Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal wannabe owner's criminal past unearthed by Uzbek ex HM Ambassador Craig Murray - Amazing pictures !!

Stop Press 18th Sept see http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2007/09/alisher-usmanov-gross-russian-oligarch.html about AU's buying more shares from Asil Nadir and Landsdowne Holdings

Voidstar runs an RSS feed on Craig Murrays blog and the above has just appeared. Julian Bond at Craig Murray's blog in a comment explains it thus ;

You may know that I republish your RSS feed on my UK Political Blog Aggregator http://www.voidstar.com/ukpoliblog/index.php?fid=269
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, some lawyers phoned me up and asked that I remove the copy of this article re-posted there.
It seems that your wish for a libel action may well be granted.

The cause of this is a post from Craig Murray about the purchase by Alisher Usmanov of David Dein's shares in a third rate London football team called Arsenal which Lord Patel referred to last Saturday, September 1st in a post about how London is filing up with fugitive Russian billionaire criminals - further and better particulars of the details of the transaction can be found in this report by AFP.

Craig Murray's estimable piece is entitled (characteristically challenging, and crystal clear in content and intent)

Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist

Apparently in a letter from Mr Usmanov's lawyers (no name provided) to London's finest press barons (no date or signatory given) they are quoted , saying inter alia

“Mr Usmanov (see pic - click to enlarge) was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”

Craig, who has wide long and deep experience and contacts in these matters, states unequivocally ..."Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke "Gorbachev", a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue."

He then goes on to describe in some detail how Usmanov he has built up his vast empire of Gazprom as a sidekick of President Putin bribing the beautiful Gulnara Karimova , the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan with US$88 ,with the help of people like his old college roomate and Putin's chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski and connections through president Karimov of Mafiosis and international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov.

Gazprom was of course involved in seizing Russian Press and TV - including Komersant The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, which Usmanov bought personally, sacked the editor-in-chief and replaced him with with a pro-Putin hack - long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov (pic) , died after another Muscovite Mafia motivated de-fenestration.(More details in another post here) also see here "Ivan Safronov Was Killed" - No suicide note was found. His expensive cellular telephone and his wallet, with money in it, were found on the body.

Finally Craig Murray claims.."Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. "

He recommends that the Arsenal fans ( a rare breed for this struggling minnow) see off Usmanov, which given the Byzantine complexity of the shareholdings is easier said than done.(Board members:Diamond dealer Danny Fiszman 24%Lady Bracewell-Smith 15.8% Richard Carr 4.35% Peter Hill-Wood 0.8% Others:David Dein 14.5% Stan Kroenke 11.26% Small investors 18.03%)David Dein's son is also married into the Buchler family who run another third rate London club called Tottenham Hotspurs... and they all jolly pally with people like Karaoke King Lord Levy "Make mine a bronet", and stockbroker Mr Barry Townsend who wasn't made one after lending New Labour a £Million.

The article was also posted on 3rd September at Google Group soc.culture.usa

See also post at Indymedia - Craig's ISP has pulled the post after receipt of letter from lawyers -Schillings. There are links to 3 more posts in cyberspace and they also re-post the agreeable portrait.

Mad Judge calls for compulsory DNA samples for everyone in known universe

Lord Justice Sedley, the Hilaire Belloc quoting, Lord of Appeal, says the current database, which holds DNA from crime suspects and scenes, was "indefensible" because he says it is unfair and inconsistent.

His insane response to the problems (not even mentioning the 500,000 mis-labeled samples revealed last week by the Home Office) is to add the whole population and every single visitor. This of course chimes with Tony Blair's demands for such a policy while visiting the London HQ of the Forensic Science Service.

Lord Justice Sedley spoke last year on the 13th may about "Sex, Libels and Video-surveillance" and garnered an adequate measure of column inches - not the usual result of being asked to give the Annual Blackstone Lecture, at Pembroke College, Oxford

He said inter alia many things about the News of the Screws and George Galloway ...

I want to suggest, first, that privacy – prominently but not solely private sexual activity, which sells so many newspapers – is something which our law does not yet adequately protect ...

The same legal brain can however accept that the state may invade our privacy - and even that of our visiting uncles, aunts in such a gross way.

More column inches on the way M'lud.

Incidentally the forthcoming (Oct 22nd) trial of Mr Castree for the murder of Lesley Molseed who has been identified by DNA "lost" by the West Yorkshire Police looks set to be very interesting... readers will recall the circumstances it was lost and how Mr Stefan Kisko was locked up as a a result by further falsification of evidence. See previous posts

Senator Lugar on Iraq - "An awesome problem"

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, considered the new report written by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, by the Government Accountability office on the performance of the Iraqi Government. It shows that virtually no political progress by the Iraqi government as the latest evidence that the president’s military strategy was failing.

It found that 3 of 18 benchmarks set by Congress had been met and 4 others have been "partly met" - whatever the fuck that means.

"Have you washed your hands, Johnny" ?

"WEll I've washed ONE of them" ...

It was written by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, who testified at the hearing.

“Do Iraqis want to be Iraqis?” the shrewd Indiana Republican ranking member Mr. Lugar asked. “Is there a sense of those 25 million people that they want to be one nation, as opposed to some Iraqis wanting to dominate the whole lot?” He added, “If the answer to that question is that, fundamentally, Iraqis have not come to the conclusion they want to be Iraqis, then we have an awesome problem.” (See NYT)

Now if they are so dumb that they cannot answer that question , they are dumb enough to be confounded what to do next ... and as for the oil laws ... forget it.

No doubt there is a nice build up of Turkish forces just North of the Iraqi border.

De-Baatification ? Who's idea was it ?, Bush, Bremer, Pentagon , Rummy - not me Guv.

"We're going to be on the ground in Iraq as soldiers and citizens for years. We're going to be running a colony almost,"
Cincinnati Business Courier, February 23 2003

In the Daily Telegraph today Alex Spillius in Washington, comments George Bush was 'not engaged' in crucial decisions - based on Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W Bush, by Robert Draper - he reveals that the US president was not fully engaged in key policy areas, including the disbandment of the Iraqi army.

The book suggests Mr Bush was unaware the Iraqi army was to be broken up by Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, in May 2003, a decision seen as one of the biggest post-invasion mistakes as it put hundreds of thousands of armed men on the street.

Alex Spillius says that Mr Bremer responded angrily yesterday to the suggestion that he had taken the decision unilaterally.

He showed the New York Times a letter to the president that said he planned to "dissolve Saddam's military and intelligence structures".

Bremer was interviewed in some detail on this subject during a PBS radio interview on October 17th 2006

Where does the CPA Order No. 1 come from, the de-Baathification decree? What was the thinking? How did it evolve? Did you come with it in mind?

The concept behind the de-Baathification decree was that the Baath Party had been one of the primary instruments of Saddam's control and tyranny over the Iraqi people for decades. Saddam Hussein himself openly acknowledged that he modeled the Baath Party on the Nazi Party because he admired the way in which Hitler was able to use the Nazi Party to control the German people. Just as in our occupation of Germany we had passed what were called "de-Nazification decrees" and prosecuted senior Nazi officials, the model for the de-Baathification was to look back at that de-Nazification.

