Moments after the end of the second Eurovision Song Contest semi-final it was announced that a Grand Jury in Baltimore, Maryland had voted to indict six police officers over the death of Freddie Gray. Despite the 5th amendment of the US Constitution requiring a Grand Jury indictment be issued before a person is deprived of their liberty the six police officers in question have been held on bail for the last 20 days.
The big problem in discussing the case is that all of the evidence is being kept as a closely guarded secret. In fact the lawyers defending the six accused have complained that the prosecution has failed to disclose a single piece of evidence which is essential in mounting a defence. When those lawyers took to the media to complain about the failure to disclose the Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby applied for a gagging order to prevent her conduct being discussed in the media. Due to to Ms Mosby's fondness of a press conference I will be very interested to know if such an order has been granted.
However from what has already been reported in the media I suspect Ms Mosby's argument is that Mr Gray ran from the police so the police chased him down and unlawfully arrested him as punishment for running from them. As further extra-judicial punishment they gave him a so-called "rough ride" in a police van. This resulted in his death. What is interesting is that Ms Mosby has now retracted the charge of "unlawful imprisonment" which hints at her conceding that the knife which Mr Gray was arrested for was in fact illegal and therefore his arrest was entirely lawful.
To my mind this admission holes Ms Mosby's entire theory of racist officers carrying out an extra-judicial punishment beneath the waterline. As such if the Judge at the accused's July 2nd (2/7/15) arraignment finds that there is a reasonable chance that a properly directed Jury could convict then there are serious questions to be asked as to whether Baltimore can conduct a fair trial in this case.
22:55 on 21/5/15 (UK date).
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest: 1st Semi-Final.
Due to their civil war Ukraine is unable to participate in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. In response to suggestions that they should take responsibility for the Armenian Genocide Turkey is refusing to participate and seems only able to communicate through the mediums of shooting people in the head and firing mortars at the Russian Embassy in Damascus, Syria. Ironically many of the Arab states such as Syria, Lebanon and Libya who traditionally boycott the event over Israel's participation may have wanted to join in the discussion this year but are in no position to do so.
Obviously against this backdrop and with five days of competition remaining I am extremely limited in what I can safely say at this stage. However I can take a quick look at some of the six nations that were eliminated at last night's semi-final;
Finland: "Pertti Kuikan Nimipaivat" who represent Finland is a band whose members all suffer from some sort of disability. I'm not aware of the exact nature of each individuals disability but they are appear to be some form of intellectual impairment or to use the older term; "mental retardation." People suffering from this type of disability require a lot of care and supervision. The song "Aina Mun Pitaa (I'm Do It)" is an angry punk rant against their carers who are constantly telling them that they can't lay in bed all day or eat too many sweets or drink too much fizzy pop.
The Eurovision Song Contest is unapologetically and I would say rightly pro-gay. However in recent years it has tended to fall into the trap of assuming that gay-rights issues are the only thing being discussed leaving them blind to other, more important issues. In scientific and medical circles homosexuality is now considered more of a cogential reproductive disability rather then say a lifestyle choice or a mental disorder. By bringing up the issue of disability rights at such a gay event Finland appeared to be trying to challenge the audience to think beyond gay-rights. Calling your audience stupid particularly in a very angry song sung in incomprehensible Finnish is not the way to win friends.
If you scratch the surface though and take the complaint about not being allowed to do so much "Coke" as a reference to the drug Cocaine rather then the fizzy drink all the references about not being allowed to use their computer or being forced out of bed to go to work could be viewed as personal attacks against me. Originally what the UK would have liked me to do is reward them for all the abuse by teaching about how to better manage and treat people with disabilities. The fact that hasn't happened has certainly generated some anger within the UK towards me. However I should point out that part of the problem has probably been assuming that people with intellectual impairments have the same care needs as someone who's lost a limb who in turn has the same care needs as something with mental health problems.
During the Cold War Finland was right on the border with the Soviet Union making it a hot-bed for spy activity, prisoner exchanges and negotiations. With the war in Ukraine Europe seems to be undergoing something of a Cold War retrospective particularly amongst Finland's Scandinavian neighbours. As a result by so openly insulting me I think Finland was trying to provoke me into the conservation. After all in the world of mosh and circle pits on the punk scene a punch in the face is often considered a polite greeting. There is also of course an element of Finland posing the question of whether punk is an art form or simply a refuge for the musically disabled.
So I would have thought that Finland were sure fire finalists. However the entry was hardly easy listening and sadly a lot of people still tend to recoil in revulsion at the sight of a physically disabled person.
The Netherlands: Born in 1973 the Dutch singer "Trijntje Oosterhuis" is slightly older then your average female pop-star. Illustrated by a young, handsome and shirtless male model in the video the song "Walk Along" is about that point in a woman's life where men stop finding her attractive and walk along rather then trying to chat her up. Oosterhuis began her performance wearing a black lace veil which was ripped away to reveal her crows feet and slightly wrinkled skin. Female sexuality amongst middle-aged women is a growing talking point within western Europe and one that is rarely discussed at events like Eurovision which tend to be dominated by gay men.
By talking very freely about the decade of her birth and taking cues from the fashions of the 1960's and 1970's the Dutch also seemed to be referencing the Cold War retrospective. Specifically I think they were referencing a 1970's set BBC spy-drama called "The Game" that is being broadcast in the UK in direct competition with the second semi-final. As a spy drama The Game is absolutely terrible. However featuring an actress from "Holby City," an electrical engineering character and a character with an extremely over-bearing mother it seems to be examining elements of my father's personality. Through their "Strictly Come Dancing" inspired entry and the inclusion of Mel Giedroyc from "The Great British Bake Off" on their presenting team the UK is clearly hoping to support it's entry by referencing it's popular TV output.
The Dutch appear to be helping the UK in this effort and with a title like "Walk Away" and the lyric "Wwwhhhyyy?!" being repeated over and over again the Dutch also appear to be indicating they will be supporting the UK in its desire to leave the European Union (EU).
Denmark: The band "Anti Social Media" who represent Denmark are just a boyband with guitars. This is a - I suppose you would say - product that was pioneered by UK bands such as "Busted" or "McFly" and has been revived more recently with bands like "Rixton" or Australia's "5 Seconds of Summer." Obviously the type of teen heartthrobs that appeal to straight teenage girls also appeal to gay teenage boys. As there is within straight male sexuality within gay male sexuality there is a section who are attracted to pretty young things, the younger the better. It is a complex discussion about at which point this crosses into paedophilia. In fact I think one of my more famous quotes is; "I love Busted - They look like what would happen if (famous paedophile pop producer) Jonathan King was let loose in a boys boarding school."
Today the UK has made a big announcement of an investigation of some 700 people in the TV and pop-music world over child sexual offences. It is obviously quite embarrassing for them then that Denmark didn't get through but the overall tone I got from the song was - in the nicest way possible - "We hosted it last year, we're not f'cking doing it again!"
At around 16:20 on 20/5/15 (UK date) I'll be back after dinner because I have more. Unfortunately I also have a crushing hangover.
Edited at around 18:45 on 20/5/15 (UK date) to add;
Moldova: Moldova is right on the border with Ukraine and like Ukraine has a large ethnically Russian population centred around the Transnistria region. As part of their efforts to whip Europe up into an anti-Russian frenzy the US has frequently claimed that Russia is poised to invade Ukraine at any moment in order to establish a land corridor between Russia and Transnistria. "Eduard Romonyuta" who represents Moldova is actually Ukrainian and appears to have been granted asylum in Moldova with Ukraine being unable to compete. When he's not singing Romonyuta is working on his finance degree which concentrates on the changes that need to be made to Ukraine's tax system to integrate it with the EU. So with Ukraine clearly being the big theme this year Moldova's entry certainly provided a lot to talk about.
Visually the main theme of the song "I Want Your Love" used in both the video and stage performance is "Cops & Robbers" specifically American cops. In the stage show this featured male dancers in skimpy police uniforms which seemed to be a reference to the gay anthem "YMCA" by "The Village People." Romonyuta seemed to resemble "Axl Rose" from the band "Guns n' Roses" whose song "Coma" seems to have heavily influenced "Rihanna's" current single "American Oxygen." Whether we like it or not American is clearly going to continue to try and force its way into the contest particularly through Obama's so-called war on cops. Therefore I thought this would provide an effective way for competitors to discuss the US' efforts.
The stage performance also featured a female dancer in an extremely skimpy police performing dance moves which seemed to border to the gynaecological. In the video Romonyuta is shown appearing to have sex in a car with a similarly dressed female. There is absolutely no nudity in this sequence however from the context it is clearly very sexualised. This taps into the old favourite of Eurovision discussions about how much flesh performers are allowed to flash and how overtly sexual their performances can be. It seems to be a very specific reference to US TV's "No Nipple Rule" which has been picked up by Facebook leading to the "Free the Nipple" campaign. Under those rules the Moldovan video would be permitted but one showing a woman's exposed breast doing something completely non-sexual such as breast-feeding a baby would be banned. So while I appreciate that there needs to be a rule the US have provided us with an example of a stupid rule that doesn't perform the task it's intended for.
To be honest at this point in the competition I'm pretty much looking for anything to talk about that isn't Ukraine. Therefore I'm surprised that Moldova didn't make it through to the final while Georgia did.
