Singapore Dollar v Pound Sterling

The Puritan Gift - the rise and the role of Wall Street, MBA's and Accountants in the post war decline and export of US manufacturing industy

THE PURITAN GIFT Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream by Kenneth Hopper & William Hopper I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007 Website Amazon

THE PURITAN GIFT traces the origins and characteristics of an American managerial culture which, over the course of three centuries, turned a handful of small colonies into the greatest economic and political power on earth. It argues that the energy, social mobility, competitiveness and capacity for innovation, all of which lie at the heart of that culture, have their origins in the discipline and ethos of America’s first wave of European immigrants: the Puritans.

Essential reading for the fall and rise of post WWII US manufacturing industry the malign rise of Management Schools and their graduates and the role of accountnats and the relentless demnds for increased quaterly returns being reported to support an ever rising share price and ultimately the reliance not on shareholders funds but funds from banks.

On November 4, 2008, Peter Day of BBC Global Business interviewed Kenneth and William about THE PURITAN GIFT. Visit Day's Global Business page and click on "Listen (23 mins)".

Short video describing the book


The cavity magnetron was invented in November 1939 by two British scientists, Drs Randall and Boot, working at Birmingham (UK) University under Professor Mark Oliphant. There was a need then for shorter-wavelength, higher-frequency oscillators for more accurate radar detection of planes, U-boats, etc, at frequencies that existing glass-valve oscillators couldn't generate. Randall and Boot (aged 22 at the time) came up with the idea of a "cavity magnetron" that produced high-power centimetric radar.

Early in 1940 Sir Henry Tizard suggested to Winston Churchill that Britain should disclose its scientific secrets on military matters to the USA and Canada in exchange for desperately needed assistance in technology and production. Tizard was Rector of the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London and had been chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence since its formation in 1935; this committee had been largely responsible for starting and promoting the work on radar in the UK. In 1939 Tizard was the chief scientific advisor to the Air Ministry and was a central figure in organizing science for the British war effort. The proposal for an exchange of information with the USA and Canada was the subject of intense debate after Churchill became prime minister in May 1940. The resulting maneuvers, both bureau-cratic and political, at this highly critical time just after the fall of France now appear quite extraordinarily short sighted. This sorry situation is well described in Zimmerman’s book Top Secret Exchange.

Churchill gave final approval on August 9th for a mission headed by Tizard to go to Canada and the USA.

James P. Baxter, the official U.S. historian of scientific developments in WW II, said of the first cavity magnetron brought from the UK to North America :

When the members of the Tizard Mission brought one toAmerica in 1940, they carried the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores. It sparked the whole development of microwave radar and constituted the most important item in reverse Lend-Lease.

The Hoppers give this as an example of the skills of US industry in adopting ideas and revving up manufacturing ...The outstanding performance of the magnetron disclosed by the Tizard Mission in September 1940 persuaded the Americans of the need for a major laboratory to develop microwave radar. The result was the immediate establishment of the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA., which became the major US radar laboratory.

So successful was the programme at the Radiation Laboratory that the first experimental airborne 10cm radar was tested in a Douglas B18, with Bowen on board, on 27 March 1941, only seven months after the Tizard Mission had arrived in the USA. Their first 10cm AI (SCR720), accompanied by Bowen, was demonstrated in the UK in August 1941 and later became known as AI Mk IX.

In the course of the next year the Radiation Laboratory grew in size and soon became the most important and productive radar laboratory in the USA; by the end of the war the staff numbered about 4,000.

The Tizard Mission, was highly successful. It drew the attention of the Americans to the importance of radar as a weapon of war, introduced them to airborne radar, accelerated the development of centimetre-wave radar by giving them the cavity magnetron and helped them to set up the highly successful Radiation Laboratory.

Coins in his pocket

The major problem the UK had in ming their cavity magnetrons was in making the multiple chambered device central to the valve - it was for this reason that help was sought from the US and Canadian allies. An engineer drafted in to the meetings, had a habit of shuffling coins from his pocket from one hand to the other.

He realised that carefully designed and engineered slices woul enable rapid and precise fabrication. A secret they failed to share initially with their allies.


The Germans first discovered the multi-cavity magnetron on February 2nd, 1943, when
a British Pathfinder bomber on a raid on Cologne was shot down near Rotterdam, the plane containing an H2S airborne radar using a 10 cm wavelength magnetron (type CV 76).

The explosive charge, designed to destroy the radar set when the plane crashed, failed to explode.

The Germans were astonished at this microwave radar and very rapidly made Chinese style copies of the magnetron (even as far as copying the type number). Later in 1944
an H2X radar was captured from a crashed American bomber and the 3 cm wavelength magnetron was copied and was in production by early 1945.

Aerial bombing campaign continues unabated... nothing changes

With complete command and control of the skies over Afghanistan and what used to be called Iraq the US and allied Air Forces maintained their stauration bombing... detailed at Air Force Link November 11th when we remember the dead of 2 World Wars.

In Afghanistan, an Air Force B-1B Lancer and an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle dropped a guided bomb unit-31 and GBU-38s onto anti-Afghan forces who were firing rocket- propelled grenades at coalition forces conducting operations in the vicinity of Shkin (4 miles from the Pakistan boarder at an elevation of 7800ft see map) . The missions were confirmed a success (as ever) by an on-scene joint terminal attack controller.

This brings to mind an incident on April 9, 2003 when the USAF killed 11 civilians and wounded one. A coalition bomb hit a home after an Afghan militia checkpoint came under attack in Shkin on the Pakistani border. Four militiamen were wounded in the attack. A quick reaction force from Coalition Task Force 82 responded to the attack on the checkpoint, said officials. The checkpoint is very near the firebase in Shkin and about a mile and a half from the border. The force spotted two groups of five to 10 enemy and chased them toward the border. The force requested air support, and Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers responded. One Harrier engaged the enemy with cannon fire and the other dropped a 1,000-pound laser-guided bomb. That bomb missed the intended target and struck the house.

In total, 62 close-air-support missions were flown in support of the ISAF and Afghan security forces, reconstruction activities and route patrols.

Total failure to control Prison drug trade in Wandsworth ..and probably in all prisons

Spyblog identifies the continuing problems of drugs in our largest prison and the failure to tackle to import and usage of mobilephones which sustains the prison drug trade. 2007 - 2008 Independent Monitoring Board annual report for Wandsworth prison

Section 10.5 Access to Drugs

1. Drugs continue to be widely available within the prison. This is supported by the high level of positive MDT’s. As of June 07 this was 12%.

2. Increased drug availability is fuelling bullying, intimidation, prisoner debts and a gang culture.

3. Mobile phone usage is increasing as demonstrated by the number of phones being found.

In their comments on the current position they reveal ...

