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Tuesday, March 25, 2003
posted 8:17 AM
OUR MAN IN BAGHDAD
Has earned his own page on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2881491.stm
The idea of Salam Pax as Tokyo Rose is an interesting one, though not because I think he's an Iraqi ruse. Rather because the people who immediately suspect he is often seem to have been previously unfamiliar with the concept of weblogging. One of those techno-cultural divides.
Myself, I think that if Iraqi intelligence were capable of cross-cultural emulation at the level required to spoof the likes of a Salam Pax, they'd be about as good as it gets. Their reputation in the international community of intelligence-watchers, however, is not that. In fact distinctly the opposite.
I doubt that simple totalitarian dictatorships often mount intelligence operations manifesting great imagination and creativity. Probably because most of the local creatives are already dead, or pretending to be stupid. More complex states generate intelligence burearocracies in which there are interstices for creatives. Mere ruthless cunning will get you somewhere, but I doubt it could produce as baroque a figure as a fake Salam Pax.
Nonetheless, I'm quite convinced that intelligence organizations the world over have duly noted Salam Pax, and the potential usefulness of such a figure. Next time around, it'll be harder to make the call.
I HAD NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH THIS
Except the obvious, I guess.
http://www.historypreservation.com/BuzzRickson.html
Seriously weird: a case of product placement in reverse, sort of.
Am at least equally boggled at FORTEAN TIMES putting my "I am a Fortean" quote on their cover. You can't mess around with this stuff, can you? (However, I actually do consider myself a Fortean, and FT really is my favorite magazine.)
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