Dick Cheney AKA the dark destroyer - the eyeglasses have it

Cryptome brings to our attention this picture from the Veep's White House Office of Dick hanging out his flies fishing ? Click on pic to make Dick Big.


Or bigger still

UK expels 4 Russian spies - but pretend we don't have any, lies, deception by Foreign Secretary - Press act as Chorus

Brent crude hits US$78.58 up $1.72

On the July 7th Lord Patel posted "Sasha is not quite in his right mind.” - MI6 told their Moscow spy - more fairy tales from the land of Litvinenko, which broke the news that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had instituted criminal proceedings (6/7/07) under the Criminal Code Article 275 (which includes espionage) against Vyacheslav Zharko, a former officer ( 4 yrs experience with rank of Major) of the Russian tax police, throwing (it is said) some more light and probably many more shadows on the Litvinenko affair.

Vyacheslav Zharko admitted he had been recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) when he voluntarily surrendered in June to the friendly FSB. He claims he was receiving about 2,000 Euros in cash monthly (which apparently he did not declare for tax purposes !) for writing surveys for the British side “fishing out information from various Internet sites.” It was only when he realised what a small fish he was, in a big game he decided to "come clean".

His action in surrendering himself followed on from May 31st news conference given by Andrei Lugovoi, (accused by the UK Crown Prosecution Service on May 22 of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko) who accused Russia's fugitive, London based tycoon Boris Berezovsky of working for British intelligence. (Pic K.Pravda)

In an interview published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Saturday 7th July he said that a man calling himself John Callaghan, (who he says was first secretary of the British Embassy in Moscow and is regarded a career intelligence officer) and one called Paul (AKA Antonio Alvaresde Idalgo****, also AKA Pablo Miller, who worked in Tallinnin 1999 (1st Sec. british Embassy and involved in a criminal case opened against Lieut. Col Valery Ojamae, who was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2001 for high treason," - following a spy row in August 1999 in which Russia and Estonia each expelled two diplomats from their countries. ) he also met him variously met him in London, Istanbul, Helsinki and Cyprus.

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

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

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

Whilst Lord Patel has many and various sources as has, let us say the HM Embassy in Moscow - this story was widely available on the newswires by Novosti

Now apart from a small report in Bahrein and Australia - this story was ignored, although it was a story that made headlined in Russian language newsapers. Do a Google news search, search the BBC ...nada. .. nothing ... zero .. nul point.

Now today bright eyed and bushy tailed our boy Foreign Secretary David Milliband has expelled 4 Russki diplomats (spies in Diplospeak) and looking angry said " a range of issues was under review." This is (apparently) in response to Moscow's refusal to extradite the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the ex (?) KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, to face trial in the UK for his nurder ...naturally he denies involvement.

The Council of Europe European Convention on Extradition 1957, provides Russian to refuse the extradition of a citizen. Whilst the UK has the right to request that Mr Lugovoi be tried in Russia, but the UK's director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald, has already turned down the offer.

Now quite why the Press have not repeated these allegations of Zharkov or tested their truth by asking the Foreign office, Downing Street etc., we leave to the reader to speculate about.

But it sounds like a diplomatic tit-for-tat in which the British public are being misled, misinformed and (as per fucking usual) being sold a lot of bollocks.

"Deepening political crisis between the UK and Russia" Eddie Mayer BBC 4 Radio News at 5.34 BST.

****Identified by Sergei Skripal, a former Russian colonel sentenced August 2006 to 13 years in prison for spying for Britain. (BBC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

see Novosti

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

Matthew Ryecroft ... busy man at the Secret "Bomb Al Jazeera, Qatar" memo trial

This is Tariq Ayoub. He was the Jordanian al-Jazeera journalist killed in a US missile strike on al-Jazeera's Baghdad office on 8 April 2003. That was the same day that two other journalists were killed in the city's Palestine hotel, which was shelled by a US tank.

It didn't seem exactly coincidental then. Particularly as al-Jazeera's offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, were destroyed by a US missile in November 2001.

