Welcome to the first of a regular feature in SLR that will suggest a number of web sites that may be of particular interest to our readers. Increasingly the web is becoming a source of information far beyond that immediately available to ordinary members of the public via their newspapers or libraries.
Frequently news reports and commentaries on major events are, by necessity of space or time, mere résumés of major documents only available previously to specialist or academic interests. Now this information is often available in its complete form via Internet databases. The BMA reports on the NHS PFI/PPP scandal are good examples of this.
As always, with regards to the internet, readers have to beware that there are a number of spoof and disinformation sites, either freelance or state sponsored, therefore care has to be taken before passing or publishing information obtained by this means to ensure that facts are facts.
To avoid this the Web Review will confine itself to commenting on the general nature of the sites mentioned.
To illustrate how you can find out the news before it happens I like the example of the US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a public policy research institution dedicated to analysis and policy impact. CSIS is the only institution of its kind that maintains resident experts on all the world’s major geographical regions. It also covers key functional areas, such as international finance, U.S. trade and economic policy, national and international security issues, energy, and telecommunications.
Founded in 1962 and located in Washington, D.C., CSIS is a private, tax-exempt institution. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. Sam Nunn chairs its Board of Trustees. The Center’s staff of 90 policy experts, 80 support staff, and 70 interns, is committed to generating strategic analysis, exploring contingencies, analyzing policy options, exploring contingencies, and making policy recommendations.
Why find this site so interesting? Because in September 1999 I read an article on this site called The Lessons and Non-Lessons of the Air and Missile War in Kosovo. In it the accuracy of our so-called smart weapons was exposed. This later became big news in the UK almost one year later. If you want to read the report click on: www.csis.org./kosovo/lessons.html
Next on my list for Strategic information is another US site www.stratfor.com This site contains a great deal of informed commentary on US and NATO thinking. For instance the rules of engagement in the new forms of civil unrest as in the Balkans and with terrorist threats identified with a particular state are now to met through by-passing armies at frontiers and attacking power stations and water works etc. It would appear that the so-called International Community is using its Kosovo example as a precedent in order to subvert international law. Is there anyone left at Westminster who knows about this or is willing to oppose it?
Anti-globalisation is a word that even sounds ugly. Perhaps the rise of this movement is best attributed to what some might call the subversive use of the Internet. There are many sites now dedicated to this cause but www.50years.org is a good one to start with. It has many links to other like minded organizations and provides good analysis of events.
Finally, with genetic research causing so many political problems, some of which must be resolved by our own Scottish Parliament, I would point surfers to www.genewatch.org as this site has several reports on the important issues. It also has the habit, to be encouraged, of leaking internal memos from companies like Monsanto thus letting us know what these industrial giants think of us.