Netcu Points

The timing of that post about NETCU has worked out quite nicely.

Over the last couple of days there have been two letter bomb attacks on a couple of company offices in London, including a Capita office.

Hmmm... Capita

Even though I'm a big Fight Club fan, the stupid lunatic bastard who sent those bombs this week is just that, a stupid lunatic bastard. Maiming the poor sods responsible for opening their employer's mail is not big and it's not clever.

If the connection between outfits like NETCU and a nutter parcel bombing Capita isn't immediately clear a brief outline of how 21st century British democracy works might help -

Stef's four point guide to 21st Century British democracy:

• An ever-declining number of people vote in local and national elections
• One of the competing political parties comes to power for a set term
• During which time, for the price of a couple of blow jobs, the ruling party's elected officials sign over much of what they are supposed to do to large corporate monopolies on very long-term contracts
• So, even if the ruling political party gets voted out of office the corporate monopoly remains

The result being that we all end up being bitches to faceless, privately owned corporations, with deliberately bland names like 'Capita' or 'Vantis', that wield the kind of monopolistic powers and privileges we used to only ever grant to publicly accountable individuals.

And we can't vote them out. Even if, Heaven forbid, we somehow managed to elect an incorruptible group of politicians they couldn't do fuck all about it either.

The recent history of Capita and its staunchly New Labour supporting former chairman Rod Aldridge is one of the most blatant examples of the genre. Capita Turnover in 1996 = £112m. Capita Turnover in 2004 = £1,285m

The penny hasn't quite dropped with the British public yet. For the moment, the kind of companies at most risk from non-lunatic direct public action are still the old favourites in the defence and animal research industries.

However, there's a good chance that a wider range of companies will be targeted in the not too distant future by people feeling let down by their supposed democratic institutions and taking matters into their own hands. The first group of companies that comes to mind are those involved with administration of speeding fines, parking tickets and congestion charging. They are pissing an increasing number of people off and have already had to beef up their security accordingly.

All of which makes the creation of organisations like NETCU, their emphasis on protecting corporate interests and willingness to promote a loose definition of terrorism that includes anti-corporate activism just a little bit scary.

And business is booming in the acronym-heavy world of corporate-friendly, 'domestic security' outfits

Five minutes spent flicking through the NETCU site and plugging in some of the acronyms listed there onto Google yields a plethora of working groups and specialist police/ MI5 units...

• The National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism (NCDE)

• The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) aka CO11 - i.e. those guys who turn up at demos laden with camera equipment dressed-up like Darth Vader
  

• The National Domestic Extremism Team (NDET)
  

• The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI)...
  

The CPNI's an interesting one...

"CPNI provides integrated (combining information, personnel and physical) security advice to the businesses and organisations which make up the national infrastructure. Through the delivery of this advice, we protect national security, by helping to reduce the vulnerability of the national infrastructure to terrorism and other threats.

CPNI works closely with the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance (CESG)"

The CPNI was recently created through the merger of the National Infrastructure Security Co-Ordination Centre (NISCC) and the National Security Advice Centre (part of MI5). Even though it is now absorbed, the NISCC (pronounced ‘Nicey’) homepage can still be found in Google's cache...

'In the UK the majority of the CNI (Critical National Infrastructure) is run by the private sector and NISCC works closely with a wide range of companies many of which have strong international links or are foreign-owned. CNI issues transcend geographical borders and problems can strike anywhere in the world. NISCC therefore operates in a global context.'

Nice ... y

To your average person in the street the expressions 'War on Terror' or 'Terrorism' have specific, Muslim-centric connotations but it's clear that our government and security forces are well-prepared to cast their nets much wider than that.

And I'm not even scratching the surface. The number of official, quasi-official, and privately run organisations making a very tidy living off the back of, whose very existence is dependent on, the horseshit fantasy narrative known as 'The War on Terror' is mind boggling.

And even if you do buy into the tWoT narrative, as is currently given, one thing you can be damned sure of is that the more nonsense organisations and committees that are created the more threats they will dream up as they compete with each other. Terror is their raison d'etre and turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

On the subject of horseshit, how about this site...

Secure Your Fertiliser!!!

An original composition of mine entitled - 'Sunset over horseshit in Whitehall'

Secure Your Fertiliser (no acronym given) is a part of, wait for it here's another one, the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (Nactso)

Connossieurs of dodgy terrorist attacks will be delighted to discover that SYF quotes the Oklahoma City and Omagh bombings as prime examples of attacks undertaken by, um, terrorists using fertiliser.

