Deadly deals in Pakistan -

Subsequent to posting the item about Parvez Musharaff , (below) Lord Patel's attention has been directed to a fascinating article in the Times of India "US set to cut deal with Taliban" by Chidanand Rajghatta

The article claims that the Bush administration is seriously considering bringing the Taliban back into the power in Afghanistan.

They claim the tacit US approval of Pakistan’s agreement with Taliban in the Waziristan province, which was heavily criticised in strategic circles as a sell-out ...but wildly praised by UK Foreign Office Minister responsible for Afghanistan, David "Rentagob" Howell was the start of a policy change.

President Bush is subsequently said to have persuaded Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to 'wait and see' how the Pakistani deal works.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, fresh from a visit last week..."Taliban fighters were too numerous and too popular" to be defeated " his reported saying, has said the Bush administration should bring the Taliban back into a more transparent type of government... And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi shouted, "Senator Frist now suggests that the best way forward in Afghanistan is to coddle the Taliban by welcoming Taliban members into a coalition government, as if 9/11 had never happened." Remember it was Democrat Clintonan who first bombed the Taliban (admittedly when he was feeling the heat over the Lewinsky brouhaha) and brought to an abrupt end the planning (with the Taliban Gubment) for a Unocal trans Afghanistan Asia / India pipeline.

The article also refers to the PBS doucmentary Return of the Taliban, screened last week in the US, showing Musharraf's army continued to patronize militants and he had essentially cut a deal with the Taliban in Waziristan after being humiliated by al Qaeda.

The documentary called Pakistan "a failed state... a Taliban sanctuary that had facilitated the return of al-Qaeda."

Apparently the cocky dictator was reduced to shouting "If Pakistan isn't doing more, who the hell is doing more?"

The fillum was dedicated to Hayatullah Khan a reporter who obtained proof that US forces had killed rebel leader, 27 year old Nek Mohammed in a Predator attack inside Pakistan. This was denied by the US and Islamabad as the US cannot act inside Pakistan and Pakistani forces had killed him. (BBC pic of Mohammed) At the time the BBC reported ...

BBC correspondent in Islamabad, Paul Anderson, says there is some confusion as to how Mohammed was killed.

Some reports say an army mortar was fired at a hideout near South Waziristan's main town of Wana.

Others say the missile came from an unmanned drone flying overhead.

Khan worked for the English-language daily newspaper "The Nation", the Urdu-language daily newspaper "Ausaf" and the European Press-Photo Agency, as well as being the General Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists, a union of journalists working in the tribal areas of Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border.

According to Khan's family, an embarrassed Pakistani establishment subsequently kidnapped Khan in December 2005 and killed him. He was found with five bullet wounds on his body, hands tied with government issued handcuffs.

STRAWS IN THE WIND

Republican Senator John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee,after a trip to Iraq, said the situation in Iraq was “drifting sideways,” on Friday....

Bush Family launch their own Aircraft Carrier

The famed Irish Tenor Dr. Ronan Tynan - and personal friend of President George H. W. Bush - performed “God Bless America” at the conclusion of the christening ceremony of the nation’s 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, George H. W. Bush (CVN 77).

Pic of Dad (AP) with the current President and the next one at the launch ceremony today, which their sister spilt the champagne as Mum watched.

"She is unrelenting, she is unshakable, she is unyielding, she is unstoppable," President Bush told Fox TV, lauding the warship's state-of-the-art design before pausing for a punch line aimed at his mother's well-known steely constitution. "As a matter of fact, she probably should have been named the Barbara Bush."

Pervez purveys an uncomrfortable Truth

You'll be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you. That is all that I would like to say. Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not with you, you won't manage anything.
Pervez Musharraf

Whichever way you cut it, Military Dictator Pervez Musharraf is a key to the success of the US/EU/NATO/Coalition in Central Asia.

He is also, along with his fellow officers, nuclear scientists, military secret services allied in a variety of loose associations with various Islamic / Taliban / al Quaeda forces. He also has to juggle with historic, complex, tribal fealties on Pakistani northern regions and borders with Afghanistan.

Increasingly, as the Bush administration is increasingly aware, the survival of this cocky little man, with his curiously dyed hair, who personally packs a Glock sidearm wherever he goes (even the White House) , is critical to their success in Afghanistan - and by association with their presence elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Musharraf, who is daily reminded of the lethal nature of his opposition, domestic and regional is in retreat.

Lord Patel wrote recently about the deal that Musharraff cut with the lords and masters of Waziristan and the consequences of the murder of the aged Baluchistan leader on August 26 Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Waziristan ( population approx 1 Mn.) a stopping off station for mujahadeen on their way to Kabul is the burial ground of 3,000 Pakistani troops. Under pressure from the Army, Pakistan has ceded the tribal areas of Waziristan to what is effectively pro-Taliban local rule. Weapons will be returned, military outposts will be abandoned, and substantial compensation (bribe) will be paid. A reversion to the policy of the Raj in the region.

Whilst the exact details of any deal made with Mullah Oman remain unknown, it is clear that some form of ceasefire has been agreed and a more leisurely approach to hunting down the Taliban / al Quaeda in Pakistan been adopted. So far the US/NATO agreement not to go in "hot" pursuit when suspect guerillas crossing the border into Pakistan holds, but is the cause of much angst in Washington and the focus of much of President's Karzai's public criticism of Pakistan last week.

Against these formal agreements, alliances and "understandings" Pakistan has been gradually releasing up to 2,500 Taliban and al Qaeda militants from Pakistani jails - allegedly on the basis that they leave Pakistan.

These changes have been forced on Musharaff, who is increasingly in survival gear - he hopes that this will provide him with an umbrella of peace and safety. Fundamental forces are at work however ..

1. The influence of the Musharraf's Military Secret Police ISI have less control as the forces in Afghanistan , Patahn irregulars, Taliban , al Quaeda now have a lucrative and massive source of financing in the burgeoning opium trade.

2. NATO, it's political leaders, it's military top brass, it's forces , supposedly the leader in the counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan - quite distinct from the USSR before it will not mount, and are not prepared to mount a serious effort......

The Nato mission in Afghanistan was "absolutely critical for global security" and was backed by a UN resolution, Tony Blair said today ,when meeting Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, curently chairman of the EU, as NATO's ISAF took charge of the country's eastern provinces to add to their responsibilies in the rest of the country.

In a discussion on British Forces TV and Radio today Blair defended the role of the UK forces and NATO, "What our troops are doing in Afghanistan is of fundamental importance not just to the security of our country but [to] global security" BBC

He added, "

If we let Afghanistan be used again as a training ground for the export of terrorism, it turns up on our streets - it harms British citizens."

Responding to widespread press comment about poorly equiped troops he said,

"Let me just make one thing clear: if the commanders on the ground want more equipment, armoured vehicles for example, more helicopters, that will be provided".

He also somewhat mysteriously referred to a "package" the government was expected to announce "in the next few weeks" for troops fighting abroad - which has been widely "guessed" (with assistance from spin doctors ?) to mean a cash bonus.

The graph above (from the BBC) highlights the exiguous NATO effort in the country compared with the US - leading many to wonder how long the Alliance can survive. re,eber the Societs used (frutilessly) 150,000 ground troops and a massive air attack before deciding to leave.

3. It is evident that the Taliban and al Qaeda are successfully importing / utilising methods / strategy / tactics and weapons of insurgency developed in Iraq to central Asia. Such tactics and organizational approaches will work better in fertile and fissiparous Islamic Pakistan, due to its level of development, societal complexity and urbanization, than in Afghanistan.
Attempts on Musharaff will continue, on the apparatus of the state but increasingly we will see the process of state fragmentation being stepped up. For example on 24th of September 2006, when a disruption of power ( "a major technical fault in 500kW transmission line from Tarbela dam (Pic aerial view) led to the nationwide blackout" from the Tarbela dam on the Indus shut down electricity across 75% of Pakistan.

