Greenland Ice Sheet grows - reason ? Snow in Winter

Recent Ice Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland

Climate scientists from Bergen have published a paper on October 20th Science Express, (which previews elected papers before publication in Science). They report growth estimated to be about 6 cm per year during the study period, 1992–2003 of the Greenland Ice sheet..

Climate change debates have promoted these studies using satellite data over the last 11 years – a much hyped publicised sea level increase of 7 metres would result from the Greenland Ice field melting. This process, expected on a millennial time scale, should begin upon crossing the critical threshold for surface air temperature increase (~3ºC) for Greenland, predicted to happen before the end of this century.

Second, increased Greenland Ice Sheet melt and freshwater input into the northern North Atlantic Ocean is theorized to weaken the Gulf Stream at high latitudes and possibly even disrupt the global thermohaline circulation on a relatively rapid, multi-decadal time scale.

Johannessen and co-workers attribute the observed growth in the interior of the Greenland due to increased snowfall brought about by variability in the regional atmospheric circulation, the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phenomenon.i.e snow in winter.

Using their ice-sheet elevation estimates, the known NAO, the researchers established, for the first time, a direct relationship between Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change and the NAO. i.e snow in winter.

Elevation changes during winter were found to be negatively correlated (–0.88) to the winter NAO index, explaining about three quarters of the elevation changes.

Therefore, strongly negative NAO-index conditions lead to increased accumulation and elevation change during wintertime and vice versa.

The strong correlation between winter elevation changes and the NAO index, suggests a previously underappreciated role of the winter season and the NAO for elevation changes – a wildcard in Greenland Ice Sheet mass-balance scenarios under global warming.

In other words, observed phenomena do not fit the extrapolations of the Global Warming theory – It is interesting therefore to consider the views of the much loved IPCC (Acronym for Scientific jihad against Industrial development) in seeking to explain the mission of NASA’s ICE Satellite.

A key category of scientific uncertainty identified by the IPCC is "Polar ice sheets which affect predictions of global sea level change".Early commencement is needed to establish a baseline on ice balance beforegreenhouse warming becomes more significant.

It is not known whether Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are growing or shrinking (uncertainty is +- 30% of mass input = +- 5 cm/yr averageice thickness = +- 2.3 mm/yr global sea level change). ICESat will measure< 1 cm/yr average ice thickness change ( < 5% of mass input and <0.4 mm/yr global sea level change).

It is not known whether future changes in mass balance associatedwith climate warming will be positive or negative (sensitivity perhaps- 10% to + 20% change in mass input/K temperature change = +0.8 mm/yr/Kto - 1.6 mm/yr/K sea level change). ICESat should measure changes inmass balance expected for 1 K polar warming (depends on sensitivity estimate).

Regrettably EU’s CRYOsat didn’t achieve lift off so their plans to measure polar ice caps will not be available for some time (see previous posting) … try 5 years.

Meanwhile here is a picture of the very cold Greenland interior © Petter Bjorstad, Bergen, Norway.

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Ist sighting Blackberry 8700c

First sighting - due November 1st.TheBazil has the keyboard layout. Cingular will launch in SF,NYC,LA.

$299 on Cingular !!!!!


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Sanjar Umarov - Craig Murray's recent meeting with him

Opposition Leader Tortured with Drugs

Craig Murray provides a background to the jailing and torturing of Sanjar Umarov.(see recent posts here about his arrest and treatment)

Today Sanjar Usmanov lies, unclothed, cold, drugged and beaten, on the bare floor of a dank solitary confinement cell in Tashkent.

Last month I had dinner with Sanjar Umarov at Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, just across from the White House. Sanjar leads Uzbekistan’s newest and best publicised opposition grouping, Sunshine Uzbekistan, which had largely taken over the Peasants and Entrepreneurs’ Party, itself a fairly recent addition to the opposition ranks.

There was a great deal of suspicion about Umarov from longer standing opposition figures. Umarov was an oligarch, from one of the leading regime families. He had made money in oil and cotton trading, both sectors which cannot be accessed without an inside political track. He had also been involved in the Uzdunrobita mobile telephone company, in which the major Uzbek partner was Gulnara Karimova, the President’s daughter. In March 2004 Karimova sold her shares in Uzdunrobita to a Russian company for 212 million dollars, a figure which places a much higher than realistic value on the company.