Anyway, there's a special prize to the first person who can:

a) figure out which, if any, of these organisations is a fake (I currently believe all of them to be genuine)

b) puts together a flowchart that explains how they all relate to each other

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Right, that's enough of me courting ridicule and/ or MI5's attention I'm going to find some knob gags to link to

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Stef's TV Pick of the Day

And currently playing on Five US as I type - Mission: Impossible - Season 1 Episode 7 - 'Wheels'

'In the country of Valeria, the IMF must assure that the corrupt Nationalist party's rigged voting machine doesn't give them the election.'

That was always the problem with that show - the scripts were always way too far-fetched

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Klaatu barada NETCU Two

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Winning Hearts and Minds on the Mystery Train

A few weeks ago I posted a link to a Jarvis Cocker video that featured a taxi driving Crocker crooning away whilst other hapless road users and pedestrians threw themselves away from the front of his oncoming vehicle...




So, imagine my delight at being sent a link to this Cocker tribute video filmed on the streets of Baghdad by members of the US military




In fairness, as some commentators have pointed out, this video is presented without any context and for all we, as viewers, know the guys in the Humvee may very well have been on an urgent life-saving mission

As may the soldiers in this video have been




For all we know, they have been leading those children away from the known location of an IED

As may the mercenaries, oops civilian contractors, in this video may have been

Train train, comin' 'round, 'round the bend
Train train, comin' 'round the bend
Well it took my baby, but it never will again (no, not again)

Again, for all we know, they may have been firing at all those cars to stop them driving over a series of land mines further the down the road

Though why they chose to stitch the clips together with an Elvis backing track and then put the video up on the web passes me right by

Unless they thought it looked really, really cool

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Ms Dewey is Hot

Thanks (yet again) to Tony for suggesting that I...

a) Open the Ms Dewey search engine I linked to in an earlier post

b) Type in the search terms 'fractional banking system' and 'who runs the world?'

Judging by her responses, Ms Dewey knows a lot more than she's admitting to





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Klaatu barada NETCU

Any half-serious connoisseur of quality fascism knows that the checklist for putting together a viable Orwellian police state includes these three essential pre-requisites…

1. Creation of a network of numerous state security organisations with overlapping and poorly defined areas of responsibility – the result being that no single security organisation is ever powerful enough to challenge the Leadership and spends most of its time fighting turf wars with the other security organisations anyway. Another plus point being that any dissident individual unfortunate enough to attract the attention of this network of agencies is drawn into a never-ending Kafka-esque world of harassment and confusion that will leave them pretty much fucked for ever
   
   
2. A certain breezy, Devil may care attitude to the definition of what exactly constitutes terrorism and a consequent, and useful, gradual expansion of what kind of people the State designates as terrorists
   
   
3. Application of state power to secure and protect corporate interests rather than those of the citizenry
   

So, imagine my delight at stumbling across The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NETCU) website for the very first time...


About NETCU

Welcome

The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NETCU) forms part of the national policing response to domestic extremism, together with the National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism (NCDE), the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) and the National Domestic Extremism Team (NDET).

Our focus is to promote a coordinated, consistent and effective approach to dealing with domestic extremism.

NETCU provides the police service of England and Wales and other enforcement agencies with tactical advice and guidance on policing domestic extremism and associated criminality.

We support the business and academic sectors, providing a centralised source of information, advice, guidance and liaison on strategies to withstand domestic extremist attacks.

We also provide Government and our partners in the police service, Crown Prosecution Service and industry with information about trends and types of domestic extremist incidents and crimes.


I’ve deliberately left out a link to the NETCU website as its terms and conditions clearly state

You have to ask permission and receive approval from NETCU to link to this website. Requests should be made in writing to NETCU, PO Box 525, Huntingdon, PE29 9AL

Whether linking to their site qualifies as domestic extremism is not made clear but I don’t want to take the risk. The people behind this site though are more than happy to link directly to NETCU

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You're indestructabbbb-ble!

Tony Hadley, my Mum and someone who isn't Tony Hadley or my mum but might just be Tony's mum

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K...

In the space of a couple of days two different people have forwarded me links to two separate attempts to fuck around with the new e-petition system on the 10 Downing Street website...

Petition #1

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream.

"If he's not going to resign, the least he can do is provide us with some entertainment."


Petition #2

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace the national anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet.

"We, the people of Britain, feel that our current National Anthem has lost a bit of its sparkle.

When we are confronted by the rare occasion of us winning a medal at the Olympics, we all have to mumble through "God Save The Queen", well God help us in 2012!

We would thereby like to table the suggestion that we change the National Anthem to something more modern and appropriate and that will re-invigorate our pride.

What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of "Gold" by Spandau Ballet.

Further, we would like our National Olympic Committee to decree that Tony Hadley is the only person permitted to handle medal ceremonies where the National Anthem is played.

