The Black Rod

The Sun newspaper in the U.K. carried a story today which just perfectly summed up the War in Afghanistan 2007. It's too good to see passed by over New Year's. So we've decided to post it in lieu of the planned Afghanistan wrap, which we hope to have in a day or two. Enjoy: The Sun (U.K.) December 31, 2007 JEROME STARKEY Our Boys blitz Taliban bash On patrol ... British soldier in Helmand province By JEROME STARKEY with Our Boys in Helmand Published: Today BRITISH commandos launched a devastating blitz on the Taliban, as the evil terrorists held a party to celebrate Benazir Bhutto's murder. The dawn raid was staged after messages were intercepted about the sick knees-up in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Royal Marines crept into position as the fanatics partied the night away just hours after Ms Bhutto was killed in Pakistan. The bash was being held in ruined compounds a few hundred yards from Our Boys' remote base in Kajaki. Ragtag Taliban sentries tried to h

2007 has been a bizarre year for CBC News at Six, starting with the hiring of rival CTV news anchor Janet Stewart and ending with her predecessor on ice and cooling her heels while head office investigates a scandal that could undermine the very foundation of credibility at the Mother Corp. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at a CBC production meeting a year ago. Producer A: We've got to do something. More people watch Channel Nine's televised fireplace than our six o'clock news. Producer B: I've got it. Let's blend what made us the No. 1 station twenty years ago with what makes CKY the No.1 station today. Pure dy-no-mite. And so was born the Frankenstein's monster of television news. But we get ahead of ourselves. The seduction of Janet Stewart would have made a winning reality show in itself. Building on a brief fliration by her, CBC honchos went into full Lothario mode. Nothing was too good when it came to wining and dining the Queen of Nice to replace Krista Eri

The Blogosphere is abuzz with the name of the prime suspect in the CBC/Liberals collusion scandal---- none other than Krista Erickson, Winnipeg's very own Golden Girl. The CBC is, officially, still investigating which of their Parliamentary reporters worked with the Liberal Party members of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee by providing them with questions to ask former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, questions designed to embarrass the current Conservative government. But, daily leaks from within the CBC indicate that they honed in on one suspect almost from the moment the CBC collusion was revealed last week. And Krista Erickson is prominent in those leaks. Sometimes it's by name: Wudrick Blog Monday, December 17, 2007 CBCGate: Name That Journo 33 Comments: Ottawa Watch said ... It's Krista Erikson. The questions regarded lobbying for wireless spectrum. 6:46 PM Sometimes by description: The Tea Makers ( a blog by a self-described CBC manager) Tuesday, December 18, 2007 Ca

CBC Ombudsman Vince Carlin has just been handed the hot potato from Hell. Carlin has to investigate a formal complaint from the Conservative Party of Canada that a CBC reporter provided questions to Liberal members of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee to ask former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. If he confirms it, he will confirm, whether he admits it or not, the long-held belief that CBC reporters are biased against the Conservatives and allied with the federal Liberals. The fallout will be widespread and lasting. If he says he can't confirm it, he risks being humiliated by TVA reporter (and former Liberal cabinet minister) Jean LaPierre, who first reported the CBC-Liberal collusion story. If LaPierre comes up with the name of the CBC reporter, then Carlin will be widely seen as part of a cover-up and he'll likely find himself looking for a job. The fallout from this scenario would be worse. He could try to straddle the fence and say he can't find the evidence against any

It's exciting to watch history in the making. The appearance of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney before the Parliamentary Ethics Committee on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 will be seen as another milestone in the march of citizen journalists who are inexorably undermining the practices of old-style reporting in the 21st Century. Newshounds across the country saw, right before their eyes, how the mainstream media consciously ignored the most serious breach of ethics exposed by the committee hearing. The breach of ethics had little to do with Brian Mulroney and everything to do with the taxpayer-funded CBC which was caught red-handed colluding with their former masters, the Liberal Party of Canada, to smear the current government. And how the poisonous alliance came to be revealed to the public is a fascinating story of its own. After Mulroney's session with the ethics committee, CTV's Mike Duffy was doing his post-mortem when he threw TVA reporter Jean LaPierre a soft-ball

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, maybe the Free Press newsroom will next have to don pyjamas and take their laptops into their mother's basements. So let's just forget that it took the Winnipeg Free Press SIX WEEKS to duplicate The Black Rod's exclusive story linking Winnipeg murder victims to a thug sub-culture sweeping the province. ( http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/10/crips-and-bloodz-true-cultural-anchors.html ) Our readers know who had it first. Hell, it took the FP almost ONE YEAR to acknowledge The Black Rod's exclusive reporting on the Matthew Dumas shooting. ( Sunday, April 24, 2005. EXCLUSIVE: "Daddy they're beating him up" http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/04/exclusive-daddy-theyre-beating-him-up_24.html . Wednesday, March 29, 2006. The Free Press scalps The Black Rod for the true story about the Matthew Dumas shooting http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2006/03/free-press-scalps-black-rod-for-

