US Predator bombs Pakistan second time in 4 days.....

Overnight a US operated Predator fired a Hellfire missile at a compound in the town of Jani Khe in the Bannu district in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.This is the 2nd Predator strike in 4 days and extends the area of operation of the drones outside the tirbal areas.

Two al Qaeda operatives and two Taliban fighters have been reported killed

Bannu, a Frontier Region, is outside of Pakistan's tribal areas it borders the Taliban-controlled North and South Waziristan tribal areas to the east. According to the CIA, Bannu is effectively under Taliban control.

Today's airstrike is the second outside of Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal areas. The first US strike outside of the tribal areas also took place in Bannu, in the same town of Jani Khel. The Dec. 22, 2008, Predator strike killed at least five people, including Abdullah Azzam al Saudi, a senior (?) Al Qaeda leader / Taliban liason operating in Pakistan's tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. Newsweek November 2008 say Abdullah Azzam al-Saudi, was regarded by intelligence agencies as a cog, rather than a big wheel.

UPDATE Monday 16th - strange story from Air Link BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- An Airman was killed by an improvised explosive device March 15th in Eastern Afghanistan. The Airman was assigned to the 755th Air Expeditionary Group's Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team in Jalalabad.

Wireless CCTV Ltd introduce new lightweight remote controlled outdoor dome camera system for rapid and temporary usage

Wireless CCTV Ltd (WCCTV) (part of Cellhire Plc ) claim (with some justification) to be market leaders in the provision of mobile surveillance solutions, which combine the latest mobile telecommunication technologies (3G HSUPA) and CCTV.

They have just announced the launch of a new WCCTV 3G Wireless Dome Camera System which is IP65 NEMA compliant (compliant protection protocol protection against ingress of solid foreign objects and ingress of water to Association of Electrical and Medical Imaging Equipment Manufacturers standards) and offers high-speed 3G HSUPA connectivity, increased storage capacity of up to 500GB and provides the user with complete flexibility and portability.

This is a simple easily installed , lightweight (4 Kg) "one box" solution deployable virtually anywhere for temporary surveillance .

Users are able to connect remotely and access live images or stored digital footage from the internal hard drive using a PDA, PC, laptop or monitoring station.

The camera can be controlled remotely with full pan, tilt and zoom functionality and a 360 degree field of vision.

From War zone to Main street in a few years ... Ident is a reality.

We first wrote Anh Dhuong onWednesday, December 12, 2007

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 disarmingly 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.


"What would worry me about this is that systems used by the Defense Department off American soil are going to find themselves migrating back to the U.S. … and turned on American residents," Steinhardt said.

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 ?

Now this technology is hitting UK streets .... This was forecast in 2004 .... Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Seabrook, Md., which built the FBI's fingerprint system, was awarded $5 million by the Pentagon on Sept. 10 2004 for the first year of a five-year contract to begin building the military's fingerprint system.

Company officials issued a statement announcing the contract, but declined requests for an interview through a spokesman because of the "sensitivity of the project."

Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, said the Pentagon's biometric efforts are worthwhile — as long as they focus outward.

The BBC report today ...On-street fingerprint checks plan

Hand-held fingerprint scanners enabling on-the-spot identity checks are to be made available to all UK police forces.

The devices, about the size of a mobile phone, will be rolled out from 2010 under a scheme managed by the National Policing Improvement Agency. The NPIA says trials of the devices have been a "stunning success"

The devices compare prints against the records of the 7.5m people on the police national biometric database ... and of course EU / USA / Interpol databases are a click away?

The initial phase of the the scheme is expected to cost police forces £30-£40m.

Apparently fingerprints collected will not be saved..... does anyone believe that ?

Who needs an ID card when you were given one at birth ?

How soon before they collect your fingerprints at UK airports for all passengers ?

Oyster© and Transys given the boot by Boris to "save millions" - new "improved" Oyster / ID card in the works already ..seamlessly dovetailing ...

