Uncategorized | Random Analytica

November 21, 2019

17. Mefloquine Dispatches: RQ19/03024 #RightToKnow, 21st November 2019

It was all going so well.

AHQ had found some documents. Some had been destroyed. Just needed to be declassified.

As the requests for extensions came through I accepted them. It has always been my hope that Army might finally wake up to this and take over. Get the message out.

Then the door slammed.

I had been refused several times before this. Even got a single document a few months back. This time the letter is different. More official. Even has a new number. RQ19/03024.

No more information. No reason really.

They have made Operation BARITONE a state secret.

I just watched Chernobyl with my 14-year old son.

When did we become the Soviet Union?

#RightToKnow

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UPDATES

They have destroyed most of the documents. The ones they did find I cannot read because it remains classified. No mention of mefloquine which is strange because I’ve got Red Cross records that confirm it. Which makes me thinks only the Company Group got the Mefloquine but the main battle group would have received a Mefloquine alternative.

I have a simple question then.

In late March 1997 was TAFENQUINE the anti-malarial being considered for the occupation of PNG commencing with a Company Group deployment to secure the Embassy in Port Moresby?

If you or someone you know needs help, please phone Lifeline on 131 114, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

October 21, 2019

12. Mefloquine Dispatches: The Claremont Serial Killings, April 1997

We look down at the near century old corpse. We all laugh. The beret’d Sergeant tells us to shut the fuck up and concentrate. At the bottom of the pit lays the skeleton of the previous occupant. A cheap burial perhaps? The wood has mostly crumbled into dust. It’s been 99-years and they are getting moved on. The coffin lowers into the six-foot hole with a quiet concentration. Later that day we will lower the corpse of my very good mate. It is both a moment of gravitas and levity.

There are seven of us. Six Other Ranks (ORs) and a Sergeant. The Sergeant and four of the ORs are from the Regiment. Two Signal blue from Townsville. Might have been an even number of beret’d and Signal blue? We all know each other or are known to each other. A good set of blokes. It is an official burial with a catafalque party in Perth, WA.

We finish the practice session.

On the return to Campbell Barracks one of the Boys is reading the paper. In the pages are the latest updates on the third murder. A serial killer was stalking the streets of Perth. Three girls. All similar. Young. Good sorts. The first two in 2016 then a big gap until last month. No idea who was murdering them.

One of the Boys tells us that the WA ‘coppers’ have visited the Barracks recently. They haven’t ruled out it might have been a soldier who was knocking off the women. Just a friendly interview at this stage just to rule the Regiment out of it.

Opinions rattle and roll around the bus. It’s good banter and it takes our mind off things.

I rattle off a quick-fire set of statistics. I don’t yet know it but my brain has changed in the last month and I am now recalling information differently than before the MLD [Mefloquine Loading Dose]. At the end I opinion that it was highly unlikely for a Regiment guy to be the killer because most US serial killers historically kill after they leave the services. Not always, but mostly. Think Jeffrey Dahmer. I read a lot of criminal investigation books in those days.

Everyone is impressed with our wisdom until the Sergeant comments out of the side of his mouth.

“Fuck off you idiots”.

We all laugh. Another moment of levity before the tension of the day.

To the Lost.

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Image: The West Australian

If you or someone you know needs help, please phone Lifeline on 131 114, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

February 9, 2018

Random Analytica: Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 1,032-points (-4.15%)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1,032-points overnight. This marks the second time in history that Index has closed down more than 1,000-points in a single day and is the second worst point’s on record. Although not even close to the worst day historically it does signal a surge in volatility that is spooking investors. Here is the updated chart.

180208_DowJonesIndustrialAvg_1032Drop

Some analysis via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Dow Jones plunges over 1,000 points as Wall Street and European sell-off deepens. Excerpt:

The blue-chip Dow Jones index closed 4.15 per cent lower at 23,860. In the final hour of trade, the S&P 500’s and Nasdaq’s losses deepened to 3.75 and 3.9 per cent respectively. The Dow and S&P are in correction territory, having fallen by more than 10 per cent since January 26, when they hit record highs.”

“The dust hasn’t settled yet, and I think both buyers and sellers are trying to figure out what this market really wants to do,” said Jonathan Corpina, Meridian Equity Partners’ senior managing partner. “I would think that this continues to happen for the next few trading sessions for everything to kind of get flushed out.”

Every S&P sector posted losses, with financials (-4.3pc), technology (-4.3pc) and consumer cyclicals (-3.9pc) being the worst performers. US market volatility jumped by 27 per cent overnight, with CBOE’S volatility index (VIX) rising to 35.17. The measure for market anxiety has more than doubled since last Friday — prior to the mass sell-off when the VIX index was at the relatively low 14.3

Furthermore, the London, Paris and Frankfurt indexes tumbled overnight, with falls between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent. During the European session, the Bank of England voted unanimously to keep British interest rates on hold. But the UK central bank warned rates may need to rise sooner, and by more than it had previously expected, due to an improving global economy.

Random Analytica