Georgia: The message behind Georgia's song "Warrior" is the same message that's been coming out of Georgia ever since they attacked Russia back in 2008. Simply they want to start a war between NATO and Russia in order to punish Russia for the Soviet occupation. Obviously given the theme this is a point of view that needs to be discussed but it is one that is certainly not under represented amongst other competitors who deal with it more creatively. Georgia's theme of "Nina Sublatti" as a sword wielding warrior queen is just a rip-off of Israel's 2014 entry "Same Heart" by "Mei Feingold." To my mind that does not make Georgia finalist material.
I think the main problem was the running order which saw Russia, Belarus (capital city "Minsk") and Georgia all take to the stage in quick succession. This eradicated whatever subtly there was and forced people to firmly come down as either pro or anti-Russian when I think a more vague, long running discussion was called for. This of course lead to accusations of an anti-Russian bias amongst the event organisers
19:20 on 20/5/15 (UK date).
Obviously against this backdrop and with five days of competition remaining I am extremely limited in what I can safely say at this stage. However I can take a quick look at some of the six nations that were eliminated at last night's semi-final;
Finland: "Pertti Kuikan Nimipaivat" who represent Finland is a band whose members all suffer from some sort of disability. I'm not aware of the exact nature of each individuals disability but they are appear to be some form of intellectual impairment or to use the older term; "mental retardation." People suffering from this type of disability require a lot of care and supervision. The song "Aina Mun Pitaa (I'm Do It)" is an angry punk rant against their carers who are constantly telling them that they can't lay in bed all day or eat too many sweets or drink too much fizzy pop.
The Eurovision Song Contest is unapologetically and I would say rightly pro-gay. However in recent years it has tended to fall into the trap of assuming that gay-rights issues are the only thing being discussed leaving them blind to other, more important issues. In scientific and medical circles homosexuality is now considered more of a cogential reproductive disability rather then say a lifestyle choice or a mental disorder. By bringing up the issue of disability rights at such a gay event Finland appeared to be trying to challenge the audience to think beyond gay-rights. Calling your audience stupid particularly in a very angry song sung in incomprehensible Finnish is not the way to win friends.
If you scratch the surface though and take the complaint about not being allowed to do so much "Coke" as a reference to the drug Cocaine rather then the fizzy drink all the references about not being allowed to use their computer or being forced out of bed to go to work could be viewed as personal attacks against me. Originally what the UK would have liked me to do is reward them for all the abuse by teaching about how to better manage and treat people with disabilities. The fact that hasn't happened has certainly generated some anger within the UK towards me. However I should point out that part of the problem has probably been assuming that people with intellectual impairments have the same care needs as someone who's lost a limb who in turn has the same care needs as something with mental health problems.
During the Cold War Finland was right on the border with the Soviet Union making it a hot-bed for spy activity, prisoner exchanges and negotiations. With the war in Ukraine Europe seems to be undergoing something of a Cold War retrospective particularly amongst Finland's Scandinavian neighbours. As a result by so openly insulting me I think Finland was trying to provoke me into the conservation. After all in the world of mosh and circle pits on the punk scene a punch in the face is often considered a polite greeting. There is also of course an element of Finland posing the question of whether punk is an art form or simply a refuge for the musically disabled.
So I would have thought that Finland were sure fire finalists. However the entry was hardly easy listening and sadly a lot of people still tend to recoil in revulsion at the sight of a physically disabled person.
The Netherlands: Born in 1973 the Dutch singer "Trijntje Oosterhuis" is slightly older then your average female pop-star. Illustrated by a young, handsome and shirtless male model in the video the song "Walk Along" is about that point in a woman's life where men stop finding her attractive and walk along rather then trying to chat her up. Oosterhuis began her performance wearing a black lace veil which was ripped away to reveal her crows feet and slightly wrinkled skin. Female sexuality amongst middle-aged women is a growing talking point within western Europe and one that is rarely discussed at events like Eurovision which tend to be dominated by gay men.
By talking very freely about the decade of her birth and taking cues from the fashions of the 1960's and 1970's the Dutch also seemed to be referencing the Cold War retrospective. Specifically I think they were referencing a 1970's set BBC spy-drama called "The Game" that is being broadcast in the UK in direct competition with the second semi-final. As a spy drama The Game is absolutely terrible. However featuring an actress from "Holby City," an electrical engineering character and a character with an extremely over-bearing mother it seems to be examining elements of my father's personality. Through their "Strictly Come Dancing" inspired entry and the inclusion of Mel Giedroyc from "The Great British Bake Off" on their presenting team the UK is clearly hoping to support it's entry by referencing it's popular TV output.
The Dutch appear to be helping the UK in this effort and with a title like "Walk Away" and the lyric "Wwwhhhyyy?!" being repeated over and over again the Dutch also appear to be indicating they will be supporting the UK in its desire to leave the European Union (EU).
Denmark: The band "Anti Social Media" who represent Denmark are just a boyband with guitars. This is a - I suppose you would say - product that was pioneered by UK bands such as "Busted" or "McFly" and has been revived more recently with bands like "Rixton" or Australia's "5 Seconds of Summer." Obviously the type of teen heartthrobs that appeal to straight teenage girls also appeal to gay teenage boys. As there is within straight male sexuality within gay male sexuality there is a section who are attracted to pretty young things, the younger the better. It is a complex discussion about at which point this crosses into paedophilia. In fact I think one of my more famous quotes is; "I love Busted - They look like what would happen if (famous paedophile pop producer) Jonathan King was let loose in a boys boarding school."
Today the UK has made a big announcement of an investigation of some 700 people in the TV and pop-music world over child sexual offences. It is obviously quite embarrassing for them then that Denmark didn't get through but the overall tone I got from the song was - in the nicest way possible - "We hosted it last year, we're not f'cking doing it again!"
At around 16:20 on 20/5/15 (UK date) I'll be back after dinner because I have more. Unfortunately I also have a crushing hangover.
Edited at around 18:45 on 20/5/15 (UK date) to add;
Moldova: Moldova is right on the border with Ukraine and like Ukraine has a large ethnically Russian population centred around the Transnistria region. As part of their efforts to whip Europe up into an anti-Russian frenzy the US has frequently claimed that Russia is poised to invade Ukraine at any moment in order to establish a land corridor between Russia and Transnistria. "Eduard Romonyuta" who represents Moldova is actually Ukrainian and appears to have been granted asylum in Moldova with Ukraine being unable to compete. When he's not singing Romonyuta is working on his finance degree which concentrates on the changes that need to be made to Ukraine's tax system to integrate it with the EU. So with Ukraine clearly being the big theme this year Moldova's entry certainly provided a lot to talk about.
Visually the main theme of the song "I Want Your Love" used in both the video and stage performance is "Cops & Robbers" specifically American cops. In the stage show this featured male dancers in skimpy police uniforms which seemed to be a reference to the gay anthem "YMCA" by "The Village People." Romonyuta seemed to resemble "Axl Rose" from the band "Guns n' Roses" whose song "Coma" seems to have heavily influenced "Rihanna's" current single "American Oxygen." Whether we like it or not American is clearly going to continue to try and force its way into the contest particularly through Obama's so-called war on cops. Therefore I thought this would provide an effective way for competitors to discuss the US' efforts.
The stage performance also featured a female dancer in an extremely skimpy police performing dance moves which seemed to border to the gynaecological. In the video Romonyuta is shown appearing to have sex in a car with a similarly dressed female. There is absolutely no nudity in this sequence however from the context it is clearly very sexualised. This taps into the old favourite of Eurovision discussions about how much flesh performers are allowed to flash and how overtly sexual their performances can be. It seems to be a very specific reference to US TV's "No Nipple Rule" which has been picked up by Facebook leading to the "Free the Nipple" campaign. Under those rules the Moldovan video would be permitted but one showing a woman's exposed breast doing something completely non-sexual such as breast-feeding a baby would be banned. So while I appreciate that there needs to be a rule the US have provided us with an example of a stupid rule that doesn't perform the task it's intended for.
To be honest at this point in the competition I'm pretty much looking for anything to talk about that isn't Ukraine. Therefore I'm surprised that Moldova didn't make it through to the final while Georgia did.
Georgia: The message behind Georgia's song "Warrior" is the same message that's been coming out of Georgia ever since they attacked Russia back in 2008. Simply they want to start a war between NATO and Russia in order to punish Russia for the Soviet occupation. Obviously given the theme this is a point of view that needs to be discussed but it is one that is certainly not under represented amongst other competitors who deal with it more creatively. Georgia's theme of "Nina Sublatti" as a sword wielding warrior queen is just a rip-off of Israel's 2014 entry "Same Heart" by "Mei Feingold." To my mind that does not make Georgia finalist material.
I think the main problem was the running order which saw Russia, Belarus (capital city "Minsk") and Georgia all take to the stage in quick succession. This eradicated whatever subtly there was and forced people to firmly come down as either pro or anti-Russian when I think a more vague, long running discussion was called for. This of course lead to accusations of an anti-Russian bias amongst the event organisers
19:20 on 20/5/15 (UK date).
Obama and Waco.
Back in August 2014 following the shooting of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri US President Barack Obama launched something of a crusade against the police. Beyond accusations of racism part of this crusade was a claim that the US are over militarised having being supplied with military surplus equipment under a federal program.
