How are the Mounties Fallen?

The Toronto Star published a cartoon that sums up what's happened and what's going to happen to the Royal Canadian 'Horse Marines'. It's going to get some after-disaster restoration. Nothing too fundamental mind you, a thorough cleaning patching and reassembly as it was before. With new 'leadership' of course.



The current head 'honcha' Bev Busson, a product of the old Guido 'Sarducchi' school of leadership, will be taking her pension after having tidied up the mess her predecessor made of the Mounties. She no doubt has policing skills that have allowed her to rise to top command - the First female Superintendant of the RCMP, but perhaps its more in the looks department. Ever notice a resemblance to a certain 'uber frau' of celluloid fame?




Justice Minister Stockwell Day, who has never been noted to have an intellect, has decided that the 'Farce in the Force' isn't anything that can't be solved with some cosmetic changes and a PR campaign. The force first needs to find a leader worthy of his nose bag. I would have suggested someone on the order of Constable Tom of the old National Lampoon Comics. Somebody who's so honest he can actually appear stupid, or vice versa, but who looks magnificent in his red serge. As an alternative there's the 'official' cartoon mountie being blatted by the post office for kiddie stamp collectors - 'MacLean of the Mounties' - a splendid-looking, public-friendly specimen a model for many waiting their chance around hindquarters - right down to his cute little soup-strainer. Bottom line, it won't be another female. Lending herself to shaking the cereal at the top, Busson has gained femininity a black eye with the Sargent Preston types. On the other hand it will be another 'riser' who, if like the others, learned not a wit from the Force's boners and peccadillos over the years. Another 'team' player, as opposed to one of those nasty 'whistleblowers'.

They say that justice delayed is justice denied. I think the same holds true of the RCMP. It needs a makeover - including some significant -'liposuctioning' and paring to make sure that the next leadership cadre is mindful of tradition only where it can best serve the people of Canada and not necessarily the RCMP. Julian Fantino would look lovely in red, but he shares some of Sarducchi's 'divine right' traits.

Watch out for future the future adventures of the Mounted - there'll be some, because it'll still be screwed-up.

Lebanon - Working up to Summer '07

There's lots of unfinished business in the Levant. Just when oodles of Lebanese Canadians were getting geared up to go back over for cousin Saleem's birthday, the trouble starts up again. This time it's AlQaeda operatives vs the Lebanese Army. Fatah al Islam, a gang of thieves headed by a former Jihadi, is holding an entire Palestinian refugee camp to hostage as it fends off the 'onslaught' of the Lebanese military.

All this to the cheers of everybody - all Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Americans and apparently most of the civilized world.

How, you might ask, did a gang of AlQaedists - apparently from every reprobate state on earth infiltrate and manage to set up a training camp in the close quarters of an armed Palestinian refugee camp? That's easy, Syria sent them. Why? Because the Syrians can't stand the UN tribunal into the assassination of President Hariri two years ago, and need to derail the process. So the Syrians have been supporting Fatah Al Islam to disrupt Lebanon.

Well that's a switch, because last year they were supporting Hezbolleh to disrupt Lebanon by fomenting an attack by Israel. Eminently successfully too. So they leave that aside to find a pipsqueak organization of people who hate their Baathist guts in order to do some real damage by robbing a bank. And then shooting at the cops of course.

The leader of the group who apparently is wanted all over the Arab world and has served time in numerous prisons, is now free, he claims, to strike at America. Funny thought coming from a guy who also claims he fought in Nicaragua. You can bet it wasn't as a Sandinista or there would have been some PR points raised about that. There's been nothing raised about that. This chap leads some sort of charmed existence, or, methinks, the kind that's protected by powerful friends.

The last items are not part of the current spin that this is a simple problem devised by the evil Syrians. They're part of another 'hairball' take on things that Fatah al Islam is another American cock-up.

A number of commentators note that the Lebanese seemed very comfortable with Fatah until lately. It's opined that the Americans were thinking that AlFatah was a possible counter-force to Hezbolleh, one that might have the balls to take them on. It was armed, and paid and supplied, until it started making Jihadi noises. Then the money stopped, and the dissension started.

The media has it Fatah robbed a bank and was chased down in the Palestinian camp by Lebanese security, who apparently aren't able to enter those camps with out the permission of most of the Arab world. Security forces also raided a building associated with the group in Tripoli finding large arms caches. Since then, to all intents and purposes, a bloody stalemate, punishing mostly the Palestinians, has ensued. Other sources put it out that there was no bank robbery, there was a security operation, but only due the US getting cold feet. Why? Because word of their supporting a Jihadist group was going to get out and an extreme termination seemed the best way to deal with it.

Now why, in the name of the Lord Thunderin' Jehovah is the US funding terrorists with one pocket and killing them with the other hand, or something like that? It's called divide and conquer. The US, some claim, is trying to bring on the fabled war between Sunni and Shiite Moslems in order to destabilize the middle east and make Iraq a sideshow. If the swamis are fighting each other, life will be better for GI Joes and Janes and the oil consuming nations of the free world. Somebody actually seems to think this is a sensible way to proceed.

What evidence is there? The Saudi Arabian summit last winter called for a rapprochement with Iraqi Sunnis through the good offices of Saudi Arabia. This has apparently paid off with large numbers of Iraqi Sunnis now revolting against the AlQaeda insurgency among them (according to the media). The Surge was targeted at Al Sadr city, the formerly inviolable home of the Shiites. Shiite units of the Iraqi army and police were withdrawn and replaced with Kurdish units. Now things are heating up against the Shiites with clashes in a number of places, with the Iraqi army (Kurds) leading the way.

In Lebanon the resistance has spread to another Palestinian camp in the south. It's going to be another long, hot summer in Lebanon.

Read My Lips - I Never Said that Word

They say it's not over 'til the fat lady sings. Except there is no fat lady, just a goofy ex-premier. At last the Dudley George inquiry has reached its conclusions that the OPP acted erroneously and had much to do with bringing of a critical situation. It also found that Ontario's Premier - the 'common sense guy' Mike Harris' macho maunderings might have egged them on.

Mr. Harris had much to do with a new-look OPP, a bunch of macho guys in riot gear manning the barricades between the welfare bums and the guys who counted. He must have made it clear to them where their cheques got cut, for every time his bunch of creeps in Queen's park aggravated some segment of the population, the double-blues turned out in full-force to see that no evil would befall the purveyors of public policy. Under his watch Gwen Boniface rose through the ranks and a couple of colourful chaps as well, the great conservative - "We really like Jamaican immigrants" political ploy. They certainly 'beefed out' the Queen's Park Cohort.

Mike didn't have much use for a lot of people and Indians were right down there with the whiners and other leeches living off the common weal. So, early in his premiership, when he still thought that the light of divinity illuminated his night visits to the john, the residents of the Stony Point reserve made the mistakes of:
1. Trying to take back something they believed belonged to them (Ipperwash P.P.), and
2. Mocking the police while they were about it.

Mike, according to testimony, was having none of that. He made it clear that an empty park was a precondition to any dealings with those Indians. Reputedly he said "I want those F*cking Indians out of the park".

The next night Dudley George got himself shot at Ipperwash.

There followed a number of years of premierish bullshit, quasi-testimony, fall guys and the death of the cop that did it. Mike looked like he'd dodged a bullet too. All serious and quiet, rehearsed and 'leaderly' as he lied his ass off on the stand. He should be afraid that one of the other 'browners' who was at that meeting doesn't get an attack of conscience, or he might be Ontario's first preemie to go to jail (although I wouldn't bet on that).

The libs were quick off the mark to apologize for what the Tories did - pusillanimous twits that they are. They've allowed the new ' we-shot-an-Indian, so-now-we're-all-helpless' OPP to develop. The Natives are more restless - due to the fact that the basic complaints about land claims remain unresolved. Ipperwash Park - which admittedly was taken from the Indians for training purposes in World War Two - remains a provincial park. The Feds took it away, so how did the Province get it? Worse still, why do they persist in thinking it's theirs? It ain't. Give it back!

The Province needs to do what it can to redress the lands claims in a just and equitable manner, so far they haven't done so. They've taken the 'stupid' approach giving too much with no proof and nothing at all when it suits their fancy. They should leave the discussion to the courts (even purely objective courts). If the native people have a claim, they should be able to prove it in court. If they deserve a settlement, it should be fairly-struck.


The native people of Canada deserve the opportunity to become full citizens, tax-paying productive people who have their own resources. The governments should stop treating them as wards of the state and children, keeping their belongings 'in trust' using them and paying back a beggars' pittance that makes everyone think they're dependents. It's time to move ahead.

Dudley George is long in his grave, another Indian whose fate was described by the 'whiteys' . The inquiry has found no legal culpability - because stupidity isn't illegal, and there was a ton of that flying around - on both sides. What it has done is point a finger in a direction or two that need pointing at, and some change. And it's given a direction for policy, I think; but that's being ignored, again, for politics.

We Won't Be Needin' Dem Coffers

DOD - Ottawa
Strickly Confidential an Top Secret
My Oyes and Yer Oyes Only

CinC To MinDef1:

Minister Sir,

Due to all the flak that's starting to burst around the matter of our prearranged funeral expense stipend, I think we should be taking another look at the situation.

While the original intention - to dissuade personnel from getting themselves killed by offering economy funeral benefits- was an effective one, the instances arising now with grieving families wanting more, is presenting an image problem. If the original plan to have all casualties buried at Shilo, Manitoba would have been adapted, I don't think this would be happening. The idea of having a Warriors' Field in Ottawa was a purely political decision made without looking into cost ramerfications. Those Arlington-style cemetaries might be right up the PM's alley, but they're expensive to own and operate and shouldn't be coming out of the DND budget. The Forces 's in the business of killin', not dyin'.

