Priness Anne "kidnap" - Ian Ball still inside after 35 years

On the 20th March 1974 Princess Anne and her freshly laundered wimpish first husband Capt. Mark Philips were rolling along Pall Mall in a RoyalRoller to Buckingham Palace after a charity filmscreening. (Note here that the "kidnapper" Ian Ball says, "In 1971 I was working at Filmatic Laboratories Ltd., Lonsdale Road, London, W1, as a van driver. I used to spend every working day travelling around the West End collecting and delivering cans of film. )

A light coloured car (Ford Escort) blocked their path and a man appeared who fired six shots (from 1 or 2 guns depending on source) . Insp. Beatson fired back (he got a George Cross) and he and royal chauffeur Alex Callender were wounded.

Ball was caught by PC Peter Edmonds, of Cannon Row was awarded one of the first Queen's Gallantry Medals as the Metropolitan Police officer responsible for capturing Ball. Edmonds was on duty as a temporary detective constable at Cannon Row police station when the call about the attack was received.

He drove to the scene in his own car, and saw a man with a gun running across St James's Park. Edmonds gave chase and, although threatened with the gun, threw his coat over the fugitive's head, forced him to the ground and arrested him.

Others at the scene who attempted to restrain Ball included Pc Michael Hills and Ronald Russell, a cleaning company manager who, having manoeuvred his car in front of Ball's to block his escape, ran across and punched the assailant. Both of them were shot, both later received the George Medal. A Fleet Street reporter, Brian McConnell, who heard shots and leaped out and tried to reason with Ball, was shot in the chest; he was awarded a Queen's Gallantry Medal, as was the chauffeur, Alexander Callender.

Rowena Brassey, the Princess's Lady-in-waiting, was also present and like the royal cople were unharmed . Indeed it looks like no shots were fired at them.

It appeared that the shooting was preliminary to a kidnap attempt on Princess Anne to hold her to ransom. A ransom letter demanding £3Mn. from the was subsequently found demanding £3m for her release.

Ian Ball, 26, was prosecuted for the attempted murder of the princess's detective, and various offences under the Offences Against the Person Act.

Ball was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a mental hospital - initially in Rampton and he is currently blieved to be in Broadmoor.

1. A curious untraceable website has appeared at least in 2005 - see ref in A-infos Anarchist website http://www.ianball.me.uk/ purporting to be a statement from Ian Ball.

On the 22nd May 1975 (1974) I was convicted, at the Old Bailey, of attempting to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne.

From the accompanying document entitled 'Hoax Explanation' you can see that I did not attempt to kidnap Princess Anne - the whole incident was just an elaborate hoax.

It continues as a lettermight from a Nigerian source ....

As I am desperate to get out of Broadmoor, I am offering a £1Million reward to the first person who proves the incident was a hoax.

The reward will be paid as follows:- £55'000 immediately (as this is the amount I currently have in my bank account), and the remainder when I have successfully sued the authorities and received the royalties from my autobiography. From the following you can see that the total amount I will get in damages and royalties will be more than enough to cover the cost of the reward.

This page then links to second page http://www.ianball.me.uk/hoax.html entitled Hoax Explanation which you might like to read.

2. Monsters and Critics on Jan 15th 2009 report that Channel 4 Films commenced filming a documentary about the "kidnapping" on Monday (19.01.09) in Bath, SW England with the intention of screening it in September 2009.

According to this M & C report The princess reportedly replied in an unprincesslybut beleivable way ,say "Not b****y likely!" before diving out the other side of the car.

One wonders how an inmate of Broadmoor can set up a website - is this clever viral marketing by Channel 4 ? He's been locked up 35 years now and didn't kill anyone...don't mess with the Windsors.

PS : "To Kidnap a Princess" with Russel Mabey as Ian Ball was made for TV film (ITV) in 2006 and portrayed Ball as a loner schizophrenic.

Role play - Invest Squander the Quantitative easing funds for Mervyn

Quantitative easing (QE)provides the BoE with the ability to buy assets, securities like corporate bonds or commercial paperand Govern/ ment bonds from commercial banks / insurance companies that currently hold them.

Here is your chance to play the bemused academic crossed fingers specialist .... Mervyn King

British Airways (The worlds favourite airline) have bonds they have issued ..lots of 'em.

Yesterday Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its rating on British Airways' long-term corporate credit from investment grade to "junk," falling from BBB- to BB+, .. plus a warning they might be downgraded further. (Moodys show them as equivalent Ba1 details here )

They gave resons, plenty of 'em why they had downgraded them.

