Main

January 29, 2008

New Cold Proxy War

Just to make the point that the Iranians are somehow important in the "New Great Game" - I found this article which shows how Iran is being courted by both Russia and China.

Does that sound at all familiar?

A China base in Iran?

China's strategy is confined to the port city of Gwadar along the southwestern coast of Pakistan in Balochistan province, strategically located near the Hormuz Strait. Yet, due to the close US-Pakistan relations, it is highly improbable the US would permit Islamabad to enter into strategic relations with Beijing so that China, still lacking a formidable navy, could utilize it for power projection in the region.

Not so with Iran, which is constantly threatened by the US, and now France, and which already enjoys observer status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), headed by China and Russia. Iran's bid to join the SCO has been stalled partly as a result of the standoff over its nuclear program, but will likely succeed in the not too distant future should the present patterns of Iran-Russia and Iran-China cooperation continue.

Regarding the latter, China has already surpassed Germany as Iran's number one trade partner. Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, has just finalized a multi-billion dollar deal to develop the giant Yadavaran oil field, and this is in addition to the "deal of the century" contract for natural gas from Iran's immense North Pars field. Chinese contractors are also busy constructing oil terminals for Iran in the Caspian Sea, extending the Tehran metro, building airports, among other projects. And this while China arms sales to Iran have included such hot items as ballistic-missile technology and air-defense radars.

The growing Iran-China cooperation on the energy and trade fronts is bound sooner or later to spill over into more meaningful military cooperation and, in turn, this depends to some extent on the ebbs and flows of Iran-US and China-US "games of strategy", particularly if China feels additional pressure from the US on the geopolitical front.

For sure, Iran's willingness to show a greater willingness than hitherto to embrace China's naval vessels making port calls to Iran is now in the cards, this as a prelude to more extensive agreements up to and including provisions for a small Chinese naval outpost on one of Iran's Persian Gulf islands.

Read it all


Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Old Cold Proxy War


Is Ahmadinejad setting a trap for Israel and the US?

The Israel Air Force has managed to use that capacity with amazing skill and daring, as it showed last September when a dozen fighter bombers and support aircraft jammed Syria's Russian-supplied air defenses and destroyed a secret nuclear facility on the Euphrates river --- not far from Iran. The nature of that target has still not been revealed, but it must have been important enough to risk triggering a missile attack from Syria. That means the target was believed to be very important: most likely a joint Iranian-Syrian-North Korean nuclear facility.

In a very odd move, the Syrians are now rebuilding that mysterious concrete cube in exactly the same location --- even though the whole world knows about it now. Why should they spend vast amounts of money doing that, if it would only become another fat target?

One possibility is that it's a trap for IAF jets. Surround the concrete cube with enough new Russian anti-aircraft missiles, back it up with radars based on Russian ships that just happen to be doing the biggest naval exercise in years right now in the Mediterranean, and provoke another attack by announcing another nuclear breakthrough. It could be a baited ambush.

The whole thing smells like an Ahmadi-Nejad shell game, with Russian help: put your nuclear materials under a dozen different giant concrete shelters, and dare the enemy to attack all of them, without knowing which one has nuke materials. All of the sites would be heavily defended with state-of-the-art Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Not just one trap for attacking aircraft, but a dozen or more.

I have expressed my doubt about the true nature of Iranian nuclear ambitions and about how these Iranian nuclear ambitions are possibly responsible for the Uranium shortage and rise in prices.

But I have also pointed out that the "New Cold War" is actually just a re-heated and re-vamped version of the "Old Cold War" with the same puppetmasters and different proxy agents.

Now it seems others share my doubts - but the big question is why is Russia cosying up to Iran when it is a competitor in selling energy? Why would the Russians assist a competitor which is often suspected of promoting terrorism worldwide?

Unless the Russians are still playing "The Great Game" of course - which seems likely given how they have recently taken to flexing their military muscles in Europe once again with a series of exercises and mock battles.

Otherwise I can't see any reason why they export nuclear technology to Iran - and to be quite honest, after Chernobyl, who want's Russian nuclear technology anyway? Unless it is because they are "helping the enemy of their enemy".

It also gives them a huge lever to really p*ss off the USA and help to expand the Russian hegemony across the rest of Europe by controlling the supply of natural gas ..

As I said - back at the beginning of 2006 - I don't want a "New Cold War" because I remember the "Old Cold War" - but it looks increasingly likely that we are going to get one ..

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

January 12, 2008

Highest Ratings in Kabul?

Afghan clerics want to clean up TV by banning soaps - Times Online

New television stations have proliferated in the past three years, offering a mix of hard-hitting news, which is often critical of the Government, and light entertainment shows, which draw the wrath of religious hardliners.

Tolo TV, Afghanistan's first commercial channel, shows three Indian dramas, The Story of Every House; The Trials of Life; and Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law Too. Some channels show as many as six daily. Clerics accuse the dramas of encouraging “stone-worship” even though Hindu images are pixellated and scenes of Hindu worship are cut.

The hardliners also oppose Tolo TV's pop programmes - Hop, a local MTV-style show, and Afghan Star, a talent contest.

After meeting the President, an Islamic council spokesman said: “The unrestrained programmes on TV have angered and prompted the ulemas [scholars] to react. Hop ... is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam. Afghan Star encourages immorality ... and is against Sharia.”


Taboos are funny things - in Japan they pixellate genitals but allow the worst kind of porn - but in Afghanistan they pixellate images of Hindu Gods ..

Tags: , , , , ,

January 1, 2008

Pamela Bone nails it ... again

Pamela Bone says it all - yet again.

Assassinated because she was a woman

ARE women across the world mourning Benazir Bhutto? They should be. Not because she was a saint; she wasn't. She was at least a beneficiary of the billions stolen by her husband from the people of Pakistan. Nor did she do anything much for Pakistani women during her two periods of leadership, declining even to try to repeal the infamous Hudood laws whereby rape victims can be punished for adultery.

She should be mourned not because of what she was but because of what she symbolised. Her death was a political assassination, not an honour killing, as some have said.

Nevertheless it was a reminder of what we face. Bhutto was murdered because to her enemies she was Westernised, a traitor to her culture and an American stooge. She was murdered because she had vowed to bring secularism and democracy to Pakistan. She was murdered because she was all these things, and a woman.

"I know I am a symbol of what the so-called jihadists, Taliban and al-Qa'ida, most fear," she wrote in her autobiography, Daughter of the East. "I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan."


Read it all ...


Tags: , , , ,

June 1, 2007

"New Cold War" in Iran

The BBC have finally figured out what I have been talking about for some time now - the New Cold War

It is more than a war of words.

It is an arcane game of overt and covert activity, complex regional manoeuvring and trade-offs - and the occasional hint of gunboat diplomacy.

This week the head of Iranian counter-espionage described his officials' efforts to thwart spying networks they'd uncovered in seven of Iran's provinces.

In Washington as in Tehran, there are different centres of power pursuing their own hawkish or dovish agendas

The official, who by tradition is not named by the Iranian media, linked these networks to countries with troops in Iraq - in other words, the United States and Britain.

He implied they were playing on ethnic divisions in Iran, especially in sensitive border areas.

Such allegations are, by definition, hard to prove or disprove.

But what's clear is that American pressure on Iran is not confined to UN sanctions designed to dissuade it from the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Other US pressures include:

* the use of "soft power" (broadcasting, cultural exchange, the promotion of democracy and human rights) to try to influence Iranian public opinion

* efforts to coax somewhat ambivalent Arab states to join an anti-Iranian regional alliance

* the Seizure of Iranian officials who are, in American eyes, stirring up trouble in Iraq

* according to report, the US has been conducting covert operations inside Iran

ABC News has reported that President Bush has authorised the CIA to carry out a series of covert measures to destabilise Iran.

These range from propaganda to the manipulation of Iranian currency and banking transactions.

Iran is resorting to various means of counter-pressure, including:

* the arrest of Iranian-Americans it accuses of spying

* strengthening ties with the Arab world by, for example, offering to restore diplomatic relations with Egypt

* maintaining a drum-beat of rhetoric against the American presence in Iraq and the Gulf, plus - and this may be Tehran's strongest card - maintaining an intricate network of contacts in Iraq which could potentially be used to target US troops or US interests


As I said before
The Cold War was a war of propaganda and counter propaganda, intense diplomatic maneuvering, along with the use of economic pressure and selective aid - accompanied by the biggest arms race the world has ever seen. At the same time a “covert war” used espionage, intimidation, selective military aid, attempted assassination, low intensity military operations and wars by proxy states.
New Cold War or only New Cold War vs the Islamic states?

Or maybe they are just proxies - and the "New Cold War" is the same old "Cold War" with the same old players and different proxy agents?

Only time will tell ...


Tags: , , , ,

May 13, 2007

Women Must Submit

I've already opined that I dislike the The Silence of the Left with regards to the "free pass" that it gives to Islam in the name of "multiculturalism" - and also objected to fact that the women on the left are not standing up for womens rights in countries that have - *ahem* - shall we say draconian laws to keep women in their place.

Now it seems that other people are getting with the programme and asking some questions that should be ansewered

If you go to the websites of major women's groups, such as the National Organization for Women, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the National Council for Research on Women, or to women's centers at our major colleges and universities, you'll find them caught up with entirely other issues, seldom mentioning women in Islam. During the 1980s, there were massive demonstrations on American campuses against racial apartheid in South Africa. There is no remotely comparable movement on today's campuses against the gender apartheid prevalent in large parts of the world.

It is not that American feminists are indifferent to the predicament of Muslim women. Nor do they completely ignore it. For a brief period before September 11, 2001, many women's groups protested the brutalities of the Taliban. But they have never organized a full-scale mobilization against gender oppression in the Muslim world. The condition of Muslim women may be the most pressing women's issue of our age, but for many contemporary American feminists it is not a high priority.

Why not?


Why not indeed?

Why do the left give a "free pass" to "gender oppression" in the Muslim world?


Tags: , , , ,

May 12, 2007

Put a Necktie on that Pig!

First neckties and now pork - as the lowly swine somehow gets blamed for all mens evils.

Its simple you see - according to the ancient doctrines of some elder religion "if you eat a pig you become like a pig"

I am astonished - I thought all that "macrocosm vs microcosm" stuff went out of fashion ages ago - but apparently not.

Food and drink have direct effect on our health. That is why Allah (the one and only God) has prescribed regulations about our food and drink. Islam lays great emphasis on our physical as well as moral health, because both of these are equally important for a healthy society.

The abstention from eating pork is one of the steps taken by Islam to practise hygiene and to attain purity of soul. There is a saying in English that "a man becomes what he eats". According to physicians and medical experts, pork is a harmful diet. Consumption of swine-flesh creates lowliness in character and destroys moral and spiritual faculties in a man.

The Qur’an has prohibited the swine-flesh, hence the Muslims would not dare touch it. The Bible has also forbidden swine-flesh, but Christians disregarded this order and started consuming it.

The life of a man is a compound of body and soul. Anything, which is harmful for the body, hurts the soul as well.

Consumption of swine-flesh reduces the feeling of shame and as such the standard of modesty. Those nations, which consume pork habitually, have a low standard of morality with the result that virginity, chastity and bashfulness are becoming a thing of the past.

Since the Western nations have become addicted to wine and pork, sexual freedom with all its attendant evils has got ingrained in their culture.

Reliable medical doctors and social scientists are able to realise how those food and drinks forbidden by Islam are harmful and destructive to the human spirit and morality as well as to the physique and moral fibre of man and to verify the benefits of Islamic legislations on the subjects.


You could not make this up - pass me a bacon sandwich someone - not only am I hungry and like eating bacon sandwiches - but I am looking forward to having a "lower standard of morality" in the future ...

Tags: , , , , , ,

May 11, 2007

Old Cold War Jigsaw

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I wrote this

Shredded documents.

They look like a mess but most crackers spies did jigsaws as a kid.

Crackers spies start by sorting by color, thickness of paper and other possible clues, then isolate chunks bit by bit and work on them. It takes a while, but once finished they can tape them together and retrieve the information quite easily.

In general, if a document is sensitive enough to shred, then it should also be worth disposing of by a security company specialising in destruction of company paperwork.

Now the idea has come back to haunt certain people - as new software technology promises to reconstruct shredded documents

Millions of files consigned to paper shredders in the late days of the East German regime will be pieced together by computer. The massive job of reassembling this puzzle from the late Cold War was performed, until now, by hand.

It's been years in the making, but finally software designed to electronically piece together some 45 million shredded documents from the East German secret police went into service in Berlin on Wednesday. Now, a puzzle that would take 30 diligent Germans 600 to 800 years to finish by hand, according to one estimate, might be solved by computer in seven.

In 1989, with the looming collapse of the Communist regime becoming increasingly evident, agents of the East German Staatssicherheitsdienst or Stasi feverishly plowed millions of active files through paper shredders, or just tore them up by hand.

Rights activists interrupted the project and rescued a total of 16,250 garbage bags full of scraps. But rescuing the history on those sheets of paper amounted to an absurdly difficult jigsaw puzzle. By 2000, no more than 323 sacks were legible again -- reconstructed by a team of 15 people working in Nuremburg -- leaving 15,927 to go. So the German government promised money to any group that could plausibly deal with the remaining tons of paper.

The Fraunhofer Institute won the contract in 2003, and began a pilot phase of the project on Wednesday. Four hundred sacks of scraps will be scanned, front and back, and newly-refined software will try to arrange the digitized fragments according to shape, texture, ink color, handwriting style and recognizable official stamps.


It will be interesting to see how many facts about the Cold War will be revealed by this - if it works of course ...

Tags: , , , , , ,

May 10, 2007

Old Cold War Games

Interesting tale of how fighters were scrambled to intercept Russian spyplanes over interbational waters - in 2007 ...

Two Bears were spotted during a major Royal Navy exercise to the north of the Outer Hebrides. Commanders believe they were planning to spy on the warships, including the aircraft carrier Illustrious.

Two Tornado F3 fighters took off from RAF Leuchars in Fife and intercepted the Bears in international airspace.

The pilots were close enough to wave but there was no radio contact.

After shadowing the Russians for some 15 minutes, they watched as the giant bombers turned and headed home to their base in Murmansk. In similar skirmishes during the 1970s and 80s, Soviet spies were sometimes spotted watching from the perimeter of RAF stations to time exactly how long it took jets to take off and intercept Bear bombers, probing the UK's defences and testing the response.

While such visits from the Russians have become extremely rare, the latest one is a reminder that Moscow's long-term ambitions are not entirely clear and that the old Cold War rivalries could well resurface.


Is this the "Old Cold War" or the "Old Cold War Reheated" as the article suggests - or is the New Cold War a continuation of the Old Cold War by other means?

After all certain countries from the "Old Cold War" are quite happy to supply certain countries from the "New Cold War" with nuclear technology and arms - so how can we be sure this isn't the "Old Cold War" with a new set of proxy client states?


Tags: , , , ,

April 19, 2007

Iranian Ambitions

Just a little cartoon from Cox & Forkum that sums up my attitude quite nicely...


07.04.12.BureauDisinfo-X.gif


Tags: , , ,

April 16, 2007

Watch Lists Cause Credit Problems

Am I surprised that government officials don't have the time to root out real terrorists and would prefer a blanket ban when we are fighting the New Cold War?

Have a guess?

