Charlie's Diary

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Sun, 29 Dec 2002 Hoping for a Happy Hogmanay ... According to The Guardian: Edinburgh's Hogmanay, the highest-profile New Year festival in Europe, is set to take place amid unprecedented security following concerns of a terrorist attack by al-Qaeda. Although police have attempted to play down the significance of the arrest of three Algerians in the city just before Christmas under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, civic leaders are concerned that increasing speculation about a possible attack in Scotland could lead to a poorer than expected turnout. Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebration is one of the biggest in the world, arranged around a four-day carnival of events, and is estimated to boost the local economy by £36m. More than 100,000 revellers are expected to attend and highlights will include a huge concert in Princes Street Gardens on Hogmanay, the Night Afore Fiesta in George Street on 30 December, and the traditional Torchlight Procession and Fire Festival, which will kick off the festivities the previous day. Although Lothian and Borders Police insist there is no evidence that anywhere in Scotland, let alone Edinburgh, is a terrorist target, the timing of the arrests, just two weeks before New Year's Eve, and the fact that all the suspects, along with four more arrested in London on the same day, are now being held in Scotland rather than London has led many to conclude that the Hogmanay celebrations are indeed being threatened. While the IRA deliberately avoided carrying out attacks in Scotland, al-Qaeda makes no such distinctions. Scotland would also be attractive because the authorities there have almost no first-hand experience of dealing with terrorism. Security sources have been quoted as saying that the Hogmanay party would provide an ideal soft target for terrorists. Cars loaded with explosives could conceivably be parked near barriers marking off the street party, where tens of thousands of people with special street passes gather in the centre of Edinburgh to see in the new year. The three arrested men had moved to Edinburgh from west London in September and were picked up in an operation, which had been two months in the planning, co-ordinated by Lothian and Borders Police and backed by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police. All seven men appeared in Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Christmas Eve, arriving as part of a large police convoy with a helicopter escort, an unprecedented level of security in Scotland. All were remanded in custody for another week. The hearing took place in a closed courtroom and no further details of the charges or circumstances surrounding the arrests were released. Meanwhile, civil leaders have been attempting to dampen the fears that the arrests generated. The City of Edinburgh Council insisted it had no plans to change this year's Hogmanay street party. A spokesman said: 'At this stage, we have not been alerted to any specific threat to Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations. The message we want to put across is that we are open for business and looking forward to a fantastic Hogmanay.' Here's hoping for a happy Hogmanay. I don't have tickets for the street party, so if there is an attack I'm unlikely to be directly affected -- although I'll probably be close enough to give an eye-witness account. I think the fact that arrests preceeded the event is hopeful -- but the newspaper report is correct: the two biggest public gatherings in the UK this year will be at Edinburgh (in Princes Street Gardens) and in London at Trafalgar Square and if anything Edinburgh is larger, not to mention less secure. [ Link ] [ Discuss 9/11 ] posted at: 23:57 | path: /politics | permanent link to this entry Finally, a solution to the DMCA and copyright fascism! It turns out there's an exemption to the DMCA for the exercise of religious freedom. So ... [ Link ] [ Discuss ] posted at: 12:35 | path: /copyright | permanent link to this entry

specials: Is SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg Mone Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction Inside the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab "Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex Quick links: RSS Feed (Moved!) Who am I? Contact me Buy my books: (FAQ) Missile Gap Via Subterranean Press (US HC -- due Jan, 2007) The Jennifer Morgue Via Golden Gryphon (US HC -- due Nov, 2006) Glasshouse Via Amazon.com (US HC -- due June 30, 2006) The Clan Corporate Via Amazon.com (US HC -- out now) Accelerando Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB -- due June 27, 2006) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Free download The Hidden Family Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) The Family Trade Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Iron Sunrise Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) The Atrocity Archives Via Amazon.com (Trade PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (Trade PB) Via Golden Gryphon (HC) Via Amazon.com (HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (HC) Singularity Sky Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.com (US ebook) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Toast Via Amazon.com Via Amazon.co.uk Some webby stuff I'm reading: [ Engadget ] [ Gizmodo ] [ The Memory Hole ] [ Boing!Boing! ] [ Futurismic ] [ Walter Jon Williams ] [ Making Light (TNH) ] [ Crooked Timber ] [ Junius (Chris Bertram) ] [ Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ] [ Bruce Sterling ] [ Ian McDonald ] [ Amygdala (Gary Farber) ] [ Cyborg Democracy ] [ Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc)  ] [ Atrios ] [ The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ] [ This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ] [ Jesus's General ] [ Mick Farren ] [ Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ] [ Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ] [ Tangent Online ] [ Grouse Today ] [ Hacktivismo ] [ Terra Nova ] [ Whatever (John Scalzi) ] [ GNXP ] [ Justine Larbalestier ] [ Yankee Fog ] [ The Law west of Ealing Broadway ] [ Cough the Lot ] [ The Yorkshire Ranter ] [ Newshog ] [ Kung Fu Monkey ] [ S1ngularity ] [ Pagan Prattle ] [ Gwyneth Jones ] [ Calpundit ] [ Lenin's Tomb ] [ Progressive Gold ] [ Kathryn Cramer ] [ Halfway down the Danube ] [ Fistful of Euros ] [ Orcinus ] [ Shrillblog ] [ Steve Gilliard ] [ Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ] [ The Panda's Thumb ] [ Martin Wisse ] [ Kuro5hin ] [ Advogato ] [ Talking Points Memo ] [ The Register ] [ Cryptome ] [ Juan Cole: Informed comment ] [ Global Guerillas (John Robb) ] [ Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ] [ Simon Bisson's Journal ] [ Max Sawicky's weblog ] [ Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ] [ Hitherby Dragons ] [ Counterspin Central ] [ MetaFilter ] [ NTKnow ] [ Encyclopaedia Astronautica ] [ Fafblog ] [ BBC News (Scotland) ] [ Pravda ] [ Meerkat open wire service ] [ Warren Ellis ] [ Brad DeLong ] [ Hullabaloo (Digby) ] [ Jeff Vail ] [ The Whiskey Bar (Billmon) ] [ Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ] [ Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ] [ Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ] Older stuff: June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 (I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being from the same time)

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