Why NATO is killing people in Afghanistan

"A Pentagon official travelling with Gates to Edinburgh said that the Secretary of Defense would be working to draft a "master document" that explains in simple terms why NATO is in Afghanistan and what it must accomplish over the coming years. The plan could then be adopted at a NATO summit next April. The official said the paper would not propose re-structuring of the NATO forces but rather outline the purpose of the mission in order to boost overall support."

Der Spiegel

...Seems a bit fucking late in the day to start figuring that out ... nonetheless it will be examined with interest.

Browell Smith, Newcastle Solicitors - huge beneficiaries of miners claims are donors to Nu Labour

A National Audit Office report earlier this year showed that the cost of administering the claims of miners with disabling chest diseases far outstripped the amount of money that was paid out in compensation. "We estimate that, at 31 March 2007, around 69 per cent of all claimants paid compensation have received less than the average cost of administering the claims (£3,200 per claim up to March 2007)." Page 6

The total cost of administering the claims was £2.3bn and more than half of it (£1.3bn) went to pay private lawyers who brought the claims. For details as at 2004 see Hansard with detailks of all major firms involved. here

The Newcastle law firm Browell Smith & Co, received £54.6 million . The firm specialises in what some might call "ambulance chasing" and its major clients are the National Union of Mineworkers, GMB and TGWU and has offices throughout the North East. "Established in 1995 with the intention of serving the Trade Union movement and its members"

Dizzy Thinks< has uncovered the record of this firms generous donations to the Nu Labour Party ...Click on image or go to original record

A Total of £ 24,633.00 some of which were odd sized donations - acting as a conduit? No. Impossible.

For those interested in this sort of thing the firm of Thompsons, Solictors who were the major company dealing with these miners claims nationwide record at Electoral Commision is here ...... they donated £ 121,990.00 in 55 items since March 2001.

Before you ask, neither Browell Smith or Thompsons donated to any other POlitical Party in the period.

Alisher Usmanov is alive and well = The Caspian oil - The CIA - and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Wonderful suggestion that Alisher Usmanov buys up the Buffalo Bills by the Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University and a Senior Program Officer in the Center for Civil Society and Governance at the Academy for Educational Development... also a fascinating interview with Steve Levine, author of the recent "The Oil and the Glory" ...oil and politics in the Caspian region. interesting information on the interesting Mr James Giffen.(now 64)

Giffen was arrested on 30 March, 2003, in Kennedy airport of New York when he was attempting to board a plane to Kazakhstan. He was carrying a Kazakhstani diplomatic passport, even though dual citizenship is prohibited by Kazakhstani laws.

Brian Williams of ExxonMobil was held responsible in 1996 for the agreement that stipulated his company’s purchase of 25% share in Tengiz oil field. The cost of the contract was more than $1 billion. Williams himself was getting “kick-backs”, which he admitted, and got 46 months of imprisonment in September 2003. He will be released this summer. The oil company itself was not charged.

Giffen's role in how US$80 Mn found it's way from US oilcos to President Nazarbayev and his pals is the subject not only of his prosecution by the US State but also he became the main character of the book by a former CIA agent Robert Bauer “See No Evil” – in which a lightly disguised Giffen is nicknamed “Mr. Kazakhstan”, and all foreign investors pass through his office. Last year George Clooney produced his film “Syriana” based on the book – Giffen’s character is played by Tim Blake Nelson.

Giffen, the owner of a small bank, Mercator with swanky offices on prestigious Lexington Avenue, is accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Giffen’s case is the biggest since the establishment of the act in 1977. He faces up to 88 years in prison if he is found guilty on all charges.(Indictment here)

Giffen (whose case is meandering through the legal process) has stopped denying the facts of bribery and says that all this time he was working for the CIA and the State Department and demands declassifying numerous documents from archives.

Those further intersted in Mr Usmanov and the Archangel Diamond Company may like to follow this fascinating line of enquiry...Speculators on the share value of Toronto-listed Archangel Diamond Corporation (ADC) -- ticker AAD -- thought they knew enough to start buying shares of the company after it reached a year-low of 35 cents (Canadian) on October 31. As the Bloomberg chart shows, on or about November 1, someone started buying, and the share price rocketed upward by 43%: more >>>

.....it is a rule of thumb in the pursuit of Russian malefactors that, if they lose on jurisdiction, and face deposition and trial on the merits, they always pay to settle out of court. On November 1, did someone start buying ADC shares in the belief that Rothschilds has negotiated such a deal with Usmanov and Alekperov?

PS : De Beers board director Sir Chips Keswick is also on the Board of a struggling London football club called Arsenal.

Iraq - It's the oil industry stoopid - more attacks on refineries

This is a photograph after a Katyusha rocket attack at 6.00 a.m. (2200 EST) on Monday but the plant was still operating, Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said.

The blaze was due to a fire in a storage tank for refined crude at the Doura refinery, sending a large plume of smoke into the sky.

Rockets also hit the Karrada district in central Baghdad and the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament, the U.S. embassy and many government buildings, police said. Al -Doura produces some 80 % of the oil for the domestic market. The strike occurred two days after a truck bomb was detonated close to the country’s largest refinery at Baiji in the north of the country, which handles about 300,000 barrels a day from Kirkuk, according to Iraq's Oil Ministry (Baltimore Sun) . At least six police officers were killed and more than a dozen people wounded in that attack. (Reuters/ Xinhua )

All American Patriots reports that the U.S. military says an oil refinery fire in Baghdad Monday was the result of an industrial accident, not a mortar attack as Iraqi officials initially reported.

The military says U.S. soldiers who arrived at the Doura refinery in southern Baghdad determined that a pipe explosion caused the fire.

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, ****monitors security issues related to energy and say since the illegal invasion in March 2003, more than 460 attacks have been carried out against Iraq's oil installations or industry employees. These have includedregular bombing along pipelines, including one on Friday about 10 miles northeast of Baiji that sent oil spilling into the Tigris River.

The attacks have left Iraq's oil industry struggling to increase exports, on which 90% of the country's revenue is based. Before the war, Iraq exported about 2.3 million barrels per day. Last year, it averaged 1.6 million barrels daily.

In an interview Friday on Iraq's Al Hurra television, Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said exports had reached 2 million barrels a day recently.