The decree itself I saw actually the day before I left for Baghdad. It was shown to me. I guess it had been being worked [on] in the Pentagon. I don't know all the details of who looked at it, ... but the lawyers and everybody had been at it. I suggested that the decree not be issued right away, that it be held until I got to Baghdad so that I could [get] a sense of what we were going to do and how we were going to do it.

Now, in his freedom message in April, before I got there, the Baath Party had already been outlawed by [then-CENTCOM Commander] Gen. [Tommy] Franks. So the question then was, what do we do about officials in the Baath Party? ...

Garner sees it and takes it to the CIA station chief or whatever, and they come roaring into you. Do you remember that?

No, I don't remember hearing from them. I knew that the agency estimated -- and I double-checked it after I got there -- that it would affect about 1 percent of the Baath Party members, [roughly 20,000] people.

You don't remember these guys coming in and saying, "Thirty thousand to 50,000 people -- my God, what are you doing?"

It doesn't mean it didn't happen. I was working 20 hours a day in that period as well, and this wasn't the only thing on my list of things to do the first five days I was there. I had a lot of other things to do.
But this is a big one, right?

There were a lot of big things that first five days. There were a lot of big things the first 48 hours. I don't say it didn't happen. I knew there were concerns. I knew the agency made the assessment that there were about 20,000 people to be thrown out of work, and I judged in the end that that was a risk that we were willing to take. ...

He may have come in and spoken to me at great length about it. I just don't remember it, honestly don't remember it. But I was under no illusions it was going to be difficult. I'm not trying to dust off his concerns; I'm just saying I don't remember the meeting.

Did you feel like you were rolling the dice a little bit, though? I mean, it kind of intuitively makes sense that you don't want to let too many of them go. You want infrastructure.

I had to keep my eye on the broader strategic picture here, too, which was that we had sent an American Army halfway around the world to throw out this hated regime. American men and women had lost their lives in that process. The Iraqi people had a promise of a better life from this process of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, and the promise of better government.
In my view, one had to weigh the potential negative consequences of some people being unhappy against the broader goals and what we were trying to accomplish in Iraq. To me, it was the right thing to do.

It was, in historical terms, compared to de-Nazification in Germany on which it was modeled, much, much milder than what we did in Germany.

Just so that I understand, was or wasn't this your plan?

No, it wasn't my plan. It was a plan that had been discussed and worked on, I suppose, with some intensity in the government. As I said, I was shown this draft decree the day before I left, so it was well-developed long before I was even in the government.

I might add one thing on this de-Baathification, which is important to remember: The State Department, a year before the war, had called together a group of Iraqi exiles to talk about what a post-Saddam Iraq would look like. The resulting study, which was a 2,000-to-3,000-page study called the Future of Iraq Project, was all over the lot in terms of what postwar Iraq should look like, except on one subject: De-Baathification absolutely had to happen; the senior members of the Baath Party had to be got rid of, and the Baath ideology should be got rid of.
The impetus for this was not some idea that sprung full blown from somebody's head in the United States government. This was based on the recommendation of Iraqis who were in exile. ...

This was also detailed in Bremer's apologium book "My year in Iraq" see Lord Patel post Sunday September 2nd 2007
Quote ..

"Major General Tim Cross,CBE, the most senior British officer involved with Jay Garner and one of his three deputies within the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance is mentioned once in Paul "Call me Jerry" Bremer's " My Year in IRAQ". He appears once in it's pages, on Page 17 his presence is noted at the first meeting of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. He apparently had an impressive history in logistics and He became the first Commander Logistic Support of 3 (UK) Division in preparation for the formation of the Royal Logistic Corps in April 1993.

It was at this meeting (described on Page 19) that "Jerry" told them that he was going to introduce an order on De-Baatification - anathematised by General Janus Jackson - "Jerry" doesn't record that there was a single peep of resistance to the idea.

On Page 20 he records at the end of the meeting..."Some .. at the table looked inspired some faces showed no emotion and a few seemed dubious" Who knows , Tim maybe looked dubious."

All out US / French aerial assault on Iran is imminent

Phase III of Bush's War by Patrick J. Buchanan @ AntiWar.com

If you had any doubts that Bush was hell bent on Phase III of his "War on Terror", ( Phase 1 - Afghanistan Phase II Iraq ) read this and you won't.

Do not take this writer's word for it. Hearken to the astonishing rhetoric Bush used at the American Legion Convention in Las Vegas against Tehran:

"Iran ... is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. ...Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel. ... Iran is sending arms to the Taliban. ... Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes. ... Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. ... We will confront this danger before it is too late."

Read also The War Criminal in the Living Room by Paul Craig Roberts @ AntiWar.com

The media is silent, Congress is absent, and Americans are distracted as George W. Bush openly prepares aggression against Iran.

• 
  US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran.
• 
  US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran.
• 
  US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted to carry 30,000 pound "bunker buster" bombs.
• 
  The US government is financing terrorist and separatist groups within Iran.
• 
  US Special Forces teams are conducting terrorist operations inside Iran.
• 
  US war doctrine has been altered to permit first strike nuclear attack on Iran and other non-nuclear countries.

The war criminal is in the living room, and no official notice is taken of the fact.

Move over Tony Blair - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is Dubya's new lap-dog, and he is ready to threaten "the bombing of Iran." - a diplomatic push by the world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran." he said in his first major foreign policy speech to the Ambassadors Conference on Monday August 27th. at the Elysee Palace (Full text)

Remember the reports of the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle working up exercises with US Fleet when Cheney visited May 12th ? Cheney hits the deck as Nimitz arrives on station - Amazing pictures

The French nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R 91) arrived in the North Arabian Sea on March 16 and since then the two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers have been operating together in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). French Super-Etendards, Rafales and an E-2C Hawkeye conducted touch-and-go landings on board Stennis and there were daily staff exchanges.

If you want to know how the assault on Iran will happen Dr. Dan Plesch, Director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and Martin Butcher, a former Director of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) and former adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament have done their homework ... in fact have been doing it for several years.

They have published an 80 page PDF document "Considering a war with Iran " which Raw Story have reduced to a shorter read with more recent analysis and comment - "US preparing 'massive' military attack against Iran " by Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane...

"The United States has the capacity for and may be prepared to launch without warning a massive assault on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, as well as government buildings and infrastructure, using long-range bombers and missiles, according to a new analysis".

"The study concludes that the US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s WMD, nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state apparatus and economic infrastructure within days if not hours of President George W. Bush giving the order. The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely."

An interesting conclusion that they draw - and one that cannot be argued with is .."Plesch and Butcher are also interested in the attitudes of the current UK government, which has carefully avoided revealing what its position might be in the case of an attack.

They point out, however, "One key caution is that regardless of the realities of Iran’s programme, the British public and elite may simply refuse to participate – almost out of bloody minded revenge for the Iraq deceit."

If there was any deceit over the ilegal invasion of Iraq , it was self imposed... but rather Mr Brown doesn't want to father another failure ... hence Mr Sarkozy ...

