

He also has the rap that he was pro-choice in his first senate run, but he denies that, attributing it to reportial incompetence.

One more thing: The divorce. We don't know the details of it, but we can guess, like most divorces, it wasn't pleasant, and the fact he divorced his wife of many years to later canoodled with hot young things (with impressive racks) suggests it's the sort of divorce that will turn off a lot of voters, the It's Time To Trade In/Trade Up Divorce.

The lack of serious executive experience is a big problem. Although among his rivals, McCain has none, Giuliani has quite a bit, but as exectuive of one of the most liberal cities in the world this side of Sodom, and Romney only did a four year term as governor of Massachusetts. Guiliani and Romney have a great deal more executive experience, but perhaps not so much that their advantage will mean much in the end.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (74)
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Hmmmm... I wonder why "French identity" is so important to Frenchmen.

The current polling is just to limit the field of 12 down to 2 for a run-off later. Sarkozy may be French, but he's the most pro "Anglocapitalism" candidate the French political system is likely to produce.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (15)
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Sometimes reality needs to be tweaked so that the morons can understand.

Oh, they'll claim the tinting -- going from pretty blue skies to thick brown miasma -- was just "color correction."

Okay, whatever.

But how about the intentional blackening in the upper left hand corner? That actually matches up the dark blue area of the unaltered pick (not the empty sky) because the photo has been cropped, but even tinging from blue to brown should shift dark blue to dark brown -- not black.

Via Hot Air.

Meanwhile... The theme song for last week's "Global Warming" rallies was Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Global Warming

Our precious ecoplanet is becoming catastrophically hot. Pack a sweater.

Manipulating The Photo... at MyPetJawa to prove it's been doctored (as if it's necessary).

My bad, sort of, on the remark about "blackening" the clouds. Again -- sort of. Jawa's manipulation, which is not merely color correction but increasing the opacitiy by 50%, results in clouds that are almost (but not quite) black.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (7)
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Hopefully he sent NBC a media package.

Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (13)
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Hey, I guess we're not the only ones.

Posted by: Ace at 12:06 PM | Comments (5)
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Presumably closing the previous loophole allowing gansters and assassins to own guns.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (10)
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