"Thank God for those high oil prices," he said.( L A Times)

**** Gal Luft of IAGS in Esquire "Four ways to solve the Energy Crisis"... "Even if every single kernel of corn grown in America were converted to ethanol, it would still only replace about 12 percent of America's gasoline requirement.""

False trails, Lies, CCTV video,Lies, bollocks and the Glasgow bombers

"British Inquiry of Failed Plots Points to Iraq’s Qaeda Group" is the headline in the New York Times today.

The article must rank very highly in the rank of fairy tales in terrism..

"The evidence pointing to the involvement of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia includes phone numbers of members of the Iraqi group found on the plotters’ cellphones recovered in Britain, a senior American intelligence official said."

"The American intelligence official noted several similarities between the events in Britain and attacks in Iraq attributed to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including the use of vehicle-borne explosives aimed at multiple targets." Ya don't say ?

"The officials agreed to talk about the attack only on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing secret intelligence information."

:While officials stopped short of saying that the plot originated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or was directed by the group, they did say it was the closest collaboration they knew of between the Iraq group and plotters outside the Middle East."

"The American official who noted the evidence found on the recovered cellphones was unable to provide details about how often the accused plotters called Iraq or how soon before the bungled attacks calls were made."

"Two other American counterterrorism officials generally concurred with this assessment of the link to the Iraqi group, but one of them cautioned against overstating the role of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, also known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, or A.Q.I., saying, “The event is best viewed as A.Q.I.-related, rather than A.Q.I.-directed.”

However, none of the officials would divulge the exact nature of the group’s involvement in the operation."

Which doesn't add up to a row of beans.

Maybe they might ask the questions ...

1. Why were the details - registration numbers etc of the two Mercedes "bombs" not made public ?

2. Why were the crystal clear CCTV images of the escaping "bomber" not made public ? ( Atthe time Frankie Gardner BBC Terrist guru said .."The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the incident had "come from nowhere" and that the driver of the car was now Britain's "most wanted". He said CCTV was the key to finding the "first clue" as to who was behind the attempted bombing. "

Anyway they got the headline they wanted, al Quaeda in Iraq is operating in the UK.... hence the need for longer detention of arrested suspects.

PS : Andrew Dismore of impeccable Zionist background , who has an interest in these matters is as we speak being interviewed on BBC 4 "World at One" demanding longer detentions for suspects. ...Well waddya know ?

.. and Dismore also wished to linger on the apparent success of the arrests made after the London and Glasgow bombings....Six people were initially detained in Britain in connection with the attack. Three have been released; two others in addition to Baghdad bord Dr. Abdulla have been charged.

PPS The Karnataka police today said it was yet to receive Letter Rogatory (LR) from UK authorities for furnishing certain information on Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, suspects in the June 30 foiled Glasgow terror attack.
"We have not received Letter Rogatory (formal request) as of yet", the Director General of Police K Srinivasan told PTI.

The Karnataka police had begun collecting information on Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed soon after the foiled Glasgow attack. Police had also seized two hard disks from Kafeel's house, containing documents, including jehadi literature, bomb making techniques and correspondence.

Kafeel Ahmed ( see pic) succumbed to burns (he died 2nd August 2007) during the terror attempt, the Indian police have apparently further information on his brother Sabeel, who is charged with possessing information on the terror plot. Police have already seized two hard disks from Kafeel's house, containing documents, including jihadi literature, bomb making techniques and correspondence.

.. which doesn't suggest that this vast global conspiracy may have had roots in Bangalore and not Iraq ... but why spoil a good story by rooting out the facts ?

Northern Rock Adam Applegarth gets the sack - far too fucking late in the day

Northern Wreck issued a statement today

Thy blithely say "The Company’s holdings of capital notes in structured investment vehicles (SIVs) totalled £319 million as disclosed on 14 September 2007" ... well "we have calculated that an impairment charge of £118 million should be made in relation to this investment portfolio,"ie something the Directors said was worth 319Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...201 million.

"The Company originally had an exposure of £35 million to three SIV-lite investments, which will require an impairment charge in the current year income statement of £32 million despite one of these vehicles having being restructured into a cash-flow CDO in early September." ) er ditto something the Directors said was worth 38Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...2 million.

"The Company’s portfolio of US$ CDOs amounts to £167 million with a mark to market value of £36 million at the end of November 2007." er ditto something the the Directors said was worth 167 Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...36 million.

This is what Vince Cable said in the House of Commons 2 days ago...

"We now have an extraordinary situation whereby the chief executive of the bank, Mr. Applegarth, who drove the bank on to the rocks, is still sitting in the chief executive's chair driving the company and managing the Government's taxpayers' money."

"Mr. Applegarth, the chief executive. He is still there, sitting in his chair at the bank. He understood all this and, at the peak of the market, he sold his shares. He was urging the small investors—to whom the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) has rightly drawn our attention—to invest in his bank while he was selling up. We all know what happened. He invested his money in a very large country estate and bought a fleet of sports cars for his wife. That person is still at his desk at the Northern Rock bank; he is directing its affairs and is responsible for taxpayers' money. That is one of the unbelievable aspects of how this whole affair has been managed."

The Mr Toad figure of Applegarth will also receive dimished pay off of only half his vastly inflated salary. Rhe worthy depositors of Northern Wreck would be well advised to hang him from the nearest lampost, the lying, cheating, deceitful rotten bastard.

Anyway - Victory for Vince - the gubment have started to take some notice of what he says.

Gander - The mysteries still persist about Arrow Air Charter (one of Lieut. Colonel Oliver North's regular arms shippers) DC 8 flight MF 1285R

Here is an interesting and very curious letter concerning Arrow Air Charter (one of Lieut. Colonel Oliver North's regular arms shippers) DC 8 flight MF 1285R, which crashed immediately after take off from Gander in Canada on December 12th 1985. All 256 on board were killed, including 248 U.S. peacekeepers returning from duty in Egypt. Most were were members of the 101stAirborne Division, who were assigned as a peace-keeping force in the Sinai Peninsula, enforcing the Camp David accords of 1978 - more than 20 Special Forces personnel trained for counterterrorist missions were also on board - the mysterious Company E .

It was the worst U.S. military air disaster ever.

You may also like to access Gander : The Untold Story

A list of the dead is here.

Wikipedia says ..

