Jack Straw - Alzheimer Alert

"You simply cannot tolerate a situation where one state decides to deal with problems of another state by assassinating the other state's leaders."

Jack Straw, Tuscaloosa AL (CNN) in Alabama.

Bush has instructed Straw’s weekend companion, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "call upon the United Nations to convene a session as quickly as possible to deal with this very serious matter (Syrian complicity in assassinating Rafik Hariri.)"

Perhaps by coincidence Dubya made the call to Condi when he was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which commemorates the President who on 14th April 986 sent the US Navy and Air Force to pre-emptively attack 5 sites in Libya, Aziziyah Barracks in Tripoli. Jamahiriyah Guard Barracks / Benghazi Military Barracks, theBenghazi Murrat Side Bilal base and Tripoli’s main airport … to kill President Gadaffi.

The timing of the “El Dorado Canyon” attack was such that while some of the strike aircraft were in the air, President Reagan was able to brag about it live, to the US public and much of the world, claiming this was in retaliation for the Berlin Disco bombing which killed two American soldiers and their Turkish girlfriend. The UK sovereign Parliament were only told after the raid was finished.

The massive raid involved more aircraft and combat ships than Britain employed during the entire Falklands campaign. The French and Spanish refused overflying rights for F-111 Aardvark’s from UK – “accidentally” the French Embassy in Tripoli received a direct “accidental” hit. Tripoli was of course protected by French Crotale missiles and Mirage fighters.

The US fighters took extra care NOT to hit the anti-aircraft missile sites, fearing they may hit some of the 3,000 Russian “technical advisers” who were “training” the Libyans.

Over 100 people were killed including Gadaffi’s adopted daughter.

The raid was condemned throughout the world and was supported only by the UK, Australia…and Israel

Jörg Rechmann of the Frankfurter Rundschau said very prophetically at the time ,

“If counterterrorism takes the place of diplomacy, then the extremists will have achieved their goal, and terrorism will have triumphed.”

...of course Detlev Mehlis was the Berlin State Prosecutor in charge of the Berlin bombing which raised a few eywbrows at the time....must look a bit closer.

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Betty Bigombe to Join Washington D.C. GuluWalk

October 20, 2005: Betty Bigombe, the chief peace negotiator in northern Uganda, will participate in the Washington D.C. GuluWalk on Saturday 22nd 2005.

Last year, Bigombe left a distinguished position at the World Bank to negotiate with one of the world’s worst war criminals, Joseph Kony, and the government of Uganda. Bigombe’s role is crucial in the peace process. "This is the toughest challenge of my life. I can’t tell you when the killing will stop. I can say that I will continue until it does," Bigombe recently said.

The Washington GuluWalk, organized by Michael Poffenberger and Reid Rector of the Uganda Conflict Action Network, will begin at 3:30 pm at the Ugandan Embassy and end at Lafayette Park, right outside the White House. Ugandan Ambassador to the United States Edith Sempala will also participate in the walk.

The Diabolic Duo - 2 Veeps in one Pic at the White House

"Congress is squared hun.. AIPAC, JINSA, NDL all approve ...the fix is in"



"Oh ... Ariel says can you be over there by Wednesday ?"

Condi for VP ..... Tuscaloosa braced for the news

Discussion, rumour .... Shallow Throat was probably right ... you saw it here first.

Media Girl

Is Condi Rice suddenly in the right place to replace Cheney for Vice President?


Crooks and Liars

IF CHENEY GOES, WHO STEPS IN?


US News and World Report
White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly

Meanwhile Condi spends today with fun loving, man about town, Jack Straw, doin' a little tailgatin' in Tuscaloosa to watch the CrimsonTide surge .... Condi to sing the Anthem ?... then home to meet the folks.

Pic - Lame Dick and Don "Turkey Walk" Rumsfeld.

Dealing with Dictators

Whilst Saddam appears in court, it might be appropriate to consider the fate of another brutal Dictator.

Take a ruthless Dictator who was responsible for 500,000 (Amnesty International) deaths during a reign of “Red Terror.”

Take a Dictator whose regime was involved in unspeakable crimes and atrocities, and many of whose members now languish in jail. A regime whose soldiers would not release a victim's body for burial until the victim's family had paid back the cost of the bullet used in the killing.

Take a Dictator whose security forces systematically tortured political prisoners, dipping bodies in hot oil, raping and inserting bottles and heated metals in bodies of female prisoners,

Take this dictator and install him in a luxurious estate in Zimbabwe, let him have medical treatment in South Africa.

Who? Mengistu Haile Mariam 17 years the Marxist tyrannical ruler of Ethiopia whose fall followed Russian withdrawal of support.

Who organised his departure from Ethiopia ?

The United States embassy in Zimbabwe confirmed in 1999 the US was involved in obtaining a safe haven for the former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.

The embassy said in a statement that then Assistant Secretary of State Hank Cohen had been involved in negotiations which resulted in Mengistu arriving in Harare in 1991. … where he still is.

At the time President Mugabe proudly boasted,”

"Both the Americans and Canadians even offered to assist financially if we could not meet the expenses of looking after Mengistu," he said. "We have not received a cent because we have not requested their assistance. He (Mengistu) helped a lot of the
continent's liberation movements."

In March 2001 Mengistu and seven male relatives, all of whom fled Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, when the regime was overthrown by pro-democracy forces in 1991, had become permanent residents on the orders of John Nkomo, the home affairs minister.

As Mr Mugabe reaches his nemesis Mr Mengitsu must be feeling uneasy that he is returned to Ethiopia as the Government there requests ….. unless of course the United States Ambassador in Harare Christopher Dell, has other ideas… he might of course have read the following which appears on his Embassy Website.


The U.S. Department of State Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The Government of Zimbabwe has conducted a concerted campaign of violence, repression, and intimidation. This campaign has been marked by disregard for human rights, the rule of law, and the welfare of Zimbabwe's citizens. Torture by various methods is used against political opponents and human rights advocates. War veterans, youth brigades, and police officers act with sustained brutality against political enemies. The Mugabe regime has also targeted other institutions of government, including the judiciary and police. Judges have been harassed into submission or resignation, replaced by Mugabe’s cronies. The news media have been restricted and suppressed, with offending journalists arrested and beaten. Land seizures continue to be used as a tool for political and social oppression, and opponents of these destructive policies are subject to violent reprisals.

Human Rights Watch has more here

Myers, Casey, Rumsfeld talk out of their arse

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Transcript

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. MyersTuesday, April 26, 2005 1:33 p.m. EDT

Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers

There are now more than a hundred operational battalions in the Ministries of Defense and Interior, conducting counterinsurgency operations. And several units are conducting operations at the company or battalion level with minimal coalition assistance.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld

The people that are going to defeat that insurgency are going to be the Iraqis.

... Later .....

Gen George Casey
Testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee
September 29, 2005

Gen George Casey : We fully recognize that Iraqi armed forces will not have an independent capability for some time, because they don't have the institutional base to support them. And so Level 1, as you'll recall from the slide, that's what's got one battalion. And it's going to be a long time before . . .

