Kissinger War criminal on Warpath ... as usual

82 year old Henry Kissinger (see pic) spoke to top NATO officers and officials in Brussels today.

He is reported by AP as warning against an early withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces from Iraq, this would, he claims, bolster insurgents and terrorists worldwide, causing instability across the Middle East.

He also warned that European Union nations and Washington needed to find another way to get Iran to stop the development of its nuclear program, which the EU and US fear is being used to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. (As would Israel if they had one)

He warned that calls for an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq would have disastrous consequences for regional stability, he made clear Friday that supported Bush's Iraq policy …. Whatever it is.

"To argue that a collapse of the United States in Iraq would not have consequences ... is simply living in a dream world," the secret bomber of Canbodia and Laos said. "Shockwaves would ripple throughout the Islamic world."

He claims that US allies such as Saudi and Egypt would face more opposition and terrorists — because they would be encouraged by an early withdrawal of the American military from Iraq.

The geriatric statesman, and Nobel peace Prize winner , speaking from just this side of the grave, said upcoming U.S. congressional elections would have an effect on the debate of how long U.S. troops would remain in Iraq.

Very sensibly the German born, heavily accented Kissinger did not touch on the delicate issue of Uncle Sam's European allies should contribute more troops to rebuilding Iraq, nor did he suggest NATO take a larger role in Iraq.

In October Nato opened a training academy for the Iraqi military, with the object of training 1,000 officers a year, as part of NATO's very limited role there. The 26-nation alliance will also supply equipment, such as 77 used 77 Hungarian T-72 tanks now en route for Iraq, said U.S. Gen. James L. Jones, NATO's supreme commander in Europe.

Kissinger highlighted the challenges ahead, pointing out that European Governments had to accept that their continent was no longer Washington's top priority. Their key focus now was the rise of China and India and other Asian powers.

European countries and the United States, however, had to work closer together to coordinate new policies for Asia and for other top issues such as terrorism and nuclear proliferation, he said.

"There is not the commitment to the Atlantic alliance that there was before," he said. The question would be whether nations bordering the Atlantic would "be able to develop cohesion and coordination to address so vast an agenda." … presumably he was banging on about world domination again. His life leitmotif..

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3 Bahreinis, 5 Kuwaitis returned from Guantanamo Prison

Three Bahraini men , Salman Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Abdullah Al-Noaimi and Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Haji returned to Bahrein on Friday aboard a chartered jet from Guantanamo Prison to Bahrain. They were met by Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, other ministry officials, Shura Council members and MPs involved in campaigning for the detainees' release. His Majesty King Hamad has intervened personally to help secure the detainees' release, by bringing up their cases with the US administration during his visits to the US.

The three were arrested four years ago by Pakistani authorities and handed over to U.S. forces during the 2001 war in Afghanistan. "The three have arrived and they are at their homes," said Adel al-Moawdah, the deputy speaker of Bahrain's parliament who has been pushing for their release.

Al-Moawdah told The Associated Press the men were interviewed early Saturday by prosecution officials before being sent home.

"I don't think they will be charged with anything," he said. "There is nothing to charge them with."

Abdullah Al Noaimi has alleged that he was physically assaulted by US soldiers in Kandahar air base in Afghanistan, stripped and sexually humiliated. He says that he witnessed detainees being bitten by dogs in Kandahar. (Amnesty International Doc Ref AI Index: AMR 51/093/2005) His Combatant Status Review Tribunal CSRT document (2 pages) is available on the web here


On 26 September 2004, at his CSRT , Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Haji, was confirmed as an "enemy combatant"

Q: Adil, do you have any other evidence to present to this Tribunal?
A: I don’t have any other proof or evidence. All what I have is my biography. Everybody knows me in Bahrain. I am a very correct person. I have never had any problems with the government or anything.
Q: Anything else?
A: I have no proof. I have been here for two years. I don’t have anything.

(Amnesty International Doc Ref AI Index: AMR 51/083/2005)
His CSRT papers (35 pages) are here

On 9th September Salman Ibrahim Al Khalifa was confirmed as an enemy combatant at his CSRT papers (2 pages) here He is the son of Bahreini leader Shaikh Ibrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa .

Essa Al Murbati, Salah Abdul Rasool Al Blooshi and Juma Al Dossary, are three other Bahreinis who remain in Guantanamo. Information Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar says Bahrain will continue to work for the release of the remaining three Bahrainis, still held at the US camp, said Dr Abdul Ghaffar.

