Archive Page 2

The Real Threat to Israel from Egypt’s Revolution

Beneath western praise for the Egyptian people’s stunning victory over autocratic rule runs a deep concern about how these events will impact America’s and Britain’s most treasured ally in the region; Israel.   From Washington to Whitehall, pro-Israeli pundits have already begun sowing seeds of anxiety, warning that Egypt could tear up its peace treaty with Israel and/ or go the way of Iran and embrace clerical rule.

It’s time for a little perspective. Continue reading ‘The Real Threat to Israel from Egypt’s Revolution’

Julian Assange: The Ultimate Anarchist?

Julian Assange has lost the plot—or has he?  The answer depends on what the founder of Wikileaks is truly hoping to achieve with his online whistle-blowing website.     If it is as he declares ‘…to enable and empower citizens to bring feared and corrupt governments and corporations to justice,’ then Assange has strayed very far from his original mission.  The only people ‘empowered’ by Wikileaks’ latest publication of facilities vital to US security are terrorists who can now access a list of strategic targets at a keystroke.    

I am a passionate proponent of free speech, especially when it aims to expose corporate fraud and government lies.  But far from strengthening democratic institutions through transparency, Wikileaks’ publication of classified US State Department and military communications threatens to tear them down.   That is not, as Assange would put it ‘principled leaking’ to ‘lead us to a better future’.  It is anarchism.   Continue reading ‘Julian Assange: The Ultimate Anarchist?’

NATO’s Afghan Exit Plan…One Year On

Last November, when I first started blogging, I published a two part post titled Afghan Security Forces: The Weak Link in NATO’s Exit Strategy.  As I contemplated what to write in response to this week’s news out of Lisbon it struck me that NATO has done virtually nothing to address the fundamental flaw in the Afghan exit plan it first conceived of a year ago.  So I’m republishing my original critique because sadly, the points I raised then are just as applicable now.  Continue reading ‘NATO’s Afghan Exit Plan…One Year On’

Paying Ransoms: A Dangerous Precedent

Kidnap and Ransom scenarios are extremely high risk and rarely straight forward.  There is no guarantee that paying a ransom will lead to a safe hostage release.  As the families of Paul and Rachel Chandler learned it can spawn more demands for cash, a practice known as ‘double-dipping’.  Gut wrenching as that blow must have been, the Chandlers were lucky.  Some kidnappers take the money and kill.

I can’t fault any family for doing everything in their power to free their loved ones.  But ransom payments do make the world a more dangerous place. Continue reading ‘Paying Ransoms: A Dangerous Precedent’

Should Aid Workers Leave Afghanistan?

No place for aid workers

The death of kidnapped British aid worker Linda Norgrove during a rescue attempt by US Special Forces in Kunar has prompted much debate, especially after it was revealed that she may have been killed by a US grenade and not a Taliban suicide bomber as initially reported.   Some are asking if the US military should have exercised more restraint or whether the operation was even necessary.

 If the goal of such questions is to prevent more aid workers from dying in future, this line of inquiry is  counter-productive at this stage.  I sincerely doubt the British government would have green-lighted the military option had Ms. Norgrove’s life not been in extreme danger. Hostage rescue is extremely high risk and there is always a possibility that the person or persons you are attempting to free could be killed during an operation, especially in a dangerous location like Kunar (parts of which are so untameable that US forces withdrew from them earlier this year).  Instead of pinning blame on the rescuing party, a more useful question is why are aid workers being encouraged to come to Afghanistan when they are such obvious targets? Continue reading ‘Should Aid Workers Leave Afghanistan?’

Britain’s Defence & Identity

He knows he's fighting a civil war.

The Strategic Defence Review was supposed to underpin a thoughtful and civilized discussion over the future capabilities of Britain’s armed forces.  Instead, the Government’s drive to slash budgets as soon as possible has spawned a wave of unseemly bickering as military chiefs scrap over which branch of the services should be gutted.

                The Government needs to back off and not just because compiling a review at breakneck speed and forcing decisions off the back of it is a formula for waste and insecurity.  Even if the data is unimpeachable and well considered, the sad truth is our military chiefs are in no frame of mind to decide what kind of wars we’ll be fighting in future—not when they have yet to come to terms with the one we are fighting right now. Continue reading ‘Britain’s Defence & Identity’

Karzai’s PSC Bluff?

Afghan private security

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to show who’s in charge he doesn’t do it by halves.   His decree this week ordering all foreign and domestic PSCs operating in the country to disband by December is his most audacious power grab since he stole the Presidency last year– provided of course he really means to see it through. Continue reading ‘Karzai’s PSC Bluff?’

BRITAIN’S HIDDEN HEROES

Moving in the Shadows

They don’t come home in flag draped coffins. Crowds do not line the street in silent tribute to their sacrifice.   They are the fallen heroes the government keeps in the shadows; private security contractors who’ve lost their lives servicing British interests in hostile environments.   It’s high time they were honoured.

Those familiar with my writings will know that this is a topic very close to my heart.  For years I’ve been shouting from the rafters for government to externally regulate private security firms with operations abroad.  Continue reading ‘BRITAIN’S HIDDEN HEROES’

It’s Great Britain, Prime Minister – Not Grovelling Britain

It was meant to put Britain’s relationship with the United States back on an even keel.  Instead, Prime Minister David Cameron’s first official trip to Washington this week managed to make Great Britain look more like Grovelling Britain.

The Prime Minister’s inner suck-up reared its head early on when he allowed four US Senators to hijack the agenda.  Continue reading ‘It’s Great Britain, Prime Minister – Not Grovelling Britain’

The Free and The Forgotten

Free thanks to his family.

After a horrendous ordeal, British security manager Bill Shaw is on his way home.  Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the terrible injustice suffered by the G4S manager.  Back in April, Mr. Shaw was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $25,000 for allegedly bribing Afghan officials to release two impounded G4S vehicles.  Earlier this month, an Afghan appeals court finally threw out the charges against Mr. Shaw, citing insufficient evidence.

I cannot begin to imagine the hell that Bill Shaw has been through.  By all accounts he is a manager of impeccable integrity who believed he had paid a legitimate fine to a member of the NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.  In fact, it was his attempt to obtain a receipt for the payment that resulted in his arrest and incarceration.  Sadly, Mr. Shaw learned the hard way what happens to honest men in Afghanistan.  He spent four months in Kabul’s notorious Pul-i-Charki prison alongside murderers, Taliban and hardcore jihadists who put a $10,000 bounty on his head.    Continue reading ‘The Free and The Forgotten’

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