This is put here to remind you that journalists die. Killed by politicians. Deliberately.

That was then, this is now

Matthew Rycroft CBE ,39 is now (appt 31st March 2005) Her Majesty's Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. He was at one time (from 2002 - 2004) Mr Blair's private secretary on foreign affairs, and it was in this capacity he took notes of a conversation that took place over 2 hours in the White House Oval Office between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W Bush in April 2004. The meeting was also attended, on the British side, by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the Prime Minister’s foreign policy adviser, and Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff. Bush was accompanied by Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, (also the name of a Chevron oil tanker) then his National Security Adviser, and Dan Freed, special assistant to the President.

Rycroft prepared a series of memos focusing on the different areas they covered during their conversation , including Iraq. He had stipulated at the top of his letter from Washington (a letter from Rycroft to Geoffrey Adams, then private secretary to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at that time, and "close" friend of the lady named after the oil tanker)) that it was only supposed to be circulated to those "dealing directly with British policy in Iraq".

He designated the letter as "personal" and "secret", adding a comment at the top of the memo that it was "extremely sensitive" and should only be seen by those "with a really need to know". When asked in court on Friday why he described the letter in these precise terms Rycroft said: "To make the same point but even more so and to make it absolutely clear to each of the people that I was sending the letter to, the sensitivity of this particular discussion and the subject matter that the Prime Minister discussed with President Bush." You bet.

He added "Parts of it had a direct bearing on the British military presence in Iraq and the overall policy context of Iraq."

The court was told that there were 33 named recipients of the memo and 87 who eventually saw it. 2 of the recipients were Mr Blair's director of communications David Hill and his official spokesman, Tom Kelly.

Rycroft was asked why a copy was sent to MI6. He paused. "It was relevant to their function in and about Iraq." ***

Mr Farmer (on behalf of defendant Leo O'Connor) asked Rycroft : "Was it in your contemplation in April 2004 for any part of this document to be made public?"

"Absolutely not," Mr Rycroft replied and added that he did not believe that the Prime Minister intended the document to be made public.

David Keogh, 50, a civil servant who worked in a Cabinet Office communications centre and Leo O'Connor, 44, a political reasearcher are accused of leaking Rycroft's memo and deny three charges under the Official Secrets Act 1989. The prosecution accuses Keogh of making an unlawful copy of the document, which had been faxed to the communications centre where he was on duty, and passing it to O’Connor in the hope that it would end up in the public domain. O’Connor slipped the document into a pile of papers belonging to Anthony Clarke, Labour MP for Northampton South (he voted against the illegal Iraqi invasion) . The MP handed it to Special Branch.

The court was earlier told civil servant Mr Keogh gave the memo to political researcher Mr O'Connor at a dining club in Northampton. It was subsequently passed to Northampton South MP Anthony Clarke, amongst other documents , who then called the police.

The amusing paradox is that the world and his wife know now that the memo referred to the suggestion by President Bush to bomb Al Jazeera's office in Qatar - which seeing the US had a successful missile strike on al-Jazeera's Baghdad office on 8 April 2003 which killed Tariq Ayoub (having smashed the Kabul office in 2001) and on the same day a US tank had hit journalists in their hotel in Baghdad.

Some of the court proceedings are being held in camera

**** Matthew Rycroft was also the author of a secret memo to British Ambassador to the United States David Manning, summarizing a July 23, 2002 meeting with Blair and other government officials "to discuss Iraq". The memo was leaked to The Sunday Times, who printed it on May 1, 2005. (Cached copy by Al Jazeera of the Memo here) and here and is also available here

He has also been named in a list available at Cryptome as an MI6 officer - he also won't have to walk far in Srajevo to meet another MI6 asset Jeremy John Durham Ashdown (Paddy Ashdown - or Paddy Pantsdown (c) The Sun -also Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBE PC - He took up his duties as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 May 2002.). If Cryptome's list is correct there has been an MI6 asset in the Sarajevo Embassy since at least 1994.