A little known Treasury Department terror watch list is causing trouble for people trying to buy homes and cars. CBS 5 Investigates first uncovered the problems last year. Now, a report released Tuesday by civil rights lawyers provides new evidence showing the problem is becoming more widespread.

The 250-page list, posted publicly on a Treasury Department Web site, is being used by credit bureaus, health insurers and car dealerships, as well as employers and landlords, according to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The list includes some of the world's most common names, such as Gonzalez, Lopez, Ali, Hussein, Abdul, Lucas and Gibson, and companies are often unsure how to root out mismatches. Some turn consumers away rather than risk penalties of up to $10 million and 30 years in prison for doing business with someone on the list, the group said.

"We have found that an increasing number of everyday consumers are being flagged as potential terrorists by private businesses merely because they have a name that's similar to someone on this government watch list," said the report's author, Shirin Sinnar, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.


Yeah right - anyone who reads this blog just knows how this entry is going to end ...

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat
As in - you know - we are all the "enemy" now

Tags: , , , , ,

April 15, 2007

Covenant of Sanctuary

Over at Eject! Eject! Eject! an article about the notion of "Sanctuary" stirs up yet more cognitive dissonance by asking tough questions about the silence of the left

I am trying my level best to understand how and why someone who professes to be for freedom for artists, homosexuals and women – not to mention unlimited personal expression of every stripe -- can take the side of 8th Century religious fanatics who brag about murdering writers, stoning women, beheading homosexuals and instituting moral policemen at every street corner with unquestioned authority to beat, jail or execute anyone suspected of being insufficiently pious.

I used to wonder why civilizations fell. No longer. I see it now before my eyes, every day. Civilizations do not fall because the Barbarians storm the walls. The forces of civilization are far too powerful, and those of barbarism far too weak, for that to happen.

Civilizations fall because the people inside the Sanctuary throw open the gates.

Great stuff - settle down with a pot of coffee and read it all ..

Tags: , ,

Data Mining Foils Non-Terrorist Plot

Yet again proving that governments are using "data mining" techniques that will not stop terror on public websites - we have this story:I only wanted to make fairy lights, says eBay man in terror raid

A man who bought items on eBay to make fairylights and fireworks for a family celebration had his home raided by police because they thought he was making a bomb.

Neil Harris used the online auction site to buy a rucksack, electronic relay board and saltpetre, which has explosive properties.

Data profiling such as this means that in the New Cold War - We Are All the Enemy Now - because we cannot trust the underlying technology to make the correct decisions.
Let's look at some numbers. We'll be optimistic -- we'll assume the system has a one in 100 false-positive rate (99 percent accurate), and a one in 1,000 false-negative rate (99.9 percent accurate). Assume 1 trillion possible indicators to sift through: that's about 10 events -- e-mails, phone calls, purchases, web destinations, whatever -- per person in the United States per day. Also assume that 10 of them are actually terrorists plotting.

This unrealistically accurate system will generate 1 billion false alarms for every real terrorist plot it uncovers. Every day of every year, the police will have to investigate 27 million potential plots in order to find the one real terrorist plot per month. Raise that false-positive accuracy to an absurd 99.9999 percent and you're still chasing 2,750 false alarms per day -- but that will inevitably raise your false negatives, and you're going to miss some of those 10 real plots.

Right - so this piece of "security theatre" means that there are, statistically speaking, at least 10 undiscovered terrorist plots apart from this false-postive ..

Right - way to go - in this wonderful "Age of the Web" - can't something a little better be done?

Is it really, really necessary to watch everyone all of the time in order to foil a "tiny minority of extremists" of the "religion of peace"?

Or is there something else being played out behind the scenes by the powers that be - who really just want more power and control?

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat
Welcome to the New Cold War - where private information, propaganda, disinformation, lies and unreliable data mining techniques feed false information to the security services -

Welcome to the New Cold War - where you are the suspect - forever.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

April 11, 2007

Blair Denies Making Decisions ...

No - really - Browne decision was not a good idea

Mr Blair was asked if he was involved in the initial decision, and replied: "I didn't actually know about the decision until after it was taken. But really that is not the point".
Really?

Is Mr. Blair (no "K" yet - give it time .. or maybe not) really saying that he had no knowledge of what was going on ... when he was president prime-minister of the UK??

But of course "really that is not the point" ..

Is the defence secretary "Des Browne" just falling on his sword taking the blame being a scapegoat really responsible for the propaganda debacle triumph of Mr. Blair??

Like who runs the country anyway???

An election might be a good idea if the useless w*nkers opposition might actually get themselves together and actually oppose this useless bunch of appeasement monkeys ..

Otherwise I have to comment that the weather in Spain is quite nice this time of year - and at least you really don't have to understand what the politicians are saying here either - its just the same lies in a different language ...


Tags: , , , ,

The New "New Cold War"

As if the New Cold War wasn't enough - now we have the "new" New Cold War - as Russia flexes its muscles in the wake of the apparent perceived weaknesses of the the western bloc: Russia threatening new cold war

The threat of a new arms race comes at a time when relations between Russia and the US are at their worst for a decade. In February Mr Putin accused the Bush administration during a speech in Munich of seeking a "world of one master, one sovereign". On Friday Russia's duma, or lower house or parliament, warned that the US's plans could ignite a second cold war. "Such decisions, which are useless in terms of preventing potential or imaginary threats from countries of the middle and far-east, are already bringing about a new split in Europe and unleashing another arms race," the declaration - passed unanimously by Russian MPs - said.
Propaganda and counter propaganda rule in the "new new cold war" - after all we have to ask why certain factions opposed to "Westen Interests" are supplying people who have expressed a desire to Wipe Israel Off the Map
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Ahmadinejad addressed students at a conference

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism.

"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said.

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.

But who is supplying the technology for the Iranian Nuclear programme?
Russian delegations are in Tehran to discuss both financial and technical issues regarding the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

State news agency RIA Novosti reports negotiations are planned to last until April 13.

Atomstroyexport, the Russian nuclear firm building the $1 billion plant, stopped work last month because Tehran had fallen behind on its monthly payments.

Iran says the stoppage was because of international pressure over Iran's nuclear program. Iran's uranium enrichment projects, not the Bushehr plant, are coming under global criticism for having weapons aims, which Tehran denies.

Note that the only reason for the embargo was that "Tehran had fallen behind on its monthly payments" - like Iran was buying a 3-piece suite, a car or a house ...

Is the "New New Cold War" going to play out like the "Old Cold War" - but with 4 "blocs" instead of three?

Or are some people being used as puppets and war proxies by their masters?

Who is running the "New Cold War" - and is it the same as the "Old Cold War" - or is it just the "Old Cold War" revamped and reheated with the same players as before?


Tags: , , , ,

Uranium Prices Skyrocket

Not that this has anything to do with the Iranian nuclear ambitions or anything like that - but it appears that Uranium Skyrockets to $113/lb on Supply Shortfall

Today sources confirmed the spot uranium price has jumped from $95 to $113 per pound. This 19% jump is the largest price increase on record, surpassing the previous record of 7% set in October 2006 after Cameco’s Cigar Lake flooded.

Eric Webb, VP of Information and Technology for Ux Consulting Company, previously told Resource Investor that the price jump in October was the largest weekly gain seen on record. Although UxC has not yet updated its pricing info, analysts at the inaugural Uranium Stock Summit confirmed the $18 price jump and told listeners there is more of this to come.

Uranium at “$200/lb is not unrealistic,” said Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research, presenter of the Summit. The price has risen about 15-fold since 2001.

On Friday, April 6, Mestena Uranium LLC, a uranium producer based in Corpus Christi, Texas, offered 100,000 pounds of yellowcake in an auction, catapulting the price of uranium. Privately held Mestena, which has a mine in Texas, produces about 1 million pounds a year.

“Uranium is going higher, stocks are going higher,” said Casey. “You have plenty of time – all the money has not been made.”

But who are they selling it to?

If all the money has not yet been made - it means that either (a) demand has not yet outstripped supply and that the market must be growing or that (b) fixed supply is causing a scarcity of the product.

Who are the new buyers?

Russia’s Atomstroiexport is the general contractor for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility, which will run on uranium supplied by Russia. Mohammad Saedi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, said today that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned by March 2008.
Now - I try not to be too cynical about things *ahem* - and it strikes me that selling the Iranians nuclear capacity in any format is not to be recommended - but to suggest that "you can make more money by helping us to supply our potential enemies" - is appeasement of the worst kind.

Its like planting a tree and watching it grow for 20 years while spending all your time weaving a thick rope ...


Tags: , , , , ,

April 10, 2007

Propaganda Wars

In the current New Cold War propaganda war between Iran and the UK - we reach a new low in stupid NuLabour moral equivalecy - I guess we should Not Offend the Iranians

Patricia Hewitt, health secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet, was upset by pictures broadcast from Iran of the 15 captive British sailors and marines, reported Christopher Booker of the Sunday Telegraph.

"It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking," Ms. Hewitt said. "This sends completely the wrong message to our young people."

Yes - thats right - in the wonderful world of NuLabour it is worse to show pictures of members of our armed forces smoking that it is to show them in captivity as victims of an illegal kidnapping.

No wonder the Americans think that the UK has lost its backbone as Iran's Bluff Humbles Britian

So in 2007 the men of the Royal Navy can be kidnapped and "the strong arm of England" (in Lord Palmerston's phrase) goes all limp-wristed and threatens to go to the U.N. and talk about drafting a Security Council resolution. Backstage, meanwhile, deals are done: An Iranian "diplomat" (a k a Mister Terror Kingpin) suddenly resurfaces in Tehran after having been reported in American detention, his release purely coincidental, we're told.
Of course appeasement gets mentioned as well ..
Some liken liberal appeasers to those Britons who wanted to make a deal with Hitler after the fall of France in 1940. That's unfair to those appeasers. Their attitude was not honorable, but it was reasonable. The Nazis then possessed a substantial advantage in military power. Today's liberal appeasers embrace dhimmitude even though it's the West that has a huge military and economic advantage.
But perhaps the most pungent commentary was from Fraters Libertas who photoshopped up a picture of Churchill on a mocked up "Time Cover"

ChurchillCry3b.jpg

Read it and weep ...

Tags: , , , , ,

April 5, 2007

The Lady Doth Protest ...

Methinks that the lady doth protest too much - if there wasn't a deal - why even deny it ...

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted no deal was done to free 15 Royal Navy crew members, as they arrived in the UK after being held in Iran for 13 days.

They were released "without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature," he said.

Next up watch in awe as the UK back loosening of atomic sanctions against Iran - closely followed by a fuel supply and/or re-processing deal for Iran - after all we are in competition with the Russians, its "just business" and "if we didn't supply them somebody else would"

Not that I am cynical or anything ... not much anyway ... well maybe just a little


Tags: , , , ,

Dalai Lama Under Threat

Latest news is that Islamic Fundamentalists threaten life of Dalai Lama

Of course it must be the fault of the West - becuase of Israel, the occupation of Iraq and the fact that we like Britney Spears videos.

A three-tier security ring has been thrown around the 72-year-old Buddhist head, who lives at Dharamsala, in the Himalayan foothills, Indian police spokesman Prem Lal said.

All those approaching the exiled Tibetan chief will be closely watched by highly trained Tibetan security guards as well as heavily armed deployments of Indian police.

Visitors are being body-searched before being allowed to approach him.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to make a widely anticipated 11-day visit to cities and regional centres across Australia in early June, making both free and ticketed appearances at public lectures, blessings and teaching sessions. Before that, he will visit the US.

Superintendent Lal said police had been alerted by central intelligence agencies to the reported plot by Lashkar-e-Toiba to kill the Dalai Lama "on the directions of a foreign organisation", which he declined to name, but is assumed to be al-Qa'ida.

In a recent document, Osama bin Laden denounced "pagan Buddhism" as part of his general attack on anything not Islamic.

The assassination threat picked up by Indian authorities is thought to be based on bin Laden's denunciation and the extremist jihadi movement's hatred for anything and anyone that is not Muslim.

Or maybe not ....

Tags: , , , ,

April 4, 2007

Ahmadinejad Frees Hostages

Ignoring the fact that they shouldn't have been kidnapped captured in the first place - President Ahmadinejad made the most of this propaganda exercise with a huge news conference.

He spoke at length, attacking the West over its policy in the Middle East, and it was more than an hour before he even mentioned the captives issue.

He repeated allegations that the Britons were captured in Iranian waters, and awarded medals to the Iranian commanders responsible for detaining them.

It was all part of the build up to his extraordinary theatrical gesture, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.

"We have every right to put these people on trial," Mr Ahmadinejad asserted.

"But I want to give them as a present to the British people to say they are all free."

"I'm asking Mr Blair to not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water", he added, referring to taped "confessions" made by the British sailors and marines.


I like that last final touch - pleading with Tony Blair "not to put these 15 personnel on trial" - I guess we should all be grateful to President Ahmadinejad and ensure that he gets all the military aid he requires - maybe we should offer to reprocess some of their spent fuel - after all he is so obviously a man to be trusted with nuclear power.

Tags: , , , ,

Conspiracy Theory

Looks like the press in Iran are getting their information from Rosie O'Donnell as they suggest that Iranian hostage crisis is nothing more than a dark conspiracy hatched by London

Iran's newspapers ended a fortnight's enforced silence on the 15 detained UK naval personnel yesterday by depicting the affair as a dark conspiracy hatched by London, with many denouncing the British and some saying the sailors and marines had been sent into Iranian waters to stoke a conflict aimed at isolating the country.

The tightly state-monitored dailies were publishing for the first time since before the national new year holiday.

The usually moderate Etemade Melli accused the Blair government of devising a "pre-planned scenario" to protect the Labour party from an electoral backlash caused by British public opposition to the Iraq war. "Britain was well aware that such an incursion by its military forces would provoke a reaction from Tehran," the paper wrote. "The existence of hi-tech satellite navigation equipment eliminates the possibility of negligence or error on the part of the British. London has been prepared to pay the price of the arrest ... to perform its pre-planned scenario."

More like a "dark conspiracy" hatched in Tehran to divert attention from the Iranian nuclear weapons program ..

Tags: , , , , ,

Blair Barks, Yaps, Rolls Over

As if we couldn't see it coming - Blair has done with showing backbone and now its time to backpedal before making some kind of backdoor deal

Last night, a British delegation, probably consisting of naval officers, legal experts and diplomats, was standing ready to fly to Iran at short notice. The team would not formally negotiate the release of the 15 sailors and marines seized by Iran on March 23, British officials insisted, but would try to produce a face-saving way out of the crisis for both sides by discussing how to avoid another incident in the northern Gulf.

"The next 48 hours will be fairly critical," Tony Blair said yesterday. But British officials are also bracing themselves for a news conference today by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has had little to say about the crisis.

"If they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way, the door is open," the prime minister said. But if the negotiations stalled, Britain would "take an increasingly tougher position".

How tough will that be Mr.Blair ??
All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies.
Oops - wrong quote - but it doesn't make much sense to send a team of extra hostaages British delegation to Iran unless some kind of deal is in the offing does it?

Of course what "Downing Street" said was:

There have been further talks between the UK and Iran this evening, including directly with Dr Ali Larijani.

On the basis of these, the Prime Minister believes that both sides share a desire for an early resolution of this issue through direct talks.

The Prime Minister remains committed to resolving this by diplomatic means. The UK has proposed direct bilateral discussions and awaits an Iranian response on when these can begin.

