Raw Data: Oct. 18, 1993

Staffers of the British Broadcasting Corp. working in Bosnia were hopping mad after getting an interoffice memo from London headquarters warning that Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Service was threatening to confiscate flak jackets needed in Bosnia. Customs, according to the memo, had also become concerned about whether four-wheel-drive vehicles were being illegally exported. It added, “The BBC, presumably in their eyes a well-known terrorist group, would be treated like any other potential mercenary.” The document concluded with the sarcastic assertion that should any staffer get “shot dead by some scumbag in Bosnia,” the BBC would definitely complain.