WWJB ?

Trevor Chin at Bagnews - always worth a visit.

Liberty ! What crimes are committed in thy name - Redux

John Wadham (57) (pic) was, like Sami Chakrabarti the Director of Liberty. he left them to become the Deputy Chairman of the Independent Police Complains Commission (IPCC). Inspired choice ! A Guardian of freedom keeping their eye on Plod.

Those readers with very long memories will remember that Sir Ian Blair, Senior and Official liar at the Met. wrote a letter to Sir John Gieve ** at the Home Office (a letter whose date was curiously wrong, mistated, misunderstood, a result of a secretaries typographical error etc..) and unilaterally, dishonestly, and illegally impeded the activities of the IPCC for at least 6 days.

During this time, Oh! Dear it was found that all CCTV filllum, hard disks, etc., etc.,from Stockwell Tube had disappeared, sightseers, eye witnesses, sworn to secrecy and threatened not to speak about what they saw etc., etc., Police wrote their hymn sheets to sing to, incontinent SAS men altered their records, gunmen guilty of murder went on holiday and every manner of Press obfuscation, disninformation, misinformation, leaking, briefing went on... not to mention all the big wigs avoiding the game of who knew what, and when, and how.

At the end of all this the IPCC enquiry headed by John Wadham, found that an inoccent man sitting on a tube train had 1/2/3/4/5/6/ /8/9/10/11/12/13 bullets pumped n his head from inches away by highly trained ( soldiers ?) as the result of an industrial accident.

The Met have pleaded guilty to endagering the public and the report will probably never see the light of day.

Worth mentioning this, as some folks feel that Lord Patel has been a bit hard on that beautiful, sweet, evidently independent minded barrister Sami Chakrabarti (37) who worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until 2001.

We now know the State recruited, directed, controlled, savage killers, paid them , covered their tracks, facilitated their murders by removing patrols, provided weapons, and ammunition, explosives, training ... yet the idea that the State would stuff an organisation like Liberty or the IPCC with their stooges is somehow a nonsense ?

** Sir John Gieve is a lifelong Arsenal supporter (as was the philosopher and MI6 officer, Freddy Ayer - or was he a Spurs * fan ?) and was Permanent Secretary of the Home Office from 2001 and left in early 2006 to become Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, which was announced shortly after the 7/7 bombings. He was of course involved with the Sun journalist Mr Blunkett and his domestic affairs, mistresses, and their au pair, children, DNA tests, travel arrangements, etc, etc., directly, and indirectly as his wife was Mr Blunkett's solicitor and joined meetings when these matters were discussed.

The current problems of Mr Reid and the cleaning of the Augean Stables of Marsham Street have of course absolutely no connection with the interregnum from 2001 - 2006 whilst this mastermind from New College (PPE) was Permanent Secretary. Perish the thought.

The fact that we saw the trade gap go up by 25% in 2006 (National Statistical office report this week) cannot be attributed to the Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, but it does however have a major impact on the stability of the Pound Sterling.

Fortunately Dubya is doing an even worse job and whilst we don't enjoy the strength of Sterling we have a brief hour of sunshine at dusk due to the decline of the mighty Dollar and the unstoppable rise of the Euro. Which will continue when oil soon reaches US$100 a barrel.

* Spurs - A North London Football team - properly called Tottenham Hotspur

Senator Clinton's Remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

Hillary spoke to AIPAC this week.


"This is a moment of great difficulty for Israel and great peril for Israel, for the U.S. and for free and democratic nations. Israel is confronting many of the toughest challenges in her history, in a neighborhood that is less secure than ever. At this moment of peril, what is vital is that we stand by our friend and our ally and we stand by our own values. Israel is a beacon of what's right in a neighborhood overshadowed by the wrongs of radicalism, extremism, despotism and terrorism.

We need only look to one of Israel's greatest threats: namely, Iran. Make no mistake, Iran poses a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire Middle East and beyond, including the U.S. I don't need to remind this group that about a month ago the Iranian government hosted a conference in Tehran whose sole purpose was to deny the Holocaust."

Want to read more of her praise for the Apartheid State of Israel ? Go here to a specially prepared section of her website

This was the (then) First Lady, who said in Spring 1998 to Arab and Israeli teen-agers attending a youth conference on Mideast peace.

"It would be in the long- term interests of peace in the Middle East for there to be a state of Palestine, a functioning modern state that is on the same footing as other states."

Her mouthpiece Marsha Berry, rushed out a statement ... "these remarks are her own personal view. The administration position on this matter has not changed."

The New York Times went ballistic. Tom Rhodes and Christopher Walker, "Congress Tells Israel to Reject Clinton’s Pullout Plan," New York Times, May 8, 1998; James Bennet, "Aides Disavow Mrs. Clinton on Mideast," New York Times, May 8, 1998. 39

Of course the bitter, raddled bitch might have still been smarting from being reminded of what Bill said on TV on January 26th,1998 "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."


The Clintonans, you can rely on them .. they'll always let you down.

Media choice narrows in Manchester - Guardian Media Group grows UK radio empire

Office of Communications, or Ofcom, in a litle noticed announcement Thursday (after reviewing 11 applications) awarded RockTalk 106.1, , a new 12 year FM local commercial radio license for Manchester to begin broadcasting within 2 years.

RockTalk 106.1 is wholly-owned by The Guardian Media Group. It will provide "a speech and rock music service for 35-64 year-olds, which contains a strong commitment to local news, current affairs and interactive debate for the Manchester area = adult population (aged 15+) of around 1,450,000.

RockTalk 106.1, GMG Radio, 1 Sterling Court, Capitol Park, Leeds WF3 1EL.
Contact: Jeff Stephenson Tel: 07710 073021
Email: jeff.stephenson@gmgradio.com

In Manchester, The Guardian Media Group now owns the only daily paper (The Manchester Evening News), a TV station (Channel M), many weekly papers (Observer series etc.,) it has a stake in the Metro free paper - for "time starved individuals ( with Associated Newspapers Limited).

