Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Bush vs Chirac, and the Turks
At the NATO summit, George W. Bush made time for a demarche on the subject of Turkish membership of the EU, which angered Jacques Chirac. Chirac responded that
"It's as if I was advising the US on how they should manage their relations with Mexico."Indeed. I am sure both the Turks and the French conservatives I am sure he was thinking of will appreciate the analogy. France = the US, Turkey = Mexico. So you're all dirty thieving wetbacks. How communautaire and solidariste.
We've been here before
Well, that's supposedly it. Calamity Paul Bremer handed over Iraq two days early and was out of the country the same night. If anyone thinks this is anything else than a response to some really ugly intelligence warning about (part-)independence day, they must be astonishingly naive. As Mountbatten's chief of staff put it about the decision to bring Indian independence forward by a year, "in the spring of 1947 India was a ship on fire with ammunition in the hold." Well, the trick worked in so far as Bremer's chopper to the airport and C-130 out of theatre got away. For the rest, we shall see. Allawi's official residence, I see, is an old-regime guest house next to Saddam's palace. He has to be a guest because, although the CPA has "ceased to exist" the Yanks still need the whole thing for office space. You might have thought that, now all their administrative or executive functions are naturally to be given back to the Iraqis, they wouldn't need so much office space. Obviously there's something there I am too stupid to get. Bremer has managed to get through the appointment of the new intelligence chief and national security adviser on five year terms, just in case Allawi loses the election. And they've already picked the election commission too.
A tiresome fake, in short, rather like the note handed to Bush at the NATO summit informing him of the ceremony and oh-so-casually scribbled over "let freedom reign". Clearly a cheap PR stunt, as it was spelt correctly. Meanwhile, the real news was that a US soldier, Specialist Keith Maupin, was killed after being taken hostage. A US Marine is also currently captive. And a British soldier, Gordon Gobbie, a 19 year old private from Glasgow in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, was blown to bits. Naturally he wasn't there, as Iraq is now free and sovereign, nor was he really killed, as it is a country at peace.
A tiresome fake, in short, rather like the note handed to Bush at the NATO summit informing him of the ceremony and oh-so-casually scribbled over "let freedom reign". Clearly a cheap PR stunt, as it was spelt correctly. Meanwhile, the real news was that a US soldier, Specialist Keith Maupin, was killed after being taken hostage. A US Marine is also currently captive. And a British soldier, Gordon Gobbie, a 19 year old private from Glasgow in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, was blown to bits. Naturally he wasn't there, as Iraq is now free and sovereign, nor was he really killed, as it is a country at peace.
Tech Active report
So, I did indeed attend Tech Active yesterday. Key points of the discussion, held in the all-white but strangly ransacked looking premises of the Stanhope Centre, covered a wide range of problems related to political campaigning and technology. A curious crowd, made up of equal parts tech-hipster/German video artist types in painfully fashionable (but ugly) late 70s threads and pale, pudgy deep geeks in painfully unfashionable (but ugly) sweaters. The Random Reality blogger (see sidebar) was there, but I somehow failed to spot him.
Talking points: the crucial importance of technocratic as opposed to legislative organisations. Cory Doctorow made this point with regard to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the OECD and ICAO. These standard-setting bodies have frequently been used to push through measures that are shot down by national democracies - if you can get it written into the international standard, then it will either be possible to present it as inevitable or slip it through in unglamourous regulations, a process described as "policy laundering". Another form of policy laundering is, of course, transferring it into another context. Typical of this are the measures that were attached to security or defence related legislation - one third of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, for example, deals with technology issues. Alternatively, technocratisation gets things off the main political agenda.
Gus Hosein of the LSE and Privacy International, who raised the ATCSA 2001 point above, criticised civil society organisations heavily on a variety of grounds - disunity, duplication, competition, self-seeking, inaction, national divides and the possibility of fake NGOs. (I referred to the post below concerning Russian attempts to recruit loyal NGOS.) There was a further issue concerning the divide between traditional campaigning groups, who tend to have the advantage of perspective, membership base and experience but are web-ignorant, and techie groups blind to real world issues. Doctorow produced an alternative to this critique in the twin problems of "nerd fatalism" (if they want to read my mail they'll do it anyway) and "nerd determinism" (our superior technology will eventually destroy them). Despite being opposite to each other, the effect is the same - inaction/apathy. Doctorow and Hosein agreed that a "rich ecosystem" of different tactics was needed to overcome these splits.
