Lord Levy Kidnapped

2007-02-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

Spoof sites abound on the web, from honey pots for paedophiles and dissidents run by Gubments to "phishing" by the corrupt and greedy - all left as bait for the credulous.

It was therefore a surprise to see that Famous for 15 Megapixels and Johnny Void have fallen for the wildest spoof yet. Hook, Line, Sinker (HSL) for the comically titled The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NECTU).

Just look at their headline pics (lifted above) - see the clowns with Plod ? OK so it's difficult to separate Plods from clowns - even professional ones.

This briliantly Orwellian sounding site not only claims to forms part of the "national policing response to domestic extremism" (WTF?), but forms a a total ALPHABET SOUP together with the National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism (NCDE), the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) and the National Domestic Extremism Team (NDET) and as if that wasn't enough they report ... to ... to the Association of Chief Police Officers Terrorism and Allied Matters – ACPO(TAM).... yeah, yeah, sounds rilly rilly OFFICIAL Guys.(ROFALOL)

Good spoof , guys , it looks professional, slick smart but - The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit .... even Plod won't fall for that!

Take a look around this site for some more good laughs...Just look at Terms and Conditions

Governing law

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales...... yeah, yeah, and the Planet Zog.

Links to this website

You have to ask permission and receive approval from NETCU to link to this website. Requests should be made in writing to NETCU, PO Box 525, Huntingdon, PE29 9AL..... (ROFALOL) Good one that guys snuck away like that ... You need our permission to let people know you exist !!!! Ho.Ho.

The real kicker is however - and this broke us up down here at Patel Towers ...

Freedom of information

NETCU is not a public authority as defined by Schedule 1 of the FOIA. Therefore there are no obligations on NETCU to disclose information under the Act.

Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.

But the best clue is that if you click on these logos (try it here) on the Home Page you get a link to a real hard core Kiddie Porn portal.

They even have a wonderful spoof Glossary

E-crime

The term 'e-crime' is used to describe computer-based crime and criminal activity, such as hacking, identity theft, the use of websites to incite or promote criminal activity, and so on.

Producing spoof sites like this is not a crime but it sure makes for a fun time on surfin' the web.

Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.Ho.

Planning for a Self-Inflicted Wound: US Policy to Reshape a Post-Saddam Iraq

2006-12-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

Planning for a Self-Inflicted Wound: US Policy to Reshape a Post-Saddam Iraq

3rd Draft - 31st December 2002 - Professor Anthony H. Cordesman

The hardest part of war is often the peace, and this is particularly likely to be the case if the US goes to war with Iraq. It is not that the US is not planning for such contingencies; it is the quality of such planning that is at issue. Unless it sharply improves, it may well become a self-inflicted wound based on a series of “syndromes” that grow out of ignorance, indifference to Iraq’s real needs, and ethnocentricity.

The US does not have to suffer from “Iraq War Peace Syndrome.” Some good studies and planning efforts are emerging, but they are the exception and not the norm, in an uncoordinated and faltering effort. Far too often, we are rushing our planning efforts without making adequate efforts to make up for our lack of knowledge. As a result, planners both outside and inside the US government may end up doing more harm than good, and in laying the groundwork for serious post-war friction and problems. ...

One of the most important things we need to do is to admit our level of ignorance and uncertainty. Far too many "experts" who are now working on post war planning have (a) never been in Iraq to the point of having practical knowledge of the country, and (b) have concentrated on the threat so long that they have little intelligence data on the workings of its government, civil society, and economy.

We may or may not be perceived as liberators. We are dealing with a very sophisticated and long-established tyranny, and we really don't know how an intensely nationalistic people with deep internal divisions will react, and how the impact of the fighting will affect the people. We don't know how long any support will last by a given group or faction the moment we become involved in trade-offs between them. We may well face a much more hostile population than in Afghanistan. We badly need to consider the Lebanon model: Hero to enemy in less than a year. We also need to consider the Bosnia/Kosovo model where internal divisions leave no options other than stay and police or leave and watch civil conflict emerge. ...

Couple this to an unpredictable but inevitable level of collateral damage and civilian casualties, to what the word "occupation" means in the Arab world because of Israel, to the historical memory of the British mandate and US ties to the Shah, to Shi'ite tensions over US relations with Iran and the Axis of Evil, and to factional tensions in Iraq, and we are almost certain to face serious problems with at least some major blocs of Iraqis. No study or plan that does not deal at length with these risks, or prepare for them on a contingency basis, can do more good than harm. We should focus on giving Iraqis what they want, and not on giving Iraqis what we feel they need. Our actions should be based on partnership and a high degree of humility, not on occupation and arrogance. ...

We must realize that one day after our forces enter any area, the world will hold us to blame for every bit of Iraqi suffering that follows, as well as for much of Saddam's legacy of economic mistakes and neglect. The first minute of the war is the beginning of the peace, and any plan that does not explicitly recognize this is dangerous. ...

The Revolutionary Guards, the secret police, and other Saddam loyalists are contemptible, but the idea we disband the entire army and security forces and start over with training and ground up new groups is impractical and dangerous. Many elements of the regular army are nationalist, not pro-Saddam. We don’t want 400,000 nationalists in the streets and hostile. We don’t want to leave a weak army in service and an angry army in the streets. Germany after World War I showed the impact that can have. By all means clean the army up, clean up the officer corps, provide political training, etc., but leave the professional and competent elements in tact. Leave Iraq with some dignity and co-opt the army rather than destroy it. Leaving the police in place, after the same purging, is even more important. The first priorities are food and security and then jobs and security. Trying to bring in inexperienced mixes of outsiders, training a new police force from the ground up, and recreate a police/legal system interface from the ground up is almost mission impossible in terms of manpower, cost, and timeliness. Cleaning up the existing force is not. ...

Every past peacemaking effort has shown that an explicit exit strategy is vital. The key in this case is an entry strategy that makes a real peace possible, setting modest and achievable objectives, treating the Iraqis as partners, and leaving when they either want us to leave or are ready to have us leave. It is to avoid any chance of civil war, clearly act in Iraq’s benefit, and plan to leave early rather than late. ...

Getting rid of Saddam and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction is an important set of goals if the war goes well.

No war, however, can do more than provide a basis for making Iraq somewhat better and then giving the Iraqis control over their own destiny. No outcome of the war can reshape the Gulf or the Middle East.

The idea of instant democratization coming out of the war and spreading throughout the region denies the laws of cause and effect and is ridiculous. So is the idea we know enough about national building to create an Iraqi United States.

The best we can do is minimize our mistakes and the effect of the law of unintended consequences. To do this requires both realism and commitment. If we rely on miracles and good intentions, or act as occupiers rather than partners, we are almost certain to be far more unhappy on the tenth anniversary of the next war as we were on the tenth anniversary of the Gulf War.

Planning for a Self-Inflicted Wound - US policy to shape a post-Saddam Iraq (PDF Format 11 pages)

test

2006-09-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Europeans protecting our borders from their HQ in Warsaw.

New York Times interferes in UK criminal case against terrorists deliberately

2006-08-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today is a Public Holiday in the UK. An ideal day for the UK Gubment to allow a "leak" that "emerged" in discussions with "high ranking British, European and American officials last week" by Don Van Natta Jr. Elaine Sciolino and Stephen Grey of the New York Times Pages A 1 / A 8 in pole position in the top left front page. Thus continuing the dishonourable method of subverting the UK court proceedings against alleged conspiracy for murder, bombing aircraft etc.,

The blatancy of this attempt is made even more apparent by the boxed warning on Page A8. See pic above.

So those "high ranking British, European and American officials last week" knew exactly what they were doing. They also knew that by releasing information to the Press that they had gained from their employment without approval was a breach of the criminal law, their employment terms and conditions and would also prejudice the trial proceedings of the defendents currently charged.

As such they should be investigated and charged under disciplinary rules and by the courts for subverting the course of justice in a criminal case.

But they won't be.

Here is the story. Please have patience, Lord Patel whilst travelling does not have access to a scanner and is a crap typist. Also for some peculiar reason Blogger is playing silly buggars today.

In Tapes, Receipts and Diary, Details of British Inquiry Into suspected Terror Plot
Martydom Motive and 'Bomb Factory' Cited

This article was reported and written by Don Van Natta Jr.,Elaine Sciolino and Stephen Grey. (Extra reporting for this article was contributed by William J Broad from New York, Carlotta Gail from Pakistan, David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.)

LONDON, Aug. 27 - On Aug. 9, in a small second-floor apartment in East London, two young Muslim Inen recorded a video justifying what the police say was their suicide plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes: revenge against the United States and its "accomplices," Britain and the Jews.

"As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed," said one of the men on a "martyrdom" videotape, whose contents were described by a senior British official and a person briefed about the case. The young man added that he hoped God would be "pleased with us and accepts our deed."

As it happened, the police had been monitoring the apartment with hidden video and audio equipment. Not long after the tape was recorded that day. Scotland Yard decided to shut down what they suspected was a terrorist cell. That action set off a chain of events that raised the terror threat levels in Britain and the United States, barred passengers from taking liquids on airplanes and plunged air traffic into chaos around the world.

The ominous language of seven recovered martyrdom videotapes is among new details that emerged from interviews with high-ranking British, European and American officiais last week, demonstrating that the suspects had made considerable progress toward planning a terrorist attack. Those details include fresh evidence from Britain's most wideranging terror investigation: receipts for cash transfers from abroad, a handwritten diary that appears to sketch out elements of a plot, and, on martyrdom tapes, several suspects' statements of their motives.

But at the same time, five senior British officials said, the suspects were not prepared to strike immediately. Instead, the reactions of Britain and the United States in the wa.l{e of the arrests of 21 people on Aug. 10 were driven less by information I about a specific, imminent attack than fear that other, unknown terrorists might strike.

The suspects had been working for months out of an apartment that investigators called the "bomb factory," where the police watched as the suspects experimented with chemicals, according to British officials and others briefed on the evidence, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, citing British rules on confidentiality regarding criminal prosecutions.

In searches during raids, the police discovered what they said were the necessary components to make a highly volatile liquid explosive known as HMTD, jihadist materials, receipts of Western Union money transfers, seven martyrdom videos made by six suspects and the last will and testament of a would-be bomber, senior British officials said.

One of the suspects said on his martyrdom video that the "war against Muslims" in Iraq and Afghanistan had motivated him to act.

Investigators say they believe that one of the leaders of the group, an unemployed man in his 20's who was living in a modest apartment on government benefits, kept the key to the alleged "bomb factory" and helped others record martyrdom videos, the officials said.

Hours after the police arrested the 21 suspects, police and government officials in both countries said they had intended to carry out the deadliest terrorist attack since Sept. 11.

Later that day, Paul Stephenson, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police in ondon, said the goal of the people suspected of plotting the attack was "mass murder on an unimaginable scale." On the day of the arrests, some officials estimated that as many as 10 planes were to be blown up, possibly over American cities. Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of omeland Security, described the suspected plot as "getting really quite close to the execution stage." But British officials said the suspects still had a lot of work to do. Two of the suspects did not have passports, but had applied for expedited approval. One official said the people suspected of leading the plot were still recruiting and radicalizing would-be members.

While investigators found evidence on a computer memory stick indicating that one the men had looked up airline schedules for flights from London to cities in the United States, the suspects had neither made reservations nor purchased plane tickets, a British official said. Some of their suspected bomb-making equipment was found five days after the arrests in a suitcase buried under leaves in the woods near High Wycombe, a town 30 miles northwest of London.

Another British official stressed that martyrdom videos were often made well in advance of an attack. In fact, two and a half weeks since the inquiry became public, British investigators have still not determined whether there was a target date for the attacks or how many planes were to be involved. They say the estimate of 10 planes is speculative and exaggerated.

In his first public statement after the alerts, Peter Clarke, chief of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, acknowledged that the police were still investigating the basics: "the number, destination and timing of the flights that might be attacked."

A total of 25 people have been arrested in connection with the suspected plot. Twelve of them have been charged. Eight people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

Three people were charged with failing to disclose information that could help prevent a terrorist act, and a 17-year-old male suspect was charged with possession of articles that could be used to prepare a terrorist act.

Eight people still in custody have not been charged. Five have been released. All the suspects arrested are British citizens ranging in age from 17 to 35.

Despite the charges, officials said they were still unsure of one critical question: whether any of the suspects was technically capable of assembling and detonating liquid explosives while airborne.

A chemist involved in that part of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sworn to confidentiality, said HMTD, which can be prepared by combining hydrogen peroxide with other chemicals, "in theory is dangerous," but whether the suspects "had the brights to pull it off remains to be seen."

While officials and experts familiar with the case say the investigation points to a serious and determined group of plotters, they add that questions about the immediacy and difficulty of the suspected bombing plot cast doubt on the accuracy of some of the public statements made at the time.

"In retrospect," said Michael A. Sheehan, the former deputy commissioner of counterterrorism in the New York Police Department, "there may have been too much hyperventilating going on."

Some of the suspects came to the attention of Scotland Yard more than a year ago, shortly after four suicide bombers attacked three subwav trains and a double-decker bus in Londo~ on July 7, 2005, a coordinated attack that killed 56 people and wounded more than 700. The investigation was dubbed "Operation Overt."

The Police Are Tipped Off

The police were apparently tipped off by informers. One former British counterterrorism official, who was working for the government at the time, said several people living in Waltham stow, a working-class neighborhood in East London, alerted the police in July 2005 about the intentions of a small group of angry young Muslim men.

Walthamstow is best known for its faded greyhound track and the borough of Waltham Forest, where more than 17,000 Pakistani immigrants live in the largest Pakistani enclave in London.

Armed with the tips, MI5, Britain's domestic security services, began an around-the-clock surveillance operation of a dozen young men living in Walthamstow -- bugging their apartments, tapping their phones, monitoring their bank transactions, eavesdropping on their Internet traffic and e-mail messages, even watching where they traveled, shopped and took their laundry, according to senior British officials.

The initial focus of the investigation was not about possible terrorism aboard planes, but an effort to see whether there were any links between the dozen men and the July 7 subway bombers, or terrorist cells in Pakistan, the officials said.

The authorities quickly learned the identity of the man believed to have been the leader of the cell, the unemployed man in his mid-20's, who traveled at least twice within the past year to Pakistan, where his activities are still being investigated.

Last June, a 22-year-old Walthamstow resident, who is among the suspects arrested Aug. 10, paid $260,000 cash for a second-floor apartment in a house on Forest Road, according to official property records. The authorities noticed that six men were regularly visiting the second-floor apartment that came to be known as the "bomb factory," according to a British official and the person briefed about the case.

Two of the men, who were likely the bomb-makers, were conducting a series of experiments with chemicals, said the person briefed on the case.

MI5 agents secretly installed video and audio recording equipment inside the apartment, two senior British officials said. In a secret search conducted before the Aug. 10 raids, agents had discovered that the inside of batteries had been scooped out, and that it appeared several suspects were doing chemical experiments with a sports drink named Lucozade and syringes, the person with knowledge of the case said. Investigators have said they believe that the suspects intended to bring explosive chemicals aboard planes inside sports drink botties.

In that apartment, according to a British official, one of the leaders and a man in his late 20's met at least twice to discuss the suspected plot, as MI5 agents secretly watched and listened. On Aug. 9, just hours before the police raids occurred in 50 locations from East London to Birmingham, the two men met again to discuss the suspected plot and record a martyrdom video.

As one of the men read from a script before a video-camera, he recited a quotation from the Koran and ticked off his reasons for the "action that I am going to undertake," according to the person briefed on the case. The man said he was seeking revenge for the foreign policy of the United States, and "their accomplices, the U.K. and the Jews." The man said he wanted to show that the enemies of Islam would never win this "war."

Beseeching other Muslims to join jihad, he justified the killing of innocent civilians in America and other Western countries because they supported the war against Muslims through their tax dollars. They were too busy enjoying their Western lifestyles to protest the policies, he added. Though British officials usually release little information about continuing investigations, Scotland Yard took the unusual step of disclosing some detailed information about the investigation last Monday, when the suspects were charged.

A Trove of Evidence

"There have been 69 searches," Mr. Clarke, the chief antiterrorist police official from Scotland Yard, said Monday. "These have been in houses, flats and business premises, vehicles and open spaces."

Investigators also seized more than 400 computers, 200 mobile phones and 8,000 items like memory sticks, CD's and DVD's. "The scale is immense." Mr. Clarke said.

"Inquiries will span the globe." He said those searches revealed a trove of evidence, and officials and others last week provided additional details.

Four of the law firms that are defending suspects declined to comment.

When police officers knocked down the door to the second-floor apartment on Forest Road, they found a plastic bin filled with liquid, batteries, nearly a dozen empty drink bottles, rubber gloves, digital scales and a disposable camera that was leaking liquid, the person with knowledge of the case said.

The camera might have been a prototype for a device to smuggle chemicals on the plane.

In the pocket of one of the suspects, the police found the computer memory stick that showed he had looked up airline schedules for flights from London to the United States, a British official said. The man is said to have had a diary that included a list that the police interpreted as a step-by-step plan for an attack. The items included batteries and Lucozade bottles. It also included a reminder to select a date.

In the homes of a number of the suspects, the police found jihadist literature and DVD's about "genocide" in Iraq and Palestine, according to British officials. In one house searched by the police in Walthamstow, the authorities found a copy of a book called "Defense of the Muslim Lands." A "last will and testament" for one of the accused was said to have been found at his brother's home. Dated Sept. 24, 2005, the will concludes, "What should I worry when I die a Muslim, in the manner in which I am to die, I go to my death for the sake of my maker." God, he added, can if he wants "bless limbs torn away!!!"

Looking for Global Ties

In addition, the British authorities are scouring the evidence for clues to whether there is a global dimension to the suspected plot, particularly the extent to which it was planned, financed or supported in Pakistan, and whether there is a connection to remnants of Al Qaeda. They are still trying to determine who provided the cash for the apartment and the computer equipment and telephones, officials said.

Several of the suspects had traveled to Pakistan within weeks of the arrests, according to an American counterterrorism official.

