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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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al Q’aeda Goes to Washington

· Middle East & Islamic · North American affairs

I found a link to this story on Glenn Reynolds Instapundit.

I’m not the only one looking at the al Q’aeda angle.

October 16th, 2002 | One comment - (Comments are closed)

The USSR and all that jazz

· Central & Eastern Europe · Russia

I am back from Slovakia now, and had a lovely time thanks. On my final weekend, while football related mayhem reigned in Bratislava, I took a trip northwards to the Czech countryside. I was shown several fine churches, but the most intriguing item of my stay did not involve any sightseeing trips, at any rate not by me. It concerned, rather, one of my host’s first cousins, a man called Karel Krautgartner.

Krautgartner was Czecho-Slovakia’s answer to Benny Goodman, that is to say a hugely accomplished jazzman who could also more than hold his own in the classical repertoire, on clarinet, saxophone and all related instruments. My host played me a videotape of a Czech TV documentary recently shown to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Krautgartner’s death. He looked like a James Bond villain, and played sublimely. He didn’t seem to have been a huge creative musical force. But he was a great band leader and organiser, who inserted successive jazz innovations from America into Czech musical life, and who added middle-European technical polish and discipline to everything he touched.

Krautgartner was only about sixty when he died, of cancer of the colon, in West Germany. He had emigrated there on account of his unwillingness, following the suppression of the Prague Spring of the late nineteen sixties in which he had played a prominent part, to become a Soviet stooge. Concerning Krautgartner’s death my host told me a fascinating and terrible story, which was not mentioned in the documentary, but which my host had learned through being personally acquainted with many of the personalities involved.

Somewhere in the Urals, during the nineteen fifties, a nuclear bomb went off by mistake in a research laboratory, devastating the entire surrounding region, with, as you can imagine, appalling loss of life. → Continue reading: The USSR and all that jazz

October 16th, 2002 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

Straight face on insanity

· Middle East & Islamic

Watching Britain’s Channel 4 news channel last night, I was treated to the amazing scene when its main newscaster, Jon Snow, announced that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been reelected by more than 99 percent of the vote. No mention was made of the fact that the elections did not permit anyone else but Hussein to stand, thereby rendering the vote’s outcome a total farce. What was even more bizarre was how Snow – a man of the Left – announced the result with a totally straight face.

To be fair, the programme’s subsequent coverage of the poll highlighted its essentially coercive nature. Even so, Snow’s performance was telling.

October 16th, 2002 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata slogan of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack. One defends when his strength is inadequate; he attacks when it is abundant.
– Sun Tzu

October 16th, 2002 | Comments are closed

Bore your friends with baby photos… 9 months ahead of schedule

· Health & medical · North American affairs

Russell Whitaker sees sections of the medical profession’s distaste for accessable services for what it really is

From the “I saw this on Fox News several weeks ago but just got around blogging about it now” department, comes another tale of indignation, this time from the medical guild.

In an article transcription of a TV news feature featuring an adversarial interview of obstetrician Dr. Leon Hansen, founder of Fetal Foto versus Dr. John Hobbins, one of a stable of media medical expert witnesses who hew to the usual AMA trade unionist line.

Fetal Foto is a shopping mall medical imaging service. It’s apparently harmless, and lets prospective parents get a real head start on boring their friends with their family photo albums. Dr. Hobbins is incensed that Dr. Hansen is providing it on the cheap:

The high-tech scan, which isn’t covered by insurance, costs $60 at a Fetal Fotos facility and $280 at his doctor’s office, according to Hansen.

But the trend has angered the FDA and other critics, who argue it’s exploitative and dangerous and is commercializing a sensitive medical procedure.

“Here’s a group that’s using this wonderful technology to put bucks in their pockets,” said Dr. John Hobbins, head of obstetrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

What really angers Dr. Hobbins and his cronies is that the bucks are lining someone else’s pockets, and in a shopping mall of all places. As Fetal Foto’s Dr. Hansen notes:

“Twenty years ago, they felt it was inappropriate to have a pregnancy test available to the general public,” he said.

Other shopping mall boutique medical success stories include adult whole-body imaging service AmeriScan, which rightfully claims to have contributed to the saving of a number of lives through early diagnosis of various ailments, e.g. male colon cancer.

The Fetal Foto business model explicitly excludes medical diagnosis – it most vehemently is not in the diagnosis or treatment businesses, by charter – but this is not what bothers the boys in the AMA.

No, what riles the unionists is that they have no control over the use of an interesting medical procedure used for non-medical purposes. They’re embittered by the fact that, after all, medical people provide services that people want, and some people are willing to take those services to what they and other “public health” gatekeepers revile as among the worst venues in the capitalist world, the modern bazaar of the American shopping mall.

After all, it boils down to tired arguments of guild protectionism and class warfare with these people. Long live the crass temples of capitalism!

