Beating the Bishop in Bagram - Apocalypse Afghanistan

 
Four female wrestlers with six-pack abs in fur-trimmed bikinis and Santa Claus hats acted out as a tag team at Bagram, Afghanistan this week evoking memories of the Playboy bunnies in “Apocalypse Now”

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon took the show over, at the request of the military, they have been to Iraq twice already.

The show is screened on the USA Network on Dec. 19.

"I'm just here to watch the chicks wearing pretty much nothing," said Spec. Cody Chandler, 28, of Palmdale LA.

If you really want to research this item you can see more here. Make sure your Mom doesn’t know about it. 

Banged up for not making a bang

Justice delayed is justice denied. William Gladstone

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27; Ramzi Mohamed, 23; Yassin Omar, 24; Hussein Osman, 27, and Asiedu, 32. have had a trial date of September 2006 set for plotting to murder passengers on London's transit system in a series of attempted bomb attacks on 28th July 2005.

Prosecuting counsel Nigel Sweeney argued on Thursday that their trial should be delayed as long as possible because of the need for detailed forensic analysis of the explosives, which he described as "hydro-peroxide devices."

Police have said the bombers used a peroxide-based explosive called HMDT, or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, that can be made using ordinary ingredients such as hair bleach. (These details do not appear in BBC reports of the hearing)

Intriguingly Hussein Osman told an Italian court when being extradited the "bombs" were made of flour. (he was the guy lounging in luxury on Eurostar speeding across Europe whilst Ian Blair of that Ilk assured the public that the "bombers" had not "left the country".

One wonders what the fuck the highly experienced forensic scientists (with decades of experience relating to explosives in Northern Ireland) with matchless equipment will be doing all this time.

(Gypsy Petulengro whispers to me, it’s because they haven’t actually found any explosives – nor will they - but they might find some cathine )

They might perhaps consult the FBI site, and search on HMDT where they will find not only a huge amount about peroxide based explosives but full instructions (including brands to use of hair bleach) how to make a handy home made bomb. Apart from various Wiki references they might also consult some more unorthodox information sources…

http://www.totse.com/en/bad_ideas/ka_fucking_boom/162660.html
ttp://www.powerlabs.org/chemlabs/perox.htm
http://www.bluemud.org/article/23709
http://www.answers.com/acetone+peroxide

Recent blogs on same topic here

Pic is of Hussein Omar's Italian lawyer, who failed to prevent his extradition from Italy to the UK under the recently introduced fast - track EU procedures. Posted for no other reason than that Postman thinks she is stunning to look at.

UK Wind Energy - Bubble bows up

Energy companies know about energy and they know about money. They know how to make both. They also know a lousy investment when they see one.

E.ON UK and Energi E2 joint developers of the £100 Mn Scarweather Sands off Porthcawl, S. Wales with a projected 30 turbines, each 400 ft tall, claimed output of 100 Mw , have stated the project is no longer financially viable.

The Welsh Assembly members approved the plans in July 2004, but Jason Scagell, director of E.ON UK Renewables, said: “ ….building Scarweather simply isn't possible under current market conditions. Demand for the supply of key components such as turbines, offshore cabling and foundations is so high at the moment that it's very difficult to make projects cost effective."

E.ON also withdrew from the Tunes Plateau project in Northern Ireland last September and United Utilities withdrew from several projects in the North West, one of which Scout Farm has received approval but there appears little propects that the project will now go ahead.

The British Wind Energy Association is quoted in the Guradian this week saying the problems faced by E.ON were shared by many other members. The BWEA said almost all 10 of the similar schemes given the go-ahead under the government's first round of offshore licensing were delayed by this or other issues, such as difficult contract negotiations – although the Burbo Bank scheme off Liverpool has been awarded £10Mn of Lottery Funds!

The BWEA claim this is due to the tax credit scheme in the US raising demand, although most (i.e nearly 98%) of their new build is onshore. E-on’s partner in Wales the Danish group Energi E2, identify the cost of offshore cabling as a major problem inhibiting the development of offshore schemes. There are also problems being raised of the effect on subsea cabling on marine organisms (see COWRIE research paper)

– a conference was held this week about this subject.
COWRIE Data and Information Management Seminar
Monday 5th December 2005-11-25 IMAREST, 80 Coleman St, London
1000-1630
By Invitation Only


We posted recently the financial and production problems leading to losses at Vestas, one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers.