The accident was investigated by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB), and was determined to have been caused by the aircraft's unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift condition, which most likely was due to ice contamination on the wings' leading edges. A minority report of four memebers including two aeronautical engineers stated that the accident could have been caused by an on board explosion of unknown origin prior to impact...."We cannot agree--indeed, we categorically disagree--with the majority findings . . . The evidence shows that the Arrow Air DC-8 suffered an on-board fire and a massive loss of power before it crashed . . . The fire may have been associated with an in-flight detonation from an explosive or incendiary device."

20 years laterLes Filotas was one of the four members who filed a minority report, and later wrote a book called Improbable Cause which suggested other causes – particularly an explosion – may have been responsible."Many of the experts involved in the investigation," says Filotas, "didn't realize they were participating in a cover-up."

All these years later, however, Filotas – who is certain there was a coverup of evidence about the disaster – says his hope of another investigation has faded.

"I used to think so and hope so, but after 20 years nothing has changed," he said.

"So, I have to reluctantly believe that maybe it will be forgotten."

TIME 1992 article.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO Airstrike Kills 14 Afghans building road for US Military

Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times
November 29th, 2007

A NATO airstrike killed 14 labourers working for an Afghan road construction company that had been contracted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build a road in the mountainous province of Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.

The strike occurred late Monday night in the Norgram district of Nuristan when the Afghan workers of Amerifa Road Construction Company were sleeping in tents after a day's work.(Amerifa are a substantial company - website here)

"Fourteen of our mechanics and laborers were killed as they were asleep in their tents," said Nurullah Jalali, the executive director of the construction company. "We just collected pieces of flesh from our tired workers and put them in 14 coffins."

The victims of the episode on Monday night were all Afghans who were working for $5 a day, Mr. Jalali said)pic). His company has been contracted to build 273 miles of road in 10 Afghan provinces, and the major contracts are with the American military.

"We have 14 names, we know their families, we have their photos and post-bombing photos of their bodies," Amerifa construction company chief Sayed Nurrullah Jalili told AFP.

The governor of Nuristan, Tamim Nuristani, said he could confirm that 13 workers had been "mistakenly" killed when NATO forces bombed the area based on what he said was an intelligence report that insurgents were infiltrating the area.

The project is financed by the United States military, and the road has been under construction for a year through areas that the Afghan government barely controls.

Maj. Charles Anthony, a NATO spokesman confirmed that the airstrike had been a mission by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and said that Taliban insurgents had been the intended target.

Dontcha just love that ..."Security Assistance Force"

"We are here to help you, but it will be necessary to destroy your village to save it."

Do you think the wise men assembled in EDinburgh today will give the briefest consideration to the above .. or even care ?

The Good News ...>

Major Anthony said ...

“I can confirm that at this time, we, ISAF, believe that we were able to successfully target a Taliban leader in that area and at that time,” he said. “As far as the allegation of civilian casualties goes, that is under investigation.”

Lord Patel will keep you posted.... The BBC so far have reported 29th November

"Evidence so far collected by ISAF investigators strongly points to a successful air strike earlier this week against a known Taleban leader in Nurgaram District of Nuristan province and that there were no civilian casualties," a statement issued by Isaf spokesman Brig Gen Carlos Branco, said." (His NATO Press statement can be read here)

They also report "On Wednesday Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said: "We believe that Abdullah Jan, the western Nuristan Taleban commander, may have been killed in the air strike. We deem it, at this point, a legitimate air strike."

Funny thing that 2 weeks after there are no further press reports of the incident. Mr Jalili is lying or ISAF spokesmen are... and we don't have a dead Talibani to show for it.

NATO to meet and discuss why the fuck they are in Afghanistan and what to do when they are already in the swamp up to their neck in alligators

2007-12-05 [11:20] UK hosts international Afghanistan conference

PRNewswire-GNN London 5 December

London, 5 December /PRNewswire-GNN/ --

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE News Release (288/2007) issued by The Government News
Network on 5 December 2007

PLEASE NOTE EMBARGO
Not for publication or broadcast before
0001 hours Friday 14 Dec 2007

STRICTLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR BROADCAST BEFORE 00:01 FRIDAY 14 DECEMBER

UK Defence Secretary Des Browne is to host a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from eight countries involved in the international coalition in southern Afghanistan.

Media are invited to the event in Edinburgh where Mr Browne will be joined by Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown. Matters of mutual interest about the future of southern Afghanistan will be discussed in this meeting.

WHEN: 14 December 2007. Media must arrive by 8.30am to be in the media area on site by 8.45am.

Delegates will start to arrive at 09:10 and arrivals shots will be permitted.

A "family photograph" between 11:00 and 11:30.

Media will also be permitted to do pieces to camera from outside the venue during the day, when the meeting is in session.

Des Browne will have a limited time available for one-to-one interviewsafter the meeting closes at around 15.30. Media wishing to interview the Defence Secretary should place their bids with the contacts below.

Media will be able to stay in the building throughout the day, with refreshments, internet access, and satellite truck access provided.

WHERE: British Army Headquarters, 2nd Division, Craigiehall, Edinburgh, EH30 9TN.

Media wishing to attend must register their interest in advance by the 11 December with Simon Steel or Rebecca Young in the MoD press office on 020 7218 7909 or 020 7218 5903, or Sara Reed, Defence press officer for Scotland, on 0131 310 2005.

For security reasons, media must provide full names, date of birth, gender, occupation, employer and address. A digital photograph is also needed and can be e-mailed to either simon.steel862@mod.uk or rebecca.young362@mod.uk Please also indicate whether you wish to bring a satellite truck.

There will also be a demonstration - for details go here

"Amidst an apparent blackout of world corporate media, Indymedia Scotland has learned that the NATO meeting will take place on the 14th of December, at Craigiehall. The meeting will be attended by defence ministers from 8 NATO countries, and other senior political and military officials who will be discussing the current situation in Afghanistan."

"UK Defence Secretary Des Browne, and the new foreign office minister for Africa, Asia and the UN Lord Malloch-Brown, will be hosting the meeting of defence and foreign ministers from the eight countries involved in the American imperialism in Afghanistan. All the countries that have troops in southern Afghanistan. the Urzugan, Helmad and Kandahar provinces, will be represented at the NATO event. Countries likely to attend are UK, US, Germany, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Romania. US Defence Secretary Gates will be attending, as will Joel Fitzgibbons the new Australian Labour minister of defence ."

