The EXPERT

a report in today's guardian says....

"Expert who made up interviews is exposed"

"American and French media yesterday were taking a second look at the work of a so-called terrorism expert who faked his academic credentials - and entire interviews with some of the world's most prominent figures."

"For six years Alexis Debat, who falsely claimed to have earned a PhD at the Sorbonne and worked as an adviser to the French defence ministry, operated as an expert on national security in the world of Washington thinktanks, US network television and French intellectual journals."

"He was a consultant to ABC television, which sent him on trips to Pakistan, Iraq and Iran to guide their coverage on al-Qaida; a senior fellow on terrorism at the conservative thinktank the Nixon Centre; and a regular contributor to the magazine National Interest, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger. Mr Debat was also a regular in the pages of the French publication Politique International."

"But, as is now only emerging, Mr Debat not only lacked the credentials he claimed, he fabricated interviews with such figures as the UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, and Democrat presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton...."

when dinosaurs ruled the earth like it's 1999

Prince, that "slave" of the old style american music industry, is reportedly insisting that YouTube removes "unauthorised" clips of him, blah blah blah.

a spokesman said "Prince believes strongly that copyrights should be protected across the board," ETC ETC

Prince has even hired a company called Web Sheriff to "enforce" the ban.

what a pathetic wanker.

ISRAEL

the news headline says..... Israeli 'neo-Nazi gang' arrested

Revital Almog, the police official who led the investigation, told Israeli public radio "It is difficult to believe that Nazi ideology sympathisers can exist in Israel, but it is a fact,"

Personally, and I KNOW I'm not alone in thinking this, I can't tell the difference between the Nazis and the Israeli Military.

Nasty vicious cunts the lot of them.

Al-Qaeda, wink wink nudge nudge

the news headline says ..... "Al-Qaeda claims Algerian bombings"

yes folks in the lead up to september 11th we are told that "Members of al-Qaeda's North Africa wing say they carried out two suicide attacks that have killed at least 50 people in Algeria in the past two days. The group, which calls itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, made the claim in an internet statement." blah blah blah

And then way down near the bottom of the article we're informed that this group only started calling themselves "Al-Qaeda" just last year. Before that they were "known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)".

So, not THE Al-Qaeda then.

Maybe in another few years they'll be even more obliging to the headline writers and rebrand themselves as simply "The Terrorists."

or how about just "The Baddies."

THE VOICE OF BRITAIN

the topic once again is News Headlines and Reports based on Opinion Polls.

is it really possible for just 1,001 people's opinions to accurately reflect the opinions of the whole population of the uk?

the whole population of the uk being, what......... about Sixty Million-ish?

As a percentage, One Thousand and One is ........ (I don't have my maths head on today)

......something like 0.001% of Sixty Million.

so lets look at it this way,

if it's true that the views of just 0.001% of the population can fairly accurately represent everybody's views, then we are really really fucked up aren't we. I mean so much for independent thought etc. It implies that we're nothing more than a herd of fucking sheep.

more fact-like-statements from the bbc

in it's List of "10 things we didn't previously know," the bbc today highlights the information that......

"Prison officers are on average assaulted eight times a day."

Of course this isn't nescessarily any kind of absolute fact, it's just presented like a fact. But when we follow the link to the actual article we discover this info originates (way down the page) as merely part of a quote from the chairman of The Prison Officers' Association. Is his spin on things likely to be objective and trustworthy?

More importantly it's highly unlikely there is any kind of record or objective perspective available of the reverse information....... exactly how many times a day Prisoners are assaulted by prison officers.

meanwhile, on the topic of Uniforms and Abuse Of Power...........

"Concerns over Taser gun roll-out"

From September 2007, the use of Tasers in the uk will no longer be limited to trained firearms officers.

"Concerns have been raised for public safety as Taser stun guns are made available to more police officers in England and Wales. Officers in 10 forces, who are not firearms specialists, will be able to use the 50,000-volt Tasers."

That's 50,000 volts in the hands of a Uniformed Grunt.