Hain's DUP "sweetener" exposed - Stormont brouhaha fogs the issue

Northern Ireland Secretary of State and wannabe Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Mr Peter Hain appointed Mrs Bertha McDougall as Interim Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles last year.

Bertha is is the widow of a police reservist killed by the INLA (Dirty Catholic bastards) in 1981 and her appointment and the method of appointment was challenged by Brenda Downes, whose husband Sean was killed by an RUC (Dirty Prod bastards) plastic bullet in west Belfast in 1984.

Having reviewed the appointment Mr Justice Girvan taking the role of Solomon, said the appointment of Bertha McDougall by Mr Peter Hain, was in breach of "the accepted merit norms concerning public appointments" and he also called for a high-level inquiry.

Mr Justice Girvan held that Mr Hain had been motivated by an improper political purpose, namely a confidence-building gesture to the DUP.

The judge ruled Mr Hain had failed to take account of the fact there was no evidential basis for concluding that Mrs McDougall would command cross-community support....which doesn't need a degree in post conflict studies in Northern Ireland to work out.

What this means , is Peter Hain has been caught bang to rights in the process of hornswoggling, influence peddling, public office jiggery pokery to buy off Ian Paisley's DUP in the vain hope this would help buy their support for political agreement on power sharing with the IRA Sinn Fein .

The breach of security at Stormont, on Friday by the well known and readily identifiable Michael Stone, captured on camera, swift and unequivocal suspension of his Easter Day rising parole licence and return to jail , the absurd charges of attempting to murder IRA's Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are NOT a handy smokescreen to hastily remind the DUP that Peter Hain still calls the shots on all their salaries.

Mr Peter Hain is a man of probity and deep integrity and anything that may or may not have happened can be blamed on is the responsibility of civil servants, someone else .er ... that's it. The spooky guys also had nothing to do with this. Honestly. Lord Patel overheard someone in the bar of the Horse Guards Hotel telling someone.

The Italian Job ... spaghetti trails

Mario Scaramella a professor at the University of Naples, was a consultant to the Mitrokhin commission (1)an Italian Parliamentary commission of inquiry into KGB spy recruitment which was was headed by journalist Paolo Guzzanti - and remarkably (?) a senator from former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and fount of wisdom and icon of probity and Truth.A surprising view of commission members was that Romano Prodi was the "Kremlin's man in the EU and Rome".


Corriere della Sera quotes Scaramella today' about Litvinov (with whom he shared the sushi) "He was killed because of everything he knew."

Adding darkly "It can all be found now in the documents of the Mitrokhin commission,"

Asked by the paper if he wanted police protection, Scaramella said: "I'm not asking for anything. But there is no doubt it was the Kremlin. And as I am the only one to have collected all his information..." He left the statement unfinished.

They also quote KGB turncoat and London resident "007" Oleg Gordievsky " Litvinov become the victim of the vendetta and the badness of these forces"(2)

The Guardian today publishes what is supposed to be the e-mails that Scaramella showed to Litvinov as he chewed on his sushi.

"All SVR (Russian foreign intelligence service) officers are sure that PG (journalist Paolo Guzzanti) and MS (Scaramella) still live closely with 'enemy No 1 of Russia' -- (self-exiled oligarch) Boris Berezovsky and his 'companion-in-arms' -- first of all A. Litvinenko," one read.

"Russian intelligence officers speak more and more about necessity to use force again PG and MS, considering their 'incessant anti-Russian activities' -- as well as against Berezovsky and Litvinenko."

Well, there you go Guv. Bang to rights. e-mail. printed off. Know what I mean. Totally unforgeable. Totally. Know what I mean. (If only we had Mrs Jowell's husband handy to put all this into flawless Italian).

Not to be outshone by Scaramella, Guzzanti breathlessly tells La Stampa : "I have no doubt that the current Russian secret services ... are behind this murder and not only this one."

"Litvinenko was their third victim.The first was general Anatoly Trofimov, former deputy chief of the FSB, who was killed in front of his house in 2005 because he was Litvinenko's superior,"The second was (journalist) Anna Politkovskaya, who had strong ties to Alexander (Litvinenko) and who had denounced the involvement of Putin's secret services in the war in Chechnya,"

Guzzanti, whose commission completed its inquiry without reaching any definite conclusions, said Litvinenko's cooperation wiht the probe "confirmed that the biggest community of Russian agents in the world lives and work in Italy".

"The Cold War has never ended," he added. "Today we are seeing a conflict between Russia and the West whose consequences are unpredictable."


(1) Vasili Mitrokhin was a KGB archivist who had access to papers which went to the heart of Soviet espionage activity during the Cold War. He defected to the UK in 1992 - The Mitrokhin commission was charged with it's re-examination due to references in the late Pope's memoirs that Leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Guzzanti said the commission had photographic evidence that Sergei Antonov, a Bulgarian cleared of conspiracy at the 1986 trial, was in St Peter’s Square with Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, when the Pope was shot.Yeah.Wow.

(2) Whilst struggling with Dame Eliza Manningham - Buller's corset one memorable afternoon , she apprised Lord Patel that Gordievsky was seduced by the portrayal of 007 by Fleming that the UK SIS were men of honour and would protect him when he defected.

...and finally


Talking about political intrigue - Have a look at this curious video on Corriere - Rock Steady by All Saints which features curiously Benito Berlusconi and robbing banks.Black & White. Explanation here.

Very entertaining.

Andrei Lugovoi, like Litvinov an ex(?) FSB spy tells the Moscow News that he met his friend briefly (20-30 mins) at the Millenium Hotel and has nothing to do with his death. ...the "What me Guv?" defence often used by Boris Berezovsky - seen here with our Dear Leader - not to suggest that TB provides cover for BB or is even a friend, whose wife's chambers (e.g his extradition to Russia - Clare Montgomery/ Alun Jones) sometimes do work for him - No. No. They just happened to be in the same place at the same time as a photographer. Zhirinovsky is a fucking liar says Tony.

BB (friend of football genius Mr Abramov) is a very, very, seriously, very rich man. He has not got a knighthood. Yet.

For yet more absolutely crazy conspiracy theories go here .... who thinks Baloneyium-210 is one the rarest minerals on Earth.

..and finally the world waits with bated breath for Clark of the Yard to speak ... you can bet he'll have "sound evidence" ...... get the shooters out Carter!

SUNDAY UPDATE

News of the World has more of this bollix here Xymphora of course raises the argument for self inflicted poisoning.

MONDAY UPDATE 27TH Nov

The Daily Mail today has the usual confusing tale,Scaramella has told of a KGB "hit man" tall, with a limp (lipmp what ?), darl, small, thin , fat, black eye patch, parrot no doubt ... and surprise, quelle surprise Plod is jetting off to Italy to speka to him. A Policeman's lot is not a nappy one - especially the one off to Moscow to interview the SRV SVR, whatever, the Russian killers.

The "Debate" about Trident

This illustrates the way our fearless lads conduct modern warfare - the text accompanying the almighty dollar states that suppliers of information about terrists will be REWARDED - in the currency of the universal occupier and his satraps... a long way from WMD's. G. Brown Mansion House June 2006, "strong in defence in fighting terrorism, upholding Nato, supporting our Armed Forces at home and abroad" (c) AFP

Listening to the "debate" on Any Questions/Answers on BBC Radio4 about the "independent" Trident deterrant and it's refurbishment / renewal it was astonishing how ignorant our elected representatives are about the subject.

Whether it is a deterrant is highly arguable (1), but most people appear to believe, totally incorrectly that it is independent. The end of Britain's military nuclear power was in 1958 when the much publicised "H" bomb tests on Christmas islands were a failure and the UK subsequently agreed to become a serial customer for US weapons - over which we have zero control. An agreement in which we supply the boats, the crews and athe money for a submarine platform for some of the US worldwide store of WMD's ... the like of which Saddam Hussein realised he could never dream.

This laid out here @ Investigatin New Imperialism 10/03/04 MD lies persist for over 50 years / More Lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction, by Edward Teague

More Lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction

Subsequent to the end of World War II, the US Atomic Energy Act (McMahon Act) of 1946 precluded release of atomic information from the US to the UK, or anyone else. Attlee secretly determined to forge ahead with a UK unilateral atomic bomb and missile programme, a bomb which Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevan famously remarked "would have a bloody Union Jack on top of it".

