Oyster - a lesson in obsolesence - a cracked technology and money will leak away through the cracks

STOP PRESS Saturday 26th July Transport for London apology Transys Links provided by Watching them watching us of problems agains caused for users on Friday 25th, this was blamed on " incorrect data tables being sent out by our contractor" , whatever that means.

The Epson HX-20 (called the HC-20 in Japan),was the world's first hand held computer. Weighing in at 1.6 KG , th size of an A4 sheet , it provided a small LCD sc reen of 4 lines of 20 characters,a full qwerty keyboard and nNiCad batteries. It had twin Hitachi 6301 @ 0.614MHz with RAM expandable to 32k and Microsoft Basic in ROM, running CPM. It was introduced in mid 1982 they sold over 1/4 million and cost then about £900 Sterling.

Lord Patel, in his days as a software developer used handy ground breaking machine for remote data collection, collecting shop floor data for batch processing.

2 years later Psion, introduced the The Psion Organiser I model, launched in 1984, it was, like the Epson based on an 8-bit Hitachi 6301-family processor, with 4K of ROM and 2K of battery-backed RAM, and had a single-row monochrome LCD screen - this was expanded into the Organiser II in 1986 which had a rudimentary operating system, POPL (the Psion Organiser Programming Language). They cost about £250 sterling but according to sales literature at above link sold for US$199 say £150 then.

These were lighter , truly hand held devices but due to the inability to develop an RS 232 interface Lord Patel gave up developing systems using them - despite Marks & Spencer using them for price Look Ups (PLU's) in stores held on EPROM. Psion later got their act together and produced a good range of machines bit they were never intended for rugged use.

In 1984 a new company (preceded by GR Electronics which then became Oyster Terminals and then Oyster Termiflex ) Oyster introduced the RT80 hand held computer.This was a bright yellow, ruggedised to MILspec, with a 64 line x 30 charcater display, a DIN45 D15pin male serial connector which was crap qiality for attaching a bar code reader. It had an 8086 chipset ran a modified Microsoft DOS with a limited Microsoft CBASIC.

A cradle provided both a serial link to the PC network and charged the batteries - which proved to be a major failing because they suffered an "image" problem and should be run down untl re-charged, so fater downloading data they should have been removed from the cradle , nobody did and the batteries could not be fully re-charged.

Other than that they were fabulous bits of kit. The problem was that Mr Gates produced Windows with a Graphic User Interface and Oyster didn't bother upgrading, so further developments had to wait for palm devices, from Compaq and Hewlett Packard.

All this to show how remorseless and rapidly changing technology makes items obsolete.

Oyster have gone the way of all flesh and have nothing to do with swipe cards for London Transport.

1. Tuesday 15th July 2008
"Thousands of London commuters found their prepaid Oyster didn't work, after a computer system crash disabled card readers across London.

The computer system went down for at least five hours on Saturday morning until around 9.30am. Card readers across the buses, London Underground and trains such as Docklands Light Railway were not accepting Oyster cards for parts of the day." See also BBC report

2. The Oyster card was first issued to the public in July 2003. By March 2007 over 10 million Oyster cards had been issued,and more than 80% of all journeys on services run by Transport for London used the Oyster card. Plans have been afoot to extend their use for small payments by users at shops for low price items, confectionary, drinks, newspapers etc.,

TranSys is a consortium of Cubic, EDS, Fujitsu and WS Atkins who developed the Oyster ( a name obtained at great expense by Saatchi & Saatchi) which was introduced in July 2003. It is based on NXP/Philips' MIFARE standard 1k chips provided by G&D and SchlumbergerSema and the card is a contactless radio transmitter / receiver."Our MIFARE contactless smart card ICs provide the most advanced combination of security and convenience for contactless interfacing in accordance with the ISO 14443A interface standard. "

Subway RFID cards like the Parisian Navigo Pass, the London Oyster Card the Tokyo Suica card and Boston's CharlieCard use the same technology. OECD Policy Guidance - A Focus on Information SEcurity and Privacy Applications, Impacts and Country Initiatives June 2008 is a worthwhile report to read on RFID uses which provide user identity, which has ramifications way beyond paying for a tube ticket...see especially "invisibility of data".

About ten million Mifare smartcards , used for a vraiety of purposes from payment to controlled access to buildings are sold in Britain each year,

Police regularly use information on the adult Oyster card system to get details about passenger movements. BBC London has learned that in the past year they made at least 3,000 requests for information. 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, the spokesman said.

"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," .

The Information Commissioner's Office has criticised Transport for London for "collecting data without a clear purpose" for the children's photocard. From June Transport for London (TfL) made it mandatory for children aged between 11 and 18 to carry an Oyster photocard in order to gain free travel.

The current balance and ticket data held electronically on the card rather than in the central database and the value held is "loaded" at a preselected barrier or validator.

It is possible to set up automatic direct debit transactions so that when the balance falls below (say) £5 another £20 is written to the card.

The daily transaction data is held and updates the main system overnight - it would be impossible to provide (with current technology and costs) a real time validation in use as it would lead to huge delays.

3. March 10th, 2008 - NXP Semiconductors, the independent company founded by Philips, today announced MIFARE Plus, a revolutionary contactless smart card IC that offers breakthrough security and performance for the cost-sensitive automated fare collection (AFC) and access control markets.

Security is at the heart of MIFARE Plus, which is the only smart card IC of its class to offer strong AES encryption for authentication, integrity and confidentiality, based on a 128-bit key length. MIFARE Plus chips comprise a number of additional security features which, when used optimally in the infrastructure, provide for a system that prevents individuals from being identified and tracked by others. This is entirely related to this bit of prior news...

4. Chip manufacturer NXP, formerly the semiconductor division of Philips and well-known for its Mifare RFID chips, has filed suit against a group of researchers at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Holland. According to information provided by the company, the suit is intended to prevent the scientists from their planned October publication of the results of their research on the poor security of the Mifare Classic chip, a security product that has been sold billions of times over around the world....

"The ball was set rolling when a group of researchers in the Chaos Computer Club scene presented the results of their hardware analysis of the Mifare Classic chip at the 24C3 hacker conference last December(2007). That made public for the first time the functional principle of the secret Crypto1 encryption key, as well as various attacks against glaring vulnerabilities in the encryption and the random number generator. The access key for a card can be cracked within minutes on a PC and, with the help of special hardware, within seconds."

German geek magazine C't published an article by Karsten Nohl , Jan Krissler, Henryk Plötz entitled rather nciely, "Chiptease" Verschlüsselung eines führenden Bezahlkartensystems geknackt - Report,RFID-Hack,RFID, Funkchip, Mobilfunk, NXP, Philips, Mifare, Mifare Classic, Pseudozufallszahlengenerator, PRNG, Crypto1, Stromchiffre, Funkchip, Rainbow-Tabelle, Rainbow Table,c't 8/08, Seite 80 which was in April . They remove the coating and reverse-engineered the cryptographic algorithm.

The security of Mifare cards relies on secret keys with a key length of 48 bits. Knowing the details of the cipher would permit anyone to try all possible keys in a matter of days.

In mid April, researchers of the University College London and the University of Virginia reported that they were also able to recover the algorithm. The researchers recovered the full 48-bit key in 200 seconds on a single PC.

