Minister of Justice - Fit for Purpose ????

Well Fatty Falconer has hardly got his feet under his expensive (and huge) desk at Selborne House on Victoria Street, and he has fucked up royally....but then , did you ever give the impression that this lard arsed ex bedmate of Tony's knew what he was doing - consider the wonderful success of the Millennium Dome ...?

Sky News Sunday Live with Adam Boulton
Interview with Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer.
Aired: Sunday, 6 May, 2007 10:00

Boulton: Because it is being suggested, again quite widely, that what’s going to happen is that you are going to do John Reid’s dirty work for him, that you are going to announce that more than three thousand convicts are going to be released early from prison because of prison overcrowding and then you’ll conveniently leave the government so you’ll take that bad smell with you. Is there any truth in that?

Falconer: I have read those same stories and there is no truth in that. I am not going to comment on the details of prison policy which only becomes my responsibility on 9th May but the stories in today’s paper and previous papers saying I am plotting to release three thousand prisoners when I take over is wrong.

and further on in the Interview...

Boulton: So, let’s get this clear. You are not going to announce early releases because of prison overcrowding in the next few weeks?

Falconer: I am not going to announce early releases because of prison overcrowding.

Boulton: Any early releases?

Falconer: Any early releases, no.

Boulton: So, it’s not just the number, it is simply wrong?

Falconer: It is simply wrong.

UPDATE Sky have helpfully made available the above clip on their news site - Go here for the videoclip

Times June 19, 2007
Burglars and drug offenders ‘to be freed’

"Two weeks ago, David Hanson, the Prisons Minister, said he did not anticipate bringing forward early release measures. “We are not in the mood to have an early release scheme, and the Lord Chancellor has basically indicated that at the commencement of the Ministry of Justice.”

Jail inmates 'to be freed early'
BBC Online News Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 12:42 GMT 13:42 UK

Lord Falconer is expected to announce the early release of up to 2,000 non-violent inmates, to combat prison overcrowding in England and Wales.

The Justice Secretary's statement, due in the House of Lords, comes as the prison population breaks the 81,000 barrier for the first time.

All this is of course good news for G3 Systems of Royston, Herts, a subsidiary of the US company IAP Worldwide (who were so widely , soundly and reasonably criticised for the running of Walter Reed Hospital) who are currently supplying 2 of their "Drop in Units" of pre-fabricated prison accomodation for 60-100 inmates at a minimum cost of over £130,000 per cell.

Ordered in January they were scheduled to be fitted in June 2007.

It is useful and interesting to re-visit the following exchange in the House of Lords 26th April Hansard col 768 Fatty Falconer was at the time The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor - the defender (Ho Ho Ho)of the Constitution.

Earl Ferrers: My Lords, would it not have been a good idea if the Government had sought the views of Parliament before undertaking these substantial changes?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton: My Lords, these matters were told to Parliament (sic) first on 29 March (2007) . The matters of the machinery of government are a matter for the Prime Minister.

UPDATE An explanation is due of the picture at the head of this post. It is taken from the live proceedings of the House of Lords today when Fatty Falconer rekindled the desire of many viewers to boil him down for candles when he announced that some 1,200 prisoners would be released early "on licence" - not discharged from their sentence, he was anxious to point out .(Which probably means even more bureaucracy to eventually discharge them).

This makes a nice picture of 3 of Tony's top ministerial clique of non elected Ministers. Fatty of course shared Tony's life, flat and bed, but not the long, lean limbed, fragrant and very beautiful Lady Amos who is of course a VERY VERY close friend of Tony's. She is best remembered for scuttling around West Africa in February 2003 in a transparent (and fruitless) attempt to drum up support amongst the darkies for the UN resolution to invade Iraq.

It must be pointed out that this dusky damsel was the leader of the Privy Council, that convened to pass an order in Council that denied the dusky Chagossian islanders title to their home. This was famously rejected recently by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke. High Court, London 23rd July 2006 who rejected the disgusting Appeal by HM Government to decision to allow Chagos Islanders to return to their homeland ...in which he said..

"The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an Order in Council, exile a whole population from a British Overseas Territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is, to us, repugnant."

"The decision was in reality that of the Foreign Secretary, not of Her Majesty, and is subject to challenge by way of judicial review in the ordinary way."

The third, (and like Lady Amos, overdressed party and well up there in the removing and replacing spectacles whilst attempting to make it appear that listening to Lard Arse is a fascinating way of getting through the longeurs between lunch and supper) is the snooty bitch, Baroness Scotland of Asthal - whose main claim to fame is how she mislaid the Treason Act 1795 and in a fit of legal housekeeping swept it inadvertently into the trash can - a tale you can read here (which incidentally puts My Lord Tebbitt in an excellent light, and in which Lord Onslow provides welcome light relief).

The result is if you commit Treason you will no longer be prosecuted under the now extinct 1795 Act but that of the 450 year older Treason Act of 1351 - before of course anyone had heard of the United Kingdom so probably slaying the Queen or her issue north of the border may now well escape the death penalty.

UPDATE The hapless Minister of Prisons David Hanson on Newsnight looked as though he might soon break into tears as Paxo stuffed him, ably aided by some Tory blue shirted rascal feeding like a hyena on the poor sod.

Apparently it will require the early release over the next six months of 25,000 prisoners just to maintain the current prison population... rather fucks up the idea of a coherent sentencing policy...never mind the idea of a considered policy of rehabilitation.

UN unmoved by UNMOVIC's demise

The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was the creature created by UNSC resolution 1284 of 17 December 1999. It replaced the older UNSCOM and all its direct staff were all UN employees - except for the various spies / agents of the Coalition of Potential Aggressors. It was mandated to verify Iraq's compliance with its obligation to be rid of its weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological weapons and missiles with a range of more than 150 km), and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to ascertain that Iraq does not reacquire the same weapons prohibited to it by the Security Council.
The precise but publicity happy Dr. Hans Blix of Sweden was the first Executive Chairman -1st March 2000 to 30 June 2003. On 1 July 2003, Mr. Demetrius Perricos (now aged 71 was asked by Kofi Annan to take on the job for 6 months) as Acting Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC by the UN Secretary General.

UNMOVIC inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq in March 2003 - their most recent report (The 29th Qtly report - and probably their last) was presented on 29th May 2007. (PDF alert!) They are now down to 17 staff in new York and 2 local staff in Baghdad ( who “continue to perform routine maintenance on the office support equipment” - dusting the typewriters ? ) and the only activity reported is that 2 technical staff visited the Cyprus field office at the UK Sovereogn base in Larnaca in March to inspect equipment held there.

