An American PR man in Afghanistan speaks some Pashto. Actually, the fact he speaks some Pashto is the news he’s currently engaged in pushing on the press. As David Petraeus says, they managed to teach noddy German to hordes of US servicemen going there in peacetime. More to the point, the British army managed to…
Read More eternal SeptemberUS security agents indulge in street theatre, frequently accidentally involving members of the public: As a presidential limousine rolls closer, an instructor cues, “How about a little homicide bomb?” Bracaglia throws himself at the limousine and detonates…..Mike “The Horse” Dutch, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 280 pounds, has been playing villains for five years. He’s…
Read More coming to a security theatre near youWhat’s happening on the Viktorfeed? Something called “Skyway Ltd”, using the ICAO code DGD, is doing quite a few flights into Iraq and Afghanistan; so is “Transaviaservice” or FNV. This last is the current owner of Antonov 12 ER-AXE/7345201, which we’ve had here before, both with Aerocom and with a shortlived project involving routes from…
Read More it’s the new Middle East, or somethingWired reviews a book on the media of the Middle East, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday. Well, even pirates have press spokesmen these days. It sounds like it could be interesting, but it strikes me that this piece by Tom Griffin about trolls sponsored by various Middle Eastern actors…
Read More twitbook: book of twitsBecause we’ve set up the bureaucracy for it. Laugh! as the people responsible for the new US Cyber Command try to work out what it’s for. As far as I can see, it duplicates all or part of NSA, DISA, CIA, DHS, NIST, and the services’ signals commands and electronics materiel agencies. It is true…
Read More there’d better be such a thing as “cyberwar”You thought the Hummer being put on the block was symbolism? This is symbolism: the bloated, militaristic, fuel-guzzling cultural trope itself is being sold to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery. Yes; an unheralded outfit from the deep west, not even Shenzhen or Shanghai. Seeing as its core business is making construction gear, tankers, and off-road…
Read More giant symbol crashes and overturns, killing billions of dollarsThis is interesting; the US Army in Afghanistan has an official Twitter account. The interesting thing is the explanation: If prevailing wisdom about “population-centric” counterinsurgency holds, why is the U.S. military using Twitter to post body counts? Apparently, it’s about maintaining the support of the population back at home. In a must-read article, Michael Phillips…
Read More twittering the home frontResistance – The Essence of the Islamist Revolution is Alistair Crooke’s survey of modern Islamist thought. It would be clearer to say it is a couple of books occupying the same space; one would be a history of Islamist thought since the origins of the Iranian Revolution, with a polemic for greater understanding of such…
Read More Review: Alistair Crooke, “Resistance: the essence of the Islamist revolution”Is tragic diva SNLI cracking up, ask friends? “Creepy obsession” with blogger raises old rumours about starlet; Max Clifford is holding on line one. “He’s very good with colours”, says Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security. “Everyone around here relies on him for style tips before their TV appearances. I’d never…
Read More I am troll, hear me roar!There is more truth about Afghanistan, counter-insurgency, insurgents and empires in this cartoon than in the vast pile of thinktank and military-academic reports on my local hard disk. (Today’s is pretty good, too.)
Read More Afghanistan the Doonesbury way