We don't mind what he wears when he does this, but preference is given towards a a gold colured suit."

Methinks there are some people out there who are not taking Downing Street's new initiative in popular, internet-based accountability at all seriously

But, worse than that, the Hadley petition currently has only 2,367 votes, against the ice cream juggling petition's 3,008

I have a soft spot for Tony Hadley. He was a regular customer in my parents' snack bar years ago before he became famous and my Dad would regularly make fun of his budding career as a wannabe international popstar. Tony returned the compliment by popping in a few times after he became an international popstar to take the piss out of my Dad, who was still working in a sandwich bar.

Besides, 'Gold' would make a fucking excellent national anthem for a new look British Republican Meritocracy...

Gold!

Always believe in your soul!

You've got the power to know!

You're indestructabbbb-ble!!!


Tony Hadley is currently appearing in Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre

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Drugs ... we love 'em

Thanks to Tony for passing me a link to this story in yesterday's Sun ('We Love It')...





The irony of combating drug addiction in a minority of the population by pumping all of the population full of drugs when they are still babies seems to be lost on the Sun's editorial which commented...

Why not give it a try?

Which reminds me that one characteristic of a really good Unified Conspiracy Theory is how it can account for and suck in virtually everything that's going on in the world, like a Black Hole.

For example, conspiracy theory connoscenti know that not only do Bankers Control the World!!! through lending colossal amounts of non-existent money and supporting the illegal drugs trade, the 'Bankers' also have a hand in the global pharmaceutical industry.

People like this guy, for example, believe that the proliferation of vaccines being jabbed into our babies is part of a deliberate policy to keep the lower orders fucked-up and stupid.

I was chatting about vaccinations recently with a couple of family members with young children. Both of them commented, without prompting, about just how many shots had been jammed into their kids; often without much in the way of explanation of just exactly what was going into their children and what the potential upsides and downsides were. Speaking as concerned parents they were... concerned.

I don't claim any special insight into this subject but it does strike me as being a little odd how we allow our kids to be pumped full of mercury-laden vaccinations and additive-filled food, then respond to behavioural issues in our children not by pumping them full of less drugs and additives but opt to have them pumped full of even more crap instead

Full of the stuff kids love...

Uppers from one hand, downers from the other...

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Drugs

Thanks to the anonymous commentator who posted the link to a 19,000 word essay on 'The Global Drug Meta Group' by Peter Dale Scott. Scott manages to chuck virtually everything but the kitchen sink into this ambitious attempt at a drugs-based Unified Conspiracy Theory and I hadn't read it before. Scott also came up with a Poem-based version, complete with marginal, finger-pointing notes.

A fine effort which might even include some grains of truth.

And on the subject of grains, out of curiosity I just ran up a quick spreadsheet to get a feel for how much the Afghan opium trade is worth at UK street prices


It's something in the order of £82,000,000,000

Which is quite a lot.

If you live or spend any time in, how can I put it?, some of the more ‘marginal’ areas of our cities you’d have to be blind not to have noticed that hard drugs are becoming more of an issue. You’d also have to be blind not to notice the coincidence of all sorts of apparently unrelated developments, here and overseas, that have served to bolster and facilitate the drugs trade. Maybe they 'just happened', maybe there’s at least some element of direction.

The possibility of some level of co-ordination is at least worth thinking about. The impact of the drugs trade ultimately affects us all. Something like 70% of all prisoners in UK prisons have a drugs problem. And no matter how many of these people we lock up the problem just gets worse and worse. The reason could be that we are simply locking the wrong people up and leaving the real culprits to carry on with their trade. A possibility that is barely touched by the mainstream media. And there is certainly enough money in play to secure an awful lot of influence and misdirection.

Then there’s the ongoing farce in Afghanistan. Our Poor Bloody Infantry have been titting around and getting shot over there for something like five or six years. During which time annual opium production has risen from effectively nothing to something like 6,000 tonnes.

Support out troops in Afghanistan and wear your poppy with pride...

Now here’s the thing...

To believe that our government could, by any stretch of the imagination, genuinely have thought that 3,000 poorly equipped soldiers could have capped opium production in the roughest part of Afghanistan requires a belief in establishment stupidity that is verging on the, er, unbelievable.

Imagine playing a game where you have to name the worst possible place in the world to attempt to invade and pacify with a small occupying force, or even a large occupying force. A country that has proven to be, time and again, a graveyard for invading armies. A country whose people are so militarised, so hard-living and so accustomed to slaughtering foreign infidels that it virtually qualifies as their national sport...

And the hot favourites for this year's Slaughter the Foreign Infidel World Cup are...