The 1957 Pacific bomb tests, after ten years work, used what were essentially 'A' bombs, (albeit of high power) and were effectively, a PR stunt, rushed to beat an impending Test Ban Treaty which was due to come into force at the end of September 1958 and meant all the tests scheduled to take place up until the end of October were brought forward and completed early.

The Christmas Island tests confirmed to the observing and observant US, the UK's inability to produce a true thermonuclear fusion weapon, that could be missile delivered. Generously they offered to amend the McMahon Act, if the UK would scrap their nuclear weapons program. Naturally they would be happy to provide us (i.e. sell) the technology instead.

In September 1958 the UK became the US's biggest customer for military weapons and further developed our continuing "special relationship".

Earlier this year, the fiction that we controlled these weapons was lightly revealed when Parliament was still recovering from Christmas and on January 15th 2006 the Government quietly published

UK'S STRATEGIC NUCLEAR DETERRENT - Memorandum submitted by the Ministry of Defence

There are three very interesting Appendices from which some snippets deserve a wider audience ...

The Government is yet to take a decision on whether or not to replace Trident. Since the end of the Cold War we have reduced the total explosive power of our nuclear forces by over 70%. We have also reduced the readiness of our nuclear forces: only a single Trident (of four constructed) submarine is now on deterrent patrol, carrying 48 warheads which are de-targetted and are at several days "notice to fire".The Trident D5 missile came into service with the Royal Navy in 1994, with a planned life of some 25 years. The US Navy has recently announced plans for a life extension programme for the D5 missile, which will ensure it can remain in-service with the US Navy into the 2040s. The UK Government has yet to decide whether or not to participate in this programme. (Ho.Ho.Ho.)
In 1993, Atomic Weapons Establishment AWE, (formerly Atomic Weapons Research Establishment) moved from its position as a Government establishment to one which was still Government-owned but operated by a private contractor. Nuclear licensing was introduced in 1997: site licenses and discharge authorities for Aldermaston and Burghfield were granted by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and the Environment Agency. This brought the AWE sites under the same regulatory controls as the civil nuclear industry. On 1 April 2000 - co-incidentally, fifty years to the day after its foundation - and following a competition, the Ministry of Defence placed a contract with a new company, AWE Management Limited (a consortium comprising Lockheed Martin, Serco and BNFL) to manage and operate the two sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield. The contract was initially awarded for an initial period of 10 years with an option to extend to 25 years with access to private finance. This option was taken up in 2003. The average age of the workforce at AWE has been increasing, as the generation recruited to meet the initial requirements of the Chevaline and Trident programmes near the end of their careers. There is therefore a requirement to recruit new members of staff to ensure that the core skills within AWE are sustained.(vide Nuclear Power industry recruitment problems Lord P) Much of the basic infrastructure at AWE (such as the heating and electrical systems and a considerable percentage of the office accommodation) dates back to the 1950s and is increasingly expensive and inefficient to operate. A great deal of the additional investment will therefore focus on refurbishment work in this area. This additional investment at AWE is required to sustain the existing warhead stockpile in-service irrespective of decisions on any successor warhead. The investment will sustain core skills and facilities that could also be used in future to develop a successor but no decisions have yet been made either in principle or practice on this issue.

This document although published on January 18th 2006 was dated November 2005.

Discussion at the Labour Party annual Jamboree was totally crushed. Gordon Brown in his Mansion House speech in the City of London in June has made clear he supports a massive extension of the Trident program.... "strong in defence in fighting terrorism, upholding Nato, supporting our Armed Forces at home and abroad, and retaining our independent nuclear deterrent.".

Our Dear Leader has made clear, his position is unflinching. There is no way the Conservatives will vote against whatever the Government proposes.

There will of course be a few anti-nuclear die-hards / blow hards.

Effectively the "debate" is over.

(1) The belief in it's capcity to deter is so ingrained in military thinking that there is no question whatever that this subject will be subject to and serious examination. - Masada complex.

UK Terror Alert overdue

For those folks who organise these things, as the crowds fill the shops or head off to New York as the US$ plummets against the pound and the Euro to buy those essential gew gaws and baubles that the Chinese fillet the Western economies with ..... an alert is way, way overdue.

The airwaves are crackling with the mysterious Balonyium - 120 and dead and dubious ex (are they ever ?) Soviet spies, it's time to bring out the Osmium Tetroxide, Ricin, Kryptonite or exploding Marmalade again.

Anyway Clark of the Met's Terrorist Gang hasn't been on TV with his dire warnings and "sound intelligence" and he's getting withdrawal symptoms - not to mention a touch of jealousy that that Yates chappy is getting too much air - time.

UPDATE

The Scotsman reports
..." COBRA, the government's top emergency team, has met three times since Thursday to discuss the death of an ex-KGB man.

... COBRA was previously convened when a plot to blow up airliners was foiled in August." Ho.Ho.

TRAVELLERS TOP TIP

Don't even THINK of boarding a British Airways flight with your crucifix and garlic clove kit.

Fight Crime! Buy a Gun.

US readers will be astonished that supplying guns has resulted in Robert Tyrer, 51, his brother Jamie, 36, and Kenneth Lloyd, 55, being jailed for a total of 37 years for selling guns.

The 3 men imported 274 non firing pistols from Germany, and in their small engineering workshop in a run-down part of Manchester converted them into "Saturday Night Specials", probably as dangerous to the user as the target.

Guns sold by the men were linked to two murders and two suicides and other crimes, Manchester Crown Court were told this week . Sentences were handed down which would make any one who thought of copying them think twice. The men pleaded guilty.

They also built single bullet-firing pen guns, described by Judge Martin Steiger QC as an “assassin’s weapon”.

A man, Michael Sammon (46) described as "the paymaster" is missing and wanted by the police.

Another man, an engineer , David McCulloch, 52, who provided the expertise needed to convert the guns, will be sentenced on November 27.

Thomas Ravenscroft who is gravely ill was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years in his absence.

Police have said that one of the guns was found under the bonnet of a Jaguar car owned by of Manchester's most notorious gangsters, Domenyk Noonan of Bacup Street, Moston, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years recently.

Other guns supplied by these men were used In Liverpool in April 2005, when Norman Blythin, 38, shot a friend (?) in the chest. The friend survived but Mr Blythin was later found dead in his car after apparently turning the weapon on himself.

Brian Walsh, 47, is believed to have used one of the guns when he shot his wife in the head outside a flat in Droylsden in July 2006 and then turned the weapon on himself.

Police believe another of the guns was used in a kidnap and torture incident in Liverpool.

Matrioshka - The Russian enigma, a riddle inside a mystery

Element 84 , Polonium was discovered by Maria and Pierre Skłodowska-Curie in 1898 . It was named after Poland which was then no longer a Commonealth and under the domination of Austria and Russia. They hoped that naming this newly discovered element would identify the plight of their homeland.

It appears that the radioactive isotope Polonium -210 killed ex (?) FSB spy Alexander Litvinenko who was (allegedly) sent to London , to kill Jewish oligarch Boris Berezofsky, he died a British citizen.

BB has been provided with a safe haven in the UK - the the FO he is of course known as Platon Elenin ("Platon" being Russian for Plato, and Elena , his beautiful wife's name) a name he adopted legally in 2003. He has business connections with Neil Mallon Bush, Dubya's younger brother (Silverado S and L scandal). In the Torygraph BB accused Putin of poisoning (and now killing) Litvinenko.

Litvinenko entered hospital on November 1st and it is only in the last few days that there has been much fevered and highly inaccurate publicity and information about, how he was poisoned and what with. Polonium is reported to have been found in his urine and alfa radiation detected at his Muswell Hill home, a central London sushi bar where he ate shortly before falling ill, and a hotel where he had met two Russians that morning. It appears a clumsy way to kill someone - especially with the Russian state's track record of violently rubbing out opponents.

Mr Litvinenko's numerous media savvy supporters have made claims that he was killed because he was investigating the murder in Moscow last month of journalist and fellow Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya. They say that he was "about to come into possession" of documents proving that Putin had ordered the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, but such doucments remain undiscovered.