Five Kuwaitis were released on 3/1/05 including Abdul-Aziz al-Shimmiri, 32, who has been on a hunger strike protest since since Aug. 9 and was being force-fed by stomach tubes surgically inserted at the Guantanamo hospital.

These transfers brings the known total of detainees sent to other governments to 73. Another 179 are said to have been released leaving approximately 500 detainees at the Guantanamo Prison.

Saudi state media said a Saudi detainee, Majid al-Shamri, had returned to Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy Fifth Fleet.

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BBC - State Propaganda at full tilt

Detlev Mehlis: Diligent detective Nov 3rd BBC Online Article ....

The man charged with investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has a formidable reputation and very relevant experience.
German Detlev Mehlis has delved into the murky world of state-sponsored crime before.

His long investigation into the 1986 bombing of La Belle nightclub in Berlin, which killed two US soldiers and a Turkish woman, eventually concluded in 2001 with the conviction of four people, including a former Libyan diplomat.

A German court found the attack was run by Libya's secret service.

Read on how brilliant Herr Mehlis and his team are, ...OR try here ....or here ...or here

Bestiality

British Gas sponsors the 2nd series of Creature Comforts on ITV Sunday afternoons @7.20 pm.

The first series featuring Nick Park’s Plasticene animals using real Vox Pop voice overs attracted an average audience of eight million viewers per episode, according to Barb data. (DVD available Info and clips here )
Jane Bednall, senior brand manager at British Gas, said: "Creature Comforts has a great heritage which remains as relevant to modern audiences as it did years ago. Its perfect blend of warmth, familiarity and reassurance resonates with British Gas values."

Krane Jeffrey, the sponsorship manager at Carat who managed the sponsorship deal, said: "This emotive, natural association with Creature Comforts provides a sound foundation for us to communicate the British Gas brand values of warmth and diversity to a much wider audience by leveraging the content across other customer touchpoints."

Sounds like sponsorship managers could provide another rich seam for Nick Park to mine.

Trixie and Captain Cuddlepuss rock.

Must Watch.

Rachel Corrie KIA RIP

Alison Weir wrote in Counterpunch on April 3rd 2003 about the killing on March 16th of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli soldier driving an armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in the Rafah regugee camp. (Memorial website here)

Rachel a 23 year old American non - violent human rights protestor was killed intentionally.

Rachel and others practicing Gandhian non - violence in the Gaza Strip had been pleading with Israeli soldiers for two hours not to destroy a Palestinian family home. Without warning the Israeli bulldozer operator began driving his giant bulldozer toward the home, with Rachel sitting in the bulldozer’s path. Witnesses report that she then stood up on the mound of debris and dirt pushed by the bulldozer blade and looked straight at the operator through the window. He continued, and she was pulled underneath the tractor, its blade crushing her. He then backed up, running over her again, burying her deeper into the dirt.

Three friends ran to Rachel and dug her out. According to an eyewitness report by Joe Smith of Kansas City: “Her body was in a mangled condition, she said ‘my back is broken!’ but nothing else. Her eyes were open and she was clearly in a great deal of pain.” A Palestinian ambulance made it through Israeli forces, and took her to the hospital, where she died. Reports are unclear whether it was her fractured skull or the suffocation caused by crushed lungs and being buried in the dirt that caused her death.

Richard Purssell, a fellow activist who was standing just a few feet away from her, recalls: "She was standing on top of a pile of earth. The driver cannot have failed to see her. As the blade pushed the pile, the earth rose up. Rachel slid down the pile. It looks as if she got her foot caught. The driver didn't slow down; he just ran over her. Then he reversed the bulldozer back over her again."

Rachel's grieving mother Cindi has been a picture of dignity says Robert Fisk. “US citizens, she wrote, "should ask themselves how it is that an unarmed US citizen can be killed with impunity by a soldier from an allied nation receiving massive US aid... When three Americans were killed, presumably by Palestinians, in an explosion on October 15th, 2003 ... the FBI came within 24 hours to investigate the deaths. After one year, neither the FBI nor any other US-led team has done anything to investigate the death of an American killed by an Israeli."

On the 2nd Anniversary of her death, March 16th 2005 Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to support an independent investigation of her death.

AIUSA note that this year's Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Israel agreed, stating bluntly that "U.S. officials who have seen the IDF report found inconsistencies among the statements of the people involved in the accident and other witnesses," there is no indication that the US has sought further investigation of these inconsistencies.

Christy Moore released a new album last week “Burning Times” which has this dedication..

