5. mars 2003

Blix: Iraq is disarming Blix said the destruction of the al-Samoud missiles is an example of "real disarmament," and praised the inspection process. Iraq has been doing a better job cooperating with the inspectors, he meant. This report will obviously not make it easier for the US and its allies to get support for a new resolution authorising use of force. 9:15:17 PM    comment []

Quiz: Are you drinking too much? Don't worry. The quiz is really just a general knowledge question about alcohol and drinking. 8:42:06 PM    comment []

Australian man flogged in Saudi-Arabia for wife's theft Robert Thomas, an Australian man at 56, has endured 250 lashes and has 50 to go. His wife Lorna were accused of having stolen from her workplace, and in a peculiar version of Sharia law, a man is responsible for whatever the wife does. The judge told him that a "husband always knows what his wife is doing." The case has enraged Australians, with Prime Minister John Howard calling the sentence "appallingly inhumane." 7:57:22 PM    comment []

Remembering a mass murderer Ffifty years ago today, on March 5th 1953, Stalin died. He was the dictator who defeated Hitler, made the Soviet Union into a superpower and was directly responsible for murdering at least 20 million of his own countrymen, probably many more. For some reason, communists have failed to be held responsible for their bloodshed as their ideological competitors the nazis have been. Leftist extremists have managed to avoid responsibility for their concentration camps. A recent survey in Russia showed that 53% of the 1,600 people asked means that Stalin had played a "mainly positive" role in the country's history, while 33% answered negative and 14% didn't know. It is a cliche, but it is also true: those who are ignorant of the past are bound to repeat its mistakes. 7:28:14 PM    comment []

Blasphemy! ...and the sort of blasphemies I take exception to: The recent cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black." What a pathetic atrocity! And, no, it's not cool to call a band "l8r" 5:36:03 PM    comment []

Both France and Russia threatens veto The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia comes out from an emergency meeting in Paris with a strong message of defiance to the United States' build-up to war against Iraq. The threat to veto a Security Council resolution authorising use of force was pretty explicit, as de Villepin stated: "Russia and France - as permanent members of the Security Council - will assume their full responsibilities on this point." Russia has already ruled out that the country will abstain, leaving the only possibilities that it will support a war, or veto it. If it really should come to a veto against a pro-war resolution, it would no doubt have serious consequences for the long-term relationships between the US and its allies on one side, and Russia, France and Germany on the other. I have a problem seeing how this could be in anybody's interest (except Saddam Hussein's, apparently). If it should come to that, it will be a result of a irresponsible game of chicken between the US and France in particilar, where machismo has taken the driving seat over sober national interest. The worrying thing is that it's not hard to find historical parallels, in particular the failed diplomacy that preceded World War I. Though it is hard to see a real war between these powers emerging from the present mess, it could lay the groundwork for a new cold war and era of international distrust. In a situation where the US (and the UK) has deemed it a matter of its national interest to disarm Saddam Hussein at any cost (and remove him from power, according to later statements), that is a situation that the rest of the world should have to deal with, like it or not. Who started the war of words will be a matter of dispute. George Bush was certainly not helpful with his "not for us is against us" rhetoric, and neither with his "axes of evil" speech. Gerhard Schröder rose to victory in Germany aided by unashemed Anti-Americanism, incuding a minister's ill-thought comparison of Bush with Hitler. There has not been any love lost between the Ango-Saxon powers and France, and a number of players on both sides had no problems using all negative stereotypes available to dig in deeper. Both British and American media were filled with traditional insults towards the French. European media has always been hostile to George Bush (except in a short period after 9/11-01). Americans no doubt have problems realising how badly their president comes across outside the country. Rumsfeld, who should remember he is not foreign secretary, has enraged many with his remarks about 'old Europe.' The European left has always have a strong undercurrent of Anti-Americanism.The escalating war of words has pushed many that are normally sympathetic to the US into their camp. Conflict tends to polarise opinions. There will be plenty of ammunition for further insults in the months to come, undermining the trans-atlantic alliances and the United Nations even more. 4:11:25 PM    comment []

St Patrick's day for heathens St Patrick's day, coming up on March 17, is one Irish and Catholic festival that has been taking the world with storm, certainly not limited to either. Even heathens see there is much to celebrate about the day, coming as it does as spring approches (in the northen hemisphere anyway), and involving large amounts of beer. William Hopper writes an amusing version of the history about St Patrick, the man allegedly responsible for bannishing snakes from Ireland and for making us drink lots of Guinness. PS: Guinness is trying to get support for making St Patrick's Day an Official Holiday in the United States. 2:57:20 PM    comment []

Google: hacker tool Google is not only a blogger's best friend, it's growing to be the malicious hacker's best tool too. A recent Wired article describes how very simple google searches can give access directly to online database template files, which allows a user to directly query and look at the datebases. This can give direct access to sensitive business data, personell records, patient data and a lot of other information sloppy web admins rather not have prying eyes read. This google search, for example, gives a significant list of FileMaker Pro databases connected to the net. Web admins, beware! 1:17:40 PM    comment []

Swedish nazis want to help Saddam A number of Swedes have volunteered as "human shields" to help Saddam Hussein avert war, but that is not the only group that wants to help Iraq. The Swedish neo-nazi group Legion Wasa sent a letter to the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, offering ten volunteers to work for the Iraqi army. Initially they are to work in field hospitals, but they "don't rule out" serving as combattant in the Iraqi army. However, it seems the neo-nazi group has problem getting ten volunteers, and the embassy hasn't replied to it. In fact, on request the Embassy refuses they even received such a letter. (from a Swedish article in Göteborgs Posten) 12:42:20 PM    comment []

— Khalid Shaikh Mohammed died in September An article in Asia Times claims that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was really killed in the shootout on Sept 11 last year, when Ramzi Binalshibh was caught. If that was true, it would mean the recent claim of his arrest (and the picture that goes with it!) is all a fraud. It is a rather weird article, building on alleged Pakistani officials who took part in the September raid,. It claims that while Mohammed was killed, his wife and child was taken by US agents and his wife revealed information about al Qaeda to them (touching that a violent proponent of a misogynic religion trusts his wife with such information, or what?). There are many reasons to take this article with a pinch of salt. The Americans claiming that a dead man is alive and being interrogated is a ploy that will be discovered sooner or later, and I really see very little benefit from making up such a story, and a big blowback if it was discovered to be fraudulent. Actually, it would be more likely that Mohammed was arrested earlier, his arrest being kept secret for a while. It is a fact that western intelligence was not very happy about his arrest being made public immediately, possibly allowing terrorists worldwide to escape. One reason to be very skeptical to this article is that it claims that Mohammed was killed by Pakistani rangers when he held his hands in the air to surrender, and in the next paragraph it claims that the traditional Islamic slogan ("There is no God except Allah, Mohammed is his messenger") "was written by Shaikh Mohammed with his own blood as his life drained from him. " I don't see those stories fitting very well together. As intelligence agencies keep a tight lid on information in these cases, and also engage in quite a bit of intentional misinforming, it is no surprise that all sort of conspiracy theories abound. 10:11:12 AM    comment []

Blix: Iraq only cooperates before UN meetings "Iraq times its co-operation with the United Nations weapons inspectors to coincide with the run-up to Security Council meetings, Hans Blix will say in his report this week, according to senior UN sources." (Independent) Which actually is another way of saying it's a theatre... 8:26:27 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:32:50.