The role of Boris Berezovsky, in the Beslan massacre has never been made clear - but there is a growing belief that Litvinenko's silence was sought my people other than Putin and the shadowy SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service. Litvinenko of course published a book claiming the bombing of apartment blocks in Moscow were the work of the FSB (whose agents were found laying the hexagen explosives but escaped) and a false flag operation to justify the final assault by Russia on the Chechens. As if.

Putin at the Finland Station

President Putin, currently in Finland has brushed off the claims that he is behind Litvinenko death -on the curious grounds that because it was not a "violent death". He is in Helsinki to discuss a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, a fundamental text defining trade and other relations between the EU and Russia to replace an existing agreement that soon expires. The EU takes more than 50% of Russia's exports and gets 25% (and rapidly rising) of its natural gas from Russia. Negotiations can only start after EU provides a united front which Poland won't agree as Russia has banned their meat exports. It is in Russia's interest to evade the need to make an agreement jointly with the EU on energy sales - picking off each nation individually.

Remember what Putin told the 2003 EU summit in Rome "Only by acting together can Russia and the enlarging European Union direct the process of the formation of a new world order, common values and interests."

"How weightily the voice of Europe will sound in world politics, economy and trade, in security matters depends on coordination of action," Putin said.

Poland - Polonium ? Someone trying to say something ?

See "KGB Back at Power: The Spies' Coup in Russia" ...."ex-KGB men took an appreciable place in the Russian economy. Up to the middle of the Nineties there almost did not remain any the large company where there would be no former employees of the KGB in the management."

Lord Patel posted on Wednesday, June 7 2006 Putin's siloviki consolidating ....

Lord Patel also previously posted Thursday, February 16 Putin's team consolidates

"Marx's pamphlet the "Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" demonstrates how the class struggle in France forced Napoleon to create himself as head of a state run by the security organs and the bureaucracy. "Bonapartism" has been used to describe a government that forms when a military, police, and state bureaucracy intervenes to establish order.

Putin is forming a Board of Directors composed of friends and KGB ex work colleagues, who set the agenda for Russian energy policy and in fact control the country's vast energy resources.

Their influence should not be underestimated."

Litvinenko's death co-incides neatly with the final putsch on the demise of Ichkeria. See previous and recent posts.

Is Putin's rendezvous with destiny unfolding ? (No. Ed.)

Algorhythm and Blues

If you haven't discovered the joys and benefits of Pandora go here to read about how rock bass player Peter Niessen set it up.

Pandora's Box (Music Genome Project (TM)) is your bespoke personal Internet radio station that learns what you like - more diverse than the homogenized playlists from Dixie Chicks abusers, Clear Channel -- and no chattering chimp of a DJ, no Ads, no public information breaks.

Pandora is nothing less than a mechanism for filtering and shaping the chaos of an exploding supply of digital music...it says on the tin.

It does what it says.

It's FREE.
It works.

A company called Microsoft last week quietly re-launched its online radio service powered by Pandora - Tim Westergren, chief executive of Pandora, called it a co-branding deal that has Pandora replacing most of MSN Radio's previous functionality.(which was crap and no-one used)

Pandora (Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1869)

PS Try slim devices for listening anywhere in your house, every room. (part of Logitech from Jan 2006). Brilliant! The ideal "Seasonal" present.

..and now for the weather...... Man who read the news dies.

Veteran BBC reporter Nick Clarke has died. Few will forget the direct, straightforward way he narrated the diary of his disease and his brief return to work. As ever Clark 's BBC official and energetic hagiographers have been at work - no BBC employee the public sees may die that their passing isn't seen as another fixed step on the wide and sweeping cultural history of Western civilisation.

Old , name dropping bore Alistair Cook, who long past his sell by date, defied his removal to the last was accorded what could pass for a Sate funeral. John Peel, despite his murky early marriage and boastfulness about Venereal disease was to remembered long, long after a man who played gramaphone records on the Radio could reasonably be remembered - even by tear jerking readings of his semi-literate celebrity biography.

Let us not forget there are many hundreds of Nick Clark's out there, denied access to the airwaves, which appear to be the preserve of a Metropolitan Mafia. The Dumblebores, both on radio and Television. Inheritors of a vast family fortune they have no need to work, but holders of their father's crown their nauseous narrative attends every state ceremony and death - not to mention Any Questions and Question Time.

Andrew Marr hurts his ankle and it's a news story. Kate Adey snubbed is an event of massive import and report. John Humphreys examines his navel and the world gets a 4 part series. .. and esposure to the industrious Naughtie is unceasing. We are also exposed to more of the egregious antipodeans like Germaine Greer (and we saw far too much of her once over) and Clive James.

Now with the BBC, the PC is PC correct, the celebrity PC newsman/woman is increasingly the news.....

...and the news, blander , more State driven and controlled.

Last week it was said that "Feedback" would address the complaints this week about Dimblebore interrupting, putting his views forward , rubbishing the public's comments on "Any Questions ?" - apparently e-mail traffic flooded "Feedback"'s office ... and the programme which went out today, quietly pulled the item.

Celebrity news people, the Kirsties, Johns, Jims, Claires, Paxman's rule and out there, aspirant journalists are supressed, along with their views. Take heart though they are all going to die.

Bring back Ray Gosling.

Last throes of Chechen resistance crushed and Ichkeria lost

It has been reported that large numbers of Russian troops have surrounded Doku Umarov "President of Ichkeria" - the last of the Ichkerian 'Mohicans', and his guerilla band in a forest near the village of Yandi-Katar on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya.

STOP PRESS 24/11/06 15.50 GMT

Kommersant report today (Friday) that Nikolay Varavin of the Russian Federal Forces’ press services says Doku Umarov, is wounded and has escaped . Ruslan Badalov, head of the Chechen National Salvation Committee, told Kommersant thast the wounded Umarocv had managed to esacept to Ingushetia. ENDS

A “source close to the security structure” of Chechnya said yesterday that the “President of the Ichkeria” had been caught in a gun battle with security forces which has gone on now for three days and that military aviation is heavily bombing the area. All land line and cell phone communication in the area had been cut and helicopters are ever prersent in the air.

The “Chechen Committee for National Salvation” reported that Umarov has been wounded in a village of the Achkoi-Martanovsky District, but managed to escape and that he and his men surrounded by federal forces in a forest near the village of Yandi Kotar located about 30 kilometers from Achkoy-Martan near the border with Ingushetia.

The Chechen jihad is evidently now on it's last legs after Russian security services killed Shamil Basayev, in early July in what Russia's FSB security service chief, Nikolai Patrushev, said was "a special operation". Curiously his death was welcomed both by Putin as "deserved retribution" - especially for the September 2004 attack in the Northn Ossetian town of Beslan kidnapping schoolchildren - and President Bush, Putin's ally in the War on terror said : "If he's in fact the person who ordered the killing of children in Beslan, he deserved it" (BBC) Which must have played well in Peoria.

Since then more organised Chechen fighters have killed or been laying down their weapons and taking advantage of an amnesty program. Over 350 Chechen fighters have surrendered since the amnesty was announced late last summer. On Wednesday 35 of Umarov's cadres, surrendered in Gudermes and given up the fight, and another 28 surrendered today in Gudermes including some holding “high-ranking positions,” .

On August 21st AP reported that Umarov's brother had surrendered to Russian authorities.

That has left Umarov who is isolated and now surrounded. The last leader of the jihad he has been fighting since 1994 and eventually became the southwestern field commander of the Chechen resistance. he4 assumed the Presidency of the Chechen Republic "Ichkeria" this summer when Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was killed in June by the FSB. Umarov was a notional President and wanted to continue the war against Russia , but has seen his followers fade away and surrender.

What fate awaits those who surrendered is best left unsaid. It will be a Hobbesian future. Short and brutish,

I'm a War President

THE OVAL OFFICE, FEBRUARY 7, 2004 BROADCAST ON NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS”

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2004 TIM RUSSERT MEETS PRESIDENT BUSH

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign-policy matters with war on my mind."

"Intelligence is a vital part of fighting and winning the war against the terrorists. It is — because the war against terrorists is a war against individuals who hide in caves in remote parts of the world ....."

Hariri motorcade struck by missile - supersonic guided bomb ?

Very interesting article "U.N. Investigators Broach Theory that Hariri was Killed by a Missile" by Christopher Bollyn 21 November 2006. Superb pictures and argument.