See also Chimes of Freedom thnx for map

The Greenhalgh Gang - how Sotheby's was fooled

In the '60's before ennoblement Lord Patel would spend an idle lunch hour at the weekly sales of a Mr Isaacs in a basement next to Yate's Garden shop on Mosley Street in Manchester - the Peace Gardens now occupy the spot.

A hotch potch of furniture, pottery, bicycles and paintings would pass through and a shifting crowd of clerks, typists, ne'er do wells would watch, infrequently bid and sometimes buy.

Always there lurked a small band of shifty looking men, whose wardrobe would these days have been selected from Oxfam.

Sexond hand clothes were respectable then. So a well turned but elderly Lobb shoe, or a slightly misshapen Crombie overcoat would be seen. This crew would bid by the barely discernible tremble of a nicotine stained finger, the further decline of a continually dependent eyelid. A secret and secretive code which a rubicund and jolly Mr Issac's would faultlessly decipher.

At the little cubby hole where you paid, a cheerfully chubby lady with a brisk mittel european accent would take the money and issue handwritten receipts as cash (often in large sums) from packets of withered currency from various pockets and caches from within their layered clothes.

A cab would be called. Being carless in Manchester was no sign of poverty.The assembled purchases loaded and "Mr Robinson" or "Mr Jones" would accompany them.

I would wonder as a painting by George Morland, an early English artist , at that time called a primitive because he would sell his pictures in pubs for a meal or ale. A brash thing of solid ochres and black by William Palmer (that found it's way into the collection of Joe Fitton local textile magnate..eventually) and most oddly snowscapes with log cabins and laden ponies by Cornelius Kreighof a Dutchman born in Quebec.. whose painting, a little research showed at the time on sale in Ottawa for tens of thousands of loonies. (see UPDATE *****)

A murmer here, a whisper, a careful scrutiny of the back of many paintings.. this was of course (we could later confirm) an outlet for the famed forger Tom Keating who later confessed to (a claimed) 2,000 forgeries including Boucher, Degas, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Modigliani, Rembrandt, Renoir and Kees van Dongen.Arrested in 1977 he wrote a book The Fake's Progress: The Tom Keating Story, London: Hutchinson and Co., 1977

His forgeries are now much collected, the Sygu Museum in Wales has an especially large collection of his pastiches.

Therefore one has to admire the Bolton based Greenhalgh Gang, forger and embittered artist Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, his dad George, 84, and Olive, 83. These council house living desperadoes from deepest Bolton Scotland Yard claim, presented some 120 fakes valued at $20 million to museums and auction houses over 2 decades . Shaun copped a 4 stretch last month his mom a suspended year and dad is awaiting sentence.

Naturally there is a wonderful sense of schadenfreude when you discover that mom (AKA Mrs. Roscoe, her maiden name) managed to get Sotheby's to sell a "Gauguin" ceramic sculpture of a "Faun" - "Mrs. Roscoe" claimed to be a descendant of Roderick O’Conor, an artist who was a friend of Gauguin and who she said had bought the work from a Paris gallery, Nunes and Fiquet, in 1917. She even gave Sotheby’s what appeared to be a copy of the bill of sale.

On the basis of this fraudulent story, Sotheby's catalog entry said “The Faun” (see pic)would be included in the catalogue raisonné, or authoritative list of known works, of Gauguin sculptures that was being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute in Paris. (The catalogue raisonné has not yet been published, but Sotheby’s said it had a letter dated Nov. 13, 1994, from Wildenstein confirming its inclusion.)

Anyway the faun was bought from Sotheby's in 1994 by a London dealer Mrs Howie for £20,700.(Approx US$40,000) where it was seen by Douglas Druick, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, he was having lunch at Ms. Howie’s London home.

As a result the Art Institute of Chicago bought (for an undisclosed sum) it.It is listed on their website still "The Faun, 1886 Unglazed stoneware with touches of gold gilding h. 47cm
The Art Institute of Chicago: Estate of Suzette Morton Davidson; Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment - it was also included in their Van Gogh and Gauguin exhibition in 2001/2.

At the time of acquisition "The Faun" was celebrated as one of the museum’s most important acquisitions in 20 years.

In a news release yesterday , the Art Institute said it was seeking compensation from Sotheby’s.

******UPDATE 25/12/07

In December 1983, 137 of his falsifications brought in £80.000. Sold a piece at a time, the highest hammers stroke from 1998 the work “Odalisque, in the manner of Matisse,” which went up reaching £6.700. A self-portrait was sold for £ 5.000, and in April 1999 “Two Horse Sleighs in Winter Landscape, after Cornelius Kries(g) hoff” brought in £6.600. It is a small painting the size of which is only 24 by 41 cm.

Man Nearly Dies After Drinking Bottle of Vodka

After that last post, a cautionary tale of a 64 year old German holidaymaker from Gorlitz , who was returning from Egypt and was told when changing planes at Nuremburg airport by security staff he could not continue with his 1 litre of vodka stashed in his hand baggage.

He was told he could ;
1. PAY to have his bag checked into the luggage hold
2. DUMP the bottle,

He took a third (and unexpected option) and chugged the whole bottle whilst security staff watched. "The vodka quickly had an effect," a police spokesperson told the DPA news agency. The passenger was unable to stand or function and a doctor was called to the scene.

The tipsy traveller was sent to a Nuremberg hospital for treatment. He is still recovering there but is expected to be able to make his way home in time for Christmas.

Der Spiegel
See Also Airport Security to Lourdes Pilgrim: Your Holy Water is a Security Threat

Boozenight

My old Patrol Leader is at it again , stirring the concsience of the nation at a time when booze will flow - Boozenight on BBC 2 tonight. Watch it

Christian wants to put the "oy" in oil - Zion Oil the share tip needed just before the end time

Not too many people have heard of Zion oil.

But Texan born John Brown is hoping to put the "oy" into oil.

Brown, a born-again Christian, has spent the better part of the past 25 years pursuing his belief that the Bible points to vast petroleum deposits in the Holy Land, and that God has sent him to find them. (Jerusalem Post) Brown says he used a strategy explained to him by James Spillman, an evangelical minister and Bible scholar who lectured at his local church, to determine exactly where on the biblical map the oil might be. Apparently this is explained in a book by Spillman and his son Steve, entitled Breaking the Treasure Code: The Hunt for Israel’s Oil.