This transaction was an important stage in the peculiar business dealings between Russia and the Karimov family, which culminated in last November’s deal to allocate the bulk of Uzbekistan’s natural gas reserves to Gazprom. This deal was negotiated between Gulnara Karimova and Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek born Russian oligarch who bought a substantial number of shares in Corus, the British steel company. Usmanov is also a Director of Gazprom responsible for their affairs in the former Soviet Union outside Russia.

Gulnara received a large cash payment - $88 million, according to my sources – on completion of the Gazprom deal, with further payments to come as gas is exported. Alisher Usmanov gave Putin a sweetener of 40% of the shares in Mapo Bank, an important Russian business bank with a close relationship to several blue chip western firms operating in Russia. The shares were made over to Piotr Jastrejebski, Putin’s private secretary who was a college friend of Alisher Usmanov and shared a flat with him.

This web is closely associated with Karimov’s succession strategy. He is desperate for Gulnara to succeed him, and the cash and Russian support is building up her power base. Some sort of Alisher Usmanov/Gulnara Karimova alliance is Karimov’s first choice to take over, in six or seven years time. This is the background to the diplomatic revolution of the last six months, with Karimov abandoning the US and turning back to the embrace of Mother Russia.

It is worth recalling that the Karimov regime had been aggressively anti-Russian, in terms of both propaganda, and of practical measures of linguistic discrimination. Approximately two million ethnic Russians have fled Uzbekistan since independence in 1991; about 400,000 are left.

This reorientation towards Russia went along with fierce anti-enterprise measures designed to stifle any entrepreneurial activity not under direct control of the Karimov family. This explained the physical closures of borders and bazaars, the crackdown on crash transactions and the channelling of all commercial activity through the state banks.

These developments not only brought still greater economic hardship to the poor, they created losers among the wealthy elite. Sanjar Umarov is an archetypal example of such “New losers”.

Umarov had studied business administration in Tennessee on a US government scholarship. His trading interests had widened from their Uzbek base. He has a home in Memphis, and a green card. His children are US citizens. Among the Uzbek elite, a class had come into existence of people who could do business with the West. Their business was now being cut off by Karimov.

It would be wrong to credit Sanjar Umarov with purely selfish motives. Unlike so many of his countrymen, he has the education and experience to understand that Karimov’s policies are economically disastrous. Over dinner, we shared our frustration over this: Uzbekistan is not a naturally poor country. It is extremely well endowed with gas, gold, uranium, iron, coal and most rare minerals you can think of. It is historically fertile and could be so again once the government-dictated cotton monoculture is abandoned.

Uzbekistan’s plight is inflicted on it by appalling government. Umarov and I both believe it could recover surprisingly quickly once basic economic freedoms are established, of which the first must be to take the land from the state and give it to the peasant farmers. Over dinner we discussed other ideas, such as voucher privatisation schemes to enable the common people to benefit from Uzbekistan’s mineral wealth. I found Umarov attentive, interested and pro-active.

The outlawed Uzbek opposition has been fractured. There are genuine, historical differences between the Erk and Birlik parties, and those differences are vital to a democracy. But, until we achieve democracy, people need to work together against Karimov. The parties had moved to do that, to their great credit, but there was understandable resentment and suspicion from those who had suffered in opposition for years, towards a “Johnny Come Lately” like Sanjar Usmanov.

Well, he is certainly suffering now in his Tashkent cell. And, if Karimov is to be overthrown, in practice some reform-minded “insiders” are going to be needed to build the necessary national unity for reconstruction. That has to be faced. There are several prominent Uzbek opposition leaders, and Umarov now joins such figures as Mohammed Salih, Abdurahim Polat and others. One day let us hope the Uzbek people will freely choose between their politicians. For now, personal ambition needs to be subordinated to the need to end Karimov’s reign of terror.