S&P said Friday it was looking at;

1. BA's losses
2. Worsening demand, particularly on BA's high-dollar premium passengers across the Atlantic
3. Currency losses from the weakening British pound
4. Failing UK economy
... and er ... other factors... order book with Boeing for more planes etc.,

"As a result of the more challenging industry environment, we believe that BA's financial risk profile and credit measures are no longer, nor are likely to be, appropriate for an investment-grade rating over the next several years," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Leigh Bailey.

Now as Mervyn .. or one of his double firsted henchmen ... do you buy this crap ?

The holders will gladly take the proffered loot and run .... and invest it , squirrel it away on the busted balance sheet, handsome salaries, bonuses, boxes at Man United, sponsoring Rugby Union, Newcastle United, Newcastle Rugby ....

After all, what is there to stop them ? If there is Mervyn has not told us what it is..no doubt they will "monitor" the situation as did the BoE previously... with the same people doing the monitoring ... and the same bankers pissing the money away.

Now are you really convinced that QE is a really great idea to get the UK economy moving ?

Where are they Now ? No : 342 Huma Abedin , Shrillarys lover and "special advisor"

On her first trip abroad as US Secretary of State, Shrillary talked to an audience of women at Ewha Women University campus in Seoul the questions were not apparently about O'Bombers about, bombing campaigns in Pakistan , tax cuts or US healthcare, or even about looming North Korea's nuclear weapons or the global economic crisis.All eyes were on Shillarys pet Huma Abedin.

With her tried and trusty team of ex Clintonistas savvy smart lawyer Jake Sullivan, lurking in the shadows away from the cameas, her national politics adviser, Huma Abedin (her glamorous aide de camp - BBC speak for Love that dare not speak it's name) and Kiki McLean, a veteran Democratic strategist and press aide to husband Bill when he was Arkansas Governor.

Elsewhere the delightful, slim Saudi born and educated Hua is described as , "Clinton’s traveling chief of staff and “body woman”".Politico

According to Town Hall "Abedin carries the title "senior adviser." What she knows about foreign policy remains a mystery, but she knows the Clinton political operation. On this trip, according to The Washington Post/ Toronto Star , Abedin "silently will hand Clinton a glass of water when her voice rasps during a briefing."

In the New York Times Mark Landler reported on her swing through Japan and said, "Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s aide-de-camp and ubiquitous seatmate during the campaign, was never more than a few steps away from her boss. Ms. Abedin even accompanied Mrs. Clinton to her tea with Empress Michiko, though she was guided to an antechamber to wait."

When asked a difficult question , refuse to answer or lie - that's what bankers do - especially Fed Chairmen

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who usually votes with the Democrats, tackled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and said he found it "unacceptable" that the central bank risked taxpayer money without detailing where the funds went.

"My question to you is, will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars?" Sanders asked ..... referring to the size of the Fed's balance sheet.

When Sanders pressed on whether Bernanke would name the firms that borrowed from the Fed, the central bank chairman replied, "No."

Vermont Public Radio has the transcript of the exact exchange.

So now you know that Congress does NOT run the United States ... Uncle Ben's Lies will do instead.

Typhoon MRCA in action with the RAF as the Italians see it

The most recent issue of the Italian magazine Aeronautica & Difesa has a well illustrated story on the Typhoon now in use with the Royal Air Force. Here is one picture, but for those who like this sort of thing there are plenty more.

UK gas stocks at record lows as Energy Minister O'Brien whistles valiantly in the dark.

It was a chance for MP's to ask the wimpish, The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Mr. Mike O'Brien) questions yesterday.

Mrs. Ann Cryer (Keighley) (Lab)opened the batting with a shrewd Yorkie, " What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK’s gas storage capacity; and if he will make a statement." [260723]

O Brien was full of a correct but lamentably late catalogue of efforts to build gas storage over the next ten years - when it was blindingly obvious that gas stroage has been static whilst usage soaring - and will constitute 70% of our energy source for electricity by 2012.

Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) (Con) bowled a fierce boucer " On 20 February this year—two weeks ago—Britain hit a new low, with just four days-worth of gas in storage in the reserve. Does the Minister consider that an acceptable margin for safety?"

O' Brien lamely and uhelpfully remarked "It is not about how many days worth of gas there are. The amount of gas in storage at a given point cannot meaningfully be assessed in terms of days." ... so why does the National Grid publish the figures for short term , medium term and long term gas storage evey day on their website ?

O Brien admitted that As at 3 March 2009, the total volume of gas storage stocks in the UK was no more than 1.2 billion cu m. The UK’s total gas storage capacity is approximately 4.4 billion cu m. (Germany and France never drop below 100 days.)