"This album is dedicated to the memory of Rachel Corrie who lost her life in Gaza. She stood before an American built, Israeli driven earthmover as she tried to defend a Palestinian home that was about to be demolished. She was armed with a megaphone. The Caterpillar machine drove straight over Rachel killing her in the earth."

Secret Service spread terror message ... we are all doooooomed!!!!

Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble was in New York for a 2 day visit to speak to the Counter-terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council on Interpol’s work.

He claimed that there are 10 to 15 million stolen passports in use around the world at the present time

“If member countries treated stolen passports like citizens treat their stolen credit cards, then we would have many, many fewer terrorists and organized criminals in the world than we currently do,”

Noble said.

He said only 87 countries are using an Interpol database on stolen passports, 100 more countries remain undecided. Since it was created 3 years ago when only 12 countries had signed on, he added, the database has gone from 3,000 to more than 8,000,000 entries. “Unless all countries share that information globally, the terrorists and organized criminals will be able to move from country to country,” Noble said. It also makes one wonder what utility the proposed UK national Identity Database will be…. and the very remote possibility that a user of a stolen passport will be picked up.

Noble claimed Ramzi Youssef the WTC Bomber in 1993 was using a stolen Iraqi passport and that the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic who was assassinated in 2003 by someone carrying a stolen Croatian passport that had been stamped 26 times by six European countries and by Singapore.

He revealed that Interpol has sent three experts, including an analyst, to work with the Mehlis investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in February, the Interpol chief said. The police organization is also helping track down the fabled right hand drive, White Mitsubishi panel truck , that was stolen in Japan and filled with explosives (as an independent witness watched !! .. although we still don't know what sort of explosives were used !) used in the murder. Tokyo failed to notify Interpol of the vehicle theft, said Noble calling the failure “an opportunity lost to possibly disrupt that attack.”

“We submit that had that data been entered into the Interpol data base and had the Lebanese border control checked the data base as they frequently do, maybe that truck would have been prevented from getting into Lebanon,” he added. … which is a bit of a non sequitur because the bombers would just use another vehicle.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports, former head of British intelligence Sir Richard Dearlove, said at a Terrorism seminar at the law firm Ashursts, in London that the 7/7 bombings that killed 52 London commuters did not amount to a “strategic terrorist event,” the Daily Telegraph reported.

He is reported (after warning about a potential terrorist nuclear Armageddon) saying that “ the July attacks on three subway trains and a bus “bore the characteristic of a locally planned and carried-out event.” Smart guys, these Secret Service Johnnies ... sleep easy.

Unbelievably and for the first time , the Daily Mirror reported from "sources", this week that all four 7/7 “suicide” bombers were tracked by security services a year before they attacked London. (WOW) The surveillance operation was ditched after intelligence officers decided there was nothing suspicious about their behavior, according to “sources.”

Recent blogs on same topic here

Home Secretary corrects PM's and Blears' lies

The Scotsman today
is hot on the trail again about alleged Secret Services support for an assault on habeus corpus by requesting a 90 day period of arrest without charge in the Anti Terrorist legislation before Parliament this week.

Blair and Blears have continued to lie about the request from the Secret Services
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2005/10/blair-blears-lie-on-secret-service.html
but now Charles Clarke is quoted by The Scotsman ;

Mr Clarke admits the request for 90 detention came solely from the police. " It is the police who, through their professionalism, came to the view that 90 days is right," he said. "The security service aren't committed to a 90-day figure, as such."

The Home Secretary, no doubt uncomfortable with the majority of 1 vote has accepted that, contrary to the suggestions from his colleagues, it would not be appropriate for MI5 to be making direct recommendations on government policy.

Based presumably on contacts they have with the services The Scotsman claim that the apparent contradiction between Mr Blair's claim and the reality has, " caused concern in parts of the security services, where many staff have painful memories of the government's use of the intelligence services to justify the war in Iraq."

Stakhanovites, Stalin and Apartheid converge

Aleksei Stakhanov, mined 102 tons of coal in less than 6 hours (14 times his quota and spawned the Stakhanovite movement, which spread over other industries of the Soviet Union. Pasha Angelina was glorified as the first Soviet woman to operate.

The Soviets organized a wide network of industrial trainings and created special courses for foremen of socialist labor. In 1936, a number of industrial and technical conferences revised the projected production capacities of different industries and increased their outputs. They also introduced the Stakhanovite competitions within factories and plants, broken down into periods of five days (пятидневка, or pyatidnevka), ten days (декада, or dekada) and 30 days (месячники, or mesyachniki). The factory management would often create the Stakhanovite brigades or departments, which reached a stable higher collective output.