Page 71 of the Plesch and Butcher Appendix Notes No 1

“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”
General Wesley Clark, March 2nd 2007, describing a conversation in the Pentagon in September 2001 on www.democracynow.org (it was of course Gen Wesley Clark who as SACEUR bombed a developed Western nation, Yugoslavia from 20,000 feet, destroying infrastrure, TV stations, polluting the Danube, destroying power stations after having tred to force a treaty on Milosevic which was constructed by Madeleine Albright at Rambouillet so he wouldn't sign it. Another non UN sanctioned aerial slaughter.)

For the friends in the North East thats 85% on the ArmageddonIranometer.

PS : Lord Patel considered this Feb 2006 "Khuzestan. Coalition Target (?)" see also See also KHUZESTAN: The First Front in the War on Iran? Zoltan Grossman November 7th, 2005 and also here - Is the Islamic Republic of Iran facing a growing revolt by its Arab minority? with comment on a possible Arab revolt in Khuzestan - the province that supplies 70% of Iranian oil.

Microwaving Popcorn at home - potentially harmful if not fatal

David Michaels writes - "Popcorn Lung Coming to Your Kitchen? The FDA Doesn’t Want to Know". Bronchiolitis obliterans AKA "popcorn lung" is a fatal, irreversible lung problem caused by exposure to a ketone , diacetyl, a food flavouring chemical used in making pop corn which provides a "buttery" flavour to the finished product. ( 2,3-butanedione or by its Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number, 431-03-08.)

In July, Dr. Cecile Rose a senior occupational and environmental clinician at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, the most prestigious lung disease hospital in the country - she has been a consultant to the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) – the association of companies that make food flavorings – for more than a decade and helped develop the industry’s Respiratory Safety Program.

According to CDC - "the flavorings industry has estimated that over a thousand flavoring ingredients have the potential to be respiratory hazards due to possible volatility and irritant properties (alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones, aliphatic aldehydes, aliphatic carboxylic acids, aliphatic amines, and aliphatic aromatic thiols and sulfides)."

She wrote to the FDA, CDC, EPA and OSHA, to explain that she had identified a patient ..

“with significant lung disease whose clinical findings are similar to those described in affected workers, but whose only inhalational exposure is as a heavy, daily consumer of butter flavored microwave popcorn.”

Food flavour chemicals may not be just killing workers but directly affecting people exposed to food flavor chemicals in their kitchens. See here for more information about ConAgra, manufacturers of the Redenbacher Brand know about the problems. Conagra sells 3 billion bags of microwave popcorn worldwide annually. Americans wolf down 39 million pounds, or about 156 million bags every year, according to the Snack Manufacturers Association.

The agencies response is detailed by David Michaels and he suggests is so lamentable that their failure to respond adequately is a sign that our public health protection system is in dire need of repair.

Here’s a brief review of what each agency is doing (or not doing) about food flavor chemicals, and, according to Dr. Rose, how they responded (or didn’t respond) to the letter.

1. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The FDA has been asked several times to examine whether breathing diacetyl poses a risk to consumers. Each time, the agency has refused.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The EPA announced that a study on the chemicals released in the popping and opening of packages of microwave popcorn was underway and was expected to be completed by the end of that year (2003). The results of that study still have not been published (promised this year), although the results have been shared with popcorn manufacturers.


As a direct result at least one manufacturer the Pop Weaver Company have announced they will soon be marketing a butter flavored microwave popcorn that doesn’t use diacetyl in the butter flavor. The Indiana based manufacturer sells “Trail’s End” popcorn for the Boy Scouts of America. Five million boxes were sold last year.

The Seattle Post- Intelligencer reported ..

"In part, it was the EPA’s study that led Pop Weaver to reformulate its flavoring without diacetyl, said Mike Weaver, chief executive officer of the 80-yearold family-owned company."

3. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The CDC is not a regulatory agency. It does play a central role in investigating the causes of illnesses and in alerting the public and medical communities about ways to prevent diseases from occurring.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a branch of the CDC, has done terrific work investigating the causes of lung disease among flavor workers.

As of last week, CDC had not responded to the letter.

4. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
OSHA is charged with protecting the health of workers, so the information in this letter wasn’t particularly relevant to their work. They responded promptly, thanking Dr. Rose for her letter.

David Michaels is Professor and Associate Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and heads the Project on Scientific Knowledge and public policy (SKAPP).

He concludes ;

At one time, the US regulatory agencies were the envy of the world.

The anti-regulation policies coming from the White House and the political hacks running the agencies have taken their toll. The agencies have fewer staff and fewer resources. Morale is at its lowest. Many of the best scientists have left and are not being replaced.

If you microwave popcorn at home - go and read the full article.

Better still - make it yourself - recipe and instructions here. Kids love making it....er...and eating it and you'll save money.

This is a site funded by Popcorn manufacturers which tells you what wonderful stuff they sell.

Microwave packaging may also present a health hazard...

At the FDA 2006 Science Forum TH Begley and others from the FDA drew attention to the use of Perfluorochemicals used in the manufacturing of food contact substances (FCS) which represent potential sources of oral exposure to these chemicals in a presentation "Characterizing perfluorochemical migration from food contact paper. "

Recent epidemiology studies have demonstrated the presence of two particular perfluorochemicals, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in human serum at very low part per billion (ppb) levels. These perfluorochemicals are biopersistent and are the subject of numerous studies investigating the many possible sources of human exposure. Because of this potential for biopersistence, FDA decided to evaluate the migration characteristics of perfluorochemicals from food contact paper.

Results from migration tests show that fluorotelomers from the paper additives/coatings do transfer to food. Some of the papers used for packaging food are treated with grease-repelling fluorotelomer coatings. Microwave popcorn bags have the most of any food wrappers—about 4000 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) in the coating or 25 mg per square decimeter of paper, the authors note.

Many of these coatings contain mixtures of long-chain chemicals that can be metabolized to PFOA, Begley and colleagues write in their Food Additives & Contaminants article.

The scientists found that a significant percentage of the fluorotelomers migrated from the bags to the popcorn oil, resulting in levels of 3–4 mg/kg.

Toxicologists commonly convert such an exposure into a human dose by dividing by the average adult body weight, 65 kg. This means that the average dose of fluorotelomers from each bag of popcorn is 1.7 micrograms per kilogram. Children who ate a whole bag would get a higher dose.

Begley notes. These high levels of migration are caused by high coating levels of fluorotelomers and alsobecause popcorn bags get very hot— in ecess of 200 °C in just a minute or two. These temperatures significantly increase the potential for migration of the packaging components to foods, he says. For more information go here

Ohio Citizen Action have taken this up (with little success) with ConAgra.

This is from their press release

See aso Papers: DuPont Hid Chemical Risk Studies ....

By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press November 17, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - DuPont Co. (DD) hid studies showing the risks of a Teflon-related chemical used to line candy wrappers, pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags and hundreds of other food containers, according to internal company documents and a former employee.... Glenn Evers, told reporters at a news conference at Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization, that the company long suppressed its studies on the chemical.

UPDATE re Diacetyl as aproduct of fermentation to enahnce b uttery flavour eg : some beers and Chardonnay wines.