Therefore it is no surprise that the NYT reports today that the US and UK Governments have proposed to “terminate immediately the mandates” of the UNMOVIC weapons inspectors.A draft resolution is circulating which does not accept retaining any staff or resources. Apparently this has been accepted by Security Council Members (including Russia) and staff meetings on the latest proposal have already taken place.

Any decision about the commission’s future will need to deal with the disposition of the large, unusual and significant archive - containing no doubt detailed information that some Government quarters who traded with Saddam might wish to be incinerated / destroyed.

So far the Belgian ambassador, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, has scheduled more debate for the end of the month. At the same time the commission says it will release a 1,200-page compendium on Iraq’s illicit weapons program that could be the final word from the group.

So, what was effectively a vehicle to allow spying on Saddam, by the likes of Scott Ritter and Dr David Kelly will be quietly wound up and their records - 1,500 feet of paper files and a terabyte of electronic records will be trashed.

Nobody wants any future (or present) academics poking around in that lot.

It is worth remembering exactly what happened about the evidence of WMD's...

"Richard Dearlove, the Head of MI6, told Hoon and others at the war council on July 23, 2002:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Hoon says nothing however about the July 23, 2002 war council whose deliberations are recorded in the Downing Street Memo. In fact, he has the gall to pretend that we don't know what he was told at that meeting......

Mr Hoon also expressed regret over the government's claim in the run-up to war that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which, he now accepts, turned out to be false. He said he had "gradually come to the acceptance" the weapons did not exist. But he insisted the government had acted in good faith.

He still does not understand why the intelligence proved to be false. "I've been present at a number of meetings where the intelligence community was fixed, and looked in the eye and asked are you absolutely sure about this? And the answer came back 'Yes, absolutely sure'."

Mr Hoon added: "I saw intelligence from the first time I came into office, in May 1999 - week in, week out - that said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ... I have real difficulty in understanding why it was, over such a long period of time, we were told this and, moreover, why we acted upon it."

It is also worthwhile remembering what Hans Blix had repeatedly reported before the illegal invasion...

"U.N. reports submitted to the Security Council before the war by Hans Blix, former chief U.N. arms inspector, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, have been largely validated by U.S. weapons teams. The common findings:

Iraq's nuclear weapons program was dormant.

No evidence was found to suggest Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons. U.N. officials believe the weapons were destroyed by U.N. inspectors or Iraqi officials in the years after the 1991 Gulf War."

Of course ...nobody wants to keep any records about that.

If you want to read how the current Baghdad Gubment raidied the UNMOVIC piggy Bank to buy a new UN office (nearer to the UN) whilst holding onto their prime piece of Manhattan real estate go to Max News Iraqis Use U.N. Money to Enhance NYC Real Estate Portfolio

USAFRICOM - Building the New Empire and the very,very odd folks at IASPS

In their self adopted role as the World's Policeman the USA have assigned 5 Unified Combatant Commands (COCOM) which are US joint military command composed of forces from two or more services, organized geographically ("Area Of Responsibility", AOR) .

Last summer, the then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld formed a planning team to examine what it would take to get an Africa command up and running. In early December, Rumsfeld made the recommendation to President Bush, who authorized a new command on the same day Rumsfeld left office.

The U.S. have for a long time expressed concerned about the increasing infiltration of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, especially in the northern trans-Saharan region. The so called Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), based mostly in Northern Africa, the GSPC it is said represents a threat beyond the Continent, northwards to Europe.

The U.S. has launched a number of initiatives to counter the threat, including military and intelligence training missions by Special Forces units.The U.S. has other strategic interests in Africa. The continent will account for 20 to 25 % of U.S. energy imports by the next decade.

The US is also determined to enlarge their foothold on the continent in response to intensifying competition with China, India and others for influence and for access to resources ... and .. "rising commitments with respect to global health in Africa."

From February 2007 a new command USAFRICOM which is the whole of Africa minus Egypt commenced operations. This was was added to the present 5 and was carved out of of USEUCOM (virtually the whole African continent) , USCENTCOM (East Africa - The "Horn") and USPACOM (Madagascar).

This will include a lot of offshore real estate(with a lot of oil in places) including the Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, islands belonging to Equatorial Guinea, and the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

This new command will be established by September 30, 2008 and is temporarily housed at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany until the permanent base somewhere in Africa is constructed. Navy Rear Adm. Robert T. Moeller (see pic) arrived commenced the role of CEO on Feb. 26.

It is claimed that his deputy will probably be State Department official, rather than a military officer to emphasise the interagency mix, focusing the efforts of intelligence, diplomatic, health and aid - and perhaps to assuage a bit of fluttering in the ambassadorial dovecots of the dark Continent.

This new deployment and change in strategic structures does more however, in that it reflects a major change from a reactive involvement in the continent to a proactive commitment to secure US interests.

The Dark Continent, whilst it has not figured greatly in White House concerns (distracted no doubt by the noisy Zionist cabal and their more pressing and immediate concerns) has been of growing concern , especially since the 2003/4 conflicts in the Niger Delta, the origin of increasing quantities of oil ( and natural gas) on very direct shipping routes to the US region .

The Northern Sahara/Sahel region, is supposed to harbour the GSPC whose attacks on some army troops in Mauritania and the kidnapping of 15 tourists has encouraged the Algerina Government to draw in US support and access to arms. But there are secptics about the nature, role and effectiveness and origins of these fundamental Islamaist jihadists. Moussa Ould Ham, editor of Le Calame, an independent Mauritanian newspaper , is convinced a new strand of the GSPC, not focussed on regime change in Algeria, carried out the attack.

"Wherever the Americans are, whether it's Iraq or wherever, an Islamic resistance rises up, and perhaps it's this Islamic resistance that we are seeing appearing in Mauritania today."

There are other interest involved - a lobby group , the African Oil Policy Initiative Group (the child of The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) - see more later) held a symposium and issued a paper, "African oil, a priority for US national security and African development"

This urges Congress and the Bush administration to encourage greater extraction of oil across Africa, and to declare the Gulf of Guinea "an area of vital interest" to the US. Walter Kansteiner, US Under-Secretary of State for African affairs, is reported saying that African oil "has become a national strategic interest". Ed Royce, the influential Republican senator for California and chairman of the Congress African sub-committee, maintains "African oil should be treated as a priority for US national security post 9-11".

It is worthy of note that Equatorial Guineau's ambassador in Washington (brother-in-law of president Teodoro Obiang) attended the AOPIG symposium. Two thirds of Equatorial Guinea's oil concessions have been awarded to US operators with close ties to the Bush administration. William McCormick, boss of CMS Energy, contributed $100,000 to Bush's presidential inauguration ceremony they eventually sold their interests to Marathon Oil. Ocean Energy, another company at work in the Gulf of Guinea, employs Chester Norris as a consultant in Equatorial Guinea (he was Bush senior's ambassador there).The coastguards are trained (and probably run by) by Military Professional Resources Inc, who will soon be patrolling the offshore oilfields. This private company is managed by retired high-ranking Pentagon officers.