At a minimum, investigators say at least one of the suspects' inspiration was drawn from Al Qaeda. One of the suspects' "kill-as-they-kill" martyrdom video was taken from a November 2002 fatwa by Osama bin Laden.

British officials said many of the questions about the suspected plot remained unanswered because they were forced to make the arrests before Scotland Yard was ready.

The trigger was the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf, a 25-year-old British citizen with dual Pakistani citizenship, whom Pakistani investigators have described as a "key figure" in the plot.

In 2000, Mr. Rauf's father founded Crescent Relief London, a charity that sent money to victims of last October's earthquake in Pakistan. Several suspects met through their involvement in the charity, a friend of one of them said. Last week, Britain froze the charity's bank accounts and opened an investigation into possible "terrorist abuse of charitable funds." Leaders of the charity have denied the allegations.

Several senior British officials said the Pakistanis arrested Rashid Rauf without informing them first. The arrest surprised and frustrated investigators here who had wanted to monitor the suspects longer, primarily to gather more evidence and to determine whether they had identified all the people involved in the suspected plot.

But within hours of Mr. Rauf's arrest on Aug. 9 in Pakistan, British officials heard from intelligence sources that someone connected to him had tried to contact some of the suspects in East London. The message was interpreted by investigators as a possible signal to move forward with the plot, officials said.

"The plotters received a very short message to 'Go now,' " said Franco Frattini, the European Union's security commissioner, who was briefed by the British home secretary, John Reid, in London. "I was convinced by British authorities that this message exists." A senior British official said the message from Pakistan was not that explicit. But, nonetheless, investigators here had to change their strategy quickly.

"The aim was to keep this operation going for much longer," said a senior British security official who requested anonymity because of confidentiality rules. "It ended much sooner than we had hoped." From then on, the British government was driven by worst-case scenarios based on a minimum-risk strategy.

British investigators worried that word of Mr. Rauf's arrest could push the London suspects to destroy evidence and to disperse, raising the possibility they would not be able to arrest them all. But investigators also could not rule out that there could be an unknown second cell that would try to carry out a similar plan, officials said.

Mr. Clarke, as the country's top a..t1titerrorism police official in London with authority over police decisions, ordered the arrests.

But it was left to Mr. Reid, who has been home secretary since May and is a former defense secretary, to decide at emergency meetings of police, national security and transoort leaders. what else needed to be done. Mr. Reid and Mr. Clarke declined repeated requests for interviews.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was on vacation in Barbados, where he was said to have monitored events in London; Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott did not attend the meeting.

While the arrests were unfolding, the Home Office raised Britain's terror alert level to "critical," as the police continued their raids of suspects' homes and cars. All liquids were banned from carry-on bags, and some public officials in Britain and the United States said an attack appeared to be imminent. In addition to Mr. Stephenson's remark that the attack would have been "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," Mr. Reid said that attacks were "highly likely" and predicted that the loss of life would have been on an "unprecedented scale." Two weeks later, senior officials here characterized the remarks as unfortunate.

As more information was analyzed and the British government decided that the attack was not imminent, Mr. Reid sought to calm the country by backing off from his dire predictions, while defending the decision to raise the alert level to its highest level as a precaution.

In lowering the threat level from critical to severe on Aug. 14, Mr. Reid acknowledged: "Threat level assessments are intelligence-led. It is not a process where scientific precision is possible. They involve judgments."

More on the decision and a copy of the article here
http://cryptome.org/nyt-ukterror.htm

Atomic Bomb Survivor - and a little known secret message to Japan from American nuclear scientists

2006-08-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today I met (see pic) the only survivor of the bombing mission that dropped the 2nd Atomic Bomb , "Fat Boy" (a plutonium weapon unlike the uranium bomb droped on Hiroshima) on Nagasaki on August 9th 1945.

Bill Barney was a young radar operator on the crew of Fred Bock's C-13 crew. Their plane "Bockscar" V - 77 was used to drop the bomb and was flown by Charles Sweeney and Fred Bock's crew flew Sweeney's "Great Artiste" V - 89 to monitor the explosion. I met him today. A clear eyed , deeply nice guy - proud that he did the job he was assigned ,which was to drop three instrument carrying canisters with pressure gauges and radio transmitters deployed with parachutes to be dropped at the same time as "Fat Boy". Operating on three different frequencies these would display shockwave profiles on cathode ray tube oscilloscopes and photograsphic records made. This was Bill's task.

Luis Alvarez had designed the testing equipment as he had invented the concept of measuring the atomic blast in kilotons of TNT. Using a linear microphone from Caltech and FM telemetering transmitter and receiver this was first tried out on the Fat Man test at Alomagordo and also used to monitor the Hiroshima bomb using the same observation plane but with a different crew.

The scientists Robert Serber , Luis Alvarez and Phil Morrison had inserted a letter to Professor Ryokichi Sagane of Tokyo University (who had once met them at Berkeley) warning of the dire consequences for Japan if they did not surrender and asking him to convey this message to the Japanese General Staff. Alvarez drafted the letter and three copies in his handwriting were attached to the three canisters.The canisters miraculously were recovered and the letter can be seen in the Nagasaki International Culture.

The letter reads ..

..9th August 1945
Professor Sagane

From 3 of your former scientific colleagues during your stay in the United States.

We are sending this as a personal message to urge that you you use your influence as a reputable nuclear scientist , to convince the Japanese General Staff of the terrible
consequences which will be suffered by your people if you continue this war.

You have known for several years that an atomic bomb could be built if a
nation were willing to pay the enormous cost of preparing the necessary
material. Now that you have seen we have constrcuted the the production plants,
there can be no doubt in your mind, all the output of these factories working 24
hours a day will be exploded on your homeland.

Within the space of 3 weeks we have proof fired one bomb in the American desert, exploded one in Hiroshima and fired the 3rd this morning.

We implore you to confirm these facts to your leaders and to do your utmost to stop the destruction and waste of life which can only result in the total annihilation of
all your cities if continued. As scientists we deplore the use to which
a beautiful discovery has been put, but we can assure you that unless
Japan surreenders at once, this rain of atomic bombs will increase manyfold in
fury.

Of course "Fat Boy" being a plutonium bomb was less costly and easier to manufacture than the uranium "Little Boy" and this last remark may well have been true. No further Unranium bombs were made in the US. The letter is a remarkable and to Lord Patel a previously unknown part of the fascinating history of the bombing of Japan as it included material of the utmost secrecy - which it is impossible to believe could have been sanctioned officially.

On the plane with Bill and his crew were Lawrence "Larry" Johnston (designer of the essential exploding bridgwire detonato and the only person to see all three atomic weapons explode) and Walter Goodman of Project Alberta to help monitor the blast recording equipment. William Laurence of the New York Times was also on board - who was to tell his readers that "Great Artiste " had dropped the Nagasaki bomb.

The original target was Kokura the site of Japan's greatest weapons dump, but due to bad weather the went to the second target , Nagasaki, site of the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms workls and at 11.58 local time dropped the "bomb. Bill didn't see it as he had to run the radarscopes and only saw the photgraphs later.

Later photo reconaissance showed 4% of the city was destroyed.

The day following the bombing the Japanese started making arrangements to surrender.

A recent and very readable history was recently published " Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima" by Stephen Walker Publisher: HarperCollins (July 26, 2005) ISBN: 0060742844

"The 509th Remembered" is a an illustrated history of the 509th Composite GRoup who dropped the 2 Atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945.Compiled by Robert and Amelia Krauss (who I met with Bill) with over 350 photographs (many never seen before) for the 59th Re-union in Wichita Kansas in October 2004. You can buy a copy here
http://www.enolagay509th.com/remembered.htm

Rex 84 - FEMA's Katrina fuck up was a dry run for coming concentrations camps nationwaide ?

2006-08-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Global Research has a story (20th August) that FEMA is set to act to organise and impose martial law under a plan called Rex 84 (readiness Exercise - geddit ?) which stems from the days of Iran contra.

It seems it was reported in the Iran Contra hearings in 1987, and subsequently reported (it appears only by them) by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987:as a plan to set up camps / prisons.

"These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached."

Hurricane Katrina is said to have provided FEMA with a chance to “dry run” its unconstitutional powers in New Orleans, rounding up "refugees" ( “evacuees”) and "relocating" them in various camps. "Some evacuees are being treated as ‘internees’ by FEMA," writes former NSC employee Wayne Madsen:

“Reports continue to come into Wayne Madsen Report that evacuees from New Orleans and Acadiana [the traditional twenty-two parish Cajun homeland] who have been scattered across the United States are being treated as ‘internees’ and not dislocated American citizens from a catastrophe"

Sharp eyed readers of the NYT yesterday will have seen a map and read an article across 2 pages on page A 20 / 21 "Hurricanes Escape Routes : One was forced, another chosen"

NOLA's population pre Katrina was approx 480,000 it is now put at 200 - 250,000. suggesting a diaspora of at least 200,000. A map (see above) by Matthew Ericsoon /NYT shows the details as known.This information was available from the US Post Office of people who had changed their forwarding address from the parishes that were damaged

They Moved to
New address in NOLA 76,000
Elsewhere in Southern Louisiana 52,000
Houston 35,000
Dalls Forth Worth / Austin / San Antinio 24,000
Atlanta 12,000
Washington /Chicago/ South California 4,500
Memphis 3,000
Florida 1,500
The rest were spread across many cities in hundreds and the odd thousands.

If this was a dry run for FEMA of Rex 84 it looks a strange distribution.. especially as the diaspora looks to be fairly fixed with the folks being moved, rapidly putting down roots, having lost and left everything behind they coudn't carry. Maybe it was just a clever plan to send more home help to the booming cities of Texas and Atlanta ( grown 400% in 20 years).... or a neat trick to clog their school systems and healthcare provision with NOLA's black urban poor ?

Sounds just like the fuck up you can expect from Brownie, (you're doin' a great job) , Chertoff (his mom was El Al's first air stewardess) and FEMA - so much for the threat of prison camps across America.

Lord Patel doubts whether FEMA could organise a Boy Scout Camp.

Another 9/11 Mystery - Donetsk or Shanksville - bodies disappear in Pennsylvania but not Ukraine

2006-08-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

On 9/1///2001 Captain Jason Dahl taxied United Airlines Flight 93 Boeing 757- 200 at Newark International Airport, ready for its 8:01 AM departure but heavy runway traffic, delayed departure until 8:42 AM. Besides the 2 pilots there were 5 flight attendants and 37 passengers aboard.

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology DNA lab in Rockville, Md., were later to identify their remains , from the crash site in Shanksville. Except the 4 alleged hi-jackers as Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller ( pay US$35,854 a year as coroner) explained "To make a DNA identification we need something from the victims or their family members -- personal effects, or blood samples -- to match," Miller said. "We don't have that kind of information about the terrorists."

Which chimed oddly with the report in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette of October 15th 2001, "It was as if the plane had stopped and let the passengers off before it crashed," Miller said.

At the crash site State Trooper Tom Spallone of Greensburg said the impact of the crash was so severe that the biggest piece of debris he had seen there is no bigger than 2 feet.

Eric Peterson, 28, was working in his shop in the Somerset County village of Lambertsville in the morning when he heard a plane - "There was a crater in the ground that was really burning," he said. Strewn about were pieces of clothing hanging from trees and parts of the Boeing 757, but nothing bigger than a couple of feet long, he said. Many of the items were burning.

Peterson said he saw no bodies, there also was no sign of life.

The crash site is now a National Park.

This is a photograph from the Library of Congress - there are some more here. Note how an airplane with some 5,000 gallons of fuel hasn't even scorched the grass round the crater ? No engines , no tail fin ...

Today's New York Time reports the crash at approx 2.30 pm local time of Pulkovo Airlines Tupolev 154 un Sukha Balka, near Donetsk in the Ukraine in which 169 people died. The plane fell from 36,000 feet and by Tuesday evening rescuers had recovered 30 bodies.

It is interesting to compare the specification of the 2 aircraft , the length and wingspan are virtually identical but the Boeing tailfin is 7 feet higher.

TU 154 Length: 48.0 m (157 ft) Wingspan: 37.55 m (123 ft 3 in) Height: 11.40 m (37 ft 5 in)

Boeing 757-200 Length: 47.32 M (155 ft 3 in) Wingspan: 38.5 M (124 ft 10 in) Height: 44 ft 6 in (13.6 m)

Now look again at the Ukraine crash site , engines littered about, parts of the tail fin fires burning evidently some time after the crash when fire trucks have got there and bodies recovered.

Now do you think Flight 93 crashed at Shanksville ?

The NYT picture Victoria Sinistra / Agence France Press - Getty Images

Black Woman Federal Judge Orders Halt to NSA Wiretapping - but it won't happen until Sept 7th at earliest.

2006-08-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Dan Eggen of the Washington Post reports at 5.18 pm EST U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Mich. wrote in a strongly-worded 43-page opinion that the NSA wiretapping program violates privacy and free-speech rights and the constitutional separation of powers between the three branches of government. She also found that it violates a 1978 law set up to oversee clandestine surveillance.

It is worth recording here thatIn 1979, Anna Diggs Taylor a graduate of Yale Law School in 1957 became the first black woman judge to be appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Nineteen years later, she became the first black woman Chief Judge for that circuit as well.(see Pic)

"Obviously, of course I'm disappointed," said the sobbing, creepy Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a briefing for reporters. "I believe very strongly that the president does have the authority to authorize this kind of conduct, particularly in a time of war, conduct that's very consistent with what other presidents have done in a time of war. And we believe the authority comes from the authorization to use military force and from his constitutional authority as commander in chief."

Of course the little runt is unhappy, 43 pages of legal arguyment to upset his tawdry script that the President can do any goddam thing he wants, because there is a "War on terror".

"Today's ruling is a landmark victory against the abuse of power that has become the hallmark of the Bush administration," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Government spying on innocent Americans without any kind of warrant and without congressional approval runs counter to the very foundations of our democracy."

He called the ruling "yet another nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's strategy in the war on terror. . . . The judge very clearly points out that this, at its core, is about presidential powers."

Three cheers for Democracy and the separation of powers!!!!

However ... As the Justice Department have appealed, a hearing will be held before Judge Taylor on Sept. 7, and her decision will not be enforced in the meantime

I caught up with Seth Tumbleweed for his reaction to this shock , awe and horror legal announcement.... he said " I jes' tell you, this here is the classical paradigm affecting the post war, post industrial society as the globalisation of war by that runty Texan hits the old air conditioning ... just as long as that they airconditioning works ... probably not if it's made in Korea." Hew whittled some more on an antique coon dog collar made out of buffalo hide and continued..." That Texan carpetbagger may talk big but , when they call the lawyers in the front line... well you jist , ...you know they got a beating comin'." I left him whittling.

From the US Top Shelf. Magazines not to be seen reading on planes.

2006-08-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

Of the many things to like about America are their wonderful magazines - Rolling Stone brings us the picture of when President Bush cut short his meeting with Prime Minister Yo Blair to meet the American Idol winners en bloc. They didn't have the scoop that CNN could call on, that the Fox program winner Taylor Hicks, “has a personal connection inside the White House: Susan Whitson, Laura Bush’s press secretary, who taught him 9th grade English at Hoover High School in Birmingham, Ala,”

In September Vanity Fair (which seems to have been given over to boosting cocaine snorting Kate Moss's career), Graydon Carter rounds of his Editorial with a provocative, novel but challenging thought (and we don't just mean the grammar).

On this fifth anniversary of 9/11 perhaps it's time to review the administration's assertion that that was the day the world changed. It really wasn't ; 9/12 was. That was the day the neocons in the White House began using this devastating attack on American soil to further their own dreams of taking over Iraq. That was the day the administration began plotting to remove a dictator over there and to create one here.

Which just makes us wonder ... what are Dubya's musical tastes ?

Stiff Little Fingers ... "Suspect Device" maybe ? Click for the lyrics here.

The ideal Patsy

2006-08-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, “just to keep the people frightened.”

George Orwell, 1984 published 1948

Waheed Zaman, 22, DOB May 27, 1984 of 104 Queens Road, Walthamstow UK National Insurance No. JE296729B.

The Times Online (Rupes Rag)Mr Zaman is a biomedical science student and a well-known political activist. He is head of the Islam Society at London Metropolitan University and is reported to have spoken at Muslim rallies and written a number of articles about Islam for the student magazine.

His older sister, Safeena Zaman, 24, defended her brother in an interview with The Sun. She said he was proud of being British.

She said: "He loves fish and chips and Liverpool Football Club and his favourite TV programme was Only Fools and Horses. He even wanted to join the police as a forensics expert.

"As part of his work with the Islamic Society at university he would organise Muslim events and would often give talks. He is a great believer in the importance of integration between our community and the Western world."

According to a report in London's Evening Standard Mr Zaman and other suspects in the area attended the Edinburgh Road Primary School.

The Sun Online (Rupes Rag)Terror suspect Waheed Zaman met controversial MP George Galloway many times, his sister said last night.

Safeena, 24, said of her 23-year-old brother: “He saw it as his duty to stand up for his community and that’s what led him to know George Galloway. He has a lot of respect for him and has met him many times.”

A spokesman for MP Galloway, above, said: “Waheed Zaman is not a name that George is familiar with. He is not known to him on a personal level.”

Now why would a guy like Waheed want to deal with the spooks ? Because he is a loud, visible sortta guy, lotsa contacts wants lotsa attention ? Plausible ? Gullible ? It's not impossible to believe he has had a few intimate momentson a comfy sofa, in the lounge of the Horse Guards Hotel or the Charing Cross Hotel over a glass of sparkling Appletiser with a glamourous, young and friendly lady.

How else do you find a way into these secretive fucking Muslim IslamoFascist Jihadist societies? With their plots for bombs, mass suicide and Armageddon ?

"The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, “just to keep the people frightened.”

Japanese illegals take over the US. Chemical warfare useless.

2006-08-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

When they inscribed the lines from the Jewish poetess Ms. Lazarus about bringing the hungry and huddled massese on the Statue of Liberty ( now paradoxically closed for ever) they hadn't imagined that the hungry would include the The Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica Newman) which first arived in the 1930's in the US in a nursery in southern New Jersey.