Boris Johnson the Mad Joker and Mayor of London tells us that after having read Lord Patel's damning indictment of the Oyster card security "features" 0n Monday, July 21, 2008 Oyster© - a lesson in obsolesence - a cracked technology and money will leak away through the cracks he decided to do something about it.

He has.

Moving swiftly (TranSys on their website said the 10-year break clause is standard in public-private financing deals, and negotiations have been taking place for a year. BBC) Boris has told Transys that they are looking for new suppliers from 2010 - although Transys own the "Oyster©" brand.

The Transport for London director of fares and ticketing Shashi Verma, wants to look for, " more cost-effective ways to manage and develop the Oyster© card system", and adds (very) optimistically that "we expect ...to save millions over the next few years." He also introduced with Barclays the new cashless pay card - "John Stout, CEO of TranSys, said, "Barclaycard came to us with an idea which could be dovetailed seamlessly with Oyster's existing functionality to deliver added value for Barclaycard customers, without disrupting a service which has become part of London life for millions of people." said in a Computer Weekly story on July 9th entitled "Barclaycard requests pre-registration for three in one card"

Most of those millions will probably be from the the types of software problems induced recently, which left Peter Hendy, Transport Commissioner for London,"incandescent with rage" and TfL a lot poorer.

It is of course an ideal opportunity to "re-assess", evaluate, consider, look at , determine, ponder, act, do sumfin' abaht, ways that the system could feed into PNC / ID systems as already happens - see here by Stef (notable for the introduction of the phrase "jumbo stiffy") Suspect Paki and Antagonist .

Now this has been expanded with the "Free" children's card. From June , Transport for London (TfL) made it mandatory for children aged between 11 and 18 to carry an Oyster photocard (Note the photo bit) in order to gain free travel (cf Carrots'n'Sticks Home Office Policy). TfL admits application data will be shared with its subsidiaries which it needed to help prevent anti-social behaviour.

Someone at the Information Commissioners Office (who the Gubment ignore anyway) ICO said : "We have some concerns that the information provided to young people about Zip cards does not clearly state why the personal information is being collected, how it will be used and how long it will be retained.

Plod (via TfL) explains ..."A young person with criminal convictions, warnings, reprimands and other sanctions committed on the public transport network could have the right to free travel withdrawn."

"In order to enforce these specific cases, personal information is requested by the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police Service and British Transport Police," he added.

BBC London learnt that in the past year the Met made at least 3,000 requests for information.

Gypsy Petulengro AKA Lord Patel looks into his Crystal Ballls and feeling in his water

In awarding the new contract "to save millions" it is certain that applicants for the new sooper, dooper, Oyster makoever card will have to complete a lengthy and detailed form ....

1. "Helping" to establish their identity,
2. Place of permanent abode,
3. Maybe their employment details, banking details - "so much easier with a Direct Debit Sir",
4. A fingerprint
5. Definitely a photograph - don't want someone else to "accidently" use your card do we sir if it gets mislaid ?
6. Blood Group ? Just a little prick sir as we take a sample to check - in case of an accident, you understand....
7. Seamless dovetailing using Oyster's functionality with all sorts of other seamless, silent and secret systems ....

It is also worth having a look at the Met Police site with details of how their Safer Transport Team to assist with zip card applications - will help fill in .." The application form is simple to complete, and there is no fee."

Feel confused well here is a handy cut out'n'keep Oyster territory map if you are a brown bearded man from Leeds up for the day and with a definite intent of loitering outside a kebab shop ..



Oops Lord Patel has let slip the special secret suicide bombers map with "code " words for stations to bomb. So if chummy says he's getting the Circle Line from Marks and Spencery Lane to Silentknightsbridge we've got him. Large copies available from Spys'r'Us, GCHQ, Cheltenham V16 X4T (one of those spooky Postcodes that never pops up on searches). Cheques payable to "Geoff" as usual. List of kebab shops extra.Details

Or drop them off (as usual) at House of Lords in Lady Handbag's pigeonhole - in emergency try RUSI, Whitehall and leave the porter an envelope marked "elderly lady spy".

