2005

There have been a few Disturbing Search Requests lately: Telephone numbers for cheerleading teachers Beirut-Lebanon brings us up as the third result on Yahoo. One wonders why you’d pass up the chance of belly dancing instead. The music’s better, after all, and less common. Really worrying, though, was the chap – it must have been…

Juan Cole reports that Iraq’s southernmost provinces are making concrete steps to declare a confederation similar to that in Kurdistan. This has been on the Ranter before – although there might well be some short-run gains from a cynical British point of view in supporting separatism in the British zone, history does not sound encouraging.…

It is reported that tension on the airspace boundary between Greece and Turkey has been hotting up, with some 160 violations of the Athens Flight Information Region last month. Last Wednesday, apparently, there were some 33 interceptions of Turkish aircraft by the Greeks. That’s a lot of that curious Cold War modern jousting, last-minute QRA…

A Step at a Time follows up on the many stories about the death of Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov. Specifically, he quotes a Russian Newsweek report that in fact, Maskhadov may have died much earlier without Russian assistance – his body, in this version, was sold to the Russians after death. On the day,…

The Independent on Sunday reports that a Squadron of SAS has been stationed in Yemen since last summer: “No British special forces are believed to have been involved in the search for al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan since before the Iraq invasion. But The Independent on Sunday has learnt that since last summer a squadron of the…

Well, after all the ping pong and parliamentary theatrics, it’s over. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill became law, without the amendments, with all the evil bits intact. Yes, so there will be a “review” in a year’s time. There will be a new Bill. Parliament would be able to repeal it. But these are not…

Doug Farah breaks a crucial Viktor Bout story: Aerocom, the Boutco whose AOC was revoked by Moldova for cocaine-running, is flying personnel from Aegis Defence Systems, British mercenary Tim Spicer’s company, about the Middle East on US government business. The former boss of Sandline International is also, it seems, connected with Bout’s partner Sanjivan Ruprah…

Killers: We’re so sorry. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you, like…kill more people?

The FAZ reports in detail on the death of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov at the hands either of spetsnaz commandos or perhaps his bodyguard, depending on who you read. Interestingly, the mighty if perhaps not terribly exciting German broadsheet reports, quoting sources in the pro-Russian boss of Chechnya’s staff, that Maskhadov’s death might not have…

The city council in my beloved Bradford has been caught spying on its own citizens. Jason Teasdale of the Telegraph & Argus (in the roof of whose offices I did work experience with the Rugby League Express) reports: ” Bradford Council has been branded a “Big Brother” authority for allowing more and more of its…