7/7 Surprise - Secret Service want more money

Resources ' may have stopped 7/7'

Press Association
Thursday May 11, 2006 10:03 AM "

"If more resources had been in place sooner (i.e if you had listened to our whingeing sooner) the chances of preventing the July 7 attacks on London could have increased, an official report has concluded.

The report by the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee also said: "More needs to be done to improve the way that the Security Service and Special Branches come together in a combined and coherent way to tackle the 'home-grown' threat."

More of this drivel here at the Guradian online .... I have some paint I need to watch carefully.

The Ryanair ad above((c) Ryanair I guess) published eight days after the London Tube bombings, attracted 319 complaints to the Advertising Standards Association. They were all dismissed.

'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go ....

126. The SIS is now aiming to increase the rate of recruitment of staff and to go beyond its existing growth target of *** extra staff by 2008. It is also planning to build on progress already made to increase deployments to key CONTEST areas such as ***, ***, *** and ***, to open up new stations, and to continue to seek imaginative ways to increase coverage of the threat through allies and partners. £*** of the new funding will go to develop the *** in countries with high priority counterterrorist targets. ***
***
*** . Since July, the SIS has also ***
***
*** .
127. Post-July, GCHQ is aiming to increase the amount of proactive target discovery (sic ?) and analytic work undertaken on the threat with a consequent further increase in the number of people doing that work (Breathless punctuation there). It is also accelerating investment in the skills required to master an increasingly complex communications environment.(Ditto)

May be wonderful at catching terrists but their punctuation is crap.
As Bob Geldof said (concerning another charity) Give us yer fockin' money !!ok nur?

Hayden employed MZM CEO who had worked for/with him at NIMA

Muckraker has an exclusive Lt. Gen. James C. King became president of MZM when Mitchell Wade (who bribed Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts) left the company in June 2005. Since then, the company has been acquired by Veritas Capital (major investor in DynCorp) and renamed Athena Innovative Solutions, 1523 New Hampshire Ave NW ,Washington, DC 20036 - which is the address of the company that bought Duke Cunninghams House and was MZM's address in Washington.DC....links to Lincoln Group, BKSH, MZM, Rendon - who else? Athena's client list.

1. Federal records show King contributed to some of Wade's favourite lawmakers, including $6000 to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and $4000 to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL).

2. Before joining MZM in December 2001, King served under Gen. Michael V Hayden as the NSA's associate deputy director for operations, and as head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.NIMA was then currently leading the U.S. government-funded effort to develop a spy satellite that can focus in on something as small as a person.

3. King then worked at NSA Headquarters in Ft. Meade, Maryland, in 2004 and 2005, he worked on the same floor as Hayden both sources told me. "King was out there working on same floor as Hayden," one former employee with firsthand knowledge of the arrangement said. "He was doing special projects for Hayden as an MZM employee." Neither former employee knew details of King's work for Hayden; one said he thought he was doing "special projects" for the director, while the other speculated it was "high-ranking advisory work."

4. Hayden left the NSA in April 2005 to take the post of Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

5. As an MZM employee, King was involved in a number of controversial projects. In 2002, he was a key adviser to the team creating CIFA, the Pentagon's domestic surveillance operation. In 2004, he was one of three MZM staffers who worked on the White House Robb-Silberman Commission, which recommended expanding CIFA's powers.

6. USA Today has an interesting article Nov 5th 2005 about MZM.

7. Wade's mother's name was Saieed, and probably his grandparents were Iraqi Christians.

8. Tommy Kontogiannis, 56, of Glen Head,Long Island, had his home Rosedale, Queens office and yacht Kelly C in Glen Cove searched by Federal agents in September 2005.In October 2002, Kontogiannis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fraud charges involving bid-rigging on computer contracts in School District 29 in Queens. Cunningham wrote a letter to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown saying he thought that Kontogiannis was the victim of an unfair prosecution. Kontogiannis was involved in the financial transactions both fro Cunninghams house and his yacht.

It is further interesting to note that from 1991-1993 (Bush Pere/Cheney Sec of Def) he worked in the Pentagon as a program manager for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. That would have been Duane P. Andrews, now Chief operating officer of SAIC (HQ, San Diego)...." work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care and logistics" Here is an interesting interview with him about DOD systems security.

Good News !! Prescott beats the rap! Tracey scoops £1/4 Mn.

"Ministers of the Crown are expected to behave according to the highest standards of constitutional and personal conduct in the performance of their duties."... the first sentence of the Ministerial Code.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott won't face a criminal investigation over a complaint from a Glaswegian ex-policeman Alastair Watson ,that he had abused public office by having an affair with his secretary, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates of Scotland Yard said today.

Watson referred to the case of a former Greater Manchester constable who was sentenced to 200 hours of community service last year for misconduct of public office after having sex with a woman at her home three times while on duty.

"A distinction has to be drawn between action that could potentially discredit an office holder and those actions that constitute criminality."

"Accordingly I have decided not to embark upon a criminal investigation. To do so would not I believe be a proportionate response or an appropriate use of police resources." said Yates.