Which amounts to much the same thing - expect Tony Blair to be on TV soon waving a piece of paper which will guarantee "peace in our time" - espcecially as the most expedient way of finding a "face-saving way out of the crisis for both sides by discussing how to avoid another incident in the northern Gulf" - would mean British withdrawal ..

Tags: , , , , ,

April 3, 2007

The Trouble With Islam

Tawfik Hamed talks about the Trouble with Islam - and notes many of the things that have been causing me cognitive dissonance lately ...

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.


Right now the left are too busy supporting the "worthy victims" that support their agenda to pay any attention to the "unworthy victims" who undermine the current narrative about causes and effects of "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam" in the wonderful world of 21st Century NewSpeak

Tags: , , , , , ,

The "Suicide Bomber" Gap

Remember the good old days of the Old Cold War when the USA was worried about the Missile Gap with the USSR?

Now - in the New Cold War it appears we have a new "Suicide Bomber" Gap as RAF pilots asked to consider suicide flight

During a training exercise, Air Vice-Marshal David Walker put it to newly qualified pilots that they should think of flying suicide missions in a "worst case scenario" when a terrorist attack was imminent.

The head of the RAF's elite One Group who is in operational control of Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar and Harrier fighters and bombers, is reported to have asked the pilots: "Would you think it unreasonable if I ordered you to fly your aircraft into the ground in order to destroy a vehicle carrying a Taliban or al-Qaida commander?"

Hey! Great Swap - if this country wages a war of attrition like this we won't have any pilots or planes worth a damn!!

Lets do the maths:

Cost of Training of Pilot: £2 milllion (ish)
Cost of combat aircraft: £30-40 million (ish)

Total Cost: £30-40 million give or take a little bit

Cost of Enemy Combatant: £0 - volunteers always available, replacements easy to find, training costs fully subsidised ...

So why the sudden propaganda spasm?

Would it really be worth throwing the life of just one RAF pilot and his very expensive plane away to kill Bin Laden? It would make no sense at all ...

Unless the whole carefully contrived "leak" and "outrage" piece is designed to encourage disinformation amongst various factions that use suicide bombings as a force multiplier - leading to a percieved narrowing of the "suicide bomber" gap.

Of course - this whole story about "RAF Suicide Missions" has been leaked published just at a time when tensions between Iran and the UK are high - so I have no reason to disbelieve anything I read in mainstream media anyhow ...


Tags: , , , ,

April 2, 2007

Brainwashing: A Desirable Mental Attittude?

If anybody remembers the "Brainwashing" scare of the "old" Cold War - then the latest developments in the tale of the Iranian kidnapped hostage saga - in which they have all confessed now should be ringing some small distant bells of memory.

Signed stilted confessions, showtrial TV and just the whiff of possible coercion - sounds like the Sixties all over again.

All 15 of the British service personnel held in Iran have confessed to having illegally entered the country's waters, an Iranian state-run television channel said today.

The unsourced report was on the Arabic-language channel al-Alam and contained a mix of old and previously unseen footage of the captives.

Iranian media reports said footage of the "confessions" would not be broadcast, following unspecified "positive changes" in Britain's negotiating stance.

Since last week, al-Alam has broadcast footage of four of the 15 captives "confessing".

Were these hostages tortured in some horrible 60's mindwarp "Ipcress File" nightmare to make them "confess"?

No - it would seem thats its all down to Tricks of the Intelligence Trade:

A likely scenario, I think, is that the Iranian interrogators have been feeding disinformation to the British sailors and have managed to make them believe not only that they were in Iranian waters when caught but that the British government has also admitted this and apologised for it, and that now they have realised their mistake, a genuine apology would best serve their own and their country's interest.

The Iranian intelligence service has used this technique before on some Iranian dissidents and the results were satisfactory. In one case they had even produced a bogus version of a well-known newspaper to persuade them.

In this way, without even touching the detainees or doing anything that could legally be considered as torture, either physical or psychological, they may have managed to get the words they want from the detainees.

That's why the interrogators don't allow the detainees to have any contact with the outside world, so that the detainees can only be fed with disinformation that could naturally and logically lead them into willingly doing or saying exactly what the interrogators want.

Not that I am slightly cynical or anything - but I suspect the hidden hand of the government in communicating exactly what kind of appeasement noises the hostages have to make to dampen down media interest - while behind the scenes some licenses for some exports of weapons get quietly approved ...

Not that I would ever suggest that Britain waives the rules when it comes to "doing business" with people to ensure "peace in our time" ...


Tags: , , , , ,

NewSpeak: A Desirable Mental Attitude?

The Brussels Journal has a nice take on the recent article in the Daily Telegraph about how How not to confuse terrorism with Islam ...

It appears the EU not only wants to restrict freedom of speech but to restrict information on the restrictions it imposes.

1. Will the Commission make this lexicon available to Members of the European Parliament? If so, please inform me how to obtain a copy.

2. If the Lexicon is not to be made available to MEPs, will the Commission please provide a full explanation of why not?

3. On what legal basis does the Commission consider that institutions of the EU have competence to determine freedom of speech & the use of language?

4. Does the Commission consider that it has any legal basis to provide, what appears to be legally binding instructions to member state press spokesmen and women, and if so, what is that legal basis?

5. On what basis is the EU empowered, or feels itself able, to decide what is and is not authentic and non-authentic Islam?

6. Has any institution of the European Union consulted any organisation or body representing the Islamic religion on the use of language to describe its adherents, or terrorists purporting to be Muslims?

Quite - if the EU has the guts to circulate a list of "B-Vocabulary Words" which are:

deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only [have] in every case a political implication, but [are] intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them

then I would love to read it ...

Otherwise I will continue in my politically incorrect course and call "a spade a spade".

If people get the "wrong idea" and think that I am calling Islam a patriarchal misogynist religion - run by men for men and which has designs to make over the whole world in its image - I am not going to apologise


Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

March 30, 2007

Anti-Americanism in Germany

Whoever said the Germans had no sense of humour? This piece entitled: Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs deconstructs the dark heart of German Anti-Americanism ...

Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery.
What? Anti-Americanism in Europe - I would never have noticed - but some Germans have apparently ...

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, the American historian who in his 1996 book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" deprived the Germans of the belief that they didn't know what was going on back in the day, is currently studying the history of genocides in the 20th century. One of the things he has noticed is that the politicians or military leaders who planned genocides and had them carried out rarely concealed their intentions in advance. Whether the victims were Hereros, Armenians, kulaks, Jews or later Bosnians, the perpetrators generally believed that they were justified and had no reason to hide their murderous intentions.

Today, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about a world without Israel while dreaming of an atom bomb, it seems obvious that we -- as Germans of all people -- should be putting two and two together. Why shouldn't Ahmadinejad mean what he says? But we Germans only know what we believe.


Of course this would not be the same Ahmadinejad who is busy trying to convince us that he is "a man we can do business with" and that any agreement with him will lead to "peace in our time" - and not a bit like Hitler ... I guess I should trust him to have his nukes then - after all Iran is running out of energy and oil and needs nuclear power to save itself from the energy crunch ...

Perhaps we should take the approach of Harold Nicolson who was heard to opine ...

All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies.

Or maybe not ....

Tags: , , , , , ,

March 27, 2007

Backbone or Backpedal?

Still on the subject of the illegaly kidnapped Iranian capture of UK sailors - we find Blair showing a little back bone ...

In a sign of increasing British impatience, Tony Blair today warned of a "different phase" if diplomatic efforts fail to secure the release of the 15 British service personnel held by Iran.

With the impasse entering its fifth day, the prime minister described the group's capture as "unjustified and wrong".

Speaking on GMTV, Mr Blair said: "I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."


Tough talk no? Fighting talk no? The ghosts of Churchill and Thatcher lurking in the shadows ... well no actually ...

Mr Blair said: "Well, we will just have to see, but what they should understand is that we cannot have a situation where our servicemen and women are seized when actually they are in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate, patrolling perfectly rightly and in accordance with that mandate, and then effectively captured and taken to Iran."

Will Blair show some backbone over this issue - or will he backpedal and do a backdoor deal with the Iranians in order to free the illegaly kidnapped hostages captured sailors?

Arms for hostages anyone?


Tags: , , ,

Solitary Confinement for Female Combatants

In the world of the New Cold War - Iran has recently upped the stakes by kidnapping capturing British sailors

Meanwhile - back on the propaganda front - where if you couldn't make it up, you do anyway, Rosie O'Donnell has this to say about the illegal kidnappping capture

TV host Rosie O'Donnell implied today the Iranian seizure of British sailors was a hoax to provide President Bush with an excuse to go to war with Tehran.

In a discussion about the 15 British personnel seized Friday for allegedly entering Iranian waters, the controversial co-host of ABC's "The View" correlated the event to the Gulf of Tonkin incident that propelled the U.S. into the Vietnam War. President Johnson's administration was accused of provoking one incident in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin and making up another as a pretext for war.

Now this would be all well and good - yet another Conspiracy Theory to keep the masses amused - but nobody is asking a very important question - and if you read the Guardian piece it soon becomes apparent what that question is.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behaviour," Muhammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, told the Associated Press.

Mr Hosseini said the only woman sailor among the group enjoyed complete privacy. "Definitely all ethics have been observed" he said.

So does complete privacy in a country under Sharia law where all ethics have been observed mean that a woman is being held in solitary confinement for the only reason that she is female.

Surely not??

Surely such treatment would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" for a kidnap victim prisoner of war?

Is the female prisoner being held in solitary confinement? Or is it just that she is being held in complete privacy?

I reckon Rosie O'Donnell should be the one kept in complete privacy - so her malignant conspiracy theories do not affect the outcome of this prisoner exchange hostage crisis

Of course - after this - everyone is going to agree that Ahmendinjad is the leader of a country that can be trusted with using nuclear power for peacful purposes ...


Tags: , , , , , ,

March 15, 2007

Once Upon a Time ...

If Tom Wolfe could write about the situation today like he wrote about yesterday - I hope he would write it like this - "The Pump House Gang" meets Once Upon a Time in the West (Midlands)
It is raining. Amid the leaf-green patches and high-rise suburbia, the Muslim flock is on the move. As the call to Friday prayers wafts through the doors of the central mosque, an unholy alliance of men walks up the steps and into its entrance. As they remove and shelve their footwear in the foyer, their bland shalwar kameezes, prayer caps, and fistfuls of scraggly hair growth mingle and compete with exaggerated "bomber" jackets, "condom" hats, and goatee beards. But women, all of whom are safely tucked into hijabs and niqabs, move to an unobtrusive side entrance of the mosque.

The car park nearby is, as is usually the case, a scene of confusion. The non-Muslim policeman on duty is feeling the pressure. These Muslims, it appears, do not know how to park their cars, or at least, not around each other. Out of necessity, the ground of the car park itself is not a flat, smooth tarmac: it consists entirely of small, but sizeable, jagged rocks that pre-emptively puncture the ambitions of opportunistic speeders, who would care to exhibit the marvels of their machines. For the more likely that young, fertile, non-Muslim women live and reside in a vicinity, the greater are the efforts invested into displaying male plummage.

But there are males who are aware that sabotaging this holy day in the service of reproductive pursuits is not usually the same as siding with God. As their souped-up, low-slung cars cruise into this arena that is a car park under heavy siege, some of them dutifully decide that it is now appropriate, perhaps, to stop pumping out hip-hop and bhangra. And when the inhabitants of these vehicles finally emerge, together they look like an odd lot. Most conform to the usual urban "rude-boy" stereotype, given how obvious their efforts are in trying to appear "accidentally" attractive; the rest look as if they have just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca: moustaches are trimmed, beards are not, and the trousers of their long, white jilbabs are jacked above the ankles.

It has long been thus: welcome to this outpost of Islamic civilisation, a colony where the stridency of the faithful collides with vogues that were once confined to the underclass of non-Muslim British society. Muhammad is not just the newest, and the final of, God's prophets; Muhammad is the newest, and the final of, the bling-bling superstars. Since the Rushdie Affair, and more recently the Cartoon jihad, even the most irreligious of the street-savvy Muslim rude-boys have come to know of the new universal limits: nobody disses Mo, the Final Gangster of all time and a Mercy to all the worlds.
Superb writing - great piece - you should read it all because Adil is the Tom Wolfe for the khilafah generation ...

Tags: , , ,

March 14, 2007

Hollywood "Psychological Warfare"

I couldn't sit through 90% of Hollywood propaganda garbage films either - but this takes the biscuit Iran accuses Hollywood of 'psychological warfare'

What - are Hollywood being their usual Islamaphobic selves and portraying Iranians as terrorists?

How dare they make a picture about events that happened so recently - like in 480BC ??

Hollywood is already firmly established as a source of cultural decadence in Iran's pantheon of hated western symbols.

But now the country's Islamic leadership has accused it of "psychological warfare" over its depiction of the battle between the Greeks and Persians at Thermopylae in 480BC, regarded as a key event in the birth of western democracy by some historians.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has joined MPs, bloggers and local media in denouncing the newly-released Warner Brothers epic, 300, as a calculated attempt to demonise Iran at a time of intensifying US pressure over the country's nuclear programme.

I don't recall either the Persians or the Greeks using nuclear weapons in 480BC - maybe this is a little silly - I couldn't have made this up.

Maybe Warner Brothers have hired Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to do PR for them? The amount of free publicity this will generate is enormous ...

Mr Ahmadinejad's spokesman branded the film "an insult to Iran" while four MPs have urged the foreign ministry to pressure other Muslim countries to ban it.

The film, directed by Zack Snyder and based on a novel by Frank Miller, grossed nearly £40m in ticket sales in three days after opening in north American cinemas last week. It portrays the heroic endeavours of 300 Spartans, under King Leonidas, who are shown resisting an invading force of 120,000 Persian troops led by Emperor Xerxes.

The plot depicts the tiny Spartan force repeatedly outmanoeuvring the invaders and being defeated after a three-day stand-off only through treachery. Iranians complain that it represents them as savage, murderous and warmongering.

No it represents the Persians as savage, murderous and warmongering - but from any reading of ancient history I can manage - there was a lot of "savage, murderous and warmongering" tribes and nations around then.

In fact "savage, murderous and warmongering" have been around ever since history started really ...

I am sorry to have to say this to the poor offended Iranians - but a long, long, long time ago Greeks and Persians had several wars ...

Isn't it about time they got over it and stopped feeling so touchy?


Tags: , , , , , , ,

March 10, 2007

The Silence of the Feminists

Pamela Bone hits hard and makes points - after all she is a women who thinks that Western sisters (are) failing the fight

LET it be recorded that in the last decade of the 20th century the brave and great movement of Western feminism ended, not with a bang but with a whimper.

How can I not agree - I've long opined that the left betrayed feminism and gender rights as soon as they had no more use for them ..

The Beijing Platform for Action made many important statements about the equality of women, such as: "The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

Sounds like commonsense to me - but then recently I have felt like an "exrtemist" for sticking up for the things I believe in - like women's rights ...

... but Pamela goes on - and nails it to the wall ...

Was it before or after September 11 that thinkers of the Left - for feminism was a movement of the Left - decided that racism was a far more serious crime than sexism? When did cultural sensitivity trump women's rights? Was it about the time that Australian feminist Germaine Greer defended the practice of female genital mutilation because, as she pointed out, Western women put studs through their nipples and labia?