The urgent need now is for all the opposition parties, including the Sunshine Coalition, to agree a platform of basic reform in the economy, the constitution, the police and judiciary, agriculture, education and many other areas. The broad lines of change need to be ready to roll out once Karimov goes. The most useful thing donors and foreign NGOs could do now would be to set up a programme outside Uzbekistan working with all parties to agree a plan of basic reform.

I found Umarov engaging and enthusiastic. I urged him to be cautious about returning to Uzbekistan, and was rather puzzled by his apparent confidence that he could pursue his political aims inside Uzbekistan without personal danger. Plainly he had good contacts with US official circles – since Karimov turned against the US, a pro-Western oligarch is a saleable commodity in Washington.

That Umarov was arrested at the time of the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to Tashkent is a sign of the strength and ugliness of the current Uzbek/Russian relationship. Umarov is being kept in solitary confinement. Nodira Khidatoyova of his party claims to have been told by an inside source that the Prokurator’s office have been instructed to destroy his mind through psychotropic drugs.

That is certainly feasible. There have been many examples of prisoners being forcibly injected, and Elena Urlaeva, another dissident I know, is currently undergoing such “treatment” in a psychiatric institution. Sanjar Umarov’s lawyer seems to provide some evidence for this. He found him naked, in solitary confinement, making repetitive movements and unable to communicate coherently.

The response of the international community to the brutal treatment of an opposition leader has been pathetic, as always with Uzbekistan. The UK, as EU Presidency, issued a pious statement hoping that “International norms of treatment would be respected”, when plainly they are not being.

Umarov is now being charged with “embezzlement”, and the UK hopes these charges will be “properly investigated”. How stupidly, utterly, inadequate! There is no “proper” investigation procedure in Uzbekistan, where 99% of those tried are convicted, and dissidents are framed literally every day, usually with narcotics or firearms offences. To pretend there is a shred of legitimacy to this treatment of Sanjar Umarov is a nonsense. Why is an alleged embezzler naked in solitary confinement?

If corruption is the real concern of the Uzbek authorities, Karimov and his daughter would be the first arrested. The international community, and the UK in particular, needs a much tougher response before Umarov dies in jail.

Craig Murray website

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The man who would be in the shadow of the King

A Cheney aide whose name rarely surfaces in either the Iraq pre-war intelligence fiasco or Scooters exposure has been heavily involved in both. David Addington, the general counsel (and ex-CIA) to the Vice President. Addington seems adept at working in the shadows a Washington Post profile (11/10/05)is of interest…

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information...

Now if they are looking to replace Scooter ... and they are ... we have no pic of DA .. seems a VERY shrinking violet... sound on torture .

Mapquest removes Palestine from the map

MapQuest.com obscures status of occupied territories
Ira Glunts, The Electronic Intifada, 23 September 2005

Whilst the world and it’s intellectual elites , Blair etc., struggle with the concept of erasing Israel from the map, Mapquest have already removed Palestine and provided a map of the “Greater Israel”.

….Recently, I was quite surprised to find that the map of Israel on the popular Internet site MapQuest presents the area of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights (Syrian Heights) as undifferentiated from Israel proper. In other words, as opposed to depicting Israel delineated by its internationally recognized borders, MapQuest displays the “Greater Israel,” which is the dream of many in the Israeli right wing. The realization of this "Greater Israel," of course, precludes any possibility of the Palestinian people realizing their national aspirations.

Go and read the article, complete with other curious maps that remove Palestine from the map.

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Shooting Fish in a Barrel. Pt 349

An Israeli air strike today landed between two vehicles, one carrying militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and another militants from Islamic Jihad

The Israeli army said it had been targeting militants who were en route to a rocket launch pad near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

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Helen Miers helps out her favouritests bestest President everrrrr!