As with the Department of Justice's limp report into policing in Ferguson now that almost a year has passed Obama had to produce something or admit that his crusade had been a lie. So on Monday (18/5/15) Obama announced a partial ban on the police using military equipment during visit to Camden, New Jersey.
Camden is an address that has followed me around for many years for reasons that not even I fully understand. I think it stems from a US TV Show called "My Name Is Earl" which was set in a fictional US small county of Camden. The show is written, produced and stars a guy called Jason Lee who also featured in the 1997 film "Chasing Amy" which has long been associated with me due to my very similar relationship with a girl called Amy. I suspect that in the very early days when I first appeared the only information about me that the Jason Lee camp could get came from the British TV/pop-music community that at the time was centred around Camden, North London. Camden, New Jersey has long been a source of confusion with neither I nor the Governor's office being able to work out the connection.
I think the plan that Obama announced is summed up by the provision banning the use of tracked armoured vehicles. You know that originally Obama wanted to ban the use of all armoured vehicles including those which are wheeled. However eventually someone sat him down and explained that the police do need armoured vehicles because they save lives. If you've got an armed suspect barricaded in a house who is firing into the street and the police only have non-armoured vehicles they will have to rush in to bring the suspect down. This increases the risk that the suspect, police officers, hostages and passers-by will be killed or injured in the operation. However if the police have got armoured vehicles they can use them as a defensive barrier and then wait until the suspect tires themselves out and surrenders. I'm not aware of any US police force that uses tracked armoured vehicles because not even the US Marine Corp uses tracked armoured vehicles.
Likewise Obama has also banned the police's use of ammunition over .50 calibre. I'm pretty sure that any ammunition over .50 calibre is considered light artillery and normally limited to anti-aircraft cannons. So again I would be fascinated to learn of any US police force that actually uses it.
Obama has also banned the police from using bayonets. This sounds great because no-one can think of a reason why the police would ever need to mount a bayonet charge. However what the police and soldiers use a lot are tactical knives cut rope etc. As a result bayonets tend to work equally well as tactical knives. Under Obama's plan the police will have to pay for dedicated knives while the military will have to scrap their surplus. The differences between the design of certain types of knife is of course critical to the Freddie Gray case.
Likewise Obama's plan bans the police being equipped with grenade launchers. Again this sounds sensible until you realise that the police occasionally have to deploy both smoke and tear gas grenades rather high explosive or fragmentation grenades.
Finally Obama has banned the wearing of camouflage-style clothing. To me that sounds like a fashion choice rather then anything practical.
The day before Obama's big announcement there was a big fight - technically riot is the wrong word - between biker gangs in Waco, Texas on Sunday (17/5/15). Waco is of course famous for the 1993 Waco siege in which a lightly armed ATF SWAT team tried to execute a search warrant on the Mount Carmel ranch only to be completely out gunned by the residents. Eventually they had to call on the National Guard to deploy actual battle tanks to contain the situation. This really highlights why the police sometimes need military style equipment.
The presence of bikers reminded me of a storyline from the now infamous TV Show "Oz." Following a racially motivated shooting the manager or "Mayor" of the specialist unit known as "Emerald City" is fired. In choosing his replacement the prison Governor meets with local black community leaders who make it clear to him that they will back his political career if he appoints their choice as the new Mayor of Emerald City. This is exactly what the Governor does appointing Martin Querns. A black man Querns is himself a drug dealer who aims to keep the prisoners quiet by getting them hooked on heroin. In order to allow the black inmates to control the drug trade Querns kicks all the bikers out of Emerald City. This doesn't seem to be a million miles away from what is currently going on in Baltimore.
Also the previous Sunday (10/5/15) there was a similar shooting at biker gang meeting in Newark, New Jersey. However because the biker gangs involved were predominately black it barely got mentioned. As a result all the people who took to Twitter to point out how much softer the police had been in dealing with the Waco bikers then the Black Lives Matter protests looked damn foolish. Not least because in Waco the police immediately arrested and will be prosecuting everyone involved and actually shot and killed four people. I think that should be the minimum expected at any future Black Lies protests.
As for how the Waco confrontation was engineered a row of a parking spot has been suggested which is a direct reference to the Chapel Hill shootings. However I suspect that it doesn't take much to set biker gangs off.
15:00 on 20/5/15 (UK date).
As with the Department of Justice's limp report into policing in Ferguson now that almost a year has passed Obama had to produce something or admit that his crusade had been a lie. So on Monday (18/5/15) Obama announced a partial ban on the police using military equipment during visit to Camden, New Jersey.
Camden is an address that has followed me around for many years for reasons that not even I fully understand. I think it stems from a US TV Show called "My Name Is Earl" which was set in a fictional US small county of Camden. The show is written, produced and stars a guy called Jason Lee who also featured in the 1997 film "Chasing Amy" which has long been associated with me due to my very similar relationship with a girl called Amy. I suspect that in the very early days when I first appeared the only information about me that the Jason Lee camp could get came from the British TV/pop-music community that at the time was centred around Camden, North London. Camden, New Jersey has long been a source of confusion with neither I nor the Governor's office being able to work out the connection.
I think the plan that Obama announced is summed up by the provision banning the use of tracked armoured vehicles. You know that originally Obama wanted to ban the use of all armoured vehicles including those which are wheeled. However eventually someone sat him down and explained that the police do need armoured vehicles because they save lives. If you've got an armed suspect barricaded in a house who is firing into the street and the police only have non-armoured vehicles they will have to rush in to bring the suspect down. This increases the risk that the suspect, police officers, hostages and passers-by will be killed or injured in the operation. However if the police have got armoured vehicles they can use them as a defensive barrier and then wait until the suspect tires themselves out and surrenders. I'm not aware of any US police force that uses tracked armoured vehicles because not even the US Marine Corp uses tracked armoured vehicles.
Likewise Obama has also banned the police's use of ammunition over .50 calibre. I'm pretty sure that any ammunition over .50 calibre is considered light artillery and normally limited to anti-aircraft cannons. So again I would be fascinated to learn of any US police force that actually uses it.
Obama has also banned the police from using bayonets. This sounds great because no-one can think of a reason why the police would ever need to mount a bayonet charge. However what the police and soldiers use a lot are tactical knives cut rope etc. As a result bayonets tend to work equally well as tactical knives. Under Obama's plan the police will have to pay for dedicated knives while the military will have to scrap their surplus. The differences between the design of certain types of knife is of course critical to the Freddie Gray case.
Likewise Obama's plan bans the police being equipped with grenade launchers. Again this sounds sensible until you realise that the police occasionally have to deploy both smoke and tear gas grenades rather high explosive or fragmentation grenades.
Finally Obama has banned the wearing of camouflage-style clothing. To me that sounds like a fashion choice rather then anything practical.
The day before Obama's big announcement there was a big fight - technically riot is the wrong word - between biker gangs in Waco, Texas on Sunday (17/5/15). Waco is of course famous for the 1993 Waco siege in which a lightly armed ATF SWAT team tried to execute a search warrant on the Mount Carmel ranch only to be completely out gunned by the residents. Eventually they had to call on the National Guard to deploy actual battle tanks to contain the situation. This really highlights why the police sometimes need military style equipment.
The presence of bikers reminded me of a storyline from the now infamous TV Show "Oz." Following a racially motivated shooting the manager or "Mayor" of the specialist unit known as "Emerald City" is fired. In choosing his replacement the prison Governor meets with local black community leaders who make it clear to him that they will back his political career if he appoints their choice as the new Mayor of Emerald City. This is exactly what the Governor does appointing Martin Querns. A black man Querns is himself a drug dealer who aims to keep the prisoners quiet by getting them hooked on heroin. In order to allow the black inmates to control the drug trade Querns kicks all the bikers out of Emerald City. This doesn't seem to be a million miles away from what is currently going on in Baltimore.
Also the previous Sunday (10/5/15) there was a similar shooting at biker gang meeting in Newark, New Jersey. However because the biker gangs involved were predominately black it barely got mentioned. As a result all the people who took to Twitter to point out how much softer the police had been in dealing with the Waco bikers then the Black Lives Matter protests looked damn foolish. Not least because in Waco the police immediately arrested and will be prosecuting everyone involved and actually shot and killed four people. I think that should be the minimum expected at any future Black Lies protests.
As for how the Waco confrontation was engineered a row of a parking spot has been suggested which is a direct reference to the Chapel Hill shootings. However I suspect that it doesn't take much to set biker gangs off.
15:00 on 20/5/15 (UK date).
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
'Merica - The New Europe.
On Sunday (17/5/15) the annual week long Eurovision Song Contest opened in Vienna, Austria. As usual the Arab states such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Algeria, Egypt etc officially declined to take part due to the involvement of Israel. However this year for the first and possibly only time Australia will formally be taking part.
Although they apparently can't be bothered to fill out all the relevant forms the good old US of A also seems to be desperate to muscle in on the action with Taylor Swift's song "Bad Blood" which was launched amid a blaze of publicity at Sunday's (17/5/15) Billboard Music Awards.
