The Bewilderness

The United Taleban: forged by success or opportunity?

The Taliban have reorganised their alliance, setting up a new Council of Mujahid, that allies the Pakistan and Afghan Taleban with other Pakistani jihadist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. This presents a major challenge to the Pakistani government as the new force holds sway in the tribal areas but can now strike at will in the Punjab and India.

The prominent new leader is Baitullah Mehsud and his anti-American rhetoric forms a binding glue which forges the alliance. He has threatened a spectacular in Washington and vows attacks on NATO and its government supporters. From the central spine of the tribal areas, the insurgency strikes north and south, but the Taleban have found richer territorial pickings in their craven host. Strategic differences in this fragile alliance will not prevent the Taleban from exploiting Pakistan's continual weaknesses .

A figleaf to cover an unedifying sight

The sleaze drip has forced some urgency into the report on expenses promised by Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life:

In a statement released today, Sir Christopher said it was “now obvious” that a quicker probe was needed and that they would suspend other work and begin an “independent, wide-ranging” review straight away.

“The situation has changed quite dramatically over the last few months and I am pleased that there is now such widespread political consensus on the need for reform,” he said.

“I hope that this will translate into full acceptance of our recommendations by all the main political parties - challenging though they are likely to be.”

He went on: “The issues involved are complex. We will be meeting with party leaders and intend to publish an Issues and Questions Paper within the next few weeks. We will ask for written submissions from all interested parties and hold a number of public hearings. All evidence submitted to the inquiry will be published.

The 'political consensus' has been arranged by the increasing wave of revelations that has now engulfed the government; this is not action from concerned parties but a need to show a response after the lackadaisical 'personal' buck-passing displayed by Brown yesterday. The truncation of the time for this review is a figleaf to spare the government's blushes.

The Ourobouros debt strategy

Ambrose Evans Pritchard may not always be correct: inflation rather than deflation, AEP, but he can spot a downer a mile off. His latest one is quite predictable; the large debt issuance from the ailing governments will crowd out the private sector, prolonging the credit crunch, weakening their cashflow, tipping more firms into bankruptcy and prolonging the downturn.

Governments are beginning to eat their own milch cows.

Someone just nailed Saviour Brown to the cross

What seemed like a simple wheeze to present the rational co-ordination of the political classes as a guiding light for the huddled masses bewildered by the downturn. The saviour of the world would teach how disciples through the loaves and fishes of fiscal stimulus how you could perform a miracle of paying debt through more debt. Unfortunately, a Judas has just nailed Brown's ass to the cross:

President Sarkozy yesterday threatened to wreck the London summit if France’s demands for tougher financial regulation are not met.

France will not accept a G20 that produces a “false success with language that sounds good but contains no commitments”, his advisers said.

Asked if this meant a possible walk-out, Xavier Musca, Mr Sarkozy’s deputy chief of staff for economic affairs, said: “A basic rule with nuclear deterrence is that you do not say at what point you will use the weapon.”

The French threat dramatically raised the temperature hours before President Obama arrives in London today. If carried through, it would ruin a summit for which Mr Brown and Mr Obama have high ambitions, believing it vital to international recovery.

The scaled down ambitions of the G20 summit has converted the meeting into domestic fodder. Since most of the leaders have their own thoughts on how to proceed, based on their national priorities, their thoughts turn to how they can use the communique as a resource.

This unravelling was always a danger for Brown. His own reliance upon 'international co-operation' for domestic consumption left the summit open to be exploited in a similar manner by other leaders. Their thoughts on how to proceed did not align with his, signalling the end of consensus.

And just to add pressure, the EU wishes to force all EU countries to act on international institutions with a single voice. The second word is off..

No limits to terror in Pakistan

With the attack on the Manawar police training school, terrorists in Pakistan wish to tell the elite that nowhere is safe, no-one is sacrosanct. The stench of fear is high in Punjab tonight as Mumbai tactics will be utilised again and again.

Make allowances say MPs, as we haven't enough for our povertystricken lifestyles

Let me get this straight. Members of Parliament, after a rearguard battle to prevent the publication of their expenses, will now have the power to vet these documents. The Telegraph gives a rather detailed exposition of the process that is worth regaling here.

Under a Freedom of Information request, a body will allow external parties to redact the requested documentation, so that sensitive information or personal data will not enter the public realm. So far, so good for our sleaze ridden political class. However, individual MPs will have the right to vet this redaction process and propose or demand further information that should be blacked out. If there is judged to be a confliect, this will be referred up to Members Estimates Committee, a body of MPs, chaired by those experienced in using expenses, such as the Speaker.