"Zion's purpose is not just to discover oil and help Israel with its energy needs, but to contribute, if possible, to the Jews' return to Israel. Anything we can do is, to me, God's plan," Brown says. "It's a mitzva - and not because I'm trying to make Christians out of them or anything like that, but because it's all part of God's plan."

The company launched a successful initial public offering on the American Stock Exchange in New York this spring. But shortly thereafter Brown had to deliver the news to his shareholders at their first meeting in Dallas that Zion's Ma'anit No. 1 well east of Caesarea had failed to produce the copious amounts of oil he had assured them it would. You can read the company's "Vision Statement " It would help to have Bible handy to follow the textual references.

Taking his text from Deuteronomy 32:13, Moses says, somewhat cryptically: "[God] would suckle him with honey from a stone, and oil from a flinty rock." Although most commentators and Bible scholars assume this is a poetic reference to wild bees' nests in rock crevices and date palms sprouting from scraggly ground, Brown claims it is instead meant to reflect an oil rig pumping black gold from a well.The Hebrew word "shemen" is used 190 times in Scripture for generally olive oil = the black gold was unknown at the time of writing.

The Zion Oil and Gas story is worryingly similar to those of several other prominent born-again Christian oilmen who drilled in Israel based on their interpretation of various biblical passages: Gilman Hill,(he invested US$6 million at a drill site near Mount Carmel way back in the 1970's) Andy Sorelle, Jr.,(drilled during the 1980's, on the Mediterranean, and spent millions on various leases throughout Israel) Hayseed Stephens d. May 2003 (a one-time "hell-raiser" and former pro football quarterback with the New York Titans, ) and Lyle Harron d. August 2006 (everything he wore was red , even his socks. this peculiar dress code signified the "Blood of Christ"). All invested millions, and all came up with nothing. (Interestingly, though, a possibly commercial amount of oil was discovered last year near the Dead Sea, in the same general area where Stephens said God told him there would be oil.)

The CEO Richard Rinberg has a message for the "many thousands" of shareholders and he quotes the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”.

Should you believe in miracles .. the shares may be a good bet.

Hint. Genesis 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

See also Israel home to world's largest oil fields?
Texan seeks biblical path to oil in Israel - 2005

Further ignominious retreat of UK forces from Iraq - Brown slinks away

Sunday, September 03, 2006 Lord Patel remarked ..
"Far called, our Army melts away ....."

Lord Patel reviewed the fleeing overnight from Amara (provincial HQ of Maysan Province) of The Queens Royal Hussars from their camp Camp Abu Naji at Amara.

"We are repositioning our forces to focus on border areas and deal with reports of smuggling of weapons and improvised explosive devices from across the border," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told Reuters with a stiff upper lip at the time .

"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the Maysan governor, told Reuters on Thursday, as looters began moving into the camp in the wake of the British withdrawal. A unit of Iraqi government troops mutinied when told to keep order at the base -" said another source.


That was just over a year ago and today ...

Three car bombs killed and injured at least 60 people in the southern Iraqi city of Amara, state television reported. The BBC citing police, put the toll at 39 people dead and more than 100 injured.

Two bombs detonated in a crowded parking lot, and a third exploded nearby as people gathered to inspect the damage, the BBC said. The attack took place at about 11 a.m. local time today.

...and...

Basra handover to Iraq on Sunday (BBC Online)

Mr Brown had said the handover would take place within two weeks
British forces will hand back control of security in Basra province to Iraq on Sunday, it has been confirmed.

Maj Shearer told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "We absolutely welcome the announcement that we are going to move to Iraqi provincial control on the 16th.

"That's a very positive step in the right direction and clear recognition that the security situation is such that the Iraqi security forces are able to take on that responsibility."

Not forgetting

Afghan battle 'being won' - Brown (BBC Online)

Britain may have to fight the Taleban for years to come

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told MPs that forces are "winning the battle against the insurgency" in Afghanistan.

The current level of 7,800 troops would be maintained, said Mr Brown, as part of the UK's "long term commitment".

He also announced £450m development funding and more equipment for troops.

Boeing A160T Hummingbird UAV crashes

Boeing has suspended flights of its long-endurance unmanned helicopter A160 Hummingbird after it crashed (again !) on 10th December at Victorville in California. The cause of the crash is not known - the Hummingbird has a long and respectable history of crashes

The turbine-powered (Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207 turboshaft.) A160T,(unlike the Subaru gas engined previous versions) vehicle A008, was flying at 5,000ft (1,500m) above mean sea level - about 2,300ft above the ground - before it crashed and was destroyed, the company says.

A Boeing-led accident investigation team is being formed and flight operations have been suspended until the cause of the crash has been determined. The vehicle was one of three A160s on flight status at Victorville, says Boeing.

If they can get the thing to stop crashing the Hummingbird offers an atractive UAV package The A160 is an unmanned helicopter, with hingeless fixed rotor blades 36 feet diameter is 35 feet long and designed to fly 2,500 nautical miles with endurance in excess of 24 hours and a payload of more than 300 pounds an estimated top speed of 140 knots at ceilings of up to 30,000 feet.

A unique feature in autogyro design allows it to slow rotor speed by 50% to lengthen endurance.

The "Bomb Lady" and finding out who you are - JEFF and what it means for you

Ardent Observervations and the Istanbullian drew our attention to "The Bomb Lady" Nguyet Anh Duong a disarminglt pretty Vietnamese / US weapons scientist and an article in Wapo about her recently receiving the the National Security Medal for significant contribution to the nation in activities related to national security.The blast from the thermobaric, or vacuum, bomb maintains its energy over a longer time and distance,enabling it to kill people hunkered deep underground.

"Her work is a significant reason that few U.S. soldiers died in hand-to-hand combat inside the Taliban's vast network of caves and tunnels in Afghanistan. Not only did she help us win the war, but we avoided the loss of many lives had we had to clear caves in a more traditional manner," said Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter presented Duong with the 2007 Service to America National Security Medal from the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service (PPS).
Duong dedicated her award to "the 58,000 names on the wall of the Vietnam War memorial and the 260,000 Vietnamese who died in order for people like me to earn a second chance at freedom."

She received a standing ovation.

(Pic of glamorous granny Senator Harman at a PPS Dinner)

The Bomb Lady's current e-mail address is anh.duong@navy.mil she also favours pink pearlescent nail polish (against her daughters wishes)

Born into an anti communist family, who fled to the US and were eventually granted asylum She graduated from the University of Maryland with both a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and a B.S. degree in Computer Science and was launched on a 23 year distinguished career as a a weaposn scientist..

