Bob Quick and Aphrodite Wedding Services - a conflict of interests

Aphrodite Wedding Services = geddit ? Aphrodite the Goddess of Love ?

They will hire you, by the day f0r approx £500 - with driver ..

Even a Jensen Interceptor III whose registered owner is Mr Bob Quick. In fact a stable of cars that would probably stand in the books at well over £100,000.

This is run by Judith who shares her cars, her house (where she runs this business from) and her life with Commander Bob Quick the bovine Chief terrorist at the Metropolitan Police.

When the Mail on Sunday disclosed details of this service today - which they say uses ex police drivers , Bob was Quick off the mark (geddit QUICK off the mark !!) and called the Press Association :

" (This) is an attempt to undermine an investigation which is legitimate. The Tory machinery and their press friends are mobilised against this investigation in a wholly corrupt way, and I feel very disappointed in the country I am living in."

A couple of hours later the Conservative party issued this statement in reply:

"The Conservative Party played no part whatsoever in the publication of this story. Assistant Commissioner Quick's claims of corruption and intimidation are absurd and wholly untrue.

A few minutes later Mr Quick issues this statement:

"I regret and wish to retract my comment regarding corruption. The comment was made as I was in the act of having to move my family out of our home to a place of safety following the article in today's Mail on Sunday."

You only have to cursorily examine the bovine face, see how he holds the House of Commons in contempt - Sunday, November 30, 2008 Bob Quick, slow on the uptake and lies to the House of Commns as well to realise what a stupid man he is.

Naturally , even though a company with such impressive assets , not a limited liability company, will be paying all the necessary VAT, PAYE to sub contyractors like ex police drivers, have told the local authority that a car hire business is run from the premises, pays the appropriate rate of business rates, conforms for Health and safety for fuel storage etc., (Looks like a nice little earner and should help to beef up the old Police pension)

It seems odd / hypocritical however that he is happy to hand out leaflets with his home / business address and then raise Cain about it being disclosed. (No stranger to Surrey, Robert grew up in the East of the county where he now lives.)

This man should be relieved of his duties immediately - he is not fit for purpose. Dealing with terrists, real one's , demands care, composure, judgement, a rational balanced approach to thinking ...and also does not need the distraction of running an Arthur Daley outfit from his garage. The man is plainly a buffoon.

PS : There is a cache of the site here which if you find the Admin button on the bottom of the correct page gives you admin access and the ability to edit the pages. Although to do this would of course this would be wrong - not recommended. Ill advised.

Curiously flicking through Yellow Pages ...



Perhaps there is more to Aphrodite Wedding Services .... and their very insecure address details.... here's a map that might help if you need a jensen for that special getaway from it all....



And do NOT look at the Directions putting in say how to get there from say New Scotland Yard, London because you could then see a birds eye view of the Quick spread ... and who doesn't relish the chance of a Quick spread now and again.

Well if you can't resist the temptation expect a visit from highly trained team of lethal killers with hollow point bullets, who will shoot you in the head seven times and then won't be able to remember if they shouted out STOP Police.

Sir Ian Blair lies to Parliament (again) Jacqui Smith lies to DailyMail, Max Mosley the jihadist ? Joining the Dots in the War on Counter Terrorism

At 11.06 am on the morning of April 22nd 2008 the House of Commons Committee considering the Counter terrorism Bill welcomed as witnesses Sir Ian Blair Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and Bob Quick, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, with responsibility for counter-terrorism. Bob was of copurse also chairman of the ACPO-TAM committee having replaced the previous occupant "Randy" Andy Hayman who left in rather hurrid circumstances. See Dec 10th 2007 Just Imagine , Andy Hayman CBE was in charge of terrism - and de Menezes murder - what a wanker see also "Randy" Andy - Sex in the City suffering from what is increasingly known as Chief Constable Syndrome, a deeply felt urge to shag the staff, then promote them and also fiddle expenses, see also Randy Andy Hayman and the luscious female IPCC textee and phone sex enthusiast

The Committee was considering the proposition to extend the period of detention without charge from 28 to 42 days.

Q 9 Martin Salter: Once again, Mr. Bercow, I will obey your strictures, but it is probably helpful if you ask us to be pithy in a pithy manner—that is me done, now.

I have three quick questions for Sir Ian Blair and Mr. Quick. I know that you put some of this evidence in front of the Select Committee on Home Affairs a few months ago, but, for the benefit of the Committee, could you indicate how many serious terrorist plots the police and the security services have disrupted since the London bombings of 7/7?

Sir Ian Blair: I will stretch to something like 12, but where would you get to, Bob?

Bob Quick: I am still being briefed on the very complex history to fighting terrorism, but my understanding is in the order of about 15 occasions. On some very recent occasions we have been able to disrupt terrorism by some sophisticated and unusual methods. That is what we do. We are constantly seeking opportunities to disrupt. That is part of a multi-pronged attack on terrorist activity.

Martin Salter persisted to discover how serious such terrorist plots were in terms of the potential loss of life ..

Q 10 Martin Salter: Without compromising, allowing me to pry or giving aid to people who would wish to do us harm, could you indicate to the Committee how many of those 12 to 15 serious plots would, had they been successful, have resulted in a loss of life in excess of 100?

Sir Ian Blair: If you had asked about loss of life, I would be reasonably comfortable, but to put a figure of 100—

Martin Salter: Significant loss of life.

Sir Ian Blair: I would have thought that most of those incidents would have resulted in that.

Which suggests that Sir Ian Blair had a sufficient grasp of the plots to which he referred to arrive at such a detaild response.

How curious then that in the Sunday Times on May 4th David Leppard reported that ..

"Scotland Yard said Blair accepted he had made a mistake. His office had contacted the committee’s clerk to clarify the error as soon as it became known.

It said: “Any suggestions that the commissioner or assistant commissioner Bob Quick deliberately misled the committee whilst giving evidence on April 22 is completely wrong. A corrective statement was issued to the Press Association.”

June 10 or 11 has been identified as the crunch time for the Counter Terrorism Bill. The Herald today quotes the Prime Minister's spokesman, asked if the UK Government was preparing the ground for a tactical retreat, insisted: "There can be no question of any compromise on 42 days."
They also add..."While the police are backing the UK Government, other forces are set against it, including Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, Sir Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Conservatives, LibDems and Nationalists. On Wednesday, Westminster's Joint Committee on Human Rights, made up of MPs and peers, said an extended detention limit was "unnecessary".