Without its natural enemies it has spread as a pest of both gardens and agriculture and is to be found in nearly every state , and in it's adult form is to be found everywhere this month.In Jpan faced with natural predators it present no problems to the gardener or the gariclturalist.

The insect is a voracious eater both in the larval grub stage in the spring when it feeds on plant roots, of various plants and grasses and often destroying turf in lawns, parks, golf courses, and pastures. It is today the most widespread turf-grass pest in the United States and it causes damage in Millions US$'s and is the cause of over US$350 MN. expenditure on pest control with insecticides.

The distinctive shiny metallic green and bronze adult beetle is 1/2" long. During the feeding period, females intermittently leave plants, burrow about 3 inches into the ground--usually into turf--and lay a few eggs. This cycle is repeated until the female lays 40 to 60 eggs which will hatch by mudsummer and start to devour turf roots, in the winter the grub burrows and hibernates , then re-appears to destroy more turf in the spring and pupate to become an adult after about 10 months of subterranean life..

Chemical controls

A fearsome armoury is used Carbaryl,Malathion, Methoxychlor,Rotenone for the adults and Imidacloprid , Bendiocarb, Isofenphos, Chlorpyrifos, Diazinon for treatement of the soil in the spring to kill the grubs.

Biological control
The US Department of Agriculture has been at the forefront of biological pest control since WWII and has directed a lot of effort to control (with some success) but have failed to eardicate this expensive pest.

2 nematodes , sprayed in a nutrient / water mix Steinernema glaseri and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora are commercially available. A spray of Bt or Bacillus Thuringiensis is often used as well. These worms and bacterial pests infest the beetles and kill them.

Milky spore or the sporulating phase of the bacterium Bacillus popillae is sprayed on the soil and will inevitably be ingested by the larvae, wher is matures and grows rapidly and distends and eventually kills the grub which will have taken on a characteristic white colour , hence the name.

Tiphia vernalis--is a small, parasitic wasp of Japanese beetle grubs resembles a large, black, winged ant. Its current distribution is believed to be throughout the Northeastern United States and south to North Carolina. Like all the parasitic wasps the female wasp digs into the soil, paralyzes a beetle grub by stinging, and then deposits an egg on the grub. When the egg hatches, the emerging wasp larva consumes the grub which has made both a handy home and a tasty breakfast.... or two.( Tiphia popilliavora is also said to predate on the Jpanese Bettele)

Istocheta aldrichi This solitary fly is an internal parasite of the adult Japanese beetle and is the most serious natural predator of the beetle in Japan. The female flies are capable of depositing up to 100 eggs during a period of about 2 weeks. The eggs are usually laid on the thorax of the female beetles. Upon hatching, the maggot bores directly into the beetle's body cavity, killing the beetle.

Attempts at establishing this predator in the United States have met with limited success, primarily in New England.

Because it does not take this fly long to kill the beetle, I. aldrichi can often suppress Japanese beetle populations before beetles can reproduce.

I. aldrichi is commonly seen feeding on aphid nectar deposited on Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), another pest from Japan.

Lord Patel sought the views of Seth Tumbleweed about this pesky pest , he caught him carving an antique wooden duck decoy our of a piece of a stoop hand rail made from sassafass wood...." Well this is the paradigm of the post war , post industrial society and its direct relationship to asset mobility and globalisation" started Seth, " we whupped they Japs at Iwo Jima and dropped the big bomb"... but they crafty guys had one on us and sent a bomb long time afore. They Jap beetles pretty sure enough taken the continent over since."

"Jest watch they Muslims do the same" he said, " First they Japs sent us Sony TV's with cases looked like wood but made of plasticky stuff , next thang y'now they've tookover the car industry" .

Lord Patel left him whittlin' away. (Pic of a beetle on a flower of Althea a popular garden plant related to Hibiscus.

What's sauce for the Wyoming Winger ....

2006-08-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

"Be careful", warns the label. " Cheney's Birdhsot Pepper Sauce will hurt you. If you swallow it, stick it up your ass, or shoot it in your face, IT will HURT."

Learn more from www.tahitijoeshotsauces.com.

One thing for sure - do not take it on board in your hand baggage - unless you want to see what the weather is like in South Cuba!

This handy culinary gift to Lord Patel remains, as yet, unopened.

Consulted by the best legal brains . ......

2006-08-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

It is fascinating to see who is reading the coverage of terrism on this site..Lawyers seem to be on the prowl, Aug 11 2006 4:24:06 pm (PST) from a Hyatt hotel 12.42.164.# someone from top legal outfit Thelen Reid & Priest LLP. who clcok up over 400 attorneys, and have offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Northern New Jersey, Thelen Reid provides superior legal services to Fortune 500 companies, leading privately owned enterprises, public institutions, and partnerships around the world.

Top sniffy, blue chip commercial lawyers, London based Slaughte & May have had staff reviewing "Terrorism - It's a 12 step program" which examines the HMG policies outlined by the Dear Leader last year.

Huge Savvis Communications Corp. the major SA group stopped by after Googling "liquid-peroxide based explosives" to discover Postman was 3rd on the hit list of over 9,000, and a portal to the goods on the FBI site.

My , it's strange how many respectable folks are anxious to find out how to make bombs outta liquid detergent and suchlike. Now there is this site in Lambeth that seems to belong to .... well 'nuff said.

"Evnin' all"

Joe and the Jewish Lobby. Surprise Move.

2006-08-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

The big news is that Karl Rove called Joe Leiberman. "Hey Joe", (this is what a close aide says to George Stephanopoulos - and they weren't discussing the Hendrix discography) "we want to reach out to you." Probably the only reason Rove wants to reach anyobdy is either to steal their wallet or sabdbag them (see Joe Wilson for details).

"we want to reach out to you."

You bet

George Dubya Bush wants every damn friend he can find after November 2006 and AIPAC / JINSA / ADL knows that. They will have game planned every possibility - let's face it Joe's defeat didn't come out of a clear blue sky, like an Israeli missile hitting a Tyre apartment block.

"The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do.'"

You bet.

George (that's Stephanopoulos) runs through the possibilities;

1. The GOP replace the weak Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, with a stronger candidate so screwing Lamont ? Bollocks George.

2. Convince Schlesinger to drop out of the race and endorse Lieberman in the final week or two, when it's too late for another candidate to fill the GOP slot.

3. A quiet White House effort to steer some money ( which presumably means slotting the Jewish Lobby into top gear, in overedrive ) in Lieberman's direction ( he is the sole Orthodox Jew in the Senate) - is another possibility. Absolute certainty George.

As real life gets more like an episode of West Wing we can just sit and watch whilst the Jewish ju-ju works in Connecticut.

It will be a brave man who lays decent odds on Lamont enjoying the privileges of Washington next year.

One thing is absolutely certain about the mid term elections , the Jewish Lobby (which doesn't exist) will use every , cent, organise every one they can , strongarm every waverer to ensure, climb every mountain etc., so that the Republicans run both Houses to ensure success of the Israeli policy of continual war in the Middel East.

Supporting Joe is just one brick in the wall - there will be many, many, more.

Pic. Joe at an Israeli Bonds Fund raiser (it raised US$71 Mn) at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Fla. with Israel Bonds board chairman Burton Resnick. Burton Resnick has been associated with Jack Resnick & Sons since 1956. The company currently controls and operates more than 5 million square feet of prime office space in New York. He-is also co-chairman emeritus of the Real Estate Council of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York regional cochairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, an honorary director of the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association, and a past campaign chairman of UJA-Federation in New York - also a personal friend of Ehud Olmert who has a lively interest in real estate deals.

Mossad's links with Tony Blair , No 10, Lord Levy , and the Foreign Office

2006-08-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

This guy looks like Uncle Werthur and should be force feeding the grandchildren with toffees. Maybe he does.

He is Efraim Halevy and he has been on BBC TV defending the actions of the failed Israeli State - which is not surprising because he used to run Mossad - Mrs Livni, the Israeli Forein Secretary was one of his staff at the time.

He is also a school chum (Hackney Downs) of the Karaoke King, My Lord Levy , Tony Blairs's "Personal Envoy" to the Middle East who has houses and business interest in both the UK and Israel.

Lord Levy of course has an office in the Foreign Office immediately adjacent to the office of HMG Foreign Secretary Mrs Margaret Beckett.

There is of course no Jewish Lobby at work in the UK and certainly not at the Heart of Government. To suggest that would be a scandalum magnatum as mi learn'd friends might say.
As proof - notice that since he was kidnapped by the Metropolitan Police and his computers seized, and documents removed from his house, you haven't heard a word of , by or from him. Which given the state of the Middle East at present might be considered odd. Or not.

Now why don't those smart journalists who throng Downing Street ask Tony what his tennis playing chum, the man quite scandalously said to be at the heart of "cash for coronets" is doing to help him solve the problems of the Middle East.

I wonder what the guys who work for Mr Desmond, pornographer , labour funder and owner of the Star and the Express must think ?

Opium crop is good this year

2006-08-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Papaver somniferum the Opium Poppy clusters of which are happily growing in Rochdale Hospital - why bother going to Afghanistan ? Picture taken today.

Lebanese Government Official map of bombings > Aug 1st

2006-08-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

Click here for image to enlarge

You can get daily updates here

FASCISM What It Is and How To Fight It
What Next? Vital Question for the German Proletariat, 1932

After fascism is victorious, finance capital directly and immediately gathers into its hands, as in a vise of steel, all the organs and institutions of sovereignty, the executive administrative, and educational powers of the state: the entire state apparatus together with the army, the municipalities, the universities, the schools, the press, the trade unions, and the co-operatives. When a state turns fascist, it does not mean only that the forms and methods of government are changed in accordance the patterns set by Mussolini -- the changes in this sphere ultimately play a minor role -- but it means first of all for the most part that the workers' organizations are annihilated; that the proletariat is reduced to an amorphous state; and that a system of administration is created which penetrates deeply into the masses and which serves to frustrate the independent crystallization of the proletariat. Therein precisely is the gist of fascism....

Leon Trotsky

Peacock / Saturday

2006-08-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Tony Balir - He won't be back

2006-08-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

There is something gloriously obscene in our Dear Leader hanging out playing at tree hugging with the Governator.

It was of course the Governator who convinced GM that they should get a licence from AM to build a consumer version of the military Hummer - a sort of mobile Tomb much in use in Iraq - this led to the original H1 behemoth , to be followed by the chic pocket sized H2 based on the Chevvy Tahoe chassis weighing in at 3 tons, kerbside.(not including 40 gallons (US) of gas)

These days, the Governator whose campaign to replace the bouffant haired brainless Gray Davis (who he Ed?) was masterminded by George Schwartz,(at whose modest condo the Dear Leader is resting his sun tanned forehead at present) finds it difficult to chose which of his 8 Hummers to use.

GM, in serious financial trouble, even built a hydrogen powered Hummer for him built for squillions of US$ as a "cencept", showed him off to the press ( the 50 mile limit between re-fuelling stops not being enough to get him home), he returned home in a standard heavy polluting gas-guzzler. Not forgetting no doubt to wreath himself in his own cloud of stinking pollution whilst he chomped his reeking ceegars.

Our favourite story of Hummer excess, which beats the Governator, is of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball King LeBron James. Back when James was regarded as the nation's top high school basketball player, he found himself under investigation by Ohio athletic officials who questioned his amateur status when he started driving around in a new bright canary yellow H2 equipped with three televisions. He later was cleared after his mother produced documents showing she bought the vehicle -- which had a base retail price of $50,000 -- for her son's 18th birthday.

Let's get serious now

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently plan to lay the groundwork for a new trans-Atlantic market in carbon dioxide emissions, The Associated Press has learned - Not content with imposing enormous financial burdens on European consumers of the insane EU ETS scheme for outdoor relief for bankers, lawyers, consultants and other City fraudsters our Dear Leader wants to export this nonsensical scheme to sunny CA.

One has to applaud James L. Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council for Environmental Quality and Bush's chief environmental adviser (also lawyer,avid vocal harmony singer, sailor, scuba diver, and beachcomber) for his high profile absence from the press hoopla that Blair and the Governator produced when they went to the port of Long Beach. Quite sensibly he presumably will have nothing to do with this massive financial fraud.

Where beyond the photo-call everyone was supposed to see, the way behind schedule BP, "cold ironing " project which saves pollution from discharging oil tankers by transferring the high energy load from ship board diesel power to onshore electrical power when discharging.

The scheme simply diverts pollution from the coastal cities to the massive coal fired polluting plants in the interior of CA, like the San Joaquin Valley, home to some of the nation's most polluted air which also claims the nation's highest asthma rates in children. ... or even further inland where the state buys electricity producing what they call the California Coal Shadow.(PDF alert)

So Blair might reasonably tackle the Governator about the new report detailing California's existing out-of-state coal plants which release a staggering 67 million tons of global-warming carbon dioxide and discharge ten times more smog-forming pollution and 200 times more mercury than all of the power plants in California.

Add to that the 14,000 megawatts of new coal-fired power plants which are under construction and development in the Interior West, designed for the California coastal market and with no measures for addressing their vast quantities of global warming pollution.

What might cheer the Dear Leader up, is that the US Energy system is as fucked up as the UK one - except that the UK is heading at terminal speed into an 89% reliance on imported energy - without the industrial base to sustain such an increase in imports.

Why should the Dear Leader worry - unlike the Governator - He won't be back.

PS They say what attracted the President to James L. Connaughton was a paper he co-authored in a 1993 law journal , Champion Magazine, a publication of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers entitled "Defending Charges of Environmental Crime -- The Growth Industry of the '90s."

Don't forget it was economist Phil Cooney Chief of Staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality who allegedly had deleted/ amended whole sections of official scientific reports on climate change. Since leaving he was hired by ExxonMobil June 2005,

Lord Levy's assistant at Foreign Office fails to shine

2006-07-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

The single unladylike expletive used by la Beckett on being offered the job to sit in the next office to the midget karaoke King, the Lord Levy, Tony Blair's "personal envoy" in the Foreign Office, sounded round the world, somewhat like the shot at Concorde.

Since then la Beckett has been virtually silent - or to those fortunate enough to catch her interviewed on Radio and TV , unintelligible.

The Guradian today perform a neat and nasty hatchet job on the erstwhile traveller - whose flying exploits hitherto have been met with query and scorn. Alas, she appears grounded and gormless having left behind her the stinking mess of the EU Emissions Trading System which is rapidly falling apart.

It is evident that she has, however left the interesting developments in the Middle East to the clever little chap in the next office, who probably can read maps and also knows the language they speak over there. Anyway Condi and her friends in the Holy Land says she's doing a terrific job. They say she and Leo must pop over for a nice holiday when all this trouble has qietened down - Eilat in the winter is really nice. although trips to Petra are on hold just at present apparently.

Questions asked about the performance of Beckett

· Foreign secretary too inexperienced, say critics
· Knowledge of Middle East affairs causes concern

Ewen MacAskill and Will Woodward
The Guardian Tuesday August 1, 2006

"The grumblings within the Foreign Office are getting louder. Officials complain the Israel-Lebanon war has brutally exposed the inexperience and inadequacies of Margaret Beckett as foreign secretary. ...."

Now read more

UK'd Middle East Policy in a "safe pair of hands"

2006-07-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

Mrs Margaret Beckett the 63 year old Foreign Secretary, whose office adjoins that of midget Karaoke King, The Lord Levy, Tony Blair's "personal envoy" to the Middle East, is said to have used the single expletive illustrated when handed her red box of office.

Since then she has left it to Tony and My Lord Levy - who let's face it, so far has done a damn fine job for the guys back in Jerusalem. The Guradian has a damning indictment of Mrs Beckett's time since appointment - they don't mention my Lord Levy's part in the affairs of State. Since his kidnapping by the Met. things seem to have gone rather quiet on that front - and will no doubt continue that way.

Questions asked about the performance of Beckett

· Foreign secretary too inexperienced, say critics
· Knowledge of Middle East affairs causes concern

Ewen MacAskill and Will Woodward
Tuesday August 1, 2006
The Guradian

The grumblings within the Foreign Office are getting louder. Officials complain the Israel-Lebanon war has brutally exposed the inexperience and inadequacies of Margaret Beckett as foreign secretary. Read on.

Sounds as if she has a greater grasp of Middle Earth, than the Middle East

The Jewish Holocaust

2006-07-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

Slaughter of the Inoccents - OK say Yesha Rabbis - but don't damage the olive trees

2006-07-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents

The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."

All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)

(07.30.06, 17:37)Y net News online edition of Israels biggest selling daily tabloid
Compare this with a report in Harratez in 2003

It was the same Yesha rabbinical council that issued an announcement in 2003 to say that the Palestinians' olive harvest and olive trees must not be damaged, Army Radio reported. The announcement came after reports that settlers had sawed up hundreds of olive trees in the West Bank.Such destroying of the crop is acceptable is in a special case of war, and that can only be decreed by the government, the rabbinical council for the West Bank and Gaza Strip announced.

The council also condemned all vigilante hostility, and said the olive crop-destroyers were bringing a bad name to the settlers and the settlement movement as a whole, according to the radio.

Slaughter of the Inoccents - OK say Yesha Rabbis

2006-07-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents

The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."

All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)

(07.30.06, 17:37)Ynet news the Online edition of Yediot Aharonot. Israel's largest selling tabloid. What in the UK we call Red Tops - presumably they will be printing with Palestinian blood any day now.

Dubya's Poodle off the lead ....

2006-07-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

This is Charlotte Maillard Schultz welcoming the Dear Leader sans spouse at San Francisco Airport yesterday. Charlotte who ? Charlotte the trophy wife of George Pratt Schultz the 109 year old ex Secretary of State, one of the most powerful and influential Jews in America , Bechtel, Schwab's, Accenture etc., keen no doubt to have the benfit of the Dear leader's views on Hezbollah. he himself was for smashing the Nicaraguans, is for legalising drugs, is a leading meber of George Bush's Vulcan's and a huge supporter of Arni. His dear wife is Arnie's Chef de protocol = PR BS chief.