In 1983 she started working as a Chemical Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division.

From 1991-1999, she managed all Navy basic, exploratory research and advanced development programs in High Explosives.

From 1999-2002, she managed all NSWC Indian Head's technical programs in Explosives and Undersea Weapons, from concept through engineering development to production and demilitarization.

She successfully assembled and led a team of scientists and engineers to develop the payload for a new weapon, now known as the thermobaric bomb, then proceeded to limited production and delivery to the Air Force, all in an unprecedented period of 67 days.

Nguyet Anh successfully led the development and transition of a total of 10 high performing explosives into 18 different U.S. weapons in the past 12 years, which is an unprecedented record of its kind.

She served as a U.S. Delegate at the NATO AC310 Subgroup I for Explosives, and chairman/member of many national and international Panels/Technical Steering Groups.

Since 2002 Nguyet Anh has been Director of Science and Technology of Naval Surface Warfare Center, U.S. Department of Defense,(Pentagon) where she is responsible for Indian Head's overall technical investment strategies, guiding and overseeing research and development programs in all areas of science and technology and focusing these efforts toward the creation of future weapon generations for the United States.

Duong's most recent innovation, the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities (JEFF) project or "lab in a box," analyzes biometrics in the field. It will be delivered to Iraq at the beginning of 2008, the Navy said, to help distinguish insurgents from civilians. (Useful Power Point presentation here) (No.NO. not useful - essential reading 1st page pic at top of post)

"The best missile is worthless if you don't know who to shoot," Duong said.
Thomas A. Betro, director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service explains the military has been scanning the irises and taking the fingerprints of Iraqis, feeding a biometrics data base in West Virginia. To date, a few ad hoc labs have processed about 85,000 pieces of evidence taken from weapons caches or roadside devices. Duong's mobile forensic labs, with an initial budget of $34 million, will be deployed all over Iraq.

Duong, supervised the "lab in a box" design.

Each collapsible, sand-colored, 20 x 20 foot foot unit has its own generator and satellite link(see sexy pic of the facility) . If things go as planned, data will beamed to the Biometric Fusion Center to check against more than a million Iraqi fingerprints. Hundreds of Marines will become scen of crime investigators - donning rubber gloves and laying aside their weapons.

The next stage is to miniaturize, create "a backpack lab," so that soldiers who encounter a suspect "could find out within minutes" if he's on a terrorist watch list, Duong said. "A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot? In Vietnam, our guys didn't have this tool."

There are some interesting jobs being offered ...
Now how would such a mobile identification facility rest with a nationwide biometric Based ID card ?

Oh ! By the way the Bomb Lady keeps Harry Potter away from her kids .. too, too violent.

UPDATE : A nice take by American Coprophagia

Valero President King retires

The oil refiners Valero Energy Corporation announced today that Greg King has decided to resign as President effective December 31, 2007, he was elected in 2003.

"This was unexpected, but I want to thank Greg for his dedication to Valero's success over his more than 14 years with the company," said Bill Klesse, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

King's resignation comes as Valero, the U.S.'s largest refiner by capacity, moves to divest some plants in anticipation of an era of leaner profit margins.Valero sold one refinery in May, is considering selling a second, and may divest additional plants during 2008, according to Klesse.

The company owns and operates 17 refineries throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.1 million barrels per day, making it the largest refiner in North America. Valero is also one of the nation's largest retail operators with approximately 5,800 retail and branded wholesale outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under various brand names including Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, and Beacon.

A messy but profitable business over many years.

D.J. Peterson and Sergej Mahnovski did an in -depth analysis of the U.S. oil refining industry, which was published as a report by the RAND Corporation on August 28, 2003 "New Forces at Work in Refining" (ISBN: 0-8330-3436-7) which was ignored by the political leaders."New Forces at Work in Refining" \\ Read more about how this study forecast the problems of the refining industry, the rise in prices and problems of retaining a workforce ..here 15/03/04 also see the Rand Press Release

The price history at the pump was already writen...

"

The industry shakeout has left just 58 companies operating refineries, a dramatic consolidation from the 189 refining firms 22 years ago. The remaining plants now operate at 92 percent of their capacity, up from 78 percent in 1985.

The decline in unused manufacturing capacity and other efficiencies allowed the industry in 2001 to report the highest profit margins seen by the Energy Information Administration since it started collecting the information in 1979.

The reduction of spare capacity has helped drive up prices at the pump and leaves the market vulnerable to shortages caused by a plant breakdown or other unpredictable events. Industry leaders appear to have accepted the situation, seeing no economic logic in straining for more capacity.

"I think the industry has learned that it's okay to fall short on product," said an industry observer. "There is no reward being long on product or production capacity."

Added another: "Every investment a refiner makes is stranded in his eyes…you win by doing nothing."

Boeing 787 - everything on schedule as planned

One thing we learnt from the 2 hour 787 Program Update Conference Call this morning was that Pata Shanahan's wife and family haven't seen much of him since he took on the jpb of overseeing the program.

The good news is that they are sticking with the previously announced schedule with no slippage on flight testing, first delivery or delivering 109 planes by end 2009."The plan we announced in October for the 787 is unchanged: to fly the first airplane around the end of the first quarter of 2008 and begin deliveries in late November or December timeframe, and to deliver 109 airplanes in 2009,' CEO Carson said. 'That is our team's commitment, and we intend to perform to that commitment.'

Shanahan sounded the guy you need to command the lifeboat, calm, controlled and you get the feeling a few butts have been kicked and processes straightened out.'There's no doubt our ramp-up is aggressive, but throughout this effort we have not found any fundamental flaws in our production system design that would lead me to believe it's not doable,'

A sharp lady from Credit Suisse nailed the major investors concern "can they meet the 6 a month rate of manufacture to hit the 109 by end 2009" a rate not met before on any other prgram, Pat is confident that the new technology and the heavy capital investment will result in faster tunround in Everett.

Morgan Stanley was concerned about weight shedding "was there more to lose ?" the CEO chipped in " ..there is some more" .. but he didn't (natch) let on how much.

All in all an impressive example of meeting criticisms head on, laying out the plans and provididing ahigh level of transparency .. they just need to hit the numbers now. If they don't after this performance confidence willebb pretty fast.