We should not forget the golden days of terror plot guessing when the fragrant, charming and beguilingly beautiful Eliza Manningham-Buller,(Now Baroness) the director general of MI5, (now exposed as the grisly lash wielding nazi tormentor of Max Mosley in today's papers) warned recently as last February that there were more than 1,600 "identified individuals" actively engaged in plotting terrorist attacks. There were 200 known networks involved in at least 30 terrorist plots. Daily Telegraph (Information leaked from a private lecture given at London University in November 2006.)

Oddly enough on April 14th 2008 (8 days before the Ian'n'Bob show at Westminster) the Daily Mail 14th April 2008 had the headline Terror risk is still severe warns Jacqui Smith in effort to drum up support for tighter detention laws which lead a story that commenced "The threat of a terror attack in Britain is "severe" and "growing", the Home Secretary declared yesterday. Jacqui Smith said that police and security services were monitoring 2,000 individual fanatics, 200 terror networks and 30 plots. " almost identuical to what Miss Whiplash said a year earlier.

Perhaps we should all be grateful that Sir Ian has managed to get the number of "plots" down from 30 to only 6... and without extending detention without charge. Why wait 42 days ? ... maybe there is a clue in the Thought of Chair Leg lady Whiplash ...

PS Miss Whiplash will of course be remembered when asked by a House of Lords Committee about obtaining information by torture "Eliza Manningham-Buller in one of her submissions said : 'We're not going to ask, because that would make things difficult.'

PPS The Monbiot Calculus. Think of a number ... er... make it bigger.

Bob Quick, slow on the uptake and lies to the House of Commns as well

At 11.06 am on the morning of April 22nd 2008 the House of Commons Committee considering the Counter terrorism Bill welcomed as witnesses Sir Ian Blair Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and bovine Bob Quick, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, with responsibility for counter-terrorism probably dumber (if it is possible) than his predecessor Peter Clark.

Bob was of course also chairman of the ACPO-TAM committee having replaced the previous occupant "Randy" Andy Hayman who left in rather hurrid circumstances. See Dec 10th 2007 Just Imagine , Andy Hayman CBE was in charge of terrism - and de Menezes murder - what a wanker see also "Randy" Andy - Sex in the City suffering from what is increasingly known as Chief Constable Syndrome, a deeply felt urge to shag the staff, then promote them and often fiddle their expenses.

Quite why this arithmetically challenged bobby sent some 20 of the Met's anti-terrorist unit to arrest an MP, root for hours in his house, constituency office and House of Commons office is a mystery. If he have an explanation the following suggest it might not be worth believing a word he says - we take it for granted that Sir Ian Blair is a persistent and egregious liar and shows they have nothing but contempt for the House of Commons and it's members of Parliament.

Tuesday 22 April 2008 Counter Terrorism Bill considered by the Public Bill Committee (Hansard)

Q 9 Martin Salter: I have three quick questions for Sir Ian Blair and Mr. Quick. I know that you put some of this evidence in front of the Select Committee on Home Affairs a few months ago, but, for the benefit of the Committee, could you indicate how many serious terrorist plots the police and the security services have disrupted since the London bombings of 7/7?

Sir Ian Blair: I will stretch to something like 12, but where would you get to, Bob?

Bob Quick: I am still being briefed on the very complex history to fighting terrorism, but my understanding is in the order of about 15 occasions. On some very recent occasions we have been able to disrupt terrorism by some sophisticated and unusual methods. That is what we do. We are constantly seeking opportunities to disrupt. That is part of a multi-pronged attack on terrorist activity.

Curious then that David Leppard May 4, 2008 in a Times article reported that - Ian Blair admits he misled MPs over terror threat

"Blair gave evidence to MPs in support of 42-day detention, stating to a Commons committee that police had disrupted “something like 12” serious terrorist plots since the 2005 London bombings. However, Scotland Yard now accepts that the true number is six. "

UPDATE : A lawyer writes ..

The offence of grooming was introduced when the Sexual Offences Act 2003 was reviewed to take account of the behaviour of paedophiles. ..."a new offence of meeting a child following sexual grooming, which makes it a crime to befriend a child on the internet or by other means and meets or intends to meet the child with the intention of abusing them. The maximum sentence is 10 years imprisonment." CPS Guidance Notes

see 28th November Damian Green MP has ruffled feathers in the Security Industry Authority - hence Plod's anti - terrorist overkill ..."The Anti terrorist squad took away from Damian green's home, consituency office and his House of Commons office, bxes , bags of papers , correspondence and PC's hard disks etc., .... let's hope they don't get them somehow mixed up and discover pornography, paedophile images ......"

PS : How did the Press find out that the Police were using the term grooming ? Surely not a leak from the Met. Again.

PPS : Rambler Asssociation issue Press Release advising Damian Green and Christopher Galley (Currently like Dr David Kelly in a "safe" house) not to take long solitary walks in the countryside.

Bob Quick - Did he fall or was he pushed ?

Mayor of London Boris "Cop Killer" Johnson said on BBC at midday today (albeit with a straight face) that it was "with great sadness" that he had accepted Mr Quick's resignation , failing to add that he had been machinating for his removal and replacement by the pliant Assistant Commissioner John Yates (Marlborough School and Kings, London , Fitzwilliam Cantab.) as head of Counter Terrorism at the Met.

The public can however enjoy with some grim satisfaction that the porcine piggy eyed oaf , who has provided further evidence (in spades) of his innate stupidity by waving around secret minutes for the Press's intrusive and sharp lensesto pick up and publish. These apparently revealed details of the operation, codenamed Bathtub, listing the names of officers involved and locations of the deadly jihadist, fundamentalist Pakistani terrist suspects. (see previous psots re his stupidity Sunday, December 21, 2008 Bob Quick and Aphrodite Wedding Services - a conflict of interests s also the hilarious post Sunday, November 30, 2008 Bob Quick, slow on the uptake and lies to the House of Commns as well

This mindless and thoughtless act is alleged to have precipitated by a few hours a "swoop" on a "motley" crew of wannabe terrists who share beards, religion and skin colour with Pakistani nationality and attendance at what are laughingly called Universities in this neck of the woods.

