"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Scotsman who embarassed Tony Blair dies on a country walk.

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who quit government over the Iraq war, died on Saturday after collapsing on a Scottish mountainside. He was 59.

It will be interesting to find out whether he slit his wrists or has 7 bullets in his head.

Picture shows Cook with his glamourous young wife Gaynor and Stephen Perry - Who ?

Stephen Perry - MD, SLP Investments property management company, London Export Ltd. providing finance and advice to companies trading with China gave more than £5,000 to the Labour Party in 1997. SLP Investments gave more than £5,000 in both 1998 and 2000, and £25,000 on 14 May 1999.

Also Chairman of Millenium Tableware, Vice President of the China-British Business Council and Chairman of the 48 Group Club.

This shy retiring businessman is a member of the Labour Finance and Industry Group (LFIG), a pro-business New Labour think-tank. He is Chair of the LFIG's China Study Group, (The central recommendation is that a high-level task force be established, charged with the preparations of a comprehensive and strategic plan to cover the totality of our China business effort....) famously recommending that Stephen Byers should set up a DTI taskforce to develop business with China.

The LFIG organised the conference which formed the basis of the Labour Party's PFI policy before the 1997 election and were instrumental in the establishment of the Government post of Minister for Small Business.

London Export Corporation first did business in China in 1952. Stephen opened their New York offices soon after Nixon’s first trip to China, they now have offices in Hong Kong and Beijing. The 48 Group Club, which was formed following their famous Icebreaker mission to China in 1953. Stephen’s father was a moving force which led to 48 British companies becoming known as the 48 Group. They and their Chinese counterparts became known as the Icebreakers.

See Select Committee on Foreign Affairs report June 2000 for more info..

US Department of Justice publish Al Quaeda manual

Yesterday I highlighted how the FBI helps folks make bombs from regular retail store purchases, now the US DOJ has translated and published the AlQuaeda Manual found in Manchester ( some naughty bits deleted).

You can also read on the Home Page of the DOJ the speech by the Attorney General Alberto "Torture" Gonzales on a trip to meet new US Citizens on Ellis Island this week. To quote him ...

"Later this week (6/8), we will mark the 40 th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act – signed by President Johnson. It has been called one of the most successful pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted.

In 1965, President Johnson said that,“the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice.”

Johnson, who had won on a landslide 61% against Republican Goldwater, famously remarked that by signing the Act he was giving away the South.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Ethics ? Isn't that what Doctors have ?

“The involvement of doctors in direct or indirect abuse of prisoners is not just a stain on medical ethics. By abandoning our principles, we add fuel to the fires of distrust and despair, and increase the risk to us all, as the recent outrages in London demonstrate.” Michael Wilks The Lancet 2005; 366:429-431 6th August 2005-08-03

This article quoted above covers the role of doctors in torture and the abuse of prisoners' human rights which has been known about and documented for many years. “ It is therefore disturbing that the cultural and social factors that have seduced individual health professionals and their institutions into participating in abuse have persisted, and have therefore remained unchallenged” , says the author.

He argues that Governments and representative medical bodies have been “ adjusting and blurring their ethical guidance, tilting themselves towards endorsement of gross ethical malpractice”.

Problems were highlighted in 2004 with allegation of sordid mistreatment of prisoners by military staff ( and further horrifying details are still being censored) at Abu Ghraib, and in the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

The role of doctors was reported in the press (Slevin P,Stephens J. Detainees' medical files shared. Washington Post June 20 2004 / Lewis N. Interrogators cite doctors' aid at Guantanamo. New York Times June 24 2004) and was further reported in the New England Journal of Medecine Lifton R. Doctors and torture. N Engl J Med 2004; 351: 415-416. /. Bloche M, Marks J. When doctors go to war. N Engl J ed 2005; 352: 3-6. ) Steven Miles researched the prison’s medical treatment, he found that medical records and death certificates were falsified, clinicians had given interrogators their subjects’ medical histories, medical assistance was denied, and medical professionals had consistently failed to report injuries and deaths caused by torture. In some instances, health workers directly aided torture. Miles related one incident in which a doctor called to suture a beaten prisoner gave the suture materials to the man’s attacker, a guard, and allowed him to treat the wound unsupervised.

These reports, confirmed by a US Gubment report And were confirmed and also by a leaked report from the International Committee of the Red Cross, proved medical staff were negligent in failing to report evidence of torture, failing intervene to stop it being repeated, and made available to interrogators information from confidential medical files, thereby allowing interrogators to exploit weaknesses. There is speculation, but no evidence, that death certificates of those who died under torture have been falsified. The former doctor to the President’s father recently and publicly reflected the medical profesions repugnanace to these events (Lee BJ. The stain of torture. Washington Post July 1 2005).

History shows that professional silence will ensure the persistence of such practices. If effective steps are to be made to stop this corruption of ethics, we must accept this corruption is a disease, with a documented aetiology, and has so far defied treatment.

Citing the Nazi practices raises hackles and the hair on your neck, but the involvement of German doctors in the 1930s and 1940s remains an indelible stain on medical ethics; massive and active “euthanasia” and experiments involving Jews, gypsies, and the mentally ill were undertaken without apparent question, concern or guilt.

Lifton in writing “The Nazi doctors: the psychology of medical killing” Papermac 1986 explained how this happened.

1. Uncritical acceptance of a state ideology that created scapegoats for the ills of society.
2. “Doubling” - an ability to exist in two separate but functional halves.
3. Fear or reprisals
4. Poor understanding of basic medical ethical principles.
Examples can be cited subsequently in South Africa, Chile, Turkey, and the former USSR where the negligence became embedded and accepted.

The author argues the same factors are at work in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and no doubt elsewhere in the worldwide secret maze of US prisons and their surrogate jailers and torturers.

In February, 2002, George W Bush, infamously said that Al Qaeda terrorists were no longer covered by the Geneva Convention. In August, a legal memo from the US Justice Department for Alberto Gonzalez, then Counsel to the President, now Attorney General, attempted to redefine torture, stating that “for an act to constitute torture … it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure”. The memo continued: “Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”

US medical bodies publicly remained silent whatever reservations may have been felt or made in private. This failure to oppose and criticise, put prisoners, already incarcerated without trial or access to legal representation, at the mercy of unprincipled doctors.