Hosein pointed out another form of context shifting or policy laundering with reference to the case of a schoolboy whose parents discovered he was to be fingerprinted to use the library, and to border control - either "Get them while they're young" or "Get them while they're foreign". I brought up the education cards plan I covered back in May, which still seems to evade much scrutiny. Conclusions, finally, were that everyone agreed that the internet is a force multiplier for traditional campaigning, however there was little consensus on whether or not it has any political role of its own.
All in all, it was a fascinating couple of hours. The people I promised links to will get them today.
Talking points: the crucial importance of technocratic as opposed to legislative organisations. Cory Doctorow made this point with regard to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the OECD and ICAO. These standard-setting bodies have frequently been used to push through measures that are shot down by national democracies - if you can get it written into the international standard, then it will either be possible to present it as inevitable or slip it through in unglamourous regulations, a process described as "policy laundering". Another form of policy laundering is, of course, transferring it into another context. Typical of this are the measures that were attached to security or defence related legislation - one third of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, for example, deals with technology issues. Alternatively, technocratisation gets things off the main political agenda.
Gus Hosein of the LSE and Privacy International, who raised the ATCSA 2001 point above, criticised civil society organisations heavily on a variety of grounds - disunity, duplication, competition, self-seeking, inaction, national divides and the possibility of fake NGOs. (I referred to the post below concerning Russian attempts to recruit loyal NGOS.) There was a further issue concerning the divide between traditional campaigning groups, who tend to have the advantage of perspective, membership base and experience but are web-ignorant, and techie groups blind to real world issues. Doctorow produced an alternative to this critique in the twin problems of "nerd fatalism" (if they want to read my mail they'll do it anyway) and "nerd determinism" (our superior technology will eventually destroy them). Despite being opposite to each other, the effect is the same - inaction/apathy. Doctorow and Hosein agreed that a "rich ecosystem" of different tactics was needed to overcome these splits.
Hosein pointed out another form of context shifting or policy laundering with reference to the case of a schoolboy whose parents discovered he was to be fingerprinted to use the library, and to border control - either "Get them while they're young" or "Get them while they're foreign". I brought up the education cards plan I covered back in May, which still seems to evade much scrutiny. Conclusions, finally, were that everyone agreed that the internet is a force multiplier for traditional campaigning, however there was little consensus on whether or not it has any political role of its own.
All in all, it was a fascinating couple of hours. The people I promised links to will get them today.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Allawi and those "models of democracy"
I know it's terribly eurocentric and arrogant to complain about this sort of thing, and we should be tolerant of alternative cultural values, but is anyone else worried by Iyad Allawi's assertion that "Iraqi democracy should not be a replica of models imported from America, Britain or any other country"? Now, this is all very well, but democracy itself was imported into most democracies. The word is Greek, and the theory is to a large extent drawn from the French and English revolutions, the Roman republic, and the various city states of the Renaissance. It's true that each country that has created a democracy in the fairly narrow sense has worked out its own practice of democracy, but the stockpile of ideas has a definite history of its own.
We have heard a lot about a whole range of countries finding their own way to democracy and how we should not impose our values on them. Remember "Asian values"? "Guided democracy"? "People's democracy"? Even Speer's notion of "Germanic democracy", which you can probably guess? What they all had in common was that they weren't particularly democratic, being variations either on autocracy or on bureaucratic totalitarianism. Either The Party or The Big Boss was in charge, ruling in the first version through a modern police state (either fascist or Leninist) or in the second through a mixture of clientelism and control of the army (in a word, dictatorship). Allawi's emerging policy certainly seems to be going that way, what with the idea of declaring martial law and increasing signs that he intends to co-opt the more conservative insurgents. After all, if Iraq's future state is to be based on Iraqi models, there's a choice of either a monarchy based on the army and the manipulation of tribal clienteles or a totalitarian party-state based on surveillance and exemplary terror. Great.
What will Allawi's rule look like? Probably an uneasy mixture of trying to look western in Baghdad under the noses of world opinion and of the Americans, with lots of ICDC and police and a reconstructed secret police behind the scenes, whilst the countryside will be run on what might be called the Fallujah model, a coalition of the more conservative insurgent leaders and ex-Ba'athis. (Fallujah seems to be evolving into a conservative-Islamist mosque state with old Ba'athi generals providing the muscle, in fact the insurgents' de facto capital as I predicted some time ago. Juan Cole)
It's all rather strange when you think that it's the neo cons who usually talk about that "soft racism of low expectations". But here's the kicker - the new state they are creating in Iraq is exactly the kind of dictatorship that their criticism of the Left assumes we think is all the Iraqis can achieve.