Already the Met rumour mill is aloud to the buzz of false information - targets of these ruthless bombless bombers include (allegedly) a shopping center (Trafford Centre) and a nightclub and suggest a connection to Rashid Rauf, the alleged mastermind of the plot to bomb transatlantic aircraft. (Allegedly dead BTW).

Mind you don't blame Bob. His predecesor Andy Hayman, headed for the exit quickly when his intra office legoversituations became known as well as problems with his met credit card.See post Sunday, December 09, 2007 "Randy" Andy - Sex in the City and also Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Randy Andy Hayman and the luscious female IPCC textee and phone sex enthusiast

and also Tuesday, December 04, 2007 The Andy Hayman and Heidi show ... the Metropolitan Police Farce

Just think of poor Bob ... measly £110,000 ayear pension to struggle by on and megabucks "advising" the Olympic shambles. Should have taken his mum's advice and been a banker

Superman Gordon Brown uses Monbiot's Calculus to justify lying about UK terrorist threat and its association with Pakistan

If you consult the No 10 website today you will find the story - Gordon Brown has announced a new anti-terror pact with Pakistan aimed at combatting the growing problem of terrorist groups using the country as a base to coordinate their attacks.

They go on to say that at a press conference with Pakistan President Asif Zardari in Islamabad this morning, the PM said the new £6 million agreement would constitute “the most comprehensive anti-terrorist programme Britain has signed with any country”.

If you go to the BBC news website - there are further and better particulars you won't find on the No 10 website " Three quarters of the most serious terror plots being investigated by UK authorities have links to Pakistan, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said. "

If you go to the Times Online website - “Three quarters of the most serious plots investigated by the British authorities have links to al-Qaeda in Pakistan ,” said Mr Brown in a press conference alongside Mr Zardari in the Presidential palace in Islamabad.

To which Sam Coates in Islamabad adds ..."Officials believe there are currently around 30 major terrorist plots and 2000 suspects being watched by police and the intelligence services. "

So just how many terror plots are there ?

Let's recap on proceedings on Tuesday 22 April 2008 when the Counter Terrorism Bill was being considered by the Public Bill Committee (Hansard)

Q 9 Martin Salter: I have three quick questions for Sir Ian Blair and Mr. Quick. I know that you put some of this evidence in front of the Select Committee on Home Affairs a few months ago, but, for the benefit of the Committee, could you indicate how many serious terrorist plots the police and the security services have disrupted since the London bombings of 7/7?

Sir Ian Blair: I will stretch to something like 12, but where would you get to, Bob?

Bob Quick: I am still being briefed on the very complex history to fighting terrorism, but my understanding is in the order of about 15 occasions. On some very recent occasions we have been able to disrupt terrorism by some sophisticated and unusual methods. That is what we do. We are constantly seeking opportunities to disrupt. That is part of a multi-pronged attack on terrorist activity.

How curious then that David Leppard May 4, 2008 in a Times article reported that - Ian Blair admits he misled MPs over terror threat"Blair gave evidence to MPs in support of 42-day detention, stating to a Commons committee that police had disrupted “something like 12” serious terrorist plots since the 2005 London bombings. However, Scotland Yard now accepts that the true number is six. "

So Mr Prime Minister is 3/4 of "the most serious terror plots " , 3/4 of

30 - as secretly passed to Sam Coates in Islamabad by unidentified "officials".

6 - as finally agreed by Scotland yard after both Ian Blair and Bob Quick lied to the Select Committee on Home Affairs in April this year caiming variously it was , 12 (Blair) 15 (Quick) ?

Of cpurse Mr Sam Coates and all his smart, well paid journalist colleagues could perhaps raise questions about the validity of the fgure of ," 30 major terrorist plots".

..but don't bet on it.

PS : Monbiot's calculus. Think of a number - then make it bigger. For more Saturday, February 24, 2007
George Monbiot and The Case of the Excluded Muddle ... Monbiot's Calculus

UPDATE : Tuesday : "Gordon Brown yesterday hailed a new £6m anti-terror pact as the most comprehensive programme of its kind Britain has ever signed with any country, as it emerged that more than 20 potential extremist plots being investigated by British intelligence forces have a link to Pakistan."
The Herald December 15th 2008

Aphrodite Wedding Services - Gays could be at risk on their wedding day. Shock Horror - Amazing pictures !!!

Martin Delgado in the Mail Online reports that the luxury car hire firm Aphrodite Wedding Services run by Judith Quick the the wife of Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick from their home and advertised in Yellow Pages and also in the Gay Friendly guide:

1. Does not appear to have an operator's licence
2. This fact (if true) could jeopardise insurance policies when hiring vehicles
3. To get an operator’s licence, drivers must be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) – so there is no way of guaranteeing those employed by Aphrodite have been vetted

Paradoxically when Bob the Plod was Chief Constable of Surrey , his force and the local Tandridge District Council produced a 36-page booklet explaining the rules affecting private car hire firms. (pdf see Pages 17/18/19 ref Private Hire vehicles - pic of cover above) Which provides the helpful advice for those anxious to conform to legal requirements ;

‘Every Private Hire vehicle shall be licensed under the 1976 Act, section 48,
subject to conditions....... All vehicles will be subject to periodic testing during the licensing period to ensure that vehicles are maintained in a fit and proper condition. Local
Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. The Council is authorised
to conduct extra spot checks and inspection at any time.’

The Mail quote a Tandridge District Council spokesman : ‘If this business is providing car hire services for day trips and events, and not just for weddings and funerals, we believe it does need a private hire vehicle and operator’s licence. All its drivers will also need to be licensed. We will be contacting the business.’ Aphrodite Wedding Services don't appear on the Council website list of local businesss.

It is also worth noting that the Surrey Police /Tandridge Council Guide cearly states ;

This information is intended to provide guidance on the licensing requirements in Tandridge District Council under the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, as amended, and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.

It is not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive statement of the law and all drivers, operators and proprietors should familiarise themselves with the provisions of the relevant Acts and any local byelaws.