The Manchester Evening News today has a report about 16 year old Sorrell Walsh who dropped a lolly stick and when a council warden refused her offer to put the 4in wooden stick in a bin he handed her a fixed penalty notice for £75.

44 species of spider eating wasps now recorded for the UK

Episyron gallicum (Tournier, 1889) .
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Sandy, Bedfordshire have worked with the owners of a nearby and now unused quarry owned by, Lafarge Aggregates Ltd, to create a custom-built habitat ideal for rare insects.

Episyron gallicum (Tournier, 1889) a pretty, dark bodied wasp was discovered after Lafarge agreed to fund a survey of one of their disused quarries to see if the work had been successful in attracting insects to the site. In all 135 species were found at the quarry.

It is a thermphilous species normally found in a Mediterranean climate, although it is known in Poland (Sufficently common in Poland to have a popular name Opylec ciemny ) and is in their Red Book of protected species where they say it is withdrawing from many localities in Europe. The Natural History Museum of Denmark also has specimens in their collection from Iceland , Denmark and the Faroe Islands, including one of ssp. intermedium. (Haupt) of which there is one in the German Entomoligical Collection from 1930.The Checklist of the Pompilidae from Germany bases on Oehlke, Smissen & Wolf (2001) also includes Episyron gallicum where it also appears n the Book Rote Liste gefährdeter Tiere Deutschlands (BINOT et al. 1998)

The Polish Red Data Books says ..

In Poland it was only noted in the Pomeranian Lake District and in the Mazovian Lowland. In 1976 one individual of Episyron gallicum was collected in the Małopolska Upland. It is declining principally due to successional changes in xerothermic communities which are its preferred habitat. If not grazed or mown, these communities turn into thermophilous shrubs and forests. The species is not protected by law; active protection of its habitats is required.

Episyron gallicum seeks out spiders which hunt their prey on the ground rather than building webs. It is very fast and nimble, dancing around its ground living spider prey, to outwit it before paralysing it with a quick sting.

The paralysed spider is then sealed in a tunnel with a wasp egg laid on it. When the larva hatches, the comatose spider is a handily placed and tasty larder for it's first meals.

Peter Bradley, site manager at the RSPB reserve, said “It’s entirely new to this country. It is a species of specialist wasp that lives in dry and loose sand. I’m pretty sure it’s living there and breeding.”

Mr Bradley was convinced the work done by the RSPB had made it possible for the creature to make its home on this side of the Channel.

He said: “What usually happens with quarries is they are great for these rare invertebrates for a short period of time, while there is lots of disturbed dry sand and cliff faces. But after a few years they get filled in or nicely profiled by grass, or the cliff face runs out of coarse material. (Vide Poland re the growth of scrub)

“The idea here was that we create a structure that naturally creates new areas of loose sand by gradually eroding... the results are amazing".

Gavin Broad, a zoologist with At the Biological Records Centre, is of the opinion that climate change may have combined with work done at the quarry to create good conditions for the colonist. This, considering the Danish, German and Polish records over decades seems unlikely, a happy accident of habitat, intense surveying and some happy munching spiders.

He said: “There are all sorts of species in Europe that aren’t here and various insects have been changing their ranges since the last ice age. The change to warmer summers and winters is going to help them.

There were 43 species of spider-hunting wasps native to the UK to which we can add another.

Among the other unexpected finds were an endangered robberfly, which was previously confined to The Brecks area of Norfolk and Suffolk, a ground nesting, weevil-hunting wasp and several kinds of rare bees.

Lafarge are delighted with the results and Tim Deal said : “It’s great that we have found something of national interest, very possibly as a result of the restoration work we have done at the quarry. “We would feel slightly disappointed to have funded the work and found nothing.”

Iraq : Violent Killings continue

President Jalal Talabani said today that nearly 1,100 people were killed in Baghdad alone last month , they were "the tip of the iceberg" as many deaths went unrecorded . He said that behind every unidentified corpse is "an orphan, a starving father or a grieving wife."

Near Baqouba, 35 miles NE of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying employees of the state-run Diyala Electronics Co., which makes products such as televisions They planted a bomb aboard the vehicle that exploded when rescue workers arrived. In all, 11 Iraqis were killed and six wounded.

13 Iraqis were killed in other attacks, including four off-duty policemen in Ramadi.

In Baghdad, suspected insurgents riding in two BMWs assassinated a Defense Ministry press office employee as he drove to work at about 8:15 a.m., police said.

One of the BMWs stopped to block the car of Mohammed Musab Talal al-Amari, a Shiite, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Three men got out of the other BMW and opened fire in the residential neighborhood of Bayaa, killing al-Amari and wounding an Iraqi pedestrian, Hussein said.

Casualties from a suicide truck bombing in Tal Afar on Tuesday night rose to 22 dead and 134 wounded. The U.S. military flew some of the wounded to other cities when the local hospital was overwhelmed.

In two other shootings in Baghdad 3 were killed , suspected insurgents killed a Shiite taxi driver and a Shiite who once belonged to Iraq's disbanded Baath party, police said. A similar attack killed a civilian driver about 80 miles south of the capital, said police.