The UK is Britain is currently bottom of the European renewable energy table. Wind supplies just 0.6% of our electricity, compared with 18% in Denmark.

It is evident that the whole bubble of wind generated electrical energy has burst. It was ill thought out, the financing hopelessly flawed and the details of construction not sufficiently understood and the huge problems of distribution and connection to the National Grid been overlooked, ignored or dismissed.

The contribution of wind energy offshore and onshore in the total UK energy budget will continue to be negligible, hugely costly and will involve maintenance costs that will eventually prove to be unsustainable.


Recent blogs on same topic here

Ereli - Another fucking lying bastard at State

At the Department of State's daily briefing spokesman Adam Ereli went out of his way to congratulate Croatian officials and the Spanish authorities who arrested General Gotovina late Wednesday in the Canary Islands.The United States were of course offering a reward of over $5 million for Gotovina.

Ereli would not discuss Croatia`s involvement in the arrest of Gotovina, who was indicted by a UN tribunal in The Hague on charges of committing atrocities against ethnic Serbs during the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian war.

Ereli said, "This arrest is obviously a major step forward for Croatia on its road to eventual NATO membership".

"It was clearly, therefore, in the best interests of Croatia, and we see it as a key step toward reconciliation in the region," Ereli told reporters at the State Department`s daily briefing.

You really have to admire the sheer fucking gall of the guy. It was of course President Clinton who approved and directed "Operation Storm" which led to the ethnic cleaning of the Serbs in Croatia, leaving untold thousands dead and up to 200,000 fleeing homeles refugees.

Did the assembled finest of the Washington Press Corps curiously incurious about such things , as, were Richard Holbrooke, Ambassador Galbraith etc., going to testify if Gotovina asked for them to appear ?

PS - In July the ICC's Carla Del Ponte travelled to Rome to share her intelligence (that Gotovina was holed up in a monastery - quite where she couldn't say) with the Vatican's 'foreign minister,' Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo. He refused to help, telling her the Vatican was not a state and thus had 'no international obligations' to help the UN to hunt war criminals." The Vatican is said to have assisted the exit of Croat Ustashe leaders to South America at the end of WWII - which they deny.

PPS - José Antonio Alonso, Spain’s Interior minister, said a false Croatian (in the name of Christian Horvat = Christian Croat)passport seized by police during Gen Gotovina’s detention on Wednesday night contained visa stamps from Argentina, Chile, China, Mauritius, Tahiti, the Czech Republic, Russia and Spain. Police also found a laptop computer, and a second false passport and some cash.

Ante Gotovina - A man with interesting friends in Virginia

Former Croat general Ante Gotovina, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was arrested in Spain yesterday, which set off riots in Zagreb among his nationalists supporters.

Demonstrators earlier threw stones at the building housing the Croatian government, which assisted in the arrest of general Ante Gotovina in Spain.

Gotovina, who is a former French legionnaire and mercenary, retired from the Croatian army in 2000 after earning a hero's status (memorably by Croatian tennis star Goran Ivanisovic at the 1991 Wimbledon Championships), in the 1991- 95 war for Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.

He became a fugitive a year later when the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted in the deaths of Serb civilians and other atrocities committed by his troops.

Those interested in his activities and In Operation Storm which led to the atrocities for which he has been arrested might like to take some time to look at the record of some interesting people who helped him.

Military Professional Resources Inc.
1201 E. Abingdon Dr
Alexandria, VA

MPRI reported annual sales of $95 million from numerous contracts with the U.S. and foreign governments to provide military training and consulting, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

In 1994 and 1995, MPRI was paid millions of dollars under a U.S. government-sanctioned contract to train the Croatian military. In August 1995, the previously inept Croatian army launched "Operation Lightning Storm," a U.S.-style military offensive designed to take back part of the country held throughout the war by rebel Serbs. Some photos taken at the time are said to show Gotovina together with US military advisors (See pic. Gotovina 2nd from left).

"Operation Lightning Storm", was launched against the Krajina region in which Serbian villages were sacked and burned, hundreds of civilians were killed and 170,000 were left homeless. The operation was a textbook illustration of western military doctrine. "The Croatians did a good job of coordinating armor, artillery and infantry", says Roger Charles, a retired marine lieutenant colonel and military researcher. "That's not something you learn while being instructed about democratic values."

