kiltboy

"Hitman Contracts" has some of both. Admittedly the sex part is limited to a fetish party or two and some pole dancers but it has made me question if the guys that wrote the game were single. David

No chance it was mixed in with a bunch of older stuff that was looted from one of the arms dumps they have? It could be old stock that had been misplaced. David

Libya has been trying to rejoin the rest of the world for a while now. The Lockerbie trial was a huge step forward and that progress has been built on. Negotiations into the PC Fletcher shooting have also progressed and neither issue had anything to do with Iraq. The climate was right for change after those steps and that's why I think it happened. You can only fight so many wars at once after all and there are already warnings of overstretch so I don't think that it was done out of fear of invasion. I do think that Libya wanted to distance itself from the events of 9/11 as it had made progress in returning to the world community and didn't wish to be associated with those events. David

Anyone know the salvage laws for Norway? David

There's an organisation called pathfinder that may be able to help. David http://webhome.idirect.com/~sewelld/about.htm

Hi Deuce, Reference training etc. and the Stanford Experiment how does the monitoring work? With regard to the US are there outside agenicies or staff from other prisons taking a walkthrough in a peer review type deal? I'm curious as one of the identified reservists was reported as having 6 years experience as a corrections officer. I was wondering what would have had a better result for monitoring. Would it be an outside agency i.e. Red Cross, peer pressure from another US MP battalion that was coming from another prison, or maybe MPs from the UK, Italian or Polish contingents. David

Most of the stuff I've read on this stipulates hunting with dogs so stag hunting could also be covered. Bird dogs can still be used for grouse shooting to retrieve the bird but not in a pack to chase down and kill the animal being hunted. David

I'm curious about the Halliburton angle. Were the employees US based that were working there or local Iraqis hired by the company? David

Last time I looked all those countries had troops in Afghanistan chasing down OBL and AQ and Taliban remnants. They are taking part in the war on terror they see the war in Iraq as a separate issue. David

From Fox news http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118669,00.html ------ A soldier facing a court-martial (search) for his role in the alleged abuse of Iraqi war prisoners says commanders ignored his requests to set out rules for treating POWs and scolded him for questioning the inmates' harsh treatment. A soldier facing a court-martial (search) for his role in the alleged abuse of Iraqi war prisoners says commanders ignored his requests to set out rules for treating POWs and scolded him for questioning the inmates' harsh treatment. Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick (search) wrote that an Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad lacked the humane standards of the Virginia state prison where he worked in civilian life, according to a journal he started after military investigators first questioned him in January. ----- He's not a contractor and he worked in a prison, he should have known better. He's a Staff Sergeant so he should have a bit of leadership in him. As for the UK story compare the picture quality etc. Notice how nobody can be recognised? Every other picture of its type has the soldiers geeking the camera. There are reasons to suspect the authenticity of the recent UK pictures. The back corner of a 4 tonner can be dark but that picture doesn't have a lighting problem. Too many things in the UK story look out of place for me right now. David

Here's another couple of links that are worthwhile. http://www.arrse.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6627#101773 and the mirror story http://www.mirror.co.uk/ From the first link it does pose some interesting questions about picture quality. Compare the pictures taken in the prison for quality, lighting and the pose of the soldiers etc and these latest ones. It doesn't look like action shots taken at the time. Another interseting point made was that the pouches of one soldier were undone which I wouldn't expect from trained infantry. Could this have been staged to sell papers? David

No not common knowledge and I'm pretty cynical that its not true. Torture doesn't work as a way of gaining useful intelligence. The SAS have been used for surveillance and gathering intel but I don't see them engaging in torture. The SAS are soldiers not intelligence specialists so I could see interrogations being conducted by special branch and the intelligence services (the same folks that ran steak knife) after they had been arrested. I did a google search and came up pretty much blank except for the Irish national slant which is pretty much propaganda. I was trying to find something semi-independant. I still say the terrorist groups are way beyond anything that was depicted in the pictures from Iraq. Crucifiction, punishment beatings and shootings, torture of believed informants and summary executions. David

The republican and loyalist groups are much better at the torture you allude to. The police arrest suspects in N. Ireland and the mainland UK and they are charged under terrorism legislation. There are plenty of allegations of collusion (sp) in N. Ireland but I've not heard anything regarding torture by the SAS. Do you have any sources to back it up? David

I read that one of the soldiers charged is a prison officer in civilian life. He could have been involved in training and setting up a proper prison regime. Educating the police in proper handling of prisoners etc. Given the history of that jail with the Iraqi population you have to wonder what the hell they were doing? David

The paper's webaddress is, http://www.dailycollegian.com The site is experiencing heavy traffic right now so I couldn't read the column myself. David

I found this on the web and I hope it will clear things up about this guy. Some of them are very funny. http://www.ryano.net/iraq/ David

Its an Eddie Izzard sketch waiting to happen. "no flag, no country that's the rules" David

I voted no even though I live outside the UK (I am a UK citizen). I'm assuming that the Embassy in Washington will be able to provide me with this card if it becomes mandatory as I'll need it when I go home to visit family. My best view on this is that its a way to curb fraud but it is aimed at stealing government money i.e. benefits, tuition or services. I'd hate it to be a requirement if I was to charge something to a credit card. I wouldn't be overjoyed if the police were to ask for it at random but that could depend on circumstances and how the officer was to ask for it. David

Hi Buck, Fair enough. Thanks, Davdi

Hi Buck, I have a question about the picture you posted on the previous thread on bonfire. Where did you get it? The reason I ask is that Tillman was killed in Afghanistan and as far as I'm aware France and Germany have troops deployed there (not sure about russia). I don't understand then why those patches would be on his sleeve. Thanks, David

I read he was killed in SE Afghanistan and not Iraq. He would have been fighting AQ and the Taliban remnants. He made his choice based on what was important to him. David

I haven't heard that about Poland but I thought I read that Kazakhstan will not be replacing its current troops when their tour ends. David

I'd salute him myself. I take it that you're a commissioned officer at graduation? You could always ask for his daughters' phone numbers and see how he reacts. David

I think a DNA sample is taken under scots law and screened against a database if you are charged with a violent crime. I'm not sure if you even need to have been convicted but I could be wrong. David

My poor dad nearly choked when he was over visiting me last time. Filled the corolla for maybe 14 bucks and got 400 miles out of it. I don't miss the UK prices. David