So, we looked into the fake phone call to Mr 10%’s office. We even did a little HOWTO. If you recall, we concluded that you needed a bulk SIP carrier sufficiently unscrupulous or clue-light that they didn’t verify the CLI string you passed them, but who hadn’t yet offended at least one major telco in…
Read More your voice across the line gives me a strange sensationThe U.S. Army’s top historian has a paper out on the war between Israel and Hezbollah (and most of Lebanon) in 2006. It was worth reading when I read it before Christmas, and it’s even more so now. Specifically, Dr Biddle’s view of Hezbollah strategy is interesting; in his opinion, they adapted to the fact…
Read More we’re history, there ain’t nothing left to sayVexation about the publication on Wikileaks of some US Army documents with details of the counter-IED radio jammers. Well, you can see why they’re concerned; but I very much doubt this is particularly important. Recap: the New-Old Iraqi Army was in the habit of using command-detonated IEDs to blow up Coalition and Iraqi government road…
Read More wikileaks in a jamReader Chris “Chris” Williams recently came up with an interesting idea regarding the unnerving incident during the Mumbai terrorist assault when somebody called Mr 10%’s office and, posing as the Indian foreign minister, threatened war. Chris reckons that not only are the two linked, but the phone call was actually the main effort; in fact,…
Read More HOWTO spoof the Pakistani Foreign MinistryPacker vs. Kilcullen in the New Yorker. Here’s the key paragraph: Police are another main issue. We have built the Afghan police into a less well-armed, less well-trained version of the Army and launched them into operations against the insurgents. Meanwhile, nobody is doing the job of actual policing—rule of law, keeping the population safe…
Read More a network of friendly militiasAn interesting document was turned up in the course of the row about John Brennan, the CIA officer who was the Obama team’s original choice as intelligence chief before he was dropped as being insufficiently opposed to torture, under a volley of criticism from the blogosphere. (“Opposition was mostly confined to liberal blogs,” said the…
Read More Is this the CIA? Is this the IRA? Is this the UDA? No, it’s the Grauniad…Oh dear, oh dear. A redrawn map of South Asia has been making the rounds among Pakistani elites. It shows their country truncated, reduced to an elongated sliver of land with the big bulk of India to the east, and an enlarged Afghanistan to the west. That the map was first circulated as a theoretical…
Read More killed by the puppet forces, 2008Here’s one political movement struggling with the technological environment, at the Washington Monthly: Frank Luntz, speaking at a panel discussion at the Republican Governors Association yesterday, noted Barack Obama’s enormous email list. “He’s got 10 million names and our candidate doesn’t know how to use this,” Luntz said, holding up a BlackBerry. “There is a…
Read More the third decade, our moveThis looks like being the ultimate TYR event. Via Ballardian, yer man from BLDGBLOG is going to be speaking at UCL on the 26th November on Feral Cities and the Scientific Way of Warfare. Quote: At the very least, you’ll get an early preview of Antoine’s forthcoming book – in which he introduces the term…
Read More the stars are right…Whilst I’m on the VBeat, it’s probably about time for an update on the extradition hearings. Here’s the AP wire story on the last court appearance on the 4th of November. Bout’s lawyer is now pursuing a defence based on challenging the legality of extradition, after the main man apparently gave up stalling tactics. The…
Read More doodling wolves on a notepad