"The evidence from the crime scene indicated the possibility that an air-launched missile had targeted Hariri's car and left a large crater in the road. "The evidence," I wrote shortly after the murder, "indicates that the Hariri bombing may have been a missile attack from the air."

Which is highly likely - far more so than a truck bomb...and addressed by Lord Patel on November 7th 2005 " Uncle Sam's bomb Farm" when he read about the supersonic launch by Boeing of laser guided "Raptor" supersonic launched JDAM's ... this is a brief extract ...

The Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor, demonstrated in May ’05 the supersonic delivery of JDAM’s in which a Laser guided JDAM was released from a U.S Air Force F-16 flying at 20,000 feet approximately four miles from an unmanned truck moving at 15 miles per hour. A second F-16 trailing the test aircraft targeted the truck with a laser. The inert JDAM tracked the laser to the target and scored a direct hit on the truck.

“Adding the capability of supersonic JDAM provides a substantial increase in bomb range to destroy lethal threats well outside of their engagement envelopes,” he said. “The Raptor is essential to the Global Strike concept, and supersonic JDAM optimizes that capability.” (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)

... a bunch of ragheads can apparently do the same trick with an improvised IED made out of old artillery shells, a mobile phone and some ingenuity.... and at a slightly lower cost.

...of course if you needed a precise hit on a seafront motorcade in Beirut ..

OLympic Gold - Mining in reverse, dig holes and fill them with Gold.

Lord Patel thinks Mrs Jowell has been unreasonably criticised, this pleasant middle aged, housewife, Minister for Circuses has only to say the cost of the Olympics has risen from the initial guess estimate of £2.2 Bn. by only £900Mn and the attack dogs, Left AND Right are out for her blood.... and the ..er .. regeneration cost have risen to £1.5 Bn, surprisingly VAT is due (Not another VAT scam surely. Ed.) Who would want her job? Well she does apparently, she has hung on to her job longer than any Minister other than the dour preacher's son from the Lang Toon.

Just as well, as soon after the announcement of success at Singapore the jubilant Jowell told Paxman (who raised it must be remembered a quivering quizzical eyebrow and a broader than usual smirk).

“We can and will avoid the cost over-run which Athens experienced and the long-term debt which some other previous host cities have had to deal with,”

Ho. Ho.

VAT was't accounted for in the report prepared by KCMG, the country's foremost tax accountantcs, security costs have soared .. it goes on and on , and her foes are foaming at the mouth and stagger back at the size of the alleged Total Cost. Whatever and however that may possibly be prepared ,at this stage, puzzles the bean counters at Patel Mansions, confident that whatever it is, it well never be calculated carefully or publicised at all.

This rapidly climbing and fanciful figure is used loosely by those denizens of the night, un sober and fevered sub - editors on the Red Rag press, just so long as it will fit in a screaming headline. £ 5 Bn! £7Bn! a more precise £8.2 Bn. even 20 Bn Euros, a larger and more scaring number for London ratepayers and Lotto gamblers. Cast in this ersatz currency to allow for comparisons with the cost of Athens Olympics. Demonstrating, as if it needed demonstrating that London can out run the Greeks for overspending, if not at running.

Jowell faces up the to the inquisitive MP's on the committee sniffing a scandal in the air, and does a splendid job , much as a spendthrift Director might face his (her) creditors. Well she might because, in Italy her supposedly estranged husband, a cocksure, bi-lingual ( he lies fluently in both Italian and English) and deeply unpleasant man who faces, with his client, mentor, friend, and fellow crook charges of bribery and money laundering.

The plain , if not dowdy housewife who faced off the MP's with such aplomb, (all kids want a medal, all kids will get a medal! see Seb's wizard scheme) had a house with a joint mortgage with her sinister spouse. It was re-mortaged for £400,000 with an offshore bank, then 5 weeks later repaid . She asserted with unblinking stare and scarcely a blush, that, this was “a very normal thing to do, and certainly not illegal.” (Fashion note : are rumours of botoxification correct?)

Yes. Normal that is, for money launderers, especially when the source of the money ( a mere US$600,000) seems confusingly, in correspondence her untruthful husband has with his accountants, either a gift, or a loan or ... maybe even a standard payment for services (and hence taxable). He also said in a signed confession to the Italian police, the money came from Snr Berlusconi - a claim he now says was extracted under duress.

Ho. Ho.

To provide more "clarity" Mr Mills went on to explain the money was not in fact a bribe from Berlusconi for the evidence he had just given in an Italian court to keep Berlusconi out of jail. It was rather a ...er .....personal gift. Then he says that this statement was a lie to protect another client, - who it transpires now denies this, as he was in prison at the time.

So who is surprised that the financial affairs of the Olympics are awry already - a monster deal allegedly fudged through in a Singapore hotel room by Gold Medal liar Tony Blair who was handing out "favours", political payoffs in one on one meetings with IOC members and mutual backscratching to get the result he wanted. London beat Paris by 4 votes and the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, was quick to accuse his opponents of bending the rules by continue to lobby IOC members until only hours before the decisive session began. Deeper, darker, dirtier deeds are the subject that swell around what Tony Blair got up to sequestered in his Raffles City convention complex in Singapore as the IOC members (64 of the 100 IOC members met and jollied with Tony and Cherie in those 48 hours) relentlessly filed in and wreathed in smiles and bonhomie, filed out.

Olympic Gold, for sure - that will rapidly disappear into the capacious pockets of rapacious City Lawyers , Accountants, Consultants, Property tycoons, Construction companies, PR outfits with sleazy connections to No 10 and the general rag bag of carpet baggers, no goods , ne'er do groupies and camp followers wells that attend these hoopla missions - see Millennium dome.

However Lord Patel can provide some modest savings, his Logo which first he aired in December (see top) is available free of copyright, free of charge.

Glasgow drugs bust - Home Secretary's embarassment

Mr Ronnie Campbell, 47, a colourful Glasgow gangster , appeared on petition yesterday at Hamilton Sheriff Court with his co-accused - Michael Keelan, 46, Thomas Baird, 39, and Pamela Green, 37.

This was as a result of a police swoop on a car on the A 725 near Ronnie's house in Belshill Lanarkshire (in "Dr"John Reid's constituency)at 8pm on Monday - He was charged with the others named with being concerned in the supply of amphetamine under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

According to a Crown Office spokesman, the maximum street value of the drugs recovered is estimated at £280,000.

At a short hearing held in private, no pleas were entered were ordered and no date has been set for a further court appearance.

Ronnie's daughter Melissa married Mark the son of the Home Secretary "Dr" John Reid last year - see the lovely wedding pic at Westminster Cathedral.

Ronnie who ran a Rangers supporters pub in Tenerife for five years, returned for the wedding and has since lived in Scotland.

This has nothing to do with the discovery of cannabis found at Dr Reid's Lanarkshire home in May. At the time Assistant chief constable of Strathclyde Police, John Corrigan, said: 'The owner of the house has co-operated fully and is not suspected of having committed any crime.'

FACTS ABOUT AMPHETAMINES

Amphetamines are synthetic psychostimulant drugs, which means they speed up the workings of the brain. Long-term misuse of amphetamines can lead to serious problems including brain damage, malnutrition and psychosis.

Illegal amphetamines include ;

1. Speed (amphetamine sulphate, dexamphetamine)
2. Ice (crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, purified methylamphetamine) – is a crystal or crystalline powder, and is a stronger form of methamphetamine. It is also known as ‘crystal meth’, ‘shabu’ or ‘glass’ ,'crank' 'tweak','tina' - it has recently been reclassified in the UK from a Class B to a Class A (unlimited fine or up to 7 years in jail ).

Russians cornering market in rope.

So who wants Russia's oil and gas, anyway? Econobrowser asks rhetorically.

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," Lenin is said to have boasted then go on to demonstrate how it is happening.
Simply, the driver has been asleep at the wheel. Especially in the UK.

Natural oil and gas reserves have peaked and declined at an "unexpected" rate, the coal industry smashed in Mrs "T"'s fight with the NUM and subsequent "Dash for gas".

Now we have the British Energy fleet of 30 odd year old power stations falling apart and no engineers to run or build new ones - which will face years of obtusive planning and downright opposition by the zealous nationalists in Scotland.

