http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/17/night-jack-orwell-prize
theguardian TheObserver
Dispatches from the fault lines of modern Britain
For over a year, police detective 'Jack Night' chronicled his working life in an unnamed UK town on his remarkably frank blog Night Jack. Now his scathing and revealing posts on the reality of policing in Britain have won him an Orwell Prize
The Observer, Saturday 16 May 2009
I started the Night Jack blog back in February last year after discovering a police blog called Inspector Gadget. I read it and I agreed with it. My comments on there started to get so long that one evening I sat down with my laptop and started a blog of my own. If anyone had told me then that I was going to win the Orwell Prize I would have asked them to stop being silly. It is still a bit of a nosebleed experience up here. But I am grateful to the Orwell Prize for noticing Night Jack and for choosing to do so in a year that has seen political blogging become a more important part of the wider political process. As you may know, the blog was put up on bricks this month because I want to concentrate on writing a book, but these are some of the posts people seemed to like.
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/79701/Clancy_-_Red_Storm_Rising.txt
Clancy Tom, Red Storm Rising [ RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 ]
Tom Clancy
Red Storm Rising
The Party General Secretary brought the meeting to order. His voice was controlled and businesslike. "Comrade Sergetov, you may begin your report. First, we wish to hear your explanation of exactly what happened."
"Comrades, at approximately twenty-three hundred hours yesterday, Moscow Time, three armed men entered the central control complex of the Nizhnevartovsk oil complex and committed a highly sophisticated act of sabotage."
"Who were they?" the Defense Minister asked sharply.
"We only have identification for two of them. One of the bandits was a staff electrician. The third"-Sergetov pulled the ID card from his pocket and tossed it on the table--was Senior Engineer I.M. Tolkaze. He evidently used his expert knowledge of the control systems to initiate a massive fire which spread rapidly before high winds. A security team of ten KGB border guards responded at once to the alarm. The one traitor still unidentified killed or wounded five of these with a rifle taken from the building guard, who was also shot. I must say, having interviewed the KGB sergeant-the lieutenant was killed leading his men-that the border guards responded quickly and well. They killed the traitors within minutes, but were unable to prevent the complete destruction of the facility, both the refinery and production fields."
"And if the guards responded so fast, how then did they fail to prevent this act?" the Defense Minister demanded angrily, He examined the photographic, pass with palpable hatred in his eyes "What was this black-ass Muslim doing there in the first place?"
"Comrade, work in the Siberian fields is arduous, and we have had serious difficulties in filling the posts we have there. My predecessor decided to conscnpt experienced oil-field workers from the Baku region to Siberia. This was madness. You will recall that my first recommend last year was to change this policy."
"We have noted it, Mikhail Eduardovich," the Chairman said. "Go on."
"The guard post records all telephone and radio traffic. The response team was moving in under two minutes. Unfortunately, the guard post is located adjacent to the original control building. The current building was constructed three kilometers away when new computerized control equipment was obtained from the West two years ago. A new guard post was also supposed to have been built, and the proper materials were allocated for this purpose. It would appear that these building materials were misappropriated by the complex director and local Party secretary, for the purpose of building dachas on the river a few kilometers away. Both of these men have been arrested by my order, for crimes against the State," Sergetov reported matter-of-factly. There was no reaction around the table. By unspoken consensus, those two men were sentenced to death; the formalities would be worked out by the proper ministries. Sergetov continued: "I have already ordered greatly increased security at all petroleum sites. Also on my orders, the families of the two known traitors have been arrested at their homes outside Baku and are being rigorously interrogated by State Security, along with all who knew and worked with them.
"Before the border guards were able to kill the traitors, they were able to sabotage the oil-field control systems in such a way as to create a massive conflagration. They were also able to wreck the control equipment so that even if the guard troops had been able to get a crew of engineers in to restore control, it is unlikely that anything would have been saved. The KGB troops were forced to evacuate the building, which was later consumed by the fire. There was nothing more they could have done." Sergetov remembered the sergeant's badly burned face. the tears flowing down over the blisters as he told his story.
"The fire brigade?" the General Secretary asked.
"More than half of them died fighting the fire," Sergetov replied. "Along with over a hundred citizens who joined the battle to save the complex. Truly there is no blame to be assessed here, Comrade. Once this bastard. Tolkaze began his devil's work, it would have been as easy to control an earthquake. For the most part, the fire has been put out by now, due to the fact that most of the fuels stored in the refinery were consumed in about five hours; also because of the destruction of the wellheads in the oil field."
