taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

I meant to blog about this event back in April at the time, but never got around to it. Basically, towards the end of April, there was a demonstration in Falujah in Iraq, shots were (reportedly) fired from the crowd, and US troops opened fire, killing 2 and injuring 14.

Well, Charlie Stross has saved me the bother ;) — he’s written a good summary of the historical precedent for this chain of events, and what resulted back then.

Tags: april, blog, crowd, demonstration, end, event, falujah, fire, summary, time

Israeli Defence Force fires on parents of injured British peace activist (Independent) (and the British defence attache to Tel Aviv): ‘The parents of a British peace activist who was shot in the head by Israeli troops, came under fire themselves’ … (they) ‘were in a British diplomatic convoy entering the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip when Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint fired a shot’. ‘The incident … took place despite the Israeli Army being given notice of the journey on at least three occasions’. Incredible. More at the Guardian, too.

Tags: activist, attache, convoy, defence, fire, force, head, independent, israeli, peace

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p>Nice one! ‘Friendly fire’ reaches the nadir! The USAF have just dropped a bomb on John Simpson and a convoy of US special forces

(RealAudio report):

Simpson: ‘So there are Americans dead. It was an American plane that dropped the bomb right beside us - I saw it land about 10 feet, 12 feet away I think. This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground. This is a really bad own goal by the Americans. We don’t really know how many Americans are dead.’

Presenter: ‘John, just to recap for the viewers, an American plane dropped a bomb on your convoy of American special forces - many dead, many injured?’

Simpson: ‘I am sorry to be so excitable. I am bleeding through the ear and everything but that is absolutely the case. I saw this American convoy, and they bombed it. They hit their own people - they may have hit this Kurdish figure, very senior, and they’ve killed a lot of ordinary characters, and I am just looking at the bodies now and it is not a very pretty sight.’

(context: John Simpson is one of the BBC’s top reporters in the field. Apparently, Ted Koppel would be roughly equivalent in stature in the US.)

Sarah Carey notes some interesting aspects of the NYTimes coverage of the incident:

1. This article is placed 27th on their full listing of international headlines. The top headlines are all concerned with the victories in Baghdad and Basra and the likely format of post-Saddam government. The only reason I found the article was because I deliberately went looking for it.

2. Note how many quotes are from wounded Kurds insisting that they do not blame the Americans.

3. They say that one American was wounded when the live BBC reports conclusively stated that American soldiers were killed.

4. They neglect to mention that the BBC translator was one of those killed.

5. Finally, and most insultingly, they give one short quote from John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs Editor, pointing out how US soldiers treated the wounded. It neglects to mention the … quotes he also provided in his report (see above).

Unsurprisingly, the rumour mill reports that the British ‘Desert Rats’ are now painting the stars and stripes on their vehicles, to avoid yet more ‘friendly fire’ incidents…

Propaganda: FARK’s Photoshop Phriday this week is on the theme of how Fox News would have covered events in history. Some hand-picked works of genius:

• Kent State Shootout; Ohio National Guardsmen Victorious in Savage ‘Hippy’ Onslaught

• Japs Steal US Bomb, Detonate In Hiroshima

• Terrorism in Boston Harbour - King George: ‘They Hate America’

• finally, best of all, Operation: Liberation Carthage; ‘Resistance unexpected but we will prevail - Legion Commander Donatus Feldatus’.

Brilliant. (via boingboing)

Tags: article, bbc, bomb, convoy, fire, friendly, nadir, plane, realaudio, usaf

About time I posted this — everyone who’s read ‘em agrees vehemently with at least 5 of these; and a quick Google ™ reveals that this list hasn’t ever had a page to itself out there on the interweb. So here it is.

My personal favourites: 6, 8, 15, 20, 33, and best of all, 28…

• 1) Triangular sandwiches taste better than square ones.
• 2) At the end of every party there is always a girl crying.
• 3) One of the most awkward things that can happen in a pub is when your pint-to-toilet cycle gets synchronised with a complete stranger.
• 4) You’ve never quite sure whether it’s ok to eat green crisps.
• 5) Everyone who grew up in the 80’s has entered the digits 55378008 into a calculator.
• 6) Reading when you’re drunk is horrible.
• 7) Sharpening a pencil with a knife makes you feel really manly.
• 8) You’re never quite sure whether it’s against the law or not to have a fire in your back garden.
• 9) Nobody ever dares make cup-a-soup in a bowl.
• 10) You never know where to look when eating a banana.
• 11) Its impossible to describe the smell of a wet cat.
• 12) Prodding a fire with a stick makes you feel manly.
• 13) Rummaging in an overgrown garden will always turn up a bouncy ball.
• 14) You always feel a bit scared when stroking horses.
• 15) Everyone always remembers the day a dog ran into your school.
• 16) The most embarrassing thing you can do as schoolchild is to call your teacher mum or dad.
• 17) The smaller the monkey the more it looks like it would kill you at the first given opportunity.
• 18) Some days you see lots of people on crutches.
• 19) Every bloke has at some stage while taking a pee flushed half way through and then raced against the flush.
• 20) Old women with mobile phones look wrong!
• 21) Its impossible to look cool whilst picking up a Frisbee.
• 22) Driving through a tunnel makes you feel excited.
• 23) You never ever run out of salt.
• 24) Old ladies can eat more than you think.
• 25) You can’t respect a man who carries a dog.
• 26) There’s no panic like the panic you momentarily feel when you’ve got your hand or head stuck in something.
• 27) No one knows the origins of their metal coat hangers.
• 28) Despite constant warning, you have never met anybody who has had their arm broken by a swan.
• 29) The most painful household incident is wearing socks and stepping on an upturned plug.
• 30) People who don’t drive slam car doors too hard
• 31) You’ve turned into your dad the day you put aside a thin piece of wood specifically to stir paint with.
• 32) Everyone had an uncle who tried to steal their nose.
• 33) Bricks are horrible to carry.
• 34) In every plate of chips there is a bad chip.

Tags: dog, everyone, fire, garden, google, list, old, page, read, time

Guardian: Courage under fire. No matter what you think about what’s going on in Israel and Palestine, Caoimhe, and the other international observers, require your support:

Friday was a very close call. Caoimhe was shot in the left thigh as she stood in between a firing IDF tank and three young boys in the street. I spoke to her on the phone shortly after the attack as she lay in her hospital bed. She explained that she had been trying to persuade the IDF, after they shot dead a nine-year-old boy, to stop shooting at the children. They had told her to get out of their way or they would shoot her. It was while she was clearing the children off the streets that she was shot. She is sure she was a direct target; the tank was close by, the soldier pointed his gun at her and fired, and continued to do so as she crawled to an alleyway for shelter.

I asked an IDF spokesman for his explanation. ‘We are in the middle of a war and we cannot be responsible for the safety of anyone who has not been coordinated by the IDF to be in the occupied territories right now. While we do not want innocent Palestinians to suffer, or internationals to get hurt, we are trying to ensure the safety of the Israelis and we will not tolerate internationals interfering with IDF operations. It is not the job of internationals to stand in the line of fire, unless they are the son of God, but he hasn’t come yet.’

Tags: caoimhe, courage, fire, friday, guardian, idf, matter, safety, support, tank

Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing is on fire today. I was tempted to forward on an entry or two, but by the time I got to the end of today’s updates, I think the only thing a reader can do is just go there and read ‘em: Quake players on drugs, Dance Dance Resurrection, and EMI uploading their own music to Gnutella…

Tags: boing, cory, dance, doctorow, end, entry, fire, thing, time, today