The truth is the United States which provided logistical support, jammed Serbian radio communications and radar, and closely monitored all Serbian troop movements using unmanned spy planes (UAV's), which operated from Brac island just off the Croatian coast (ops later moved to Sepurina airport nr. Zadar after being exposed on New Years Day by the German Embassy staff). All the resulting information was passed on immediately to the Croatian armed forces, with Washington hoping that the Serbs would be beaten back quickly and thus forced to agree to take part in negotiations.

Critics charged that MPRI provided training and tactical skills that enabled the Croatian military to perpetrate one of the largest episodes of ethnic cleansing in the breakup of former Yugoslavia, in an offensive that left hundreds dead and 150,000 homeless. MPRI denied those charges. A fterwards, the Croatian government expressed its gratitude to MPRI for its help in training its military. MPRI was later hired to train the new Bosnian army after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war in former Yugoslavia.

In early 1996 Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Holbrooke told Congress that the training of Bosnian forces by MPRI "can begin as soon as the contracts are worked out" --that's contracts, plural, because the $400 million program was paid for largely by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait.

Mr (General ?) Gotovina might have some interesting tales to tell the ICC, as will Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic when they are apprehended. But then of course the US doesn't recognise the court - I can think of several reasons why they don't.

By the way, Michael Meacher my EX MP also wrote about this in the Guradian last year, he claims (typically exaggerating) ethnic cleaning of 200,000 Serbs.

Recent blogs on same topic here

Poster of wanted persons by ICTY here

A very useful and detailed site about US involvement in "Operation Storm" here

Olympics 2012 - leave the country now

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has started the process of designing a logo and identity for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It has appointed AAR, a leading agency search and selection company, to help select a brand and design agency.

This is Londonists very appropriate logo idea - more at their website

You can also visit this l website and find this sort of entirely predictable news ...

2012 Aquatic centre cost proposals have doubled
December 1st, 2005

Already costs for the 2012 Olympics are looking like they are on the up. Proposals for the new aquatic centre, designed by Architect Zaha Hadid, (who previously designed the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome) have doubled in cost, (originally £75Mn) since the hosting proposals.

The Guradian today also has a story which provides more information...

"A source close to the project to construct a 20,000-seat arena, with two 50-metre swimming pools and a separate 25m diving pool, said the final budget for the complex was likely to be £116m.

"This figure [£75m] always referred to the base construction costs only," the spokeswoman told the magazine. "The specifications of the building and the design, along with the estimated construction cost of the building, have not changed since Zaha Hadid Architects won the original competition."

She said inflation costs, professional fees and other contingencies would also need to be considered in calculating the total cost." (.i.e to be added)

Recent blogs on same topic here

Through the adjacent Google contextual ad I discover there is a Not the Olympics 2012 site here which has a thread up about this - well worth visiting.

Russian Roulette

The Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty was agreed and signed between NATO and Warsaw Pact Countries in 1990 in Paris.

This deals with agreeing the expansion of boring old weapons that kill people in traditional ways, bullets, bombs etc., and tanks and helicopter gunships, and was a significant step in promoting the peace, stability and security of Europe.

Signed by many but rarely ratified it’s existence and use was questioned yesterday by Russian Defense Minister Sergei : "If the treaty is not ratified by other signatories, Moscow will raise the issue if whether or not this mechanism ... is needed at all." He went on to say on TV , “'The expansion of US and NATO infrastructure to Russian borders raises a question about the fate of the CFE,”

This is seen as a direct response to the "drive by diplomacy", of the Secretary of State Rice’s visits to Berlin, Kiev and Brussels as well as a hasty stop in Bucharest to sign an agreement giving the US access to three Romanian military bases - whilst also slipping in another lie about a shift in US policy on degrading torture and abuse of prisoners.

Romania seeks the power of the American umbrella, which will play uneasily with the EU – now the Russians are feeling threatened by the US military moves in the region.

Just more of the US Zionist / Neo-con “Fuck You “ Beltway gangsters world strategy unfolding – Rice did look very fetching in her floor length fur trimmed coat and boots however.