Now the sleeping mandarinate has belatedly discovered that the much vaunted and subsidised (even by Lottery money - ostensibly for "good" causes) wind farms have to be attached by a wire to the rest of the National Electricity Grid and nobody wants to pay for it.

So we go and buy some more rope - Baltic gas pipelines, Gazprom / ENI hookups, Belgian connectors part owned by Gazprom , already owners of Pennine Energy Ltd., - who want to sink their teeth into Centrica, .... LUKoil on the prowl for ex BP refineries, retail outlets.

..and it is not as if the intentions of the St Petersburg Mafia were clouded in deceit or there was an element of stealth , Ukraine / Georgia / Italy ... Byelorussia coming nicely to the boil for this winter.

... and the stupid lawmaking architects of the EU ETS carbon trading scheme like the dim - witted and gormless Margaret Beckett, inoccent of the swindling schemes of the city money jugglers in their vast and hugely profitable casinos, funded by everyone's pensions, sleep soundly at night, confident in the belief that they are saving the planet.

God help us.

HM Customs + Assets Recovery Agency 1 VAT fraudsters 1

Dylan Creaven (31) had a chat with the UK Assets Recovery Agency(ARA) and the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). He agreed to pay the 2 bodies in September 2006;

1.£ 18Mn
2. €176,000
3. and ....Transfer ownership to them of a luxury villa in Marbella
4. and ... Transfer the ownership to them of 4 racehorses

He agreed to this because the ARA had obtained a freezing order over Mr Creaven’s assets worth €22m including a €1.2m mansion in County Clare and bank accounts in the Middle East and US. It was claimed these assets had been acquired as a result of unlawful trade through SiliconTechnologies Europe Limited, a company set up by and under the directorship of Mr. Creaven.

This was after a jury of 7 woman and 5 man at Blackfriars Crown Court in March 2005, took a month to listen to the evidence and 8 hours to return a unamimous verdict of not guilty to charges of fraud amounting to £162m. These Charges were later reduced to two charges of conspiracy to defraud the public revenue.

Mr Creaven told the court he had traded in good faith and was "distraught" to find himself in the dock.

Customs and the Irish Garda had undertaken “Operation Chipstick” to jointly investigate Silicon Technologies Europe Ltd which turned over €417m in 2000 to 2001 trading in silicon computer and memory chips.

In another case The Guradian reported at the time a related trial 8 men and 1 woman on charges of £100Mn VAT fraud had the trial stopped by the judge. After 40 days of a pre-trial hearing during which the judge heard defence evidence that not all documentation that should have been given to it had been disclosed by Customs.

UK Customs - success in their war on VAT carousel fraud

The French Connection

UK citizen Mark Selby (39) ran Maple Link France (SARL) in the period May to May 2003/4. £326.5 Mn. (!) was credited to Mr Selby's company account , as payment for telephones sold to twelve UK companies and to Spanish traders who in turn supplied the same 12 UK companies.

These UK companies then failed to pay the VAT due to HMRC resulting in the theft of VAT ( and money from the taxpayer) of approximately £57 million.

Selby was extradited from France in November 2004 and pleaded guilty on Friday 16th June 2006 at the Royal Courts of Justice and sentenced to 5 years for cheating the Revenue, 6 months for money laundering offences and 6 months each for 5 cases of contempt of court to run concurrently but consecutive to the other sentences .. a total of 6 years.

The Weybridge Three

Alexander Bell (4 1/2 years) and his brother Jonathan ( 2 years) of Walton-on-Thames, and John Palmer ( 3 years) of Weybridge, were imprisoned this week (Nov 16th), and banned from holding company directorships for their part in a £3.7 Mn VAT carousel fraud.

As well as running carousel fraud, the men were trading in pirated copies of Microsoft products.

HM Revenue and Customs raided Alexander Bell's offices during a the carousel investigation and found hundreds of counterfeit Microsoft disks and certificates and only missed prosecution by Microsoft because HMRC got their first.

The four Virgini's

Durgesh Mehta, 51, was a director of Virgini Ltd, of Chalfont St Peter a company he operated in 2003 with ;

Gerald Reardon, 55, of Molash, near Canterbury
Matthew Sharman, 43, of Langdon Hills, Essex.
Peter Ratcliff, 54, of Ashtead, Surrey.

They ran the company to apparently trade in the sale and export of mobile phones to Kiev in the Ukraine.

Virgini Ltd, claimed £10m in VAT payments during that period.Customs uncovered the fraud when it intercepted just under £1m in cash being delivered to two of the gang and found that VAT of over £10Mn pounds had been stolen.They were variously found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court on October 26th 2006 of cheating the public revenue, and conspiracy to transfer criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Mehta got 10 years and the others 8 years each and all were forbidden to become Company Direrctors for 10 years.

VAT scams used Bermuda based Transworld Payment Solutions to move money

Dutch mult-imillionaire businessman Johannes Christiaan Martinus "John" Deuss (64), who has a taste for Tattinger champagne and exceptionally pretty girls in bikinis, is/was the owner of Caribbean based First Curaçao International BankN.V(FCIB) (now in a form of administration from Sept 13th 2006 and not to be confused with First Caribbean International Bank) and was arrested in his Bermuda haven (Shore Lane, Tucker’s Town,for 30 years) -Former Bermuda Premier Sir John Swan & Bermuda businessman Ward Young posted bail of US$10Mn : "He [Deuss] is a good friend of mine. He'd do the same for me.") and transferred to prison in Holland last month , he agreed to the extradition(October 2006) .(Pic(c) Heat magazine)

It is reported his offshore bank allegedly aided UK and European VAT carousel (MITC) fraudsters, and is to be held in custody in the Netherlands for another 3 months.

The Guradian report that EU tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs told them that EU governments were losing an estimated €50bn (£33.7bn) to these VAT frauds.

His bank was apparently popular with British VAT fraudsters, and also Russian and Dutch companies involved with EU based VAT fraud. HMRC reckons every individual it has arrested for carousel fraud in the last 2 years held an account at FCIB. They suspect 2,500 + UK citizens of using the bank - it is a fair bet they also had one or two other bank accounts.

The Dutch arrest warrant listed allegations of habitual or deliberate money laundering, handling of stolen property and being in charge of a criminal organisation. Duess has hired the best and is currently engaging the services of the engaging and beautiful UK lawyer, Clare Montgomery QC (of Cherie Blair's Matrix chambers - see pic ) who successfully represented the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who fought Spanish attempts to extradite him from the UK 8 years ago. She also very recently acted to stop the launch of a share issue in Rosneft equity which it was calimed would amount to money laundering under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Poca) because 70% of the company's value came from the "unlawful seizure" of Yukos's main business, Yuganskneftegaz.

Claire famously succeeded at the appeal for solicitor Sally Clarke of murdering her two babies.

John D's lawyers are appealing (so far without success) his detention in custody.

His 60 year old sister Martina "Tineke", 60, a former director of BCB who is on the board of FCIB, was arrested in September and though she has since been released , it is understood she remains a suspect in the investigation being carried out by Dutch and British authorities.

John D. has a history of fraud in the 80's, started a life of fraud by stripping money from the Russian State oil company. The Kremlin are said to have chased him through the courts for more than 10 years before giving up - it is not known if they have had any hand in him being arrested.

Stephen Curtis, who mysteriously died in an unusual helicopter accident and had connections to UK based Russian oil oligarchs was also a director of Bermuda Commercial Bank (Total assets $754 million at April 30, 2002), Deuss's principal bank, which owned 33% of FCIB . Mayfair based Curtis had replaced Platon Lebedev late last year as Menatep director when Lebedev was arrested on tax evasion and fraud charges. and he was named in a US lawsuit brought by investors who say they lost up to $1billion after Russian oil giant Yukos collapsed.


Duess stepped down as chairman and chief executive officer of Bermuda Commercial Bank (BCB) in September when news broke that First Curacao International Bank, was being investigated for money laundering in the Netherlands and the Netherland Antilles Dutch island of Curacao.

BCB rented premises in Sir John Swan’s wonderful, shiny Bermuda Commercial Bank Building - he who so kindly posted his bail.

Deuss has some very interesting connections, in the world of international trade and commerce, for example, Vietnam spymeister Theodore G "Ted" Shackley (of Research Associates International) co-ordinated anti-Castro attacks on Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs. He also ran Nobel Peace Prize Winner and War Criminal Harold Kissinger's secretive and undeclared wars in Laos and Cambodia , the secondary and bloody sideshows to the Vietnam war.