We have heard a lot about a whole range of countries finding their own way to democracy and how we should not impose our values on them. Remember "Asian values"? "Guided democracy"? "People's democracy"? Even Speer's notion of "Germanic democracy", which you can probably guess? What they all had in common was that they weren't particularly democratic, being variations either on autocracy or on bureaucratic totalitarianism. Either The Party or The Big Boss was in charge, ruling in the first version through a modern police state (either fascist or Leninist) or in the second through a mixture of clientelism and control of the army (in a word, dictatorship). Allawi's emerging policy certainly seems to be going that way, what with the idea of declaring martial law and increasing signs that he intends to co-opt the more conservative insurgents. After all, if Iraq's future state is to be based on Iraqi models, there's a choice of either a monarchy based on the army and the manipulation of tribal clienteles or a totalitarian party-state based on surveillance and exemplary terror. Great.
What will Allawi's rule look like? Probably an uneasy mixture of trying to look western in Baghdad under the noses of world opinion and of the Americans, with lots of ICDC and police and a reconstructed secret police behind the scenes, whilst the countryside will be run on what might be called the Fallujah model, a coalition of the more conservative insurgent leaders and ex-Ba'athis. (Fallujah seems to be evolving into a conservative-Islamist mosque state with old Ba'athi generals providing the muscle, in fact the insurgents' de facto capital as I predicted some time ago. Juan Cole)
It's all rather strange when you think that it's the neo cons who usually talk about that "soft racism of low expectations". But here's the kicker - the new state they are creating in Iraq is exactly the kind of dictatorship that their criticism of the Left assumes we think is all the Iraqis can achieve.
Just when do you become a tyrant?
Kremlin Looking for Loyal NGOs
It is reported that the Russian government is trying to build up a base of friendly NGOs as a counterweight to the numerous campaign groups that are about the only effective opposition left in Russia. First question - is an NGO created to be nice to the Kremlin "nongovernmental" in any way? Given the way in which fake democracy seems to be the up-and-coming form of state, should we perhaps invent a new term to describe a fake NGO? Quango, of course, stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, but it's not quite the same thing. A quango usually has some sort of administrative or scrutiny function, and the term is specifically British. OSIOG, perhaps - Organisation Supposedly Independent of Government? What about False Undertaking Created by King's Organisations For Fronts? Or FRont Organisation Not to be Trusted?
It's all very Soviet, harking back to the days of fraternal delegations and world congresses for this, that and the other, usually with one KGB-funded and one CIA-funded body for each worthy subject. (One never hears of a World Congress for War.) But that's hardly surprising, when you note this par:
It is reported that the Russian government is trying to build up a base of friendly NGOs as a counterweight to the numerous campaign groups that are about the only effective opposition left in Russia. First question - is an NGO created to be nice to the Kremlin "nongovernmental" in any way? Given the way in which fake democracy seems to be the up-and-coming form of state, should we perhaps invent a new term to describe a fake NGO? Quango, of course, stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, but it's not quite the same thing. A quango usually has some sort of administrative or scrutiny function, and the term is specifically British. OSIOG, perhaps - Organisation Supposedly Independent of Government? What about False Undertaking Created by King's Organisations For Fronts? Or FRont Organisation Not to be Trusted?
It's all very Soviet, harking back to the days of fraternal delegations and world congresses for this, that and the other, usually with one KGB-funded and one CIA-funded body for each worthy subject. (One never hears of a World Congress for War.) But that's hardly surprising, when you note this par:
"Most of the organizations that took part in Tuesday's meeting are unknown to human rights activists, and those that are known tend to have roots in Soviet times. For example, one of the participants, the Federation of Peace and Agreement, is the successor to the Soviet Committee for Peace Defense, founded in 1949. It was members of this group who traveled to the West in the early perestroika years, in 1986 and 1987, to speak about improvements in human rights. The organization is now involved in the vague task of defending peace in the world, according to its web site."Indeed. I suppose the world in that does not include Chechnya, seeing as the excluded from Mr. Lavrov's meeting include all the orgs that have spent the last few years publicising the real dirt about the war there. Sounds to me like one of those clubs whose greatest compliment is to refuse you membership. Anyone for a Salon des Refuses?