Quite - a an elective practise of self-mutilation for fashionable purposes is not the same as non-elective genital surgery - but Germain Greer played the "cultural and moral equivalency card" here ...

Consider this: a struggling, screaming little girl is held down by several people (usually women) while another woman cuts through her clitoris and inner labia, with the intention of ensuring this girl will never experience sexual pleasure; and the world's most famous feminist, to whom much is owed, I don't deny, can compare this practice to adult women choosing, for whatever silly reason, to decorate their sexual parts with metal. The UN estimates that three million girls are mutilated every year. It has lately been warning against the medicalisation of the practice: as societies develop, it is being carried out by health professionals, which doesn't make it less of an abuse.

I hope you are following this - because the "medicalisation of the pratice" means more young girls are going to have their clitorises cut off - because there are no "health and safety laws" that prevent it.

For that reason it will become more and more popular amongst those communities that support the practice for cultural or religious reasons.

In Pakistan, the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, which would ban forced marriages and give women rights over property, is before the national assembly. In Syria, the murder of a 16-year-old girl by her brother, at her family's request, has prompted a national debate about the leniency shown to perpetrators of honour killings.

In Saudi Arabia, Bill Gates, addressing a recent business seminar, told the segregated audience - women, their faces and bodies shrouded in black, behind a large partition - that the country would not achieve its ambition to become an economic power while it failed to use the talents of half the population. "One side of the audience loved it," he quipped later.


One half of the audience - and one half of our human resources ..

Tags: , , , , ,


March 8, 2007

Tatchell vs Livingstone

The inevitable backlash against The Silence of the Left has manifested itself in an unexpected quarter, as Peter Tatchell and Ken Livingstone get into a spat about "Islamaphobia".

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association spokesman, George Broadhead, commented thusly:

Whilst Mr Livingstone seems only too ready to condemn homophobia from Christian and Jewish sources, he seems highly reluctant to do so when it comes from Islamic sources

Mr Livingstone is clearly determined to treat Islam with kid gloves no matter how stridently homophobic its adherents are.

The slightest criticism of Islam is immediately branded Islamaphobic.

It was clear that Ken Livingstone, who had commented that:

The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe which overwhelmingly come from right wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamaphobic campaign.

had enraged Peter Tatchell who called the Islamphobia slur "a lie" and commented:
Anyone who has read the OutRage! news release about the Moscow Mayor’s visit to London this week will know that neither I nor OutRage! have mentioned a word about the Grand Mufti.

A year ago, I criticised the Grand Mufti after he urged his followers to violently attack gay people in the streets. Is Ken Livingstone saying that human rights groups should not condemn fanatics who incite violence against LGBTI people?

The main focus of my criticism during last year’s campaign was the homophobia of the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who had banned Moscow Gay Pride. I also condemned the Chief Rabbi, the Russian Orthodox Church, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists. The Grand Mufti was not singled out.

To suggest that my criticism of the Grand Mufti was an Islamophobic campaign is dishonest, despicable nonsense. It brings the Mayor’s office into disrepute. He has made a very serious libellous statement

Ken Livingstone should produce the evidence to back up his claim that my campaign has focused on the Grand Mufti.

Only the other day I reported on the St. Petersburg Declaration which held to the commonsense view that:

We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

It looks like more and more of the left who are concerned with supporting "human reason or rights" will be taking a harder look at the issues after this row.

This has to be a good thing in ending the complicity of the left in ignoring certain regimes that consistently violate human rights because they are focussed solely on "Chimpy Bush" and the "War on Terror".


Tags: , , , , , , , ,


March 6, 2007

Islamic Reformers Speak Out

It comes as no surprise to find that certain factions of the Islamic world are just as concerned with women's rights and freedom as I am - after all they have to live within Islamic society.

The "St. Petersburg Declaration" from Secular Islam Summit - subtitled "The Next Islamic Enlightenment Starts Now" makes some relevant points about the current problems that face us in the New Cold War.

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.

We affirm the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience. We believe in the equality of all human persons.

We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.

We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.

We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

I agree with these people.

We should not give Islam a "free pass" on human rights in the name of "cultural equivalance", "moral equivalence" or even "multicultural political correctness".

These (very brave) people put it quite plainly and call for governments of the world to:

Eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women; (and to) protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence.

Quite ... I bet my wife and mother would agree as well ...


Tags: , , , , ,


February 26, 2007

Ayaan Hirst Ali

There was an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the freebie magazine that comes with "Diario de Cadiz" on Sundays - even with my poor Spanish it struck me - I hope it struck other people in Cadiz Provincia as much ..

(all translations mine - no guarantee they are accurate enough to satisfy anyone I am not mis-translating for my own agenda)

"Si yo viviera ahora en cualquier communidad musulmana, seria un cadaver"

If I lived in any Moslem community I would be a corpse

"Por haber abandonada la fe, por haberme rebelado, por atreverme a luchar contra la submission de las mujeres de Islam"

Because I have abandoned the faith, I have rebelled, and launched a battle against the submission of the women of Islam.


Powerful women - perish the thought that women should ever try and change anything - no wonder she gets death threats ...

"La Izquierda nos ha abandonado. Nos ha traicionda"

The left have abandoned us. They have betrayed us.

"La izquierda, salvo exceptiones se ha convertido en reaccionaria. Es progresista defender un religion contraria a la vida, que trata a la mujer peor que a animales?"

The left, with some exceptions, have been converted into reactionaries. Is it progressive to defend a religion which is against life? which treats women worse than animals?


A Moslem woman speaks - and she feels betrayed by the left - and why not?

After all - some of us on "the left" still feel that women's rights, gay rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and other hard won "freedoms" are still important ...


Tags: , , ,


February 19, 2007

Propaganda and Disinformation

Why am I not surprised that the current war-of-words between the USA and Iran has spun off some of the most obvious propaganda for a long time?

Could it be because we are in the middle of a "New Cold War" - where claim and counter claim are coupled with increasingly outrageous accusations on both sides?

Anyone who might have noticed the Fauxtography Scandal - where an AP photographer was caught red-handed using Photoshop to doctor photographs of the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon - will not be surprised at this latest stunt ...

First off - look at this picture from the LA-Times - from an article entitled Iran Alleges US Link to Militant Attack"


ammo-latimes.jpg

Bullet cartridges bearing a U.S. insignia and English lettering were among the weaponry seized last week from Sunni militants suspected of killing 11 members of Shiite-dominated Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, Iranian officials said Sunday.

A photo of the cartridge box, along with an array of other ammunition, was published by Iranian newspapers and news agencies.

Now lets look at a recent photgraph from the Iranian Fars Agency

ammo-fars.jpg
These arsenals have been confiscated during a raid on the hideout of a terrorist group known as Jondollah in the provincial capital city of Zahedan on Thursday.

Earlier a source said that the relevant documents, photographs and film footages showing that the explosives and arsenals used in the attack were American would be presented to the public and media in the near future.


Now I can't really express much surprise that the Iranian Fars press have run this "fauxtograph" - and I have to say hats off to the LA-Times for finding the "smoking gun" (or should that be "missing gun") - because the LA-Times photograph clears up the issues I had with the Fars photograph quote nicely.

I am talking about the stock and strap of a gun that, while being clearly visible in the LA-Times photo, has mysteriously vanished in the Fars photo - leaving only part of the stock and strap.

It doesn't make any sense - unless you see the LA-Times photo - and then it makes heaps of sense.

But even though propaganda and disinformation are the order of the day in the New Cold War - what surprises me most is that it takes a site like Little Green Footballs to actually uncover this piece of photo manipulation - surprised because it has long been a truism amongst us long-haired moonbat types that "the media is corrupt" and that "we are being lied to".

It turns out we are right - we are being lied to - but not in the way we would expect.

Why are there no Left wing sites that engage in the kind of investigative reporting that Little Green Footballs and other right wing sites routinely engage in?

You would think that the left would ensure that every time there was evidence of the media lying to the public they would denounce it as evidence that they were right all along, the media is as corrupt as they say it is, and they we are "being lied to" on a daily basis.

Unless it doesn't fit their agenda of course ...

All of this leads to me to conclude two things:

i) We shouldn't shoot the messenger - even if they are bringing the message to promote their own agenda - because they might be right.

They were in this case - and revealed a classic piece of disinformation from the Iranian Fars news agency in the process.

ii) In the "New Cold "War" - just like any other war in history "truth is the first casualty" ...


Tags: , , , , ,


5 Minutes to Go

I've already written about the "Doomsday Clock" here and here - but recent developments mean we only have 5 Minutes to Go ...

By moving the hand of the Clock closer to midnight — the figurative end of civilization — the BAS Board of Directors is drawing attention to the increasing dangers from the spread of nuclear weapons in a world of violent conflict, and to the catastrophic harm from climate change that is unfolding. The BAS statement explains: "We stand at the brink of a Second Nuclear Age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth."

The BAS statement continues: "The dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause irremediable harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival."

Climate Change???

I thought that the whole idea was to use "the analogy of the human race being at a time that is "minutes to midnight" where midnight represents destruction by nuclear war" - but somehow the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

February 17, 2007

Exploring Moral Equivalence

You know that things are getting serious when blogs normally about comics and art starts writing pieces like this - but I am not surprised - after all this was a hacker blog about computers and music once upon a time ...

In this piece "Blunting the Senses in the Name of Fairness", David Thompson speaks truth to power about many things - including "Cultural Racism, Islamaphobia, and "Moral Equivalence"

By way of further illustration, Rosie O’Donnell was happy to assert that, "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America." But while red-faced evangelists may say, for instance, that gay people are wicked, damned to hellfire, etc, I don’t know of any internationally renowned Christian leaders who are calling for the imprisonment and killing of gay people. Unlike the supposedly “moderate” Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who insists that gay men and lesbians should be “killed in the worst manner possible.” Not condemned, ‘corrected’, prayed for, or pitied, or any of the usual nonsense spouted by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson et al; but murdered - as brutally as possible.

Guardian regular Karen Armstrong has echoed Reverend Gaffney and dutifully reminded us that all religions have a fundamentalist fringe, and thus, apparently, no further judgment needs to be made regarding theological factors. But the size of that ‘fringe’, its relationship to the mainstream, and its specific ideological features are not the same for all religions. Jehovah’s Witnesses are extremist in certain respects, and they have some pretty bizarre ideas about blood transfusion. And the Amish might be thought of as fundamentalist, too. But where are the eighty or so groups of Amish suicide bombers? Where are the Methodist extremists who want to legally subordinate all non-Methodists as an act of religious observance? Where are the Buddhists who murdered the translators of a ‘blasphemous’ novel while chanting the words of the Buddha as absolute justification? If all religious ideologies are equal in their merits and shortcomings, and equally inclined to homicidal intolerance, shouldn’t we be seeing all of these things, or something like them, roughly in proportion to the size each religion’s following?

Right - so while I note that "Security Theatre" has not made me safer - I also note that the main reason I am not safer is that the threat doesn't seem to come from Baptists, Amish, Atheists, Hindus, Mormons, Buddhists, Gays, Transexuals, Sodomites and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all ...

"Security Theatre" refuses to address a simple point: Not all people are as likely to become suicide bombers ...

There is a skew in the statistics - and it doesn't lead me to conclude that Jehovah's Witnesses are a threat - even if they do really, really want to go to heaven ...

Read it all here - its worth the time ...


Tags: , , , ,


February 13, 2007

The Enemy at Home

A woman speaks and makes it quite plain that "The Enemy at Home" - is women - if you are some kind of fundamentalist that is ...

What threatens patriarchal Muslim communities are not the excesses of Western societies but its very norms. Individualism and the relatively equal position of women manifest themselves in the opportunities females have to pursue education and economic independence.

There is no way that Muslim women, in great numbers, can be granted similar opportunities without it eventually shaking their societies at their very foundations. Whatever else the Taliban is obtuse about, they understand perfectly the concept of the slippery slope — allow a girl child to be educated at all, and you never know where she will end up — perhaps like me, with only tangential ties to some of the core values of the conservative Islamic community I was raised in.
Indeed - which is why fundamentalists all over the world repress their women - and I am not just talking about Islam here ...

The problem with fundamentalists everywhere - is that they are fundamentalists. They can only look at reality through their fundamentalist tunnel vision - everything else is obscured and fuzzy around the edges ...

They believe that their "book" (whatever it may be) is the fundamental unchanging word of G-d - never to be questioned and never to be changed - no matter how much pain and suffering their interpretation causes ...

All I can say is that it is a good job that Fanny Cradock never wrote a book - because then women really would be "The Enemy at Home" ...


Tags: , , , , ,


February 3, 2007

Women in the UK

Funny isn't it - once you ditch all your preconceptions and open your mind - support comes from the oddest places ..

In this case Boris Johnson - of The Telegraph - somebody who works for a newspaper I wouldn't have thought to link to normally ...

Women now make up 57 per cent of university entrants, and they outnumber men in every subject — including maths and engineering. This thing is huge, and it is happening at every level, and no one seems to be thinking about the consequences.

Most trainee barristers and two thirds of medical students are now women — compared with 29 per cent women in the early 1990s. If current trends continue, most doctors will be female by 2012. It is ludicrous for the Equal Opportunities Commission to keep droning on about "glass ceilings" at the top of corporate Britain, or in the judiciary, when you think how fast this transformation has been.

It is a stunning fact — the biggest social revolution of our lifetime — that far more women than men are now receiving what is in theory an elite academic education. When I was at university 20 years ago, the figures were almost exactly the other way round, with the ratio 60:40 in favour of males. Far more female graduates are coming out of our universities than male graduates — and, in 30 years' time, when these people reach the peak of their careers, the entire management structure of Britain will have been transformed and feminised.

Interesting - and I have to ask - are countries that hold down women and refuse them an education - or even the right to drive - progressing as quickly?

Or is the "West" just a "decadent society" that needs to be changed in some way because it grants equal rights to women?


Tags: , , , ,


January 30, 2007

Let Women Drive

No seriously - it might be a good idea - after all we've allowed women to drive for years now in the West and the statistics prove that they are safer drivers .. .after all the premiums wouldn't be lower for women if the insurance companies weren't making money ...

... but not> in Saudi Arabia apparently ...

From the New York Sun

... what a Saudi princess's greatest wish might be if she were king?

.. "let women drive" ...

Now I thought this was one of those - well you know - nasty "Islamaphobic" reports that get around from time to time - the kind that are "propagated by the right "to support neocons" in the "war on terror" - but you know what ...

They were right - women are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia ... I looked it up on the US Department of State: Advice for Travellers website.


Short-term male visitors may drive on their U.S. driver’s license. American men employed in Saudi Arabia should obtain a local driver’s license with the Department of Traffic Police. Women are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads.

So once again I wondered why? Why are all these "unworthy victims" ignored by the mainstream media and their governments while other "worthy victims" get mainstream media attention ...

It's all part of my search for a narrative - I'm still looking for one that makes sense - but I am not holding my breath ..


Tags: , , , ,


January 28, 2007

New Cold War: Privacy and Surveillance in the Age of Asymmetrical Warfare

I'm posting this here because my publisher is dragging their heels and asking me to find "somebody famous" to write the introduction to this book "in order to enhance sales possibilities".

If you are:

(a) Somebody who has something interesting to write as in introduction to this book - and are famous enough to satisfy my publisher.

(b) A literary agent who can place this book with another publisher (or convince my current published this is a "runner")

(c) A publisher who feels that this book would complement their current catalogue.