-The bodies of two Iraqis who had been handcuffed and shot were found in eastern Baghdad.

-Gunmen in two cars killed two traffic policemen in western Baghdad.

-In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeting two American convoys, missed their targets but killed one civilian and wounded three.

-An ambush by insurgents killed four off-duty policemen in Ramadi on Tuesday, apparently as they were leaving work. Ramadi, 70 miles west of

Scores of unidentified bodies turn up around the capital on a daily basis, many bound, tortured and shot execution style in an steady tide of reprisal sectarian killings.

At least 3,525 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence this year. These numbers include civilians, government officials, and police and security officials, and are considered only a minimum based on Associated Press reporting.

It is no surprise therefore that Leadership of the Interior Ministry - supposedly the key to securing the country against violence - has been a main stumbling block in the formation of the new national unity government.

Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki has said the interior and defense portfolios will be filled by independents unaffiliated with individual parties or militias. Don't hold your breath.

LATE NEWS OF MORE VIOLENCE, DEATH, AND DAMAGE

Gunmen assassinated a chief of criminal intelligence Kenaan Hassan and two bodyguards on the way to work in the town of Baacouba northeast of the capital

Separately, gunmen killed a leading member of Al-Badr militia of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) in Iraq, Ibrahim Al-Khazraji, in Al-Dujail province, 70 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital late on Tuesday.

In the Baghdad district of Al-A'thamiah, armed elements gunned down Justice Muhaimen Mahmoud on Tuesday.

After it was blown up fire gutted a crude pipeline in the region of Al-Jarf in Al-Musayeb province, 70 km south of the Baghdad.

Don'r worry Civil War has not broken out and George says "we are winning".

Iran. The Anti American Alliance grows

CRS Report for Congress
Iran: U.S. Concerns and
Policy Responses
Updated April 6, 2006

Kenneth Katzman
Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division 45 pages PDF
Here are a few extracts from the 45 page report, which if you wish to fully understand US policy is a MUST read. There is a huge amount of valuable detailed information. (plus some bollocks as well).

"According to an Administration national security strategy document released on March 16, 2006, the United States “may face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran.” Over the past five years, the Bush Administration has pursued several avenues to attempt to contain or end what it views as the potential threat posed by Iran, including pursuing limited engagement directly or through allies. However, support for a policy of changing Iran’s regime has apparently gained favor within the Administration as Iran has resisted permanent curbs on its nuclear program. "

"Iran’s nuclear program is not the only major U.S. concern on Iran. Successive administrations have pointed to the threat posed by Iran’s policy in the Near East region, particularly material support to groups that use violence against the U.S.-led Middle East peace process, including Hizballah in Lebanon and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad."(Pic Khatami/Castro 2000)

"Some observers believe that a long-anticipated crisis between Iran and the international community over Iran’s perceived nuclear ambitions has arrived. Partly because of acceleration of some of Iran’s WMD programs, particularly its nuclear program, President Bush, in his January 29, 2002 State of the Union message, labeled Iran part of an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and North Korea. Despite professions that WMD is inconsistent with Iran’s ideology, virtually all Iranian factions appear to agree on the utility of WMD, particularly the acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability, as a means of ending its perceived historic vulnerability to U.S. domination and a symbol of Iran as a major nation. "

"Largely with foreign help, Iran is becoming self sufficient in the production of ballistic missiles. DNI Negroponte testified on February 2, 2006 (discussed above) that Iran “already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, and Tehran views its ballistic missiles as an integral part of its strategy to deter, and if necessary retaliate against, forces in the region, including U.S. forces.”(pic Chavez/Castro/Morales 2006)

Regime Change. Some U.S. officials believe that, whether or not Iran’s nuclear program can be curbed through diplomacy or economic sanctions, only an outright change of regime would reduce the threat posed by Iran. Those who advocate this policy believe that the regime — no matter which faction of it is in control — harbours ambitions fundamentally at odds with the United States and its values.

A useful chart on Page 44 shows the rather complicated Structure of the Iranian Government ( No, NO don't vote it just amuses me)
If you want the full text of the letter to George Bush from his Iranian friends you will find it here.Contileezza Rice says they will not be replying, which my Nanny used to say was very rude.... if you really want to, vote here.... only one each this IS a Democracy.

FREE 3D modelling tool to all Postman Patel readers

I have found a new toy ... try it, Lord Patel has negotiated a special FREE deal for his readers from the Google guys and Sketch Up who produce the SketchUp Pro 5 professional modelling tool.

Google SketchUp is a free an easy-to-learn and easy to use 3D modelling program. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. Once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies. With a little skill you will spend more time designing the project than you will doing it. Made for Shed Man.

Google SketchUp is free for personal use by Lord Patel's friends. No registration is required.

C.A.T.oil AG on the slide

Frankfurt 18,75 € -0,73 € -3,75 % 1.81 Mio. 14:36

Porton Down animal experiments soar under Labour

Mr Mike Hancock ( Lib Dem : Portsmouth South):To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many animals have been used in experiments at Porton Down in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) breed and (b) procedures carried out. (PQ No. 66421) 7th May 2006.