PS - 08 December 2005 - Last year Romanian exports to Russia were US$181 Mn and imports US$2.7 Bn a growth of 43%. Most of this is imported energy , crude oil, refined products and natural gas = 90% of imports."There is still an unexplored potential between the two countries" said Igor Sidorov yesterday, Russian Trade Representative to Romania.

Recent blogs on same topic here

Romanians have a word for it

naşpa (NAHSH-pah)

Meaning - ugly, nasty, ruined, messed up, out of order, not appealing

As in your 15 yr old daughter tells you she is pregnant. Then you discover the putative father is a 57 yr old drug addict with AIDS .... or the US Secretary of State is in town telling you their folks are going to settle down around here.

Fucking lying bitch

“The US does not condone torture,” Condoleezza Rice told reporters gathered in the Berlin Chancellery. “We do, however, have an obligation to defend our people and to use every lawful means to combat terrorism.”

Times Online today
She didn’t say they don’t do it.

Recent blogs on same topic here

Out of Africa - human prehistory and pre - historic African drought

Thomas Johnson, professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth and Syracuse associate professor of geology Christopher Scholz have been studying the climate of Africa for over 20 years. Their studies of palaeolimnology, - studies of lake sediments using plant / algal/ mineral remains are yielding some fascinating insights into human evolution and history.

Recent drillings in Lake Malawi and Tanganyika in East Africa, and from Lake Bosumtwi (Bosomtwi) in Ghana in a team including Andrew Cohen from the U of Arizona, John King and Kate Moran from the U of Rhode Island and Michael Richard Talbot of the U of Bergen in Norway have produced some fascinating results about the pre-hstoric African climate.

Results provide evidence of a prolonged equatorial drought some 75,000 years ago. This resulted in Lake Malawi, now an inland sea some 550km long and 700m deep being reduced to two tiny lakes 10km across and 200m deep. (Guradian article Sept 2003 ) Lake Bosumtwi is located in an old comet crater which is now a 10km-wide lake it lost all of its water. Lake Bosumtwi is unique to science, says Professor Koeberl a geologist from Vienna University, Austria.

"It is the youngest large impact crater we have on Earth, and it's very well preserved. There is no crater of the same size that is younger; and there is no crater that is better exposed or larger." No rivers flow through the very still lake surrounded and shielded from winds by high mountains. As a result, Lake Bosumtwi mud deposits hold an unrivalled record of tropical weather going back through several ice ages.

There are 11 known species of fish in the lake, including one endemic cichlid (Tilapia discolor). Two of the cichlid species are mouth brooders, meaning a parent holds the live-born fish in their mouth to protect them until they reach a certain stage of development.

The timing of this drought coincides neatly with current "Eve hypothesis" of human evolution.

Genetic studies increasingly support the theory that modern human society is descended from a group of around 10,000 individuals who lived in East Africa at the time of this drought crisis.

It is therefore possible that the drought was a causative reason for the exodus from Africa. This was a profound impact on the landscape," said Christopher Scholz, from Syracuse University, US.

Friends of Lake Bosomtwe can be found here http://www.geocities.com/lakebosomtwe/ and is based Department of Physics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi., where all business transactions including projects planning take place. Efforts are being made to acquire an office close to Lake Bosomtwe in the future.

For Ashantis, this large crater lake (10 km from capital Kumasi) with a diameter of 10.5km is sacred as legend has it that after death, the soul of an Ashanti goes to Lake Bosumtwi to bid farewell to their god Twi before departing for the afterlife.

Norcan a subsidiary of the giant AMI Resources Incorporated, a Vancouver, British Columbia based exploration and development have been granted by Ghana’s Minerals Commission prospecting licenses but the company is yet to obtain an environmental permit by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pib of Lake Bosumtwi

Coitus interruptus - unsatisfactory but necessary

Exit Strategy
How to disengage from Iraq in 18 months
Barry R. Posen Boston Review


" The war is at best a stalemate; the large American presence now causes more trouble than it prevents. We must disengage from Iraq—and we must do it by removing most American and allied military units within 18 months. Though disengagement has risks and costs, they can be managed. The consequences would not be worse for the United States than the present situation, and capabilities for dealing with them are impressive, if properly employed.

"Some people argue that the United States should disengage because the war was a mistake in the first place, or because it is morally wrong. ..... My case for disengagement is different: it is forward-looking and based on American national interests. The war as it has evolved (and is likely to evolve) badly serves those interests. A well-planned disengagement will serve them much better by reducing military, economic, and political costs."