I'm thinking it would look better if we could farm the operation out to a funeral home chain - the PM probably has some close support from that area - and that they could provide us with some 'economies of scale' for military funerals - particularly if we could get the Legion boys on board as joint customers.

I don't think much of your idea of stockpiling coffins. I realize some close relatives are in the business and that they're willing to trick them out in uniform colours or camouflage patterns, but
I think DND budgets are better spent on stuff for the living. If you can find somebody else to spring for them, like Culture and Recreation, of course we'd take them.

As far as those who are complaining that they've been forced to pay funeral costs, I intend to take some more firm and direct action and announce that this oversight will be addressed immediately, if not sooner, like the combat allowance thing a while back. I'll be able to make some good points about heroes dead in defence of our way of life, and the sacrifices being made to turn things around for the Pushtuns - the PM likes that, and if I can work any 'green' stuff into it, I will. A little huffin' an' puffin' will make the troops feel better, too.

So leave 'er to me, Minister, and carry on with the procuring you do so well,( no joke intended, sir).
We'll put this one to sleep the same way we put the Ki-bosh on the Kaiser, as we say in the military.

The CinC

PS: I think you should talk to the PM again about the Shilo thing.

It's close to his home base and will definitely make some work. Not only that, if we can use the burial grounds for training, we can sell it to the troops as being the 'foundation of tomorrow's army" - that would be a big hit. Besides it would leave the Ottawa spots for some senior warriors and not be fillin' it up with rank & file - maybe even a spot for a 'war minister or PM' eh? Just think of the pomp and circumstances, the pipes and drums, Willie McCrimmon and that Amazin Grace!

I don't think those guys in the PMO really thought her through. The missus tells me this was one of the best ideas I've had, and she has good taste, eh?

T.O. Numbah One wif a Bullet

Shooting is in the headlines again to-day in Toronto, generally those stories are buried somewhere in section A, or B.

You may recall Toronto's 'summer of the gun' two years ago. That engendered a 'massive' police response to gang violence and the tossing of millions to steer at-risk youth away from a life of crime in the period since.

If you read past page one of Toronto's main rags, you might have gotten the impression that shootings remain an integral part of the TO experience.

Yes, there were gang round-ups and weapons confiscations, but the wheel of 'justis' has ground on and the 'perps' arrested have been granted bail and the freedom to put their lives back together. In short the shooting has never stopped, it just wasn't 'hyped'. Until yesterday, anyway.

Jordan Manners a 15 year-old budding artist, grade 'A' student and generally great kid managed to find himself alone in his high school long enough for somebody to 'go gangsta' on him. In a school population of about a thousand, locked-down for security reasons afterward, nobody saw a thing, or at least a thing that could help the cops. Jordan was another 'victim' of his environment.

Driftwood Avenue area has been a sink of every malady known to mankind since it was built in the early seventies. A nexus of the welfare mentality coupled with the macho posturings of the Caribbean male. Petty crime, often assisted by firearms, has been endemic there all along. How did it come to pass in Toronto the good? Immigration - or more particularly the lax kind of immigration. TO is full of economic migrants, not all of whom are willing to work toward a better life. There are the kind that want the better life, but are willing to do without the work aspect. Welfare was the original drawing card, but stealing provides the better things in life, these migrants were like AliBaba and his forty. Toronto seems to be a haven of some kind for them.

Policing Toronto is more expensive and more difficult than ever before. In that regard it is truly a 'world-class' city. The problem is that we have a justice system that is oriented toward the criminal and out of sympathy with the victim. I believe in second chances, but if immigrants, or their children are repeat offenders they ought to have another chance to come to Canada, but they should be sent home first. For example, three years jail time for stealing should play out as 5 years back in St. Lucia, Grenada or wherever one originated. A second chance to settle in Canada, should also be a last chance. If these folk have some skewed vision of citizenship, they need to re-educate themselves, preferably in their homeland. They shouldn't receive a living from the Canadian people to keep on doing their cultural thing.

Nobody is willing to say it, but 90 percent of Toronto's shootings are done by black men. So far most of the targets have been black men. Shooting is a black-community problem, they have to deal with it, or take it back home where guns and bullets are harder to come-by, and there's not so much worth stealing. Our government shouldn't discriminate by spending millions to help black people with a problem that they created and that isn't going away anytime soon.

It's a pity that shootings happen to those so young, but happening at all is the mark that something is woefully inadequate.

Yeah $25 G's Sounds Just About Right

At the risk of offending some of my native fellow Canadians. I remark that the 'govie' is finally trying to bring some closure to the scandal of the Residential School system. Those 'affected' by the 'system' directly, or indirectly, will each recieve a settlement of at least $25 000 WITHOUT HAVING TO PROVE ANYTHING - if they give up any further right to sue the government. "Common experience payments", they're called. By the time the process is finished 5 to 6 billion dollars will be spent on an estimated 76 000 'survivors'.

Already the government is sponsoring 'courses' to prepare reserves for the sudden glut of money that will appear. Sharpies are already moving in to help the spending, one car dealer offering to put beneficiaries in the vehicle of their choice before the cheques come in. Just hearing about this should qualify every Canadian for a 'common experience' award, the same way hearing about grandpa's 'days with the longskirts' hurt somebody's feelings when they heard them.

Is it going to change anything? You bet. It's another of whitey's victimization schemes. Give everybody a few bucks to make a problem go away, the money causes a rash of of problems on reserves giving cause for more redress at some time in the future. If you hadn't give us all that money .....

And what a problem. Some people were abused at residential schools, no doubt. Some people are abused on reserves every day. Some kids have hellish lives in cities and towns all across Canada with parents who feel too bad about themselves to feel much about their kids. But I'd bet my share of the 6 billion that there are a lot more abused kids around to-day, than ever haunted the halls of residential schools.

When those residential schools were started, Canada was a far different place. Travel was nowhere near as easy or timely as it is now. Links to remote places were tenuous at best and virtually non-existent in others. An accident in the back country would get you a grave more often than a hospital bed. Native kids lived with parents, in some places, only moderately differently than their ancestors had when the first 'whites' showed up - times when a bad winter might decimate a whole village, or a european disease would change lives. The residential schools were an instrument of a government policy that could see little benefit in the native way of life. But if the government had encouraged 'the old ways', the accusations to-day might have been genocide instead of abuse. Being removed from family is tough on any kid, but there were kids who would refuse to go 'home' on holidays, for there was nothing to do there that compared with what the schools offered. Some kids were abused by the 'sickos' who find their ways into every organization and retribution should be available to them. But the notion of lining up for a hand out is demeaning.

And yet that is how we deal with our problems. Offer a 'freebie' to everybody, and silence those really hurt with years of litigation for being 'unreasonable'. It's called divide and conquer. Making the payout contingent on all signing-off would have been more effective but poorer optics. As it is, there will now be three classes of native people - the 'smart' who take their money, the 'stupid' who try to sue and the 'really stupid' who refuse to take part in a travesty.

To some people there was nothing good came out of the residential schools program This 'settlement' is just another one.

Keeping Kool in Khandahar

General Rick will do anything in his power to see that his 'boys' are comfortable in the Panjwai. As comfortable, at least, as the Canadian taxpayer, or the NHL, can make them. While the sentiment is laudible, in practice what he really wants is a regiment of new tanks. But air conditioning is a main feature he claims to need.

The Dutch, who apparently don't need air conditioning, or heavy armoured support for their troops in Afghanistan, are willing to part with their Leopard 2's at a bargain price. Some of these babies will make an appearance in the land of the Pashtun, and the rest will be stationed in Canada's tank training areas.

Never mind the fact that few other Canadian vehicles are air conditioned. The LAVs and other vehicles used by most soldiers in Afghanistan aren't. But perhaps tank personnel will benefit from that cool comfort that made the summertime movies back home so refreshing. Just imagine the fuel consumption as the boys inside try to beat the heat .... and the systemic shock they might get going for mess, or to the loo.

It's probably the first time AC systems have been put forward as a reason for buying military hardware, unless it was a new 'limo' for the Governor General's Horse Guards.

If systemic shock for the tank regiment isn't important then perhaps a systemic shock to the taxpayer is. How about finding out that the price for the new tanks has doubled?

Factoring in the cost of service and maintenance contracts over the proposed 20-year life span, has raised the ante to 1.3 billion somolianos. I wonder what they said the old Leopards were going to cost and what they actually did, over their 'life'? I'll bet it was more than they thought - didn't we have to sell some of them to keep the rest? So we're renting to buy 100 and borrowing a few from the Germans. If we get them bent, I guess they belong to us.

If the service is to be contracted out, as I believe is most service on CAF equipment, who's going to do it, and where? Will we have to load them onto the new C-17's for transport to Holland or Germany for repairs? Will there be service capacity in Khandahar, or will the bent ones be donated to the Afghans like the Leopard 1's? They can drag them around to use as hilltop 'forts'. If the T-60's the Russians left behind didn't last, I don't see the more complex Leopards doing much better.

Afghanistan is poor ground for the big cats.

On the Ball, but Unaware

The Air India bombing inquiry has finally gotten underway. The purpose is to determine what happened in the incident, because this was never presented in a court. And to examine the actions of the intelligence and police forces in the event and the subsequent investigation as these, too, have never seen the light of day.