Amazing how people kept niggling away at fasteners ..and how the probmes they had had with them were evident.

The really good news is that Rolls Royce will supply the power plants for 4 of the flight test planes and GE the remaining two and there are no problems there at all...and the Honeywell flight software is on song.

They just have to get everyone on song with this Lego plane to put it all together , they are doing all theright things and the guy in charge sounds supremely confident.

'Our schedule becomes much more predictable once we get the power on because the airplane is finally in the state that our factory was designed for,' Shanahan said. 'Once we have power on, (scheduled for early January) we can perform basic integrated functional testing and then transition to' remaining testing, he said.

Fingers crossed...oh and Pat conceded these impreovements had been bought at a cost in response to someone from Lehman Bros. He wasn't sating how much it had hit the budget .. and frankly that wasn't his concern it appeared. Who can blame him.

Mrs Shanahan and family are going to continue seeing very little of their husband and father.

Asked to put a figure on the chances of them hitting the schedule - 70%. YJose FUF's and "unk unk's" just keep getting in the way...and this is a mighty complicated piece of Lego.

al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb - in massive double bomb attack in Algiers - UN hit

2 Bomb blasts have hit Central Algiers today.9:30am (0830 GMT).

1. In the Ben Aknoun district, near the supreme constitutional court.Security officials said the bus took the full force of the blast and was ripped apart, killing and injuring many of those (including students) on board.

2. Later at the United Nations United Nations Development Programme UNDP offices in the heavily policed Hydra neighbourhood where there were at least 12 UN staff killed.A residential building and the UNHCR headquarters across the road were also damaged - eye witnesses have reported a white van drove into the main UN offices then exploded.

Up to present a total of 67 dead have been recorded with many more wounded, injured.

Algerian Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said the explosions had been caused by two car bombs, and that the one at the UN was triggered by a suicide bomber.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who made a state visit to Algeria last week, denounced what he described as these "barbaric, hateful and deeply cowardly acts."

POLITICAL VIOLENCE BY RADICALISED GROUPS IN 2007

A suicide bomber rammed a booby-trapped car into a convoy east of Algiers on September 21, wounding two French engineers and an Italian.

6 September: 22 die in bombing in Batna claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb -this was a suicide attack targeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's convoy 00 other people were wounded.

8 September: 32 die in bombing in Dellys claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - this was said to be a suicide attack against a coastguard barracks and left a further 40 wounded. See Postman Patel post re this raid

Al Quaida strike again - Hunt is on for the peroxide bombs

July: Suicide bomber targeted a barracks and 10 soldiers were killed and 35 people wounded when a suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosivesinto barracks near Bouira,

May: Dozens killed in run-up to elections, in fighting between military and militants

April: car bomb attacks on the government headquarters and a police station in Algiers killed 33 people and injured more than 220 and claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - the first time the name was used (?) (SEE POSTMAN POST ON THIS BOMB HERE)

March: Three Algerians and a Russian killed in attack on gas pipeline workers - 3 Ukrainians and three Algerians were killed and five other people wounded in the bomb attack on their bus on March 5th at Hayoun, near Ain Defla in southern Algeria.The bus was carrying employees of tStroytransgaz , who were laying gas mains between Ain Defla, in the region of Medea, and Tiaret, 340 kilometers southwest of Algiers. SEE POST HERE

February: Seven simultaneous bombs killed six in the Kabylie region east of Algiers

Many of the recent blasts have been claimed al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb this appears to have evolved / morphed from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) but changed its name when it joined forces with al-Qaeda last year.

Lynx tracks ( documentary fillum maker) has useful pce from July especially reference to Fisk article about US base.

See also Russia arms Algeria ..again

Northern Wreck Nationalisation looms.

"Tories oppose nationalising Rock" is the headline of the BBC ONline report....but this is what The Boy David said on BBC Radio 4's "Today" program..

"I don't support nationalisation,"

"I don't think it would be right for the government to spend even more taxpayers' money nationalising a bank and suddenly becoming responsible for £100bn of mortgage lending.

"What I want is a private sale, but I suspect that the government is running out of time and running out of money and it may well be that they have to go down the path of nationalising.

"If it does, it will be a monumental failure."


Which inevitably looms (and the Boy David knows it) as the prospects of a "private" sale = i.e transfer a loan of public funds of at least 20 Billion pounds into different private hands - with little prospect of it ever being repaid and no sanctions if it isn't.

Vincent Cable has been consistent and persistent... natyionalisation is the least bad policy landed in our laps by the frightened and pusillanimous trio of the Bank / Treasury and the FSA in September

As Vincent Cable (the regrettably temporary Lib Dem leader) says "At the moment it's (Northern Wreck) bleeding to death - approximately £3bn two weeks ago and £1.5bn last week had to be put in additionally.

"Once the bank is under temporary public ownership - I stress it's temporary, not a permanent solution - it enables the banks to be reassured who are lending that there's an absolute sovereign guarantee, and it provides a period of stability."

Let's get the legislation passed before Christmas - if it is . Vincent deserves and earldom and half of Sussex....then we start hanging the guilty.

Violent Radicalization / Political Violence - a new lexicon on Terror - experts gather

A new Terminology has entered the lexicon in the unending War on Terror ...
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act ...is finding its's way into law in the US .. and The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence is preparing for it's first conference... The First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence in London, 17-18 January 2008.

This will follow up from The Global State of Radicalisation which was the was the title of two events, which took place at the Penn Club in New York on 17 October 2007. Speakers included Harvey Rubin from the University of Pennsylvania, Sir Lawrence Freedman from King's College London, Peter Neumann, Director of ICSR, and Henry Sweetbaum, a founder of ISCR. Yasar Qatarneh of the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy and Boaz Ganor from the Interdiscplinary Center Herzliya participated via video-link from Amman and Tel Aviv respectively.... it appears these are the brains if not the money men behind this curious academic institute.

Anyway this first conference has invited some some fascinating participants from the world of Political Violence under the guise of nascent global but homegrown radicalism - take ....