In a statement familiar to students of official lying, cloaking either incompetence or inconvenient truths, Shafqat Jalil, a spokesman for the state-run Water and Power Development Authority said, "There is no chance of sabotage because had it been so, it would have been reported to us by now".

The power failure spread in a matter of minutes, and rumors of a government change and dissolution of assemblies were rife and even resulted in Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi, in Dubai on his way to Sri Lanka for an official visit,rushed back to Islamabad to review the situation.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Sunday called for an enquiry and it is now said that the outage was "due to power surge during the routine maintenance of 500 Kv transmission line from Ghazi Barotha to Rewat and Ghatti." Yes.

Of course , Parvez has written his memoirs and no doubt has a healthy balance in several bank accounts scattered across the world, and the odd bolthole - hoping to evade the nemesis which attends previously the more democratic holders of his position - including the brother of Lord Patel's doctor.

Whether he stays or goes, does not remove the problem facing the US both in it's War on Terror - in which Parvez was rather blunt in pointing out the bleeding obvious and in maintaining their world hegemony and the cohesion of the Western alliance where Anti-Americanism is taking a vicious hold.

The pic at the head of this posting is from Ap and bears this interesting explanation.

A Pakistani bomb disposal expert 2R holds a rocket found in front of the Presidency in Islamabad, October 05. Pakistani authorities have found two rockets aimed at the headquarters of the country's elite intelligence agency, two days after rockets were defused near President Pervez Musharraf's official residence.(AFP JOURNAL INTERNET)

Curious priorities

On the BBC Radio 4 program "Any Questions?" the panel addressed, at great length ,the dilemma facing PC Alexander Omar Basha and his employers, the Metropolitan Police about his request to be moved to other duties than patrolling to protect the Israeli Embassy in Kensington.

PC Basha has never been allocated to this task but sought to be excused such duties because his wife is Lebanese and he has relatives there, and feared for his personal security.

PC Basha expressed concern (according to press reports) that he might be the focus of groups such as al-Muhajiroun and al-Ghurabaa (both now proscribed groups) - which has happened to some Muslim POLice officers, according to Superintendent Dal Babu, of the Association of Muslim Police Officers.

The decision by the Metropolitan Police to excuse him from one particular protection responsibility provoked controversy about whether police officers should be allowed to "pick and choose" their duties for moral reasons. Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairman, is reported to have said that Police officers should not be able to "pick and choose" their assignments: "I do not think it's right that the police should pick and choose."

Apparently "a risk assessment" was carried out when PC Basha raised the matter at the time of the of the invasion of Lebanon by Israel, and as a result of this, and "not because of the officer's personal views, whatever they might have been", it was decided not to deploy him to the embassy at that time.

There was much discussion by the Any Questions panel of personal beliefs, rights, duties, principles, managerial responsibility etc.,

Not a single person mentioned the fact that the reason the Israeli Embassy is in need of such protection , is because of the malignant internal and foreign policies their successive governments have undertaken, result widespread and well deserved contempt and hatred - which might be expressed by shows of dissent outside their leafy seclusion.

The avoidable deaths of women, mothers, the elderly, children, the new born, the still born in Gaza, the devastation and economic destruction of Lebanon was left untouched.

The lasting and abiding legacy of one million lethal cluster bombs deliberately despatched by the Israeli Defence (?) Forces in the dying hours of their occupation , as world opinion , resisted at every stage by the UK Government, (of which panel member and wannabe Deputy Prime Minister Peter Hain was a member) George Bush, Condoleezza Rice and the huge Zionist Lobby (which doesn't exist) finally forged a half hearted resolution at the UN.

That the personal concerns of PC Basha, whom we have trained , and for which he has volunteered, to patrol our streets, with a lethal weapon ready to kill on request and instruction of his officers - as we know happens from the events at Stockwell Tube station on 22nd July 2006.... are of legitiamate concern, but there are larger and more serious matters for discussion.

Those with a modestly good memory might recall Jack Straw , when Foreign Secretary in April 2002 called in Israeli Ambassador Zvi Shtauber (see Pic)to explain how "disturbed he was" by reports of hundreds of deaths and casualties in the Jenin refugee camp at the hands of the Israeli Defence Force....Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv, at the time, Sherard Cowper-Coles, expressed similar concerns to Israeli officials.

The Feds tell porkies over Foley evidence from CREW

On July 21, 2006 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent copies of the emails Foley sent to pages, to the FBI. CREW is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.

CBS News has reported that according to the FBI, when CREW gave the Bureau the original set of emails from Rep. Mark Foley to a former House page, they were “heavily redacted.”

On Monday, October 2, CREW sent a letter to the DOJ I.G.’s office, attaching exact copies of the emails CREW had sent to the FBI on July 21, 2006.

The former page’s name and the person to whom the page forwarded Rep. Foley’s emails were clearly visible. Moreover, after CREW sent the emails to the FBI, CREW’s only subsequent contact with the Bureau was one telephone call from the special agent to whom CREW had sent the material confirming that the emails were from Rep. Foley.

CREW have issued a press release late today part of which reads;

The Washington Post has reported that an unnamed FBI official stated that the Bureau decided not to investigate after concluding that the emails “did not rise to the level of criminal activity.”

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director said today, “the FBI cannot have it both ways; either it failed to investigate the Foley emails because they did not rise to a level of criminal activity or because it did not have adequate information to do so. Pick one.

“Attorney General Gonzales has told the public repeatedly that the investigation and prosecution of those who sexually exploit children is a top priority. We are outraged that the FBI failed to investigate Rep. Foley and is now blaming others for its inaction.

Glossary for non -limeys

Porkies - Rhyming slang, Porkies = Pork pies =lies

Google to take over You Tube

Bill Gates calls Lord Patel to tell him ... but Everyone denies it.... GooTube ? US$1.6 Bn mentioned.

UPDATE late Saturday from NYT

Chad Hurley, a founder of the company, has said that he prefers to stay independent. “We’re not even thinking about being acquired or going public,” he said in a meeting with New York Times editors and reporters last month.

A spokesman for Google declined to comment. A spokeswoman for YouTube did not return calls for comment.

UPDATE 9th October

Deal agree at stated US$1.65 Bn. along with agreements with major content providers about Copyright , Sony , Warner, etc., As Google have their own Video this represents simply brand value.

Finnish blonde accepts rape by US in name of War on Terror

An agreement has been reached on the supply by EU airlines of passenger data to the US. This has involved a marathon 7 hours trans-Atlantic video conference by EU diplomats. EU government representatives had not yet been formally notified, nor approved the deal.

The new arrangements involve the data being "pushed" to the to the US Department of Homeland Security, rather than being "pulled"... however the data will now be distributed to US counter-terrorism and border control agencies, the BBC reports.

"This new agreement will provide a possibility of giving passenger data to the US authorities while guaranteeing sufficient data protection," said Leena Luhtanen,(see pic) Justice Minister of Finland - the Finns currently provide the EU Presidency.

Whatever the deal is, and the details will probably never be made public, it is an interim agreement lasting until emd July 2007. The EU and the U.S hope to conclude a permanent agreement late next year.

Meanwhile the Belgian based SWIFT banking system is regularly sharing data with the US Treasury violating EU privacy rules. A European parliament hearing yesterday looked at these arrangements. Financial Times

Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, told the Brussels hearing yesterday that the ECB had known since 2002 about US demands for data from Swift. But he said the bank did not have the power to stop bank records being transferred to US anti-terror investigators. Absolute horseshit.

"Should we have informed European institutions? We did not consider it was our duty to . . . inform any other institution that would be competent."

Lie back and think of Brussels.
Stories ...
The Register The Daily Mail
Financial Times AP News EUObserver

Jack Straw - a veil to be drawn ?