Then please contact me - because I'd like to get this finished and published so as to move on to "New Cold War 2: Propaganda and Disinformation" and "New Cold War 3: Geo-Politics and Energy Security" as soon as possible ...

Continue reading "New Cold War: Privacy and Surveillance in the Age of Asymmetrical Warfare" »

January 21, 2007

The Silence of the Left

Long - but excellent article - by Nick Cohen in The Guardian which argues that Anti-Americanism has left the modern left blind to the evils of militant Islam.

Strangely enough - one of the turning points for Nick Cohen was the first Gulf war - as it was for me - and the growing realisation that the left were less concerned about human rights and much more concerned with despising America.

The second turning point for me was when I started the "New Cold War" project.

It began simply enough as an exercise in Herman/Chomsky style analysis - familiar from "Manufacturing Consent" - of the current "War on Terror".

But as I began to read I realised that something unexpected was happening - all of the "worthy victims" and "unworthy victims" seemed swapped around and I realised that the narrative I was using was wrong.

I have been in search of an alternative narrative ever since - if there is one ...


Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam which stands for everything the liberal left is against come from the liberal left? Why will students hear a leftish postmodern theorist defend the exploitation of women in traditional cultures but not a crusty conservative don? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? As important, why did a European Union that daily announces its commitment to the liberal principles of human rights and international law do nothing as crimes against humanity took place just over its borders? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal left, but not China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Congo or North Korea? Why, even in the case of Palestine, can't those who say they support the Palestinian cause tell you what type of Palestine they would like to see? After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington why were you as likely to read that a sinister conspiracy of Jews controlled American or British foreign policy in a superior literary journal as in a neo-Nazi hate sheet? And why after the 7/7 attacks on London did leftish rather than right-wing newspapers run pieces excusing suicide bombers who were inspired by a psychopathic theology from the ultra-right?


Tags: , , ,


October 30, 2006

RFID Privacy

Wired has an article on the possible suppression of a draft report by the Department of Homeland Security

RFID chips, which either have a battery or use the radio waves from a reader to send information, are widely used in tracking inventory or for highway toll payment systems.

But critics argue that hackers can skim information off the chips and that the chips can be used to track individuals. Hackers have also been able to clone some chips, such as those used for payment cards and building security, as well as passports.

The draft report concludes that "RFID appears to offer little benefit when compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity" -- a finding that was widely criticized by RFID industry officials when the committee met in June.

Hmmm . I wonder why RFID privacy concerns are being "widely criticized" by the RFID industry ....

Jim Harper, one of the commitee members who prepared the report believes that:

There's such a strongly held consensus among industry and DHS that RFID is the way to go that getting people off of that and getting them to examine the technology is very hard to do.

Is it just that? Or are the people in favour of RFID enabled systems well aware of how these systems can be used to undermine privacy - and are backing it because they enable the sort of personal tracking that would make "Big Brother" green with envy ...

The suppressed draft report isolated some problems that have been concerning privacy campaigners for some time.

In a visual check environment, a person may be briefly identified but then forgoitten, rendering them anonymous for practical purposes.

In a radio ID-check environment, by contrast, a person's entry into a particular are can easily be recorded and the information permanently stored and repreatedly shared.

In this way, RFID my conver identification based security into an effective survellance program of all people passing certain locations.

Without formidable safefguards, the use of RFID in identification cards and tokens will tend to enable the tracking of individuals' movements, profiling of their activities and subsequent, non-security-related use of identification and derived information.

This is coming straight from the horses mouth from a committee working for the Department of Homeland Security, so you'd think they'd have their finger on the pulse - yet the report is still in draft stage - and as Jim Harper points out "If we don't have a report out before the (PASS card) comment period ends, then we are irrelevant".

One of the conclusions is that:


The use of RFID in identification would predispose identification systems to surveillance uses.

.. in other words "when we are all perpetually under surveillance as a potential security threat - we are all the enemy now" ....

Tags: , , , , , ,


October 15, 2006

Neckties, Liberty & Democracy

Neckties, liberty & democracy make strange bedfellows - but seeing this article after writing about neckties being deemed un-Islamic - one starts to wonder what certain religious fundamentalists from a certain community might have in mind …

Generally speaking, it is not permissible to wear a tie, or other kinds of clothes that are considered as the attire of non-Muslims, in such a way that their wearing will promote vile Western culture. The ruling is not confined to people of the Islamic Republic.

If this had come from an “Islamaphobic” site I would have thought it was a joke - but actually it comes from The Office of the Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei in Qom - which, I would argue, is pretty authoritative as these things go.

It turned out that I shouldn’t have been worried after all - it wasn’t just that a necktie was the sign of “vile western culture” - it because it was also a symbol of the cross - so that’s OK then - because its Christian symbols the “Supreme Leader” hates and not just “vile western culture” in general …

But then - when I read this today - I wondered again - is there anything that these guys don’t disapprove of?

Liberty & Democracy “Satan’s Tools”

Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi - one of the current hardline government’s key reference points - has described Western values such as freedom and democracy as “the instruments of Satan.” Addressing the faithful in the holy Iranian city of Qom, he said: “The devil presents himself in many forms, and employs every means to convey his message. He uses each concept such as liberty and democracy to achieve his plans.”

Interesting that its “the devil” that promotes “liberty and democracy” - as opposed to a “god” which promotes something that isn’t actually specified here ..

- but wait - the best bit is to come …

“Only in appearance have human rights been invented to safeguard the rights of the people. In actual fact, they are just a way of spreading immorality,” the revered cleric added

Neckties a promotion of “vile western culture”, “human rights” a method of “spreading immorality” and “freedom and democracy” the “instruments of Satan”.

Crikey - what will they think of next? This is almost as bad as relabelling Pluto a “non-planet”.

All these years I’ve been encouraged to wear a necktie to work and believe that such things as human rights, freedom and democracy were important - and it turns out that I’m promoting the “instruments of Satan” and “vile western culture”

But what really gets me - I mean really, really annoys me - is that all the people who normally rally in droves to defend “human rights, freedom and democracy” - are totally silent - even about the proclamation about neckties being an expression of “vile western culture”.

Now if somebody, e.g. the Fundamentalist Christian Right, expressed the view that “human rights, freedom and democracy” were the “tools of Satan” - then I can imagine the howls of rage and subsequent seething and whining.

But in this case all I hear is a deafening silence. Why?


Tags: , , , , , , ,


August 26, 2006

Seconds to Go?

I've already talked about the Doomsday Clock which hasn't been moved since 2002, and currently stands at Seven Minutes to Midnight and why it should be updated in the face of the nuclear threat nuclear research over in Iran, but I really think its time to move the doomsday clock on - to the point there's just "Seconds to Go" ...

"No one can deprive a nation of its rights based on its capabilities," Ahmadinejad said in his speech to inaugurate the project. The plant's plutonium by-product could be used to make atomic warheads.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran meet an August 31 to halt uranium enrichment, the part of Tehran's atomic programme which is the biggest worry to the West.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to master technology to produce nuclear weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants to produce electricity.

"Iran is not a threat to anybody, not even to the Zionist regime," Ahmadinejad said, using Iran's term for its arch-enemy Israel, which the Islamic Republic does not recognise.

Really? Coming from a man who has been widely quoted as having said:

Israel must be wiped off the map

I don't see why we should trust Iran to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Even now nobody has made any sensible response to the question I asked when I wrote about The Big Lie earlier this year.

Why would a country like Iran, which holds oil reserves of approx 132.5 billion barrels - roughly 14% of the world’s oil reserves, and which also holds 812 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves – 15.8% of the world’s gas reserves - choose to develop nuclear energy as an alternative power source - with the huge expense, environmental risk, and danger of political fallout?

In a country which enjoys an average of 8.5 hours of sunlight per day wouldn’t a solar solution be more ecologically and politically acceptable?

Well actually - people do have answers - they just seem a little crazy to me.

Every peace activist on the globe ought to be in the streets and elsewhere lobbying in support of something very simple:do not attack Iran, even if this means allowing Iran to develop its own nuclear weapons.

Hmmm ... well try this - which, argues that a succesful terror attack could force "regime change" on the USA and actually save lives in the long run

What if another terror attack just before this fall's elections could save many thousand-times the lives lost?

I start from the premise that there is already a substantial portion of the electorate that tends to vote GOP because they feel that Bush has "kept us safe," and that the Republicans do a better job combating terrorism.

If an attack occurred just before the elections, I have to think that at least a few of the voters who persist in this "Bush has kept us safe" thinking would realize the fallacy they have been under.

If 5% of the "he's kept us safe" revise their thinking enough to vote Democrat, well, then, the Dems could recapture the House and the Senate ...:

So while Iran is busy building nuclear weapons - what is the world doing about it?

Right now everybody is too busy re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic in preparation for Nero's premier as violin soloist to see the iceberg looming on the horizon.

But ask yourself this:

Do you think an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is going to make the world more, or less, safe?

Now go home and try and sleep tonight.


Tags: , , , , , , ,


August 16, 2006

The Evil Hippie Threat

How much do you trust the Department of Homeland Security to police the Internet and ensure that the networking infrastructure is "safe"?

This recent report by Kevin Poulsen gives a clue - and it doesn't make me feel more secure - especially as I have already registered my doubts about the whole "Net Wargames" exercise here and here - and have also pointed out that there has been a huge rise in the number of cyber-attacks and defacements during the recent war in the Middle-East.

So who did the Department of Homeland Security pick as the most dangerous threat to the USA in the recent "CyberStorm" excercise?

Hippies, and other "leftists" concerned with globalisation, privacy and security - those people who are meant to hardly able to recall their name because they are too stoned - were designated the "enemy of choice".

The attack scenario detailed in the presentation is a meticulously plotted parade of cyber horribles led by a "well financed" band of leftist radicals who object to U.S. imperialism, aided by sympathetic independent actors.

At the top of the pyramid is the Worldwide Anti-Globalization Alliance, which sets things off by calling for cyber sit-ins and denial-of-service attacks against U.S. interests. WAGA's radical arm, the villainous Black Hood Society, ratchets up the tension on day one by probing SCADA computerized control systems and military networks, eventually (spoiler warning) claiming responsibility for a commuter rail outage and the heat going out in government buildings.

The Black Hoods are a faction of Freedom Not Bombs, whose name is suspiciously similar to the real Food Not Bombs, which provides vegan meals to the homeless.

Another allied lefty-group called the Peoples Pact joins in, crashing portions of the power grid. Things get confusing when the "Tricky Trio," three evil hax0rs who are 50 percent more devious than the Deceptive Duo, hacks the FAA, issues false Amber Alerts, and manipulates the communications system of the U.S. Northern Command.

Then someone posts the No-Fly List to a public website (third act shocker: it's all nuns and Massachusetts Democrats), and opportunistic cyber thieves raid a medical database looking for identity theft targets. Logic bombs explode, wireless communications devices are corrupted, DNS caches are poisoned.

Why pick on Hippies? Why not pick on groups who are making real cyber-attacks on a daily basis?

Last time I checked all my spam and spyware was promoting Viagra, not cannabis, and web defacements were running 2-1 in favour of Hezbollah not Pink Floyd.

I haven't seen any comment spam recommending the Grateful Dead or LSD, nor a single web defacement replacing backgrounds with a tie-dye or paisley pattern ...

It might have something to do with the fact that Hippies don't have a CAIR type organisation that objects that the characterisation of "hippies" as possible "cyber-terrorists" could cause backlash amongst the "Hippie Community" who will object against the "stereotypical representation of Hippies" that borders on "Hippie-Phobia" and unfairly smears "moderate hippies" with the "radical hippie" label.

It also might have something to do with the fact that the "Enemy Within" is becoming more useful as a method of getting funding for increased surveillance, monitoriing, and tracking technqiues which reduce our freedom while doing nothing to make us safer.

Do you feel safer now that you know that the whole "CyberStorm" exercise was targeted at US citizens?

Or are you starting to wonder: are these new techniques of surveillance, expressly designed to monitor the "Enemy Within", destroying the freedoms that, until now, we have taken for granted?

When a huge exercise ignores the real threats to the Internet in favour of "anti-globalization radicals and peace activists" you start to wonder what the real agenda is.

Why test and refine techniques that could be used for the suppression of home-grown dissent when there are more pressing problems to be solved - like changing the default passwords on MILNET computers to ensure they are secure - or simulating a wave of web-defacements and attacks perpetrated by foreign cyber-radicals - in preparation for the recent wave of attacks by the "cyber-hezbollah"?

Why the emphasis on the "Enemy Within"?

Could it be that the "War on Terror" is being used to mask an assault on civil liberties - as suggested by the recent report by International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance

Global security and the "war on terror" now dominate the global political agenda. Driven largely by the United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are being adopted by nations around the world. This new "security" paradigm is being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to exercise increasing control over individuals and populations.

Under the public's radar screen, a registration and surveillance infrastructure of global reach is quietly being constructed. It includes the convergence of national and international databases, the creation of data profiles for whole populations, the creation of a global ID system, the global surveillance of movement, and the global surveillance of electronic communications.

The current system of surveiilance and control guarantees that when everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat - then everyone is a potential security threat

The logical outcome of the "War on Terror" is that we are all the enemy now.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,


August 10, 2006

The Real Electronic Hezbollah

A good article on the real electronic Hezbollah, rather than the people who spend all their time and effort distributing BigMedia garbage for free

TIME.com: How Hizballah Hijacks the Internet

The recent hijacking of a South Texas cable operator is a case study in how Hizballah moves in. The Texas cable company has an agreement with a New York-based satellite communications aggregator, which moves feeds to a variety of customers from throughout the world, including Lebanon. A technician in New York made an "improper connection," according to an official with the cable company's communications provider who detailed the hijack for TIME. That opening was detected by Hizballah.

Al-Manar, widely considered a mouthpiece for Hizballah and categorized as a terrorist group by the U.S., linked to the small cable company's IP (Internet Protocol) address, which can be thought of, in simple terms, as a telephone number. Hizballah essentially added an extension on that telephone line allowing their traffic to flow. Hizballah then gets the word out through e-mail and blogs that it can be found at that IP address and the hijack is complete. If the hijack is not detected, the IP address can be linked to a new domain name and that opens up the site to anyone who might search online for Al-Manar content. Hizballah uses these Web sites to run recruitment videos and post bank account numbers where supporters can donate funds.
Interesting stuff - especially when you consider that Zone-H recently reported that the Middle East conflict has seen a huge rise in electronic attacks, web defacements and denial of service attacks.
Hundreds of web sites have been attacked in last days as a protest against bombing attacks by Israel against Lebanon.The largest part of web intrusions were defacements - web intrusion at any level by which a web page is replaced by the attacker’s message- against Israeli and U.S. web sites.

Zone-H registered last week a hike in the number of defacements both against Israeli and American commercial or governmental websites, among which there are the NASA website, the Berkeley University website and many other military websites.

Among the intrusions recorded since july 13th, about 8000 are politically motivated, whereas almost 1500 were due to patriotism.

In more then 1100 defacements the conveyed message is specifically related to the war .
Information warfare - once the realm of science fiction - has become a reality.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,


August 9, 2006

Censorship and Propaganda

Thought Criminal has a good round up of censorship issues.

Have you run into a censor lately? If not, you probably don't get out much. Or perhaps you just don't recognize censorship when you see it.