If you wish to be more informedread Hansardfor the full account of the lamentable state of UK gas stocks .. but better stil, read
UK NAT GAS WINTER 2009, FEBRUARY UPDATE Posted by Rune Likvern on February 20, 2009
More posts by Rune Likvern on U.K. nat gas supplies this winter :

Will UK face a nat gas crisis during this winter (Part 1 of 2)

Will UK face a nat gas crisis during this winter (Part 2 of 2)

See also review of debate at e-politix

The Man in the Street - then banged up the DNA'd -sounds like terrism

Have a look at this news-video about Stephen Clarke, a man who was accused to taking pictures of sewer-gratings in Manchester and arrested ahead of the 208 Labour party conference

Stephen was held on suspicion of planning an act of terror, imprisoned for two days while the police searched his home, his phone and his computer and memory sticks etc., . When they couldn't find anything suspicious (or any pictures of grids of any sort) , they released him, but kept his DNA on file, as the biometric of someone who had been accused of plotting a terrorist act. See also story on Boing Boing Mach 3rd, film only at Channel M TV (part of Guradian group)

Gilbert Duclos film "La Rue Zone Interdite" Cannel 5 in French is available on You Tube

Lehman Bros liquidators ask awkward questions - Barclays dives 25% on news - Market Cap now £5. 5 Bn.

This Forbes / Reuters / FT report seemed to spook the market as it opened, Liquidators quiz Barclays over Lehman funds-FT .....

Liquidators for Lehman Brothers, Alvarez and Marsal asked Barclays in a letter of February 19th , to account for funds it received as part of its purchase of the failed investment bank's North American unit, the Financial Times reported on Thursday (today) Barclays questioned on funds.

Citing sources close to the situation, the newspaper said U.S. liquidators Alvarez and Marsal were seeking clarification on the fate of US$4.2 billion transferred to Barclays to cover Lehman's bonus and severance payments and other liabilities.

The liquidators calculate only US$900 million has been spent, the newspaper said.

Barclays booked a gain of £2.3bn ($3.3bn) in it's Annual accounts pulished last week, on the difference between the fair value of the assets and liabilities acquired from Lehman and the price paid for them. The gain accounted for about a third of Barclays' pre-tax profits and helped Barclays Capital, its investment banking arm, to record a profit of £1.3bn.

Lehman Brothers Holdings, the bank's remaining businesses, now managed by Alvarez & Marsal, said it was "not making any allegations but is simply requesting factual information from Barclays as to certain discrepancies". Ho Ho. Ho ... but the liquidator wants his money back please.

The Daily Torygraph report Friday that "Sandy Chen, of Panmure Gordon, in a report on Barclays' monoline and structured credit exposures says : "If corporate defaults jump and structured credits undergo another wave of downgrades, we think that the structure of swaps with monolines and other counterparties that Barclays put in place to limit losses could buckle – leading to further impairments and/or writedowns."

Making money by printing money ,, winners and losers - and you ain't a winner pal ...

Boris Fyodorov, the late (died ,heart attack aged 50 Nov. 2008)reformist Russian Minister of Finance was a bastion of rectitude and struggled against the abuse of authority and the looting Oligarchs.

Confusion helps the powerful, he declared. Complex complicated bailouts, uexplained and unpublished (cf Paulsen's Pals Act) complicated government bailout schemes, multiple and vicious and volatile exchange rates, or high inflation, it is very hard (impossible) to keep track of market prices and to protect the value of firms. The result, if taken to an extreme, is looting (cf armed raid on Gazprom offices in Ukraine yesterday ) : the collapse of banks, industrial firms, and other entities because the insiders take the money (or other valuables) and run.

A noteworthy and powerful critique was his publication of a book of blank pages under the title The Economic Achievements of the Chernomyrdin Government.


Now that HMG / Treasury / BOE have decided today on their stop gap / stop go policy of £75 Bn (5% ish of GDP) (approved to the level of £150 Bn. by the MEPC) nothing is clearer. Confusion reigns.

Our analysis is that this move this is the same effect as a private limited company extending it's Purchase Ledger in the knowledge it cannot meet it's debts as they fall due . They become technically insolvent.

The major UK based banks will sensibly hoover up the funds pronto - including Barclays who the sleek jowled Varley assures us have no asset valuation problems.

Cui bono ?

The banks have greater liquidity which they will use as they please (owned by the taxpayer or not) and HMG have assets no-one (anywhere) is inclined to buy at any price.

So if £75 Bn doesn't work, we suck up another £75 Bn. Then what ?

On top of this we relentlesy dribble away tax payers funds ... as the following post shows.

