Oh yuck

What has this idiotarian done for Peace? Even if you agree with his cause, it is not "World Peace":

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

At least he did provide Senate support for the move from Arpanet to the Internet :)

More On the Iraqi Employees

Well, I was there as were a number of bloggers (though work and illness did thin the field somewhat.) A number of MPs turned up and I will post some pictures when I can acquire an HDSD card reader :(

Dan would like to draw your attention to this:

Iraqi Employees: the next letter

Our Government is still proposing to abandon people to the death squads for having worked for the troops it sent, in our name, to Iraq.

The 'twelve month' stipulation is utterly unacceptable. In the Miliband statement, the Government committed itself to doing nothing to shelter people at risk from death squads for having worked for British soldiers or diplomats, unless they can prove that they have worked for the British for a continuous period of twelve months.

There are a lot of local employees who fled their jobs before 12 months precisely because they had been targeted, or who did a 6-month tour for one British battalion and were then told to go and work for the Americans, or who did 12 months or more with interruptions, or who the Army didn't give proper documentation too. Mark Brockway (former Sergeant-Major, TA Royal Engineers) said so, several times, at the meeting on October 9th; so did Andrew Alderson (Major, Yeomanry); so do the employees, and serving soldiers, who are in touch with them, or with me, by email.

This is indescribably shabby. It has to be changed.

The first letters to MPs worked. Telephoning the offices of MPs, I was frequently told 'They've written to the Home Office about it- they got all these letters from constituents.' So without the letters that you wrote, we wouldn't have had Brown's partial climbdown, which may at least save the lives of those hundreds of Iraqis who can prove that they worked for twelve months for us. Write another letter- or write your first- and we can save some more lives.

As before, bullet points for a letter are below. So is a form letter, but don't send it unchanged: adapt it a lot. It's just there to help people over writer's block. Again, be courteous when writing to your MP and put your full address including the postcode, to indicate that you are a constituent. If you don't know who your MP is, you can find out here. You should address letters to: (MP's Name), The House of Commons, Westminster, London. SW1A 0AA. When you get a reply, let me know (in comments, or to danhardie.blog@gmail.com ) so that we can see which MPs we can work with, and which need persuading.

Bullet points:

• David Miliband's Statement on 'Iraq: Locally Recruited Civilians' of 9th October stated that Britain will help to resettle- in the wider Middle East, or in the United Kingdom- Iraqis who can prove that they have worked for this country's soldiers or diplomats for a continuous period of twelve months.
• Hundreds of Iraqis have been targeted for assassination for having worked for this country. Some have worked for a period of twelve months exclusively for the British and can prove this. Some have not but have been pinpointed for murder anyway. We have a responsibility to save these people from being murdered for the 'crime' of working for the British.
• There are a lot of local employees who fled their jobs before 12 months precisely because they had been targeted, or who did a 6-month tour for one British battalion and were then told to go and work for the Americans, or who did 12 months or more with interruptions, or who the Army didn't give proper documentation too.
• Iraqi staff members must be given shelter not because of their provable length of service but according to whether they have been identified for murder by local death squads. This can be investigated on the spot by Army officers and referred rapidly to London: the process needs to start now.
• Mr Miliband's statement did not mention the families of Iraqi employees. As Iraqi militias also murder the families of their 'enemies', we must resettle our employees' families as well. Mark Brockway, an ex-soldier who hired many Iraqis, estimates that we are talking about a maximum of 700 Iraqis to resettle: this country admits 190,000 immigrants net every year.
• Iraqis have already been targeted for murder for having worked for this country. We will be shamed if we allow more to be killed for the same reason. Our soldiers, who are angry at this betrayal, and our diplomats, will be placed at risk if they gain a reputation for abandoning their local helpers.

Form letter:

(MP's Name)

The House Of Commons

Westminster

London. SW1A 0AA.

Your full name and address.

Dear (MP's Name)

As you will have read in the Times, Iraqis who have worked for British soldiers or diplomats are being targeted for murder by local militia. An unknown number have already been killed and more have been forced into hiding.