SEN. McCAIN: Used to be three. Now we've gone from three to one?

Gen George Casey : Pardon me?

SEN. McCAIN: It was three before.

Gen George Casey : Right.

SEN. McCAIN: The previous report was you had three battalions. Now we're down to one battalion.

Gen George Casey : Right, and things change in the battalions. I mean, we're making assessments on personnel, on leadership, on training.

SEN. McCAIN: And you . . .

Gen George Casey : I mean, there are a lot of variables that are involved here, Senator.

Straw steps out with Rice in Alabama

From the Decatur Daily. Friday 21st October 2005

Jack Straw MP for Blackburn, with Birmingham AL. born Condoleezza Rice will lecture at The University of Alabama jointly touring civil rights sites in Birmingham, will present a joint Frank A Nix (founder Arlington Properties d.1996)Lecture in a program presented by the university's Blackburn Institute at 11 a.m. Friday.

The institute studies a subject dear to the heart of Jack, "ways to improve the qualify of life in Alabama".

Later in Birmingham AL. Straw and Rice will tour the 123 year old Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, with surviving relatives of four black girls (Denise McNair (11), and 14 yr olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley) who died there in a Ku Klux Klan bombing on September 15th 1963 ( prosecution of the bombers was halted by J.Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI), as well as visiting the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and a park that was the site of numerous civil rights protests where they will jointly dedicate a new civil rights memorial.

They will also will also attend (and get to flip the coin too!) Saturday's annual blood-bath between Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Pic shows Rosa Parks, of Montgomery AL. being arrested 1st December 1955 - 50 years ago( ! ) ,who sparked the first of the Montgomery Bus Protests when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.

The assembled World Press are in a feeding frenzy in AL. as rumours fly of the impending Coronation of the piano playing bathroom attendant as Veep '05, strutting her stuff with Jack, the 2nd most powerful, man in the world on her way to becoming the first woman and coloured POTUS '08.

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Condi for Veep ?

Gossip reaches me from Shallow Throat, that Cheney has kneed so many in the groin his knees are giving up and so is he.

So she can keep an eye on the regularity of POTUS' Toilet Breaks, Condoleezza Rice, spinster of this parish is drafted in as Veep.... handy for '08.

The only problem is they haven't got a shoo in for Condi - yet but there are plenty lining up, Feith, Wurmser, even talk of Powell coming back.

There is of course absolutely no Truth in this story whatever - another Ugly Conspiracy Theory.

Meanwhile Dubya sees Mahmood Abbas which is more than Sharon will do.

Hoaxer's Tapes / Letters lost - Man arrested and charged

Kate O'Hara Crime Correspondent of the Yorkshire Evening Post reported on the 2nd July this year THAT West Yorkshire Police HAD admitted that the original recordings and letters from the Geordie “Ripper” hoaxer who helped delay the capture of the Yorkshire Ripper have gone missing.

Curiously all reports of the arrest of the alleged hoaxer make no mention of this report about the loss

A force spokeswoman admitted the tape and letters that sparked the biggest wild-goose chase in British criminal history could not be found. She said:

"There is currently an audit under way and at the moment we have been unable to find the original letters or tape. "There is no evidence that they have been stolen or disposed of maliciously or anything – we just can't locate the items."

She added: "The audit has been taking place for the past 12 months and it's as a result of that that we realised they were missing.

First broadcast on June 26, 1979, (see pic) it prompted hundreds of calls to police from people convinced they could identify the killer.

Harry Smelt, whose wife Olive survived an attack by Sutcliffe in Halifax in 1975, said of the reported loss of records : "Nothing surprises me about West Yorkshire Police – they made a hash of it right from the beginning.

"They ran around like a lot of headless chickens when they were looking for Peter Sutcliffe and the one who was leading them around the farmyard was George Oldfield."

In Michael Bilton's book "Wicked Beyond Belief" it was stated that in 1999, during the making of the documentary "Manhunt: The Search For The Yorkshire Ripper" (produced by Michael Bilton), that a request was made to the West Yorkshire police to test for DNA on the envelopes of the letters and tape. They were eventually told that the envelopes had been lost and there was little prospect of them being found.

SUSPECT ARRESTED

On October 18 2005, it was widely reported that a suspect in the Wearside Jack hoax letters and tape had been arrested. A West Yorkshire Police spokesman stated: "Officers from West Yorkshire this afternoon travelled to the Sunderland area where they arrested a 49-year-old local man on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. This relates to the hoax letters and tape that was sent to police during the Yorkshire Ripper murder investigation. He is currently being transported to a West Yorkshire police station for interview."

Some reports speculated that the reason for the arrest was that a DNA profile had been obtained from the saliva used to seal the envelopes of the letters.

SUSPECT CHARGED

At 2:00 p.m. on October 20 2005, John Humble,(49), of Flodden Road, Ford Estate Sunderland, appeared in Leeds Magistrates' Court and was charged with perverting the course of justice. The charge against him was read by a clerk of the court, and she stated: "You sent a series of communications, namely three letters and an audio tape, to West Yorkshire police and the press claiming to be the perpetrator of a series of murders that at that time were the subject of a police investigation."

No plea was entered by the defendent. District judge Christopher Darnton remanded Humble in custody, and no application for bail was made. He will next appear at Leeds Crown Court on October 26 2005.

Humble is nicknamed John the Bag, on account of the booze-filled holdall he invariably has over his shoulder. He has spent much of his life on the Ford estate, and in recent times has been living in a redbrick semi on Flodden Road with his brother Henry and sister Jean.

Henry, who many know better as Harry, is reported to be 49-year-old Humble's drinking partner. Neighbours report they head for a nearby off-licence early each morning.

The Ford estate is directly across the river Wear from Castletown, the village which in 1979, linguistics expert Stanley Ellis said was the source of the voice.

An excellent and very detailed history of the hoax can be accessed here .


For those fascinated by this sort of thing, UKTV Drama at 9:00 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. on Saturday, October 22 2005, will repeat a broadcast of the 2000 docu-drama "This Is Personal - The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper".

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4 legs bad, 4 wheels good in demented quest for US oil

The Senate Energy Committee have agreed on a 13-9 vote to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of a big budget bill to fund the Federal government.

The ANWR refuge, the size of South Carolina, covers 19 million acres in NE Alaska home to polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and migratory birds and is home (it is said to hold 10.2 Billion barrels of oil (High end estimates to date) as well , although little oil and gas exploration has taken place in ANWR). Only some 2,000 acres of the 1.5 mn. acre coastal plain will be home to production and support facilities, including airstrips and piers to hold up pipelines…it says here.

All Republicans except Gordon Smith of Oregon, voted in favour as did Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii (surprise !) also voted for drilling.

Pete Domenici, R . committee chairman said " "The time is ripe for ANWR. Global and national conditions mandate the environmentally-sound development of oil and gas in the Arctic. The Senate first passed ANWR legislation in 1996. If that hadn't been vetoed, I don't think we would be paying $3 a gallon for gasoline today. The hurricanes in the Gulf underscored what Congress has known for along time: We must produce more of our own oil and we must diversify the places where we produce it. We must do it for our economy and our energy security.

