You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2390 >
In a Nutshell
Falintil a NATO force?
In a Nutshell is back after a brief absence, with more gems from the world of war and peace ... first off this month is an interesting approach to the question of East Timor. Domingos Sarmento,who led the student occupation of the US embassy in Jarkarta and is now in Portugal, came up with this interesting point during this British speaking tour (PN April 1995). Because all East Timorese are eligible for Portuguese citizenship, the reasoning goes, the Falintil guerrillas are actually a NATO army. So NATO members (like Britain and Germany) who sell weapons to Indonesia are acting illegally.On the other hand, NATO might decide to send Falintil fighters off to the Balkans, complying with Croatia's wishes for UNPROFOR to be "Europeanised".
Carlos Castenada unmasked
One reason for our two-month absence is that we have been busy investigating the true identity of Subcomandante Marcos. The blue-eyed, balaclavaed guerrilla philosopher went to ground after Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo allegedly "named" him. But-- what's this? -- a letter from Marcos arrives describing how he has been holding long conversations with a beetle. A pipe-smoking beetle, no less, named Durito ("little hard one"). Is Marcos really the `70s anthropologist and noted hallucinogen-eater, Carlos Castenada? We think we should be told.
0171 828 8688
There was a flurry of interest recently when the Guardian published a telephone number which used to belong to the spooks of MI5. Until the item was published, users of this number would get a recording directing them to another number (0171 828 8688, if you must know) which actually worked. Alas, immediately after the Guardian hit the streets, the recording was replaced with one which said "Sorry, the number you have dialled has not been recognised". This reminded PN veteran Albert Beale of the time he tried the old MI5 number, got connected to the switchboard, and--flushed by this success-- asked to speak to the press office. The office he was connected to turned out to be in the business of collecting information on, rather than giving information to, the press.
0171 828 8688
15 minutes of fame for PN! Chris was also interviewed on Radio 1 ...Comments: written by someone who knows very little about either the security services or the Internet ... it also makes no reference to the _Guardian_ publishing the earlier MI5 number in its diary column a month previously--the subject of the original PN "nutshell", which gave the current number as a parenthetical aside...
The secret telephone number of MI5, the security service, has been published on the Internet by peace campaigners. The number of its London headquarters was posted on the worldwide computer network in a "conference" used by antiwar protesters last week. It has now been copied onto other parts of the Internet, and is accessible world-wide under the heading "MI5's telephone number". MI5 was surprised to hear that the number, which is classified and used by intelligence agents to reach their controllers, has become known. An agent, contacted by the _Independent on Sunday_ last week said: "It's not a number that's been made public. I'm glad you informed us. We will look into it. Where exactly is it on the Internet?" The number was discovered by a reader of the British monthly journal, _Peace News_, which had posted the number on the Internet. "The security services should be the subject of public scrutiny. They need to have a public phone line," said Chris Booth, a spokesman for _Peace News_. The number now appears in three Internet notice boards: <alt.2600>, an electronic conference used by computer hackers; <misc.activism.progressive>, an international network for radical left-wing groups; and <wri.news>; War Resisters International news. The number gives direct access to MI5's headquarters and enables the caller to be put though to secret service personnel, including the head of MI5, Stella Rimington. It is likely that MI5 will change the number, which will involve contacting the many thousands of people who hold it. Late last week it was still on line.