Here are some examples just from the past few days. Look for similar examples in your own neighborhood.
and makes the point quite nicely ..
The internal censor defines individual values; the government censor defiles individual freedom.

Censorship defiles freedom and mocks the free flow of information that is necessary in the modern world and so does media propaganda.

Propaganda is worse than censorship, the total blackout of news about certain topics which ensures that the people remain totally uninformed, than a flood of disinformation based propaganda which distorts people's perceptions - so that while they think they are well informed - they are ill-informed to the point of distorting reality?

Censorship and propaganda - two essentials tools when you are fighting a New Cold War - so it is no surprise that they are taking center stage in the MSM spin-wars that accompany the Middle East conflict.

Censorship and propaganda - two halves of the (spinning) coin - and we can expect things to get worse rather than better - real soon now ....

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,


July 23, 2006

International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance

I concur with the findings of the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance and back their efforts to provide oversight in the intelligence War on Terror.

My fear is that the battle against Terorrism will destory democracy - ensuring that the terrorists win after all.

Here is the ICAMS Campaign Declaration:

Global security and the “war on terror” now dominate the global political agenda. Driven largely by the United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are being adopted by nations around the world. This new “security” paradigm is being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to exercise increasing control over individuals and populations.

Within this context, governments have begun to construct, through numerous initiatives, what amounts to a global registration and surveillance infrastructure. This infrastructure would ensure that populations around the world are registered, that travel is tracked globally, that electronic communications and transactions can be easily monitored, and that all the information that is collected in public and private databases about individuals is stored, linked, data-mined, and made available to state security agents.

The object of the infrastructure is not ordinary police work, but mass surveillance of entire populations. In its technological capacity and global reach, it is an unprecedented project of social control. Already, the United States and other countries are aggressively using information gathered and shared through this infrastructure to crack down on dissent, close borders to refugees and activists, and seize and detain people without reasonable grounds.

And, all of this is taking place at a time when the U.S. and its allies are maintaining a system of secret and extraterritorial prisons around the world, in which unknown numbers of prisoners are facing indefinite, arbitrary detention and torture.

The current situation reaches beyond the issue of privacy as it is often encountered in everyday life. What we are confronting are intrusions that reach to the very nature of the relationship between the individual and the state. Basic justice and human rights are at stake, and this will affect us all.

Governments around the world must abandon the intrusive and discriminatory measures inherent in the practice of mass registration and surveillance, and put the genuine protection and development of citizens – in the fullest sense, including the protection of our rights – at the centre of any approach to “security”:

* All data collection, storage, use, analysis, data mining and sharing practices that erode or are contrary to existing data protection, privacy and other human rights laws and standards must stop immediately. Governments must resist efforts by the United States and other countries to pressure them into weakening their existing privacy standards.

* Mechanisms must be put in place to allow individuals to correct personal data and challenge misuse (including placement on a “watch list”).

* International transfers of personal data between states should occur only within the context of formal agreements and under internationally recognized data-protection principles.

* Governments must stop the wholesale, indiscriminate collection and retention of information on citizens, including the acquisition of databanks from private companies.

* Governments must halt implementation of a universal biometric passport and the creation of “sharing standards” for passenger name record (PNR) information until the issue has been openly debated at the national level and privacy and other human rights protections are established.

Inter-governmental bodies must commit to operating with greater openness and accountability. They must not become a means of circumventing civil liberties and democratic processes at the national level. Any initiatives must respect existing data protection, privacy and other human rights laws and standards.

The United Nations – particularly the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights – must use all available mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights to urgently address the threat posed by the development of the global surveillance infrastructure.

We invite individuals and organizations around the world to endorse this Declaration, and to circulate it as widely as possible. Your voice is needed to strengthen the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance!

I recommend supporting ICAMS if you are concerned about the all-pervading nature of perpetual surveillance culture in the 21st Century New Cold War.

You can find the full ICAMS report here (pdf) - it makes interesting reading - but I can sum it up in a single quote

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat.

To which I can only add - we are all "the enemy" now ....


Tags: , , , , , ,


July 17, 2006

New Cold War or World War III - Part 2

Upping the levels of rhetoric and propaganda: Part 2 - from The Observer

However, it may be that a fuse has been lit. 'The nightmare scenario is war in Gaza, widespread war against the Israelis in Lebanon and between factions, Syria and Iran being dragged into the conflict and a steady escalation from there to who knows where, widespread conflict, oil prices through the ceiling, bombs going off all over the place' said the diplomat. 'You don't usually see the nightmare scenario evolve in the Middle East but, if it does, we are all in deep, deep trouble.'
Indeed - the main feature of any Cold War is the repeated escaltion of conflicts by proxy agents which increase the levels of paranoia for everyone.

The threat of a real "shooting war" is enough to justify increased surveillance, cointelpro and other activities designed to fight the "Enemy Within" on the "Home Front".

All this increased surveillance and monitoring of citizens leads me inexorably to conclude: that:
When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat.
and that -
We are all 'the enemy" now.

Tags: , , , , ,


New Cold War - or World War III?

I think this is called "upping the rhetoric and propaganda levels" - Gingrich says it's World War III

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president.

"We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,' " Gingrich said. He talks about the need to recognize World War III as important for military strategy and political strategy.
Does Newt Gingrich really believe that we are "in" WWIII - or is he gearing up for a possible run at the presidency of the USA and is trying to sound tougher than the President about prosecuting the war against terror?

Tags: , , , ,




June 30, 2006

New Cold War: The Home Front

The Media's New Cold War

An essential element of the last, forty-year cold war was manichean, double-standard thinking on both sides that relentlessly vilified the other, denied it had any legitimate national interests outside its own borders and blamed it for every conflict. The result was to maximize differences, minimize mutual understandings and inspire a nearly catastrophic nuclear arms race.
I am not sure the New Cold War is with Russia or China - unless they turn out to be the ultimate backers of the Islamist terrorist threat - but right now that description sums up the current atmosphere between the USAxis and the IslamicAxis really well.

The threat of the "homegrown terrorist" now means that the New Cold War will invade the home front - with increased propaganda, blacklists, cointelpro operations , surveillance - and yes, yet more data-mining of phone calls, emails and financial records.


Tags: , , , , , ,


June 26, 2006

Seven Minutes to Midnight

It looks like the time on the Doomsday Clock hasn't been moved forward since 2002.

We move the hands taking into account both negative and positive developments. The negative developments include too little progress on global nuclear disarmament; growing concerns about the security of nuclear weapons materials worldwide; the continuing U.S. preference for unilateral action rather than cooperative international diplomacy; U.S. abandonment of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and U.S. efforts to thwart the enactment of international agreements designed to constrain proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; the crisis between India and Pakistan; terrorist efforts to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons; and the growing inequality between rich and poor around the world that increases the potential for violence and war. If it were not for the positive changes highlighted later in this statement, the hands of the clock might have moved closer still.
Might I suggest to the The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that recent developments in Iran - leading to the likelyhood that they are determined to develop nuclear weapons no matter what the international community say or do - means that the clock should be moved forward a little bit.

Looking at the "Doomsday Clock" timeline gives me some ideas.

We should be around "five minutes to midnight" - but the day the Iranians explode their first nuclear weapon we will be right back to "three minutes to midnight" - just like in 1949 when the Soviet Union exploded their first atomic bomb.

Once that happens we can expect the "New Cold War" to kick off in earnest as each side begins a new arms race - draining money and resources away from other projects and fostering a climate of fear and paranoia - again.

Tags: , , , , ,





May 28, 2006

Child Abuse

Independent Online Edition: Americas

No - this is not about child pornography and censorship on the internet - this is about the systematic abuse of children which could possibly have been US government sanctioned.

The notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay has been hit by fresh allegations of human rights abuses, with claims that dozens of children were sent there - some as young as 14 years old.

Lawyers in London estimate that more than 60 detainees held at the terrorists' prison camp were boys under 18 when they were captured.

They include at least 10 detainees still held at the US base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured.
But is this so unusual? Maia Szalavitz has written a book that suggests that the violation of the human rights of teenagers is commonplace in the USA.
I believe, the same callousness that allows us to send teens to boot camps in which "pain compliance' tactics are expressly permitted, the same callousness that allows us to try juvenile offenders as adults (you're not old enough to drink or vote, but once you commit murder, you're suddenly mature enough to be held accountable for it) and until recently, to put them to death, is responsible. America likes to see itself as humane and compassionate-- but if we look at the way we treat children, the picture is far from flattering.

"Pain compliance tactics" sounds like the sort of tactics our PE teachers used to use on us when we were 10 or 11 - they'd bend you down in front of the class, choose the sports shoe that was largest from the class - and then punish and humiliate you in front of the whole class.

The entire structure of coercion and control based on "pain compliance tactics" is as old as the hills - and now illegal in the UK - and could also construed as "child abuse" under certain laws.

The whole point of "boot camps" for "unruly teenagers" is to break the WILL of the child through "pain compliance tactics" - if the Russians or Islamics did the same thing - it would be called "brainwashing" or "child abuse".

Is the USA the largest child abusing nation in the world?

Is it a country where the use of systematic "pain compliance tactics" (aka "torture") is used against children as young as 14 in order to break their will and ensure total obedience and compliance to the will of authority.

Enquiring minds want to know.

Tags: , , , , , ,


May 22, 2006

Education & Clothing

From the Washington Post comes this interesting piece about education in Saudi Arabia.

This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.)

A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith."

There is a nice bunch of examples - but nothing about neckties in the Saudi educational curriculum - yet.

Meanwhile BlogSpace has been agog at the latest reports about Islamic Clothing and the possibility that:
Religious minorities would have their own color schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes, while Christians will be assigned the color red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the color of their zonnar.

The debate seems to be about possible smear tactics on one side:
Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, said in an e-mail to the Post yesterday that, “We wish to categorically reject the news item.

“These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step.”

Or possible anti-semitism on the other:

the selection of yellow for Iran's 25,000 Jews is especially odious: One of the earliest pieces of anti-Jewish legislation in Nazi Germany required all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on the front of their clothes. Intended as a mark of shame, this patch also helped single out Jews for persecution.

Soon the Jews were more than stigmatized; they were shipped to death camps.

The new Iranian law actually dates back to 2004, but was blocked within the Majlis. Now that Ahmadinejad has lifted roadblock - who has also threatened to obliterate Israel. Which is why the echoes from Nazi Germany are so ominous.
of the reports.

But while the chattering classes argue about whether it is - or isn't true - nobody seems to be paying attention to what the Islamic faction are saying themselves.

I found this quote interesting:

The new law imposes a total ban on wearing neckties and bow ties, which are regarded as "symbols of the Cross." Will Iranian Christians be allowed to wear them, nevertheless? No one knows.


I first noted that neckties had been deemed un-Islamic back in April - and I got my information directly from the source, the website of the Office of the Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei, based in Qom in Iran.

Q1370: What is the view on wearing a necktie?

A: Generally speaking, it is not permissible to wear a tie, or other kinds of clothes that are considered as the attire of non-Muslims, in such a way that their wearing will promote vile Western culture. The ruling is not confined to people of the Islamic Republic.

I asked at the time - what is it that makes neckties a means of promoting "vile western culture" - and now I know.

It is a "symbol of the cross"

What??

Have these guys ever had to tie a necktie? Is it a cross or a knot?

I am sorry to say this - but a necktie reminds me more of a noose than a cross.

It looks like neckties are going to be forbidden for some and compulsory for others in modern Iran - especially if you wear the wrong kind of clothing.

Tags: , , , , , ,


May 13, 2006

Big Brother & The Leviathan

Whiskey Bar: Leviathan

Some of these data sources are in the public record, and many of the tools listed are standard commercial packages. But when you add it all up -- in its Totality, so to speak – you can see the Pentagon is amassing an internal surveillance capability that could, if put through all its paces, outclass anything the old Soviet Union ever brought to bear on its own citizens – at least in terms of the ability to aggregate and analyze vast amounts of personal data very quickly.

As the New Cold War hots up we see more and more facts emerging that give us clear warnings about just how dangerous it will be for our hard won "freedoms" when every citizen is a perpetual threat in a counter-insurgency world.

With the recent wire-tapping and NSA revelations it seems that the world is being led like sheep into a Big Brother world where everyone is a potential suspect because we are ALL the enemy now ...

Just say NO - before it is too late to turn back ...

Tags: , , , , , , , ,


April 27, 2006

Neckties deemed "Un-Islamic"

I really hate wearing neckties - I hate it even more if other people are wearing neckties with "comedy cartoon characters" on them.

You know who you are and you should be adult enough to know it ISN'T funny.

Seriously - if I have to attend one more meeting where someone is wearing a "Daffy Duck" or "Taz" necktie - I think I might just go bananas.

But disliking neckties does not excuse the kind of extreme beliefs about neckties we find here.

Q1370: What is the view on wearing a necktie?
A: Generally speaking, it is not permissible to wear a tie, or other kinds of clothes that are considered as the attire of non-Muslims, in such a way that their wearing will promote vile Western culture. The ruling is not confined to people of the Islamic Republic.

So there you have it - the wearing of a necktie is a promotion of "vile Western culture".

I would like to agree - but strangely I cant find a single reference in the Koran that suggests that neckties might be forbidden.

Maybe it is because the modern necktie was not invented at the time the Koran was written.

Perhaps the Prophet Mohammed had NO IDEA about neckties in the future - and so he didn't bother to include neckties on the list of allowed and forbidden things.

Strangely enough I can't recall any quotes from the Bible about neckties either ... so I can't figure out why neckties figure so highly on the Islamic agenda.

When a third world culture faces genuine problems such as female illiteracy, problems with medical care, high child mortality rates, while also having problems supplying adequate water and sewage to ordinary people - then you'd think that it might be more important to fix the problems rather than worry about whether people were wearing a necktie or not.

Maybe I am being unduly "Islamaphobic" - but when someone accuses a common piece of clothing of being a "vile promotion of western culture" - and when I can't find anything in the Koran to support their assertions - I start to wonder:

Why would they say that?

What is the real agenda here?


Tags:, , , , , , ,


April 11, 2006

10 Cold War Films

One of my criteria here was that the film should be made before the end of the Cold War – which I would date at about the time the Berlin Wall came down (1989) .

I tend to prefer earlier Cold War movies that were made at a time when paranoia was peaking - before the age of détente.

This list is in chronological order and spoilers follow - but as the films run from 1951 – 1974 everyone should have seen them by now.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise - 1951) This tale of aliens arriving on Earth and sorting out the Cold War nuclear threat found a deeply popular niche in the popular psyche. Even now people meet and/or channel aliens that advise that “humankind should change its ways” by “giving up all atomic weapons”. Early Cold War classic that just looks like a Science Fiction movie and launched a thousand imitators – none of which were half as good as this.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel - 1956) – The ultimate 5th columnist tale as identikit aliens take over America in a story of deep paranoia and metaphoric confusion. Who are the “pod people” – infiltrated communists from behind the Iron curtain or McCarthyite brainwashed Americans? You decide - and then decide who you would trust.

The Mouse That Roared (Jack Arnold - 1959) – Suppose a small bankrupt country declared war on America expecting to be defeated? With the hope of large post-war grants for “reconstruction” after surrender? And then got their hands on a “doomsday weapon” by mistake? A Cold War comedy classic.