"It's past time to do this. I say let's get it done. I congratulate the senators on the committee who recognize this. I look forward to reporting the budget bill out of the Budget Committee next week and passing it out of the Senate early next month."

At the committee meeting, 3 amendments were offered and defeated. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D.Washington, wanted an amendment for payment to the U.S. Treasury of 50 % of revenues from oil/ gas leasing and production on the Coastal Plain. Senator Ron Wyden, D.Oregon, asked for prohibition of the exportation of oil and gas produced under ANWR leases. Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman, D.New Mexico, suggested a limit to the authorization of oil and gas development on the Coastal Plain in the same manner as other units of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The proposal will form part of a bigger budget bill to fund the federal government (US$ 2.4 B n), which the Senate Budget Committee will vote through next week and the full U.S. Senate (thus ensuring no filibustering, and further delays) the following week.

Byron Dorgan D. of N. Dakota said the Republicans were "short-circuiting the process" by attaching ANWR drilling to a budget bill. Which everyone knows is true but will ignore.

According to the Energy Information Administration if Congress approved drilling in the Arctic refuge this year, oil would not begin flowing until about 2015.

So as GM / Ford post monster losses, layoffs, the SUV rules and the wilderness has a "For Sale" sign over it.


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Why Saddam smiles

"There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips; "

Lepanto : G K Chesterton

It is not a mystery, nor is it a secret that the illegal invasion of Iraq was prompted by the overweeing idea and belief that military force is an effective tool for ensuring control over foreign sources of oil.

FD Roosevelt, in February 1945, promised King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia that the United States would establish a military protectorate over his country in return for privileged access to Saudi oil . Eventually this rigid belief in the use of military force to secure supplies of ME oil led to the invasion of Iraq.

Now, 30 mnths after that invasion, the huge and growing Iraqi quagmire has demonstrated that the application of military force can (and does) have the very opposite effect: It can diminish - rather than enhance - America's access to foreign oil.

Two factors affected the US decision, blithely supported by the gormless Blair whose grasp of global real politik was as shallow and short term as any other policy he has pursued in power.

One was access to ME oil protected by Western military might.

The other was the need to prevent the spread of the sale of oil in anything other than US Dollars. Saddam’s approval to sell oil in Euros for the Oil for Food Program by UN and banking the Euro60Bn proceeds at Paribas Bank in Paris. The effect of which was to lead to a decline in the global oil/dollar hegemony allowing the US to run massive trade deficits and shower the world with IOU’s enabking the US consumer access to low cost products from the wage slaves of the Far east. This decision by Saddam immediately Bush took office is the secret and never mentioned trigger that set the whole military farrago in motion, with it’s self-seeking lies, global dishonesty and curious blinkering by world leaders – even when Kofi Annan declared the invasion as illegal. (Since then there has been a 30% (ish) decline of the US $ against the Euro)

Vice President Dick Cheney said , in an August 2002 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the US needed to retain control over Persian Gulf oil supplies when listing various reasons for toppling Saddam Hussein.

In the New York Times in February 2003 just before they let slip the dogs of war an oil executive was quoted, "For any oil company being in Iraq is like being a kid in FAO Schwarz." Many more saw invasion as the key to unlock the oil and reduce the evil influence of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and also smash the power of the Muslim Arab states facing Israel.

For the Tony Sopranos on the Beltway, this was an opportunity to show the Bush Doctrine “preventive war is a practical and legitimate response to possible weapons-of-mass-destruction ambitions on the part of potential adversaries”, and when occupied by American and Allied forces, Iraq would pump ever increasing amounts of petroleum from its vast and prolific reserves. Luvvly jubbly.

This sleepwalk to disaster was constantly re-enforced by the cheerleaders of the cause. The Department of Energy (DoE), stated with cocksure confidence in late 2002 that, given the investment (presumably by US oil co’s), Iraq could quickly double its production from the then-daily level of 2.5 million barrels to 5 million barrels or more.

At the State Department, the Future of Iraq Project set up a Working Group on Oil and Energy , aided by the oleaginous and plainly untrustworthy Iraqi exile, mohair suited and elegantly shod and heavily pomaded, Ahmed Chalabi (boosted by such as Judith Miller in the NYT) to plan the privatisation of Iraqi oil assets and the rapid introduction of Western capital and expertise into the local industry. The wannabe banker, wanted on embezzlement charges of US$600MN in Jordan, stated with confidence in September 2002. "American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil."

Oil would not only flow, so would the money – enough to pay for the trouble of getting there to steal it. "We can afford it," White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey said of the planned US invasion, because rising Iraqi oil output would invigorate the US economy.

He told the Wall Street Journal in September 2002 "When there is regime change in Iraq, you could add 3 to 5 million barrels [per day] of production to world supply."

"Successful prosecution of the war would be good for the economy," said the then deputy secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz to a congressional panel, "Iraq oil revenues could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. We're dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." That such a masterly exponent of business economics is now in charge of the World Bank must be a great comfort to some – well maybe his mother.

As a result the invasion plans focussed establishing early control of Iraqi oil fields and installations during the first days of the war and the important Oil Ministry in Baghdad and it’s essential records.. some probably to be destroyed rather quickly.

"Navy Seals seized two Iraqi oil terminals in bold raids that ended early this morning, overwhelming lightly armed Iraqi guards and claiming a bloodless victory in the battle for Iraq's vast oil empire." Said an excited reporter – terminals that were later the first to be raided by suicide bombing insurgents, who later successfully stopped the flow of oil for 24 hours.

Rumsfeld’s vision as a master military planner, his “Baghdad Lite” master plan exposed very rapidly the shortage of force to protect what they had seized – a signal for the unyoked delirious and desperate Iraqis, freed from Sddam’s jackboot to go on a looting spree that damaged the nascent authority of the military occupation and the US-backed interim government of expatriate freebooters and carpet baggers.

Of course the US military emphasis on controlling the oil, fed, if it was necessary the belief that this was not liberation from tyranny but merely a substitution of tyrants anxious to steal their birthright. The Bush administration, and it’s military commanders haven’t recovered from this disastrous chain of events.

The association between the Coalition invasion and the attempted rape of the State’s oil is clearly central to the various insurgents' conflicting and hazy ideologies. "The insurgents used these plans of oil privatisation ," says Falah Alijbury an Iraqi consultant to foment the struggle… describing it.. "Look, you're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable."

The many, varied, well funded insurgencies, each with disparate religious or even criminal agendas are aware of Washington's intent to finance its war and occupation through sales of Iraqi petroleum. From the off they have expended a great deal of manpower, resource, and blackmail to sabotage Iraq's pipelines, pumping stations, and loading terminals, this was their primary strategic objective, preparing to sacrifice income now for future benefits.

Iraqi Pipeline Watch have a complete and up to date daily listing of each attack , atotal of over 900 events at least.

At present, efforts are concentrated on the Kirkuk-to-Ceyhan export pipeline (Task Force Shield ) in the north, near Iraq's border with Turkey; and offshore loading terminals in the south, on the edge of the Persian Gulf.

