Basra 'copter crash .... a new phase in the folly of occupation

AP report a British Lynx AH 7 military helicopter crashed on a house in Basra on Saturday, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to three armored vehicles that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said. The Lynx is fast and agile, the Lynx is a deadly tank-killer when equipped with eight TOW anti-armour missiles. Lynx is the British Army’s primary battlefield utility helicopter.

The crowd set three British armored vehicles on fire, apparently with gasoline bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, but the soldiers inside escaped unhurt, witnesses said.

Shooting live rounds into the air British troops tried to frighten and disperse the crowd, then shooting broke out between the British and Iraqi militiamen. At least 4 people, including a child, were killed,2 were adults shot by British troops while driving a car in the area. (9/5 this hasn't been corroborated)

Video footage from the BBC also showed hundreds of Iraqis near the scene of the crash waving their arms in the air and throwing stones.Video footage from Iraqi television showed orange flames and large plumes of black smoke curling into the sky. British troops were seen running through the streets, firing shots into the air.

Video from BBC on news wire Here (windows media player required)

The BBC also report the MoD said it was "not the right time to be discussing strategy", saying their efforts were concentrated on dealing with the situation on the ground. Whilst the new Minister Des Browne has hardly got his feet under the table it seems extraordinary, that all the resources of the MOD are consumed by dealing with what is essentially a small skirmish.

The Liberal Democrats said it was an "appalling incident" and called for a "clear exit strategy" for British forces from the area.

Curiously enough a Lib Dem MP John Burnet in his newsletter of 2nd February last year said,

"Deploying helicopter gunships over defenceless people’s homes will do nothing to persuade the Iraqi people to embrace democracy and the rule of law. This commitment to “decisive force” is encouraging hostage taking, violence, and anarchy. It is inflicting further wounds and divisions in a country that the British Government told us we were going to liberate."

Three years ago, President Bush flew on to the USS Abraham Lincoln and announced "major combat operations in Iraq have ended". It was a childish display of premature triumphalism. It symbolises the arrogance of the US endeavour. It characterises the whole episode of brutal folly that he dragged the UK and others into. The banner carefully designed and precisely place over his head declared: "mission accomplished".

It is clear to all (except the boneheads / zionist drum bangers / fascist neo-cons / military simpletons / Weapons manufacturers lobbyists on the Beltway ) that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been the mother of all foreign policy disasters.

Iraq has served to dramatically weaken the deterrence effect of American military power. Tied down, like Gulliver, shot at by insurgents, drug dealers, sniped at by Ahmenidijad, Chavez, Morales, Castro, America today gives potential competitors few reasons to fear its wrath. Meanwhile Bolton foams at the mouth at the UN and Cheney calls Putin a Cold War warrior.

The idea that removing Saddam and his ugly regime , only one of many brutal dictators the US have been happy to deal with, so that they could unleash a wave of liberal democratic sentiment across Iraq and the wider Arab world to install a Jeffersonian participatory democracy was wrong then and it is now. It has trained terrorists, given them a unifying cause, it has lit a fuse that will not easily be quenched.

Is Des Browne the guy in the UK to sort it out ? No. Will he yield to Tony Blair and the crowd on the sofa in No 10 backroom, and the gangsters in the White House ? Yes. Ditto Margaret Beckett the happy refugee from the administrative chaos of DEFRA.

Hold on to your hat, stormy times ahead.

BREAKING NEWS BBB "BROADCASTING HOUSE" 7/5/06 INTERVIEW WITH DES BROWNE MINISTER OF DEFENCE 0900 BST.

Added zero to the above, everything is being "investigated". His "focus" is to concentrate on this event and doesn't want to be diverted or distracted from that task. Exacttly what you would expect from a grim Scottish Solicitor. Late Sunday probable five deaths of UK military.

Straw to marry Contileezza Rice

Doubts after Straw's exit
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

"Mr Straw was central to the UK's policy on Iran. The departure of Jack Straw from the Foreign Office has come as a considerable surprise."

Not if they were regular readers of Postman Patel who forecast Jack Straw's departure on April 10th "Blair in shock Easter Shuffle ... Easter rising" have look what else he got right even down to Brucie Lord Grocott going in the House of Lords.

Osprey the Death Wish Machine - soon for combat ?

TM Advertising of Irving, Texas, prepared this ad for Bell Helicopters which appeared several times in the Armed Forces Journal and was "mistakenly placed in the National Journal last October.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Islamic civil-liberties group created stink ...the building depicted in the ad has an Arabic sign that translates as "Muhammad Mosque," according to the council. Curiously nobody was too bothered that the V 22 Osprey crash happy death machine is being advertised by Bell, because if it is canned ,Bell tanks.

At the same time the Philadelphia Enquirer was happy to report ...

In a move that could mean hundreds of new jobs at Boeing's Ridley Township facility, a Pentagon panel today endorsed the V-22 Osprey and recommended moving toward full production of the aircraft.

The ruling by the Defense Acquisition Board could mean billions of dollars in contract work for the two companies involved in its production - Providence, R.I.-based Textron and Chicago-based Boeing Co. The company will build at least 458 of the V-22 aircraft for the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy.

On March 27th another V22 crashed at Marine Corps in New River N.Carolina. Warming it's engines on the ground it jumped in their air, slammed sideways into the ground on its right wing - without injuries or death.So far five production copies and one prototype have crashed killing 26 Marines and 4 civilians.

2 Decades and after spending US$18 billion dollars there isn't anything in the US weapons store that has a worse record of safety, performance, cost inflation. Now Senate Appropriations Committee is planning an emergency spending bill that will provide another US$230 Mn for this program.

Why? Well the Marines own this toy, (Chmn of Staff Pace is a Marine as is head of SHAEF) they love brute force and this vehicle has 12,300 horse power , 4 times that of the battle proven Vietnam era CH-46, the V22 weighs twice as much and uses 3 times the fuel. Although plants in Texas and Pennsylvania build most of the V-22, 43 states share in it's manufacture.

In 2000 the Osprey was re-engineered to prevent ruptures in its high-pressure hydraulic system. ( A later generation twin tilt rotor for the Coast Guard,Eagle Eye an unmanned vehicle has no hydraulic systems; electro-servo actuators operate flight controls, and its twin tiltrotors are operated mechanically). Flight protocols were re-written to warn pilots not to descend too fast in helicopter mode, so as to avoid a potentially deadly ring vortex state, where the rotors lose their purchase on the air and the aircraft plunges earthward.

In January, the U.S. Army's aviation chief, Paul Bogosian, while discussing the loss of 56 aircrew and 120 aircraft have been lost since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began in late 2001 said helicopter survivability "has become a top priority" for the military.

Brig General Mindt at the same meeting explained that helicopters still have little protection against the most commonly used anti-aircraft weapons, such as air-defense artillery and small arms, which don’t emit an electronic signal. In an effort to minimize their exposure to enemy small arms fire, attack aviation pilots have changed their flying tactics from the traditional norm of hovering and firing to running fire and diving fire. Regrettably the designers of the V 22 have overlooked armamanet and the vehicle doesn't have a single piece of armament. The General Audit Office said ,""Survivability recommendations included the need to install and test a defensive weapon."

Billions of dollars spent and Bell and Boeing have not worked out how to install a gun ­ any kind of gun ­ onboard a machine that is bound by the laws of physics to land and take off slowly. Easy prey to small arms fire.

IN the battlefield shortage of helicopter spares is a problem which tracks back to shortages in U.S. stocks of speciality metals are leading to critical spare parts shortages for helicopters in Iraq, says Maj. Gen. James Pillsbury, chief of the Army’s Aviation and Missile Command.

The Berry Amendment, (which Lord Patel has drawn attention to elsewhere) is causing critical shortages in the specialty steel that goes into bearings used in helicopters, Pillsbury said.

The Berry Amendment dates from 1941 and requires the military to buy certain products from U.S. sources.

Next year, the Marines will deploy V-22s in Iraq.

"The Osprey can deliver Marines to battle more safely, bring them reinforcements over greater distances in greater numbers, and evacuate wounded more quickly. That all equates to lives saved, as we continue to prosecute the global war on terrorism."
Dr. Donald C. Winter
Secretary of the Navy, Jan. 2006 Boeing Website

BREAKING NEWS MAY 6th 16.00 BST 2 'Copters lost in Iraq / Afghanistan

UK military helicopter has been brought down over Basra with an anti aircraft missile 4 dead more here and here

A US Chinook CH-47 on Operation Mountain Lion action crashed at the mountain site in Kunir and all ten crew killed. Another CH-47 crashed there 28th June 2005 killing 16 special forces and crew.