22 Jul 1998 : Hansard Column: 564
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of the animals subjected

to experiments at Porton Down in each of the last five years died as a result of the experiments; and what happened to those animals that did not die.

A total of 44,913 procedures were carried out at the Chemical and Biological Defence Sector of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Porton Down over the last five years. At the end the majority of the experiments, surviving animals were killed humanely using an approved method as specified in the project licence issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Information on the number of procedures resulting in the deaths of animals is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Breeds commonly used at CBD Goat(15) ,Guinea-pig -D unken Hartley, Hamster(16) Syrian,
Horse(17), Macaque(18), Rhesus, Marmoset,Common Mouse-Porton mouse, BALB/C, hybrids. Pig , Large White Rabbit - New Zealand White/ Dutch Belted, Rat - Porton Wistar
Sheep - Mules, cross breeds

The number of procedures conducted during each calendar year at the Chemical and Biological Defence Sector of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Porton Down since 1993 are shown in the table below:

Year Number of procedures
1993 6,697
1994 7,416
1995 8,747
1996 11,097
1997 10,956
Total 44,913 Avg 8,982

Mr Hancock asked the same question again in January PQ 66421 so we can add.

2000 11,985
2001 12,955
2002 15,940
2003 13,899
2004 15,728
2005 21,118
Total 91,625 Avg 15,270 = 70% increase

Mike Hancock, said he was "horrified" and pledged to table more questions seeking precise details of the tests and asking if any research was being undertaken for foreign governments.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a campaign group, Have a sexy pic of Pammy Anderson seeking your signature to protect seals on their website but restrict their reported comment to, "Animals don't wage wars; why should they be made to suffer because humans do?" , "Most people would be horrified to know that their tax money is being used to fund these wasteful and cruel experiments." Perhaps we could ask them to retain the services of Jordan, or Atmoc Pussy to protect the anmials of Porton Down ?

But Adam Ingram, dour Scot, isists the tests are only carried when there is no alternative.

"Porton Down only undertakes research involving the use of animals when other 'in vitro', physical and computer modelling methods are unsuitable," He added that all military testing follows the widespread scientific principles of trying to refine, reduce and replace animal tests wherever possible.

In 1994, some Labour Party spokesmen suggested the party in government would forbid the use of animals in the testing and development of weapons. Current research at Porton is the study of MRSA and Anthrax. The facility produces a high efficacy anthrax vaccine which is sold throughout the world.

Ever since Labour came to office in 1997, such testing has increased. Porton Down has experimented on more than 100,000 animals since 1997 claims the Scotsman.

From 1984-1992 Dr David Kelly Kelly was Head of Microbiology at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down. His dead body was found near his home in Oxfordshire.

Glenda Jackson MP called for Blair to resign over Kelly’s death. “Bullets should be bitten,” she said, and “the prime minister should really be reconsidering his position.”

Porton Down is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has a noted Butterfly population including the Pictured rare(ish) Chalk Hill Blue. It was that or a picture of a Marmoset with electrodes in it's head.

Kurdistan - restless nation builders as spring is in the air

A Kurdish friend recommends this article about current events in "Kurdistan"

Bush’s Hopes in the Hands of Gangsters - A dispatch from Kurdistan

Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The Brooklyn Rail

Proof ... if it were needed

A strange tale of a Brisbane "Bomber"

A BRISBANE high school teacher denies being a terrorist and has told a court that a stockpile of explosives found at his home on Monday 8th May 2006 - including bombs stuffed with razor blades and nails - were for use in a television production.

John Howard Amundsen, 40, Ferny Grove State High School, Brisbane's Aus.has been founf to have 53kg of Powergel mining explosives explosives, some manufactured into bombs with nails and razor blades embedded in them, at his home.

Mr Amundsen told the court he had no affiliation to any violent terrorist organisation and had a high-level security clearance.

"Your honour, prior to the current charges I've worked for three years in public relations at the (Brisbane) airport and have a red ASIO security clearance," Mr Amundsen told Magistrate Lindy Bradford-Morgan.

"The explosives are being used in a TV shoot." he claimed.

Police will oppose bail.

A curious story. How does a school teacher get 53 kilos, near a hundreweight of explosives - Powergel is commonly used in mining and is produced as a proprietary, easily used mine blasting product by African Explosives Ltd.,It is said to be very stable.It was developed by ICI in Australia as the world's first gassed emulsion explosive 'Powergel 2510'.

So why did the 7/7 bombers go to all the trouble of making a highly volatile bathtub mix ? Especially when it is evident that it has been in use in Northern Ireland. Viz ;

From University of Ulster History Timeline
Monday 3 March 1997
A bomb was found outside the office of Sinn Féin (SF) in Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. The bomb, which contained two and a half kilos of Powergel (a commercial explosive), was defused by members of the Irish Army. [There was no claim of responsibility, but the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was believed to be behind the attack. The UVF have used Powergel on a number of occasions.