See also here. He was also involved in preparing the "dodgy dossier" see here

Where are they Now ? No 359 : Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Noam Shalit, the distraught father of abducted IDF soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit גלעד שליט is reported in Haaretz today calling on Syrian President Assad to ask Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, exiled in Syria, to carry out a small, humanitarian gesture, because he holds the key to his son's release.

Asked is Shalit was in a good health recently , Meshaal grinned, and told a reporter for asharq alawasat: "He is good and he sends his regards." on November 11th 2006.

In a report on December 6th president Mubarak was quoted in the quasi official Egyptian newspaper Al Gomhouria , "Negotiations on releasing him are in their final stage and waiting for Hamas' approval."

Was he kidnapped ? Is he alive ? Is he dead ?

What is certain, is that a lot of Palestinians have been killed by the shelling, strafing, rocketing and bombing of Gaza since it is claimed he was captured.

The Great Game - Colonel Mustard in the woodshed with the cipher clerk

Corporal Daniel James, 44, a military intelligence officer has been charged under section one (1) (C), of the Official Secrets Act 1911 - that on 2 November this year, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety of the state, he “communicated to another person information calculated to be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy”. (Check how many 44yr old Cpls in Army ?)

In his official capacity Mr James is an interpreter for Lieutenant General David Richards, (pic)(currently) the commander of the British contingent of Nato forces in Afghanistan. Danny J is apparently a skilled and fluent Pashtun Dari speaker and has Iranian family connections, possibly with Brighton in sunny Sussex by the Sea where his Farsi speaking mum lives and there is a lively club scene.

Senior District Judge (what used to be called Stipendary Magistrates) Timothy Workman at Westminster Magistrates Court, remanded him in custody until Wednesday December 27, he had been arrested on Tuesday after the court was cleared and proceedings were held in camera for 2 hours.

Wholly inaccurate diplomatic tittle - tattle claims that this is related to UK inspired surrender of Musa Qala to the Taliban earlier this year. (Update - Maj. Luke Knittig, U.S. Army / chief NATO spokesman in Kabul said "Musa Qala has proved to be a very good deal," said "After the agreement, there were 34 days of calm, which led us to believe the elders had made good on their word." However, he added: "We have our eyes closely on Musa Qala. If we see it being used as a launching pad for attacks, we will go back and address that.")

This resulted in allied squabbling (Update - relying on tribal elders to control the Taliban,) and the sacking of Mohammed Daud as governor of Helmand by President Karzai on 7th December, which was engineered by US forces - some claim the foul hand of the CIA was involved. Daud was instrumental in UK inspired surrender of Musa Qala to the Taliban which Richards was involved in - and some say Welsh Rentagob Howell was anxious to pursue, whilst newly installed GMILF Margaret Beckett (Described variously as Foreign Secretary) looked the other way... did her knitting, planned her next trip to Albi ....

This unseemly row amongst the allies led to the American supreme commander of Nato, General Jim Jones, letting it be known, that Lieutenant-General David Richards "would have been sacked if he had been an American officer". and that he was "too political".

Some claim James got caught as piggy in the middle.

Lord Patel's impeccable sources in Islamabad say nothing will happen and it will all be quietly forgotten as tempers die down. However other sources make a connection to the arrest of an employee of the Afghan Ministry of Defence on suspicion of espionage for the Pakistani secret service ISI, which has not been denied by President Karzai's office. (Pic Danny Boy in shadow of General Richards)

UPDATE 21/12/06 9.00am
BBC peddling 3rd rate 3rd hand "official leaks" that this relates to Iran. Now saying James speaks Dari not Pashtun and re-iterating that information leaked to Iran claiming that this could be a "potential disaster" for NATO - BBC correspondent Gardner on BBC Radio 4 News / PM program "Iran has a highly developed network of informers in Afghanistan"

The Registrar General for Scotland shows that James is the most popular name for baby boys in Scotland in 2006 , Daniel was 4th, boosted by the performance of Daniel Craig in the new James Bond movie .... apparently.