This inertia is bad enough, but more worrying trends are evident — Gubments and professional bodies rewriting existing ethical guidance in the service of abuse. US Secretary of Defense for Health, William Winkenwerder, accepts that some medical personnel working at Guantanamo are not providing direct care for patients, but are using their skills “to assist the interrogators”, in the role of “behavioural scientists”. These personnel are not answerable to the Department of Defense, but to military intelligence, and work within Behavioural Science Consultation Teams, commonly known as “Biscuits”.

Silence was not total , at Harvard Medical School Ethical Division on March 1st 2005 Leonard Rubenstein, (Executive director of Physicians for Human Rights) Steven Miles, and Robert Jay Lifton discussed how these professionals made the choices they did, and how to help future medical personnel choose differently.

They asked the audience to envision the nurse and her colleagues, medical professionals who falsified medical records, tampered with corpses, and collaborated with violent and humiliating interrogations. “Imagine what it’s like to be a medical professional at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay.”

Medical workers were caught between their duties to their patients and their duties to the military.Steven Miles of the University of Minnesots gathered evidence from U.S. congressional hearings, sworn statements of prisoners and soldiers, medical journal accounts and news reports to build a picture of physician complicity, and in isolated cases active participation by medical personnel in abuse at the Baghdad prison, as well as in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

In one example, cited in a sworn statement from an Abu Ghraib prisoner, another prisoner collapsed and was apparently unconscious after a beating. Medical staff revived the prisoner and left, allowing the abuse to continue, Miles reported.(Also covered in Aug 2004 Lancet Report)

“The doctors at Abu Ghraib were part of a military structure that orchestrated torture until it became normal,” said Lifton, HMS lecturer in psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital and distinguished professor emeritus of psychiatry and psychology at the City University of New York.

Lifton pointed to the unique respect accorded to medical professionals, and said that their presence can “medicalize a criminal event.” Rubenstein agreed, saying that “health personnel should never be instruments by which the state commits human rights violations.”

The Pentagon has subtly changed the wording says Wilkes of a 1982 UN resolution so that Bush's memorandum has placed these suspects outside a protective legal framework, and the Pentagon's guidance allows professional expertise to be used in interrogation techniques.

US medical professional medical bodies have tended to blur ethical boundaries the American Psychiatric Association's Statement on Psychiatric Practices at Guantanamo Bay is weak. The American Psychological Association's “Presidential Task Force Report ”,rehearses conventional ethical principles about care of individual patients, then loops the loop on sanctioning input from psychologists and advice on techniques to be used in interrogation. In effect, it becomes acceptable for a health professional to dispense with any ethical responsibilities if “their training and expertise is used outside a strictly therapeutic context “. Grossly unethical maybe but this professional body has no problems.

What can be done? Wilkes wants an end to the assault, led by the USA and UK Governments on international bodies, such as the United Nations.

The forthcoming World Medical Association meeting in October should put the subject on the agenda. Second, the lack of ethical knowledge identified by Lifton in pre-war Germany should be rapidly corrected by a renewed effort to map out the ethical boundaries appropriate for doctors acting in areas of dual responsibility,at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

He doesn’t say it, but a bit of personal responsibility and moral concern by the doctors involved would be a good starting point.


Robert Jay Lifton (left) and Leonard Rubenstein discuss ways to avoid dual loyalty conflicts in military prisons. (Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services)

Terror - It's a 12 step program

Our Dear Leader summoned the Press for their Monthly insight into his mind – evidently as he made clear , from the off, the pesky judges, courts and established law are making life difficult for him …

“Such action in the past has been controversial. Each tightening of the law has met fierce opposition. Regularly we have had defeat in Parliament or the courts. The Anti-Terrorism legislation, passed in 2002 after September 11th was declared partially invalid. The successor legislation hotly contested.”

The twelve stages of excluding and ridding our great and glorious realm, this sceptred isle from these septic clerics with their vile ideology and their followers he listed….

Deportation
New grounds for deportation and exclusion are to be introduced after one months consultation. The new grounds will include “ (a) fostering hatred,(b) advocating violence to further a person's beliefs, (c) justifying or validating such violence.

Should legal obstacles arise, we will legislate further, including, if necessary amending the Human Rights Act, in respect of the interpretation of the ECHR. (Which is of course under the current Convention is impossible and would require the support of the 46 members of the Convention on Human Rights)

One other point on deportations. Once the new grounds take effect, there will be a list drawn up of specific extremist websites, bookshops, centres, networks and particular organisations of concern. Active engagement with any of these will be a trigger for the Home Secretary to consider the deportation of any foreign national.

Justifying terrorism
New anti-terrorism legislation in the Autumn including an offence of condoning or glorifying terrorism will be introduced this will be applied to justifying or glorifying terrorism anywhere not just the UK. The sort of remarks made in recent days should be covered by such laws… the remarks referred to are not identified. (re Nelson Mandela, Bobby Sands , Gerry Adams ? ... George Galloway ?)

No Asylum for Terrorists
Anyone who has participated in terrorism or has anything to do with it anywhere will automatically be refused asylum. (Does this include the people who hi-jacked an Afghan airliner and demanded to be taken to Stanstead who settled here subsequently ?)

Stripping citizenship
Extend the current powers to strip citizenship from those individuals with British or dual nationality who act contrary to the interests of this country. We will now consult on extending, simplifying and making such measures more effective for naturalised citizens.

Time limit on Extradition procedures
Rashid Ramda wanted by the French for the Paris metro bombing ten years ago is still here. This is unacceptable (although quite legal under current laws) Consultation will start (who with ?) on setting a maximum time limit for all future extradition cases involving terrorism.

Extending detention without charge to meet the requests of the Police.
Examining the possibility of a pre-trial process (?) and also examine whether the necessary procedure can be brought about to give us a way of meeting the police and security service request that detention pre-charge of terrorist suspects be significantly extended.

More special judges to be appointed
Lord Chancellor will increase the number of special judges hearing terrorist cases to expand court capacity.