Shackley, AKA "The Blonde Ghost", was hired by Deuss after he left (do they ever?) the CIA 1979 to organise shipments of oil to South Africa. SA was then under a global oil embargo that Deuss's Transworld Oil cheerfully flouted, as did US tax exile Marc Rich (Clintonian pardonee - on the request of his ex-wife) who worked with Duess selling North Sea Brent Crude to the apartheid South African regime liberally spreading commissions, bribes and kickbacks as required.

This activity earned him a firebombing of his Dutch place at Berg en Dal near his birthplace in Nijmegen in the 1980's by anti-apartheid activists who called themselves, rather dramatically Pyromaniacs Against Apartheid .

It was at this time that Duess struck up a very close connection with the flamboyantly homosexual , sado-masochistic and secretive ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos.

No mean operator he featured on the front page of the WSJ in 1995 ,"Is John Deuss a Visionary or a Slick Operator? He Holds Key to the Project." , a fascinating discussion about his brainchild, the (now complete) Caspian Pipeline Consortium and the crude attempts by Chevron to push him out.

Stunning model and journalist Suzan Mazur who knows John D. @ scoop ponders (October 18th 2006) " Why Has John Deuss' Offshore Bank Been Singled Out?" and has some fascinating tales to tell.

FCIB also featured as the bankers at the collapse last year of Oz fraudster Gregory James Kennedy whose Virtual Games Global (VGG) = Pacific Delta International = World Games Incorporated (201 -2005 Canda, Sweden UK pyramid scheme with up to 450,000 members) = Aspiritus N.V.

What appears to be the basis of the case against John D is a business which started out as First Ecommerce Data Services (FEDS) a wholly owned subsidiary of First Ecom.com Inc a NASDAQ hot dot.com stock (NASDAQ: FECC,) which was described as, "FEDS is one of the first offshore credit card transaction processing companies to offer multi-currency processing and settlement .... a global, multi-currency e-payment processing solution " "FEDS provides banks and financial institutions in the Asia Pacific, Americas and Caribbean region with universal, secure, cost efficient electronic payment solutions.".. it was also a fraudsters dream banking system. So successful that it eventually became totally unecessary to physically move any goods and simply issue bits of paper and handle the TPS account accordingly.

FEDS seems to have gone the way of many dot.coms but became through Transworld Oil, Transworld Payment Solutions (TPS), a very powerful, online, global payments mechanism, for their own trading use. TPS apparently worked with FCIB clients in Europe giving them the highly desirable facility move money between accounts in real-time, 24 hours a day, and in multiple currencies.

These book transfers in the records of TPS enable EU (or anywhere else) customers to get their money out of the system, without travelling to Curaçao or Bermuda.

Notably FCIB had correspondent banking arrangements with Barclays Bank in the UK and Rabobank in Holland, and even more recently (probably coinciding with the extension of these carousel frauds involving EU / Swiss transfers) , Union Bank of Switzerland.

As HMRC activity (which only became possible under UK legislation in April 2005)started turning over some stones eachof these banks in turn shut the door on FCIB. Naturally warning FCIB clients and so FCIB had to warn many of its clients that it was being forced to shut their accounts, as without a correspondent bank in Britain, it would no longer be able to move funds for them.

It is fascinating to see that Mantas a Herndon, Va.,a banking software company and partner of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) with offices in London, New York, and Singapore. Mantas is a Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) announced in May 2006 that they had installed their Mantas Anti-Money Laundering at FCIB, this they claim ...

" .. mitigates risk with comprehensive, enterprise-wide surveillance of customer, account and transaction information to alert supervisors to suspicious behaviors. The system’s unique ability to analyze every transaction and generate risk-based alerts of suspected money laundering activities allows Anti Money Laundering and compliance officers to distinguish fraudulent from legitimate transactions. "

No doubt someone, somewhere has been able to provide similiar such services to FCIB / TWP - Lord Patel says you might start looking here and cop a look at this video about how easy it is here or if you like Mexican food here

Fuck it! Simply Google "global, multi-currency e-payment processing ".... HMCR have got their work cut out.

Manchester Crown Court Recorder Nadim linked to crime family

Judge's link to 'crime family'

Ahmed Nadim, 47 became Crown Court recorder in 2002. His sister Samiah is married to crime boss, tobacco smugggler and VAT fraudster on a massive scale, Asad Hussein Chohan, 37 who half way through a trial at which he admitted to VAT fraud of £5.7 Mn. skipped the country and is thought to be in Pakistan.

Samiah Ali Chohan last week was found guilty of being involved in the crime syndicate her husband ran with his brother and a book keeper and of money laundering involving purchasing a £350,000 property. She received 80 hours community service.

The property involved was bought by Recorder Nadim but he said he did not know it may have been acquired earlier with crime proceeds. (The Sun / Simon Hughes)

The website of his Young Street Chambers (Young Street Chambers, 76 Quay Street, Manchester M3 4PR ) claims he both fluent in in Urdu and Punjabi and "Ahmed Nadim has a particularly extensive practice in all fields of serious crime".

Blair is a fucking lying, murderous fucking sanctimonious fucking bastard.

5.30 GMT
Pierre Gemayel was shot dead by gunmen in Beirut today. On the BBC PM program, Tony Blair said .." We must do everything we can to protect Democracy in Lebanon"

This is the cunt who sat on his hands and whistled as IDF forces blasted, bombed, rocketed, shelled Southern Lebanon for 2 weeks the UN and it's apologists like Tony Blair and Condi Rice sat and argued and talked in New York about a "lasting peace" ... and allowed (we now know against military orders and instructions) the IDF to rain down 1,200,000 cluster bombs on the civilians of Lebanon, (half left unexploded) - which have since killed over 20 people since the cease fire.

How can he be allowed to say such things and remain unchallenged by anybody. The murderous, lying bastard.

Ronnie Lauder gets Emmy

My good friend and flame haired temptress, Romana Tomasová , who calls herself the Director of Corporate Communications at CETV these days ( the little minx) tells me that last night Richard Parsons, Chairman & CEO of Time Warner Inc., gave Ronnie Lauder the 2006 International Emmy Directorate Award to CETV and Ronnie for "pioneering the development of independent television broadcasting in Central and Eastern Europe " at the glitzy 34th International Emmy Awards in New York.

Obviously slightly excited after the events of last night, she couldn't tell me much more (... Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour were there !). Neither could her chum Nick Pramik , although she did agree with me that the gold bauble will set off the bosses new Klimt rather well in the boardroom !

Last night she may have been tight, but this am she was distinctly tight lipped ,when asked about any interest Goldman Sachs, Ronnie, or CETV may have in the auction of ITV... whose shares remain unmoved at 114p today. (CETV:NASDAQ closed at all time high of US$75 last night.)

Oh ! ... she did say Ronnie was thrilled that Maryam Hassouni (30) won Best Actress for her stunning role as a Palestinian terrorist Laila al Gatawi in TV movie "Offers" from the Dutch Vara Broadcasting Organisation - see pic.... described as, "straight run-of-the-mill spy/thriller story with Muslim terrorists as the usual suspects/bad guys".... she gets killed.

UK Energy will dry up - Armageddon , end of life as we know, the world will end ... let me consult you about it...We will all die... DOOM DOOM

The ink was hardly dry on Lord Patel's immediately preceding post when up popped Kieron Brennan, managing director of Logica CMG's Energy and Utilities business,on BBC 4's "Today" program to explain how a "report" (not seen or available yet !) by his colleagues warns that the UK gap between demand for energy and the supply of power is widening far quicker than anticipated and will have a "significant impact" on industry and consumers. (Guradian / PA report also)

This swivelling eyed consultant paints doomsday scenarios... "Energy intensive industries could be forced to shut down their operations at peak times, costing industry billions of pounds"....claiming energy demand could exceed supply by as much as 23% at peak times by 2015. This would be "clearly unsustainable." Remarkable, you don't say? Wow!!

These wise men have finally cottoned on to the delays inherent in new building nuclear power stations and its impact on energy supply - no mention, it appears of the crumbling fleet administered by British Energy who are running out of energy faster than engineers to produce it or people tom repair the faulty ones they have left.

