Gates Says Security and Privacy Are Compatible; House Wants to Boost Military Spending; Bush Says US Will Not Torture Terror Suspects

Gates Says Security and Privacy Are Compatible

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said yesterday that threats of massive digital disruptions and other forms of cyberterrorism are real, but the effort to defend against those attacks doesn’t mean Americans must give up their right to privacy, according to an article in ComputerWorld. The magazine reports that Gates, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Information Technology Industry Council, said Microsoft continues to work on the next-generation security computing base that will integrate new security and privacy technologies into a future version of the Windows operating system. House Wants to Boost Military SpendingNew York Times. The Times reports that the measure provides $74 billion to buy new aircraft, $64 billion for weapons research, $11.5 billion for shipbuilding, $9 billion for missile defense and $458 million for tanks and other armored vehicles.

The House of Representatives endorsed another increase in military spending today as the Appropriations Committee approved a $368.7 billion measure for the next fiscal year that is packed with new hardware, according to a story in the

Bush Says US Will Not Torture Terror SuspectsWashington Post reports that the Bush administration pledged yesterday for the first time that the United States will not torture terrorism suspects or treat them cruelly in an attempt to extract information, a move that comes as the deaths of two Afghan prisoners in U.S. custody are being investigated as homicides. The Post reports that the Bush administration typically prevents prisoners from contacting attorneys or asserting rights to fair treatment, and that U.S. authorities have refused to identify the large majority of detainees or release any information about them, arguing that such data could help terrorists.

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