Now we have as example of a modern Stakhanovite Police Constable Diederik Coetzee, aged 48, has been acclaimed in the MSM press and TV today, and by his senior officers in Nottingham for making 309 arrests in 10 months, compared with an average 9.5 arrests per year by the police forces in England and Wales.

Coetzee has already surpassed the previous British record of 305 arrests for a single year with 2 months still left.

"It's a joy getting up each morning for work. For me it really is a way of life”.
Paradoxically a South African with the same name has been examining Antipodean police activity elsewhere in the British Commonwealth. Nobel Prize-winning author JM Coetzee , now living in Australia, compares Prime Minister Howard’s controversial new anti-terrorism laws to apartheid-era human rights abuses in his native South Africa.

"I used to think that the people who created (South Africa's) laws that effectively suspended the rule of law were moral barbarians," Coetzee is reported as saying.

"Now I know they were just pioneers ahead of their time."

Preparing for a public reading from his famous 1980 anti-apartheid novel "Waiting for the Barbarians", Coetzee said South African security police in the 1970s could arrest and detain people without explanation "and do what they wanted" with them "because special provisions of the legislation indemnified them in advance".

"All of this, and much more during apartheid in South Africa, was done in the name of the fight against terror," said the fabled and reclusive 2003 Nobel laureate.

The Australian draft Anti-Terror laws would expand police powers to arrest and secretly hold suspects preventively, and impose penalties on reporters or members of the suspects' families who publicise their situation.

The draft laws say that if an arrested suspect is aged 16- 18 only one parent would be informed of the reason for his detention and they could be jailed for up to five years if they tell the other parent why the minor had been arrested.

This, says JM Coetzee mirrors the positioning apartheid-era South Africa.

"If somebody telephoned a reporter and said, 'Tell the world -- some men came last night, took my husband, my son, my father away, I don't know who they were, they didn't give names, they had guns', the next thing that happened would be that you and the reporter in question would be brought into custody for furthering the aims of the proscribed organisation endangering the security of the state," he said. (Glorifying terrorism ?)

Prime Minister Howard says, "I am confident the legislation has all the right balances and the right protections and the right safeguards."

Stakhanovites and Stalinist Police States converge …. again

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Beating the Bomber - Sir Ian Blair tells the Truth - Shock Horror.

Sir Ian Blair in Rupe’s Rag , the Soaraway Sun hits out with the improbable headline
'Trust us to beat bombers'

Fresh from the sombre service at St.Pauls, the graduate of “The House” (Christ Church, Oxford to the unwashed who read the Sun) hoped that ,“ it gave families of victims of the July 7 bombings — and the survivors — a sense of how Britain mourned with them.”

Fear not, “the Security Service and the Met have prevented other attacks in the last few weeks”, he continues, but leaves us gasping for a few details of where and when and how. He warns us again ….

“The sky is dark. Intelligence exists to suggest that other groups will attempt to attack Britain in the coming months.” Is the sky dark with Flu ridden jihadist Islamofascist Brent Geese ?

With all the gravitas he can muster on the pages of the Sun he tells us….”In the House of Commons today, MPs will debate how long police can detain people in terrorist cases.”

Well PC Plod needs to bang thenm up for 90 days, no messin’ We need evidence and we need to keep askin’ ‘em for 90 days, you understand chummy ?

"The reasons are simple. These people present a threat so profound that as soon as we begin to understand they are planning an attack we must disrupt them by arrest."

"One case involved an encrypted computer, which held the equivalent of 60,000 feet of paper" …presumably Sir Ian refers to the PNC computer which holds vast amounts of data but they couldn’t find that essential bulky file on the Soham murderer – because …er .. well the files had been as our technical staff call it…cleaned.

It took us two weeks to enter the bomb factory in Leeds after July 7, let alone analyse it, because the scene was so dangerous. But we still cannot tell you exaclty what explosives the 7/7 bombers used, if they were timed, or triggered etc., etc.,

Enquiries into these cases can also stretch across the world. Everything takes time….. You bet it does…. And money ... £77Mn on enquiries alone, after 7/7 …how much compensation paid to de Menezes family …not my Department Gov.

Will that do Mr Murdoch, Sir ?250 words you said, send the cheque along to the Commander Stepens’ office for the David Blunkett Retirement Fund.

PS. There is the possibility that I have misunderstood the Headline “Trust us to beat the bombers” to mean that having read that Pat Roberts (Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman) said about interrogation “The rule book has been thrown out the window” .. to be shortly followed by the accused… the Met are going to resort to the old tactic of beating the bomber …. a short heavy truncheon, I find usually does the trick.