Proscribing Hizb-ut-Tahrir & Al Mujahiroun

We will proscribe Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the successor organisation of Al Mujahiroun. We will also examine the grounds of proscription to widen them and put proposals forward in the new legislation.

Swearing allegiance
British citizenship procedures as well as attendance at a citizenship ceremony, will involve swearing allegiance to the country and have a rudimentary grasp of the English language (say, at least to the level of George W Bush). Hazel Blears in consultation with the "Muslim community", to establish a Commission to advise on how, consistent with people's complete freedom to worship in the way they want, and to follow their own religion and culture, there is better integration of those parts of the community presently “ inadequately integrated”.

Closing mosques
Consultation to take place on a new power to order closure of a place of worship used as a centre for fomenting extremism and will consult with Muslim leaders in respect of those clerics who are not British citizens, to draw up a list of those not suitable to preach, who will be excluded from Britain.(Woe betide those Muslims who want "gay marriages", female Bishops and want to argue against Abortion ... or Alcohol ?)

Border Security Measures
Introduce the proposed measures on the security of our borders, with a series of countries (countries not detailed) specifically designated for biometric visas over the next year. The Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office are compiling an “international” database of people whose activities or views pose a threat to Britain's security. Anyone on the database will be excluded from entry with any appeal only taking place outside the country.

As the Dear Leader stated, on more than one occasion …” Let no-one be in any doubt. The rules of the game are changing.”

...all we need now is for Leni Reifenstahl to do the video.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Flour Power

According to his stunningly attractive lawyer Antonietta Sonnessa, Hamdi Issac, AKA Osman Hussein ( Somali / Eritrean / Sudanese with UK Somali / Eritrean / Sudanese passport) has said the bag he carried onto a London subway was full of flour fixed to a detonator.

"What he said is that is that there were harmless materials, that is, flour. And then there was (the detonator) to make it explode -- but only to create a bang. That's what my client said," Sonnessa told Reuters on Wednesday.

So we have 7/7 bombs of RDX, AMTP, HDMT, time / not timed, detonated by mobile, self detonated - a sort of Pick'n'Mix bomb kit ...now we have flour bombs. "Would that be Organic, wholemeal, plain or self - raising sir ?".....

You couldn't fucking make it up.

NYPD gives details of July 7 bombs

CNN report that the NYPD claim investigators in London believe the bombers used a peroxide-based explosive called HMDT, or hexamethylene triperoxide, which can be made with such common items as hydrogen peroxide, which is used to bleach hair; citric acid, a food preservative; and heating tablets used by the military for cooking.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the NYPD had clearance from British authorities to present the information during the briefing. Plod AKA Andy trotter Cheif Constable of British Transport Police was upset and said not information should have been released.... sub judice blah blah.

Of course, chats away the man from New Yorks Finest, the sinister details can be found how to make this deadly, and highly volatile explosive on the web.... quite easily e.g

.......included two five-ounce cans labeled citric acid, five tubes labelled hexamine, an empty one-pint bottle labeled Welloxide® liquid stabilizer developer, and a small vial containing a portion of the liquid originally in the Welloxide® bottle. Welloxide® is a hair coloring developer that contains hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to oxidize hair in the coloring process. The extremely unstable explosive material, hexamethylenetriperoxidediamine (HMTD), can be produced by combining 45 g of 30% hydrogen peroxide, 14 g of hexamine, and 21 g of powdered citric acid (Urbanski 1985)…….. all the required components to prepare HMTD were present, it was necessary to verify the contents of the containers as labelled. This article specifically concerns the analysis of the Welloxide® liquid developer to determine if there was sufficient H2O2 to produce HMTD. Analysis schemes to identify HMTD explosive have been reported (Reutter et al.1983; Zitrin et al. 1983),etc., for 5 pages


REFERENCES
Urbanski, T. Chemistry and Technology of Explosives, Volume 3. Pergamon Press, New York, 1985.

Zitrin, S., Kraus, S., and Glattstein, B. Identification of two rare explosives. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Forensic Aspects of Explosives Analysis. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1983, pp.137–141.

Reutter, D. J., Bender, E. C., and Rudolph, T. L. Analysis of an unusual explosive: Methods used and conclusions drawn from two cases. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Forensic Aspects of Explosives Analysis. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1983, pp. 149–158.

Now where would you find those detailed instructions , references and details to how the Police and Forensic scientists actually test making the explosive, test for materals used, Raman analysis of suspicious chemicals etc .... Well Try the FBI .... Testing of a Suspect Explosive Component: Hydrogen Peroxide in Hair Coloring Developer Edward G. Bartick Research Chemist Rena A. Merrill Chemist Forensic Science Research Unit Federal Bureau of Investigation Quantico, Virginia.

...Note to myself...must ask Hazel Blears, when she is next in Oldham if that constitutes "Indirect assistant for Terrorist Acts."

Dubya's thoughts still evolving


Dubya is having a well earned rest at his ranch in Crawford – clearing more bush no doubt – AP tells us he took time off to shoot the breeze with some not very inquisitive journo’s from the local Bush Boosting frat house - San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Austin American-Statesman.

Asked about “intelligent design”, his first response was that it was something to do with making cup holders in the ’06 GM SUV’s so they took a whole 32 oz. Cola cup, but finally grasped it was to do with teaching evolution in public schools.. “I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush (educated at BOTH Yale and Harvard) said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is ...er...yes.”

Christian conservatives — a substantial part of Bush’s voting base — have been pushing for the teaching in public schools of “intelligent design” – a wing-nut philosophy that believes life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation – and no doubt in creating a totally bogus paleontological record around the world.

Bush also refused to discuss the Plame leak but supported Texas Turd Blossom Rove, “Karl’s got my complete confidence. He’s a valuable member of my team,”

He claimed that Roe v Wade didn’t crop up in talks he had with his Supreme Court nominee John Roberts - “I just made sure he was full square behind that Spic, Alberto at the Attorney General’s office on Torture and that was fine.”

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Muslim dies...Mossad to blame ?


"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lends its full support to the efforts exerted to put an end to the Arab/Israeli conflict and to realize a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question that would establish justice and restore the legitimate rights and lay down a permanent basis for peace, security and stability."