Here is My namesake, Lord Patel, not , it has to be admitted wearing a veil, but through a lens darkly, on election night last May. He is looking so ectstatically happy because his very good friend Jack was returned yet again (albeit with a reduced majority) as MP for Blackburn.

He was however very much unhappier, as was his best friend Jack, when Jack's best friend Condileezza Rice visited Blackburn and was refused to be allowed to visit Lord Patel's mosque...as a result of Molana Desai and his friend's activities.

It was probably about this time that the embarassed (very) bitch told the President to tell Blair to ditch the bastard ... which is what he did at the first available opportunity.

Which still doesn't explain why Channel 4, BBC , Newsnight are so keen to interview members of the MPAC ranting on about hibjabs, jibjabs, etc., See "Jack Straws Veil of Deceit" on their site.

..or is this yet another attempt to flush out the ranting Islamo Fascist muslim jihadists, as per John Reid in Walthamstow ?

Foley Blitzkreig hits the Hill at holiday time

For a limey the speed of legal process in the US can be breathtaking. It was 7/7/2005 when 52 civilians were bombed to death in London and and inquiry hasn't been been set-up!

The House has at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's, (D-California) request passed HR 0165 IH ...

"Whereas these charges demand immediate investigation, including when the emails were sent, who knew of the emails, whether there was a pattern of inappropriate activity by Mr. Foley involving email or other contacts with pages, when the Republican leadership was notified, and what corrective action was taken once officials learned of any improper activity; and .....

Resolved, That--

(1) the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct are directed to immediately appoint a Subcommittee, pursuant to Rule 19 of the Rules of the Committee, to fully and expeditiously determine the facts connected with Representative Foley's conduct and the response thereto; and

(2) the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Standards are further directed to make a preliminary report within ten days."

Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Washington) and Ranking Minority Member Howard Berman (D-California) of the House Ethics Committee has issued 2 statements.Here and Here

The sub-committee has opened an expansive investigation approving nearly over 40 (so far) subpoenas for witnesses and documents.Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and Judith Biggert, R-Ill.,(whose constituency is next to Hastert's) will assist in the investigation.

A former page, Tyson Vivyan, now 26, is reported by AP from Atlanta to have been sent sexually suggestive computer messages in 1997 (when he was 17 and ceased being a page), from an anonymous sender with the screen name MAF54.... who turned out to be Foley (His initials and year of birth 1954). Vivyan has been interviewed by the FBI.(the law outlawing sexual solicitation online defines a minor as anyone under 18,)

O'Reilly on Fox video interview with Tyson Vivyan and Courtney Fine here

According to Vivyan apparently the pages referred to him in a running joke by the "moniker", FFF .. Foley the Fag from Florida, it wasn't stated that there were any copies of the Instant Messages that were sent.

As a result of the approach Vivyan, a self described politically savvy guy agreed to meet up with Foley and another page and shared a Pizza and coke.... he formed the opinion Foley had other things in mind.

Just the sort of thing that Mr & Mrs Red State Middle America want to hear/read about.

Let's just hope that Mr Foley in his alcoholics hideout - apparently he was rarely seen with a drink - is on a suicide watch. Don't want him suicided with a shot through the back of his head like that Foster guy.

UPDATE

ABC news has further stories from pages ..."Three More Former Pages Accuse Foley of Online Sexual Approaches"
In response to sam_m's comment here is a frame from the Fox O'Reilly fillum showing Fooley described (D-FL) - well spotted!

Solidarity forever - Tommy Sheridan October 2006 Red Pepper

Tommy Sheridan says he wants to build a different kind of organisation, not continue to fight internal battles in the SSP.

"The splitting of the Scottish Socialist Party is a sad but necessary stage in the development of socialism in Scotland. We in Solidarity, Scotland’s Socialist Movement, have decided not to continue to engage in tearing lumps out of each other in the SSP and have focused instead on building a broader socialist movement, which can reach and mobilise working people in Scotland. My only comment on my case is that when there is a battle between the most reactionary anti-socialist rag in the Murdoch press and a leading socialist, the members of the SSP executive who gave evidence to help the News of the World (against the decision of the SSP national council) were found wanting.

....In contrast, the launch rally of Solidarity was filled with outwardlooking speeches fuelled by socialist passion and not rancour. It was also attended by 600 people, twice the number at the SSP rally the day before, and was very representative of the Scotland we want to appeal to."

Read the rest at Red Pepper

Pic of Tommy with GG at Faslane ... curious how the Socialists in the New Labour Party don't want to talk about Trident, it's replacement by the US at UK expense and the inherent and implicit belief in nuclear war.

Hastert calls in the (Ex) Feds

The Guradian, based on an AP report says House Speaker Dennis Hastert will take responsibility for the unfolding Foley / page sex scandal and insists he will stay on as leader of House Republicans.

Hastert will ask former FBI director Louis Freeh to examine the page system and make recommendations on how to improve a program almost as old as the Congress itself.

That's the Louis Freeh who took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to criticise the 9/11 commission - criticism not yet answered .. or even addressed.

An Incomplete Investigation
Why did the 9/11 Commission ignore "Able Danger"?

BY LOUIS FREEH
Thursday, November 17, 2005

It was interesting to hear from the 9/11 Commission again on Tuesday. This self-perpetuating and privately funded group of lobbyists and lawyers has recently opined on hurricanes, nuclear weapons, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and even the New York subway system. Now it offers yet another "report card" on the progress of the FBI and CIA in the war against terrorism, along with its "back-seat" take and some further unsolicited narrative about how things ought to be on the "front lines."

.......

The 9/11 Commission gets an "I" grade--incomplete--for its dereliction regarding Able Danger. The Joint Intelligence Committees should reconvene and, in addition to Able Danger team members, we should have the 9/11 commissioners appear as witnesses so the families can hear their explanation why this doesn't matter.

An interesting choice, no doubt his Clintonan era credentials will help to assuage the Democrat fury.

G**gle Thought for the Day

In the US, email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act after 180 days...they simply become another database record. This means that a subpoena ...not a warrant is all that's needed to force Google / AOL / MS / etc., to produce a copy.

61% say Republicans protected Foley for years

The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2006 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a mid-term election.... they say. This is their latest poll. More analysis here.

Did Republican leaders just learn about Foley's problems or have they been protecting him for years?

Have just learned about it 21%
Protected Foley for years 61%

To put this into perspective they also report Madonna World Tour: 41% Say Staged Crucifixion “Offensive”

October Surprise - Hastert - wants to talk to pages who were propositioned

House Speaker, Dennis Hastert's office announced a toll-free number 866-348-0481 that former pages can use as a tip line to report any past improper conduct.

The greeting for the tip line is as follows:

“Thank you for calling the tip line for the United States House of Representatives. If you have information regarding former Congressman Mark Foley and his contacts or communications with any current or former House Pages, or any other information or concern about the House Page program, please leave your information at the tone. Please speak slowly and clearly, and please spell out any names to which you refer. You are encouraged, but not required, to leave your name and contact information. You should be aware of any information you provide may be referred to federal and state law enforcement authorities and/or to House investigative authorities. Thank you for your call.”


In the spirit of enquiry of course - no intention of gagging them.

Meanwhile Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean denied that openly gay senior congressional aide Kirk Fordham notified House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office more than two years ago about possible inappropriate contact between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and underage congressional pages.

Hastert's office quotes the Speaker ..."“As the Speaker I take responsibility for everything in the building. The buck stops here. The safety and security of the students in the Page program is imperative. "

BBC4 Radio News PM prgram at 6.00 pm BST says that a secretive Press Conference has been called by the Speakers Office in the next few hours and speculate he is to announce his resignation.

Republican Pedophilia - a Long but Distinguished List

Bring it On! has an item, "Republican Pedophilia - a Long but Distinguished List" by Steve O posted on Monday. There is another (different but overlapping) list at Huffington Post as well.