Still Tranche 3 of the Eurofighter is to be cancelled anyday now, so that will save a bob or two on the Defence Budget.. probably enough to repair the Vanguard submarine loitering without intent under a French submarine sous l'Atlantique .

Next step 2 carriers sunk without trace ?

Kerching !!!!! £2.5 Bn. more tax payers money dribbles away ..

Item 1. Local Government nest eggs hatching in very cold, very empty, Icelandic bank accounts Bye Bye £1Bn. (ish)

According to Governmen figures rleased today , at the end of 2008 125 local authorities in England (Scotland looks after their own via Holyrood) had outstanding investments of around £923.2 Mn in Icelandic banks. Guradian list Oct 2008 here eg : Nottingham city council: £41.6m invested in Glitnir, Landsbanki and Heritable • Transport for London: £40m deposit with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander

At the time the Prime Minister told the BBC that the Icelandic authorities' handling of accounts had been "effectively illegal" and "completely unacceptable".

Local Government Minister, Cambridge educated John Healey. Communities and Local Government (National) Minister since June 2007 has laid an order today before Parliament Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 [S.I. No. 321] under the Local Government Act 2003.

The effect of this is to enable enable authorities to postpone ( ie : fiddle their accounts) to apparently remove any possible budgetary impact of this until 2010-11.

Without this help, ( he claims) they would have to make immediate provision for possible losses in their revenue budgets - with potentially serious impacts on council tax or services.

" ...I am taking this exceptional step that gives authorities some breathing space that should allow them to be clearer what sums, if any, are still at risk. Meanwhile the Government will continue its efforts to ensure that investors recover as much as possible from the banks." ... which on current evidence looks like zero. Still, we can put off the accounting for it until after the election.

UPDATE : Friday newrelease with more information links details of Councils affected etc.,

Item 2 : DfT gets into train leasing via Diesel Trains Limited Kerching £ 1.5 Bn.

The beautiful and talented, unelected and unelectable, yet adorable, godlike , Transport Minister, Lord Adonis (Andew to frineds on the scarlet benches of our House) has quietly announced today yet more tax payers funds for railway companies.

Subsequent to its mention in the Chancellor's pre-budget review in November 2008 a company, Diesel Trains Limited, has been set up which will see an extra £1bn dedicated to accelerating major transport projects.

Initially this involves around £300m for an additional 202 train carriages (say £1.5 MN each) to relieve overcrowding in the Thames Valley, around Bristol and on longer distances in northern England. The trains (which will be rented by the DfT) are set to enter service by 2012 subject to negotiations with train operators First Great Western, Trans-Pennine Express and Northern Rail.

The DfT is currently negotiating with other train operators for the purchase of 120 new carriages, in addition to these DMUs, and, over the next 12 months, would expect to see orders for a further 250 carriages. By the end of next year, orders for over 1,000 new carriages are likely to have been placed = about £1.5 Bn. (ish)

A successful bidder (Bombardier are the sole UK manufacturer left in UK ) to build the new train carriages is expected to be announced in April. The DfT makes clear that it does not intend to be a long-term owner of trains (Ho.Ho.Ho.) and the new company is not intended to compete with other rolling stock leasing companies.

These are the major leasing companies who will benefit from these plans... . (ROSCO's)

* Angel Trains - owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and which claims to be the biggest rolling stock company in Britain, with some 5,000 assets... and is now owned by the taxpapyer anyway.
* HSBC Rail - a lessor of domestic passenger rolling stock, owned by HSBC.
* Porterbrook - owned by Abbey National, which leases some 3,500 locomotives, trains and freight wagons.

These were joined by 2 more companies in 2008:

* Sovereign Trains - a company that forms part of the same group as the open-access operators Grand Central and Grand Union. Sovereign Trains owns the rolling stock currently operated by Grand Central.(see pic)
* QW Rail Leasing - a joint venture between the National Australia Bank and SMBC Leasing and Finance to provide the EMU rolling stock to London Overground.

Which makes you wonder why the leasing companies don't just go out and buy the trains they need to meet the evident demand

PS : Pic is of a Grand Central DMU at York Station.

PPS : Meanwhile premium ticket and season ticket sales are declining.

If the US Treasury cannot sell US$2T of paper >end of 2010 then the Obama plan falls apart : Ditto UK

On January 22nd Tim Geithner in a written reply to Congress, in response to a question from Sen. Olympia Snowe, (R-Maine), that President Obama’s administration “backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists - believes that China is manipulating its currency.”

Best estimates are that China bought US$374 billion of U.S. bonds in 2008. With the Obama administration proposing a deficit of more than $1 trillion in 2009, is it good policy to insult your best foreign customer?