Phones are not just used to drive the drugs trade in Wandsworth. We have seen a phone seized by Security which had the most graphic and violent images taken in another prison, including forced sex and stabbings. With the possession of mobile phones within prisons now being a criminal offence we look forward to the Police taking a more active role in arresting and charging those found with mobile phones in prison. We had very high hopes last year that the BOSS (Bodily Orifice Security Scanner) chair would be used to try and detect more phones being brought in by prisoners. Unfortunately it has hardly been used at all.

"BOSS is a unique, fast, non-intrusive, inexpensive, high sensitivity detector designed to etect metal objects hidden in body cavities. It is commonly used in corrections facilities to scan inmates for weapons and contraband objects hidden in anal, vaginal, oral and nasal cavities. At some sites visitors are also screened.Suggested Retail: US$8275.00 (website)see pic

It is evident that there is no serious attempt to control the prison drug culture, nor to attack the problem of corrupt prison staff or block the usage of mobile phones nor track their usage by readily available technology such as Path Intelligence , who supply FootPath™, that provides retailers an automated measurement technology that can continuously monitor the path that your shoppers or passengers take from their mobile phone signal.

They can of course listen to MP's interviewing their constituents....REPORT ON TWO VISITS BY SADIQ KHAN MP TO BABAR AHMAD AT HM PRISON WOODHILL , REPORT OF INVESTIGATION BY THE RT HON SIR CHRISTOPHER ROSE, CHIEF SURVEILLANCE COMMISSIONER, February 2008. ..." The conversations between Mr Khan and Babar Ahmad on 21 May 2005 and 24 June 2006 were monitored. The monitoring was carried out lawfully under the legislation. It was properly authorised and fully documented."

Here's one we found earlier

Top TV academic Laurie Taylor on BBC 4's "Reading Aloud" just now, established how liberal his editor is, by reading an e-mail from a listener raving about BBC bias on the reporting of the US election and the uncritical acceptance of the saintly nature of Barack Obama and family and their putative dog.

Naturally the writer, labouring over his spittle flecked keyboard predicted (incorrectly) that his ourtrage would not be broadcast ....

Possibly because, so blinded with unfocussed bile and hate his brain ran ahead of his fingers and he managed to produce the word pariahtors to describe the capitalist scum who own the world's Press and TV.

Someone out there may have the mot juste to describe such serenditpitous neologisms - surely lexicographers have manufactured the appropriate collective noun ?

These are of course a distinct species from the Freudian slip - a word that was sought but replaced by a mother.

The Guardian's Simon Hoggart was not unknown to entertain with such witty and inventive wordplay - a career gone into decline since he discovered that he was sharing la Quinn's pudendal playground with the loathsome David Blunkett. No doubt he spends too much time laving his loins with powerful antiseptics and his lily white and sensitive hands are too sensitive to pound his portable.


It is worth noticing that in the debate over ending lifetime tenencies for council house it is revealed today that heartless cuckold Blunkett's Sheffield has the longest council house waiting list in the country. Some 87,773 households are waiting for a home – equivalent to 39.7 % of the city.

Nudge,nudge...wink, wanker - behavioural economics

This smug looking well fed, grey haired white man and chosen advisor to President elect Obama is Richard H. Thaler (b. 12th Sept 1945)he is is the theorist behind the juvenile concepts pushed in the dreamy eyries of academe called behavioral economics / finance. He has promoted these insane nostrum along with Daniel Kahneman and is is coauthor, with Cass R. Sunstein, of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Yale University Press, 2008).

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for hemselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice.

Amazon review - 'This book is terrific. It will change the way you think, not only about the world around you and some of its bigger problems, but also about yourself.' --Michael Lewis author of The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and Liar's Poker

Thaler started out at Case Western Reserve University in 1967 with a BA . At the University of Rochester, he received his M.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1974.

Floating in the world of movers and shaklers at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, he must have bumped into Obama . He is an associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His academic record is impresive but seems l to lack ony business experience of any value. He has previously taught at Cornell University and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Thaler presides as an in-house expert who regularly consults with Barack Obama's top economic advisor for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, Austan Goolsbee .

Thaler has also organized a series of behavioral finance seminars along with Robert Shiller, another behavioral finance expert over at Yale School of Management.

Thaler gained some attention in the field of economics for publishing a regular column in the Journal of Economic Perspectives from 1987 to 1990 titled Anomalies, in which he documented individual instances of economic behavior that seemed to violate traditional microeconomic theory.

Thaler also is the founder of an asset management firm that enables a select group of investors to capitalize on cognitive biases such as the endowment effect, loss aversion and status quo bias.(Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, Inc. is an institutional investment firm managing approximately $1.5 billion* in long-only and long/short equity assets. Founded in 1993, the firm is 100% controlled by key professionals. We are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. )

Thaler has also written a number of books intended for a lay reader on the subject of behavioral finance, including Quasi-rational Economics and The Winner's Curse, the latter of which contains many of his Anomalies columns revised and adapted for a popular audience.

In one of his most recent papers together with three Dutch economists Thaler has analyzed the choices of contestants appearing in the popular TV game show Deal or No Deal and found support for behavioralists' claims of path-dependent risk attitudes.

Basically his crass belief is that economic behaviour can be "nudged" not necessarily by stock pickers in the financial press, tipsters on the sports pages but by ...say the careful placement o healthy and nutritional foods at the canteen checkout - ignoring the fact that profit pr sq foot determines placing the impulse buys at the check out not rational behaviour.

Anyway if you have the patience read the guff and choose for yourself from the management self help bookshelf at Wal Mart whe his books are handily stocked by the National Enquirer and Hello magazine.

With advisors like this, expect some really, really good ideas for resolving the problems of the US auto industry.

Obama's economic advisors.. Spot the nigger

It was revealing when Obam revealed his smug, smiling economic advisors (the "economy posse")- with some 30,000 professors of the subject and a few of them black and Hispanic , few have shown the democratic values needed to support and advise their president elect.

Always assuming aconomic advice is worth taking .. pout two economists in aroom and get three sets of advice.

Mr. Obama is acting with the greatest urgency (it says here) toward choosing a Treasury secretary and is said to be considering Lawrence H. Summers, who held the post during the Clinton administration, and Timothy F. Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. (NYT)

Assembled to offer wide-ranging advice, the group of 17 included Mr. Summers and his predecessor as Treasury secretary, Robert E. Rubin; Paul A. Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, and Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google. The billionaire investor Warren Buffett is to attend by speakerphone.

Other participants included Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles; former Commerce Secretary William Daley; William Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Anne Mulcahy, chairman and chief executive of Xerox; Laura Tyson, former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan.

All these look like a re-tread of the Clinton era and also hang with them the smell of the foul smelling pardons he provided the day he left office ....

It was of course Antonio Villaraigosa, who with Congressman Xavier Becerra and State Senator Richard Polanco - the three most prominent Mexican politicians in Los Angeles who lobbied (after receiving handy campaign donations) to write letters and make telephone calls to President Clinton urging him to pardon Carlos Vignali.