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Apparently there has been comment about the shortage of Helicopters available to distribute aid in Kashmir. Here and Here

Well those interested to know why the UK supply of heavy lifting Chinook helicopters (1) is so small may wish to follow up the exchange in the House of Commons yesterday Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he expects the Chinook Mark 3 helicopter, including the six aircraft delivered to the UK during 2001–02, to enter service before the planned phasing out of the Mark 2 and Mark 2a Chinooks.

Mr. Adam Ingram: The Ministry of Defence is working towards resolving the problems of the eight Chinook Mk 3s. A study last year recommended a 'Fix to Field' solution as the probable best value for money solution. We are working with Boeing to ensure the proposed solution is mature and robust before taking the final decision on whether to proceed. If we do decide to proceed with the 'Fix to Field' solution I anticipate that the aircraft would be in service well before the Chinook Mk 2/2a fleet reaches its out of service date.

For those who savour these private moments in those hidden away committees the following exchange is worthy of mention … Select Committee on Public Accounts Minutes of Evidence 25 OCTOBER 2004 - i.e 1 year ago....

Q133 Chairman: Thank you very much. But the fact remains, Air Vice Marshal, that for safety reasons you cannot fly this helicopter when it is cloudy; is that correct?
Air Vice Marshal Luker: That is also correct.

The bottom line is, 8 Chinook 3’s were ordered from Boeing in 1995. They were tailored to the needs of the SAS and Special Boat Service, with satellite communications technology, extra fuel tanks and in-flight refuelling probes for long flights.

"8 brand new Chinook HC3s costing £260 million were delivered in 2001 but will be sitting on the ground until 2007,'' said Edward Leigh Chairman of the Public Accouts Committee. "Because of a massively botched job, they cannot be flown when there is a cloud in the sky. The MoD might as well have bought eight turkeys.''

In what Leigh described as "an atrocious oversight'', the ministry had decided to cut costs by refusing to pay for a fully digital cockpit. The result was a compromise that did not match British defence safety standards.

It will take £127 million more to bring them up to British standards and enable them to carry out the tasks for which they are needed.

Which leaves you nervous that it is the same people who decide whether the UK buy a new nuclear deterrant (remembering the current Trident multiple warheads belong to Uncle Sam).

Pic. Chinook Mark 2 Helicopters at work on the Ark Royal at the outset of Desert Storm.

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FBI had Hi-jackers DNA BEFORE 9/11.... nothing to do with David Blunkett

Who They Were : Inside the World Trade Center DNA Story: The Unprecedented Effort to Identify the Missing

Shaler was interviewed by Paul Colford of the NY Daily News. 12/10/05

The NY city scientist (former head of the medical examiner's forensic unit) who led the effort to identify 9/11 victims in his new book said officials made sure to keep the remains of the three terrorists identified away from those of the innocents killed.

The remains of the killers were removed from the medical examiner's makeshift memorial park on the East Side and "put in another place," Robert Shaler, told the Daily News.

In "Who They Were," his inside account from the apex of the identification effort, Shaler writes that he believes the terrorists identified were in the back of the planes - and not the monsters who plowed the jets into the towers. "I still doubt the pilots have anything remaining to collect or analyze," he writes. "Likely, they were vaporized along with many of the innocent victims."

Shaler details the scientific challenge and personal anguish that marked the more than three years it took to process the bodies and 20,000 body parts (ugh!) recovered from Ground Zero.

Though the remains of 1,594 of the 2,749 WTC victims have so far been identified by name, Shaler makes it very clear the terrorists were a case apart.

For a start , Shaler reveals his office office could not identify the three by name. That's because the 10 DNA profiles used to make the first matches were supplied by the FBI without names attached.

"No names, just a K code, which is how the FBI designates 'knowns,' or specimens it knows the origins of," Shaler wrote. "Of course, we had no direct knowledge of how the FBI obtained the terrorists' DNA."

Seperated from other remains to allay families' concern that the killers might someday be commingled with the unidentified remnants of their victims, due to rest at the Trade Center site. Shaler said he didn't know where the terrorists' remains are now but assumed they are kept somewhere in the city.

"We didn't say where we put the terrorists' remains because it's not important," the medical examiner's spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said yesterday, adding she did not know the location herself.

* [Note: If this is indeed true, it is highly suspect, leading some to believe that this information came from a military database. Keep in mind that according to NBC, Many of the alleged hi-jackers trained at secure US military sites. If it is false, then whoever is lying has some explaining to do.]