VERY interesting article Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general by the well informed Richard Norton-Taylor Saturday July 22, 2006
The Guradian concerning what General Richards told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.
----------
Anyone noticed that the Prime Minister took his old pal, tennis partner and midget Karaoke King of Brent, Lord Levy with him on his drive by, tour d'horizon of the Gulf but left his ace caravanner behind ? Minding the shop .. or told to mind her own business ?

On September 8th the first suicide bombers hit at US forces in Kabul, the following day Coca Cola opened their bottling plant in Kabul (see Lord Patel post here Sept 11th) it is clear that the NATO / US / UK alliance stated unravelling from that date. No wonder they don't want that all discussed in court in Westminster.

We must however make absoluteley certain that it is the fault entirely, completely, totally, 100% of Iran.

Cosmopolitan cooking - Russian salad, Italian Pizzas and Japanese sushi.......Matzot ?

Leonid Nevzlin

When things got hot for Yukos and some colleagues were arrested for tax, murder, and other crimes against the state CEO Leonid Nevzlin (45)(pic 2003 outside Prosecutors office) very sensibly fled to Israel. In November 2003, he was granted Israeli citizenship, which is not difficult because he arrived there and is a Jew - it also means he cannot be extradited - well not very easily - and as he has at least US$1.1 Bn stashed away he can bring modest influence to bear and he has 2 delightful children.

A computer prgrammer he teamed up with jailbird and tax avoider Mikhail Khodorkovsky and founded Menatep which led on to greater things as Russia fell apart - In 2000, he was elected president of the Russian Jewish Congress; in 2001 was elected senator in the Federation Council of Russia.Menatep became Menatep Bank, the corporate ancestor of what became Yukos and his personal piggy Bank.

On the 4th July 2004 however the Russian authorities asked for him back on charges he organized a double contract killing and a string of attempted murders. He has also been charged with "entering into a criminal plot with Yukos' internal and economic security chief Alexander Pichugin to kill certain individuals who posed a ... danger to the company, and to Nevzlin and Pichugin," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement at the time. (Aleksey Pichugin, an employee of YUKOS's security division,has been sentenced already to 20 years in prison) He was wanted on suspicion of evading 26.7 million rubles ($930,000 according to the current exchange rate) in taxes in 1999-2000 and also allegedly appropriated shares in two Eastern Oil Company (VNK) subsidiaries, oil producer Tomskneft and the Achinsk refinery

Isolated in Israel he maintains a turgid blog in which he tries amongst deep ersatz philosophy which Pushkin wouldn't recognise - for example for today we have ;

Мы не рабы. Рабы немы.Это не только скороговорка.
We are not slaves. Slaves are silent. This is not only a tongue twister.

..... to explain how he brought civilisation to Moscow. He also expresses the views that Russia is run by KGB-FSB officers to anyone who will listen. He has also called upon high-ranking US officials to exclude Russia from the Group of Eight. In addition, Mr. Nevzlin has reportedly urged American officials not to make Russia a member of the World Trade Organization - the point of discussion in Latvia and Poland so recently. Nevzlin (who evidently has a high opinion of his powers of diplomacy) went to Washington in Mid 2005 to tell this to a group of US congressmen. (the Russian Embassy asked to have achat with him and to find a comfortable seat on a plane back to Moscow but the USA would not play ball - rendition is a one way game)

From his self imposed exile he underwrote opposition candidate Irina Khakamada, who finished with less than 4 % of the vote in the 2002 Presidential elections.For the forthcoming elections he offered to support the Russian Chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov who told him to fuck off.

Now why did Mr Litvinenko travel to Israel immediately before his meetings in London with his ex KGB chums and the shady Scaramella to have a chinwag and a latke or three with Leonid Nezvin ?

It may be worth testing the very comfortable seating of the first class areas of Heathrow bound Boeing 777 El Al flight LY 315 from Tel Aviv on October 30th - or even the aircon filters which are so easily accessible ?