So far the inquiry has looked at what was known and when was it known. George Bartleman, Ontario's current Lieutenant Governor and former CSIS operative, has put his reputation on the line in claiming he gave information to the RCMP before the bombing that was either ignored or disbelieved, for it was, apparently, not acted upon. The RCMP officer in question - and here Bartleman's memory is weak, as he doesn't remember who it was - slagged him for interfering.

Later evidence from two lawyers, on an official junket to 'Hollywood,' claim a CSIS honcho with them left early to attend to a 'Sikh matter ' in Vancouver a couple of days before the incident. They named the operative, who is now too ill to testify, but who is on record as claiming he knew nothing and contrived an excuse for leaving early - an excuse that eerily was more accurate than he knew.

If it wasn't for the fact that this inquiry wasn't going to cost millions, it's entertainment value might be worth something. As far as actually bringing any change to the RCMP or CSIS, the two agencies who fumbled the ball, it won't. Those two organizations, the latter the bastard child of the first, will carry their 'traditions' on into the 21st Century. Traditions of short sightedness and ineptitude at upper echelons, of infighting and territoriality among the rankers.

It certainly won't point any fingers at Sikh extremists, who are still alive and well and living in Canada. The Sikhs have become a 'valuable' part of the Canadian mosaic - hell, they're even part of the RCMP and CSIS, not to mention parliament and the political parties.. The experts at CSIS wouldn't know a Sikh extremist if one came at him with regulation Kirpan. They're all 'good' Canadians now.

The 'Inquiry' is a sop to disgruntled relatives of the dead. The only way it could have been done better was to spend as much again in 'atonement' stipends - to those who lost family, the Sikh community who may have been unjustly 'targetted' and the 'poor' Irish swabbies who had to pick up the bits.

The Dook of Oil

The national Tories and Ontario's Liberals seem to be on the same side of the bed when it comes to trying to deal with Global warming. They both appreciate the 'importance of big business' in finding a solution. Right now, that solution is to keep right on doing what big business has been doing all along, looking out for number one.

That blockhead with bad dentures who gravitated from the ranks of Mike Harris' crisis-creators, is now the talking head for the Prime Minister. Now he's blathering on about trying to fix the problems of Canada's over- emissions as the cause of an economic recession, the same way he said not paying enough for Hydro- electric would cause an economic collapse. Hw was right then, we're paying a lot more now, so it didn't. So what's he propose? Why some much needed tax-relief to the Auto industry to help them peddle the dirty cars they produce. And a tax freedom period so the oil industry can go on raking in the wealth while dirtying up the world. The 'Dook' is the test blimp to see how Canadians feel about the Tory solution to Kyoto. If they don't like it, he'll join the better looking ex-environment minister in an easier portfolio.

This would be ludicrous if only it hadn't been coming for so long. Back in 1978 when I got my first brand new car, it was touted as having 'California emissions standards' - a whole new idea at the time. That, somehow, all the stuff that came out the tail pipe wasn't as good as it smelled. Since then that's about as far as Canadian emissions standards have advanced. In fact they've receded. With the reinvention of the BIG car in the 90's, emission standards were allowed to slip, along with gas mileage, in order to get some muscle back into the automobile. The Auto industry apparently thought BIG was going to last - they goofed and now the government (read us) has to help them out. What would our auto workers do if they couldn't build those massive machines? Build smaller efficient machines, you say? It would take a change of attitude in the Auto sector akin to George Bush changing his mind about Jihadis.

But what else can be done? The oil industry is driving the economy right now - you wouldn't want to disturb that goose. Manufacturing - based on the auto industry is like somebody with dysentery - one good crap and the whole thing falls apart. Our friendly neighbors to the south would certainly look to themselves if push came to getting into the can first. One can understand Daltie McG cozying up to Buzzy Hargrove - vote be damned, it's jobs they're trying to save. If that just so happens to be the same line spouted by Mr. Mumbles will, hey, it's consonance. That oil profit money will be well invested building more oil consumers.

It should be, and should have been, spent on getting Canada into the forefront of alternative energy production. Water purification, waste disposal, hazardous materials - all things that Canada has known about for so long, and now potential sources of wealth. Ignored to extend the life of a creature that has seen its best days and an industry that has polluted its way to profit.

If it wasn't for the fact that 3 out of every 5 Canadian jobs are dependent on that particular industry, it might be worth seeing if it could breathe on its own. We just might get to do that anyway - 10 years and billions of dollars from now. But we might not be able to breathe by then too.

You Can Depend on It

You can depend on the Mounties letting down the side, that is. This time it's about their retirement fund. This was a topic that had bubbled almost to the surface a couple of times, only to be submerged by a different lump in the stew that is the RCMP.

As the story goes, it seems that somebody noticed there were 'problems' of an undefined sort with the RCMP pension plan, at that time administered by senior members of the force. I believe the concern was that certain budgetary measures were being met from the interest or corpus of the fund. The matter was solved when the senior members opted to turn the fund over to outside management.

Well, apparently, they made a cock-up of that as well and this is where he current story lies. Former governments were informed of the problems but, for one reason or another, things were left as they were. Now the 'originators' are retired from the force - enjoying their pensions or warming chairs in CSIS or private security outfits. And the 'caca' they made is ripening for dispersal by fan.

Among other things, it seems they hired members of their families as the 'outside administrators' and paid them better-than-competitive wage scales for looking after the boodle. It seems there were 'buyouts' made that shouldn't have been made and that critics of policy were silenced or shipped off to the much desired traffic patrol at Pearson Airport in Toronto or the one man post at Okotoks. All the small potatoes crap that makes the high echelon RCMP seem like such a bunch of putzi.

And smack dab in the middle of all of it ' Zack'- the master of the horse! But he's gone and the acting superintendant, commissar, or whatever, bears a resemblance to Frau Farbessina. I hope she's whipping the boys into shape. But I doubt it. Another big expense coming up - and I'll bet we have to kick into that retirement fund to boot.

Dead Babies for Democracy

A story originating in American headquarters in Baghdad and attributed to a General Barbero disgusted just about everybody in telling how car bombers had used two small children to fool security checks. They detonated their bomb, apparently killing the two children. The story was later corroborated by the Iraqi police.

This story has engendered more than 165 000 internet posts, but has appeared on only six notably similar news reports. The details are sketchy. All six tell of two children in the back seat of a car driven through security checkpoints and exploded after the front seat passengers, 2 men, exited and walked away. Then things start to change. In one post the children were spotted by American security at two checkpoints. In another the children were spotted by shop keepers who told the men they couldn't park their car.

The story reports 6 - 8 people killed but does not refer to the children. In the aftermath, these children remain apocryphal - no reports on their bodies, gender , age, etc. - no reports of missing children. Since the original story - nothing, if you don't count 165 000+ internet entries, that is. If numbers alone can make something true this is a fairly good example. Not one poster in the first ten pages even wonders if the story is true.

Like other stories of atrocities committed by one side or the other, that later are found to be insubstantial, these things have a way of remaining buried in the psyche. To the pro-war population they're just more proof that it's a 'mission civilitrice', a prevention of similar atrocities over here, a battle against heartless terror. To the antiwar people its another in a litany of inhumanites in a questionable cause. To others it's bullshit, pure and simple, like the BS that started it all.

Two weeks ago a truck bomb aimed at a kids playground turned out to be some American demolitions gone awry. Before that, there was the massacre of the innocents leaving the mosque - it never happened.

One of the first casualties of war, is truth. It's just a real pity when the 'good guys' the claimed forces of the light are forced to lie. It's disgusting that they do it with such blatant arrogance. If it wasn't for the fact that they're claiming to save the world, it would be understandable. But then, look at what happens in our 'democracies' every day. The media runs us and the powers run the media. And some of those 'powers' are deluded, they're so whacked on their own BS they're nuts. What you have in Iraq is just some third-rate advertising flunkies, the real deals are back stateside making six figures peddling beer and cars.

The bummer about making fabricating wartime horror stories is that, eventually, they come back to make you look wrong. And when you're snotting hell out of somebody else's country that can be worse than dead babies.

Dr. Lister I Presume?

A recent newspaper article originating in the Canadian west tells of a regional health centre shut down due to problems in sterilization procedures. This is, sadly, not an isolated case.

One of the greatest breakthroughs in medical science was the dicovery that disease was caused my microorganisms rather than foul air, or an imbalance in natural humours. The consequent notion of disinfection, along with anaesthetics, made modern medicine.

The subsequent discovery of antibiotics and the Vietnam experience, where the overreliance on antibiotic qualities entered the mainstream, changed medicine again, for the worse. After the 1970 common wisdom held that infection was a secondary concern, that disease or trauma repair came first, antibiotics would handle the other. Common wisdom flowing from this also changed the physical structure of hospitals. Where, at one time hospitals were striking for their antiseptic utility, they became, with remarkable celerity, quite homey with furnishings of a less spartan nature. These furnishings were also far less sanitary. Virtually all Canadian hospitals built in the 1970s and 1980s were carpeted. This in spite of what everyone knew of how clean home carpets were. Room furnishings too became dirt bombs as householding services were less medically supervised and allowed to decline.

The rise of superbugs, antibiotic resistant disease organisms - first evident during the Vietnam experience, spread world-wide to become the number 1 problem for medicine to-day. New antibiotics have not equalled the efficacy of penicillin, and have to be carefully applied to maintain what effect they have. The rise, and threatened rise of newly- evolved disease forms threatens the return on pandemic style disease. What is remarkable is that a subject - antisepticity - formerly an aspect of basic medecine has had to be rediscovered by medical personnel to-day. Some, apparently, still see it as a subject belonging to the age of medical dinosaurs. The unfortunate part, for the public, is that the learning experiences might prove disastrous.