Nick Harvey, the chairman of the House of Commons Commission, which oversees the publication process, confirmed that MPs will be able to alter their papers.

He said: "On completion of the scanning and editing work, members will need to check the records relating to them, and further editing may then be required."

No date for final publication of the edited receipts has been set, he said.

MPs have effectively been given a veto over publishing their own sleaze and can use the process of redaction to delay publication for as long as possible. This short-sighted approach is designed to delay revelations till after the general election, though drip drip leaks may prove more damaging in the long run.

This is already a scandal after Gordon Brown, his fairweather reputation for dishonesty destroyed, kicked the issue of expenses down the pitch with a review starting in September and designed to report in late 2010. Cameron has attacked this evasion as unsatisfactory but Brown will not budge. His calculated support for Jacqui Smith after her 'porn again' husband was found out only reinforces anger around the country. If it isn't adult movies being claimed for, Jacqui Smith has obtained other luxury goods:

The Sunday Express, which reported the details, also reported that she had in fact claimed more than £150,000 in ACAs since 2001, including £1,000 for an antique fireplace, £704 for a sofa bed and £550 for a Habitat stone kitchen sink.  

Brown, encircled, embittered and paranoid, will not allow one Minister to resign for such petty (cash) reasons..

BBC bias? alternatives....

Just heard on the BBC at 5.40 with their historical updates of the day: Ronald Reagan was shot on this day, followed by an advocate of gun control. This was an editorial choice on the part of the BBC.

If you strike the bias pose, you will state that the BBC has a left-liberal bias and that there is a conscious decision to advance gun-control through this choice of quote. Yet, a number of alternative scenarios are possible. The historical scenario would conclude that the quotation formed part of the original news report, and that this is repeated now. There could have been a selective bias at the time, which is now reinforced, but we cannot be sure that is the case. Alternatively, the quote was chosen by chance as padding, as the editor was pressed for time or because it was a complete sentence or nder a number of technical criteria.

BBC bias is possible, but not proven in particulars, but clear in the aggregate.

Pakistan, Talibanistan: telling the difference

The Telegraph reports on the complex relationships that the Pakistani intelligence services hold with the Taliban. The 'S' wing of the ISI has been funding the Taliban, whilst supposedly differentiating between those who attack us and those who attack them. Such a division does not exist, so we can conclude that the Pakistani 'state within a state' is still colluding with the insurgency, and Zardari's government is impotent.

From the West's point of view, hitting the drug crop in Afghanistan will not work in curbing the insurgency:

Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region, has warned that the Taliban-led insurgency is receiving huge donations from individuals in Gulf states that when combined exceed the income the insurgents gain annually from the drugs trade.

Pakistan is the lynchpin to Afghanistan, so long as the ISI ontinues to fund and organise the Taliban.  .

Just going for a boomtastic hunt

Here is a good test of the government's new counter-terrorist strategy:

A raid on an orphanage in Bangladesh has uncovered a suspected Islamic militant training camp with links to a British charity run by a man acquitted of being part of an al-Qaeda bomb plot.

The home of Faisal Mostafa in the Heaton Mersey district of Stockport, Greater Manchester, is the headquarters of the Green Crescent charity, whose orphanage on the island of Bhola in Bangladesh is under investigation for allegedly being a front for a militant training camp and arms factory.

Given that the madressa was teaching orphans the joy of jihadism, can we expect the Charities Commission to close down the Green Crescent, or was their level of oversight a "jolly good name for ecology". If Jacqui Smith's toilet paper has any worth, then this charity will be closed.

This is a man of interest to the security services who has a, ahem, history of court cases linked to Al-Qaeda and an interest in guns.

Ghulam Mostafa, his father, accounted for the apparent discovery of an “arms factory”. He said that his son had enjoyed a life-long interest in hunting and that he manufactured his own ammunition using spent cartridges and gunpowder. He urged his son overnight to hand himself over to the British High Commission. The family said they understood that he had been arrested.

Yeah, right.

Thatcherism on vinyl

Who could convince me to love Spandau Ballet...

I loathed Spandau Ballet first time round; I loathe them equally now. More than any other musical assembly with the possible exception of Stock Aitken and Waterman, they are Thatcherism on vinyl.

Excellent reason to buy and piss off another po-faced miserabilist.