Initially this list was viewed with a jaundiced eye, 63 items, culminating in "Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency. See excerpt of one prisoner’s report here and his full report here." (WARNING these are very graphic descriptions)

Whilst the offence(s) detailed were real, to pin it entirely on Rummy seemed a bit of a stretch, although his fucking incompetence can be blamed for many things in Iraq.

So I selected entirely at random an item to investigate a bit deeper. "Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped." (see pic (c) Alpha Epsilon Pi)

The link took me to an item in the New Jersey Star Ledger for January 28th 2005 - a story which can be found on other sites.

Broadly, it concerns James Bidwell of Georgia, pleading guilty in 2002 to sexual assault and child pornography charges relating to a 5 year old and copies he sent of the videotape he made to Canada and England. He is now serving 45 years in prison.

The Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force used the new "file sifting" software to track the video clip and found that 10,500 computers worldwide had downloaded this videoclip, including 6,500 in the United States and 42 in New Jersey alone

The program works by tracking a unique signature code that is embedded in a digital image when it is created. Once a signature code is known, investigators can search the Internet and trace the image to every computer that sent or received it. This can also track didgital music tracks.

An agent from Wyoming alerted the NJ State Police in October 2004(?)with the IP address of the 42 computers that downloaded the video - clip.

NJ detective then began a 2 month investigation that included background checks and surveillance to identify the suspects and produce enough evidence to obtain search warrants. Search warrants were execeuted beginning Jan. 17.

36 suspects during early morning raids were picked up on the 27th January 2005.

Remarkably ( to a limey) these were named publicly and included ;
Pediatric neurosurgeon Ross B. Finesmith, 43, of Basking Ridge is a clinical instructor in the Department of Neurology at New York University Medical Center.

Andrew R. Friedman, 27, of Morristown has been an assistant hockey coach with the Kinnelon High School hockey team in Morris County for two years.

Frederick A. Karge, a 21-year-old registered Megan’s Law offender from Jackson was a pharmaceutical technician.

and ..

Defense attorney Jeffrey Patti, 36, of Sparta,(Member of Executive Board - Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish Fraternity of North America) who is married with two daughters, ages 2 and 6 months, Patti and his father, Frank, are partners in a Sparta law firm, and he also served at the time as the municipal chairman of the Sussex County Republican Committee.
The New Jersey Herald Thursday, March 23, 2006

Reports that Jeffrey Patti, 37, appeared in court Wednesday 22nd March afternoon for the first open-court hearing since the charges against him were filed in January 2005. Previous legal proceedings had been done over the phone and in the judge's chambers.

Patti was initially charged with both possession (Patti possessed the images between Oct. 15, 2003, and Nov. 22, 2004.) and distribution of child pornography, but a Mercer County grand jury August 2005, indicted him only on the possession charge, the less serious of the two. At most, that charge could carry up to 18 months in prison; but, for a first-time offender, the more likely sentence would be probation.

With no previous, Patti elected to go on the PreTrial Intervention (PTI) program but this was refused. Patti's defense lawyer defense lawyer John Furlong proposed a motion to challenge the state's rejection of Patti for PTI... and asked for a hearing without the Press .." in order to keep "extremely inflammatory" statements from reaching the public domain."

Judge Thomas Critchley Jr., taken aback by Furlong's request, said he had never closed a criminal hearing to the public.

It appears from the report that Patti admitted downloading illicit images but said he did so accidentally, in the course of obtaining adult pornography through file-sharing software.

Critchley said the images found on Patti's computer included "a very inappropriate video (depicting) a very young child in a very inappropriate sexual act" as well as "several other inappropriate images."

The New Jersey Herald May 10th 2006

NJ State Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley admitted Patti into the Pre Trial Initiative program Tuesday May 9th 2006, for a period of 36 months. Special conditions of PTI require Patti to surrender computer equipment seized during the investigation, continue with psychological treatment for as long as is necessary, have no unsupervised contact with children under 16 years old who are not his own and use the Internet only for legal research.

Patti, a 37-year-old father of two young girls, must also complete 100 hours of community service and pay approximately $200 in fines and penalties, the judge said.

Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sharpe declined to appeal a state Superior Court judge's ruling allowing Patti into pre-trial intervention, a probationary program for low-level offenders that if completed successfully removes criminal charges from a person's record.In this case in 3 years.

Pattis' lawyer Furlong is reported saying...""I represent sexual offenders of every stripe," Furlong said. "Of all the offenders I've met — and I can tell you I've met some pretty strange people — Jeff definitely doesn't fit the profile of a predatory personality."

Ross B.Finesmith,(44) M.D.License No. MA 05 8 19 voluntarily surrendered his licence on July 14th 2005 on being indicted for "knowingly possessing or knowingly viewing a
photograph, computer program or file which depicts a child engaging ..."

At the time of his arrest he was bailed on US$25,000 and his attorney Alain Leibman of Woodbridge, released a statement in which Finesmith denied all charges.

Despite a fairly intensive trawl I can find no more references to the named suspects / defendents any trials , judgements realting to the origanl haul of 39 suspects.

Not a topic that has appeared here before, the scale of usage of this stuff, the stupidity of the people caught, the ease of detection of offenders and the law's delay in dealing with them when caught is unsettling.

The effect on Sussex County GOP ? well their website says ..

Sussex County is THE strongest Republican county in the State of New Jersey, with both of our US Congressmen, all 3 of our State Legislators, all 5 of our County Freeholders and all 3 of our Constitutional Officers proudly wearing the GOP label. And the overwhelming majority of Mayors and municipal elected officials are also proud to be Republican.

No mention of paedophiles.

The World according to Michael O'Leary

• "For years flying has been the preserve of rich fuckers. Now everyone can afford to fly."
• "Screw the travel agent. Take the fuckers out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?"
• "We don't fall all over ourselves if they... say my granny fell ill. What part of no refund don't you understand? You are not getting a refund so fuck off."
• "Weber (Lufthansa CEO) says Germans don't like low fares. How the fuck does he know? He's never offered them any. The Germans will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get them"
• There is too much: 'we really admire our competitors'. All bollocks. Everyone wants to kick the shit out of everyone else. We want to beat the crap out of BA. They mean to kick the crap out of us."
• "They don't call us the fighting Irish for nothing. We have been the travel innovators of Europe! We built the roads and laid the rails. Now it's the airlines!"
• "Free tickets. In a decade or so, airlines will pay travellers to distribute people around Europe. The airline industry is Tesco, is Ikea, is network TV in the way viewers watch for free and advertisers pay for access to them, is the internet in the same way that websites earn money for delivering click-through traffic to other sites."

Ryanair takes Lord Patel's advice

Diminutive, open necked, self opinionated , and hugly successful business genius, Mr Michael "Ducksie" O'Leary (45) , Ryanair chief executive has made an offer for Aer Lingus (AERL : LSE) that no-one could refuse. In a move that surprised everyone ( O'Leary pledged to make Ryanair Europe's biggest airline operation within 5 years in 2002 ***), but Lord Patel who told him to on September 25th.

This gives subscribers to the IPO last week a 28% gain and a premium on closing price yesterday of about 15%. The offer values Aer Lingus' shares at €2.80 each (last trading this morning at about that price).

The cheeky bog trotter (educated at Clongowes Wood, the "Eton" of Ireland, Trinity, Dublin qualified as an accountant at KPMG) he points out that given the current share structure that gives the Irish Government will realise over €500m from the sale of their Aer Lingus shares (30%), and the (unionised) employees (15%) will realise over €220m = €60,000 per employee.

Whilst gobby O'Leary has always decried Heathrow, this would give him prized slots at , where the antique airline has the 4th highest number of slots after BA, bmi and Lufthansa.

...and of course if he drops plans to sue the British Government over the "terror" fiasco, (on which some back-peddling has been noticeable lately) , they won't be too anxious to press for EU regulators to stop the plan going ahead.

Now if the Cyprus Government decides to sell off Cyprus Airways .....

