Like buses - you start a Committee on Security and Terrorism and the First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence comes by

On 29 March 2007, (Hansard Official Report, columns 133-35WS) Tony Blair (then prime Minister - now bagman for J P Morgan and the Tel Aviv Zionist mafia) announced details of machinery of Government changes to the Home Office and the then Department for Constitutional Affairs.... "a new Office of Security and Counter Terrorism has been established in the Home Office. The Committee on Security and Terrorism (ST) will oversee this work, including international terrorism and counter radicalisation. " More details of the composition of theCommittee are available here.

Lord Patel first reported one of the first semi public consequences which was the announcement of The First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence to be held in London, 17-18 January 2008. This is organised by the International Centre for the study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. *see ICSR website for more information - which interestingly has a "web partner" ...Mr Soros's terrorism.openDemocracy.

It is good to see that Newsnight (as ever) is boosting the State terrist agenda ((C) RUSI )and hauled out the OAP Lady Dame Baroness Jane Pauline Neville Jones to tell us all about how nasty these radicalised Muslims are ..it has apparently (if we are to believe her , and who wouldn't?) reached the level of an ideological struggle. Casually she remarked that Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary will find time from shopping at Tesco for Uzbekistan free cotton underdrawers to meet delegates at the The First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence (including our old friend from Balliol days Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6.)

Speaking of Oxford, Professor Audrey Kurth Cronin kept herself well hidden in the arras when there and now infests the U.S. National War College, after a stint at Nuffield College, where she was Director of Studies for the Oxford/Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War - maybe meeting "Shagger Prescott" whilst he studied bar tending there. Before that,dear Audrey was Specialist in Terrorism at the U.S. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, where she advised Members in the aftermath of 9/11. (and who knows maybe before ?) She will be there.

While on the faculty at Oxford, Professor Cronin completed How Terrorism Ends: Lessons from the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Organizations, supported by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace (?) . Other publications include Ending Terrorism, How Al-Qaida Ends: The Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups in International Security and Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy.

Toni Fabuloso ( a trifle petulantly we felt) was very critical of Lady Dame Jane's rather blotchy face, which matched her cast off her Captain Scarlett Santa Claus jacket (when she and Old (very) Etonian Douglas Hurd were rifling the Serbian/ Yugoslav treasury he put it about she was rather fond of vermilion ..er..underthings - Lady Jane was a thinly veiled mistress of the PM Simon Rusell in Hurd's "the Shaope of Ice" with whom he performs unspeakable acts of ..er..tenderness) . Evidently a trifle infirm, a bit crotchety , the old dear's hearing is holding up well, but the late nights on Newsnight are evidently taking their toll. Anyway she could evidently keep up with the autocue and they kept the wheelchair out of sight.

I think it is rather wonderful how, even though strapped for cash (according to Wednesday's Guradian, ) the BBC and FCO still manage to slip a few bob to the old dear to rant on and help keep her from the soup kitchens and endless games of solitaire living, on fading memories of hot summer Balkan nights with the dashing , young (ish) ex Foreign Secretary...

Perhaps Jacqi Smith could take her shopping to Tesco now and again... she really needs to get out a bit more.

Newsnight's Stephanie Flanders .... Phhhwwooooaaaaarrrrrr!! ...who wouldn't want to discuss Laffer curves with her ?




PS : Newsight reported that tesco and M&S are trying to stop their suppliers using Uzbek cotton picked by children. Reservations were expressed about the feasibility of such a project. Lord Patel designed, part wrote and sold a system using Microsoft Basic under CP/M on a twin floppy (120 K per drive) Z80 Ceedata PC (60K RAM) for a UK cotton spinner which tracked the use every bale from breaking to final yarn, costed the material and provided weekly stock insurance reports - in 1984/5, this was extended eventually (mid 90's) to a multi user VisiBasic network with real time tracking (with bar codes) of every box of spun yarn. Total cost in low tens of thousands over 5/6 years. This was eventually extended to a complete tracking system for Fruit of the Loom in Scotland from spun yarn into sewn T shirts - all the cotton came from the US and the system was used to trace yarn contaminated with polypropylene wrappings whih didn't take up dyes and so raw cotton suppliers could be debited with costs of lost production.(The bar codes were printed on Nomex heat resistant labels to survive the bleach / dye proess)

Such systems (with modern hand held PC's / Palms etc., / wireless technology) are a piece of piss .. it just requires willingness to implement them. As Environmental Justice (who took part in the program - pic of children coton pickers from their website) point out Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton in the world, selling over 800,000 tonnes of cotton every year. Europe is its major buyer.
There's the rub.