Or it may not. The El Al cleaners are VERY thorough.

IT was the SUN wot did it

This is the front page of the Sun today - which readers might think bears a strong resemblance to Lord Patel's story LAST Saturday. It does, the lame attention grabbing headline is the same but last Saturday's story was more informative, but is also accurate.


The Italian Job - Spaghetti Trails
Postman Patel November 25th

Mario Scaramella a professor at the University of Naples, was a consultant to the Mitrokhin commission (1)an Italian Parliamentary commission of inquiry into KGB spy recruitment which was was headed by journalist Paolo Guzzanti - and remarkably (?) a senator from former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and fount of wisdom and icon of probity and Truth.A surprising view of commission members was that Romano Prodi was the "Kremlin's man in the EU and Rome"...........

Read on ....Comments on the Mitrokhin commission and most interestingly the connections between Mr Blair, Mrs Blair and Mr Berezovsky....with pictures.

The circumstances in which the ex President of Chechynya, Mr and Mrs Litvinyenko and indeed Mr B, plus his many other pals , henchmen, football fans, drivers, obtained UK citizenship would probably bear (or probably not) very close examination.


Pic C/o the the soaraway week behind Sun. This is a pic of the disarmingly beautiful Mrs Anna Livityenko who appears to have, not only alluring eyes but also emits alpha radiation.

As does Mr Scaramella, various seats on certain BA planes and now possibly an Easy Jet plane upon which Mr Scaramella plopped his bottom as he has been shuttling (scuttling) back and forth from London to Milan.

It is beginning to sound as though the initial smuggled samples of Polonium were carried in a container used originally for Dust'n'Vac.

Lord Patel has updated the story and has a lot of travel advice for those intending to visit Russia and an amusing comment here

Meanwhile Lord Patel who has written previously about the quasi State Armies of Aegis and Erinys (not fogetting Hakluyt) , who obtain stunning contracts in Iraq and have over 20,000 employees in that poor country have only figured very briefly in this tale, so far , is still following some fascinating (and possibly futile) trails. The radioactive HQ of Erinys is handy for Mr Berezovsky ( and employee Litvinosky who "popped" in (and many would have us beleive left a trail of Polonium) but their registered office is the charming Wiltshire farmouse of their founder and friend of .... well quite a few very interesting ex British Armed Forces officers who regularly are trotted out at Royal United Service INstitute (RUSI) "conferences".

e.g General Sir Roger Wheeler , Knight Grand Cross of the Bath , CBE was CGS1997 and 2000. Sir Roger is the current 'Constable of the Tower of London'. He also joined the Aegis Board at the same time as Lord Inge .. and is also a Board member of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (AKA National Police Service in embryo) . Another chap who makes his own modest contribution is Fatty Soames, MP happily joining Aegis at the same time who is also a member of Council of the RUSI.

Want to know more? Simply search Lord Patel's dominion by inserting "RUSI" in the top left search box - keep a spook happy for weeks.

Carlyle Group - Gadaffi and Monkey Business

As Lord Patel has previously noted, on 1st October it was announced that the shady Carlyle Group had bought Tamoil for US$3Bn from the even shadier lady, Gadaffi and Libyan Gubment Oilinvest, Libya's foreign oil investment arm. Tamoil was acquired by Oilinvest (Netherlands) B.V. part of Oilinvest, in 1988.

Tamoil refines, markets and sells the country's oil, and has around 3,000 petrol stations in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain, with a further 150 in Africa where they have a presence in Egypt, Chad,Niger,Burkina Faso,Mali and Eritrea. Tamoil famously has a Euro 110 Mn ( a year) sponsorship deal with Italian Football club, Juventus until 2010 - Gadaffi's son was until recently a Director of Juventus.

It is claimed that less than a third of Libya has been explored for oil. The country’s estimated reserves of 37 billion barrels put it among the top ten potential oil exporters. Current output is said to be 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) which could dvelop to over 3.0 million bpd by 2010.