Tim's comments were followed by a bond sell-of and Su Ning, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, countering that "these remarks are not only inconsistent with the facts, but they are misleading about the reasons for the financial crisis."

Yesterday Tim was testifying to Congress again. A Congressman asked a direct, simple question.

“Mr. Geithner can we sell the bonds necessary to fund this deficit? Are the Chinese still buying our bonds?”

Mr. Geithner responded with a full three minutes of non-answers to those questions. At the end of three minutes the Congressman repeated his questions.

For another two minutes Mr. Geithner ducked the questions.

If the US Treasury cannot sell about US$2T of paper up to the end of 2010 (at the current historical low rates), then the Obama plan falls apart. Period.

NB : Fleshy Gordon is in the same spot more or less, but his problems arise from selling UK Government securities in the next nine months to fund his banking payola, PFI bail out (which has only just started) etc.

Armageddon

If interest rates are (as widely rumoured) due to drop yet again in the morning - the job looks even harder.

Steve Bundred, (pic Nov200) chief executive of the Audit Commission,said in an article in the Times Feb 26th , "The measures that the government is taking to stimulate the economy may well be absolutely necessary but they involve unprecedented levels of public borrowing and public debt,"

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) say UK national debt rose to £703.4bn in January, or 47.8% of GDP the highest for 20 years - this will (say the ONS) increase sharply if the money being pumped into Britain's faltering banks was taken into account.

Mr Bundred warned that if borrowing pushed above 65% of GDP, there was a "distinct possibility" Britain could face "the Armageddon scenario most feared by the Treasury: that there will be insufficient lenders to match the planned level of borrowing".

PS : & UPDATE The 2008 Audit Commission report on the NHS included the first full year audit of payment by results bills, which found that up to £1bn of the bills hospital trusts have sent primary care trusts could be wrong.

UK Ex Ambasador / ex FCO xplains how Ministers sanctioned torture - OK if e don't use it as evidence ina court of law - othewise fine and dandy

This is a memo to Craig Murray http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/documents/Wood.pdf . you are advised to read the succinct , clear evidence about how Ministers (especiallly Jack Sraw) have consistently lied about participation in torture by the UK.Craig's blog 2nd March 2009 How Hard for the Truth to be Heard .... ain't that a fact.

Slump

Food prices up, Unemployment up, Government borrowing up, foreclosures up, House sales down, mortgage funding down, .... this is a slump..

Click BBC pic from today to enlarge and see where your 401K / Pension / Annuity has gone.

WSJ today The Obama Economy
As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.

"As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem."

Lord Haw - Haw remembered as UK Gubment seeks to twist the law for popular support

Harriet Harm , Fleshy Gordon and the rest who are hounding Sir Fred and his magic pension pot by the uncertain majesty of the law remind us how Governments never hesitate to twist the law to stoke public sentiment.

Wiliam Joyce "Lord Haw Haw" was tried for treason at the end of the war and hanged. Despite the fact that he was born in America, whose parents had become US citizens. He had also become a German citizen when he made his vile broadcasts from Germany and so could not possibly be tried for treason. (Although a new Actof Treason 1945 was brought in a rush, to allow only one judge to sit to put things all square)

The quite reasonable arguments of his publicly provided solicitor and QC based on the above were brushed aside and the jury and the public were happy to see him hung.

The Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross,(who went on to star in more dodgy legal business at Nuremberg and hangings) convinced the jury, that Joyce's possession of a British passport, obtained fraudulently my lying about his nationality to obtain it, entitled him (until it expired) to British diplomatic protection in Germany and therefore he owed allegiance to the King at the time he commenced working for the Germans.

When Joyce appealed to the House of Lords they refused his appeal and even dissenting Lord Porter said it was matter of fact (for the jury to determine) whether this technicality afforded him protection from the court not the highest court in the land.

As Joyce had been an MI5 spy in Germany (he had been sent there in the 30's by the curious "M" or Maxwell Knight a proto - fascist and friend of Oswald Mosley who was head of section B5(b) responsible for infiltrating agents and based in Dolphin Square ). Documents released in 2001 show clearly this was something they wished to conceal they freed his wife - who had been as active as he was - to the Belgians and had indeed previously connived at letting her"escape".

In another contemporary slant Mosley defected from the Conservatives to the Labour Party in protest at the widespread and well known habit of torturing Sinn Fein prisoners by the "Gentle Black & Tans".

Judging by much public comment there are many RBS shareholders who would happily see poor old Fred tortured - or even like Joyce , well hung.

On the day when world markets slumped to record levels it does relieve Washington bound Fleshy Gordon of the worries of saving the world yet again.