"I think you had better hide over there, before the shit REALLY hits the fan" 

Shooting Fish in a Barrel - Israeli Assassins at work

Israeli Assassinates 7 Palestinian Militants in Air Strike Against Islamic Jihad

Israeli aircraft fired 2 missiles at a car, killing Islamic Jihad activists in the Jebaliya refugee camp, adjacent to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday Oct. 27, 2005.. Hospital officials said at least 7 people were killed and 15 wounded, 4 of them critically. Among those killed were at least two Islamic Jihad members, including Shadi Mohanna, the group's field commander for northern Gaza, and probably Mahmud Jahud (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Now (Friday) also named dead are Rami Assaf, 15, Faiz Badran, 45, who was to run in the forthcoming parliamentary elections as a Fatah member, and Mohammed al-Wahidi, 65. Two more bodies to be identified, one is a boy.

The assassination, on the orders of Ariel Sharon personally, came only hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised suicide bombings and said Israel should be "wiped off the map." Israeli leaders called for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations for the president's comments, which also upset Tony Blair.... 'completely and totally unacceptable', said UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.... he may have been talking about Israeli State Assassinations or Iranian populist rantings.

In Jenin on the Israeli occupied West Bank, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships arrested Abdel Halim Izzedine, an Islamic Jihad leader, at his home.

"If the Palestinian Authority does not take serious and tangible action against terrorism, there will be no diplomatic progress and that would be a pity. In such a situation, I will not meet with Abu Mazen,"

...... Sharon said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Jerusalem.

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Helen's secrets are safe....

"...I have steadfastly maintained that the independence of the Executive Branch be preserved and its confidential documents and information not be released to further a confirmation process."

Letter of Withdrawal. H Miers

Previous Post on her being proposed by POTUS ref. Texas Lottery.

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Sanjar Umarov - arrested, tortured - Karimov suppresses Voices of Dissent

Leader of Sunshine Coalition Sanjar Umarov arrested in Tashkent
Arena (FreeUz.Org), Interviewed by Alexei Volosevich, 23.10.2005 Turkish Weekly


Sanjar Umarov gone missing in Tashkent 24/10/05 Tribun-uz


Biography of Sanjar Umarov. Sunshine Party Uzbekistan Website

Yesterday it also emerged that Sanjar Umarov, chairman of the opposition Sunshine Coalition, who was arrested on Sunday for alleged embezzlement, had shown signs of having been tortured in jail. His lawyer said that he saw Mr Umarov naked, swaying back and forth in his cell. "He threw all his clothes out into the feeding slot and didn't react to my words," Valery Krasilovsky told Associated Press.

Guradian story of Arrest. Story of Torture.


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BBC cravenly scuttles from Karimov

You won't find news about the Blackberryless senior power execs (previous post) on the BBC ( except they report Scottish MSP's have them, and the Speaker of the House of Commons has banned MP's using them in the House) but you will find the BBC (AKA Foreign Office State Broadcasting Service) has backed down and is suspending its newsgathering operations in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan due to "security concerns."

All local staff are being withdrawn and the office in the capital Tashkent will close for at least six months pending a decision on its long term future.(Guradian today)

Regional Head Behrouz Afagh said the staff had been harassed and intimidated in recent months, making it difficult for them to do their job.

In June, the World Service correspondent, Monica Whitlock, was forced to leave Tashkent by the Uzbek government.

Two local staff members have since been granted refugee status by the United Nations.

That must give enormous encouragment to the opposition to "Boil in the Bag" dictator Karimov ... let's just hope that he keeps up sending on the deatils of his cookery experiments so Jack "The Torturers Friend" Straw can keep up to date with "The War on Terror" ... having spent all last week with "The Whore on Terror".

Might one ask what the Tashkent Ambassador is doing ? His website is silent, as is the FCO, Jack Straw in announcing closure of ten (now EU) foreign language services yesterday, didn't mention Uzbekistan.

FCO Minister , ex screaming Trot, My Lord Triesman, reviewing overseas consular services did say yesterday:

'British Governments have long put the task of protecting our citizens abroad at the top of their priorities.

He should have word in his boss's ear.

By the way, if you want to read Ms Manningham Buller's (capo di capo MI6) evidence about getting information by TORTURE ...er..er detainee reporting,Channel 4 have it under FOI at this site WARNING ... do not let children read this, and make sure your breakfast has settled.