David Davis - Another silly conspiracy theory from Lord Patel

There are many observers, players, commentators, on the Westminster scene puzzled by ;
1. David Davis MP's resignation
2. The response of David Cameron in actively campaigning for and with him
3. The muted response from his Party
4. The total and rapid unwillingness of the Labour Party to field a candidate
5. The total and rapid unwillingness of the Liberal Party to field a candidate
6. The curious case of Shami Chakrabarti very publicly swinging the non - political Liberty behind David Davis's campaign
7. The curious and shadowy role of an expensive and very well connected PR company, Fleishman-Hillard in so swiftly erecting David Davis's website (not to mention the source of funds to do it etc.,)
7 (a) The clumsy attempt to conceal the role of Fleishman-Hillard
8. The extraordinary coverage that the BBC gave to David Davis across the spectrum, Radio 5 Live phone in (1.5 hr), You and Yours (1 hr), Womans Hour (20 mins), Question Time (1 hr), Any Questions (1 hr) (plus repeat and Any Answers), Newsnight ...not to mention endless news items covering the election without any opposing or dissenting views
9. The role of the new Total Politics magazine that has so mysteriously appeared, fully financed by unknown sources, and with the ubiquitous help of Shami Chakrabarti OBE CBE , Governer of the Ditchley Foundation along with Lady Dame Jane Baroness Pauline Neville Jones.

There was however, a curiously congruent and interlocking series of events also going on, which received virtually no coverage and certainly no discussion....Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill.

June 18th The Lords Davis ruling on anonymous witnesses published (but of course known of within Government circles)
June 18th - Also the day when David Davis applies for the Chiltern Hundreds

June 21st (Saturday) war criminal Jack Straw announces he is going to rush through legislation to allow anonymous witnesses

June 23rd Judge Paget halts trial using anonymous witnesses

On BBC June 24th Commissioner Bob Quick, for example, called the ruling “catastrophic” and criticised the criminal justice system for “too much principle and not enough pragmatism”. (This was the guy who with Sir Ian Blair couldn't remember how any terrorist plots there were when asked by MP's. see Counter terrorism Bill ..and the Old Bill... Fiction is stronger than the truth )

June 26th “Chaos as Law Lords ruin trials” (The Sun, 25 June); “Anarchyis unleashed” (The Sun, 25 June); and “Terrorists, murderers and other violent criminals will escape justice unless emergency laws are passed within weeks” (Daily Mail, 26 June).“Britain could witness unrestrained violence like the slaughter in Zimbabwe” ( Sun 25 June). (All these quoted in Liberty brief Page 4 - "Thankfully" says Liberty n contrast to the Press "Thankfully, the response of Government and opposition parties to the decision did not follow suit. It was, in contrast measured and informed."

June 26th the Government makes routine sotto voce outline the plans for legislation with dates for debate in Commons on 8th July and Lords on 10th July (Bill published July 3rd). This after cross party "consultation".

26th June East Riding of Yorkshire council announced the long, long , varied and entertaining list of accepted candidates and date of election to be 2 weeks on Thursday 10th July.

So the Bill is to be debated (?) 8/9/10th July which means press comment could be 9th/10th/11th but curiously enough they were busy looking at Gemma Garretts teeth and tits and Elvis and the Cow girl.

Of course David Davis gets his seat back, without actually having said a fucking thing, except a few mildly critical remarks about useless CCTV pictures, and DNA databases. But he and Shami had very effectively hi-jacked the so called debate on "civil liberties" - and she hen goes on to pat herself and David on the back (see top).

Debate on the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill, somehow, slips by and " 42 days or not 42 days " has monopolised any concern about stealing fundamental liberties and freedoms and the proper conduct of trials. Psyops success, in fucking spades.

What about dear sweet, doe eyed, scarf adjusting, Shami Chakrabarti offering TLC to DD in late at night , heart to heart's on the cellphone? The ex Home Office lawyer whose non-political Liberty winds up supporting a politician's election, one who agrees to 28 days and the loss of habeas corpus.

Shami Chakrabarti the ex Home Office lawyer who leads the non-political Liberty but ends up helping edit Total Politics ?

Shami Chakrabarti the ex Home Office lawyer who leads the non-political Liberty who provided a brief for the Government which agrees in principle to the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill.

Shami Chakrabarti the ex Home Office lawyer who leads the non-political Liberty who provided a brief for the Government written by Jago Russell & Michael Spencer which agrees in principle to the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill.

Prior to his post at Liberty, Jago Russell worked as a legal specialist in parliament where he advised select committees on a range of matters including counter-terrorism laws and corporate accountability. He has particular expertise in international and comparative human rights law, the UK government’s anti-terrorism policy, constitutional and criminal justice issues and has written and spoken on these and other matters for parliamentary and wider audiences.

Nu Labour has an eye for colourful ladies they can promote Baronesses, Vadera, Amos, Scotland .... arise Baroness Shami Chakrabarti of the Pashminas .... you have earned it.... and who knows maybe to join her soulmate and phone-sex pal David will reluctantly pass on his seat at the next election to a Tory hopeful and pass onwards and upwards as Baron Davis of the Blinding Diversion

Of course Liberty will need a new leader ... someone with the right ideas.. step forward Jago Russell.

PS : Here's a nice summertime job for a media studies student .. and god knows there are plenty of them... A good detailed annotated Timeline, fleshed out with details of all press coverage / comment , of the above.

Counter terrorism Bill ..and the Old Bill... Fiction is stronger than the truth

Few of us who were lucky enought to hear Peter Clarke the Sphincter of the Yard .. alas now retired from the stage on a modest pension give the Colin Cramphorn Memorial lecture on April 24th last year , amusingly entitled , "learning from Experience", at the left wing Policye Exchnage when he said .."In case after case, the hand of core Al Qaeda can be clearly seen." (That other old trouper, not to say fluent liar Sir Ian Blair gives the next on the 18th of this month ..tickets available now.)

Now The Sphincter has been released from retirment and is at it again telling the readers of the Daily Telegraph that a barrel of red herrings (?) has been introduced into the august chambers of the House of Commons. As in a racy Boys Own paper yarn he embroiders his cause by tales of , "Scotland Yard Anti-Terrorist Branch officers spent a fortnight sleeping on their office floor." trying to nail the mysterious Dhiren Barot (Who has twice since received the President Karimov boiling water treatment in prison) ..."There was not a shred of evidence against them. The intelligence was clear - that he and his gang were planning attacks in this country, but there was no evidence that could be used in court." ..... but "the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place on the morning of the 14th day". Well I never.Wudja bleeve it ? (No.Ed.)