Solicitor Rosemary Nelson, was killed with a car bomb using one pound of powergel by the Red Hand Defenders on March 15 1999... and had been used in other car bombs.

A very odd story.

LATER NEWS

The Courier reports that Queensland Premier Peter Beattie told Parliament that while it was not completely ruled out, terrorism was not considered a factor in the case.

"The police minister has advised me that the commissioner has indicated that there is no known terrorism threat in Queensland," Mr Beattie said.

"It should be dealt with on the facts and there shouldn't be any alarmism."

Gold Miners rescued ..Acts of God or man ?

The situation ( at Beaconsfield goldmine, Tasmania, Aus. affected by an earthquake in October) recalls the US's "miracle" rescue of the Quecreek miners trapped below ground in a flood in 2002. As Indiana University of Pennsylvania Professor Charles McCollester wrote about that near disaster:

The most common characterization of the incident was the appellation: “miraculous”, In this conservative and religious rural area, a combination of the memory of many mining deaths, the dedication and commitment of the rescuers, and the solidarity of their God may well have had a hand in the rescue, but the flooding can’t be pinned on the deity.

Human avarice and more than a century of fierce manipulation and corporate struggle for profit and control were behind the wall of water that swept into the Quecreek mine.

It looks as though we might be hearing a lot more about this "miracle".

Australian Workers Union national vice-president Paul Howes said yesterday the union was preparing for the worst. "We have issues with the mine and we did before this disaster, and they aren't all safety-related," Mr Howes said.

"All mining is dangerous but we had major concerns about this mine after October," "There have been issues and obviously they haven't been rectified.

"The Beaconsfield story won't be over for a long time."

Asia News reports that one of the most pointed questions was asked of mine manager Matthew Gill at an impromptu news conference outside the pithead by a veteran Australian television reporter who collapsed and died of a heart attack just seconds later.

"Mr Gill, on October 26 last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rockfall," asked Richard Carleton, 62, renowned for his touchy questions.

"Is it [because of] the wealth of the seam that you continue to send men in to work in such a dangerous environment?"

Without turning his head to look at Carleton, Mr Gill brushed the question aside, saying the focus was on bringing the two trapped men out alive and that anything else had to wait.

The mine has been closed and miners paid a month's wages pending a safety inspection.

Beaconsfield Gold director Michael Trumbull said Australian Mining Consultants in
Melbourne had made a recommendation to the joint venture on "checkerboarding" - removing alternate squares of rock in a tunnel to put less stress on rocks.

Beaconsfield Gold and Allstate shares were suspended on the stock exchange on Wednesday.

Read more at Confined Space ,a first rate US site on Workplace Health & Safety, Labor and Politics and here

PhotoVoltaics, lower costs higher output, with Nextek

Photo Voltaics (PV) are promoted as the latest, easiest way to raise electrical energy - fine but it doesn't shine all day, and certainly not at night time. So you have to have some method of merging PV supplies / battery backup / and mains supply. Standard systems have a complex approach currently to accommodate DC loads to the AC grid, using converters, surge protectors, internal equipment power supplies and uninterruptible power supplies. Nextek's patented technology makes a neat easily installed package that is simpler, with cheaper up front costs and higher utilization of generated electricity ...by up to 10%.

Nextek Power Systems, Inc. with 23 installations in 13 states, have installed the first commercial-scale installation of solar electricity Direct Coupled(R) to Allen-Bradley PowerFlex(R) 700 series motor drives, integrated in the Hempstead,Long Island NY , Town Hall's Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system (HVAC) system in Hempstead NY.

The Nextek Power Gateway directly connects locally generated power and grid power to electronic loads in a building. Nextek's Direct Coupling(R) technology creates highly efficient, flexible, uninterruptible Direct Current (DC) power networks in buildings which is ideal for the stationery environment. It replaces the complex approach currently used to accommodate DC loads to the AC grid.

The attractive feature of these systems is that they show an improved efficiency over standard inverter applications e.g if there is a power outage inverters have to be switched off. The installation uses a 256-panel, 40-kilowatt solar energy system. This solar Photo Voltaic (PV) contribution powers 2 motors (a 40hp and a 25hp) during the peak daylight hours, seamlessly changing the power source to grid-supplied Alternating Current (AC) as the sun goes down, watt for watt.

The electrical efficiency of the Nextek Power Gateway PV interface is 98% including wiring loses. The 10% capacity utilization increase over conventional systems, in the 20 year design life provides major saving on line power supplies, and smaller solar arrays are required, cutting up front capital costs.

Nextek claim that this improves the town's Return on Investment (ROI) by 30% to 40%.

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http://www.nextekpower.com/flash/directcoupling.htm
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Bush is another name for a cunt

Amazon (an online bookstore) customers tagged a recent book :-

impeach (2), traitor (1), september 11 (1), flight 93 (1), united 93 (1), terrorism (1), al qaeda (1), incompetent (1), coward (1), criminal (1), gwb (1), flight 175 (1), 9-11 (1), impeach gwb (1), 911 (1)

Was it :
Bull$#*! Artist : The 9/11 Leadership Myth
by Ron Schalow

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
by Beatrix Potter
Frederick Warne

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush, 2002, Bk. 1, January 1 to June 30, 2002 885 pages. Office of the Federal Register .
Order it here

Afghan woman MP assaulted in Parliament.

