Ludicrous Claims Department 101


Yet another example of the appalling standards of modern journalism from the Guardian, with journalists not thinking about what they write, and of the fakery of the industry of “analysts” that leech off the “War on Terror”.

Zhukov has analysed some 30,000 violent attacks in the Caucusus region and found that in most cases there is substantial chatter between instigators followed by a claim of responsibility for the incident

Really? 30,000 attacks analysed, including researching the internet traffic of the perpetrators and their public statements?

That is rather a lot of work. Firstly you have to identify the attack and identify the perpetrator. Then you have to access their internet use and go through it looking for relevant reading, comments or relevant messages.

Let us presume you have such good access to the security services that they do all of that for you, and serve up the results to you on a plate, and that you trust their diligence, honesty and analytical ability sufficiently to work just from what you were given. If you were being served up ready to analyse dossiers of relevant internet traffic of perpetrators of attacks, how many such dossiers could you in any meaningful way analyse in a working day to form a view on the individual? Perhaps four?

Now let us presume four weeks holiday a year and five working days a week. It would take you 33 years of solid work, doing nothing else in your professional life, to analyse thirty thousand cases. That is to make the startling assumption that there is meaningful material on as many as thirty thousand cases to analyse, and you have access to it.

30,000 attacks analysed? Bullshit. Pure bullshit.

To compound which the Guardian also brings us that silk suited leech on public funds, Ed Husain of the discredited Quilliam Foundation. What passes for mainstream media analysis on security issues is risible.


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101 thoughts on “Ludicrous Claims Department

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  • nevermind

    translated it appears to be this:

    Kicked from Cuba in 2006.

    SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2006

    Cuba Libre
    Met an old friend yesterday: Anna Ardin equality manager at Uppsala Student Union. She had just come home from Cuba where she would write her essay in political science on the political oppositonen. It had not gone well. Now she could not quite as alien to jail or anything, but her post says a lot about how the situation is there for the domestic opposition. Read her blog posts sent, unsolicited and dejected and you will understand what I mean. For Cuba (or democracy) interested are very interesting to read on her blog.

    http://100-procent-kommersiellt-gang…1_archive.html

    Sent off, unwanted, dejected

  • Arbed

    Ah! Sorry, should have explained Nevermind. Ardin’s blog post is contained in the Spoiler field (the bit you’ve missed out of your translation above).

  • Komodo

    Yup, it’s a lets-develop-the-savages outfit:

    http://www.bicusa.org/institutions/idb/

    As a public, “regionally owned” development Bank, the IDB regularly issues statements about its commitment to liberalization, expressed initially in economic terms but also in terms of how its financial and technical assistance complements political liberalization in the region. How ironic, then, that IDB officials and project managers should continue to negotiate, plan, and implement operations without the informed participation of affected people and their advocate organizations (usually NGOs), and even without the knowledge of elected officials in the borrowing countries.

  • Sophie Habercake

    Komodo.

    Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to your kind offer of marriage.
    I would have got back on this thread after school but I got kept back in detention for asking Miss Trunchball why we had that statue of a terrorist outside St Clement Danes. She got all puffed up and told the class “That’s a ludicrous claim, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris was a Great Englishman!” And then I read out what he said in Wikipedia

    “… the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale, and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing, are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy. They are not by-products of attempts to hit factories… “

    and all the while she was yelling at me to close my mouth and sit down
    and then she said that’s quite enough young lady, get out of this class right now and wait outside the headmistress’s office. But it was worth it because Gary Braintree winked at me and said “Cool!” as I left the class.

    Which brings me back to your proposal. I’m flattered but I have to tell you you’re not the only reptile in my life. When Gary brought me home after that party in Trafalgar Square Dad told mum he couldn’t stand that reptile sniffing around the place. Anyway Gary says you’re probably just some wrinkly old grandpa posing as a lizard, so I think we shouldn’t rush into this. Besides you’d end up in prison pretty soon if we didn’t wait two and a half years. And mum says you’d be in for a bit of a shock too, but she always says things like that.

    *What kind of living-fossil uses words like “Ludicrous”? (Apart from Dad)

  • doug scorgie

    Some news to ponder

    “New York police say what appears to be part of the landing gear of one of jets flown into the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 has been found.”

    “The 5ft (1.52m) piece of metal, which bears a Boeing label and serial number, was wedged between two New York City buildings, police said.”

    “It’s a manifestation of a horrific terrorist act a block and a half away from where we stand,” New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters outside the secured site. “It brings back terrible memories to anyone who was here, who was involved in that event.”

    “Mr Kelly told reporters after inspecting it that a length of rope was looped around the piece of steel and that no marks were visible on the walls overhead.”

    “What appears to be the remains of a broken pulley can be seen with the wreckage and the New York Times reports that Mr Kelly did not completely EXCLUDE the idea that the aircraft debris may have been LOWERED into the gap.”

    The location is at the site where a mosque and community centre has been proposed, three streets away from “Ground Zero” – the site of the twin towers. [coincidence?]

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22319253

    My emphasis

  • April Showers

    Rouge John Hilley encapsulates what went on with the BBC. He includes some comments from Jonathan Cook a freelance journalist who lives in Nazareth. Cook’s points a) and b) give the real reason for the BBC cowardice. They are scared for the blowback from the Israel lobby.

    a) it suggests the Zionist claim that Jews are “returning” to the Promised Land is bogus – the truth is they never left.

    b) it also suggests that today’s Palestinians are in fact descended from those Jews who remained (converting later to Christianity and Islam), while most of the Jews “returning” are descended from Jewish converts who never lived in the region.

    Ilan Ziv’s Exile, a Myth Unearthed – uncovering BBC bias http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/ilan-zivs-exile-myth-unearthed.html

    ~~~~

    Separately I have been watching Milord Patten and the new DG Milord Hall answering Whittingdale’s DCMS committee on the Sweeney Panorama programme which used LST students as cover to enter the country. Not impressed with Hall. A wet. Not a strong type which is what was needed.

    I believe I saw this persons sitting in the background, Nicholas Kroll, who runs the BBC Trust Unit.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/who_we_are/trust_unit/nicholas_kroll.html £246k pa plus. A snip. Ex civil servant from the DCMS no less.

    The Trust Unit

    The Trust is supported by a team of 70 staff, known as the Trust Unit. These staff are independent from the BBC Executive and include specialists in audience research, performance analysis, and finance. The Trust Unit is headed by its Director, Nicholas Kroll.

    In 2007/08, the BBC Trust cost £11.909 million to run; in 2008/09, £10.517 million; and in 2009/10, £10.502 million, excluding Ofcom fees.[17]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Trust

    Patten is now patting himself on the back for the ‘impeccable coverage’ by the BBC of the Thatcher death and funeral. How dreadful these toads are. Actually I like toads. What else can I call them? Snakes perhaps.

  • April Showers

    Typos.

    Scared of…
    LSE…
    this person…

    ‘the country’ being North Korea

  • rouge

    April, thanks for that. Let’s hope that the ‘Streisand effect’ kicks in and ensures Ilan Ziv’s “Exile, a Myth Unearthed” great success.

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