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BBC executives dumbed down by Blackberry mush

Siemens Business Services (SBS) uses Vodafone's network, to provide the BBC with a service for 300 “power” users (i.e. corporation's executives who spend the most time out of their head the office ) of Canadian company RIM Blackberry devices.
Last week users started receiving fragments of other people's e-mails so the BBC has shut down its BlackBerry mobile email service. (Cue for Armando Ionucci Radio 4 comedy program)

A flaw in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server has been identified by RIM who say that the bug that plagued the BBC was a "rare conjunction of circumstances" which only occurs in a single service pack for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

In a statement RIM said: "We have developed and tested a fix for an obscure bug identified in a specific service pack release for BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The bug was isolated to version 4.02 and does not exist in version 4.03 or other earlier versions. RIM is aware of a single reported incident of the bug and responded promptly with a fix."

RIM, who recently announced a joint venture with Microsoft, Verizon and Palm for the new Treo 650e mobile in the US claims more than 3 Mn suers worldwide any errant messages resulting from the flaw, did not make it beyond the corporate firewall and "the bug did not generate any external risk". It says here.

In 2002, the BBC banned any of its staff from using devices not based on a Microsoft operating system.

Keen students of the technical capacity of Mr Blair’s surging crowd of sharp suited PR johnnies still relish the day in January when uber spinmeister Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former chief of communications, mistakenly sent an email from his BlackBerry apparently intended for a party official, suggesting they should get Trevor Beattie, TBWA's Ad agency boss, to issue a statement re the pre-election flying pigs poster and anti-semitic demionising of “Fagin” Michael Howard.

In it, he said:

"Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!"

The e-mail was sent by mistake to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen.
Apologising later he said ....

"Not very good at this e-mail Blackberry malarkey.
"Never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. Must look forward not back."

That’ll be the e-commerce based knowledge economy that leads to the UK’s core competitive business core business competition strategy then…. matching academic innovation to entrepreneurial skills …developing initiatives to promote technology clusters, ….identify the capacity of firms to innovate….. promoting technology transfer…..zzzzz…zzzzz ((c) T Blair Cambridge Silicon Fen 1999)

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Former Guantanamo Prisoner Held after Nalchik Killings near death

Rasul Kudayev, was born and brought up in Kabarda-Balkaria . He was one of 7 Russian nationals arrested by U.S. troops in Afghanistan almost 4 years ago to the day on 31st October 2001.

The US forces opened fire on a truck of prisoners, and killed many unarmed men in cold blood. Rasul was fortunate to survive but sustained a serious injury to his hip. To this day, the bullet remains in Rasul's hip. Throughout his time in detention, at Kandahar and eventually in Guantanamo, Rasul was denied medical treatment, despite the US forces knowing that he was injured. Like countless other detainees, he was also tortured.

In March of 2004 all 7 were handed over to Russia (after secret negotiations) where they all were charged with illegal crossing of a state border, mercenary activities and participation in a criminal gang. In June of the same year all the charges were dropped and the men were released. Since then Rasul has been living in Nalchik , which is the main city of the Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region, near rebel Chechnya. The region borders North Ossetia, where Chechen fighters attacked a school in Beslan last year.

Since his release, he has been unable to get treatment in Russia for his wound. Russian policy states that an individual is required to possess a Russian passport before being allowed medical treatment. Rasul has tried unsuccessfuly to obtain a passport on numerous occasions as the Russian authorities are continuously investigating him for various alleged 'offences'.

Rasul is now bedridden and cannot even get up without assistance. He is very young (in his 20's) and should be the breadwinner for his family. However, due to his injury, his elderly mother has to go out to work.

The only way in which Rasul's health can be restored is via private medical treatment, in order to have the bullet removed.

In August of this year, the head of the Russian Islamic Committee, Geidar Jemal, reported on Rasul Kudayev having been abducted in Nalchik. “People wearing balaclava masks and dressed in camouflage seized Kudayev in the presence of his mother and sister and took him to an unknown destination,” Jemal said. “I think that Kudayev may be subjected to torture. He is a very sick man and if he is tortured, he may not survive,” Jemal concluded.

Several days later Kudayev was released.