For a fascinating tale of intrigue, secret societies,SF demi-monde, human sacrifice, homosexuality, power, greed, money, try this

A little-known example of Shultz's importance is his role in putting together the team behind the Presidency of George W. Bush. James Mann, wrote the Rise of the Vulcans about Bush's inner Cabinet.

Shultz initiated a discussion with George W. in the Spring of 1998, whereby the future President sat down in Shultz's living room on the Stanford University campus, in order to be vetted (in effect) to run for President.

At that meeting were Martin Anderson, the former advisor to both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan; Abraham Sofaer, (Legal Advisor of the U.S. State Department, was a former Federal judge nominated by President Carter, and alleged to be an agent of Israel's Mossad - oversaw the Sharon v TIME trial ); John Cogan and John Taylor, two economics professors; and Stanford's provost, and Shultz protégé, Condoleezza Rice. After the "scholars" associated with the Hoover Institution indicated that they thought Bush would make a good Presidential choice.

Bush invited Shultz, Rice, and Anderson down to Austin, Texas for a follow-up meeting in the Summer. Out of that meeting, which was joined by Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, came the public decision for Bush to run for President.

It is said that Shultz carried out secret diplomacy, offering Israel the West Bank (which had been part of Jordan), plus a part of southern Lebanon, if Israel would grant Syria, which was then a Soviet satrap, the remainder of northern Lebanon. Thus, the map of the Mideast would be redrawn into a "Greater Syria" and a "Greater Israel"—an arrangement which left the Palestinians, with whom Shultz refused to deal, nothing.... which looks suspiciously like something emerging , quite literally today.

Nobody's fool and far sighted this is an extract from a PBS interview in 2000..

"GEORGE SHULTZ: What's new is a change in the availability and cost of information. And this has been something that's been building a long time. And it fundamentally stems from the computer, in my opinion.

I wrote an article and authored a book in 1961 entitled Management Organization and the Computer. And the idea of the book was to shake up American management and say you're using this device to compute payrolls and keep personnel records, but it's a very powerful instrument that's going to wind up changing the way you manage your enterprises, so you'd better think more creatively about it. "

Way ahead of Gore inventing the Internet.

PS . GS is also a director of Israeli based, Gilead Industries who supply the seats for the Boeing Osprey now entering service with the Marines in Iraq - the flying tilt rotor tomb.

Arabian Nights - A n new old story .

2006-07-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman (68, ex Fidelity Investments, ex Treasury and at Energy since 31/1/2005, grandfather 8 times over) was in Iraq last week to chew the fat with Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Al-Shahristani (see pic). Together they met representatives from oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Marathon, BP and Shell Oil which the sharp eyed readers will have nticed are all headquartered in the USA.(For nit pickers , since "taking over" Amoco, rendering accounts in US$, BP is effectively a US company see BTC pipeline)

The intention was to discuss possible joint ventures and a new hydrocarbon law that would regulate the critical energy sector throughout the country. A few notes about the present situtation are worthy of note.

1. More than 250 Oil Ministry officials, workers and security guards have been assassinated since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, according to the Oil ministry.

2. There have been over 300 attacks on Iraqi oil fields in the last three years, according to Iraqi government figures.See website Iraqi Pipeline Watch fro details ov every strike, costs, deaths etc.,

3. June 8 2006 (The day al-Zarkawi (?) was killed. Gunmen in Baghdad kidnapped the director general of the State Company for Oil Projects, Muthana al-Badri in Aazamiya, northern Baghdad.he had worked for the company all his life and took over at the fall of Saddam Hussein.

4. Gunmen in vehicles resembling those used by Iraqi security forces kidnapped the president of one of Iraq’s state-owned oil companies in Baghdad on Sunday 16th July 2006 in the afternoon, an Oil Ministry spokesman said. Adil Mohamed al-Qazaz, the president of the Northern Oil Company, was abducted at about 3:30 p.m. local time after gunmen in two vehicles forced his car to stop and assaulted his bodyguards, said Aseem Jihad, the Oil Ministry spokesman. Mr. Qazaz had just left a meeting at the ministry.

5. This was before the car bomb that detonated today (30/7) in Kirkuk in the previously untouched Arafa Naftiya area, a predominantly Christian neighborhood containing the headquarters of the Northern Oil Company and foreign consulates which killed two and wounded 6

After their meeting, Al-Shahristani said that oil company representatives offered their advice and assistance for plans on a hydrocarbon law that will be introduced to the Iraqi Parliament for voting at the end of this year. Al-Shahristani , educated inToronto, a nuclear scientist, Shia, married to Canadian Bernice Holton, improsned in Abu GHraib by Saddam and escaped at the time of the Gulf War - In an interview broadcast on the CBS program 60 Minutes in February, 2003, he claimed over 100 Km of tunnels with stockpiles of were hidden in an unfinished subway snaking below Baghdad, although he had never seen it. ...but then neither has anybody else. He is also said to have turned down the job of PM.

Bodman has been touting this law (his reason for being there) as a way for Iraq to attract US$20 BN. (Any big number you can think of will do here Ed.) in foreign investment that is needed to increase Iraqi oil production. This magic piece of Western inspired legislation engineered by the finest lawyers the major oilcos can assemble, is claimed will impact the worlds oil market by improving confidence (?) in Iraqs energy sector. Al-Shahristani told reporters that although Iraq has not negotiated joint ventures with companies to begin work in specific oil fields, he said that some contracts could be signed before the hydrocarbon law is voted on by Parliament.

Which may appear a novel way of introducing legislation to give away control over the country's resources - but no doubt one the oilcos are used to.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has said that the Iraqi Oil Ministry makes its decisions independent of the United States, (Ho! Ho! Ho!) apart from helping Iraq draft the hydrocarbon law. The DOE said it simply provides technical experts and will be pursuing joint projects with the Iraqi energy ministry. (Leaving it to Mr Alekperov and LUKoil to actually train Iraqis in Russia to learn for themselves which they have been doing for over 2 years).

Iraq, is said to be currently producing 1.9 million barrels of oil per day (viz pre-war oil production level of 2.6 MBRD) hopes to boost production to 3 MBPD by the end of the year, said Al-Shahristani.(He was not evidently hallucinating when he said this, but then he didn't specify which year he was referring to, but it certainly began with a 2)

The oil minister ambitiously projected that Iraq could produce up to 4.5 million barrels per day in the next five years and that it could be the second largest producer of oil in fifteen years.

Bodman added (sensibly it looks from here) a note of caution and described such projected figures as "ambitious." (A variant spelling for Bullshit)The US DOE has estimated that at its current output, Iraq is still far under its pre-war oil production level of 2.6 million barrels per day. (Although any figures are wrong because ofunknoen levels of theft, corruption etc.,)

To put this meeting in perspective it is useful to remember previous views on oil production in Iraq.

1. The Department of Energy (DoE), stated with cocksure confidence in late 2002 that, given the investment (presumably by US oil co’s), Iraq could quickly double its production from the then-daily level of 2.5 million barrels to 5 million barrels or more.

2. Oil would not only flow, so would the money – enough to pay for the trouble of getting there to steal it. "We can afford it," White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey said of the planned US invasion, because rising Iraqi oil output would invigorate the US economy.

He told the Wall Street Journal in September 2002 "When there is regime change in Iraq, you could add 3 to 5 million barrels [per day] of production to world supply."

3. "Successful prosecution of the war would be good for the (Iraqi) economy," said the then deputy secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz to a congressional panel, "Iraq oil revenues could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. We're dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

(This guy is now in charge of the World Bank !)

No doubt the "representatives from oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Marathon, BP and Shell Oil." listened, took notes on crisp yellow legal pads with their sleek fountain pens, tapped at their Blackberries, sipped the mint tea that Al-Shahristani favours, and hurried off.

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is no doubt a decent chap, a loving husband and grandfather - whether he believes all this crap is another matter.

We should take notice of someone whose feet (and ears) are a bit closer to the ground....

Asharq Al-Awsat reports - Iraqi Member of Parliament Hadi Al-'Amiri, warning of a possible military coup against the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, Asharq Al-Awsat can reveal.

Al-'Amiri, who heads the Badr Organization, the military wing of the High Council of the Islamic Revolution said during a speech in the city of Najaf, "There are some who talk about toppling Al-Maliki's government and replacing it with a national rescue government, which we call a military coup government."

Al-'Amiri adds that this would mean, "the invalidation of the constitution and the results of the elections, as well as returning to the starting point."

Baghdad and the Sunnis/ Shias are dividing roughly along the Tigris. More troops are being dafted in from the North (said to be 3,00 who were on the way back home to the US) but if the Badr brigades hit the Green zone - which is a nasty water bound cul-de-sac - and swarm it... le disparu Saigon will look like a tea party.

Especially if simultaneously, some Iranian supplied Fajr missiles get their range from Lebanon and hit Tel Aviv and a lot of it's occupants. That is probably when we find out what was in those monster transports transiting Prestwick and Mildenhall this week - and it's unlikely to be humanitarian aid or medical supplies.

Those interested in this fascinating topic may wish to refer back to a posting before Lord Patel was ennobled Why Saddam Smiles October 20th 2005

Polo at the Hamptons

2006-07-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Polo season is in full swing and this pic taken by my (one of them) mistress at the Hamptons captures the essence of the serious minded, merchant bankers who frequent these bashes - do you think these swell guys are discussing ..

1. The implications of the use by Hezbollah of a Chinese C-802 radar guided missile, probably sourced from Iran which seriously damaged by the INS "Spear" Saar class vessel 17 kilometres off the coats of Lebanon and killed four crew involved in naval intelligence and IAF air space control.

2. Whether the IAF response in smashing Lebanese Army Radar sites was appropriate , because they must have been involved in guiding the above missile - and also the one that sunk a Cambodian vessel 60 kilomtres off the Lebanese coast at the same time.

3. The implications of a US$100 dollar oil price and the current spot price and forward delivery December of Texas Light.

4. The hummungous tits on that girl over there - who is related to a massive fortune selling cosmetics... or is it real estate ??

USS Indianapolis - Capt McVay - setting the record straight

2006-07-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

Charles Butler McVay III was the captain of the USS Indianapolis which was sunk 51 years ago today, on the night of 30th July 1945 by a Japanese submarine, after having delivered the first Atom Bomb to Tinian which was to be the deadly cargo of Enola Gay.

The Official website tells the tale of his court martial

Captain McVay was taken to Guam where he faced a board of inquiry ordered by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz (CINCPAC) which convened on August 13, one day before the sinking of the ship was announced to the public (simultaneously with the announcement that the Japanese had surrendered, thus insuring negligible press covergae).

Overriding the opposition of both Nimitz and Admiral Raymond Spruance (for whom the Indianapolis had served as Fifth Fleet flagship), naval authorities in Washington, specifically Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, directed that court-martial proceedings be held against McVay, and the trial was scheduled to begin on December 3, 1945, at the Washington Navy Yard. (Directly influenced it has been said by the parents of officers and seamen who died)

Captain McVay thus became the first United States Navy commanding officer brought to trial for losing his ship in combat in World War II, despite the fact that over 700 ships were lost during World War II, including some under questionable circumstances.... and after hostilities had finished worldwide.

A little known fact is, that in the immediate aftermath of the war a military plane was dispatched to Japan with an armed escort to bring Mochitsura Hashimoto the submarine commander who sunk the USS Indianapolis to Washington. It was realised however that to introduce a Japanese submaribe commander as a witness against a serveing US Naval officer would not be smart move.

Following the proceedings, an unprecedented thing happened. Almost to a man, the officers sitting in judgment signed a petition asking the court to set aside the verdict in light of McVay's record. As Admiral King had retired in the interim, it fell to ADM Chester Nimitz to grant the petition of the court, and he set aside the punishment. He could not set aside the fact of the conviction. Admiral Nimitz restored Captain McVay to duty and posted him as commandant of the New Orleans Naval district where he was promoted to Rear Admiral (lower half), where he finished his career and retired.

It is reasonable to assume from the evidence that a decision to convict McVay was made before his court-martial began. The survivors of the Indianapolis are convinced that he was made a scapegoat to hide the mistakes of others, mistakes which included sending him into harm's way without warning and failing to notice when the Indianapolis failed to arrive on schedule, thus costing hundreds of lives unnecessarily and creating the greatest sea disaster in the history of the United States Navy.

On November 6th 1968 Charles Butler McVay III, last Captain of the USS INDIANAPOLIS (CA-35), stepped out on his front stoop, and using his navy issued service revolver, blew his brains out. The Indianapolis had claimed her final victim. He died without having been exonerated from responsibility for the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

In about 1996, 11 year old Hunter Scott from Pensacola, Florida, saw the movie "Jaws" and was moved by the harrowing and very accurate soliloquy of Quint who explained his hatred of the sharks by telling his story of surviving the attack upon the USS Indianapolis.

When told the actor was describing an event which was true, young Hunter began researching the story for what became an award-winning school history project but then, still fascinated, pursued it further, obtaining addresses of all survivors to whom he sent a questionnaire. One of the questions was whether they felt Captain McVay's court-martial was justified and his conviction fair. To a man they said it wasn't. Like any sensible US citizen he wrote to his Congressman.

The most remarkable and unexpected result of Hunter's efforts was that his Congressman Joe Scarborough brought legislation (HR3610) forward - after a lengthy and bitter battle over years, where the Navy successfully removed any reference " to the court-martial being morally unsustainable or the conviction being unjust" an amendment was added to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001 which exonerated Captain McVay.

President Clinton signed the Bill but no President has issued a pardon. Some commentators remark that the captain of the USS Cole which was holed in Aden may have escaped court martial because the navy did not want a re-run of the McVay episode.

It is worth recording that Mochitsura Hashimoto the commander of the submarine re-appears again in this story, in a complete role reversal, writing a letter to Senator Warner in support of Captain McVay with eloquent testimony ...

I do not understand why Captain McVay was court-martialed. I do not understand why he was convicted on the charge of hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag because I would have been able to launch a successful torpedo attack against his ship whether it had been zigzagging or not. I have met many of your brave men who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis. I would like to join them in urging that your national legislature clear their captain's name. Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war and its consequences. Perhaps it is time your peoples forgave Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.

"I believe this whole ordeal about the sinking and especially the outcome of the court-martial was and is a black mark on the Navy and not the Captain."

From statement submitted at September 1999 Senate hearing by Lyle M. Pasket, USS Indianapolis survivor.

Lord Patel was lucky enough to meet and have a chat with some of the few remaining survivors of the USS Indianapolis last summer, whilst in Indianapolis. He recommends you go to their website and read this fascinating footnote to the War in the Pacific.

Jack Straw's Damascene Revelation by Proxy

2006-07-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

As the demented Dear Leader marches in goose step with Dubya towards Damascus liberally scattering cluster bombs,Depleted Uranium , White Phosphur rounds, HE artillery shells, Hellfire missiles, Hyperbaric and Fuel / Air weapons , shortly to be augmented by the awesome Bunker Busters strewn like a carpet by their Israeli satraps it is evident that this madness is definitely uncontagious.

Even Jack Straw, the craven , obedient, smarming lickspittle, who fondly trailed the ferocious grand dame of drive by diplomacy Contileezza Rice has had the scales fall from his eyes.

Blinking in the sunlight, out of the shadow of these monstrous war criminals he can now see that this massive onslaught on the people of Lebanon is "Disproportianate" - no doubt aided by the Muslims in his constituency, not least my namesake he has finally seen the blinding Truth.

Albeit three and a half years of the most savage assault on the Iraqis, once the proudest, secular , well educated nation in the Middle East, now reduced to the most bloody and sectarian civil wars have proved to be a useful education for our Jack.

Perhaps, perhaps the stony silences in Blackburn when he sported the Brahms playing bathroom assistant to the Butcher of Baghdad, and the gratuitously offensive insults hurled at her by Muslim and Mancunian alike penetrated his flinty soul. Perhaps it was the sound of his sycophantic master at St Petersburg , lickspittling to the bun chewing goon...perhaps it was the sight of him fawning at the White House ...

Anyway, whatever has unlocked his vision , let us rejoice, a sinner is redeemed and their is more joy in Heaven ....

2006-07-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

War Criminal Blair ensures Israel gets time and Weapons of Mass Destruction

2006-07-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

It is now evident that the brouhaha over the hyperbaric weapons, bunker busters and other immensely destructive weapons of the State terrists arsenal was constructed to show how rsolute Blair is to support the Israeli destruction of Lebanon.

It is a signal sent out to confirm how aligned and allied he is to ethnic cleansing from Israel's borders - to produce a cordon sanitaire for this apartheid virus, determined to eliminate any who stand in their way.

Claiming in a BBC interview that a cease fire "could" be "days away" because - and this demonstrates the measure of the man - THAT IS WHAT I WANT

This man has betrayed a nation, he imagines he can, without debate, without discussion, commit our forces, our people to this squalid business of mass civilian slaughter and economic destruction for the Zionist dreamers , most dead, but whose heirs carry their perverted ideals forward.

Meanwhile he rants endlessly about the perverted ideology of Islam. Nobody raises an eyebrow, a voice or a vote.

What is going on in this madman's head ?

Gilad Shalit kidnapped ? Yeah , yeah, Right. or are reports a Licence to Kill ?

2006-07-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Is 19 year old Gilad Shalit a kidnapped prisoner held by Hamas in Gaza ?

Lord Patel has been combing the cyberworld, printed press and TV for news of this operation, typically reports hiot the press in a very detailed fashion from Israel sources e.g

"During yesterday's attack, eight Palestinian terrorists used a half-mile tunnel they dug to infiltrate behind Israel's Kerem Shalom military station, which is on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border.

Soldiers at the border usually monitor the Gaza Strip and not the Israeli side, where the tunnel exit was located.

Upon exiting the tunnel, the Palestinian terrorists split into three cells, one lobbing more than 20 anti-tank missiles at an army tank; another attacking the tank with grenades, killing the two Israeli soldiers and kidnapping one. The third cell attacked an army lookout post.

Two terrorists were killed during the raid, while the others escaped into Gaza with the kidnapped soldier. he army was not aware one of its troops had been kidnapped until several minutes after the operation.