5. Radboud University researcher Wouter Teepe presented evidence on the crack to the Dutch parliament, which has already delayed installation of a €1bn automated payment transport system based on the same core technology. Known as the OV-chipkaart, it is to replace paper tickets on all trams, buses, and trains and is already undergoing trials in Rotterdam. The development of the card, , has been beset with problems. It has also halted use of the Mifare chip for access control of Government buildings.

Designed in the 1990s before processors of that size could handle strong encryption, Mifare has suffered at least three published cracks, according to security experts who have urged Transport for London (TfL) to upgrade the system.

When NXP raised an injunction in June to prevent publication of the architecture of the chip which could lead informed people to hack the RFID cards such as the Oyster "Killing the messenger does not solve the problem," Jacobs said. "This paper serves the interest of our society. The problems are real and should be addressed on the basis of sound and well-informed judgment."

6. A Dutch judge has ruled today that researchers Professor Bart Jacobs and colleagues from Radboud University in Nijmegen can publish details of how to crack the Oyster card (and others in use or under development) used on London’s public transport system. The Judge overturned the injunction sought by NXP , citing freedom of expression laws. "(The) damage to NXP is not the result of the publication of the article, but of the production and sale of a chip that appears to have shortcomings," the court said.

Transport for London says it'll be able to ban hacked cards within 24 hours. Ho.Ho.Ho.

In case anyone thinks this is unusual see PIN Entry Device (PED) vulnerabilities
by Saar Drimer, Steven J. Murdoch and Ross Anderson Cambridge University , Computer LaboratorySecurity Group.

"In Chip & PIN card transactions, customers insert their card and enter their PIN into a PIN Entry Device (PED). We have demonstrated that two popular PEDs, the Ingenico i3300 and Dione Xtreme, fail to adequately protect card details and PINs. Fraudsters, with basic technical skills, can record this information and create fake cards which may be used to withdraw cash from ATMs abroad, and even some in the UK. These failures are despite the terminals being certified secure under the Visa approval scheme, and in the case of the Ingenico, the Common Criteria system. Our results expose significant failings in the entire evaluation and certification process. "

The weaknesses were shown on Newsnight BBC2, 26 February 2008. A video of the segment is also available (alternate version: part 1 and part 2). The full report is online here 37 pages Thinking inside the box: system-level failures of tamper proofing .

In this paper we examine the definition and application of security boundaries in tamper-proof systems. Our working example is the UK card payment system,‘Chip and PIN’, which is an implementation of EMV (the EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa protocol suite) [23]. We show how two models of PEDs fail to protect against tampering and demonstrate real, practical, low-cost attacks. The attacks highlight problems throughout the entire process of specification, design, certification and deployment.

So Boris is left with a serious problem. Well TRANsys has a problem.Well NPX / Philips have a problem. Whilst no reason has ever been given for the breakdown last Tuesday 15th July of the Oyster system it looks highly likely that someone has decided to screw the system.

As we all know the CCTV on the Underground doesn't work if you are intent on murdering Brazilian electricians, it is unlikely that anyone will track the crackers or what the Dutch call 'Zwart Rijden' "Black Riders".

Expect more of the same ...

NHS decide on vaccine from UK based GSK - Cervarix® for teenage girls for cervical cancer causing HPV virus - genital warts ignored - none for boys

An editorial published in the BMJ on Friday ,claims (the editorial is by Jane J Kim, assistant professor of health decision science Program in Health Decision Science, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA) that the UK government may save 18.6 million pounds ($37 million) annually as a result of its decision to select GlaxoSmithKline's ( a UK based pharma company) cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix for its human papillomavirus immunisation programme rather than Merck & Co.'s (a US basd pharma company) and Sanofi-Aventis' ( a Paris, France based company) Gardasil. (Search this site on "Gardasil" for post on the subject)

This decision is based on a study Economic evaluation of human papillomavirus vaccination in the United Kingdom by Mark Jit, Yoon Hong Choi, and W John Edmunds, Modelling and Economics Unit, Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency, London NW9 6BT

The model involves 34 variables (Table 1) about which assumptions are made as rationally as possible on the available evidence (We then generated parameter values for cost and utility weights by Monte Carlo sampling (using the Latin hypercube method) from the joint distribution of plausible ranges of values for each parameter - which sounds impresive but is in reality a sort of re-inforced guess, as so litle actual evidence of use is currently available). To make a detailed evaluation of the methodolgy and the evidence supporting the assumptions is skilled and complicated task. Such modelling can easily be "tweaked" ... "We constructed a total of 2700 possible scenarios " . A stricture used is that users of such Monte Carlo simulations rely entirely on the initial subjective estimates and almost never follow up with empirical observation.i.e they place over reliance on the model.. which they have to because no more empirical evidence is available currently.

Faced with a need to make a decsion within a timeframe these limitations must be accepted - however we have the luxury of time, a delay in decsion making makes the position no worse and affords time to refine procedures, undertake critical analysis and consult other viewpoints.

"Only the 72% of model structures that best fit prevalence data for human papillomavirus were used in the analysis, but care should be taken when interpreting model results not to assume that each of the remaining model structures is equally plausible. etc., etc., caveat, caveat ...."

"Although we have included the estimated impact of screening in the model and tried to account for the accuracy of screening in our results, some of the details of the programme (such as rescreening women more often after a suspect result) are difficult to properly implement in the current model structure."

The conclusion arrived at was that Vaccinating 12 year old schoolgirls with a quadrivalent (protection against 4 known HPV virus' 2 of which cause genital warts) vaccine at 80% coverage is likely to be cost effective at a willingness to pay threshold of £30 000 ( Euros 37 700; $59 163) per QALY gained (quality adjusted life years (QALYs), discounted costs and benefits at 3.5% per year in the base case, and adopted a healthcare provider perspective on costs, as required by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), if the average duration of protection from the vaccine is more than 10 years.

Implementing a catch-up campaign of girls up to age 18 is likely to be cost effective.

Vaccination of boys is unlikely to be cost effective.

A bivalent vaccine (affording protection against HPV virus' that cause cervical cancer NOT genital warts) with the same efficacy against human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 costing £13-£21 less per dose (this is max. 10% of vaccine costs) (depending on the duration of vaccine protection) may be as cost effective as the quadrivalent vaccine although less effective as it does not prevent anogenital warts

Jane Kim in the editorial said that "the decision to select the bivalent vaccine implies the Department of Health is willing to accept foregone health benefits (and additional cost savings) from averting cases of genital warts for the reduced financial outlay."

Jane Kim added: "Assuming 80-percent coverage of current 12-year-old girls (each year cohort has some 350,000 girls) in the UK with the full three-dose vaccine series, this price differential translates to savings of 11.5 million pounds ($23 million) to 18.6 million pounds ($37 million) from the vaccine price alone in the first year of the programme.”

In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Health noted that "the contract has been awarded for the vaccine that scored best overall against a number of pre-agreed criteria and offers best value overall to the NHS."

This policy of limited protection at a reduced costs is not without its critics. Colm O'Mahony, a consultant in sexual health at Chester Foundation Trust, commented that “all the clinical evidence pointed to Gardasil and instead [the government has] chosen a vaccine suitable for the Third World.”

Natika Halil, director of information at the Family Planning Association, remarked that "genital warts has its own financial cost to the NHS which spends 22 million pounds ($44 million) a year treating it, so it will be interesting to see how this has been factored into the cost analysis.”