Despite the cost in men and materiel, the overwhelming military force, mastery both on land and in the air ,shipments and therefore income are declining. Current estimates of production are now 1.6 MN bpd against the pre-war 2.3 Mn. Bpd.

Damage is not only physical but pervasive, corruption in the Oil Ministry (headed by the ever present Ahmed Chelabi , who like the solid pieces at the sewage farm consistently appears to rise to the surface) and severe differences between the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shi'ites(themselves with schismatic clan splits) over the future allocation of oil revenues.

Corruption, black-market transactions, straight theft, at all levels from the dishonest tanker driver to leaders and parliamentary members continues unrelentingly. Typically, it suits those involved to blame these losses on wild insurgents.

Furthermore Iraqi oil executives are recklessly using faulty pumping methods, permanently damaging underground reservoirs. In Iraq's main Rumailia oilfield, one of the world's largest, even though water injection systems (used to maintain underground pressure) have failed; they continue to pump – when electricity is available – which is less than before the invasion. Oil engineers expect this will inevitably lead to a permanent decline in production. Effectivel killing the goos that lays the golden eggs.

Of course the referendum has highlighted the seismic shifts in the three ethnic / religious blocs, which the referendum has only quantified the extent of the divisions within the nation and will inevitability lead to partition (results, unscrutinised by external bodies, are still awaited). Which will suit both the oil rich Kurds and the Shia leaving the relatively impoverished but warlike Sunni’s with some grievance to fight for as well as control over Baghdad.

Even in world clamouring for oil, production in Iraq will be depressed for years, regardless of the blood spilt, the wars raged, the dollars spent. American military action will not bring democracy, only division with an Iranian dominated Shia South, a happy isolated and self contained, defensive and well armed militaristic Kurdish North, and a dispossessed Baghdad and Sunni regions. The use of massive military force to procure Iraqi oil, did not achieve its aim and has made the situation worse.

There is one bright point for the Lunatics of the Beltway, and the neaderthal armchair warriors of the haunts of NY Zionism, the flows of world oil are still regulated in US dollars, the Iraqi state funds transferred from paris to New York under the watchful eye of Morgan Stanley where it is silently being squandered on pointless and seemingly endless military endeavour.

There is now a slow realisation that the US is now in the hands of its oil refiners – plain for many years, for those who would look and evaluate – and who have every intention of exploiting their monopoly powers.This has been made worse by nature. Katrina struck a blow to the US's domestic oil industry, reliance on imports will grow from about 53% of total consumption in 2002 to 66% by 2025 even if Alaska is laid waste.

The Gulf of Mexico – made more productive by Selim Zilkha who cleverly massaged elderly data in combination with computer simulations to revive the Gulf oil and gas Industry. Soaring insurance premiums will deter re-investment because even with oil at US$60 per barrel investors simply wont risk billions of dollars to install new platforms ready for sinking in Natures next outburst of malign force.

So Uncle Sam needs to turn to the unstable countries of central Asia – where he is being kicked out by Karimov, and efforts in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgistan and the route of the trans Afghan pipeline become even more problematic.

Without hegemony in the Middle East – and notwithstanding the Iranian threat to set up their own oil bourse this month ,trading oil in Euros, and with increasingly fragile supplies from the Middle East, Uncle Sam must turn to South America and Africa.

Where he has to negotiate with president Hugo Chavez, who started the whole roiling mess off in 2001 as President of OPEC and encouraged Saddam to sell his oil in Euros.

If past experience is any indication, US policymakers will respond to the dilemma of the growing dependence by the US on unstable foreign providers by sending more and more American military forces to these areas. It is evident that their efforts have also turned to Africa – where China has of course been establishing relation for may years with Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana.

Mired with his problems with his Supreme Court nomination , the warrant for arrest of Tom Delay, Bill Frists bad memory, Libby and Rove’s (and maybe Cheney’s) forthcoming indictments over Plame gate, Abramoff's dishonesty and murky deals, Gannon, Mclellans persistent lies, and the whole fast crumbling PR circus, you may be certain that the remnants of the neo con gang will maintain their blind faith in the efficacy of military force as a tool for securing access to foreign sources of petroleum. They also maintain a breathy silence as Likud's expansionist agenda, and erection of Palestinian Bantustans marooned on the Zionist West Bank, rolls merrily along, whilst the world , in the "fog of war" is distracted. And silent.

The US policy of overwhelming military might , is clearly, delusional.

A lot of this Administration’s overseas policies have been and remain so.

They will however, for want of any other, and better ideas, persist in risking the lives of young Americans, Blair will risk British lives with their blinkered adherence to a false, failed and frightening Hobbesian strategy.

Meanwhile oil future hold steady above US$60 a barrel, three times the price before Dubya’s gang of Beltway conspirators fucked over the UN and set in motion the Juggernaut of American military power in the Middle East.

Mr Saddam could afford a wry smile in the dock yesterday … wily Aziz, who has evidently cut a deal for compliance with his “liberators”, will no doubt join his old boss in smiling, relaxing in greater comfort in the leafy purlieus of Amman.

"They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west. "

Lepanto


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The Hammer is going down

"To any sheriff or peace officer of the state of Texas, greetings, you are hereby commanded to arrest Thomas Dale DeLay and keep him safely so that you have him before the 331st Judicial District Court of Travis County......."

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Danish military torturers on trial - Press machine well rehearsed

The trial has commenced in Denmark of Captain Annemette Hommel. A Danish army intelligence officer who with four military police sergeants have been charged with mistreating Iraqi prisoners in southern Iraq in early 2004.

Captain Annemette Hommel was charged with four counts of negligence while on duty in March, April and June 2004.

All five are accused of verbal abuse of detainees, denying them food and water, and forcing them to kneel in discomfort during interrogation.

The court has learnt that Military press officers at Denmark's Camp Eden in Iraq were aware torture charges could be brought against former Captain Annemette Hommel. They prepared themselves for an entire month to prepare for any charges, according to testimony in a Copenhagen court on Monday, according to national broadcaster DR.

One of the army press officers said 4 weeks before charges were officially laid, preparation of press statements in response to the charges had commenced .

Though the press officers were busy preparing their defence, military leadership in the Army Operative Command remained unaware of any possible charges until the Judge Advocate began to investigate the matter.

The press officer said preparations included such things as responding to tabloid headlines such as 'Torture daily duty for Danish Iraq troops'. They were also ready for newspaper allegations that 'detainees were left in stressful positions for hours, that they were denied water, and that they were talked down to'.

As it happens, those are precisely the charges against Hommel and four MP sergeants. Much depends upon claims that forcing Iraqi detainees to be questioned by a female interrogator was the equivalent of cultural torture, said witnesses in the trial..

Testifying on Monday, Jesper Helsø, commanding general of Denmark's military forces, expressed concern about how the case would affect the military's reputation.

'Regardless of how this turns out, it's soiled the reputation of the military,'

he said...... he didn't mention what it did to the detainees.