The Kerem Shalom station had been on high alert the past few days after the army received specific warnings of a terror attack. One of the warning alerts, obtained by WND, outlined the possibility of a Palestinian attack using a tunnel. "

So this French / Israeli youth is not 24 hours in the hands of the terrist scum Hamas and the IDF are listing a whole slew of mistakes includinh havin h had prior warnings of attacks, tinnels etc.,

On top of this the same day we get from a variety of Israeli sources (obviously) ...

"a senior military intelligence official told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee the abducted IDF soldier, 19-year-old Gilad Shalit, is being held in the Gaza Strip by senior members of Hamas' so called "resistance wing." .... "The officer told the Knesset Israel does not know exactly where Shilat is, but "we understand that the soldier is alive and lightly wounded." ... remarkable.

Then we got the claims through a flyer on the streets of Gaza ..
This from CNN " The flier, distributed to news organizations and passed out on the streets of Gaza City, came from Izzedine al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas; the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group that includes militants from Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas; and a previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Islam."

Another Western press report .."An earlier statement by the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees terror group claimed the Committees was holding Shilat and that he was being treated for a stomach wound. A Committees spokesman later denied the report. The group often works closely with Hamas."

What we do know

What we do now is that after this "kidnap" all hell let loose and now more than a reported 120 Gaza citizens, many, women and children are dead and Gaza is a free fire zone for the IDF.

So Lord Patel asks again ...

"Is 19 year old Gilad Shalit a kidnapped prisoner held by Hamas in Gaza ?"

Of course I may be wrong and will be happy to accede, but after a long and detailed serach I can find no clear evidence that Gilad Shilat is aprisoner of Hams in Gaza.

Olmered, Perutz,Halutz charged in Belgium with WAR CRIMES

2006-07-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

Belgians, Ali Abdul-Sater and his wife Farkad El Husseini, were on holiday,with their three children earlier this month when their Beirut apartment was destroyed and they fled Lebanon via Syria.

Abdul-Sater is vice-president of an association for a secular Lebanon whose members are moderate Lebanese citizens of diverse religions concerned by the future of the country.

The Belgian paper Le Soir described the couple as having been “shocked and traumatized” by the attacks.

The couple have commenced an action for war crimes using the phrase "war crimes" as used in the Belgian criminal code with the aid of world famous Belgian Human Rights Lawyer Mr. Georges-Henri Beauthier.

The code refers to "purposeful murder, severe violations of the physical integrity of health, deportation of civilians and the destruction and misappropriation of goods."

The Belgian courts have introduced a "principle of the universal jurisdiction" of Belgian courts — adopted in 1993, originally this allowed complaints about war crimes from other countries to be brought before Belgian courts.

In 2003, however, after several complaints, notably against former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George Bush, the law was amended so that any complaint would be required to be linked to Belgium.

The complaint Ali and his wife intend to bring, organised by their lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier cites Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ( as Head of State he would ordinarily be immune from prosecution).

Also named in the proposed action are Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz and the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Dan Halutz.

Lawyer Beauthier said that other complainants are considering to introduce joint complaint.

When approached by European Jewish Press the Israeli embassy in Belgium did not comment on the newspaper report. “We don’t know about it, only what is written in the newspaper,” Carmela Shamir, the embassy’s press officer told EJP, adding that "a complaint should rather be lodged against Hezbollah."

Lord Patel thinks that that remark expresses what Jews call "Chutzpah".

The Belgian law of universal jurisdiction was successfully used last year when a Belgian jury found two Rwandan half-brothers guilty of helping Hutu militias slaughter some 50,000 people during their country's 1994 genocide ( a case handled by Mr. Georges-Henri Beauthier) Curiously the legal principles behind such actions raise great lawerly (and therefore expensive) concern - however pirates have been legally recognized as hosti humanis generis ("enemies of the human race"), for centuries and treated as such, with little or no concern.

Mr. Georges-Henri Beauthier is a well known and highly regarded Human Rights lawyer in Belgium and for example in 2003 brought an action charging former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and two of his senior aides with genocide, torture and crimes against humanity on behalf of Falun Gong (Falun Dafa). He also brought charges against former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet.

Palm oil Bio-Diesel fuels, Malaya and China get together

2006-07-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

"Travelling in a car fuelled by biodiesel seems like a great, environmentally-friendly thing to do. However, if the biodiesel has come from soya planted in the Brazilian Amazon or palm oil from Indonesia, the green consumer is likely to be unwittingly driving another nail into the coffin of the world's great ecosystems."

—Ariel Brunner, BirdLife

Malaysia The World's Biggest Oil Palm Producer

Malaysia currently accounts for 51 % of world palm oil production and 62% of world exports, and therefore also for 8% and 22% of the world's total production and exports of oils and fats. As the biggest producer and exporter of palm oil and palm oil products, Malaysia has an important role to play in fulfilling the growing global need for oils and fats in general and now for bio-diesel fuels.

The oil palm is a highly efficient producer , requiring only 0.25 hectares to produce one tonne of oil while soybean, sunflower and rapeseed need 2.15, 1.50 and 0.75 hectares respectively.

The oil palm tree Elaeis guineensis ( elaia = olive) is endemic to West Africa and has long been developed as an agricultural crop. First introduced to Malaya in early 1870’s as an ornamental plant by Europeans more interested in developing rubber, it wasn't until 1917 the first first commercial planting took place in Tennamaran Estate in Selangor, laying the foundations for today's vast oil palm plantations (3.88 million hectares of land in Malaysia is under oil palm cultivation producing 14 million tonnes of palm oil in 2004) and the world's premier palm oil industry.

The Malaysian government in the 60's sought to diversify the economy from oil and tin and palm oil was developed under a very effective agricultural diversification programme.

Later land settlement schemes for planting oil palm, were used as a means to eradicate poverty for landless farmers and smallholders. The oil palm plantations in Malaysia are largely based on the estate management system and small holders scheme.

Palm oil squeezed from the fruits, is used for manufacture of soaps and candles, and more recently, in manufacture of margarine and cooking fats.

Palm kernel oil is extracted from the kernel of endosperm, and contains about 50% oil. Similar to coconut oil, with high content of saturated acids, mainly lauric, it is solid at normal temperatures in temperate areas, and is nearly colorless, varying from white to slightly yellow. This non-drying oil is used in edible fats, in making ice cream and mayonnaise, in baked goods and confectioneries.

Malaya and China get together to develop Palm Oil products

For the last 2 days the Malayan Palm Oil Council (MPOC) have held a seminar in Shanghai to promote sales to China. As a result of these efforts there have been 2 significant developments worth noting.

1. China's third largest oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has made a formal agreement with KL based Bio Sweet Sdn Bhd which specialises in biotech and palm diesel research and development,to develop palm oil-based biodiesel in a shift towards renewable energy sources.

Under this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) , CNOOC will build a plant in Hainan Island in 12 months with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes. It will also set up a joint venture called CNOOC (Malaysia) Biofuel Sdn Bhd with a view for a listing in Malaysia eventually. As an indication of the importance of the deal CNOOC President Fu Chengyu was present.

2. Golden Hope Plantations are a major player in the market and plan to have 6 biodiesel plants including 3 outside Malaysia to tap the demand for cheaper and renewable sources.

They have now announced 3 projects in Malaysia and a fourth in Holland (Malaya's biggest export market for palm oil products) which are expected to be up and running by end 2007

Plans are also advanced to set up a plant in South Korea with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes and another in mainland China.

The China project will probably be located in Guangzhou. China requires 70 million tonnes of diesel annually (now) and Government plans are to have, 20 % from sustainable sources within 5 years.

Golden Hope’s three current Malayan plants are ;

1. Banting with a capacity of 35,000 tonnes
2. A Joint venture with Malaysian Palm Oil Board in Port Klang with output of 60,000 tonnes
3. Bintulu with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes.

The planned Dutch facility will produce biodiesel using 50 percent palm oil and 50 percent soya oil for the European market.

Dennis Maxfield, publisher of Trade News Service for the oils and fats industry gave atalk this afternoon and explained that , except in the European Union, biodiesel is very much an infant industry.

“It takes time to construct new plants and an infrastructure to market the product. Renewable fuels are here, prices have become more competitive and the demand will continue to increase. It is happening not only in Europe and the U.S but in China as well,” Lord Patel has posted here about the launch of China Biodiesel on the LSE AIM market recently.

Dennis Maxfield estimated that Malaysia would produce 1.5 million tonnes of biodiesel next year.

The Malaysian government has made two major decisions to boost the [roduction of Palm Oil diesels;

1. It has set aside 6 million tonnes of its existing 15 million tonnes annual output for the biodiesel industry.

2. Envo Diesel, a newly developed biofuel of 5% processed palm oil and 95 % petroleum diesel is to be introduced next year for government vehicles.

But not everyone is happy - with this environmentall friendly program

George Monbiot, (the mna changing his mind about nuclear power) recently wrote an article "Worse Than Fossil Fuel" (6/12/05) highlighting how the import of palm oil as a biofuel component will probably worsen greenhouse gas discharges, alongside rainforest destruction.

The UK government has refused to disqualify palm oil from EU-driven government targets for biofuels as a proportion of motor fuels, or indeed bioethanol from Brazilian sugar cane, fearing (they say) legal challenges. See Guradian

The future for some seems to consist of living in caves, wearing grass skirts and eating your children.

Stop deforestation for biofuels - of course the forest are already de-forested.

Development of palm oil plantations is growing rapidly in the Far East, and the ravaged timber forests are being replaced with square miles of palm oil planations (see pic) - this also leads to other environmental problems.

Peat fires in Indonesia, linked to palm oil expansion, are reported to be contributing massively to climate change, see these sories here in the Guradian and BBC Online.

Several NGOs, including WWF, Greenpeace, and BirdLife International (but not yet FoE, as far as Lord Patel has been told) have in fact spoken out against the use of palm oil in biofuels. See Bird Life here and quote at top. More here as well.

Whatever the critics may say, the development of bio-diesel fuels from agricultural sources is going to be a major development. It would be nice to think that Africa, the home of the plant, could seize the opportunities that Malaya are making and taking.

Bumblebee on Eryngium from sikin on Flikr

2006-07-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

DSC00512, originally uploaded by Siskin.

Fingerprinted, DNA sequenced, photographed .. we know who YOU are. From womb to tomb.

2006-07-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

BBC Online had an astonishing story on Monday, 15 May 2006. Children under the age of five are being fingerprinted at asylum centres amid fears that some families are trying to claim extra benefits.

The Home Office says trials are underway at asylum centres in Croydon and Liverpool because it is beleieved that some children are being registered by several families.

Trials began in February using the old fashioned wet ink system (see pic) not the newer digital maps and will be, if successful, rolled out nationwide.

A Home Office spokesman is quoted in Computer Weekly : "We have set a lower limit of five for the fingerprinting of asylum seekers because of the practical difficulties of taking and matching fingerprints from under-fives. That is to do with how small the prints are".

Statewatch has reprts that any EU state will soon be be free to fingerprint children from birth as soon as it is technologically possible. The issue will not be decided by parliaments - national or European - but by a "comitology" committee meeting in secret: this "Article 6" committee is composed of representatives of the 25 governments and is chaired by the European Commission.

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

All the discussions by EU governments in the Council about the age at which children should be subject to compulsory fingerprinting are based on the technological possibilities - not on the moral and political questions of whether it is right or desirable.

There will be special cases for fingerprinting where a child is "at risk" in order to ensure their safety. This does not in any way justify submitting all young children to this intrusive process.

The decisions are being made in secret meetings based on secret documents - people and parliaments are to have no say in the decision.

Under this proposal EU states will be free to fingerprint children from day one of their life as soon as it is technologically possible"

England & Wales ( Not Scotland ) DNA Database

Genewatch explains that in England and Wales, people's DNA is now taken routinely on arrest for any recordable offence (including begging, being drunk and disorderly or taking part in an illegal demonstration) and kept permanently. The law allowing permanent retention of all DNA taken on arrest was adopted after a the Government introduced a late amendment to the Criminal Justice Act during the first week of the Iraq war. It came into force in England and Wales in April 2004. Similar proposals to change the law in Scotland were rejected by the Scottish Parliament in May 2006, when members of all parties raised civil liberties concwrns. Despite the National Database (NDNAD) increasing rapidly in size from 2 million to 3 million people between April 2003 and April 2005, there has not been an increase in the number of crimes detected using DNA.

Curiously in a Parliamentary answer to Stephen Crabb last Thursday Joan Ryan from the Home Office said that in 2000, 66,149 records were removed from the Database, in the first six months of this year only 8,868 were.

This gives the NDNAD the most extensive list of people in the world. The database now contains DNA samples from 3.1 million individuals (5.2% of the UK population). No other police force has greater freedom to obtain, use and store genetic information from its citizens.

Note also that the commercial company LGC, http://www.lgc.co.uk/
which analyses some DNA samples for the police, has retained its own "mini-database" of DNA records. That is of course the company where Lord Stevens , the predecessor to Lying Sir Ian Blair at Scotland Yard is eking out his retirement pension by the fees from a Board Directorship.

Of these (@ 1/12/05) there were 24,168 persons under 18 on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) who had not been charged or cautioned for any offence. A further 27,000 persons on the NDNAD who have not been charged or cautioned for any offence were under 18 years of age at the time they were arrested and had a DNA sample taken but had reached 18 by 1st December 2005- Written answer to a Parliamentary question by Hazel Blears 2nd May 2006.

519 search requests have been dealt with by the Database Custodian since 2004 from countries outside the UK, and responses provided back to the Nationa Central Bureau for Interpol.

OH!, by an order in Council - ie at the Queen's pleasure, no debate, no discussion, the cost of a passport with your encoded digital image will be going up 33% to pay for this.

FREEDOM OF YOUR INFORMATION

If you have your eyes photographed to check for retinal adenopathy and macular degeneration, undertaken using digital imaging, you can easily have a look at them ... if you make a Freedom of Information request.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme - Hot Air Money Machine

2006-07-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

In 1956, a young, glamorous Fabian intellectual, Anthony (Tony) Crosland published "The Future of Socialism" which was to become the Bible for the Labour Party post war revisionists.

A central argument was not that the State owned - had legal title - but what mattered he argued was that it had Control.

In an age of Privatised industry, global markets, where major sections of the economy are owned and operated from foreign boardrooms for purposes, that do not agree or are at odds with national political objectives ... there is a strong belief by the politicians and their Financial Puppet Meisters in the City, that this control is still possible.

The Kyoto Protocols, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme is the most insane example of how the politicians vainly believe that by State or Supra State (EU) regulation this socialist nirvana is still acheivable.

Nowhere has this been more in evidence than in the UK where guided by the preposterous notion that, the entire cause of global warming is anthropogenic, and therefore reversible - by act of human will - these dreamers, aided by the simpleton academics who cannot reliably forecast next weeks weather, have set about destroying the UK industrial base.

It leads to the the sort of nonsesne spouted recently by Chris Rowland ( who left Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in a huff) and has re-appeared at Ecofin a "Utilities investment company". He spoke at Environmental Finance Publications EU Emissions Trading conference in Brussels on 10th July.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) he said (against the backdrop of the recent shambles in the market) will only succeed if there is increased competition on Europe's natural gas market.

"If we don't get gas cpmpetition, we are in trouble" he said portentously as he had just noticed that the EU gas market relied on three sources of natural gas Norway, Algeria and Russia and was in the hands of very few companies (which will reduce dramatically within the next 2 years).

In a hail of ersatz forecasts and models with insupportable assumptions he projects that if competition is not encouraged electricity prices are set to rise to Euros 70 Megawatt Hour (Implying an allocation cost of Euros(EUA) 50 per ton )- with increased competition it could be Euros 45/50 MWh and EUA at Euros 15/20 ton.

Within ten years.

But don't worry says this star crossed forecaster, having consulted his chicken entrails, says the 2003 Gas Directive will encourage more gas competition.

This is the sort of BS these merchant bankers spew to maintain the beief that they may not own, but they can control by some ever increasingly complicated regulatory system, which the hard headed Russian/ Algerian / Norwegians will ignore and which an energy hungry world will learn to love.

The same guys who saw the EUA price collapse 60% overnight (literally), didn't know why then and still can't agree why now.

It is extraordinary that this whole EU ETS is based on this hot air and receives no criticism from any direction, yet your bank, pension provider, hedge fund, managed Fund, ISA scheme, is betting your future, and your hard earned cash on this house of cards.

Open the Financial pages of your paper, look who pays for the advertising, funds the paper ... are the Press going to blow the whistle ? Can TV news, catering for those with an attention span of 35 seconds explain this whole charade, simply or easily?

Who foisted this nonsense on the UK ? - Tony Blair and his henchwoman Margaret Beckett who has moved upward and onward to not understand Foreign Policy either.

The answer. Simple. A straight energy tax on consumption - OK it's regressive, But it will rapidly force cuts in consumption, impact on energy saving - it doesn't cream off money to the City.

Meanwhile Centrica have followed E.ON with another whopping price rise today - and the others will follow - result - the consumer gets screwed and the decisions about the future energy policy get shelved again - as the politicians discover ...that they have no control over the market whatsoever.

7/7 Bombers - AMAZING new CCTV pictures !!!!!

2006-07-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

This is one a a sequence of CCTV pictures in today's Daily Mail and available online. It show sIT worker 26 yr old Greg Kirby attacking a 17 year old youth who verbally abused him, tripped him up and generally made a nuisance of himself.

These stunning colour CCTV pictures of the incident on a train to Portsmouth at 11.30pm on January 21st 2006 show .

1. Greg is NOT one of the "Suicide Bombers"
2. The CPS can get cases through the courts in 6 months.
3. How remarkable that 4 guys on 1 main line train, 3 tube trains one bus and several stations on the Rail and tube after examination of 6,000 hours of tape, (and squillions of hours of overtime Sarge) records etc., yields 2 still very grainy Black and White images.
4. Greg got 200 hours and has to pay £1,000 compensation to the scrote - which is less than convicted fraudster Levitt ****got (180 hrs of community service).