EU Czech Presidency propose a get - out clause for running dirty coal plants until 2020. UK Gubment will be delighted

A proposal is said to be ready for tabling by the European Union's Czech presidency as a result of an overhaul of EU acid rain laws.

Many ageing EU coal-fired power stations, could cut back operating hours and win an extension to their working lives. Reuters claim to have seen this detailed plan which could provide life extensions for UK 's antique plants (no new one plants for 30 years) to 2020.

Agrement is not expected soon or easily as current EU emissions laws introduced in 2001 force European power stations to fit costly equipment to remove sulfur and nitrogen oxides blamed for acid rain, but older plants could opt out provided that they close after 20,000 hours of running time or by 2015.

The Czech proposal would allow plants to further delay closure until 2020 if they limit themselves to 15,000 hours running time.

Environment ministers will meet next Monday to discuss an overhaul of those emissions controls in a new Industrial Emissions Directive AKA Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive.. Under the original law the UK has already opted out 13 plants, a total of some 34.3 Gw - the highest EU opt -out and about 15% of total UK capacity.

Poland has opted out 32% of its capacity, Spain 10% , France 5% and Romania 22 %.

Seventeen of the EU's 27 member states have chosen to close a total of 205 plants.

This relaxation will provide much needed capacity as the UK struggles with output from nuclear plant and supplies of gas to feed plants in winter due to inadequate planning to store gas.

Running coal plants intermittently will increase running costs, maintenance and more imported coal.

Re-inforcing the shambles of energy planning the last decade has been in the UK.

The danger is of course that any such relaxation will provide a backstop to allow for yet further delays and indecision by the masterminds of UK energy policy .

UK Government lobbied MEP's for change to law

This confirms a Guradian story 21st January 2009 thatthe UK government lobbied MEP's for this sort of chane and warned in a 4 page briefing paper (UK Concerns on the Proposed Recast Industrial Emissions (IPPC) Directives Provisions Concerning Large Combustion Plants) that the Guradian has seen "that electricity prices would increase by 20% if the proposed legislation isn't changed. It is also concerned that the new rules would threaten the security of the UK's electricity supply."

This story broke the day before the environment committee of the European Parliament voted on over 500 amendments tabled to the – the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive.

It appears that the Oxbridge double first mandarins at BERR have finally woken up .."The paper sounds a drastic warning that it may prove impossible to build and operate replacement plant by the end of 2015, saying this would "exacerbate the risks and shortfalls" outlined."

Areva have accumulated losses of €1.7 Bn. on constructing Olkiluoto 3 - Siemens want out ... European Pressurized Reactor in trouble

France's national nuclear company Areva has produced their FY 2008 results and revealed estimated accumulatedlosses of at least €1.7 Bn. on constructing Olkiluoto 3.

The 1600 MWe EPR reactor at Teollisuuden Voima Oyj's (TVO's) Olkiluoto site which was meant to begin operation this year is now expected to start in 2012. The joint Areva-Siemens contract was worth €3 billion when signed at the end of 2003.

In October Ava announced a 4th delay to the Finnish project — Europe's first pressurized nuclear reactor. The so-called European Pressurized Reactor is meant to eventually replace aging reactors whose designs date from decades ago - such as the one's planned for the UK by EDF.

Arbitration in the International Chamber of Commerce is underway between TVO and Areva . Proceedings are secret, but it is known that the Areva-Siemens consortium would like a schedule extension and €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in compensation and late payments, while TVO has said in letters that it considers itself entitled to a whopping €2.4 billion ($3.0 billion) in damages.

OL3 is the largest construction project in Finland and one of the largest worksites in Europe with over 4,500 site workers.

Areva also announced that Siemens wants out of their joint Areva NP reactor technology joint venture. By the end of January 2012 Areva must purchase Siemens' 34% stake, which it has valued at €2.05 billion ($2.61 billion) ahead of final negotiations. This sum was added to Areva's net debt which then jumped to €5.5 billion ($7.0 billion), although this is balanced by equity of €7.3 billion ($9.3 billion).

Apart from these problems with Siemens and TVO , Areva's business performed strongly, with its order book growing to €48.2 billion ($61.4 billion), up 21% on last year. Company CEO the beautiful Anne Lauvergeon said the group's performance in the current economic situation demonstrates "the robustness of the Areva business model." In the last year, Areva has hired almost 10,000 new staff.

Areva made a net profit last year of €589 million, down 20.7 % from €743 million in 2007, while sales rose 10.4 % to €13.2 billion.