The EU has not been idle in the matter
COMMISSION DECISIONof 18 May 2005
amending Decision 1999/217/EC as regards the register of flavouring substances used in or on
foodstuffs (notified under document number C(2005) 1437)
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2005/389/EC) " ....The Authority concluded in its opinion of 7 December 2004 on aliphatic dialcohols, diketones and hydroxyketones, that pentane-2,4-dione (FL 07.191) is genotoxic in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, its use as a flavouring substance is not acceptable, because it does not comply with the general criteria for the use of flavouring substances set out in the Annex to Regulation"

(EC) No 2232/96. As a consequence, pentane-2,4-dione should be deleted from the register."

As the limiting concentration for flavour detection is 0.2mg / litre and is at most 1-2 mg per litre ingestion is low - lord knows what the metabolic products are. Yeast will absorb diacetyl and metabolise it by reducing the ketone groups to form acetoin and 2,3-butanediol, relatively flavorless compounds. But some reports say acetoin imparts a rather musty flavour.

All the safety workseems to concentrate on diacetyl exposure of the airways and lungs.

Incidentally Con Agra have just announced that they will change the recipe for its Orville Redenbacher and Act II brands over the next year to remove diacetyle as a flavouring chemical.

Obvously have taken note of Lord Patel. News reports about thias chnage by Con Agra carry quotes as follows..."The Flavour and Extract Manufacturers Association said diacetyl occurs naturally in foods such as butter, cheese and fruits, and has FDA approval for use as flavouring."


So if it occurs as a naturally occurring chemical it's OK then ?

Do not flagellate yourself you raised a good point. It is essential that eternal vigilance is maintained on what we are encouraged by food manufacturers to put in our mouths. I this instance with diacetyl in microwave popcorn we have induced sensible changes without the need to resport to legal threats - which is a major move. 6/9/07

Ford US sales drop off cliff in July.

"The weakened national economy has had the same effect on Detroit as always. It’s still true – when the nation catches a cold, Detroit catches pneumonia. "

Mayor of Detroit Kwame M. Kilpatrick
2002-2003 Budget Message

Ford Motor Co.'s sales dropped 14.4 % in August which they have blamed on declining sales as they wean themselves off low-profit sales to rental and fleet buyers.

1. Car sales fell 33.7 % 64,864 versus the same month last year.

2. Light truck sales slipped 2.3% to 152,572.

In August, sales to individual retail customers were down 13 % , but daily rental sales dropped 44 %.

Ford plan to close 16 factories by 2012 and saw sales decline 12% in the first 8 motnhs of 2007
Ford's two top-selling cars, the mid-sized Fusion and the small Focus, both saw big declines in August, with the Focus down 14.7 percent and the Fusion off 19.1 percent.

Ford have announced in a desperate sales boosting measure running through september to Oct. 1st that offers up to $1,000 (€736) cash incentives on most 2007 and 2008 models on top of all existing sales and lease offers.

No other vehicle manufacturers have posted August sales figures yet.

Grape Vine Genome de-coded - better wines , lower pesticide usage and healthier drinks in prospect with GE ?

At the end of the 5th century BC, Thucydides claimed that the people of the Mediterranea - by this he was referring to a period between 2/3000 years BC emerged from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate and domesticate the olive tree and the vine. Not only as a source of food, but also of commerce.

Remarkably the Vitaceae are a large group of tropical / sub tropical woody and herbaceous lianas and only one genus, Vitis, produces edible berries - Vitis vinifera L. is the only species originating from Eurasia and it has been spread throughout the world by human cultivation.

France and Italy are the two largest vine growers in the EU for both the production of fruit and wine. In 2005 the The French–Italian Public Consortium for Grapevine Genome Characterization set up a joint project to determine the gene sequence of Vitis vitifera to speed up the understanding the geentics and to speed up development of newer and better varieties - they chose as the target plant, a highly developed self fertile Pinot Noir grape PN 40024. This was chosen due to it's high homozygosity (93%) , so that both copies of each chromosome pair carried the same version of most of the plant's genes.

Choice of this "vanilla" variety which forms the punchy core to many brands and world class Burgindies ( and not a few punchlines in the movie Sideways - in particular Stephanie's hidden stock of Romanee-Conti Richebourg - and the "in" jokes on Gaston Huet's Vouvrays -"And, ah, there's just, like, the faintest soupcon of, like, asparagus. And there's just a flutter of, like, a nutty Edam cheese." ) is important as extensive hybridization and selection for specific characteristics has left many strains carrying a mixture of genetic material which would confuse the search for the basic species genome.
Further details of the project here

Preliminary results have now been made available (Nature, 2007, DOI: 10.1038/nature06148
) for this, only the 4th complete plant genome sequence . Currently the genome has been sequenced for cultivated rice Oriza sativa - a monocotyledon , Poplar trees ,Populus sp.which is increasingly used for papermaking and is seen as a source of very fast growing biomass cellulose for bio - ethanol production, and the weed Arabidopsis. Animal feed crop Medicago and the tomato are also currently under study.

The draft sequence shows draft of the grapevine genome contains a set of 30,434 protein-coding genes less than the 45,555 protein-coding genes reported for Populus trichocarpa genome, and the 37,544 protein-coding genes identified inrice genome.

Unsurprisingly the grapevine proteome embodies large families of genes related to wine characteristics -

1. 43 genes have been identified with Stilbene synthases (STSs) drive the synthesis of resveratrol, the grapevine phytoalexin that has been associated with the health benefits associated with moderate consumption of red wine. Resveratrol is known to extend the life span of mice and other organisms.

Of these, 20 have previously been shown to be expressed after infection by Plasmopara viticola, thus confirming that they are likely to be functional.

2. 89 functional genes and 27 pseudogenes for the terpene synthases (TPSs) which drive the synthesis of terpenoids; these secondary metabolites are major components of resins, essential oils and aromas (their relative abundance is directly correlated with the aromatic features of wines) and are involved in plant–environment interactions. These results suggests a high diversification of grapevine monoterpene synthases that specifically produce C10 terpenoids present in aroma (such as geraniol, linalool, cineole and -terpineol).

It is hoped that public access to the whole genome will stimulate resesarch in to the identification of genes underlying the agricultural characteristics of the species, including domestication traits and especially those that that direct the metabolic pathways of terpenes and tannins which ocur in such large variety in the grapevine genome.

It may be possible to trace the diversity of wine flavours down to the genome level and assist in breeding selection for certain distinctive and desirable characteristics of the grape - perhaps boosting the resveratrol levels in grape juices for healthy non-alcoholic drinks.

As cultivated grapevines are highly susceptible to a large diversity of pathogens including powdery mildew Erysiphe necator , oidium and Pierce disease Vitis species such as V. riparia or V. cinerea, which are known to be resistant to several of these pathogens, and are interfertile with V. vinifera may be able to transfer resistance traits by breeding using advanced backcrosses or more directly by gene transfer (genetic engineering) - resulting the authors claim / hope in a reduction in pesticide use and consequently, costs of production.