Kieron says disingenuously "We are not trying to scaremonger but our job is to provide guidance to the businesses we work with and help them understand and manage their future energy requirements." ... and we hope sign up some more highly lucrative consultancy services to talk endlessly about energy gaps..but not actually do anything about it or even put forward sensible, detailed, costed proposals. Unsurprisingly the reprt calls for ... wait for it .. it calls for a REVIEW .. not any old review ...AN URGENT REVIEW of planning laws on energy storage and construction of new facilities.

Presumably by Logica CMG.

Want to advertise your business - contact British Broadcasting Company Newsdesk.

You cannot subscribe to join 5 years old FCUKED - the official Forthcoming UK Energy Deficit commentators, simply be a UK energy consumer. Go read The UK Oil Drum here and click on Lord Petl's tag FCUKED for more.

Pssssssssstttt... nudge, nudge, wink wink ...want to meet a consultant ?

If you want a detailed, sensible, authoritative case of the problems Lord Patel brought your attention to the Institute of Civil Engineers report on this years ago here.

PS The wonderful rider to this story is that we now know Logica CMG (CEO Martin Read(57) earned (?) £1.2 Mn last year)had their offices in London raided on Thursday night and 3 laptops casually left lying around stolen - containing the personnel details of half of London's finest. Perhaps they should show more concern for physical safety before getting so hot and bothered about demanding more REVIEWS of UK energy security.

They have apologised to the Police. .... So, that's alright then.

To add to their embarassment, Mr Jim Martin has been appointed as Scotland's first Police Complaints Commissioner. He is Logica CMG's Chairman.

Russian gas supply problems loom over Europe....

Vagit Alekperov , CEO of LUKoil who proposes more than he performs was boosting the pre Saddam contracts in 1997 Lukoil led agreements in 1997 to drill at the West Qurna field, which is one of the most promising in Iraq and has an estimated reserve capacity of 4 billion barrels.

Endlessly peripatetic Alekperov plans another trip after Iraq adopts the new law governing the oil industry, expected by the end of December. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said last year that LUKoil had been dealing "with Saddam, not with Iraq" and that Moscow would have to improve relations with Iraq if it wanted Russian companies to be successful there.

On the day when oil touched $55 a barrel yesterday, its lowest level since mid 2005, due mainly to fund selling across commodity markets as concern of an economic slowdown in the US gathered pace (29% down on July's record $78.4.) Alekperov was also promoting investment in the Iranian Azadegan oilfield, which has estimated reserves of 26 billion barrels.

Asked about the problems of US involvement due to the Philips Conoco stake (now just under 20%) in LUKoil he said ....." We are a Russian company and we operate according to Russian legal principles" and that there were no restristions on Russian investment in Iran.

How Russian they are was made very clear when it was reported that LUKoil has ceded State controlled Gazprom majority stakes in a planned joint venture with Gazprom's oil division, Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS), for new projects in Russia . It was noted that this was first announced on Thursday, the day after the senior Gazprom executive responsible for developing the company's oil business, Alexander Ryazanov, unexpectedly left his position at the head of Gazprom Neft.

Alekperov told Dow Jones newswires that giving Gazprom the controlling stake won't mean Lukoil will lose control of its existing oil fields. This development simply demonstrates the state's growing grip on the lucrative gas / petroleum / hydrocarbon industry which has been an object of President Putin and his St pertersburg pals since assuming office.

"Gazprom is our big brother; the big brother must have 51%," Alekperov told journalists on Friday and said that he didn't think the loss of Ryazanov would affect the companies' ability to work together. Ho.Ho.

Whilst it is unclear why Ryanazov (it has been stated his contract had expired) has departed Gazprom Neft ,speculation persists that Gazprom's executive board, mainly St Petersburg based folk dominated by Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller saw Ryanazov, a man with much experience in West Siberia as taking too independent a line. Vremya novostei, on November 16th, said his departure signalled a process of consolidating Gazprom's financial resources ahead of the inevitable pre-election infighting among the Russian president's inner circle.

Sergei Blagov considers how his departure is related to the looming gas shortages in Russia identified recently by the International Energy Agency (see Lord |Patel's previous FCUKED posts) and the need for massive investment to maintain levels of production.

Last month the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry said the country could face a natural gas shortage of 4.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2007 and suggested nearly double gas prices for industrial consumers, rising from $45.3 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) up to $80/tcm. Unless adequate measures are taken, Russia's gas shortage could reach 8.4 bcm in 2008, 27.7 bcm by 2010, and 46.6 bcm by 2015, the ministry said in a report released on October 19.

The Industry and Energy Ministry said it would be necessary to invest up to $600 billion by 2011 in order to sustain its gas output levels in the long term.

This reflects major disagreements in and between key Russian ministries about gas pricing. Russia has basically two strategic routes ;

1. Produce more gas and increase exports / reduce domestic consumprion
2. Limit exports until production has increased sufficiently and the energy crunch passes.

Low gas prices encourage high consumption rates domestically and with customers, especially in ex Soviet states such as Georgia, Ukraine and Byelorussia this and discourage investments in expanded gas production.

A decision on gas prices, which remain regulated by the Russian government, is expected at a cabinet meeting in late November well in advance of the 2008 presidential election (Kommersant, November 16).

If the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry's plan for an immediate price hike is accepted, Gazprom is expected to sell 60-90 bcm of gas at US$80/tcm, thus raising its 2007 sales by US$2-4 billion. The remaining domestic supplies of 210-240 bcm (60% ish of current production) are planned for delivery for the domestic energy sector and retail customers at US$51.80/tcm. Production costs range from US$6/tcm for more accessible gas fields and as high as US$20/tcm at the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. (Compare Norwegian Statoil' s Arctic gas costs)

Ryazanov went to Dushanbe discussing joint projects with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov where Gazprom is spending $7 million to explore Tajik gas deposits this year and plans to spend $12 million in 2007 in gas fields with an estimated 100bcm in the Sarikamysh, Rengan, Shaambary, and Sargazon fields(RIA-Novosti, November 10) which will help boost future supplies.

At the same time he was in control of gas supplies to Ukraine and Belarus - where negotiations are at a critical stage. On November 17 Gazprom and Byelorussian staffs met to discuss the price of Russian natural gas for Belarus in 2007 what Gazprom described as "free-market prices for natural gas supplies to Belarus." which translates from the Russian as higher gas prices. On the table at present is a proposal supply around 20 bcm of gas to Belarus this year, at a price of US$180-200/tcm in 2007, a massive and unpopular increase from the current US$50/tcm. Watch this space.....

Ukraine Gas prices for Ukraine are also unsettled, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov met, Viktor Yanukovych, and both sides indicated plans to sign an agreement to supply 55 bcm of "Central Asian" gas to Ukraine in 2007 at a price of $130/tcm, up from $95/tcm earlier in 2006. Watch this space ........

Russia has 25% of the world's gas reserves (29 trillion cubic metres) and is committed to export more than 2.5 trillion cubic meters over the next 15 years. Depletion of Gazprom's production facilities has been estimated at some 60%, and key fields are believed to be equally exhausted.
As Gazprom has no significant gas fields that could be developed quickly and cheaply (hence need for Tajik gas) ,these projected sales look increasingly doubtful as the International Energy Agency have been anxious to identify and publicise.

All this of course impacts on EU (and more selfishly UK) energy security... a subject of constant remark by FCUKED for the last 5 years,which it appears has finally appeared on the radar of the Whitehall mandarins. Even top spook Dame Pauline Neville Jones remarked on it when she was wheeled out on BBC's Newsnight last night (again !!) to discuss the the alleged assassination by Putin's men of an ex KGB operator who turned his back on the Motherland.

The hard faced bitch glossed over the looming UK energy supply and security problems however and made soothing noises to suggest that her chums in the purlieus of St James's had the problem well in hand. (Ah! the effortless Rolls Royce minds of the mandarinate) It would be fascinating to see discuss with her how our crumbling nuclear industry, fast disappearing natural gas and oil, the worldwide scranble for LNG import / export facilities and vanishing and hugely expensive coal industry can plug any gap left by an implosion oif Russian gas supplies - or a massive rise in global prices led by Russia acting like a gas fired OPEC.

If you want a detailed, sensible, authoritative case of the problems Lord Patel brought your attention to the Institute of Civil Engineers report on this years ago here.