Elsewhere in Afghanistantoday 2 Italian soldiers were killed by IED 12 miles south of the capital Kabul. 4 Afghans, (2 police) were killed in Helmand province where NATO tyroops have moved in.

Des Browne at defence ... Gawd help 'im Sarge

So in place of feisty no nonsense Reid, the Prime Minister has chosen a boring middle cass Scottish Solicitor renowned for his interest in Human Rights legislation lthough support for Celtic may have given him some experience of fighting in the front line. The RT. Hon. Des Browne, a "safe" pair of hands allegedly.... and it means Tony Blair is now effectively Commander in Chief.

Des entered Parliament in 1997 having inherited the safe seat of retiring MP William McKelvey.His proudest acheievement he claims is introducing a private members bill to track drug dealers. Which should help as the previous Minister's son is married to the daughter of one of the most notorious Glasgow drug dealers and gangsters.

PPS to late lamented Donald Dewar when he entered the Westminster Palace of fun in 1997 he has progressed steadily and silently, PPS to John Reid and then via the Northern Ireland Office 2001/2003, a brief spell as Minister of State at Work and Pensions and then in 2004 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum at the Home Office replacing the inept Beverly Hughes. Released from that vale of sorrows and now escaping the contumely heaped upon that office, a year ago joined fellow Scot Gordon Brown as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In the House his voting has been 100% for the Government line on every issue. Full details here

It was whilst in this office he received the impramatur of official support by being received into the Privy Council.

Educated in the drear Ayrshire village of Kilwinning at St Michaels Academy, and Glasgow University then qualified as an advocate 1976 and was subsequently called to the Scottish Bar in 1993.

Professionally he specialised in child and family law and was embroiled in the controversial Orkney child sex abuse case. As a result he had been involved in planning the Child Support Agency.

Not a man we can see summoning up the actions of a tiger. But a man who will without fail support the Prime Minister and the status quo. Tony Blair has taken over at the MOD. So takes over the role of Geoffrey Gormless Hoon (now Cabinet seatless EU Obergruppensturmfuehrer) over Iran as he did over Iraq.

Porter Goss - Hookergate ?

BILL KRISTOL / Weekly Standard on Fox News today

"… I do think this was sudden. It was unexpected. There will be more of a story that will come out."

Porter Goss to spend more time with his money ?

Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia.

You are going to hear more of them , a company favoured by Brent Wilkes, founder of ADCS who bribed Randall Cunningham along with Mitchell J Wade of MZM Inc. Not to mention some lissom ladies from the CIS states with short skirts and shorter memories.

The CEO of Shirlington Christopher D Baker, has a 62-page rap sheet from 1979 through 1989 , petty larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously—or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections—Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to Wapo last yearit obtained a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support...including limo service for senior officials.

Watergate Hotel and Westin Grand are said to be the realms of Hookergate, poker parties and general frat house baccanalia... that is according to Mitchell J. Wade, who told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had an arrangement with at least one escort service, one source said. Wade said limos would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and bring them to suites Wilkes maintained at the Watergate Hotel and the Westin Grand in Washington, the source said.... and other senior people.

Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) was on CNN today and hinted at further revelations ...

Reporter: So why is President Bush accepting Porter Goss's resignation? What do you make of the timing of it?

Bob Barr: I think there's going to be more coming out. We don't know the whole story...

We've seen brewing out of the congressman Duke Cunningham scandal, probably now for several months. It's starting to reach into the CIA and that come very... well... like a sore that's been festering, that could very well burst out and maybe that's a reach into the top levels of the agency.

Then he went on to deny personal involvement by Porter but perhaps re-inforced the story that Goss refused to discipline some junior staff (Kyle "Dusty" Foggo ) at the insistence of the White House.

Foggo oversaw contracts involving at least one of the companies accused of paying Cunningham. He is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.

Of course if photographs from Silverstein are circulating ....

Of course given the capcity of Hill insiders to spout bollocks at times like this ...

1. Porter Goss was upset over Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, grabbing what used to be the CIA director’s role and responsibilities.See excellent TIME magazine story. They say Negroponte's assistant Air Force General Michael Hayden will be announced as Goss's successor on Monday 7th May 2006.

2.Porter Goss used to be a 14th District Florida Congressman, Goss is going to run for the US Senate against Katherine Harris in the GOP primary and Bill Nelson in the general. FL filing deadline is next week and FL GOP has been looking for alternative to Harris.

Pic ? Foggo ... looking mighty pleased... that smile like the Cheshire cat's will fade pretty quickly.

Iraq - DE-construction and EN-richment of US contractors continues

Parsons of Pasadena have been a black hole down which money meant for the Iraq re-construction has disappered in truly fabulous quantities. More details are now available.
T. C. Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times April 29, 2006 of an unbelievable tale of shoddy workmanship, delays, deceit, and overall poor monitoring by the Army corps of engineers.

Lord Patel has visited this scandalous waste twice recently KBR / Parsons / Willbro steal US$220 Mn. from Iraq Reconstruction Project April 26th

Democracy comes at a price .... April 17th

A letter signed by Army corps Brig. Gen. William H. McCoy attempts to deflect blame.

"From the beginning of the [health clinic] project, Parsons failed to meet various contract requirements through numerous significant management and technical shortcomings,"

"They ignored, or failed to respond adequately to, numerous expressions of concern by the government over these issues, and in some cases failed or refused to provide the government with information that would have allowed the government to make decisions to assist Parsons in regaining control over subcontractor performance and cost"

In 2004, Parsons with other partners were competitively awarded contracts potentially worth more than $2 billion to rebuild Iraq's health, justice and oil infrastructures.

In one stretch, Parsons officials had seven different contract officers in a year, creating "organizational turbulence," (Engineeringese for fucking chaos) according to interviews and the draft of the audit.

A "letter of concern" to Parsons in July 2005 resulted eventually after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad became involved.

Work had fallen so far slipped so far behind that the Army corps decided to cut its losses. In March, the Army corps and Parsons reached a settlement where Parsons agreed to finish 20 health clinics and terminate further work on the contract.

The remaining 120 or so clinics — many of them close to completion — are to be finished once other funding sources are found. The audit estimated that $36 million is needed to complete the work, though others said the real costs might be two or three times higher.

As many as 8 hospital remain unfinished and unfunded now, 17 security forts on the Iranian had no perimeter wall. Beams in the forts were "undersized.A $1.3-million fire station in Ainkawa near Irbil in northern Iraq also has problems, is said not to be structurally sound because of questions about construction quality.

Good news however for makers of US$70 Mn. X-ray machines, ultrasounds and incubators for which Parsons purchased for all the planned clinics.That equipment will be stored in a warehouse.(?)

Meanwhile, the $18.4 billion Congress set aside for Iraq reconstruction is very rapidly running out... and there is less electricty . water and sewage systems than in Saddam's time 3 years ago.

Re-arranging the deck chairs, too little and far, far too late Mr Blair ?

It's a month since Lord Patel shared the beauty treatment room with Carole at Champneys and wrote about it on Monday morning April 10th
"Blair in Shock Easter Shuffle (Easter Rising ?)"
Now the anxious apparatchiks and chicks are sweating it out under the glare of the Kleig lights of an excited press outside No 10, you can check off how accurate Lord Patel was in overhearing the sordid truths in the grim atmosphere of the Turf Moor bar from an "over tired" Alistair.

Importing terrists - joining the dots in Luton again for Plod

How very odd, we now discover from the BBC News at Ten that a "Terror suspect" had been in prison for "mugging" cannot be named and could not be deported because of th4e area of the world he came from .... The BBC can't for legal reasons , well here for you to read is ...

Now Lord Patel would remind you of this item from a few days after the 21/7 bombings

Was Plod watching , listening , reading or ore these bloggers stupid fools spreading terrist nonsense ? Judge for yourself.
How very odd! Joining the dots in Luton ?
Saturday July 30th


Royston and Buntingford Mercury 29 July 2005Muktar Saed Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Saed, 27, was named by police in connection with the attempted attack on the No 26 bus in Hackney, East London, last Thursday.