Oficial Mourning Site for King Fahd

Cheese eating surrender monkeys aid USAF in Afghanistan

In Hidden hands at work in Andijan revolt ? Sunday July 31st, we passed on diplomatic gossip that ....

“As well as US air Force personnel and planes, 200 French Air Force personnel and 2 transport aircraft are also based at Dushanbe airport in support of International Security Assistance Force operations in Afghanistan.”

Now Reuters report “"Six Mirage fighters have been deployed in (the Tajik capital) Dushanbe,"

Major Frederic Lemoine, deputy French military attache to Central Asian neighbour Kyrgyzstan, told reporters at U.S.-led air base Ganci near the capital Bishkek “that Six Mirage fighters have been deployed in Dushanbe,"

Two large-body Boeing C-135 FR refuelling planes (“ravitaillement en vol “ in service since 1980 – see pic ) left their base at Istres and landed at Ganci and Lemoine explained that .."These refuelling jets are due to support the Mirage fighters in Tajikistan."

It was pointed out that the French operations were in line with a U.N. Security Council decision to improve security during the Afghan election. The Mirage jets are planned to fly on their first combat missions this Saturday. Probably these are The E.R.S 01/091 " Gascogne " (reconnaissance strategique) which use the Mirage IVP to carry out collection of the information of general interest necessary to the prevention and the management of crises.

For 3 weeks in November 2004 returning from Incirlik in Turkey 3 Mirage F1CR precision strike aircraft (see pic)and a Boeing C135 FR stopped at Dushanbe.

Last October’ s Presidential elections in Afghanistan passed off largely without incident, the rising “insurgent violence” and the protection of thousands of parliamentary candidates is seen as posing a tougher security challenge.

CAFTA Small economies shafted by Big Business US style

Caving in to White House threats and bribes, the Senate approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on June 30, by a vote of 54 to 45 after squeaking through the House 217-215. The argument that these "fledgling" democracies would devolve once again into civil war was hammered home by Republicans who said, "We can send free trade to Central America today, or we will be sending troops tomorrow." It was probably more by reaching into the pork barrel - $286 billion highway spending bill pledges were made to Southern textile and agricultural states - that finally turned the screw. Plus a little “vote jiggling” - Rep. Jo Ann Davis also would have voted against CAFTA, but claimed that a storm prevented her from returning from a cancelled Boy Scout Jamboree.

Deaf and indifferent to farmers, manufacturers, and workers devastated by previous trade agreements, unconcerned about the growing danger these pacts pose to U.S. sovereignty, President Bush pulled out all stops in a major effort to ram CAFTA through the Senate before the July 4 recess. Sometimes to promote the shadowy interests of global business he uses men in uniform, CAFTA uses the men in business suits.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement’s 2000 pages expands NAFTA (the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada) to include Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Bush administration has been clear that it sees CAFTA approval as essential to building momentum for approval of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would include all the nations of our Western Hemisphere.)Or what we patronisingly call the "New World" even thought the original settlers from the Asian motherland we now know probably populated the the Americas, North and South 30,000 years ago.

Signing the treaty President Bush said;

"...the Bill I'm about to sign is good for America. I'm pleased that Congress has taken a step to eliminate the barriers to America's goods and crops to 44 million customers.

I welcome the opportunity to make our nation more secure by strengthening our ties with democracies that share our belief in free markets and free government.

All of us in this room understand that to keep our economy growing and creating jobs, we need to open markets for American products overseas.

All of us understand that strengthening our economic ties with our democratic neighbours is vital to America's economic and national security interests.

All of us understand that by strengthening ties with democracies in our hemisphere, we are advancing the stability that comes from freedom.

Pete du Pont ex Delaware Governer cheered for the CAFTA cause when he wrote about “Sugar Socialism” in the Wall Street Journal on May 25th , "a spoonful of sugar may be the poison that kills the economic opportunity of free trade between the United States and six nations in Central America and undermines the fundamental concept of international trade." du Pont pointed out that the American sugar industry is so strongly advantaged by quotas, tariffs and subsidies that total sugar imports have declined by about a third since the 1990s. CAFTA would allow additional sugar imports from the Central American nations of 107,000 metric tons in the first year. Annual U.S. sugar production is about 7.8 million metric tons, so the effect of CAFTA is to raise sugar imports into America by about one day's sugar production.

In 1993, as NAFTA was about to be officially launched, Henry Kissinger said of the trade agreement: "It will represent the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War, and the first step toward an even larger vision of a free-trade zone for the entire Western Hemisphere." NAFTA "is not a conventional trade agreement," he noted, "but the architecture of a new international system." Dr. Kissinger, a high-level Insider and member of the CFR and Trilateral Commission, knew that the trade agreement label was merely a deceptive cover story to mask the truly treasonous intent of the document’s authors: to destroy the national sovereignty of the United States and all other countries of the Western Hemisphere.

NAFTA was launched amid great hoopla and promises that it would bring a continuous wave of progress and prosperity to all three nations involved: Mexico, Canada and the United States

Although Presidents George Bush (the elder) and Bill Clinton were the most visible figures associated with the campaign for NAFTA, they were merely fronting for much more powerful forces operating behind the scenes.

Leaders and members of these two pillars of the Establishment have provided the critical economic and political impetus for NAFTA and the FTAA.

Including the 89 year old David Rockefeller , who combines his fabulous family wealth with business contacts and an array of organizational power bases at the global and hemispheric levels. Founder and chairman of the Council of the Americas, the Americas Society, and Forum of the Americas, influencing US policies and thinking – he founded the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and has funded the Latin American studies programs at many other institutions. His chairmanship of the Chase Manhattan Bank, provides access to the operations of the IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and US AID. His voice is always at the front when Wall Street calls for increasing U.S. taxpayer funding for these globalist institutions.