However such prospects of genetic engineering don't excite everyone ...In 2005, a proposed ban (measure M) on planting or cultivating genetically altered crops for the next 10 years, divided Sonoma County, CA. Ultimately, voters rejected the ban, and similar prohibitions have been passed in Marin and Mendocino, CA. Currently U.S. regulations don't require labels detailing whether a food contains genetically modified ingredients.

A report by MKF Research, , "Economic Impact of California Wine 2004," prepared for the Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers said that the industry had a US$45.4 Bn. impact on the state's economy and provided provided 207,550 full-time equivalent jobs, with a total of US$7.6 billion in gross wages producing the No 1 agricultural product of the state by value with 4,805 grape growers and over 1,500 wineries and a highly developed tourist industry.

California is the fourth largest wine producer in the world after France, Italy and Spain. It accounted for US$643 million in wine exports in 2003 from US$537 million in 1998.

President bush in Anbar province, Iraq for 6 hours on way to Oz

On his way to Australia for the Sydney Australian summit to meet Asia-Pacific leaders, President Bush flew via Al Asad airbase in Al Anbar province 180 kilometers West of Baghdad and 12 kilometers Southwest of the Euphrates River for his third trip to Iraq. (Fox pic - note the darkies and the dykes in frame - Dubya on Right)

He was joined by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush and conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They were joined by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East before a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.

They were also joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who travelled with Bush on his first and mysterious trip at Thanksgiving in 2003 but who never appeared in any press pictures.

Al Asad Airbase

Called Qadisiiyah Airbase by Saddam it is on or near the site of an oasis in use since Abrahamic times and was also named after the site of a famous Persian / Arab battle in May 636 named after the battle of Al Qadisiyah, معركة القادسيّة a village south of Baghdad on the Euphrates in the modern province called ad-Diwāniyyah Province, along with al Muthanna and Najaf Governorates.

At the ancient battle Iranians /Persians outnumbered the Arabs by six to one and their war elephants frightened the Arabs, but they were decisively trounced allowing the Arabs to move onto to the Sassanid capital at Ctesiphon.

By dressing horses elaborately they managed to frighten the elephants who created havoc in the ranks. In this way the islamic Caliphate under Caliph Umar spread Eastwards and brought the Islamic faith to all of what is .

The Baathists used the battle iconically to represent the age old struggle of the Iran / Iraq conflict calling it a modern "Qadisiyah" and representing the war as part of an ancient struggle between the Arab and Persian empires and the name was used widely to identify the confict on currency, ostage stamps, medals and famously in the huge ( and remarkably still intact) Saddam Victory Arch in Baghdad also called The Sword of Qādisiyyah, which was inaugurated in August 1989.

The massive airbase, the second largest in Iraq was captured on 16th April 2003 by the Australian Special Air Service Regiment troops. They discovered an amazing buried cache of Soviet era MiGs but also three very advanced MiG-25 Foxbats all hidden under camouflage.(for more info see "Mig Dig") The discovery of over 50 aircraft at AL Asad Air Base and nearly 8 million kilograms (8,000 tonnes) of explosive ordnance was a major achievement. Some of the fighters were buried, others were parked in date palm tree groves or tucked in dried out riverbeds and covered with camouflage sheets.
It was at one time a state of the art facility, built by the Iraqi government and funded by Yugoslavia in the early 1980's but was abandoned in the mid 1990's.

On Oct. 3, 2004 Det. C, Marine Aircraft Control Squadron 1, MWSG 38, 3rd MAW, transferred their operations to the Iraqi air traffic control tower at al-Asad on Sept. 30, 2004.

The Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 23 reconstruced over thirty bomb craters between October 2004 and March 2005. In early June 2005 marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 put the finishing touches on a two-month project to enhance the security of the airbase by expanding the perimeter fence. Engineers, welders, draftsmen, surveyors and heavy equipment operators began the mesa fence project in April 26, and since then worked through temperatures ranging in the triple digits and constant blowing dust to extend the perimeter of the airbase.

The fence line was pushed out to extend security. It provides a better vantage point for security towers.

The Coalition Commander has decided to bring in a coalition force at Al Asad, for a variety of countries to help the U.S. with the occupation. Soldiers from Uganda are at Al Asad, to guard facilities that are in the airbase itself. As of November 21, 2005 soldiers from Uganda guard the PX, gymnasium and other morale support activity buildings. The reasons that the troops from Uganda are there, is because it frees up the troops for offense. For example, if these Soldiers from Uganda were not guarding these sights on the FOB the Soldiers from the 1/109th would have to use some resources for that objective.

Marines and soldiers at the outlying forward operating bases have another name for al-Asad -- "Camp Cupcake." it is thought of as luxurious compared with most other bases in Iraq. New housing, called "can cities," (see pic) have been developed all over Al Asad. Metal trailers linked together provide one or two soldiers with 10-foot by 20-foot living areas. Latrines have running water and porcelain commodes in the can cities, not portapotties. Showers are spotless, just the place to refresh after an "abs" session with the on-base trainer. A theater shows movies day and night.

Soldiers, Marines, Air Force personnel and sailors can do laps in the indoor swimming pool. The large PX faces competition from nearly a dozen Iraqi merchants, who are licensed to sell everything from local crafts and rugs to Cuban cigars and pirated DVDs.

The living conditions at Al Asad have been very good, with daily showers and air conditioning reported. The food and gym facilities have been reported as being excellent and, as from February 2006, Al Asad has had a telephone center and Internet café (albeit with a lengthy wait).

What flies i an out of Al Asad is not known - apart from the Presidential circus. As a Forward Operating Base with hardened aircraft shelters etc., it will probably be a base for most the fighter fleet - hence the swanky "Top Gun" accomodation.

Map of known Forward Operating Bases in Iraq which are becoming increasingly fixed / permanent; click on image for enlargedimage

USAF first discovered pulsar in Crab Nebula

In the Birthday Honours List, the Queen made Jocelyn Bell, the astrophysicist a Dame of the British Empire. Lord Patel posted the fascinating story of her discovery of the first pulsar (now called PSR B1919+21 ) and it's publication in Nature in 1968 ((A. Hewish et al. Nature 217, 709-713; 1968). Her supervisor Antony Hewish was later awarded a Nobel prize for the discovery, but she was not. A continung source of bitter personal controversy.

Pulsars are most likely the remnants or neutron stars resulting from the collapse of massive stars as predicted by Robert Oppenheimer and Fritz Zwicky (who remarkably lived next door to Lenin in Zurich) in the 1930s.

The central part of a pulsar consists of a neutron star. They are accompanied by magnetic fields of immense strength - many millions of times stronger than those ever produced 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, in the way light escapes from a lighthouse beacon which strike the Earth periodically with high precision - in the case of PSR B1919+21 30 times a second.

Now Nature have published a report that their existence had been previously discovered bya US Air Force staff sergeant of 13th Missile Warning Squadron (MWS), Charles Schisler then 41, in 1967, operating a workstation on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System,(BMEWS) at the 11,000 acre Clear Air Force Station in Alaska (click on pic to enlarge) on a massive set of military radars that looked some 4,800 km across Siberia for incoming warheads. (On 15th December 2000 after nearly 40 years of operation, the last of the original BMEWS radars ceased transmitting, and the Solid-State Phased-Array Radar System SSPARS began 24-hour operations. It now operates with radar units at Thule Air Base, Greenland, and Fylingdales-Moor, United Kingdom, which comprise the current Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.