In 1996 he was jailed for a series of street robberies (he was then 18), including one in Melbourn Street, Luton in May 1995 (Melbourn is a village outside Royston), and may also have been involved in incidents in Stevenage, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.

The Mercury learnt that the alleged would-be bomber was part of a gang who appeared at Luton Crown Court in February 1996 and pleaded guilty to several charges.

It is believed that when Ibrahim appeared in court with two of his accomplices he had already received a three-year prison sentence from a court in north London for similar offences.
At Luton, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted robbery, one charge of robbery and another count of handling stolen goods.

He got one year, two years and another two years respectively to run concurrently, but in addition to the previous sentence.

The Daily Mail on 27th July said "The other, Muktar Saed Ibrahim, 27, arrived from Eritrea when he was 14, becoming a British citizen and receiving a passport last year (even though he’s served time in prison for violence) and, oh yes, he has also been living on state handouts."

The men arrested and charged in the August 2004 Anti - terror raids were ;

A - Dhiren BAROT (19/12/71 - aged 32) of Willesden, London.

B - Omar Abdur REHMAN (17/12/83 - aged 20) of Bushey, Hertfordshire.

E - Mohammed Ul HAQ (7/10/78 - aged 25) of Paddington, London.

F - Abdul Aziz JALIL (22/4/73 - aged 31) of Luton, Bedfordshire.

H - Nadeem TARMOHAMED (19/5/78 - aged 26) of Willesden, London.

I - Mohammed Naveed BHATTI (16/1/80 - aged 24) of Harrow, Middlesex.

J - Quaisar SHAFFI (30/8/78 - aged 25) of Willesden, London.

L - Junade FEROZE (18/8/75 - aged 28) of Blackburn, Lancashire.

All eight appeared in custody at Bow Street Magistrates‚ Court, sitting at Belmarsh, on Wed. 18 August 04. On conspiracy charges to commit murder and possession of illegal substances.Details

Please pass on ..... a policeman might read it ... eventually... or maybe not

Cranfield make Boeing's planes .... outsourcing yet again ?

Cranfield Aerospace have secured a prestigious contract to to provide the ground-control station, to pilot Blended Wing Body X-48B for Boeing during flight research testing as well as two 8.5% scale X-48B prototypes were built for Boeing Phantom Works by Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., in the United Kingdom in accordance with Boeing requirements and specifications - and looking like somethingout of Star Wars by Dan Dare. Kathy Barnstorff of NASA at Langley invited me to go along today to witness some wind tunnel tests, but I couldn't make it. Sorry Kathy.

Made of advanced lightweight composite materials, the prototypes weigh about 400 pounds each and are powered by three turbojet engines (Williams International Corporation, Walled Lake, Mich., ), they will be capable of flying up to 120 knots and at 10,000 feet during flight testing.

NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the Phantom Works organization of Boeing is developing and exploring further with models to validate the structural, aerodynamic and operational advantages of a futuristic aircraft design called the blended wing body, or BWB.

Two high-fidelity, 21-foot wingspan prototypes of the BWB concept have been designed and produced for wind tunnel and flight testing this year - the ones made by Cranfield.

The futuristic airframe is a unique merger of efficient high-lift wings and a wide airfoil-shaped body, causing the entire aircraft to generate lift and minimize drag, thereby increasing fuel economy. Passenger and cargo areas are located within the center body portion of the aircraft.They are called X-48B because the USAF thought it sounded "Top Gun", on the principle that all PC's in the late 707's had to have a Z in the name.

X-48B Ship No. 1 began wind tunnel testing on April 7 at the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center (used by Orville Wright, Howard Hughes and Charles Lindbergh). When testing is completed in early May, it will be shipped to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California to serve as a backup to Ship No. 2, which will be used for flight testing later this year. According to the team, both phases of testing are focused on learning more about the low-speed flight-control characteristics of the BWB concept."

It is claimed that a large commercial BWB aircraft could be developed to carry 800 or more passengers (just like the Airbus 380) but present ideas focus on vehicles in the 450-passenger class. Because of its efficient configuration, the BWB would consume 20 % less fuel than current aircraft today, while cruising at high subsonic speeds on flights of up to 7,000 nautical miles and operate from existing airport terminals. (Just like the Airbus 380)

"We believe the BWB concept has the potential to cost effectively fill many roles required by the Air Force, such as tanking, weapons carriage, and command and control," said Capt. Scott Bjorge, AFRL X-48B program manager.

NASA also is committed to advancing the BWB concept. NASA and its partners have tested six different blended wing body models of various sizes over the last decade in four wind tunnels at the Langley Research Center.

"One big difference between this airplane and the traditional tube and wing aircraft is that -- instead of a conventional tail -- the blended wing body relies solely on multiple control surfaces on the wing for stability and control," said Dan Vicroy, NASA senior research engineer at the Langley Research Center. "What we want to do with this wind-tunnel test is to look at how these surfaces can be best used to maneuver the aircraft."

Keil Kraft used to make a balsa wood kit of a glider called the Condor which looked remarkably like the X-48B and was a bugger to balance and fly, it looked very very futuristic though ... well it did over 50 years ago to a schoolboy in Manchester UK.

Kent State, May 4, 1970: When America Killed It's Children

Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer

The bombing of Cambodia was a squalid secret. It's architect was a Jewish emigre, Nixons's National Security advisor, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Henry Kissinger who, Christopher Hitchens, in his The Trial of Henry Kissinger, says is a war criminal... and not just for carpet bombing the Cambodians.

When knowledge of the bombing of Cambodia which had been secretly going on for months, if not years, became public it resulted in student protests in many places in the US. AS a result of riots which involved an attempt to burn down the Kent University State (Ohio) ROTC Building Governor James Rhodes sent in the National Guard.

On the 4th of May the Guard marched down a hill, they had removed identity tags and were unidentifiable wearing gas masks, to a field of angry, shouting, casually dressed young protestors and then back up again. As the group of guradsmen reached the buildings of the University the Guardsmen wheeled and fired into the students killing four and injuring another nine.13 seconds of indiscriminate gunfire (One Mississippi ... two Mississippi...) 67 shots in total 5 per second.

Not known for many years there was there was also an undercover FBI informant, Terry Norman, carrying a gun on the field that day.

The Guardsmen were told the same night that they would never be prosecuted by the state of Ohio. They never were.

The Nixon administration stalled for years, "investigations" were announced and dried up, Nixons notorious White House tapes subsequently released show that Nixon thought demonstrators were bums, and asked the Secret Service to go beat them up, and apparently felt that the Kent State victims had it coming.

As did most of the country; William Gordon graduate of Kent in 1973 and of author of Four Dead in Ohio, called the killings "the most popular murders ever committed in the United States."

President Nixon created a public atmosphere in which students who opposed the war were fair game for those who supported the government. Construction workers rioted on Wall Street a week later attacking antiwar demonstrators and sending many to the hospital.

President Nixon called the parents of one student who was killed and was a bystander--he was a member of ROTC-- and he expressed his condolences.

Ignoring pleas from the families of the victims and current KSU students who set up a makeshift Tent City on the practice football field, Kent State proceeded to build gymnasium annex over a large part of the site of the May 4 confrontation. 192 protesters were removed from the site and arrested. Subsequent protests are similarly unsuccessful.

in May 1990 KSU dedicated, eventually a memorial of granite slabs in a woodland setting, to "the events of May 4" (not the victims). At the dedication ceremonies, Ohio Governor Richard Celeste apologized to the families of the four slain students and the nine surviving victims.

http://www.learningfromlyrics.org/may4memorial.html

Pic Mary Ann Vecchio over the body of Jeffrey Miller - a picture that went round the world - she is speaking later today Annual Speakers Program Featuring Mary Ann Vecchio: Noon - 2 pm on The Commons. Mary Ann Vecchio was a 14-year-old runaway on May 4, 1970.

Classes at Kent State are cancelled from noon - 2 pm to allow more students to attend these events.

Africa / Middle east telcoms - the market gets bigger, more competitive and valuable

Speaking at Egypt's ICT Cairo Conference in Cairo in February where Celtel had applied for a third GSM license Mohamed Ibrahim, Chairman of Celtel International, said ,

“The communications market in both the Middle East and Africa is one of the fastest developing markets in the world, especially since penetration rates are still far from those in Europe. We believe that mobile telecommunications is essential in developing the economies of these countries, while providing better means of communication for rural areas. By combining both our experience in Africa with that of MTC’s experience in the Middle East, we are confident that we can provide a competitive service for Egypt.”

