Those Downing Street e-mails - the complete text

The infamous Downing Street boiler room e-mails raise some puzzling points which do not seem to have been addressed.

1. How were they intercepted .... if directly, it brings shades of the Charlie telcon when he discussed aricles of intimate feminine hygeine with his (current) wife **** ...and even earlier his (then) wifes intimacies with a lover (?) - requiring a technology available to only a few.

2. Apparently Paul Staines is a Cunt received copies (paper / electronically, known or unknown source ?) on Jan 13th - why the wait by this gobby and vicious smut peddler ?

3.Paul Staines is a Cunt is well oiled into the lunatic well fed,well rich, far right - as is Iain Dale the other far righ ist amateur blogiste. Viz the Stateless, homeless Lord Ashcroft .

4. Did their release help to destroy Glamourous Gordon AND (as shit sticks) unsteady the current Cnservative Party leadrship ?

After all Moneybags Wheeler has decamped, maybe with a few of his lunatic friends.Perhaps changes may ring in the dosh they require for an election....

*****
Charles to Camillal: "I want to feel my way along you, all over you and up and down you and in and out. Oh God, I'll just live inside your trousers or something -- it would be much easier."

* Camilla: "What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? Oh, you're going to come back as a pair of knickers."

* Charles: "Or, God forbid, a Tampax . Just my luck!" Camilla: "You are a complete idiot! Oh, what a wonderful idea."

Watchdog wrong in G20 CCTV claim

Myra Hindley - was her death a fiction ? Is she still alive in the UK under an assumed and new identity?

On the 15th November 2002 Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, 60 was said to have died in the West Suffolk Hospital at Bury St. Edmunds after a chest infection which hsopitalized her on NOvember 12th - following a suspected heart attack two weeks previously. She was said to have received the last rites from a Catholic priest in her bed at 4.55 am after a disturbed night in her isolated solitary ward.

On 18th November Greater Suffolk coroner Peter Dean was told by Home Office pathologist Dr Michael Heath, who carried out the post mortem examination at West Suffolk hospital, that Hindley died of bronchial pneumonia due to heart problems.

She suffered from high blood pressure and poor blood supply to the heart, resulting in blocked coronary arteries, he said.

In surprising haste she was cremated on 20th November 2002 althugh no family members attended. She was reported to be cremated following the service at the cematorium.

The inquest into Hindley's death was opened and adjourned at Highpoint Prison near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and a jury hearing was scheduled to take place at a later date. It opened on January 23rd 2003 at medium security Highpoint prison, Suffolk. It was discolsed that in her final months Hindley, 60, had been prescribed a range of 24 drugs drugs for a range of problems including angina, asthma, bronchitis, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and raised cholesterol including temazapam for insomnia.

In a unique arrangment for such an inquest there were no protesters, friends or relatives at the resumed inquest " because of the intense media interest in Hindley" therefore t was convened in a Highpoint building used for the training of officers at the desolate prison.

The jury of eight women and three men took 48 minutes to reach the unanimous decision that Hindley, died of natural causes: bronchial pneumonia, brought on by hypertension and coronary heart disease.

Her medical records were filed under a false name: Christine Charlton.

Graham Cook, a fingerprint expert with Suffolk Police, said that he had compared Hindley’s prints with those on the National Fingerprint Archive, which had been taken in October 1965 in Cheshire, and was able to confirm the identity of the dead woman beyond doubt.

Hospital staff, some of whom attended the inquest, redecorated Hindley’s room after she died.

Her ashes are said to have been be scattered at an undisclosed location. Her death certificate has never been published - but presumably exists in official records somewhere.

A curious tale in which the only direct evidence is from a small circle of employees of the Home Office.

A plausible tale which a reliable, honest, respectable and well informed contact assures us forms the basis of an elaborate agreement for Myra Hindley's release from custody, very much alive , after she had served double the sentence usually served by convicted murderers with good records of behaviour. A subject which has been very recently widely discussed by social workers at a senior level in a certain area of the UK.

O'Bomber picks his big fund raiser for the London Emassy - to the Victor the spoils

ABC News spotted senior Citigroup executive Louis Susman entering an elite party at the swanky Park at Fourteenth restaurant and club in downtown Washington on Sunday night January 20th for top fundraisers (Susman's massive contributions for 'o8 here) to Obama's inauguration fund and Obama officials, including incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Citigroup lost $8 billion last quarter, and has taken $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds. Susman raised $300,000 for Obama's inaugural committee.

"We're talking about an industry that's right in the middle of a bailout program," said Craig Holman of the Washington, D.C. watchdog group Public Citizen. "They want a seat at the table with the Obama administration."

Mr Susman's has been collecting cash for Democratic presidential politics goes back to finding funds for Senator Kennedy's challenge to Jimmy Carter for the party's Presidential nomination. So successful did he become he was called "the vacuum cleaner" when he raised more than US$240million for John Kerry's White House bid in 2004.

Well it looks like he will be peddling his Presidential proteges policies in Downing Street as a reward for his loyalty to fellow Chicagoan O'Bomber as US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. The ultimate "pay and play" in Presidential politics which O'Bomber promised to put nehind him.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy was widely boosted for the London postin. A kack handed attempt on Shrillary's Senate seat blew up and now as a prominent Roman Catholic is slated for the US Ambassador to the Vatica.