Fatal attack on Chinese in Afghan province "not terrorism," minister says
CNEWS:Fatal attack on Chinese in Afghan province "not terrorism," minister says
Canadian news site reports that the bombing of a peacekeeping force vehicle and the murder of some 11 Chinese workers in northern Afghanistan was "not terrorism". These supposed non-attacks non-occurred in Kunduz on the 10th fo June. Kunduz, significantly, is the first town outside Kabul to get a detachment of ISAF peacekeepers, in this case German troops. (You know, those evil, corrupt, weak on terrorism Germans.) But - according to the Afghan Interior Minister - this wasn't terrorism, but perhaps "competition between rival companies". Companies in what business? This sounds more like the infamous incident when two Kandahari Taliban leaders shot it out in tanks to settle a dispute over their favourite dancing boy. What with things like this "non-terrorist" massacre and Iraqi PM Allawi's statement that models of democracy "imported from other countries" can't apply to Iraq, our world democratic crusade is clearly doing fine.
Canadian news site reports that the bombing of a peacekeeping force vehicle and the murder of some 11 Chinese workers in northern Afghanistan was "not terrorism". These supposed non-attacks non-occurred in Kunduz on the 10th fo June. Kunduz, significantly, is the first town outside Kabul to get a detachment of ISAF peacekeepers, in this case German troops. (You know, those evil, corrupt, weak on terrorism Germans.) But - according to the Afghan Interior Minister - this wasn't terrorism, but perhaps "competition between rival companies". Companies in what business? This sounds more like the infamous incident when two Kandahari Taliban leaders shot it out in tanks to settle a dispute over their favourite dancing boy. What with things like this "non-terrorist" massacre and Iraqi PM Allawi's statement that models of democracy "imported from other countries" can't apply to Iraq, our world democratic crusade is clearly doing fine.
First Clues on UKIP's real policy
What You Can Get Away With - Nick Barlow's weblog
It appears that UKIP's Nick Croucher has very clear ideas on the content of that "free trade agreement" they think we could have with the EU in the event of withdrawal. Apparently he's only going "to Europe" (eh? he's standing on it!) in order to fill the back of his 4x4 with "cheap fags and booze". What a surprise. Ukipper drives gas guzzler, avoids taxes. Now, however, we can begin to pencil in some detail for that agreement on the basis of the 'kippers' own behaviour. Clearly, there would be no possibility of tobacco or alcohol sales being subject either to the EU external tariff or to the old UK Customs regime (one bottle of spirits, 25 mechanical lighters and how much perfume was it?). After all, that would seriously harm our Nick's booze cruises. And any restriction on the movement of capital or land ownership is clearly out given Kilroy Slick's Portuguese hacienda.
So - no possibility of reimposing duty on imports of drink and fags. Could have some consequences for their budget proposals. But so long as Nick gets his cheap Marlboros and piss-weak Saint Omer beer multipacks from the East Enders Hypermarket, all is good...
It appears that UKIP's Nick Croucher has very clear ideas on the content of that "free trade agreement" they think we could have with the EU in the event of withdrawal. Apparently he's only going "to Europe" (eh? he's standing on it!) in order to fill the back of his 4x4 with "cheap fags and booze". What a surprise. Ukipper drives gas guzzler, avoids taxes. Now, however, we can begin to pencil in some detail for that agreement on the basis of the 'kippers' own behaviour. Clearly, there would be no possibility of tobacco or alcohol sales being subject either to the EU external tariff or to the old UK Customs regime (one bottle of spirits, 25 mechanical lighters and how much perfume was it?). After all, that would seriously harm our Nick's booze cruises. And any restriction on the movement of capital or land ownership is clearly out given Kilroy Slick's Portuguese hacienda.
So - no possibility of reimposing duty on imports of drink and fags. Could have some consequences for their budget proposals. But so long as Nick gets his cheap Marlboros and piss-weak Saint Omer beer multipacks from the East Enders Hypermarket, all is good...
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Nanniebots - eventually a test
Those Nanniebots from the spring have been back in the news. Andy Pryke was able to take part in a supposed test of the system at Jim Wightman's place, and discovered that the replies it produced were identical to those from a much older AI called ALICE. He also offered to produce the source code, but was kiboshed by a (convenient?) power cut before he could load a CD he said contained it.