Horatio Vignali , Argentinian immigrant made good, and very weathy father of Carlos Vignali gave $200,000 to Hugh Rodham, Hillary Clinton's fat, sleazy , brother brother, to convince Bill and Hillary to release his cracl dealing son Carlos Vignali - but none of his poor, black and Hispanic co-defendants.

Carlos Vignali and 30 black gang members were caught planning to distribute over 800 pounds of crack cocaine. He and the 30 blacks were imprisoned after pleading guilty to the crack cocaine distribution charges.Carlos is active today in his father's extensive real estate businesses in downtown Los Angeles.

On Clinton's last day in office, he signed the pardon (sentence commutation) releasing Carlos Vignali from prison. He was then serving the 6th of 15 years in prison.

For further details of Obama's list of economic advisors go here also see piece above about Thaler and his lunatic ideas.

Russian Bear increases it's energy hug on Italy / Europe - oil / gas and nuclear deals signed up

RIA Novosti are reporting that our old pal, Mr Vagit Alekperov , president LUKoil is prepared to slash their current projected investment programs from US$ 8 Bn. to US$ 4 Bn. if the price of oil falls to US$ 45 per barrel.

"We have worked out three pricing scenarios: at US$ 80 / 65 and a third, crisis price of US$ 45 per barrel." Investment would be reduced by USD 2 billion at each pricing stage, from US$ 8 Bn. to US 4 Bn. He told journalists the investment cuts could affect refining projects but investment in the development of new fields would not be reduced. He added that "We will not postpone launching new deposits."

Berlusconi signs big energy deal with Russia

LUKoil signed a 1.35 Bn Euro deal to purchase a stake in Italian refiner ERG which will allow them to enter into a joint venture to break into European markets.

The agreement between the two firms was signed as part of an Italian-Russian intergovernmental summit at which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow on November 6 in a deal to be finalised on December 1.

LUKoil will pay cash during the year,” LUKoil agreed in June to acquire the 49 % stake in the Isab refinery in Priolo, Sicily, but the global credit crunch and dropping oil prices threw the deal into question. Alekperov and ERG CEO Alessandro Garrone sealed the deal in Rome on June 23rd 2008. Under the deal, LUKoil will acquire a 49% stake in the Joint Venture for EUR 1.35 Bn. excluding inventory. ERG will retain 51%. The transaction provides LUKoil with an option to increase its stake in the future.

Alekperov said at the time that “The establishment of a refining joint venture in Italy is a cornerstone of LUKoil’s growth strategy in the area of developing its downstream operations in Western Europe. LUKoil’s overall refining capacities will increase by 13% and overseas refining capacities will increase by 60%. The refinery’s advantageous location and an opportunity to process Russian crude make this project very attractive.” According to Lukoil the ISAB refinery complex is one of the largest refineries in the region and is well positioned to meet the growing middle distillate demand in Europe.

The refinery includes two sites which are united by a pipeline system and integrated in a single refining unit with a total annual refining capacity of 16 million tons. The Russian oil company said that each partner will procure its share of crude and market its share of products in accordance with its JV equity stake. The ISAB refinery has the flexibility to process crude such as Urals, and LUKOIL intends to fully integrate its share of the refinery into its supply chain.

Alekperov said on November 6 LUKoil had applied to Vneshekonombank for a US$ 1.8 Bn. loan toward the purchase of new assets and to help refinance its debts, Interfax has reported.

If the purchase goes through it should increase LUKoil’s refining capacity and smooth its expansion into Europe, where it already manages refineries in Bulgaria and Romania.

Italy relies on Russia economically. Energy supplies dominate trade between the countries with Russia supplying almost 30 % of Italian energy needs (Currently - and this will grow).

With Russian gas monopoly Gazprom improving its ties with Italian energy company ENI this figure is set to go far beyond its current level.

Russia and Italy also reached electricity and nuclear deals. Russia’s electricity trading company Inter RAO UES will work with Italy’s Enel to develop Russia’s power industry. According to the memorandum, a working group will be established to handle appraisals of commercial and investment prospects in nuclear production.

Any production would be done jointly by Inter RAO and Enel. Inter RAO is also taking part in a project to build the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant and is looking for foreign investors. Enel has indicated it is interested in working on that project as well.

On the nuclear front, the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, intends to cooperate with Italian partners in creating nuclear reactors of the third and fourth generations. “This work may begin as early as next year,” Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters in Moscow on November 6 after signing an agreement on cooperation in nuclear power industry with Italy’s Economic Development Ministry.

Obama the polite face of AIPAC and grandchild of Irgun Rahman Emanuel

Any misty, moisty eyed progressive liberal Democrats who thought electing Obama was to introduce a new, young, bright, progressive liberal society should have had anyof their illusions destroyed with Mr Obama's first announced appointment. The election of pit bull Rahm(bo) Emanuel (AKA Karl Rove) as his gatekeeper and linkman to AIPAC. (First posted about here Friday, November 17, 2006 Israeli Lobby consolidate control over US lawmakers )

Perhaps less well known than his show biz bro Ari, who is agent for overweight bore, Michael Moore and Baron Sacha-Cohen - AKA Borak / Ali G.Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel ( who has show biz connections as he is often quoted as the model for is said to be the model for Josh Lyman in The West Wing - also was a ballet dancer and nearly star of Joffrey Ballet) is a member of the so-called New Democrat Coalition (NDC).

The NDC is a self selecting group of group of (far ?) center-right pro-business Congressional Democrats who are affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) . This group of reformers (?) is dedicated to moving the Democratic Party away from its more liberal and progressive base ("The DLC is an idea(s) center, catalyst, and national voice for a reform movement that is reshaping American politics by moving it beyond the old left-right debate").

With just 58 members of the 236 Democrats in the current House of Representatives, the NDC has worked closely "across the aisle" ,with its Republican colleagues in pushing through and passing such legislation as those providing President Bush with "fast-track" trade authority in order to bypass efforts by labor, environmentalists and other public interest groups to promote fairer trade policy.("We believe that economic growth generated in the private sector is the prerequisite for opportunity, and that government's role is to promote growth and to equip Americans with the tools they need to prosper in the New Economy")

Rahm Emanuel began his political career as a senior adviser and chief fundraiser for the successful 1989 Chicago mayoral campaign of Richard M. Daley. In this they were successful in challenging the corrupt political machine of his father, Richard J. Daley and seized City Hall from their control.

Emanuel was later to become a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998, first as Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and later as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy.

Emanuel is credited with playing a (the?) major role in shifting the Clinton administration's foreign and domestic policy agenda to the right (ie Tomahawking Kabul).

Emanuel is credited with being the single most important official involved in pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the bill ending Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and Clinton's crime bill, among other legislation.

Raham left in 1998, Emanuel worked as an investment banker in Chicago picking up US$18 Mn as a partner when Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein when they sold out ( he worked there from 1999 to 2002) - which is why Edward Moskal of the Polish American Congress and backer of his opponent in 2003 ,Nancy Kaszak called him a "millionaire carpetbagger.