Times discovers US Predator base in pakistan that US senator told the world about last week - as did the LA Times.

The Times claims an EXCLUSIVE - Secrecy and denial as Pakistan lets CIA use airbase to strike militants which is odd because you could read here about it Sunday, February 15, 2009 Afghanistan / Pakistan-Waziristan - Hellfire Holbrooke 's sleek charm use to solve the, "deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan"

They have traced the base to the base's use by the CIA of the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the SW province of Baluchistan — for at least a year. About 30 miles from the Afghan border, the strip allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield. The Predator is said to have a range of more than 2,000 miles and can fly for 29 hours depending upon armaments, typically can carry four Hellfire missiles and two 500lb bombs, plus fuel load etc,
Flight is controlled from CIA sites in the US who supplied this pic to us and may or may not be a pic of the Shamsi base.It was known that US special forces used Shamsi - also called Bardari (about 190 miles SW of the city of Quetta,) during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but the Pakistani Government declared publicly in 2006 that the Americans had left it and two other airbases. In January 2002, a US Marine KC130 tanker aircraft crashed close to its runway, killing seven Marines on board attempting a night landing in difficult conditions without night vision euipment.

The Times have now been able to show that the US Defence Energy Support Centre delivered 730,000 gallons of F34 aviation fuel (commonly JP8) to Shamsi on the website of the Pentagon’s fuel procurement agency. Delivery was made by a civilian supply company, Nordic Camp Supply (NCS), (Virkelyst 11 DK-9400 NØRRESUNDBY, Denmark www.dcsgroup.dk ) under a US $3.2 million, from Pakistan Refineries near Karachi.

It was of course Diane Feinstein the very powerful chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feinstein is privy to classified details of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts who blew the whistle about the use of the (un-named by her) base. The LA Times report was published last week about her remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee - evidently apart of the orchestrated manouevres over Pakistan / Afghanistan by Hellfire Holbrooke as he waved his big stick around on his trip to the region as O'Bombers new envoy / gauleiter.

Arrest in Langbar fraud case in which Lord Levy's "cash for Coronets " sidekick Barry Townsley was involved with other N London football supporters

Spanish police arrested six people tied to a $600 million fraud committed at Langbar International Ltd., (AKA Crown Corp) is a murky Bermuda-based "investment company" . It has been the subject of leisurely scrutiny by the Serious Fraud Office since 2005.

In a nutshell Crown/Langbar is a Bermuda-registered company, founded by a Polish-Canadian, backed by Israeli money, which traded in Argentina, banked its money in Brazil (Banco de Brasil) , had its accounts audited in Spain (Barcelona based Gironella Velasco ) ... and, which thanks to British financial advisers (see below - all keen supporters of North London football clubs) , listed its shares on the London stock market.

The Spanish police have just arrested 6 people ( between 56 and 76 years old at residences in Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante) in what they claim is a US$600 Mn. fraud .

The company operated as a "cash shell" quoted on London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) , shareholders included at one time Merrill Lynch and Gartmore . The fraud originally came to notice when it was announced £ 370 Mn. had evaporated from its accounts.

“The present board of Langbar International is determined to discover exactly what has transpired concerning company funds and to pursue their recovery,” the company said on its Web site. “Our aim is to restore value for shareholders to the maximum that can be achieved.”

The fraud appears to date back to 2003, when the suspects allegedly attracted investors through false claims about the company’s assets, police said. This involved all sorts of floated lies that there was the “very exciting” $294m demerger of Crown Pharmaceutical, which was going to buy a Russian drugs company, and Crown Development, an eastern European property company.Once the shares rose, the suspects sold their holdings, according to the Spanish police.

El Pais reported that the six men arrested were charged and released and that one of the suspects was a former Israeli Mossad agent - believed to be 2 metre tall, 30 lb gorilla Abraham “Avi” Arad, and said to be a mathematical genius - who is understood to be the same person as one of the men arrested on January 21 as the fascinating and much sought after, Abraham Hochman.

The SFO declined to comment on any plans to extradite the arrested men.
Officials at the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority declined to comment, as did those at the City of London Police and the London Stock Exchange.

In April Langbar’s founder, Mariusz Rybak, agreed to pay about 30 million pounds in April to settle a lawsuit brought by the company’s directors and the judge made him sell his house in Monaco. They alleged that Rybak falsified the company’s assets as part of a fraud against investors. Mrs Izabela Rybak (‘‘Mrs Rybak’’), and a company incorporated in Monaco, SCI Atol a company allegedly owned and controlled by Mrs Rybak and her daughter also seems to feature sonwehere in this tangled tale.

In 2007 Nabarro Wells, the finance house that floated Langbar, was fined £250,000 by the London Stock Exchange for failings related to the affair. NW has since April 2008 been part of Ambrian Capital plc , an AIM listed specialist investment banking group focused on the mining, oil & gas, alternative energy and new technology sectors.

Mariusz Rybak, is / was described as a Canadian technology executive, and Jean-Pierre Regli, a Swiss-Italian banker were the co-founders . It may surprise many to discover that they were on good terms with Barry Townsley and Simon Fox of stockbroker Insinger Townsley. Barry was of course also a great supporter of frank Donson's abortive bid to be Mayor of London.