Thanks to Ray Girvan, Waxy, for keeping on the story. BTW, I lost the link to Ray's blog in a site recovery that went wrong in early May and I've only just realised - sorry.
Thanks to Ray Girvan, Waxy, for keeping on the story. BTW, I lost the link to Ray's blog in a site recovery that went wrong in early May and I've only just realised - sorry.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Melanie Phillips - she's not different, she's special!
Last night's TV. What a great subject for a blog post.
Newsnight last night was taken up by the BBC's favourite post-Hutton pastime - broadcasting earnest discussions of its own failings. On the panel was Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, who had a number of curious things to say about Andrew Gilligan, reporting and her own product. Having retrospectively castigated him at length for mixing fact and opinion, she was taken to task by the presenter over statements in her own work regarding the European constitution. These, it was argued, were matters of opinion presented as fact or, at least, as equivalent to fact. She replied that this was all right because she "was entirely confident" of them.
Well, Mr. Gilligan was entirely confident of his report, too. And, after all, where are the weapons? But this, of course, was treacherous mendacity only permitted to be broadcast by the bias she stated was inherent in all facets of the BBC's output, especially the choice of interviewees (Eh?). Now, I remember that in my first year at university a really nasty put-down went the rounds that had obviously been adapted from some well-meaning effort to kibosh prejudice against the disabled. After someone had recounted someone else's brain fart, you put on a pink voice and replied "I'm not different, I'm special!" Quite clearly, the criteria that apply to Gilligan don't apply to Phillips. She's not different - you get the rest...
Newsnight last night was taken up by the BBC's favourite post-Hutton pastime - broadcasting earnest discussions of its own failings. On the panel was Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, who had a number of curious things to say about Andrew Gilligan, reporting and her own product. Having retrospectively castigated him at length for mixing fact and opinion, she was taken to task by the presenter over statements in her own work regarding the European constitution. These, it was argued, were matters of opinion presented as fact or, at least, as equivalent to fact. She replied that this was all right because she "was entirely confident" of them.
Well, Mr. Gilligan was entirely confident of his report, too. And, after all, where are the weapons? But this, of course, was treacherous mendacity only permitted to be broadcast by the bias she stated was inherent in all facets of the BBC's output, especially the choice of interviewees (Eh?). Now, I remember that in my first year at university a really nasty put-down went the rounds that had obviously been adapted from some well-meaning effort to kibosh prejudice against the disabled. After someone had recounted someone else's brain fart, you put on a pink voice and replied "I'm not different, I'm special!" Quite clearly, the criteria that apply to Gilligan don't apply to Phillips. She's not different - you get the rest...
UK/Iranian frontier incident
As heavily reported, the Iranians have seized three speed boats belonging to the Royal Naval party in southern Iraq after they allegedly crossed the border between Iran and Iraq. The people involved are engaged in setting up an Iraqi river police for the area (chalk up another bunch of gunmen to us! I hope I'm being too cynical), as well as attempting to catch smugglers in the Shatt al-Arab and the delta. It's the sort of thing that follows a pattern - hyperventilation all round and impressed announcements that those involved had "maps!" and "weapons!" as if that was surprising. And they are always "commandos". It was much the same when the Spanish police briefly arrested a group of supposed SAS personnel travelling by road to Gibraltar. They didn't have any weapons, it turned out - just maps and warry-looking rucksacks, but it didn't stop them from being identified on TV.
Numerous blogs are speculating that there is some link with the continuing diplomacy over Iranian nuclear ambitions, but I doubt there is any connection. This is a kind of diplomatic event that is even more ritualised than most, and if a NATO and EU partner state behaves in exactly the same way when they find someone carrying a MoD Form 90 identity card, it's only to be expected that Iran would. Iranian state TV says they will be "prosecuted" but this is likely for domestic consumption only. I predict that this will be resolved and largely forgotten within the Ali Campbell nine days' deadline.
More broadly, I don't really buy in to the idea that Iran is terrified by the occupation of Iraq. I'm sure they are intelligent enough to judge by capabilities, not by flags stuck in a map, and the US army camped in Iraq is not in a position to invade anywhere when all its efforts are absorbed in local security. The US would need enough troops to win in Iran plus an occupation force capable of covering the rear in Iraq, and at a time of serious overstretch it just doesn't happen. Add to that the fact that Iran can press the Shia button and set the south-central sector on fire at any time and I suspect they sleep well.