As part of the cost analysis it was intersting to note that the NHS accept that the basic pap smear at Pap smear (£21.70, 2002 prices) is less than the recently introduced liquid based cytology (£25.40, 2003 prices). Also Costs for screening at sexual health clinics and outpatient clinics are higher (£37 and £68 respectively, 2003 prices). These costs will not diappear because screening will still be required because the vaccine only affords protection against 70% of potential HPV strains.

GlaxoSmithKline stated that data on Cervarix have demonstrated the prevention of pre-cancerous lesions and a strong immune response for 6.4 years, noting that “this is the longest duration of protection reported for any vaccine against HPV 16 and 18.”

The government's vaccination programme in 12-year-old girls is expected to start in September.

The Department of Health has released Press release today "300,000 more girls to be offered vaccine against Cervical cancer - extension of the HPV vaccination progamme ". This trumpets the decision to choose Cervarix at a lower cost - for a routine vaccination of girls 12-13 years old starting in September which it is claimed will eventually save up to 400 lives for each year of girls receiving the vaccine. As a consequence The national vaccination programme against HPV is being extended to offer protection to an additional 300,000 girls aged 17-18, starting in September.

A 2 year ‘catch-up programme’ will start in the school year 2009/10 to vaccinate girls aged between 15 to 18. Today’s announcement means that girls, who would not otherwise have been included in this catch-up programme, will now be vaccinated this school year. Boys will not be vaccinated at any age.

Dawn Primarolo says the cost of the vaccine is commercially confidential. Cervarix® will be purchased by the Department of Health who will supply it free of charge to the NHS.

The financial consequences will be that The Department of Health will provide additional support to PCTs in guidance and funding to ensure that the roll out of the older cohort is a success.

There will be an additional £10 million for PCTs in the 2008/09 financial year to implement this extra programme.

It is not accidental or incidental that programme on Channel 4 Dispatches (in the UK only), "The Jab that can stop Cancer" presented by Jane Moore (who has paid privately for the vaccine for one of her daughters and will eventually for the younger daughter to have Gardasil) will discuss this subject at 8.pm this evening.

Professor David Salisbury , Director of Immunisation,Dept. of Health made great claims for the precision of the modelling and calculation for costs and benefits - making asinine remarks about the amount of computer time spent in running the models - all weekend, when nobody else was using it - as if that was proof of veracity or accuracy.

A lady epidemiologist pointed out that cervical cancer rates and mortality had fallen dramatically since pap screening was introduced and that 40 wome died per million. She queried whether the costs justified he claimed benefits say against the people who will suffer heat diseases or more common life threatening cancers.

A snapshot was also provided how the UK market was softened u by intensive (and dubious) marketing programs, and thiny veiled surveys paid for by the pharma companies were presented to the press as "evidence".

GP's , now used a better educated and better informed patient were asking for protection for their children- simply assuming the benefits it provided on the wave of "astro-turfing" or the unquestioning and incurious wall to wall press coverage.

No mention was made of the details of the modelling, nor was it made clear that Cervarix provides no protection against other HPV strains ( are over 100 known strains) that cause genital warts - nor was the case examined for protecting boys.

In the world of private medicine, Jane Moore has made her decision , US and French (and those in 100 countries where it is currently approved) citizens will make theirs (although different insurers have different policies)

NHS Choice HPV vaccination information site

How does a parent decide ?

As the NHS / Government have made a decision to supply at no extra cost the parent has to first consider ;
1. Any vaccine carries risks when used, what are those risks ?

To date the only large scale usage has been in the US and we posted about the latest report here Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Gardasil® gets 7,802 adverse reports to CDC by VAERS system

2. Having accepted that risk , what risk is there of my daughter eventually coming in contact with a strain of HPV ?

It is not 100% but near it. The more promiscuous (ie the greater number of sexual partners - of either sex, it can be transmitted between women) she is, the greater the chance. There is no clear evidence that sexually transmitted infections (STI) have any effect on increasing / reducing the impact. Please note that the cervical smear test, whilst it will may discover evidence of STI's , that information in the UK will not be passed on to the patient. It is not a genito urinary test. (As an aside it would be a service to women to re-jig the test to incorportate a genito - urinary test)

The "pap" smear testing will continue (remember that results vary regionally, and are reported differently, the NI method of identification is different to the rest of the UK. The report also identiffies that fact that over time it will be necessary ..." to take account of possible changes to the cervical screening programme, such as the introduction of DNA testing for human papillomavirus, .....It is clear that significant further work on the design of optimal screening and vaccination programmes is required, particularly if the introduction of vaccination accelerates the recent trend for the declining uptake of screening.

i.e it is possible (many would say highly likely) that vaccination will lead to lack of detection in the population as women will think or assure themselves that the unpleasant cervical smear routine can be avoided.

The FDA says the human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 6.2 million Americans become infected with genital HPV each year and that more than half of all sexually active men and women become infected at some time in their lives.

3. If she contracts an HPV will it be oncogenic (cause cervical cancer) ?

Currently it is felt that the 2 strains afforded protection by both current vaccines accounts for 75-80% of HPV's discovered in pap tests.

Of women conracting oncogenic lesions, the eventual death rate some 40 per 1 Mn a year die, many of course suffer an unpleasant and debilitating illnes for varying periods like all cancers.

4. Will better vaccines become available affording more protection ... ?

No doubt other manufacturers are working , and GSK and Merck will be improving their product - it must be assumed newer products will afford better protection and less risk at lower cost. The timescale is unknown.

To be effective protection must be given prior to any sexual contact - it is not necessary for intercourse to take place for transmission.

This site does not give medical advice, it gives plenty of information and directs the user to sources of further information. Anyone considering having their children vaccinated for HPV must consult their GP.

Joe Moore chose it for her children.

Lord Patel is ;

1. Very sceptical of the need to make a decision - there is no urgency.

2. Not at all impressed by Dr David Sainsbury Salisbury and his fancy modelling - truly it is as good as modern techniques and the data available can provide. The assumptions / guesses used are not based on sufficiently strong evidence .. yet, more will become available as others users / providers take part in a very large experiment on their children. Lord Patel can see no reason why anyone should enter their children in this great experiment. Giving you children a healthy diet, exercise and making sure they never smoke are far greater benefits you can pass on to your kids.

3. Feels that the NHS has higher priorities than providing at zero cost a protection which in essence will stimulate promiscuity rather than restrict it - with the attendant risks of STI's.

4. Is certain that undue pressure (without any proof, but based on wide experience of big pharma) has been put on the decision makers to support a "British" product.

5. It also represents another example of the state usurping personal choices and decisions using a decision making process which is opaque to many people - inlcuding most of the medical profession. (next time you see your GP ask him about the Monte Carlo method usng tjhe latin hypercube method)

BT want a well in PHORMed society - supported by the Government, BERR and criticism supressed by the Press / TV

It is evident from the BT AGM this week that BT see they have a major source of revenue in allowing PHORM to use their networks to make money by spying on users.

They are also intent on ignoring any criticism.

They also have on board Patricia Hewitt the charmless gauleiter who introduced the world of private medecine to the NHS after 4 years at DTI - who is now cashing in her chips to spend more time with her money after her time as a Government Minister.

