2004

The Ranter is no.2 on Altavista for “x-ray photo public domain”.

It’s the time of year for the Washington Post Blog Awards. Click the button in my sidebar to nominate me. Please.

The Torygraph reports on what must have been a memorable day at the independent inquiry into Gulf War syndrome after the former medical adviser to the MoD’s own “health assessment programme” turned up in a US Army uniform and accused British servicemen of alcoholism and malingering. “He was scathing of the British soldiers he examined,…

“Muqtada said that calling Iyad Allawi (he didn’t mention him by name) a “Shiite” was like calling Saddam Hussein a “Muslim.” From Juan Cole. I have to say, right back to last year, Cole has consistently pointed out that Allawi was nothing but trouble. His actions in the current crisis have only borne that out.…

Doug Farah has an interesting new post on Viktor Bout and Jetline International. Apparently an aircraft registered 9L-LEC was leased by Jetline to something called Skylink and used in Iraq. Mr. Farah requests info on Jetline. He shall have it. Skylink may be a a Russian company, Skylink Express, listed as operating between 1994 and…

I’m about to do the stereotype blogger “A funny thing happened at the supermarket” thing, so please bear with me. It’s the only one so far. Round our way, there’s a council-owned car park behind the Tesco, and the tickets are sold for fixed periods (1 hour, 2 hours, whatever). A custom has grown up…

Torture quite OK really, says High Court The High Court has ruled that evidence gained through torture is admissible so long as the torture was not “connived at” by agents of the Crown. This is insane. What happened to the “poisoned tree”? (the legal principle that any evidence gained by illegal means, even evidence gained…

Some interesting developments on the energy politics front. For a start, a giant contract has just been signed by Centrica (which owns the British Gas name) and a Malaysian oil firm to import huge quantities of liquified natural gas into the UK. This has been one of the running long term stories of the last…

Whitelocks Luncheon Bar in Leeds is possibly the best pub in the world. Hidden in one of the oldest surviving parts of Leeds (Turk’s Head Yard), on the site of a Knights Templar cross, it is an astonishing Victorian fantasy of black wood panelling, mirrors, plush and porcelain, divided by a curtain between a long…

A while ago, on the 1st of July the story broke via the Financial Times that the US was to intensify counter-terrorist efforts in West Africa after revelations concerning Liberian dictator Charles Taylor’s connections both with the CIA and Al-Qa’ida. This was covered both here and also at Laura Rozen’s War and Piece. The Financial…