According to legend the song was inspired by a feud between Ms Swift and Katy Perry. Katy Perry is of course showbiz friends with Rihanna with whom the US tried to befuddle the Eurovision nations back in 2013. Ms Perry was also married to Russell Brand who is most certainly not one of my showbiz friends. The title "Bad Blood" refers to a common English expression meaning "To have a dispute with" although it is one of those phrases that everybody uses without knowing let alone understanding its origins. However a Eurovision audience may consider it to mean "impure blood" such as that of a person with a blood borne disease such as HIV/AIDS or someone belonging to the wrong ethnic group. I understand that back in 2014 Poland thought it very important to make everyone aware of their "Hot, Slavic blood."
To say that the video for Bad Blood is star-studded is an understatement. In fact I understand that there is now an Internet game to identify the celebrity in each individual frame. Obviously most of those appearing are supermodels or Lena Dunham and therefore irrelevant. However others such as Cara Delevingne each bring with them their own individual story. My particular favourite though is Haley Williams from the band "Paramore." Estonia's 2014 entry "Amazing" by Tanja bore more then a slight resemblance to the song "Stay the Night" that Hayley Williams did with German DJ "ZEDD." Estonia appeared to suggest that Tanja was far more talented then Ms Williams. Even is she's going to lose this appears to be Ms Williams revenge.
Also while I'm clearly going to get into trouble for not recognising them I'm pretty sure the Bad Blood video contains at least one Kardashian sister. As you can probably guess from the eventual winner Conchita Wurst Kim Kardashian was a very big theme of the 2014 contest and I didn't sleep for a week as a result. Aside from the Billboard Music Awards Sunday's TV in America also saw the episode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" in which step-father Bruce Jenner revealed himself to the family as a transgendered who is transitioning to womanhood. Actually thinking about it it would probably have been easier for the Kardashian clan just to travel to Vienna. After all it's nothing Eurovision hasn't seen a hundred times before.
Shot largely in front of greenscreen the video is also veritable mish-mash of film references. So far I have counted; "Sin City," "i-Robot," "Underworld Awakening," "Biggles," "Tron: Legacy," "Hanna," The Fifth Element," Domino," "Kingsman," "Full Metal Jacket" and "Mad Max" along with the video for "Black Widow" By Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora at the very least.
The main backdrop to the video though is London's financial district specifically the "Gherkin" building which hints at US concern over tension between the UK and the European Union (EU). However this video does leave the UK's own 2015 Eurovision entry looking distinctly underpowered by comparison. Mind you the UK should have known it was on a hiding to nothing the moment it was unable to get Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney to represent them with "Four, Five Seconds."
And yes I am aware that the first Eurovision Song Contest 2015 has already taken place. However I will be saving that until tomorrow because last year I got complaints. From Australians.
22:15 on 19/5/15 (UK date).
Although they apparently can't be bothered to fill out all the relevant forms the good old US of A also seems to be desperate to muscle in on the action with Taylor Swift's song "Bad Blood" which was launched amid a blaze of publicity at Sunday's (17/5/15) Billboard Music Awards.
According to legend the song was inspired by a feud between Ms Swift and Katy Perry. Katy Perry is of course showbiz friends with Rihanna with whom the US tried to befuddle the Eurovision nations back in 2013. Ms Perry was also married to Russell Brand who is most certainly not one of my showbiz friends. The title "Bad Blood" refers to a common English expression meaning "To have a dispute with" although it is one of those phrases that everybody uses without knowing let alone understanding its origins. However a Eurovision audience may consider it to mean "impure blood" such as that of a person with a blood borne disease such as HIV/AIDS or someone belonging to the wrong ethnic group. I understand that back in 2014 Poland thought it very important to make everyone aware of their "Hot, Slavic blood."
To say that the video for Bad Blood is star-studded is an understatement. In fact I understand that there is now an Internet game to identify the celebrity in each individual frame. Obviously most of those appearing are supermodels or Lena Dunham and therefore irrelevant. However others such as Cara Delevingne each bring with them their own individual story. My particular favourite though is Haley Williams from the band "Paramore." Estonia's 2014 entry "Amazing" by Tanja bore more then a slight resemblance to the song "Stay the Night" that Hayley Williams did with German DJ "ZEDD." Estonia appeared to suggest that Tanja was far more talented then Ms Williams. Even is she's going to lose this appears to be Ms Williams revenge.
Also while I'm clearly going to get into trouble for not recognising them I'm pretty sure the Bad Blood video contains at least one Kardashian sister. As you can probably guess from the eventual winner Conchita Wurst Kim Kardashian was a very big theme of the 2014 contest and I didn't sleep for a week as a result. Aside from the Billboard Music Awards Sunday's TV in America also saw the episode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" in which step-father Bruce Jenner revealed himself to the family as a transgendered who is transitioning to womanhood. Actually thinking about it it would probably have been easier for the Kardashian clan just to travel to Vienna. After all it's nothing Eurovision hasn't seen a hundred times before.
Shot largely in front of greenscreen the video is also veritable mish-mash of film references. So far I have counted; "Sin City," "i-Robot," "Underworld Awakening," "Biggles," "Tron: Legacy," "Hanna," The Fifth Element," Domino," "Kingsman," "Full Metal Jacket" and "Mad Max" along with the video for "Black Widow" By Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora at the very least.
The main backdrop to the video though is London's financial district specifically the "Gherkin" building which hints at US concern over tension between the UK and the European Union (EU). However this video does leave the UK's own 2015 Eurovision entry looking distinctly underpowered by comparison. Mind you the UK should have known it was on a hiding to nothing the moment it was unable to get Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney to represent them with "Four, Five Seconds."
And yes I am aware that the first Eurovision Song Contest 2015 has already taken place. However I will be saving that until tomorrow because last year I got complaints. From Australians.
22:15 on 19/5/15 (UK date).
Monday, 18 May 2015
Operation Featherweight: Month 10, Week 3, Day 6.
In June 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized the town of Baiji which sits around 215km (129 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad and around 100km (60 miles) south-west of the city of Kirkuk. They also surrounded the Baiji oil refinery which sitson the out-skirts of the town. In November 2014 the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) succeeded in liberating both the town and the refinery from ISIL.
In March 2015 the ISF advanced from Baiji as part of the operation to liberate Tikrit which sits around 45km (27 miles) to the south. By April 7th (7/4/15) Tikrit had been fully liberated. However on April 11th (11/4/15) ISIL launched a fresh assault on the Baiji refinery which succeeded in encircling the compound and allowed ISIL to seize a number of key areas in the compound including the site's garrison and the docking station where crude oil is pumped in and refined fuel is pumped out. Although there has since been an ISF counter-offensive and an ISIL counter-counter-offensive the situation remains largely unchanged with ISIL in control of around 50% of the refinery.
Obviously this represents a bit of a strategic nightmare for the ISF because it prevents them from using the refinery which provides around a third of Iraq's total fuel supply. Also the troops who are being killed and injured in the almost constant fighting cannot be deployed elsewhere. However it is not a complete disaster because ISIL aren't able to use the refinery either and they don't seem to be making a legitimate attempt to seize either the compound or the town. Instead what ISIL seem to be focused on is conducting dramatic fire-fights and raising their flag over buildings. These are all video-taped and released on the Internet. As I've explained before rather like Nazi Germany ISIL are a group that is very much defined by its ability to destroy. Therefore it constantly needs to be showing its supporters evidence of it carrying out fresh operations in order to sustain the momentum of the movement.
It appears that US President Barack Obama has also signed up to this propaganda-led style of fighting. On Friday (15/5/15) the US mounted a special forces raid into Deir-er-Zour in Syria to kill an ISIL commander identified as "Abu Sayyaf" and capture his wife unidentified as "Umm Sayyaf." Obviously I don't expect the latest intelligence on ISIL's operations to be readily available on the Internet but I have to say that I have never heard this supposed commander mentioned before and I get the impression that none of my better connected associates had heard of them either. Therefore I think the main motivation behind the raid was to do something big and sexy that would grab the headlines and make it look like Obama is doing something when in reality progress against ISIL remains painfully slow.
It also served to show that the US is prepared to take firm action to back up the commitments it made at the meeting with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that took place in the US on May 13th (13/5/15) and May 14th (14/5/15). Despite the heads of the GCC nations refusing to attend this meeting it represented a complete American capitulation to their demands and their support for ISIL. For example in his press conference Obama reaffirmed the US commitment to a government of national unity in Libya. This was a diplomatic way of saying that the US will continue to grant a degree of legitimacy to the Turkish and Qatari backed Islamist militia's in the west in an effort to continue the instability in the country. The US also reaffirmed it's commitment to the overthrow of the Syrian government which is why the GCC nations created ISIL in the first place.
Finally on Friday (15/5/15) the US Congress approved funding for the formation of an Iraqi Sunni Home/National Guard program. As I've explained before this is a recipe for turning Iraq into a Libya-style failed state with disparate militia's fighting each other. However it also shows that the US is still committed to the lie that ISIL is simply a Sunni protest movement that sprung up in response to oppression by Iraq's Shia dominated government. Iraq is of course a Shia dominated country.
In the first instance the Deir-ez-Zour raid showed that the US is not prepared to respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity by sending in ground troops without prior warning to the Syrian government let alone their permission. By targeting a man who is claimed to be in charge of ISIL's oil and financial operations the US was showing that it is focused on the strategic bombing of ISIL's oil infrastructure despite it being well established that this will do little to defeat ISIL on the ground. Finally "Abu Sayyaf" and "Umm Sayyaf" are the masculine and feminine versions of the term "Bearers of the Sword." Abu Sayyaf is also the name of a well known Filipino Islamist terror group who are linked to Al Qaeda and conducted the Philippines worst terror attack with the 2004 bombing of a ferry that killed 116. Active since 2000 they have carried out a string of other attacks including the kidnapping of aid workers and American citizens. US Secretary of State John Kerry is currently on a tour of South-East Asia.