UPDATE : BBC 4 Today program (7.00 am) keeping up the drumbeat about a "known extremist website" had documents calling for jihad ."some in English" etc., earlier this month. radicalisation of younf Muslims ... and also quoting Jerkoff (who is off course now head of US Homeland Security) being worried about stronger controls over European visitors by air to the US...." the aeroplane plot of 2006 and that suggests to us the terrorists are increasingly looking to Europe both as a target and as a platform for terrorist attacks," zzzzzzzzz

BBC ONline maintains the leitmotif "One of the biggest threats to US security may now come from within Europe, US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff has told the BBC." (well he will tell anyone who will listen to his dire monotone)

UPDATE 8.10 Drive time Prime Time for BBC 4 Today - real live interview with Jerkoff and Professor Peter R. Neumann from the University of London International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation - apparently the "Al Quaeda in Britain" nonsense only appeared for 1 day and it's claims cannot be verified (surprise surprise).

"How seriously should we regard this ? " says Jimmy Naughtie to Professor Peter R. Neumann ? Apparently these people are "aspirational" ... al Quaeda is an idea that people attach themselve to...it is not a structured organistaion like AQ in Mesopotamia.

"Do you believ that the most likely source of an attack on the US will come from Europe" ..."that is what they are saying in Confgress " says Professor Peter R. Neumann .

The intriguing Professor with a fascinating and rather pachy academic history can be tracked down here ....and here at Kings College. U of L Email: peter.neumann@kcl.ac.uk ...."He is (also) leading a number of research projects that examine the radicalisation of young Muslims in Europe. Other research interests include terrorist strategy, negotiations, as well as foreign policy in the 'war on terror'. "

See also Club de Madrid "Democracy that delivers" here


See Peter Neumann and MLR Smith, The Strategy of Terrorism,How it Works, and Why it Fails (Contemporary Terrorism Studies) Routledge, October 2007. ISBN 978-0-415-42618-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-203-93700-6 Amazon and an amazing US$130

The book (published Dec 11th 2007) is described as ... "This is the first book to set out a comprehensive framework by which to understand terrorism as strategy. It contends that even terrorism of the supposedly nihilist variety can be viewed as a bona fide method for distributing means to fulfil the ends of policy, that is, as a strategy.

The main purpose of the work is to describe the dynamics of terrorism and evaluate their effectiveness, as well as to theorize upon, and clarify the correlation between, political ends and terrorist means. The text explains the modus operandi of terrorism, and demonstrates how terrorism relies on manipulating the psychological impact of (usually) relatively small-scale attacks. Using a variety of case studies, The Strategy of Terrorism shows how many campaigns of terrorism end in failure when they lose their power to terrify. The authors spell out what a proper understanding of terrorism as a strategy implies for those who want to make terrorism ineffective, and offer a number of policy recommendations derived directly from their critique.

This is the first contribution of strategic studies to the study of terrorism, and will be of much interest to students of terrorism, strategy and security studies, as well as military professionals and policy makers."

There is a fulsome review on Amazon December 25th by a Ms. Plessington (perhaps she got it for Christmas, is a speed reader and has nothing better to do on Christmas Day ?) she commences .."I thought I knew all about terrorism until I read this book. The authors clarify foundational ideas about terrorism which are frequently misunderstood or twisted and glossed over by the media ....zzzz" she gives it a 5 star review and is assiduous in using tags ... al qaeda (1), antiterrorism (1), counterterrorism (1), homeland security (1), insurgency (1), iraq (1), jihad (1), military strategy (1), politics (1), strategy (1), terrorism (1), terrorist (1)

Anyone out there know of Ms. Plessington ?