Still keeping an eye on my home city. Consequences of police success against the Whitney family in Anfield and Walton were always predictable. Growth of cannabis production not so predictable and must surely also reflect a growing market? The detective in the piece argues that production is small scale and controlled at arms length to … ESCALATING WARS OVER LUCRATIVE DRUG DEALING ‘TURFS’ ARE BEING BLAMED FOR A RISE IN SHOOTINGS ON MERSEYSIDE THIS YEAR

An oversight of the “Kingpin Strategy”…the killing or capturing of leading figures in organised crime in the Americas…and the bloody consequences: turf wars, displacement and neo-imperialism. there’s a report to download as a .pdf I havent had a chance to read the whole report, but sharing it seems rather important.

Anonymous versus Stratfor. “Project Mayhem”. Tonight, New Year eve, Anonymous says there will be a new attack. Target is law enforcement agencies, but part of the game appears to be to demonstrate how insecure web passwords and companies are, which is a tradition of these groups.

Anything used for counter-terrorism ends up being used against organised crime, now that the latter is a matter of national security, not a matter of due process…so these will be used against drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia etc. Metropolitan Police already buying them for surveillance purposes, apparently [well a couple of UK newspapers say so.] … UNDER OBAMA, AN EMERGING GLOBAL APPARATUS FOR DRONE KILLING

I dont think he’s right, in that new threats really do exist. though of a different type. Where he is correct is in saying that the academic pursuit of grants can be seen as part of a new counter-terrorism industry, and is allied to rather unpleasant people who wish to maintain draconian anti-civil rights legislation … COMMENT IS FREE STOP LOOKING FOR THE NEXT AL-QAIDA

If it’s ture that they used credit card details to make donations to various charities, could take some time to untangle. BBC cautiously pointing out that it’s only a claim.

Nice piece from al Jazeera. Warns against the interests of “security contractors” exaggerating events in order to drum up business. Also points out the dangers of using metaphors from a previous era. finally points out that the US isn’t an innocent party in all of this curious manouvring on the world Wide web.

BBC piece on the origins and development of the group behind the Church blasts and other explosions. Also the wrong reaction from the government: a mixture of incompetence and intransigence, apparently.

I think there was talk about mass surrenders a week ago. FARC members may watch with interest…or not!

Details of a network linking Plymouth and Manchester. 30 people have been on trial and convicted.