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The Met - 7/7 "Suicide bombers" don't behave like "terrorists"

Jason Bennetto of the Independent(31/10/05) reports that Met. Anti Terrorist expert says 7/7 bombers did not behave like terrorists.

An unnamed representative of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, is reported in the magazine Police Review telling a seminar held in Preston, Lancashire 2 two weeks ago about the four 7/7 “suicide” bombers: "This is not the behaviour of a terrorist - you'd think this is normal.” He was referring to the evidence of CCTV that Shehzad Tanweer , one of the Leeds “suicide” bombers arguing with a cashier about being short-changed hours before he blew himself up.

The counter terrorist expert also told a seminar that the policing bill for the attacks on 7 July and the failed bombings on 21 July so far stands at £77m. (Luvvly Jubbly sarge’ ..all that overtime)

He warned traffic officers that the four terrorists - Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18, - did not fit the preconceived terrorist profile.

Another of the terrorists - the teenager who destroyed a double-decker bus - was also captured on surveillance cameras wandering around the streets of London, "bumping into people", before detonating his rucksack bomb.

The mysterious and anonymous official is further reported saying …"I've seen the CCTV footage of these people (one wonders when the world at large will ?). They do not appear to be on their way to commit any crime at all. The Russell Square bomber [Hasib Hussain] is actually seen going into shops and bumping into people [prior to his attack].(Evidently been trained by French schoolchildren visiting London)

"Tanweer (he of the shiny red Mercedes who RENTS a Micra to take his mates to Luton and then the train to LOndon) also played a game of cricket the night before he travelled down to London - now are these the actions of someone who is going to blow themselves up the next day?

Well, here’s some news for Commander Clark of the Met … other people came to that conclusion a long time ago. See …”another bloody silly conspiracy theory”.

Mehlis and the German "experts"

Looking back through previous files on the Hariri bombing this news item from the Lebanese Naharnet of 9th June 2005 contains some interesting details.

A U.N. mission investigating ex-Premier Hariri’s assassination in Beirut may conclude that his motorcade was devastated Feb. 14 by a massive underground bomb rather than an above the ground terrorist bombing operation, Hariri’s Al Mustaqbal newspaper said on Tuesday.

“The mission of inquiry under Berlin Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis may possibly reverse to the underground bombing theory,” the newspaper quoted unidentified diplomatic sources as saying, noting that a previous U.N. fact-finding mission floated the over-ground bombing concept, but inconclusively.

Hariri’s family originally subscribed to the theory that the assassination resulted from a one-ton bomb planted in underground sewage tunnels and triggered off manually, which explained why the sophisticated security system of Hariri’s limousines did not detect the bomb.

Al Mustaqbal said Tuesday that a team of German explosives experts arrived in Beirut on Sunday. The experts are examining the scene of the crime to make a final decision on how the assassination was carried out, the paper added.

Hariri’s family has reportedly passed to Detlev evidence lifted from Bassel Fleihan’s body burns in a Paris hospital that established the kind of explosives used in the bombing, earlier local media reports said. (Photo shows German experts on assassination scene - which was of course 4 months previously )
Beirut, Updated 09 Jun 05, 11:09

1. A team of German explosives experts were involved, such is the state of their expertise, it is impossible to believe that they would have much problem establishing the nature, and even the source of manufacture of any explosive used… God knows there was enough of it. But they could not identify it.

2. Samples were available from a victim of the explosives.WARNING GRAPHIC PIC of HARIRI after explosion here

3. That the underground bomb theory, which was current the following day throughout Beirut based upon the size of the massive crater, tarmac distribution and cars being found 200 metres away at 30ft above street level was being considered by Mehlis.

But now this team of explosive experts say it was a right hand drive, white van of unknown ownership, whose driver is unknown etc., etc.,

Social democracy now has excellent review of the report.
Which refers to William Bowles penetrating analysis “Syria Old whine, new bottle”

Meanwhile Jack Straw “detailed and convincing” , Condi et al have to give in to Russian pressure at the Security Council, producing a resolution which is both pointless and meaningless, but will no doubt be flogged around the TV studios on Sunday morning as good reason to bomb the shit out of Damascus.