Essential reading if you want to grasp what has happened - and will happen now in Iraq. Although no-ne yet, seems to grasp that the essential objective in the invasion , that the maintenance of the global US oil dollar hegemony remains intact after Saddam got to sell his oil in Euros and bank it in Paris. SSShhhhh....

On Sunday 4th I pointed out that John Rauch had published in WaPO "All over but the Pullback" , which had already been forecast here. Now the big boys in Boston are jumping on Postman's bandwagon. Posen speaks from a deep, deep knowledge of the mil/political climate and it is unlikely that his views are in any way those of a maverick.

Well MIT anyway. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is affiliated with the Security Studies Program. He is on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI, an educational program for senior military officers, government officials and business executives in the national security policy community.

A recent article is “Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of US Hegemony,” International Security, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Summer 2003). Prior to to MIT, he taught at Princeton University.

Like deep ocean waves the movers and the shifters of opinion are at work preparing the US public (i.e the ones that vote in the upcoming mid-term elections) for a pullout - a sort of military coitus interruptus.

Yoo. Who? ... Lawyers at War - No uniforms, no guns, but some great ideas

If you wanted to look at the sort of legal mind that might identify attaching diplomatic status to "rendered" prisoners, you might usefully examine the career of John Yoo.Famously the author of the "Torture memos" which provided such a unique view of obligations of signatories to the Geneva Conventions on Torture. Newsweek recalls an interesting memo on Presidential power as well.

University of California, Berkeley
Boalt Hall School of Law
890 Simon Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: (510) 643-5089
Fax: (510) 642-3728
E-Mail: yoo@law.berkeley.edu

John Yoo is a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he has taught since 1993. From 2001-03, he served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice (A Gonzalez), where he worked on issues involving foreign affairs, national security, and the separation of powers. He served as general gounsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995-96, where he advised on constitutional issues and judicial nominations.See Common Dreams

He has written a great deal - here is a flavour ....

Abstract: Virginia Journal of Law The Status of Terrorists , 44 Va. J. Int'l L. 207 (2003).

"This paper identifies and analyzes two legal questions raised by the war against the al Qaeda terrorist organization. First, did the September 11, 2001 attacks initiate a war, or "international armed conflict," or was it only an act punishable under criminal law? Second, what legal rules govern the status and treatment of members of al Qaeda and the Taliban militia that harbored and supported them in Afghanistan? We argue that the United States is currently engaged in a state of armed conflict with al Qaeda, a multinational terrorist organization whose leadership declared war on the United States as early as 1996, and the Taliban militia, which harbors and supports that organization. This state of armed conflict justifies the use of military force by the United States to subdue and defeat the enemy, separate and apart from any ordinary law enforcement objectives that may also justify coercive government action against members of al Qaeda and the Taliban militia. To give legal recognition to the current armed conflict is not to confer upon members of al Qaeda or the Taliban militia the privileged status of lawful combatants. Neither group complies with the four traditional conditions of lawful combat long established under the laws of war and recognized by the Geneva Conventions. Members of al Qaeda and the Taliban militia have chosen to fight in blatant disregard for the laws of armed conflict and are, accordingly, unlawful combatants not entitled to the legal status of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions."

Go on the Offensive against Terror

By John Yoo Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 ARTICLES Los Angeles Times Publication Date: July 13, 2005
Reprinted by American Enterprise Institute

"Most directly, the U.S. should destroy the hubs of the network. Only a coordinated, simultaneous attack on several major hubs will leave a network in isolated and relatively harmless pieces.

Can we do this? In wartime, the military may legally kill members of the enemy's armed forces. If we are at war, the U.S. can carry out selective attacks on Al Qaeda's senior members, such as the 2002 Predator missile strike in Yemen. If we're not at war, we may have to rethink the 1970s-era presidential order banning assassination."

Condoleezza Rice. Statement Dec 6th Andrews Air Force Base..

"Because this war on terrorism challenges traditional norms and precedents of previous conflicts, our citizens have been discussing and debating the proper legal standards that should apply."

'Nuff sed

Recent blogs on same topic here

Maria Sharapova is highest earning Russian sport star

18-year-old Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova tops the list of Russia’s wealthiest athletes according to Finance magazine today. Maria’s income in 2005 was said to be US$14.5 million.