Another tangential problem is the rise of the hospital bureaucracy - non-medically trained personnel who manage and operate hospitals. Ideally they are subservient to the medical staff, in practice, however, like in all such situations they develop a knowledge base, a unique position and a power of their own. Whether things get done, or not, depends, often, on powerful organization people with no medical training. The lapses in sterilization at the hospital out west can be laid at the door of an administration that failed to supervise a vital medical process. The medical staff who assume somebody is doing their job are equally at fault. In such cases there are usually other indicators besides growing numbers of sick people. Tragically, such failures happen all too often.

Hospitals, the folklore went, were places to avoid - places were a lot of dying took place. Sadly that is a truism. However, statistics tell us the hospitals really arent safe. They are places where accidents happen with all too much regularity, where people get sicker instead of well. For all our technological advances we are restoring a level of 19th century danger to modern medecine. And it could be avoided, or greatly minimized, by rereading and following Lister.

Updates on My Pets - peeves that is.

Having had the octave of St. Patrick's off, more like the tridecade, I'm back with updates from to-day's (St. Joseph's day) news.

First, about AIDS - apparently the scientific community has reached agreement with me, after statistical study, that there is a 'silent' increase in the transmission of HIV caused by - you'll never guess - newly infected people who haven't had the disease long enough for it to develop those opportunistic wens and buboes that diminish their attractiveness for sexual purposes. One of the beauties of the disease is its affinity for the wildly hormonal - ie those who are in full spate, sexually. Its natural design gives it a good chance of replicating itself. I wonder if the 'experts' aren't beginning to notice that, too.

Two other points that I'd posited about the disease that have yet to be addressed are the possibility of transmission via another vector. If you can get HIV from a 'dirty needle' is it possible to get AIDS from an insect bite? I noted in a related story, providing children in Africa with "nets", to protect from malaria mosquitoes, or to reduce HIV transmission? The former might well be the main objective because malaria, along with AIDS, is a fast track to the grave. But the malaria parasite is much larger than HIV, so , if a mosquito can carry a gut full of them, then why not a gut full of HIV? Ditto other biting, regurgitating insects - fleas bedbugs, lice, etc?

The other point, yet to be fully realized, is the behaviour connection. Scientists know this way down deep, but there is something preventing them from being forthright in addressing it. There is something - probably deriving from the 'naturalness of sexual behaviour movement' - ie homosexuality and sodomy are 'natural', as are any other forms of sexual expression, that inhibits the thinking that behaviour has to be, and can be, changed. The latex suppliers and pill pushers are still ascendant and while they are, HIV will continue to proliferate. Watch for the scientific community to catch up here, too.

The other item is the indian stand-off at Caledonia. Negotiations about the housing development have again broken down. There is a new wrinkle however - the old Indian tradition of 'who's in charge'. Apparently the Six Nations are split over who should be negotiating - the 'traditional' leaders - appointed hereditarily by the female elders, or the elected band council. Added too, is the tradition that nobody can speak for anybody but themselves which has caused much of the trouble with native 'treaties'. "My Great-Great-Grandad might have signed it, but he never talked to me about it, and I disagree - so the treaty is null and void. Let's negotiate."

Trying to work native 'law' into the current judicial system is impossible. Given the fact that there are now so many 'Canadians' who originated anywhere else but North America to 'send them all back where they came from', it's best to stick with Eurocentric law - at least that's the only one with physical evidence of a pre-existence. A deal is a deal - if it was for 5 dollars a year a cow and three sacks of beans - that's what should be paid - or the dollar equivalent. Pro-rating to reflect actual current 'value', rather than face value seems fair. But opens the debate to include 'was the original value fair', given the fact that there's now a multimillion dollar amusement park on the site of somebody's relative's ancient village.

By the same token, just how much territory was controlled by the native people at the time the treaties were struck? The modern view would posit 'all of it'. But once again, we fall into the trap of thinking that, had it been left as it was to the natives, it would somehow be equally as well developed as it is now. Historically the evidence is scant. White settlement on the continent dates back 500 years, at most. The indigenous people have been here at least 12 000 years, and possibly much longer than that. With only a couple of examples of anything approaching 'high culture' on the two continents, and given the fact that natural starvation was a regular occurrence when the Europeans first arrived, one can assume that native culture couldn't have advanced much beyond survival mode had it not been for European influence. There certainly would have been no malls, superhighways or massive hydroelectric plants had the indigenous people been left to their own devices. This development is what gives 'land' to-day its value. Say what they will about being 'one with the earth', the native people would be in bad shape if Europeans had had the same outlook. We can't be re-writing history because somebody thinks his ancestors got 'ripped off'. That should be a given in the discussion.

That being said, somebody - a court panel, perhaps, needs to determine the extent of the Haldimand grant. If land was usurped - ie illegally deeded by non-native powers - give it back. If not, tough luck - let's get on with it.

Bottom line, if the native 'tradition' is getting in the way of a political, economic and social (for everybody) process, the 'tradition' should be ignored.

Nothing much on the Mounties, other than Zacardelli's $25 000 elocution lessons for testifying at the Arar hearing. "Now no lithping, Franco. Try to thpeak out the front of your mouth and keep it pothitive."

Where's the Captain on This?

One of the things that wasn't asked of General Rick Hillier might have been, if to-day's news had happened a few days ago.

Everybody knows that it takes a warm-up period for normally peaceful countries to gear up for a war, particularly if you're a nation coming out of a military "Age of Darkness". Canada has been no exception to that. But there are a couple of glaring spots of unpreparedness or incompetence that needed addressing.

The first occurred when the first wounded appeared in European hospitals. Some Col. Blimp type realized that these lads were no longer 'in danger' from further enemy action, in fact they were in a safe theater - Europe. And so it was right and proper to reduce their pay to reflect the absence of 'danger'. Deductions were made at a time when soldiers' families, and soldiers themselves, perhap, were facing life-altering decisions. Needless to say this caused no small ruckus - even among anti-war types. General Hillier stepped forth and said this would not happen. After three months it worked its way through the middle managment at Defence headquarters, and emoluments were restored to the wounded.

The latest gaffe first hit the news a month or so back. Widows of servicemen killed in Afghanistan were finding out that a common clause in Canadian insurance policies - the ones about being void under some conditions, like a war, were going to have them continue to pay down mortgages for which they'd bought motgage insurance at rates common to non-military personnel. This, too, caused no small amount of national consternation - but little in government or headquarters circles. Banks and insuring institutions began to recant, or deny, their stands - one bank waiting 3 months before it told a woman they had no such clause in her policy - 3 freaking months! This too received no comment from command levels, or the government. Now even further along, we find that mortgage cover remains a purely voluntary act of 'good will' by banks " to support the troops" but, in practice, is not the least bit 'automatic, or timely and widows continue to suffer to some degree. It ain't military business but somebody should tell banks that, if they're going to charge military personnel for mortgage insurance that in practicality will have a differential coverage, it should have differential price for them.

General Rick could have, should have popped-off about this, as he has about so much else. This would have done his soldiers more good.

More Same Old

Just checking in on my pet bugaboos.

The RCMP are 'clean' so far. No comment this time.

The Indian stand-off in Caledonia continues, the Afghan adventure warms up and there's been another AIDS 'breakthrough'. From back to front:

It sounds trite to say, "I told you so", about this announcement but when you consider there must have been brighter guys than myself working on AIDS?? It was announced to-day that most new AIDS cases are passed on from people who don't know they are infected. These would be either the tragically stupid, or people with fairly new infections. My point about transmitting AIDS before it makes you sick enough to want to find out what's wrong, seems to be fairly accurate.

Is this a fluke of statistics that, after almost 20 years of a developing world-wide AIDS pandemic, somebody decided to give more thought to who was passing it on? Scientists all agree that the virus builds up in body tissues, and excretions, until the viral load causes the immune system to crash. They also know that viral load is a major factor in transmission, and that viral loads of concerning concentration are evident in those infected who are asymptomatic for the disease. Let's see what they do with the info. The solution will be drug-related no doubt, as there's precious little you can do about behaviour, eh? Well if you're not sick enough to know you need medecine .... or maybe if everybody on earth who might be gonna have sex would take an anti-retroviral ..... Or maybe, like global warming, we just HAVE TO change our behaviour!

I saw an interview with Rick Hillier Canada's military CinC. Rick was very impressive and seemed to be speaking frankly about a number of issues raised by the interviewer. He discussed things appropriate to his office rationally, and deferred some others to political judgement. Except in two areas.

The first was an overview of the reasons for the mission. Rick blew through every 'talk point' from defence of Canada to pencils for schoolgirls in a less-than-three minute sililoquy with much blinking and a ' Hail Mary ' briskness. He didn't come across as believing a lot of this.

The second point was in regard to deploying Canada's tanks - our 8 aging Leopards and some newly-leased Leopard II's. Rick had a lot to say about the advantages conferred by the tanks, and was forthright about the possibility of risk. He's quite up front about broken eggs and omelets. But he left out what may have been a significant reason for posting our 'tank corps' to Afghanistan with their tanks: they didn't want to fight as infantry. That's probably why we're sending F18's to Afghanistan. It's not because the coalition needs aircraft, it's because Gen Hillier wants every Canadian service person to have an Afghan experience - preferably with a gun and the opportunity to shoot it.