Rahm has headed up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since 2004. This has enabled him to disburse funds in promoting pro-war and pro-business center-right candidates against anti-war and pro-labor candidates in the primaries, pouring millions of dollars of donations from Democrats across the country into the campaigns of his favored conservative minions to defeat more progressive challengers. (See here for details) (also here)The sort of people who sign up to The Hyde Park Declaration: A Statement of Principles and a Policy Agenda for the 21st Century.

This was claimed to be a successor to The New Orleans Declaration. That statement of principles that was said to outline the guiding philosophy of Clinton's 1992 run for the presidency and later that of his presidential administration. The New Orleans Declaration's call for a citizen-government relationship based on the values of opportunity, responsibility, and community subsequently became the main organizing principle (?) of Third Way (bollocks) political movements in Britain and around the world.

Emanuel was a major and enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq War resolution that authorized the invasion of Iraq - he is of course a proponent of More Wars for the Jews persusaion and a leading light in AIPAC.

Rahamn was only one of nine Democratic members of Congress from Illinois who backed granting Bush this unprecedented authority to invade a country on the far side of the world that was no threat to the United States at the time - Obama notably being one of the non placets .

Many were taken aback when aksed by the late lamented Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" whether he would have voted to authorize the invasion "knowing that there are no weapons of mass destruction," Emanuel answered that he indeed would have done so, effectively acknowledging that his support for the war was not about national security, but about oil and empire. (Read Tim R wrong footing Rahm about social security funding black hole looming here)

So keen was he on attacking Iraq he participated in the First Gulf War During the first Gulf War, he did a stint as a civilian volunteer with the Israel Defense Forces, rust-proofing brakes on a base in northern Israel.

Not surprisingly, he has also voted with the Republicans in support of unconditional funding to continue the Iraq War and has consistently opposed efforts by other Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from that country and related Congressional efforts to end the war. So don't expect a "raw down " real soon now, whatever Mr President says.

At a time of record budget deficits, Emanuel has been a passionate supporter of increased spending for the Pentagon and has resisted efforts by fellow Democrats to trim excesses in the Bush administration's bloated military budget (see previous posts about Obama's commitment to increase the size of both the militart and the military budget)eg Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Barack Obama is a Neocon in Disguise (and only thinly disguised) .

Rahman has repeatedly voted against amendments to cut funding for Bush's lunatic European destabilizing "missile defense" and even voted against an amendment to identify unnecessary Pentagon spending by examining the need, relevance and cost of Cold War weapons systems designed to fight the former Soviet Union.

Naturally as a mouthpiece for AIPAC he is a major, major hawk regarding Iran. Emanuel has also voted against Democratic efforts to prevent the Bush administration from launching military action against that country and has entusiastically joined the administration in exaggerated claims about Iran's alleged nuclear threat. He is not opposed to nuclear proliferation if it involves U.S. allies, however. Emanuel has consistently voted against a series of Democratic amendments that would have strengthened safeguards in the Bush administration's nuclear cooperation agreement with India to prevent U.S. assistance from supporting India's nuclear weapons program.

Emanuel is also a prominent hawk regarding Israel, attacking the Bush administration from the right for criticizing Israel's assassination policies and other human rights abuses. He was also a prominent supporter of Israel's 2006 attacks on Lebanon, even challenging the credibility of Amnesty International and other human rights groups that reported Israeli violations of international humanitarian law.

The war on Iraq has so far benefited Israel by laying waste a country seen to be one of its major adversaries. Emanuel's commitment to Israel and his Congressional service to it are not in doubt. For example he attacked U.S. puppet Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al Maliki, because Maliki had labeled Israel's attack on Lebanon as an act of "aggression." Emanuel called on Maliki to cancel his address to Congress; and he was joined by his close friend and DSCC counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who asked; "Which side is he (Maliki) on when it comes to the war on terror?"

Emanuel's father had emigrated from Israel in the 1950s, where he had been a member of the terrorist group Irgun (see the Feith family for their republican alter ego), which had been responsible for a series of terrorist attacks against Palestinian and British civilians in mandatory Palestine during the 1940s. Emanuel himself served in a civilian capacity as a volunteer for the Israeli army in the early 1990s (se above for service in Gulf war).

Obama's selection of Emanuel is firm, determined slap in the face of the progressive anti-war elements of the Democratic party to whom Obama owes his election, particularly following his selection of Sen. Joe Biden as vice president.

Obama as president is a victim of a Zionist Foreign Policy agenda, which spills over onto isolationism and protection for US farms and factories. The rapid (and no doubt well prepared) appointment of Emanuel is illustrative of the need for the progressive base to deflect the DLC vision .... it is doubtful that thr poviders of the 1/2 billion iof funds to secure Obamas puppet status as Commander in Chief will be soon or ealsiy overthrown.

You can also read hard boiled Rahman The Plan: Big Ideas for America by Rahm Emanuel , Bruce Reed Amazon August 15, 2006 ..."Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counterterrorism force like Britain's MI5. (A new domestic spying operation is an obvious threat to our civil liberties; MI5 holds secret files on one in 160 adults in Britain along with files on 53,000 organizations.) "

Change ? What change ?

Salsa dancing gay lover gets pokey for betrayal of ... er secrets and a very user friendly Welsh Judge

The Mills of the Law grind find ... and it appears mighty fast. The Jury found Iranian-born Army interpreter Daniel James of spying yesterday but couldn't agree on verdicts to charges of collecting documents useful to an enemy (namely Mohammad Hossein Heydari, an Iranian military assistant based at Tehran's embassy in Kabul) and wilful misconduct in public office (offering salsa lessons to a General whilst in uniform).

As a consequence and without further delay or deliberation 62 year old Mr Justice Roderick Evans discharged them and the CPS will "consult" glass tirling and colour co-ordinated Attorney General Baroness Scotland on whether James should be re-tried.Mr Justice Rod Evans is one of Wales' most senior judges and is famous (?) for freeing a Rapist as the victime, a girl, aged 10, 'looked older' (reported in Apr 5 2007 Western Mail ***)

Gen David Richards, who is so dumb that the exotic gay, salsa dancing polylingual elderly but surprisingly athletic sergeant was behaving in a rather unsoldierly fashion has been appointed head of the British Army by the deeply Christian General Dannatt.

A discreet veil will now be drawn over the activities of General Richards and Sergeant James.

*** A 20-year old who had sex with a girl of 10 was yesterday spared jail after a High Court judge agreed his victim looked older.Mr Justice Roderick Evans said he understood why Liam Edgecombe, of Haverfordwest, thought the girl was 16.Taking that into account, he granted Edgecombe a conditional discharge despite him having admitted rape - an automatic charge for anyone who has sex with a child under 13. See here

The judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans sentenced Edgecombe to a conditional discharge.

He said he had considered ordering Edgecombe to do unpaid community work but he already had a full-time job. Edgecombe was also made to sign the sex offenders' register.

Passing sentence at Swansea crown court, Judge Evans said it was a "wholly" exceptional case and he had to balance the need to protect young girls with the need to punish Edgecombe.