On October 9th, David Miliband's statement on 'Locally Recruited Civilians' in Iraq said that Britain would offer assistance with resettlement for Iraqis who had worked with British forces, but only if they could prove that they had worked for us for 12 months or more. This is effectively leaving hundreds of Iraqis, who have risked their lives for this country's forces, to the mercy of the death squads.

Mark Brockway, a former soldier who employed many Iraqis, told Channel Four News on 9th October that local staff often worked for six months for British units, during which time they were frequently identified as 'enemies' by the local militias. I believe that the Government has a direct responsibility for the safety of these people.

I feel that it is morally unacceptable that this country is following such a policy. I also believe it will endanger our soldiers and diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can I please ask you to write to the Foreign Office, and also to the Home Office which has charge of asylum policy, to ask why the Government is prepared to ignore the plight of hundreds of people who were placed at risk serving this country's soldiers.

Yours sincerely

The Government's responses (PM and Miliblogger) are politically disingenuous and inadequate. They need to do better and, as Alex says, the process for implementing any asylum or relocation is key.

BTW - Shotgun - we clearly disagree on this. You feel that concentration should be solely on the British troops, I feel that two wrongs do not make a right and that just because things could be improved for British servicemen in Iraq (and Afghanistan) is no reason to ignore the plight of local employees.

How Can We Make This Work?

From the BBC:

the book was protected by the defence known as Reynolds qualified privilege.

This allows the media to publish information, even if it turned out to be untrue and defamatory, provided the public had the right to know it and it was the product of responsible journalism.

This sounds like a sensible rule and I am sure I could increase my drinking sufficiently to meet the standard British definition of a journalist :)

Iraqi Employees Campaign - Update

Folks,

Dan wants you to think about this:

Gordon Brown may apparently be making a statement on Iraq to the House of Commons tomorrow afternoon (Ed - that's today, now) sometime after 2pm. He may or may not mention Britain’s Iraqi employees and the need of some of them for asylum. The Times article of Saturday promises nothing but gave the Government a big, positive headline: classic spin. I have always said, when writing to Jacqui Smith and other Ministers, that to pre-announce asylum for Iraqi employees before they’d actually been taken to safety would increase the risks to them and to the British soldiers who would have to evacuate them. I hope desperately that this won’t happen. I also hope that we will see a genuine promise of resettlement for all who are identified as being seriously at risk for having worked for the British in Iraq.

Brown may or may not promise this on Monday afternoon: frankly they have been so grudging that I doubt it. The Government are going to have to be pushed to do the right thing, so the meeting on Tuesday, October 9th is now more important than ever: we can win if we keep pushing. It’s at Parliament, Committee Room 14, St Stephen’s entrance, from 7-9pm. Invite your MP and come yourself.

I fully intend to be there, even if the GCF capitulates entirely (even if only to do my best to ensure that the rules in practice meet the spirit of the Parliamentary declaration). I may see you there.

Oh and, if you write for the Observer, Dan isn't a Doctor (MD or PhD) and has never claimed to be one ...

Update: Iain's favourite chipmunk has bounced us out of the room and the venue is now the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House.

I suppose this

Dr Abdul Majid Katme, of the Islamic Medical Association, said: “To learn about alcohol, to learn about sexually transmitted disease, to learn about abortion, it gives us more evidence to campaign against it. There is a difference between learning and practising.

“It is obligatory for Muslim doctors and students to learn about everything. The prophet said, ‘Learn about witchcraft, but don’t practise it’.”

makes me a warlock. But without any STDs (as far as I am aware. Except marriage, of course.)

An Exciting Few Hours

Well, I wouldn't go as far as Tim (it sounds rather uncomfortable) but both the rugby results were somewhat interesting. Now if Scotland can just pull their collective finger out tonight and ...

Hard luck to Lewis - it will make Brazil very interesting.

Update: And it was just a bit too much for Scotland - still, the quarter-finals of the world cup is not too bad a showing.

Well Done, England

I'll be honest (one of the few, it seems) and admit that I didn't think they had a chance against the Wallabies. Now all Scotland need to do is to beat Argentina tomorrow ...

Imminent Victory?