You might also look at DID ISRAEL KILL RAFIK HARIRI WITH A GUIDED BOMB?ChristopherBollyn Date: Friday, 18 February 2005 ... and consider this photo -

Cheney to resign

As an aide now tells it, Cheney's influence began to wane from the start of the second term and effectively came to an end as the Fitzgerald investigation gained momentum in recent months. "You can say that the influence of the vice president is going to decrease, but it's hard to decrease from zero,"

Read the best article Juston Raimondo has ever written at Anti-war.com today Earth to Bush: Ditch Cheney

..... the act of revealing the criminality of this cabal leads ineluctably to the conclusion that the methods, motives, and policies of a small but determined group within this administration were corrupt. The indictment calls the actions of Libby – and, by implication, his unnamed enablers and co-conspirators – a "corrupt endeavour." How long before the American people learn the lesson of the trial of Scooter Libby – that the policy of war was, in its conception and execution, a corrupt endeavour?

The neocons, you see, aren't just ordinary ideologues, like Communists, Fascists, or advocates of technocracy: they are more like the carriers of a debilitating and highly contagious disease. Once they infected the bloodstream of this administration, the only road to the restoration of its health was to flush them out, clean them out entirely, without hesitation or regret.

Recent blogs on Cheney's departurehere

Iran claims explosives from Basra used in bombing in Ahvaz

Iran news

10/30/05 Iran: Terrorists admit charges of bombing in Ahvaz
Tehran, Oct 30, IRNA-Iran's Ministry of Information said people arrested in connection with terrorist bombing in Ahvaz confessed to the bombing which rocked the city on June 13 and October 15. Under interrogation they disclosed many secrets about their connection with their ringleaders who are based in other countries.

"In one case, the terrorists admitted that they brought explosives from Basra."

The list of ringleaders who had trained and dispatched the terrorists to Khuzestan province was forwarded to the Foreign Ministry to seek their extradition from respective countries in line with United Nations Resolution on International Campaign against Terrorism," said the statement. (Tongue resting firmly in the cheek).

"Police force in Khuzestan province managed to neutralize several bombs upon tip-off from the compatriot tribesmen of the province on October 18 and October 28," it says here.

See report at Terrorism News blog 17/10/05 about UK Embassy in Teherean denying UK involvement in Ahvaz bombing. See Deficient Brain blog as well. (Both well worth looking at).

Mehlis - more questions than answers

Walid Akawi , senior VP of ITP Publishing in Arabian Business On Sunday, 30 October, 2005 writes of “ Mehlis’ “honest” report” which he claims raises more questions than provides answers.

The premier claim that the crime could not take place without the knowledge of the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence systems , completely ignores the intelligence operations in Israel and the US —“ the biggest beneficiaries of such a crime “ he says.

The weaknesses are moré evident than the strengths, testimony is based on people “ renowned for their hostility towards Syria” Why lump together Ahbash, Abu Adass, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command? They spend more time fighting each other than Syria – somehow they have been transformed into an anti-Hariri clique.

He ridicules the idea the planners were a “very organised group”, if everything was done using mobile phones. Implying of course that surveillance is ever present by many authorities in the area.

No serious explanation is provided of the right hand (?) van, where registered , owned by who ? What does the DNA tell us? He also raises the claims that defence radar detected a foreign spy plane flying over Beirut at the exact time of the murder?

He also raises the odd role of the mysterious Zuhair Siddeeq, from witness to suspect in one bound. No formal Syrian witnesses, nor evidence is offered and intriguingly , “what happened exactly when Mehlis was in Damascus?

Too many unanswered questions in the pro-American-Israeli atmosphere that is completely hostile to Syria, "we expect and deserve better" he says. Tel Aviv gladly received the report. A spokesman at the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs called it a “very positive step”. Shimon Peres, Israel's deputy PM, requested an immediate change in the Syrian leadership.

The report is several thousand words long. It fails to answer the biggest question of all — who really killed Rafik Hariri?

The Beirut Daily Star says today (Monday) that one of the 4 former security Chiefs, Jamil Sayed, Ali Hajj, Mustapha Hamdan and Raymond Azar arrested on 4th Septmeber , is singing like a canary for Mehlis' Lebanese staff ... perhaps they should make use of the CIA executive airline and pop them off to Mr Karimov's kitchens for a bit of light poaching ..... or is their incarceration just be to keep them from publicly discussing what they do know?

Arabic News has a useful digest of press and political comment on the Mehlis report both within the region and student groups in Europe.

Meanwhile the US, France and the United Kingdom have submitted to the U.N. Security Council a joint draft resolution requiring Syria to, "cooperate with the international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri."

John Bolton told journalists, "It is a strong resolution. We feel it's important to send a strong and clear signal to the government of Syria that its obstruction of the Mehlis commission to date is unacceptable." ... he is reported as saying President Assad should be interrogated, but refrains from detailing the equipment to be used inthe process. Albert Gonzalez the Torturers friend will no doubt be kept informed.