The last point is the Iroquois stand-off at Caledonia. At last call $40 million spent so far. We 'own' a bunch of almost-complete estate homes - occupied by the Indians and for which we pay all costs. No resolution in sight. Ontario is pointing everywhere else. The feds aren't touching this purely provincial squabble and the police are complaining that 'hotheads' keep trying to get things going. News flash: it's not 'get going' season yet. It's stay in the nice warm house and protest season. Except for the police who have to spend long hours, on guard, out in the cold. Not!

La lutte continue.

20 Skins a week, and the Chance to Get Ahead

This punch line to a old joke about mohels has taken on a whole new significance this week with the announcement that male circumcision has a significant role to play in AIDS prevention.

Rersearchers, who shut down a study in Kenya and South Africa "early" because of the remarkable insight they'd discovered, were beaming the good word world-wide. Apparently circumcision "would have prevented the 35 000 NEW cases of AIDS" that happened during the study period. I guess it's too late for them.

They were so excited about the good news that they left out the part about the proof. Apparently it's so crystal clear that it might not need any proof. Think of all the money that can be saved by just training up a generation of mohels for African service. Aftter all there are some parts of Africa where genital mutilation is still a cultural tradition. But I guess we'd need them Basutos and Bantus using some first world techniques, rather than a rusty butcherknife and piece of string. A whole new, permanent, class of pseudo-medicos the community nip-artist. How advanced a concept!

Meanwhile they same gang are poo-pooing the President of Gambia who claims he's the personal AIDS curer of his country. Apparently the science involved is similar, but he doesn't have Bill Gates, Steve Lewis and a billion dollars on side.

This whole notion first arose three years back when it was noticed that AIDS transmission rates in northern Africa were in no way comparable to the epidemic in southern countries. At first this was stupidly written off to the fact that most of these countries were Moslem, and Moslems generally take a dim view of putting willy where he shouldn't be. Then it was discovered that most Moslem men are circumcised - and science took it from there.

If the aids activists want to run a campaign that might work, run an 'Anti-fucking campaign'. It'll work in Africa where superstition is just below the surface. A campaign that leads, say, truckers to believe that women have teeth in their vaginas might be good, the notion of having one's peter cropped permanently might just be credible there. Describing prostitutes as having really 'bad gums' might deter the adventurous. Telling them that homosexual activity can result in permanent bonding, with some contrived pictures of four-legged men might work. Drug activity can be deterred by threats of implanted Ju-Ju eggs. And all this would cost next-to-nothing!

Something tells me that in 10 years, or so, when it's discovered that having a skinless frank really hasn't cured AIDS, some unscientific type might point out that mass conversion to Islam might have been more efficacious. But then that's much akin to seeking a cure by dipping it in holy water, or a virigin.

Air India Fiasco

Another million or two down the ‘turlet’ with the still-born Air India inquiry. Canada’s first brush with terrorism, if you don’t count Indian massacres and the Fenian raiders, Air India saw the bombing of two commercial flights by Sikh extremists living in Canada. The subsequent RCMP investigation took a number of years and identified a handful of perpetrators one of whom spent time in jail, one shot to death by Indian police and the others released when the crown’s case against them fell to bits after ‘witnesses’ developed amnesia or remembered everything backward.

As a sop to the outraged families of the dead, the Canadian government instituted a ‘judicial inquiry’ into the matter. The ‘inquiry’ has now come cropper on the reef of CSIS’ ‘national security’. The judge has threatened to abort the inquiry if he doesn’t get more cooperation from Canada’s cloak and dagger department. Of late they’ve given him steady amounts of blackened documentation.

The ‘security’ process strikes me as stupid for a number of reasons.

First there’s the process itself. Somebody thought it was a good idea to pay somebody in CSIS to sit editing documents in ebony. Hopefully they’ve read ‘Catch 22' and can do a Yossarian edit in equally creative ways. Given the obvious value of the documentation, this could not be left to any mere clerk. No it’s probably a couple of 6 digit boys engaged in this enterprise. “Just say no”, an excellent advisor in matters of the heart and a common-sensical approach to releasing secret documents. Say no, a judicial appeal would clarify the matter. As it is, there are significant costs so far and a judicial appeal still might be the best solution.

A second point that comes to mind is “What’s being protected?” The Airliner went down almost 20 years ago. The investigation took up the next 15. Now I know we’re pretty good in Canada, and maybe there are Indian or Sikh sources that are still valuable enough to protect - give ‘em a code name and remove identifying info and get on with it. There are Mounties involved - damn straight, and that might be the third part of the problem.

Whatever Mounties were involved in the investigation have probably been ‘outed’ already at the aborted trial’s voir dire level. Somebody knows who they are and, even if sworn to secrecy, those Sikhs who walked know. Besides their careers are drawing down, would they still be in the field? Only if they’d screwed up.

Then there’s CSIS itself. Supposedly a ‘civilian’ agency it’s full of the best intelligence Canada’s got, namely superannuated Mounties. They may have given up the serge for tweeds and a ‘deerslayer’, but the mentality under that hat is every bit the same. Probably even worse, insofar as they don’t have any Gennelmen Rankers to answer for and to. And we have a pretty good idea of how high elected officials rate in the eyes of the horsey set. This point alone is probably more at the root of the non-cooperation than anything else. You can bet your yellow-striped jodphurs that, if there was a government to embarrass, those documents would have been double-spaced and white-out free. They’re covering up the mess they made in a previous existence.

Prime Minister Harper should do some housecleaning at CSIS as well as the RCMP. There are some good civilian jobs for his conservative hacks there too.

In a sequel to this sad tale. It turnsout that Mr. Harper's government are stonewalling the opposition Liberals about a related issues (appointing law 'n order Judges, and extending the powers ofsecurity services)) by beating them around the head and ears about one of their MPs who is related by marriagwe to a person of interest to the inquiry. Mr. Harper, apparently doesn't want to get to the bottomof Air India bcause he's backing CSIS, and claims the Liberals don't want to do it because it might embarrass them.

If it hadn't, and didn't and doesn't and won't, cost so much taxpayers' money, this would be a farce.

Why Don'tcha Call Me Sometime?

Two stories out of the 'big smoke' area of Ontari-ari-ari-o this week about the impact of hi-tech on small minds.

The first from one of TO's bedroom communities is about a coterie of teenagers who, disliking some of the things going on at their high school (like banning in-class cell phones) decided to slag the principal on an on-line forum. He found out about it and a round of school suspensions ensued. No problem thus far. It's the results that are disturbing. There have been at least two follow-up stories in the newspapers about the 'innocent' school council president unfairly targeted by a vindictive administration who are putting his academic future in some doubt. He'd signed up for the group account but never posted, or even read, any of the material, or so he claims. Another kid admitted using foul language to describe the principal, but she was "mad" because he wouldn't solve a problem for her. The kids also claimed that, because they did their slagging away from school, it shouldn't count as a school offense and impinges on their right of 'free speech'.

Without putting too fine a point on it - it's just the ignorance of youth. Somebody should teach them about slander, and being a Catholic school one might have thought they would have been exposed to knowledge that calumny was one of the seven , soul-destroying, deadly sins. One gets the feeling that this isn't over yet. I think that principal now has a 'black mark' rather than a 'feather in his cap' - not conducive to a bright administrative future. The parents I think will be forming a child-protection league to get him at future Board meetings. Their kids seem to have learned nothing positive - other than to make their posts anonymously.

The second incident from a Toronto elementary school had some young bullies picking on a disabled classmate. One of them was thoughtful enough to get an mpeg on his cell phone and take it home for posting for some fun on U-Tube. Of course it got out and the children involved received 'consequences appropriate to their age' etc. That's administrator-speak for one hug, or two. The problem, as in the first case, is the ubiquitous cell phone.

Never before have human beings been more connected than through the marvel of portable communication. Of course, even given all the benefits - emergency use, reporting and recording events, etc, there's a whole nuther down side - loss of privacy, distraction, and of course the dumb things the jejeune have historically tried with the phone, but now well away from supervision. Many schools are banning the little suckers, although parents, or some of them, have this emotional need to know that little Bubba, or Bubbette, is only a call away from parental concern, support, love, etc. in case they get kidnapped by the big bad...

But you know, if the kid decides they're going off with a stranger, they'll probably turn off that phone, or give it up. What the phone has done is create situations in which over-emotional Moms and Dads can do some really stupid stuff for their kids and to the detriment of everybody else's. Like the circus that ensued after the shooting of a staff member at a Toronto area school a year or so back, or at the report of a sex assault in a Toronto school this year, or at the college in Montreal. Parents can really get in the way, and a cell phone call can do that.

Never mind the fact that the kid knows enough to do some really childish stuff with that phone like recording in-class as a parent information tool. Or to record some interesting event like a gang bang, a blow job or a beating. Parents, and I'll bet the ones belonging to the kids mentioned above are among them, are reticent to 'handicap' their kids by taking their 'toys' away. They'll want the system to make allowances for it.

And I'm all for that, provided parents can be held liable for any harm done by their electronically-gifted progeny. But like kids and cars, that's just not gonna happen either. More's the pity.

Winnertime, and the Livin' Ain't Easy

Here it is the 10th of February and I certainly believe it.

I'm just sticking this in as counterpoint to last month's commentary on the weather, or lack of same.

We have winter in spades! Right now, after 10 days of more-or less constant snow, most people around here are beginning to develop cabin fever or that frantic perspective towards the white stuff described in a seasonal e-mail about it, and the winter season. The folks two hours south are amazed that we're still alive under all the stuff.