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Drax .. more bidders appear

Drax Group Limited have announced today another offer, this time from International Power plc and Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

The second offer from a consortium of Apollo Management LP, Texas Pacific Group Europe LLP and Towerbrook Capital Partners(UK) LLP have previously offered £2.075 billion.
What price British Energy…whose shares have doubled in the last 12 months since re-launching.

UK Energy security, eh ?


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Barry Lando writes in Le Monde

A BLATANTLY BIASED TRIAL

As George Orwell wrote in '1984', "Those who control the present, control the past." When these trials are over, Saddam Hussein and some of his lieutenants will be hung and George W. Bush will solemnly declare that justice has been done.(pic BBC live from trial 19/10)

However, as seems increasingly likely, Iraq sinks into chaos, Saddam Hussein will end up becoming, in the eyes of many in Iraq and elsewhere, a patriotic hero, a martyr, among so many others to victors' justice.

On December 13, 2003, American troops pulled Saddam Hussein out of the narrow lair in which he was hiding.

In an article written in the heat of the moment for Salon.com, I presumed that many important people around the world, rather than rejoicing to finally see the former Iraqi tyrant captured alive, would have preferred to see him dead.

That would have supplied a clear and clean end to the story. There would have been no need for a trial.

In fact, the trial of the former dictator had all the ingredients to become a deplorable global media circus, in which the world's most eminent leaders, past and present, would find themselves in the position of co-defendants for complicity in certain crimes against humanity committed under Saddam's brutal reign. Such a thing would have been easily defensible for Saddam Hussein's lawyers.

Among those leaders figure, notably, American presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush father and son, Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Jacques Chirac, King Hussein, and Prince Fahd - without even counting the bureaucrats who directed the foreign affairs, defense, and intelligence services of their respective countries.

One could add to these leaders an endless list of American and foreign businessmen, as well as bankers, oil magnates, and arms merchants from the world over who amply profited from business conducted with Saddam's regime, some by closing their eyes on what was cooking, others perfectly well aware of it.

If - sinners by commission and omission - they had not supplied him with weapons, finance, intelligence, and diplomatic support, Saddam would never have been able to commit so many horrors.

I wondered for a long time how the Americans and their Iraqi allies would manage to avoid Saddam's trial being transformed into an explosive chronicle of the cynicism and cupidity that have fashioned the history of modern Iraq.

God knows, Saddam and his trusted lieutenants, such as former Foreign Affairs Minister Tarik Aziz, must have fascinating stories to tell about the clandestine agreements they ran with highly placed political leaders and big companies from the world over.

However, the Americans and their Iraqi allies have discreetly resolved the problem of Saddam's trial. First of all, by deciding to avoid the jurisdiction of an international court or a group of independent jurists.

Instead, they have established their own special Iraqi Tribunal. Then, according to the rules of this tribunal, they stipulated that only citizens and Iraqi residents could be judged there.

Which means, for example, that there can be no question of Saddam's lawyers trying to subpoena George Bush senior to appear to ask him why, in February 1991, he called on Iraqis to rise up against Saddam and then, when they did so, he gave the order to American soldiers stationed nearby to refuse to help the rebels...

To destroy the enormous stock of weapons taken from Iraqi troops instead of giving them to the rebels, and allowed Saddam's helicopters to decimate the insurgents and massacre thousands of Shiites, men, women, and children.

No, this embarrassing series of questions will not be allowed by this Iraqitribunal. American Heads of State are neither citizens nor residents of Iraq.

The same logic would apply to Saddam's gassing of thousands of Kurds in Halabja, in 1988. Following the rules of the Tribunal, there's no way that allows Saddam's lawyers to make known that Iraqi chemical weapons were supplied principally by French, Belgian, and German companies whose engineers and chemists knew exactly what Saddam was preparing.

Nor that the United States had previously supplied Saddam with satellite images that allowed him to attack Iranian troops with chemical weapons; or, furthermore, that for years the United States and its allies blocked international campaigns designed to condemn Saddam for his use of mustard and neuro-toxic gases.

That's the theory. But let's suppose that in reality, with the trial being broadcast live all over the world, Saddam Hussein tries to sidestep the rules and explore the question of American or French complicity.

Will the Iraqi judges be able to prevent him from expressing himself without discrediting the entire trial - that will then appear to be a pure set-up?

With the most experienced Iraqi jurists disqualified because of their links with the former Baathist regime, the professional experience of most of the Iraqis composing this tribunal is extremely limited.

Few of them have ever had to deal with big criminal matters, and never with anything on the scale of Saddam Hussein's serial murders.

Aware of these risks, this tribunal's American sponsors have arranged for the Iraqi jurists to receive special training on how to manage a trial so as to avoid that secondary or "off-topic" questions be raised.

Moreover, the American advisors will certainly be there, just beyond camera range, ready to dispense their advice.

To prevent any eventual maneuver from Saddam Hussein, who could try to create dramas in the court room, the rules that have just been established for this tribunal compel the former Iraqi dictator and his co-defendants to use lawyers.

It's out of the question for them to proceed to a cross examination of the witnesses to make their own defense.

Moreover, this trial will not see any confrontation between the prosecutor representing the government and the lawyers representing Saddam and his co-defendants.

The procedure will be conducted by a magistrate, who will first question all the witnesses himself, before passing them on to the defense and to the defendants' lawyers - whose questions will be much more limited.

Those responsible for this tribunal have also carefully chosen the first crime that will be examined by the trial, starting October 19: it's most likely the one that will gather the most attention.

They've selected a relatively "minor" atrocity, denuded of all mystery: the execution of 143 Shiite men and boys from the village of Jubail following an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in 1982.

This case will supply the inexperienced judges and lawyers a simple and virtually unchallengeable apprenticeship: numerous moving eyewitness accounts; no possible equivocation with regard to who ordered the murders (Saddam Hussein having signed the decree himself); a rock solid conviction.

The fact will not be mentioned, of course, that shortly after this carnage, in December 1983, Donald Rumsfeld - perfectly well-informed about the Iraqi regime's methods and the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops - arrived in Baghdad, sent by Ronald Reagan with the objective of strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

Very shortly thereafter, the United States and Saddam Hussein would practically become de facto allies.

Should the Iraqi authorities not be tempted to finish up after this first trial by condemning Saddam to death and executing him, they will go on to an examination of other crimes. But there again, the choice has not been left to chance.

Saddam's illegal invasion of Iran in 1980, followed by the longest war of the Twentieth Century, which created about a million victims, will be passed over in silence. Perhaps because Iran is still on America's enemies list.

Perhaps also because - after giving Saddam a green light for that invasion - the United States supplied hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons - sometimes to both belligerents at the same time - to keep the conflict going.

Thus television viewers the world over, watching what purports to be an exact reconstitution of Saddam's crimes, will, in fact, attend a rewriting of history.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984, "Those who control the present, control the past." When these trials are over, Saddam Hussein and some of his lieutenants will be hung and George W. Bush will solemnly declare that justice has been done.

Will the operation succeed? The answer depends as much on current events in Iraq as on the trial itself.