Chechen separatists have claimed responsibility for what the authorities say was a "carefully planned" simultaneous attack on police, army and Federal Security Service buildings on October 13th 2005 in Nalchick. A military operation was launched to dislodge a handful of rebels who were holding a small group of civilians in a shop in the centre of the town. They killed their Chechen captors who had held them overnight in Nalchick in the Caucasus, effectively ending a huge rebel raid that reportedly has killed dozens of people.

Justice officials say eight rebels were killed, and their five captives freed, after they tried to drive away in a mini-bus from the police station in the town centre where they had been holed-up overnight.

Chechen separatists have claimed responsibility for what the authorities say was a "carefully planned" simultaneous attack on police, army and Federal Security Service buildings.

The exact number killed (up to 200 people is commonly claimed) and injured on both sides remains unclear.(Rebels statement from KAVKAZ Centre)

Calm has now been restored to Nalchik, but though the Kremlin claims it has the Caucasus under control, events on the ground appear different.

Reasons for the hold up and kidnapping are still unclear but earlier in October, a woman said to be a sister of Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, went missing in Chechnya. Natasha Khumadova, a resident of Urus-Martan, was abducted by unknown gunmen, the republican Interior Ministry had reported.

The authorities suspect Doku Umarov of assisting Shamil Basayev in organizing a blast in Znamenskoye killing 14 people when a UAZ truck hit a mine earlier this summer.

Russian rights activists, on their part, do not rule out that Khumadova’s disappearance could be an act of what they describe as official counter-taking of hostages aimed to exert pressure on the rebel leader.

On Saturday 22nd October 2005 sources said Kudayev was arrested by local police after they had questioned other suspects arrested in the wake of the Oct. 13 raid in Nalchik . “There is evidence that he was involved in an attack on a traffic police post in Khasanye,” the source said.

In Rasul Kudayev’s case, the basis for the search was an anonymous call to the UBOP MVD hotline of Kabardino-Balkaria.

At least that is the basis indicated in the order signed by an inspector in the Major Case department of the General Procurator's office of the Southern Federal Region, Senior Adviser, Y. Savrulin. The anonymous caller supposedly reported that Kudayev himself participated in the attack in Nalchik, and had weapons and ammunition stored in his house. The search found nothing, but Rasul Kudayev was nevertheless detained in spite of the absence of an attorney

BREAKING NEWS Cage prisoners website >>>here

The 'War on Terror' is about to claim yet another innocent as one of its victims as Rasul Kudayev is slowly facing death after severe torture and abuse by the Russian FBS. False allegations by an anonymous source claimed that Rasul was behind the siege on Nalchik on 13th October 2005. Despite having searched his entire house, they have not found any evidence linking him to the attacks.

A government appointed lawyer has confirmed that Rasul has been beaten so badly that he cannot speak or even raise his head in acknowledgment. His family have been told to prepare for the worst by the doctor who examined him. After having been tortured during his time in Kandahar and Guantanamo Bay, this most recent abuse has placed him in a critical state.

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Gulu Walk for Uganda ... waking the world

On Saturday, over 15,000 people in 38 cities worldwide took the first step towards telling the story of the children of northern Uganda. GuluWalk Day attracted people of all nationalities, colour, race and religion in a global show of support for the innocent victims of the world’s most ignored humanitarian emergency. Along with the mass turnout, the events of GuluWalk Day were also featured by over 50 news sources worldwide. Get all the news / pics here and here

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The White House cabal ... exposed

By Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005. LA Times

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. ….

But the secret process was ultimately a failure. It produced a series of disastrous decisions and virtually ensured that the agencies charged with implementing them would not or could not execute them well.

I watched these dual decision-making processes operate for four years at the State Department. As chief of staff for 27 months, I had a door adjoining the secretary of State's office. I read virtually every document he read. I read the intelligence briefings and spoke daily with people from all across government. ….. complete article here

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Globetrotting Leeds part time teacher masterminds bomb plot - honest guv. Would MI5 tell a lie?

Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, who died in the London Transport 7/7 bombings, ( he was unknown to the security services in July 2005 ) featured in a filmed 2004 surveillance operation in which he was speaking to a British-based terrorism suspect says BBC 2 Newsnight, citing a single, unnamed "well-placed source".