Mysteriously he says, "It would help if we could shove aside both the politics and the fish." ..is this some Masonic symbol ? ...loaves ... fishes ...?

Perhaps we should remember, as detailed Sunday, May 18, 2008 Sir Ian Blair lies to Parliament (again) Jacqui Smith lies to DailyMail, Max Mosley the jihadist ? Joining the Dots in the War on Counter Terrorism when Sir Ian Blair Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and Bob Quick, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, with responsibility for counter-terrorism both lied to the House of Commons Committee considering the Counter terrorism Bill . There were / are 15 plots, 12 Plots maybe only 5 or 6 plots .. naturally all of course ..." In case after case, the hand of core Al Qaeda can be clearly seen"

Yeah, Yeah...whatever
If you want to know the truth don't ask a policeman.

BTW ..Scotland Yard said Blair accepted he had made a mistake. His office had contacted the committee’s clerk to clarify the error as soon as it became known.

What next , CEO of Bradford & Bingley ? .. or is the Alzheimer's too far gone ?

Sami Chakrabarti is like a 29 bus..

Just when you mentin how few Sami Chakrbatis there are about - up pops Ken Linvingstone sasyin gthe demure doe eyed, ex Home Offic lawyre should exaine the case of Ian Tomlinson etc.,

Then like the 29 bus, several Chakrabartis appear.

Apparently Plod seized an obscure Tory MP's computers and set about searching for evidence of the telegenic scarf adjusting,bright eyed feminist who leads Liberty in his e -mails.

No - show.

Which may be of course because Bob Quick (now Ex - terrist in Chief) was typing in the query list and got his vowels in a twist.

Cue : Sami thinks all this raises some "important questions".

Of course it does chuck, but tell us what you think the important questions are.

Hands up those who see the "crumple zone" of dissent adroitly shroudng public dissent and argument about waht Craig Murray calls Ian Tomlinso'smrder.Stepforward the Lady Dame Jane Pauline Baroness Neville Jones, David Davis, and all the the appalling people (Andrew McKinley) in the pay of Lord Ashcroft who support both "Total Politics" the removal of habeus corpus and locking people up without charge for 29 days whist you hunt for evidence.

Michael Martin fingers Jill Pay in fancy dress party national security terrorist drama - Plod finds drugs

Plod, like God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.Two examples of how they seamlessly work protecting the public at a national and local level :-

The official hounding of of Damian Green and his Conservative friendly mole is a tale of threadbare patches. Final and full understanding plus informed comment awaits further and better particulars :

1. Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, has taken responsibility for calling in the police (although failing to tell his political masters) - there are rumours in the press that "national security" was claimed by him , to be at peril. Presumably there is some doucmentation which may / may not see the light of day.

2. Sir Paul Stephenson the the acting head of Scotland Yard, and applicant for the top job admits he personally sanctioned the actions taken - again some documentation which may / may not see the light of day.

3. Bob Quick Assistant Commissioner responsible for counter-terrorism at the Met , chairman of the ACPO-TAM committee and also a contender for the top job was placed in charge of the investigation. He sent some 20 of the Met's anti-terrorist unit to arrest an MP, root for hours in his house, constituency office and House of Commons office and have the House of Commos server either directly or by instruction altered to deny e -mail services on the MP's account is a mystery. Again some documentation may / may not see the light of day.

4. Jill Pay, Serjeant at Arms and career civil servant is approached inthe House of Commons some time prior to 7 am and a large , firm but polite policeman politely attempts to blag his way in, to examine an MP's office. She contacts her boss Michael Martin presumably on the sensible Civil Service , "Onward & Upward" ..above my pay grade Guv...

Quite who says what and to whom the result is that Jill Pay provides a written authorisation of some form (a letter - Dear Plod..do what you need in the cause of National Security etc.,).

Michael Martin never seems quite in grasp of affairs at 3 in the afternoon so in his Puginesque apartments, fiddling with a mutton chop and the Sun at 7 am one can readily understand that , as he admitted to the House yesterday he had failed to question the legality of the operation or even ask if the police had a warrant.

Again some documentation may / may not see the light of day.

5. Later in the day, no doubt armed with the Jill Pay document, purple gloves, camera etc., Plods arrive and start rooting.

6. At some time, recorded on fillum David Cameron's bag carrier Andrew Mackay, Senior Parliamentary and Political Adviser to the Conservative leader, timidly enters Mr Green's office and confronts the officers carrying out the search. He is politely told to get out - which he does. A police camera used to photograph evidence is clearly visible.

7. The Home Secretary will make a statement today.

8. Michael Martin in floods of tears desperate to save his skin after fingering Jill Pay pledged to set up a committee of seven experienced MPs to look into the seizure of Mr Green's papers, computer and mobile phone following his arrest in connection with the leaking of secret Home Office documents.

9. Ian Johnston, Chairman of ACPO Crime Committee and Chief Constable of the British Transport Police, was appointed by Sir Paul Stephenson on Tuesday to conduct an urgent review of ..."our decisions, actions and handling of the investigation to date and to provide me with an interim report within 7 days and a final report within two weeks. "

The relentless fight against home grown Cannabis sativa ....

The industry of growing high THC yielding srains of Cannabis sativa is national and it appears is so successfu that it will soon have supplanted imported supplies.

Capital costs for set up are small, rented premises of almost any form imagineable are rented, electricity is stolen and plants frequently tended by illegal immigrants (Vietnamese appear to have cornered the market).

In Rochdale the former premises of Rochdale Alternative Press (RAP - Thursday, February 28, 2008 " ..all he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms" David Steel on Cyril Smith 1979 (probably identified by the thermal signature from overflying helicopter) has been revealed in the Rochdale Observer as one such thriving enterprise.

In raiding the premises , Officers seized over 500 plants, just days away from being harvested, which could have produced enough of the class C drug to fetch dealers tens of thousands of pounds on the streets of Rochdale.

Police Sergeant Jamie Collins, who was involved in Friday’s operation,"This was a highly fortified premises and a sophisticated set-up. Inquiries are still ongoing to trace the offenders."

Quite why they didn't set up remote CCTV observation (the equipment required is manufactured about 500 yards from these premises) and catch the perps red handed ......