If, in spite of all the signs that suggest the contrary, the different groups that are now quarreling succeed in forging a new democratic state, Saddam's trial could be seen by most Iraqis as a legitimate manifestation of justice accomplished.

But if the country sinks into chaos, Saddam Hussein will end up becoming, in the eyes of many in Iraq and elsewhere, a patriotic hero, a martyr among so many others to victors' justice.
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Mission Accomplished

Child Obesity formula, on line Mario and Mac Meal deals not to go

Nintendo of America have announced a deal with Wayport to enable DS owners the ability to connect and play games online for free at participating McDonald's across the US from November 14th 2005. Mickey D’s already offer pay for wi Fi access at 6,000 restaurants across the US.

When a user brings a Nintendo DS unit and a Wi-Fi-enabled game into a Wayport-enabled McDonald's, the user simply launches the game in Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection mode. No setup is required.

More information , and location of Wayport/McDonald's hotspots, will be available soon at www.nintendoWiFi.com.

One hopes the company lawyers have considered the prospect of the torpid gamer taking a bite out of their games controller ….

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BBC report downplays the risks of marijuana - legalisation on the way ?

A BBC report downplays the risks of marijuana. Dr Robert Melamede, of the University of Colorado, says Cannabis smoke is less likely to cause cancer than tobacco smoke. Whilst the smoke was chemically similar, tobacco is more carcinogenic.

He said the difference was mainly due to nicotine in tobacco, whereas cannabis may inhibit cancer because of the presence of the chemical THC.

Boots are to combine with Unichem to form a group of 23% of all UK pharmacies – handily placed to retail Cannabis... or any other legalised drug.

Is the UK Government getting ready to legalise cannabis ? The Police will be happy, it will raise Government revenue and remove some element of criminality from the supply of mind altering drugs. Not much chance of opposition from the Opposition either.

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Saddam, my enemy's enemy .... Sharon rejoices in his downfall

From a certain perspective, it could be said that the illegal invasion of Iraq and Saddam's removal was undertaken simply for Sharon in the "fog of war", to finally resolve his Palestine problem.

Saddam’s fall, soon to bear scrutiny in a victors court, has ushered in Likud's and Sharon’s dreams of an Israel with fixed borders surrounding a rapidly diminishing group of Palestinian Bantustans which will, over time, simply disappear.

An ancient Arab proverb states, "my enemy's enemy is my friend".

On Monday the Israeli cabinet said it will suspend contacts with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), one day after three Israeli settlers were killed and four others wounded by Palestinian militants in the the Gush Etzion Jewish West Bank settlement. In another shooting at Eli one Israeli was wounded.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of the Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the two shooting attacks.

Sharon is due to meet Mahmoud Abbas in early November – it is difficult to believe that the Israelis have the slightest intention to resurrect talks.

Bush is mired and distracted with problems in his divided administration, and worried by the upcoming 2006 mid-term Congressional elections.The European Quartet who are supposed to oversee the road Map maintain a happy and antiseptic distance.

Contemptuous of worldwide opinion, Sharon can do anything he wants….. and he will.
Ready to be shot like fish in a barrel , he has loosened border control with Egypt at Rafala to allow the despairing refugees out, to clog Egypt and Jordan and foment more internal problems for them.

Meanwhile ,quietly, as reported in the Guradian today they are busy building in the West Bank, expropriating since the Gaza pull out more land in the West Bank than they have given away in Gaza – except it has no “cockroaches” on it.

Last month, Sharon told a meeting of his Likud party allies that it was important to expand the settlements without drawing the world's attention. "There's no need to talk. We need to build, and we're building without talking," he said.

Israel of course have never been part of the Coalition of the Willing, they have never fired a shot, sent a soldier, launched a missile.... are they the only people who have benefited ?.. at no cost in treasure or blood?

Cunning language from Fox

Liam Fox, (43) unmarried, Deputy Chairman of the party (pic unveiling election winning poster) jousting for the Conservative Party leadership appeared on BBC Newsnight last night, he complained ..”there is little discussion of the Conservative agenda…of a programme for Government…the adverse social trends …a faltering economy … broken society … ability to govern ourselves.”

Having flagged the problems as he saw them, he was asked in the final minute to sum up for the Conservative voters watching why they should vote for him.

“We need to address the social problems of our country, we need a Conservative party that is robust on the economy, that is strong abroad, but compassionate at home, we need a social element to Conservative policy – life is not just about the GDP.”

Now what the fuck does that mean?

Remember Fallujah ... Bomb Ramadi !!!!!

The Iraq Higher Electoral Commission has been provoked to conduct investigation into voting patterns and results. Official results are not expected for “several days”. In six Shiite-majority provinces in the South, 95 percent or more of voters are reported voting for the constitution.

The provinces affected seem largely to be in the hands of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), whose enthusiasm for the new voting process that accompanies a truly representative democracy, may have overrun the norms and standards practised in Western, so called Democracies. Without Diebold voting machines as well.

Sunni Arab leaders warned of serious consequences if fraud were proved with regard to the vote in Ninevah where the Sunni vote may have been accidentally miscounted , although in Anbar and Salahuddin the constitution has reportedly been rejected by a the required 66% majority.

As predicted, it seems likely that these three Sunni Arab - majority provinces have rejected the constitution, even if not by the margin required to defeat it – to those who relish these things – the worst possible outcome.

Mired in the outcome of the Plame blame game, Washington’s dwindling band of palaeocons talk up the very fact that Sunnis have voted..no doubt they would have seen votes for Hitler in 1933, or those who kept Milosevic aloft in Serbia as carrying forward the balm of democracy - it is difficult to imagine their view of the voters for hard liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.

Curiously, no-one in the Coalition of the almost Willing suggested that the voting was subject to International scrutiny, as in Georgia, Ukraine, etc.,

Meanwhile …
5 US grunts were killed at Ramadi over the weekend, where the referendum was largely ignored. So US F18 airstrikes and helicopter gunships attacks were ordered on Monday , pulverising residential areas, killing 70 people, including at least 20 civilians, 5 of them young children.

CNN reports

"We do careful targeting to ensure minimum civilian casualties in the areas that the insurgents are operating," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, director of the U.S.-led Combined Press Information Center.

In Washington POTUS told a Press Conference, he praised the turnout, calling it "an indication that the Iraqi people are strongly in favor of settling disputes in a peaceful way; that they understand that working to find common ground in a constitution is much better for their future than relying upon killers and people who will kill innocent children and women for the sake of creating havoc."

I couldn’t say it better…

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Treo / Blackberry / Windows Mobile Fusion

Mobile device makers Palm Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd., (RIMM:NASDAQ) previously rivals, have agreed they are going to work together so Blackberry technology will be available on the Treo smartphone, on both existing and the new version announced for next spring.

This gives at one stroke a wireless e-mail service that is used by 3.6 Mn professionals combined with an increasingly popular device that not only handles e-mail but also makes voice calls, plays games and music, surfs the Web, and acts as a personal data assistant and will run dedicated Windows Mobile applications.

Palm and RIM, are pioneers in fast developing new markets, they have now radically reinvented themselves in recent months as consumers and companies decide how they want to stay organized and connected to the Internet and e-mail networks.