Shriti Vadera , Gordon's friend, the shrieking mastermind behind Rail Privatisation , and collapsed tube privatisation , is now a Baroness (she would be unelectable even if she copied Lady Godiva - well especially if she did imitate her) who is the Minister for Business and Competitiveness. She has met BT and there is no doubt given them the dusky thumbs up. see Sunday, July 08, 2007 Where are they Now ? Shriti Vadera, shy unassuming Brown adviser gets the chop Title and sidelined new job

See the detailed report here at dephormation.com and also Spy Blog , ZdNet ,The Register

More pics plus Register on EU response to BT use of Phorm FT report BT to begin further trials of ad technology 17th July 2008 ..."Gavin Patterson, head of BT Retail, told the group’s annual general meeting that customers would again have to opt-in for the service.
Critics have alleged that BT conducted trials without customers’ consent in 2006-07.

Mr Patterson said the group had conducted technical trials in that period but had taken legal advice to rule whether it was both ethical and legal. He added that the Information Commissioner had also cleared the technology of breaching data laws." AKA they couldn't give a fuck for the user.

Computer Weekly reported BT presses ahead with behaviour-based ad-serving trials.."BT Retail chief Gavin Patterson said he was thinking of publishing the results of market research that he said showed 96% of consumers were happy with the service.

Patterson said the advertisement serving service, BT Webwise, would deliver only targeted adverts and protect customers against trips to fraudulent websites. He said only customers who opted in to the service would be affected.

Protesters said BT had conducted at least two secret trials, in 2006 and 2007, that involved up to 350,000 customers, a figure BT did not deny at the AGM.

Apart from the FT there is not a traceable news item ***about the use of this invasive, instrusive project which will identity users and their search profile to sell to advertisers, which both Phorm, Carphone Warehouse (talk talk) , Virgin, and BT will profit from.

*** Unless you know better.

Massive UBS scheme to help US taxpayers to defraud IRS of tax on at least US$18 Bn.

We covered the whistleblower Heinrich Kieber, 42, who stole confidential information on tax evaders from the Liechtenstein bank LGT Trust Ltd. which is owned by the Leichtenstein Royal Family - Monday, March 03, 2008 Whistleblower sells Leichtenstein tax dodging details of the German and US business elites to the Bundesnachrichtendienst and Uncle Sam

Faced with a federal investigation into its private banking practices, the Swiss banking giant UBS said on Thursday that it would stop offering offshore banking services to clients in the United States.

Mark Branson, CFO of the UBS global wealth management group, told a US Senate subcommittee that the company apologised (doesn't everyone these days ?) would provide banking or securities services to United States residents only through companies licensed in the UK. he said they would help the Federal Government identify American citizens engaging in tax fraud.

The Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations released a report on Wednesday saying that UBS’s offshore practices helped American citizens hide an estimated $18 billion in 19,000 accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.

Clients in the United States will still be able to access UBS’s services through wealth management units that are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Swiss based advisers will not be allowed to come to the United States to meet with American clients - they probably will be jailed if they do!

The committee also heard anonymised taped testimony from Heinrich Kieber blowing the whistle who is on a witness protection program - see pic.

The subcommittee’s report said that both LGT and UBS helped Americans avoid taxes by setting up convoluted foreign-owned offshore accounts whose assets did not have to be reported to the I.R.S. That practice by LGT, UBS and other offshore companies costs the Treasury Department US$100 billion annually in lost taxes. Which is a lot of unpaid tax.

The report (which is truly eye opening and reads like a novel) commences ...

"Each year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due tooffshore tax abuses. Offshore tax havens today hold trillions of dollars in assets provided by citizens of other countries, including the United States. The extent to which those assets represent funds hidden from tax authorities by taxpayers from the United States and other countries outside of the tax havens is of critical importance"

Both LGT and UBS have what are known as qualified intermediary agreements with the I.R.S., which were established in 2001 to allow the revenue service to collect taxes with the help of foreign banks.

Such agreements have never mandated reporting accounts held by non-American citizens or companies, a loophole that Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota and the ranking subcommittee member, said that LGT and UBS had expertly exploited.

But Mr. Levin and Mr. Coleman indicated that they would most likely seek legislative solutions.

The first major tax investigations have focused on Bradley C. Birkenfeld, an American and a former top UBS executive, who pleaded guilty in June to a single fraud charge of helping an American citizen conceal $200 million in assets from the I.R.S. he resigned from Union Chartyer and faces 5 years jail. He has now (June 20th) agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation of UBS practices, which may reveal the names of scores of wealthy American clients.

In a seven-page statement to the court, Mr. Birkenfeld, a 43-year-old American, said UBS bankers used a variety of ruses to court American clients and help them dodge taxes.

The document reads like a how-to of high-end tax evasion.UBS advised bankers traveling to the United States to tell airport customs officials that the visit was for pleasure, not business, Mr. Birkenfeld said. The bank urged clients to destroy banking records to conceal their offshore accounts.Some American clients were told to stash watches, jewelry and artwork that they had bought with money hidden offshore in safe deposit boxes in Switzerland.

UBS also encouraged them to use Swiss credit cards so the Internal Revenue Service could not track their purchases, Mr. Birkenfeld said.The list went on.

Mr. Birkenfeld said that at times he served as a personal courier for his clients, spiriting checks out of the United States and depositing them in accounts in Denmark, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, away from the prying eyes of the I.R.S. At one point, he wrote, he even smuggled diamonds for a customer in a tube of toothpaste.Mr. Birkenfeld was a Geneva-based director of wealthy American clients with undeclared offshore accounts with UBS from 2002 to 2006.

Over all, that business oversaw $20 billion in assets and brought in revenue of $200 million a year, according to court papers.

He told Judge William J. Zloch that he knew he was breaking the law but did so because of the “incentives” UBS offered him, meaning large bonuses. Judge Zloch asked if he had not been troubled by his actions.“It did concern me, your honor,” Mr. Birkenfeld said.

.“Our position is that Mr. Birkenfeld was working at UBS where people knew exactly what was going on,” Mr Birkenfelds's lawyer Mr. Onorato said after the hearing. “He’s going to tell the government everything he knows. He is going to cooperate with the government fully,” he said, adding that Mr. Birkenfeld “had numerous U.S. clients.”Mr. Birkenfeld’s statement said he had provided evidence that “managers and bankers at the firm, including Birkenfeld,” assisted American clients in concealing their ownership of assets held offshore. His boss was Martin Liechti.

Agence France Press report that the US Department of Justice said Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring with co-defendant Mario Staggl to hide about $US200m (₤101m), attracting US$US7.2m in US taxes, through an elaborate system of fraud.

In May, Federal authorities detained Martin Liechti, a Swiss citizen and senior UBS official, in Miami in connection with the investigation. Mr. Liechti appeared before the subcommittee Thursday, but declined to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment rights.

LGT have not testified before the subcommittee. A senior official from the company did meet with subcommittee staff members last Friday.

This week, the company sent a letter to the subcommittee refusing to testify, saying it had complied with its qualified intermediary agreement. The letter also said that company representatives would be severely limited in what they could say because of the principality’s strict disclosure laws.

Mr. Kieber, now in a witness protection program, is accused of breaking those laws.

Anonymised with a pixelated video deposition , Mr. Kieber told the subcommittee that LGT had used sophisticated methods to avoid detection by American tax authorities. LGT customers were advised to use only public phones to contact the bank, and the company mailed correspondence from nearby Austria or Switzerland, he said.

Michael Robinson, a spokesman for LGT, said in an e-mail statement to a reporter that the documents Mr. Kieber supplied dated “back to a time when the regulatory environment was completely different.”

Shannon Marsh of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., (the subcommittee report, states that Mr. Marsh hid millions of dollars in 4 foundations in Liechtenstein, )and William Wu of Forest Hills in Queens - who orchestrated a fake sale of his house to his own offshore company.