Where are they Now ? Pt 322(b) General Ante Gotovina

Friday, December 9
Ante Gotovina - A man with interesting friends in Virginia

On Thursday December 9th 2005, Former Croat General Ante Gotovina, who was then on the run from the the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was arrestedin Tenerife.(Gotovina's passports revealed that he had been in Tahiti, Argentina, Chile, China, Russia, the Czech Republic, Mauritania, and Mauritius, but not Croatia.)Pic BBC

Gotovina, who is a former French legionnaire and mercenary,retired from the Croatian army in 2000 after earning a hero's status (memorably by Croatian tennis star Goran Ivanisovic at the 1991 Wimbledon Championships), in the 1991- 95 war for Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.

In August 1995, the previously inept Croatian army launched "Operation Storm," a U.S.-style military offensive designed to take back part of the country held throughout the war by rebel Serbs, and patrolled by UN forces.

The United States not only monitored the complete Operation Storm, but they also actively participated with the Croatian Military in its preparation, and in the end directly initiated the operation. The green light from the White House and then President Clinton for Operation Storm was passed on by Colonel Richard C. Herrick, then US military attaché in Zagreb. Several days prior to the commencement of Operation Storm, Herrick visited Markica Rebić in Zagreb. Rebić, Miroslav Tuđman, then director of HIS and Miro Međimurac, then head of SIS, held the most intensive discussions with the American military and intelligence agencies.

Herrick usefully had as an assistant and his assistant Ivan Šarac, a Croatian NCO who was sent to Zagreb at the beginning of the war there as he was familiar with the circumstances and knew the language.

Herrick passed on the message that the US had no opposition to the beginning of Operation Storm, that the operation had to be 'clean and fast' and had to be completed in 5 days time.

BIll Clinton in his "My Life, Vol II The Presidential Years," p265, 2004, 2005 said "Because we knew Bosnia's survival was at stake, we had not tightly enforced the arms embargo. As a result, both the Croatians and the Bosnians were able to get some arms, which helped them survive. We had also authorized a private company to use retired US military personnel to improve and train the Croatian army."

This Private firm was ..

Military Professional Resources Inc. 1201 E. Abingdon Dr Alexandria, VA

MPRI reported annual sales of $95 million from numerous contracts with the U.S. and foreign governments to provide military training and consulting, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

In 1994 and 1995, MPRI was paid millions of dollars under a U.S. overnment-sanctioned contract to train the Croatian military. Photos taken at the time are said to show Gotovina together with US military advisors

"Operation Lightning Storm", was launched against the Krajina region in which Serbian villages were sacked and burned, hundreds of civilians were killed and 170,000 were left homeless. The operation was a textbook illustration of western military doctrine. "The Croatians did a good job of coordinating armor,artillery and infantry", says Roger Charles, a retired marine lieutenant colonel and military researcher. "That's not something you learn while being instructed about democratic values."

The truth is the United States which provided logistical support,jammed Serbian radio communications and radar, and closely monitored all Serbian troop movements using unmanned spy planes (UAV's), which operated from Brac island just off the Croatian
coast (ops later moved to Sepurina airport nr. Zadar after being exposed on New Years Day by the German Embassy staff). All the resulting information was passed on immediately to the Croatian armed forces, with Washington hoping that the Serbs would be beaten back quickly and thus forced to agree to take part in
negotiations.

Richard Holbrooke, quite the nastiest piece of work who was ever employed by the US Government, in his book "To End A War"(1998) referred to the Croatian army as his "junkyard dogs" and acknowledges that the Croatian army was used to inflict substantial losses on the Milosevic-controlled Yugoslav army and shift momentum of the war.

Critics charged that MPRI provided training and tactical skills that enabled the Croatian military to perpetrate one of the largest episodes of ethnic cleansing in the breakup of former Yugoslavia, in an offensive that left hundreds dead and 150,000 homeless. MPRI denied those charges. A fterwards, the Croatian government expressed its gratitude to MPRI for its help in training its military. MPRI was later hired to train the new Bosnian army after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war in former Yugoslavia. In which General Jay Garner , later the first Baghdad Pro consul was involved as an employee of MPRI and associated companies of the Virginia based L3 group with impeccable connections the the Pentagon and the White House.

In early 1996 Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Holbrooke told Congress that the training of Bosnian forces by MPRI "can begin as soon as the contracts are worked out" --that's contracts, plural, because the $400 million program was paid for largely by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In reality the need for speed expressed by Herrick was demanded by Bill Clinton who needed a quick solution to the Balkans "crisis" in order to halt his Presidential opponent Bob Dole's initiatives and to prove himself before his voters as a decisive president which were screened daily on the US TV.

In order to keep the English and French off his back, Clinton bypassed normal diplomatic channels, (Holbrooke's speciality) in order to be able to claim that he had not participated if the operation were to go belly up.

Of course this help came at a price , Croatia supplied the US with DIA Russian 500 kg underwater mines and the most modern Russian torpedos as well as the encrypted codes used by the Yugoslav Army and the Russian army...as well as the location of a agency revealed the location of a chemical weapons factory in Bijelo polje near Mostar which the Serbs had transferred to Serbia.

With the help of samples found, the American experts were able to uncover all the types of toxins produced there which had possibly been sold to Iraq or other potential enemies of the US. This was only the beginning of cooperation, by which the US immediately delivered wiretapping equipment aimed at monitoring Serbia and Montenegro, a system which could simultaneously record 20,000 telephone conversations. This cooperation was conducted with the US NSA.

A prominent supporter of Ante Gotovina has revealed the Croatian general indicted for war crimes will try to embarrass the US if he is put on trial."If it comes to an arrest, General Gotovina's defence team will call on individuals from the United States to testify," said a friend of the controversial former army commander, Nenad Ivankovic, who is head of the right-wing organisation HONOS, the Association for the Protection of the Values of the Homeland War.

Gotovina's supporters say two prominent US diplomats, Peter Galbraith (US Ambassador in Zagreb) and Richard Holbrooke, should be allowed to testify if the general eventually stands trial, as they could prove that he fought a clean war and reveal the extent of American involvement in the conflict. Gotovina enjoyed close contact with Galbraith, the US ambassador to Zagreb, and believes he could confirm that the general had observed the rules of war during Operation Storm.

The former and very experienced BBC Balkans correspondent, briefly an indpendent MP , Martin Bell has said it is vitally important that witnesses such as Galbraith and Holbrooke are called in the event of Gotovina being tried. "The general's liberty is at stake so he should be able to call on whoever can aid his defence," said Bell.