It's not really all that bad. The snow has come slowly enough to give a chance to pile some of it at least. So we do and can get outside. Mind you there's almost too much for skiing, and the snowmobile races might be in jeopardy if it doesn't slow down enough to let the attending crowd get there.

The worst we had to deal with was the same amount in one day - and that was in March. Last year a February ice storm wreaked havoc with the community's greenery and my back fence. It has snowed, significantly, as late as April around here. But the prognosticating rodent says only 5 more weeks this year!!!

Hope springs eternal, and the shovelling seems that way too.

Hey Mac is Yer Canary Sick?

Just as miners once used canaries to indicate dangerous conditions down below, the scientific community is keeping tabs on the avian population in order to guage the possibility of what they consider to be the next 'pandemic' flu. Avian Virus H5N1 is considered to be a threat to humans, it is already a threat to birds.

This is bird flu season as migrating birds carry the disease into the northern hemisphere. It's been bird flu season in the southern hemisphere. This winter only a couple of outbreaks were reported in Indonesia, VietNam and Japan. Does that mean there's less disease, I doubt it. It just means some countries can't afford, or can't be bothered, to track and report it. This should be evident if the disease is more widespread this year in the north.

So far three outbreaks are reported, a minor one in Turkey, what had appeared to be a minor one in Hungary and a more concerning one in an English Turkey farm.

The disease, it is claimed, spreads from wild birds to domestic fowl through infected feces. That shouldn't be a problem unless domestic birds are exposed to wild ones, i.e. they're the 'free range' variety which spend a lot of time loose, outdoors. From domestic birds the disease has spread to humans and, in a few cases, from human to human, (through the respiratory tract - it is believed). The domestic cat is being pegged as a possible vector in spreading the infection through respiration and saliva. The new strain bird flu has fairly high mortality rate in infected humans.

In many parts of the world domestic birds run loose. In Europe and North America, market conditions make the factory farm approach more efficient economically. Outbreaks of avian illness can be devastating to these operations where the genetic background all the birds in a lot are similar. But because of the nature of these operations the disease is usually transmitted by human activity - i.e. bringing in infected birds, feed or disease organisms on apparel. Avian disease, including flu, has been an on-going problem, the new strain adds another risk element. It is now believed that the English outbreak may be related to the earlier Hungarian one because the corporation owning the farm, is reputed to have processed imported Hungarian poultry at its plant adjoining the farm earlier this year. In North America the risk, as in other diseases, seems to come more directly from human economic activity thus far.

In Canada - the summer home of a large number of migrating fowl, Avian flu virus has yet to appear in significant distribution. Maybe the South American birds are not yet well-infected as few outbreaks have been reported there, or in Central America. The odds are that situation will change - due to the cross-migration that occurs naturally - one day a sick bird will show up. An outbreak on a BC chicken farm some years back was blamed on wild birds, but retrospectively it might have been because of some human activity. If it does appear, Seagulls, Canada Geese, songbirds and other wild fowl which live in closer proximity to urban centres my have to be culled. Domestic cats will have to be restrained.

Canada maintains a testing watch on the disease, sampling wildfowl. So far this year no evidence of infection has been detected. But like BSE, Canada needs to be more proactive in ensuring that economic, or other human activity, is not exposing the country to infection. No airport screening or preventative measures are apparent to minimize the risk of the disease being brought home on someone's shoes or clothing. The current customs and immigration set-up is just a clearing house for cross contamination of large numbers of travellers. That is true of other diseases as well. A sick individual could, possibly, infect a significant number of others around them in line for customs clearance. Airports aren't designed to screen for illness, or disease transmission, but if they screen for terrorists they should be.

The Plague was spread from India to Asia by trade routes, the same way it was brought to Europe by ship. Travel and commerce to-day are far more timely and efficient, and so are the possibilities of importing and exporting disease. At the time of the Spanish Flu - travel between continents was still measured in days and weeks, and still it spread around the world. Today travel is measured in hours and millions are on the move daily. The next pandemic will spread like wildfire if only because of this. A canary might not be enough warning.

Call the Cops! There's Moonite Tonight!

“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”

With these few words FDR showed just how well he knew the American people. Those descendants of tough, self-reliant folk who had set off into the unknown and ‘busted open’ a continent, were capable of some truly ridiculous stuff when they were ‘skeered’. The same big-hearted people who would look out for a neighbour, could turn, on the drop of a hat, and string him up from the nearest tree when ‘riled’. Roosevelt’s words, spoken in the depths of the Dirty Thirties, could use some iteration again, to-day.

There is no fear of economic catastrophe facing us to-day, but there is the “war on terror”- equally amorphous and seemingly as without remedy. And equally capable of causing some similar psychotic reactions.

Take for instance last weeks ‘terror toon’ attack in Boston.

Some illuminated signs placed alongside roads, to ‘drum up' interest in a new adult cartoon series , had something akin to a neon ‘sponge bob’ flashing his middle digit at passing motorists.


These ‘mooninite’ graphic displays had been set-up at numerous sites in Boston, and other cities, as long as three weeks before they were discovered. They automatically illuminated in the dark, but it was the daytime appearance that caused the ‘panic’. Somebody thought they were bombs, and reacting authorities treated them as such, detonating at least two of them. When news of these incidents got out, including the report that the initial ‘concerned citizen’ call was part of the ruse as well, the network involved, the ad company and others contacted authorities with information on the scheme.

Result - a million bucks spent, destruction of all ‘moonite’ signs, charges and jail for the art student who came up with the idea, and threatened lawsuits to recover costs for emergency personnel activities. Why? Because somebody did a 'chicken-little' about a non-story and everybody else ‘lost it’.

How embarrassing! The authorities don’t want to have people thinking about how much they have to fear from a bunch of panicked security people running around their city - certainly a lot more than what those 'signs' represented. They’re embarrassed now, and somebody’s going to pay for that, 'cause there ain't nothing funny about it!

This doesn’t look good on National Security - doubtless they’ve prevented a lot of catastrophes we’ll never know about - but the ones they have prevented in public, have turned out to be pretty lame. Their intolerance of the least bit of levity, and their inability to 'laugh at themselves' could pass as symptoms of mental illness in an individual.

It does look good for the network - unless they do some public-spirit stuff and 'pull' the series. But I'd bet not. It is America - home of the adage about 'bad publicity is better than no publicity'. All America will be tuning-in. A million bucks, fine and costs? No problem!

Somebody should go over to learn from the Brits. How many ‘real’ scares have they coped with? The latest being a threat to bring the worst of Baghdad to jolly England, with some kidnappings and religiously-inspired beheadings. And how? Quiet, efficient work, and news paper headlines after the ‘perps’ are safely jailed and court dates set.

The bored 'Brits' must be wishing they had some Keystone Kops' comedy hi-jinks over there - I’m sure there are some who could be spared.

Thank God! It wasn’t our Mounties.

Dudleigh Donut is Striking Again

The trial of the century - Canada-wise at least - has opened in British Columbia. It involves a fellow called Picton who is being held up as the murderer of enough prostitutes to make the Green River guy only seem like Jack the Ripper. Not only is he reputed to have murdered them, he also butchered them and fed the bodies to his hogs - we hope. He certainly marketted his pork to 'us'.

The RCMP has been involved in this one from the get go. Since he was 'busted' they've dug up and screened most of the soil on his 'farm'. Pre-trial information in the press is that they have DNA evidence linking some of the missing women to his farm site - blood, and other fluids, clothing, etc. It appears there might even be eyewitnesses to some of the events. Body parts have neen found on the site, and some have been tied to parts found in other areas of BC. The evidence that killings were done there seems to be fairly strong, but doesn't prove, so far, that Picton did them.

Now I don't know the guy from Adam, but if there had to be a poster boy for mass-murder this guy looks the part. If what the media says is correct, the case looks like a 'slam dunk'. But then the realization dawns that the Mounties are involved, and all of a sudden the niggling notion that there's a cluster-fuck in the offing bubbles nastily in the back of the mind.

Let's face it, aside from bagging drunken Natives, the boys (and girls) in red have a miserable track record. And they've cost the Canadian taxpayer millions because of their ineptitude. The bikers in Quebec, Mulroney's bribes, the Air India fiasco, Arar - all those 'open and shut' cases went south because either somebody was incompetent or dishonest, and the results were costly in time, resources, embarrassment and punitive lawsuits. A confession from Picton would have been a great assist. But, even given his limited intellectual capacities, Picton refused to do that. That's where the 'investigative skills' came into play, and, possibly, where normal procedure, and Picton's rights, went out the window.

Picton's lawyers are going to beat the police around the head and ears with that - they already have the lead investigator admitting he's a liar. (Qualification: He's not an ordinary liar, he's a professional liar - it only happens as part of his job... with bad guys. So help him Gawd!)

They're going to need all 'Gawd's' help they can get, and probably incontrovertable evidence that Picton did it.

If it depends on police testimony alone, they should be taking up a collection among themselves to cover his lawsuit.

Gawd help us all.

Big Bro IS Watchin'- Apparently

Just in from bowling tonight and a fellow in my league, who does some business with the US, called me over and told me that, somehow, his business contacts had gotten wind that I sent him an e-mail inviting him to check out this blog. They weren't happy, and, as it involves money for him, he was asking me not to refer to my blog in any future e-mails.

I can understand his concern about the money, but I don't get how he can accept some 'intelligence-gatherer' in the great land of liberty reading his e-mail. Not only reading what he writes, but what his contacts write. Talk about guilt by association. And what association? He never even read the stuff I write, but some 'intelligence-gatherer' in the great land of liberty obviously has.