Uranium prices slide

Uranium prices fell by 40 % last year and this hurt Areva's earnings resulting in drastically cutting, then suspending, uranium trading activities in the second half. The mine in in Canada, Niger and Kazakhstanand refine the product in France.

See article on Rand Uranium for overview of cuent world Uranium m arket and currentproblems.

2nd Transatlantic Bombers trial stopped

The 2nd trial of the 8 wannabe heavily MI 5/6/7/ infilated "Transatlantic" bombers re - started on Wednesday - the defendents were (above)
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, also known as Ahmed Ali Khan, 28, from Walthamstow, east London
Assad Sarwar, 28, from High Wycombe, Bucks
Tanvir Hussain, 28, from Leyton, east London
Ibrahim Savant, 28, from Stoke Newington, north London
Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, from Walthamstow
Waheed Zaman, 24, from Walthamstow
Umar Islam, also known as Brian Young, 30, from Plaistow, east London
Donald Stewart-Whyte, 22, from High Wycombe

A curious feature is that Donald Stewart - Whyte has been replaced as a defendant for Mohammed Gulzar, 26 from the previously suspendedtrial

The second trial was stopped On Friday afternoon.See Courtnews. February 27, 2009 ALI: TRANSATLANTIC TERROR TRIAL TO RESTART FOR SECOND TIME LONDON; HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS The trial of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic jets collapsed for a second time today (Fri) after further problems with jurors. Last week the first jury was discharged for legal reasons after the case had been running for a day.

Curiously we can find no reference in any Press / TV to this decision over Sat / Sun.

A bad time to announce bad news.

The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. John Hutton): Before I begin my statement (yesterday about Ministers lying about rendition - he said ) , "I should like to pay tribute to the three soldiers from 1st Battalion The Rifles who died on operations in Afghanistan yesterday, and to the Royal Marine from 45 Commando who died yesterday from wounds received earlier this month."

Three soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Rifles, were on a routine escort operation in Gereshk district in Helmand Province on Wednesday in their weapon-mounted "WMIK" Land Rover which was blown up by either a landmine or a wire-triggered improvised explosive device.

Earlier the Defence Select Committee thrid report had been published s the hambles over the plans for equipping the army with troop moving land vehicles - the - Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) ...

The MoD's attempts to meet its medium-weight vehicle requirement have been a sorry story of indecision, changing requirements and delay. It is high time the MoD decided where its priorities lay

At our evidence session on 25 November 2008, we asked how the announcement at the end of October 2008 that 700 new armoured vehicles were to be procured impacted upon the FRES programme. CDM said that "there will still be a requirement for FRES; I am quite clear about that".We asked if the MoD knew what its requirement for FRES was. CDM told us that "I think we are pretty clear we know what it is"

92. Given the number of different armoured vehicles which have been procured for current operations and the different FRES vehicles which the MoD plans to procure, we asked about the MoD's strategy relating to armoured vehicles and, specifically, about the issue of coherency. To our astonishment, the Minister told us that "the coherence lies in having the widest possible suite of weapons for commanders in the field to choose from".

They concluded (bold type theirs)..

95. The FRES programme has been a fiasco. In February 2007 we concluded that the MoD's attempts to meet its medium-weight vehicle requirement had been a sorry story of indecision, changing requirements and delay. Two years later the story is, incredibly, even worse.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "This report shows that the MoD is riddled with incompetence.(BBC)

"The government must make sure our troops have the equipment they need to do their job today and in the future."

Your Defence News a PR sheet from the MOD says today ...

The MoD today welcomed the House of Commons Defence Select Committee's report into Defence Equipment 2009. The report praises the impressive performance of DE&S (Defence Equipment and Support) in delivering equipment and supplies to two theatres in 'very challenging environments' and commends the UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement System) as 'highly effective' in meeting rapidly changing threats.

A good day to bury bad news

Amidst all the brou - ha - ha over Fred the Shreds modest pension, it was an ideal time for the clerk like John Hutton to clear up a minor misunderstanding.

A delightfuly sanitised version of events can now be told about how Ministers lied to the House of Commons.

MOD officials in 2004 were aware that 2 prisoners captured by UK forces in Baghdad had been handed over to US forces.The 2 prisoners were of Pakistani origin and members of Lashkar e Tayyiba, a proscribed organisation with "links to al Qaida".

Re classified as "enemy combatants" by US forces they were moved to Afghanistan because of a lack of relevant linguists (Pashtun speakers) necessary to interrogate them effectively in Iraq. Hmmmm.

Quote from Hutton"A due diligence search by US officials of the list of all those individuals captured by UK forces and transferred to US detention facilities in Iraq has confirmed that this was the only case in which individuals were subsequently transferred outside Iraq."