He told Edgecombe: "She was a girl of 10 and you are a man of 20. Those bald facts do not properly represent the true facts of this case.

"The prosecution accepts that you believed she was 16 and that that belief was reasonable. "She was looking for a man and got what she wanted."

Daily Mirror 5th April 2007

Why does a Welsh Judge get called to the Old Bailey for such a major Official Secrets Trial ?

Shock, surprise result Obama wins !

Well Lord Patel was wrong that Fred Thompson would receive the Republican nominaion and also to suggest that a handy bet on Mac the Nife would quintuple yer money ...evidently his political advice is no more valuable than Sarah Palin's.

One thing is certain, Obama's supporters will be ringin' the bells now, but will be wringing their hands in 6 months time.

BBC World Service at its best - Listen to this week's Forum

The BBC World Service has a first rate program whci you cam reach heere and listen to or download as a podcast This week on The Forum

American writer and commentator Fareed Zakaria outlines his vision for a major global power shift, New Zealand psychologist James Flynn warns human intelligence is both more and less than we think it is and philosophy professor Anthony Grayling explores the psychology of trust and why we ignore it at our peril.

This is the BBC at its best - James Flynn is sparkling and illuminating. He is now 73 (pic) and he says,"too old to worry about offending anyone". Excellent article and exegisis of his ideas and the "Flynn" effect ( why IQ scores are rising) which is essential reading for any parent.

Grayling also explains why bankers simply produced balance sheets which were fiction as the concept of commercial trust simply evaporated.

Spanish UN force commander in DR Congo Lt. Gen. Vicente Diaz de Villegas resigns after 7 weeks in job

Now Congo becomes another "unexpected" hotspot the commander of U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo resigned on Tuesday after just seven weeks in the job.

Lt. Gen. Vicente Diaz de Villegas of the Spanish contingent "has indicated that for personal reasons he will not be able to continue with his assignment as planned," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told a regular news briefing. Ghanain Brig.-Gen. Ishmeel Ben Quartey is acting as commander meanwhile. Pic shows Diaz being welcomed in post by UN Sec Gen Ban Ki-Moon.

His appointment as force commander for the U.N. mission in Congo (17,000 strong - the biggest UN military force in the field anywhere ) , known by its French acronym MONUC, was announced on September 9.

The 1998-2003 war was a humanitarian disaster in which it is guessed 5.4 million people died, mainly from hunger and disease.

Congolese Tutsi insurgents of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) loyal to renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda advanced towards the strategic eastern city of Goma on Monday after launching a new offensive over the weekend. Local people angered by the fighting rioted at the U.N. base in the town, and one person was killed, a U.N. spokesman said.

It is claimed by some a civilian was killed by US forces.

Fighters overran an army base at Kibumba on Sunday north of Goma. Rebel rockets destroyed two MONUC armored vehicles during Sunday's clashes, wounding several UN peacekeepers.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is extremely concerned.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday that France was interested in sending troops, but the EU's Solana wouldn't hear of it. This was a resurrection of the French-led Artemis team sent in 2003 to Bunia in Ituri.

The head of the UN Mission in the Congo, Alan Doss, spoke Tuesday with the Press by video link from Kinshasa. He chided Congolese locals for protesting against MONUC inaction or retreat, urging them to understand the Mission's mandate.

Joe Bavier, a freelance journalist working in North Kivu, told Al Jazeera that the anti-government offensive was rapidly taking control of territory.

"For the last few days we have had fighting just north of the provincial capital, Goma. That calmed a bit, but now there has been a fresh offensive by the rebels, pushing north along the main road out of Goma towards Rutshuru," he said.

"Rutshuru is one of four urban areas that MONUC has vowed to defend at all costs. Today UN humanitarian workers are preparing to evacuate the town.

"We are still trying to verify whether the town has fallen into the hands of the rebels."

The scale of humanitarian losses is that some 250,000 civilians have fled their homes in North Kivu since a very flaky peace deal collapsed in August.

The UN says that about 850,000 people had been displaced in two years of sporadic fighting before a previous peace deal was signed in January.

The Environment Agency said an 'unforeseeable and freakish' combination of factors had led to the extreme conditions in Ottery St Mary.

If Obama is (still alive) elected

"What happens when you replace a sociopathic lunatic with an eloquent, sane man who espouses the exact same policies? I think it will become even more apparent to the world that America is helplessly in the grip of corrupt corporations and a hoplessly corrupt Congress and that it’s time for a serious worldwide boycott of all things American, including the dollar. The dollar is all that America understands."

Posted comment by Jonathan on October 29th, 2008

To article Note to Progressives for Obama: What Happens After Election Day?
by Joshua Frank at Dissident Voice.

The considered view of Lord Patel is that the Bush gang AKA McCain etc., is such a bunch of Gangstas that somehow the vote will, as in 2000 and 2004, be hi-jacked.

To believe that Obama will bring in a liberal and open minded administration is to believe in perpetual energy machines and Universal Love.... one thing is certain, the US will carry on fighting the Zionist's wars for them.

What have we to look forward to ? Well the Presidential Pardons as he leaves the Oval office will make fascinating reading. You can be certain that the clients of the interesting Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP whose plush Washington Offices at 1615 L Street, could figure as their partner Theodore V. Wells Jr (see pic) notably worked for Scooter Libby who was handed a get out of jail card by the President. he has along list of successful defendants and some less so, such as Michael Milliken.

The Bailey Law Group are next door at Suite 1350 on L Street, Washington having increased thei offices from 10,000 sq feet to 30,000 sq feet.Dicinson Wright who usedto be on L street have moved to newer bigger offices 1875 Eye St., N.W., Greenberg Traurig are another very interesting firm of lawyers with interesting cliients.

Boeing will cut outsourcing on 787 and on future projects - More Airbus 380's delivered

Boeing vice president for engineering Mike Denton has confirmed the company will scale back outsourced engineering on the next 787 variant (787 - 9) and reduce participation by outside partners on all future commercial aircraft programmes.

His remarks were aimed at the Boeing members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), a union now entering the final month of negotiations on a new labour contract.

They also indicate how big a mistake the 787's once-heralded production system relying on six major partners in three countries to make vast financial, engineering and production contributions to the Dreamliner.

Boeing mistakenly judged that its partners were capable of participating beyond build-to-print work, and then compounded that error by failing to track their progress he says. "Our engineers and production workers are basically correcting the problems that should have never come to us in the first place -- problems that are the result of the partners really not being done."

In a major volte face he went on in a company podcast today ... "We will probably do more of the design and even some of the major production for the next new airplanes ourselves as opposed to having it all out with the partners."

"We see that as building on lessons of the 787, taking advantage of the parts that were really good, but doing some course corrections so that we can not relive some of the harder lessons that we have experienced recently."

SPEEA, however, appears still far part with Boeing management on the issues. A mid-afternoon electroic message by Goforth on 30 October read: "SPEEA ends today's meeting early citing Boeing intransigence."

