Crash Bang Wallace
Libertarian political blog from Mark Wallace; political opinion, breaking news and exclusivesPossible new Breivik Twitter account and article identified
Posted on July 26, 2011Further to my post yesterday, Anders Breivik’s crimes have another relatively new feature – the way he interacted with the internet and social media first to propagandise for his views and then as part of the way to spread his message of terror.
Following the initial publication of his manifesto, the media (and presumably the police) have been quick to start tracking his history through his online presence. The Standard today reports new evidence of his interaction with the EDL through online forums, and it seems the trail is yet to be followed all the way.
Now that the EDL postings have revealed his online pseudonym as Sigurd Jorsalfare (after a crusading Viking king), it’s possible to follow his tracks even further. I’ve been hunting around to see whether he used it elsewhere and it seems that he may have. For example, no one seems to have so far drawn attention to this Twitter account under the same pseudonym (with the same variation of the spelling of Jorsalfare), or this article which it publicises – a piece posted only a couple of weeks ago on a site which Breivik used regularly which from its tone and topic may well be another of Breivik’s own tracts.
The impression that this is the first time these have been noticed is further reinforced by the fact that at the time of writing the Twitter account is still being followed by a Progress Party councillor, who presumably would have distanced himself had it come to his attention.
The hidden policing message: are PCSOs for the high jump?
Posted on September 23, 2010Sir Dennis O’Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, has been getting a lot of media attention today for his broadside against the failings of modern policing. The main focus has been on his call for the police to “reclaim the streets” from yobs and to take low-level continuous offending more seriously.
It turns out – surprise, surprise – that we need police on the streets arresting criminals, backed up by courts that actually hand out tough punishments. That’s a view you could hear in any pub in the land, but is all too rarely espoused by anyone with any power.
What everyone seems to have missed so far, though, is his thinly veiled attack on PCSOs.
In his interview on the Today Programme this morning he emphasised a key theme – that to beat crime and take back the streets “it’s not just about [police] presence, it’s the presence of control”.
In the world of policing theory and policy, this is a direct attack on the thinking that lay behind the creation of PCSOs. Full police officers – the argument went – with a warrant card, training and full pension, are too expensive. Supposedly the job could be done just as well by creating a job that didn’t hold the same powers or cost as much but would be a visible presence. In short, the idea behind PCSOs was explicitly that presence alone was the most important thing.
It’s pretty clear now that that was a mistake. It is the warrant card in the officer’s pocket that actually arrests criminals, not the dayglo jacket – and PCSOs had the latter but not the former. If Sir Dennis’s thinking is spreading among senior police officers, the days of the PCSO could be numbered.
The spy who fell off the radar
Posted on August 27, 2010The developing story of the murder of Gareth Williams, the GCHQ staffer who was on loan to MI6, has all the elements necessary to run and run. For a start, it allows headline writers to use the word “SPY” a lot, which is both exciting and conveniently short.
Then there is the awful way in which he died and was discovered, stuffed into a holdall. Add to that the competing theories and allegations about possible terrorism or foreign espionage, and the scrutiny of his private life, and you have a really big story.
What has truly gasted my flabber about this case, though, is that MI6, MI5 and GCHQ combined don’t seem to have noticed that he was missing – never mind dead – for around two weeks. My colleagues would probably notice a (sizeable) Wallace-shaped gap in the room if I didn’t show up for a day, never mind a fortnight – and I’m not in possession of facts pertaining to national security.
Spying (and spying on other spies, and so on and so on) is, I appreciate, a difficult business – but can it really be so hard to notice the disappearance of one of your own men? If it takes two weeks to notice one of your operatives or analysts has vanished from the radar, what is to stop them defecting to a hostile power or – like the unfortunate Gareth Williams – being murdered?