Some intriguing situations Pete and Intel Family Members experienced

You may have noticed I've been writing little on this Submarine Matters lately.

I have been very busy commenting on other fora. Specifically

-  the Aussie's On Line Opinion with me commenting 2-3 times a day as plantagenet
   here is the list of my 4,000+ comments since 2005.

and

-  US Intelnews commenting 1-2 times weekly as Pete

You'll notice an undeniable mindset aimed at (internal, external and sigint) intel collection and analysis, but mainly from-security-intel-angle.

Much of this has been inspired by 3 Americans on the  game: A. in cyber security; B. mainly the security one with access to the 2 most famous bureau (mid level) and agency (an ex DD (Analysis); and C. in border protection. That was since 2005 until 3 years before Operation Neptune Spear, noting. Earlier, in 2006, I commented to a US contact (D) that bin Laden would not rely on electronic communications with bin Laden's network, but instead rely on hardcopy message couriers to-from  bin Laden.

Since 2005 my communications have been closely monitored by 2 Five-Eyes. Fear not, I only consider traveling to Five-Eye-Safe Aus, NZ and UK, and telegraph my movements. I only use the same long term mobile and ISP accounts for ease of the established monitoring.

Also inspired by a lifetime of reading intelligence biographies, autobiogs, fiction and non-fiction (books, articles, websites, Youtubes, movies, TV series and newspapers). 

Several family members being a broader part of the game:

-  One, Grandad I never saw, on my Father's side, in then British run New Delhi, working with
   electrical aspects of ULTRA and MAGIC intercept support in the early 1940s. Then UK tank 
   development. Later honoured with an OBE in 1961 "see George Leopold Albert COATES, Esq.,
   Engineer I, Military Engineering Experimental Establishment, Christchurch, [UK] War Office." 

-  Another, Grandad on my Mother's side, (paid by US or Australian DoDs?) to regularly fly into
   Alice Springs to provide orthodontic services to Pine Gap staff and their families (1960s-70s).

-  the last, my Dad, from Vietnam 1970 (counter-insurgency tactical intel) up to (access to
   everything) Defense Attache to the US to mid 80s. Me often being told way too much by family on
   the game.

Also by experinces triggered by such articles as this, this , this and this. In 2008 I scored a visit by a Chinese male "student" to my very small remote town. A "student" with an unenviable task as my town (where no Chinese lived...) was way out of the permitted Chinese diplomatic travel radius from Capital City. Aforesaid Chinese "student", of the thin cover carrying a camera (in his words "to take a picture" of my 90yo little old lady neigbour's old house...!) in retrospect, placed a GPS tracking device on my car. So when I visited Capital City in 2009 I was boxed-in by a Chinese team of 4 single, fit, chaps of around 30 years old. The 4 were just peaceably applying "here we are" pressure, thank goodness. The 4 had no plausible reason to be "window shopping" half an hour before the shops of the very cold Capital City opened. 

So after all this I'm being encouraged to wean off the intel mindset with more about other genres, eg. crime thrillers (good, not far different from spy thrillers) and even fantasy (but the fantasy genre will never happen :)

I'm also writing more poetry (see https://petercoatespoems.blogspot.com/ ) and non-fiction with an emphasis on political satire, which will one day be funny

---------------------------------------------------.

On another matter :

Thankyou /Kjell

For directing me to a glaring defect in my blog software. 

I have found over 350 comments in my Pending Comment bin that never went through to my email - some as far back as 2017. After removing around 150 SPAM comments I have just published all the Pending Comments, about 200. 

My apologies to commenters, whose comments were, for a time, lost, hence not responded to - which I'll do over the next few days.

About 500 comments did get through to my email since 2017. I published them on the day received. 

Cheers

Pete