Numerous blogs are speculating that there is some link with the continuing diplomacy over Iranian nuclear ambitions, but I doubt there is any connection. This is a kind of diplomatic event that is even more ritualised than most, and if a NATO and EU partner state behaves in exactly the same way when they find someone carrying a MoD Form 90 identity card, it's only to be expected that Iran would. Iranian state TV says they will be "prosecuted" but this is likely for domestic consumption only. I predict that this will be resolved and largely forgotten within the Ali Campbell nine days' deadline.
More broadly, I don't really buy in to the idea that Iran is terrified by the occupation of Iraq. I'm sure they are intelligent enough to judge by capabilities, not by flags stuck in a map, and the US army camped in Iraq is not in a position to invade anywhere when all its efforts are absorbed in local security. The US would need enough troops to win in Iran plus an occupation force capable of covering the rear in Iraq, and at a time of serious overstretch it just doesn't happen. Add to that the fact that Iran can press the Shia button and set the south-central sector on fire at any time and I suspect they sleep well.
Monday, June 21, 2004
They did it! First independent spaceflight
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Private craft makes space history
They did it! Burt Rutan's outfit went to space!
Best news all year!
They did it! Burt Rutan's outfit went to space!
Best news all year!
Sunday, June 20, 2004
What is wrong with these people?
So - having besieged Fallujah for weeks without success, you hand it over to a new and rather vague "Fallujah Brigade" in the hope that they will be less provocative (with the subtext that it's a Kosovo Protection Corps-style way of incorporating the gunmen into something quasi-legitimate). Then, without apparently considering any further, you call in an airstrike on a house in the middle of the city, killing 22.
What kind of sense is this supposed to make? How are the Fallujah Brigade meant to even survive if their ally tries to make arrests with a 500lb bomb in their patch? The retaliation will come and it will come right to them, if not from within their own ranks. And what then? The risk in giving up the siege once it started was always that it would validate the insurgents' control of the area, giving them or a front for them effective power there. If the Brigade dissolves, will the Marines be called back in? And what is the point of doing what is in effect an arrest operation with an F-16? Surely this could have been achieved quietly, simply and without unnecessary destruction by sending a truckload of squaddies around to the address to arrest the people concerned and search the place? That way, of course, there would also be the benefit of whatever information might be obtained by searching the building. It all reminds me of Operation Iron Hammer and the mad firing of an ATACMS missile at a house 120 miles away.
What kind of sense is this supposed to make? How are the Fallujah Brigade meant to even survive if their ally tries to make arrests with a 500lb bomb in their patch? The retaliation will come and it will come right to them, if not from within their own ranks. And what then? The risk in giving up the siege once it started was always that it would validate the insurgents' control of the area, giving them or a front for them effective power there. If the Brigade dissolves, will the Marines be called back in? And what is the point of doing what is in effect an arrest operation with an F-16? Surely this could have been achieved quietly, simply and without unnecessary destruction by sending a truckload of squaddies around to the address to arrest the people concerned and search the place? That way, of course, there would also be the benefit of whatever information might be obtained by searching the building. It all reminds me of Operation Iron Hammer and the mad firing of an ATACMS missile at a house 120 miles away.
The Withnail Theory of Terrorism
The mighty Talking Points Memo has an interview with Anonymous, the spook author of Imperial Hubris, the book in which he bashes Bush's counterterrorist policy comprehensively. TPM and Anon discuss Saudi Arabia (or next month's outrage, as I've decided to call it) and establish that al-Qa'ida apparently operates on the principles laid down in Withnail and I in the scene where Withnail is reading the newspaper. Let us recap:
Compare:
WITHNAIL: This vast head like a cannonball...is now considered sane. Jeff Wode is feeling better! And is now ready to step back into society and start tossing his orb about!....(pensively)Imagine the size of his balls....(suddenly)Imagine getting into a fight with the fucker!
MARWOOD(weakly): Please. I don't feel well.
WITHNAIL: That's what you'd say. But that wouldn't wash with Jeff. He'd probably like a bit of pleading. Adds spice to it! In fact, he'd probably tell you what he was gonna do to you....before he did it! Hmmm...(mimicing Wode)I'm going to pull your head off. (pleading)Please. Please, don't pull my head off. (Wode again)I'm going to pull your head off - because I don't like your head!