"The operation to retake Musa Qala has commenced, " British ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton told the press two days ago. Even as we write this, the definitive battle of 2007 is underway. Coalition forces, including British, Danish and Estonian troops, were taken by helicopter to the edge of the town prior to the final assault. Friday, one NATO soldier was killed by a mine, Afghan and coalition forces killed 12 Taliban, and two children being used as human shields died when the car they were in was caught in a firefight. Just as the Canadian-led Operation Medusa crushed Taliban hopes in 2006, chasing the Taliban out of Musa Qala would extinguish any claim of success the insurgents could make for 2007. Taliban forces swept into the town of Musa Qala at the beginning of February, sweeping aside the local tribal council and seizing control. They immediately imposed a reign of terror, executing anyone they suspected of spying. "We do not punish people for the

The body count continues to rise --- and the mainstream press begins to suspect something. A month and a half ago The Black Rod exposed the links between seven Winnipeg homicide victims and street gangs inspired by gangster rap, and modelled on the granddaddys of street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods. Today, the death toll has grown to eight definite, with #9 pencilled in. Nathan Starr, 14, joined the death list Tuesday when he died in a firebombing of a house on Mountain Avenue. He was a member of the M.O.B. street gang. Two suspects arrested for the firebombing are members of the Indian Posse. The genteel Winnipeg Free Press reporter Gabrielle Giroday reported Wednesday the initials M.O.B. stood for Most Organized Brothers. Her colleague Bruce Owen offered an alternate name Thursday -- 'Money Over B____', a mystery name designed to spare the sensibilities of Free Press readers. Let's quit playing games. Starr was a member of Money Over Bitches, or Money Ovah Bitches in

God forbid that news breaks out in front of the cameras of Winnipeg's three television news stations. It just spoils everything. Reporters and cameramen for CKY, Global and CBC T.V.were on the steps of the Manitoba Law Courts getting reaction to the sentencing of murderer Corey Spence who killed Phil Haiart five days before turning 18. They were listening to Isora Van Dreser, Haiart's girlfriend, when the murderer's mother and some of his thuggish friends began to taunt, insult, and, according to the Winnipeg Free Press, threaten the girl. Note we have to depend on the Winnipeg Free Press for the news that threats were made because none of the television newscasts broadcast any threats. Which is not the least bit surprising as you'll see. All three television stations treated the incident as an irritation that detracted from the real news. The reporters had their stories carefully plotted out. Intro, voice over old footage of the murder, clip from girlfriend, clip f

The Black Rod is hearing disturbing reports that may explain why Winnipeg police are having trouble finding the man who stabbed 24-year-old Jeff Engen to death at the Empire Cabaret. We've collected information from well-placed sources who were at the Empire the night of the murder---a friend of Engen's who was standing beside him when he was stabbed, and a girl who was splashed with his blood before he collapsed and died in front of her eyes. And the story we're hearing is: 1. There were NO ID SCANNERS at the Empire so "there's no way of knowing who had been in and out of the place all night." People coming in could see themselves on security cameras, but THE CAMERAS WERE NOT RECORDING. 2. Not that it mattered anyway, because, as we're told, THE KILLER WAS A FRIEND OR ACQUAINTANCE OF SOMEONE WELL-CONNECTED TO THE CLUB and was let in through a private entrance bypassing all security measures. Some information reaching our ears contradicts what's been r

Short and sweet, the headline told the whole story. "Troops capture Taliban's birthplace" "Canadian troops pushed the Taliban out of their birthplace in a storm of artillery shells and rockets on the weekend..." Canadian soldiers had driven Taliban fighters out of Sangisar, described by the Globe and Mail as "a stubborn enclave of insurgents where the Taliban's supreme commander, Mullah Muhammed Omar, founded the armed movement in 1994." The significance of that action can't be oversold. When the Canadians forced a humiliating retreat of Taliban forces from the Panjwai district of Kandahar province in 2006 it was like NATO setting up camp in the Taliban's back yard. With the capture of Sangisar, we've moved into their living room. By the account of G&M reporter Graeme Smith, it was a hard fought battle highlighted by the Taliban's use of children as human shields and Canadian forces calling down artillery and air strikes so cl