He had noticed noticed a faint signal on his radar , all summer it showed up. Then he noticed the unexplained blip appeared 4 minutes earlier than the day before. As an ex- navigator of B - 47's he new that stars rise 4 minutes earlier each night as the seasonal rotation of the Earth shortened the day's length in the Northern hemisphere.

He calculated the radio source's approximate position in the sky and took a weekend trip 125 miles to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks,an astronomy professor directed him to find a catalog of celestial radio sources -- "General Catalog of Discrete Radio sources" (Howard and Maran ApJ Supp. 10, 1 1965 . He had not known that celestial radio sources had been documented. In this way, Charles determined that he had observed a radio source Taurus A -- the Crab Nebula some 6,300 light years from Earth. At the centre of the Crab, a supernova remnant, we now know, sits a bright (well, noisy) pulsar. The nebula was first identified in July 4, 1054 A.D. by Chinese astronomers as a new or "guest star," and is about four times brighter than Venus but wasn't named until 1844.


Schisler returned to Clear with the coordinates of other likely radio sources and began a meticulous log of any "sightings" .By his own count, he spotted about a dozen sources. "My commanders didn't know what the hell I was doing," he recalls. (for more technical detail of the site equipment and it's uses see website - Montreal 2007: 40 Years of Pulsars
Schisler was not the only one to "pre-discover" a pulsar, though, according to Jocelyn Bell .

"There are actually a lot of stories," she says. A woman visiting the observatory at the University of Chicago, Illinois, in 1950 identified a regularly pulsating source of visible light in the Crab Nebula. An astronomer at the university, dismissed the claim, explaining that all stars seem to flicker - which is true as the earth's atmosphere does causes the twinkling of a star at optical wavelengths.

She also claims another radio astronomer, who may be encouraged, when plied with liquor to confess to having dismissed observations of a pulsating source as the result of faulty equipment. This story is not in anyway connected to Sir Bernard Lovell and the Jodrell bank telescope who discovered a double pulsar in 2003. But they are proud of the fact that their microwave oven in the staff canteen is kept in a Faraday cage to stop radiation escaping. Staff relate a possibly apocryphal-sounding anecdote from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, when a promising signal turned out be a technician warming his lunch at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
If you visit Jodrell bank - highly recommended if only for the immense and world famous Arboretum, you will be required to switch off your mobile telephone.

As Rene Briton remarks at the Montreal website "Once again, it shows how subtle is the nature of discoveries: Mr. Schisler could have let this little "annoying" signal go and not bother about it but instead he carefully recorded details of what he observed. - and "wonder(s) how many such discoveries will remain unknown forever... "

On the other hand the original discovery of gamma ray bursts GRB's (extra galactic and the most luminous events known in the universe since the Big Bang). They are flashes of gamma rays, coming from seemingly random places in the sky and at random times. The first observations were made with the Vela rockets sent up to detect Soviet weapon tests after the test ban treaty in 1963 - but they did identify the Israeli backed South African tests in the so called Vela incident .

Whilst their detection of the GRB's was classified for many years the results were eventually published in 1973 - Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin:
Klebesadel, Ray W.; Strong, Ian B.; Olson, Roy A.: Astrophysical Journal, vol. 182, p.L85 06/1973

Who knows what discoveries are languishing in sealed files today?

Zimbabwe starves

The Zim Sunday Mail propagandist newspaper, reports 36,000 tons of wheat destined for Zimbabwe was being held at the Mozambique port of Beira awaiting payment.

With shortages of bread and bakery products worsening, Didymus Mutasa, the powerful (and deeply criminal) Security and Lands minister, said the nation's wheat was down to a week's supply.

"We do not have wheat stocks at the moment. We are feeding from hand to mouth. As soon as we pay, a little amount is brought in ... this is usually a week's supply," he was quoted as saying by the paper.

see

President Fred Thompson 2008-12

Did you notice he just declared ? However see

RENEWED REPORTS OF IMMINENT U.S. ATTACKS ON IRAN

Read it all here in lengthy well sourced and rational article at Danny Schecter / News Dissector

"True? I don’t know. Plausible? Absolutely. It follows the pattern of the P.R. campaign that started around this time in 2002 and led to the Iraq war. The President’s rhetoric on Iran has been nothing short of bellicose lately, warning of “the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.” And the Iranian government’s behavior—detaining British servicemen and arresting American passport holders, pushing ahead with uranium enrichment, and, by many reliable accounts, increasing its funding and training for anti-American militias in Iraq—seems intentionally provocative. "

This is for our special friends in the North East. Let's put the ArmageddinIranometer up to 75%.

General Michael Janus Jackson - his failures in leading the Army are raised by ex Colonel Patrick Mercer MP

Tory MP, Patrick Mercer, (Con. Newark) 51, a former Colonel in the Sherwood Forester's (and also a reporter on BBC 4's Today programme) , who is now the Conservative Shadow Minister for Homeland Security has defended General Janus Jackson's interpretation of the post-war bungling in Iraq. He points out that Jackson has to bear responsibility himself for reduction in the size of the Army, which has left Britain less able to prosecute the war on terrorism by military means.

He said:

"What he says is right. The lack of post conflict planning is stunning. However, the reason that we haven't been able to prosecute either the Iraq or Afghanistan campaigns as effectively as we might is that we haven't concentrated our forces. We have a war on two fronts while cutting combat units as a peace dividend for pulling out of Northern Ireland. You can't get away from it: this happened on his watch."

"Before he resigned, General Jackson was instrumental in recommending a new structure for the Army, which led to reductions in the numbers of frontline troops."

Not forgetting a massive shortage of helicopters, WIKI Land Rovers, the appalling Bowman comms, shortages of almost everything,night goggles, sand goggles etc., etc., Troops carried in 42 year old VC 10's, massive logistical problems in theatre - food shortages, ammunition problems, slow medical evacuation, etc., etc.,

More here and here

Letter Daily Telegraph Dec 8th 2006

Sir - I am a Major in the Army who has served in Bosnia and more recently as a military assistant to the General Officer Commanding in Basra. General Sir Mike Jackson's comments in the Dimbleby lecture and his interview on Today left me seething (report, December 7).

If Sir Mike felt so strongly about the topics of over-stretch, equipment, accommodation and pay, why did he not do something about it when he was in a position to do so? If he thought that Afghanistan was going to be bloodier than it has turned out to be, why did he not restructure the fighting force at the time?

Why did he not just say "No" when faced with more deployments and the subsequent overstretch? His comments are an insult to those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan, a conflict he could have affected, but did not have the moral courage to do so.