Well the market just got hotter and tougher and bigger with fewer bigger players.

Lebanon's Mikati (Chairman Taha Mikati CEO 34 yr old Azmi Mikati)family, founder and owner of controlling 70.6% of Beirut based Investcom have accepted an offer of US$5.5 Bn. in cash and shares from MTN (= $19.25 per global depositary receipt,= = 5 shares, is 27 % over closing price 28/4/06 London)giving the combined group a value of US$23 Bn and a footprint over 21 countries (488 Mn people) and subscriber base up to 28 MN (said to be 9% penetration) to form the largest mobile group in Africa.This works out at US$1,120 per customer.

Deutsche Bank advised MTN and provided loans of $3.85 billion, while Citigroup Inc. advised Investcom.

Invesco sold $741 million of shares in an initial public offering in London in October last year, the biggest-ever internatial stock sale by a Middle East company.

The combined company will have an enterprise value of $23bn, compared to the $15bn value of Orascom Telecom, currently the Middle East's pre-eminent mobile operator.Investcom has franchises in five West African countries and Sudan, as well as a presence in Cyprus, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen. MTN has operations in 9 African countries outside SA, and is due in August to launch a greenfield operation in Iran plus the Guinea republic .Mobile users in Africa grew by 72 % to 117 million at the end of September from a year earlier, according to U.K.-based Middle East & Africa Wireless Analyst.

Orascom has about 30m subscribers, 2m more than MTN will have after the acquisition is completed.

MTN's biggest rival in Africa, Vodacom, has about 19m subscribers. Africa and the Middle East are among the industry's fastest growing regions.

Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. agreed in Fwebruary to pay $3.4 billion for African mobile-phone company Celtel International BV. Celtel has more than 5 million mobile customers in Kenya, Chad, Uganda and other African nations. MTN had bid $2.7 billion for Celtel.

Azmi Mikati, Investcom's chief executive, told the Financial Times that operating in emerging markets had "inherent risk," but that this was outweighed by their growth potential. "If you operate over 21 countries, you spread the risk," he said.

Kuwaiti mobile telcoms boom ...Postman Patel Feb 23rd

Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E.(OTH) established in 1998, now a major player in the telecommunication market in the world. OTH is one of the largest and most diversified network operators in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. It is a leading mobile telecommunications company operating in seven emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia having a population under license of 460 million in total population with an average penetration of mobile telephony rate across all markets of 11.5%. (?)

Orascom Telecom operates GSM networks in Algeria ("Djezzy"), Egypt ("MobiNil"), Pakistan ("Mobilink"), Iraq ("IraQna"), Bangladesh ("Banglalink"), Tunisia ("Tunisiana") and Zimbabwe (“Telecel Zimbabwe”). Orascom Telecom subscriber number reached over 25.5 million subscribers as of September, 2005.(See map of operations)

OTH is dedicated to provide the best quality services to its customers, value to shareholders, and a dynamic working environment for its nearly 15,000 employees.

Vodacom is an SA based pan-African cellular communications company providing a GSM service to millions of customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Vodacom's South African operations also offer a UMTS or 3G service.

Vodacom has a 57% share of the South African market, Africa's largest and most profitable cellular market. Vodacom's South African GSM network consists of nearly 6400 base stations and covers more than 6% of the total landmass of South Africa and 97.1% of the population. Shareholding: Telkom SA - 50%, Vodafone Group - 50%.

Interpol have big success in tracing stolen vehicles in Africa.

There will be less flash motors in East Africa from this week as vehicles stolen from round the world are rounded up in a hugely successful Interpol operation..little noticed in Europe.

East African Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPCCO) met last August which has led to the adoption of the global Atlas communication project.With this new database it is possible to track down any stolen car within one hour in the East African region.Interpol updates the data from 184 countries stolen motor vehicles (SMV)for which they have been notified.

Remarkable success has resulted in the region in impounding vehicles stolen in Japan, UK and Europe.Officers are provided with laptop computers and encrypted CD's with the records contained in the Interpol Stolen Motor Vehicles (SMV) database, updated weekly, to allow officers to conduct checks at remote checkpoints instantly.

In Uganda last week over 4,000 vehicles were screened in Kampala, Jinja, Mbale and Mbarara districts which resulted in 79 vehicles impounded in a crackdown on stolen vehicles.

The vehicles are scheduled for shipment to the rightful owners around the world, according to Interpol.

The director of CID, Elizabeth Kutesa, yesterday told journalists at the CID headquarters in Kampala that among the impounded were Toyota Land Cruisers, Prados, Lexus, Rav4s, Corollas, Starlets, Suzukis, Mitsubishi Pajeros, Hilux, Nissan Patrols, Hondas and Renault.A red sticker bearing the initials EAPCCO (East African Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation) was attached to windscreens of vehicles which had been inspected and cleared.

She said most four-wheel vehicles are sold by the international motor vehicle theft syndicate to war-torn countries like the DR Congo, where they cannot easily be traced.

Purchasors of hi-spec vehicles from Japan, Dubai and elsewhere should now be aware. They should seek Police guidance prior to purchasing vehicles,Kutesa said.

She said the operations would also pursue a cartel of car dealers and importers suspected of shipping stolen vehicles into the country and selling them to unsuspecting customers.

Kutesa said the operation (Operation Makumi) was also conducted in Tanzania Almost 20 per cent of the vehicles checked on the first day were found to be suspect (over 100). Sixty-seven illegal firearms were also recovered and 141 individuals were determined to be illegal immigrants.and A similar operation was conducted in Kenya last week, where at least 106 four-wheel high-powered cars were impounded of which at least 30 luxury cars belonging to Members of Parliament were among those seized by police in the ongoing crackdown on vehicles stolen abroad.

Several Kenyan MP's asked the Government to immediately stop the police crackdown. Lari MP Viscount Kimathi said the Police were "embarrassing" Kenyans by allowing Interpol to intercept cars bought from authorised dealers.

"You really can't blame me when I go to Dubai and buy a car which goes through all procedures until it is registered," said Shitanda, the MP for Malava.

Gatundu North MP Patrick Kariuki Muiruri, whose Toyota VX was among the vehicles netted in the swoop, said the police action was illegal.

Now Interpol need to start on the false passports in circulation for which they have been notified by 97 countries.

For example , on Wednesday 26 April, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Belgium urgently alerted Interpol that blank passports had been stolen from their embassy in Brussels. A number of official seals were also taken during the break-in.

Interpol’s Command and Co-ordination Centre helped Afghanistan share all relevant information with Belgium and with each of Interpol’s 184 member countries through a special notification.

More importantly, the details were added to the world’s only global database of Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) maintained by Interpol and currently holds details of nearly 11 million documents from 97 countries.

Now Interpol need to start on the 8Mn false passports in circulation for which they have been notified.

"The Railway" unveils Uzbek life under communism

Hamid Ismailov set up and is now head of Central Asia and Caucuses Service at the BBC World Service. An Uzbek exile since 1992 he was, along with many other Russians forced outut especially as he wanted to support democracy in eastern Europe, so the police tried to prosecute me. The BBC have been closed down in Tashkent since the Abidjan massacre last May.

"I was expelled from Uzbekistan because I was a writer and a correspondent for a literary magazine published in Russian," he said.

Now living in Barnet he has published in English translation "The Railway", a novel with a biting satirical edge that he wrote 15 years ago in Uzbekistan, but only recently translated by Robert Chandler (Ed. Penguin's superb Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida ) and published in English by Harvill Secker. Craig Murray, says, "it is an utterly readable, compelling book'.

Independent (Susha Guppy)
"scintillating novel… every strand shines…ironic, hilarious, tender...a poet’s novel, full of memorable descriptive passages and heart-wrenching asides.

New Statesman
"…skilled craftsman…brilliantly done…just drink in the novel. It is a work of rare beauty – an utterly readable, compelling book"

Literary Review
Extraordinarily rich… Handler’s preface is a superb essay.

Telegraph
"The arrival of modernity - represented by the train, the Revolution, and the Russian language - is a culture shock of incredible violence. The town's experience spills out in a series of tangled, wild tales, brutal, absurd and transformative."

