The Yorkshire Ranter

The Independent on Sunday reports that a Squadron of SAS has been stationed in Yemen since last summer: “No British special forces are believed to have been involved in the search for al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan since before the Iraq invasion. But The Independent on Sunday has learnt that since last summer a squadron of the…

Well, after all the ping pong and parliamentary theatrics, it’s over. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill became law, without the amendments, with all the evil bits intact. Yes, so there will be a “review” in a year’s time. There will be a new Bill. Parliament would be able to repeal it. But these are not…

Doug Farah breaks a crucial Viktor Bout story: Aerocom, the Boutco whose AOC was revoked by Moldova for cocaine-running, is flying personnel from Aegis Defence Systems, British mercenary Tim Spicer’s company, about the Middle East on US government business. The former boss of Sandline International is also, it seems, connected with Bout’s partner Sanjivan Ruprah…

Killers: We’re so sorry. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you, like…kill more people?

The FAZ reports in detail on the death of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov at the hands either of spetsnaz commandos or perhaps his bodyguard, depending on who you read. Interestingly, the mighty if perhaps not terribly exciting German broadsheet reports, quoting sources in the pro-Russian boss of Chechnya’s staff, that Maskhadov’s death might not have…

The city council in my beloved Bradford has been caught spying on its own citizens. Jason Teasdale of the Telegraph & Argus (in the roof of whose offices I did work experience with the Rugby League Express) reports: ” Bradford Council has been branded a “Big Brother” authority for allowing more and more of its…

“Five soldiers were killed overnight in Iskandariya when a coffin attached to a car’s rooftop exploded near their checkpoint, the Iraqi army said.” Via Juan Cole. Note that, adding them up, the current daily deathrate seems to be about 30 assorted people.

I am the third highest Yahoo! result for yorkshire wank groups. What have I done to deserve this? Dave of Backword has had a whole clutch, though, including the unbeatable are commoners good in the government or bad?, strangely enough a search carried out through Swiss Google. He ought to check the IP address, there’s…

Some time ago, I ran this post regarding dubious Afghan airline KAM-Air. Since then, of course, KAM has made itself notorious in another way by flying a Boeing 737 full of passengers into a mountain. Back on the 16th of January, I mentioned that Kam’s fleet included aircraft from Phoenix Aviation in Kyrgyzstan, the 727…

The RAF Board of Inquiry has completed its interim report on the RAF C-130K loss in Iraq, a previous subject of Ranter coverage. So far all we have to go on is the content of a statement to Parliament by Geoff Hoon, which is here. The meat is as follows: “Based on the evidence currently…