2005

Alfred Sirven, the disgraced General Affairs Director of Elf-Aquitaine who became the world’s most wanted fugitive in the late 1990s after the exposure of the complex of scandals around President Mitterand, has died at his home in Deauville. This man’s remarkable career took him from fighting in Korea with the Foreign Legion to a meteoric…

Vodkapundit has an interesting project, a map of the world redrawn to reflect the interpenetration of nations better than the traditional black lines of absolute sovereign independence. He draws the US-Mexican border as a blur showing Mexican immigration into the US on one side and US investment in Mexico on the other. It’s not much…

Thinking about unmanned flying things, an interesting point comes to mind: the answer to the question “will UAVs make pilots obsolete” is one of economics, not technology. Think about it – proponents of the things argue that you can save on training human pilots, send them into greater danger, and make them do manoeuvres beyond…

The Washington Post reports that the USAF has been overflying Iran with drones, apparently in an effort to reconnoitre Iranian air defences. Apparently the first flights took place in April, 2004, and an extended effort began in December. This surge in activity led to the operation’s becoming public after Iranian civilians repeatedly spotted mystery aircraft.…

Abu Aardvark reports on spending a night with three different Arabic TV channels, Al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, and the US-funded al-Hurra (who, of course, had a journalist shot in Basra last week). It’s worth reading, even if some of the methodology leaves something to be desired (“p.s. the jazeera and arabia presenters are WAY hotter than any…

The public prints have it that the Indian minister of oil and natural gas is off to Moscow to discuss buying into a chunk of Yukos’s assets. This comes at the same time as the intrigues surrounding exactly how the Yuganskneftegaz/Rosneft deal (and the subsequent Rosneft/Gazprom deal) was financed, and specifically what the involvement of…

Le Monde reports rioting in Togo after the semi-coup that installed the old dictator’s son. They go on to speculate that the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African States might apply sanctions: interestingly, a source in the area told me last night that he expected ECOWAS intervention as the Nigerians had pointedly not been invited…

Back in November, I blogged on a curious incident during the French intervention in the Ivory Coast. Recapping, when the French army there moved into Abidjan after the Ivorian air-raid on one of their outposts, they established an HQ and registration point for evacuees in the best hotel in town. There they discovered that someone…

Starting with the admin, please note that the comments service is unavailable. I have been promised that it will soon return. G2: There’s some follow-up on the Ivory Coast/Israel arms story we covered over at Ha’aretz. More semi-results have appeared from the Iraqi elections, we shall be having a look to see if the prediction…

Hear that clattering of keyboards racing in from the east? See the blackly glittering screens? It could only be the Kossacks charging after a story. And, of course, they got one. The whole sorry tale about “Jeff Gannon”, the pseudonymous conservative who mysteriously got a White House press pass in his false name whilst working…