David Rockefeller
is the founder and honorary chairman of the Trilateral Commission, as well as a continuing power within the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR chairman for 15 years) and a major financial angel of the Institute for International Economics, all of which have been at the forefront of the push to establish sovereignty-eroding regional trade pacts.
Thomas “Mack” McLarty — is remembered as President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff and counsel (1992-1994). He was a key mover and shaker in the creation of NAFTA. At the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas, he gave the game away "This summit is much broader than lowering tariffs, ….. This is not a trade summit, it is an overall summit. It will focus on economic integration and convergence."
Kissinger soon took him on board (where he joined Paul Bremer of Baghdad fame) and was beatified as president of Kissinger McLarty Associates . He is also a board member of Rockefeller’s Council of the Americas and Inter-American Dialogue. In 2001 he also co-chaired the Carnegie Endowment panel that recommended adoption of Mexican President Vicente Fox’s so-called migration policies to do away with the U.S.-Mexico border.

Robert Zoellick — U.S. Trade Representative for President George W. Bush, Mr. Zoellick has presided over the most active and aggressive push for multilateral and bilateral trade agreements in U.S. history. He served as a top lieutenant to influence peddlar James Baker III (CFR) in the Reagan and Bush administrations, where he helped negotiate the NAFTA agreements, create the WTO and has since worked assiduously to lay the groundwork for the FTAA. Zoellick was a paid consultant and substantial shareholder on the Enron advisory board before joining the US administration. Currently in China Zoellick and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo participated in Sino-US strategic dialogue on Monday 1/8/2005 the first of its kind since the two countries forged diplomatic ties 26 years ago. This formal dialogue resulted from the agreement reached by Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Chile last year. (The one where they all wore old bleankets for the Group photoshoot).

Preaching free trade, he trails a long history of private business interests in predatory multinational corporations like Vivendi, Enron, Goldman Sachs, and Alliance Capital. The unvarying tenet in Zoellick's perverse creed is the “manifest US destiny ”to dominate world trade.

Some try military dominance, he is a crusader for monetary hegemony.

Sometimes he supports combining both – In speech in May this year to the Institute for International Economics, he said, "The U.S. seeks cooperation--or better--on foreign policy and security...Given that the U.S. has international interests beyond trade, why not try to urge people to support our overall policies? Negotiating a free-trade agreement with the U.S. is not something one has a right to -it's a privilege." This suggestion is not new, or even untried. Reagan used PL480 agricultural aid and other “trade concessions” to bribe and cajole Honduras into serving as a military base for illegal terrorist aggression against Nicaragua throughout the 1980s. Which enabled Mr Negroponte and friends to use other and more dramatic forms of persuasion.

Robert Bartley — Although he died in 2003 ,as editor of the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bartley has provided one of the most powerful and strategic voices for the globalism for three decades. Claiming to be a conservative free-market Republican, Bartley used the news and editorial pages of the Journal to promote neoconservative internationalists and to propagandize for NAFTA, FTAA, WTO, IMF, World Bank and other globalist institutions and programs. He was a member of the CFR and Trilateral Commission, as well as a speaker at the annual World Economic Forum and an attendee of the super-secretive Bilderberg meetings. He once said "I think the nation-state is finished" stating simply "There shall be open borders."

Bartley, who died in December 2003, was a member of the CFR and Trilateral Commission, as well as a speaker at the annual World Economic Forum and an attendee of the super-secretive Bilderberg meetings. For more on Robert Bartley’s reign at the Wall Street Journal, see "The Nation-State Is Finished," in the February 23, 2004 issue of TNA. As quoted previously the WSJ maintains the struggle for globalism for it’s readers.

Kenichi Ohmae
— Promoted by The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Ohmae received his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, he is most famous for his best-selling books on business and economics and his articles in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy and The Economist. Among the more than sixty books the The Borderless World and The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies stand out. In his 1993 essay "The Rise of the Region State" for Foreign Affairs, the house journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, He declared the full neo-con one global world "The nation state has become an unnatural, even dysfunctional, unit for organizing human activity and managing economic endeavor in a borderless world." The CFR has effectively promoted his views that nationhood is indeed headed inevitably for extinction, to be replaced by a new order of global governance.

Peter Hakim — As president of Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), Mr. Hakim frequently promotes the agenda of the Left for the U.S. foreign policy Establishment, defending Fidel Castro’s Communist regime and advocating U.S. normalization of relations with Cuba. He currently serves on boards and advisory committees for the Foundation of the Americas, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Human Rights Watch. He is however a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and frequently appears as a panellist or speaker on CFR programs.

George Soros — One of the world’s wealthiest men, multi-billionaire currency trader, his secretive Soros Foundation and Open Society Institute operate in more than 50 countries in Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America, friend of Mikhail Gorbachev, member of the Trilateral Commission also a CFR director, his Soros Fund Management is a CFR corporate member, providing generous funding for the globalist agenda.

C. Fred Bergsten —Leaving the Carter administration in 1981, he took over as director of the newly founded David Rockefeller’s Institute for International Economics (IIE), "the most influential think-tank on the planet,", the chairman of the IIE is Peter G. Peterson, who also chairs the CFR. Bergsten is a director of the CFR as well as a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Alan Greenspan — Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, Mr. Greenspan one of the most powerful men on Earth who can move world financial markets with a casual and often enigmatic aside. He has been one of the most influential advocates of NAFTA and the FTAA.

Longserving CFR member a former director (and currently an honorary director) of the IIE. Other current and former Federal Reserve officers who are in lock-step.. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (CFR, TC, IIE), New York Federal Reserve President William McDonough (CFR director), New York Federal Reserve Chairman Peter G. Peterson (CFR chairman), Chicago Federal Reserve Chairman Michael Moskow (CFR director), are all active in lobbying for the NAFTA-FTAA agenda among U.S. leaders as well as their central bank counterparts in Latin America. …Arminio Fraga, former president of Brazil’s Central Bank is now MD of Soros Fund Management.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger —Brazilian and radical Marxist who has spent the last 30 years teaching and writing at Harvard University’s Law School and at the David Rockefeller Center for the Study of Latin America. Unger became the mentor and ideological guru of President Vicente Fox, and was for a period, Fox’s foreign minister.