The O'Leary Glossarium

EEC = morons
BAA = overcharging rapists
UK air traffic control service = poxy
BA = expensive bastards
Travel agents = fuckers who should be taken out and shot
Advice to "greens" - "sell your car and walk"
Sustainable aviation = " another bunch of lemmings shuffling to the cliff edge"

***January 2002 O'Leary ordered 100 737's with options on a further 50. This is the single largest order Boeing has had for the 800 series.

CLOSE OF BUSINESS

The Irish Government have rejected the bid, Ryanair now owns 16% of the airline, and a lot of leverage about how Dublin airport is run , will be extended and rebuilt. The shares closed slightly above the offer price.

Ilinois Rep. Mafia feel the heat.

First Lady Laura Bush went to Buffalo yesterday - Niagara Marriott in Amherst. She was slated as the keynote speaker at a luncheon honoring Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds who is running for re-election against Democrat and Akron businesman Jack Davis. Davis spokesman Curtis Ellis said on Monday he did not know if the Democrats would run campaign ads highlighting Reynolds' role in the page matter. A September 28th Survey USA, shows Tom Reynolds leading Jack Davis by a margin of 45% to 43% with the Green party candidate receiving 8% support and 4% undecided.The Green Party is now out of the race.

Reynolds said he was told by fellow Congressman Rodney Alexander in the "spring" about some "overly friendly" e-mails and, though he never saw the exchanges, then alerted his boss, House Speaker Dennis Hastert about the issue.


To jog the reader's memory here are Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a Regional Conference on Helping America's Youth,Indiana University / Purdue University Indianapolis University Place Conference Center, Indianapolis, Indiana June 6, 2006

"Those challenges are far greater today than they were for children just a generation ago. Drugs and gangs, predators on the Internet, violence on television and in real life are just some of the negative influences present everywhere today."

This is what Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) ( big Hastert supporter and fellow Illinois republican mafioso) said on CNN to defend his proposal to scrap the pages program. According to the transcript, (from Carpetbagger) LaHood didn't exactly do the Republican caucus any favors.

LAHOOD: It just — it's a program that simply is flawed. It has its flaws. We should fix it. And then if it's a valuable program, perhaps bring it back.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's kind of a sorry state of affairs. In essence, what you're saying is that members of Congress can't be trusted to be around young people.

LAHOOD: Well, that's pretty obvious.

Laura Bush spoke very strongly in support of Reynolds and then launched into a very strong defence of the actions of the President.

"Offering young people the hope of good employment is one of the most important things we can do for our children. Another way we can help young people is by steering them away from dangerous behaviors and guiding them toward the knowledge and the self-respect they need to build successful lives."

"Thank you so much for coming out to support Tom. Thanks for your generous support for his reelection. I urge you to redouble your efforts between now and November to make sure Tom Reynolds is reelected to the United States Congress."

But Kirk Fordham, Reynolds chief of staff for about a year, who had previously been Foley's chief of staff, resigned. Saying he had done nothing wrong and only quit to avoid becoming a distraction. Yes !That's right! Reynolds current Chief of Staff is Foley's ex-Chief of Staff. Oh, the ties that bind!

“I have resigned today from Congressman Tom Reynolds’ office,” Fordham said in a statement yesterday. “It is clear the Democrats are intent on making me a political issue in my boss’s race, and I will not let them do so.”

However the accusation that Fordham tried to cut a deal with ABC News, trading an exclusive interview for the suppression of Foley’s more explicit e-mails won't go away. Certainly not when Reynolds admitted yesterday that Fordham’s attempts to stop ABC News from posting sections of the e-mails on its Web site in exchange for an exclusive interview with Reynolds were (beautiful political weasel word coming up) “inappropriate.”

Pic. Reynolds hired a nursery and a load of kids to run a pres conference to say what a good guy he is / was....prostituting kids in a different role.... they look as though they are enjoying it ?

Watch this space. Meanwhile essential Reading Glenn Greenwald

"After all, even now that this conduct has been exposed, their instinct -- all the way to the highest levels -- is to excuse and defend those leaders and offer up the most disgusting defenses -- all because preservation of their political power depends on it. This is not some bizarre aberration. This is how they operate and it is what they are. And the Mark Foley scandal is making it virtually impossible for anyone to convincingly deny it any longer."

Mugabe on the brink

Izak Daniel Nel and Gert Cornelius Terblanche, are brothers-in-law. They are farmers with holdings in Zimbabwe bought in 1986. They are white.They are South African.

State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa is reported to have personally issued them with a 90 day eviction order, an order they have defied and as a result they appeared in a Karoi magistrates’ court on Tuesday to resist the Order.

Their lawyer claims, “The effects of Mr Mutasa’s order – which in fact wasn’t served up properly and in accordance of the law – was that his notice to vacate violated the principles of Zimbabwean government Investment Centre Act, which is promulgated by parliament and has not been repealed.”

Mutasa, who oversees what he calls the land reform programme, says they are farming illegally on a state farm, which they deny, and they have carried on farming since the threats of evictions started. Theire estates called Dundazi in Mashonaland West province are said to be some of the best tobacco, maize and wheat growers in the country, and have just delivered 5,000 tonnes of maize to the Grain Marketing Board.

The 2 farmers had shown their commitment for land reform way back in 1997, by subdividing the farm for resettlement. This happened as part of an agreement with the local District Administrator that half of the farm would be given to settlers and a successful business programme and working relationship is said to have been working with the settlers since 1997.

The other half of the farm, which is co-shared and divided into two plots by the brothers-in-law, produces 2 500 tonnes of wheat and 500 tonnes of tobacco.

It is said that their farmland is earmarked for a Mr. Day Muyambo – who already has two farms in the Chipinge area – and is using his sister’s name Delina Muyambo to acquire Terblanche’s plot. Lot One which is owned by Nel is allegedly going to a man known as Mr C. Matsika who is said to own Twin Rivers Hotel in Karoi and also has business interests in South Africa. He is said to have farming interests in a farm called Wingate in that province.

A decision on the Karoi trial is expected on Friday but the brothers in law's lawyer, David Drury, said the Mutasa case is incompetent and has no effect, as it is being heard in the wrong court.

Drury said the magistrate’s court has no power to deal with eviction matters; “Where the commercial value, possession of the land, crops and so on exceeds the magistrate’s court jurisdiction – which has the monetary value of ZW$50 000. These people have crops on the ground which exceeds that by many thousands or hundreds of million dollars.”

It is claimed that this case is the deflection point on a total white exodus of the remaining 3,000 white farmers - many of whom have fled to Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria.

With 80% unemployment, 1,200% annual inflation .. it is difficult to see how Waitrose and M & S will be providing their Zimbabwean prepared sugar snaps for much longer.

PhytoTrade Africa, the Southern African Natural Products Trade Association, is Africa’s only trade association dedicated to the development of a Fair Trade and environmentally sustainable natural products industry.Visit their website to see how you can help.

Top Cops to drop the 'Y' word...“a f***ing nightmare” says Sir Bob

Professor Rod Morgan is the chairman of the Youth Justice Board an independent ministerial advisory body on young people in the criminal justice system.

Last June 13 he asked politicians and the media to stop calling children 'yobs' and warned that Britain risks demonising a generation of young people. BBC report

'We use the word "yob" (he said) without distinguishing between very young children - who haven't chosen their parents, their neighbourhoods or their circumstances and can't walk away from them - and young adults,' he said. 'I don't think the word "yob" should ever be used in relation to young children.'

On the one hand, children represented the country's aspirations for the future in sport and music, on the other, they were being condemned by the Prime Minister as thugs in hooded tops.

That was over a year ago.

POLICE A BIT SLOW IN LISTENING AND LEARNING

In a document on Safer Neighbourhoods by Chief Superintendent Steve Bloomfield stated that Scotland Yard was "proactively tackling gangs and yobs across London" and was presented to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) last week.