When will Dreamliner fly ? ScuttleBut says late '09 and if it works, enter service late 2010.

Airbus deliveries continue

Quantas have started using their first Airbus 380 on the Melbourne-Los Angeles services and from 24th October will operate the aircraft on some of its Sydney-Los Angeles services and from January will use it for some of its services to London via Singapore - wher it will compete with Singapore Airlines.

Emirates have taken delivery of their 2nd Airbus 380 for use on its Dubai-New York route which started operating on Wednesday 27 th October providing a daily service .

Two more 380's are scheduled for delivery to Emirates by the end of 2008.

German Typhoon EF2000 First visit at Cornfield Range

On the Western end of the Island of Vlieland off the Dutch coast is a live gunnery range NATO codename Cornfeld. A German Typhoon E2000 2 seat trainer , visited on 28th October to practice strafing with 100 bullets from the wing mounted Mauser machine gun. More pics at link.

Picture above from here and a 3 minute recording of the event can be overheard here, in which the pilot says they are tight on fuel having flown from Neuberg - home location of Jagdgeschwader 74 which have been on QRA alert since January this year .

With increased activity from Russian bombers, maintaining aircraft on QRA for the RAF is a major burden, while the Tornados now guarding the Falkland Islands need to be replaced ( planned October 2008).

Many believe that the RAF simply can’t spare a frontline Typhoon squadron for an extended overseas commitment (Afghanistan) , though others expect that a much smaller, brief deployment might still be made to demonstrate the capability. (For purposes PR etc).

Plans to deploy RAF Typhoons to Afghanistan in July were abandoned - meanwhile with just two frontline squadrons operational and a shrinking Tornado F.Mk 3 fighter force, maintaining the RAF’s existing fighter commitments is becoming problematic.

Barack Obama is a Neocon in Disguise (and only thinly disguised)

Barack Obama's deceptive message on foreign policymake him a neocon in sheep's clothing.

For those who think Obama wants to shrink the US military footprint, read Renewing American Leadership by Barack Obama -From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007 Journal of Foreign Relations , especially the section "Revitalising the Military" ...

"We should expand our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the army and 27,000 marines. Bolstering these forces is about more than meeting quotas. We must recruit the very best and invest in their capacity to succeed. That means providing our servicemen and servicewomen with first-rate equipment, armor, incentives, and training -- including in foreign languages and other critical skills. Each major defense program should be reevaluated in light of current needs, gaps in the field, and likely future threat scenarios. Our military will have to rebuild some capabilities and transform others. At the same time, we need to commit sufficient funding to enable the National Guard to regain a state of readiness."

see - Thursday, July 24, 2008 Obama's trumpet sounds an uncertain note - bringing down the walls .. or putting them up ?

Also read : Barack Obama: Neocon Warrior - Remarks of Senator Barack Obama to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs April 23, 2007

Thanks for tips to aangirfan

Hedge funds get trimmed on Frankfurt Bourse

Short sellers got caught short on VW stock which reached €1,005.01,yesterday valuing the company at €296 billion or US$370.4 billion, closing slughtly lower at €945 - this morning shares fell to €528.09 ... Hedge funds are said to have lost €20 billion (£15.9 billion) and €30 billion covering their positions.

What's that handy German word to describe the euphoria at enjoying the losses and misfortunes of others ? ...schadenfruede

Technical details of how Porsche pulled off the Stuttgart sting.

Drax in major biomass energy investments.

On October 1st Drax Power Station announced a £10 million (US$18 million) Engineering, Procurement and Construction (”EPC”) contract with Doosan Babcock Energy Limited (”Doosan Babcock”) to supply direct injection biomass co-firing systems to all six coal-fired generating units at the 4,000MW Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire. These will be in operation by end 2009.(Doosan Babcock have been involved in large scale refurbishment projects in Kosovo and Serbia. )

Co-firing involves the mixing and burning of renewable biomass materials with coal and, given the carbon neutral status of biomass, is a recognised carbon abatement technology that has significant potential to reduce carbon dioxide (”CO2”) emissions from coal-fired power stations.

The direct injection firing systems represent a major component of the new co-firing facility at Drax and are designed to receive and transport processed biomass materials to the power station’s coal-fired boilers.

On completion, the biomass co-firing facility will be the largest of its type in the world, which alongside Drax’s existing co-firing capability will provide a total of 500MW of renewable electricity, or the equivalent output of over 600 wind turbines. In the half year report the company announced that the plant maintained a high plant availability of 93%.

3 new biomass plants planned jointly with Siemens

Drax have also announced plans to build, own and operate three 300MW biomass-fired generation plants in the UK at a cost of £2 Bn (Immingham , Drax and one to be decided). It has entered into a joint development agreement with Siemens (whose turbine technology will be used in the new plants) which will also own 40 % of the new business.

With all 3 plants running in 2014 Drax will supply 15 % of the UK's renewable power, and 10 % of total UK electricity supply. Commitments to construction contracts and financing will be finalised in the next 12-18 months.

Drax's equity investment will be funded by a cut in the dividend from 2010. The new distribution policy targets a pay-out ratio of 50 % of underlying earnings from 2010 onwards.

The Fed are are beyond clever. They are insane. How M3 disappeared ... and why.

It is worth re-visiting what we noted about the new Man at the Fed, Benny Bernanke - Wednesday, January 03, 2007 The Mysterious case of the disappearing M3 relating to the decision to cease publishing M3. It was on March 23, 2006, the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System announced that they .....

" will cease publication of the M3 monetary aggregate. The Board will also cease publishing the following components: large-denomination time deposits, repurchase agreements (RPs), and Eurodollars. The Board will continue to publish institutional money market mutual funds as a memorandum item in this release....... M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already embodied in M2 and has not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years. Consequently, the Board judged that the costs of collecting the underlying data and publishing M3 outweigh the benefits."

Senator Jim Bunning asked (the new) Fed Chairman Benny Bernanke why M3 was no longer published - who persisted that it is merely a cost saving exercise. It was of course touching that the great man responsible for Trillions was so careful with the candle ends.

However this piece of statistical legerdemain was critical and central to the concealment of the final splurge of insane monetary inflation allowing the boyz in the backroom to really let rip on all their debt shuffling which precipitated most (but not all) the world's banks into a credit crisis as they finally had to prepare balance sheets that bore a reemblance to the truth.

Simultaneously (almost) Michael Nystrom on January 10, 2006 published Is This Rally for Real? And Other Thoughts in which he listed the bearish points for 2006....

Rising short term interest rates
Inverted yield curve
Housing bubble slowdown / pop in the works (See this excellent article by Gary Schilling)
Massive slowdown and/or bankruptcy at GM and/or Ford on the horizon
Rising unemployment in home building, financial services, and manufacturing due to 3 & 4
Rising energy costs
Corresponding slowdown in consumerism due to 5 & 6
Stock market's four year / presidential cycle pointing down
Rising trade deficit
Rising budget deficit
Rising national debt
New Iranian oil bourse in the works to price oil in euros this spring
Falling dollar as a result of most of the above, but especially #12
New guy on the job at the Fed to deal with all of the above.

