February 2005

Back on Monday, 7th February I blogged on the suggestion that a jury-rigged SA-4 might have been responsible for the destruction of the RAF C-130K on election day in Iraq. We went into some detail about the SA-4 system and flagged the secondary optical guidance as a possible candidate. We can now say with confidence…

Over on the BNN, our dear colleague Richard North runs with a scare story regarding the European directive on compensation to air passengers in the event of delays. Apparently “On the basis of what we know, however, the commission, despite its obsession for “consumer protection” should perhaps have named its new directive: “denied safety”.” Terror!…

Via Nadhezhda’s, news arrives that the US Department of Homeland Security have picked a chappy called D. Reed Freedman to sit on their “Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee”. Freedman’s other job is as Chief Privacy Officer of Claria Inc, the company that gave the world Gator, one of the net’s worst spyware infections. As…

Another day, another sign that Dr. Duke really is in charge: The Washington Post reports on efforts by the Pentagon to overturn the principle of chief of mission authority, under which the US Ambassador in a given country can permit or refuse the admission of other US government employees to that country. Specifically, they want…

Some time ago, I described the situation with regard to the dollar and central bank reserves in terms of metastability, the idea of a position that is both very stable in the short term and also subject to a radical flip triggered by comparatively small events. I think I also linked this up in another…

Broom of Anger suggests an interesting interpretation of the political crisis in Northern Ireland: is the mammoth follow-the-money investigation part of a tactic by the Sinn Fein leadership to finally end the IRA? Specifically, it’s suggested that the Irish government’s Criminal Assets Bureau, established after the great corruption scandals of the 80s, has been passed…

Steve Gilliard on Dr. Gonzo, blogging, journalism and the economics of bad writing. Then, read the comments too. It’s bloody brilliant. And it also leads on nicely to an interesting new project: the Blogger News Network at Bloggernews.net. The plan is to build a big-media style site fed by a, well, news network, of, well,…

After the FAZ, it’s the turn of the London Evening Standard to reverse the attribution on Dr. Thompson’s obituary of Nixon. What is it with these people? Here’s the link to their story. Scroll down a little, and it’s cock-up ahoy in paragraph 11: “At the height of the Watergate scandal he was described by…

The New York Times reports extensively on the Iraqi insurgent campaign against Baghdad’s infrastructure, specifically oil refining, electricity production and water supply. According to the Iraqi oil minister: ” “There is an organization, sort of a command-room operation,” Thamir Ghadhban, the Iraqi oil minister, said Thursday in an interview. In his area of responsibility, Mr.…

Abu Aardvark brings up the old question of the Iraqi secret police files that somehow wandered into the possession of Ahmed Chalabi after the fall of Baghdad. It was widely accepted that ownership of the papers might be a potent source of political pull, permitting blackmail of almost anyone. The Aardvark points out that they…