The US' capitulation at the GCC Summit provided and instant boost to the more militant elements in the region. On Friday (15/5/15) Turkey announced that it had arrested 10 soldiers. Their crime was stopping a convoy of vehicles carrying weapons to insurgents in Syria in January 2014. On Saturday (16/5/15) Turkey announced that it had shot down a Syrian military jet that had violated Turkish airspace. When members of the US-led coalition pointed out that they had been unable to see this jet on radar the Turks changed their mind and decided it had been a helicopter that had been flying too low to be picked up on radar. When the Turks were pressed to provide footage of the crash site they admitted that the aircraft had actually been shotdown in Syrian airspace. It is believed that the Turks in fact violated Syrian airspace to shoot down a small drone.
The most alarming boost by the US' capitulation though was received by ISIL themselves who on Friday launched a large offensive in Iraq's Anbar province centred on the town of al-Baghdadi and the provincial capital Ramadi. By Sunday (17/5/15) ISIL had succeeded in forcing the ISF out of Ramadi taking full control of the city which sits around 100km (60 miles) west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Clearly the fall of Ramadi is a victory for ISIL and a defeat for the ISF and the US-led coalition. However it is not as catastrophic as it first sounds. Ramadi first came under attack from ISIL back in January 2014 but they never succeeded in taking full control of the city. Since roughly November 2014 around 60% of Ramadi has been under ISIL's control with the ISF controlling the other 40%. In mid-April ISIL launched a fresh attempt to gain Ramadi and the ISF have been slowly losing territory ever since. So Sunday's victory wasn't ISIL launching a lightning advance to capture a whole new city so much as them finally squeezing the ISF from a small portion of at city they already largely controlled.
Also ISIL have controlled Fallujah which sits between Ramadi and Baghdad since January 2014 so the complete capture of Ramadi doesn't put them any closer to the capital. Finally the ISF still control the town of Hit which sits around 50km north-west of Ramadi between the city and ISIL's heartland in Syria. The ISF also control the town of Habbaniyah which sits around 25km to the east between Ramadi and Fallujah. As such I would say that ISIL still remain very much contained within Anbar province and the fall of Ramadi could well present an opportunity to the ISF and the coalition.
At around 17:15 on 18/5/15 (UK date) I will be back to explain what I mean by that after dinner.
Edited at around 18:45 on 18/5/15 (UK date) to add;
Up until now the fight against ISIL has been at best shambolic. The fundamental problem has been the US' - as the leader of the coalition - failure to decide that ISIL and their mission to exterminate all Shia Arabs in the region including the Syrian and Iraqi governments is wrong and ISIL are an enemy that needs to be defeated.
As a result rather then taking decisive military action the US' mission over the past 9 months has been to evade and avoid the issue. So they've conducted a pin-prick bombing campaign that certainly costs a lot of money and to the untrained eye certainly looks like the US is doing something. However even to someone of my limited experience it is clear that the air campaign is of extremely limited military value and will certainly not defeat ISIL.
On the ground what the US should have been doing is during this time is working with the Iraqi government and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to draw up a strategic plan to force ISIL from the territory they hold. Instead what the US has been doing is use delaying tactics and putting up barriers such as the need for ever more reforms to the ISF and training for troops to prevent ISIL being defeated.
Amid this vacuum of support from the US tensions within the Iraqi population have risen and they have turned for help to the Shia militias which are collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) who seem to be the only element of the coalition prepared to fight and defeat ISIL. The US' response to this has been furious with them initially refusing to participate in the operation to liberate Tikrit and making wild accusations of human rights abuses against the PMF and even wilder accusations claiming that the PMF are part of an Iranian invasion of Iraq.
Although they do need to tighten up on their respect for human rights my main objection to the PMF is that they are a militia rather then a formal military force. As such they lack the discipline, tactical awareness and strategic forethought needed to complete a mission of the size of eliminating ISIL from Iraq. For example although ultimately successful the Tikrit operation was extremely chaotic particularly in the early stages. The PMF's biggest mistake though was rather then seeing the operation through to the end as soon as Tikrit itself was liberated they rushed off an immediately wanted to start operations to liberate Ramadi, Fallujah and "all of Anbar" at the same time. This provoked ISIL into mounting it's own pre-emptive Anbar operation which has resulted in the fall of Ramadi and has forced the ISF to spread itself thin as it rushes from front-line to front-line as it tries to deal with the crisis.
As such I think that the fall of Ramadi provides the ISF and the coalition an opportunity to tighten up its operations. Provided ISIL can be contained in Anbar no longer having to fight the battle in Ramadi grants the ISF time to sit down with the coalition to draw up a coherent strategy to defeat ISIL nationally by prioritising areas that can be and need to be liberated from ISIL. The ISF with the coalition providing close air-support can then concentrate their resources into liberating those areas in order of priority rather then randomly rushing around into fresh battles that are lost.
19:15 on 15/5/15 (UK date).
In March 2015 the ISF advanced from Baiji as part of the operation to liberate Tikrit which sits around 45km (27 miles) to the south. By April 7th (7/4/15) Tikrit had been fully liberated. However on April 11th (11/4/15) ISIL launched a fresh assault on the Baiji refinery which succeeded in encircling the compound and allowed ISIL to seize a number of key areas in the compound including the site's garrison and the docking station where crude oil is pumped in and refined fuel is pumped out. Although there has since been an ISF counter-offensive and an ISIL counter-counter-offensive the situation remains largely unchanged with ISIL in control of around 50% of the refinery.
Obviously this represents a bit of a strategic nightmare for the ISF because it prevents them from using the refinery which provides around a third of Iraq's total fuel supply. Also the troops who are being killed and injured in the almost constant fighting cannot be deployed elsewhere. However it is not a complete disaster because ISIL aren't able to use the refinery either and they don't seem to be making a legitimate attempt to seize either the compound or the town. Instead what ISIL seem to be focused on is conducting dramatic fire-fights and raising their flag over buildings. These are all video-taped and released on the Internet. As I've explained before rather like Nazi Germany ISIL are a group that is very much defined by its ability to destroy. Therefore it constantly needs to be showing its supporters evidence of it carrying out fresh operations in order to sustain the momentum of the movement.
It appears that US President Barack Obama has also signed up to this propaganda-led style of fighting. On Friday (15/5/15) the US mounted a special forces raid into Deir-er-Zour in Syria to kill an ISIL commander identified as "Abu Sayyaf" and capture his wife unidentified as "Umm Sayyaf." Obviously I don't expect the latest intelligence on ISIL's operations to be readily available on the Internet but I have to say that I have never heard this supposed commander mentioned before and I get the impression that none of my better connected associates had heard of them either. Therefore I think the main motivation behind the raid was to do something big and sexy that would grab the headlines and make it look like Obama is doing something when in reality progress against ISIL remains painfully slow.
It also served to show that the US is prepared to take firm action to back up the commitments it made at the meeting with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that took place in the US on May 13th (13/5/15) and May 14th (14/5/15). Despite the heads of the GCC nations refusing to attend this meeting it represented a complete American capitulation to their demands and their support for ISIL. For example in his press conference Obama reaffirmed the US commitment to a government of national unity in Libya. This was a diplomatic way of saying that the US will continue to grant a degree of legitimacy to the Turkish and Qatari backed Islamist militia's in the west in an effort to continue the instability in the country. The US also reaffirmed it's commitment to the overthrow of the Syrian government which is why the GCC nations created ISIL in the first place.
Finally on Friday (15/5/15) the US Congress approved funding for the formation of an Iraqi Sunni Home/National Guard program. As I've explained before this is a recipe for turning Iraq into a Libya-style failed state with disparate militia's fighting each other. However it also shows that the US is still committed to the lie that ISIL is simply a Sunni protest movement that sprung up in response to oppression by Iraq's Shia dominated government. Iraq is of course a Shia dominated country.
In the first instance the Deir-ez-Zour raid showed that the US is not prepared to respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity by sending in ground troops without prior warning to the Syrian government let alone their permission. By targeting a man who is claimed to be in charge of ISIL's oil and financial operations the US was showing that it is focused on the strategic bombing of ISIL's oil infrastructure despite it being well established that this will do little to defeat ISIL on the ground. Finally "Abu Sayyaf" and "Umm Sayyaf" are the masculine and feminine versions of the term "Bearers of the Sword." Abu Sayyaf is also the name of a well known Filipino Islamist terror group who are linked to Al Qaeda and conducted the Philippines worst terror attack with the 2004 bombing of a ferry that killed 116. Active since 2000 they have carried out a string of other attacks including the kidnapping of aid workers and American citizens. US Secretary of State John Kerry is currently on a tour of South-East Asia.
