Aristide Leaves Haiti, Foreign Peacekeepers Arrive; Security Is CIOs Biggest Headache, Study Shows; House Speaker Agrees to Extend 9/11 Panel Deadline; Could Brain-Mapping Replace Polygraph?

Aristide Leaves Haiti, Foreign Peacekeepers Arrive

Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s hold on the presidency of Haiti shattered Saturday night when he made a last-minute plea to the American ambassador that set off late-night phone calls to Washington, officials said on Sunday. According to The New York Times, Aristide telephoned Ambassador James B. Foley through an intermediary, and asked three things: what did he think was the best way to avoid bloodshed, what new security arrangements could be put in place for Haiti, and what were the choices of places that Aristide could go to in exile. He was encouraged to leave and told he could go anywhere. Shortly after midnight, Secretary Powell got the call, “He’s ready to move tonight,” the Times reports. The news made its way to Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, who woke President Bush sometime after 1:30 a.m. Sunday, and told him that Mr. Aristide would resign, according to a senior administration official. Bush then called Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, and gave him authorization to send in the Marines. The BBC News Online reports that French troops have landed in Haiti to join U.S. and Canadian soldiers in an international force to restore order. The first groups of about 50 French soldiers and 100 US marines will be followed by reinforcements in a mission backed by the United Nations. The UN Security Council authorized a force to stay in Haiti for up to three months to restore security and stability on Sunday night. The emergency resolution was passed unanimously. Security Is CIOs Biggest Headache, Study ShowsThe Register today. But security may not be the budget heading under which much of the spending occurs. Instead, it is likely that other projects, dealing with issues such as compliance, upgrades and modernization or management simplification and risk avoidance, could include substantial security-oriented benefits.

Security, upgrades and modernization, and budgets were the top three issues faced by Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in 2003, according to a new study by The Standish Group reported in

House Speaker Agrees to Extend 9/11 Panel Deadline CNN.com, after intense pressure from lawmakers and family members of victims, House Speaker Dennis Hastert reversed his position Friday and said he would not oppose granting a 60-day extension (until July 26) to the 10-member bipartisan commission looking into the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government responses and some U.S. intelligence before the attacks. Hastert said he had been reluctant to support the extension because he believes “the findings and recommendations that will be contained in your report may require immediate action” to help prevent further attacks, although earlier in the week, his spokesman said the speaker did not want the issue to become “a political football” by stretching its report further into the election year. Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg said on hearing the news. “We now feel we can write the best possible report for the American people,” CNN.com reports.

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Could Brain-Mapping Replace Polygraph?Seattle Post Intelligencer, Larry Farwell, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist working at the Washington Technology Center on the University of Washington campus, has developed a technique that measures brainwaves showing an involuntary and non-controllable mental response to information. It is based on an electrical signal in the brain known as a p300 wave. Named because it is an involuntary response to a recognized object or word that usually happens within 300 milliseconds, the phenomenon is widely accepted and not controversial within the neuroscience community. What’s controversial, the Post Intelligencer reports, is Farwell’s claim that he has figured out a foolproof way to use the p300 and a secondary, related electrical brain response to replace the much-maligned (and legally inadmissible) polygraph test. Farwell, who has patented his technique and conducted published research, agrees that more studies will be needed to objectively assess the effectiveness of brain fingerprinting. But he doesn’t think this means it shouldn’t also be put to use now.

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