Recent blogs on same topic here

PS. It's official. The fragrant Lady Symons, the Cheney family's very close friend, is now in charge of Outsourcing Torture. An Inter - departmental Committee is deciding if her role comes under FCO for international relations, DTI for trade development or Home Office for Police and Prison Staff training.

Gulf War 1991 Psy-ops

Psy-ops leaflet (2 sides) from the Gulf War 1991 - the text says ..."The United States is conforming to the Geneva Convention…"



One wonders if Alberto Gonzalez and Mr Addington who will take over from Scooter Libby could endorse the statement made in these leaflets. The graphic certainly provides a quaint view of , say the events in Fallujah. The lawyers amongst you will of course point out that these combatants, politely discarding their arms and raising their hands are wearing a uniform.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former military police commander at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner scandal, has published a book, "One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story", in which she describes her experience at the Iraqi prison.

Karpinski, the highest-ranking officer demoted in connection with the abuse scandal, has admitted she violated the Geneva Conventions, however she said that part of the blame "Goes All the Way to The Top”.

Karpinski said that military intelligence took over part of the Abu Ghraib jail to "Gitmoize" their interrogations, in other words, applying methods and tactics used at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Karpinski, who said she was being made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered by top-ranking officials, called on holding Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Alberto Gonzalez and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller accountable for what happened.

Detlev Mehlis - exposed

German TV exposes CIA, Mossad links to 1986 Berlin disco bombing By a German correspondent on the World Socialist Website 27 August 1998

This article demonstrates that the German ZDF TV magazine Frontal exposed on August 25th 1998 evidence that some of the main suspects in the 1986 Berlin disco bombing, the stated reason for the lethal assault on Libya worked for American and Israeli intelligence. The State Prosecutor who was complicit in concealing the involvement of the CIA and Mossad was ...... Detlev Mehlis.... who has now (purely accidentally) revealed the authors and masterminds of the Hariri assassination. Read the article yourself.... judge.

Here are the conclusions the article arrives at ..

Since November of 1997 five defendants have been on trial in a Berlin court for their alleged involvement in the La Belle attack. But in the course of more than half a year the case has proceeded very slowly. ZDF television, which carried out its own investigation into the case, explained why in the August 25 documentary produced by its political magazine Frontal.

What the German documentary reveals

The Frontal report arrives at the following conclusions:
1) The lead defendant presently on trial, Yasser Chraidi, is very possibly innocent, and is being used as a scapegoat by German and American intelligence services.

2) At least one of the defendants, Musbah Eter, has been working for the CIA over many years.

3) Some of the key suspects have not appeared in court, because they are being protected by Western intelligence services.

4) At least one of those, Mohammed Amairi, is an agent of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

On September 9, 1996, the very day the Berlin judge threatened to release Chraidi, Berlin public prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, Berlin police inspector Uwe Wilhelms and a Mr. Winterstein of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) met Musbah Eter in the Mediterranean island state of Malta.

An article in Media Monitor on Friday 28th takes up this point ..
"UN's Mehlis report discredited :: International espionage over Syria? ::"
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed .....

"Detlev Mehlis’ role in the investigation into the La Belle bombing raises disturbing questions about his role in the investigation of the assassination of Hariri. As Berlin public prosecutor, Mehlis inadvertently but consistently covered up the dubious involvement of US, Israeli and German intelligence interests in the 1986 terrorist attack; actively built a selective politically-motivated case against suspects without objective material proof; while ignoring and protecting a group of suspects with documented connections to western secret services. This background fundamentally challenges the credibility of his investigation of the Hariri assassination."

In previous posts I identified the way the MSM slavishly swallowed Mehlis's OOOOPSIE with Word, allowing the smug observers the opportunity to spill the beans ... and allow the neo con spin machine to speed out of the blocks faster than Carl Lewis, in Washington, Tel Aviv and even allow Jack Straw in deepest darkest Alabama to wade in and call for UN to introduce sanctions on Syria... which they will discuss next week.

Will Mehlis's role as poodle investigator appear on BBC / CBS / ABC / CNN/ NYT / Wapo / Times / .... don't hold your breath.

Nice one Detlev !

People who believe in those bloody silly conspiracy theories might like to have a look at the UN report of the Press Meeting when Herr Mehlis revealed his report...I was much taken by this remark....

Asked why he had met with United States Representative John Bolton this morning (Friday) about the report, Mr. Mehlis said that he would meet with all ambassadors about it, and that someone had to be first.

..of course.

Recent blogs on same topic here