GMG Radio now owns 12 major FM stations covering the majority of the UK population (latest acquisition Saga Radio on 19th Dec 2006 -giving them they claim ,"the largest regional footprint in the UK." ) for example - Jazz FM - (smoothfm London t/a jazzfm.com Co No 1627850 - Reg office - 1 Scott Place, Manchester, M3 3GG). 96.3 Rock Radio started operating in Scotland on 10th January 2007

Brent Hoberman of lastminute.com fame joined GMG as a Director on 24th January 2007 - he also Chairman at Wayn.com, (WAYN - Where Are You Now? Ltd ) a travel and leisure social network with over 7 million members (!!!) - a MySpace wannabee. 6 days later youthful Steve Folwell (30) joined from McKinsey 's media group to take on the new position of Head of Strategy who reports directly to CEO slim elegant, bright Kent University graduate Carolyn McCall (44) - expect some changes.


Pic of CP SCott on bike, founder of the CP Scott Trust which owns the whole shebang.

Anne Nicole Smith RIP

Anne Nicole Smith .. who made one old,old man very, very happy .. Lord Patel.

Barr found hanging from Cross bar - Suicide ? Settling old scores, or securing his silence ?

A 36 year old man was found hanging from the cross bar of a some football goal posts on Forthriver Playing Fields in Belfast on Wednesday morning 7th February 2007. His funeral will proceed today from his mother's house on the Shankhill Parade.

A man called Rodgers, the manager of the Youth Training Scheme on the Shankill Road when Barr was a member, said that he had always found him " a committed young man" and added that he sends his sympathies to his family.

"This man has died in very tragic circumstances and I feel for his family," he said.

The man found hanging was Mark Barr. ( Do not confuse with Glen Barr founder of the New Ulster Political Research Group in 1974) A UDA member, he had been a member of "Mad" Johnny Adair's infamous C Company which colluded with British forces through double-agent Brian Nelson. They were implicated in the nurder of Republican solicitor Pat Finucane who was gunned down in his home in Belfast as his wife and three children watched.(12th February 1999) Numerous non-governmental human rights organisations and official reports have connected British Crown forces to his murder.

See the British Irish Rights Watch report in February 2000 that shows that, through its secret Force Research Unit (FRU), a branch of British Army Intelligence, the state sought out loyalist Brian Nelson and infiltrated him into the Ulster Defence Association, which carried out its campaign of murder under the flag of convenience of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF). FRU used Nelson to enhance the loyalists' intelligence on people it was targeting for murder, and that intelligence rapidly spread throughout other loyalist paramilitary groups.

The report examines in depth the murders not only of Pat Finucane but also Terence McDaid, and Gerard Slane. This report simply foreshadowed the recent Ombudsman report into the way the RUC Special Branch not only recruited Loyalist murderes and directed them , but also paid them.

No-one has ever been convicted in relation to the Finucane killing or the other murders directed by British agent Brian Nelson, (Agent 6137. who was recruited by Colonel (now Brigadier) Gordon Kerr - at one time Military Attache in Beijing and leader of Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) sent to Iraq by Geoff Hoon - see pic in full fig) including the brutal murder of Catholic pensioner and friend of Gerry Adams father, Francisco Notorantonio -a 66-year-old retired West Belfast taxi driver, who was killed on 9 October 1987 when masked gunmen smashed their way into his Ballymurphy home and shot him as he lay in bed.

Barr came into possession of photocopies of original documents taken from the Thiepval Barracks by the Stevens enquiry team into the death of Pat Finucane. These documents included Army and Police Intelligence reports.

When arrested, he was 30 and lived in Silvio Street in Belfast, and faced faced 3 charges when he appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Friday July 30th 1999. ( along with Stobie and Paul Givens and William Hutchinson for offences of possession of documents containing information useful to terrorists)

1.Between 1985 and 1989 he had possession of photocopies of index cards concerning named persons who were not named in the charge.

2. Photocopies of index cards and photographic montages allegedly in his possession between 1984 and 1989.

3. On a date unknown before January 16, 1990, he had possession of a computer print out of named persons, again not named in the charge.

An RUC detective sergeant said when he was charged Mr Barr replied: "Definitely not guilty."

In 2001 he was convicted of having documents likely to be of use to terrorists and received a suspended sentence. Mr Wiliam Stobie, 48, from Forthriver Road, Belfast, also charged with involvement in the Finucane murder, and told the RUC at the time of the murder he was a Special Branch informer. The Steven's enquiry found Stobie was present when Finucane's murder was planned, that Stobie supplied the weapons, and was involved in recovering them after the killing. Indeed Stobie kept his RUC handlers (Tasking and Coordinating Group (TCG) aware before and after Finucane's death of the supply and passage of the guns involved.

Whilst Barr's body lay in the mortuary, officers from the Historical Enquiries Team went to the mortuary to take fingerprints but were refused permission. Since then they applied for a Court Order for permission to take Barr's fingerprints.

The Belfast Telegraph could not ontain any comments about the matter from the Historical Enquiries Team.

The British Irish Right Watch report's final paragraph says they have ,

" ....... made serious allegations of security force collusion in a large number of deaths and other illegal acts, of which the murders of Patrick Finucane, Terence McDaid and Gerard Slane are but the tip of an iceberg. We have said that those three died because of systematic policies adopted by the security services involving British military intelligence and the RUC. There is also considerable evidence of an official cover-up."

Suicide ? Someone settling old scores ? The State securing his silence ?

Somebody somewhere knows, but don't expect to read about it in your daily paper or on the TV or Radio.

Stobie ? We forgot. William Stobie (see pic) was shot dead outside his home at a block of flats on the Forthriver Road in the Glencairn area of Belfast on December 12 2001. The Loyalist paramilitary group the Red Hand Defenders (?)later said they carried out the attack. (The RHD also claimed responsibility for the killing of Rosemary Nelson, a Catholic human rights solicitor, in Lurgan on 15 March 1999.)

Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) Press Release (4 July 2004): 'Police did all they could to protect William Stobie' See also BBC Online

Nelson ? A heavy smoker, he died in bed of lung cancer in April 2003.

