2004

Despite yesterday’s discovery of a sarin-filled artillery shell in Iraq, the Americans seem strangely reluctant to trumpet the obvious fact that their mission has now been justified. A weapon of mass destruction has been found? So – where are the victory parades? Of course, there were a couple of flies in the sarin. The shell…

It is reported that the Health & Safety Executive is concentrating on an industrial oven at the Glasgow plastics factory that blew up and killed nine people. This oven is not like other ovens because this one is special. In fact, it’s that special it used to be a dustbin lorry!Report “Jim Fletcher, 33, a…

This leaves me utterly shocked. According to the Financial Times, (thanks to My Way of Thinking) the British Government is supporting efforts by the United States to prevent the international arms dealer and aerial smuggler Viktor Bout’s assets being frozen. Now this is insane. Not just immoral, but insane. Mr. Bout is a former KGB…

It is being widely reported that the General Staff have proposed a new policy in Iraq to the Government. Details are hazy at least as far as the public go, but it seems to suggest another huge deployment of troops – talking 3,000 rifles plus – to take over the Multinational Division South-Centre, the area…

Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, the former assistant chief of the defence staff and current head of the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College, has a blog!

The search for survivors from the plastics factory blast in Glasgow has been called off after another body was found. (link) “However, the void that rescuers had anticipated would contain the one remaining individual proved to be empty. They moved their efforts to another area of the site earlier today, but the discovery of the…

As the oil price goes through the roof (all about oil was it? Ha!) the now-traditional news stories (Freudian – I just wrote “tories” for “stories”. The unconscious speaks, or rather it blogs..)about renewed fuel protests have duly emerged. The BBC reported today that ministers have been meeting with oilmen, Petrol Retailers’ Association reps, Army…

NO SMOKING!

Now, this is a serious confession. I’m such a politics geek that I actually decided to watch a Party Election Broadcast last night. After all, our dear friends from the UK Independence Party were on and I dearly wanted to see how they managed. I wasn’t disappointed. The spot looked something like a Yorkshire TV…

“In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as “water boarding,” in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.”…