An outspoken and extraordinaryily brave female legislator was physically and verbally attacked by her colleagues after saying on the parliament floor that some of Afghanistan's mujahedeen leaders were criminals who shouldn't now be lawmakers, officials said Monday.AP

Malalai Joya, (website)elected to the Afghan Parliament for the remote western area of Farah said when elected "When those people put their trust in me and elected me as their representative, I decided to bring their suffering to the world's attention - so that the world would know that even though the men and women of Afghanistan have had to live in ignorance and poverty for many years, they don't trust the mujahideen."

Ms Joya said the government with the support of international forces should "tackle the warlords with great determination".

Yesterday she was physically and verbally attacked after saying on the parliament floor that some of Afghanistan's mujahedeen leaders were criminals who shouldn't allowed to be lawamakers. The Times reports that Omid Yakmanish, a television cameraman, was hit as he filmed the uproar, and dropped his camera. He said: “The MP (Al-haj Khyal Mohammad Husaini, from Ghazni) said in an interview, ‘I have the right to beat people up if I want to’.”

Parwin Durranai, a woman MP for the nomadic Kuchi people, who charged at her, said: “I am not regretful. She spoke against 90 per cent of Afghanistan’s people. She is rude in the way she speaks.”

Several female lawmakers hit her with empty plastic water bottles and male lawmakers made death threats and lobbed insults at her after her speech on Sunday.

"I said there are two kinds of mujahedeen in Afghanistan. One kind fought for independence, which I respect, but the other kind destroyed the country and killed 60,000 people," Joya told AP.

This is not the first time (nor will it be the last) that Joya, has spoken out against warlords and drug lords . At the first loya jirga, a council of leaders that helped establish the interim government in 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 and in December at the full first session of parliament (Wolesi Jirgashe) called for all of Afghanistan's human rights abusers and "criminal warlords" to be brought to justice. Delegates responded by pounding their fists on the tables to demand she sit down. But she refused, shouting that she had a right as an elected official to speak her mind.

On Monday, she again said Afghanistan's parliament has former warlords and members loyal to the Taliban. She said death threats would not quiet her.

"They may kill me, they may slash my neck. I will never stop my words against the criminals, against the drug dealers," she said.

The spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, Karim Rahimi,said , "The lawmakers are the representatives of the Afghan people. We are sure they will solve their own difficulties," and then sneaked off..

Ms Joya has argued against the former rulers of Afghanistan - last year she, together with a delegation of 50 tribal elders, persuaded President Hamid Karzai to dismiss Bashir Baghlani as the governor of Farah province by him as he was a well-known criminal commander of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and a former Taliban leader (and man with close contacts with the CIA) . Diplomats see her very vocal and expressive interventions as unhelpful... which is hardly surprising.

Assassination attempted

She has survived at least 4 assassination attempts since her speech at the constitutional convention. Ms Joya employs armed guards and travels incognito where possible.

"I know that if not today, then probably tomorrow, I will be physically annihilated," Ms Joya told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

Ms Joya has said she is used to intimidation after being threatened "again and again" by the Taleban when she started her work in the country in 1998 after returning from Pakistan and Iran where her family had emigrated during the civil war.

During that time she established an orphanage and health clinic, and was soon a vocal opponent of the Taleban.

"These people are snakes in the sleeves of the government. Only if the government tackles them head-on will we see a brighter future." says this remarkable woman,"If they don't there will be more bitter and dark days ahead."

Malalai Joya, recently visited Yale University in the US to speak on foreign policy. At the end of her lecture, she criticized Harvard for admitting Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi as a special student. Hashemi was the deputy foreign minister for the Taliban at the time of the September 11th attacks.He was the chief translator for Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. Harvard apologists said and that excluding him would “ takes us one step closer into the Taliban-like suppression of views that challenge the party line.”

Malalai Joya has received a 1/2 share in the S Korean annual Human rights 2006 Gwangju Prize for human rights.(Pic Hamburg 2002)

Elsewhere in Afghanistan today the U.S. reported airstrikes on a cave complex near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan killed four Taliban militants and destroyed a truck loaded with rockets.

PKK - the wolf in the room... N. Iraq in revolt ?

The Turkish armed forces have launched their first military operation along the Iraqi border . Special force "Burgundy Berets" have been operating in cross border reconnaissance missions. Heavy construction equipment is also being brought to the border for use during a possible cross-border operation. (Map of Kurdish diaspora)

The Aksam newspaper reported last Friday that a further 10,000 Turkish soldiers have been sent to the border region, bringing the total number of troops in the area up to VOA says 200,000. and the New Anatolian) Of course these troops do not only guard the border but increase the repression of the area and the smouldering fires of it's strong Muslim anti-government population.

Fifteen soldiers, four police officers and more than 40 Kurdish militants have been killed in south-eastern Turkey in recent months. And eight bombings in the past three months have left two dead and 4. Unease rose when funerals for insurgents in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir led to anti-government demonstrations. Security forces responded, killing three civilians.