I guess if packages in Boston, and truck cabs with extra east indians in Texas aren't around every day, you have to find 'intelligence' somewhere. How about on them neo-liberal commies' rastafarian jihadist blog sites. Gawd, just drifting the mouse across one might change the chemistry of yer vital bodily fluids! It certainly wouldn't change any true believer's mind, but it might make some of the others think. I doubt that too. This blog line has been going on since last spring and so far I've had two feedbacks posted - so it's not like I'm knotting underwear.

I correspond with a couple of military opinion sites and had one poster, on a US site, a retired cop from Nova Scotia, remark that I was a "notorious liberal blogger" - so maybe he read some of my diatribes, but he left no mark of his passing either.

As far as I'm concerned, this is just another indicator of the American 'mentality' that, if you don't want to play the game their way, they'll take the ball and all the other equipment and go home. It's too bad that we sleep so close to the elephant that we have to kiss its backside goodnight on a regular basis. It's almost a pity that we changed our focus of trade from Britain - at least we expected the aristos to screw us. The Yanks are a different sort - We're your bestest friends. Don't you like us? You do! OK, bend over.

Maybe if those 'intelligence gatherers' weren't so busy protecting our way of life, they could get one of their own and maybe become a little less self-centred and paranoid. It might just change the world.

He Had an Honest Face

In the news the story of Travis Smith, former Regina football player charged with failing to disclose his AIDS positive status with two 'girlfriends'. The media posit this as a 'groundbreaker' in terms of the fact that the two silly bints involved maintained fairly long-term relationships with Smith, that he did, at least initially, wear condoms as a step toward safeness and that they didn't become infected, at least by him.

The AIDS lobby is out in full cry about "criminalizing a disease". And some of the rest of us can only wonder.

AIDS is a death sentence. Never mind the fact that one might live for a protracted period on some sort of medically-induced reprieve system, AIDS, or one of its oppportunistic off-shoots, is going to put you in your grave. AIDS is nothing as 'normal' as its sufferers, and their sympathisers, would have us believe. It is a killer, and it continues to spread at a consistent rate - entirely due to behaviours.

While society doesn't 'criminalize', or even legally restrict, diseases - if one can ignore restrictions imposed on some during the "SARS crisis"- society is not reticent about jailing people who suffer from diseases that impact their behaviour. Alcoholism is considered to be a disorder, but driving a car, twice, while in its throes will net you a jail term. A bank-robber with kleptomania is going to jail irregardless. Jails are full of schizophrenics. Someone with AIDS, who rapes a female child in the hope of 'being cured' will go to jail - nor for being an AIDS sufferer, but for the rape. And so the case before us. Travis Smith insisted on riding bareback, and even told a little white lie, or two, in order to do it. He should go to jail.

Of course the defence is pointing at the incredible stupidity of the two complainants as mitigating circumstances. Obviously not only men are afflicted with crotch-oriented mental processes, these 'ladies' depict themselves as some sorts of 'sperm banks'. Criminal stupidity comes to mind as well. We don't criminalize it, but we sure to punish criminal activity resulting from it. Tieing up the courts for a tort from a tart verges on this. If there are any people on earth who should realize that exposing oneself to repeated injections by a 'hopefully clean' member met in a bar is risky, it should be such as these. They testify that they were aware, asked, were lied to and allowed Cap'n Highliner to come on board anyway. That's freaking incredibly stupid. These two are future welfare cases, if they aren't already.

Thank goodness we're not all that bad. I wouldn't have wanted to be playing ball with this clown, and I note he's no longer doing that. I don't know if I'd want to be married to him, either. His wife must be a saint, or simply worse than these 'bimbae'. He screws around, and he has AIDS, and he drags it all into court. His attorney describes him as "30-year old married father of two, who has no previous criminal record", just an every-day Joe being 'picked-on'.

But then I shouldn't be 'dissin' his manhood, he does have an honest face.

HEEERE's Johnny!

In the words of the inestimable AH-nold, " I'm bach."

Back from the workers' paradise of the Caribbean and a lovely week of sun and odd-tasting omelets. The weather was superlative, the booze intoxicating and the week went by too fast.
Cuba is still easy-going Cuba, the people are still very pleasant and amicable. Where I was, they were obviously more expectant of the 'teep', but that's only because everybody seemed to think it was OK to be giving one for every door that got opened or drink slid along the bar.

Not that there's anything wrong with tipping - but at places like this one - huge - the staff was constantly being rotated from one job to another. Tipping a bartender for continued good service was no guarantee that you were going to get it from his replacement the next day. There were only two bars I noted with the same staff - the pool bar, and an evening only spot featuring a 'juggling' artist. There was also a cigar-room bar, but I didn't happen across it until the day before leaving. By the same token, not tipping someone you thought you could get it later raised the prospect you might not see that person again if they were shifted to restaurant or other duties. They should have a - 'tip station' at the main desk - divided among all the employees and you could do something special for those who really went out of their way for you.

The Cubans were being quite thorough in regard to security and immigration procedures. They were actually opening bags to check out stuff in luggage. They had sniffer dogs walking through the crowd, too. Canada, on the other hand was an exercise in 'show'. The security checks were perfunctory - or maybe it was because the dame 'doing' me had to take her break. Her replacement assumed she'd checked me, or thought I had an 'honest' face. Coming back was simply ludicrous.

Customs and immigration at our airports exists to check documentation for immigrants, foreign visitors and returning residents. Because there is no differentiation in this process, it can be a cock-up. There were hundreds of travelers who descended on the clearing hall, all at once, from a number of arriving flights. There weren't enough immigration officers on duty and lines for each were 60 plus in length. Timing indicated an average of 40 seconds per document check - ie a wait of 45 minutes to get through the passport check. Outside was a 'temporary' gantlet of 6 more armed immigration agents who were scrutinizing travelers and steering some off for more detailed examination, although how they were doing this was in no way apparent. No communications devices and no signal equipment from the scrutiny wickets - I think they were playing 'choosies'. The young guy ahead of me was sent 'down the hall' but he 'looked' like a potential suspect. Smugglers play hit and miss. Hand luggage isn't checked, if there was any sniffing going on, it was outside in the cold. They've got the inconvenience part of the heightened security pretty well in-hand. I'm just not sure the effectiveness matches it.

H.N.Y.

Cinco del Ienero, who'd a thunk it. The new year's five days along and I haven't noticed much different than the old year.

The weather certainly isn't. We had a green Christmas here, where I live. That's fairly remarkable, ours are traditionally at least 2 feet white. If you've ever experienced one of the brown Florida Christmases with the spray-on green stuff to make it look nicer you'll know how 'cheery' green can be. No matter how much green spray they use it still looks likle a bad 'colorization' job on a vintage b&w movie - the kind where the actors are 'colorized' but the background has been left alone. Or if you've seen a dismal, frozen, grey Toronto Christmas that seems like Steven King's 'Dead Zone', green can only be good. It was really 'green' here - north of T.O.! With the exception that the deciduous trees had all deciduated and were their winter shade, and the ground that russet-brown of fallen leaves. The grass was positively Irish.

And thus it has continued. Aside from a couple of heavy frosts - incuding a spectacular Christmas Eve event that gave a 'lustre of mid-day' and a semi-white Christmas morning - the temp has been balmy. Yesterday had to be a record high for January 4th. It's interesting to see all the chalky arms and 'ligs' sticking out of shorts and T-shirts. But the touques and winter caps are still de rigeur.

The daily rag to-day posits, under a snappy photo of somebody teeing-off, that '07 will the "warmest year ever". It also claims a link, citing some Brit scientists, to Al Gore's pet concern 'global warming'. Our dear chums to the south would pooh-pooh and naysay this malarkey, if it wasn't for the fact that there's some pretty weird stuff happening down there as well. Massive blizzards out west and Christmas tornadoes out east. Funny 'freezes' in some places and it just has to be hot down south, ain't it? Where does the Great White - or this warm part of the Great White - get all its warmth, if not from 'down south'? A snowy Christmas this year in Australia. The washed-out and tree-trashed west coast. It seems that falling lumber is becoming a more prevalent problem. I can never remember a lot of that when I was growing up in the ice age, but I'll bet there's a buck to be made investing in chain saws.

There is something different going on with the Guvmint. Late last fall our PM Harper, proposed a 40 year plan to tackle Canada's production of greenhouse gases. By 2050, he assured us, we'd have a plan to plan to bring this problem under control sometime in the future. Well I guess a lot of Canadians who been noticing the increasing odour of Acapulco in the Canadian atmosphere, the proliferation of wild pineapples, and having caught a dekko at Al Gore on TV, said "Whoa! What's that?", and made the PM reconsider. Anyhoo, he has replaced the only sitting member in parliament who could be described as a 'rare exotic beauty', with the poster boy for hair gel and bad dentures as Minister (Ministress) of the Environment. It's a good choice because the former minister realized how boneheaded the policy was and found herself unable to defend it. No prob with the new guy, he could defend buggery as a popular sport! Like many neo-cons, he's master of 'non-answer' positive statement creativity - whatever that is. Looks like we won't be getting the old California standards back on vehicles for another decade, at least.

I smell election in the air! The war chest is full. Afghanistan is in the middle of the papers. The economy hasn't hit any real bumps. The minimum wage is going up two-bits. Income tax changes to 'moolahfy' the geezers, capital gainers and thirty-somethings. The Libs are still trying to figure out what they can come up with that's innovative - without being totally ridiculous. And the new 'Greens' are having their planks pilfered. God's in His heaven and our resident jihadis are being still. The gay nation is pleased. The Quebec 'nation' is pleased. The 'first nations' can be safely ignored. It's not like winter weather would slow campaigning. Go for it - strike while the iron is hot, and receive a mandate to effect some serious change for your big business buddies. But there's nothing really new about that either.