Zbigniew Brzezinski — The eminence grise of globalism. As early as 1970 in his book Between Two Ages, Zbigniew Brzezinski (CFR) was identifying the Government of the US as obsolete, that "national sovereignty is no longer a viable concept," and that world leaders must work toward gradual economic and political "convergence" of nations, with the final aim being "the goal of world government." In 1972, while at a Bilderberg conference, David Rockefeller and Mr. Brzezinski formed the Trilateral Commission as an elite new body of globalists from three continents (Europe, Asia and North America — hence the "Trilateral" designation). Brzezinski was appointed as the commission’s first director.

In 1995 he lamented that with only five years to the start of the new millennium, "We do not have a new world order." "We cannot leap into world government in one quick step” …." This requires a process of gradually expanding the range of democratic cooperation as well as the range of personal and national security, a widening, step by step, stone by stone, [of] existing relatively narrow zones of stability in the world of security and cooperation. In brief, the precondition for eventual globalization — genuine globalization — is progressive regionalization, because thereby we move toward larger, more stable, more cooperative units." This describes precisely the gradualist regional approach to global government proposed through the FTAA.

In the real world, The US is a mercantilist nation, just as the one that emerged from the contretemps about tea taxes with the hated British colonialists and relies heavily on protective tariffs and internal subsidies.

For sheer hyposcrisy and double standards consider cotton. In 2001, the US Commodity Credit Corporation spent $4bn subsidising the income of cotton producers, a total of some 25,000 corporate farms in California, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The world market value of the cotton crop for that year about $3bn. It is a problem to decide whether the Bush pork barrel farm policies owe more to the command principles of Bolshevik state planning or the market principles espoused by Zoellick. As the world’s largest cotton exporter, US domestic trade policy has global consequences. The International Cotton Advisory Committee, said they lowered world prices by around one-quarter, plunging world cotton markets into the deepest and most protracted depression in since the Great Depression.

Jump from subsidy heaven in Texas, to West Africa and examine the result. 1 region has 11 million households depending on cotton cultivation for their livelihoods, and their nations where cotton is a crucial source of foreign exchange.. At a conservative estimate, it lost some $200m in 2001 as a direct consequence of American corporate farm subsidies.

To put this figure in context, it dwarfs the amount that governments in the region receive in the form of US aid or debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The sheer numbers hide the people, ‘agricultural labourers who get lower wages, small farmers who have less to spend on food and health, and children being taken out of school because their parents can no longer afford the fees.’

Robert Zoellick likes to wax lyrical about the merits of a ‘level playing field’ in agriculture. President Bush wasted no opportunity to press on African producers the benefits of open markets when he visited Africa last January. No doubt he rehearsed his speeches again at G8. What sort of level playing field is it when cotton farms in America receive more subsidy than the entire national income of cotton-producing countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Bologna August 2nd 1980. NATO bombs railway Station

Gunpowder, Terrorists and Uncle Jack's idea of Religious Extremism

To the delight of political historians everywhere, the man called the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, told the Financial Times that he had been talking to Muslim leaders at home and abroad about the Guy Fawkes plot, to remind them that the UK has faced a long history of religious-based terrorism. He said it was important Muslim leaders realised religious-based extremism was not unique to Islam.

He might well have swapped tales about the terrorist attacks on the British Army in Palestine, when the Stern Group, Haganah and Irgun terrorist groups whose goal was the eviction of the British and their Army from Palestine and the formation of a Jewish State.

He could explain how these terrorist groups assassinated Britsh soldiers, and police , sent bombs in the mail to British politicians, sabotaged industrial plant, transport infrastructure extorted funds and robbed banks. No doubt he could tell them how the leaders such as Menachim Begin and Itzak Shamir , and their supporters such as Golda Meir, later became Prime Ministers of Israel. … but then they may have heard it all before.

Perhaps he could tell them about the way they killed public figures such as Lord Moyne in Cairo and the UN representative Count Bernadotte in Jerusalem – whose killers were later released. … but then they may have heard it all before.

He could tell them of the massacre at the village of Deir Yassin by Jewish terrorists … but then they may have heard it all before.

He could tell them of the Stern gang’s cry of justification for their campaign of bloody terror…”primarily terror is part of our political battle under present conditions and its role is large and great”.

…. but then they may have heard it all before.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Police introduce body searches on London Transport


Condi's new whipping boy at UN

The North Koreans called him,” human scum and a bloodsucker”. His President says today when appointing him on a recess directive to be the US Ambassador to the UN, “John Bolton has … been a tireless defender of our nation's values,… he brought people together to achieve meaningful results at the United Nations …. repealing a shameful resolution that equated Zionism with racism.”..”This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war (sic) "

Larry Flynt publisher of Hustler magazine who stood against Schwarzenegger in the CA Gubernatorial race in 2003 as the “Smut-Peddler Who Cares” says Bolton’s first wife divorced him because he took her to “swingers parties” at Plato's Retreat. A popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s and he encouraged her to indulge in public sex. He cannot get anyone to refute the stories he has widely published and for which he claims he has corroborated witness statements.

Flynt has a successful history of outing Republicans, famously at the time of the Clinton impeachment hearings. Henry Hyde, a Congressman who cried for Clinton's impeachment was disgraced after carrying on a five-year affair with a married mother of three. He sunk Bob Barr, a leader for the effort to impeach Clinton, who paid for his wife's abortion, left her while she struggled with cancer and married another woman (a woman with whom he had been having an affair while his wife was sick). Flynt also ended the career of Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government and Oversight Committee who called Clinton a scumbag while being himself investigated for fundraising irregularities. (It was later revealed that Burton had fathered an illegitimate child in the 80s while cheating on his wife.)

This prompted the joke at the time …
Q: How many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Republicans don't screw in lightbulbs, they screw in nightclubs.
Senate Chairman Livingston was infamous for standing up and railing at Clinton with shock and outrage for having an affair, going on about the sanctity of marriage. Flint exposed his numerous affairs in Livingstone's own private life, which resulted in his shock retirement at the height of the impeachment hearings.

Flynt is perhaps most famous in all his court battles when he lost the case against rival Penthouse editor, Bob Guccione’s girlfriend (Keeton v Hustler , 465 US 770)which he lost. During the proceedings he shouted "Fuck this court!" and called the justices "nothing but eight assholes and a token cunt". Chief Justice Warren Burger had him arrested for contempt of court but the charge was later dismissed.