9/11 Doubts grow in MSM ... polls betray increasing disbelief in Gubment bullshit

An explosion of disbelief - fresh doubts over 9/11
By SUE REID - Daily Mail Saturday Feb19th 2007 also This is London/Evening Standard

Coverage, familiar to readers here, about Loose Change, Professor Griffin, and others including mad Michael Meacher about 9/11 and reveals ...." A recent poll by the respected New York Times (in which Warren Buffet tells Lord P he is sizing up to take a stake) revealed that three out of four Americans now suspect the U.S. government of not telling the truth about 9/11. This proportion has shot up from a year ago, when half the population said they did not believe the official story of an Al Qaeda attack."
In the realm of odd coincidences about 9/11 ...Chic Burlingame, captain of American Airlines Flight 77 that was en route from Dulles International Airport near Washington to Los Angeles, was killed when his airplane was deliberately crashed by terrorists into the southwest face of the Pentagon E ring.

Victor Saracini was the Captain of United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 bound from Boston to Los Angeles. This plane was crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center shortly after 9 a.m. ET.

Both pilots flew together on USS Saratoga VF 103 the Sluggers in the 70's

Now the Skull and Cross Bones on the Navy's ES-3A Shadow reconnaissance is the sign of the VF 103 (see sign on undergear also) but what on earth is the AA symbol (American Airlines) with the lightning Bolt through it ? Link to the Sluggers above for more amazing pics.

We don't have answers we just ask the questions.

Benn - craziness is evidently in the genes

Shirley Benn, Minister of Overseas Development, son of Viscount Stansgate, on Channel 4 explaining why the deal with Tanzania about military radar and Overseas Aid, Barclays Bank etc., was fair, square, transparent, honest etc., etc.,

Liberty ! What crimes are committed in thy name ?

Slim, doe eyed, media celebritythe gamin, soulful waif, Sami Chakrabarti of Liberty has written a letter to Rt. Hon. Dr. John Reid MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, Home Office dated 6th February 2007 (PDF file)expressing concern about ..."by suggestions from community, media and (most-importantly) police sources, that so-called “Whitehall briefings” about operational matters and ...... asking whether special advisers may have briefed certain journalists “off the record”, etc., and enclosing an FOI request ....

FOI request from Liberty to the Home Office Direct Communications Unit dated 6th February 2007(PDF file)

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000:

1. Details of all media organisations, specifying the newspaper, journal, magazine, radio station or television channel, with whom the Home Secretary’s political advisers between Tuesday 30th January and Thursday 1st February 2007 inclusive, discussed the alleged plot by Islamist extremists to kidnap one or more members of the armed forces, and the police’s investigation or impending investigation into the alleged plot, and/or who was briefed in relation to the same between the same dates, and/or to whom information, in whatever form, in relation to the same was provided by them between the same dates; .....etc.,"

This would of course be the same John Reid who was seen on TV saying that people should be "very careful" about what they might say about the extraordinarily well publicised raids and arrests in Birmingham of Muslims intent on beheading one of their brethren who had sold his soul to the infidel and joined their Army in the fight against the Brothers of Islam...as the Murdocj press and the others of the Gubment's media echo chamber would obediently print on the following day.

Read carefully what is requested .... if meetings happened , the cursory greeting in a corridor, urinal, by the water cooler, at a bus stop, car park ... nothing would be written down, and as journalists will never reveal sources, and Home Office officials will deny everything , .... nothing.

Which might just make the sceptical non-Metropolitan observer think that everybody rides on the same old roundabout, simply taking turns to give it a spin. Sami is an unlikely candidate for the role of Madame Roland , put to the Guillotine by Robespierre in November 1793 who prior to her savage and public beheading flung her immortal words at her accusers.

She would have to remove that carefully and fashionably tied scarf from her beautiful, elegant, swan like neck for a start.

Carbon Black Hole - Margaret Becket's Memorial . Monument ?

Carbon Price 08 February 2007 EUA DEC 2007 for the ETS €1.55 down overnight 0.07 to lowest ever. Remember it was over €33 in March.

Record UK Trade Deficit in 2006 - VAT / Duty Black Hole Mystery deepens

The Office for National Statistics announced today that Britain's goods trade gap grew to £7.142 Bn. December 2006 , from £6.871 Bn. in November 2006. December's figures added to the largest annual trade deficit since records began in 1697, with the total trade gap for 2006 widening to £55.8 billion pounds in 2006 from £44.6 billion in 2005. ( A rise of 25%)

Records were set last year for both exports and imports but , excluding oil and erratic items, the volume of exports rose by 1 % between November and December and the volume of imports rose by 3%. (Nota Bene No-one has said yet the economy has been "blown off course". Yet.)

Very significantly the Press release states (verbatim)

"Following a change in the pattern of trading associated with Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud, identified by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, interpretation of the breakdown between EU and non-EU trade is more difficult. Originally, most carousel chains only involved EU member states. More recently, some carousel chains have included non-EU countries, for example, Dubai and Switzerland. However, the import adjustment is applied only to EU imports as the goods return to the UK via the EU - but it is this part of the trading chain that is not recorded." (i.e the gangsters are one step ahead)

A report was issued in March 2005 Report on impact of MTIC on UK Trade statistics
Report on further research into the impact of Missing Trader Fraud on UK Trade Statistics, Balance of Payments and National Accounts. by David Ruffles & Tricia Williams... (Download PDF 9 pages ) which baldy concluded that it was not possible to extend or refine the estimates for the impact of fraud on the statistics using the currently available sources. Page 1.

On Page 9 they add ..."There are also concerns about asymmetries in Intrastat data, in particular issues about possible fraud in other Member States, inconsistencies between Member States in the calculation of statistical value, estimation of Below Threshold Trade and late/partial response. The UK will continue to be active in the European meetings at which these issues are addressed.

While further research by HMCE into the various data sources is possible, it is very resource
intensive. In addition, because of concerns about the overall quality of those data sources, in the
judgement of the HMCE/ONS team it is unlikely to yield robust estimates for the impact on the
trade statistics of either carousel fraud in other goods or of acquisition fraud."

A report from Reuters suggested that VAT fraud cost the UK government at least £ 8.5 Bn. (yes Billion) in the year to June 2006, whic HMRC disputes burt cannot provide any precise figures - which the Chancellor was slated to produce in his December 2006 statement ...but didn't. (But.See Below in BBC report)

Intriguingly the BBC report today (although the source of the figures is not given and is certainly not in the monthly statistics) ...

"The latest trade figures also reveal a continuing slump in the amount of trade associated with VAT "carousel fraud", which has been a factor in the volatility of the figures."