Michael Hurley, another fucking lawyer, this one is president of Team 3i LLC, an international strategy company. He is Special Advisor for Counterterrorism to the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)(founded by Ted Turner and Georgia Senator Sam Nunn - Warren Buffet is an Advisor)

He was Special Advisor on Counterterrorism to the U.S. State Department. As a Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, he directed its counterterrorism policy investigation and co-authored its final report (so he likes a good joke). He was National Security Council director for the Balkans (great success). A career CIA operations officer, he led Agency personnel and U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 attacks (another huge success) . He served three tours in Afghanistan post-9/11, leading Agency employees and Special Forces in southeastern Afghanistan. He was one of the Agency's lead coordinators on the ground of Operation Anaconda, the largest battle against al Qaeda in the campaign in Afghanistan.

He also was a leader in the Kosovo and Bosnia conflicts and in the international intervention in Haiti (Ho.Ho.Ho.).( The alleged success of Op. Anaconda has been widely criticised ****)

Not much he doesn't know about fomenting radicalism and organising political violence then.

Sir David Omand (Corpus Christie) who has spent much of his career in the Ministry of Defence, including as Deputy Secretary for Policy, Under Secretary in charge of the defence programme, and Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. He served for seven years on the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee, and was Director of Government Communications Head Quarters(GCHQ) from 1996-1997, and the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office from 1997-2000. He retired from public service in 2005, and is now a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies at King's College London. In 2002 Sir David was appointed as the first ever UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, exercising overall direction on behalf of the Prime Minister of the national counter-terrorism strategy and responsible for homeland security - since retirement he has been elected for 4 years to the board of The Natural History Museum.

It was of course Mr (now Sir) John Scarlett (chum of Alastair Campbell, now Head of MI6 and ex - Magdelen) ) who sent a "note" to Sir David Omand, the Cabinet Office security and intelligence co-ordinator, in which he said that Dr Kelly needed "a proper security-style interview" to clarify apparent inconsistencies in his statement about his meeting with Gilligan.

Dr David Kelly was found dead shortly after... Political Violence ?

Avi Dichter, the public security minister and a former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, had been invited to take part in the ICSRPV conference but he was also due to speak at a conference on security at King's College London.

However he was recently advised by Israel's foreign and justice ministries not to risk a visit to the UK.

Dichter as head of Shin Bet was involved in a Israeli military attack on July 22nd 2002 on a house in Gaza that killed Hamas military commander Salah Shehadeh, his bodyguard and 13 civilians, including children. The strike drew criticism, including from then UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who warned Israel to comply with international law.The attack involved an Israeli F-16 dropping a one-ton bomb in a densely populated area of Gaza City.They had ruled out a helicopter attack because it was not thought to be powerful enough, and had decided against the use of ground forces for fear that it would lead to many Israeli casualties.

British law allows individuals to seek warrants for the arrest of those suspected of serious human rights abuses abroad hence his concern. Dichter is not the first Israeli official to risk arrest under this law. In September 2005 detectives were waiting at Heathrow airport to arrest a retired Israeli general, Doron Almog, on war crimes charges relating to house demolitions and "targeted killings" in Gaza. Almog's plane landed but he was tipped off by Israeli diplomats and stayed on board until the El -Al flight took off again for Israel.

A year later former military chief Moshe Ya'alon, cancelled a trip to London for fear of arrest and Israeli authorities warned the then chief of staff, Dan Halutz, that he should also avoid travelling to the UK. Both men were also involved in the decision to attack Shehadeh in 2002.In a Ha’aretz interview, Israeli Air Force Commander at the time Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz claimed to be satisfied both "militarily and morally" with the operation.

Political Violence ... another expert ...

Check out the other invited speakers

Peter Bergen
Yezid Sayigh
Ely Karmon
Jack DuVall
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Satish Nambiar
Audrey Kurth Cronin
Anne Speckhard
Frank Gardner
Terry Davis
Kim Campbell
Francisco Santos Calderon
Olivier Roy
Dan Benjamin
Sadig Al-Mahdi
Saad Eddin Ibrahim
William Zartman
Cem Özdemir
Andrés Pastrana

Curiously no mention of Old Age Pensioner Lady Dame Jane Pauline Neville Jones ... yet.

PS : ****

"Since it kicked off at the start of March 2002, Operation Anaconda has been a minefield of contradictory statements and unanswered questions. Was it an 'absolute success' (3), or a 'big mistake' (4)? Did it wipe out the last 'pockets of al-Qaeda and Taliban resistance' (5), or did al-Qaeda fighters 'escape' to fight again (6)? Did America's first combined ground-and-air offensive of the war kill 800 of the enemy (7), or about 20 (8)? One US commentator says, 'We don't know, the Afghans don't know - and the US military doesn't seem to know'."

See also

Tomato Angels at Christmas - God speaks to us in wondrous ways

Whilst preparing a healthy salad Lord Patel was visited - took a snap for posterity.

Why Bill preferred a blow job

For self evident reasons someone has built a library of images of Shrill Hill

Or have a look at this ....

Rewarding failure - John McDowell organised de Menezes murder now is top cop in charge of terrism - don't travel on the tube.

It has been announced that Metropolitan Police Commander John McDowall has been promoted and made National Co-ordinator of Terrorist Investigations.

He will take over from Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke as the head of Counter Terrorism Command at New Scotland Yard.

Commander John McDowall who was gold commander in the counter-terrorism operation to catch the 21/7 bombers.

The breaches of health and safety legislation detailed to the Old Bailey by the prosecution counsel Clare Montgomery, QC, were:

1. A failure adequately to communicate Commander John McDowall’s strategy to the officers who took over the operation on July 22.

Mr McDowall, deputy head of counter-terrorism at the Yard, wanted a surveillance presence and a firearms capability at Scotia Road, Tulse Hill — the address connected with two of the 21/7 bombers and, coincidentally, with de Menezes. But there was “obvious confusion from the outset” between surveillance and other teams.

2. A failure adequately to plan for or carry out Mr McDowall’s strategy for controlling the premises.

Mr Clarke The Sphincter of the Yard has not yet handed in his vast lunch pail (see pic) and continues to postpone his retirement in the role of temporary Assistant Commissioner after Mr "Randy" Andy Hayman announced his premature and precipitate departure clutching his very healthy pension entitlements last week.

The Sphincter is now in charge of the specialist operations directorate, which includes counter terrorist work as well as diplomatic protection and other areas.... doubts persist as tho whether he has to continue texting and phoning Nicky and Heidi and having lengthy pub sessions after hours or spending nights at Heathrow hotels....all on exes....US$4 Mn. missing at the last count

For Heidi's and Nikki's sake we hope not.