RIM, is fighting off a fresh wave of competing products, patent-infringement claims related to the BlackBerry and declining sales - 8% last quarter.

The Market forces change, in this case driving partnerships just to meet the fast moving end users' demand for a highly flexible solution - regardless of supply.

You can of course get much the same functionality on rental here NOW.


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A Death is Announced in Basra

A spokesman for the British forces in Basra said: "The commanding officer of 61 Section, Special Investigations Branch, Capt Ken Masters (40), was found dead last night at a military establishment in Iraq, death was "not due to hostile action or natural causes", there was no suicide note.

"The matter is now under investigation and until this is completed it will be inappropriate for me to make any further comment." The death is being investigated by the SIB.

The relatives can now brace themselves for lies, obfuscation, delay, official obstruction, concealment and disappearance of evidence, collective amnesia by those working with him, lost and falsified records.

Nor will they receive any satisfactory explanation why such a junior officer held such a senior position in dealing with the stockpile of criminal cases resulting from the Army occupation of Iraq including investigating the circumstances of the arrest of two undercover elite SAS men, wearing Arab clothing, by Iraqi police in Basra on September 19th 2005.

Interestingly General Sir Mike and Lady Jackson attended the 80th Birthday party for Mrs Thatcher, just after the General had returned from Basra to discuss the “SAS” men’s release with Capt. Masters. "Let me make it clear that it was important to retrieve those two soldiers.The British Army looks after its own.”
" (Times, 11th Oct 2005)

"dark actors playing dark games" Dr Kelly's final e-mail to journalist friend.

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Plame blame game with Judith Lost Weekend Miller

For a mere limey to unpick the threads of the Plame affair is difficult. I do know Matt Frei the BBC Washington correspondent in an end of the year round up at New Year when asked to forecast events for 2005 said cryptically we would see the biggest Washington scandal ever unfold…. Then they cut to the weather.

Struggling with the “evidence” of jail bird Milller et al in the NYT 5,800 word explanation …..

She had written the name "Valerie Flame" written in her notebook (no she can't recall, "when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled." . Besides a few recipes and a note about the dry cleaning it probably also had notes from an interview with Scooter Libby on …er … 8th July.. er .. 2003. Strangely when the name Plame became international news days later she “simply could not recall” who gave her that name. Shucks.(pic Miller leaves prison on arm of Publisher Sulzberger)

These notes also show long time friend Libby told her a Plame worked for Winpac, (whatever that may be) part of the CIA – that’s the Central Intelligence Agency, any fool knows that. But Hot Dog! she has "no clear memory" of the “context” in which he said this – perhaps he was rolling a joint ? Slipping ketamine in her sherry ?

Miller appeared (presumably sober – do they run breath tests?) before a Grand Jury (which we don’t have in the UK) and she told them she did discuss the Plame affair with other sources, but Dang it! she "could not recall" who.

The bright bit (for Libby maybe) is that Miller doesn't think Libby told her Plame's name because, she says, it appeared in a “different part of the notebook” from her notes from the Libby interview. No she won’t show this disordered mess to her pals at the New York Times who wrote the story about her. I mean. would a girl empty her handbag?

However scatty Ms. Miller hadn't got her knickers in a twist and did tell the NYT reporters she apparently does remember that she "made a strong recommendation to my editor" that she write a story about Joe Wilson and his wife. Which is a pity because no-one else does. Jill Abramson, then Washington bureau chief for the Times, said Miller never made any such recommendation. Miller refused to tell the NYT reporters writing a story about her who "my editor" was …. Possibly because she couldn’t remember who it was..

What does this tell me about the affair? There is a falling out among thieves and nobody wants to take the rap. Rove, Libby,Cheney and a raft of people wanted Joe Wilson canned but they didn’t want their turd blossom fingerprints all over it.

What it also shows, is, if you want to reach the height of the journalistic profession *, have a really fucked up notebook, don’t keep nice neat records and for fuck’s sake, don’t remember anything…. Now where did I put that recipe Carl gave me for marzipan fudge cake?

* Miller was still scheduled to received a First Amendment Award given by the Society of Professonal Journalists at their convention on Tuesday.

See WSJ piece here, unravels a bit more of the crochet work.

Hazel Blears Lies to Parliament about MI 6 - again

Craig Murray, the ex-Ambassador to Uzbekistan wishes to bring to public attention , yet more dishonesty and lies from Home Office Minister Hazel Blears ;

"On 13 October the House of Commons (Hansard Col 467 et.seq.) debated new government anti-terrorist measures being rushed through the house, including the proscription of 15 terrorist organisations. There was little time for debate and no opportunity to vote individually on which organisations should be banned.

Below are edited extracts from the debate, in which Liberal, Labour, Conservative and Plaid Cymru MPs all expressed reservations about the inclusion of an alleged Uzbek terrorist group, the Islamic Jihad Union, in the list of banned organisations.
In answering their concerns, Hazel Blears, Home Office Minister, gave one seriously misleading explanation, and one straightforward lie.

Blears trotted out the Uzbek government version of a series of violent incidents in Uzbekistan in March 2004. In fact the alleged string of suicide bombings do not appear to have been anything of the kind. I visited the site of each of the bombings within a few hours, or in one case minutes, of the alleged explosion.

The physical evidence on the ground did not coincide with the official explanation. For example, each suicide bomber was alleged to be using explosives equivalent to 2kg of TNT. But nowhere, not even at the site of an alleged car bomb, was there a crater, or even a crack in a paving stone. In one small triangular courtyard area a bomb had allegedly killed six policemen. But windows on all sides, at between ten and thirty metres from the alleged blast, were not damaged. A tree in the middle of the yard was not damaged also. The body of one of the alleged suicide bombers was unmarked, save for a small burn about the size of a walnut on her stomach.

A full account of my investigations of these bombings appears in my book, which is one reason the FCO will seek to block publication. There is no more reason to believe the Uzbek government version of events in March 2004 than to believe the Uzbek government version of the Andizhan massacre. What is more, as Ambassador I sent back the detail of my investigation to London, and the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre (JTAC) agreed with my view that there were serious flaws in the Uzbek government account – and agreed with my view that the US were wrong to accept it. I concluded then, and still believe now, that these events were a combination of a series of extra-judicial killings covered by a highly controlled and limited agent provocateur operation.

Why then is this Uzbek government propaganda now being uncritically relayed to the House of Commons by Hazel Blears?

Where Hazel Blears lies outright is in assuring MPs that the information on the IJU is from our own sources. There was no intelligence material from UK sources on the above events. The UK has no intelligence assets in Central Asia. We are dependent on information given to us by the United States’ CIA and NSA. There was information from the NSA on the above events. We had NSA communications intercepts of senior Al-Qaida figures asking each other if anyone knew what was happening on Tashkent (no-one did). Despite the only intelligence we had indicating plainly that Al-Qaida were not involved, Colin Powell immediately went on the record in Washington to support their ally Karimov, stating specifically that Uzbekistan was under attack from Islamic militant forces linked to Al-Qaida.