Steven Greenfield of New York refused to appear after being subpoenaed. Peter S. Lowy of Beverly Hills, Calif., will testify before the committee next Friday.

Lawyers advising clients who are afraid their off-shore accounts will be discovered can't offer much comfort. Their clients have only a few alternatives:
• Make a voluntary disclosure to the IRS, pay the tax, interest and penalties and plead for mercy (note that this approach is not viable for people with "illegal source" income, such as money from securities fraud, drugs, robbery, money laundering ;
• Quietly file amended tax returns, pay the tax, interest and penalties and hope overworked government prosecutors won't follow up; Ho.Ho.Ho.
• Do nothing and hope their names won't turn up — a very poor strategy as the odds of being discovered are high and they could be hit with stiff penalties and criminal sanctions.
• Leave the US for good.
If you have an offshore account with unreported income, you should definitely be worried.


Pack your Louis Vuitton, jump on the jet and vamoos....

SLICC and Air Force graft - Buzz Mosley KBE gets sacked - a tangled tale of incompetence

There is a fascinating exhibition at MoMA "Home Delivery - Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" , which few can visit, but a brilliant and absorbing website that everyone can. This was covered in a post Monday, June 16, 2008 Compact, pre-fabricated factory built housing - design that should be easy, but isn't and included this crew rest cabin.

Unsurprisingly the fertile and inventive minds of the military and their suppliers have been at this for years.

Thereby hangs a fascinating tale.

The delightfully named Project on Government Oversight (POGO) - of which there is no UK equivalent) have just sent a fascinating letter stuffed with Appendices to The Honorable Robert M. GatesSecretaryU.S. Department of Defense,1000 Defense ,PentagonWashington , DC 20301

The Air Force have to carry around the top brass, in a war zone they cannot expect Emirates First Class, so a Senior Leader Intransit Pallet” (SLIP) was developed , thuis somehwo morpehed into two "Silver Bullets" which were a sort of modifed Airsteram trailer. Then followed twin "Steel Eagles". .... Dontcha just love this military terminolgy ?

Anyway in November 2006 a specification was drawn up for a Senior Leader In Transit Comfort Conference Capsule (SLICC) (Note the sly elision from the impressions of gilded luxury to the rigours of military command'n'Control.) This was to provide senior leaders with an airborne state of the art environment in which to hold private conversations, accomplish work of a sensitive nature, conduct meetings and rest whilst the aircraft was on route ...SLICC wil be certified for occupancy during take off and landing in KC-10,C-17 and C-130 aircraft. (Appendix A 12 pages )

While General Duncan McNabb was head of the Air Mobility Command, he presided over a decision to extend the Steel Eagle-style privileges to a far-wider range of military and senior civilian leaders and intended to purchase up to ten SLICCs – a substantial expansion of high-end transport accommodations.

The Military have a piggy bank called the Global War On Terror (GWOT) supplemental which is meant to be directly used to fund troops involved in the current conflicts abroad. The Air Force requested $16 million in the recently passed GWOT supplemental to fund the additional SLICCs, according to a June 2008 Air Force briefing on the program. (Appendix B 10 pages).

Gen. McNabb was a picky customer , the SLICC has to have a the SLICC will be ‘World class’ interior. (Appendix D) He wanted Blue seat belts, not brown, blue leather not brown, (This the Air force goddamit!) and he wasn't happy with the carpet - the costs were queried ."How'd we get US$113 K for 4 Pallets ? " says some one in an e-mail ", "I could carpet and re-upholster a couple of house for US$113K !"

Before re-design , the capabilities document for the SLICC (known also as the “Senior Official Work and Rest Capsule” and the “DV Capsule”) contains a detailed list of amenities required such as: (Appendix E 15 pages)
“The wall mounted flat screen/flat panel monitor must have a diagonal measurement of at least 37 inches”;
“A full length mirror”;
“Aesthetically pleasing wall-to-wall carpeting”;
“Aesthetically pleasing wall treatments/coverings”;
“Aesthetically pleasing ceiling treatments/coverings”;
“Internal illumination level will automatically adjust to ambient lighting levels”;
“A single remote control unit which controls operation and all functions of the video playback devices as well as the wall mounted flat screen/flat panel monitor"
Things got to a pretty high level and involved the top brass ...According to another email this was all known at the highest levels of the Air Force: “the SLICC was briefed again this weekend to CSAF [Chief of Staff of the Air Force]who was then T. Michael Buzz Moseley.

The estimated cost of the first prototype SLICC is currently US$2.735 million – and it is based on the already existing Steel Eagle design. Originally the SLICC was estimated to cost US$1.743 million in November of 2006. There has been about 64% cost growth in less than two years.

As of March this year, the total cost increase for retrofit and further customization –which goes beyond wood and leather – for the SLIPs, directed by Air Mobility Command headquarters, is $493,000. (Appendix F)

POGO point out to Secretary Gates that .."The SLICC and SLIP programs are a gross misuse of millions of taxpayer dollars that could otherwise be used to train and equip soldiers. This case is just the latest in a long string of examples which illustrate a disconnect between the senior leadership of the Air Force from the increasingly pressing needs of servicemen and women (including those inside the Air Force) in the current and likely near term conflicts our country faces."

Chief of Staff of the Air Force T. Michael Buzz Moseley is sacked

PS : On 5 June 2008 Chief of Staff of the Air Force T. Michael Buzz Moseley was given an option by the Department of Defense of either resigning or being fired. This was directly related it was publicly stated to Six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded on a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot and transported to Barksdale. The nuclear warheads in the missiles were supposed to have been removed before taking the missiles from their storage bunker.

Thundershow and retired generals sharing the graft

It may also be possible that it was also related to The Air Force Thunderbirds aerial display team which tours airshows as an aid to recruitment - it was intended as part of an extravagant outdoor huge video installation to present a "Thundershow" .A $50 million contract for audio-visual presentation services to Strategic Message Solutions ,of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. This appears to have involved former Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. (ret.) John Jumper, and Chief of Staff of the Air Force T. Michael Moseley. It is suggested that the contract price was inflated, Air Force General (ret.) Hal Hornburg, a pal of these two patriots was associated with Strategic Message Solutions.

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported extensively on the controversy in March, saying it had documents that showed Moseley steered the contract to Shipley. Strategic Message Solution's bid was nearly twice that of a competing proposal, the newspaper said.

Mosley's Knighthood

Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. T. Michael Moseley was knighted during a ceremony at the British Embassy in Washington on May 30 2006. The honorary knighthood, (KBE) at the suggestion of Queen Elizabeth II, stemmed from the general's contributions to United States-United Kingdom relations while he served as commander of the air war over Afghanistan and Iraq at the onset of the war on terrorism.

Who is for petitioning the Queen for him to be de-frocked or whatever it is you do to these sort of people ?

Why Halliburton built those prison camps. ICE keeps up the budget numbers

In 2005 Tony Blair said "September 11 for me was a wake up call".

It certainly woke up the US - legislation poured from Congress. The borders were strengthened by the Homeland Security Act, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) forces were beefed up.

There was no new Pearl Harbour, the other shoe didn't drop.