Barry of course was/is a good friend of the Karaoke King (AKA Lord Levy and pal of the Qratet's envoy in the Middle East Tony Blair) who promised him and Earldom and half of Surrey, and a string of live in chorus girls as well as eternal life , in exchange for a loan to the New Labour Party. Read more here about the men who run David Miliband's favourite footie team. and post Monday, September 18, 2006 Panorama exposes the corruption at the heart of European football ...again. Also see Times 4/12/2005 A Crown farce: how Langbar mislaid £365m. Accountant David Buchler was involved at one time trying to sort out the mess.

See also Wikipedia entry on Langbar

Obama's Mansion at 5046 S. Greenwood - who paid for it / Who owns it ? Who pays the taxes ? What land trust ?

APOLOGY

We wish to apologise, first to our readers and secondly to the President - Elect for having provided false information about the Mansion at 5046 S. Greenwood, in Chicago where the Obama family have lived since 21st June 2005.

It now appears from records unearthed by World Net Daily that this is not in fact owned by Mr or even Mrs Obama, nor their 2 sweet children.

William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama. He is also an attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko now awaiting sentence on a variety of fraud, money laundering and bribery-related counts. William Micelli is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion.

The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood.

Miceli, as a senior attorney at the firm, supervised Obama when the future president wrote letters on behalf of Rezko urging public authorities to award him new public properties to rehabilitate, notes the "Barack Book" website maintained by GOP.com.

WND has asked for comment from Obama's transition team (Obama is currently exposing his well buff body to the snappers on a sun kissed Hawaiian beach) and the Democratic National Committee, but no answers have been received. Yet.

Investigative reporter Tim Novak at the Chicago Sun-Times has identified 15 building projects that Rezmar, Rezko's development company, redeveloped while it was represented by Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland during Obama's time at the firm.

Lest you be confused the law firm changed its name. Senior (and founding member in 1971) partner, glamorous Allison Davis left to join Rezko in his schemes in 1997 to take out loans on low-income housing projects. Several of the transactions remain under investigation, because the millions of dollars Rezko borrowed against the properties to make redevelopments are gone, while many of the properties remain boarded up and uninhabitable.

See more on Allison Davis here

"[Davis Is] Barack Obama's Former Boss And Business Partners With Tony Rezko, Who's Charged With Demanding Kickbacks From Companies Seeking State Business Under Gov. Blagojevich, Among Other Things." (Mark Konkol, "‘We Still Live In A Slum’," Chicago Sun-Times, 6/29/07)

Davis’ Low-Rise Apartment Complex Was Known For Drug Activity, Drug Use And Prostitution. (Mark Konkol, "‘We Still Live In A Slum’," Chicago Sun-Times, 6/29/07)

Davis And Son Found Liable For Building Code Violations. (Mark Konkol, "‘We Still Live In A Slum’," Chicago Sun-Times, 6/29/07)
"Davis Got State-Backed Loans To Buy The Place With His Partner Bill Moorehead -- Who's Headed To Federal Prison For Stealing More Than $1 Million From Public Housing Buildings He Managed." (Mark Konkol, "‘We Still Live In A Slum’," Chicago Sun-Times, 6/29/07)

In response to Shrillary's absurd charges that her (then) opponent Obama had worked for Chicago slumlord, Rezko, Miceli told the Washington Post that he was Obama's supervisor at the law firm. See also WSJ and a Simple Thing re Shrillary's Smear Campaign Jan 3 2008

The Post said "Obama denied doing any legal work directly for Rezko or his companies," contending Obama had done only "about five hours worth of work" on a joint real estate development project involving Rezko and a Chicago church group.

Miceli told the Post Obama "was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review." (Wonder what they charged Junior lawyers out who did no work ?)

Miceli said Obama "did what he was told by the firm," minimizing the importance of any work Obama admittedly did for the Rezko account.

One of the firm’s not-for-profit clients — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis — was partners with Rezko’s company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm.

Valerie Jarrett. favoured by Obama to take his senate seat was a member of the board of directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation. Along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as involvement with the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.

WND confirmed the tax bill (In 2006, the property tax was assessed at $22,162.47.) for the Obama home is mailed to Miceli;

1. Not to Obama
2. Not to the Northern Trust account through which Obama has claimed the home was purchased.

Records from the Cook County Treasurer's Office give the PIN number for the Obama property as 20-11-115-037-0000 and list Miceli as the person who receives Obama's property tax invoice by mail. (verified by Eric Herman, a spokesman for the Cook County assessor)the recording date, 6/21/2005, is in the amount of $1,650,000. The borrower is listed as Northern Trust Company.

Herman also told WND a second PIN number, 20-11-115-036-0000, identified the vacant lot next to the Obama mansion that was purchased by Rita Rezko, Tony Rezko's wife.

Miceli did not return a call WND placed to him at Miner, Barnhill & Galland.

Here, WND found conflicts between the tax records maintained by the Cook County Treasurer's Office and the deed information maintained by the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

Rosslyn Whitlock, an Internet support specialist at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, confirmed to WND that the office has no information listed for the Obama home under the PIN number 20-11-115-037-0000, the number used by the Cook County Assessor's office for property tax purposes.

Records at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds list Rita Rezko as the holder of the warranty deed for the vacant lot at 5050 S. Greenwood adjoining the Obama mansion, under the PIN number 20-11-115-036-0000.

WND was able to locate warranty information at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds , which Herman at the County Assessor's office told WND was the "old PIN number" assigned to the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood Avenue, before the home was sold to Obama.

Neither spokesman could explain to WND the discrepancy in PIN numbers, nor why the Cook County Recorder of Deeds has no information filed under the new PIN number assigned to the property after the Obama purchase.

Records with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds under the PIN number 20-11-115-034-0000 indicate the mortgage is held by Northern Trust Company under trust number 10209, which Obama has indicated was the trust the Obama family used to purchase the home.

Meanwhile, WND has reported that since arresting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has taken new interest in Rezko's involvement in the Obama mansion purchase.

A Kenneth Connor filed a civil complaint in October with the Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County alleging he was fired by Mutual Bank of Harvey, Ill., because he objected to land appraisals submitted on behalf of the Rezkos and the Obamas, with the complicity of the bank.

The appraisal was submitted by the Rezkos at an intentionally high figure, he claims, permitting them to borrow an additional $125,000 that amounted to a "political payoff" to Obama.

Conner told the FBI, months ago, when he initially was fired, that the bank and the Rezkos were engaged in "fraud, bribes or kickbacks, use whatever term you want," to benefit the Obamas.

Conner said his lawyer, Glenn R. Gaffney, also has been interviewed by the FBI about the Rezko-Obama deal since December 5th.

On the same day that Obama closed on the Greenwood property in 2005, the lot next door sold to Tony Rezko’s wife in the amount of $625,000. Six months later Obama paid $104,500 for a portion of the lot.

Rita Rezko sold the lot in 2007 for $575,000.

According to documents posted (which we cannot find- there is no search function) on the Obama-Biden website, Barack and Michelle Obama entered into a “Land Trust” Agreement, with William Miceli acting as their agent. All bills are to be forwarded to Miceli, including the property tax.

"This is curious because Land Trusts are employed to facilitate a later reconveyance or to hide the name of an owner of a certain parcel. Neither would seem likely here. And I am incredulous the bank would lend under these circumstances. It means the trustee or nominee would be on the mortgage and Obama on the note (and mortgage).Banks don’t like to do this. In fact banks don’t like to lend to trusts at all. "

Also apparently." a realtor in the Chicago area can ask them to call up a local title/escrow company and get a property profile pulled on this address. The title companies keep all these records electronically for immediate access in the process of title searches before they issue insurance on any transaction. The profile will have things like the Trust Deed, Transfer documents, tax documents, copy of the loan instrument (which includes term, payments, down payments, etc) as well as any other encumbrances or lien holders (like a second mortgage, line of credit, mechanics lien, etc)."
See Comments here for more on these comments

See also Strata Sphere here available it appears only as a cache - you are advised to copy it - Carter - Fuck at work ?

Especially very lengthy comment by John A. Shaw a former senior official of the Defense, State, and Commerce departments, and served on several White House staffs. He is a specialist in international technology transfer and arms sales, and in the economic development of the Middle East.

"Obama has his own personal housing crisis that is tied not into Fanny Mae, but into a corrupt international financial combine headed by Nadhmi Auchi, the convicted Iraqi billionaire at the center of the Elf Aquitaine corruption trial in France. Auchi has been shown to be the fountainhead of a source of corruption flowing from Iraq, to France, Italy, and the United States. His financial network, under a Luxembourg company called General Mediterranean Holdings, spread from Baghdad and the Middle East to Paris, (where Auchi successfully posited Saddam’s UN Oil for Food scheme), London, Washington, and Chicago, making very few ripples and raising no concerns. " ...etc etc.,

See also commentator sbd re payment made by wiring of funds from Lebanon by Auchi - April 4, 2007, to a bank account (the “MMDA account”) held at Northern Trust by the law firm of Freeborn & Peters (”Freeborn”) received an incoming wire transfer of approximately $3,499,471 from a bank in Beirut, Lebanon. The originator of the wire transfer was identified as General Mediterranean Holdings, SA (”General Mediterranean”)... also the strange payment by Rezko (or indebtedness) of $1,675,000 which was curiously the purchase price of 5046 S. Greenwood, Chicago.

All of which begs the question whay all this becomes public AFTER the election ? Questions as to his nationality - born in Hawaii ? Kenya ? Blago and his gang, Tony Rezko? Nahdmi Auchi , Ayers ? Dohrn ? .. are we going to have a President impeached before he is sworn in ?

BTW the Chicago Tribune in deep Financia doo doo and requiring a few favours has sanitised their site removing all reference to dodgy deals....

Blago not off the hook. Yet. They are still looking fo something for him to do (and the little lady )

Surprise ! Surprise ! No Improper Contact With Governor, Says Obama Report NYT

An internal 5 page report issued on Tuesday by lawyers for President-elect Barack Obama ( written by Gregory Craig, the new White House counsel) found that his top advisers had numerous contacts with the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and attempted to guide his choice to fill a vacant Illinois Senate seat, but none of the talks suggested an attempt to play along with the governor’s alleged attempts to sell the seat.

Rahm Emanuel, (on vacation in Obamas birthplace Kenya currently) had 2 direct phone calls to Mr. Blagojevich and 4 with his (noe ex) chief of staff John Harris, about the Senate seat. He provided a list of six names of Illinois Democrats whom Mr. Obama favored to fill his Senate seat. He never "heard"of a suggestion that the governor expected a personal benefit in return for making this appointment to the Senate,” Lawyers who compiled the Obama review did not have access to wiretapped telephone conversations between Obama aides and the governor’s office.

The review was compiled from memory by Mr. Obama’s aides.

Mr. Emanuel was pushing Valerie Jarrett (as previously disclosed here) for the Senate seat. Mr. Emanuel said he made the recommendation before he knew that Mr. Obama “had ruled out communicating a preference for any one candidate.” Of course he didn't know what Obama's plans were , hardly ever sees the guy.

Ms. Jarrett had a conversation with a union official (?) , who told her that Mr. Blagojevich had expressed interest in becoming health and human services secretary in the Obama cabinet. She has now withdrawn her intrest in the seat - gossip says rahm wants her out of the way because she has such close ties to Michelle and Barrack.

The report (full text at Smoking Gun)said that Mr. Emanuel “discussed the merits of potential candidates and the strategic benefit that each candidate would bring to the Senate seat.” You bet.

The report says Mr. Emanuel gave the names of four Democrats from Illinois whom Mr. Obama “considered to be highly qualified,” including Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Representative Jan Schakowsky and Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. In later telephone calls (to whom ?) , Mr. Emanuel also mentioned the names of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Ms. Cheryle Jackson.

“Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the Governor in any of these conversations,” Mr. Craig wrote in the report. “There was no discussion of a cabinet position, of 501c(4), of a private sector position or of any other personal benefit to the governor in exchange for the Senate appointment.”

President elect Obama is in Haaii and has no intention of discussing the matter. At a news conference three days after the election, Mr. Obama said he was staying out of the matter. “There are going to be a lot of good choices out there,” he said, “but it is the governor’s decision to make, not mine.”

In presenting the report to journalists Mr. Craig (who represented John Hinckley Jnr who tried to shoot Ronald Reagan and was WH counsel for President Clinton - he was at Yale with Bill and Shrillary)said the few conversations that occurred with the governor’s people were “completely innocent, completely appropriate.”... even though he hasn't heard the tapes. That's a brave statement to make.

People like Mr Rahm Emanuel very often have very tricky recall. Busy people. So much to do. So many deals to make.

David Belfield / Dawud Salahuddin / Hassan Abdulrahman /Hassan Tantai and the missing Bob Levinson in Iran - is October "surprise" on the way ?

It must have been a bit of a surprise on the afternoon of Friday 21st November when Sean McCormack, Spokesman for the State department started his Press briefing with a statement about the curious tale of ex FBI agent Robert Levinson . (see video here )

The United States continues to call on Iran to cooperate with U.S. authorities on the case of Robert Levinson, an American citizen who has been missing since disappearing from Iran’s Kish Island over nineteen months ago. The U.S. Department of State remains committed to determining Mr. Levinson’s whereabouts, and returning him safely to his family that includes seven children, one grandchild and a second grandchild on the way. The quicker members of the Press saw that this was of course in response to Senator Nelson's remarks on the 20th November to raise a Senate resolution about the mysterious disappearance of Bob Levinson, a businessman who vanished after checking out of his hotel on the resort island of Kish on March 9, 2007.

Bob is / was however no ordinary businesman and is/was an FBI agent who in his retirement was in some way involved in investigating cigarette smuggling. His signature appears in a resort log book, showing that he checked out. His passport has never turned up.

Florida Republican Senator (Bob lives in Coral Springs) also raised his case in the senate on November 20th . (Miami Herald) .

On September 5th Wapo reported that Levinson's trip to Kish island, an Iranian duty-free zone that does not require visas, wqas being investigate by Swiss diplomatic staff, anxious to find a duffle bag - but they had been refused access by the Iranian Governmnt.

Subsequently in December his wife Christine Levinson, accompanied by their 22 year old son, Daniel, visited Iran and met hotel staff and airport workers on Kish Island but obatined no further information.

Since then Iran continues to claim it has no information on the fate of Mr. Levinson and when his wife sought a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was at the United Nations for the U.N. General Assembly he declined to meet with her.

However CNN reported that Levinson met with a Dawud Salahuddin, who is a fugitive from American justice who now lives in Iran, shortly before his disappearance.

Salahuddin -- now known in Iran as Hassan Abdulrahman -- converted to Islam and was given refuge in Iran after admitting in interviews to killing Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a former Iranian diplomat under the Shah, in Maryland in 1980.

Salahuddin said Iranian officials in plain clothes detained him to examine his pasport and he was taken away from the room he shared with Levinson to be interrogated about his Iranian passport. He says he was told when he was freed the following day that Bob levinson had returned to Dubai.

Senior US administration officials have told CNN that they think Salahuddin met with Levinson, but do not believe him to be a credible source of information on Levinson's whereabouts.

Which is OK as far as it goes but Salahuddin is actually David Belfield, (born Roanoke Rapids, NC on November 10, 1950.) the disaffected son of a black father and white mother from North Carolina. He paid a postal worker $500 to borrow his Jeep and uniform. The 29-year-old then drove the few miles to the affluent Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, where Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a former Iranian diplomat and critic of Ayatollah Khomeini, lived and shot him three times in the stomach with a handgun.(Guradian)

As if this is not enough, Belfield turned up agin 21 years later Hassan Tantai, in a false beard in an Iranian film called Kandahar, (Safar-e Ghandehar ("Journey to Kandahar") and, alternatively, The Sun Behind the Moon) directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, head of Iran's most celebrated film-making dynasty.

How so ?

Well in Montgomery County, Doug Gansler, the young state attorney who has been on Belfield's tail since he surfaced momentarily in Istanbul in 1995, to confess to the killing on ABC's 20/20 programme, couldn't quite believe his eyes when he saw David Belfield / Dawud Salahuddin /Hassan Abdulrahman /Hassan Tantai re-play the role of a black American who, like him, joined up to fight the Russians and then returned years later to tend to the women suffering under Mullah Omar's bizarre and cruel interpretation of Sharia law in Afghanistan.

As if that is not enough he seems to have tired of life in Teheran and in 1995 wrote to then US attorney general Janet Reno offering to surrender himself - but on quite novel terms. First, former president Jimmy Carter would have to testify at his trial, and Belfield was to remain free until a verdict was reached. "Even while awaiting possible execution," he wrote, "I would have to retain freedom of movement while, at the same time, waiving any right of appeal." Reno refused the offer. .. perhaps his frequent overseas travels to Arab countries and North Korea may have put him beyond the pale.

But yet he lives on in life and fillum..

In 2006 French born film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond released a film entitled "American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan", about Salahuddin. Lafond's film , which involves interviews with Belfield stirred controversy - especially as lafond was said to be a Quebec separatist and had ties to some terrorists. Some reviewers thought it was too sympathetic to Salahuddin. Other reviewers have expressed the opinion that Lafond should not address controversial topics because he is married to the current (Hiaitian by birth), 27th and 1st black Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean.

It couldn't be possible that Dubya is about to spring a surprise detente with Iran - yet another volte face to up stage the new President ?

Help Bob Levinson

All very curious. As FDR sais, "Nothing happens by accident"

German spies bomb EU office to frustrate plans for EULEX in Kosovo - trustworthy Albanians involved in double dealing with the BND ? Shirley not ?

The Boy David AKA Foreign Secretary was glad handing the criminals and thugs, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni of Kosovo ( Europe Minister Caroline Flint and DFID Minister Mike Foster were also present to join in shaking their bloody hands) who were in London with President Sejdiu and he was anxious to ;

....applaud the President and Prime Minister's commitment to full deployment of the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX). This deployment is a crucial stage in Kosovo's development. Despite their deep concerns about some of the UN proposed transitional arrangements, I am impressed by the clearly-voiced commitment of Kosovo's leaders to take account of the concerns of Kosovo's Serb community. I discussed with them the importance of cooperation with the UN both in the interim phase before EULEX's full deployment, and thereafter, to the benefit of Kosovo as a multi-ethnic nation.

"Kosovo needs to keep building bridges with its neighbours as it moves closer to the EU. Britain will be with Kosovo in its search for security and prosperity, just as we were during the process leading to independence. "

EULEX will be the EU's largest civilian ESDP mission. Its responsibilities include monitoring and mentoring Kosovo's police, judiciary and prosecutors. Head of Mission General Yves de Kermabon aims to reach Initial Operating Capacity, assuming responsibility for the full range of EULEX's mandate, on 2 December.

Which may have something to do with ..... Four days before a bomb attack in Pristina Kosovan leaders rejected a plan (what the Boy David calls their "deep concerns) by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's for the deployment of an EU police and justice mission, EULEX.(Reuters)
German spies bomb EU office in Kosovo

Three men ( named so far as Robert C. (47), Andreas B. (41) und Andreas J. (41) see pic) , who it now transpires are members of Germany's foreign intelligence agency the Bundesnachtrichtendienst (BND)were arrested last Wednesday, in Pristina on suspicion of throwing explosives at the office of the EU Special Representative Peter Feith on Nov. 14 (4 days after the leaders rejected EULEX) . They deny involvement in the blast and claim they were only examining the scene. The explosion shattered windows in the building but no one was hurt.


On Saturday 22nd November a Pristina district court judge ordered them detained for 30 days on terrorism charges that could carry sentences of up to 20 years. AP report that court documents show that the prosecutor, Feti Tunuzliu, alleges that the suspects had intended to disrupt the EU's efforts to deploy its new police mission in Kosovo. Tunuzliu wrote that one of the suspects threw 300 grams (0.6 pounds) of dynamite at the EU offices from a building across the street on Nov. 14 as the two others kept watch. The BBC reported that the 3 men were simply investigating the event when arrested.

The German Foreign Ministry has confirmed that three German citizens have been arrested in Kosovo but declined comment. der Spiegel reports they are BND agents but had not been officially registered with the Kosovo authorities, as required so do not enjoy diplomatic immunity.

Bild today says the BND has ruled out the involvement of any of its employees in the attack on the EU office and have sources who believe it is the work of extremists in Kosovo who oppose the involvement of foreign organizations in their country. The arrest of the Germans is, they conclude, the result of a power struggle within the Kosovo leadership, with the anti-European faction having prevailed over those who wanted to see the three men released.

This diplomatic brouhaha arises when there is increasing tension and concern over the EU police mission in Kosovo. UN peacekeepers have been deployed since NATO bombed the country from 20,000 feet and the original UN mission, UNMIK, is now downsizing and the 2,000 strong EU mission, known as EULEX, is due to take over law enforcement.

However, Serbia, which has not recognized Kosovo, has won concessions on the EU deployment and the current plan proposes leaving the UN to patrol the ethnic Serb enclaves within Kosovo. Pristina rejects this and suspects that the split in policing will lead to a de-facto partition of Kosovo.

All very odd.. and the German Parliamentary Control group (PKG) will be meeting folks from the BND for a chat .. er .. "special meeting" which will no doubt be behind very closed doors.

Thomas Oppermann, chairman of the PKG , Social Democrat, said he could not imagine how the German agents could be involved in an attack on EU offices. "That seems to have been plucked out of the air," he told ARD on Monday. Max Stadler, who represents the opposition FDP on the panel, told the Berliner Zeitung that he wanted the government and the BND to say if the men were indeed intelligence officers.

PS : Lord Patel wishes to make it clear that all Albanian / Kosovan Government Ministers are honest, truthful, trsutworthy and sincere men and that there is no question that BND officers bombed EU officers in Pristina and and apologises if a misleading impression may have be given in the above story. see - Saturday, February 16, 2008 Kosovo - another swamp to get mired in to meet US colonial and imperial ambitions - this time in the Balkans - AGAIN and also Thursday, August 07, 2008 Gangsters settle in in Kosovan Government Thaci promotes Fehim Mujota to Head the Kosovo Security Forces

UPDATE Tuesday Nov 25th Gazette von Antwerpen suggests in a report that the Kosovan (ie Albanian) Mafia have fit up the Duitsers as they don't want anyone (EULEX) interfering in their lucrative people rafficking and drug smuggling.

The NYT report ..."Germany was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo after it declared independence and it is a major aid donor. “Germany supports E.U. policy in Kosovo, and as such it would make no sense to attack the E.U. building in Pristina,” said Max Stadler, deputy chairman of the parliamentary commission (FDP) supervising the German secret services. "

Which makes sense, but one wonders what the BND guys were up to.

See also Emportal Serbian news agency report ..."Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Goran Bogdanovicyesterday visited the Visoki Decani Monastery where he stated that Kosovo Serbs cannot accept the Kosovo institutions’ four-item plan regarding the deployment of EULEX in the province. "

Sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the men's employer, Logistic Coordination Assessment Services, which ostensibly advises investors on opportunities in Kosovo, was a BND front company.Also reported by EIN (subscription only)

It seems no-one wants EULEX (except the Boy David) but curiously this is a story which hasn't seen light of day in any UK Press / TV....except us.

UPDATE : 25th Nov Der Spiegel says Kosovo authorities claim to have a film showing the bomb attack- but it hasn't been made public.

US launches 2 pronged diplomatic assault on Central Asian republics - Afghanistan poppies and pipelines

Adm. William Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), has been dashing about the Central European Republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and also Pakistan. On the 26th Jan he met Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in Ashkhabad. It was no coincidence that he had been preceded by Senator Richard Lugar, who also visited Ashkhabad where he tells us that pipelines were high on the agenda. He also made stops in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and finally - on his way home - Ukraine.

In Tashkent, Fallon met President Karimov, fresh from his unexpected success in the December presidential elections (a third term - despite a constitution limiting presidents to two terms in office) as well as the Security Council secretary, defense and foreign ministers and the commander of the border troops and is said to have focussed his meetings on the problems the US have in Afghanistan - although the meetings were wrapped in secrecy.

There has been an apparent change in the official Tashkent stance which has been reciprocated by EU Special Representative for Central Asia Pierre Morel announcing that the EU considers Uzbekistan a reliable partner and wants to promote cooperation with it...on Jan. 17, just one day after Karimov's inauguration.

Brussels partially alleviated the sanctions imposed on Uzbekistan after the Andijan events and to reciprocate , Uzbekistan pardoned several human-rights champions, and has abolished capital punishment , and gave the courts the right to issue sanctions for arrest, thereby demonstrating its interest in normalizing relations with the EU.

Evidently the EU and the US are responding to the real politik that Karimov - unless he magically disappears - is there for another 7 years, sedulously playing Russia, China, Japan against the US and EU energy interests.

Human rights ... well Karimov didn't actually ban capital punishment .. it appears he is having a look at it.

German combat forces get ready to invade Afghanistan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has, very sensibly not visited Afghanistan recently, but she was in Kabul in November shortly after the Bundestag renewed the mandate for 3,500 German troops in Afghanistan, combining two previous mandates.

Some 3,000 Bundeswehr troops are currently deployed in a strictly non-combat , training, reconstruction and security role in the relatively peaceful north under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) . There are also 6 German Tornado reconnaissance jets and their back-up units based in the country although it doesn't appear they get to bomb anything or anybody...yet.

But German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, swept through Kabul yesterday meeting President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak He also stopped for a chat with ISAF commander Dan McNeill.

NATO has formally asked for up to 250 German soldiers to take over from the Norwegian Quick Reaction Force, in N. Afghanistan and is due to end its mission at the beginning of the summer and all the signs are that a decision to ready German troops for combat (the first time since WWII) had already been made.

In an interview with Der Spiegel in September McNeill had politely danced around Germany's contribution to NATO forces..

"Some governments, and I'm not talking about Germany specifically, find it easier to accommodate their constituency if they impose certain caveats, certain restrictions, on the forces they contribute to this effort, such as that they can only be deployed in certain areas. These restrictions make things difficult for me as ISAF commander. "

Ahead of the decision to beef up the Bundeswehr presence Mc Neill takes a hard headed approach to the international view of the Taliban and dscribes them in robust and bloodcurdling terms ..." These people kill more civilians than any force amongst the Alliance or the Afghan army. They are hard core extremists. They behead people that don't agree with their positions."

Which overlooks the massive aerial bombardment , and long distance shelling, by coalition / ISAF air forces which produces a long litany of missed targets, friendly fire, and disputed deaths, women, children, burnt out compounds, smashed mosques.

It is an impression that is very much at odds with the one presented by the President in his State of the Union message .." Afghanistan" , he described "a nation that was once a safe haven for al Qaeda" as "a young democracy where boys and girls are going to school, new roads and hospitals are being built, and people are looking to the future with new hope." (See also "he didn't mention the violence that has killed 147 students and teachers, and closed 590 schools in the last year." )

Having said that , he went of to sign a bill (H.R. 1585) prohibiting the Pentagon from selling leftover F-14 Tomcat fighter jet parts - the only country flying and buying F -14's - Iran. They ( and canny Chiese buyers) had been exploiting a loophole in military sales .. parts for Chinooks as well as Tomcats also found their way to Teheran, equipment bought in the heady days in the 70's when the Shah was the US's stooge.

This might of course add fuel to the argument that as Bush winds down the Presidency he has taken his eye off the ball... for example USAF ISAF air forces burn 575,000 gallons of fuel per day in Afghanistan (an F-16 Fighting Falcon, takes roughly 1,000 gallons of fuel per service) of which 80% comes from Pakistan refineries. Without this they have to rely on a a lengthy and precarious logistics line that extends more than 1,000 miles from northern Baku, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. e.g. From the 25th January 2008 Airpower Summary On Jan. 24, U.S. Air Force and RAF aerial refueling crews flew 42 sorties and off-loaded approximately 2.9 million pounds of fuel ( 1 US gallon = 6 lbs = 480,000 gals ) to 231 receiving aircraft.... and without the "close air support" the troops, be they German, British or US are fucked.

“Sasha is not quite in his right mind.” - MI6 told their Moscow spy - more fairy tales from the land of Litvinenko

The news that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) yesterday instituted criminal proceedings (6/7/07) under the Criminal Code Article 275 (which includes espionage) against Vyacheslav Zharko, a former officer ( 4 yrs experience with rank of Major) of the Russian tax police, throws some more light and probably many more shadows on the Litvinenko affair.

Vyacheslav Zharko admitted he had been recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) when he voluntarily surrendered in June to the friendly FSB. He claims he was receiving about 2,000 Euros in cash monthly (which apparently he did not declare for tax purposes !) for writing surveys for the British side “fishing out information from various Internet sites.” It was only when he realised what a small fish he was, in a big game he decided to "come clean". It also followed on from May 31st news conference given by Andrei Lugovoi, (accused by the UK Crown Prosecution Service on May 22 of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko) who accused Russia's fugitive, London based tycoon Boris Berezovsky of working for British intelligence. (Pic K.Pravda)

The state caim that he was really used by British intelligence...

“The Federal Security Service checked the statement of Russian citizen Zharko on the circumstances of his cooperation with British intelligence. The examination helped to get sufficient data showing that in the period from 2003 to 2007 officers of MI6 recruited him and then used as an agent during espionage actions to the detriment of external security of the Russian Federation,”

Zharko admits that his controllers planned to collect information about a number of officers of Russian security services with the aim of recruting them..

“At a meeting with British officers they asked me to collect information about personnel of Russian security services that might be useful for Britons for recruitment,”

In an interview published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Saturday he said that a man calling himself John Callaghan, (who he says was first secretary of the British Embassy in Moscow and is regarded a career intelligence officer) and one called Paul met him in London, Istanbul, Helsinki and Cyprus.

“The Britons later also confessed to me that they were intelligence
officers and John Callaghan told me that he was working under the cover of the
embassy in Moscow and took part in general operations, for instance, had once
photographed secret documents in a restaurant WC,”

....he also named a Ken Philips who he says also worked in Moscow and now he is an intelligence officer in the British Embassy in Istanbul. Apparently these FO johnnies gave him a fancy mobile phone they would use to call him - but which was for receive only purposes.

Amongst his claims Zharkov says the Brits could not eliminate the possibility that the FSB had recruited an agent in the British embassy and “asked me if I could using my connections in security services to track down the ‘mole.” They also asked him to find out if “specific connections of certain non-governmental organisations could come under control of Russian security services.”

Intriguingly Zharko claims that British intelligence were working on cojunction with Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko, whose death he says was caused by his undertaking “some personal experiments.”

His implication is that Litvinenko had been distanced from BB , his salary cut, and the Brits were starting to cold shoulder him ... and he desperately needed ..."money at all costs".

He also has a personal theory that through the Chechens and Zakayev that Sasha could have ,

"come in contact with dealers engaged in the contraband of radioactive
materials and get a fatal dose either accidentally or not.”

The Brits it seems were well aware of Sasha and his relationship with the exiled oligarchs and in early 2000 told Zharko “Sasha is not quite in his right mind.”

It would be wise to recall that Litvinenko is claimed to have been poisoned with radioactive Polonium-210, - but (unremarkably in this wilderness of mirrors) no official autopsy report has so far been made publicly available. Tricky one for our tyro Foriegn Secretary to deal with .. probably best ignore it.

see Novosti

Pic above - the strikingly beautiful but slighlty radioactive widow Litvinenko.