With a wonderfully straight face Mr Hutton told the silent and nearly empty and incurious House of Commons that said "inaccurate" information had subsequently been given to the Commons about UK-held detainees, based on the information available to ministers at the time.

Even though 2 Ministers had misled / mistated / lied to the House a review had ....". shown that brief references to this case were included in lengthy papers that went to the then Foreign Secretary (Jack Straw) and Home Secretary (Charles Clarke) in April 2006." An antique and well used ruse to slip inconvenient truths past a Minister.

"It is clear that the context did not highlight its significance at that point to the ministers concerned." You can be absolutlely certain that the "context did not highlight its significance" ....

However we are grateful that a member of the Special Frces involved in dealing with cases of rendition did acually reveal the truth a long time before the MOD did - who leally gagged him.

It was just 1 year ago that Ben Griffin then 29,who had left the British army in 2005 and sevred in Baghdad with US Delta forces was served with a High Court Order that meant he could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law.

The full statement from the dismal Hutton can be read at Hansard here,
26 Feb 2009 : Column 394 Records of Detention (Review Conclusions)

It is worth noting that the stateent was timed so ...."Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): Order. I appreciate the significance of the statement and the interest of Members, but the main business of the House is still to follow, so I ask for brief supplementary questions and a concise response." How unfortunate.

Anyway some members (Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD): + Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con): ) did manage to get in a reference to the public remarks of Ben Giiffin and Blunt managed to quote into the record the remarks of BenGiffin .

“Throughout my time in Iraq I was in no doubt that individuals detained by UKSF and handed over to our American colleagues would be tortured. During my time as member of the US/UK Task Force, three soldiers recounted to me an incident in which they had witnessed the brutal interrogation of two detainees. Partial drowning and an electric cattle prod were used during this interrogation and this amounted to torture. It was the widely held assumption that this would be the fate of any individuals handed over to our America colleagues. My commanding officer at the time expressed his concern to the whole squadron that we were becoming ‘the secret police of Baghdad’.”

Even David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): who forms the "Crumple Zone" of the libertarian wing which they have infitrated managed to make some disigenuous remarks.

" .... there are one of three explanations. First, the Government are deliberately turning a blind eye. I hope that that is not true. Secondly, possibly, the covert agencies are using deniability to operate outside the law. We hope that that is not true. Thirdly, there is a reprehensible lack of control of our agencies in their operations abroad."

Anyway the whole thing is nicely swept under the carpet, beautifully obfuscated and as John Majr might say ... a line drawn under it.

Konrad Dannenberg one of the last of the German rocket men who put Americans on the moon RIP

Konrad Dannenberg who died this week aged 95 was one of last of the 118 German rocket scientists, many ideological Nazis, who arrived on "Operation Paperclip" in Huntsville Alabama (visit the Von Braun Astronomy Facility, The Von Braun Civic Center) in a case of post war "special rendition" of prisoners.... and rocket parts , equipment etc.,

Trained at Hanover and fascinated by rocketry he ended up helping on the German WW II V-2 missile – built using slave labour – which the Germans used (with devastating success) to indiscriminately kill several thousand people in Europe.

About 1000 of these missiles were fired at the cities of London (see map of sites hit) and Norwich, while about 2000 more were fired at targets on the European continent.

Given top-secret clearance by the US Government , he worked with Wernher von Braun on US military weapons systems. When NASA was established in 1958, Dannenberg became a key agency leader: the deputy manager of the program that produced the Saturn V, the first rocket to send humans to the moon. The engine he helped design in the 1960s Marshall Space Flight Centerat remains the foundation for NASA's rockets. "His fingerprints are all over it," NASA exploration official Steve Cook told Forbes in 2007.

Dannenberg never publicly expressed remorse for the people killed by the V-2 he helped create, assigning sole moral responsibility to the Nazi officials who ordered its use.

The Huntsville Times report,family, friends and admirers filled the theater of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration Friday afternoon for a memorial to Dannenberg which, in the words of Ralph Petroff, was definitely not a funeral service - "This is a celebration of the life of this extraordinary man,".... "If there ever was a rocket scientist, he was a rocket scientist," Klaus Dannenberg said of his father.

Previous posts on Operation Paperclip - Reidel , Steinhoff , Braun etc.,

See FROM PEENEMÜNDE TO THE MOON By Konrad K. Dannenberg ... afascinating read . "This presentation will briefly describe the activities in the German Rocket Development Center in Peenemünde, and summarize the key factors that made the V-2 rocket an effective weapon. The Allied Forces showed, after the war, great interest in learning more about this new weapon and its military applications."