IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN UPDATE – READ THIS NOW The Iraqi Employees campaign lobby of Parliament has been double-booked by Hazel Blears; we are therefore moving it from Committee Room 14 to the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, in order to avoid the risk of contamination. The times are the same and are 1900-2100, Tuesday, 9th October 2007.…
Read More IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN UPDATE – READ THIS NOWSpecial campaign update: Whatever the Govt is leaking to the Times, we’re still going to leap into their back garden on Tuesday night. This campaign is not over until the people concerned are filing down the airstair at Brize Norton. You can still turn up, and you can still call your MP tomorrow. Even if…
Read More Mission Maintenu…David Phinney notepads something interesting about the scandal-lapped Kuwaiti contractor on the US Embassy in Baghdad: From spring 2006: The general manager for the US Embassy contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting has two airplanes the company can’t register and is piloted by a German pilot named Wolfgang …. The general manager also has…
Read More Need a hand with that?OK, there are six days to go to the bloggers’ lobby of Parliament, which is being held to demand asylum for the British Army’s Iraqi employees. And guess what? There’s still time to get involved. Call your MP today (the Parliamentary switchboard is 0207 219 3000) and ask them what their position is, remind them…
Read More D-6: Call Your MP NowI don’t think this means what Thomas Barnett thinks it does. He argues that the demand for armoured patrol vehicles in Iraq is an example of conflict between the objectives of his “SysAdmin” force, and the Washington-cented, tech-heavy “Leviathan”. Of course, it’s an example of conflict between the centre and the front line, but that’s…
Read More Built-In StupidityOK, so they invited some “milbloggers” to see the commander guy, and what did Defensetech find to ask him? Sweet fuck all of any consequence. Too busy gawping at teh White House crockery. Hell, I suppose I should have expected this; the creation of Wired‘s Danger Room essentially stripped it of talent, with David Axe,…
Read More Defensetech is obsoleteAnbar? Here’s your salvation. This frankly terrifies me; didn’t anyone think to restrain the commander guy? This was about the only counterinsurgency success they’ve had, and it’s been pissed away for the sake of a good TV picture-with-the-sound-off. Seriously. Once Bush shook hands with him on live television, he was as dead as if he’d…
Read More WhackedThe commander of Iraqi special forces (i.e. the Badr Corps, ex-36th ICDC Battalion, ex-1st Brigade ING…) in Basra is clear about the threat facing British employees in the city; far clearer than the Government. “All the interpreters have to leave Basra because these militia will never let them rest. They will kill everybody they know…
Read More We stand down, they stand upDo you want to take part in the very first blogging lobby of Parliament? More seriously, if you’ve already written to them and demanded that all our Iraqi employees are taken along with us before we withdraw from Iraq, here is your next set of instructions. On Tuesday, the 9th October, 2007, between 1900-2100 hours,…
Read More Bring your friendsIn the light of renewed War! War! War! fears, it’s clearly time to check out the indicators; currently, there is one US Navy carrier group in the Middle East (Enterprise and Co). This is down from two for most of this year, and is the lowest for some time – although not quite, as there…
Read More Even More Carrierwatch