The US' capitulation at the GCC Summit provided and instant boost to the more militant elements in the region. On Friday (15/5/15) Turkey announced that it had arrested 10 soldiers. Their crime was stopping a convoy of vehicles carrying weapons to insurgents in Syria in January 2014. On Saturday (16/5/15) Turkey announced that it had shot down a Syrian military jet that had violated Turkish airspace. When members of the US-led coalition pointed out that they had been unable to see this jet on radar the Turks changed their mind and decided it had been a helicopter that had been flying too low to be picked up on radar. When the Turks were pressed to provide footage of the crash site they admitted that the aircraft had actually been shotdown in Syrian airspace. It is believed that the Turks in fact violated Syrian airspace to shoot down a small drone.
The most alarming boost by the US' capitulation though was received by ISIL themselves who on Friday launched a large offensive in Iraq's Anbar province centred on the town of al-Baghdadi and the provincial capital Ramadi. By Sunday (17/5/15) ISIL had succeeded in forcing the ISF out of Ramadi taking full control of the city which sits around 100km (60 miles) west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Clearly the fall of Ramadi is a victory for ISIL and a defeat for the ISF and the US-led coalition. However it is not as catastrophic as it first sounds. Ramadi first came under attack from ISIL back in January 2014 but they never succeeded in taking full control of the city. Since roughly November 2014 around 60% of Ramadi has been under ISIL's control with the ISF controlling the other 40%. In mid-April ISIL launched a fresh attempt to gain Ramadi and the ISF have been slowly losing territory ever since. So Sunday's victory wasn't ISIL launching a lightning advance to capture a whole new city so much as them finally squeezing the ISF from a small portion of at city they already largely controlled.
Also ISIL have controlled Fallujah which sits between Ramadi and Baghdad since January 2014 so the complete capture of Ramadi doesn't put them any closer to the capital. Finally the ISF still control the town of Hit which sits around 50km north-west of Ramadi between the city and ISIL's heartland in Syria. The ISF also control the town of Habbaniyah which sits around 25km to the east between Ramadi and Fallujah. As such I would say that ISIL still remain very much contained within Anbar province and the fall of Ramadi could well present an opportunity to the ISF and the coalition.
At around 17:15 on 18/5/15 (UK date) I will be back to explain what I mean by that after dinner.
Edited at around 18:45 on 18/5/15 (UK date) to add;
Up until now the fight against ISIL has been at best shambolic. The fundamental problem has been the US' - as the leader of the coalition - failure to decide that ISIL and their mission to exterminate all Shia Arabs in the region including the Syrian and Iraqi governments is wrong and ISIL are an enemy that needs to be defeated.
As a result rather then taking decisive military action the US' mission over the past 9 months has been to evade and avoid the issue. So they've conducted a pin-prick bombing campaign that certainly costs a lot of money and to the untrained eye certainly looks like the US is doing something. However even to someone of my limited experience it is clear that the air campaign is of extremely limited military value and will certainly not defeat ISIL.
On the ground what the US should have been doing is during this time is working with the Iraqi government and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to draw up a strategic plan to force ISIL from the territory they hold. Instead what the US has been doing is use delaying tactics and putting up barriers such as the need for ever more reforms to the ISF and training for troops to prevent ISIL being defeated.
Amid this vacuum of support from the US tensions within the Iraqi population have risen and they have turned for help to the Shia militias which are collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) who seem to be the only element of the coalition prepared to fight and defeat ISIL. The US' response to this has been furious with them initially refusing to participate in the operation to liberate Tikrit and making wild accusations of human rights abuses against the PMF and even wilder accusations claiming that the PMF are part of an Iranian invasion of Iraq.
Although they do need to tighten up on their respect for human rights my main objection to the PMF is that they are a militia rather then a formal military force. As such they lack the discipline, tactical awareness and strategic forethought needed to complete a mission of the size of eliminating ISIL from Iraq. For example although ultimately successful the Tikrit operation was extremely chaotic particularly in the early stages. The PMF's biggest mistake though was rather then seeing the operation through to the end as soon as Tikrit itself was liberated they rushed off an immediately wanted to start operations to liberate Ramadi, Fallujah and "all of Anbar" at the same time. This provoked ISIL into mounting it's own pre-emptive Anbar operation which has resulted in the fall of Ramadi and has forced the ISF to spread itself thin as it rushes from front-line to front-line as it tries to deal with the crisis.
As such I think that the fall of Ramadi provides the ISF and the coalition an opportunity to tighten up its operations. Provided ISIL can be contained in Anbar no longer having to fight the battle in Ramadi grants the ISF time to sit down with the coalition to draw up a coherent strategy to defeat ISIL nationally by prioritising areas that can be and need to be liberated from ISIL. The ISF with the coalition providing close air-support can then concentrate their resources into liberating those areas in order of priority rather then randomly rushing around into fresh battles that are lost.
19:15 on 15/5/15 (UK date).
Where Did Labour Go So Wrong (Part 1)
Back in May 2010 the
UK suffered something of a coup d'etat with the Monarchy installing a coalition
government headed by the Conservative Party backed by the Liberal Democrat
(LibDem) Party. The next act of the play was always going to be a re-installation
of the Labour Party in 2015 in order to repair Britain's damaged relationship
with the international community and the European Union (EU) in particular.
That election has now been and gone and not only did the Labour Party fail to
win an outright majority they actually succeeded in losing a total of 26
seats nationwide. Therefore it only seems reasonable to ask where Labour went
so wrong?
Obviously some
elements of their failure were beyond their control. For example with the
LibDem's formally entering into coalition with the Conservatives there was no
way to stop the Conservatives program of radical of social engineering
becoming the law of the land. Although it was presented a necessary austerity
needed to save the nation from economic calamity in reality the Conservatives'
program had one purpose and one purpose only - to make British voters poorer.
When people are made poor they become desperate to conserve what little they
have left and will be swayed by even the smallest bribe such as reducing the
tax on a pint of beer by a penny. This is always how the Conservative Party
have operated and is certainly how they won their surprise victory in 1992 when they were able to offer just enough
scraps to keep the voters happy. Now the Conservatives have won an outright
majority this is likely to become an even bigger factor at the 2020 election.
Likewise it was not
the Labour Party's fault that is was beyond David Cameron's ability to
renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU. However this and the momentum is
gave to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) was entirely predictable.
That is not to say
though that Labour did not make a lot of mistakes of their own and probably
chief amongst these was the choice of Ed Miliband as leader. Although I don't
want to launch into an attack on the man personally Ed Miliband just comes
across as a bit odd. The UK public will apparently vote for liars, cheats,
drunks, paedophiles, war criminals, manic depressives and many a sociopath.
However they will not vote for people who come across as just a bit odd. So it
didn't matter how effective a leader he was or how good his policies were Ed
Miliband was always going to be an electoral hindrance to the Labour Party.
Labour's mistake in
picking Ed Miliband was actually the result of the party making the mistake of
thinking that they needed to pick the person who was going to lead them into
the 2015 election. Instead they should have chosen what is known is cricket
terms as a "Nightwatch Man." This person's role is to come in as
darkness begins to fall and bat away the attacks until the new dawn arrives. A
very strong candidate for this type of role would have been Alan Johnson who
despite being from a slightly older generation is just a pretty normal working
class bloke. Having him spend three years or so criticising Conservative cuts
at things like the weekly Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQ's) would
certainly have helped build affection for the Labour Party. After all despite
the arrival of the second Royal Baby David Cameron and his Chancellor Gideon
(George) Osborne remain slightly more posh then the Duchess of Cambridge.
A much stronger
candidate for the role though would have been Ed Balls. Despite having degrees
in economics from both the UK's prestigious Oxford university and the US'
equally prestigious Harvard college which give him an understanding of the subject
that neither Cameron nor Osborne could ever achieve Ed Ball's background is
very much of the aspirational middle-class that make up much of the British electorate.
He also has a very combative style meaning that I could see him landing blows
against the Conservatives at PMQ's in a way that Ed Miliband's nasally whine
never could.
I've always thought
that over time Ed Balls would have been capable of developing a statesman-like
demeanour that better suits a Prime Minister. However if that wasn't possible
then a year or two prior to the election it would be time for him to step down
and make way for David Miliband who as a former Foreign Secretary and currently
a director of the New York based International Rescue is already very
comfortable on the global stage. If Balls had been unable to out-compete the
Conservatives in the public eye this switch could have been presented as the
Labour Party responding to the concerns of the electorate. After all Balls is
quite right - Labour's economic policy did not cause the global financial crash
of 2008. However Gordon Brown's decision to treat it as an opportunity to
nationalise most of Britain's banks most certainly did substantially damage the
UK economy and I for one am still waiting for Labour to apologise.
I think what drove
the Labour Party into making the mistake of choosing to ignore my advice was
that they got dazzled by the 2014 local council elections. Due to years of
privatisation and Margret Thatcher's inability to take criticism the power
wielded by British local council's is next to non-existent. In fact I would
almost go so far to say that if they were abolished overnight few in Britain
would notice. This is reflected by the extremely low voter turnout that local
council elections produce. However they are considered very important by party
activists because local councillor to national MP is a well worn career path in
UK politics and small victories can provide a boost to parties core supporters.
This desire to win at
the local elections forced Labour to campaign and in the process lay out an
alternative to the Conservatives' economic policy. Under the supervision of Ed
Balls as shadow Chancellor the Labour Party succeeded in laying out a coherent
and effective alternative economic plan. This plan was so well thought out that
the Monarchy simply picked it up and gave it to Osborne to implement. Obviously
with the Conservatives implementing Labour's economic policy it became
impossible for Labour to criticise the policy in the run up to the election.