Details of the deal (or confirmation that it has happened) have not been divulged by either party although the private equity world is full of gossip. This deal (and the need some say to seal it) has resulted in a sign of a major shift in the Carlyle Group investment policy . The D.C.-based private equity firm has hired Walid Musallam, former CEO of the Abu Dhabi Investment, to lead a new Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team as managing director.

The group will operate from offices in Cairo, Egypt; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Istanbul, Turkey, Carlyle will invest in a variety of sectors, including energy, financial services, health care, industrial, technology and transportation.

"Carlyle's global network and industry expertise are great differentiators that will benefit growing Middle Eastern and North African companies," Musallam says.

Musallam is a heavy mover and has also been CEO of Middle East Capital Group, a merchant bank based in Beirut, Lebanon (their website still shows him as CEO) He also was founder and CEO of D.C.-based Infrastructure Finance Group, with wide expereince on financing, acquisitions and dealing with governments on restructuring and privatizing state-owned facilities.He has also managed several construction projects in the Middle East.

Mr Musallam served as senior investment officer at the International Finance Corp. in D.C. and a vice president at Lehman Bros. in New York. He has managed several construction projects in the Middle East.

The very well connected and secretive outfit evidently senses a change in investment opportunities in the area - changes and opportunities that seem fairly remote to some observers.

It is interesting to read Mr Musallam in the Daily Star , Beirut 5/7/03 on the Al Jazeerah website "Why Americans support the war on Iraq" ...for example

"...how does it (the US Gubment) justify the war for Iraq where the regime was known for its antagonism toward fundamental Islam and there was no proof of a link with Al-Qaeda or the events of Sept. 11 let alone the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction? "

Popular views on the Beltway - from a man who it says was working for the World Bank.

Maryoshka Part 2 Muddy Waters and dangerous coffee

Beria with Svetlana, Stalin's daughter, whose son Serge, she fell in love with.

Red Army high commanders were scared shitless of Lavrenti Beria ; the phrase they had for being purged was "going to have coffee with Beria".

Stalin's death agonies were grotesque. When he was breathing his last, Beria's face shone with sweat and delight. When Stalin regained consciousness, Beria dropped to his knees and lovingly kissed his hands.

After Stalin's funeral, Beria was the first to set about discrediting him in the eyes of the supreme communist leadership. Secret tapes of Stalin's conversations were played to the central committee. The "cult of the individual" was denounced.

Beria wanted a basic revision of Soviet policies at home and abroad. He was in a powerful position to become the single successor. His luck and lack of supporters failed him. In June 1953, his colleagues Nikita Khrushchev (who had himself filled lakes of blood in the Great Terror) and Georgi Malenkov had him arrested, suspecting (reasonably) that he was planning a coup d'état.

Having resumed control of the security agencies, he certainly had the institutional opportunity, and his career showed he had the ruthless ambition. Beria's dual nature as killer and reformer was not understood.

A secret military trial followed. In December 1953, despite his pleas for forgiveness, he was shot.

Is there a Beria in the Kremlin today?

Whatever (and we still have had no post mortem) killed Alexander Litvinenko we are still uncertain - forensic scientists who talked of ricin factories without ricin, who cannot now tell us what explosive the 7/7 bombs were made of , who talk nonsense about making peroxide based bombs in aircraft toilets plainly cannit be relied upon. Nor would any sane commentator.

Whoever killed Alexander Litvinenko had a dual ambition - the death of a traitorous turncoat and the desire to squarely place the blame on Putin ... perhaps Litvinenko had, " a coffee with Beria ?"

There are many players in this carefully constructed,staged and prolonged death - a cipher for a struggle of wider dimensions and deeper struggles than we can yet imagine. It would be foolish to think that Putin rides the tiger without threats to his positiomn when the Russian economy is bringing (and has brought) enormous riches to sworn foes - of whom Berezovsky is only one.

It is too soon to make a judgement. Of one thing you may be certain, Plod will make a fucking mess of the investigation .... this is way beyond them.

First thing is, find out what killed Alexander Litvinenko.