Almost certainly MI6 and MI5 happily accept this rubbish analysis, as it suits their own agenda. But to pretend that they have independent information is a lie.

I am greatly concerned that Ministers are prepared so easily and uncritically to push a security service agenda. I am sad but far from astonished that they are so cavalier with assurances to MPs. It is worth noting that the instincts and suspicions of these MPs were absolutely spot on – they are to be commended.

I am not, in a practical sense, concerned by the proscription of the Islamic Jihad Union. The evidence that this organisation exists at all is extremely tenuous, and if it does it is almost certainly the fruit of an Uzbek agent provocateur operation. I am greatly concerned by the glib repetition of Karimov propaganda by British ministers."

Go to the Hansard report for full details of the debate.


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Blair & Blears. Lie on Secret Service support for 90 days detention.

On 5 August, before the Anti-Terrorism bill was published, Mr Blair clearly stated that MI5 was also backing the move to 90 day detention of terror suspects. "We will 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," the Prime Minister said at a No 10 Press conference on 5th August. (See posting here “Terror a 12 step program “5/8/05)

Should there be any doubt that this matter would be dealt with , not only at the highest level but across all departments he also stated that

“There will also be a cross government unit staffed by senior hand-picked officials to drive this forward under the guidance of Bill Jeffrey the Intelligence and Security Co-ordinator, and the Cabinet Committee on Counter Terrorism, which I chair. The Home Secretary, with whom I've been talking closely in the past week will have the Cabinet responsibility for co-ordinating this.”

So there can be no doubt that the Secret Services MI5/6/7/8 were well up to speed on discussions and developments – and as limply explained when journalists press for more detail, “were present at meetings where these matters were discussed”.


Last week, the voluble Ms Blears, liberally covered with cosmetics with a bright slash of incarnadined mouth, resembling a blow up sex doll with attitude, spitting venom at assembled, questing journalist, was quoted in the Times (amongst others) , stating that the Security Services, had argued for the 90-day rule.

"The three-month period is what the police and Security Service say is necessary," Ms Blears said last Wednesday at the Home Office when unveiling the details of the final Bill.

The Home Office has not challenged the accuracy of those reported remarks.

However asked by the The Scotsman to reiterate and confirm Ms Blears' comments about the Security Service and the Terrorism Bill, the Home Office last night issued a statement that failed to back up the minister's position.

"This extension is necessary as the police and law enforcement agencies have to take on increasingly complex and international terrorist organisations who make ever-greater use of new technology such as encrypted computers,"

the department said.

The Prime Officers Spokesman at the Daily Conference on October 12th said He (the PM) still believed as he had said explicitly that the case made by the police for 90 days was one that nobody had answered. Curiously omitting the support of the Secret Services.

Charles Clarke , despite the responsibility for co-ordinating this Bill within Cabinet (see above) it appears has remained silent on the matter of Secret Service support for the issue.

So do the Secret Services want the 90 days detention without charge….. well… er .. no.

Why? Because they fear the call to balance this with the disclosure of evidence being revealed in court of wiretapping, interception of e-mails, and other technological wizardry.(ie see pic of methods of dealing with terrorists exposed by Max Spweilmann Photoshop assistant)

So have the Prime Minister and Hazel Blears been telling lies … again ?

Yes.


To read the secret mish mash of Police evidence with the letter from Andy Hayman for 90 days detention , including the most preposterous arguing for a change in the law imagineable read here

For more information when Blair and Blears lied about the advice (or lack of it on the "sunset clause") on the Prevention of Terrorism Act see here


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Toledo - American Nazis play away.

Some 2 dozen out of town members of the National Socialist Movement, which likes to call itself "America's Nazi Party," had gathered at a Woodrow Wilson Park, Toledo, Ohio , to march under police protection. Organizers said they were demonstrating against black gangs they said were harassing white residents.(….or they missed their way to the Grand Rapids famous Apple Butter festival held the same time).

Violence broke out along the planned march route shortly before it was to begin. Then over several hours, about 150 police officers wearing gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang devices designed to stun suspects chased bands of young coloured men through the area.
The neo-Nazis in uniform gather yelling, “White pride, not hate” and racial insults. Across the street, a growing crowd of black people yelled back as they held signs like “No Nazi Hate” and “Fight Racism, Down With Nazis.”
Police finally marched shoulder-to-shoulder down the street shouting to people to stay inside, and the crowd broke up. 65 people were arrested on charges including assault, vandalism and failure to disperse. Mayor Jack Ford set an 8.pm weekend curfew.

In the aftermath it is claimed that the neighbourhood of Perrysburg claim problems of prostitution, break-ins, graffiti involving racial slurs, and daylight beatings and robberies of women. City officials including police, are said to have little or nothing to keep the neighbourhood safe.

The group are a breakaway from Rockwell's Nazi's and is led by Rocky Suhayda it was the European American Education Association and is based in Eastpointe, Michigan. They use the so-called Fourteen Words as their motto: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." (Late Note see TIME Online for background to story)

Meanwhile if these goons frighten you away from the charms of Toledo, try the webcams (no, no not those webcams) Louie the newest member of the Elephant family at Toledo Zoo can be seen struttin’ his stuff on the web cam - likes kicking shit out of a car tyre it seems.

As can the Polar bears ... Cool.

Or you could check out the Mud Hens Triple A baseball team see Mascot "Middy" above.

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Military mystery, 42nd Infantry Div. ..all quiet on the PR Front.

The 42nd Infantry (Task Force Liberty) were interviewed by George Bush,POTUS, it was shown worldwide, as the busy Commander in Chief kept in touch with the "boots on the ground". Proud day in the Division's history.One to remember ... or forget, it appears.

Of course one of the interviewees (the only female) was a regular contributor to the news on their website ...for example of her latest work ...
Iraqi army graduates mark transfer of responsibility from Task Force Liberty

By Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo
42nd Infantry Division Public Affairs.

They have regular news briefings... but not a word about being on world wide TV interviewed by the most powerful man on earth...there is other news of course ...

Road closure decreases IED use
KIRKUK, Iraq – The number of improvised explosive device detonations has decreased on the Huwayjah-Riyad Road since Coalition Forces closed it to all but emergency traffic. The number of IED strikes has fallen from 17 to three in the same approximate one week period. The road closure however, has created an inconvenience to the residents living on the west side of Huwayjah and many citizens have voiced their displeasure to government leaders in the greater Huwayjah area. During a meeting on Oct. 9 the local Coalition Forces commander told the officials that if they took control and stopped IED emplacements the road would be open again. (pic CENTCOM 116th Brigade feeding the kids - bottled water, the real potable stuff isn't available)

Hey, here's mil. intel. at work..shut down the road and nobody can use it. So let's shut all the roads down in Iraq...no more IED's ? What was the result after the Army of occupation closed the road? Well the natives got restless ... as Nixon said, "when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow".

The 42nd Infantry (Task Force Liberty) ...hmmmm, did the ladies and their friends in Abu Ghraib have a catchy title .. Task Force, We shit on your grave ... Bringing you Punishment AND Liberty ?

You need Heller to write the history of this lot.