Also the plan began reversing the damage done to the economy by the
Conservatives economic plan producing a slight economic recovery just before
the election. However because the plan was being presented as Osborne's own
work voters seem to have made the mistake of giving the Conservatives rather
then Labour the credit for the economic progress that has been made.
Part 2 is currently a work in progress and will follow eventually although it is now Eurovision week and the war against ISIL seems to require attention.
13:45 on 18/5/15 (UK date).
Friday, 15 May 2015
Operation Featherweight: Month 10, Week 3, Day 3.
Due to time pressures I am rather going to have to rush over events on the ground in Iraq and Syria. However they remain largely unchanged.
Over the past week the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched yet another attack on the Baiji oil refinery which sits around 40km (24 miles) north of the city of Tikrit. According to the most recent reports ISIL now control between 40-50% of the facility although the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) continue to resist their advance. You may remember that Baiji was one of the staging points for March's operation to liberate Tikrit. That operation saw ISIL flee Tikrit for the al-Hawaja district that sits between Baiji and Kirkuk some 100km (60 miles) to the north-east. Therefore I wouldn't have considered the Tikrit operation to be fully completed until ISIL had been cleared from al-Hawaja district fully securing Baiji, Tikrit and Kirkuk.
Unfortunately in their haste the Iraqi Shia Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) militia started demanding that a fresh operation was started to force ISIL from Anbar province. This provoked ISIL into launching a pre-emptive offensive around the town of al-Baghdadi and the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi which all sit in a line some 100km (60 miles) to the west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Over the past month or so this ISIL offensive has forced to ISF to desperately reinforce their positions in those areas. Today ISIL launched another big push with 12 ISF troops being killed in Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) attacks in al-Baghdadi and 150 being killed in VBIED attacks in Ramadi. As I write the situation is Ramadi is extremely chaotic with reports that ISIL have seized the centre of the city and ISF troops are in the process of withdrawing.
The big news though comes of the diplomatic front where on May 7th (7/5/15) the US announced that it was pressing ahead with long delayed plans to train and equip Syrian insurgents in Jordan and Turkey to fight ISIL. This presents two substantial problems. Firstly with the defection of the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF) and Harakat Hazm - both supposedly members of the 'moderate' Free Syrian Army (FSA) - to the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front (ANF) in the battles of Jabal al-Zawiya and Bab al-Hawain in November 2014 there is substantial doubt over the reliability of these insurgents and no guarantees that the weapons and equipment they are being provided with won't end up with either ANF or ISIL.
Secondly the US along with coalition partners such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been supplying Syrian insurgents with training, weapons and equipment for the best part of 4 years now. The May 7th announcement merely substantially scales up the operation. So far none of these insurgents have shown any interest in fighting ISIL and instead have focused on fighting the Syrian government. As a result a coalition of the insurgents led by ANF which now goes by the name Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) has made significant gains in Idlib City and the town of Jisr al-Shughour and is now within heavy weapons range of the coastal city of Latikia.
This presents a huge legal and moral problem for the coalition because the foreign backed overthrow of the Syrian government would be wholly illegal under international law even going so far as to violate the United Nations (UN) own charter. This creates a crisis similar to the one faced by the League of Nations when it found itself unable to face up to Nazi Germany's aggression leading to the start of the Second World War and the collapse of the League of Nations.
It also presents a huge practical challenge to the coalition because the collapse of the Syrian government is not going to bring peace, stability and harmony to Syria. Instead it is going to bring further chaos and destruction as the disparate militia groups do battle with each other much as they have been doing in Libya since the overthrow of the Qaddafi government. The already difficult task of isolating and eliminating ISIL could well become impossible amid that chaos. In fact ISIL are already clearly growing in strength in Libya.
As a result the US' decision to go ahead with the plan in defiance of all rational advice is unlikely to make it popular with its NATO allies who are participating in the coalition. However the US' failure to go even further to overthrow the Syrian government more quickly will make it unpopular amongst it's Gulf Arab allies plus Turkey. Wednesday (13/5/15) and Thursday (14/5/15) saw both a NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Turkey and a a supposed Heads of State meeting between the US and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) although it seems clear that the GCC only agreed to that so they could snub the US in order to show that they hold the power and US President Barack Obama is nothing but their servant.
Needless to say the US prepared for these twin meetings by chucking the proverbial kitchen sink at the problem. This began with US Secretary of State John Kerry making his first visit to Russia since the conflict in Ukraine broke out. The US of course engineered the conflict in Ukraine as a way to punish Russia for its support for the Syrian government and the concept of international law really. As such this visit could be interpreted as a sign of a thaw in the US' position towards Russia and by extension Syria.
The visit was accompanied by news that the US Congress had temporarily blocked the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. This is not to be confused with the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement that the US is currently negotiating with the European Union (EU). It is this negotiation which is making it extremely difficult for the EU to tell the US no at the moment which is having far reaching consequences from Libya through the middle-east to Ukraine because Obama is incapable of saying no to Turkey let alone Saudi Arabia at the moment.
Next up came riot hit Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake giving a press conference about the cities "Red Line" subway system. Obama of course foolishly said that the overthrow of the Syrian government was a Red Line for him. It was perhaps even more foolish of him to actually believe it.
Next up came the news that there would be no charges in the police involved death of Tony Robinson. As the US police are apparently no longer allowed to use force to maintain order this created fears that it would trigger yet another night of rioting. Also "Tony Robinson" sounds dangerously close to "Tommy Robinson" the assumed name of the founder of the English Defence League (EDL). Although bringing up the EDL doesn't portray the UK as particularly pro-Muslim I still don't understand the connection. However I think that was entirely the point.
The EDL actually held a protest in London on Sunday (10/5/15) where one of the police officers was photographed sporting a rather spectacular beard and moustache combination. This led to him being dubbed "#HipsterCop" creating a bit of a frenzy on Twitter. It turns out this tapped into a bit of a protest sub-culture because at the Occupy Wall Streets protests in 2011 the New York Police Department (NYPD) took to deploying a detective with a particularly Hipster fashion sense including tweed suits. According to my brother who I happened to meet on Sunday the police in Shoreditch/Hoxton area which is very much London's Hipster capital have been playing the game for a long time occasionally patrolling in vintage 1950's police cars. However I'm not sure what any of us are meant to do with any of this information.
The big play though which meant to carry us through Wednesday and Thursday was the Amtrak 188 crash in Philadelphia. Obama's race baiting war on cops agenda is clearly doing him huge amounts of damage. It not only cost the Democrats the 2014 mid-term elections but also seemed to damage their UK partners Labour at the recent General Election. Despite having to deploy troops to quell their own waves of racist violence even the South Africans have likened Obama's policy to "a train wreck." The challenge of the 188 crash was to try and work out from all the random details whether Obama ordered the incident or whether the US Establishment had ordered it to brief against Obama.
All of this performance seems to have had little effect because glancing over the outcome of the GCC meeting Obama appears to be continuing his position of just doing everything the Saudis tell him to do.
14:40 on 15/5/15 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:55 on 16/5/15 (UK date) to add;
In my rush this up I didn't do any of it much justice particularly the Philadelphia train crash.
The big random detail you would have to work through is that on the day after the crash the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak's funding by about a 5th. Although I wasn't following it in detail I understand that the Republican controlled House had no other option under the Obama authored Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. This of course goes right to the heart of whether the Republicans are to blame or whether Obama is to blame.
The other big detail is Philadelphia itself which up until recently was known as "Killadelphia" due to it having the highest murder rate in the US. Although Honduras is widely considered to be the most murderous nation on earth it's murder rate is far exceeded by many US cities. In fact with a murder rate of 97 per 100,000 if Baltimore was a nation rather then a city the US State Department would simply advise people not to go there. A large part of the way that Philadelphia managed to bring down it's murder rate is by introducing zero-tolerance policing which is sometimes called "Broken Windows Policing" and makes extensive use of Terry Test stop and frisk tactics. This is exactly the type of policing that Obama and his cronies are trying to do away with.
Also in that TV show "Oz" that I keep going on about it's never quite made clear which US state it's set in. So although it's clearly set on the east coast it could be New York State, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania or Illinois. So basically any one of the areas served by the train that crashed. In another obscure pop-culture reference the train number 188 is just one number out from 187 which a lot of people rightly or wrongly think is the Los Angeles police radio code for murder.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash a lot of focus has fallen on the engineer who was driving the train - Brandon Bostian. To a non-native ear the name "Bostian" could have sounded a lot like "Bostonian" meaning "Son of Boston." At the time the city of Boston was gripped by the death penalty portion of the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Although the US ended up going in a more Ukrainian direction I suspect that Tsarnaev's Chechen roots were intended as a threat to Russia that if they continued to support the Syrian government calamities could be arranged.
Since writing the above Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death. I honestly don't have much of an opinion about that beyond thinking that it's time to draw a line under the saga and let the dust settle.
One aspect of the focus on the engineer who I suspect took quite a bang on the head during the crash is whether he would give the authorities to check his cellphone record or whether they would have to apply for a warrant. The day after the crash the House also debated and passed a bill restricting the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk surveillance of cellphones. This was of course something that was revealed by Edward Snowden and caused a lot of tension particularly between the US and Germany. However with it forcing foreign intelligence agencies to confirm what they already knew about US spy programs rather then revealing anything new I've always thought that the Snowden leaks were another effort to put pressure on Russia over its support for the Syrian government.