Triton, is also a prime mover in Equatorial Guinea whose chairman, Tom Hicks, made Bush a millionaire fifteen times over when he bought the Texas Rangers in 1998. Hicks's leveraged buyout firm, Hicks Muse, is Bush's fourth-largest career financial patron, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Devon Energy (who took over Ocean Energy) paid $350,000 into Riggs Bank accounts for students from Equatorial Guinea enrolled in training programs or universities abroad, according to a Senate report. Many if not all the students were the children or other relatives of government officals.

See this Wayne Madsen report on connections between President Obiang, Jack Abramoff, George Bush's uncle ,Jonathan Bush, Riggs Bank, money laundering the Abayak SA slush fund and who knew about the 2004 abortive coup against Obiang which involved Mark Thatcher and whose ringleader Simon Mann rests in the Harare slammer, Prop. president Mugabe.

Sudan, which started exporting oil six years ago,produces over 200,000 barrels a day. Nigeria, Africa's leading exporter of crude oil, is set to increase daily output from 2.2m to 3m barrels, rising to 4.42m by 2020. The next largest African producing nation, is Angola, by 2020 it is expected to double output to 3.28m barrels a day - Chevron supervises 75% of oil production in Angola.

Equatorial Guinea currently holds the record (alongside Angola) for oil prospecting permits. Over the next 20 years it could become Africa's third largest producer (ahead of Congo and Gabon) with 740,000 barrels a day...or even more with offshore interests included. Thee new producers do not of ocurse belong to OPEC.

US oil companies - the giant Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco, and operators such as Amerada Hess, Marathon and Ocean Energy - are investing more than US $10bn in African oil every year. (The Chad / Cameroon pipeline cost US$3.4Bn.)

The New York Times quotes Roger Diwan,CEO of the Petroleum Finance Company :

"There is a long-term strategy from the US government to weaken Opec's hold on the market and one way to do that is to peel off certain countries".

The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), is a very odd think-tank set up in Jerusalem in 1984 with strong Likud support and a belief that:

Western societies are poised today to converge with Islam. Judeo-Christian, West European America is the enemy and target of these Elites. Particularly have White people become the target as these Elites, like Islam itself, have roused the huge and disaffected Black populations of the Americas, making them the instrument for Elite aims..blah ...blah

More here .....that has also shown a strong interest in the area and set up the African Oil Policy Initiative Group with members such as Barry Schutz an African specialist in the Bush Administration (Officially Office of Analysis for Africa, US state department), and Lt-Col Karen Kwiatkowksi (now retired and severe critic of Iraq ***) aUSAF officer seconded to work with Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld (remember the formation of USAFRICOM was approved by the President when Rumsfeld retired). See this IASPS Press release. and pic at top of article. "Changes in US Oil Policy : US will buy less oil from Saudis.
"
The U.S. Congress has approved $500 million for the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) over six years to support countries involved in counterterrorism against alleged threats of Al Qaeda operating in African countries, primarily Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, and Morocco. This program builds upon the former Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), which concluded in December 2004 and focused on weapon and drug trafficking, as well as counterterrorism. Previous U.S. military activities in sub-Saharan Africa have included Special Forces associated Joint Combined Exchange Training.

The Trans Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative officially started in June with Exercise Flintlock 2005. US special ops forces trained their counterparts in seven Saharan countries, teaching military tactics critical for enhancing regional security and stability. There is also a diplomatic effort to encourage participating nations to work collaboratively toward confronting regional issues- mainly countering the alleged Al Quaeda threat.

The Trans Saharan initiative builds on the successful Pan Sahel Initiative, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to prevent terrorists from setting up safe havens in Africa. Other factors — war, poverty, disease, corruption and lack of education, among them — create an atmosphere of hopelessness where extremists' messages resonate, particularly with the younger generation. The very conditions that cause these humanitarian tragedies are also the very conditions that lead to breeding grounds for the kinds of threats that the US is most concerned about in this region.

TSCTI is being planned as a follow-on to the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI) that began in 2002, which helped train and equip at least one rapid-reaction company, about 150 soldiers, in each of the four Saharan states: Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.

The overall approach is straightforward: build indigenous capacity and facilitate cooperation among governments in the region that are willing partners (Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria and Tunisia, with Libya possibly to follow later if relations improve) in the struggle with Islamic extremism in the Sahel region.

TSCTI would support US national security interests in the "Global War on Terrorism" stopping the flow of illicit arms, goods, and people through the region helping focus nations to better protect their own vast borders and regions.

The Trans Saharan Counter-terrorism Initiative officially kicked off in June 2005 with Exercise Flintlock 2005.

Despite its successes, the Pan Sahel Initiative was constrained from its inception by limited funding and a limited focus. The Pan Sahel Initiative and the inroads it made laid important groundwork for the new Trans Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative.

The new program will be better funded — it will receive about $100 million a year for five years. And unlike the program it replaces, the Trans Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative will introduce a more comprehensive approach to regional security. The Defense Department will continue to focus on military operations, expanding its scope from the company to the battalion level.

The US Agency for International Development, for example, will address educational initiatives; the State Department, airport security; and the Department of Treasury, efforts to tighten up money-handling controls in the region.

One evident threat is posed by the newly active group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb—AQIM in American military shorthand. Said to have been formed from Algeria’s Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, jopinerd forces local units of al-Qaeda. The GSPC itself emerged out of Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s, in which some 200,000 died. Its most recent attack, a car bombing in Algiers in April, killed at least 30 people. The CIA thinks that AQIM may have about 100-150 operatives, who could be “force multipliers”, meaning that they could train many more jihadists in the mobile training camps the Americans claim to have identified in northern Mali’s deserts near the Algerian border.

Stories are relayed that AQIM may link up with even murkier and vaguely anonymous groups groups, such as the Black Taliban of northern Nigeria. Blamed for an attack in April in the city of Kano. This killed scores of people - Black Taliban at work ? It is just as difficult to confirm / deny there exists a growing terrorist network elsewhere in the Sahel, and perhaps even a line of communication and supply reaching right across to Somalia and even on to Iraq.

As a result of the 2004 global posture review, the Pentagon began implementing a number of Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs) and Forward Operating Sites (FOSs) across the African continent, through USEUCOM. These locations, along with Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, would form the basis of Africa Command facilities on the continent. See Post here on Camp Lemonier (Le Monier) In Jan 2006.

