Saturday, 15 February

WISHING WELL LICENSE AGREEMENT: 'Before you can open the cover of your new book, you must obtain a book activation code by phoning Microsoft.' Fun link from Library Stuff.

Saturday, 15 February

NO 'SADDAM SUX' GRAFFITI, PLEASE: A warning via The Register . . . US script kiddies were warned this week that 'patriotic' hacking attacks against America's enemies are not to be condoned, and might even backfire. NIPC Warnings and Advisories link. Incidents of computer intrusion or related crimes supposedly can be reported online here.

While I was over at The Register, catching up on tech news, I spotted a report from earlier this month, posted on Feb 4, about a net hijacking in which projectgutenberg.org was hijacked to point to the Mission of Iraq.

Friday, 14 February

PERSONA NON GRATA: The U.S. government expelled an Iraqi journalist [Mohammed Allawi] who covers the United Nations for the official Iraqi News Agency because he was considered 'harmful to the security of the United States,' the journalist and U.S. officials said Friday. From The Guardian today.

Friday, 14 February

UPCOMING BLIX, EL BARADEI REPORT: A couple of excerpts from an Al Bawaba report: According to AP, British diplomats said it was possible that the United States and Britain could present a proposal by Saturday for a new resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. [snip] Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri went to see Blix late Thursday about the report. 'I'm worried,' he said afterwards. 'It's a question of war and peace.'

Friday, 14 February

BRITISH DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES: The British Census results find that 390,000 people in the UK count themselves as Jedi - 'This equates to Jedi-ism being the equal 4th largest religious grouping in the UK, with more followers than either Sikhism or Judaism.' This from Ben Hammersley.

Thursday, 13 February

VIRTUAL BATTLEGROUND AND 3-D TARGETS: 'Downtown Baghdad came into full view Wednesday on a Mountain View tech campus where engineers from Silicon Graphics Inc. demonstrated a new program that would give U.S. military planners a three-dimensional perspective of enemy territory in the event of a war.' From a story on SFGate by Benjamin Pimentel.

Thursday, 13 February

IN COUNTRY: 'Two Special Operations Task Forces have been in and out of Iraq for well over a month, said two military officials with direct knowledge of their activities.' This is in a story from The Washington Post wire service. They would probably include at least a basic group of reconnaissance guys who are often accompanied by sharp-shooters (expert marksmen) who protect them while they scout out an area. And they're probably in deep disguise so that they're indistinguishable from the rest of the population. I can believe that.

Wednesday, 12 February

OBSERVATIONS: Brian Blomquist and Niles Lathem write in today's New York Post: 'U.S. military and intelligence officials told The Post the National Security Agency's satellites and spy planes have detected Republican Guard units moving loads of explosives by truck and rail into Iraq's critical oil fields in recent weeks.'

Many people have worried that Saddam Hussein has plans to blow up the Iraqi oil wells or set them on fire. But preparations have already been made in anticipation of this.

Wednesday, 12 February

BLACK MAGIC MOMENT: Well, the Black Magician, Osama Bin Laden, has spoken. Or has he?

According to a story in the Guardian, Bin Laden offer tips to defend Iraq by Brian Whitaker, a 16-minute audio tape was received by Al-Jazeera just after 7 pm London time. It came 'in a similar way,' according to the station. Whitaker interprets that to mean it was delivered to the Al-Jazeera office in Pakistan. In Whitaker's analysis, the issue of 'who benefits' should be factored into the equation:

Many in the west will see its headline message as support for Iraq against the United States - a message that may well play more into Mr Powell's hands than those of President Saddam.



So perhaps Bin Laden has scored an own goal. Or perhaps it is not the voice of the al-Qaida leader at all.



Could it simply be an actor, hired by the CIA, addressing the world from Langley, Virginia?

Gee, I don't know, Brian. I can't pretend to be an authority on authenticating OBL. But we know a few things in general about this type of situation: the voice of the Black Magician is often experienced as 'seductive,' and it calls for its adherents to destroy themselves. We have been through this type of scenario many times before. Jim Jones and The People's Temple is just one example. Jones persuaded his adherents to drink poisoned fruit juice. Hundreds died. The only debate is whether this can truly be considered mass suicide or more like cunning mass murder. Heaven's Gate was another group that had a leader who seduced a group of people into destroying themselves. And there are many other examples.

Some have even raised the question of whether this might be a pherome or glandular reaction to over-population. The developing economies of the Middle East region have afforded many people a new affluence which is often associated with a diminished infant mortality rate. In a previous era, maybe half of a woman's children might not survive long. But with increased affluence and better medical care, most, if not all, of her children survive. Does this stimulate the rest of the population to destroy itself in order to adjust itself to a population density that can be more readily supported by the territory they are living in?

We can only hope that the Iraqi people and others who listen to the seductive voice of this Black Magician resist the urge to accommodate its alluring demands to destroy themselves.

Tuesday, 11 February

PLANET EARTH TO SADDAM: START PACKING! Happy Eide. Let's hope the day passes peacefully. Instapundit has a link to commercial satellite imagery of some key locations in Iraq including Baghdad. Did I mention that this stuff is amazing? Well, it is.

Sunday, 9 February

GET YOUR OPERA PROGRAM READY: Are you prepared to take some notes? Better grab a pen.

Saturday night, February 8, in the Iraqi-Kurdish city of Suleimaniyeh, Ansar al-Islam assassinated the top command of the pro-American Patriotic Union of Iraqi Kurdistan’s fighting militia.

Suleimaniyah, the hub town of eastern Kurdistan, is also the headquarters of the PUK high command in the region. It is ruled by the PUK leader Jalal Talabani, who has been short-listed in Washington for the post of Iraqi prime minister after Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

Suleimaniyeh also commands the highway from eastern Kurdistan to the important oil town of Kirkuk.

There is a suspected Ansar/Qaeda/Iraqi-mil-intel joint base located in the town of Tajdori, 150 km northeast of Baghdad.

Got all that down? Good, because you may be tested on all that sooner than you expect. From Debka via LGF today.

Now, let's review very briefly:



*PUK is the pro-American Patriotic Union of Kurds;

*Jalal Talabani, PUK, favored by Washington;

*Suleimaniyah (PUK) controls highway to Kirkuk;

*Kirkuk is an important petro-center;

*all of this is located in North Eastern Iraq.

You see how easy it is to keep all this straight? Sure it is. Now you're set for the next episode if there is one.

Sunday, 9 February

REPORTING FROM NORTHERN IRAQ: Spotted a good background feature piece about the situation up there by Tanya Goudsouzian called Smell of fear in Halabja. Here are some snippets:

The centuries old House of Osman Pasha is now a heap of rubble covered with grass-- as if it were never anything but a grazing field for cows.



Osman Homran Mohammed . . . takes care of his sole surviving sister, Qadriya. She lost her mind when she saw her friends die in front of her eyes.



'Ansar Al Islam wants to establish a Taliban-style government here . . .'