A fifth cable cut?

by | Feb 6, 2008 | Conflict and security, Influence and networks

The undersea cable conspiracy continues. A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each.

These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

Need to know

by | Feb 6, 2008 | Off topic, UK

Politicians and the media are up in arms about the bugging scandal involving a Labour MP. But, Fans of Yes, Prime Minister will remember the episode where the PM denies phone tapping an MP in PMQs. There’s only one catch. Here’s the lead in….
Sir Humphrey: So I gather you denied that Mr Halifax’s phone had been bugged?

Brown’s half year report card

by | Feb 6, 2008 | Influence and networks, UK

A little over half a year in, George Parker and Alex Barker offered an in-depth report card on Brown’s management of the Number 10 machine in yesterday’s FT. It doesn’t pull many punches:

Supporters of Gordon Brown speak of “chaos” – and that is one of the gentler words used to describe the past few months at 10 Downing Street under Britain’s prime minister. His officials have sometimes been seen in nearby pubs red-eyed with fatigue and – occasionally – with the sting of tears. Their complaints are of a prime minister shouting at the typists, taking out his frustration on his closest aides and unable to take decisions. For them, Mr Brown has been at the helm of the GST: the “Good Ship Titanic”. Even loyal ministers admit that things inside a dysfunctional Downing Street were becoming “ridiculous”.

There’s no new information in the article, but it’s still worth reading as a thorough stock-taking survey.

Outside the Super Tuesday spotlight…

by | Feb 6, 2008 | Conflict and security

  • In Kenya the death toll now tops 1,000, according to the International Red Cross (quoted in a CBC story yesterday).  The number of internally displaced people is reported to be over 304,000, although that figure’s expected to rise too.
  • Meanwile, AP reports that hundreds are dead in Chad, and that “most downtown shops and buildings have been looted”.
  • IRIN reports that two million people in Somalia face a humanitarian crisis and need urgent aid, amid large numbers fleeing from fighting in Mogadishu, attacks on aid workers, hyperinflation and drought in two regions
  • Fighting in the north of Yemen is escalating, also according to IRIN, despite a recent peace deal brokered by the Qatari government
  • And the CIA has for the first time publicly admitted waterboarding detainees.

All this and plenty more from the excellent daily news roundup emailed by the Human Security Report Project in Canada.   It’s free – if you’d like it, you can sign up here.