Cindy Butts, the MPA's deputy chairman, told top cop Kratos expert, Lord Levy's kidnapper , Sir Ian Blair, that the term was 'alienating'. Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin agreed, saying: "I'm sorry about that. We won't use that again."

Afterwards Mr Godwin confirmed that the use of 'yobs' would not be repeated in Met documentation and was now officially banned, although Labour pledged in its 2005 manifesto to “exclude yobs from town centres”.

Giving the BBC's annual Dimbleby lecture last year Sir Ian Blair said: "Society is demanding answers and actions to deal with feral children, hoodies and yobs."

No nonsense and fewer brains, Tory MPA member Richard Barnes said: "When we hear the word 'yobs' we all know what we're talking about".

US citizen Rupe Murdoch's super soaraway Sun sez

"The Sun is campaigning to get gangs off our streets — and is not afraid of the Y-word.

We want tougher sentences for violent yobs, pressure on yobs’ parents and more action to lock up yob ringleaders.

"Blair bid to tackle yobs" ( Sun Headline yesterday)

TONY Blair last night backed The Sun’s campaign, saying problem kids should be tackled before they are even born....

There will also be a computer system to track children at risk. And parents will be told they must accept Government help.

The Sun haven't said if their bogus shoplifting story today about Bob Geldof's daughter Peaches (see pic) “I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I’m a good girl.” is part of the Sun's / Tony Blair's campaign.

The UK Department for Education and Skills builds Paedophile's database

Since posting about the activities of US military giant General Dynamics subsidiary Antaeon UK fingerprinting UK schoolkids, Lord Patel is delighted to discover that there is an active network of concerned and interested people campaigning against this sinister policy

Primary Agitators - Leave them Kids Alone - Go and have a look. http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/

Naked Law writes that The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Information Commissioner have confirmed that parents cannot necessarily prevent schools from taking their children's fingerprints. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 a child, if of sufficient maturity, can give the necessary consent for processing of their personal data, and it is up to the school to determine whether a child is capable of fully understanding the proposed use of their data and therefore being of a sufficient age to consent to their biometrics being taken.

See more about the DFES position here.

Statewatch relates the news from the EU legislators...EU states will be free to fingerprint children from day one of their life as soon as it is technologically possible

- "scanning of fingerprints: up to 12 years of age.. if provided for by national legislation... from 12 years of age: Compulsory" (EU doc no: 9403/1/06)

- "The decisions are being made in secret meetings based on secret documents - people and parliaments are to have no say in the decision"

Kablenet reports that Holland Park School in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, is installing an attendance system - for children not teechers.

The council ..."also denied that the database is being developed to as part of the government's controversial proposal to build a Children's Index, a national database of under 12s." ...of which you can read more here.... but read on.

It may (or may not - but it probably is) be of interest that The Director of Technology at the Department for Education and Skills Michael Stevenson is leaving the civil service. He had been in position for less than a year.

A DfES spokesperson is reported saying the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) with The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)will take forward the "critical delivery work" with children's centres, schools, colleges and universities - which is expected to push forward the e-strategy Harnessing Technology.

"Although this is an important new direction, it is not something that Michael felt able to commit himself to for the three years it will need. He is therefore leaving the civil service to pursue other opportunities."

All this very sinister state driven hi-tech building of databases is being tried out on children as a result of the ideas proposed in 2003 with the Every Child Matters Green paper in the wake of the death of Victoria Climbié which highlighted the managerial confusion that reigned in dealing with her case.

The Government is planning developing an "Information Sharing Index" which will identify every child in England . It will cost a total £224m over the next three years. This includes the cost of ensuring the original data supplied to the index is accurate ( Qua ?), that there are robust systems in place to ensure security, and that staff are trained to use the index properly. Operating costs will be £41m per year.It is due to go live by end 2008.

According to (the then) Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly, the Index ( a truly gargantuan and Orwellian scheme) is a key part of the Every Child Matters "programme to transform children's services by supporting more effective prevention and early intervention. Its goal is to improve outcomes and the experience of public services for all children, young people and families."

Kelly says that better information sharing is "essential for early and effective intervention", and adds that the Index "will provide a tool to support better communication among practitioners across education, health, social care and youth offending. It will allow them to contact one another more easily and quickly, so they can share information about children who need services or about whose welfare they are concerned."

The DfES claims 3-4 million children have "additional needs which should be addressed if they are to achieve the Every Child Matters outcomes" , but as we can't identify them ...well we need a record on every one of the 11 million schoolchildren - centrally, accessible by well, it appears every Government Agency you can think of. Sledghammers and nuts syndrome.

So lots of people from all sorts of organisations throughout the country will access this Index - impossible to secure or police whether access is local, remote or mobile.

Ruth Kelly is off now and clearing up the ordure of the Deputy Prime Ministers office, her successor , smiling, smug, second hand car salesman, RT HON Alan Johnson MP and his sidekick (another privy Councillor) the discredited RT HON Beverley Hughes MP, will no doubt be able provide a detailed explanation of how this system will be made secure - or even why it is necessary - perhaps this may not be unconnected with the reasons the Director of Technology at the Department for Education and Skills Michael Stevenson is leaving the civil service. ... who is said to be "He is ... leaving the civil service to pursue other opportunities."

Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 983 / CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS, ENGLAND / The Information Sharing Index (England) Regulations 2006 were made 30th March 2006 and came into effect the following day... ie without debate or discussion.

Data matching trials have been undertaken it was announced quietly on September 6th.

The data matching trials for the index are now complete....

Samples of basic child data were requested from the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, the Department for Education and Skills and from nine local authorities (i.e Social Service Departments, YOT's etc.,

"The results show good matching rates between the main national datasets. They support the strategy of initially loading the index from existing government databases."

Taking your children's fingerprints is only the beginning, they are already quite legally swapping, sharing, matching, and acting on data provided for other reasons at other times for other purposes.

But don't worry.."The trials were conducted in a secure environment." ..... and will the professionals accessing the system due to be fully implements by end 2008 in 148 Local Authorities, Courts, Police, Hospitals, be operating in a "secure environment"?

Just to remind you..."Under the Data Protection Act 1998 a child, if of sufficient maturity, can give the necessary consent for processing of their personal data,"

Scary.

POSTSCRIPT

Ignoring the privacy issues (and the attitude to date of the Data Commissioner this looks like history) you just know this is another Government inspired computerised fuck up just waiting for the road accident to happen.... "Paedophiles get children's data from Gubment networks !!!" ... "Perverts mine Children's database for contacts". ... "Parents demand answers."

Anyone remember Geoffrey Prime ? His activities came to light due to his involvement in the Paedophile Information Exchange who swapped information about children. He kept meticulous records on 2,287 record cards, bearing notes and photographs of little girls.

Italia telecom go on strike

In a walk out today , over plans to split Italia Telecom to facilitate a sell off of the mobile TIM company, 80 percent of the company's 63,000 employees observed the strike (plnned 2 weeks ago) according to the left-wing CGIL union.... amidst talk that the secretive US based Carlyle Group may become owners of TIM.

"Tronchetti Provera, you'll be in jail soon," the protesters shouted at a Milan rally, in reference to a scandal involving illegal wiretapping that landed a former security official in prison two weeks ago. "We have to keep the group in one piece and keep it firmly in Italian hands. We need clarity because we are worried about the future," said CISL union leader Raffaele Bonanni .

About 1,000 workers held a demonstration in northern Milan, where the debt-laden group's outgoing chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera (He resigned on September 18th) drew harsh criticism, an AFP photographer at the scene reported."

Telecom Italia 1 year share price graph.

Bush - the real world appears before him

The White House have just snook out a massive and major change in biltaral relations in a Press release yesterday.


Consistent with the authority vested in him by the Constitution and the laws of the United States,the President / Commander in Chief has determined that ..