In Seymour M. Hersh's , piece in the New Yorker this month about Abu Ghraib and General Antonio Taguba he discloses that ,

"I was told by the former senior intelligence official and a government consultant that after the existence of secret C.I.A. prisons in Europe was revealed, in the Washington Post, in late 2005, the Administration responded with a new detainee center in Mauritania. After a new government friendly to the U.S. took power, in a bloodless coup d’état in August, 2005, they said, it was much easier for the intelligence community to mask secret flights there."

Rule No 1 in building the Empire - Build the Prisons First.

**** Karen Kwiatowski :

"Many military professionals believe he (G Bush Jnr) is under the influence of neo-conservative ideologues led by deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "Bush isn't in control," says recently retired Air Force colonel Karen Kwiatkowksi.

A former Pentagon officer and Middle East specialist who once worked in the office of the undersecretary of defense for policy, Ms. Kwiatkowski says key areas of government have been "hijacked" by "a network of political appointees in key positions . . . operating outside normal structures and practices." A self-described conservative, she says the neo-cons advocate "perpetual war to promote abstract global morality through military imperialism, propped up by muscular national socialism at home."

November 27, 2003 by the Globe & Mail/Canada
Truth and Other Casualties by Monika Jensen-Stevenson

UPDATE

This clip from the SANE website referred to in the first comment shows their connection to IASPS.Visit the SANE website here.

A Clean Break:
A New Strategy for Securing the Realm

The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated. The report, entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," is the framework for a series of follow-up reports on strategy.


Israel can:

• Work closely with Turkey and Jordan to contain, destabilize, and roll-back some of its most dangerous threats. This implies clean break from the slogan, "comprehensive peace" to a traditional concept of strategy based on balance of power.

• Change the nature of its relations with the Palestinians, including upholding the right of hot pursuit for self defense into all Palestinian areas and nurturing alternatives to Arafat’s exclusive grip on Palestinian society.

• Forge a new basis for relations with the United States—stressing self-reliance, maturity, strategic cooperation on areas of mutual concern, and furthering values inherent to the West. This can only be done if Israel takes serious steps to terminate aid, which prevents economic reform. etc., etc.,
  
• This document was of course the precursor of the Project for the New American Century PNAC
  

So the IASPS produce
1 A Clean Break

2. PNAC produce their Project Document

3. 9/11 ( IASPS President and Founder is David Yerushalmi, and colleague of SANE founder Robert J Loewenberg. In 1991, teaming up with the Institute's policy experts, Yerushalmi was instrumental in establishing the Israel Export Development Co., Ltd., as an entrepreneurial policy tool to initiate radical free market reforms in Israel. Working along side fellow board members and shareholders such as Robert Tishman, Jerry Speyer, Larry Silverstein, Lawrence Tisch, Eugene Grant and Sy Syms)

4.Invasion of Iraq

perhaps another cycle is on the way

1. US Embassies bombed in Africa

2. IASPS produce African Oil Policy Initiative Group which publishes - "African oil, a priority for US national security and African development"

3. Rumsfeld makes plans for USAFRICOM

4. USAFRICOM is approved by Bush as Rumsfeld departs.

UPDATE
There is available a Congress Research Service report
CRS report for Congress
Africa Command : US Strategic Interests and the Role of the US Military in Africa
May 16th 2007 PDF Alert 35 Pages

This is a schematic map of the new area and it's origins.

Daily Mail report Alan Johnston to be freed today

Daily Mail - posted at 3.00 pm BST

Dame Jocelyn Bell ,mother of the Pulsar - star astrophysicist

In the Birthday Honours List, the Queen has made Jocelyn Bell, the astrophysicist a Dame of the British Empire .... and therein lies a fascinating tale of good science, male chauvinism and academic intrigue.

Jocelyn Bell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 15, 1943 when she failed her 11 plus examination for admission to public grammar school, her architect father (he had been a finalist in a radio quiz show "Brain of Britain") sent her to Mount School, a Quaker girls' boarding school in York. She took an early interest in astronomy through the the staff of the Armagh Observatory, which was near her home Belfast, who encouraged her interest in astronomy. It was a comfortable background, "We had a nanny, a nurse always. For a long time there was a cook and a maid in the kitchen. There was a gardener and maybe a second gardener and there was a handyman-come-chauffeur if you want to be really grand. It was a great life."

After a B.Sc in physics from Glasgow University ( 1 female in 50 students) she went on to work on her Ph.D. at Cambridge University working under the direction of Antony Hewish.

Her first 2 years at Cambridge were spent assisting in the construction of an 81.5-megahertz radio telescope that was to be used to track quasars. This was her baby and she was fed with 120 metres of charts every 4 days - analysis showed some unusual and irregular signals. These signals appeared to be made by a radio source too fast and regular to be a quasar. Jocelyn Bell had detected the first evidence of a pulsar.

There is a popular story that when Joyce and her advisor Anthony Hewish were not sure what these signals meant they called them LGM for Little Green Men. (see PBS illustrated strip explanation for children here) They thought it could possibly be a beacon from an alien source.

Hewish shared the Nobel prize for Physics in 1974 with Sir Martin Ryle for "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars". The role of Joyce Bell was not so rewarded.

Publication of these strange new extra terrestrial radio signals followed in Nature in 1968 and astronomers wroldwide directed their attention to these new signals which were identified the signals as coming from rapidly rotating neutron stars. The term pulsar used to describe these is simply an abbreviation for pulsating radio star or rapidly pulsating radio sources.

The central part of a pulsar consists of a neutron star. The pulsars are also accompanied by magnetic fields many millions of times stronger than those found in laboratories on Earth. The neutron star is surrounded by an electrically-conducting gas or plasma. Each pulsar rotates and emits beams of radiation in the Universe, resembling those from a light-house. The beams strike the Earth periodically with high precision.

This came from a theory put forth by Robert Oppenheimer and Fritz Zwicky (who curiously lived next door to Lenin in Zurich) in the 1930s, predicting that when a massive star died, it would collapse into an incredibly dense, spinning body - a neutron star.

Jocelyn married and became Mrs Jocelyn Burnell and was elected Professor of Physics at the Open University for ten years (doubling the number of female UK Professors of Physics) , and then a visiting professor at Princeton University. Before retiring she was Dean of Science at the University of Bath between 2001 and 2004, and was President of the Royal Astronomical Society between 2002 and 2004. She is currently a visiting professor at Mansfield College, Oxford University.

A television documentary which anticipated her honour , about Bell Burnell's life was broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland on 13 June 2007 "Northern Star" , see review and commentary by producers Belfast Telegraph

"a woman who failed her 11-plus, but went on to become a professor of astrophysics and a leading scientist in her field. ......the story of her role as a post-graduate student in the groundbreaking discovery of pulsars and the subsequent Nobel Prize that some believe she should have been co-awarded."