In December the volume of dishonest trade dropped to just £100m. "

They continue to say, despite the caveat about dealing with non EU fraud trails noted above ...

In the whole of 2006 there was £28.7bn worth of trade associated with this fraud, far and away the worst year on record and twice as much as in 2005. Most of this was in the 1st half , .... with just £600m of it in the last quarter of 2006.

In last December's pre-budget report (unseen by anyone else) Gordon Brown revealed that the Treasury lost between £2bn and £3bn in 2005-06 because of this activity. (For statisticians that is a variance of 100% = in this case £100,000,000 - which is a fair margin for error)

Meanwhile 5 arrests were made today in Surrey by HMRC, of a gang believed to have smuggled more than 85 tonnes of hand rolling tobacco (say 5 container loads) into the UK since July 2006 which involves the evasion of tobacco duty in the region of £12.5million.

John David WRIGHT, DOB 04/08/66 of Ruxbury End, St Ann's Hill Road, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 9NL remanded in Custody.

Andrew Jeffrey GREEN, DOB 12/01/62 of 22 Camellia Court, West End, Woking, Surrey, GU24 9XQ Bailed
Christopher William SHEARD, DOB 26/11/48 of 6 Monks Way, Staines, Middlesex, TW18 1QU Bailed.

Bali Shag is the only true European hand-rolling tobacco sold in the United States... do John Prescott and Jack Straw share the odd packet, Lord Patel wonders.

Lord Pullover of Grope and sequestration. Amazing picture!

The BBC report that shy retiring Richard Branson and gormless Al Gore launched an "Earth Challenge Prize" with a prize of US$25 MN. for the person who comes up with the best way of removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Well gagging the bearded pullover would be a good start.

An Inconvenient Truth

Stuart Haszeldine, professor of geology at the University of Edinburgh, commented: "Richard Branson is ahead of the pack in getting to grips with CO2 in the atmosphere.

"His decisive action places shame on the dithering of the UK Treasury, who will not let British power companies build CO2 capture plants, in case they are too expensive. "

The Inconvenient Truth is that the bearded wonder is long on promises and very short on shelling out the shekels, cloaking his grasping capitalism (Virgin inflation beating rail fares) in the (today) convenient and prevailing orthodoxy of greenery, in his endles quest for a cleaner greener, fatter planet wallet.

Paradoxically, one of the judges for this hare brained, ephemeral scheme pointless piece of publicity, is the inventor of Gaia theory James Lovelock (83) who from his Cornwall fastness, and to the despair of his admirers worldwide, is promoting a massive building plan for nuclear power throughout the UK.

Israel - steeped in Blood of the occupied

Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Hardcover)
by Ilan Pappe

Almost a million Palestinians were refugees by the end of 1949. Over 400 villages had been destroyed. 50 years later, it is called ethnic cleansing .That is what Ilan Pappe calls it. It is regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity.

He provides a clear chronological factual description of the expulsion of the Palestinian population , along with the documented strategy of the Zionist leaders who created the modern pariah, apartheid State of Israel, which includes both the 2nd Intifada and the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon in 2006.

The destruction of Palestinian villages, the afforestation (to which Prime Minister Harold Wilson contributed personally) covering and concealing their ruins by Golda Meir, are but one part of the Nakba of 1948, or the War for Independence in Israel . Only the degree of premeditation on the part of the Zionist leadership remains unclear. What was clear was the goal of a homogenous ethnic Jewish state in the whole of Palestine whose borders appear limitless.

Founding fathers like Theodor Herzl just wanted them to go , to disappear, and spoke of "spiriting the penniless population across the border". The Palestinians who owned more than 93% of the cultivated land in Palestine stood in the way.

The Consultancy, a small group of decision makers led by the insane David Ben-Gurion, finalised the Plan Dalet, which served as the masterplan for ethnic cleansing to create an exclusive Jewish state was through force of arms , systematic destruction, and by ethnic cleansing making the population flee and if they don't killing them. "The orders came with a detailed description of the methods to be employed to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centres; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion; demolition; and, finally, planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning." Once out, they had to stay out.

On 24 May 1948, Ben Gurion the Messianic warmonger wrote, "We will establish a Christian state in Lebanon, the southern border of which will be the Litani River. We will break Transjordan, bomb Amman and destroy its army, and then Syria falls, and if Egypt will still continue to fight - we will bombard Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo. This will be in revenge for what they (the Egyptians, the Aramis and Assyrians) did to our forefathers during Biblical times."

UN resolution 181 requred Britain to intervene, they had 70,000 toops in Palestine but were struggling with massive problems at home and in Europe there was little appetite for further strife at any level. Nonetheless Attlee's Labour Government connived at the Israeli onslaught, and declared non-interference and withdrew their Police , whilst at the same time trying to prevent new Jewish immigrants reaching Palestine. Probably what the Foreign Office at the time considered an "even handed" policy. Fuck with both sides and call it neutrality...qv Lebanon 2006 and the orchestrated cluster bombing.

Remorselessly, over the years, the pogrom has rolled on, the stateless, landless ,oppressed and disposessed, herded by a zealous and unquestioning conscript military force into smaller and isolated territories. What is happpening in the Occupied Territories and Gaza today is simply an extension in time, but one supported willingly by a consensus led by the Zionist led US and the UK.

Excellent review by Stephen Lendman 8th Feb The American Muslim

Which ends on a contemporary and bitter note on the endless Palestinian internecine strife and American perfidy fashioned, indeed directed by their Zionist paymasters....

"Now there’s the further threat of one Palestinian faction facing off against the other. On one side is the besieged Hamas-led government already in tatters from months of harsh sanctions and daily Israeli assaults. On the other are corrupted Fatah forces loyal to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas acting as a quisling proxy comprador enforcer for Israeli and US imperial interests for everything he stands to gain selling out his people for crumbs handed him and his cronies. They’re being armed to the teeth to do it, and George Bush announced he’s helping further by transferring $86 million to Abbas while starving Hamas and most Palestinians. It’s taken the lives of dozens of Palestinians in recent days. They’re in the middle having no dog in this fight except their oppressive occupier they want expelled."

Buy it today

Shilpa Setty and the MP - Questions asked in the House. Amazing Pictures !

Shilpa Shetty (31) won over starstruck politicians on a visit to Westminster yesterday says NOW magazine.