So far however 9 months after his being seized from his sunny hideaway nothing has been heard about preparations for his trial.

However ... Croatia was formally granted the status of European Union (EU) candidate country in June 2004. The failure of the Croatian authorities to fully cooperate with the Tribunal, including by arresting and transferring to the (ICTY)Tribunal’s custody Ante Gotovina, delayed the launch of EU accession negotiation. EU member states decided to begin accession talks with Croatia only on 3 October 2005, after the Tribunal Prosecutor concluded that “for a few weeks now” Croatia had been cooperating fully with the Tribunal.

Croatia hosts the ambition to join the EU before the next European Parliament elections in 2009. However, according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Croatia will not join the EU until the end of this decade, although it will probably be the “first to meet all necessary conditions” and therefore be the “the next country on the list”, said Rehn.

Rehn himself said, after Romania and Bulgaria, the EU would not be able to receive any more members without a new "institutional settlement".

With London's hotels and entertainment industry flooded with East Europeans, brothels run by Albanians, and the streets full of Polish plumbers, soon to be joined by floods of Romanians and Bulgarians...there will be little interest in pursuing Croatian or Turkish entry by the UK.

Of course there will be litle interest in Washington in letting General Gotovina explain to an astonished but interested world the help he got from the US for the ethnic cleanisng of (variously) 150,000 - 200,000 Serbs from Krajina.

Perhaps arresting General Gotovina wasn't such a bright idea after all.

Dope has killed Cycling - what next ?

In the shadow of the world's biggest brick built structure the 14 Century cathedral fortress at Albi , the Tour de France 13th stage time trial was won on Saturday by the man of the mountains, Kazakh superman Alexander "Vino" Vinokourov .

He covered the 54 Kilometres in , around and through Albi including 2 hills in 1 hour 6 minutes 34 seconds at a blistering pace of 48.661 Km/hour, a stunning 74seconds ahead of Cadel Evans and with his Astana Team colleagues Andreas Klöden and Andrej Kashechkin in 3rd and 4th place.

On his website
was ecstatic, but not entirely truthful,

"It’s a new Tour that begins for the Astana Cycling Team today! I recover all my
sensations. I would like to thank my teammates, my masseur as well as my
ostheopath and the whole staff who all helped me a lot to feel good again. I
wish also to thank the numerous public that always encouraged me. The Tour will
be over only in Paris. But for sure, the team will attack tomorrow ! "

On Sunday the Tour moved into the Pyrenees and Alexandre Vinokourov on the 197 kilometre stage from Mazamet to Plateau-de-Beille, trailed 23 minutes behind the field in 70th place. Yesterday on the 15th Stage Foix-Loudenvielle - Le Louron over 107 kilometers 1st, 51 seconds ahead of Kim Kirchen. He r4ecorded on his website ...

"I felt good, as well as my legs. At the first break, I thought here were too many riders and that I had to go on with my effort. As I saw I could make it, I tried to be alone and first at the top of the last climb,(Col de Peyresourde, 21.5km from the finish) in order to be sure to win the stage."

It was then that the results of his bloodtests after the Saturday win showed that, incredibly he had two people's red blood cells in his body - imputing he had received a blood transfusion before the Saturday stage. Vino told the French sports paper L'Equipe that it was a mistake, when he was injured last week there was blood everywhere etc.,

The Swiss based team managed by former Tour de Suisse organiser Marc Biver and sponsored by Kazakhstan state industries including Air Astana and also by Laksmi Mittals, Mittal Arcelor steelworks (in which Tony Blair had a hand in helping Mittal buy the Kazakh State steel mills by a letter borne by cash for coronets Lord Levy !) withdrew before the "B" samples were checked. and tested.

Britain's Olympic Gold Medal winner Bradley Wiggins beaten into 5th by 135 seconds in the Albi Time Trial admitted he had suspicions over Vinos performance in Saturday's time trial - he told the Guardian "I know that to put two minutes into me what power Vino would need and the effort he would have had to make and it didn't add up."

On Monday May 28th 2007, Lord Patel posted " Dopey Cyclists finally blow open drug ridden European Cycling Circus" deailing the way past winners had spilled the beans in various books and TV programmes.

Now Vinokourov's performance has exposed that the whole sordid cycling circus has learnt nothing ... Now Danish Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen riding for Rabobank team has admitted making a mistake in missing out-of-competition drugs tests.

Apparently The Danish Cycling Union said last week Rasmussen had been warned for missing two random controls earlier this year and banned him from September's world championships and the 2008 Olympic Games. After this the International Cycling Union (UCI) said he had missed two separate random tests in the past 18 months - all cyclists who race under their supervision sign that they will forfeit a year's salary if they are caught doping.
Rabobank manager Theo de Rooy said he was aware of the missed tests and revealed he fined Rasmussen 10,000 Euros (£6,720).

All this has come on top of the reveation that the T-Mobile team member Patrik Sinkewitz , had been tested in training and had shown elevated testosterone levels an easily detected performance enhancing drug.

Brian Holm 44, the T Mobile manager has admitted in his autobiography , published earlier this year that he doped himself - a skirmish with stomach cancer forced him to accept that it's better not to ignore unpleasant truths for too long.

The impact of this continuing doping in Germany was massive - and curiously almost unreported in the UK;

1. German TV networks ARD and ZDF had announced plans to cut their live coverage of this year's Tour de France and write off a €7 MN investment. "We want a clean sport," says Nikolaus Brender, chief editor for German public broadcaster ZDF. Private broadcaster Sat.1 has taken over covering the Tour since last Thursday.... and bought the rights for peanuts.

2. Christian Frommert, T-Mobile's sponsorship spokesman, talked of withdrawing its support for professional cycling.

3. Adidas, who spend about €500,000 ($690,826 - £350,000) a year on the T-Mobile team, announced plans get out.

4. In Stuttgart, where the world championships are due to be held in September the city council is debating what to do as German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble threatens to cancel the event altogether. Chairman of the sporting committee in the Bundestag, Social democrat Peter Danckert, has openly questioning continued Government support for the dope ridden sport.

"Cyling Is Dead" says Der Spiegel

" Professional cycling has dug its own grave. There is nothing left to disclose,
no unresolved mystery and no room left for illusions. Everyone has known about
it for years and everyone has chosen to look the other way."

