Briefly noted

Smart cluster bomb hunts targets down
THE U.S. air force is seeking to develop a cluster weapon which releases a swarm of bomblets that could each pursue and destroy targets many kilometers away, New Scientist has learned. “This is a dangerous and very worrying development,” says Noel Sharkey, a specialist in the ethics of autonomous systems at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Sharkey has argued that giving a robot the power to decide when and who to attack raises serious practical and ethical questions, and says the same would apply to the proposed weapon. The U.S. Department of Defense revealed its requirements for the weapon in an online research request. In it, the air force asked American aerospace firms to submit proposals by 24 September for a weapon that “engages multiple targets” using “guided smart submunitions.”

Anthrax-case affidavits add to bizarre portrait
A judgeunsealed a new batch of court documents in the anthrax case on Wednesday, filling in further details of the bizarre behavior of Bruce E. Ivins, the Army scientist who the FBI has said carried out the letter attacks of 2001. Last September, according to a sworn statement from an FBI. agent, Ivins sent himself an exuberant e-mail message under the heading “Finally! I know Who mailed the anthrax!” He did not identify the perpetrator but said he was close to assembling the final proof.

New FISMA bill gets committee OK
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee yesterday approved a Senate bill that would update the Federal Information Security Management Act. S. 3474, The FISMA Act of 2008, was introduced Sept. 11 by Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware) to address concerns that FISMA compliance had become a paperwork drill without ensuring improved IT security. The bill would require annual security audits by agencies and would give chief information security officers broader authority to enforce FISMA requirements.

L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract expansion
L-1 Identity Solutions, Inc. a leading provider of identity solutions and services, today announced that the L-1 Secure Credentialing Division received a three and a half year, $5.9 million contract expansion from the state of Mississippi (MS). The contract calls for 51 complete new driver’s license issuance workstations from L-1 to be used throughout the state’s Department of Public Safety locations. MS issues more than 750,000 licenses annually.