The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer- 1962) – Brainwashing, assassination and paranoia about the “Dark State” make this a deeply disturbing movie. This is one of the earliest films to deal with the “Dark State” theme - using the idea that the Communists were “brainwashing” people with drugs, and hypnosis tp perform covert assassination. Strangely enough, at this time the CIA were experimenting with brainwashing people with drugs and hypnosis under the MK-Ultra program. The fact that the USA were soon to be rocked by a series of political assassinations and accusations of mind control makes this a highly prescient work – especially as the novel was written in 1959.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick - 1964) – Mad Nazi scientists, mad military and technological malfunction cause WWIII. This film has to be seen to be believed – it reeks of Cold War paranoia and insanity – and then some. It could be classed as a Cold War comedy classic – if you think laughing at the destruction of the planet is funny. This film is slick, sarcastic, cynical and funny as hell – ending with the Vera Lynn WWII song “We’ll Meet Again” was a stroke of genius.

Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet - 1964) – This tale of technological malfunction ends with a trade off you would never want to make. Similar in theme to Dr. Strangelove, this dark and brooding film asks questions that only conspiracy theorists should ask: How far would you go to stop a nuclear war?

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (Martin Ritt - 1965) – This is the perfect antidote to the “Spy” genre films epitomized by James Bond and his clones. As this sinister tale unfolds you realize that your friends are really your enemies, your enemies are still your enemies, and when trapped in a web of intrigue sometimes betrayal can only come from within.

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (Norman Jewison - 1966): Suppose some Russians arrived in a nuclear submarine by mistake and didn’t want to start a war? Misunderstandings fuel laughs in this tale of non-invasion and paranoia – another Cold War comedy classic. I particularly liked the Paul Revere type character who is still riding across the wilderness shouting “The Russians are Coming!” even as the film comes to an end .Is he the lone voice in the wilderness or a rumour monger stirring up trouble?

The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola - 1974) - Surveillance, betrayal, paranoia and the big question – just who IS watching the watchers? This is possibly one of the scariest films on the planet. After watching this film I realised that just because I am paranoid doesn’t mean they are NOT out to get me – because they have a living to earn. Highly recommended - if you can stand the heightened level of paranoia that lingers for days afterwards.

The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula - 1974) – An intrepid reporter investigates the mysterious “Parallax Corporation” and ends up being framed as an assassination patsy in a film that mixes anxiety and paranoia with the fear that the Cold War has created a “Dark State” which is now out of control. This, along with “The Manchurian Candidate” - was one of the first films to introduce the very popular “Dark State” genre which continues up until this day.

ALSO RAN:

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann - 1952) - This film, for various reasons, has often been cited as a “Cold War” film – but I have a different textual reading of this film that is too small to fit into the margin. “High Noon” is still a great film – just not a Cold War film in my opinion.

Thunderball (Terence Young -1965) – Is still my favourite Cold War “Bond” film - and any claims for “Dr.No” and “From Russia With Love” fall on my deaf ears. Maybe we should file “Bond” films under the “Spy” genre – but in this film an evil scientist tries to take over the world by engineering war between the USA and USSR. It exploits the common fear that somebody else could cause WWIII against the wishes of the USA and USSR – a theme that has found great popularity over the years.


Tags:


April 7, 2006

Takedown: Free Speech

It seems that my blogmaster over at SpyBlog has spotted yet another threat to liberty and free speech.

When talking about the new "takedown notices" - empowered under the recently passed Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 - wtwu comments about the new laws:

They have worldwide scope and penalties up to 7 years in prison (i.e. severe enough for extradition procedures to apply) for not complying quickly enough with a "takedown notice" (2 working days) and thereby being deemed to agree or approve of the internet content, in question. This might deemed to incite or glorify terrorism or be classed as "disseminating a terrorist publication" or providing training material in the use of noxious substances

What I want to know is this: If I am an author researching cyber-warfare, information terrorism, asymmetrical warfare and the New Cold War - and I access and/or store a whole bunch of documents in my working day - and then share my working documents with other people via a social bookmarking scheme - do I then become responsible for my links if they are subsequently found to "promote terrorism"?

It's worth considering - if I tag everything in del.icio.us for my New Cold War research - does the act of tagging make me a security threat because I flag too many keywords that are flagged by the CIA/NSA/FBI/MI6 databases?

Right now I feel like a sitting duck for any computer program that searches for patterns in keyword searches - my keyword cluster units are so specific they can only be attributed to a terrorist - or a writer who is researching terrorism.

Anyone who thinks computers are the solution will just look at the facts - and come to the conclusion that I am a security threat.

But then why should I worry - I have nothing to hide and nobody relies on computers to do their work for them anymore - or do they?


Tags: terrorism


Tar Baby Evangelism

I just found a guide to promoting your Tar Baby - whatever it is - in this Tar Baby Evangelism "howto" guide.

Just subsititute your personal Tar Baby for the one in the outline given here.

This general guide seems to be about "Eris" - some mythological goddess of discord - but you can substitute any Tar baby Beliefs you like into the argument and still win.

If you don't have a Tar Baby yet - then go here for some suggestions - or you can roll your own.

THE SOCRATIC APPROACH: should always be used to open the conversation with the victim. That is what asking questions to start an argument is called. You approach the victim and simply ask: "Did you know that God is a female? And that Her name is ERIS, Goddess of Discord?"

If the victim says "yes", then he's either lying or you've picked a fellow Discordian, idiot.

If he doesn't, then proceed to:

THE BLIND ASSERTION: This is where you say, "Well, She is a woman and Her name is Eris." Now see if the victim appears to be convinced. If not, proceed to

THE FAITH BIT: "But you must have faith! Faith is wonderful, etc.! I feel sorry for you if you don't have faith!" And then add

THE ARGUMENT BY FEAR: "Do you know what happens to those who don't believe in Goddess?" If the victim says "no", don't tell him whatever it is you think happens to unbelievers, just shake your head sadly and go to

THE FIRST CAUSE PLOY: wherein you point to all the chaos around you and ask, "Well who do you think make all this then, wise guy?" If he says "nobody, just impersonal forces", then go on to

THE ARGUMENT BY SEMANTICAL GYMNASTICS: wherein you say that he is right and that those impersonal forces are a female and that Her name is Eris. If he still objects to your objectionable
presence, then go to the

FIGURATIVE SYMBOLISM DODGE: wherein you explain that all sophisticated people know that Eris is just a figurative symbol for discord, but that the Discordian Religion is a magnificent work of art--portrait of chaos, so to speak.

I have to add to this:


ARGUMENT BY NEGATIVE PERSUASION: When a Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door and says: "Don't you agree that there is too much famine, war, death, rape. greed and lies on the planet Earth" - then argue the opposite!!

You should make a cogent argument that there is NOT ENOUGH famine, war, death, rape, greed and lies on the planet Earth, beacuse their omnipotent Jehovah has created EVERYTHING on the face of the planet Earth - even the death, famine and greed - and he must want more of the same - so therefore we can never have enough of the whole death, famine and greed thing - because God wills it.

After that they are toast - slip your Tar Baby beliefs in right about now ...


ARGUMENT BY THEOLOGY: When a Mormon approaches you and wants to read from the Bible - pick the bit about "graven images" from Moses - then point out that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from graven slabs that mysteriously disappeared the moment he had finished the translation.

Slipping in phrases about "worshippers of graven images are the tools of Satan" and "in the old days we knew how to deal with heretics like you" are often useful at this point.

Now is about time to slip in your Tar Baby beliefs - while they are reeling with the realisation that the Spanish Inquisition would have shoved them on a stake and made marshmallows on the flames.

Point this out - then hit them again with why they should agree with you.


I guess I should shut up and put some tags in about now - but not until I've mentioned the Templars.

Tags:


April 5, 2006

The "Tar Baby Principle"

My first encounter with the ‘Tar Baby” was as a small child growing up - when I first read the Brer Rabbit stories.

I just read that story again – I always thought it was Brer Rabbit who tricked Brer Fox with the Tar Baby – funny how you remember things.

It wasn’t until Wilson & Shea wrote about the “Tar Baby Principle” in the Illuminatus Trilogy many years later that I really understood what the “Tar Baby Principle” was:

You are attached to what you attack

But what does that mean?

It means if you hate something, I mean really hate something, you spend all your time – the whole of your life even – thinking about what you hate.

You have to live with what you hate every day – it is an obsession to you – and you can think of nothing else.

The object of hate becomes like a lover – you can’t eat, sleep or do anything without thinking about it – it dominates the whole of your being.

How can people stand it? Always thinking about what they hate the most?

How can people become “Tar Baby Junkies”?

I prefer to be a “Jelly Baby Junky” and take a more chilled out approach to life.

Here’s a few “Tar Baby Junkies” who spend their entire lives attached to their “Tar Babies” – thinking about what they hate most – and some of my “Jelly Baby Junky” solutions.

White Power Racists

Tar Baby Beliefs: People with white skin people are superior to people who are black, oriental, or Indian – solely because of their skin colour. This notion can even extend to people who are “whiter than white” because they have the “correct” genes.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people with different skin colours and ethnic origins and they are not very different from me. Why should I discriminate on the basis of skin colour?

If I meet someone with a different skin colour to me who I don’t like – then the chances are I’ve met many more people with the same skin colour as me that I didn’t like as well.

Who cares anyhow? It’s about people - not skin colour – and I don’t lay awake at night worrying about racial purity.

Anti-Semites

Tar Baby Beliefs: The Jewish people are collectively involved in a huge conspiracy that involves media, politics, banking, Hollywood, newspapers, book publishing and covering up the lie of the Holocaust.

Jelly Baby Beliefs; I keep meeting people who are Jewish and they are not very different to me. Why should I discriminate on the basis that they are Jewish?

It seems to make no odds what somebody’s religion is as long as they are good people.

If anyone comes to me ranting on about ZOG and tries to convince me the holocaust was a hoax they will get very short shrift from me.

Who cares? It’s about people – not religion – and I don’t lay awake in bed at night worrying about ZOG and their plans for world annihilation and/or dominance.

Homophobics

Tar Baby Beliefs: Homosexuals are creatures of filth and evil that will be condemned to the fiery pits of hell, hanging and/or the wrath of God in the form of AIDS.

Strangely enough - homophobics seem to spend more time than of any “Tar Baby Junkies” dwelling on the exact details of what gay people do – go figure.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people who are homosexual and they are not very different to me. Why should I discriminate on the basis of their gender identity and sexual preferences?

Consensual sexual acts between adults over the age of consent are fine – whatever the gender of the parties involved - and I really don’t care what other people do in bed together – as long as I can choose what I want to do.

Who cares? It’s about people – not sexuality – and I don’t lay awake at night worrying what gay people are doing in private – unlike many well known homophobic columnists who think about nothing else before going to sleep.

Islamaphobics

Tar Baby Beliefs: All Moslems are plotting to take over the world by being involved in terrorism, suicide bombings and a nuclear arms race.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people who are Islamic and they are not very different to me. Why should I discriminate on the basis that they are Islamic?

I have met enough Islamic people in my life to know that they are not all fundamentalists who want to live under Sharia law – many of them are more than happy to integrate into secular democratic societies all over the world.

Who cares? It’s about people – not religion - and I don’t lay awake in my bed at night worrying about Islamic world domination - but I do wonder about a future dominated by the USAxis and the IslamAxis during the coming arms race in the New Cold War.

Anti-Nuke

Tar Baby Beliefs: Nuclear weapons are evil and unless we unilaterally disarm the nuclear holocaust is coming to a city near you. We should destroy all our nuclear weapons now – or maybe just sell them to Iran - to ensure world security for decades to come.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people who are unilateralists and they are not very different to me. Why should I discriminate on the basis that they are stupid?

The whole unilateral disarmament theory is a crock of doo-doo proposed by appeasement monkeys who have no grasp of history coupled with a huge left-wing anti-US bias that helps to feed their Tar Baby habit.

Who cares? It’s about people – not myopia – and I don’t lay awake in my bed at night worrying whether CND are going to force the nuclear powers to disarm – most people are far too sensible for that – and I learned to “stop worrying and love the bomb” a long time ago.

Skeptic Atheists

Tar Baby Beliefs: God doesn’t exist and anyone who believes God exists is anti-scientific, superstitious or stupid. Gullible people who read their horoscopes everyday should be re-educated in the theory of science until unreason is banished from the planet.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting scientists, atheists and skeptics and they are not very different from me. Why should I discriminate because they are skeptical atheists?

You’d think these guys had something better to do than worry about the existence of God – saving the world from global warming, discovering the cure for cancer, creating sources of unlimited free energy and exploring the universe – but they seem to have time on their hands.

If you want to know the truth then put a dozen scientists in a room together and they will all agree – right? So the next time you read an article that proves God doesn’t exist – ask another scientist for a second opinion.

Who cares? It’s about people – not religion – and I don’t lay awake at night worrying that the skeptical atheists will find proof that God does not exist – but I do worry sometimes that some immoral scumbag will use their arguments to justify using some of their nastier scientific discoveries.

Anti-US

Tar Baby Beliefs: The USA is part of the satanic axis designed to subjugate the world and imprint the stamp of the boot on the face – forever.

The mindset that goes with this is staggering – according to the Anti-US “Tar Baby Junkie” - anything the US says is a lie, anything they do is wrong and the USA is the “evil empire”.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people who are American and they are not very different to me. Why should I discriminate on the basis that I sometime disagree with their government?

Who cares? It’s about people – not knee-jerk anti-American bigotry – and I don’t lay awake in bed at night worrying about the “American Hegemony” – but I do worry about how NeoCon ideas about the Middle East are sowing the seeds for the “New Cold War” and decades of hardship to come.

Appeasement Monkeys

Tar Baby Beliefs: The Iranian nuclear program is entirely peaceful because they need to develop an alternative energy source and they don’t have any intention of developing nuclear weapons with any of the reprocessed material.

It is far more important to prevent war in the Middle East than prevent the Iranians having nuclear weapons, so if the price of preventing war is allowing the Iranians to acquire nuclear weapons then we should allow it in the name of peace.

Jelly Baby Beliefs: I keep meeting people who really believe this and they are very different to me. I will try not to discriminate against them - but instead I will engage them in conversations at every chance I get – to try and convince them that appeasement doesn’t work, has never worked and won’t work this time either.

Right now the New Cold War is entering a major propaganda offensive – everyone is lying to everybody else and trying to mask their true intentions – while all the time arming to the teeth.

The wildcards are the steadily growing number of terrorist factions – they aren’t accountable to anybody – who could upset any fragile arrangements made by the appeasement monkey factions who are quite happy to hand over major concessions to ensure “peace in our time”.

Meanwhile the threat of homeland terrorism never recedes – we are in danger of settling into the routine of the New Cold War – with threat and counter-threat, alerts, propaganda and terrorist attacks.

Once we settle into that routine - all of us will take for granted the security checks, the compulsory use of identity cards, increased surveillance and monitoring - because government propaganda will convince us that, without these measures, we will not win.

Who cares?

I do.

It’s about people – not power - and about the future of us, our children and our grandchildren.

I worry about how the New Cold War is slowly eroding democratic freedoms, and making old laws and civil rights obsolete.

I worry that the New Cold War will make this erosion of widely held rights and privileges permanent

I worry that the necessity of perpetual counter insurgency against the terrorist threat means that we will all be under increased surveillance and decreased civil liberties.

I worry that the boundaries between “terrorism” and “peaceful” protest are being eroded daily in the name of the “war on terror” – an act that could potentially criminalize legitimate protest and create internal dissent – a new “enemy within”.

