The November 2004 CIA purge

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Resignation, offers thereof, call it what you will. Talking Points is not very sanguine.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

So, apparently they feel that the first thing they must do regarding intelligence is stop up the leaks as opposed to improving the collection. Cynical yet ineffective; a losing combination.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a disturbing trend.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

How did Valerie Plame fare?

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Like, what's next?
BUSH ODERS TOTAL OVERHAUL OF DOG-CATCHERS IN BID TO EXTERMINATE THE PINK-O LIBERAL INFESTATION!!!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Too bad Dick Nixon is not around for Bush to ask how it goes when you screw with the CIA.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

The guy on 60 Minutes last night wasn't very convincing.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I missed it Spencer. What was he talking unconvincingly about?

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

He's the one who talked about Bin Laden now having religious approval to launch a nuclear attack on the US. He sounded like a strategy game grognard.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Grognard? I know this term in relation to Napoleonic veterans only.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

People who play wargames with miniatures and/or hexagons. Check out grognard.com. (Also, I used to play things like this!)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Weird. Not the wargaming per se, just the migration of the word from it's original meaning to a historical one then across languages to a new context. Grognard literally means 'grumbler' in French.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 15 November 2004 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, many of these guys play Napoleonic simulations so that's probably where they picked it up.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I just missed getting into that stuff as an ado but I stuck to just reading the history instead.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Now I'm getting flashbacks to Yaquinto game sets.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I stopped playing when I got to something called World in Flames which is a brigade level simulation of WWII - all of it! There was also the standalone political simulation of the run up to WWII called Days of Decision. Just setting up the combined game could take days! (A computer version is on the way which I'm pretty excited about).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(This is another great sidetrack on a day full of them.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

My Dad is really into World In Flames! It sorta scares me.

Hexwargaming is still less scary than railway games though.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, I'm such a dad! There is a beta of Computer World in Flames that works pretty well.

and yes, railway games - even that microsoft railway simulator, are really scary. What are you supposed to do?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

You know...connect.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:43 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.milsims.com.au/milsim/images/fas10981.jpg
OH YEAH
OH YEAH

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.pandagon.net/mtarchives/003986.html

fun with the new CIA director's internal memos

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

FUCK

― Lukas (lukas), Thursday, 18 November 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

hahaha i never would have guessed spencer chow was a GAMER!

― hockey family (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 18 November 2004 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

oh wow, world in flames? it doesn't get any deeper than that. my friend's dad was into it (and railway games! holy shit, he had like shelves of them). we used to just stare at the table in awe, since it was set up in the basement for months.

― g--ff (gcannon), Thursday, 18 November 2004 06:27 (twenty-one years ago)

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