Which in the afterglow of hindsight, highlights the lily strewn path of dalliance led by the Fed and Ben.

Nystrom goes on however with some fascinating remarks on Bernanke's Fed speech on deflation (Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here).

"I remember the first time I heard his printing press remarks -- I was blown away. I didn't know who this guy was, other than that he was a new guy and that I thought the line about the printing press was an extremely irresponsible thing to be saying. I was sure that he would be fired, or at least reprimanded for his remarks, but look where he is now. Shows you how much I know. "

"This is what I gleaned from the speech last night: Bernanke tells a story, that if an alchemist invented a way to make gold in unlimited quantities, then released this news to the world and said he was going to start making and selling unlimited amounts of gold, the price would drop immediately, before the Alchemist made or sold a single ounce. He goes on to compare the Fed to that alchemist. He talks about the printing press, then says, "By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services."

"Then it struck me - this elimination of M3 in March is the credible threat.. It's a bluff. First they juice M3 like it is the end of the world (or 1999), and then they turn the lights out on the statistics. "

"Since we're all in the dark, the only thing we can assume is that the Fed is inflating like there is no tomorrow. But they really don't want to do that -- monetize debt, that is -- it is not good for their balance sheet -- so instead they engineer this bluff. Everyone believes it, and they (we) act accordingly, bidding up stocks and gold."

"If you don't think the Fed is that clever, I encourage you to read Bernanke's speech. It is a long treatise on stimulating demand and causing inflation in the event that interest rates fall to zero."

"After reading the speech, you may find that they are beyond clever. They are insane."

Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital was on Bloomberg again yesterday, reminding everyone on Wall Street of what he said in August 2006 ..."The United States economy is like the Titanic and I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship ...I see a real financial crisis coming for the United States."

Schiff is the author of two books Crash Proof (Amazon - Review ..."Schiff argues that the U.S. economy is going to hell, and that clueless consumers, opportunistic Wall Streeters and pandering politicians are carrying the handbasket. Schiff's screeching tone is a bit grating ...That doesn't mean you shouldn't take him with a grain of salt, but this book was published in 2007, and in mid-2008, Schiff's forecasts of a weakening dollar, rising gold prices, a bursting real-estate bubble and strong foreign stock markets were spot-on..." )and The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets and was economic advisor to Ron Paul in his failed Presidential campaign.... during which he said;

"We need a plan that stimulates savings and production not more ofthe reckless borrowing and consumption that got us into this mess inthe first place. Ron Paul's plan is the only one that amounts to astep in the right direction. If you want meaningful change - for thebetter that is - Ron Paul is the only candidate capable of deliveringit. The others merely promise to continue the failed policies that areat the root of our current economic problems."

It cannot be said that no-one saw this train crash ***coming, or the reasons for it.

*** Schiff describes the proposed merger of Chrysler and GM as a a slo -mo crash of 2 garbage trucks.

First Snow in London and Eastern Seaboard

Greek Yoghurt, a freshly plucked and sliced fig, a drizzle of honey and warm Mediterranean sunshine......aaaahhh !!!

From War zone to Main street in a few years ... Ident is a reality.

We first wrote Anh Dhuong onWednesday, December 12, 2007

The "Bomb Lady" and finding out who you are - JEFF and what it means for you
Ardent Observervations and the Istanbullian drew our attention to "The Bomb Lady" Nguyet Anh Duong a disarmingly pretty Vietnamese / US weapons scientist and an article in Wapo about her recently receiving the the National Security Medal for significant contribution to the nation in activities related to national security.The blast from the thermobaric, or vacuum, bomb maintains its energy over a longer time and distance,enabling it to kill people hunkered deep underground.

"Her work is a significant reason that few U.S. soldiers died in hand-to-hand combat inside the Taliban's vast network of caves and tunnels in Afghanistan. Not only did she help us win the war, but we avoided the loss of many lives had we had to clear caves in a more traditional manner," said Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter presented Duong with the 2007 Service to America National Security Medal from the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service (PPS).
Duong dedicated her award to "the 58,000 names on the wall of the Vietnam War memorial and the 260,000 Vietnamese who died in order for people like me to earn a second chance at freedom."

She received a standing ovation.

(Pic of glamorous granny Senator Harman at a PPS Dinner)

The Bomb Lady's current e-mail address is anh.duong@navy.mil she also favours pink pearlescent nail polish (against her daughters wishes)

Born into an anti communist family, who fled to the US and were eventually granted asylum She graduated from the University of Maryland with both a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and a B.S. degree in Computer Science and was launched on a 23 year distinguished career as a a weaposn scientist..

In 1983 she started working as a Chemical Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division.

From 1991-1999, she managed all Navy basic, exploratory research and advanced development programs in High Explosives.

From 1999-2002, she managed all NSWC Indian Head's technical programs in Explosives and Undersea Weapons, from concept through engineering development to production and demilitarization.

She successfully assembled and led a team of scientists and engineers to develop the payload for a new weapon, now known as the thermobaric bomb, then proceeded to limited production and delivery to the Air Force, all in an unprecedented period of 67 days.

Nguyet Anh successfully led the development and transition of a total of 10 high performing explosives into 18 different U.S. weapons in the past 12 years, which is an unprecedented record of its kind.

She served as a U.S. Delegate at the NATO AC310 Subgroup I for Explosives, and chairman/member of many national and international Panels/Technical Steering Groups.

Since 2002 Nguyet Anh has been Director of Science and Technology of Naval Surface Warfare Center, U.S. Department of Defense,(Pentagon) where she is responsible for Indian Head's overall technical investment strategies, guiding and overseeing research and development programs in all areas of science and technology and focusing these efforts toward the creation of future weapon generations for the United States.

Duong's most recent innovation, the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities (JEFF) project or "lab in a box," analyzes biometrics in the field. It will be delivered to Iraq at the beginning of 2008, the Navy said, to help distinguish insurgents from civilians. (Useful Power Point presentation here) (No.NO. not useful - essential reading 1st page pic at top of post)

"The best missile is worthless if you don't know who to shoot," Duong said.
Thomas A. Betro, director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service explains the military has been scanning the irises and taking the fingerprints of Iraqis, feeding a biometrics data base in West Virginia. To date, a few ad hoc labs have processed about 85,000 pieces of evidence taken from weapons caches or roadside devices. Duong's mobile forensic labs, with an initial budget of $34 million, will be deployed all over Iraq.


"What would worry me about this is that systems used by the Defense Department off American soil are going to find themselves migrating back to the U.S. … and turned on American residents," Steinhardt said.

Duong, supervised the "lab in a box" design.