Apparently the stunningly beautiful, her serenity the Queen of Bollywood , spent 6 minutes with Tony Blair in his private (?) office before being treated to a lavish lunch - including a special dessert , Shilpa's Delight made in her honour. The Hindustan Times reports her saying the Prime Minister had been “very, very sweet” and gave her a painting of the parliament building signed by himself and his wife Cherie. Acording to the Soaraway Sun the PM was "very sad" to see her treatment on the Channel 4 reality show. Even Andrew Gimson fell into a swoon over her at the Torygraph comparing her entrance with that of Zuleika Donson at Oxford.

MPs badgered her for autographs while Foreign Secretary Jack Straw demanded a photo with the beauty. She also met she met ministers Peter Hain, Tessa Jowell and John Reid , although Muir Morton, the Deputy Serjeant at Armsput a damper on the proceedings when the frenzy on the Terrace grew too much and Vaz scattered red roses at her feet.

The dark haired, lissome Asian beauty and star of Celebrity Big brother , invited by the deeply unpleasant MP Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, (51) solicitor and Roman Catholic, was also invited to hang around for Prime Minisiter's question time.WOW!

"They are much more polite in this house." quipped the delightful, slim, graceful , gracious and ravishingly beautiful raven haired thespian.

In the absence of a photograph of Jack Straw with the awesomely desirable Shilpa, here is a photograph of him with the late, great, film star, Marilyn Monroe with whom he used to spend many hours discussing his fascinating hobby of cabinet making.

Judging by the fuck up he is making over proposals for the House of Lords he will need some hobbies for his impending retirement.

Few however will forget Mr Vaz, a Roman Catholic who in March 1989, led a march in Leicester against Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. It was here he said to a crowd of 9,000 Muslim demonstrators, that "today we celebrate one of the great days in the history of Islam and Great Britain" and called the Labour Party as a "godless party"

In March 2001 the Parliamentary standards watchdog Elizabeth Filkin found him guilty of of various financial wrongdoings (mainly involving the Hinduja Brothers and their commercial interests) and failing to declare two payments worth £450 in total from Sarosh Zaiwalla, a solicitor whom he subsequently recommended for an honour.

Keith Vaz was also a director of the company General Mediterranean Holdings' owned by the Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, whose (now closed) subsidiary was alleged to have swindled, with others by operating cartel supplying various drugs to the NHS. (Search within site "Auchi" for more)

His interest in Big Brother became apparent when he called Jade Goody a bully for her treatment of Shilpa and tabled an Early Day Motion after being contacted by some of his Asian constituents.

The lure of this fabulous Asian beauty even lapped at the door of the Mayor of London's office. Jade Goody's eviction from the Big Brother house was welcomed by Ken Livingstone as "very encouraging".The Mayor of London said he was "delighted" at last night's result which saw 25-year-old Jade Goody receive 82% of the public vote.

What won't these arseholes do for some cheap publicity? Contact Jez Barton who is her agent in the UK.

Jack Straw's impressive acheivements questioned publicly

As stories swirl about Jack's impressive track record of sexual athleticism, he comments in the first line of his Jack Straws Blog in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph today

Posted by Jack Straw at 5:15pm on Thu 8 Feb 07

"So how many times has that been raised at one of your open-air meetings, Jack?' is a question I've been asked a few times these last nine months."

Indeed.

Family mottos of the Huge not Straw family .."Voulez vouz jig a jig avec moi ce soir mademoiselle ?"

"Ou est ma tante ? Elle est sur la cabinet"

"Mais, non! Elle 'est dans la cabinet!"

Boom! Boom!

FOOTNOTE

Those interested in evaluating the veracity of what Mr Jack Straw said about the Niger Uranium nonsense and who knew what about anything pre"dodgy dossier", can read with interest today's post by yourplanetisdoomed and the release of CIA materials at the trial of the unfortunate Mr Libby.

(Un)Clean Development Mechanisms, Carbon Offsets,.. and the City money jugglers

Lord Patel remembers Ginny Buckley in the late 70's as an 8 year old gap-toothed chatterbox - transformed now into a slim svelte, 42 year old Mum who fronted an asinine quasi travel/Money /Green program on BBC2 Wednesday, 24 January 2007 at 21:00 GMT on BBC Two. - Should I Really Give Up Flying? about the current "debate" about the contribution of jetliners and their cargoes of thoughless and hedonistic holidaymakers.

This program consisted of vacuous stilted scripted conversation between the voluptuous Ginny in skin tight black jeans, revealing shirtwaister and some neat tricks with a scarf, moodily shot (Paris. Texas - asif ?) on some downtown rail tracks or in St Marks Square with the vapid Max Flint, who will soon take up shaving.

This programs was says the BBC ...

An examination of air tourism and its impact on the environment, to help viewers make up their minds about their own flying habits. Presenters Ginny Buckley and Max Flint reveal the effects of climate change on some of the world's favourite destinations and explore the impact that the explosion in budget airlines both in Europe and India could have on the environment. The programme also visits beneficiaries of offsetting from the Mersey Forest to the Masai Mara.

What we got was what could have been library shots of "Where I would like to go for my Holidays" with a totally uncritical , uninformed race through the benfits of tiny solar powered lights to an Indian village, a very sparky and savvy Kenyan teacher who had a mobile phone network re-charged by batteries, charged by hugely expensive solar power - which could easily have been done with readily and widely available hand cranked Taiwan made mobile phone charging devices.

It also included the absurd Brian Blessed saying how wonderful Doncaster (the epicentre of Labour Party Local Government corruption) airport was and the loothsome grinning pullover

Lord Virgin of Grope explaining how he was going to use biofuels to power his planes - which the excellent ex school colleague of Lord Patel, anti airport campaigner (he lives near Manchester
Airport) Geoff Gazzard , explained was nonsense as biofuels freeze at minus 3/4 degrees and even the bearded wonder's planes fly at temperatures of minus 40 degrees.

A supreme example of how inane, lightweight, visually unexciting and verbally apalling BBC TV programmes can be.