Bolton , a lawyer, like the President missed the call up for Vietnam and served in the National Guard …"I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost" he said.

“Bring ‘em on”
Link for assistance as a result of this appointment

WHAT TO DO IF A NUCLEAR DISASTER IS IMMINENT!

This guide is for families preparing for imminent terrorist or strategic nuclear attacks
with expected severe destruction followed by widespread radioactive fallout downwind.

In a national crisis of imminent nuclear weapon attacks, read all the way through this guide first,
THEN TAKE EFFECTIVE PROTECTIVE ACTION WITH CONFIDENCE... FAST!
WHAT TO DO IF A NUCLEAR DISASTER IS IMMINENT!

China buys up Africa .....


When Mugabe took power in Zimbabwe the Zim dollar was trading at about the value of the US dollar. By 2000, just before the farm invasions began, the Zim dollar was trading at Z$55.00 to US$1.00. It was then a net exporter of food - the "breadbasket of southern Africa". At independence Air Zimbabwe had 18 planes, they now have six. When the geriatric but nonethe less still sprightly Mugabe flew to China the Boeing 767 plane, which he normally uses on his international trips, should have been grounded because it is due for a service. Forex problems prevented them from buying parts to perform the service. As a result a plane was sought in Thailand – on top of this fuel shortages have played havoc with Air Zim flights since last week to London, China and Dubai.

A week ago the Zim dollar was trading at about Z$25,000 to US$1 on the parallel (black) market where many manufacturers source foreign currency to fund imports. On Thursday it had touched Z$45,000 to US$1. The rand was selling at Z$6,000 but buyers were paying Z$7,000. The official exchange rate was set last week at Z$17,000 to US$1, a 40% devaluation. Zimbabwe needs a minimum of about 30 million litres of fuel a month for basic needs. This week, the beginning of an 11 million litre consignment of fuel from Sasol bought by the government is due to start moving across the border, barely enough for the government's needs.

Meanwhile traipsing round China on a six day visit, hoping for help in repaying a $300m debt to the IMF, proved fruitless for Mugabe as Beijing granted him only $6m for grain imports.

Failure to pay the outstanding loan would could result in Zimbabwe facing expulsion from the IMF.

China has long had interests in Zimbabawe and have invested in many areas and is Harare’s biggest inward investor. It has helped to construct the Harare stadium, hospitals, dams, schools, wells, clothing factories, and in the reconstruction of the Iron and Steel Corporation. China’s International Water and Electric company is contracted to farm 250,000 acres of agricultural land and are paid in return for, it is rumoured, in tobacco. (The Chinese smoke more tobacco per head than any other country).

China has offered credit lines to Zimbabwe’s small and medium enterprises, usually cronies of Mugabe, they also finance and provide mining equipment to Zimbabwe’s Electricity Supply Authority and Hwange Colliery, in return for which China has coal and coke concessions. Militarily, China has provided Zimbabwe with six K8 jet aircraft, a radar system for Mugabe’s personal residence and other military hardware estimated to cost around US$240m.

Rumour in Harare says the concessions made by Mugabe on this trip to China for platinum reserves are not a sufficient incentive for China to grant funds on the scale requested by Mr Mugabe. Mr Jintao plays hard ball. China is currently the leading consumer of the “white gold”, using almost 20% of world production a critical component in exhaust catalysers and many chemical / industrial processes.

The Chinese have also shown interest in setting up a smelter in Zimbabwe to refine the mineral. The final processing of platinum is done in South Africa. Financial benefits are are long way off for the Chinese however.

The Chinese were quick last Wednesday however to offer help by trying to block UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who spent 2 weeks in Zimbabwe investigated the demolitions, ( Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Rubbish) resulting in some 700,000 homeless in Harare and surrounding areas), from appearing before the Security Council to discuss her report.

China, supported by Russia and , Algeria, Benin and Tanzania voted against, while Brazil abstained, lost the motion and Tibaijuka duly appeared to explain her report and take questions from the floor in a closed door session.

We are seeing, quietly, that without fanfare, without military conquest, China has been moving into Africa. Africa has relatively untapped reserves, of fossil fuels and minerals. Targets have been Sudan, Nigeria, and Angola to date . China needs oil, and has been getting it. Sudan supplies 5% of China’s oil imports. Nigeria not only has oil, it is also a mass market in a country where manufacturing is undeveloped and provides a mass market for cheap Chinese consumer goods.



In just three years, from 2001 to 2004, China's trade with Africa has more than doubled from $US10 billion to $US 20 billion.

Unexpected help has arrived from the Middle East. The Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Hamid Moayyer was quoted as saying that "the Republic of Iran continues to work with the Zimbabwean government to avail more lines of credit which are crucial for business growth”, when agreeing a £25Mn trade backed loan."In 1999, trade figures stood at 13 million US dollars and this has since risen to 25 million US dollars presently and we envisage that this will soar to about 1.5 billion US dollars by 2010," the Iranian ambassador said, presumably with his tongue very firmly in his cheek.

The Zimbabwe Protest Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe.

London "Bombs" ...the Italian Connection





In buon italiano, Osman Hussain ha raccontato
la pianificazione artigianale del secondo attacco in Inghilterra
"Non volevamo colpire l'Italia"
la lunga confessione nella notte
di CLAUDIA FUSANI

The interrogation of Osman Hussein, speaking in good Italian, he explains the bombs were meant to be duds. Click on logo for original and Nur al Cubicle for English translation

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Flying the Flag for ...er... Freedom ?


Is this the flag of the ;

1. The Democratic Republic of Iraq
2. The Muslim Republic of Iraq
3. Something else...
4. Yet another flag design for the Memory Hole

Hidden hands at work in Andijan revolt ?

In Washington and Tashkent dips and diarists say there is mounting agreement that Pentagon special forces teams helped stir up the Islamist revolt on May 17 in the town of Andijan, in Uzbekistan's fertile, populous and now very volatile Ferghana Valley. U.S. Special Operations forces are said to have made contact with opposition forces in the area during operations Balance Ultra 03 and Balance Ultra 04 joint operations exercises with Uzbek military forces.