The forces of law'n'order were not inactive. A signal event is described in a post from Sunday, January 14, 2007 Judge gives ICE until 22nd Jan to tell him where 220 plus illegals are from Swift , Greeley Plant.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided Swift meat packing plants on Dec 12th 1,282 people were arrested. ICE has said about 220 face identity theft or other criminal charges and the rest face immigration charges, The plants raided were in Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn. and Greeley Colorado where 260 staff were arrested. (they didn't raid the Louisville, Kentucky and Santa Fe Springs plants) With more than $9 billion in annual sales, Swift & Company is the world’s second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork. It was founded in 1855 and headquartered in Greeley, Colorado.

Preparations had been going on since February 2006 after several reports of stolen identities were linked to the company. Strangely enough it was in February 2006 that The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary.

In retrospect it is interesting that The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 filed suit in Denver federal court, alleging the arrests of the 265 Greeley workers violated their constitutional rights to due process. (No civil or criminal charges, filed by the government against Swift & Company or any of its current or former management employees.)

Involved in the claim to illegal processes are 61 detainees who were taken to El Paso, Texas instead of remaining in Colorado for complete deportation processing. Some detainees claim they did not know what they were signing when they agreed to leave the country willingly. If they return, they could face felony charges, but they claim agents told them they would be allowed to return legally.

The forces of law'n'order were not inactive. A second signal event took place a short while later and is described in a post from - Saturday, March 10, 2007 Insourcing by Michael Bianco and the US Military - see no evil....

Michael Bianco Inc ,89 West Rodney French Blvd, New Bedford, Ma. 02744 ( 47 miles south of Boston) is an American manufacturer of high quality leather goods they also make military equipment, airvests, medipacs etc.,

The factory was raided on Tuesday 6th March and 300 (out of 500 total workers) people were arrested by Homeland Security and Immigration and Custom Enforcement.

It appears that 240 were flown to Texas for deportation.90 people were flown from Devens Air Force base to a detention center in Harlingen, Texas, on and 116 others were flown to Albuquerque, N.M., on Thursday. See AP story for problems of dealing with mothers / children, providing welfare.

This was evidently a mammoth and well prepared raid ... Mr. Chadbourne, Boston-based field Director of Apprehension, Detention & Removal for ICE, said it took about a month to prepare the Devens area before the raid. His department is a section of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

About 700 agents were called from all over the country to complete what was the fourth largest such raid conducted in the country, he said. He also said about 60 percent of those arrested were from Guatemala. The second largest group was from El Salvador, followed by Brazilians. The women outnumbered men arrested 2-to-1.

It is of interest that owner (and supplier to the DOD / US forces) Francesco Insolia, 50, of 3 Country Club Circle, Pembroke, Massachusetts (also the address of Leather Bags an online leather bag store) ; payroll manager Ana Figueroa, 40, of 150 Thompson Street, New Bedford; plant manager, Dilia Costa, 55, of 43 Sherman Street, New Bedford; and office manager Gloria Melo, 41, of 135 Sprague Street, Fall River, with conspiring to encourage or induce illegal aliens to reside in the United States, and conspiring to hire illegal aliens.

There seems to have been a quietus in the activity of ICE on this front . Then came the big one.
Sunday, May 25, 2008 - Agriprocessors Kosher meat plant ICE raids result in rushed justice for illegals - top prices for Memorial Day beef for the BBQ

You can read the piece above but sufficient to say ICE (The raid …officials boasted… was “the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history.” )rounded up and 297 faced specially organised courts. Mainly Guatemalan, they required and were provided Spansh Court interpreters. A NYT story at the time gave an outline of the procedures. 'Fess up using false identities, take the rap, 5 months in pokey and go home. You wish to contest , lie around in jail and rot. Faceed with no choice they signed up for jail - perhaps who knows ,in Mr Halliburton's camps somewhere and will soon be off on their way home.

It doesn't appear that any of the plant owners, supervisors or managers have ben prosecuted - for anything.

Until that is one of the Spansh Court Interpreters,Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D.
Florida International University incensed at what he experienced wrote an essay which is dated June 13, 2008. A copy is stored here and here and here at the Sanctuary and Docudhama has an excellent exegisis which it is pointless to copy - go look.

Here is a flavour ;

The essay begins:

On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa. The raid ...officials boasted... was "the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history." At that same hour, 26 federally certified interpreters from all over the country were en route to the small neighboring city of Waterloo, Iowa, having no idea what their mission was about.

Dr. Camayd-Freixas describes the place:

The NCC is a 60-acre cattle fairground that had been transformed into a sort of concentration camp or detention center.

Fenced in behind the ballroom / courtroom were 23 trailers from federal authorities, including two set up as sentencing courts; various Homeland Security buses and an "incident response" truck; scores of ICE agents and U.S. Marshals; and in the background two large buildings: a pavilion where agents and prosecutors had established a command center; and a gymnasium filled with tight rows of cots where some 300 male detainees were kept, the women being housed in county jails.

Later the NCC board complained to the local newspaper that they had been "misled" by the government when they leased the grounds purportedly for Homeland Security training.

He continues:

Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed past the perimeter of the compound (only a few journalists came to court the following days, notepad in hand). Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10.

They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí...), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously.

But the most telling thing is it became apparent what was really going on ...

It is no secret that the Postville ICE raid was a pilot operation, to be replicated elsewhere, with kinks ironed out after lessons learned. Next time, "fast-tracking" will be even more relentless.
Never before has illegal immigration been criminalized in this fashion. It is no longer enough to deport them: we first have to put them in chains.

At first sight it may seem absurd to take productive workers and keep them in jail at taxpayers' expense. But the economics and politics of the matter are quite different from such rational assumptions.

A quick look at the ICE Fiscal Year 2007 Annual Report (www.ice.gov) shows an agency that has grown to 16,500 employees and a $5 billion annual budget, since it was formed under Homeland Security in March 2003, "as a law enforcement agency for the post-9/11 era, to integrate enforcement authorities against criminal and terrorist activities, including the fights against human trafficking and smuggling, violent transnational gangs and sexual predators who prey on children" (17).

No doubt, ICE fulfills an extremely important and noble duty. The question is why tarnish its stellar reputation by targeting harmless illegal workers.

The answer is economics and politics. After 9/11 we had to create a massive force with readiness "to prevent, prepare for and respond to a wide range of catastrophic incidents, including terrorist attacks, natural disasters, pandemics and other such significant events that require large-scale government and law enforcement response" (23). The problem is that disasters, criminality, and terrorism do not provide enough daily business to maintain the readiness and muscle tone of this expensive force.

For example, "In FY07, ICE human trafficking investigations resulted in 164 arrests and 91 convictions" (17). Terrorism related arrests were not any more substantial. The real numbers are in immigration: "In FY07, ICE removed 276,912 illegal aliens" (4). ICE is under enormous pressure to turn out statistical figures that might justify a fair utilization of its capabilities, resources, and ballooning budget.

One fascinating item is that ..."There were 697 arrest warrants, but late-shift workers had not arrived, so "only" 390 were arrested: 314 men and 76 women; 290 Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, four Ukrainians, and three Israelis who were not seen in court. "

The three Israelis were actually Rabbis who have to be present at the slaughter to provide the necessary kosher authority. It appears that they, like the whole of the plant management escaped prosecution.

So it goes on ...boston.com 16th July 2008 Immigration agents arrest 31 in courthouse sweep
Associated Press
About 20 cleaning workers from Central and South America remained in custody Wednesday after a sweep of six Rhode Island courthouses that targeted illegal immigrants, including some who investigators said used fake names and Social Security numbers to get hired.