CCTV is obviously very good both at deterring crime and detecting it, especially when offences occur on public transport. Sleep easy , this won't happen to you ... unless you are the author of one of the blogs in the column on the left entitled 7/7 Survivors.

****

Hansard Written Questions
The Solicitor-General: The estimated prosecution costs associated with the (Roger Levitt) trial were £993,815, including £449,649.32 (including VAT) paid to counsel for the prosecution. In addition, the estimated prosecution costs of investigation amounted to £819,552. The defence costs from legal aid were £2,649,495 and defence costs from central funds were £10,699. I shall write to my hon. Friend shortly with a more detailed breakdown of the defence costs.

Roger Levitt went on trial in 1993, charged with fraud and theft. It was alleged that the Levitt Group was an 'empty shell' that had been kept going by 'cooking the books' concealing losses of £16Mn. as profits of 13Mn. before the ultimate collapse at Christmas 1990.

One of the vehicles used for ~~fleecing the punters~~ obtaining funds, was a mortgage outfit called Levitt Olympic Gold - and one of the very active people introducing people was a smart young chap called Sebastian Coe (Now Lord Coe of Ranmore - who presumably lives at DunRunnin) who spends a lot of time with Mrs Mills, nee Jowell and lots and lots of people who want to ~~concrete over the Thames flood plain~~ with publicly funded palaces of Sport and Kulchur and square miles of ~~cheap tacky flood prone housing estates~~ urban luxury.

A Matter of minor, but intriguing interest, Sarah Lawson FRSA of Red Lion Chambers, was instructed in the Levitt case by a gent calling himself Silvio Berlusconi. Now why on Earth ....?

Mad scientist releases non-killer bees in Surrey

2006-07-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

The stupidity of scientists never ceases to surprise or alarm. New Scientist reports the insane activities of a Dr. Tom Ings at Queen Mary, University of London.(Journal of Applied Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01199.x).(See also Daily Telegraph report July 13th 2006. Forestry.org )

In a standard experiment in bucket chemistry i.e what will happen if we do x and we stand and watch. He released commercial bumblebees into the wild (Bombus terrestris dalmatinus) which are used in large volume , usually from Dutch sources for pollinating tomatoes in closed cycle greenhouse systems - i.e the bees cannot escape.

"We wanted to determine whether or not escaped commercial bees could survive in the UK countryside," says the intrepid lunatic Tom, aware (one hopes as any cursory review of the literature will show), that non-endemic species of plants and animals can be invasive and more specifically that non endemic commercial bumblebees have established themselves in the wild in Japan and Chile.

Well this bone headed guy installed 7 colonies of the native B. terrestris audax and seven of the imported B. terrestris dalmatinus near Egham, Surrey.

They installed devices to narrow the entrance to colonies to prevent imported queens escaping ( 100% effective I am sure) and collected males before they were able to leave. He found the answer ...""Unfortunately, we found that they could". Presumably after having obtained a licence for the release from DEFRA.(?) See Legal Footnote.

Commercial colonies were unsurprisingly better at foraging for nectar than native bees, and the bees were consistently larger. They also produced more queens capable of flying off and founding new hives, than did native colonies living in the same environment.

Alarmingly, the commercial subspecies not only created the largest colonies but also set them up the most readily. This could lead to the aliens outcompeting native bumblebees, warns the percipient Ings.

Japan understood the threat some time ago and imposed strict restrictions on bee importation. But many others, including the UK, US and Mexico,Austyralia * (Footnote) have yet to take action.

LEGAL FOOTNOTE

The Regulation and Control of the Release of Non-native Animals and Plants into the Wild in Great Britain

2. The control of releases of non-native animals and plants under section 14 of the Act

2.1. With respect to the release of animal species, Section 14(1) of the Act states that:

"Subject to the provisions of this Part, if any person releases or allows to escape into the wild any animal which -

(a) is of a kind which is not ordinarily resident in and is not a regular visitor to Great Britain in a wild state:

......

he shall be guilty of an offence."

In section 14, a non-native animal is one that is "not ordinarily resident in and is not a regular visitor to Great Britain in a wild state".

It is of interest to Note that the States of Jersey introduced in February 2005 control of " BUMBLEBEES Bombus terrestris terrestris (L) or Bombus terrestris audax (Harris)."

FOOTNOTE

A good introduction to imported invasive species is here

Invasive species and Biological control

A very recent paper on the problems of imported bumble bees in Australia / Tasmania.

Hingston, Andrew B, Herrmann, Walter & Jordan, Gregory J (2006)
Reproductive success of a colony of the introduced bumblebee Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a Tasmanian National Park.
Australian Journal of Entomology 45 (2), 137-141.
doi: 10.1111/j.1440-6055.2006.00527.x

"These results strongly suggest that B. terrestris is able to reproduce successfully in parts of Australia that still support almost exclusively native vegetation. "

There was secepticism that this species, being European could not sustain itself in Australia - it turned out they had a decent appetite for Eucalyptus pollen.

Original quoted article .... From issue 2560 of New Scientist magazine, 13 July 2006, page 4

The Humble Bumble Bee - treat with TLC

2006-07-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

With these wonderful balmy summer evenings we have become used to the hum and jiggling, bumbling flight of the bumble bee. There are six principal fairly easily identified species in the UK that are common.

If you want more information about their life history this is a good site to start. Not only are they fascinating creatures they also pollinate your plants for you.

The British Natural History Museum as you might expect has an excellent site on the Genus Bombuswhich has an Idiot's guide to identification , plus notes on distribution.

Naturally the manin threat to them is the gardener and their armoury of insecticides. The rule is simple - DO NOT USE CHEMICAL INSECTICIDES.

The picture, is one Lord Patel took yesterday of Bombus lapidarius which, unsurprisingly ,is called the Red Tailed Bumble Bee, on Black Knapweed, Centaurea nigra a good plant to find many bees, moths and butterflies.

Chavez and "Mu amigo Putin" with the Anti Yanqui Roadshow on Tour

2006-07-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

My old friend Vagit Alekperov was quite excited to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his 4th Presidential visit to Russia this week helping to improve relations and oil the wheels of the world energy trades, especially in South America.

On his second visit to Volgograd (he was made an honorary Cossack last time) Hugo laid a wreath at Mamayev Kurgan, the landmark monument to the battle of Stalingrad.Mamayev Kurgan literally means Hill of Mamai, named after a medieval commander of the Tatar Golden Horde. The 52 metre statue "Mother Motherland Calls" is the centrepiece of a memorial complex commemorating the 1942/3 Battle of Stalingrad.

Flying in from Belarus where he had forged a "new friendship" with Alexander Lukashenko, the hardline president, and fellow Anti American crusader, he was met by Volgograd Governor Nikolai Maksyuta, met Chavez at the airport, and fellow Cossacks greeted him with bread, salt and vodka- which he gulped off a glass held on a sabre to the sound of Accordians.

It was on an earlier visit in 2001, that the Volgograd region and Venezuela's Bolivar State signed a joint agreement and hoped to do deals for food and tractors and student exchanges. The tractor plant which Hugo visited also makes tanks and other military hardware.

LUKoil and Gazprom have footholds in Venezuela, (see previous paosts) having struck deals with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela to prospect for oil and gas in the country.He also met Dmitry Pumyansky, chairman of major supplier of pipelines TMK.

He has a special visit today in Izhevsk, to meet , AK-47 designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, and watch a demonstration of manufacturer Izhmash's latest assault rifles. Rumours claim he has placed an order for 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, and a licence to build a Kalashnikov factory in Venezuela, He should also be meeting Udmurtia President Alexander Volkov.

From there the Chavez Roadshow will move on to Moscow for the highlight of the trip (apart from trying to get support for Venezuala to get on the Un Security Council) Chavez will meet President Putin ( Mi amigo Putin)today to ink off the US $1 billion defense deal for 30 Su-30 fighter jets and 30 helicopters.The head of the Venezuelan Air Force, Brigadier General Victor Sanches Croez is in the party and has conducted all the deals with state arms trader Rosoboronexport, calling it a "locomotive of sorts that will lead to cooperation in energy, tourism and other sectors, which have never figured in our relations before."

The Financial Times points out, that of course arms deals work both ways and points to the American US$3.8bn deal to sell 48 F-16 fighters powered by Pratt & Whitney's F100-PW-229 engine, to Poland in June (there are 1,000 in use by NATO forces).So far Fort Worth based, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co's largest contract ever let in Eastern Europe and won in fierce competition with Europe's Dassault Mirage and the SAAB/BAESystems Grippen.

Not forgetting of course in light of curent events that Israel, has the world's largest F-16 fleet outside the USAF, and ordered 110 F-16I aircraft, the first was delivered in December 2003. These aircraft have Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engines, Elbit avionics, Elisra electronic warfare systems and Rafael weapons and sensors, including Litening II laser target designator pods.It is these which will be dropping the Boeing Bunker Busters being hastily shipped to Jerulasem.

Lock the lot up - Mahzeer Mahmoud and all his lying goons in the Met.

2006-07-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Monday October 4th 2005
What a Bomber !

This is what Lord Patel (no relation) said about the Mazheer Mahmoud exclusive about Imran Patel who "claimed" to be the 5th Bomber on 7/7.

"Mazher Mahmood the sleazy reporter for Rupe’s rag, News of the World, is famous notorious as the “Fake Sheikh” who outed Prince Edward’s wife as a royalty tout, and “exposed” the plot to kidnap the Beckam sprogs (the court case collapsed when MM’s agent provacateur antics were exposed) and got bit part actor John Alford from “London’s Burning” banged up for small time drug dealing.

He’s at it again.

This week he lines up “fanatic” Imran Patel (no relation) who he has fingered to the Police and who was picked up by 20 anti-terrorist officers at 8.45pm on Saturday on his way to his mosque and taken to Leeds police station (NOT Paddington Green where they tale the real suspects) for questioning. (“You are going to be doing some overtime this weekend my boy!” "..Yes Sarge”)

I am confident that this deluded, weak minded lad will be released without charge – unless it is for wasting police time – which the intrepid sleuth MM most certainly is."

And so it proved to be ... "5th Bomber gets 4 months"

Unbelievably the PC Plods of the Met’s crack SO13 anti-terrorist squad were “diverted” from the London bombings inquiry for 6 days, "effectively working round the clock" to investigate his claims. Leeds Magistrates were told that this waste of time and effort cost the taxpayer 4,070 hours of police time costing £60,000.

As we said at the time …

Of course the Police … still scratching through tons of trains, bus debris, and squillions of CCTV images … have to take note of any information the public provide. Here’s some for them … Sir Ian Blair tells lies in public about the progress of their investigations. Arrest him for wasting the Public’s time … and money.

Anway poor old Imran got 4 months chokey.

Now we find that the lying, sleazy scumbag Mahmoud has done it agian - ably helped by the dumb twats at the Met led by Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke,

Abdurahman Kanyare, 53, Roque Fernandes, 44, and Dominic Martins, 45, had been on trial for almost three months accused of trying to buy hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of the substance that doesn't exist - from a cunt called Mazheer Mahmoud - who is the one who should be seeing the inside of a prison cell. Today they were found NOT GUILTY and discharged.

Why ? Well read "Chemical Delusions" a letter written to Peter Clarke, CVO QP LL on 16th March 2004.On the Investigating New Imperialism site. (This was about that other bollocks the threat of "Osmium teroxide" which nobody had ever heard of....

Especially take note of this section ...

Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001

2001 Chapter 24

Copy from Crown Copyright

114

Hoaxes involving noxious substances or things

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he-

(a) places any substance or other thing in any place; or

(b) sends any substance or other thing from one place to another (by post, rail or any other means whatever);

with the intention of inducing in a person anywhere in the world a belief that it is likely to be (or contain) a noxious substance or other noxious thing and thereby endanger human life or create a serious risk to human health.

(2) A person is guilty of an offence if he communicates any information which he knows or believes to be false with the intention of inducing in a person anywhere in the world a belief that a noxious substance or other noxious thing is likely to be present (whether at the time the information is communicated or later) in any place and thereby endanger human life or create a serious risk to human health.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable-

(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both); and

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or a fine (or both).

115

Sections 113 and 114: supplementary

(1) For the purposes of sections 113 and 114 "substance" includes any biological agent and any other natural or artificial substance (whatever its form, origin or method of production).

(2) For a person to be guilty of an offence under section 113(3) or 114 it is not necessary for him to have any particular person in mind as the person in whom he intends to induce the belief in question.

Now if that cunt Mazheer Mahmoud is not guilty of an offence under this Act I am a tooth fairy.

"A person is guilty of an offence if he communicates any information which he knows or believes to be false with the intention of inducing in a person anywhere in the world a belief that a noxious substance or other noxious thing is likely to be present (whether at the time the information is communicated or later) in any place and thereby endanger human life or create a serious risk to human health."

Will the Met (Prop Sir Ian (Lying Bastard) Blair) arrest MM, charge him, bang him up ?

No.

But everybody involved in this scam should be - including all the dumb bastards that haunt the Terrorism section at Scotland Yard... starting with Peter Clarke. As John Reid, ultimately his boss may say, they ARE NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Mind you they may be guilty under the HSE regulations for not having undertaken a proper Risk Assessment.

Lesser Emperor Dragonfly seen in Rochdale

2006-07-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

The truly magnificent Lesser Emperor dragonfly Anax parthenope has been recorded in Carlisle recently and at a reclaimed nature site in Naseby
The BBC 4 News at 5.55 today had a Natural History reporter saying it had been seen in several places.

Here is a photo Lord Patel was lucky to get when it was observed in Syke, Rochdale, last week. It has also been observed elsewhere in Rochdale in recent days. By far the largest dragonfly you will in the UK see it hovers fairly high and over a wide area. Like an Israeli UAV drone.

The Dragonfly society record it "Rare but currently annual migrant. First recorded 1996, Gloucestershire; has bred in Cornwall."

http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk

C-802 Hezbollah's devatsating secret weapon - more shots in the locker ?

2006-07-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

A fascinating snippet can be found at Global Security which has received zero coverage in the published discussions of the armoury of Hezbollah. Initial reports of the attack on an Israeli ship suggested a modified drone. However ...

"Hizballah seriously damaged a Saar 5-class missile ship named the "Spear" that was helping to enforce Israel's blockade of Lebanon on 14 July 2006. One Israeli sailor was killed and three were initially missing after the attack. Israel initially believed that an aerial drone armed with explosives hit the warship, but it became clear that Hizballah had used an Iranian-made C-802 cruise missile to strike the vessel. Another Hizballah radar-guided anti-ship missile hit and sank a nearby Cambodian merchant ship around the time the Spear was struck. Twelve Egyptian sailors were pulled from the water by passing ships."

The history of the Chinese designed and manufactured C-802 is a fascinating story and the effctiveness of it's use as a land mased missile on nearby craft at sea holds a message of those interested in the security of the Straits of Hormuz where 30% of the world's energy passes every day.

Reports of the inventory held by Iran vary enormously, but they certainly have at least 15 naval patrol vessels equipped with the missiles and several shore batteries - notably Queshm Island.

It is little surprise therefore that the US / Israeli forces have put a block on releasing any information about the attack on "Spear".

“The INS Spear is one of 3 Saar-5 Class warships, larger than a corvette and is one the most advanced warships in Israel's naval arsenal. They were built in Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Northrop-Grumman shipyards, using U.S. military aid funds. (i.e they were given to Israel) The INS Spear entered operational service in 1995. The defense suite of the Saar-5 destroyers is made in its entirety by Israel defense industries. Each vessel displaces approximately 1,300 tons, has a crew of 64, and is capable of independent operations for about 20 days without re-supply. The ships are capable of carrying up to two helicopters, in addition to intelligence and air force personnel.”

No doubt Hezbollah have a few more surprises in their locker. Certainly when the Iranians put on a show for the US in April, they had to sit up and take notice.

It is not only cheap T shirts in Wal Mart that bear the label "Made in China" that threaten the well being of the US.

Livni to be new Israel PM

2006-07-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

Livni to be new Israel PM

Cypriot Diplomatic water coolers (where Condi flew by on her way to give the Lebanese PM a drive by kiss or two) are surrounded by the latest buzz, that AIPAC's call girl's job is to lever in Ms. Livni into the hot seat. Smaller WAR CABINET on the way.

Israeli Minister without Portfolio Eitan Cabel said last week : "I admit I had hoped for better from the army." This was, as they say in Diplomatic circles, the last ~~fucking~~ straw.

Cyprus - reports of problems for refugees

2006-07-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

Problems are developing quickly in Cyprus as the refugees from Lebanon are arriving by the boat load to an isalnd at the peak of the holiday season.

1. Mothers with children are running out of nappies, baby food, bottles, sun shades, clean clothes, sleeping facilities.

2. The airport at Larnaca is in turmoil as they authorities try to get as many flights through as possible - some flights are being doubled up and taken on Boeing 747's to UK.

3. Food supplies to refugees are very basic.

In Larnaca, collections have been made by British residents of cash to buy fruit, nappies, baby food which has been taken to the docks.

Menawhile reports of help from the Turkish Government ..

An Austrian military airplane bound for Larnaca to pick up evacuees from Lebanon was not allowed into Turkish airspace and was obliged to follow a longer flight plan, an Austrian newspaper reported yesterday.

The Kronen Zeitung described the move as a "new, scandalous behaviour of the EU candidate country". It reported the story under the headline "Turkey obstructs rescue flight – It closed its airspace to an aircraft of the federal army."

The paper quoted EU diplomatic sources as saying Turkey’s refusal to allow the flight was directly linked to EU policy towards Cyprus.

"According to Ankara’s policy, flights from and to Cyprus are not allowed through Turkey’s airspace. Apparently this also applies to humanitarian operations, as was Monday’s rescue of refugees from the war zone," the Austrian newspaper said.

It said that Austria’s military attachE in Ankara asked the Turkish government to allow a Hercules transport airplane to fly over its airspace, stressing that the flight was intended to transport refugees who had left the conflict in Lebanon and travelled by ship to Cyprus.

The Turkish government rejected the request on Monday, and a second similar request on Tuesday. The Hercules was obliged to follow a longer route home.