The BBC said it had no independent corroboration that Khan was secretly filmed by intelligence services talking to the terror suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The BBC said a suspect held in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings has alleged that Khan went to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet leaders of al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiah suspect said Khan trained with leaders of the group in the Philippines. The BBC do not say under what conditions ( torture ?) me made this allegation or where.

In 2003, Khan met an Islamic extremist in Pakistan who cannot be named for legal reasons who has since confessed to supplying military equipment to al Qaeda, (night sights) the BBC reported. He is a U.S. citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the September 11 attacks. Khan, is also alleged to have seen this same man in Leeds in 2003, the BBC said.

A London police spokeswoman declined to comment. No one at the Home Office could be reached for comment.

This sounds like a crock of shit…. NO. This IS a crock of shit.

I had better go and check up on that drying paint.

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Droit de seigneur

2 magnificent French Cabinets were made for the Palace of Versailles around 1675 grace the the Drawing Room of Drumlanrig Castle, presented by King Louis XIV to King Charles II who gave them to his natural son, The Duke of Monmouth. An almost identical cabinet to the larger (see pic) of these is now on display at the Paul Getty Museum in the United States of America, while the smaller boasts a companion in the Wallace Collection in London.

Value ? Priceless. Like the Da Vinci painting stolen from the Castle in a daring daylight raid in 2003, claimed to be worth £80 Mn, their owner is Walter Francis John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, 11th Duke of Queensberry (b. 1923) Eton and Christ Church,Oxford.

He owns five major landed Estates, his estimated personal fortune of £55m is supplemented by a further c.£400m held by the Buccleuch Group, his holding company.

One company in the group of the enterprising Duke, (the largest landowner in the country) is Buccleuch BioEnergy , who will provide over 60MW of plant in the next 5/6 years or so, to provide metered biomass heating to commercial and domestic customers using locally sourced forestry and sawmill co - product (offcuts). Concentrating on the Scottish borders, South Central Scotland and the Aberdeen, Aviemore and Perthshire, the business claims it will expand and not be limited by geography.

What is this sophisticated technology that the Duke is so anxious to press on the Highlander and Lowlander alike? Well it’s the Köb Pyrot range of innovative wood pellet burning boilers manufactured by Köb & Schäfer GmbH, Flotzbachstrasse 33, A-6922 Wolfurt, of Austria. Their perfect combustion lowers the emissions of CO and NOx to below that of modern oil heating systems. Unlike oil and gas, wood is CO2-neutral and renewable, burner efficiency of more than 90% is achievable.

On January 3rd this year, Buccleuch BioEnergy was awarded a tax free grant to develop the business of £571,933 from the Big Lottery renewable Energy Fund to "to develop the business ."

What the fuck are we doing lining the pockets of this aristocratic billionaire from Lottery Funds for a commercial enterprise which is merely flogging imported equipment! What are we doing but sustaining the forelock tugging dependents of this chinless childless wonder - descended from one of Charles' II's whores.

London to flood like NOLA ?

The London Assembly's Environment Committee says 5% of east London flood defences are “poor” or “very poor” in a new report. The report empasises the web of bodies producing planning policies and strategies in the Thames Gateway growth leaving engineers, developers and architects uncertain about standards for new building.

Chairman Darren Johnson, says:

"We are extremely concerned about development plans for East London and the building of 120,000 new homes (= to 5% of current housing stock in GLC) in Thames Gateway by 2016. "These plans are simply not taking the flood risk issue seriously enough. Structured responsibility for control of new developments is essential in this area."

1.25 million people are already at risk from flooding by the Thames and a major flood in the Thames Gateway could cost as much as £12 billion. Munich Re in January 2005 put London into the Megarisk category because if it's risk of serious flooding.

16 opportunity and intensification areas are discussed in the East London Sub-regional Development Framework. These areas are expected to site 40 – 45 per cent of the housing and 85 per cent of new jobs planned until 2016 for the sub-region. Of these sites only 2 are considered to have no need for defences against flooding risk. 12 are at risk of tidal flooding and 2 more are at risk from fluvial flooding.