"Simply put, illegal aliens using fake documents to work in the United States are a vulnerability to sensitive security sites," said Bruce Foucart, special-agent-in-charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Boston.

Just to provide another perspective on the Postville incident here is a report on a far right blog ... White Reference ... "According to the search warrant application and affidavit dated May 9th, federal officials relied on a variety of sources, including former employees and at least one undercover source who wore a wire and became an employee of the plant at ICE's request. "

But as I disclosed in my previous post on this raid, *** see pic some pro-white activists affiliated with a local Klan organization were also reportedly involved in the takedown. They not only flooded ICE with complaints, but several volunteered to hire on at the plant and report on the activities from the inside.

This was also posted on another website of the far right , VNN Forum "Since August of 07 members of the Fraternal White Knights and the Iowa Knight riders along with members of the Aryan Werwulfe Brotherhood have been constantly calling ICE on the Postville plant here in Ia. When they demanded proof of illegals working in the jew owned plant, we sent members in to work there and gather that info. The results after many hard months of dedication paid off today and we hope they also get to the other plants we told them about."

Are they telling the truth ?

Sacramento Library has racked up US$4.6Mn unpaid fines (and counting) is this a world record ?

A Sacramento County grand jury in March was investigating the management of the library, They were told that US $2.5 million was due in unpaid fines.
A " revised assessment" comes in an agenda item released today in advance of the library board's monthly meeting, scheduled for next Thursday.

The report says library officials told the grand jury that there was a total of $2.7 million in unpaid fines and materials that had not been returned, but that "upon performing data review and error checking, a large error reflecting a negative amount owed of -$1.6 million was corrected...

"The analysis indicated that the corrected amount total owed by customers was $4.3 million," and additional checking shows the actual amount is now $4.6 million, the report says. They had (in April) 114,000 overdue users see report online.

The grand jury's report criticized library management for credit card abuses, questionable travel expenses and excessive use of consultants, in addition to what it reported at the time was $2.5 million in unpaid fines.

Library director Anne Marie Gold, (at US$145,000 per annum since 2002 ) was accusing of ignoring library employees who tried to warn officials about an alleged billing and kickback scheme. the grand Jury said she "failed to adequately safeguard public funds, and advised the library board that oversees library operations to "seriously consider removing" her from her position. (see biog.)

Facts about Librarians : It was a librarian who married George Bush, Philip Larkin was a librarian , Philip Larkin's dad admired Germany , attended 2 Nuremberg rallies and had a statue of Hitler on his mantlepiece ... George Bush's grandad read books as well.

Plans are already afoot for a George Bush Memorial Library - they can't have his books yet , he still has some left to colour in.

Klimov jet engine sales pitch reaches a climax at Farmborough

How the cunning Russkis sell their jet engines at Farnborough...ooops adults only, are you over ..er.. 21 ? You don't look it, take a peek anyway..Just watch that "cobra " strike on those big , powerful thrusting jets, screaming sidewinding on a "Cobra" strike as the missile fails to penetrate the Sukoi jockey's airspace ..oooh

Thank goodness the authorities have stopped all that. Let's hope BAE don't do any of that sort of thing .. or did for the Al Yamamah .. Typhoon deals.

PS : Boeing say Dreamliner's OK, doing fine, OK, no weight problems, certainly not on the stretch versions, no problems... share price is well up in a bad week...
Maybe it was US$119 a year ago.737 sales are booming ... A380..coming to New York, San Francisco, superb luxury Emirates .. fluff man, I'm telling you fluff. Passenger mile seat costs are lower .. don't give me that BS man..the tanker deal is ours ..nudge, nudge , Know what I mean ?

It's a strong bet that Boeing and Airbus don't use tactics like the Klimov...

Dwain Chambers not on GB team ....Hooray.Does that mean there are no drug fuelled GB athletes - No

The best news for athletes everywhere for some time. 30 year old sprinter and failed wannabe RL star, Dwain Chambers failed to have a lifetime suspension from the Olympics lifted by a London judge today. He won't be allowed to run for Britain in Peking next month - unless he successfully appeals the ruling.

Pity the ruling came from a Judge and not the pompous blazers who run sport today.

Chambers, was banned from the Olympic team in 2003 for taking steroids. He went to the High Court in London after winning the 100 metres in last weekend's trials in Birmingham. The top two finishers there are usually selected for the U.K. Olympic team.

Chambers wanted an injunction to be able to run and Justice Colin Mackay and the court was ``not convinced'' by his arguments. The ruling can be appealed. Jonathan Crystal, Chambers's lawyer, didn't comment as he left the court.

Chambers was the first athlete to be banned for testing positive for THG, the designer steroid distributed by Balco, the California-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative that has been at the center of a U.S. probe of drug use by top athletes.

He was also stripped of his 2002 European 100-meter title and had his British 100-meter record of 9.86 seconds annulled.

Victor Conte , the Balco guru chemist revealed that Chambers, who tested positive for the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in 2003, actually took seven banned substances. The others were a testo-sterone/epitestosterone cream, EPO, insulin, human growth hormone, modafinil and liothyronine. Conte, who served a jail term for distributing steroids in 2005, previously limited himself to saying he gave Chambers “the full enchilada” of drugs.

Beautiful actresses, betrayal, double dealing, Mossad chief blabbed about double agent."Egyptian Flu" stops double talk about Al Yamamah

Egyptian film star Soad Mohamed Hosny (سعاد محمد حسني) was taping her fascinating diaries. Alone at the age of 58 , her body was found on a London sidewalk in front of 'Stuart Tower' (105 Maida Vale), June 1, 2001.

Overweight, a result of spinal disease and medication , troubled with financial probems she allegedly jumped off the balcony of her friend’s sixth floor apartment.

Wire netting on the balcony had been cut, she had one shoe on , the other was in the bedroom - had she been dragged and thrown off the balcony ? A British coroner’s inquest ruled that it was suicide and the case was closed.

She was buried in Egypt . The tapes she was using to record the fascinating memoirs of a much loved young and beautiful actress who mingled with the high society of Egypt remain (as yet) undiscovered.

The First mysterious murder of an Egyptian

They may perhaps have shed some light on the mysterious and brutal murder of Major General Ali Shafik who also lived in London with glamorous with his glamorous wife, a singer Maha Sabry. Major General Ali Shafik was also head of the field marshal Abdel Hakim Amer’s office, who worked closely with Egyptian chief-of-staff Saad el Shazly in preparations for the Yom Kippur war.

It was the smell of his ten day old corpse that alerted the housekeeper of his his rented apartment in 133 Harley Street, London on Tuesday the 5th of July 1977 . Marylebone police station received a phone call from the house keeper who opened the door of the house after the weekend to find the terrible smell of the decayed apartment owner’s body lying in a pond of blood.

Ali Shafik was found dead, killed, he was dressed in full suit, the apartment was a blood messy, Shafik, an big man and ex boxer had struggled with his attacker(s) , he was hit with heavy item,, crushing his skull, and he had been stabbed many times.

In his right hand he was clutching a small suitcase. It contained one million pounds sterling.

The third mysterious murder of an Egyptian

Which is why there was such litle official interest in the apparent de-fenestration of 63 year old Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of the late President Gamel Abdel Nasser, found dead beneath his fourth-floor flat in Carlton House Terrace on June 27th 2007.