Condi, expert on terrism speaks

2006-07-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

In a July 28th 2005 television interview with Jim Lehrer, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ....(US Sec of State website record)

“When are we going to stop making excuses for the terrorists and saying that somebody is making them do it? No, these are simply evil people who want to kill. And they want to kill in the name of a perverted ideology that really is not ~~Jewish, Judaic or even Zionist~~ Islam, but they somehow want to claim that mantle to say that this is about some kind of grievance. This isn't about some kind of grievance. This is an effort to destroy, rather than to build. And until everybody in the world calls it by name — the evil that it is — stops making excuses for them, then I think we're going to have a problem.

...

They're doing it because they want to create chaos and to undermine our way to life.“

This lying, fucking hypocritical bitch, is on a whistle stop tour of the world's favourite terrist sites - catch her whilst you can...the Drive by Diplomat. Anyway she meets the rest of the gangsters in Rome on Wednesday - time to fill up on the Ferragamo pumps at Duty Free.

Now she's taken to kissing people on the cheek ... the Kiss of Death ? Olmerta ?

Energy price riser for UK

2006-07-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hardly had Lord Patel polished off his crystal balls, or the ink had dried on his forecast of increased gas prices than EDF kicked off with an announcement of higher gas and elctricity prices. Expect more of the same within days by Powergen , British Gas, Centrica and Scottish and Southern.

EDF ENERGY, one of Britain's biggest energy suppliers,(which includes London Energy, Seeboard and SWEB) and a subsidiary of the state owned EDF, with 5 million customers, has announced it's second round of price increases this year (although their website says nothing about it).

Effective from from next Monday, July 31st consumers will pay 19% more for gas and 8% more for electricity - rising to 9.1% for customers in its Northern region.

EDF introduced price rises in March this year for consumers, of 14.7% for gas and 4.7% for electricity. Cumulatively since January 2003 EDF have raised their consumer prices for gas by 92% and electricity prices by 54%.

Derek Lickorish the CEO of EDF claimed ,'We have been absorbing some of the costs of increased wholesale prices in the hope they would ease.(well if he thought that he must live on planet ZOG)

'However, prices have remained high with little prospect for reduction in the foreseeable future. (No.NO. Derek NO prospect for reduction - ever)Reluctantly we now have to pass on a proportion of the resulting costs to customers.' EDF said wholesale energy costs have risen 80% over the last year.

440,000 households signed up for EDF's fixed-price tariffs, which protects them against any price rise before 2008, will not be affected by this rise.

Energywatch The consumer watchdog said the average EDF customer would now pay £642 for gas and £357 for electricity a year, compared to £324 and £240 respectively 3 years ago.

USwitch.com have details of the history of all UK consumer gas and electricity price rises here

History of EDF energy price rises in the UK

May 2003: gas 4% electricity 1.5%
March 2004: gas 4.6% electricity 6.7%
September 2004: gas 3.5% electricity 3.8%
January 2005: gas 8.1% and electricity 5.4% (London Eastern, Seeboard, Southern, SWALEC, SWEB regions) and 9.4% (all other regions).
August 2005: gas 15.5% electricity 10.7%.
March 2006: gas 14.7% electricity 4.7%
July 2006: gas 19% electricity 8% more (London Eastern, Seeboard, Southern, SWALEC, SWEB regions) 9.1% (all other regions).

ofgem

If you thought that ofgem helped police price rises of electricity and gas , think again. This industry funded body is ;"Ofgem is the regulator for Britain’s gas and electricity industries. Its role is to promote choice and value for all customers."

UK Consumer Gas prices will rise up to 50% by Christmas

2006-07-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

“If, when, and how much LNG will be brought into North America remains a critical question to the future of North American natural gas prices,” said George Given, Vice President of Global Energy’s Market Advisory Services recently. “In the next 15 years our increasing reliance on LNG will transform the continental gas market into a global gas market, a new reality that cannot be underestimated for its influence on market prices, industry financial performance and investment.”

EU gas consumers take note. The North American natural gas bubble finally disappeared in the late nineties, launching the US back onto the global LNG market; this could have profound effects—on the US economy as gas prices have more than tripled, with a much greater share of power generated by gas, over half of American homes heated by natural gas, compounding inflationary effects of the oil price increase.

As the North American continent relies more and more on LNG suppliers, there will be spillover effects into the European market. The implications are profound: for example, gas to generate steam to produce the Canadian oil sands, and to produce Ammonia to grow American corn for food and fuel ethanol increasingly will come from the Middle East.

The implications for Europe are already apparent...

April 2006 Ilex Energy Consulting report to DTI pp89/90/91

"There is a potential "gap" between supply and demand, this gap appears significant over the next 2 years but then disappears as the new gas importation projects are commissioned but re-appears from 2014 onwards as we (UK) become increasingly dependent upon remote gas sources - and as demand increases.

The risk of the gap exists whatever view one takes of an outage to a source or facility due to demand variation and the underlying demand and supply.
...

Our analysis, using probabilities of supply problems, (Lord Patel notes no mention of supply disruption due to terrorism - see Gheislingen explosion) indicate that the UK has a potential problem in the next two years followed by a period when the size of the problem is much reduced."

(Ilex are now Pöyry Energy) in a report for the DTI on Gas Supply Disruption in January 2006

In a previous study for the DTI (Jan 2006) Ilex considered the impact of gas disruption in UK heavy energy users - a telling remark is page 55 Para 8.1 " Several companies expressed concerns that the parent company would shift production to sites outside the UK". For example Pilkington Glass ( now part of Nippon Sheet Glass Co. Ltd (NSG Group) from June 2006 in a cash purchase for £1.8 billion ) have made changes to distribution warehousing which increase the importance of the Eastern Pennines (away from Liverpool) which is seen as a prelude to moving flat Plate glas production to Eastern European production sites.(Pilkington Polska Sp. z o. o. - Sandomierz Pilkington Automotive Poland Sp. z o. o. - Sandomierz
Pilkington - IGP Sp. z o. o. - Warsaw Pilkington AGR Polska - Warsaw ?)

Effectively this is importing "energy" by another route but at the expense of forever cutting the UK industrial base. The increasing capacity of Dubai, now with the largest concentration of aluminium smelting in the world, suggests that the smelting on Anglesey will not survive the de-commissioning of Wylfa Nuclear Power Station.

Let's not forget that the two major ‘surprises’ in the last 2 decades that have affected oil / gas markets are

1. The demand surge in China
2. The supply collapse and recovery of Russia

Largely unforeseen and not considered in planning policy—They remain sources of significant uncertainty especially now that Putin and the "silovaki" have demonstrated how they intend to use their energy supplies as wepaons in world trade.The growth of State and para state energy companies , Gazprom , Rosneft, LUKoil are a warning (or at least a concern) - especially when here is much talk of a take over of Centrica (who are expected to announce some dire profits soon - coupled with price rises).

WORLD MARKET

The UK has entered a dangerous position in it's use of natural gas as a source as an industry feedstock, heat energy for industrial processes and as a a fuel for CCGT electricity generation.

One would not have to be too much of a pessimist to view the world as embracing a twin time bomb: political instability in the sources of resources on the one hand and an environmentally
unsustainable pace of consumption of those resources on the
other. Compounded by (in the UK) 3 Energy Reviews (99/03/06) by an Administration evidently totally mired in understanding

1. What has happened
2. What may / can happen
3. What they want to happen

In the UK energy supply and consumer market.

The May 2006 Bank of England Inflation report was extremely clear about the impact of rising energy costs, upon inflation - both now and in the future.

"Looking ahead, substantial increases in domestic gas and electricity prices, and the recent rise in petrol prices, are likely to boost CPI inflation in the near term."

Which will presumably , as inflation is now 2.5% (above the 2% target) result in higher interest rates.

CONCLUSIONS

Having fittered away opportunities to get to grips with a sane sensible, rational UK energy policy we are faced with ;

1. Great Uncertainty over Gas supplies - source, quantities and prices.
2. Lack of any clear national policy - other than a huge (80%) reliance on gas as a primary enegry source for electrical energy.
3. Reliance upon foreign owned companies to direct future plans , determine prices and investment.

One thing is evident, that the insane ETS policy whilst it has produced some small changes , has had no impact , and does not appear to be having any future impact on investment decisions which are crucial both to the domestic and industrial gas consumers.

Result ?

You will be paying more for your gas next winter and you can expect the suppliers to raise prices whilst consumption is low in the summer. The Government will have no control over the price rises - the companies will claim if they cannot raise prices they cannot make the investments.

My guess.

Worst case, UK Domestic Consumers will be paying 50% more for gas by Christmas Day, Best case 33%.

... and don't say you were not warned.

NSA warrantless surveillance - Justice investigators denied access by Dubya

2006-07-23T01:31:00.000-07:00

The US Justice Department was told to investigate the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program. An embarassment to the President who claimed he was exercising his wartime powers - what did he do ? Simple. He denied access to the information the Justice Department investigators wanted - because they did not have security clearance - Yossarian thou shouldst be living at this hour.

Bush's decision, was revealed by that legal Titan , Albert Gonzalez, in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Gonzales said that in matters involving access to classified programs, "the President of the United States makes the decision." which represents an unusually direct, unprecedented and novel White House intervention into an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal affairs office at Justice. It forced OPR to abandon its investigation of the role played by Justice Department officials in authorizing and monitoring the controversial NSA eavesdropping effort.

"Since its creation some 31 years ago, OPR has conducted many highly sensitive investigations involving Executive Branch programs and has obtained access to information classified at the highest levels," chief lawyer H. Marshall Jarrett wrote in a published memorandum . "In all those years, OPR has never been prevented from initiating or pursuing an investigation."

“President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal inquiry into the administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program.” said Alberto to the Committee.

"The president decided that protecting the secrecy and security of the program requires that a strict limit be placed on the number of persons granted access to information about the program for non-operational reasons," Gonzales wrote in a related letter sent to the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. "Every additional security clearance that is granted for the (program) increases the risk that national security might be compromised."

However if you go back to the White House Record of the President
President Bush: Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security
Remarks by the President in a Conversation on the USA Patriot Act
Kleinshans Music Hall April 2004 Buffalo, New York

This is how he reassured the assmebled throng at Kleinshans Music Hall in Buffalo on April 20th 2004 - when of course the AT&T access to IP traffic had been in full swing for a least 2 years - if you believe Klein's testimony in Hepting, et al., v. AT&T Corporation.

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.

The Patriot Act changed that. So with court order, law enforcement officials can now use what's called roving wiretaps, which will prevent a terrorist from switching cell phones in order to get a message out to one of his buddies."

Oh No Mr President! The Patriot Act changed nothing, surveillance just carried on regardless of the law on wiretaps, because lawyers like Albert Gonzalez could stand up and attempt to justify it and your actions.

But the President evidently believes in the Patriot Act ..
see what he said in Buffalo ...

" Those who criticize the Patriot Act must listen to those folks on the front line of defending America. The Patriot Act defends our liberty, is what it does, under the Constitution of the United States. (Applause.)"

Yo! Defends our Liberty ... under the Constitution.

However at Scotus Blog there is a handy analysis of US District Judge Walkers refusal to dismiss the
Hepting, et al., v. AT&T Corporation case (Opinion 72 pages) PDF Alert

In a trenchant and forthright way the Judge wrote..""While the court recognizes and respects the executive's constitutional duty to protect the nation from threats, the court also takes seriously its constitutional duty to adjudicate the disputes that come before it," ...

Maybe George isn't out of the trees on this one yet. But don't put the increasingly costly mortgage on it.

FURTHER NOTES

Fiengold Blog

FEINGOLD CALLS ON ADMINISTRATION TO RECONSIDER ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING PROGRAM FOLLOWING SUPREME COURT’S HAMDAN DECISION

Nevada Thunder
Specter Caves to White House Demands on NSA Bill

Glenn Greenwald

Huge news - Judge refuses to dismiss NSA lawsuit

Glenn reviews the position with care and precision ..

"Most importantly of all, the court re-affirmed one of the most basic and important principles of our system of government. That even with regard to national security, there is no such thing as a President who acts alone without interference from the other branches of government. Instead, quoting Hamdi: "Whatever power the United States Constitution envisions for the Executive in its exchanges with other nations or with enemy organizations in times of conflict, it most assuredly envisions a role for all three branches when individual liberties are at stake." That is the very opposite of the Yoo theory of executive power which has been inflicted on this country for the last five years."

"....the administration uses concepts of national security as a game, as a selective weapon, to promote its political objectives. That is likely the primary reason why courts have decided that far more skepticism is required when it comes to this administration's assertions than was warranted for any prior administration."

As a commentator pithily puts it ....Jeffery Faulk said...

Great news indeed. It's nice to see some common sense prevailing in the courts. Their "State Secrets" gig is just to cover their criminal asses and it's great to see them getting called on their bushshit.

FURTHER NOTES

Fiengold Blog

FEINGOLD CALLS ON ADMINISTRATION TO RECONSIDER ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING PROGRAM FOLLOWING SUPREME COURT’S HAMDAN DECISION

Nevada Thunder
Specter Caves to White House Demands on NSA Bill

Glenn Greenwald

Huge news - Judge refuses to dismiss NSA lawsuit

Glenn reviews the position with care and precision ..

"Most importantly of all, the court re-affirmed one of the most basic and important principles of our system of government. That even with regard to national security, there is no such thing as a President who acts alone without interference from the other branches of government. Instead, quoting Hamdi: "Whatever power the United States Constitution envisions for the Executive in its exchanges with other nations or with enemy organizations in times of conflict, it most assuredly envisions a role for all three branches when individual liberties are at stake." That is the very opposite of the Yoo theory of executive power which has been inflicted on this country for the last five years."

"....the administration uses concepts of national security as a game, as a selective weapon, to promote its political objectives. That is likely the primary reason why courts have decided that far more skepticism is required when it comes to this administration's assertions than was warranted for any prior administration."

As a commentator pithily puts it ....Jeffery Faulk said...

Great news indeed. It's nice to see some common sense prevailing in the courts. Their "State Secrets" gig is just to cover their criminal asses and it's great to see them getting called on their bushshit.

Manchester March - International Solidarity

2006-07-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

Manchester watched - we marched

2006-07-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Great mood of solidarity, ages, cultures, backgrounds

2006-07-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Gloriously sunny as we chanted - listened to speeches and generally felt that we had made a voice heard.

Since getting back and watching BBC TV News, maybe they have started to note the marches in 11 towns and London - plus they are giving some belated support to Howell's remarks in Beirut.

Blair will of course ignore whatever is done, 1 Mn aat leats marched against the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Manchester Marcher

2006-07-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Roll of Infamy - who voted in support of the Israeli war crimes ?

2006-07-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the roll of infamy - those who voted for (and those who voted against, abstained or were absent)

H RES 921 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 20-Jul-2006 12:10 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree
BILL TITLE: Condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel, holding terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such attacks, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and for other purposes

OIl slick is Lebanese eco-disaster

2006-07-22T00:37:00.000-07:00

Rivers of blood , now seas full of oil from ruptured oil tanks have caused a sinister oily black tide between Shekka and Sidon. More information in Arabic here

An unexpected and excellent source of information about Lebanon is available from Wal-Mart Vacations

Triumph of Foreign Policy for US / UK Axis of ......

2006-07-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Daily Telegraph 22nd July 2006

Baghdad in anarchy

"We have received information of a plan to divide Baghdad," said Rida Jawad al-Takki, a senior member of the dominant Shia Alliance. "The government is incapable of solving the situation. The situation is terrifying and black."

The GuardianJuly 22nd 2006

Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general

· Nato commander's view in stark contrast to ministers'
· Forces short of equipment and 'running out of time'

Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute in London. "The situation is close to anarchy," he said, referring in particular to what he called "the lack of unity between different agencies".

The picture Gen Richards painted yesterday contrasted markedly with optimistic comments by ministers when they agreed earlier this month to send reinforcements to southern Afghanistan at the request of British commanders there.

Financial Times July 22nd 2006
Israeli troops mass on border for mass murder

"With Washington resisting (ignoring) international calls for a ceasefire, Israeli military commanders see a clear path to press ahead with air strikes and raids by special forces in the border area as a precursor to a ground offensive that could last several weeks. Lt Gen Dan Halutz, Israeli army chief of staff, said troops would be sent in as needed but the incursions would be “limited”.

The conflict has so far cost the lives of at least 344 people in Lebanon and 34 Israelis, including 18 soldiers, since Israel launched its offensive aimed at freeing 2 captured soldiers and neutralising Hizbollah."

Israeli IDF Magic - turn failed air war into failed land assault

2006-07-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, was bragging last week about bombing Lebanon back 20 years.Now his military colleagues have been stunned by the failure of Israel's massive air war against Hizbullah. The huge, unending aerial assualt has been shrugged off and the rocket attacks continue. So much for Patriot missiles.

"Air power is not the answer here," a senior officer said in despair. 'You have to go from one Hizbullah [weapons] bunker to another. Some of these bunkers are seven meters deep and can't be destroyed by aircraft, even if you could find them."

Military sources attached to Western embassies claim Halutz was convinced that communications and air power rather than troops would rapidly win Israel's wars. Reports persist that air force was surprised by its failure to halt or even reduce Hizbullah rocket strikes.

Only a month ago, Lt. Col. Itay Brun explained the concept of Israel's military. The concept envisioned an army based largely on special operations units and backed by air power.

As Brun described it, most of Israel's operations would be conducted from the air. Fighter-jets would destroy guerrilla strongholds, helicopters would pick off enemy combatants while unmanned aerial vehicles would select and track targets. Most of the tactics would also be used in a conventional war.

"The next challenge is to win the war against terrorism and guerrillas from the air," Brun, adviser to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told a military conference.

As a result, the General Staff are panicking and has approved the entry of at least 5,000 troops (mostly reservists and conscripts) in Lebanon in a limited search-and-destroy mission for Hizbullah rockets in villages near the Israeli border. So far, about 3,000 soldiers have been deployed in southern Lebanon, where attack aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles have failed to detect and battle Hizbullah fighters.

