Sunday, October 23, 2011

Manchester Derby OCT 2011

Best football match that I have ever watched. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15325536.stm

Saturday, October 15, 2011

NYPD Policing of Protest

NYPD are such a fine police force. The integration between the patrol, investigation, riot and intelligence units is fantastic. Having detectives at the protest provides strong evidence collection capabilities. The willingness to rapidly and in a targeted, aggressive fashion arrest those who want to be violent also dissipates any riot mentality on the part of the crowd. This allows peaceful protesters to make their voices heard.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4e_1318648256

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Iranian Plot

The two men also discussed killing the ambassador in a restaurant which the diplomat frequented.

In the aftermath of this plot (technically an act of war), a much more robust American policy towards Iran is required. Medium-Large scale military action should rightly be ruled out, but tougher sanctions are simply not sufficient. This is not to say America should once again embrace the illogic of the neo-conservatives, but the lack of credible American response to Iran's support for death squads in Iraq and attacks on coalition forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan have allowed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to come to perceive the US as both weak and impotent. This must change. Correspondingly, the US should exert more pressure in attempting to change the revolutionary guards behaviour. This could include tougher sanctions, financial seizure of foreign held Iranian government bank accounts and the consideration of targeted covert operations against revolutionary guard leadership linked to the plot, or even a petroleum blockade of Iran. The criminal affidavit apparently states

When the informant expressed concern that 100 to 150 people could be injured in a bombing of the restaurant, including “senators who dine there,” Arbabsiar said “no big deal.'

A materially activated plot against the US by Iranian agents is an act of war. War is not an option nor a preference but a serious American response is certainly required.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Hank Williams and Obama

In response to this.. 


ESPN's decision to scrap Hank Williams song 'All My Rowdy Friends Are Back for Monday Night' from their Monday Night Football intro was correct. National politics have no place in america's sports. Our sports represent the one great, social element of american society not infected by the rancour that typifies our current national discourse. In this sense, sports is the great unifier. Whether in baseball, basketball, football or hockey, in sports, only the game counts. We rightly expect our respective teams to reflect the best of our dynamic culture; mutual commitment to each other in the context of passionate, ultimately respectful competition. We must seperate our political dysfunction from our sports.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Counter-Terrorism

Counter-Terrorism operations are often lacking in the clinical effectiveness of today's reported operation against the Haqqani network and yesterday's operation against Awlaki. This is not down to failures on the part of Counter-Terrorism services, rather, the high degree of risk and luck that goes into any successful outcome. As this speaker shows..  He served on this operation.