The Yorkshire Ranter

And here is the picture that places 9L-LEC in Baghdad on the 18th of January. (Note: the photographer requested that I obscure his name)

..rolls out at the US-run airport, with its Australian air traffic controllers and piles of junked Iraqi aircraft, high-security PX store and high-value detainee camp. The aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-76MD, serial number 83485313, registered S9-DAE and carrying the markings of an airline called Skylink. S9- is the international registration prefix for Sao Tome and…

The Britain in Europe campaign has published a very good list of 25 reasons not to vote UKIP, here. Some of it is stuff previously covered here, but this was news to me: “John Brayshaw was exposed on 5 February 2004 as being simultaneously Chairman of UKIP’s Vale of York branch (since October 2003) and…

It’s been brought to my attention that Dr. Frank Barnaby certainly doesn’t believe in the “red mercury dirty bomb” story, as suggested below. See here By the way, I hope the DESC employee who has been reading this blog enjoys it.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | SpaceShipOne rolls to first mark Rutan’s space ship has another successful trip to space.

An Iraqi National Guard commander, an ex-general in the ex-evil forces of the ex-regime, has been caught working for the other side. “Lieutenant General Talib Abd Ghayib al-Lahibi led three Iraqi National Guard battalions in Diyala province, the volatile region north of Baghdad that includes the insurgent strongholds of Baquba and Samarra. The US military…

….about Iraq. They care about being nasty to asylum seekers, and dog dirt. Everyone knows that, especially Labour’s candidate for the Hartlepool by-election, Iain Wright. ““I’ve met more than 4,000 people by now, and do you know?” Wright said. “Only two have even mentioned it. It’s local issues people care about; that’s why they want…

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | X-Prize craft begins space shot Good luck.

One of British Gulf’s Antonov 12s, registration EX-161, serial number 5343305 was photographed in Kabul on the 16th of July, 2003. Close examination of the photo gives the impression that the registration and titles were newly added. What significance the aircraft’s name, “Fatima” (signwritten on the nose) has is currently unknown. Click Here to view…

Back, back, way back when, I did some research following up reports in the Financial Times and Le Monde that the US Government had been putting pressure on the UK to help keep gun-runner Viktor Bout off a UN asset freeze list, apparently because he had done the state some service in Iraq. It only…