I worry that monitoring the “enemy within” - when everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat - ensures that everyone will be a potential security threat – forever.

Most of all I worry that the measures we need to take to overcome the threat of terrorism might destroy that fragile thing we call western secular liberal democracy – ensuring that the terrorists win after all.


Tags:


March 30, 2006

New Cold War - Dr.K's Personal Paranoia Meter

This "New Cold War" Paranoia-Meter will help you track just how I paranoid I am feeling about the New Cold War.

Lets Explain the system:




I am chilled out because there is little threat of a New Cold War.

I don't commit criminal acts, and could not possibly be considered a terrorist or subversive threat in our free society.

I feel safe because I know that my democratically elected government and their representatives only have my interests at heart.




I am edgy because the border between acts of terrorism and acts of legitimate protest is being eroded daily.

Dissent is suppressed and commonplace acts of technological exploration are being punished by prison sentences.

Meanwhile we are governed by PR spin merchants who ensure that free speech is a distant memory.

In the New Cold War - truth is the first victim




I am nervous because nobody knows who "the enemy" is anymore.

I am starting to wonder whether we aren't ALL the enemy now.

I am starting to wonder whether I might not be the enemy after all.




I am worried and have burned all my books and deleted all my files.

I no longer discuss anything in public with strangers and only speak to my friends in private.

I am thinking of informing on myself so I can testify as chief witness with immunity from prosecution and start a new life under the witness protection program



new-cold-war-05.jpg

I am paranoid because I am being shot by both sides - everybody wants to shoot the messenger.

If Homeland Security don't get me then the Religious Police will. Even if they fail there are Mormons, Jehovahs's Witnesses and Templars who are out to get me ....

It looks like there is no place for filthy hippy atheist anarchist dissenters in the New Cold War and I am making a will.



Tags:


March 29, 2006

Nailing the "Big Lie"

Anyone who reads this entry might be thinking I’m about to rant on about Big Brother propaganda and the USA.

You might even be expecting me to say something like the standard CND propaganda line presented at the last Anti-War rally in London.

The US is making charges about a covert nuclear weapons programme in Iran without presenting any credible evidence.

These charges are strikingly similar to the false accusations raised to justify the invasion of Iraq three years ago.

I agree – they are “strikingly similar” – but I don’t want to talk about that.

Today the “Big Lie” I want to nail is Iranian.

It’s not that I trust the US Government not to lie about WMD - Bush did it before and I’m sure he’d do it again – but I just can’t get a sensible answer to a sensible question out of the anti-war faction.

My question is very simple and goes like this:

Why would a country like Iran, which holds oil reserves of approx 132.5 billion barrels - roughly 14% of the world’s oil reserves, and which also holds 812 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves – 15.8% of the world’s gas reserves - choose to develop nuclear energy as an alternative power source - with the huge expense, environmental risk, and danger of political fallout?

In a country which enjoys an average of 8.5 hours of sunlight per day wouldn’t a solar solution be more ecologically and politically acceptable?

So far nobody has come up with a sensible answer that convinces me the Iranians are not developing nuclear weapons covertly under the cover of the “peaceful nuclear programme”.

But some of the anti-war faction are so blind they end up justifying the worst kind of appeasement - allowing Iranian access to nuclear weapons.

Every peace activist on the globe ought to be in the streets and elsewhere lobbying in support of something very simple: do not attack Iran, even if this means allowing Iran to develop its own nuclear weapons.

I don’t want a war either - but the idea of allowing the Iranian government to own nuclear weapons will not help me sleep securely in my bed at night.

It raises my level of paranoia and insecurity higher than they ever were in the “Old Cold War”.

Things are already bad enough with Israel, India and Pakistan developing nuclear weapons, the collapse of the Soviet Union allowing nuclear materials, expertise and possibly weapons to be sold to the highest bidders, and the threat of possible terrorist bio-chemical attacks.

Anyone who lived through the “Old Cold War” will be watching in dismay as we enter the “New Cold War”.

Now that we are in the New Cold War we can watch the propaganda and paranoia levels being raised – as the 21st century “USAxis” and “IslamAxis” go eyeball to eyeball before squaring up to each other in a war of words …

Ding! Ding! Seconds Out! Two Tribes …

Anyone else who is old enough to have lived through the pre-war years of the appeasement of Hitler when he was re-arming - despite the Treaty of Versailles - will be getting a profound and uneasy sense of deja-vu.

At that time the anti-war appeasement monkeys opined that:

(a) Hitler only wanted to protect himself from the Russians – so needed to re-arm

(b) The annexation of Austria, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia were just Hitler “re-adjusting his borders” within traditional and historic limits

(c) That nice Mr. Hitler was an honourable man who had been democratically elected and would never think about going to war with England.

Any old excuse really – but the excuses were all just a load of appeasement monkey doo-doo.

It didn’t work then - it won’t work now.

We all know how that turned out – a bloody conflict that turned much of “Old Europe” into rubble - and caused an estimated 62 million deaths.

You see – I’d prefer “Jaw-Jaw rather than War-War” but sometimes we need to take action.

Now is about right - before the nuclear stakes become like poker chips on a gambling table - like the “Old Cold War”.

Anybody remember “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD)?

I remember MAD – and I don’t want to go there again.

The last thing our global culture needs is a new “missile gap”, a new “arms race” - or a "New Cold War".

So when peaceniks point out that WWII cost 62 million lives and argue “shouldn’t we try and stop WWIII now” – I have to agree with them.

We should try and stop war - but allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons will do nothing to prevent the 620+ million deaths that WWIII would cost.

I have to look at the facts – and the facts worry me more than any appeasement monkey suggestions from people who would normally oppose nuclear power at the drop of a hat.

Perhaps nuclear power is OK for the Iranians - right? But I’m a cynical old git – and I have a long memory.

Maybe I’m forgetting something.

After all “Islam is a religion of peace” - maybe it’s nothing like National Socialism after all – perhaps I’ve been reading too much Islamaphobic material that just emphasises the threat.

After all - that nice Mr. Ahmadinejad is a responsible leader of a democratic country – so even if we allowed the Iranians to have nuclear weapons they would never want to attack us would they?

I wonder what the Iranians have to say on the subject.

"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain. But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain.

So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll"

That sounds like a nicely chilled out attitude to foreign policy.

I wonder what they think of Israel.

Our enemies on the one hand oppose our nation’s acquisition of nuclear energy and on the other hand want to divert the attention of other nations from the key issue of Palestine to give an opportunity to the Zionist regime to prolong its existence

One of the main reasons why the big powers oppose Iran on the nuclear issue is for the sake of the Zionist regime, so as to let this regime live on.

But they are unaware that not only will the Iranian nation continue in the path of obtaining nuclear energy till the end, it will not even for one instant divert its attention from the issue of Palestine

OK – I can cope with a bit of anti-Zionist ranting – but this next bit promotes a picture of Iran as a nation of peaceful people who can be trusted to use their nuclear weapons responsibly when they get them.

Do the removal of Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations," the ultra-conservative president said.

He once again called the Holocaust a "fairy tale" and said Europeans have become hostages of "Zionists" in Israel.

He also accused Europeans for not allowing "neutral scholars" to investigate in Europe and make a scientific report on "the truth about the fairy tale of Holocaust."

I could keep going - but you get the picture.

Ahmadinejad promotes beliefs such as “the fairy tale of the holocaust” that are not mainstream - to say the least – in most western democracies.

In fact you can be arrested and prosecuted for saying the same thing in many western European countries.

If there is one thing I do like about Ahmadinejad – he is such a reasonable man.

So we can rely on the Iranian leader to ensure that religious tolerance will be the norm in Iran.

I will stop Christianity in this country ...

If the Iranian leader is so tolerant – what about the role of women in Iran?

The gathering of hundreds of women in Tehran to mark the International Women's Day was brutally attacked by security forces on Wednesday, March 8.

A unique video clip from this barbaric act against a peaceful gathering has been provided to the Iranian Resistance.

The attached clip here shows clearly how women were attacked and beaten up by truncheons and forced to disperse.

I guess the rights of homosexuals in Iran are also guaranteed then?

The new wave of anti-gay repression in Iran came to world attention with the torture and hanging of two gay teenagers in the city of Mashad on July 19; they were each lashed 228 times before having the nooses placed around their necks.

No? Well surely the record of Iranian human rights must be better?

No one knows how many people are held in Iran’s prisons and secret detention centers for the peaceful expression of their views.

Over the past four years, as the window of free expression has closed in Iran, abuse and torture of dissidents have increased in Evin Prison’s solitary cells and secret detention centers.

Meanwhile, back in Tehran, enabling free speech is a priority for the government.

Hossein Derakhshan is on tour. In the past few years, he has become the public face of Iran's beleaguered bloggers, more than a dozen of whom have been arrested for their politics.

The crackdown has stifled Iran's exploding Web culture, and Derakhshan is making a swing along the Eastern Seaboard to drum up support for the bloggers back home.


So there we have it.

We can only conclude that Iran is a reasonable country that only wants to protect itself from its enemies, possibly re-adjust its borders a little, and would never go to war with us.

The Iranian nuclear program is entirely peaceful because they need to develop an alternative energy source and they don’t have any intention of developing nuclear weapons with any of the reprocessed material.

This is because they live in a very dark country – so they have no chance of developing alternative solar resources. (I have enquired about windmills but I haven’t had a reply yet).

Meanwhile democracy in Iran continues to flourish with freedom of speech, equal rights for all religions, and equal rights for women and homosexuals.

Tomorrow I was going to talk about the reality of Santa Claus – but in the “New Cold War” - there is no Sanity Clause.


Tags:


March 9, 2006

Data Mining Won't Stop Terror

An article today in Wired entitled Why Data Mining Won't Stop Terror goes into more detail about the problems I discussed yesterday with automated security systems that ensure We are All the Enemy Now

Data mining works best when you're searching for a well-defined profile, a reasonable number of attacks per year and a low cost of false alarms. Credit-card fraud is one of data mining's success stories: all credit-card companies mine their transaction databases for data for spending patterns that indicate a stolen card.

Many credit-card thieves share a pattern -- purchase expensive luxury goods, purchase things that can be easily fenced, etc. -- and data mining systems can minimize the losses in many cases by shutting down the card. In addition, the cost of false alarms is only a phone call to the cardholder asking him to verify a couple of purchases. The cardholders don't even resent these phone calls -- as long as they're infrequent -- so the cost is just a few minutes of operator time.

Terrorist plots are different. There is no well-defined profile and attacks are very rare. Taken together, these facts mean that data-mining systems won't uncover any terrorist plots until they are very accurate, and that even very accurate systems will be so flooded with false alarms that they will be useless.

The problem with "false positives" is compounded by the problem of "false negatives"

Let's look at some numbers. We'll be optimistic -- we'll assume the system has a one in 100 false-positive rate (99 percent accurate), and a one in 1,000 false-negative rate (99.9 percent accurate). Assume 1 trillion possible indicators to sift through: that's about 10 events -- e-mails, phone calls, purchases, web destinations, whatever -- per person in the United States per day. Also assume that 10 of them are actually terrorists plotting.

This unrealistically accurate system will generate 1 billion false alarms for every real terrorist plot it uncovers. Every day of every year, the police will have to investigate 27 million potential plots in order to find the one real terrorist plot per month. Raise that false-positive accuracy to an absurd 99.9999 percent and you're still chasing 2,750 false alarms per day -- but that will inevitably raise your false negatives, and you're going to miss some of those 10 real plots.

So, to put it mildy, vast automated systems that analyse data for security purposes not only places law-abiding citizens at risk of arrest, funds-seizure or worse - but for every 2,750 law abiding citizens that are persecuted there are 10 terrorist plots going on.

So are these systems making us safer? No they are not - and they threatean to alienate law abiding citizens who are innocent.

Will these systems stop terrorist plots? No they will not - the very lack of patterns in the methods that terrorists use means that finding them is not a job best done by computers.

No that you know these figures - ask yourself this:

Do you feel safer now that you are being watched all the time?

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat - I can only conlude that we are all "The Enemy" now.

Are we in the "New Cold War" yet?


Tags:


March 8, 2006

We are all "The Enemy" now

As the USAxis finally imports the techniques and methods they have perfected to develop the permanent counter insurgency state in third world countries such as El Salvador, Vietnam and Chile - to the USA and "First World" countries - we all have reason to be worried.

When it comes to the point that when if you pay off your credit card early you are automatically suspected in illegal and/or terrorist acts by US "Homeland Security" - then it appears that anyone, anywhere can be a suspect - just because some automated computerised security system says you are.

How accurate are these systems?

Well, if you are very lucky, a system without bugs will attain 99.98% efficiency - so out of every 10,000 cases only TWO will be wrong - the real problem happens because these systems monitor millions of transactions - which means that dozens of "false positives" will occur regularly.

If you are very,very lucky - then you will never get flagged by one of these systems as a false postive - you will never have to worry - but if you do - then the consequences for your life might be a little difficult.

But with systems such as these watching every electronic transaction, every email and tracking our surfing habits - the amount of data collected will increase rapidly - increasing the chances of a mistake being made.

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat.

We are all 'the enemy" now.

Welcome to "1984" and the "Big Brother state" where even for law abiding people the slightest of reasons - a computer miskey, a confusion over names, a normal financial transaction - can flag action by the agencies that monitor the counter-insurgency state we live in.

Are we in the "New Cold War" yet?


Tags:


February 16, 2006

Bush plans huge propaganda campaign in Iran

From The Guardian Today

The Bush administration made an emergency request to Congress yesterday for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government, in a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the west.


... the extra funds, on top of $10m already allocated for later this year, would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country.


With phrases like "nuclear crisis" and "pro-democracy spending" being bandied about - how long before the US hawks decide that the only way to "save" Iran for "democracy" is to destroy it?

With a recent record of leaving "liberated" countries with smashed infrastructures and huge problems that amount to poliitcal anarchy - you'd think that the US would spend the money fixing up the countries already broken - not starting on a new one.

Are we in the "New Cold War" yet?



Tags:



January 25, 2006

I don't want a "New Cold War"

I find this scary enough not to want to link to it - which is unusual for me - I link to anything normally.

The Defense Department has scheduled a second major, three-day exercise to combat nuclear terrorism in the Charleston, S.C. area

The goal is not prevention, but coping with the catastrophic results of a terrorist nuclear attack on a major U.S. port city.





Reading stuff likes this makes me want to go and download "Duck & Cover" - but I saw it years ago.

Continue reading "I don't want a "New Cold War"" »

September 10, 2005

Civil Liberties under threat ... again

From The Guardian today:

MI5 head warns of liberties trade-off to fight terror

I wonder whether the continued erosion of civil liberties in the name of the "fight against terror" is worth it.

Surely if we change our way of life and destroy everything that makes western liberal democracy the 8th wonder of world then the terrorists are winning??

The pupose of terrorism, it must be said, is to cause TERROR and to use that terror as a force multiplier for organisations that have no conventional armies.

They, whoever they really are, have succeeded in their aim and the net effect is to change the way we live forever. Recent history suggests that such legislation does not disapper when the threat recedes. The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act was introduced in 1974.

Although being re-written several times the act shows no sign of going away, indeed with each assualt on civil liberties the act becomes more entrenched in law.

I fear the recent attacks will do nothing to stop this trend.