The program interviewed the 80 year old Anthony Hewish .."You know, in the popular mind, she is the key person in the discovery of pulsars," he says. "I'm totally fed up with it ! this stupid business that Jocelyn did all the work and I got all the credit, I get fed up with that comment because its just blarney, I mean it's just totally wrong.

"If she's disgruntled about the Nobel, well that's too bad quite honestly. It's a bit like an analogy I make - who discovered America? Was it Columbus or was it the lookout? Her contribution was very useful, but it wasn't creative. And I don't think you do get the Nobel prize for that".

...and the Little Green Men ? This is what Jocelyn, a devout Quaker said in the program..

"The universe is very big - there's about 100,000 million galaxies in the universe so that means an awful lot of stars. And some of them, I'm pretty certain, will have planets, where there was life, is life or maybe will be life. I don't believe we're alone."

Jocelyn also received on 7th June this year (along with ex student Bill Gates whose Foundation donates US$1.5 BN a year) an Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University - where the citation recorded "The United Kingdom and the United States have awarded her the Oppenheimer prize, the Michelson medal, the Magellanic Premium, and the Herschel medal. Universities in both nations conferred honorary doctorates on her. She was elected a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2005." (Pic ? 1997 Nissan Pulsar)

The image below is a negative representation of 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered, PSR 1919+21 by Bell & Hewish (Nature 217:709-713, 1968) and was taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy- see right. It formed the cover design of Unknown Pleasures the first album by Joy Division, released in 1979. It was produced by that mad bastard Martin Hannett and recorded at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, England.

Afghanistan - Duchess of York to fill helicopter shortfall with "Budgie" and ex- husband

The Duke of Gloucester's regal morale boosting tour of Afghanistan last week was rudely interrupted because his hosts were short of an Apache helicopter to move him about. Perhaps we should send the glamorous TV hostess the Duchess of York with her helicopter "Budgie" and perhaps her ex-husband to boost the men and equipment shortfalls in the Army's resources in the land of the Opium drug lords.

The Daily Telegraph after spending 3 weeks embedded with UK troops in Helmand province in Afghanistan yet again reports today of continuing major equipment problems ;

# Only 50% of the 8 Apache helicopters are working - heat and fine dust are wearing the kit out

# Only 70% of the 12 Chinooks are available meaning no air assualts have been undertaken

# Shortage of helicopter drivers means operations are limited by monthkly schedules being exhausted prematurely

# A beleaguered garrison recently had only 200 mortar rounds because of failure of helicopter supply

# Only 16 of 96 new armoured vehicles have been delivered

# High Explosives carried buy engineers in soft skinned trucks because of inadequate transport

# Soldiers have bought their own binoculars to replace inadequate Army sights.

Lord Patel has consistently identified the morale sapping equipment supply failures from the earliest days ( Friday, January 27, 2006 Reid sends ill equipped troops to certain deaths in S Afghanistan) when Dr Reid launched UK forces on this futile venture in the land where the poppies blow.

The pic is of the 40 year old RAF VC 10 Troop carrier at Titan exercises Fairford last summer

Vivoleum - Yessir ... that's the new renewable energium

Yes Men pull off hoax at Go Expo Energy Conference in Calgary

A pair of very smart anti-corporate activists from the Yes men deluded a high powered C$50 a head Go Expo Energy conference audience of key players from the U.S. oil and gas industry on Wednesday held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta.

Allegedly from the reputable Petroleum Council the 2 keynote speakers representing Exxon Mobil and the National Petroleum Council , announced that rumours of a new joint energy policy from the Canadian and American governments was coming down the pike.

"Without oil, at least four billion people would starve," one of the speakers earnestly told the crowd. "This spiral of trouble would make the oil infrastructure utterly useless - and starving would become the new black."

When the speaker started to talk about vivolium - a remarkable new renewable energy source - the audience grew sceptical ...and apprehensive. He then announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, and the development of liquid coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. He reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.

Lighting two torch-like candles the pair of hoaxers urged the audience to do the same in memory of a dead Exxon oil worker ... the penny finally dropped and security were called .....

Wes Scott of Go Expo was apologetic ," Of course make every attempt to verify and, you know, ensure that the credibility and legitimacy of our speakers is always on par. Unfortunately, today's keynote speaker and presentation was misrepresented."

Organizers of the conference said they were approached by what they thought was a reputable company offering them speakers from the National Petroleum Council.

The Yes Men have been travelling the world for years, pulling similar pranks at corporate events in an effort to demonstrate how corporations and government act in dehumanizing ways toward the public.

Text of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/event/

The Gas and Oil Exposition (GO-EXPO) 2007 has verified
that today's Keynote Luncheon speakers were impersonating
representatives  from Exxon Mobil and
the National Petroleum Council.

For more hilarity Google "vivoleum" or
try the Dow Chemicals "Acceptable Risk calculator"
weigh profits against costs in human life or health,
thereby involving the public in the decision-making
process about whom to put at risk, and where
to locate risk globally.

Anarcho Syndicalism at work - seriously

Midwife Condi's "Birth Pangs" means more dead babies

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice successfully delayed a cease-fire so that the Israeli military could continue its anti-Hizballah campaign in Lebanon last year. This was , she told 1,000 dead and half a million refugees the "birth pangs of a new Middle East."

The US sanctioned war on the Lebanon was allowed to continue when midwife Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush stitched up (aided by the French and Blair) a worthless, toothless UN Security Council resolution, it didn't call for Israel's withdrawal from its neighboring Arab sovereign state. It gave imperialist partner of the US the excuse and the green light to continue the carnage.

Lebanon was just the latest of the U.S.' many fronts in its "war on terror," then 5 years old.

This stony faced mantra of terror, terrorism and terrorists has worn thin with everybody but the hawks of Tel Aviv and Washington - and Whitehall. These simplistic labels of convenience advance no argumenty, address no core issues or problems, deceive nobody. Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists in the same vein cried the beltway gangstas, lumping them disingenuously with Al Qaeda and the Iranians.

As ever, disclosed by the open microphone at the G8 summit, Tony Blair admitted he was George's and the AIPAC hawks willing lackey. "Yo Blair" conceded he could"talk" but "Condi" could act. George identified the problem ..."what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over.'

Taliban, Ahmenidijad, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Quaeda .. it's always someone else's fault.

We can see the pieces falling into place - as described by Pat Buchanan at Antiwar.com

What is going on? The most logical explanation is that the White House is providing advance justification for air strikes on camps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that are allegedly providing training for and transferring weapons to Afghan and Iraqi insurgents. And if the United States conducts those strikes, Iranians will unite around Ahmadinejad, and Tehran will order retaliatory strikes against U.S. targets in Iraq and perhaps across the Middle East.