Hamid Ismailov is interviewed by Marcus Dysch about fleeing his home country, and his novel and a second, as yet unpublished one here.

Order from Amazon (ISBN: 1843431610) and enjoy the lives of Mefody-Jurisprudence, the engaging alcoholic intellectual and Umarali-Moneybags, the sly old moneylender.... then ..

Hamid Ismailov and Robert Chandler will read from and talk about Hamid Ismailov's 'The Railway Line'. At the Pushkin Club ULU (The University of London Union), Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY on 23rd May 2006 at 7pm

THE CIS STATES

In the dusk of 1991 eleven ambitious communist party apparatchiks smelling the final days of empire signed the Alma - Ata declaration" which declared that the "USSR shall from now, cease to exist"... and it did. From this developed the Commonwealth of Indpendent States, Kazakstan, Kyrgistan,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.They joined the UN,the IMF and the IMRDB and the OSCE.... the rest will be history.

Strobe Talbot the sage of Eurasia and fellow Rhodes scholar with Clinton at Oxford said, "The new states really are not independent at all,their economies and infrastructures will take years, even decades to disentangle"

A Good book to help make sense of it all is, The Central Asian States: Discovering Independence by Gregory Gleason.

Carbon Trading, strong nerves, deep pockets required.

European corporate trading of CDM credits has come to a complete standstill as buyers and sellers of carbon credits await the release of further figures of carbon emissions from the remaining EU countries including the UK. As a result the price remains stable (and is effectivel zero) whilst no trading is taking place.

The price which was over Euro 31 .2 seven days ago went as low as Euro11.20 and has rebounded slightly to Euro 12.40. Curious how there is nothing in the MSM about the complete shambles the market is and how the spivs of Leadenhall Street have run off with the money.. not to mention the past energy price rises ... and the furture rises to heal those terrible holes in the German Utilities Balance Sheets.

If of a Humourous disposition read "Impact of the EU ETS on Electricity Prices" Ilex Energy Consulting Lord Patel trembles to think what this crock of shit cost the taxpayer.

On their website they claim...

ILEX has projected the value of carbon allowances in the EU ETS through to 2008 for a number of clients, including the UK government and commercial companies.... that must make fascinating reading.

I am partucularly impressed by this model of the market ..


The deliberate mistake being the impact of an EXCESS of allowances.

Zacarias Moussaoui - Jury blames the parents

10 a.m. Washington time tomorrow, Thursday 4th May 2006 U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema will pronounce judgement in U.S. vs. Moussaoui, 01cr455, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria) after a six week trial and sentence Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison. (Pic Mohamad Atta the Phantom Pilot)

The North Virginia jury of nine men and three women, (specially selected for thair partiality to handing down death sentences) after 7 days deliberations rejected prosecutors' arguments that Moussaoui should be executed for the 9/11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to conspiracy charges linked to the attacks.

The 42 page jury form (see earlier post) on the first of the three death-penalty counts, nine agreed that his unstable childhood and violent father counted as a factor against a death sentence. No juror counted the defense's claim that he was schizophrenic as an argument in his favor.

3 jurors decided Moussaoui had only limited knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot and 3 described his role in the attacks as minor ..... if he had any role at all.

Moussaoui's lawyers argued that his only role in the Sept. 11 attacks was ``in his dreams.'' The lawyers acted over his objections, and he denounced them from the witness stand.

The verdict ``represents the end of this case, but not an end to the fight against terror,'' Bush said... "we can be confident. Our cause is right, and the outcome is certain: Justice will be served. Evil will not have the final say. This great Nation will prevail." In the short statement he never mentioned Zacarias Moussaoui once, which is just as well.

Moussaoui shouted: "America, you lost. I won," and clapped his hands as he was escorted away.

Pipeline News the RIGHT News.. RIGHT now says ..

"A nation unwilling to destroy vermin like Moussaoui is a nation incapable of defending itself." 

Sayonara Iraq, G'bye Okinawa, .. when do we bomb Pyongyang ?

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Fukushiro Nukaga, the head of the Japanese Defense Agency met Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Monday May 1st.They had a full agenda.

IRAQ

Fukushiro Nukaga, has called for the Japanese military contingent which is currently 600 non- combatant troops , deployed in the southern Iraqi zone of Samawah (Samaga),who help with water purification and other humanitarian projects and 200 are engaged in transport and logistics in Kuwait will pull back from Iraq in June.

Public opinion polls show the majority of Japanese oppose the mission, which has been criticized as a violation of the pacifist constitution whilst many politicians claim the deployment has made Japan a target for terrorism. Nothing has been finalised but it appears that the US have not publicly disagreed.

US TROOPS IN JAPAN

Another public concern , especially in Okinawa are the more than 40,000 US troops in Japan, more than half of them in the Okinawa chain where islanders have long demanded a reduction in the US presence.When the pentagon saod last months that they expected to Japan that they pay an estimated 26 billion dollars for re-organising troops in Japan = US$20 Bn.US$6 Bn for moving 8,000 US Marines to Guam. This will all be complete by 2014.

It appears that finally there has been an agreement a month after officials missed a self-imposed March 31 deadline by working on details of a broad realignment plan they had adopted Oct. 29 after more than three years of talks.

U.S. Consul General Thomas G. Reich on Tuesday called the plan “the most sweeping reconfiguration of bases in Japan since World War II. And it’s a big step forward for Okinawa … lessening the burden of hosting so many troops” and returning “quite a bit of base land south of Kadena Air Base.”

NORTH KOREAN "NUCLEAR WEAPONS" AND 6 PARTY TALKS

Subsequently there was some further discussion about the six party talks and Raro Aso, said “The nuclear missile issues of North Korea, are a real security issue". Jointly the US and Japan have pressed Pyongyang to resume the stalled six-nation negotiations. They said North Korea should “to return expeditiously to the talks without preconditions, to dismantle its nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and to cease all illicit and proliferation activities,” according to a joint statement. (Illicit = drug running , counterfeiting currency etc.,)

“There is a false notion in this town that America loses in any such discussion,” former State Department official James Kelly the former top US negotiator with North Korea, said during a speech in Washington at a conference on Monday held by the Seoul-Washington Forum sponsored by Washington-based Brookings Institution and the Seoul-based Sejong Institute.

“Reality is that direct contact may be helpful, or they may be neutral. Awkward absence (of contact) undercuts support among Asians and provides a handy excuse for North Korea to delay,” Kelly said, who has kept a fairly low profile since leaving the administration early last year and has held any criticisms largely in private.

Probably most disturbing was his warning, even though military conflict with North Korea is unlikely to occur, “tragedy is not impossible.”

“No one should ignore the possibility,” he said. “No one should be satisfied with a stretched-out non - solution in which North Korea becomes a nuclear power.”

Kelly also faulted Japan for focusing too much on North Korea’s Cold War-era abduction of Japanese nationals “incommensurate with dangers North Korean weapons present”

At the same event U.S. expert on inter-Korean relations Prof. Bruce Cummings of the University of Chicago claimed there is a high possibility that Pyongyang already has six to seven nuclear bombs. (Lord Patel is of the opinion that this is bollocks)

The man who took over on April 8th 2006 as Assistant Secretary of State is Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator to the nuclear negotiations and is a career diplomat (see pic left).(Fluent in Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Albanian which limits him a trifle in Asia) He warned that electricity (intitially from March 14th this year from state-run Korea Electric Power Corp supplied power to South Korean companies in North Korea's border town of Kaesong) shortage could "“.... for every four weeks they delay, they lose $80 million, and you can do the math from here,” because they continue to boycott the 6 party talks and seek bilateral talks with the US.

Hill added that the United States would not conduct bilateral negotiations with North Korea until it agreed to resume multilateral talks.

“We are not prepared to try to sit outside the six-party process and allow D.P.R.K. to boycott the process and look for favors in order to bring them back,” he said.

Again it is unsettling that Michael Green, former Special Assistant to the President and Asia director at the National Security Council ( He has been since January at Georgetown University and He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for International Security Studies.) says such things as ....“There is no evidence at all that the Bush administration has plans to attack North Korea.” (!)