Russell Whitaker

October 16th, 2002 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)

Introducing a New Comrade

· French affairs

Last Tuesday (Oct 11th) some of the world’s most influential free-market think-tanks met over dinner at Shepherd’s restaurant in Westminster, London. The occasion was the launch of a new French language libertarian think-tank called the Turgot Institute which will be based in Brussels, but aiming at the Francophone world.

Turgot, an 18th century economist and statesman, is generally credited with coining the expression “laissez-faire, laissez-passer” (there is an alternative claim). His economic reforms, blocked by established interests, were probably the last hope for France of avoiding the carnage of the French Revolution.

The think-tanks represented included: Centre for New Europe (Brussels), Institute for Economic Affairs (UK), Independent Institute, Cato Institute, Foundation for Economic Freedom, and Ludwig von Mises Institute (all US), also one Candian and one Flemish whose names I didn’t catch.

150 years ago this is the sort of gathering that would have launched a Communist group in a European country. More news on this development as it breaks.

October 16th, 2002 | One comment - (Comments are closed)

British Schizophrenia

· UK affairs

I remember seeing an American-made TV movie thriller a few years ago where a young female babysitter, alone in a big house, receives threatening phonecalls from a psychotic killer. She calls the police who advise here to stay calm while they trace the origin of the calls. Meanwhile the abusive phonecalls from the killer grow more deranged and fenzied. Terrified out of her wits, she then receives a call back from the police telling her to get out of the house: they’ve traced the call and it’s coming from an upstairs bedroom!

Well, we’re all young female babysitters now; a transformation formally recognised by the Telegraph:

“Terrotist recruitment and fundraising by Islamic militants centred on a London mosque were ignored for years by the British security services, a former Special Branch informant claimed yesterday.”

Perhaps the spooks were on leave or something.

“While his British handlers preferred to keep a watching brief on the mosque, where the imam is the radical cleric Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, the French became increasingly infuriated.

French counter-terrorism experts refer to the capital as “Londonistan” because of the number of wanted extremists who have sought and found safe haven there.”

We actually managed to infuriate the French through lack of action. Surely a world first?

“”The French felt British law was very, very soft on these people. Britain was looking at Irish terrorists; it couldn’t see the threat. It gave these people flats, benefits, passports, citizenship.”

That’s a relief. For a minute I was worried that some of their needs were not being fully catered for. Anything else required? Satellite TV? Chauffeur-driven limousine? Jacuzzi? Comfort girls?

As I type, Detectives from Scotland Yard are jetting off to Bali to look for terrorists. One wonders what, precisely, has been stopping them from taking a bus to Finsbury Park? And if any non-Britons are mystified as to how this bureacratic indifference on the home front squares with Tony Blair’s (quite genuine, I believe) hawkishness in the War on Terror, all I can say is, join the club.

Whatever the explanation (assuming there is one at all), we find ourselves in the tangled undergrowth of the most dangerous possible combination of tactics in response to Islamic terrorism: aggressive foreign policy and an inept domestic policy.

Those phonecalls are getting increasingly threatening. I sincerely hope we don’t all end up running from the house screaming.

October 16th, 2002 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)

How not to argue against libertarianism

· Opinions on liberty

Whilst surfing the Internet I came upon a site purporting to show
What’s wrong with libertarianism. As I like to think I am always looking for a challenge, I though a little bit of fisking was in order given that most of what the site is critiquing is in fact libertarian influenced neo-conservatism, not actually ‘libertarianism’ at all. Also Zompist claims to argue on the basis of morality but in fact goes on to make an entirely utilitarian series of propositions.

When asked why not deregulate the economy, Zompist replied ‘We tried that and failed’… He then proceeds to actually make the libertarian case for us by arguing that in the supposedly unregulated past, the state would carry out ‘gunboat diplomacy in support of business interests’.

Of course one must have a significant interventionist state that owns gunboats and is structured in such a way to allow it to be manipulated by business in the first place… hardly an example of a ‘minimal state’ or perhaps Zompist thinks the Rockefeller family actually owned its own corporate logo’ed gunboats rather than the United States Navy.

Even more bizarrely Augusto Pinochet is held up as an example of an advocate of a minimal state! How does increasing the size of the security apparatus to impose the power of the state make a person an advocate of a minimal state? Duh. → Continue reading: How not to argue against libertarianism

October 15th, 2002 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)

Gun-Totin’ Granny

· Humour · Self defence & Security

To add to the recent outburst of gun-related posting I think this will work a treat!

Unfortunately, it appears to be only an urban legend. But even the fact that such story has been coined is a good sign. We need more of those! Both, grannies and stories…

October 15th, 2002 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

“This is no professional”

· Middle East & Islamic · North American affairs

So says Neil Morris, a Marine sniper with two decades experience in an interview done by Fox News. Neil adds:

“Anything the sniper does or fails to do that give his position away to the threat, snipers don’t do that, They don’t leave brass laying around, and they damn sure don’t leave tarot cards.”