He was also the seller of a minor interest in Chelsea Harbour, owners of Chelsea Football Club , friend of their owner Ken Bates . he was also associated with rich gangsters, Adnan Khashoggi***, Tiny Rowland and even the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Police were treating the case as murder but nothing has surfaced.. until a nasty little spat has just surfaced amongst Mossad spies.

Marwan, was fingered by Harold Bloom in his book Eve of Destruction The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War as a double agent stringing his Israeli contact along, telling them what they wanted or needed to believe, until the last hours before the shooting started. Son in law of Gamal Nasser he was also part of the gilded and rich inner circle of his successor, Anwar Sadat, who started the massively successful Yom Kippur war , 4 years earlier.

The Egyptian chief-of-staff Saad el Shazly developed his own concept of a limited war in which Egypt would seize positions; Israel would then have to counteract, with Egypt then bleeding its enemy dry.

A postwar Israeli inquiry commission said that there was a “ source”, that had been a closely guarded secret. Evidence pointed towards someone high in the Egyptian Establishment.

Israeli storytellers say Marwan was a “walk-in” who entered an Israeli embassy in Europe and offered his services in 1969.

The truth is that Marwan had come to London, ostensibly to consult a Harley Street doctor about a stomach ailment. The doctor he had chosen had offices that had been used previously for a covert meeting between King Hussein of Jordan and the general director of the Israeli prime minister's office.

Along with his X-rays, Marwan handed the doctor a file crammed with official Egyptian state documents. He wanted them delivered to the Israeli Embassy in London

Extensive checks convinced Mossad that he was not a double agent. Marwan was contacted by the Mossad in the champagne bar at Harrods, a shop, now owned by Mr Mohamed Fayed.

In the ensuing years Mr Marwan provided information on Egypt and the Arab world that Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Defence Minister, and others would later term priceless. Because of him he warned of the Yom Kippur war - 6 months too early. The Israeli army was mobilised - then stood down, he warned again. The Army and reserves were not called up.

Some believed that he was a double agent.

Mr Marwan denied the claims. he laughed at them claiming that he had never worked for the intelligence communities on any side. He was a simple, hard working business man, who just had a lot of money - said to be over £400 Mn.

Gamal Mubarak, the president's son and possible successor, and Omar Suleiman, the head of the Egyptian intelligence service, attended Marwan's funeral. Sheik Mohammad Seyed Tantawi, Egypt's highest-ranking imam, led the prayers over the coffin, covered with an Egyptian flag.

On the following day, in response to reporters' questions, President Hosni Mubarak called Marwan "a patriot," . "He carried out patriotic acts which it is not yet time to reveal."

His sister saw him some days before his death and said he was well and in good spirits. He was said to be writing a book, but no manuscript has been found.

That's 2 books unwritten, unpublished, unread.

Now we hear that The Shin Bet security service and the Israel Police are investigatingMilitary Intelligence (MI) chief Eli Zeira. Mongers of rumours say he is suspected of disclosing state secrets.

The state secret is that he revealed the name of Ashraf Marwan as a Mossad agent.

Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, took over the case after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz recused himself for fear of the appearance of a conflict of interest, in light of his family connection with one of the figures associated with the case. Media restrictions have been eased since Haartez newspaper obtained the removal of 4 month gag order, started 2 months ago in Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court.

It seems that 2 former officers from the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence section, Brigadier General Amos Gilboa (President Shamir's first Advisor on Arab Affairs and co-founder of Jewish People Policy Planning Institute ) and Colonel Yossi Langotsky, filed a complaint against Zeira over four years ago. So did Mossad chief Zvi Zamir.

Zeira implied and explicitly stated to Israeli and foreign journalists that Ashraf Marwan was the Mossad agent who informed Israel about Egypt's plans to attack Israel on October 6, 1973. Zeira claimed that Marwan was a double agent who deceived Israel. This apparently happened at "some time in the 90's".
Dr. Aharon Bregman, an Israeli historian who teaches at King's College London in an interview to the Egyptian daily Al Ahram. in late 2002 was the first to reveal Marwan's role.

In claims for libel against Zamir by Zeira in June 2007, former Supreme Court justice Theodor Or found for the Zamir, ruling that Zeira had indeed leaked Marwan's name.

Last year after Marwan's death, Zamir said he had no doubt that Marwan had killed himself because of Zeira's disclosures. He did not of course mention or suggest that Marwan had any contact with BAE and the hideous prospective revelations of Swiss bank accounts and the Al-Yamamah deal.

*** Jonathan Aitken MP and Defence Minister for procurement was very much invoved with the BAE Al Yamamah deal. Petrina b.1981 was his daughter by Adnan Kashoggi's (ex) wife Soraya (AKA Sandra Jarvis- Daley from Leicester ). This was only made clear to Jonathan when she was 16 and proven with DNA tests. Adnan's's sister Samira (other of Dodi) was the first wife of Mohamed al Fayed whose revelations of Aitkens meetings at the Ritz (which he owned) led to Aitken's downfall, imprisonment and finding God.

Tiny Rowland was sometime friend of Mohamed al Fayed amd sometime enemy and played dirty poker throughout Africa.

Mohamed al Fayed has been married to gorgeous blonde , former Finnish model and wannabe Miss Suomi Heini Wathén since 1985 and has four living children by her: Jasmine (who has one child, Delilah), Karim, Camilla and Omar.

"We don’t have the luxury to have the debate we’ve been having about should we talk, should we not talk; the—the time for diplomacy here is rapidly coming to an end.”
—Elizabeth Cheney, former deputy secretary of state for Near East affairs (and daughter of VP and war criminal Dick Cheney, AIPAC Policy Conference Round Table, June 2, 2008

Dick Cheney publicly accused House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of "bad behavior" for visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Elizabeth Cheney supported her dad and published an op-ed in the April 12, 2007 Washington Post. She argued that "conducting diplomacy with the regime in Damascus while they kill Lebanese democrats is not only irresponsible, it is shameful." She added: "Talking to the Syrians emboldens and rewards them at the expense of America and our allies in the Middle East. It hasn't and won't change their behavior. They are an outlaw regime and should be isolated."

Elizabeth (the Cheney child who digs heterosexual sex - and boy do we dig her ) is married to Philip Perry (m. 1993), at one time the general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget and very, very, very bright. He was involved on regulating the chemical industry. Post 9/11 there were concerns on safety - Environmental Protection Agency staff felt such fears even more acutely: agency data shows over 700 sites across the country could potentially kill or injure 100,000 or more people if attacked.

He told a meeting finalising legislation to grant regulatory authority over chemical security to the EPA. “If you send up this legislation,” he told the gathering, “it will be dead on arrival on the Hill.”

He left to lobby for the Washington law firm , Latham & Watkins - No 2 in American Lawyers List (he stated his legal life there along with a man called Chertoff who has miracle guts with feelings - both of them are also members of the conservative Federalist Society) that represents the American Chemistry Council, and also strong-arming the Department of Homeland Security for Lockheed Martin and General Electric.

Then Perry is back with the Administration as general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, he gained authority for DHS to oversee chemical plant security. (see this)

So that's good news for the US Chemical Industry.

It was only in January last year that Perry stepped down as general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security and returned to Latham & Watkins. Elizabeth Cheney, Perry’s wife, had given birth to the couple’s fifth child in July 2006. Chertofff had gut feeling agian and supported Perry’s “decision to put his family first.” But there were other reasons for Philip Perry to leave government, too. After all, he’d done what he came to do.

Families - where would we be without 'em?