Plod pounce's .. Polonium plot to be exposed ....?

There is huge relief in the fear factory, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, of Scotland Yard's Terrorism Department is on the job.... according to a report in the Sunday Torygraph..."focussing on when, where and how Mr Litvinenko received the lethal dose of polonium 210."

You can sense the Rolls Royce minds of the Met at work on this one....there is more, as the challenging intellect of Peter "The Sphinx" Clarke addresses the problem ....lights his pipe, picks up his violin maybe....

"We will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill, and identify people he may have met. There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV footage."

Well, cannot fault him there ... but CCTV ? Hundreds, nay thousands of hours looking for the 7/7 bombers and we have one dodgy still ? ( ..and lots of overtime Sarge. Luvvly jubbly) ...... Lord Patel's confidence is ebbing away. Already.

The urgent need to fly to Italy to interview the Italian spaghetti munchers must be forming in the recessses of the mind of London's finest, our bulwark against ... er ... world terrism ? (See pic of the indefatigable detective with his lunch box).

Plod might like to pursue these interesting titbits. Mr Litvinenko (now a British citizen) lives on one side of the road, with his wife and son (who joined him via Turkey) opposite is Akhmed Zakayev, who was one deputy prime minister of Chechnya and he like BB has been granted political asylum here.

Companies registered in the British Virgin islands associated with Mr Berezovsky are shown onthe Land Registry as owning both houses.

Plod might wish to cast his eyes over the current news from Chechyna - always assuming he can find it.

PS Paul William Hampel was arrested by border security officers at Montreal's Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport last week, carrying $7,800 in five currencies, several cellphones and a shortwave radio. The Canadian Security Intelligence Agency seek to deport him as they allege he is agent with the SVR and has lived in Canada for more than a decade under a false identity and that he used a fraudulent Ontario birth certificate to get three Canadian passports. He will appear in court again on Tuesday. A national security certificate has been issued which provides for his immediate deportation.

He travelled frequently to the Balkans and produced a book of photographs "My Beautiful Balkans" which can be seen here.They are very good.

This has echoes a case over 10 years ago when a married couple in Toronto ,known as Ian Mackenzie Lambert and Laurie Brodie were discovered to be Russian spies named Dmitriy Vladimirovoch Olshevskiy and Yelena Borisovna Olshevskaya.

The real Laurie Catherine Mary Brodie was born in Quebec on Sept. 8, 1963, and died in Toronto before her second birthday, Canada's Security Intelligence Service said.

Her (then) husband called himself Ian Mackenzie Lambert, the name of an Ontario child who died Feb. 17, 1966, before he was three months old.

In a curious twist to the story the Russian lady in the case married Canadian doctor Peter Miller in December 1996 and applied to return to Canada in August this year, claiming to have quit the spy agency in October 1996. She was refused.

She had met the British-born doctor and Oxford graduate who worked in Canada's medical insurance industry, at a scotch-tasting party before her deportation. Her (new) husband has tried to have the attractive spouse imported for several years. With no success.

Hain's DUP "sweetener" exposed - Stormont brouhaha fogs the issue

Northern Ireland Secretary of State and wannabe Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Mr Peter Hain appointed Mrs Bertha McDougall as Interim Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles last year.

Bertha is is the widow of a police reservist killed by the INLA (Dirty Catholic bastards) in 1981 and her appointment and the method of appointment was challenged by Brenda Downes, whose husband Sean was killed by an RUC (Dirty Prod bastards) plastic bullet in west Belfast in 1984.

Having reviewed the appointment Mr Justice Girvan taking the role of Solomon, said the appointment of Bertha McDougall by Mr Peter Hain, was in breach of "the accepted merit norms concerning public appointments" and he also called for a high-level inquiry.

Mr Justice Girvan held that Mr Hain had been motivated by an improper political purpose, namely a confidence-building gesture to the DUP.

The judge ruled Mr Hain had failed to take account of the fact there was no evidential basis for concluding that Mrs McDougall would command cross-community support....which doesn't need a degree in post conflict studies in Northern Ireland to work out.