Is this a success for Dan and the campaign?

Has blogger-power claimed a UK political victory?

Will the practicalities of the implementation strangle the good Mr Webster claims will be announced?

Why is the GCF's administration leaking like a rusty colander?

Is there any point to Parliament any more?

Why is Murdoch mouthpiece thieving Dan (and others, but mostly Dan & Manic for the video)'s credit? Ed: oh, I know that one - it's because they're a spineless bunch of pathetic parasites.

Hundreds of interpreters and their families are to be given assistance to leave Iraq, where they live under fear of death squads because they collaborated with British forces. Those wishing to remain in Iraq or relocate to neighbouring countries will be helped to resettle.

After a two-month campaign by The Times, Gordon Brown is set to announce that interpreters who have worked for the British Government for 12 months will be given the opportunity of asylum in Britain.

The offer also applies retrospectively to interpreters who worked for the Government but have ceased to do so. Government sources have disclosed that a few hundred vital support staff would also be helped, although they declined to give details.

These questions, and more, will probably not be answered after the break :) We'll have to wait until Monday. Tuesday's meeting could be more of an all-out celebration than has been apparent. Just how much is Parliamentary fizz a bottle? I may just have to find out. H/t to Tim.

Oh and Lewis too.

Courage - a brief thought

I heard Madeline Bunting's "Thought for the Day" on the Today programme this morning and she was talking about the courage being shown by the Burmese protestors and that they will need to continue to show as so many of them are carted of to what I assume will be a harsh and miserable internment (as opposed to imprisonment as I doubt they will see any, never mind a fair, trial).

It got me thinking, which was probably not a good idea while driving and quite so early in the morning, about the difference between 'hot' and 'cool' courage. The former is the heroism of dramatic rescues and military exploits - the sort of efforts that win headlines and medals, the latter (and this is where I see the Burmese mostly fitting) is the much less lauded struggle to stick to your convictions or continue your efforts in continual pain or discomfort, cold and lonely nights, or omnipresent fear.

The sort of courage that, for example, the late Jane Tomlinson demonstrated so utterly.

Cnut of the Day

It has to be, and I realise that the day is yet young, Bob Ainsworth MP, to our great misfortune, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, for his semi-literate and wholly pathetic performance on the Today programme.

Bob, for your enlightenment:

1. "Playing Politics" - was the GCF's announcing the troop reductions yesterday to shift the media focus away from the Tory conference. Imagine how Prescott you could have been if Dave had visited either Basra or Helmand last week whilst you were gathered together in brotherly socialist solidarity. Despite Dr Fox's quite justified complaint, I can assure you that the military expect no better from our political masters.

2. "Despicable" - that was the GCF announcing 500 new reductions and cutting in 500 already announced. Admittedly, he has been playing that game for so long, in his previous tenure as King of Stealth Taxation, that it is probably too worn a path for him to divert from but it is, using the hopes of the friends and families of those deployed as a political football, utterly despicable and you are my "Cnut of the Day" for trying to defend it.

By the way - play the ball not the man and Humphries (I think) and Fox were both right that this should have waited until the parliamentary speech next week. Gordo didn't need to say nothing, he needed just to have left the policy announcements until the proper time & location.

It's not about money, any more

We are all used to the Great Clunking Fist re and re-re announcing spending increases. He is now doing it with troop withdrawals:

UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 1,000 by the end of the year, Gordon Brown has said on his first visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister.

but, later on we see:

The figure of 1,000 troops includes 500 already announced in September as a result of the pull-out from Basra Palace, Downing Street said.

Of those, 270 are now back in the UK.

So, correctly, that should be "UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 500 by the end of the year, in addition to the 270 who have recently left and the 230 we have already announced". I would even give you (but clearly not Gordo) grace for, "UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 730 by the end of the year, of which we have already announced 230."

Now, this is just scummy - it was bad enough when he was conning us about the great tax'n'waste rip-off but this is people's lives (and the hopes of their friends and families) he is misusing for pathetically political ends.