Green claims this idea is a North Korean "mythology" dating to the 1990s when the Clinton administration considered a surgical strike on North Korean nuclear installations. A visit to Pyongyang by retired cardigan wearing U.S. President Jimmy Carter caused the administration then to rethink the plan....

Vice President Cheney and other hard-liners want to restrict meetings to a minimum and are believed to have urged such a policy on diplomats Kelly and Hill.

...you really think these mongers of war in the White House have ruled out a "surgical" nucular strike ? ... well why do the likes of Kelly and Green keep mentioning it whilst Japanes Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Japanese defense Secretary and Fukushiro Nukaga, the head of the Japanese Defense Agency are in town ?

C.A.T. oil IPO - Death - kidnappings- theft an everyday story of Russian oil Oligarchs

STOP PRESS On the Deutsche Bourse CAT was trading at Eur 18.55/78 mid morning 4/5/06

The C.A.T.Oil AG IPO was discussed here yesterday and more information comes Lord Patel's way from the sunny island of Aphrodite.

Vitaly Schmidt died suddenly aged 47 on August 31st 1997, co owner at his death of LUKoil, his son Vadim believes his father's share in various offshore vehicles that were set up on behalf of LUKoil owners have been illegally seized.(Vadim and his mother inherited nothing of LUKoil, his father lived with another lady) Vadim has been chasing this claim by litigation across EurPe. German prosecutors started an investigation to verify whether flame haired Anna Brinkmann (pic - once "translator" to Vitaly Schmidt) had transferred a stake owned by Vitaly Schmidt to another shareholder without Schmidt's consent (WSJ) The investigation was closed in 2004, and no charges followed. LUKoil threatened to sue Russian TV Station NTV for 10 billion rubles ( then US$357 Mn.) in connection with an investigation broadcast in early July 2000 concerning the death three years previously of LUKoil Vice President Vitaly Schmidt, but they never did.


(Please don't be confused and imagine that this has anything to do with the kidnapping of Sergei Kukura, the first vice–president of Lukoil Oil Company, who was kidnapped on September 12 2002 and turned up at his country villa on September 25 alone and unscathed. No ransom was paid(although somehow US$6MN in used notes creeps into the OPry) and no explanation has ever been made.) More here and also here

Now in a letter to Dresdner Kleinworth Wasserstein, the managers for the IPO of C.A.T.oil AG which launches an IPO on the Deutsche Bourse today Vadim Schmidt claims C.A.T. Oil's owners include LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov; Semyon Vainshtok, a former senior LUKoil executive and current head of Russian State pipeline monopoly Transneft; and Ralif Safin, a former top executive at LUKoil. This was reported in the The Wall Street Journal yesterday 2/5/06 (not online).

As a consequence C.A.T.oil AG denied the claim yesterday and a company spokesman, Lutz Golsch, said it was owned by two non-Russians -- Walter Hoeft and Anna Brinkmann. Brinkmann once served as a translator to Vitaly Schmidt, the late LUKoil executive.

The IPO managers released this information as an appendix to the prospectus - and committed investors have the opportunity to withdraw their share applications.
Moscow Times today

Watch this space.

The Home Office ...Somalis ...Qat...the REAL fucking scandal

BBC ONline report a man suspected over the slaying of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky was considered for deportation just months before the mother-of-three was shot.

But the decision was taken not to send Mustaf Jamma back to war-torn Somalia because of the dangers he faced there.

Surely the scandal about Ethiopia is how the Home Office have resolutely refused to make Qat illegal, the drug of choice of the Somali community, which is imported daily from Kenya by the tonne.It's growth, supply and use is illegal in many countries including the USA. It is claimed that banning it would drive it underground. Well it has to be flown in as it has to be consumed ideally within 36 hours of plucking.

The brainless fuckwits at the Home Office produced a report you can see on the Home office site where they asked Somalis if they enjoyed using it ... they said yes. The supply / distribution and sale is of course an underground channel which is outside all commercial channels - attracting no taxes etc.,

I have written about this for years ... it is evident that it played a part in the 21/7 no Bomb Bombings in London.
Saturday, July 30
Qat - a Somali / Ethiopian / Yemen problem

Tuesday, November 22
Qat - PC Plod starts to join the dots

Monday, November 28
Qat - the Doors of Perception are opening

In February 2006 The Guradian wrote about the research by The Home Office is considering whether qat, a psychoactive plant outlawed in many countries but legal in the UK, should be banned. The study comes as new research, seen exclusively by the Guardian, points to its potential long-term effects on the brain.

The Home Office's drugs and alcohol research unit began its work into qat late last year and aims to report its findings to the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in the autumn. If the research unit shows that there is a sufficient level of potential harm for users of qat, the ACMD is likely to recommend that the plant should be banned and classified along with other illegal drugs. The ACMD deemed qat to be safe more than 15 years ago.

A spokesperson for the Home Office denied that there were any immediate plans to control qat under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, but added that the study was necessary because information on the plant was limited. (Bollocks)

Yet another scandal at the Home Office presided over by the fat, pompous, conceited bully and buffoon from Norwich, graduate of the Soviet youth camps and friend of Honecker.

Neil Young ... the Stones .... The War will soon be over..

Neil Young wiv Keef (who fell out of a tree and is in hospital)...




"Let's impeach the President for lying
and misleading our country into war
abusing all the power that we gave him
and shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals?
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new story
of why we had to send our men to war..."

- From "Let's Impeach the President," on Neil Young's new album "Living with War"

"Back in the days of `mission accomplished'
our chief was landing on the deck
the sun was setting on a golden photo op . . .

thousands of bodies in the ground
brought home in boxes to a trumpet's sound
No one sees them coming home that way."

- From "Shock and Awe," on Neil Young's new album "Living with War"

Pre – launch publicity for the CD of the Rolling Stones Tour – “A Bigger Bang” centred on Sweet Neo Con :

You call yourself a Christian
I think that you're a hypocrite
You say you are a patriot
I think that you're a crock of shit


But one thing that is certain
Life is good at Haliburton
If you're really so astute
You should invest at Brown & Root.... Yeah

Yeah Mick – cutting edge. Ron Wood who lives in America was said to be kacking his pants that the Feds would pull him…

I bought the CD today and played it…. They don’t let us down .. but then you get to this…

dangerous beauty Track 11

In your high school photo
You look so young and naïve
Now I heard you got a nickname
The lady with the leash
Was it funny on your midnight shift
I bet you had your fair share of stiffs
Hey were onerous orders
I gotta admit

You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty
Disdainfully painfully beating up booty
You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty

Beauty
Beauty

‘Cos You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty
It’s so painfully plain to us
You were doing your duty

Who you got there in that hood
You look so fancy in those photographs
With your rubber gloves on
But you’re a favourite one
With the Chiefs of Staff
You’re doing such a wonderful job
You’re a natural at working with dogs
Keeping everyone awake at night
With a touch of the prods

You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty
If I was your Captain would you salute ,me
You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty
Beauty
Are you one bad apple in a box
Dangerous
Dealing out electric shocks
I saw the gloves coming off
If looks could be killing
I bet you would shoot me
You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty
Pianfuly shamefully doing your duty
You’re a dangerous dangerous dangerous beauty


The “Lady with the Leash” ?… Lynndie England

The Dangerous Beauty ? …. Sabrina Harman

Recent blogs on same topic here

Antonov-32 crashes - Inspectors not called in.

An Antonov 32 air freighter on lease to someone involved in some way with the US Gubment, loaded with heroin was involved in a crash landing in Lashkar Gah, Afgahnistan when a lorry drove across the landing strip and the plane smashed into some mud huts, killing some of the occupants. Military immediately sealed the site and survivors were quickly ferried away leaving the visiting UK Minister of Defence John Ried without a plane.(Whose daughter in law's husband is a notorious Glasgow gangster and drug dealer)Here is the news report.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan By Noor Khan AP, On April 23rd a U.S. government-leased 20 seater Antonov-32 twin engined transport plane carrying counternarcotics officials crashed into a southern Afghan nomad settlement while trying to avoid a truck on a runway during landing, killing two people aboard and a child on the ground, officials said.

At least 14 people on board were injured, including some Americans in a team from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The bureau has been helping Afghan authorities conduct large-scale opium eradication campaigns across southern Afghanistan.