Sports TV is part of the entertainment industry, it generates massive audiences, enormous license fees, and mouth watering advertising revenues. It's participants and their camp followers of agents, publicists, can and do earn huge sums and it's sponsors hopefully dwell in the reflected glory of a healthy sweat soaked sport for their brand.

Even the innocence of low speed golf, the essential dream for middle aged man is not free from this breach drug fuelled breach of innocence. Nine-times major champion, South African Gary Player before the UK Open suggested at least 10 players on the professional circuit used performance-enhancing substances.. "I know there are golfers doing it (taking drugs), whether it's HGH (human growth hormone), whether it's creatine or whether it's steroids, I know for a fact some golfers are doing it." .... but wouldn't name any.

Greed has driven sportsmen to cheat. If cheaters can survive and win the illusion is lost, it becomes a spectacle of economic crime, just as fake as fixed TV quizzes and the smile of a Prime Ministers who fixed the 2012 Olympics for London by bribery of the Olympic Committee members - whose votes can be fixed with whores, foreign travel and quite modest kick-backs.

Paradoxically Team T-Mobile has promised to clean up pro cycling, but it may have been too ambitious - or monumentally naive. Company executives were so alarmed by the historical revelations of doping - the T Mobile team was forced to suspend team doctors Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich after it was discovered that they had provided cyclists with the performance-enhancing drug EPO in the 1990s. Then sporting director Rolf Aldag publicly admitted to having taken EPO himself in the past that they already considered pulling out last summer. T-Mobile's bosses hoping to transform their embarassment into a victory, decided not to pull out precipitately . Intending to prevent negative publicity, they cleaned up their act - and called it "Clean Cycling" .

In came American millionaire and cycling fan Bob Stapleton, as T-Mobile's chief of racing. Rolf Aldag, (who hadn't come clean by then) was the team's sporting director. A dope monitoring system managed by Professor Walter Schmidt of the University of Bayreuth , was contracted to conduct random testing of team members to uncover possible cases of blood doping. T-Mobile also contributed €500,000 ($690,826) annually to Germany's National Anti-Doping Agency's testing program. All to provide the team with an ersatz (and short lived) patina of honesty and transparency.

Replacing management,coaches, doctors, is the easy bit , building a team isn't - hence professionals like Patrik Sinkewitz were an inheritance from the old system. Sinkewitz, had mildly murky history a past member of the Mapei and Quick Step teams both suspected of doping he joined T Mobile in 2006.

Perhaps there was too much of a hangover from the Deutsche Telekom days (as the team was previously known) when Fuentes, the Spanish doctor, and East Germany's new found hero cyclist Jan Ullrich, were in the saddle.

Dope Addicts

The pressures on premier sportsmen (yes it is mainly men) , the demands to meet sponsors goals for a monster media profile , the daily training , produce both a physical and psychological dependency which with readily available help, becomes a chemical dependency.

Finally there must come a time when the sporting hero believes they cannot do it without doping. They become junkies. Junkies lie and junkies have no sense of right and wrong. First they deceive themselves and then everyone else. As addiction proceeds they begin to believe that they can do anything.. they lose the sense of having a body with limits.

It is a long time since sports were a noble pursuit.

The ARD and ZDF media networks, Adidas are evidently are determined to stop supporting this addiction. T-Mobile, bottled water producer Gerolsteiner and the dairy group Nordmilch, are looking very hard at continuing their sponsorship of pro cycling - how can you promote pure water, milk and healthy living with dopeheads ?

Osaka hosts the world championships in track and field in August, 2 out of the last 3 100 mens 100 metres winners have been found doping in the last two years.

At the Athletics World Championships in Paris in 2003 where there were 405 doping tests undertaken and these exposed ....

US 400m winner Jerome Young it was admitted after the race had tested positive for doping in 1999, but was let off by the United States Track and Field Association.

The UK's Dwain Chambers was eventually caught up in the BALCO doping scandal helped the UK team win the 4 X 100meter relay - who lost their Gold Medals when this was revealed.

In the 4 X 400m relay the US team were similarly disqualified when team member Calvin Harrison was found guilty of a doping violation with modafinil.

The Byelorussian shot putter Andrei Mikhenevich and Gold Medalist had only been reinstored 2 weeks before the Championships after a doping offence in 2001.

2 years later at the 2005 Helsinki Athletics World Championships the Finnish Anti Doping Agency had a very strong and rigid program , 884 doping tests were taken from 705 athletes. Only 2 athletes, an Indian discus thrower and a Ukrainian hammer thrower, were caught using illegal substances.

One female athlete whose sample raised a few eyebrows discovered to her considerable surprise that she was in fact pregnant - she only learnt of the fact after her dope test showed traces of the hormone HCG. HCG is produced by the placenta, and has been used - at least in male athletes - as a agent to hide other illegal substances.
After a gynaecological examination, the woman was congratulated and cleared of any suspicions of doping.

Lest you thinkthe Finns are especially meritorious, at the 2001 The Nordic Skiing World Championships in Lahti, Finland, were supposed to be the Championships of all time. Before the games were over, a total of six top Finnish cross-country skiers had been caught using a banned blood plasma expander called Hemohes.

In Beijing next year the Chinese will stack up the gold medals who have had little if any in training monitoring... no bets are being accepted on the London 2012 Games.

STOP PRESS Midnight 25th July 2007

Overall leader wearing the yellow Jersey today, 33 year old Dane Michael Rasmussen has been sacked by his team Rabobank. Rabobank director Theo de Rooy said: "Several times he said where he was training and it proved to be wrong. The management of the team received that information several times and today we received new information." The bank said, "Rabobank at this point does not plan to withdraw from cycling."

It is not clear that the Rabobank team will start the 17th Stage today.

Rasmussen was jeered by the crowd after winning the 16th stage (see pic as he croses line) , the final mountain stage. He had beaten Discovery Channel's Levi Leipheimer by 26 seconds on the 218.5km route from Orthez in the Pyrenees to retain the leader's yellow jersey. The start of the stage was delayed by 10 minutes after riders from the six French and two German teams protested against doping in the sport.

The Astana team did not start but more bad news included the news that Italian Cristian Moreni had failed a drugs test for testosterone his Cofidis team subsequently withdrew from the race.