Finally although a train crash is hardly an effective mechanism for a targeted assassination and I certainly see no indication of it you would also have to search through the identities of those killed to rule out links to political or espionage activities.
Over the past week the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched yet another attack on the Baiji oil refinery which sits around 40km (24 miles) north of the city of Tikrit. According to the most recent reports ISIL now control between 40-50% of the facility although the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) continue to resist their advance. You may remember that Baiji was one of the staging points for March's operation to liberate Tikrit. That operation saw ISIL flee Tikrit for the al-Hawaja district that sits between Baiji and Kirkuk some 100km (60 miles) to the north-east. Therefore I wouldn't have considered the Tikrit operation to be fully completed until ISIL had been cleared from al-Hawaja district fully securing Baiji, Tikrit and Kirkuk.
Unfortunately in their haste the Iraqi Shia Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) militia started demanding that a fresh operation was started to force ISIL from Anbar province. This provoked ISIL into launching a pre-emptive offensive around the town of al-Baghdadi and the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi which all sit in a line some 100km (60 miles) to the west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Over the past month or so this ISIL offensive has forced to ISF to desperately reinforce their positions in those areas. Today ISIL launched another big push with 12 ISF troops being killed in Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) attacks in al-Baghdadi and 150 being killed in VBIED attacks in Ramadi. As I write the situation is Ramadi is extremely chaotic with reports that ISIL have seized the centre of the city and ISF troops are in the process of withdrawing.
The big news though comes of the diplomatic front where on May 7th (7/5/15) the US announced that it was pressing ahead with long delayed plans to train and equip Syrian insurgents in Jordan and Turkey to fight ISIL. This presents two substantial problems. Firstly with the defection of the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF) and Harakat Hazm - both supposedly members of the 'moderate' Free Syrian Army (FSA) - to the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front (ANF) in the battles of Jabal al-Zawiya and Bab al-Hawain in November 2014 there is substantial doubt over the reliability of these insurgents and no guarantees that the weapons and equipment they are being provided with won't end up with either ANF or ISIL.
Secondly the US along with coalition partners such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been supplying Syrian insurgents with training, weapons and equipment for the best part of 4 years now. The May 7th announcement merely substantially scales up the operation. So far none of these insurgents have shown any interest in fighting ISIL and instead have focused on fighting the Syrian government. As a result a coalition of the insurgents led by ANF which now goes by the name Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) has made significant gains in Idlib City and the town of Jisr al-Shughour and is now within heavy weapons range of the coastal city of Latikia.
This presents a huge legal and moral problem for the coalition because the foreign backed overthrow of the Syrian government would be wholly illegal under international law even going so far as to violate the United Nations (UN) own charter. This creates a crisis similar to the one faced by the League of Nations when it found itself unable to face up to Nazi Germany's aggression leading to the start of the Second World War and the collapse of the League of Nations.
It also presents a huge practical challenge to the coalition because the collapse of the Syrian government is not going to bring peace, stability and harmony to Syria. Instead it is going to bring further chaos and destruction as the disparate militia groups do battle with each other much as they have been doing in Libya since the overthrow of the Qaddafi government. The already difficult task of isolating and eliminating ISIL could well become impossible amid that chaos. In fact ISIL are already clearly growing in strength in Libya.
As a result the US' decision to go ahead with the plan in defiance of all rational advice is unlikely to make it popular with its NATO allies who are participating in the coalition. However the US' failure to go even further to overthrow the Syrian government more quickly will make it unpopular amongst it's Gulf Arab allies plus Turkey. Wednesday (13/5/15) and Thursday (14/5/15) saw both a NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Turkey and a a supposed Heads of State meeting between the US and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) although it seems clear that the GCC only agreed to that so they could snub the US in order to show that they hold the power and US President Barack Obama is nothing but their servant.
Needless to say the US prepared for these twin meetings by chucking the proverbial kitchen sink at the problem. This began with US Secretary of State John Kerry making his first visit to Russia since the conflict in Ukraine broke out. The US of course engineered the conflict in Ukraine as a way to punish Russia for its support for the Syrian government and the concept of international law really. As such this visit could be interpreted as a sign of a thaw in the US' position towards Russia and by extension Syria.
The visit was accompanied by news that the US Congress had temporarily blocked the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. This is not to be confused with the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement that the US is currently negotiating with the European Union (EU). It is this negotiation which is making it extremely difficult for the EU to tell the US no at the moment which is having far reaching consequences from Libya through the middle-east to Ukraine because Obama is incapable of saying no to Turkey let alone Saudi Arabia at the moment.
Next up came riot hit Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake giving a press conference about the cities "Red Line" subway system. Obama of course foolishly said that the overthrow of the Syrian government was a Red Line for him. It was perhaps even more foolish of him to actually believe it.
Next up came the news that there would be no charges in the police involved death of Tony Robinson. As the US police are apparently no longer allowed to use force to maintain order this created fears that it would trigger yet another night of rioting. Also "Tony Robinson" sounds dangerously close to "Tommy Robinson" the assumed name of the founder of the English Defence League (EDL). Although bringing up the EDL doesn't portray the UK as particularly pro-Muslim I still don't understand the connection. However I think that was entirely the point.
The EDL actually held a protest in London on Sunday (10/5/15) where one of the police officers was photographed sporting a rather spectacular beard and moustache combination. This led to him being dubbed "#HipsterCop" creating a bit of a frenzy on Twitter. It turns out this tapped into a bit of a protest sub-culture because at the Occupy Wall Streets protests in 2011 the New York Police Department (NYPD) took to deploying a detective with a particularly Hipster fashion sense including tweed suits. According to my brother who I happened to meet on Sunday the police in Shoreditch/Hoxton area which is very much London's Hipster capital have been playing the game for a long time occasionally patrolling in vintage 1950's police cars. However I'm not sure what any of us are meant to do with any of this information.
The big play though which meant to carry us through Wednesday and Thursday was the Amtrak 188 crash in Philadelphia. Obama's race baiting war on cops agenda is clearly doing him huge amounts of damage. It not only cost the Democrats the 2014 mid-term elections but also seemed to damage their UK partners Labour at the recent General Election. Despite having to deploy troops to quell their own waves of racist violence even the South Africans have likened Obama's policy to "a train wreck." The challenge of the 188 crash was to try and work out from all the random details whether Obama ordered the incident or whether the US Establishment had ordered it to brief against Obama.
All of this performance seems to have had little effect because glancing over the outcome of the GCC meeting Obama appears to be continuing his position of just doing everything the Saudis tell him to do.
14:40 on 15/5/15 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:55 on 16/5/15 (UK date) to add;
In my rush this up I didn't do any of it much justice particularly the Philadelphia train crash.
The big random detail you would have to work through is that on the day after the crash the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak's funding by about a 5th. Although I wasn't following it in detail I understand that the Republican controlled House had no other option under the Obama authored Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. This of course goes right to the heart of whether the Republicans are to blame or whether Obama is to blame.
The other big detail is Philadelphia itself which up until recently was known as "Killadelphia" due to it having the highest murder rate in the US. Although Honduras is widely considered to be the most murderous nation on earth it's murder rate is far exceeded by many US cities. In fact with a murder rate of 97 per 100,000 if Baltimore was a nation rather then a city the US State Department would simply advise people not to go there. A large part of the way that Philadelphia managed to bring down it's murder rate is by introducing zero-tolerance policing which is sometimes called "Broken Windows Policing" and makes extensive use of Terry Test stop and frisk tactics. This is exactly the type of policing that Obama and his cronies are trying to do away with.
Also in that TV show "Oz" that I keep going on about it's never quite made clear which US state it's set in. So although it's clearly set on the east coast it could be New York State, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania or Illinois. So basically any one of the areas served by the train that crashed. In another obscure pop-culture reference the train number 188 is just one number out from 187 which a lot of people rightly or wrongly think is the Los Angeles police radio code for murder.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash a lot of focus has fallen on the engineer who was driving the train - Brandon Bostian. To a non-native ear the name "Bostian" could have sounded a lot like "Bostonian" meaning "Son of Boston." At the time the city of Boston was gripped by the death penalty portion of the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Although the US ended up going in a more Ukrainian direction I suspect that Tsarnaev's Chechen roots were intended as a threat to Russia that if they continued to support the Syrian government calamities could be arranged.
Since writing the above Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death. I honestly don't have much of an opinion about that beyond thinking that it's time to draw a line under the saga and let the dust settle.
One aspect of the focus on the engineer who I suspect took quite a bang on the head during the crash is whether he would give the authorities to check his cellphone record or whether they would have to apply for a warrant. The day after the crash the House also debated and passed a bill restricting the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk surveillance of cellphones. This was of course something that was revealed by Edward Snowden and caused a lot of tension particularly between the US and Germany. However with it forcing foreign intelligence agencies to confirm what they already knew about US spy programs rather then revealing anything new I've always thought that the Snowden leaks were another effort to put pressure on Russia over its support for the Syrian government.
Finally although a train crash is hardly an effective mechanism for a targeted assassination and I certainly see no indication of it you would also have to search through the identities of those killed to rule out links to political or espionage activities.
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