The Northern Iraqi cities of Amedi and Zaho (Zakho), have been the targets of with mortar attacks in “Operation Crescent.” by Turkish armed forces who have been concentrating on the border. They claim that they are trying to root out those sheltering Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants as the government in Ankara is worried about a Kurdish Palestinian style intifada. Despite request the US forces have little time or resource to divert to the problems of the Turks , who did not of course become involved in the "Coalition of the Willing" or the 2003 invasion and occupation.

With the PKKK and Turkish clashes increasing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also stepping up internal repression of PKK supporters. Last Tuesday, AP reported Turkish security forces raided the offices of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party. Some 50 party members, including five provincial leaders and nine local leaders, were detained. Prime Minister Erdogan had previously urged members of the Democratic Society Party to denounce PKK violence which they refused to do. The PKK is a terrorist group a definition endorsed by Turkey, Washington and the EU.

On a 2 day visit to see Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullag Gah , Iranian National Security Adviser and Nuclear Negotiator, Ali Larijani, said on the Turkish NTV channel May 8th, that the US authorities have been carrying out talks with PKK officials in the Northern Iraq.... who the US designate as terrorists."Yes, I do have detailed information. And I have sent this on to Turkish officials. The meeting between US and PKK forces took place a month ago, and was on the level of military commanders." .. Laranjani will go next to Greece. Of course he has another agenda but is happy to make snide remarks about the US meeting the PKK.

However tempting cross border activity by Turkey may be, it would be politically hugely sensitive and Turkey will not want to put its relations to Washington and to the European Union at risk by staging a large offensive in Iraq. A major problem is that to obtain parliamentary seats the Kurds require at least 10% of the vote nationally (it is just over 6%). THis curious Turkish brake on democracy is queried by the European Union in discussions regarding Ankara's possible membership. Turkey has said that it will "restudy" the 10 percent parliamentary threshold, perhaps lowering it to allow direct representation by smaller parties.
Hansjorg Kretschmer, head of the delegation of the European Commission, attending the opening of the ''Potable Water Project'' in the SE city of Sanliurfa on Friday 6th May condemned the recent attack by PKK in the eastern city of Hakkari in which 21 people were injured. A remote-control bomb exploded,near a military vehicle protecting a school bus, it injured 21 people including 11 children and 8 soldiers. The school bus was carrying soldiers' children from their school to their homes. The injured children were playing in a nearby park. None of the children in the bus were harmed.

Replying to questions of journalists about the bomb attack in Hakkari, Kretschmer said that such an attack could not justified.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has recently said that neighboring countries should not meddle in Iraq's affairs -- a statement thought to refer to Turkey. A member of Talabani's close circle, and a leader of the Suleymaniye region's Iraqi Kurdistand Patriotic Union, Imed Ahmet, on Friday warned PKK members in the area, "Do not attack our neighbors, Turkey and Iran, from our soil." .... "If you want to stay on our lands, you are required to follow our laws."
Kurdish militias (Peshmergas) under the leadership of Massoud Barzani have tightened security measures along the Northern Iraqi border.

There has also been increased military activity on the Iranian border although border crossings are reported to be operating quite normally.

Many observers say the U.S. - led coalition in Iraq, which has enjoyed relative calm in the Kurdish-dominated north, could end up this summer in a new field of conflict if Turkey's effort to quell the P.K.K. insurgency spills across its borders.The reality of the situation in the area is that the PKK is not only holding Turkey, but also the Northern Iraqi administration under pressure. (PKK flag)

The presence of the PKK in Iraq and it's increasing military activity and recruitment , especially from Iran, is as forecast in 2003 a threat to Iraq's inner stability. Kirkuk will eventually rise in the arise on the national agenda, it will become clear that the PKK is a threat not to just Turkey and Iran, but to Baghdad also. Cemil Bayik, speaking for the PKK on Saturday 6th May, said that if and when the Arabs fight the Kurds for Kirkuk, the PKK will be on the side of the Iraqi Kurds.

This highlights, for Kurds in N. Iraq, the PKK are essential. So, while Iraq searches for a solution to the questions surrounding Kirkuk, PKK the first to mention the word "war" in over Kirkuk threatens Baghdad with (another) civil war.

It also highlights the problems for the "Coalition of the Willing" as Turkmen and Arabs continually are being "ethnically cleansed" in Kirkuk / Mosul.

Iraq : Street Gangs are being signed up

In the 70's there was aclub called Rotters in Manchester. It's owner demanded that no-one could enter who had visible tattoos. It was a door policy that caused trouble .. but only outside, not inside.

The US Army has a policy on tatoos, but so desperate are they to recruit that some laxity and fearsome tattoed gang members has been allowed to creep in. Jeffrey Stoleson, an Army Reserve sergeant in Iraq is a correctional officer and co-founder of the gang interdiction team at a Wisconsin maximum-security prison.He's an expert on gang tattos in the undergroung drug and gun culture on the streets and in the prisons.You can get a book from Amazon about these tattoos Gangs And Their Tattoos : Identifying Gangbangers On The Street And In Prison (Paperback) here

Indeed it is the basis of much academic study in California as sociologists get their thrills by mixing with the Crips and the Demon Kings.Stoleson told the Chicago Sun Times of his Iraq experiences and they have lots of pictures.