Lotteries remain BIG with Canadians. A pre-Christmas rash of 'winners' and a couple of big pots over the holidays, has us out getting our 6-49's and Lucky 7's. Hope springs eternal, and most of us 'spring' for tickets anyway. A related story this week tells of group of retired Canadian high school teachers who hit the jackpot when their Florida trailer park was valued at 1/2 BILLION dollars by some condo developer. If they sell out, they could almost afford to buy one of the new condo units. I can't figure why a bunch of retired teachers would want to spend a lot of time together, anyway. Their staffroom must have been a 'barrel of fun' - most aren't. Or perhaps they're into reminiscing about great lesson plans of yesteryear. Or, more likely, they're 'swingers'. At any rate, if the deal goes through as planned, they will be rich. Happy New Year.

As one New Year's prognosticator put it, "Whatever happens in 2007, it probably could have been worse." I hope it's better than 2006.

Swinging Single

This ain't about 'the scene', it's about the hanging - Saddam Hussein's hanging.

There are a lot of people who think he got what he deserved, some of them with some justification insofar as he, or someone acting for him, did some actual damage to them, or their families. Most in this category, however, are justified only in their imagination. Saddam never affected them, but, on principle in their minds, they have every right to be as bloodthirsty as if he did.

There are also some, in probably much lesser numbers, who see the situation antithetically. There the folk who think that Saddam is to-day wallowing up to his bruised neck in nubile houris.

I think I fit in the middle, somewhere. He certainly did some things "for Iraq" by which Attila the Hun might have been impressed. Even removing the hyperbole factor, there are just too many stories of his outrages to be ignored. He certainly deserved to be punished. But did he deserve to be hanged?

There is a sentiment that he was 'shut up'. That Saddam was an embarrassment to the US, Britain and others who had been among his former supporters. Saddam seemed to be able to handle himself in the courtroom - he outlasted two judges during his first trial. What we got to see of his antics were severely condensed and edited. I wonder just how much the Iraqis were shown? Somehow I can't imagine him not telling that court about the good things America has done for him. Like I can't imagine any statements like that actually getting out of that courtroom.

His execution is what one might have expected in some third world outlaw state. The hangmen wore terrorist balaclavas and were dressed in street clothes. The sound track hinted at what some old style 'lynchings' might have resembled. It was a circus. That some people to-day are writing about the abruptness, or the notion that it was sectarian pay-back, or even that the US wanted him gagged, permanently - is due to the way his sentence was executed.

This item appeared to-day. It's source is Robert Fisk the english journalist.

Monday, January 01, 2007

By Robert Fisk

We've shut him up.

The moment Saddam's hooded executioner pulled the lever of the trapdoor in Baghdad on Saturday morning, Washington's secrets were safe.

The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States - and Britain - gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and prime ministers do not want the world to remember.

And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support - given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War - is dead.

Gone is the man who personally received the CIA's help in destroying the Iraqi communist party. After Saddam seized power, US intelligence gave his minions the home addresses of communists in Baghdad and other cities in an effort to destroy the Soviet Union's influence in Iraq. Saddam's mukhabarat visited every home, arrested the occupants and their families, and butchered the lot. Public hanging was for plotters; the communists, their wives and children, were given special treatment - extreme torture before execution at Abu Ghraib.

There is growing evidence across the Arab world that Saddam held a series of meetings with senior American officials prior to his invasion of Iran in 1980 - both he and the US administration believed the Islamic Republic would collapse if Saddam sent his legions across the border - and the Pentagon was instructed to assist Iraq's military machine by providing intelligence on the Iranian order of battle. One frosty day in 1987, not far from Cologne, I met the German arms dealer who initiated those first direct contacts between Washington and Baghdad - at America's request.

"Mr Fisk... at the very beginning of the war, in September of 1980, I was invited to go to the Pentagon," he said. "There I was handed the very latest US satellite photographs of the Iranian front lines. You could see everything on the pictures. There were the Iranian gun emplacements in Abadan and behind Khorramshahr, the lines of trenches on the eastern side of the Karun river, the tank revetments - thousands of them - all the way up the Iranian side of the border towards Kurdistan. No army could want more than this. And I travelled with these maps from Washington by air to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt on Iraqi Airways straight to Baghdad. The Iraqis were very, very grateful!"

I was with Saddam's forward commandos at the time, under Iranian shellfire, noting how the Iraqi forces aligned their artillery positions far back from the battle front with detailed maps of the Iranian lines. Their shelling against Iran outside Basra allowed the first Iraqi tanks to cross the Karun within a week. The commander of that tank unit cheerfully refused to tell me how he had managed to choose the one river crossing undefended by Iranian armour. Two years ago, we met again, in Amman and his junior officers called him "General" - the rank awarded him by Saddam after that tank attack east of Basra, courtesy of Washington's intelligence information.

Iran's official history of the eight-year war with Iraq states that Saddam first used chemical weapons against it on 13 January 1981. AP's correspondent in Baghdad, Mohamed Salaam, was taken to see the scene of an Iraqi military victory east of Basra. "We started counting - we walked miles and miles in this f***ing desert, just counting," he said. " We got to 700 and got muddled and had to start counting again... The Iraqis had used, for the first time, a combination - the nerve gas would paralyse their bodies... the mustard gas would drown them in their own lungs. That's why they spat blood."

At the time, the Iranians claimed this terrible cocktail had been given to Saddam by the US. Washington denied this. But the Iranians were right. The lengthy negotiations which led to America's complicity in this atrocity remain secret - Donald Rumsfeld was one of President Ronald Reagan's point-men during this period - although Saddam undoubtedly knew every detail. But a largely unreported document, "United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-related Dual-use exports to Iraq and their possible impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War", stated that, prior to 1985 and afterwards, US companies had sent government-approved shipments of biological agents to Iraq. These included Bacillus anthracis, which produces anthrax, and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The Senate report concluded that: "The United States provided the Government of Iraq with 'dual use' licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile-systems programs, including... chemical warfare agent production facility plant and technical drawings, chemical warfare filling equipment."

Nor was the Pentagon unaware of the extent of Iraqi use of chemical weapons. In 1988, for example, Saddam gave his personal permission for Lt-Col Rick Francona, a US defence intelligence officer - one of 60 American officers who were secretly providing members of the Iraqi general staff with detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning and bomb damage assessments - to visit the Fao peninsula after Iraqi forces had recaptured the town from the Iranians. He reported back to Washington that the Iraqis had used chemical weapons to achieve their victory. The senior defence intelligence officer at the time, Col Walter Lang, later said the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis "was not a matter of deep strategic concern".

I saw the results, however. On a long, military hospital train ride back to Tehran from the battlefront, I found hundreds of Iranian soldiers coughing blood and mucus from their lungs - the very carriages stank so much of gas that I had to open the windows - and their arms and faces were covered with boils. Later, new bubbles of skin appeared on top of their original boils. Many were fearfully burnt. These same gases were later used on the Kurds of Halabja. No wonder Saddam was primarily tried in Baghdad for the slaughter of Shia villagers, not for his war crimes against Iran.

We still don't know - and with Saddam's execution we will probably never know - the extent of US credits to Iraq, which began in 1982. The initial tranche, the sum of which was spent on the purchase of American weapons from Jordan and Kuwait, came to $300m. By 1987, Saddam was being promised $1bn in credit. By 1990, just before Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, annual trade between Iraq and the US had grown to $3.5bn a year. Pressed by Saddam's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, to continue US credits, James Baker, then Secretary of State, but the same James Baker who has just produced a report intended to drag George Bush from the catastrophe of present- day Iraq - pushed for new guarantees worth $1bn from the US.

In 1989, Britain, which had been giving its own covert military assistance to Saddam guaranteed £250m to Iraq shortly after the arrest of Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft in Baghdad. Bazoft, who had been investigating an explosion at a factory at Hilla which was using the very chemical components sent by the US, was later hanged. Within a month of Bazoft's arrest, William Waldegrave, then a Foreign Office minister, said: "I doubt if there is any future market of such a scale anywhere where the UK is potentially so well-placed if we play our diplomatic hand correctly... A few more Bazofts or another bout of internal oppression would make it more difficult".

Even more repulsive were the remarks of the then Deputy Prime Minister, Geoffrey Howe, on relaxing controls on British arms sales to Iraq. He kept this secret, he wrote, because "it would look very cynical if, so soon after expressing outrage about the treatment of the Kurds, we adopt a more flexible approach to arms sales".

Saddam knew, too, the secrets of the attack on the USS Stark when, on 17 May 1987, an Iraqi jet launched a missile attack on the American frigate, killing more than a sixth of the crew and almost sinking the vessel. The US accepted Saddam's excuse that the ship was mistaken for an Iranian vessel and allowed Saddam to refuse their request to interview the Iraqi pilot.

The whole truth died with Saddam Hussein in the Baghdad execution chamber yesterday. Many in Washington and London must have sighed with relief that the old man had been silenced for ever."

From what I've read, Fisk appears to be a very involved type who is anathema to the right wingers out there. He's an Israel, and America, -basher and has raised the ire of many. Is he 100 percent in this screed? I don't think so. But there is a whole whack of history that will be written someday about Saddam Hussein and our dealings with him. We'll probably hear some of this again.