Nigerian financial scams and the fur flies...

The EC has adopted a proposal (IP/06/1586)today to ban the import, export and sale of cat and dog fur in the EU.

Markos Kyprianou, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, said: “The message ...has been loud and clear. [Consumers] .. do not find it acceptable to farm cats and dogs for their fur .... nor .. products containing such fur sold on the European market. [This] ban ... will mean that consumers .. can rest assured they will not inadvertently buying products containing cat or dog fur."

2 UK Ministers have taken the time off from worrying about Iraq, Afghanistan , Worldwide Terror, Flu epidemics Ian McCartney, Minister for Trade and casually signing certificates for peerages says..

" I am leased that the European Commission has made this announcement. I know there has been a lot of concern and I am keen we get the ban in place as quickly as possible."

Ben Bradshaw, the curiously coiffured Minister for Animal Welfare who showed total unconcern about the welfare of cod when responsible for controlliung North Sea fishing quotas said (no doubt dabbing a tear away) "An EU-wide ban should be ..... implemented as quickly as possible."

Have you ever heard such absolute bollocks ?

Having been to North Korea and eaten dog, (where they are farmed just like sheep) I can say it is quite tasty, not unlike red duck meat, apparently the skin, boiled in water to remove the hair and in fat like pork scratchings it makes a tasty snack - which somewhat redeems these 4 legged , disease spreading, shit machines which I wholeheartedly hate and despise - slightly more than their owners.

Let us be clear. There is nothing desirable or interesting about a dog.

Cats make pleasant companions, I have never (knowingly) eaten one, but had several as household pets.

Why should anyone shrink from their further use and amusement to mankind as glove linings or collars for coats ? We breed, kill, skin , eat, cows, reindeer, kangaroos, sheep, goats, and turn their hides into coats, handwear, headwear, footwear, floorcoverings, amusing ornaments.

Why not cats and dogs ?

Techno freaks, nerds, gauleiters will be delighted that , "Several Member States are already employing effective detection methods to check for cat and dog fur on their markets (e.g. Mass Spectrometry, DNA testing etc)."

Would that some of this forensic effort could be directed to discovering the loss of £4.5 BN. to the Treasury from VAT fraud this year - or Nigerian Financial scams - see a 65 page report published today from Chatham House "NIGERIA-RELATED FINANCIAL CRIME AND ITS LINKS WITH BRITAIN" by Michael Peel

Which commences
"Financial crime linked to Nigeria is a large and pressing problem for the British authorities,which are short of the information and resources needed to deal with it."

For example

On one day in 2005, a check at Heathrow airport revealed £20m worth of forged cheques and postal orders in courier mail from the African country's capital, Lagos.

In one incident last year at a parcel centre in Coventry, customs officials seized more than £1m in chcheques hidden in a single handbag sent from the country.

A survey of 220 packages sent from Nigeria to Britain contained forged cheques with a face value, in sterling and foreign currency, of £46.1 million.

Checks carried out at Heathrow on a single day in 2005 discovered more than £20 million of forged cheques and postal orders in mail sent from Lagos by courier. (The couriers had been warned in advance of the inspection) Other, unannounced, interceptions have found that almost the entire weight of mail from Nigeria consisted of forged documents.

Five years after President Sani Abacha's departure and after at least $1.3 billion looted by him had processed through British financial institutions there are far greater priorities that our harassed port / immigration officials have than the stupid sensitivities of the pet lovers.

This exchange in the House of Commons to people interested in these sort of things is interesting to those sort of people....

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which London banks were found by the FSA to have handled funds stolen from Nigeria by General Sani Abacha; and which banks were criticised for lax money laundering controls. [7995]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 15 October 2001]: The Banking Act 1987 restricts the FSA's ability to make its findings public. Under the new Financial Services and Markets Act, which comes into force on 1 December, the FSA will have wider powers to disclose this information.

Transparency International (from Democrat's Diary July 2005) reported that ...

"The UK was strikingly unhelpful when the new Nigerian government authorities first asked the British for help in retrieving the stolen goods and so far has not repatriated any substantial amount of the money known to be sitting in London's banks."

The Foreign Office does not keep a formal log of victims’ reports of Nigerian "advance fee frauds", arguing that the police have much more important things to do with their time. ‘It’s cruel to say,’ notes one British banker ‘but it only affects the stupid and the greedy, frankly.’

In Britain, the police say constraints of resources and time stop them tackling mail fraud more aggressively. They are not able to alert all potential victims whose names they find on cheques, so they do not tell any at all.

Just let me here one of these "underesourced" Plods chasing cat furriers ......

PS Cheney / Abacha / Halliburton bribery

A Halliburton London lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler (58) a London based lawyer (Kaye Tesler, Tottenham) for Halliburton - the bagman who controlled the secret $180 million “slush fund” set up (according to French press reports) by Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) — admitted in mid-May, 2004 under oath (after being threatened with an International arrest warrant) , making 2 payments from the slush fund totaling nearly $1 million to two top KBR executives.

Halliburton in partnership with French petro-engineer Technip built the (then) world's largest US$6Bn gas-liquefaction factory in Nigeria — for Shell, in partnership with a large French petro-engineering company, Technip.

Tesler (who started his soliciting with Linklaters and Paines) got his hands on this slush fund when he was acting as advisor to Nigerian dictator General Sami Abacha and controlled his personal fortune — through a front company called TriStar that Tesler set up and controlled in the British tax haven of Gibraltar. The source of the slush was according to Georges Kramma a co-operative (well to the French investigating Judge Van Rymbeke) top official of Technip, a Madeira (Portugeuse territory) consortium set up by Technip and Halliburton. Christopher Welton, chief of Technip’s investor-and-analyst relations confirmed to Newsweek that Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary “was the chief principal and decision maker in the venture.”

French press reported that some or all of the US$180Mn was “retro-commissions” and were, in fact, bribes given to Nigerian officials and others to grease the wheels for the refinery deal (which required Nigerian government approval) and its construction. One witnesses was the former Nigerian oil minister Dan Entete — who may have used the money to buy apartments in Paris and a chateau in Normandy.

What fascinated many was that in his sworn testimony, (Le Canard Enchaine reported ), Tesler admitted making two payments from the $180 million fund to Halliburton executives;

1. A US$385,000 payment to Albert J. “Jack” Stanley, president of KBR and a close associate of Dick Cheney — a payment which Stanley had sent to a numbered bank account in Zurich, baptized “Amal”:
2, A US$350,000 payment to top KBR exec William Chaudan — who had the money routed to an anonymous bank account in sunny Jersey (an island off France not the State of).

A US DOJ enquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act curiously ran into the ground after having asked for documents - no suggestion of course that Cheney's old pal John Ashcroft interfered with the smooth course of Justice.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,,1339743,00.html
In June 2004 Halliburton cut ties with Jack Stanley, and said he had received as much as $5m in "improper personal benefits" related to the Nigerian scandal.
http://www.kt.uklaw.net
Kaye Tesler (Nominated and short listed for Lemmas award sponsored by the Law Society for marketing and management and Finalist DTI E-Commerce awards says the company website) operates from shop front premises and in a Guradian story they are reported as being founded in the 1970s by Mr Tesler's partner, Michael Kaye. Its website describes Mr Tesler's practice as including "private law, commercial law, tax and international commerce", with a charge-out rate of £250 an hour. The firm also deals with routine matters like conveyancing and wills.

According to Companies House records, Mr Tesler has been a director of 12 property and IT companies since 1990.... the company continues in business.

Kaye Tesler meanwhile happily continue with their business.

Mr Cheney is VP of the United States.

Halliburton have just IPO'd part of KBR (17% of the company 27.84 Mn shares at US$17 per share = US$473 Mn. on 15th November 2006. The 27.84 million share offering, which represents about a 17 percent stake in the company, sold for $17 per share, valuing KBR at US£2.7Bn. KBR booked US$16 Bn of business in Iraq and pulled out totally last month. (Closed US$22.37 today)

Sani Abacha died in 1997 at his palace in Abuja accompanied by 2 prostitutes of aheart attach apparently overdosing on Viagra. he is credited with having looted US$4MN from Nigeria, his family offered initially US$1.2 Mn but his son Mohammed maintains all the funds the family has were legitimately acquired

...and ...er .... that's it.