Interesting blog
Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, the former assistant chief of the defence staff and current head of the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College, has a blog!
Read More Interesting blogGrim – no hope left for plastics workers
The search for survivors from the plastics factory blast in Glasgow has been called off after another body was found. (link) “However, the void that rescuers had anticipated would contain the one remaining individual proved to be empty. They moved their efforts to another area of the site earlier today, but the discovery of the…
Read More Grim – no hope left for plastics workersWhy we shouldn’t care about fuel scares
As the oil price goes through the roof (all about oil was it? Ha!) the now-traditional news stories (Freudian – I just wrote “tories” for “stories”. The unconscious speaks, or rather it blogs..)about renewed fuel protests have duly emerged. The BBC reported today that ministers have been meeting with oilmen, Petrol Retailers’ Association reps, Army…
Read More Why we shouldn’t care about fuel scaresThis is a No Smoking blog
NO SMOKING!
Read More This is a No Smoking blogUKIP on TV last night
Now, this is a serious confession. I’m such a politics geek that I actually decided to watch a Party Election Broadcast last night. After all, our dear friends from the UK Independence Party were on and I dearly wanted to see how they managed. I wasn’t disappointed. The spot looked something like a Yorkshire TV…
Read More UKIP on TV last nightHeld under water and made to believe he might drown
“In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as “water boarding,” in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.”…
Read More Held under water and made to believe he might drownThings slide again in Iraq – did we really just collapse a Masjid?
It is being reported (here, and via Juan Cole) that the US Army in Karbala has destroyed half the Al-Mukhayyam Mosque as heavy fighting went on in the city. How stupid is that? This stupid – recent reports have suggested that a political solution between the coalition and Al-Sadr was imminent. There is talk of…
Read More Things slide again in Iraq – did we really just collapse a Masjid?Competitive savagery, terrorism, and failure
Since the torture scandal broke, we have now seen within the space of two days an American civilian being beheaded and a Hamas member waving a bag of body parts to a furious mob in Gaza. You could despair. If there is a war on terrorism, by the way, it is a war fought in…
Read More Competitive savagery, terrorism, and failureFake photos, real problem, still no ICRC publication
Reports are increasing that the Daily Mirror photos have been debunked (BBC link. Further, Mirror Group issued a statement saying that they were confident that the pictures “accurately illustrated” serious abuse – a wording that suggests backtracking. Among other things, I’ve heard that the army’s inventory of trucks was used to trace where they might…
Read More Fake photos, real problem, still no ICRC publicationMeanwhile in Iraq: that Fallujah “solution”
The FT is reporting that friction has developed between the so-called Fallujah Protection Army/1st Battalion Fallujah Brigade (depends on terminology, see below) and the various “notables” who are now to be in charge there. It would appear that they are not happy with the idea of this force co-operating as expected with the Americans, nor…
Read More Meanwhile in Iraq: that Fallujah “solution”