This explains the US / UK coalition unwillingness to contemplate a thorough investigation into the Andijan revolt. A monitoring group from China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Russia amongst others has commenced its investigation. But the U.S. has refused to join in saying that any enquiry must include "an international partner"; U.S. will not take part in the
current investigation "as we do not see that as a substitute for an international investigation; we are considering all of our diplomatic options, including at the U.N ... meantime, we're talking to member states of various international organisations to try to generate support for an international investigation ... and we are actively working within the international community to try to generate support."

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour expressed renewed concerns in Geneva on July 12th and reiterated the need for an international commission enquiry to be set up in order to look into what happened in Andijan on May 13. The absence of an independent investigation into the violent events in the Uzbek city that cost the lives of unknown numbers of people has made the job of status determination for Uzbek asylum seekers for UNHCR especially difficult.
It may also explain the precipitate action by Karimov to close the US base ...earlier post.

It may also explain the total silence from the UK Government about the need for an enquiry and also the silence of the Opposition parties.....Dogs that have learnt not to bark.

The Uzbek state controlled press has been saying that Pentagon special operations teams secretly met in Afghanistan with Tohir Yoldashev (who the US claimed to have killed in 2001) and members of his Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group the U.S. State Department lists as terrorist organization allied to "Al Qaeda." This loose amalgam has an interesting track record having in May 2003, been disrupted by Kyrgyzstani security forces when trying to to bomb the US Embassy and a nearby hotel in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. They targeted Uzbeki interests in October 2001 and are said to have planted 5 car bombs in Tashkent in February 1999. IMU Militants also took foreigners hostage in 1999 and 2000, including four US citizens who were “mountain climbing” in August 2000 and four Japanese geologists and eight Kyrgyzstani soldiers in August 1999 .

Of course the “success” in Afghanistan has resulted, as President Mushariff has pointed out, in an export of terrorism , such as the IMU , Uighur militant groups, and Chechen militants who all appear (diplomatic chat) have set up shop in Tajikistan (where most of the country consists of the Pamir mountain ranges) and parts of the Ferghana Valley. The Afghan-Tajik border region, is a mmajor smuggling area and so is always subject to foment, but it has become highly volatile recently . Last Tuesday, a bomb attack in downtown Dushanbe flagged how tenuous the eight-year-old Tajik peace settlement has become.

As well as US air Force personnel and planes, 200 French Air Force personnel and 2 transport aircraft are also based at Dushanbe airport in support of International Security Assistance Force operations in Afghanistan.

Evidently, the U.S.-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan has spilled over to the Central Asian region. The Central Asian region is getting destabilised which no doubt prompted Rummy’s brief excusion to Kyrgistan and Takikistan on the way to give Gen. Casey a good kicking in Baghdad.. (see earlier post)

The meetings between the US / IMU were reported to have occurred before and after the Andijan revolt, The US-IMU meetings in Afghanistan were also referenced in an article in Asia Times by India's former ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey, M. K. Bhadrakumar.

Outsourcing Torture - The grip is tightening on Gonzales genitals

A former New York City prosecutor, who was a supervisory special agent from the FBI’s behavioural analysis was sent to Guantanamo Bay to advise on interrogation techniques.

On Nov. 27, 2002 he forwarded to a senior FBI lawyer a legal analysis of Pentagon approved interrogation techniques for use against a high-value Qaeda detainee. The memo kicked off with objections to exploiting "phobias" like "the fear of dogs" or dripping water "to induce the misperception of drowning,". It went on to consider a plan to send the detainee to Jordan, Egypt or an unspecified third country for interrogation.

A senior unnamed FBI official, told Newsweek the memo was "not an official bureau legal conclusion".

The memo continued the Newsweek report, to consider a plan to send the detainee to Jordan, Egypt or an unspecified third country for interrogation and said, "In as much as the intent of this category is to utilize, outside the U.S., interrogation techniques which would violate [U.S. law] if committed in the U.S., it is a per se violation of the U.S. Torture Statute," the agent wrote. "Discussing any plan which includes this category could be seen as a con-spiracy to violate [the Torture Statute]" and "would inculpate" everyone involved. (See details below)

A senior U.S. law-enforcement official familiar with the memo and it’s contents is quoted , as saying the memo reflects concerns among many agents and lawyers about "rendition." Over 100 terror suspects are said to have been rendered to foreign countries by the CIA under a classified directive signed by President George W. Bush after 9/11. A senior U.S. intelligence official, again anonymous, is quoted as saying rendering suspects to their country of origin where local interrogators speak the language better and understand the cultural sensitivities of the suspects can aid intelligence.

"No one is sent anywhere for the purpose of being tortured," the unnamed official said.

The Pentagon has denied involvement in renditions, but officials have confirmed the now well documented story that 65 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo for further detention or prosecution by foreign governments, including 29 to Pakistan, seven to Russia, five to Morocco and four to Saudi Arabia, all countries that the US State Department criticizes for practicing torture. Link

Craig Murray the ex UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan saw Intelligence reports resulting from such interrogations in Uzbekistan cross his desk – which he raised with the FO in London and his protests ultimately resulted in his removal from Tashkent and eventually the FO

"Tortured dupes are forced to sign confessions showing that the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe - that they and we are fighting the same war against terror. This is morally, legally and practically wrong."

His colleagues argued that they did not know for a fact whether informants had been tortured: "I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work for an organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture." Link
Link to CBS story 25/7 and script of 60 Minutes show about renditions

President Bush, in a January 25th 2005 interview with The New York Times, said: "Torture is never acceptable." He added, "nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture." he also repeated it in his State of the Union address.

US Statute § 2340A. Torture
Release date: 2004-08-06
(a) Offense.— Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
(b) Jurisdiction.— There is jurisdiction over the activity prohibited in subsection (a) if—
(1) the alleged offender is a national of the United States; or
(2) the alleged offender is present in the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or alleged offender.
(c) Conspiracy.— A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.

Pic ? A white Boeing 737 registration number N313P filmed at Glasgow Airport for refuelling in February 2005.

Inculpate? What lawyers say when they mean incriminate.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish