Critical National Infrastructure Police - more fucking Plods - just what we need in a time of crisis

Spy blog busily and astutely watching them watching us, alerts us to a curiously (leaked ? placed ?) article in the Mail on Sunday by Jason Lewis

Anti-terror patrols secretly stepped up at power stations

Massive expansion of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary is being secretly planned to protect Britain's most vulnerable terrorist targets.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that it will be transformed into the Critical National Infrastructure Police and mount armed patrols around all key installations nationwide, including power stations, phone and computer networks, oil and gas pipelines, ports and airports.

Secret negotiations also include taking over responsibility for protecting Government buildings and key economic targets.

...Richard Thompson, a former Foreign Office counter-terrorism expert who has served in Iraq, took over the force in June last year and has been carrying out strategic reviews to prepare for its expanded role.

The intention is that the force, which has a £50million-a-year budget, will have more officers and take over policing other power stations, critical telecom buildings, gas installations, fuel dumps, airports and other key terror targets

....The Critical National Infrastructure force is expected to be announced as part of Security Minister Lord West's review of Britain's preparedness for terrorism.

Spy Blog points out that Whilst it might make sense to have some 24/7 armed protection for, say, the Balgzand (Netherlands) to Bacton (Norfolk) gas pipeline terminal, covered extensively here when Bacton had an explosion earlier this year - Friday, April 04, 2008 - Friday, April 04, 2008 IslamoFascist transatlantic airplane toilet terror liquid exploding baby bomb plot and an explosion at Bacton Gas teminal ) Tuesday, March 04, 2008 The Bigger the Bang - The Louder the silence No 17 : Massive gas Explosion at Nyagan, Siberia covered up... and gas cuts to Ukraine ?? Friday, February 29, 2008 Bacton - Pipelines blowing up - Press shutting up - gas price going up.

As ever Spy Blog has expertly filleted this proposal to extend and expand a secretive, unaccountable armed force, and raises some ( well quite a lot - 18 in total up to press) Obvious Spy Blog Questions - go and read them and consider. e.g;

# - Why should these armed guards be called "Police" when they should actually be a military unit ?
# - Other countries civil nuclear facilities or Government buildings are protected with anti-aircraft missiles and heavy machine guns, armoured fighting vehicles, attack helicopters etc. Surely the Critical National Infrastructure Police will not be expected to just use pistols and sub machine guns, and unarmoured police vehicles ? ?

# - Will the Critical National Infrastructure Police have their own bomb disposal expertise ?

Sp Blog also raises some fascinating points about the newly uniformed Border Police and their role in working with these new Plods/ Gendarmerie and the murky under world of hired military muscle.

IanPJ at the Libertarian Party blog remarks ;

With every incidence of new armed, empowered Police forces answerable only to politicians, it weakens the role of our real Police, sworn Police Officers who swear allegiance to the Crown.

Classic totalitarian tactics.

Of course, with the incapacity of British Energy to keep all the ageing, clapped out, outdated , nuclear reactors working (for deatails see analysis of last years Annual Report see Wednesday, May 28, 2008 British Energy; lamentable tale of management incompetence and national decline in engineering and reliance on the nation's critical energy supplies ) their will be precious little for this shiny new Gendarmerie to protect and precious little for them to do.

Cold wars suddenly got colder - Official .. Re - run those reels won't yah ?

This is a copy of the post made on December 3rd 2006. - we referred to remarks by Senator Lugar in our post on Saturday European Energy security exposed by events in Georgia - and winter is 2/3 months away - UK decades of delay ... A kind visitor remembered this post and suggested it was repeated 20 months later. Oil was then around US$60 a barrel and in the US Regular Unleaded gas was US$2.10 at the pump ... As we remarked then .. he highlighted that we live in a much changed .. and rapidly changing world of energy flows.

Mobile Topol-M ballistic missile
Lord Patel met Senator Richard Lugar , Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations committe at Purdue this summer, whilst his immediate interest was to boondoggle for his home state Indiana's share of ethanol subsidies he made some trenchant remarks about energy security in the modern world.

He is a tough, shrewd, worldly wise politician who is now bowing out from centre stage. Following his summertime remarks in Purdue, he made a chracteristically blunt (but unremarked ) speech at the Marshall Fund conference in Riga, in Latvia in advance of the NATO summit. In the light of Turkmenbashis's death it is worth considering. Full text at US Embassy

NATO he points out is bigger, it is busier than ever. That is not a guarantee however of security in a global world - when NATO was originally forged to deal with the defence of Europe from the Warsaw Pact countries. He dwelt at some length on the role of NATO in Afghanistan ...

"Although the hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists continues, the primary threat to the stability of Afghanistan is Taliban insurgents who are challenging ISAF in greater numbers, sowing dissent among Afghanis, cooperating with the bourgeoning narcotics trade, and complicating security efforts in ways that inhibit the rule of law and reconstruction."

He pointed out that whatever the political will, action was dependent upon expenditure ..

"To overcome these challenges and similar ones, we must reverse the downward spiral of defense budgets. Only a handful of members spend more than 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. Good intentions can only carry a military force so far ..."

He pointed out what many in the US see as the foot dragging of NATO nations ..

"It is imperative that NATO fulfills its commitments to Afghanistan. The Alliance has found it difficult to generate the political will to meet NATO objectives.....Unfortunately, NATO capitals are making the military mission even more difficult by placing national caveats on the use of their forces. These restrictions, coupled with troop shortages, are making ISAF a less cohesive and capable force."

He moved on and marked the " Centrality of Energy" to the NATO mission, to prevent wars and not fight them. He then outlined a key problem which a less than united Europe should consider..

" In the coming decades, the most likely source of armed conflict in the European theater and the surrounding regions will be energy scarcity and manipulation. It would be irresponsible for NATO to decline involvement in energy security, when it is abundantly apparent that the jobs, health, and security of our modern economies and societies depend on the sufficiency and timely availability of diverse energy resources."

" .... our experiences provide little reason to be confident that market rationality will be the governing force behind energy policy and transactions."

He then highlighted that we live in a much changed .. and rapidly changing world of energy flows.

"As recently as four years ago, spare production capacity exceeded world oil consumption by about ten percent. As world demand for oil has rapidly increased in the last few years, spare capacity has declined to two percent or less. Thus, even minor disruptions of oil supply can drive up prices."

He continued, to describe what he was to call geo-strategic blackmail.

"We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy could become the weapon of choice for those who possess it. It may seem to be a less lethal weapon than military force, but a natural gas shutdown to a European country in the middle of winter could cause death and economic loss on the scale of a military attack."

he then warmed to the core of his concerns, which affects NATO and their allies.

"We must move now to address our energy vulnerability. "

"Article Five of the NATO Charter identifies an attack on one member as an attack on all.....We should recognize that there is little ultimate difference between a member being forced to submit to foreign coercion because of an energy cutoff and a member facing a military blockade or other military demonstration on its borders."

Addressing the concerns about Rusia he called for dialogue ..

"I believe that Russia has a long-term interest in achieving a more prosperous stability that comes with greater investment in its energy sector and the development of a reputation as a trusted supplier. But its recent actions to temporarily reduce gas supplies to the West, confiscate some foreign energy investments, and create further barriers to new investment are undermining confidence in Moscow’s reliability. "

Remember ....this was before Gazprom successfully strong armed Shell over Sakhalin and Tblisi gave in on a new price for gas from next week.

He concluded ..

"I understand that adopting energy security as a mission is a major advancement from NATO’s origins. But it represents an historic opportunity to change the circumstances of geopolitics to the benefit of all members".

Meanwhile the first regiment of Topol-M mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) went on active duty in the Ivanovo region in central Russia this month and received a visit from President Vladimir Putin on 14 December 2006. He called the deployment a "significant step forward in improving our defense capabilities".(see exclusive pic)

"Maintaining a strategic balance will mean that our strategic deterrent forces should be able to guarantee the neutralization of any potential aggressor, no matter what modern weapon systems he possesses," Putin said.

The state-of-the-art mobile Topol-M ballistic missile, with a liftoff weight of 47.2 tonnes, a range of more than 10,000 kilometers and capability of carrying a 1,200-kilogram warhead, which is immune to electromagnetic impulses is a valuable reminder of the uncreasingly tough competition between the great powers for unimpeded access to raw materials, including energy resources.

On 15 December 2006 Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander or Russia's Strategic Missile Forces,said "We will begin to equip the Topol-M mobile missile system with multiple re-entry vehicles in a few years."

Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had a visitor to discuss gas supplies for winter this week. President Putin.

Knol is a four letter word

Knol is a four letter word. It is, according to the Book of Google, ".. an authoritative article about a specific topic."

Knol is yet another Google product. It is a rival to Wikipedia. (Knol = Knowledge) which isn't a 4 letter word but was (unlike Google) founded on the fruits of pornography. The principal and primary difference , is the authors(s) are listed , identified and not anonymous and retain (so far) editing control. A nice thought, is that the Dutch steamcleaning equipment company owns http://www.knol.com/ and won't sell. Which is why http://knol.google.com/k#
will get you there. Google "knol" and it shows as second to Stock Market Ticker KNOL

Google , "envisions Knol as a place where experts can share their knowledge on a variety of topics. It hopes to create a sort of online encyclopedia built from the contributions of scores of individuals" .. Notably they can place Google ads. (Like you can with Blogger - do you see any ?) ... and maybe may score a higher rank in searches on Google ???? ... type in "buttermilk pancakes" in Google.

For example david petherick comments on his experience ..

The Google Knol I created just yesterday entitled 'How to Read the Russian Alphabet in 75 Minutes' is already appearing on Page 1 of a Google Search for "read russian" with 12,300,000 results following. I have updated the title within Knol from the one showing in the Google index, but that's still a pretty impressive result for content that I created and put online only yesterday.

Knol is 3 weeks old , unknown and until this post is posted, obscure.

Google has always said it will never compromise the objectivity of its search results - when asked ...it treats Knol pages like any other pages on the Web. “When you see Knol pages rank high, they are there because they have earned their position,” said Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Google quoted in the NYT. This in entertainingly discussed at Infothought
and here at sphinn

Knol is merely a tool for others to create and publish information, and once they do, Mr. Stricker said, “our job, which is to organize that information, kicks in.” Google does not own copyrights to the Knol content, and the site will not carry the Google logo.

Martin A. Nisenholtz, is the big cheese and senior vice president of digital operations at the Times Company, which own About.com and was asked if Knol posed a threat to About.com. “About.com is very well positioned in the marketplace.”

Some media companies, like WebMD, have already begun posting their content on Knol.

“We participated in Google Knol as a test, as we’ve done with other, similar offerings,” a WebMD spokeswoman, Jennifer Newman, said in an e-mail message to the NYT. “We are evaluating its effectiveness in further building brand awareness for WebMD.”

Wikipeda gets a lot of flak... it provides a good (in many cases excellent) kicking off point for any research - look at the History of Israel or the biographies of closet homosexual LabourPrime Ministers and don't expect or get objectivity. Wiki has a zillion articles and light years start even if it was launched on the back of revenue from pornography. See post Monday, March 27, 2006
100 things you didn't know about Wikipedia for the rather odd tales about Bomis (founded 1966)and Jimmy Wales.

Knol doesn't somehow have the "feel" we are used to with Wiki -it's another source and author identification (can this be checked ?) helps to provide rigour and authenticity.

Have a look and a play - Postman Patel's RED HOT TIP Try Google search and add "Knol" as a prefix or a suffix and note the difference(s) in search results.

BBC Olympics feeds - ideal for part time workers

BBC have several selectable LIVE feeds from the Olympics and have a sneaky pop - up window which you can hide - should you be unwise enough to steal your employers time and broadband by watching. Excellent.

NBC Beijing for the US audience is , even more chauvinistic and is even better in US coverage . It has wonderful biographies of every athlete in the games.

EU food production forecasts show big growth (Ho Ho Ho) ,no EU tariffs, so lower retail prices in store (Ho Ho Ho)

The European Commission published on August 7th the annual crop yield forecast, which is based on an updated analysis by the Commission's in-house scientific service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), using an advanced (and very slick) crop yield forecasting system.

The MARS (Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing) Crop Yield Forecasting System includes use of meteorological databases, low resolution satellite technology, and the use of historical statistics to produce forecasts. See Thursday, April 20, 2006 Hi Tech sky spy to verify EU farm subsidy - Lo tech computer system should pay, won't pay.

The latest forecast , produced on August 7th is available here
and makes welcome reading as retail food prices soar.They are based on data up to July 31st 2008.

Favourable weather conditions and an increase in the planted area farmed should lead to a total cereals harvest close to 301 M tonnes for this year in the European Union, 43 M tonnes or a 16& increase on 2007 and a growth of 9% on the past five years' average production.

2008, the latest yield forecasts show the following trends:
- soft wheat: 5.6 t/ha (+4.8%)
- durum wheat: 3.1 t/ha (+12.8%)
- barley: 4.4 t/ha (+5.7%)
- grain maize: 6.9 t/ha (+9.5%)
- rape seed: 2.9 t/ha (-2,1%)
- sunflower: 1.6 t/ha (+1.7%)
- potato: 26.5 t/ha (-1.1%)
- sugar beet: 70.3 t/ha (+19.0%)

The greatest increase is for sugar beet, (The UK started producing ethanol from sugar beet last year) cultivated mainly in northern Europe, with the main producers Germany and France, which benefited from favourable weather. see Friday, November 23, 2007 ABF / British Sugar's Wissington sugar beet / bioethanol plant on stream and opened by Lord Rooker

Maize yield is expected to be 20.1% higher than last year and 9.5% higher than the past five years' average, with very high yield increases for Romania (+122%), Bulgaria (+193%) and Hungary (+94%), countries that had been suffering from drought last year.

The winter of 2007/2008 was rather mild, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, but cooler than the exceptionally mild winter of 2006/07. Temperatures followed a seasonal course with warmer average temperatures compared to the long term average (period 1975–2007) for Central and Eastern Europe. June and July have been slightly cooler for France, Northern Spain and the United Kingdom.

Rainfall throughout the season has been abundant and well distributed for Spain but has led to over-wet situations in France and northern Italy.

As zloty strengthens , Poland calls for food tariffs to be re-imposed

To ensure supplies the EU suspended tariffs for the 2007/08 marketing year and now Poland has asked the EU to reimpose import tariffs on cereals to limit inflows of cheap supplies ahead of their expected bumper harvest this year, the Polish agriculture minister Marek Sawicki 50, told Reuters on Friday. He has been the Minister since since November 16, 2007.

Latest data provided by The Polish Agriculture Ministry shows the average price for a tonne of milling wheat dropped in Poland by almost 5 % month-on-month in July to 762 zlotys (Euros 236). See graph for zloty exchange rate for last 12 months.

"At the moment, because of the overvalued zloty, for many companies owning large storage areas it pays off to import grains, whether from Hungary or from Ukraine," he added.

In June 2008, the tariffs were suspended for another season to ensure sufficient supplies in an attempt to slow rising retail food prices.

In a related area Poland's previous conservative-nationalist administration and Brussels had been in a legal dispute over GMO in animal fodder for months. The Commission filed a lawsuit against Poland in the European Tribunal of Justice for passing a law banning GMO seeds and animal fodders. Poland responded with a counter-suit.

In January, Poland's newly-installed liberal government had said it planned to change the incoming law in order to stay in line with European Union rules. Under the rules of the 27-nation EU, a member state has the right to apply a "safeguard clause" against GMO products if it can provide scientific evidence to question their safety.

Despite the planned fodder rules, Poland is to continue allowing the import of genetically modified food for human consumption, provided it is clearly labelled as containing GMOs and cannot be transformed into other products, ie ; used as an ingedient.

UPDATE : Bloomberg - Euro Slumps to Five-Month Low on Reduced Bets for Higher Rates

The euro slumped to a 5 month low against the dollar. Traders pared bets the European Central Bank will raise interest rates as the economy slows.

The euro also fell to a 3 week low versus against the yen after ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said economic growth will be ``particularly weak'' through Q3 and policy makers kept the benchmark rate unchanged last week. more

The Boy David is on the case : Georgian violence ... widespread concern... EU, OSCE,UN

"I have today ((FCO) Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, deplores continued fighting in Georgia ) had a number of (telephone ?) calls with international colleagues. There is widespread concern about the escalating violence in Georgia."

"At the UN, the EU and the OSCE the UK will lend its strong support to all those committed to a swift resolution to the conflict." (No mention of NATO ?)

How do Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev sleep at night ?

BBC UPDATE 1200 BST A BP spokesman said the BTC pipeline had not been damaged by the fighting. US light, sweet crude was up $1.16 at $116.36 a barrel, while London's Brent crude gained $1.45 to $114.78 up to 9.30 am.

BBC4 Radio News at 1200 BST Foreign Office Minister says Russian deployment of Black Sea Fleet "deplorable"."The only solution is diplomatic". Apparently increasingly despairing President Saashkavilli has signed a cease fire deal which is being taken by 2 self important EU Foreign Ministers to Moscow (Finnish and we didn't identify the other)who will be kept kicking their heels in some draughty Kremlin waiting room.

Israel's part in arming Georgia, and the risky game of Russian Roulette they have been playing

The Jerusalem Post had a fascinating little piece about Israel's trade with Georgia.

As ever it concerns arms sales - this time from Israel to Georgia which had been investigated by the downmarket newspaper Ma'ariv.

1. At an unstated date and source the Russians sent a letter to Foreign Minister and wannabe Prime Minister, ex Mossad , daughter of leading post war terrorists Tzipi Livni, asking Israel to refrain from selling state-of-the-art weaponry to Georgia, and stating that Moscow had acceded to similar requests by Jerusalem in the past. Israel has repeatedly asked Russia not to sell top-line weapons systems to Syria and Iran.

The NYT has Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov saying ,"Those who have been supplying arms to Georgia, they should feel part of the blame for the loss of life," (including US and Ukraine) and that , "foreign leaders "who have been appeasing Mr Saakashvili's intentions, and helped create the feeling of impunity inside the Georgian , should think twice about whether this is right." (Impunity os the diplospeak street cred phrase these days - it means throwing your weight about)

The situation in South Ossetia is widely believed to be one of the topics of discussion (not the ladies gymnastics team event) over the weekend in Beijing between President Shimon Peres and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

2. Former government minister (2001) and Tel Aviv mayor (93-08) Roni Milo was heavily involved in arms sales to Georgia, as a representative of Elbit and the Israeli Military Industries, and that Brig.-Gen (res.) Gal Hirsch, one of the senior officers who left the IDF after coming under blistering criticism following the Second Lebanon War, was heavily involved in Georgia in providing training for infantry and elite units.The former division commander has lately turned to private enterprise, after writing a book defending his actions.

The "official" line is that now only sells defensive weapons to Georgia. Israeli companies had sold some $300 million worth of military equipment to Georgia according to Ma'ariv.

3. Israeli defense officials were embarrassed (?) in April when an Israeli-manufactured drone was shot down by the Russians, and again in May when another drone, and a state-of-the-art Israeli rocket system called Lynx, were on display at a Georgian military parade. (pic)

The BBC had a nice story with a video of a Russian MiG-29 shooting down the unarmed Georgian drone over Abkhazia , this was supplied to the BBC as a feed from the drone which Georgia supplied, and ends with the drone exploding.

Fragments of the drone were put on display in public in Sukhumi, the Abkhaz capital. Garry Kupalba, deputy defence minister of the unrecognised Republic of Abkhazia (except Russia) , told reporters the drone had been shot down by an "L-39 aircraft of the Abkhaz Air Force". He also identified the drone as an Israeli-made Hermes 450.

This is from the same stable as the ones the UK has bought from Israel for use in Afghanistan now they cannot re-fuel Nimrod's for surveillance.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was apparently conveing a meeting of senior ministry officials yesterday to deal with the Russian-Georgian flare-up, amid concern that Israeli arms sales to Georgia could harm relations with Russia - and lead to them selling arms to Syria / Iran.

Coincidentally, Israel's new envoy to Georgia, Yitzhak Gerberg, was scheduled to leave for his new post on Saturday. Despite the situation on the ground, he left as scheduled.

No doubt this will put a stop to all those youthful "trekkers" spending their holidays in the Georgian mountians, watchingbirds and collecting butterflies.

Today (Monday) the JP reports that Israeli diplomatic officials were in contact throughout Sunday with their firendly Russian counterparts. They deny any talk of crisis in Israeli-Russian relations as a result of the Russian-Georgian conflagration and past sales of Israeli arms to Tbilisi. Of course.

Israel has sold an estimated $300 million to $500m. worth of weaponry and military training to Georgia over the last decade.

It appears that Tzipi's Sunday get together has resulted in her Foreign Ministry instituting a complete ban on sales to the region, concerned they would infuriate the Russians and spur Moscow into selling more advanced weapons to Iran and Syria.

It is worth noting a story Azerbaijan buys Israel-made military hardware and technique dated August 7th -Israel-made 5.56mm Tavor TAR-21 submachine gun has been bought for some units of the Azerbaijani Army.

Azerbaijan has also bought military supplies and rockets from various military firms in Israel. Azerbaijan’s armory includes 120mm and 160mm Lynx rocket plane produced by TAAS company (assembled at the base of KamAZ 63502), as well as 300mm EXTRA rockets, pilotless vehicles Orbiter and Aerostar produced by Aeronautics company.

A part of these arms and supplies was demonstrated during the military parade on June 26.

Israel’s Soltam company is holding talks on export of 122mm Semser self-propelled artillery and Naiza rockets to Azerbaijan. Also reported “Voennie vestnik Izrailya"

Arms. Somebody somewhere is making 'em, selling 'em, using 'em.

UPDATE & PS : Ex Diplomat Craig Murray on his website does a why oh why which is worth looking at for his perspective views on on EU energy (in)security but betrays the diplospeak mind ..2 August 10, 2008 There Are No Good Guys, But We Must Be Most Wary of Russia
"An immediate ceasefire is required now and a de facto Russian annexation of South Ossetia must not be permitted ..." and having framed that policy, what exactly do we do to persuade that nice Mr Putin with his hands on the gas and oil taps ? Talking nicely to him ?

A, " de facto Russian annexation of South Ossetia " seems to have happened. In less than 3 days ditto Abkhazia. Which are effectively the direct and fairly predictable consequences of installing Russian "peacekeepers" there after the 1992 fun and games.

Ex-envoy: Georgia modelled its army after IDF ynet

"Georgian government officials used to tell me that they wanted to model their army after the IDF," former Israeli ambassador to Georgia Shabtai Zur told Ynet Sunday evening amid the country's bloody feud with Russia over the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Travel Advisory Issued for Georgia, Jews Being Evacuated
Yeshiva world News 10th August 2008

Assisting in closing defense packages with Israel is Georgia’s Defense Minister, Davit Kezerashvili, a fluent Hebrew-speaker and former Israeli.

Deals were made for items including anti-aircraft and communications systems, as well as turrets for armored vehicles and communications systems. One of the people who profited from such arrangements is Roni Milo, a former Public Security Minister who represented Elbit.

Gal Hirsch, a former IDF brigadier-general, one of the senior officers compelled to step down following the Second Lebanon War, also provided tactical training, working with Georgian military officials to establish commando units mimicking Israel’s Sayeret Matkal.

He is a partner in a firm called Defensive Shield.

There is also 61-year-old former IDF Major-General Yisrael Ziv, who heads a security consulting firm.
2 Israeli firms say they left Georgia before fighting Haaretz Tuesday 12th August 2008

Two Israeli security companies, Defensive Shield and Global CST, announced yesterday that they had completed their projects in Georgia before fighting between that country and Russia broke out on Friday. The two are among several Israeli companies advising Georgia on security
matters, training its army and occasionally supplying it with weapons.

Defensive Shield, owned by Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, said all its employees, including its subcontractors, are no longer in Georgia. It said it completed the work it had been contracted to do, and that all its contracts with Georgia had been approved by Israel's Defense Ministry. Security systems services company Global CST, managed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv, said it finished its work in Georgia at the end of July.

A retired senior Israeli officer who recently trained troops in Georgia said yesterday he was surprised that the Georgians faced off against Russia, since they have a much smaller army. "They got into an adventure that I wouldn't have chosen to get into, based on the level of professionalism I saw in my visits to the Georgian army," the officer said. "Who knows where this will end." "This is an army that was in the process of disintegrating over 15 or 16 years," the officer added. "This process required reconstruction, and that's where the Israelis entered the picture, along with companies from other countries.

verything was very, very basic. We dealt mainly with basic training for the units. It will take a long time until the military forces there will advance to a high professional level.

The Georgian army cannot under any circumstances be a serious rival to the Russians at present." The officer also stressed the difference in military might: "Georgia is a small country, with barely 4.5 million people," he said. "They have a small army - to be honest, not much different from that of a Third World country.

" The Georgians began reorganizing their army in 2002, with American assistance. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the Georgian army has primarily been comprised of remnants of Red Army units.

Oil - a declining resource and new refineries a slowly contracting business

No one is going to be building any more refineries.There won't be enough oil left to refine by the time new refineries could pay for themselves.

There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US since 1976. In 1982, there were 301 operable refineries in the U.S and they produced about 17.9 million barrels of oil per day. The last new refinery built in the United States was Marathan Ashland's Garyville, La., plant — and it was completed in 1976. Between 1999 and 2007 total refining capacity in the United States rose only 3 %. This will be expanded it was anounced last week . Marathon Oil Corporation's board of directors approved one of the largest economic development projects ever in Louisiana. This US$3.2 billion expansion of the 30-year-old refinery in Garyville, LA will expand the company's crude oil refining capacity by 180,000 barrels per day.

The refinery currently has 560 direct employees and another 350 full-time contract workers. St. John the Baptist Parish-will receive between $40 and $50 million in sales and use taxes during project construction.

Today there are only 149 refineries, and they're producing 17.4 million barrels.

This increase in efficiency is impressive but not a miracle. As with everything these outputs are carefully calculated to optimize profitability.

New refineries require massive financial commitments which take anywhere from 15 to 25 years to amortize. Resistane to their constructionis active, funded and relentless. With record oil prices it would make perfect sense to invest in a few refineries today, except... for the lack of oil to be refined 20 years from now.

Tradeable oils have reached their peak, oil production is starting on the downward slope.

After 2020, there will be less and less oil to refine no matter where drillers look. In this context, Building expensive new refineries does not make financial sense as existing ones will be sufficient to process whatever little oil is left.

So forget about new refineries, except for a few maybe in the northern midwest to process the heavy oil from Canada and some in the Caucasus and eventually in Iraq and Iran ...eg a US$81-million contract will be awarded jointly to the U.S.-based Colorado Industrial Construction Services Co. (CICSCO) and CH2M HILL's affiliate VECO Co. for the upgrade and production of gasoline from the Samawah refinery(IHT 7/8/08)

Mexico's state-run energy monopoly Pemex who have 6 refineries they constantly upgrade presented a plan on Wednesday (6/8/08) for a new oil refinery with a processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day of heavy crude.

UPS to bid €10bn for TNT ?

Reader will know our views and psition on UPS (Thursday, August 07, 2008John McCain - not delivering the goods for DHL - but UPS benefits ) and therefore our interest in the Daily Telegraph story today (Monday) with the sensational headline UPS plots bid for TNT by By Louise Armitstead and Ben Harrington

They breathlessly reveal that United Parcel Service (UPS) is plotting (?) a €10bn (£7.8bn) bid for TNT who are based in Holland (listed in Amsterdam) to consolidate their global express-delivery business.Talks have been held recently .

UPS, with a market value of $66.24bn has appointed investment bank Morgan Stanley as adviser and "strategy consultants" AT Kearney who have reported to the money men on Wall Street.

TNT, (advised by Sacks of Gold) operates in 200 countries and employs 161,500 peoplewith a market value of €9.6bn,reported €11bn in revenues and operating income of €1,192m last year.

UPS' plans in buying TNT could include selling its postal division to the German Post Office ( who have already done a parcel carrying deal with UPS see post linked above) or to a private equity buyer - which seems highly unlikey. CVC, the European buyout giant,they says might be interested because they own stakes in Belgium and Danish postal service operators De Post-La Post and Post Danmark.

On Friday, TNT's shares closed at €25.36, valuing the business at €9.6bn.



Dale Jarrett drove UPS' NASCAR car very successfully for many years

US / NATO / EU left to ponder over the consequences of Saakashvilli's blunder - the Russian Bear carries his gun and his hands on the gas + oil taps

It is extremely difficult to construct a coherent picture of events in the Caucasus and even harder to forecast the consequences both on the ground but on commodity pries, especially oil and gas.

The Russkis are calling for President Saakashvillis head. His short lived, and ineffectual attack on the tiny town of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, reveals he truth of Tallleyrand's dictum: it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.

1. It appears that 3 days after the deliberate "invasion" of Georgian forces into South Ossetia (which is by any international legal standards Georgian territory) there has been a declared withdrawal and ceasefire from 5 am local time, (EST +8 hrs)and something like a 90% ceasfire - ie Georgians are still shelling in Abkhazia and into Ossetia - firing at aircaft. TV coverage is very confusing as the location / date / forces are not identified.

2. The Russians are relentlessly pursuing military action on the ground and from the air. It seems (BBC) that a military airport near Tibiklis has been bombed and some reports talk of the International airport being bombed.

The Russians have sunk at least one missile coastal patrol boat , they say it ignored shots across it's bows - there are also credible reports of widespread damage at Poti and maybe the BT oil terminal at Supsa - it would be like shooting fish in a barrel as they have overwhelming air superiority.

There are reports , most likely exagerated of 7/8 Russian planes shot down. At least one Georgian plane has been shot down in Ossetia.

3. Some 20-25 thousand Ossetians who have been given Russian passports have fled north to Russia and many Georgians in ossetia have fled south - there have also been smaller scale movements in Abkhazia.

4. It seems most Western Embassies have told nationals to leave , there has been no information about flights out -- passengers reaching London etc.,Poland, a major US ally who are already members of NATO have called for an EU stabilisation force to be sent in.

5. There are no reports of consequential armed events in Nagorno Karabak, Armenia etc.,

6. There are no reports of damage to the BTC pipeline although Georgia has cklaimed it was bombed but missed. The Russians must surely know precisely where the pipeline lies - pumping stations etc. It s probably safe to assume that 1% of the world's oil supply has been held up for at least 4-6 weeks and maybe for 6 months.

7. Geneva conventions apply as this is an international conflict - looking after civilians etc., and Georgia is a member of the ICC. This is aproblem for lawyers way down the road. It is evident in Gori that civilian targets were hit

8. There is much talk but little evidence of any result of EU intervention , diplomacy. Zalmay Khalilzad (a Pushto speaking Afghani-American) the US representative at the UN has tabled a motion about Ruissia's "inappropriate behaviour" which in their diplomatic doublespeak isn't even a rap over the knuckles. Silence reins on the surface but anxious phone calls will be made and nails chewed in Downing Street. Quote is ""We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on US -Russian relations."

The Russian response has been dismissive ..Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin branded "completely unacceptable" US claims that the Russian military in Georgia has waged a campaign of "terror." "This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country whose action we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia." (Trans. Kosovo)

The Russian Press talks of Georgian "genocide".

The timing for Putin et al is perfect, Bush wants no more adentures and the contenders don't want to, and haven't even mentioned Georgia.

Somebody in Sarkozy's office (everyone in France is on Vacances) said they should all stop fighting.

NATO's secretary general Jaap de Hoop repeated his call for an immediate cease-fire, he also expressed his concerns about the disproportionate use of force and lack of respect for the territorial integrity of Georgia."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that the country reserved the right to forbid vessels of the Russian Black Sea Navy to return to their base in Ukraine’s Sevastopol.

A "Ukrainian official" said that Ukraine was not willing to become involved in the conflict. They also have had their gas cut off.

9. It can only mean markets will open lower and oil / gas prices will move up at least US$5 and maybe more for near month contracts.

10. Casualties / deaths are impossible to assess. Visually there a few dead and few injured but bad civilian residential damage. Much of the shelling / missile strikes / bombing seems haphazard.

The Russkis are calling for Saakashvillis head. His short lived, and ineffectual attack on the tiny town of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia reveals he truth of Tallleyrand's dictum: it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.

Not an ideal man to unify the Georgians - but can Uncle Sam have his glove puppet changed or removed ?

Where will Georgia get their gas from this year ? - it was turned off before in December '06 afterwhich they agreed on doubling the price with Gazprom.

Monday papers
Daily Telegraph - Georgia: America admits it has few options for dealing with Russia-Georgia war
Independent Georgia bows to might of Russia
Times Retreat and terror in face of Russian Army (Exclusive ! ?)
Guradian Russia rejects ceasefire calls as Georgia withdraws
Daily Mail Russia tanks 'turned back' at Georgian border as refugees flee in panic byline "A Daily Mail reporter - shy war correspondent?

As we go to bed Oil is holding steady with no major movement at all.

Thanks to aangirfan for link to excellent backgrounder in Sunday Herald 'This is no longer about the future of a tiny far-away country but about the nature of the world order in the 21st century - Rob Parsons, former BBC Moscow correspondent

On Thursday night, Georgian forces launched a lightning attack that brushed aside Ossetian resistance within hours. By Friday afternoon, they had taken control of the Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

The Georgians have modernised and restructured their armed forces to bring them into line with Nato standards, and their special forces now serve regularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are well-trained and battle-hardened. But the Georgians miscalculated. They thought that if they moved quickly before the Russians could act, the international community would then act to ensure the conflict was contained.

The Russians were indeed caught off balance. Moscow had a tough choice: face the humiliation of accepting a fait accompli or incur the anger of the international community by effectively going to war against a Western ally.

With Putin at the helm, there was never really any question what the Russians would do - at least not once Russian peacekeepers died. The ferocity of the Russian response, though, has caught the West by surprise.

The ferocity of the Russian response, though, has caught the West by surprise....Why ? on't we have mebassies . military attaches, surveillance , intelligence - or is everyone on holiday ?

We must not forget 2 things - the recent exercises with US troops and the bombing / damage / cutting off of the BTC pipeline in Turkey.

Again the oil price remains fairly unmoved by all this. Latest 1230 EST US$116.31
Up US$ 1.11 Up 0.96%

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority get injunction to prevent hackers disclosure of Charlie Card security flaws at DEFCON show in Las Vegas

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (The T)uses a Charlie Card for their touch free payment electronic payment systems. This uses the NXP/Philips' MIFARE standard 1k chips provided by G&D and Schlumberger - Sema and the card is a contactless radio transmitter / receiver. Nearly half a million dollars are collected every weekday by riders on the subway using these cards.

This RFID chip has been hacked by Dutch academics and recent failures of Transport for London's Oyster card may be the result of hackers exploiting the architecture and systems that have been revealed by them.

There is a DEFCON hacker convention due today. DEFCON , founded in 1993, has a website and claims on its website, http://www.defcon.org/ to be the oldest continuously running hacker convention in the world, drawing 3,000 to 5,000 people annually. It began Friday at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegasand runs through to today.

They have advertised a presentation by 3 Massachussets Institute of technology students (Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa) initially on the DEFCON site - "Want free subway rides for life?" T officials then contacted the students and the university, arranging a meeting last week. After the meeting, In which it appears it was stated that the FBI were also inviolved, in an apparent conciliatory gesture, the students changed the first line of the posting to read, "The anatomy of a subway hack." See below for details.

The T is sueing the named students claiming their plan to unmask potential security flaws in the CharlieCard and Charlie- Ticket systems at a Las Vegas computer conference would cause "significant damage to the transit system."

The T was granted a 10 day injunction yesterday in the US District Court in Boston by Judge Douglas Woodlock at 8 am Saturday that barring the 3 named students from presenting their methods and findings at the DEFCON hacker convention today. He ordered them not to provide "program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System."

The MBTA allege in documents presented to the court that the trio claimed to have circumvented the security protocols of the electronic ticketing system. The suit alleges the students publicly offered "free subway rides for life" to people over the Internet, and planned to show others how to duplicate their methods at a DEFCON presentation.

The lawsuit was also spreading their flak by naming MIT as a defendant, saying the school failed to "instruct and guide the MIT undergraduates to responsibly disclose information concerning perceived security flaws."

A computer security researcher, Eric Johanson, defended the students in a statement filed in court by and on behalf of MIT, saying none of the information they were planning to disclose was new.

Johanson also said that computer security researchers need to openly discuss the flaws they find in real-world systems so better ones can be built.

He added that "prohibition of open discussion of security vulnerabilities greatly harms the ability of researchers to function and has a chilling effect not only on publication, but on whether some important research is done in the first place, greatly stifling scientific advancement."

The T is seeking , as yet unspecified financial damages , plus an extended injunction to prevent the trio from releasing their findings until it can plug any possible security holes - if there are any.

The T is not sure there is a security problem (Oh yes there is !!) , but the 10-day injunction will provide time to find out. Lydia Rivera, a T spokeswoman says "The injunction is allowing us to review the research that they have and see if there is any validity to their findings, and take corrective action, if any is even necessary."

The injunction was a bit late as every person registering for Defcon (several thousand) received a CD with the students' 87-page presentation titled "Anatomy of a Subway Hack." It recounts, in detail, how they wrote code to generate fake magcards. Also, it describes how they were able to use software they developed and US$990 worth of hardware to read and clone the RFID-based CharlieCards. This apparently enables cloning of cards with a value up to US$655.36.

The distribution of the CD's commenced on Thursday evening, meaning the injunction arrived nearly two days late. (On the other hand, the source code to the utilities--not included on the CD--was removed from www.web.mit.edu/zacka/www/subway/ by Saturday morning.)

The whole 87 page document is available (Sunday night 1500 EST) here as a pdf file
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation.pdf it really is a remarkable document - better than the Da Vinci code and probably in the wrong hands is a recipe for all sorts of naughty games. No doubt there will be foolish people who will make copies and distribute them. Likely available on e-bay already. Mirrors have already popped up at
https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/77164/anatomy%20of%20a%20subway%20hack.pdf
http://www.evernote.com/pub/ssulistyo/InfoSecStuff#07ff6ce9-1aa9-45e9-8bd2-10ce0805e534

There are more mirrors over at Cryptome

This is what DEFCON advertised as at the top of the post - click as Gemma advises to enlarge

The Anatomy of a Subway Hack:
Breaking Crypto RFID's and Magstripes of Ticketing Systems

Zack AndersonStudent, MIT
RJ RyanStudent, MIT
Alessandro ChiesaStudent, MIT

In this talk we go over weaknesses in common subway fare collection systems. We focus on the Boston T subway, and show how we reverse engineered the data on magstripe card, we present several attacks to completely break the CharlieCard, a MIFARE Classic smartcard used in many subways around the world, and we discuss physical security problems. We will discuss practical brute force attacks using FPGAs and how to use software-radio to read RFID cards. We survey 'human factors' that lead to weaknesses in the system, and we present a novel new method of hacking WiFi: WARCARTING. We will release several open source tools we wrote in the process of researching these attacks. With live demos, we will demonstrate how we broke these systems.

Zack Anderson is studying electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He is an avid hardware and software hacker, and has built several systems such as an autonomous vehicle for the DARPA Grand Challenge. Zack is especially interested in the security of embedded systems and wireless communications. He has experience building and breaking CDMA cellular systems and RFID. Zack has worked for a security/intelligence firm, and has multiple patents pending. He enjoys building systems as much as he enjoys breaking them.

R J Ryan is researcher at MIT. His longtime passion for security has resulted in a number of hacks and projects, including a steganographic cryptography protocol. RJ works on a number of technical projects ranging from computer security to operating systems, distributed computation, compilers, and computer graphics. He enjoys learning how things work, and how to make things work for him.

Alessandro Chiesa is a Junior at MIT double majoring in Theoretical Mathematics and in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Born and raised in Varese,Italy, he came to MIT with interests in computational algebraic geometry, machine learning, cryptography, and systems security. He has authored papers such as "Generalizing Regev's Cryptosystem", which proposes a new cryptosystem based on shortest vector problems in cyclotomic fields. He is currently working with Oracle's Database Security group.

These guys are not crooks.

Public Transport systems relying on the Mifare chip had better get their act together - fast. This is their wake - up call. Anyone listening at TfL ?

MIT students R.J. Ryan, Alessandro Chiesa and EFF attorney Marcia Hofmann talk about the injunction.

Olympic 127Km Womens Road Rage won by Welsh girl Nicole Cooke

Jolanta Polikeviciute, 38 her twin sister Rosa also rides , she started when she was 13 and came 31st in Athens 1.18 mins behind.

Beatrix "Trixi" Worrack ,27 German National Road Race Champion, 25th in Athens.

Maria Wilhelmina Johanna Melchers-Van Poppel 33, on September 7, 2006 Melchers crashed during the third stage of the Euregio Tour. She broke her pelvis, a hip and her jaw. She was 6th in Athens

Nicole Cooke, 35 is the The Welsh Wonder was the The 2003 and 2006 UCI World Cup Champion, Cooke has been ranked number one in the world on the road since July of 2006. She is the two-time defending champion in La Grande Boucle Feminine (the women's Tour de France).

Will the Olympics really put a kick into Ronald McDonalds pants ?

Ronald McDonald is hummungous in Peking - this mega sponsor (since 1976) has 4 restaurants feeding stops on the Beijing Olympic site

1.In the Olympic Village to serve athletes (?)
2. At the main press center to serve the huge media population
3. Plus 2 for live spectators, in the main activity area
4. ... and on the Olympic Green.

This how they reported monthly sales figures in February ;
1. Same-store sales in the U.S. rose 8.3% during the month, led by breakfast and coffee offerings.
2. European same-store sales grew by an impressive 15.4% on strong results in the U.K., France, Germany and Russia.
3. Asia Pacific region, Middle East and Africa rose 10.9% for the month, mostly on strength in Australia, China and Japan.
4. Systemwide sales, which include restaurants owned by franchisees and affiliates operating under joint-venture agreements, rose 13.2% in February.

Now for July MCD reported total sales growth in a slightly different way and same store comparable sales Friday which were McHuge. Here is how it breaks down:

1. Global MCD: Comp sales +8.0%; Systemwide sales in constant currency +9.5%;
US: Comp sales +6.7%; Systemwide sales +7.6%;
2. Europe: Comp sales +7.6%; Systemwide sales in constant currency +9.5%;
3. Asia/Pac/MidEast: Comp sales +7.2%; Systemwide sales in constant currency +10.0%.

This shows how folks are grabbing a McCafe not a Starbucks cup of warm(ish) brown water - then there is good news for the crews - expanded hours around the globe; and, growth in China / Russia. Reflected in a 12 month high share price.

Olympic sponsorship

This year’s 12 Olympic “proud partners” are predominantly American companies Cola (KO), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), General Electric (GE), McDonalds (MCD), Visa (V), and Kodak (EK), followed by new local supporters such as personal computer maker, Lenovo (IBM PC's as was) , and Life Insurer-Manulife. They can also take the opportunity to benefit locally for example this smart idea in Israel - probably works better than lottery money.

French information technology firm Atos-Origin, timekeeper Omega, and electronics companies like Panasonic and Samsung are a second tier of providers (and they hope beneficiaries).

There also many other big providers who make the games happen ...Many major businesses use the Games as an advertising opportunity. This year, there is an extensive list composed of big American names like United Parcel (UPS), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), Staples (SPLS), Nike (NKE) and their rivals Adidas (ADDYY) to name a few. Local marketers making their entrance in the Olympics are Chinese internet-provider Sohu.com (SOHU) and the massive petroleum products company Sinopec (SHI).

Northern Wreck's criminal CEO's pay to let you run your fingers through my hair old baldy shag bag's £1 Mn property empire and lucky young son's luck

Guy Basnett (P7 News of the World ) has a fascinating story about slim party loving, gym rat, gorgeous, brunette Amanda Smithson - readers will remember a post about this lady Sunday, June 22, 2008 Summer Lightning , who featured in the long runing saga of Northern Wreck - also a later one on Sunday, December 23, 2007 Applegarth the crook is adulterer as well - while he took his eye off the ball, somebody had their hands on his .

Imagine. We just thought she was the lucky lady from the rent to let, being shagged senseless by fun loving criminal and CEO Adam Applegarth - now 46 (another company asset going down ?) on his trips to Washington . She ...er...retired late 2007 to spend more time with her money and the well endowed shagger.

Now it appears the little vixen, whose slim beautifully toned ,sun kissed, supple, yet sinewy thighs have (so far) not been caressed by Lord Patel, has been shrewdly setting up and lining her little NEST egg - and we just thought she was on the nest!

1. May 2003 she checks in at the exclusive Wills Building in Newcastles trendy area for mistresses for a naughty £139,950 (we revealed this in this post)

2. September 2005 she splashes out on a mews house in the same super secure compound for a modest £193,000.

3. 3 months later December 2005 she pops open her purse for a spacious £187,000 pad on the trendy dockside Luxury apartments complex at Mariners Wharf - NE1 2BJ .
4. 6 days later Father Christmnas must have been busy because she laid out ... £155,000 for a bijou flatette in Otterburn Viallas in upscale Jesmond.
5. Six months later and again she is snapping up a delightful property in West Jesmond for a £150,500 family home (baby on the way maybe?) .

That is an eyewatering £816,500 ! In one 10 month period she spent £677,000 plus solicitors, etc., quite something for a well paid (ish) buy to let lady on £36K per annum less tax/NI/ Union subscriptions/ sexy underwear ... The News of the World says it's worth over £1 Mn now.

Checks on the Land Registry show that the sultry Smithson own all 5 properties (rumour has it she owns another) and unsurprisingly her mortgages are all with Northern Wreck which was run until September last year by her very well endowed mortgage king Adam Applegarth. It is also intersting that these transactions directly covered the period when the criminal CEO was unloading ALL his Northern Rock shares at the top of the market for £2.7Mn - he had sold on Lord Patel's birthday 25th Jan 2006 52,253 shares @ 957p = £500,061.21 and the next day 111,426 shares @ 957p = £1,066,346.82. So where does a girl who lost her job find the money to pay probably £7,000 a month mortgages, plus any capital costs, solicitors, Stamp Duty...??

She wasn't the only lucky one, Adam's son Gregory snapped up for a mere £329,000 a flat just doors away from her Mariners Wharf love pad she had bought just 10 days before !

Yes ... with the help of a Northern Wreck mortgage..

Nor was he the only lucky one - the Sunderland Cricket club whose shirts bear Northern Wreck sponsored logos from Northern Wreck received of £100,000 and agreed a £50,000 unsecured loan months before the crash. They are part of the Ashbrook Club.***

So who is the captain of the NUSC team that fields shagger and crook Adam Applegarth ? Well it's Greg Applegarth, (like his pic girls ? - more here) his son who has that pad handy for his dad's bit on the side. He is also the Northern Universities Students CCC Elite Newcastle representative (is he still a student ?) - you can e-mail him from here also

The News of the World say having taken his £2.2 Mn pension pot and £750K severance pay .." he is under investigation.."



***Ashbrooke is a mature residential area of tree lined avenues, elegant Victorian terraces and discreet mews set in the heart of the City of Sunderland. In the middle of this attractive area lie Ashbrooke Sports Club and Ashbrooke Social Club. Once known as "The Lords of the North" Ashbrooke's Victorian grounds have recently been revitalised ****under an ambitious scheme aimed at improving our facilities for both existing members and potential new members of the Club.

**** C/O Criminal CEO Applegarth and Northern Wreck's generosity ?sunderland.cricketclub@googlemail.com Phone 0191 5284536 if you want to ask.Dr. Grenville Holland is the Hon Treasurer and President of Cricket he also is the Welfare Officier and ensures the club matches the ECB Child Welfare Requirements (?)
Sunderland Cricket Club home to the baldy old crook Adam Applegarth criminal CEO of Nortehrn Wreck .. evidently used to going in on a sticky wicket..



Just pop postcode SR2 7HH into Google Earth or for her Mariners wharf love nest / property investment use NE1 2BJ

Lord Patel's Top Tip - Save money at TESCO courtesy Rupert Murdoch probably the soon the only most responsible newspaper owner in the world

Presumably Mr Tesco and Mr Murdoch have done their sums - for the layout of 95p you get a resulting discount of £4.05 p = 13.5%.

Mr Tesco no doubt gets new loyal customer - or one that takes the proffered fiver and slips off to ASDA who also advertise in the magazine for a girls Polo 50p,Teflon stain reistant treated Skirt 2.50 and V neck jersey £2.00.

Mr Murdoch gets a a new customer who reads such interesting stories as the one above.

So go to Page 37 cut out the cleverly bar coded coupon'n' spend it before 16th August but not on petrol etc.,.. do not even begin to think about printing any off!!

FCO advises UK nationals to leave Georgia,"while some air services are still available and borders are open"

We advised readers yesterdaY - Russia attacks the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and destroys port of Poti - is set on ethnically cleansing South Ossetia - Uncle Sam silently watches to keep an eye on the UK Embassy in Georgia website re travel advice to Georgia ..well our man in the FCO has just (10.05 BST) called us with this advice ''

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has changed its Travel Advice to Georgia. We now advise that if you have no urgent need to stay in Georgia, you should leave as soon as possible.

The relevant summary points now read:

We advise against non-essential travel to Georgia. If you or your family have no urgent need to remain in Georgia you should leave as soon as possible. It is wise to do so while some air services are still available and the border remains open. "

This is not yet on the Tbilisi Embassy website.. but they direct you to FCO site here with full advice on Georgian travel, just updated.

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.

Iain Dale token blogiste adopted by the BBC, is a complete and utter wanker, devoid of knowledge or competent analysis

BBC News 24 provides a round up and analysis of the following day's UK press every evening at about 11.30 - the Saturday event is always longer because the Sunday broad sheet press is worthy of considered analysis and comment. This is usually done by an experienced journo who can cut through crap and fillet the stories to expertly expose what will feed the public's thirst for knowledge and imagination at tomorrow's breakfast tables.

Last night we were treated to Iain Dale described as Editor of Total Politics". The website incidentally, has a newsfeed from Mr Rupert Murdoch's wholly independently minded Sky News.

Total Politics - the mysterious but immensely well funded crew behind this mysterious monthly magazine and also the mysterious media "resurrection" of the Parliamentary candidate for Haltemprice and Howden, David Davies. See here and especially Monday, June 23, 2008
TOTAL POLITICS ... Vanguards in the fight for FREEDOM ? A tangled web of political personae, patrician's PR co, opaque funding and er... dog shi and this is worth a look Monday, June 30, 2008 David Davis - No case to answer - other than his deceit, dishonesty and lack of understanding - and total lack of any solutions to retain our Freedoms and for those interested in Common Purpose here Briefly Total Politics is run from the shady and shallow end of political thought.

In and around Georgia we have brewing, potentially the most awesome conflagration - which exposes Europe's lack of a coherent energy security policy - and in the face of Russian intransigence a NATO Alliance caught flat-footed.

Politicians are silent, analysts from RUSI are hiding in their arrases, even Lady Dame Jane Baroness Pauline Neville Jones of Milosevic has remained silent in her retirement at "MI5 Were Us", Bidawee Home for confused spies .

Step forward wannabe blogiste, politician and influential magazine editor Iain Dale - he explains that the lead story on georgia is important but admits that until yesterday (Friday) he had never heard of South Ossetia. The BTC pipe line of which gossip writer Dale was blissfully ignorant was one of the triumphs of President Clintonan foreign policy , who skilfully engineered the project to ensure Caucasian gold moved south to Europe , not North to Russia - it's an oddds on bet Dale knew the colour of the blue dress that figured so largely in his Oval Office shenanigans with Monica.

He was however excited about the prospect (uncertain however) of Rio Ferdinand becoming England captain. Now yer talkin'.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown provided light relief, fiddling with her two tone spectacles and shuffling the papers.

Your 'O' level media studies question - compare and contrast with a savvy, sharp minded and remarkably pretty lady like Bronwen Maddox who appears (Lord Patel is glad to say) on this spot with a noticeable regularity.


As Gemma says, click to enlarge

Gemma says I was a bit hard on Yasmin Alibhai-Brown above - but she did do a Why oh WHY ??.... Why oh WHY ?? ....Why oh WHY ?? on the Maddie stroy in the News of the World .. More about their excellent journalism above.