Tell you what, I’ll go first

Um… Afghanistan

Your turn

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Gambling

I've never been much into gambling. I get enough in the way of thrills and excitement simply from walking home at night.

Being a fan of tacky Americana I have, however, visited a fair few US casinos in my time.


All things considered they're a bit grim. Very grim actually.

In spite of the bright lights and up tempo decor there's a whiff of desperation about the people who frequent them.



I remember passing one old woman feeding a slot machine in a riverboat casino on the Mississippi a few years back. She had a large cup of quarters held between her legs and was robotically pumping them into the machine. She was covered in cigarette ash and food crumbs and looked like she hadn't slept for days. She also smelled vaguely of piss. On the wall in front of her was a flashing illuminated sign. It read 'Fun! Fun! Fun!'.

I wasn't convinced.

Nor am I convinced by the claim that casino complexes are a powerful tool for urban regeneration. Based on what I've seen in the States, what you get when you build a large casino in the middle of a deprived urban shithole is...

... a deprived urban shithole with a large casino in the middle of it

Let's be honest, if huge casino complexes were so fucking great they'd be built in well-off districts and nobody would bother with tossing around pretending how beneficial they are.

I mention all this because, of course, we've just found out which of the many competing British shitholes (and there is a lot of competition) gets to be home to the UK's first super casino

And it wasn't London

Not yet anyway

But there's no doubt we'll get a few sooner or later. After all, even though it was faced with overwhelming public apathy and antipathy, our government was hot to trot with forty of the damned things.

Forty of them...

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What's interesting about the casino story from the point of view of someone intrigued by alternative explanations of how the world works is how neatly the rise of gambling in Britain over the last ten years dovetails in with lots of other stuff that has been going on and the concept of the narcostate and narcocapitalism.

The narcocapitalism model/ conspiracy theory is a complement rather than a competitor to the Bankers Control the World!!! theory and it basically argues that much of what passes for foreign and domestic policy is willfully manipulated for the benefit of the drugs trade

... drugs being the third most lucrative globally traded commodity after oil and guns and, by happy coincidence, often found in the same parts of the world as oil and guns, which can make for some pretty triangular-shaped diagrams

I was once one of those people who found this particular model quite difficult to swallow and an apparent affront to common sense. After all, for the narcocapitalism concept to work its backers would have to wield a tremendous amount of transnational influence. They would have to secure -

• Reliable supplies of raw product
• Somewhere to process that product
• Reliable high-volume cross-border transport routes
• Domestic distribution networks
• A ready market for their product
• The means to launder the proceeds
  

Another component of the narcocapitalism model is the need to have a few local conflicts and a little bit of instability going on. Pyscho-warlords are more reliable and even more morally flexible business partners than elected politicians and they are also willing to pay top narcodollar for any 2nd hand AKs you send back down the route the drugs came from.

Advanced versions of the narcostate model also like to emphasise that, as with gambling, pushing hard drugs onto the urban poor is not only fabulously profitable but also an excellent way of keeping the fuckers down.




Like I said, I used to be sceptical about this way of looking at things. Sure, it kind of went on in SE Asia and Central America but that's the sort of shit US Intelligence agencies got up to, not the British.

But now I'm not so sure. It's not as if there isn't historical precedent for this kind of behaviour by the British. In fact there's an embarrassing abundance. And viewing the drugs business as a perfect example of vertical integration would help to explain a few things...

• It would explain, for instance, why our government sent only 3,000 under-equipped troops into a region filled with 1,000,000 heavily-armed Pathans whose only source of income is opium and pretended, is still pretending, that those soldiers could help stem the production of opium in the region (Afghan opium production up 50% to 6,000 tonnes last year)
  
  
• It would explain why, off the back of one of the many trumped-up wars of recent years, NATO turned over Kosovo to those drug- and gun-running funsters the KLA
  
  
• It would go some way to explaining why our government basically opened our national front doors to just about every organised crime syndicate under the Sun and has lovingly nurtured 'ghettofication' of so much of our cities
  
  

• It would explain the record levels of heroin imports (and the consequent rise in the number of heroin addicts) in spite of all that extra border security we've supposedly implemented as part of the 'War on Terror'
  
  
• It would also partly explain the phenomenal, and largely unchecked and unregulated, rise of the money-wiring business here in the UK. It's a grand time to be a Western Union shareholder
  
  

• And it would explain the push for all those casinos - very popular, or so I'm told, with drug dealers and money launderers

Yes, it would take a mental leap to believe that all of these developments are the result of joined-up criminal thinking but, in a way, it really doesn't matter if you buy into the conspiracy theory or prefer the more comforting belief that we are governed by a bunch of fuckwits who don't know what they're doing. Whether our narcostate was planned or not, that's what we're getting.

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