Now Channel 4 are at it this week (Wednesday 7th) with a really incisive incisive view about the corrupt, futile, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), carbon offsets and the ETS. (also Part 2 scheduled for Thursday -today but it didn't)

The excellent Tom Clarke has foundand publishes the details of some CDM carbon trading
schemes rich countries pay into, may not be adding to global cuts in emissions and may in fact
may, in fact, be damaging the local environment. He has found that currently Indian CDM plans
approved and in the process of approval would amount to companies receiving £1 -2.5Mn across 290 known schemes.

He raises first the case of Sri Bajrang & ISPAT in the Chantisgar state who have been served
notice by the State regulator - which they deby that they are not judged to be sustainable.

Further south in Karnataka he looks at the OP Jindal Group who have benefited by Euros 20 Mn. and whom Sunita Narain of the Centre for Economic Development claims that the rk undertaken was necessary and provides little environmental benefit for the local economy and area - again stoutly rejected by the company.

All the time these payments from the prosperous North are referred to as Investments. They are nothing of the kind, they are merely ;

1. A license to continue pollution
2. They are effectively a modern version of the mediaeval sale of indulgences, where a priest would undertake prayers (at a cost) to allow the sinner to continue their wayward life. January 27, 1343, that Pope Clement VI issued a bull, Unigenitus, officially reaffirming that the Catholic Church can grant remission of sin through indulgences.
3. They allow the erection of the market to trade in these "carbon credits" which become pari passu with the ETS units under the EU cap scheme with all it's derivatives and sparkly financial mumbo jumbo of commodities markets.
4. Ultimately these rigged markets allow the leaching (leeching) of pension funds either directly
or via "Hedge funds" and similiar corporate (and barely legal) quasi stick up gangsters.

One thing the CDM scheme and carbon credits do not do, is reduce the production of CO2, and other myriad attendant pollutants - PCB's , Dioxins, sulphur, toxic heavy metals and especially fine particulates.

The whole CDM circus also deflects critical attention on the production and pollution in the developed world and the respiratory epidemics, skin ailments, actions of oestrogen mimetics and many, as yet unknown consequences that follow unbridled pollution - whilst at the same time allowing the polluters to claim how hard they are working at providing a sustainable world ...simultaneously helping the 3rd world.

Wonderful how things haunt you .. poor old Larry Summers Ex World Bank, Ex Dean of Harvard famously endorsed a memo in 1991 from Lant Pritchett which was alleged to be "ironic". It advanced an economic argument for the dumping of pollution from First World countries in the territory of 3rd World countries.

Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Least Developed Countries]? I can think of three reasons:

Read the rest here ....

Tommorrows reading will be from "Carbon Trading" .. a critical conversation on climate change ..Dag Hammarskold Centre. Sept. 2006 . Chapter 4 Page 219 et seq. Offsets - The fossil economy's new arena of conflict.

In which it is shown how projects designed to "compensate" for continued fossil fuel use are helping dispossess ordinary people of their land, water, air - and future.

BBC Five Live did a program (40 mins) by Matthew Chapman (Sunday 29 October at 1100 GMT ) which you can hear by clicking the link.... learn what happens when you "carbon offset" your air travel.

A report about the program is available at BBC Online .

Learn how

Money pledged by the UK to make up for the pollution caused by the world leaders flying to last years G8 summit in Gleneagles hosted by Tony Blair to help a Cape Town township cut energy costs by installing low energy light bulbs, is paying for bureaucrats and accountants, BBC's Five Live Report has found out. (This was, bragged TB a G8 "Carbon neutral" summit)

An independent body, South South North, involved in the project, calculated it would raise £37,000 from the sale of carbon rights for re-investment in the poverty stricken township.

Result ? Hiring auditors to meet needs of the CDM mechanism (KPMG) in the way demanded by CDM, cost £54,000, leaving Cape Town council in debt to the tune of £17,000.

Learn how ;

The Carbon Neutral Company Ltd., (originally known as re-Leaf Britain Limited 1995 , Forests for the Future Ltd 1996 and Future Forests Ltd 2005, ) one of 2 favoured by the Gubment (the other is Climate Care Ltd of Oxford , previously Co2 Management Ltd., 2003, CST Management Ltd., 2000- they are now a subsidiary of Co2.org - Climate Care is the trading name of Climate Care Trust Limited. who confusingly pays a fixed royalty of 10% of annual turnover to Climate Care Ltd) hasn't produced any accounts beyond June 2005, (i.e accounts are due) and will sell you a right to carbon which will squester in trees that were planted before they got involved and whose lifetime will be determined by the owners - who might be The Government Agency the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Council.

The Carbon Neutral Company Ltd., principal shareholders their website reports, are , Zouk Ventures (whose website deescribes them as a a London-based venture capital firm) who manage $100 million in two technology funds and owns investments in Finland, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Triodos Bank is an independent bank investing in enterprises creating social, environmental or cultural added value - for example they sponsored the Soil Association Annual Conference January 2007 - ‘One Planet Agriculture’ at the Cardiff International Area.

Confused ? You will be. In the fantasy world of CDM and Carbon offsets.

Jack Straw tried to shag dead MP - Amazing Pictures

The Editor of Screws of the World after seeing his Royal reporter royally shagged by the High Court now believes that Rt.Hon. Jack Straw, serial liar, warmonger and war crininal offered to shag Fiona Jones, who was at the time Labour MP for Newark .

"In 2005 Fiona told the News of the World how she was approached by a Cabinet minister who asked her for sex in return for a top Government job."..." apparently he described her performance to conference as brilliant" is what they said on Sunday.

Now can anybody seriously believe that anyone would take the offer of a shag from Jack Straw seriously ? Let's face it, can you take anything this guy has ever said seriously?

Consider the Top Secret memo /Foreign and Commonwealth Office /25 March 2002

SECRET AND PERSONAL from Jack to Tony before the Faustian pact was sealed at Crawford that fateful day in April 2002.

"The Iraqi regime plainly poses a most serious threat to its neighbours ....." Yeah, yeah.

Apparently he was buttonholed yesterday and asked, "C'mon Jack, Fess up man, did you shag Fiona Bruce man ?" to which he replied, " I'm glad you asked me that , ... now ... now ... please don't interrupt me .. this really is an interesting question...." but the interlocutor like Fermat hasd something more pressing to do, like catch a bus.

Apparently Jack is not taking calls, especially not from Condi.