"it is important to the national interest of the United States to waive the prohibition of section 2007(a) of the 2002 Act with respect to Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Kenya, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay with respect to military assistance provided under the International Military Education and Training program, chapter 5 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.); and he waives prohibition of section 2007(a) with respect to the military assistance described above with respect to these countries.

What this means is that the nations named, who have refused to sign an Article 98 agreement in which they bilaterally agreed not to bring "the other’s current or former government officials, military or other personnel before the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court", protecting US military personnel from prosecution for War Crimes, can now receive US "military aid".

Informed readers will remember how Doug Feith scuttled around the failed Soviet States getting them to sign such bilateral agreements before handing out massive aid for military bases, hardware etc.,

Sharp eyed readers will note how a mass of states in South America and Caribbean, impenetrable to the blandishments of Bantz Craddock and SOUTHCOM can now expect lavish amounts of military aid, and general interference with their defence affairs, Ditto the Balkan states of Croatia and Serbia and a clutch of Central African States.

So that's more good news for the Military Industrial complex... just ahead of an election that needs some serious money spending to preserve Republican vigour.

Real politik.

Nut threatens Bush - and has done for years.

Michael Lee Braun, 51, who has a master's degree in radiological physics and a law degree worked as a nuclear engineer at Rancho Seco (closed 1984) .He appeared yesterday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on 2 federal charges of sending threats through the mail. The FBI said he also is a suspect in mailing dozens of similar threats since shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The charges relate to two letters prosecutors said Braun mailed on Thursday to the Serrano Country Club and Serrano Visitors Center in El Dorado Hills, a expensive gated community in the foothills east of Sacramento. The letters contained threats to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, according to a statement from the FBI.

Bush is scheduled to appear at the country club Tuesday afternoon in a campaign event for Doolittle, who represents a heavily Republican district near Sacramento.

A federal affidavit filed with the case further alleges that Braun had sent 51 such letters, including the two most recent ones, since 2001. The letters threatened the lives of the president, Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"Each of the letters contained a written threat, usually death by some kind of WMD agent (anthrax, toxic chemical poison, radioactive dust or improvised explosives) and some unknown, white, powdery substance, or items simulating a possible letter/package improvised explosive device," according to the affidavit by Special Agent Timothy Lester.

The white substance usually turned out to be baking soda, the affidavit said.

Looks like the Feds are really on top of these terrist threats.

Airbus in deep financial shit merde

Airbus chief Christian Streiff has found the level of financial ordure somwhat deeper than he anticipated when taking on the job recently and is planning Euro 2Bn cuts (£1.4 Bn) . Major cutbacks are expected in the UK and closure of the Hamburg 380 production line and the move of more production to China.

This could also imperil the sale of BAE 's 20% share, details of which still need to be agreed and finalised.

Suddeutsche Zeitung reports Chancellor Angela Merkel held a crisis meeting with her top ministers over the weekend.Thomas Mirow, the German finance secretary, has suggested ina form of creeping nationalisation that the state take up the Daimler EADS stock.

The French Government through Caisse des Depots has bought stock from the media group Lagardere to increase their share from 15% to 17.5 %.

The UK Unions will meet management in Toulouse later this week - the UK Gubment will make some noises but do nothing.

Would't it be a jolly surprise if the jolly Chinese offered to buy in ?

There is an excellent article , especially about German interests in EADS / Daimler in Der SPIEGEL

Telecom Italia - CIA - suicides - electronic surveillance - Rupert Murdoch

Telecom Italia, was completely privatized in 1997,it dominates the Italian market with 70% of the fixed-line business. It is the 6th biggest Italian company by market value. It is at the centre of a scandal, such as only the Italians can brew.

Olimpia holding company - owned by Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera and Bennetton - controls TI with an 18 percent stake which they built up in 2001.

TI is heavily leveraged, with debts of about 41 billion euros ($52 billion including the 14 billion euros ($17.7 billion) it spent 18 months ago to buy the rest of TIM the remaining Italian based mobile player.

On September 11th -TI announced it planned to chop its mobile and fixed-line units into separate businesses "to focus on content" contrary to the belief by the rest of the world market in "convergence" - this was an unexpected change of strategy that appeared to signal the sale of TIM.(see FOOTNOTE)

Prime Minister Romano Prodi was outraged because he hadn't been consulted....but , Angelo Rovati a close Prodi adviser, resigned when 2 newspapers obtained a document recommending that the Italian State buy back a part of Telecom Italia. Rovati said he had acted on his own, without informing Prodi.

Berlusconi (Italy's richest man - and very good friend of Tony Blair) was fingered as a buyer of TI but said he wasn't in the business of buying other people's debts.

Then last week 21 arrests were made, bank accounts frozen, with tales of the state using TI to spy on 100,000 Italians, prosecutors have linked secret bank accounts in Monte Carlo to both Tronchetti Provera (who has now quit - see pic from Republicca) and to Telecom Italia’s chief executive, Carlo Buora , according to the La Repubblica newspaper.

Among those arrested were

1. Giuliano Tavaroli, the head of security for Telecom Italia until May 2005
2. Pierguido Iezzi, the current head of security for Pirelli.
3. Emanuele Cipriani, who runs a private investigation company called Polis d'Istinto in Florence.

Milan prosecutors also Swiss and Luxenbourg ank accounts that contained €15 Mn. (US$19 Mn.), and sequestered a house in Florence worth €2 million.

Giuliano Tavaroli occupied the key national position to which were passed all authorized requests by magistrates to make wiretaps, resigned and was under investigation by the Milan Prosecutors for association in violating privacy.

In the computers of Emanuele Cipriani, the magistrates have found a huge archive of files regarding magistrates, political persons, football players and referees - all the major figures in the recent scandals in Italy. Apparently, wiretaps that could have been used to blackmail them were also found during the investigation.

TIM it transpires had an anti-fraud program for the mobile phone network called RADAR the system had a "flaw" that allowed hackers to enter the Telecom system without leaving a trace and was capable of recording sensitive information about millions of Italians. RADAR was was run by a man called Adamo Bove, an investigation cop and a leading expert on electronic surveillance.

According to Paolo Biondani of the Corriere ( confirmed in detail by the Repubblica) that according to testimony by Bove's ex-colleagues in Milan, it was Adamo Bove who helped the Milan magistrates identify and reconstruct the mobile phone traffic during the kidnapping of Abu Omar in Milan on February 17, 2003. It was this crucial investigative work that led to arrest warrants for 26 American (CIA ?) agents and many of their Italian accomplices. It was Bove's boss Giuliano Tavaroli who was implicated as a source of information via the Secret Service (SISMI) which enabled his kidnap.

On Friday June 21st 2006, just after 12 noon, Adamo Bove fell to his death on a motorway in Naples. He had just left his wife to do some errands in town while he headed home. On an overpass he stopped his car, put on the emergency lights, and apparently jumped to his death, presumably making sure there were no oncoming vehicles on the highway some thirty meters below him.

The reflexive verb in Italian , suicidarsi, "to kill oneself," can be used in its rare transitive form, suicidare, as in "Bove was suicided by the CIA."

Vide - The Greek counterpart of Bove who discovered tapping of Greek politicians mobiles - eavesdropping was transmitted in real time via four antennae located near the U.S. embassy in Athens, according to an 11-month Greek government investigation. Some of these transmissions were sent to a phone in Laurel, Md., near America's National Security Agency.

In March 2005, Costas Tsalikidis, a 38-year-old software engineer for Vodaphone in Greece had just discovered a highly sophisticated bug embedded in the company's mobile network. The spyware eavesdropped on the prime minister's and other top officials' cell phone calls including the car phone of Greece's secret service chief. Others bugged included civil rights activists, the head of Greece's "Stop the War" coalition, journalists and Arab businessmen based in Athens. All the wiretapping began about two months before the Olympics were hosted by Greece in August 2004.

