Whilst we’re on the subject, a couple of other terrorism things. Kingpin of Comedy Gladio, intimate of Patrick Mercer MP, and self-made spy Glen Jenvey has been arrested, ironically on charges of inciting hatred against Jews. He’s finally convinced somebody that he’s a real jihadi! Not that he’s likely to convince anyone else of anything…
Read More wanktanks against racial profilingAs you’ll probably have guessed, I’m not terrified by the pantsbomber. As Spencer Ackerman puts it: it doesn’t do any good to blow this out of proportion, since blowing things out of proportion to spur an overreaction is Usama bin Laden’s explicit strategy However, as more details have filtered out, I’ve revised my original view…
Read More the boy’s a time bomb!The annual document dump under the 30 year rule is usually good for a story or two, but this year’s threw up something genuinely strange. Here’s Thatcher’s response to the Vietnamese boat people refugee crisis; some obvious Thatcher features are there – notably sanctimoniousness, vindictiveness, and the abiding right-wing tendency to mistake sarcasm for content:…
Read More thatchergrad – on sea!Other people’s TDLs. I note that this year’s CCC has devoted some time to the wanktank phenomenon in Germany, and also elsewhere. Volker Bilk’s slides are here; it makes a lot of sense, but there’s quite a bit of German philosophical maundering in there, and I’d have liked to see more case studies/howtos. As far…
Read More CCC vs WanktanksTo-do lists are good. Grandad Bill lived by them; we found ones up-to-date for the day before he died. In that spirit, here’s a rough one for this blog in 2010: 1) Finally, end this twin-blog nightmare. I’ve had requests from multiple readers for this. I think I’ll standardise on WordPress and host it myself…
Read More TDL@TYRBefore the blog goes quiet for the traditional Christmas ceasefire, I’d like to say that my grandfather, Paul William Gibbs, died yesterday. I’ll be posting something about him when I’ve finished writing it. Now for the quiet.
Read More going quietMore mystery jets. In the last couple of weeks there’s also been some progress on the 727 abandoned in North-Eastern Mali. For a start, it’s a 727, which is something. And, finally, there are pictures. The National of Abu Dhabi – a newspaper that is developing into a surprisingly useful source – has a good…
Read More mystery jet update: Malian 727I should have done this earlier rather than committing fanfic with a sliver of valuable blogging time, but it’s high time to catch up with the 4L-AWA seizure. It’s looking like this is a serious coup – not only is the aircraft one with a long and complex history in the trade, but a lot…
Read More All the 4L-AWA that’s fit to printCharlie Stross has done a short story that is set in an NHS facility. This done, I feel he needs to take his unique view of Britain’s national institutions to its logical, strategic target. The whole project of much of his work deals with the civil service; he’s had a go at the military, at…
Read More the untrue history of the Conservative PartySo this is the best news story on the Ilyushin 76 seized in Thailand I’ve yet seen. Based on that, we know that the aircraft is ex-Beibars (a company that suddenly appeared on the Viktorfeed at the end of 2007, and which is banned from the EU) and ex-East Wing. But we still didn’t have…
Read More look what the cat dragged in