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morning. The papers say that Jamie Junior would probably have been holding his Granddad’s hand when the bomb went off. It seems that they went everywhere like that, whenever they were out together...
In a perverse twist, it also turns out that Grey Beard was an active lobbyist for the creation of a separate nation state for the people of Khandastan. Having travelled along the Silk Road during his student days, he had been captivated by the community spirit he’d observed in the tribal districts of southeastern Turkmenistan. He had seen the isolation of this tiny sub-nation which sat trapped between the arid black sands of the Karakum Desert and the more distant Tibetan Mountains. He had seen how this area was orphaned from the natural gas dominated interests of the capital, Ashgabat. He had noticed and been touched by the way the tribes were, despite their harsh living conditions, happy to live their lives in accordance with ancient creeds and remained, even centuries on, loyal to their legendary hero Oghuz Khan.
In fact, Albertson had argued strongly that, under certain circumstances, the separation of territories into smaller country groups, in various locations across central Europe and Asia, offered by far the best economic and cultural strategy for development and long term peace. He had often pointed out, to any who would listen, that larger, forced, country groupings had always struggled with internal disputes and tensions which, he claimed, distracted them from fruitful domestic progress. He said that there were many examples throughout history to underpin these claims.
The papers report all this with vehement rhetoric and banner headlines across every front page.
Why?
Because it was an embryonic Khandastanian, militant, splinter group which launched the attack and, as a result, exterminated one of their few political allies.
The terrorists’ claim – delivered by means of an anonymous email, sent from somewhere within the confused internet topography of the region – was that the United Kingdom was a ‘capitalist aggressor whose policies were designed to hold back their country’s natural rights and freedoms’. This was very clearly not the case. The UK population and government were blissfully unaware of Khandastan, and genuinely cared about it even less. General opinion concluded that the UK had been a target of convenience and that the attack had happened here simply because it could.
Later reports suggest that the cell was probably padded with UK-resident wannabes and that the militant splinter group itself is tiny, apparently underfunded, is unsupported by the various tribal leaders it claims to represent and, until now, had been considered by UK Agencies to be an inactive and insignificant threat amongst other more pressing priorities.
Well that, at least, has changed.
All available resources now appear to be being put behind tracking down the perpetrators although, unfortunately, the wave of national and international outrage – including from the normally under-spoken Turkmen political leadership, who have openly condemned and vilified the attack – has caused the terrorists to deep dive and head for cover wherever possible. Suggestions put the ringleaders somewhere in Europe, though there are some more upbeat suggestions that part of the cell are still in the UK and will be arrested shortly.
“Various Agencies are closing in...,” says one report.
~~~~~
“How many are in there?” the policewoman whispered to a middle-aged couple who stood huddled in front of her in their tiny front porch-way. Her brown eyes peered out from the depths of a Kevlar-reinforced, matt-black helmet which, together with the full-face balaclava she was wearing underneath, meant nothing else was visible of her face.
“We think there are three,” the middle-aged lady replied in equally hushed tones as she clutched tightly to her husband’s hand in their open doorway. The neighbours’ somewhat plump faces
In a perverse twist, it also turns out that Grey Beard was an active lobbyist for the creation of a separate nation state for the people of Khandastan. Having travelled along the Silk Road during his student days, he had been captivated by the community spirit he’d observed in the tribal districts of southeastern Turkmenistan. He had seen the isolation of this tiny sub-nation which sat trapped between the arid black sands of the Karakum Desert and the more distant Tibetan Mountains. He had seen how this area was orphaned from the natural gas dominated interests of the capital, Ashgabat. He had noticed and been touched by the way the tribes were, despite their harsh living conditions, happy to live their lives in accordance with ancient creeds and remained, even centuries on, loyal to their legendary hero Oghuz Khan.
In fact, Albertson had argued strongly that, under certain circumstances, the separation of territories into smaller country groups, in various locations across central Europe and Asia, offered by far the best economic and cultural strategy for development and long term peace. He had often pointed out, to any who would listen, that larger, forced, country groupings had always struggled with internal disputes and tensions which, he claimed, distracted them from fruitful domestic progress. He said that there were many examples throughout history to underpin these claims.
The papers report all this with vehement rhetoric and banner headlines across every front page.
Why?
Because it was an embryonic Khandastanian, militant, splinter group which launched the attack and, as a result, exterminated one of their few political allies.
The terrorists’ claim – delivered by means of an anonymous email, sent from somewhere within the confused internet topography of the region – was that the United Kingdom was a ‘capitalist aggressor whose policies were designed to hold back their country’s natural rights and freedoms’. This was very clearly not the case. The UK population and government were blissfully unaware of Khandastan, and genuinely cared about it even less. General opinion concluded that the UK had been a target of convenience and that the attack had happened here simply because it could.
Later reports suggest that the cell was probably padded with UK-resident wannabes and that the militant splinter group itself is tiny, apparently underfunded, is unsupported by the various tribal leaders it claims to represent and, until now, had been considered by UK Agencies to be an inactive and insignificant threat amongst other more pressing priorities.
Well that, at least, has changed.
All available resources now appear to be being put behind tracking down the perpetrators although, unfortunately, the wave of national and international outrage – including from the normally under-spoken Turkmen political leadership, who have openly condemned and vilified the attack – has caused the terrorists to deep dive and head for cover wherever possible. Suggestions put the ringleaders somewhere in Europe, though there are some more upbeat suggestions that part of the cell are still in the UK and will be arrested shortly.
“Various Agencies are closing in...,” says one report.
~~~~~
“How many are in there?” the policewoman whispered to a middle-aged couple who stood huddled in front of her in their tiny front porch-way. Her brown eyes peered out from the depths of a Kevlar-reinforced, matt-black helmet which, together with the full-face balaclava she was wearing underneath, meant nothing else was visible of her face.
“We think there are three,” the middle-aged lady replied in equally hushed tones as she clutched tightly to her husband’s hand in their open doorway. The neighbours’ somewhat plump faces
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