Jack Straw is 69

Challenged about the Truth of this the reports of this very odd behaviour, Lord Patel conducted a survey of women, 13 current lady Labour MP's , 22 women selected randomly at Picadilly Station Manchester, 3 nurses, 2 Virgin Raiways "cabin attendants"and one glamorous unmarried lady Member of the House of Lords. They were asked if they would accept a job in the Cabinet if he shagged them, they all replied very firmly NO. The Lady peer did say that Tony had fucked her AS Lord Patel remarked, "Babs , Tony's fucked everybody.

Popper, Bragg, The Poverty of Political debate and Nancy Cartwright ; Amazing Picture !

There are many who find Lord Melvyn Barg's egregious and unfailing smile, his irritating flaccid nasal tones and (on TV) Armenian carpet seller's hand waggling, irritating beyond measure. Lord Patel does, but his contribution as a catalyst or a mid wife for those better equiped than him to explain the cultural history, science, philosophy and enduring values of Western Civilisation over several decades is remarkable and worthy.

Today's program on BBC 4 "In our Time" examined the contribution of Karl Popper to 20th century scientific thinking and methodology and it's impact through his book "The Open Society". Lord Patel was educated as a scientist in the post war period when Popperian views were promulgated and expressed on the BBC and visits to speak at Universities by P.B.Medawar, PMS Blackett, JD Bernal, Lancelot Hogben who awakeded many unformed minds to the history of scientific thought. Alhough this was at the time when the portentous and preposterous C P Snow ( a fellow alumnus of Lord Patel but of an earlier re-war generation) was lauded (quite absurdly) by the mainstream press with his nonsensical views on "The Two Cultures" - which was effectively demolished by FR Leavis, but not before it's pointless dichotomy had been seeded, grown and fruited, much in the way that the current "debate" on climate change (and by a subtle but meaningless terminological shift to Global Warming) is now an idee fixéé in the minds of Newspaper Editors and school teachers and other feeble minded souls.

Today's excellent contributors who provided an excellent brief and concise introduction were John Worrall, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics, Anthony O'Hear, Weston Professor of Philosophy at Buckingham University, Nancy Cartwright, (see pic) Professor of Philosophy at the LSE and the University of California. (No it's not the one who is the voice of Bart Simpson !) Despite her astonishingly good looks for a philosopher, she doesn't however correspond by e-mail - is this a revolt against technology, idleness or a value judgment on e-mailers who might clutter her mailbox and possibly her unsullied mind ?

The latter was (despite here US origins) lucid and clear, especially in explaining how Popperianism (?) had affected post war thinking about social welfare. This reminded Lord Patel of is his Tutor Winifred Tutin, a statuesque lady (oddly reminiscent of Eliza Manningham Buller and probably like her a supporter of the UK foundation garment industry - the Spirella corsetiére must have been a frequent visitor) of immense scientific rigour who undertook prodigious ammounts of detailed work on the palynology of the sediments of the Lake District to pioneer the understanding of the post glacial warming and vegetative development of Cumbria. Work which has been disregarded it appears in the flurry of "peer reviewed literature" that makes insupportable claims of authority and authenticity, based as it often is on insupportable assumptions and fed by selective and tenuous data streams.

On visiting the department in the late 90's after her husband Tom, (joint author of the authoritative UK Flora and the first Editor of the massive Flora Europea) had died, Lord Patel introduced himself to and she silently reflected on the name for some time, (much as say a descendant of the survivors of Bannockburn may dwell on the name) attempting to grasp at a identity of a more youthful, and less well kempt person. "Ah ..... yes Lord Patel ... you were the first person who I ever heard use the term "value judgement"". With that, she muttered some excuse and sped off to look down a microsope.

Which only serves to confirm how ill informed and ill educated our political masters are, who rail about "taking children out of poverty" by which they rely on a whole series of value judgements and dubious rationalism about what poverty (of flesh, ideas, food, transport,medicine, love.. ?) is, and can so easily be distilled into the single monetary figure of household income. A figure which can be bragged about, and hurled around as a substitute for thought in what passes for political debate by oiks like Milliband, Balls, Bradshaw with the minds of shoolchidren ... which is probably why Popper went on the write "The Poverty of Historicism".

The BBC have made these programs available as podcasts and this one is highly recommended. Every schoolchild should listen to it and learn to recite the important bits by heart - much better than lessons on "climate change" and "Britishness" .. they might ..God forbid, learn to think for themselves.

Instructions on downloading BBC podcasts here

Lord Patel's Index of Extraordinary Minds could easily be applied to Nancy - this consist of comparing the desirability of a post-coital conversation between Margaret Beckett and the person being Indexed, on a scale of 1 to 100. (MB being the datum point of zero) Suggestions are solicited.

Does the global climate possess a stabilizing negative feedback and is the likely candidate for such a feedback cloud cover ?

The excellent whimsical but nonetheless academically highly authoritative, Canadian Spectator draws our attention to an overlooked paper in 2003 in the Geological Society of America Journal Vol13 Issue 7 July 2003.

Celestial driver of Phanerozoic climate?
by Nir J. Shaviv, Ján Veizer

They examine how the two principal drivers of the global climate ;

1 Atmospheric levels of CO2
2 The galactic cosmic ray flux (CRF)

are and have been linked to climate variability in the context of daily to millennial variations, ands also over geological time scales e.g the Phanerozoic (past 545 m.y.),

It would be pointless to abbreviate the detailed arguments, maths, geological record, hydrogeological and climate records they use to detremine and illustrate their thesis. There conclusion is however, that when considering both forcing effects that ;

We find that with none of the CO2 reconstructions can the doubling effect of CO2 on low-latitude sea temperatures be larger than ~ 1.9 °C, with the expected value being closer to 0.5 °C. These results differ somewhat from the predictions of the general circulation models (GCMs) (IPCC, 2001), which typically imply a CO2 doubling effect of ~ 1.5–5.5 °C global warming, but they are consistent with alternative lower estimates of 0.6–1.6 °C . See ...

Lindzen, R.S., 1997, Can increasing carbon dioxide cause climate change?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 948335–8342.).


They claim in their discussion of Potential implications that their approach , based on entirely independent studies from astrophysics and geosciences, yields a surprisingly consistent picture of climate evolution on geological time scales.