‘Initial calculations suggested that a major flood in the Gateway could cost between £12-16 billion, with about £4-5 billion coming from the new developments if precautions are not taken in the new developments.’

Says the Association of British Insurers, which observation precedes the introduction of increased insurance premiums for all.

In early 2004, we were told by the Environment agency that 19 kms of the 223 kms of tidal flood defences ‘are in less-than-satisfactory condition’ = 8% of the defences. ‘there are parts where the condition of the defences is poor or very poor, and that affects the chance that the defence could breach under an extreme flood. It is about five per cent of the defences …

Now where have we heard this sort of thing before ? ... New Orleans ?

Maybe in the anxiety to grab the prestige of running the Olympics in 2012 someone has made assumptions which cannot be substantiated. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a 156 page report said that if the government provided only the legal minimum flood protection risk over the next 20 years, flood plains could become "ghettos" of unsellable homes, where there would be "more potential for loss of life"

Recent blogs on same topic here

UK Lottery Funds subsidise huge EU companies to produce electricity!

E.ON is to build the largest dedicated UK biomass power station in Lockerbie in Scotland. Work on the innovative 44 Mw power station will commence in late 2005 to go on stream at the end of 2007. The EUR 130Mn (£89Mn) investment by the German company, the world's largest private-sector energy services company, will be built by a consortium of the Norwegian company Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group and Siemens.

Kvaerner will deliver the power boiler, fuel supply system and flue gas cleaning system. The power boiler, with steam capacity of 126 MW, is to use Kvaerners unique bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology and it will burn biofuels such as green wood and recycled wood.

Siemens will supply civil works, the turbine and the condenser for the plant.

The biggest of the National Lottery distributors, The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of the new biomass plant with a grant of £18m from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme (approx 25% of cost). Of the 220,000 oven-dried tonnes of fuel required for the station every year 20% will come from willow harvested by local farmers as Short rotation coppice (SRC) plantations and coppiced every three to five years to provide wood fuel. In the UK,. Initial fuel contracts will probably be for forestry residue.

It is estimated that the power station, which will be located at Steven's Croft, will create 40 direct and 300 indirect jobs in forestry and farming.

Aker Kvaerner has total annual sales of US$ 4.5 billion and employs around 22 000 employees in more than 30 countries.

Siemens operates in over 100 countries , employs 434,000 staff with annual sales of Euro 75 Bn.

In September Siemens Power Generation announced the agreement to supply its new 3.6 megawatts wind turbine for the Burbo Banks offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay, England. The farm is being developed by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a joint Danish( Elsam A/S ), and the French ( state owned EDF Energies Nouvelles) enterprise and will have 25 wind turbines with a total capacity of 90Mw. The order is valued at over EUR90 Mn (£49 Mn). The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of field with a grant of £10m (20% of cost) from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme.

Call me old fashioned but I didn't think that the Lottery existed to give bungs to the some of the biggest companies in the world, including a french State company, to produce an essential product like electricity.

We need to develop the new green industrial revolution that develops the new technologies that can confront and overcome the challenge of climate change; and that above all can show us not that we can avoid changing our behaviour but we can change it in a way that is environmentally sustainable

- Tony Blair, addressing event marking the 10th anniversary of His Royal Highness' Business and the Environment Programme, London, 14 September 2004

Great Tony, but it doesn't seem to be UK industry that is developing the "new technologies".

Recent blogs on same topic here

International Oversight - Intentional oversight ?

Welcoming the visit of Officials from the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in April. Welsh Secretary Peter Hain (the man with the tan from the can) said, before they set about looking at May’s elections to the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly.:

"The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights plays a key role in promoting the principles of democracy, not only within the territories of its own participating states but also in other parts of the world where new democratic structures are being developed.

"I very much hope that their assessment mission will result in good practices from Wales being adopted in other democracies. At the same time, we will be happy to look closely at any suggestions they may have for enhancing our own arrangements."

How very odd that they were not invited to cast their eye over the arrangements in Iraq for the referendum .. it's still not too late for their Parliamentary elections in December....