On top of prize money she has a host advertising contracts and mobile phone tunes to boost here income.

2nd = Basketball player Andrey Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz, US$10.97 million
3rd = Hockey player Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders,US $7.6

6 of the other 7 in the top ten were ice hockeyists palying in North America: Nikolay Khabibulin of the Chicago Blackhawks with $6.75 million, Ilya Kovalchuk of Atlanta Thrashers with $6.5 million, Sergey Fyodorov of Columbus Blue Jackets with $6.08 million, Alexei Kovalyov of Montreal Canadiens with $4.5 million, Alexei Zhamnov of Boston Bruins with $4.1 million and Sergey Zubkov of Dallas Stars with $4 million.

Recent blogs on same topic here

China shops - France sells - US looks on

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is busy shopping in France this week and is trying hard to share out the bonanza of helicopters, nuclear power and civil airliners carefully between the US and Europe. However the deals announced so far (It is still only Monday) will crown the short term success of the EADS International policy “Global Industrial Strategy” where they are targeting the Far East markets across their product range.

Alcatel Alenia Space, a company owned by Alcatel and Italy's Finmeccanica has confirmed sale of a telecomms satellite which Wen is due to sign today.

Eurocopter chief Fabrice Bregier has today announced the decision to co-develop with China a 6-ton helicopter for the world market. This will be the twin turbine EC175, which will be co-produced with Chinese manufacturer AVIC II (EADS has 5% of equity). China has been a customer for helicopters developed by Eurocopter and its forerunners since the 1960s, when it purchased Alouette IIIs. The Dauphin was produced under licence in the 1980s and China became an industrial partner on the EC120 in 1992.

Eurocopter will be awarded a contract before year-end, pending South Korean government approval, to help Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) develop and build 245 army utility helicopters.

Industry sources say KAI has selected Eurocopter over AgustaWestland and Bell Helicopter as its foreign airframe partner for the $8.6 billion Korea Helicopter Programme (KHP) and has already negotiated a contract with the EADS company. However, the selection still must be approved by South Korea’s defence ministry and its president.

This will presumably cut out competition from US makers Bell Helicopter and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. Europcopter intend to enlarge their manufacturing resources in Malaysia including production of the Tiger military attack helicopter (pic).

Already Wen has signed up with EADS for a monster order for 150 A320 family aircraft capable of seating 107 to 185 passengers , said to be worth US$9.7 Bn. These will go China's three big airlines -- China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd., Air China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd plus smaller carriers Sichuan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and Hainan Airlines, (partly owned by George Soros). Simultaneously Airbus will spend six months looking at a local manufacturing project in China. In January China agreed to buy up to 60 of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner for $7 billion -much of the Boeing 787 tailplane will be made in China.

This exceeds the order Dubya collected for 70 of the 737 – 300/400 Boeing passenger jets whilst in Beijing on November 20th.

Routes to China will represent 5 of the 10 top fastest growing traffic flows and the domestic Chinese market will grow 8.7% compared to 3.2% for the US and 5.2 % for Europe. Over the next ten years, the total market demand in China for aircraft over 100 seats is expected to reach 830 units for a total valueof US$ 76 Bn.

This is the largest single order Airbus has collected since entering the Chinese market two decades ago. Quantas are expected to make a decision in the next week for some US$10 Bn of Airbus wide body jets.Eurocopter has also sold the NH90 against competition of the Sikorsky BlackHawk in 2004 to Australia and New Zealand made the same choice months later.. This was the second export of this helicopter out of Europe; New Zealand also decided in favour of the NH90 a few months later.

EADS, (Who employ 110,000) shares stood at 32.65 Euros at close of business today, up 2.6%. EADS very much relies on exports: 63 % of its 2004 revenues were generated outside its home countries (France, Germany and Spain). This
compares to 60 % for BAe, 39 % for THALES and 28 % for Boeing

China is still in the process of deciding whether to buy French, American or Russian technology to build at least four nuclear reactors.Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co., France's Areva and Russia's Atomstroiexport are competing for what is said to be an $8 billion contract. France holds a great deal of influence having been involved through Electricite de France for nearly 20 years in China.

Wen has also signed a 150 Mn Euro contract for a high-speed Shitai railway link

These deals are related to the improvement in political ties as Paris campaigns for the European Union to drop their embargo on arms sales to China imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to crush pro-democracy protests. Prime Minister Villepin has described the ban as an anachronism.