They state that the proposition that celestial phenomena are important for understanding the vagaries of the planetary climate is viable . Most intriguing (and of vast important to the current debate if correct) is their claim that one interpretation of their results could be that the global climate possesses a stabilizing negative feedback and a likely candidate for such a feedback is cloud cover (Lindzen, 1997 op cit Ou, H.-W., 2001, Possible bounds on the Earth's surface temperature: From the perspective of conceptual global mean model: Journal of Climate, v. 142976–2988.).

This therefore implies they argue that the water cycle is the thermostat of climate dynamics, acting both as a positive (water vapor) and negative (clouds) feedback, with the carbon cycle “piggybacking” on, and being modified by, the water cycle. See ...

Nemani, R., White, M., Thornton, P., Nishida, K., Reddy, S., Jenkins, J., Running, S., 2002, Recent trends in hydrologic balance have enhanced the terrestrial carbon sink in the United States: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 29106-1–106-4.

Lovett, R.A., 2002, Global warming: Rain might be leading carbon sink factor: Science, v. 2961787.

Lee, D., Veizer, J., 2003, Water and carbon cycles in the Mississippi river basin: potential implications for the northern hemisphere “residual terrestrial sink”: Global Biogeochemical Cyclesv. 17DOI: 10.1029/2002GB001984.

This is they say an aid to understanding the complexities of climate dynamics and ultimately to quantification of its response to potential anthropogenic impact.

Which of course flies in the face of the hysteria which supports the unwelcome, wholesale and erroneous belief that the sole driver of climate change AKA global warming is driven by atmospheric CO2 and that the source of that is anthropogenic.

Anyone seriously interested in educating themselves about the debate would benefit from reading this major but evidently overlooked study....at least look at the graphs which are very convincing.

Qat - A Parliamentary Question to which you may have missed the answer

Hansard 31 Jan 2006 : Column 369W

Khat (Qat)

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will add khat to the list of substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. [Q No. 43565]

Paul Goggins: No. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced in Parliament on 19th January that he had accepted the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs that khat should not be controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

What is misleading is that the reference is to 19th January 2005 when overweight Charlie Clarke was Home Secretary and being quizzed about re-classifying Cannabis and he said in oral answers to questions ..

"As previously announced, I have accepted the advice to keep Methyl Amphetamine as a class B drug, though this is subject to a review reporting later this year. Similarly I have accepted the Council’s advice not to classify Khat as a controlled drug."

Which will not only cheer up the thousands of East Africans living in the UK who sit chewing it all day, but the suppliers in Kenya and the immensely profitable supply chain that prospers based on the daily deliveries at Heathrow Airport. Is VAT chargeable on the supply of Khat ?

Charlie Clarke took the opportunity that day to remind his listeners that ...

"Growing and selling cannabis is not harmless or idealistic. It is a multi-million pound business, often organised by sophisticated and violent criminals."

You can access the considerable research on Qat (Khat) by Lord Patel Global Botanical Mind Altering Substances Lab and Library here including it's connection with the 21/7 bombers who ocassionally appear at the Old Bailey these days.

PS. Kat is a banned drug / substance through most of Europe and Scandinavia and in North America , as is possession of the chemical stimulant in an isolated form in the UK.

Where are they now ? No 234 The enigma of Esmail Gamasai

Esmail Gamasai was born in Iran 44 years ago, a Shia Muslim, he was educated in Britain and became a UK citizen in 1986 and in 1997 changed his name to Daniel James. He had been a territorial soldier for 19 years and was approached in April 2005 to be a Farsi (mother tongue) interpreter. He suffered 2 strokes and on recovery was deployed by the Army in March 2006.

This resulted in him interpreting for Gen David Richards, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan and one of the most senior officers in the British Army who has been removed and replaced after 9 months in post.

Esmail (Dan) was arrested on Dec 18 on his return to the UK and was remanded to the Old Bailey under the 1911 Official Secrets Act. He was charged that on Nov 2 he "communicated information calculated to be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy".

The Attorney General's permission is required before a prosecution can proceed under the Official Secrets Act. That has not been granted to date. When he appeared in court on January 12th the prosecution requested an adjournment to obtain the Attorney General's consent for the prosecution.

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said at the time James would appear at the court to enter a plea on June 15 A trial lasting 3 months might take place in January 2008.

So everyone is waiting for the Attorney General 57 year old very worried looking Baron Goldsmith of Allerton who has got rather a lot on his plate presently especially after writing on March 17 2003,to the Government stating that the use of force in Iraq was lawful. Those with a long memory will recall that it resulted in the precipitate resignation of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Office, on 20 March 2003 whose letter of resignation can now be found @ BBC and is reporduced here for those who may not have seen it.

A minute dated 18 March 2003 from Elizabeth Wilmshurst (Deputy Legal Adviser) to Michael Wood (The Legal Adviser), copied to the Private Secretary, the Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Alan Charlton (Director Personnel) and Andrew Patrick (Press Office):

1. I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second Security Council resolution to revive the authorisation given in SCR 678. I do not need to set out my reasoning; you are aware of it.

[The following italicised section was removed by the Foreign Office but later obtained by Channel 4 News]

My views accord with the advice that has been given consistently in this office before and after the adoption of UN security council resolution 1441 and with what the attorney general gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7 March. (The view expressed in that letter has of course changed again into what is now the official line.)

I cannot in conscience go along with advice - within the Office or to the public or Parliament - which asserts the legitimacy of military action without such a resolution, particularly since an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law.

2. I therefore need to leave the Office: my views on the legitimacy of the action in Iraq would not make it possible for me to continue my role as a Deputy Legal Adviser or my work more generally.

For example in the context of the International Criminal Court, negotiations on the crime of aggression begin again this year.

I am therefore discussing with Alan Charlton whether I may take approved early retirement. In case that is not possible this letter should be taken as constituting notice of my resignation.

3. I joined the Office in 1974. It has been a privilege to work here. I leave with very great sadness.

Baron Goldsmith's views on what Corporal Daniel James .. and maybe General Richards were up to in Afghanistan are awaited with a great deal of interest.

PS Michael Wood was the arsehole and grandee at the FCO who told Craig Murray that torturing people was OK but you couldn't use the evidence obtained in court - As if. Carif also says he was the only man in the FCO who could drink him under the table and also described him as "almost effeminate" Murder in Samarkand Page 162