There were 16 aboard the plane 2 were killed , 1 on the ground and 3-year-old girl living in the nomad settlement, also died.Minutes after the crash, foreign troops cordoned off the crash site as ambulances took the injured out and one helicopter was also seen ferrying casualties to a Kandahar (75 miles East) military base for U.S.-led forces.

Another eight people on the plane suffered minor injuries and were flown by military helicopters to a coalition hospital in Kandahar, about 75 miles to the east.

Spokesmen Innis declined to specify the nationalities of the people on the plane, but the U.S. Embassy said several Americans had minor injuries. At least six other Afghan nomads living in the settlement were also injured, said Deputy Provincial Gov. Amir Mohammed Aghunzada.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said the plane had left Kabul early Monday for Lashkar Gah, about 325 miles to the southwest. The plane stopped en route in Kandahar before setting off for Lashkar Gah, about 75 miles farther west.

Aghunzada said the plane struck nomad tents and mud brick homes near the airstrip about 11:30 a.m. “The aircraft was on final approach when a civilian truck drove across the runway,” Innis told the AP. “The pilot pulled up to avoid hitting the truck but was unable to gain sufficient speed to remain airborne.”

Who leased the plane to the US Government is unknown , but private American security firms operating in Afghanistan routinely provide such aircraft to authorities.

In November 2005 a Pakistani-owned plane carrying cargo for the U.S.-led coalition flew into mountains near Kabul, at least 8 people were killed.

On Feb. 3, 2005, a Kam Air domestic flight, Afghanistan’s only private airline, in bad weather crashed with 104 people aboard. (Intriguingly the company's plane was based like many of BOut's in Kyrgistan, alsothey have an Antonov 32 which skidded on the runway in SEptember 2005 at Kabul)

The Antonov AN-32 is essentially an upgraded AN-26 equipped with very powerful engines and refined power and engine systems. First revealed at the 1977 Paris salon, the AN-32 is a light tactical airlifter with superb STOL capabilities, ideal for use in hot and high areas. Although primarily in service with a number of air forces, a few serve with civil operators in the CIS, Africa, and Latin America. Nearly 400 have been built of which 75 are in commercial service.

Wayne Madsen speculates that Viktor Bout notorious for involvement in arms and drug smuggling in the CIS / Middle East / Africa who also flew for the Taliban before the U.S. invasion may be the lessor. Bout is also linked to Russian-Israeli-Ukrainian Mafia kingpins in the drug smuggling business. He also says the pilot and one crew member who died were Ukrainians.

See Yorkshire Ranter's authoritative guide to Victor Bout his company's and their strange methods of operation - even involving receiving petrol quite legally from the US Gubment.

For those who like puzzles, connect the man in the picture, Zapata, the family who owns the soccer team whose England star broke a bone in his foot on Saturday, Fettes College Edinburgh A Scottish Rugby Player who scored a famous try, Ivory Sime the Edinburgh finace house, an oil company with interests helped in the Indian sub-continent by the US Embassy , whose shares have soared from £3 to over £20, Best man at it's Chairman's wedding, a very stressed UK Prime Minister whose name appears on the plaque on the opening of the Edinburgh HQ of the very succesful oilco whose Chairman at whose wedding the man in the picture was best man.... oh and drug smuggling, Colombia, Afghanistan and a restaurant called Helmand in Chicago renowned for it's goat shashlik, owned by the brother of the President of a mountainous country adjacent to Pakistan whose other brother is said to control drugs in large sections of that mountainous country, the Taliban (who visited Texas) the CIA and Victor Bout.... oh and the crash detailed above. Clear ? Well here are some hints, 2 people helped a Californian oilco plan a pipeline when the Taliban were in charge and so was Clinton, one is now a Secretary of State and has a penchant for Ferragamo slippers and the other is ..surprise...surprise the US Ambassador in Iraq at the US Embassy in Bagdhad where Victor Bout's planes regularly turn up.

PS Try also to connect the dad of the guy in the picture with who had dinner with John Hinckleys dad (and where) the day before he tried to kill Ronnie and who killed JFK - by the way did you know that fat, swety, grubby little Scott McClellan's dad wrote a book about the JKF assassination claiming it was organised by LBJ ?

Craig Murray receives Samuel Adams Award

The Samuel Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence is awarded by a panel of former CIA operatives and analysts. Before the award was given Ray McGovern's read the following citation:

As U.K. Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004 Mr. Murray learned that the intelligence authorities of the U.S. and U.K. were receiving and using information extracted by the most sadistic forms of torture. An aside, yesterday evening Jeremy Skahill referred to Thomas Murtant [phonetic], no stranger to this upper West side of New York, and Murtant said that we must identify with those being burned. This was during Vietnam. Mr. Murray decided that as a matter of conscience he had to speak for those being boiled boiled alive in Uzbekistan. This is no exaggeration, there are photos, there are coronary reports, there are documentary pieces of evidence showing this.

For more go to Craig's Blog

C.A.T.oil AG IPO 1st. Oilco on Deutsche Bourse

" Catoil ist kein Unternehmen wie jedes andere. Das Unternehmen will der erste Ölwert an der deutschen Börse werden, möglichst bald sogar im MDax." says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitschrift.

On Thursday May 4th 2006 the Austrian oil company C.A.T.oil AG has an IPO (Isin AT0000A00Y78) of 8Mn shares priced at Euro 12.5 / 15.00 to raise some Euro 290Mn, 55% of which will go to current shareholders and the rest for capital expansion.In 2005 the revenues were stated to be Euro 157 Mn with profits of Euro 18.2 Mn with forecast T/ Euro 220 Mn and profits of Euro 30Mn and Euro 339 MN. (Prospective EPS of Euro 0.65 offering PE of 23'ish) and Euro 339 MN.with profits of Euro 58 Mn in 2007.

C.A.T. oil AG was registered in Celle, Austria in 1991 and is launching an IPO on the Deutsche Bourse amid some mystery and much speculation. An anonymous owner with connections in Cyprus holds 60% of the company and Anna Brinkmann from Celle, in Lower Saxony is another large holder of the company which commenced trading in 1991. Failure to disclose the main owners identity led to USB bank withdrawing before the launch but Christopher Seibt of Freshfields points out that in enterprises in external countries , unlike those in Germany are not obliged to identify majority owners.

Operating in freezing cold West Siberia and Central Asia in Kazakhstan which are now investment hot spots, they have over 2,000 employees, who says Brinkmann "help the oil industry get the black gold out up to 5,000 metres depth". To do this Catoil specializes in Hydraulic Fracturing - or "Hydrofracturing in which Hydraulic / chemical fluids are pumped to open up the ground at depth and elease oil.Contracts with oilcos are generally of one year GazPROM, LUKoil, Rosneft and TNK-BP KazMunaiGazare mentioned on their Website - which they point out the 3 larlargest have proven oil and gas reserves of 42 BOE = 12 % of all proven reserves in Russia.).

CEO 44 year old Manfred Kastner who joined the company last year, is pleased that they will be the first oil company on the German Exchange.,, they apparently considred a listing on the LSE.

Wholly owned subsidiaries are Catkoneft and Catobneft led by Eugeni Goriatshev, who was
formerly in the Russian oil Ministry, the companies are used to operating in Russia from Kogalym and Nishnivartovsk where outside temperatures range from -33° to +50°.

Business partners are companies such as Gaz PROM and Lukoil. The supervisory board
chairman Gerhard Strate is a Promi lawyer and defender of the Moroccan Mounir al
Motassadeq the alleged Al Quaeda terrist. (In February 2003 he was convicted in Germany of
over 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for 7 years and released on 7th feb this year
for absence of proof - curiously he married in 1999, married a woman from St. Petersburg,
Russia, Putin's power base)

For success and growth in the future in this future market there are 3 crucially important factors:

1. Proven, specialized know-how from experience of many years
2. Anchorage and established business relations in Russia and Kazakhstan
3. Modern technology and equipment

They certainly appear to have that but it will be a brave private individual who buys in on Thursday at the price of Euros21 which the market is said to be expecting... But then I thought that with Burren Energy when that was launched.

Prescott resigns

The Hull Labour Party well understand their MP, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott since the days when eager post graduate History student Rosie Winterton worked in his office in the 80's , fresh from taking a History degree at the Humberside University that Philip Larkin made famous.

As a tribute to his fidelity to both to his wife and his constituents, this leaflet as Lord Patel writes, is fluttering through the letter boxes of the Humberside Labour Party faithful - and no doubt some unfaithful ones as well.