A poor performance for the top general. If he was in the commercial world, he would not have been entertained for so long. I, like many of my fellow officers and soldiers, have decided to vote with my feet and have sadly resigned my commission after 10 years' service as I cannot see a turning point for the Army. Name and address supplied

Major General Tim Cross - crucified .. or he fucking well ought to be

Major General Tim Cross,CBE, the most senior British officer involved with Jay Garner and one of his three deputies within the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance is mentioned once in Paul "Call me Jerry" Bremer's " My Year in IRAQ". He appears once in it's pages, on Page 17 his presence is noted at the first meeting of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. He apparently had an impressive history in logistics and He became the first Commander Logistic Support of 3 (UK) Division in preparation for the formation of the Royal Logistic Corps in April 1993.

It was at this meeting (described on Page 19) that "Jerry" told them that he was going to introduce an order on De-Baatification - anathematised by General Janus Jackson - "Jerry" doesn't record that there was a single peep of resistance to the idea.

On Page 20 he records at the end of the meeting..."Some .. at the table looked inspired some faces showed no emotion and a few seemed dubious" Who knows , Tim maybe looked dubious.

In today's Sunday Mirror, sandwiched between a Brazilian call girl's steamy encounter "Our Orgy with Man United Aces" and "Big brother faces Axe" , now retired, Major General Tim Cross follows (and endorses his every word) his retired ex - boss General Janus Jackson in an arse covering article attempting to absolve the blame for the post invasion fiasco on the shoulders of anyone and everyone but him.

" I had lunch with Rumsfeld in Washington before the invasion in 2003 and raised concerns about the need to internationalise the reconstruction of Iraq and work closely with the United Nations."

"I also raised concerns over the numbers of troops available to maintain security and aid reconstruction. He didn't want to hear that message. The US had already convinced themselves that Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy"

"Anybody who tried to tell them anything that challenged that idea - they simply shut it out. Myself and others were suggesting things simply would not be as easy as that."

"But he ignored my comment. He dismissed it. There is no doubt with hindsight the US post-war plan was fatally flawed - and many of us sensed that at the time."

Ex Major General Tim Cross, General Janus Jackson , Major General Patrick Cordingley, ( who led the Desert Rats in the 1991 Gulf War the Mirror reminds us) , Malcolm Rifkind, Menzies Campbell, William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman for the Conservatives .... it is not sufficient to make the argument - it is necessary to win it.

The British politcial and military leadership signed off, indeed Parliament approved the illegal invasion which millions marched against. They signed up willingly, as brothers in arms with Dubya's gang, they accepted and often promulgated lies. They deceived the public with dossiers - they cannot cast off their responsibilities, conceal their cowardice by now calling the US policies , "intellectually bankrupt" or looking for a handy scapegoat.

This Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy will not wash. The whole illegal military endeavour, the invasion , designed to outflank diplomacy - merely a continuation of a rape that started with sanctions and no-fly zones was a conspiracy.

It was a conspiracy that the military leaders (however unwilling) failed to modify, it was a compact with a flawed and dishonest leadership - across all parties. Mealy mouthed apologies and casuistic explanations re-directing the blame cannot and must not be allowed.

Major General Tim Cross had a choice he could have resigned his commission - he would of course not be enjoying quite the serene and safe financial benefits he might now enjoy (Pension £36,000 p.a plus a nice little earner from Nottingham University) - but at least he could relax, satisfied that he had stood up against the folly of the invasion and all that ensued. That Major General Tim Cross , a specialist in logistics failed to make an impression on Donald Rumsfeld is hardly news - that he was party to the UK Government machine being bullied is a memory of his disservice to it's citizens - he could have stood up to be counted.

He didn't. Now his squalid apology fights for attention with the sordid capers of drink fuelled whores in a 4 hour hour footballers sex orgy - hardly the public arena for a resolute Christian, (like anothor gobby General, - Dannatt, his old boss) who spoke at the Association of Military Christian Fellowships' (AMCF) European conference in 2002.

It makes one wonder how his fee from the Mirror compares with that of 24 year old Brazilian Blonde Bombshell , Juliana Baltrusch.

PS Let's not forget that the desert booted and suited, clean cut, Mr Bremer (call me "Jerry") who of course so carefully laid the plans for the current disaster, destruction of the Army, de-Baatification, looting, incredible Allied corruption etc etc., was of course ex Managing Director of Kissinger Associates

See UPDATE

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Iraqi Post War shambles - Tim Cross the crux that cracked under the strain.

..and now the good news from President Karzai's Afghanistan

General Mike "Janus" Jackson - a bad case of Military Intelligence

In August 2003, Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, said "If you go back to what we achieved here, which was the liberation of 25 million people in less than three weeks, with fewer civilian casualties and less collateral damage than any war in history . . . the loss of innocent life is a tragedy for anyone involved in it but the numbers are really very low."

This is the detailed report from the latest figures released by the Iraq BodyCount.203 dead in 3 days.

General Sir Michael Jackson, who took over the leadership of the British Army one month before the ilegal invasion of Iraq was interviewed by Elizabeth Grice for the Daily Telegraph yesterday....

"Sir Mike is forceful about the need to accept casualties. "There is no such thing as a casualty-free military campaign," he growls. "Perhaps we understand that better now. The harsh reality is that there is risk, sooner or later tragically personified in soldiers being killed and wounded."

Bush's gang of mad beekeepers March 19, 2003 Canadian Spectator

It is pointless, it is obscene, for this Janus Jackson to be weeping and wailing, gnashing his teeth and blaming Donald Rumsfeld, or Tommy Franks. It was a collective failure of political and military leadership that got us here, which Janus Jackson cannot shrug off.

"A change of opinions is almost unknown in an elderly military man." - A Utopia of Usurers, G K Chesterton

G K Chesterton on democracy

Thought for the Day

"Nothing so much threatens the safety of democracy as assuming that democracy is safe. And that is another version of the same arrogant error; that, because you and I are democrats (if we are) we assume that all thinking people of all schools of thought must believe in democracy. If we go on assuming it much longer, there will be nobody left who does believe in democracy."

G. K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News, August 29, 1931.

He also said (which bears remembering considering the outrageous lies from that Janus, lying cocksucker, General Sir Michael (you can call me Mike) Jackson well aired today..

"A change of opinions is almost unknown in an elderly military man." - A Utopia of Usurers,

Bear Stearns - serial NY Bankruptcy Court appearances - fugitive UK citizen in the dock in Vienna - white collar crime - banking Caribbean style

Bear Stearns have an enviable and envied reputation as bankers / advisors / investors but on June 22nd they let it slip that 2 hedge funds specializing in subprime debt run by its asset management arm were facing a sudden wave of withdrawals by investors - followed very soon after on August 4th by Bear Stearns CEO Warren J. Spector resigning on a Sunday afternoon.

Warren, 49, had spent his whole business career with BS and was, after CEO cigar chomping James Cayne ,73, (5.6 million, or 5.6 %) the largest individual shareholder (75,000, or 0.064 %).

As a life master of bridge at age 16 in 1974 he will have plenty of time to spend at tournaments where he is seen as a world class player - maybe he delicious wife Margaret Whitton, who played Molly in the soft porn movie "9 1/2 Weeks," in 1986 can be sent out to earn a crust for the family.