Having said that, all it is for most of them is a swap of where to wear their desert-pattern DPM from the increasingly safe Basrah to the increasingly dangerous Helmand. That's the Queen's shilling for you :(

While I was away

Some obnoxious fat rich foreign football-crazed criminal has been employing a bunch of sociopathetic parasites to stomp on bloggers. Well, no, that would be dangerous. Some of us are armed.

And it's not the Chairman of Fulham ...

Actually, Alisher Usmanov, previously sniffing around Liverpool FC and now 23% shareholder in Arsenal, has been employing the London law firm of Schillings to stomp on bloggers' web-hosting providers. Okay, be fair to the scumbags various, 'provider': Fasthosts, enemies mine from long ago (UK web-host of choice for phishing and 419 scammers, if you must know) caved immediately. For details see here.

It is amazing that when faced with obviously criminal behaviour, Fasthosts will prevaricate unto the (possible) heat death of the universe but when they receive a lawyer's letter they scurry round in an appalling sycophantic manner and then manage to stupendously over-react (although, with my experience of their technical competence, this may just have been, "Now this looks like a pretty button, I wonder what happens if I press it.")

PS - and Google seem to have fixed their little language difficulty. Thanks.

Update - what this man says:

And upon my return ...

I find this sitting, waiting to be moderated:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Cumbernauld College Cnuts": Independance is a diversion, it is NOT going to happen, or certainly not for very long, the SNP leadership are conning their voters..... the EU will swallow them up as well..Welsh, Scottish 'independance are simply , distractions, (just like the Maddelaine case in the Media)divide and conquer policies... How did Blair solve the Northern ireland troubles...he simply gave em both what they wanted....since within a few years it will not matter anyway, they will be eaten up by the EU... http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865 http://thewestminsternews.co.uk/ http://www.betteroffout.co.uk/sup01.htm http://www.betteroffout.co.uk http://www.brugesgroup.com/ www.eutruth.org.uk http://www.european-referendum.org.uk/101-reasons.html http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_your_own_choice.htm Note how none of this has ever appeared in the Press or on the News. Publish this comment. Reject this comment. Moderate comments for this blog. Posted by Anonymous to Surreptitious Evil at 11:20 AM

Slightly bemused, I re-read my post. I wasn't desperately polite about Tartan Nu-Lab, I thought Cumbernauld College should know something about Scots Law, and I was dismissive of the EU flag.

Now, I do realise that this is the blogosphere, so relevance (like spelling :) isn't of the greatest importance. But WTF? Anonymous, if you are reading this, what the hell were you on about? And it was 11:20 AM, so don't bother blaming the drink (if you're drunk then, and it isn't 1st Jan, it is you with the problem).

Hiatus? What Hiatus?

One of the strange things about living near the country's largest bus manufacturer is the double take you do when you see a destination you don't recognise and your pitiful brain has not yet worked out that these are not local buses.

'Tis not a problem with the Hong Kong buses - they are bright gold and the signs are in sinographs. However, Alexanders are filling an order for Bus Atha Cliath (Dublin Buses) and this has caught me out a couple of times recently.

Two for the weekend, Sir?

I am not good at doing this leaving it alone thing, so two unconnected notes for you while I am away ...

Yes - you may take the piss out of Country & Western (and, frankly, some of them deserve all your bile and venom) but this says so much good about the American attitude to their troops (and I agree with them about the smirking chimp too):



And, as a bonus, Mark Knopfler's Falklands 25 remix of "Brothers in Arms" (h/t Rogue Gunner)



And (h/t Tom), something wrong with the States - apparently, if I was a book, I would be:

You're The Guns of August! by Barbara Tuchman

Though you're interested in war, what you really want to know is what causes war. You're out to expose imperialism, militarism, and nationalism for what they really are. Nevertheless, you're always living in the past and have a hard time dealing with what's going on today. You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in the world. A fitting motto for you might be "Guns do kill, but so can diplomats."
(Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.)

"Hang On", I hear you ask, "what is wrong with that?" Well, simple really. This - "You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in the world." - was derived from one (or maybe two) questions:

Where is your focus? A - America; B - The World

and, just possibly,

Do you travel a lot? A - Yes; B - No.