Tsalikidis, according to friends and family, was excited about his work and was looking forward to marrying his longtime girlfriend. On March 9, 2005, his elderly mother found him hanging from a white rope tied to pipes outside of his apartment bathroom. His limp feet dangled a mere three inches above the floor.

Vodaphone's top executive in Greece reported to the Prime Minister that unknown outsiders had illicitly eavesdropped on top government officials. Before making his report, however, the CEO had the spyware destroyed, even though this destroyed the evidence as well.

FOOTNOTE

The (prospective) buyer of TIM - the TI mobile network ? Mr Rupert Murdoch, US Citizen.

Watch this space....FT Story October 4th 2006 interview with Marco Tronchetti Provera, which confirms that Prodi knew what was going on, and that Rupert Murdoch was in the frame to buy TIM.

Andy Hayman - the sewage principle - the solid bits float to the top.

Daily Mail 9 July 2005

EXCLUSIVE: THE HUNT
Exclusive By Jeff Edwards And Chris Hughes

Andy Hayman, the Met's Assistant Commissioner and terrorism co-ordinator, said: "The bombers are all certain to have been caught on many cameras during their journey to and on the Underground.

"They were not masked so we will end up with very good pictures that will identify them."

One theory is that because the attacks were in the north and north east parts of Central London, the bombers may live close to that area or have travelled in by train from Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire or beyond.

They think all four bombers travelled separately with a bomb containing about 5lbs of plastic explosive hidden in a rucksack or holdall.

Police believe the terrorists used timing devices, possibly mobile phone alarm clocks, to set off the bombs. The are not thought to have triggered them remotely by mobile phone calls - like the Madrid bombings - because the signals cannot be picked up on the Tube.

Detectives believe each bomber set the timer just before the train pulled into a station, dumped the bag on the floor and got off as the doors closed. The bombs exploded within 60 seconds in standing areas close to the doors, blowing huge holes through the floors.

The Guradian Thursday September 29, 2005
Met's Andrew Hayman tells of July 7 and the struggle to prevent further atrocities

Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent

" ....A tough detective who speaks in staccato sentences, Mr Hayman admits he was deeply affected by the bombings. "None of us wanted to leave London, even for a few hours. I crashed in London for weeks. I just couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Everyone just kept going. The CCTV team never went home, just napped on the office floor for nights on end. Their eyes went bloodshot they were so determined to keep scanning the tapes."

The scale of the July 7 investigation is something no British police force has experienced before - 80,000 CCTV tapes..... " ...one CCTV tape had been shredded into several hundred pieces when we recovered it, and that was all painstakingly spliced back together."

The Guradian Friday September 15, 2006
Shake-up for anti-terror policing

Proposal for one police chief to oversee up to 10 regional squads

Vikram Dodd

A national terrorism tsar overseeing up to 10 new regional squads is to be created under proposals being drawn up by the government's policing watchdog.....It will say a new post of national counter-terrorism coordinator should be created with power over eight to 10 new regional terrorism squads based in England and Wales.

The new role could go to Andy Hayman, who heads special operations including counter-terrorism for Scotland Yard. But he has also built links across the police service in his role as chair of the terrorism committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Belfast Telegraph Sunday 24 September 2006

Ronnie's terror tsar plan for UK

By Ciaran McGuigan
Belfast Telegraph Sunday 24 September 2006

Former RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan is to tell the Government to install a terrorism tsar to tackle the threat from Islamic extremists....

...Among those being tipped for the new role is Andy Hayman, the special operations chief at Scotland Yard.

With such a successful track record he is evidently just the person for the job....this will of course be meat and drink to John Reid in his move to outflank and de-stabilise the Conservative Right.

Tony Blair - the eyes have it

Lex Luthor, Superman's nemesis - master of Metropolis, lord of all he surveys.

Mayor, governor and a President of the United States, Luthor is a law unto himself.

In his mind there is no good or bad, except what's good and bad for Lex Luthor.

If he wants something, he'll have it, buying it , bribing someone to get it, systematically removing all obstacles between him and what he wants.

In a world where the corporate web weaves through everything in ever-spreading strands, Lex Luthor is emperor.

The evil genius is played by Kevin Spacey in he blockbusting cinemathon "The Return of Superman"

So ?

Kevin Spacey apparently gave Tony Blair (UK Prime Minister) some voice coaching, posture advice, and told him. "to use his eyes more" before he gave his speech to the party faithful .... is that all the advice he gave to Tony ?

Tesco - helping keep the Tax Credit costs down

Tesco are cruising to announcing US$2 Bn. profits for the first 2 Quarters of 2006 and as a very substantial shareholder I was alerted to their latest moneymaker (?) when , in the absence of domestic staff, Lord Patel hefted a 4 litre milk carton out of the refrigerator.

To find the wraparound product label carried a very badly designed advertisement / notice from Inland Revenue / Customs. I rung the number (at my expense) and a sweet young lass from Dundee explained that if I received Tax creditsas a single parent and a partner moved in my "circumstances" might change, ie my household income might increase and any tax credits due require re-calculation - i.e reducing.... as one of the world's best (ex) copywriters (Maurice and Charles' finest) Lord Patel was struck by the unique selling proposition. Respond to this ad, meet the criteria and GIVE EVEN MORE MORE TO THE GUBMENT.

One is left wondering exactly how much money changes hands for this minatory message to be placed so handily for the cereal crunching early morning riser in the household. No doubt the details are "commercially confidential". Judging by the appalling typography, nothing.

Tesco are of course supporters of the New Local Government Network which in the past employed the lissome raven haired beauty, Ruth Turner who has caught the attention of Sir Ian Blair's men in blue.

Tesco opened up a huge new out of town , in town store at Portwood in Central Stockport in 2004 which has 39,000 customers a week and is said to take £1 MN at the till every week. Regrettably when they built the store they found out it was 18,000 sq. feet (20%) bigger than approved. Legal wrangling continues with local businesses and Friends of the Eath up in arms, but don't expect anything to happen.

Tesco are adamantly opposed to a tax on plastic shopping bags - a tax they are used to in their Eire stores, but claim it would be difficult to administer etc.,

Tesco came in at the last minute to help fill the Dome... a decision to be said not to be unrelated to the dropping of a fanciful supermarket parking tax which was quietly dropped in 1998, thanks, it is said, (quite without any foundation) to the activities of lobbying firm Lawson Lucas Mendelsohn, which has close links (very) to Tony Blair.

Of course Tesco's close relationship with the Labour party goes back a long way . It paid Philip Gould, a trusted Blair aide, to help reorganise its publicity, media and lobbying machine. It has hired David North, Blair's former private secretary and a specialist in rural affairs, as its director of government affairs and corporate social responsibility. The firm's company secretary and director of group corporate affairs, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, was a key Cabinet Office mandarin for many years.

Ministers tolerate Tesco for helping to keep inflation down ( A frightening statistic - £1 in evry £7 spent on the high street are spent at Tesco's) and employ tens of thousands of people - many, many of whom work less than 16 hours per week, keeping working numbers up and their costs / pension and holiday pay liabilities down.

Tesco are of course, masters of dealing with local planners and manipulate land banks to promote their interests and hinder their competitors. They sell more overseas than they do in the UK.

MILK PACKAGING

Sales of milk have declined as it lasts longer - hence less is thrown away. The principal reason is that the very precisely manufactured blow moulded supermarket container, is cleansed with a detergent and then peroxide bacteriacide which is vacuum dried leaving the container totally bacteria free.

The container is then filled with pastuerised (bacteria free) milk in aseptic conditions, which you would not find in an operating theatre and sealed, so has a useful life either in a fridge or ambient temperature of about 4 weeks.

Decanted into a handy jug as required and swiftly re-capped, the contents should easily last for 2 weeks.

The water based emulsion adhesive degrades in days, the coloured inks, free of organic solvents take weeks, the labels and container have a half life of about 50 years minimum. The alumium/high density polyethylene seal about 100 years.