The two funds that got creamed in so-called collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, backed by home-loan bonds and other "assets" were"Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Master Fund Ltd., 07-12383 " which raised US $642 million on the launch last last summer. (Ralph Coffi managed the fund and to lose 20% in it's brief 10 mionth life - they had "re-stated losses" in April from 6.5% to 18.97 or 23% for the year). It looks like investors have lost their shirt and attoney's are hovering on behalf of distressed clients.

A sister and less ambitiously titled fund - " Bear Stearns High- Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Master Fund Ltd., 07-12384," fared better but flunked all the same. However the 4 year old fund which launched with US$916 has been thrown a US$3.2 Bn lifebelt by Bear Stearns. (NYSE : BSC: shares stood at US$145.46 then - Friday 31/7/07 they closed @ US$18.6)

The SEC announced opening a "preliminary enquiry" on June 24th - but don't hold your breath.

The Boston office of the SEC began examining the collapse of Amaranth Advisors , a hedge fund that lost nearly $6 Billion last fall from a series of wrong-way bets on the natural gas market. To date, nothing has come of that inquiry. (Yes. That is right 6 BILLION)

Judge Lifland in the Bloomberg) S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) this week refused to grant protection from U.S. lawsuits for Bear Stearns Cos.' two bankrupt hedge funds, finding the Cayman Islands wasn't the proper jurisdiction for them to liquidate assets.``The only adhesive connection with the Cayman Islands that the funds have is the fact that they are registered there,''

``There are no employees or managers in the Cayman Islands, " he added in his written judgement," the investment manager for the funds is located in New York, the administrator that runs the back-office operations of the funds is in the United States along with the funds' books and records, and prior to the commencement of the foreign proceeding, all of the funds' liquid assets were located in the United States.''

Which is by way of a preamble to a fascinating and older appearance for Bear Stearns before Judge Lifland about a re-heated case of white collar crime. Bear Stearns was ordered by Judge Burton Lifland in February, 2007,to repay investors US$125.1 million in an outfit called the Manhattan Investment Fund run by Michael Berger for which Bear Stearns was the fund custodian and as such reported its performance to Ernst & Young, the fund's administrator, and to Deloitte & Touche the independent auditor.

Judge Lifland in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) adjudicated that they aided and abetted Berger’s common law fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. He said they had "(failed) to act diligently in a timely manner." Bear Stearns were said in court to have ignored clear signs (and its suspicions) that MIF’s manager was defrauding investors. Allegations were also made that margin requirements were waived or reduced.

The Court considered that Bear Stearns was required to do more than simply ask Berger if he was doing wrong. It had to consult any ‘easily obtainable sources of information that would bear on the truth of any explanation received from the potential wrongdoer’.

Investors had already recouped some of their money in a 2001 class action against Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche.

In May 2007, Bear Sterns filed an appeal. They brought a motion to dismiss the investors’ claim on the basis that Bear Stearns’ actions did not substantially assist Berger’s fraud. Th e New York Court granted the motion to dismiss: a clearing broker does not provide substantial assistance to a fraud simply by clearing trades. Failing to enforce margin requirements, continuing to execute trades despite margin violations, or executing trades in order to reduce a loan of money under margin do not constitute substantial assistance, because credit and margin regulations are designed to protect the viability of brokers, not investors.

A recent examination (27th August 2007) of the case concluded that if the proceedings arising from the collapse of MIF against Bear Stearns had been brought under English and not New York law, Bear Stearns may well have been found liable to contribute to MIF’s assets. Two legal reports cover the two appearances of of Bear Stearns about their role as custodian of MIF here and here See also here re british Virgin islands law.

How you may ask did Bear Stearns end up being sued by investors in a fund which they only held custody - well, as ever there hangs a fascinating tale of ambition, youth, greed, optimism and fear of prison.

Michael Wolfgang Berger , (pic) it appears, was born in the UK (and is a UK citizen) and grew up in Salzburg, Austria. The young man (then 21) arrived in New York in 1993 to work for securities broker-dealer Financial Assets Management, based in Columbus, Ohio.

Only 2 years later he set up Manhattan Investment Fund, an open end investment company under the laws of the British Virgin Islands (‘BVI’). Through a wholly owned New York company, Manhattan Capital Management Inc (‘MCM’), Berger served as the investment manager and advisor for MIF . This sold to dozens of offshore investors ,shares valued at $100, with a minimum investment of 250 shares with the intention of investing by shorting the (then !) soaring dot.com stocks which he said were due for a correction.

A brilliant idea but 5 years ahead of the market.

Using his connection through highly respectable FAM he hailed onboard blue chip Wall Street operators, Bear Stearns, Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touche as custodians, administrators and auditors.

In his first few months his assets shrunk to US$5.6 Mn.

He then made the seond mistake, he told his investors they had grown to US$17.9Mn.

Somehow he obtained FAM letterhead and made his third mistake.

He used this kosher stationery to report growing assets which had dwindled by end 1998 to US$3.9MN.

He told investors that funds had grown to US$263.2 Mn.

His assets were $27.7 million by end 1999 bu he reported a doubling since the last year of funds to US $515.3 million.

At this time Deloittes modified their audit - Berger fired them.Mistake number 346 by then as Deloitte withdrew retrospectively their audit assurances for years 1996/1997 and 1998.

In December 1999 the Securities and Exchnage Commission came calling and by November 2000 he was telling a New York District Court who had decided that there was sufficient evidence that Berger was operating a Ponzi scheme ..

"I came here today not only to plead guilty but to express my apologies to all of the shareholders in the fund and to tell you that I am extremely sorry for what I did. My misrepresentations arose out of my conviction that the technology sector was overpriced and my inability to face the fact that my strategy of selling short technology stocks was not working. I was unable to change my course no matter how long the market moved against me or how great the losses were. Throughout, it was my hope that I would ultimately make money for investors."

Berger realised he was facing the district court recommendation of an 87-month sentence and a $424 million fine when he should appear for sentencing on March 1, 2002. He ran. The FBI started looking.

Unmarried, Berger was known to date models drove BMW's and Mercedes-Benz, and loves yachts and the nautical life of luxury lifestyle and once had a place in the Hamptons on Long Island where he loved to spend weekends with his girlfriends.

On July 9th this year, 7 years later he was found driving a red Opel Corsa saloon in Wels, on the motorway between Vienna and Salzburg, Austria and appeared in court in Vienna.

Austrian Banks, BA-APPROX., First bank and the RLB NOe Vienna - made losses in his funds according to the Standard newspaper and will no doubt be keen to see what happens now.
How much of the US$400Mn. lost by investors will be recovered remains to be seen.

Don't hold your breath but as Austria does not have an extradition treaty with US, and the UK has super express extradition to the US on demand (courtesy Tony Blair et.al.) his country of birth , like that of the traitor and radio broadcaster for Nazi Germany Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) in World War II will no doubt figure highly.

So when you are invited to invest in a fund that is registered in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman islands etc., etc., there is a very, very good reason , even if blue chip names are involved.

Your chances of getting your investment back if things go tits up are remarkably slim.

Which may be why Bear Stearns shares have been heading south so fast in the past few weeks.... and why Michael Wolfgang Berger ended up in Austria.

Meanwhile keep an eye open for Margaret Whitton (see pic) slated as Executive producer of "The Loop" to be produced next year .