President Bush will then have his casus belli to take out Natanz and all the other Iranian nuclear facilities, as the Israelis and the neocons have been demanding that he do. This would mean a third Middle Eastern war for America, with a nation three times as large and populous as Iraq. Perhaps it is time to begin constructing a new wing on Walter Reed.

Lord Levy's "Get out of Jail Party" at Foreign Office costing taxpayers £6,000 - Official.

The Guradian is reporting that the Foreign Office has organised a lavish party for Tony Blair's special Middle Eastern envoy, Lord Levy (currently out on bail) at Lancaster House in Central London next Tuesday. In a written Parliamentary answer, Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon states: "The estimated cost is £6,000, which will be met by the Foreign Secretary's entertainment budget."

One wonders if staunch ally of the Kings of Saudi Arabia and British Aerospace (amongst many others) Sir Andrew Green, ***Ex Ambassador at Riyadh, will be invited so they might share a tale or two about their respective roles in the Middle East. Bribery does of course come quite naturally to both of them.

*** Pic of Embassy party that Lord Patel snapped of Sir Andrew and "friend".

PS. If anyone is thinking of sending round a WPC strippagram ....this is the number to call 07808 369 706

Sir Stephen Richards acquitted : British Transport Police lose CCTV images / recording AGAIN

Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Stephen Richards acheived some notoriety when he exposed his natty line in Calvin Klein "non-Y front" , non penis poking pants in court this week ( a fondness he shares with Tony Blair).

He also created a stir in legal circles when presiding over the appeal in the Divisional Court of the High Court into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, murdered at Stockwell tube station on 22 July 2005 by police officers who claim they mistook him for a terror suspect after following him for over 30 minutes. The appeal that was being considered was brought by de Menezes family (led by his cousin Patricia Armani da Silva), who wanted to quash a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to charge any officer with murder, manslaughter or any other offence.

Following a ruling in the Divisional Court the family can now ask the House of Lords to consider the case. Direct appeals from the High Court to the House of Lords bypass the Court of Appeal a process known as the “Leapfrog Procedure“.

On 19th January 2007, Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Forbes (he sent Shipman down) declared the de Menezes appeal case raised “points of law of general public importance” and certified that the High Court decision had raised 2 questions relating to human rights which the House of Lords might consider answering.

1. Is the Code of the Crown Prosecutors, compatible with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

That article they point out, states that "everyone's right to life shall be protected by law".

2. The correct legal tests to be applied when the High Court reviews a decision not to prosecute.

Lord Justice Richards was also arrested by the British Transport Police on 19th January 2007.

Sir Stephen, 56, denies the charges of "flashing" on October 16th and 24th 2006, that were brought against him in March. He has not been sitting on cases in court since but has been working on paper applications and appeals drawing meanwhile huas handsome salary of £184,000 a year. He had also stood down from the chairmanship of the board of governors of King’s College School, London, pending the trial.

Timothy Workman, the UK's most senior district judge (what we used to call a Stipendiary Magistrate) for magistrates’ courts in England and Wales, decided after consultation with the deputy Lord Chief Justice, Sir Igor Judge, to preside over the trial of Sir Stephen Richards with two lay magistrates, Carolyn Mishon (doyenne of the Wimbledon Jewish Charity world and ardent theatregoer) and Dannie Jayes .

Sir Stephen Richards was acquitted today when it became apparent that CCTV evidence that could have corroborated the witnesses claims of indecent exposure could have been independently verified had been routinely wiped.

Judge Workman criticised the British Transport Police (who were of course involved in investigating the de Menezes murder and it's strangely parallel "loss" of CCTV recordings) for failing to investigate the allegation or to investigate it thoroughly.

"Had they done so, they would have been able to obtain closed circuit television from the train on October 24 and probably on October 16," he said.

Let's hope that Sir Stephen Richards doesn't decide to suicide himself.

AFTERTHOUGHT
It would of course be wrong to heap blame on the BT Plod, because if memory serves us right, hadn't Sir Ian Blair of that Ilk, Top Plod, prevented the independent examination of the murder scene by the IPCC for 5 days ? Very, Very easy to lose track of CCTV recordings, hard disks in circumstances like that my son. Very, very easy.

Mind you, the BTP do take action, in a Press release on their website they are seeking information about a man allegedly filming up a womans skirt at London Bridge . The Press Release was issued on 9th May 2007 - 55 days after the offence on March 16th. Anyway here's a picture of the guy from their CCTV of him. More >>>

Mr Justice Forbes sitting with Lord Justice Rix gave the landmark ruling that Mr Abu Mousa's case came within the Human Rights Convention (and hence HRA) because his death (kicked to death over 36 hours whilst blindfolded and tied up) had occurred in the custody of UK forces in Iraq.

A decision which was finally upheld by the House of Lords today. At the time (4/12/04) Lawyers for the Defence Secretary, slimeball ("I believe Saddam has WMD's) Geoff Hoon, had argued that the convention applied only in Europe and did not apply to British troops in Iraq. Mr Hoon also claimed that the Human Rights Act - which incorporated the European convention into UK law - could only be applied in UK territory.

RFID tagging and high security monitoring of fuel cargoes

Paz is a small Israeli company that runs convenience stores and petrol stations. They needed to track their fuel trucks, and fuel deliveries, to improve control and to eliminate theft of fuel.

Hi-G-Tek an Israeli company now based in Rockville, Md. has solved their problems by designing a neat Tanker Truck Monitoring System (TTMS). To do this they had to develop a Radio Frequency Tag (RFID) that met very severe operating conditions of heat, and chemical resistance with high reliability, they call these proprietary tags "I-Safe" (Intrinsically Safe).

The seals have a 5 year battery life with a 500 foot read range and use a Hi-G-Tek proprietary air-interface protocol to extend and preserve battery life. Seals remain in alow energy listening mode, but jumps when interrogated to send data. The protocol is based on two full-duplex radio channels; one operates at 125 kHz, the other at one of the lower ISM band between 300 and 916 MHz.

The seals are certified as safe by the Underwriters Laboratories, an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization and they also comply with the European Union's ATEX regulations.

Attached to each tanker valve these tags identify the valve state OPEN / CLOSED - this is transmitted to a cab mounted interrogator which relays the data (including GPS location of the truck), using a general packet radio service (GPRS) connection, to a computer in a central command center in Tel Aviv. This provides amanagemnt with real time control which is integrated with a fleet managment system from Starcom Systems. Managers have precise control over type of fuel delivered, quantity and theft is eliminated.