PS The headline is not true, but it soon will be. Apologies for any confusion to our readers.

PPS Rosie Winterton has been MP for Doncaster since 1997 and was initially under Charlie Falconer at Constitutional Affairs, and is now Minister of State at the Department of Health under Oz Pat Hewitt, the Nurse's Friend. 

Putin's geo-political jig saw puzzle continues to take shape Pt. 34

Today,Transneft, the Industry and Energy Ministry, and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade should have agreed a final construction schedule for the Taishet-Nakhodka Pipeline which is another piece in Putin's vast geo-political jig saw puzzle that will provide the Russian state with energy hegemony from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Half of Japan's energy is met by imported oil and 90% percent of its oil is from the Middle East. It is estimated that if Russia exports a million barrels of oil on a daily basis, as Japan is planning for sometime in the future, this will reduce Japan's reliance on the Middle East to 65 percent. Both China and Japan desperately need Russia oil.

The Taishet-Nakhodka Pipeline is huge, 2,581 miles long (4,130 kilometers), and costing between US$15 billion and $18 billion.The Trans-Alaska Pipeline 800-mile (1,280-kilometer) completed in 1977 cost $9 billion. 80 million tons (72 million metric tons) of oil a year. The new pipeline at full capacity, will transport 1.6 million barrels of Russian oil to the East a day, 80 million tons (72 million metric tons) of oil a year.

The Taishet-Nakhodka Pipeline is one the key project in Russia's overall plan to more fully capitalize on its oil resources. The overall national plan envisages developing a number of pipe to ports in Albania, Croatia and Greece, as well as northward to a Barents Sea port that would serve North America.

East Siberia's untapped oil fields alone are estimated at 20 billion barrels. As a nation, Russia has proven oil reserves between 50 billion and 100 billion barrels (Saudi is said to have reserves of 262 billion barrels).

Oil from the Taishet-Nakhodka Pipeline will actually start arriving at the Pervoznaya port terminal well before the project is finished. With the pipeline's first stages completed, Russian officials say that they'll begin rail-shipping extracted oil to the country's Pacific coast. To facilitate those shipments, BAR says that it will build second and even third tracks parallel to its existing lines.

The Taishet-Nakhodka Pipeline will be built and run by Transneft, Russia's state pipeline monopoly. Created in 1993 as the legal descendant to the Soviet Oil Ministry's Central Production Department for Oil Transport and Supply.

The Japanese financed 48" pipe begins in the Siberian city of Taishent, the site of the Baikal-Amur Railway's (BAR) largest station. The pipeline's initial stages will run near BAR routes, to be used to transport oil until the project is completed in 2010.

The pipeline ends on the coast of the Sea of Japan at the port of Pervoznaya near the city of Nakhodka which will be have to be developed to handle the tanker traffic.

Between these points 30,000 workers will build 48 pipeline sections that cut across major rivers the Chuma, the Ilim, the Lena and the Upper Angara, further 115 sections will cross highways and rail lines.

The government-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC will finance as much as 80 % of the pipeline's total costs through low-interest loans. It will be the largest-ever offshore project that the Japanese government has financed.

Meanwhile rail shipments to China have increased five-fold to 15 million tons (13.5 metric tons), which was previoulsy undertaken by Yukos the now dismantled company run by now jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Pic Oil terminal near the city of Nakhodka 

Floating Nirvana - Footballers wives dreams become reality

The US-Norwegian owners Royal Caribbean say Freedom of the Seas is the worlds largest ship ans is able to carry over 3,500 passengers - God help them. 

"Living with War" Neil Young who said once.."how many more?" ...

By Greg Knot Chicago Tribune music critic 30/4/06

`War' a howl of dissent from rocker Neil Young

In 3 weeks beginning in late March, he performed, recorded, mixed and mastered 10 songs for a new album, "Living With War," that play like a string of bulletins from the front line of a battlefield.

Young calls for the impeachment of Bush.... a world where TV commercials push pain relief... and soldiers come home in boxes. The music is blunt: a guitar-bass-drums trio augmented by trumpet and a choir, but powered by feedback and rampaging drums.Chad Cromwell, drums, Rick Rosas, bass, Tommy Brea , trumpet ... and Nick Bolas, Larry Johnson, John Hausman, John Nowland, Tim Mulligan,Darrell Brown and Rosemary Butler, Redwood Digital Studios, Capital Studios ...

Title Track Lyrics
I'm LIVING WITH WAR everyday
I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my heart everyday
I'm LIVING WITH WAR right now.....

And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man ...
And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again...
and when the night falls, I pray for PEACE...

Try to remember PEACE (visualize)...

I join the multitudes...
I raise my hand in PEACE
I never bow to the laws of the thought police

I take a holy vow...
To never to kill again..
To never kill again...

I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my heart
I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my heart and my mind...
I'm LIVING WITH WAR right now...

Don't take no tidal wave...
Dont take no mass grave...
Don't take no smokin' gun....

To show how the west was won....
But when the curtain falls,
I pray for PEACE....

Try to remember PEACE (visualize).......

"Living with War" Official Website
Neil Young Website
"Living with War" in the News
Stream it from here
... and when you have listened to this, get your arse shifted and go out and protest what this bunch of lying scumbags have done.

Early news of the new Dixie Chicks album, "Taking The Long Way" 1st since Clear Channel fucked them over because they told the truth about what a shit the Texan President is.

John Reid - trouble with the in-laws and the outlaws?

If you want to see more on this story go here ..... http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/sexandhealth/sexdoctor/

You thought things couldn't possibly get any worse.. the Government has finally gone to pot. Well it looks like it has.

Defence Secretary John Reid faced huge embarrassment yesterday after his own protection squad found a lump of cannabis at his Scottish home during a security sweep.

John Corrigan, assistant chief constable of Strathclyde Police, said: "The owner of the house has co-operated fully and is not suspected of having committed any crime or offence."

Sources close to Reid said the drug could have been in the house for years. But experts were mystified over how police sniffer dogs failed to find it earlier. The discovery increases the spotlight on the family after concerns over the underworld links of Dr Reid's daughter-in-law Melissa Campbell, 25.

Her father, Ronnie Campbell, is a career criminal, who was shot in a gangland feud last year.

Dr Reid, 58, married Brazilian film director Carine Adler four years ago.

Last September, he shared centre stage at his son Mark's wedding with a villain on the run from police.

Reid and fugitive Ronnie Campbell - the father of the bride - stood side-by-side on the steps of Westminster Cathedral.

Israeli EROS B Satellite launched and operating

EROS A, commercial observation satellite operated by ImageSat International, was successfully sent into low earth orbit of 480 km by a Russian Start-1 launcher in December, 2000.It was based on the limitary ofeq 3 and has an opitcal resolution of 1.8 meters.

EROS B the successor manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) was successfully launched on April 25th 2006 from the Svobodni Launch Complex, Siberia, Russia on top of a Russian Start-1 launcher for low earth orbit of 508 KM.Both are expected to have lives of 8/10 years of operation.


ImageSat International (ISI)(Israel Aircraft Industries, Elbit/ElOp Electro Optics Industries and international investors.) announced communication swithin 13 mins of launch . It is now operating successfully and all satellite sub-systems are operating according to predetermined specifications say main ground control station at IAI MBT Space Division facilities.

EROS B is a lightweight (290 Kg) commercial satellite which will deliver very high resolution imagery (optical resolution 80 cm) based on advanced technology in both photographic and data processing capabilities and can scan an area of 380 miles on the ground. The low weight ensures maximum agility and stability for optimal imaging quality. Like EROS A it has a heliosynchronous orbit so it its imaged target is alwasy in sunlight.

EROS B can observe the earth and transfer the data to a ground station in either real time or accumulate the data and relay it to the ground at a chosen time. The satellite will pass a ground control station for 10 minutes, four times a day, twice in daytime and twice in night time.It is reported (AP)that the main task for EROS B is to track Iran's nuclear program
http://www.geoeye.com/news/2006_europeanCommission.htm
Eros B will compete with Geo Eye whose GeoEye -1 is due to lauynch with an optical resolution of 41 cms. see more here
Pic sample cunningly acquired in first week, click here for incredible full screen view.(takes time to load but worth it taken from 508 Km.!!)

More pics here