Each collapsible, sand-colored, 20 x 20 foot foot unit has its own generator and satellite link(see sexy pic of the facility) . If things go as planned, data will beamed to the Biometric Fusion Center to check against more than a million Iraqi fingerprints. Hundreds of Marines will become scen of crime investigators - donning rubber gloves and laying aside their weapons.

The next stage is to miniaturize, create "a backpack lab," so that soldiers who encounter a suspect "could find out within minutes" if he's on a terrorist watch list, Duong said. "A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot? In Vietnam, our guys didn't have this tool."

There are some interesting jobs being offered ...

Now how would such a mobile identification facility rest with a nationwide biometric Based ID card ?

Now this technology is hitting UK streets .... This was forecast in 2004 .... Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Seabrook, Md., which built the FBI's fingerprint system, was awarded $5 million by the Pentagon on Sept. 10 2004 for the first year of a five-year contract to begin building the military's fingerprint system.

Company officials issued a statement announcing the contract, but declined requests for an interview through a spokesman because of the "sensitivity of the project."

Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, said the Pentagon's biometric efforts are worthwhile — as long as they focus outward.

The BBC report today ...On-street fingerprint checks plan

Hand-held fingerprint scanners enabling on-the-spot identity checks are to be made available to all UK police forces.

The devices, about the size of a mobile phone, will be rolled out from 2010 under a scheme managed by the National Policing Improvement Agency. The NPIA says trials of the devices have been a "stunning success"

The devices compare prints against the records of the 7.5m people on the police national biometric database ... and of course EU / USA / Interpol databases are a click away?

The initial phase of the the scheme is expected to cost police forces £30-£40m.

Apparently fingerprints collected will not be saved..... does anyone believe that ?

Who needs an ID card when you were given one at birth ?

How soon before they collect your fingerprints at UK airports for all passengers ?

Haider's lover, Stefan Petzner, steps down as party leader

Stefan Petzner, a 27-year-old former Beuty and fashion journalist became successor to the far right-wing party Alliance of the Future of Austria after Jorg Haider died on October 11th .

Just two weeks later, he was removed from his post. This came after he revealed on Austrian radio that he and Haider had been lovers for five years.

“We had a special relationship,” Petzner had said of the 58-year-old conservative extremist. “He was the man of my life… He often said that I was his.”

This announcement was preceded by a television interview with Krone TV in which Petzner was chain-smoking and crying uncontrollably, talking about his mentor. “I only had him, and now I am alone,” he said. Tongues began to wag.

Now we are told that , Haider had spent his final hours in a(n un named ) gay bar in the southern Austrian town of Klagenfurt, leading to the intoxication from which he suffered at the time of his car crash. It’s a final ironic nail in the coffin of a man whose anti-Semitic and reactionary principles led him to be called the closest thing to a Nazi that Austria has seen since the fall of the Third Reich.

Haider was married with two children at the time of his death. He had voted repeatedly against the expansion of gay rights. He was virulently anti-immigration, yet strangely was in favour of Turkey’s entering the EU.

Numerous German-language blogs, including one on shortnews.de, described Haider’s bisexuality as “an open secret.” Only the revelation of Petzner’s personal liaison contained any news to an informed Austrian.

So we are told.

Haider was supervised by Mossad

The Jewish leader of the Austrian liberal party (FPÖ), has admitted that for many years he co-operated with Mossad.

“I cooperated to the news magazine “profile” appearing in Vienna abaout Jorg Heider up to my retreat from the policy with the Mossad”, said the journalist and journalist in the year 2005.

Peter Sichrovsky worked in and the 90's 80's also for German publications, for “Der Spiegel” and the “South German newspaper”, and was joint founder of the Viennese newspaper “The Standard”. “I wanted to help Israel and did nothing illegal. I am not James Bond

Sichrovsky was at the beginning of 2003 the FPÖ delegate in the European parliament.

Apparently claimed Sichrovsky “Israel wanted Jörg Haider as bridge to Arab countries, with those no official contacts existed, uses”, said it. (wiwo.de < http://www.wiwo.de/politik/ex-fpoe-abgeordneter-half-israels-geheimdienst-102476/ >)

See more Also see an article in Searchlight the anti - fascist mag of the UK far left article in April 2000 -Who is Peter Sichrovsky? Peter Sichrovsky, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) MEP of Jewish origin wheeled out to front Jörg Haider’s sudden resignation as party chief, enjoys a special status.... in which he is described as ..

In addition, he has defended Haider’s infamous claim that the Nazi concentration camps were “penal camps” by attacking those who say Auschwitz-Birkenau was an “extermination camp”. His grounds for this twisted logic are that the term “extermination camp” is Nazi phraseology, even though the Nazis themselves never used this term. It is, therefore, not surprising that Sichrovsky cannot understand why the two activists of the FPÖ’s youth organisation who desecrated a Jewish cemetery in Eisenstadt have been branded “political culprits”.

But it is for Zionism and the state of Israel that Sichrovsky reserves special venom, deliberately misquoting the country’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and resurrecting the canard about the wartime Hungarian Zionist leader, Rudolf Kastner, who controversially tried to rescue Jews from the clutches of Adolf Eichmann and was later accused of being a collaborator. In the 1980s, Perdition, a play on the same theme by the left-wing playwright Jim Allen, caused outrage in Britain.

June 2nd 2005 the Times also ran a story Mossad spied on far-right Austrian by Roger Boyes.

THE ISRAELI secret service spied on Jörg Haider, the right-wing Austrian populist, using one of his closest aides to gather information on his contacts with Arab dictators. Peter Sichrovsky said that he had been a Mossad informant for five years until retiring from politics in 2002.

“I wanted to help Israel and certainly did not do anything wrong,” said Herr Sichrovsky who was secretary-general of Herr Haider’s Freedom party and a member of the European Parliament. The Austrian state prosecutor said yesterday that he would open an investigation to determine whether Herr Sichrovsky should be prosecuted. Spying for a foreign power carries a jail sentence of up to three years in Austria.

intersting chap Mr Peter Sichrovsky ...

Austrians agog at wooden airplane

26th October and Austria commemorates the Declaration of Neutrality, signed in 1955. On the Heldenplatz in Central Vienna, 700,000 citizens had a knees up. The declaration which is part of the Constitution followed the Austrian State Treaty of May 15th marking the withdrawal of the troops of occupation of the Western Allies after WWII and officially establishing Austrian independence and sovereignty....Allied troops left on October 25th.

Not missing the chance Österreichs Bundesheer chose the national holiday to display their 1: 1 wooden Typhoon / Eurofighter whilst tanks rumbled past and helicopters buzzed overhead. More pics

What this neutral country will do with these weapons is a political problem few wish to discuss or answer. Some explanation how they were supplied by Germany here.

Rolf Steiniger in his book Der Staatsvertrag. Österreich im Schatten von deutscher Frage und Kaltem Krieg.Studienverlag, Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2005, 198 Pages provides a unique and fascinating insight into the position of Austria, the Allies interets in the Anschluss, the post war question and the the curent position of the Austrians uin Europe. Brief review at Rolf's website here. See also