Starting with trials in 2005 over 100 trucks both company owned but also on supplier vehicles are equipped with the system. This has now totally replaced the previous manual systems using numbered clip seals on valves and handwritten records.

Hi-G-Tek has sold similar applications in Mexico and three other Latin American countries, as well as one in Eastern European.

Designing systems is never easy, as the real world intrudes - the first seals had to be upgraded to cope with unexpected severe physical shocks - drivers would kick valves open and shut . They built a more rugged tag and improved the driver training.

A neat solution using a range of proven communications technologies and devices that improves running a business. The company, founded by Micha Auerbach, an Ex IDF communications engineer with experience at Israeli Air Industries has extended this basic concept to RFID monitoring and control of locks of any sort, shipping containers, perimter security entrances etc.,

UPDATE 16th June 2007

Contacts in criminal circles advise that the chief method of removing fuel from tankers is simply effected by inserting a garden hose in the aperture provided to inserts a dipstick into the main tank to check fuel levels.

One wonders if this antique, but well proven method of abstraction is still in use by the less honest tanker drivers of the world and if it would avoid detection by the system outlined.

Raymond John Cox , Big fish caught in Carousel fraud (MITC) and £85 Million of taxpayers money which has gone AWOL

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), have finally banged up 6 serious VAT fraudsters (1 acquitted) at Liverpool Crown Court today after a 5 year enquiry. £85 million was stolen from the tax payer in only 19 months (= VAT on sales of approx £600Mn) - 98 businesses based in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands were involved and the 6 jailed men were directors and executives of seven of the companies identified during the trial.

Raymond John Cox (dob14/04/70) from Staffordshire, Cox had two companies in Germany - Signal Telecom GmbH and Crystal Telekom GmbH. He also had control of two companies in Spain - Zeption Telecom SL and Nauti-Parts SL and was the director of Cortage Investments Ltd based in Stoke-on-Trent. The trader which Cox predominately used was Powertone BV, in Holland, a company run by Issitt, McNeill and Sweeney.(Photographs of Cox's house and performance car collection available on request to HMRC)

Brett Simon Issitt (dob 13/12/74) 3 Manor Close, Todmorden, Lancashire. Sentenced to 10 years for his part and disqualified as a company director for 10 years.

Michael Henry McNeill (dob 30/04/71) Rossendale, Lancashire. He was sentenced to 7.5 years for his part and disqualified as a director for 8 years. McNeill, was responsible for the setting up of a template for carousel fraud entitled 'The Bible according to Mike @ Powertone' discovered during the HMRC investigation.

Paul Brian Sweeney (dob 28/11/70) resident at some time in Amsterdam, sentenced to 7.5 years for the fraud and disqualified as a director for 8 years.

Issitt and McNeill were sales executives in and Sweeney was the director of Powertone BV. This is the Dutch registered company based in Amsterdam but with the use of offices rented by Issitt in Manchester. Between April / September 2001 Powertone's turnover amounted to £49.5 million. Although Powertone was based in Amsterdam, its entire mobile phone trade was conducted from an office in John Dalton Street, Manchester.

Peter Kevin Glover (dob 21/04/55) 29 Furze Hill Road, Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire. Sentenced to 5 years for his part and disqualified as a director for 5 years. Glover was the director of Cellphone Europe BV, a company based in Brussels, Belgium, its entire mobile phone trade was conducted from Whitley Bay. Cellphone Europe 'bought' all their phones (with a few exceptions) from Powertone and then supplied the phones exclusively to missing traders in the UK. From October 2001/March 2002, Cellphone Europe sold into the UK over £81 million worth of mobile telephones. At the time of his arrest Glover was in the process of registering Cellphone Europe for Belgian VAT.


Colin Daniel Jones (dob 04/12/65) Wilmslow, Cheshire. He was jailed for 5 years for his part in the fraud and disqualified as a director for 5 years. Jones was responsible for the running of Datacell Ltd. registered in the Republic of Ireland an address in Gorey, County Wexford, Irelandand therefore was an EU supplier into the UK. Its entire mobile phone trade was conducted from an office above a shop in Northenden Road, Sale, Manchester. Prior to Glover's arrest, Datacell had made 13 purchases of mobile phones from Powertone to the value of £4.6 million. In the next four months in 117 Invoices the company purchased £38Mn.
Mobile telephones were purportedly imported into the UK, (and hence VAT free) by various companies set up by the fraudsters, who then sold the phones on, charging VAT that was then never paid over to HMRC - these companies then simply disappeared. The telephones were then 'sold' down the line to various 'buffer' traders before they were exported again often to be repurchased by the original companies at a trading loss. As the accomplices got more confident the transactions grew in number and value and it was clear from handwritten records found that those involved had difficulty themselves keeping a track of the transactions as the scale escalated.

In sentencing, the Judge said, "I am satisfied there was a hierarchy with Cox at the top. From his involvement throughout, and that all his companies were involved. He had all the trappings of wealth. The fact that the phones returned to Cox's companies in my opinion is no coincidence."

The case against a seventh defendant, Sarah Louise Smith, aged 34 from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was left on file following the failure of the jury to reach a verdict in her case. Smith is the partner of Jones and was involved in the running of Jones's company.

Proceedings can now start to confiscate the assets of those convicted.

According to the National Statistical Office Missing Trader Fraud (MTIC) or carousel fraud continues at the rate of £400Mn per months and in the whole of Europe probably exceeds Euros 4Bn.

The House of Lords recently published a report about the problem and said

Forward (inter alia)

"We conclude that existing measures to tackle Missing Trader Fraud do not prevent its occurrence and are unsustainable."

Conclusions. Para 80. It is generally accepted that the broad phenomenon of MTIC fraud is out of control; we expect it to continue to mutate into other sectors.

Pics are of Lord Patel's staff who have recently caught some big fish.

Nick Harvey MP asks about WMIK . Ill equipped UK forces in Afghanistan Part 17.

Nick Harvey MP (Lib Dem North Devon) Question 142524 :will today ask The Secretary of State for Defence, how many weapons mounted installation kits and general purpose machine guns are in theatre in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan.

There is a very good but (unstated by Nick) reason for asking this seemingly innocuous question. First a litle background to what a "weapons mounted installation kit " is.

The Land Rover Wolf is the primary utility vehicle of the British Army. Used initially as a project name, "Wolf" is still the troops generic name for a Land Rover - it is available in many variants.

Currently the term applies to what military johnnies officially call "the Truck Utility Light or Truck Utility Medium or by the engaging acronym (TUL / TUM (HS))" the most common of which is the "Weapons Mount Installation Kit (WMIK, pronounced ‘Wimik’.)" ... which is used for reconnaissance and as a close fire support vehicle.