Compare:
"Which perhaps is the most important trademark for al-Qaeda: they tell you what they’re going to do and then they do it."Yes, I know it's bad taste, but the chance to think of al-Qa'ida as the Jeff Wodes of today is too good to miss.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Things are getting better in Iraq
Just not for our side.
The chart shows numbers of "significant activities" by insurgents. Blue line is the daily total, red is the moving average. From Global Security
The chart shows numbers of "significant activities" by insurgents. Blue line is the daily total, red is the moving average. From Global Security
Dancing in the Green Zone
In the week that Kabul's first gastropub opened for business, Phil Carter's Intel Dump has a great post on the bar scene that has developed inside the walls of the Baghdad Green Zone. Apparently, the Zone's hottest ticket is the CIA disco. Complete with mirrorball and (sprung I hope) dance floor.
I suppose the company from The Company must be amusing as well. "So, how do you get into the interrogation contracting business then?" Those mysterious prisoners who were kept off the Abu Ghraibh roll call were officially the responsibility of "OGAs". It reminds me of the Manic Street Preachers' song "Tsunami". ("Disco dancing with the rapists/Your only crime was silence..") Of course, the character in the song was in a high-security psychiatric hospital. Only pure coincidence can possibly have led me to associate six thousand deluded and potentially violent individuals isolated from the outside world by massive security barriers with an asylum. Or did I mean the other way round?
"The plushest tavern is the CIA's rattan furnished watering hole, known as the ''OGA bar.'' OGA stands for ''Other Government Agency,'' the CIA's low-key moniker. The OGA bar has a dance floor with a revolving mirrored disco ball and a game room. It is open to outsiders by invitation only. Disgruntled CPA employees who haven't wangled invites complain that the CIA favors women guests."
I suppose the company from The Company must be amusing as well. "So, how do you get into the interrogation contracting business then?" Those mysterious prisoners who were kept off the Abu Ghraibh roll call were officially the responsibility of "OGAs". It reminds me of the Manic Street Preachers' song "Tsunami". ("Disco dancing with the rapists/Your only crime was silence..") Of course, the character in the song was in a high-security psychiatric hospital. Only pure coincidence can possibly have led me to associate six thousand deluded and potentially violent individuals isolated from the outside world by massive security barriers with an asylum. Or did I mean the other way round?
Friday, June 18, 2004
Horror! I missed the blog's birthday!
The Yorkshire Ranter was one year old on the 10th of June. And I failed to mark blogday in any signal fashion. Shame, shame, shame
Al-Qaida videos turn up in hacked server
Der Standard is reporting that a video of Paul Johnson, the Lockheed engineer being held hostage by al-Qa'ida, has turned up on a server belonging to a surveying firm in California. The paper referred to a German techie news site, Heise Online, which in turn referred to this story from Der Spiegel. The firm in question, Silicon Valley Surveying Inc., knew nothing until links to the video began appearing on jihadi bulletin boards (there's a depressing phrase) and the server fell over under a deluge of traffic. Apparently the film and much more stuff was placed in a subdirectory on SVS's server. Very few anglophone news sources have covered this so far for some reason. (Google News, Technorati Breaking News)
This is interesting, as it suggests for the first time that hacking has become an al-Qa'ida technique (how else did they get their hands on the film?). And that was one of the possible triggers for serious trouble Gwyn Prins mentioned in The Heart of War, a book everyone ought to read.
This is interesting, as it suggests for the first time that hacking has become an al-Qa'ida technique (how else did they get their hands on the film?). And that was one of the possible triggers for serious trouble Gwyn Prins mentioned in The Heart of War, a book everyone ought to read.
Privatised beatings - a criminal charge at last
Civilian Charged In Beating of Afghan Detainee (washingtonpost.com)
A privately employed interrogator has been charged with assault over the case of an Afghan man who was beaten to death during three days of interrogation. According to a "source", the CIA men then tried to blame the army:
A privately employed interrogator has been charged with assault over the case of an Afghan man who was beaten to death during three days of interrogation. According to a "source", the CIA men then tried to blame the army:
"Immediately after Wali's death, he said, the CIA personnel left the base by helicopter. The soldier later learned that the CIA station chief in Kabul had been told that Special Forces troops had killed the man, according to the military source and an official in Washington. When the Special Forces team threatened to make the case public, the military source said, the CIA personnel admitted what had happened. An intelligence official in Washington yesterday called that allegation "flat wrong"."Apparently this chap was thrown out of the police in 1990 after being charged with a violent offence. Damn, they really know how to recruit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)