Truth is no stranger to Fiction
Wall Street Journal Europe 8th August (not available ONline) has a story "A Streetcar named Nike" about Dubai's decision to open the naming of trains and 27 of the 47 planned metro stops on their US$4B. 75 Km rail system to commercial bidders.

One of the insane 4 story high billboards that litter Dubai's highways costs US 350,000 a year so a 10 year naming deal could generate £200Mn (5% of the cost). Emirates spent US$100 re-branding Arsenal's Stadium for 8 years.

Good idea. You heard it here first.

Remote Lap-top / PDA access to CCTV images anywhere in the world

Wireless CCTV is a part of Cellhire plc and operates from Rochdale. They do what it says on the tin. They provide CCTV systems that send a wireless (radio) signal of images - this has hitherto been to a centralised control room, where images are viewed, monitored, recorded. They have also sold over 23,200 sets to UK Government services / Police of their body cam kit which they introduced earlier this year. see pic

Now they can offer remote portable lap top /PDA access to signals from their cameras using 3G telephone technology .

Running under Windows Mobile , users can access and screen capture , Live / Archived video and control over Pan-Tilt - Zoom in real time of specific cameras.

This means for example that a user in Rochdale could access town centre cameras , from say RMBC Town Hall council offices, of the many cameras overlooking Albanian drug dealers at work outside the town centre Post Office, where they operate by the red Gilbert Scott telephone boxes with their fleet of youthful cycle couriers.

The alternative is they could just look out of the window.

Jacqui Smith stamps on Citizen's Rights...

Spy Blog's authoritative comments in October on today's rather belated revelations by the Daily Telegraph about Jacqui Smith having signed an Exemption Certificate under Section 29 of the Data Protection Act render further comment superfluous.

New anti-terrorism rules 'allow US to spy on British motorists'
By Toby Helm and Christopher Hope

Briefly, many people have now become aware of an Exemption Certificate obtained by the Home Secretary allowing real time data from the London Congestion Zone Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems for use "in real time" by the Metropolitan Police claiming the need for "national security" but also the ability to export such images (including passenger / driver images) to overseas law enfrorcement - who will remove such images in 5 years.

Spy Blog dealt with this in October at considerable length and in detail - pointing to the on-line copies of all the appropriate documents incuding the Certificate of Exemption which it is interesting to note was not actually signed by Jacqui Smith On July 4th .....
Is the Home Secretary too tired ? idle ? unconcerned ? about signing away the Citizen's Rights leaving it to Paul Wylie (who He? .Ed ) to absorb the burden of witness to this shameful departure from Parliamentary oversight. (He was at one time Private Secretary to John Reid)

Spyblog also point to the document prepared by Bircham Dyson Bell LLP , Solicitors and Parliamentary agents which provides a spurious case for the release of such data. Spy Blog also points out that an extension of such an exemption to the London Low Emission Zone is only a matter of time. ... and no doubt other areas covered by ANPR cameras.

Areas such as the North Wales coast which must have frequently caught the Black Range Rover of Chief Constable Michael Todd as he travelled from Manchester to park outside the cottage of the leader of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team to proceed alone up Snowdon in the worst gale for 10 years, without ice pick, crampons, having notified anyone of his departure , route, expected time and place of return, to meet his nemesis.

Statewatch aso deserve an honourable mention for having identified this Certificate and Exemption case in their On Line Statewatch News Online on August 29th 2007 - a subscription , readily obtained, is essential to help understand how the Secret State is spreading.

The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance. However even with the alertness of Spyblog and Statewatch and many, many blogistes we can only record history. The move to a controlled, monitored state is well on it's way, from fingerprinting schoolchildren to erecting the biggest DNA database of any nation. Should just point out that CCTV doesn't work on buses that are due to be blown up - especially on the 30 Hackney Wick to Marble Arch bus, the only one to be re-directed on 7/7 .. whose bus driver ,George Psaradakis walked all the way home - 7 miles ....who never saw Hussein get on the bus .. but never mind , Network liaison manager Alan Dell, 45, has been awarded an MBE for his role in running the control room at London Buses during the bombings.