WMIKs are manufactured jointly by Land Rover and Ricardo Vehicle Engineering.They have a strengthened chassis, stripped (and therefore lighter) bodywork and fitted with roll cages and weapons mounts. Typically the vehicle will carry one 12.7 mm Heavy Machine Gun, 7.62 mm General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) or on occasion the MILAN ATGM, on the rear ring-mount, with an additional pintle mounted GPMG on the front passenger side.

Recently the MOD announced the purchase of 40 new belt fed Automatic Lightweight Grenade Launchers (ALGL) made by Heckler and Koch (HK GMG) for Afghanistan WMIK's that can fire up to 360 grenades per minute up to 1.5 km away.

BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead spent a period as an "embedded" journo in Afghanistan and as a result filed a BBC Online report.... This was headlined 'Lack of vehicles' in Afghanistan.

Lack of heavily armed Land Rovers was a particular problem explained Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Mayo, spokesman in Helmand province, told Alastair that of 170 WMIL's needed only 126 in working order.

Any observer of the MOD's press department will be unsurprised that the MOD insistedthat troops were properly equipped to do their job when asked to comment and added that huge investments had been made in equipment for the Army.

Alastair reorted from personal experience that on average 1 WMIK was being lost a week and replacements sent from the UK often arrived late.

Lt Col Charlie Mayo said the WMIKs were taking "a hell of a hammering" in the hot and dusty conditions and said the situation was "tight, but not critical yet".

Another vehicle, the air cooled engined lightweight Pinzgauer (named after an Austrian Pony) carrier , has been fitted with extra armour to try to cover the shortfall. Consequently this has affected carrying capacity limiting the number of men and the amount of equipment they can carry. These vehicles have the driver over the front wheels which is not ideal when drivingh over mines /IED's - well not for the driver. Lord Patel reported (Sept 6th 2006) on these "coffins on wheels" when their purchase was announced...at something of the order of £250,000 each (not including armour).

Those with long memories (well that go back to November '06) will remember the arrival of Brigadier Lorrimer in Afghanistan who famously sent a "shopping list" to the MOD - reported in the Mail on Sunday - with the banner headline reproduced above.

Army fury as chief in Afghanistan is told he won't get vital armour
By CHRISTOPHER LEAKE, Mail on Sunday 18th November 2006

The senior Army officer who will command British troops in Afghanistan next year is embroiled in a furious row with the Ministry of Defence after learning he will be denied vital armour to protect his men.

The MOS countered this experience by the Brig. with what the Prime Minister said earlier ..

The MoD snub comes just six weeks after Tony Blair promised on TV: "If the commanders on the ground want more equipment, armoured vehicles for example, more helicopters, that will be provided. Whatever package they want, we will do."

Nick Harvey's question today, Mr Leithead's report 6 weeks ago suggest things haven't changed. QV Lord Patel January 27th 2006 -

Friday, January 27, 2006

Reid sends ill equipped troops to certain deaths in S Afghanistan

Madeleine's parents face tough questions from Hessischen Rundfunk's Sabina Muller

Sabina Muller *** of Hessian Radio ( Hessischen Rundfunk ) put the McCann publicity circus on the back foot this week when she asked: "How do you feel about the fact that more and more people seem to be pointing the finger at you, saying the way you behave is not the way people would normally behave when their child is abducted and they seem to imply that you might have something to do with it?''

“To be honest I don't think that is the case,” a flustered Kate McCann told the crowded and very attentive German news conference.

"I think that's a very small minority of people that are criticising us. We are very responsible parents and we love our children so much.”

Gerry McCann , with his voice apparently shaking with emotion said it was the first time he had heard anyone suggest they might be suspects.

“There's absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction,” he said.

"I have never heard before that anyone considers us suspects in this and the Portuguese police certainly don't.

"Without going into too much detail, we were with a large group of people, and you know there is absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction.''

Study this fascinating photograph carefully as Clarence Mitchell carefull shields the shocked Kate, clutching her Cuddly Cat toy (which seems to have added a crucifix since meeting the Holy Father).

Of course, if the McCanns were with a large group of people as Gerry says, there will be no shortage of people to help babysit, visit the apartment to check on the children, or .... even ..... er ..... act as witnesses.... or see men carrying babies.

Sabina Muller asked the question asked the most penetrating question - the picture tells a vivid tale about this grubby circus.

A circus, it seems that the Foreign Office no longer wants any involvement with and wants to put behind them.

We still await to unravel the detailed events of that night 37 days ago - details that an insistent press are increasingly starting to probe....which. in the absence of the FO Godfather will increasingly ask.

*** Sabine Muller worked with the German service of the BBC in London since then has worked with Hessischen Rundfunk (part of ARD-Hauptstadtstudio.) and has worked for them in Washington where she once interviewed George Bush on the Truth Drug (Wahrheitsdroge) and it's relation to human rights. She works mainly on political issues.

UPDATE 12th July 2007

Ms Marilyn Baker (marilynbaker1955@hotmail.com) has set up an Online Petition (currently 1211 signatures) to Leicestershire Social Sevices :

To: Leicestershire Social Services

"We the undersigned request that Leicestershire Social Services fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to 3 year old Madeleine McCann and her younger siblings being left unattended in an unlocked, ground floor hotel room.

We ask that they do this to reflect an evenhanded approach to the important issue of child protection.

We also wish to ensure that no parent will ever be able to evade responsibility for the safety and welfare of their children by citing the example of Mr and Mrs McCann, whose negligence is unreasonably being discounted in the tidal wave of sympathy brought about as a consequence of their media campaign".

Clarence Mitchell returns to lying for the Government.

The Daily Express report that "Foreign Office staff" will no longer work with the McCann's after their return from Rabat. The Find Madeleine "official" website reports that the current account balance of the fund on 08/06/07, stands at £713,927.81.

Extraordinary how there has not been a single mention in any Press/TV reports of the name of Clarence Mitchell or his / function / official employment - which must be known to every journo / editor / sub editor anywhere for the 5 weeks he has been involved at public expense. He has of course done a superb job in establishing the brand - probably deserves a holiday but no doubt the deceit and dishonesty will be flying thickly with the new PM, the departing PM, the planned Race Riot in Whitehall this week, and the astonishing revelations due about the role of Lord Levy.

The Daily Mail today report that the McCann's will be looking to purchase a property in the Algarve to rent on their imminent return from Rabat.

Zion is in the eye of the beholder

Many people have seen many things in the Olympic logo - mainly a deconstructed / reconstructed swastika. Radical Muslim has a novel de-construction .....



However our technical department have found (with a litle adjustment via Photoshop and some sticky backed plastic) it can also be re-arranged to form one the MI5's three logos.