Thursday, March 23, 2006

Supergrass: Take Hits from the Seventies, Make 'em Sound So Crazy

Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers to numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Love is blindness
--U2

In the seventies, the British instituted the "Supergrass" program against Irish Nationalists and the IRA in Northern Ireland...the affect was dramatic. By infiltrating the group at the highest levels, the British were able to destroy the "3 Brigade" structure of the IRA and almost levelled the group entirely...The IRA moved on to a more advanced cell structure, but it makes you wonder what the Brits and Yanks are up to when the term "Supergrass" is used in the WoT:
Supergrass testifies at bomb trial

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S. supergrass, who has admitted various terrorism-related offences in New York, told a London court on Thursday how he had become radicalised by two of Britain's most-high profile Islamic clerics.

Mohammed Babar, 31, testifying at the trial of seven Britons accused of planning bombings in the UK, said he had been inflamed by the first Gulf War and later had wanted to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The court has heard how Babar would be the main prosecution witness against the British suspects accused of planning to use ammonium nitrate fertiliser to launch bomb attacks on possible targets such as pubs, clubs, trains and a shopping centre.

....The reporter could be using it as slang for "informant" but in North America, the term is not common. Just speculating, is all.......
.............
At this point, there has been very little said about US or British infiltration of the Iraqi insurgents and Al-Qaeda....which is surprising given the considerable history of the British (a la IRA/PIRA/RIRA) and US (Weathermen, SDS, Black Panthers) in dealing with violent and subversive groups, and their penetration by these governments.

Yes, it's tough to infiltrate Al-Qaeda when your attempts at Arabic come out "Salam, y'all, allahu akbar, ya hear?", but geez, with 6B USD going down the tubes a month it might be high time to buy some loyalty from the morally loose opposition...

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