EADS Co-Chief Executive Noel Forgeard denies that there is any link between the aerospace deals and France's position on the arms embargo. He further claims that no military technology would leak to China as a result of the new co-development deal with Eurocopter.

Wen is reported in Le Figaro today saying , “"Sino-French relations are better than ever. Mutual political trust keeps on growing," he said. "Our economic and commercial contacts are expanding ... Cooperation will be benefit both partners."

Colts take the Titans 35-3, to lead NFL 12-0

Payton Mannings throws three touchdown passes in awesome victory that takes them through into the play - offs - Superbowl beckons.

Patron Saint of this Blog, The Venerable Jack Straw, who squired the Whore on Terror and took in his first game of American Football with her in Alabama will be relishing this result... no doubt also looking forward to seeing the lady who says her dress size is a State Secret (Size 6 perfect fit my spy on the catwalk tells us)- seen holding hands with a curiously youthful looking Robert Redford this weekend.

Prisoners Diplomatic status to be questioned - is the MSM up to it ?

Dubyas Washroom Assistant is in Europe this week. Now that the world knows the prisoners seized without uniforms and travel papers, the "rendered" , the kidnapped were ferried about with diplomatic status.

Let's see who in the MSM steps up to the plate and asks the lady who launched an oil tanker in her name if this is true.

She can say No.

She can say Yes.

..or she can equivocate, repeating the cocky mantra they have been using all week, about breaking no laws, US, international etc.,

Those little old black books, or the cream and green printed credit card sized plastic chip bearing photo ID cards will no doubt get a closer look wherever they appear.

Guradian today report says "UK 'breaking law' over CIA secret flights " and quotes All party group of worried MP's Andrew Tyrie, the Tory MP and chairman of the parliamentary group....

"By apparently assisting the US in the practice of extraordinary rendition, the UK and the west are losing the moral high ground so valuable to foreign policy since the end of the cold war."

But not illegal as the US lawyers claim if those guys had diplomatic immunity / status. Curiously the Guradian had the information about their status.

The Daily Telegraph - with no doubt good FO contacts carefully reports..

Mr Hadley foreshadowed Miss Rice's riposte, saying: "We respect the sovereignty of those countries with whom we co-operate."

This is seen as diplomatic code for saying that anything the CIA gets up to in Europe is done with the permission of the host country.

Could be an exciting day, Saddam appears in court to delay things forever and the bearded jersey is set to get into web/mobile publishing with NTL.

Monday 2200 GMT nobody has asked the US State Dept or Condi about diplomatic passports - Hmmmmmm.

WaPo follows the Postman's lead

You could find here on November 28th "Oil price to drop to US$41 - Attitude shifts on Iraq pullout" and then on the following day , Tuesday, November 29 "Undiplomatic Gossip "

Just as the decision had been made to invade, the decision to begin the withdrawal has been made – they just have to sell it.

Now today in The Washington Post, they have agree with the Postman. Jon Rauch in "All Over but the Pullback, Nixon Did It in Vietnam. Bush Will Do It in Iraq"

Rauch looks at the poll numbers from Pew and Rasmussen and forms the same conclusion.

"Finally, a sizable majority is worried about the decline in America's image overseas, and it blames the Iraq war for much of the decline. Two-thirds of the respondents told Pew that America is less respected now than in the past, and 43 percent of the public (not just of the two-thirds) calls this a "major problem." And what caused America's decline in the world's eyes? A heavy majority, including almost two-thirds of Republicans, points to Iraq.

What emerges here is not fleeting disenchantment, but a coherent and hard-nosed critique of Bush's strategy. The administration's fundamental problem is not that the public is discouraged by U.S. casualties, or that news from Iraq has been bad, or that the president needs to give better speeches. The problem is that many Americans see no stakes in Iraq sufficient to justify the military effort and diplomatic cost.

If Pew's findings are accurate, then presidential rhetoric and developments in Iraq have mostly ceased to matter. The public will not support a military operation that it has come to regard as social work on behalf of Iraqis, rather than security work on behalf of Americans.

It's all there, the lower oil prices, .... read it. The "war" is over ... well for now. (Just keep an eye on Bantz Craddock @ SOUTHCOM)

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