It is a long step from two binary answers to that. Now, if they had stated that my focus was on getting the UK out of the EU ...

PS. And "Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster)" apparently.

Hiatus

Taking another short break, for reasons better not mentioned.

Nothing to do with the Germanification of Blogger comments at all. Heil Page und Brin etc, etc

Sie können HTML-Tags verwenden, z. B.

Choose an identity

Surreptitious Evil (Your Blogger display name)

Use a different account

Ferrari

Cunts. Clearly. I think Theo was remarkably restrained.

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 2

While I was researching this topic, Master S-E was doing his homework. Ecology Studies (WTF? It's amazing how soon the indoctrination starts) and Maths. Count the electrically powered items in each room in the house and then make a graph.

However, he also had to put them in categories. Lights, computer, heating etc. Out of the mouths of babes ... "In", Mrs S-E asked, "which category would you put a telephone?" Absolutely no hesitation - "entertainment". Comes of having an older sister, I presume. Thank God for zero-tariff phone deals, is all I can say.

Two Good Books

Well, these were both "read until you're finished". Admittedly, one of those was being read while I was waiting for a delayed Sleazyjet flight at Gatwick so ...

(Mohamm)Ed Husain, has been a member of an number of Islamist militant organisations, culminating in a position in Hizb ut-Tahrir - a weird bunch of coves that we seem to be the only country on God's green or sandy Earth don't realise are a militant terrorist nut-job collective. His book is the interesting journey from a bright young schoolboy to remarkably close to being a terrorist - and certainly being a terrorist sympathiser - and back to being a true believer in the "Religion of Peace".

This is an utterly remarkable book - comparable to the "Anarchist's Cookbook" and the original "2600" samizdat copies. It is but competently written however remains wholly engrossing. We see the techniques used to prize young Muslim men away from their families; the techniques used to force the politically correct British establishment into allowing a fascist regime to establish itself in its midst; the gradual journey back to an orthodox Quranic faith. Jamal really ought to read it but I suppose he would just declare it haram and go back to his hate-mongering.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed this. Dan seems to have escape Simon's battle to throttle comment (this and other blogs passim) - he actually praises Director Public Relations (Army) on the dedications page. Some of the aspects of the siege of Cimic House have been written about before - (then) Pte Johnson Beharry won his VC for actions on this tour and it has also been covered in Richard Holmes "Dusty Warriors", however this is a compelling eye-witness account from a Senior NCO who was there for almost the whole period of the significant action - covering the pull-out of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the to-and-fro battles with the Mehdi Army and their commanders in the OMS and leaving just before the handover to the Iraqi authorities. Sgt Mills doesn't like Al Amarah; he, like many Sergeants, is sceptical of his officers but extremely positive about the good ones and, like so many of his rank in wars gone past, clearly the backbone of the British Army. He cares for his men (and, with one exception, seems to really like them) and is rewarded by loyalty and bravery in the fight.

The unique point of view of the commander of the snipers allows a further priveleged account of the trials and tribulations of the battle - the changes in RoE (Rules of Engagement) and how they were exploited by the Iraqis and the care necessary when fighting in a built up area. Read this book - with one caveat - it is slightly over a tenner from Amazon, you may wish to wait for the paperback.

Bad (Security) Journalism

Given that the whole point of a Domain Name Service (DNS) servers is to direct computers from domain names to actual machines, this report seems to be missing the point (my emphasis):

A security researcher has found a serious vulnerability in Bind 8 forcing the software's maintainers to issue an advisory for users to upgrade to Bind 9.4, the latest version.

The flaw within Bind 8 software could misdirect users to a fraudulent wedsite (sic) even if a user typed in the correct URL wrote Amit Klein, chief technology officer for security vendor Trusteer. Klein discovered the problem.

There is actually a real problem, reference here in technical gobbledegook, which exploits a failing in a pseudo-random number generation (the transaction ID) to con the server into accepting spoofed authoritative responses, which it then caches and feeds down to the clients (i.e. your computer). Think of it as a technical equivalent of a CiF comments thread where some people actually believe the crud in the original posting because of the presumed 'authority' of the poster.