What this means , is Peter Hain has been caught bang to rights in the process of hornswoggling, influence peddling, public office jiggery pokery to buy off Ian Paisley's DUP in the vain hope this would help buy their support for political agreement on power sharing with the IRA Sinn Fein .

The breach of security at Stormont, on Friday by the well known and readily identifiable Michael Stone, captured on camera, swift and unequivocal suspension of his Easter Day rising parole licence and return to jail , the absurd charges of attempting to murder IRA's Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are NOT a handy smokescreen to hastily remind the DUP that Peter Hain still calls the shots on all their salaries.

Mr Peter Hain is a man of probity and deep integrity and anything that may or may not have happened can be blamed on is the responsibility of civil servants, someone else .er ... that's it. The spooky guys also had nothing to do with this. Honestly. Lord Patel overheard someone in the bar of the Horse Guards Hotel telling someone.

Udo Ulfkotte ? Tales of Terrorists

Der Krieg im Dunkeln (War in the Dark) is a book recently published by Udo Ulfkotte,(see pic). Previously a correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he now teaches security management and defense against terror at a north German university.

Wayne Madsen picked up on his book and the details he provides of the operations of two Israeli intelligence units in France ;

Metsada - specialising in sabotage, including "false flag" terrorist attacks and assassinations
LAP (Lohamah Psichlogit) - which engages in psychological warfare

Ulfkotte claims that British and German intelligence agents encountered Metsada and LAP agents in France stirring up violence during the November 2005 riots, blamed on Islamic extremists. WMR also reported that Interior Minister and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy ( A Roman Catholic with a Jewish mother - Andrée Mallah) , who is supported by pro-right wing Israeli (Likud/Netanyahu/Olmert) factions in France .

Sarkozy he says coordinated and continues to coordinate the paying of agents provocateurs to engage in violence in the predominantly Muslim Banlieus of Paris and other cities. The November 2005 riots spread from Paris to Rouen, Lille, Nice, Dijon, Strasbourg, Marseilles (where Mossad's Branch C, also responsible for Paris and London, maintains a large station), Bordeaux, Rennes, Pau, Orleans, Toulouse, Lyon, Roubaix, Avignon, Saint-Dizier, Drancy, Evreux, Nantes, Dunkirk, Montpellier, Valenciennes, Cannes, and Tourcoing.

Ulfkotte also quotes a British MI-6 source who reported that Israel's goal is to portray Muslims as "unpredictable threats who cannot be integrated into Western society."

Clear enough ?

Well David Sketchley has a confusing tale to tell at Daily Sketch

Having read the Wayne Madsen report he e-mailed Udo Ulfkotte who denied saying anything like that....

Hi
funny what people report who have not read the book. Its quite right that I have written a book on espionage. But I never have written any sentence like this: quote from Wayne Madsen:

He sent this reply from Herr Ulfkotte to Wayne Madsen who provided a detailed translation of the book provided by his technical translator which confirmed everything WMR reported.

He e-mailed Udo Ulfkotte again with this news from Wayne Madsen and got this brief but revealing reply ;

From: Dr. Udo Ulfkotte
Sent: martes, 31 de octubre de 2006 19:10
To: David Sketchley
Subject: Re: Der Krieg im Dunkeln

Dear David

thanks for your mail. As I wrote with my last mail I have written what I heared from my intelligence sources. And I personally don`t think that the Mossad was/is behind that

Best regards from Udo

Wayne Madsen has subsequently provided a scan today of the appropriate pages (56/57) in the book in which it is clear what Ulkotte wrote.

A visit to his website and a read of his essay "The world turned upside down" provides a greater insight into Herr Ulfkotte. Evidently he has a wide experience, excellent contacts within the German Government and their Security Services. He also has another website "World Turned upside Down"

Quite where the Truth lies with Herr Ulfkotte it is difficult to discern.

Xymphora also had an interesting post and a lengthy debate amongst readers.