In a year in Iraq Stoleson has assembled a large collection of photos of "tagged" armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom wallswalls, and spoken to over 1500 gang members.
Scott Barfield, a Defense Department gang detective at Fort Lewis in Washington state says "Army recruiters eager to meet their goals have been overlooking applicants' gang tattoos and getting waivers for criminal backgrounds.

"We're lowering our standards," Barfield said.

"A friend of mine is a recruiter," he said. "They are being told less than five tattoos is not an issue. More than five, you do a waiver saying it's not gang-related. You'll see soldiers with a six-pointed star with GD [Gangster Disciples] on the right forearm."

Fort Lewis offers free tattoo removal, but few if any soldiers with gang tattoos have taken advantage of the service, Barfield said.

The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. There is concern that Army life will and training will make them deadly urban warriors when they return to civilian life and if some are using their access to military equipment to supply gangs at home.

Stoleson said he has spotted soldiers in Iraq with tattoos signifying their allegiance to the Vice Lords and the Simon City Royals, another street gang spawned in Chicago.

Barfield said most of the gang members he has identified are black and Latino. He has linked white soldiers to racist groups such as the Aryan Nations.

The Gangster Disciples are the most worrisome street gang at Fort Lewis because they are the most organized, Barfield said, he says gangs are encouraging their members to join the military to learn urban warfare techniques they can teach when they go back to their neighborhoods.

"Gang members are telling us in the interviews that their gang is putting them in," he said.

He pointed to the case of Marine Lance Cpl. Andres Raya, (see pic with his M16) a suspected Norteno gang member who shot two officers with a rifle outside a liquor store in Ceres, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2005, before police returned fire and killed him. One officer died, and the other was wounded by the 19-year-old Raya, who was high on cocaine. Raya had spent seven months in Iraq and been involved in the Fallujah sacking before returning to Camp Pendleton near San Diego.Go here for the full story and here.

"Yesterday, he showed up in Ceres with an SKS assault rifle. He had the shootout all planned out. He knew what he was going to do. He would stage a situation where the cops will respond and he will ambush them with the military precision he learned so well in the US Marine Corps. A security video camera caught most of the action. We have provided a link to the video below so the reader can see for themselves."

A Fort Bragg soldier -- a member of the Insane Gangster Crips -- is charged with a gang-related robbery in Fayetteville that ended in the slaying of a Korean store owner in November, was a veteran of the elite 82nd Airborne based at Fort Bragg.

My father used to tell me, with what truth I am uncertain, that the Scots regiments in WWII recruited from the street gangs of the Gorbals in Glasgow and sent them into the front line - they took no prisoners.

Watch "The Secret Evil of 9/11" before you watch "Flight 93"

The Secret Evil of 9/11

From Question911.com
19 mins 45 seconds Video of footage / music / TV / Audio
Watch it, then tell someone else.

 

US Media stitches up the debate ... worldwide.

This is part of a the White House transcript of an English-language interview broadcast on the Sabine Christiansen show on Sunday evening. The "Sabine Christiansen" show has the highest rating of any German political talk show , the script was reproduced by Der Speigel today.For five million TV viewers in Germany there's only one choice at 9.45 p.m. on Sunday evenings: the country's most important and successful political talk show - "SABINE CHRISTIANSEN" on ARD, Germany's number one public broadcasting channel.

Sabine Christiansen, has joined CNBC Europe to produce and host a series of 12 new programmes that will be broadcast around the world on CNBC. Global Players

CHRISTIANSEN: We Germans seem to be more involved -- have been more involved in the Iraq war than anybody else knew -- involuntarily, I would like to say. Because the U.S. intelligence services used German airports for secret rendition flights, and interrogated, even, German citizens -- hardly what you'd expect, I would say, from a friend and ally.

BUSH : Well, first of all, on intelligence matters, it's my policy not to talk about them, otherwise they're not intelligence matters anymore. And the questions you ask will be all -- in some cases, analyzed through courts, in some cases through press inquiry. But Germany is a friend.

CHRISTIANSEN: But the behavior itself? Is it behavior for an ally --

BUSH: Well, like, what are you talking about?

CHRISTIANSEN: I mean that you do this, that you don't ask for help for some of the ally, that you don't inform the ally and so on.

BUSH: On like what subject, for example?

CHRISTIANSEN: Like these flights, for example.

BUSH: Well, again, you're asking me to talk about intelligence matters that I'm not going to talk about. And people can say whatever they want to say, but we work closely with Germany on all kinds of fronts in order to protect ourselves.

Evidently Dubya is a graduate of the pre - Guantanamo Islamo Fascist Jihadist training interrogation survival course ... when asked say nothing. Then Ms. Christiansen is part of the MSM method of retaining information by allowing it's denial... now globally.