Chuck Mawhinney, another professional with up to 300 battlefield kills to his credit told the interviewer the calibre is wrong:

The Washington killer has been using a .223 caliber projectile, which some have called a standard sniper bullet. But Mawhinney, who lives in Baker City, Ore., said a professional sniper would use a heavier load, at least a .30 caliber.

The one statement I have my doubts about comes from someone who should certainly know better than I. Eric Haney, one of the Delta Force founders, says 100 yard kills are no big deal:

“It’s the kind of thing that if you’ve never shot a rifle before in your life, you and I could spend 90 minutes together and you can do this,”

I think he’s exaggerating a little here. I’m only a casual shooter with no training beyond a basic Army Rifle Qual 30 years ago, but I’ve done a fair amount of “plinking” over the years prior to moving to GunFree Northern Ireland. I seriously doubt I could rack up 11 of 12 hits and 9 of 11 kills at 100 yards under stressful conditions… even with 90 minutes of Delta Force training.

The pros think it is two young men working together. One is a driver/spotter who stays calm; the other makes the kill. They might swap places.

A terrorist motivation still makes more sense to me than anything else. These “two” are equal opportunity killers. That scratches the homegrown Neo-Nutsies from the list – unless they are working for someone else. If not military professionals, the shooters are at least calm planners of reasonable markmanship. If they are both truly crazy, they are crazy in a calm and emotionless way.

One has to ask, “what is the point?” If they are psychotics it could be just racking up the score. Perhaps they are environuts out to cull the herd; or losers out for excitement and To Go Down in a final Bon Jovi Blaze of Glory.

My personal thoughts? Pro shooters or not, I think it is an al Qaeda attack. The tactical goal is to spread fear and create chaos in their enemy’s capitol. The logic of a low-investment high-return attack for al Qaeda is so strong that even if they had not considered it before, they must certainly see the possibilities now.

I said it over a year ago: we’re all soldiers now. If this is an attack, and if – at low cost – it is followed up by more such, there will be little choice for Americans but to go about daily business with a gun close to hand.

October 15th, 2002 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)

The grim tale of the SA80

· Military affairs

Russell Whitaker sorts the sad facts from the ideological drivel regarding the much deprecated SA80 rifle

In an article typical of London’s The Guardian newspaper – noxiously socialist but sometimes well-researched – I read a sad account of the SA80 British infantry carbine.

In typical socialist fashion, James Meek takes potshots at privatization, in the context of its involvement in the debacle, speaking to the sorry state of the government-owned Royal Ordnance facility of the once-venerable Enfield:

Thanks to privatisation, the atmosphere in the factory was a poisonous mix of bitterness, anger and apathy. Workers who thought that they had a job for life felt betrayed by a government which, many had believed, was both patriotic and pro-military.

I’d argue that the expectation of a “job for life” was part of the cause of quality problems with the weapon, but that point has been set to rest by its evident failures in societies ranging from communist Russia to corporatist Japan.

What’s especially interesting is the passing mention of the involvement of Germany’s Heckler & Koch (H&K to us gunnies) in helping to fix the bloody mess:

In 1985, the German gunmakers Heckler & Koch, who had been asked to do some sub-contracting work on training ammunition, were sent two of the new rifles. Shortly after the consignment arrived, the officer who had sent them got a phone call. The voice at the other end said he was calling about the British rifle. He said: “You know it goes off when you drop it?” The officer admitted that he didn’t. He fetched a gun from the armoury and dropped it. It went off. German experts had discovered a dangerous safety flaw in a British rifle which, after supposedly exhaustive testing and acceptance into service, the Brits themselves had failed to find.

and:

Those who have used it say the new version of the gun, redesigned by Heckler & Koch, is better, but complaints still came in when it was used in Afghanistan. Confidence, rather than reliability, may now be the real problem.

I’ve spoken to acquaintances who’ve had to carry the SA80, and a very close friend formerly of the U.S. Army Special Forces, who confirm that in very recent times, the SA80, in its A2 incarnation, has evolved into an adequate infantry carbine. It’s worth noting in some of Parliament’s own notes of 2000, H&K UK Ltd (also mentioned in MoD/DLO SA80 Individual Weapon (IW) & Light Support Weapon (LSW) Modification Programme notes) has taken over from Royal Ordnance as the Design Authority for the weapon.

Mr. Meeks should admit that the only way to salvage the soiled reputation of the SA80 is complete privatization, ruthless outside testing combined with an intense feedback loop involving design & manufacturing… and years of unavoidable wait & see, with British squaddies acting as hapless test dummies.

In the meantime, variants of the privately-produced (usually by Colt and Bushmaster) U.S. M-16 (e.g. the M4A1) will continue as the choice of the SAS, not surprising given the “2nd culture” nature of most special forces units worldwide: spec ops guys, within limits, generally get their choice of personal weapons.

Russell Whitaker

October 15th, 2002 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata slogan of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail, and to be seen to fail.
– Conor Cruise O’Brien

October 15th, 2002 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
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