To add to their woes , On Friday, two AH-64A Apache attack helicopters (the most advanced killing mcahine in the world) crashed in northern Israel near the Lebanese border. The military said a pilot was killed and another four soldiers were injured as the helicopters sought to support troops in Lebanon.

Israel's advanced technology is failing to detect, and does not stop Hizbullah assaults. Military sources said Hizbullah quickly developed methods to penetrate Israel's C4I [command, control, communications, computers and intelligence] border system, based on advanced sensors and heavy air surveillance.

Hizbullah, sources claim, learned how to disable cameras and exploit blind spots to cut through the border fence and attack Israeli military positions. They said this was how a small Hizbullah force attacked an Israeli border post on July 12 and abducted two soldiers.

The military acknowledged that for more than one hour commanders were unaware that soldiers had been taken to Lebanon. Commanders said they were caught off guard by Hizbullah's mastery of anti-tank weapons, mortars and platoon-sized maneuvers.

"It may be that we don't have our priorities straight," said [Res.] Maj. Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal, who until 2005 headed the Ground Forces Command.

To some strategists, the Israeli concept of air power was doomed to failure. In a lecture at Tel Aviv University in March, [Res.] Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a former head of military intelligence research, warned that ground forces and tanks have remained far more flexible and resilient than aircraft.

"The policymakers must understand the limitations of the air force," Amidror said. "My feeling is that the air force does not sufficiently stress its weaknesses."

If the air war is converted to a ground war , memories will recur of the retreat from Lebanon previously. The much vaunted invincibility of the IAF, the F16's is being tested in the melting pot.

When will there be calls to sue for peace ?

More about Imad Mugniyah and capture of IDF troops in Lebanon

2006-07-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Imad Mugniyah likely behind the capture of Israeli soldiers
By Bill Roggio

Counterrorism Blog has a lebgthy article about Imad Mugniyah, and there are new links and further information - curiously this name has not appeared in any MSM stories (well the stories Lord Patel has seen).

Hezbollah has conducted a highly successful raid into Israeli territory, attacking a Israeli Defense Force outpost along the Israel-Lebanese border, killing 3 soldiers and capturing 2 after they were wounded. 4 Israeli soldiers were killed when their tank ran over a land mine in Lebanon during follow-up operations to free the captured soldiers. An additional soldier was killed when attempting to recover the bodies of the 4 tank crew.

Hezbollah carefully planned and selected the personnel for this operation, and executed it with precision. The attack began with an artillery barrage along the Israeli frontier. An IDF outpost, with well trained Israeli troops (?), was overrun, and Hezbollah had the time to take the 2 wounded Israeli soldiers hostage. The land mine used to destroy the tank during the Israeli follow-up raid into Lebanon was deliberately set to catch the IDF while pressing forward, and large enough to destroy a well armored main battle tank. The Israeli search and rescue combat team took heavy fire once they crossed the border. Hezbollah laid a trap for the IDF. >>> a lot more

No mere border skirmish if this analysis is correct.

Israel is accused of using chemical weapons by Belgian professor

2006-07-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

There are persistent reports of strange effects from Israeli shelling in Beirut,a Belgian professor Bachir Cham, is the head of a hospital in Lebanon, claimed by telephone in a press conference organised by the secretary of the Tripoli archbishop, Monsignor Jean Abboud , that the Israeli military is using chemical weapons during its bombing of Lebanon.

"The bodies don't look like they normally do. After an explosion there were no traces of blood loss or subcutaneous haemorrhages [bruises],"

"The hair and sometimes the beard and the moustache remained intact. I found no traces of the pressure wave by the explosion. The colour of the skin was black like a shoe, but the skin was not carbonised or burnt."

Eight mummy-like bodies were taken to the hospital on Monday and photos taken of the corpses. Two children's bodies showed no indication of wounds resulting from an explosion.

"I have the impression that a poisonous product penetrated the body via the skin. Death follows with almost 100 percent certainty," the professor said.

A heart specialist, Mohammad Farran, said letters had been sent to the UN and the EU drawing their attention to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Israel in Lebanon.

The pictures here are from Blogger Letters Apart where more information is available.

The gruesome results of whatever weapon are sufficently sickening, but the claims should be examined, promptly and by suitable qualified people - if only to discount the stories as fabrications.

More information and links at Cannonfire

Israel - 60 years of terrorism - something to celebrate

2006-07-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

60 years ago today, the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was the site of the British military command and the British Criminal Investigation Division.

The Irgun terrist gang led by Prime Minister in waiting Menachim Begin ( who dandled the baby Tripni Livni on his knee) chose it as a target after British troops invaded the Jewish Agency June 29, 1946, and confiscated large quantities of documents.

2,500 Jews from all over Palestine had been placed under arrest and information about Jewish Agency operations, including intelligence activities in Arab countries, was taken to the King David Hotel.

Irgun leader Menachem Begin arranged for a bomb made of 3 milk churns to be made and delivered, he stressed his desire to avoid civilian casualties and said three telephone calls were placed, one to the hotel, another to the French Consulate, and a third to the Palestine Post newspaper, warning that explosives in the King David Hotel would soon be detonated.

On July 22, 1946, the calls were made. The call into the hotel was apparently received and ignored. Begin quotes one British official who supposedly refused to evacuate the building, saying: "We don't take orders from the Jews." As a result, when the bombs exploded, the casualty toll was high: a total of 91 killed and 45 injured. Among the casualties were 15 Jews - 13 more than Israel passport owning Jews perished in the horrors of 911.

There will be a lot of celebrations amongst the aged members of the palach today as a result. It is fitting that a nation born in terrist turmoil continues with it, albeit now on an international scale ably assisted by the money and armaments given to it by their pimp, Uncle Sam.

There is no Jewish Lobby

2006-07-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

The House of Representatives passed a resolution, 410-8 vote,to support Israel in its
confrontation with Hezbollah guerrillas which also condemns enemies of the Jewish state.

House Republican leader John Boehner, a prominent speaker at the AIPAC gang rally early this year (along with Veep Cheney) cited Israel's "unique relationship" with the United States as a reason for his colleagues to swiftly go on record supporting Israel.

"You don't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" Hebrew saying.

How do you make a Hebrew omelette ?
First you steal 3 eggs .....

Jonathan Cook - The Human Shields of Nazareth

2006-07-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Human Shields of Nazareth

Jonathan Cook is a journalist / writer living in Nazareth - make a point of reading his pieces. This piece gives the lie to the BBC stories that Hezbollah was aiming at "Christian Nazareth".

Read about the real reason for the Hezbollah rockets hitting near Nazareth -

"Several Israeli armaments factories and storage depots have been built close by Arab communities in the north of Israel, possibly in the hope that by locating them there Arab regimes will be deterred from attacking Israel's enormous armory. In other words, the inhabitants of several of Israel's Arab towns and villages have been turned into collective human shields – protection for Israel's war machine.

Send him an e-mail to let him know we are reading what he says
cook@jkcook.net

Bio fuels / Coal liquids - an important meeting

2006-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

An important meeting scheduled for August 29, when the Richard G. Lugar-Purdue Summit on Energy Security will be held on on Purdue's campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. This will " focus on prospects for other sources of liquid fuels" a matter of great interest and importance to the corn growers of the mid -west and the car drivers of the US.

National leaders from government, business, academia, and various energy-related fields will participate in the invitation-only event, which will cover national security and economic policies, biomass and coal-based fuels, and suggest business and government strategies.

The Agenda is available here and includes

Talks by Indiana Governer Mitch Daniels, Senator Luger, Bob Malone Chairman of BP America (BP PLC is effectively a US company).

The afternoon technical discusions look extremely interesting

Bio-fuels and Coal Liquids
Moderator: Otto Doering, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Barriers and Opportunities Relating to Production of Coal Liquids and Environmental Issues
Ari Geertsema, Professor
Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky

An Apollo Program for Biomass Liquids
Michael Ladisch, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University

Agronomic/Economic Issues Related to Bio-energy Sustainability
Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Associate Director
Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee

Alternative Policy Mechanisms for Stimulating Bio-fuels and Coal Liquids Production
Wallace Tyner, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Contact
Joseph Bennett
Vice President of University Relations
Purdue University
(765) 494-2082
jlbennett@purdue.edu

UK Coal.... Hurry Hurry Hurry

2006-07-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

UK Coal (UKC) trading at 184p up 2% on the day.
5 day Chart - meanwhile IAF has launched 3,000 sorties into Lebanon.

War crimes by Israel in GAZA - UN Report

2006-07-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

UN HEALTH RIGHTS EXPERT CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY INTO ALLEGED WAR CRIME IN GAZA

The full text of a statement issued on Wednesday on the conditions in Gaza can be found at the link ... here are extracts ;

"Following the events of 25 June, including the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel has carried out numerous military interventions in the Gaza Strip. According to UN sources, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed, including 18 children. Almost 400 Palestinians have been injured, including 108 children. With limited exceptions, Israel has sealed Gaza's borders. Some patients returning home to Gaza after medical treatment abroad, and some patients seeking treatment abroad, have been unable to pass through the Rafah crossing: while waiting, nine Palestinians have died. On the night of 27-28 June, Gaza's only electricity power station was attacked and incapacitated."

Following the attack, the lack of power for pumps is causing a serious water shortage, and affecting sewage disposal, for tens of thousands of households throughout the Gaza Strip. There are reports of sewage leakage, as well as a reduction in municipal waste collection and disposal. Reported cases of diarrhoea have increased by 163% compared to the same period last year. It is possible that communicable diseases, like cholera and poliomyelitis, will re-emerge. Reduced hospital services are dependent upon generators that are unsuitable for constant, long-term use.

The right to the highest attainable standard of health includes access to medical services and also access to adequate sanitation and safe drinking water. The destruction of Gaza's electricity power station is profoundly inconsistent with the health and safety of all civilians living in Gaza, especially the young, sick, infirm and elderly, as well as their right to the highest attainable standard of health, enshrined in the International Bill of Rights and other international human rights instruments.

Moreover, the destruction of Gaza's electricity power station may be a violation of international humanitarian law (sometimes known as the 'laws of war').

The basic rule of international humanitarian law is that parties to a conflict must always distinguish between combatants and civilians. Attacks can only be directed against combatants and military objectives. "

"If the attack on the electricity power station was not in conformity with international humanitarian law it amounts to a war crime. For example, if the attack were disproportionate, it was a war crime.

In these circumstances, I strongly recommend that, as a matter of urgency, an independent enquiry be made to determine whether or not the recent attack on Gaza's electricity power station was a war crime."

News reports at the time ...

"Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said. The station's three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where water pumps are powered by electricity."

Israel's tools for genocide - where do they get them ?

2006-07-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

In the last decade, the U.S. has sold Israel $ 7.2 billion in weaponry and military equipment, $762 million through Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), more than $6.5 billion through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. In fact, Israel is so devoted to U.S. military hardware that it has the world's largest fleet of F-16s outside the U.S., currently possessing more than 200 jets. The U.S. also gives Israel weapons and ammunition as part of the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program, providing these articles completely free of charge. Examples of U.S. weaponry being used by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians and their property are AH-64 Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, missiles and other heavy arms.

The UK has sold Israel equipment and components for tanks, combat aircraft, combat helicopters, missiles, ammunition, mines, machine guns, tear gas, and electronic equipment for military use. UK companies with known connections with Israel include: the Airtechnology Group, which supplies parts to IMI for the Merkava tank, BAE Systems, which has provided head-up displays for US-built F16s214 and whose subsidiary Rokar International is the current sole-source supplier of counter-measure dispensing systems for the Israeli airforce, and Smiths Group which has supplied missile triggering systems for Apache helicopters.

Israeli Merkava tanks had been equipped with a cooling system made by the Surrey-based Airtechnology Group, and UK components, including missile trigger systems made by Smiths Group, are used in US-made Apache helicopters supplied to Israel, both in action killing and injuring Palestinian civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.

In March 2002, Junior UK Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw, disclosed that the Israeli armed forces had modified UK Centurion tanks, exported between 1958 and 1970, and were using them as armoured personnel carriers. He stated that this contradicted a written assurance from the Israeli government on 29 November 2000 that "no UK-originated equipment nor any UK-originated systems/ sub systems /components are used as part of the defence force's activities in the territories". The UK government has continued to supply arms and equipment to the Israeli security forces. Such transfers continue despite reports that generic types of such equipment have been used by the Israeli security forces in Rafah to commit human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.

More details of EU military supplies to Israel here

Protest Marches against genocide nationwide

2006-07-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Please publicise this as much as possible ...and go.

Birmingham Saturday 22 July. 1-3pm, outside Waterstones at the entrance to the Bullring.
Bristol Friday 21 July. 5.30-6.30pm. City Centre, opposite the Hippodrome
Exeter Saturday 22 July 11am-1pm at Bedford Square on Exeter High Street
Edinburgh: Saturday 22 JulyAssemble 2pm: The Mound precinct, Princes Street.
Glasgow: Saturday 22 July Assemble 12 noon: George Square
Kirkcaldy: Saturday July 22 Assemble 12 Noon outside Kirkcaldy Town House
Manchester: Saturday 22 July Assemble 1.00pm: Outside the BBC. Oxford Road.
Contact: info@mancsagainsttanks.org Tel: 07760 224 580
Newcastle: Saturday 22 July Assemble Grey's Monument 1pm Nearest Metro: Monument. Organised by Tyneside Stop the War Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Contact 07914 606 452
Norwich Saturday 22 July, From 1pm. The Haymarket, Norwich city centre.
Sheffield Saturday 22 July Noon. Town Hall.
York Saturday 22 July. 1.00pm. St Sampsons Square

and

London: Saturday 22 July
Assemble Embankment 12 Noon
Organised by Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Muslim Association of Britain, British Muslim Initiative, Lebanese organisations
»Download leaflet with full details
Contact office@stopwar.org.uk Tel 020 7278 6694

IMAD FAYEZ MUGNIYAH - Did they get him?

2006-07-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

The Israeli military said warplanes dropped 23 tons of explosives late on Wednesday on a south Beirut bunker. Reports in ME diplomatic circles (not unconnected with detlev Mehlis - the man who fingered Syria as Hariri's killer) say that the Israeli's had information that Imad Mugniyah was present. He is on the FBI top 20 most wanted list - he was responsible for many hi-jacking, kidnapping, assassinations and seizing IDF soldiers - a track record and MO which has placed him in the frame again.

Michael Ledeen, (an unreliable source with many fingers in many spooky pies) at the American Enterprise Institute, claimed he was sighted at the meeting in Damascus by US officials in Damascus (January 22nd 2006) with Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad.

At the time Congressional staffers "familiar with America's Iran policy", said that they had heard from foreign "diplomatic sources" that the Mugniyah was at the meeting.

If you wonder why US officials might have seen the meeting of Assad / Ahmadinejad / Imad Mugniyah it will be useful to consider direct talks that the US have had (and through other channels including Ex MI6 officers with Hezbollah over many years see here

23 tons of HE ? Whoever it was they were after, they wanted him dead - or it was a big fireworks show for the networks tonight.

Lord Levy, kidnapped ...by the Met.

2006-07-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Breaking News the brothers offered up prayers at Asr and bless us, Lord Levy has not been charged and is released on bail of £250,000 !
Lord Levy, 61, schoolfriend of Efraim Halevy ex head of Mossad, (Jewish Rotary Club) tennis partner of the Prime Minister, Middle East envoy of the UK Government to promote and protect the interests of Israel, has been ~~kidnapped~~ arrested and is being held at a North London police station.(Pic Lord Levy and Chicken Tikka Marsala)

The gubment is breathing hard down the necks of the Metropolitan Police .... 7/7 bombings and associated lies, deceits and general incompetence, de Menezes murder and associated lies, deceits and general incompetence. 21/7 Flour Power bombings and associated lies, deceits and general incompetence.John Reid has exposed the lies about the 7/7 "Timeline" and the Metropolitan Police have compounded their lies further by denying any responsibility for claiming the 7/7 " suicide bombers" travelled on a non-existent train. "Not me guv, the 'ome Orifice made it up." Not to mention tapinga phone conversation with the Attorney General .....

Lord Levy , a famous musicologist, specialising in primitive music (Alvin Stardust etc.,) has been arrested "in connection with the "cash-for-honours" inquiry " by the Metropolitan Police, whereby they provided massive cash "loans"(total £14 Mn.) to the New Labour Cheese and Whine Party in exchange for being called the husband of Lady Patel etc., immediately prior to an "election". It is understood that the £16 Mn. in loans to the Conservative Party had nothing to do with Lord Levy, enquiries should be addressed to "Lord" Ashcroft c/o Hotel Splendido, Belize by the Sea.

Lord Levy will be returned in good working order to the Prime Minister by the Metropolitan Police if John Reid and his Rottweillers, the IPCC, the blogosphere, inquisitive journalists, lawyers acting for the de Menezes family, shut up and go away.

Lord Levy is 60. His favourite curry is, favour.

Prayers will be said during Maghrib at the Al Aqsa Mosque to intercede on his behalf.

Lady Patel remarks, (as she frequently does) that Lord Levy is lucky that Sir Ian didn't send out the de Menezes murder squad, or wear a "bulky" jacket... Although as the sharp eyed lady pointed out, he was wearing a distinctly dodgy pair of shiny patent leatherette, "Up-Lift Hi-Rise" dancing shoes for the vertically challenged. The gold embossed , "Fergiana" rose tinted shades didn't help either.

LATE POST24th July 23.53

It appears that My Lord Levy has always voted at his paty's call on the few ocassions he has voted in the House of Lords. He has never spoken but voted once against the Gubment on the Hunting with Dogs : Licence Bill. Presumably so that they can hunt Muslims.

Apparently also, when kidnapped he issued a statement carefully prepared by Bindman's amd then did a no Comment to every question asked. Evidently takes the oath of allegiance required to receive his title very seriously - that's the one about helping the Monarch defeat her foes, etc.,

Anyway Plod has taken away his computer and some bits and pieces from the Totteridge Lawn Tennis Club - which he was happy to provide.

The computer is being very carefully examined by the ever expanding IT sections of MI6 - taken away from the less urgent task of discovering cild porn on computers seized under the "Gold Star" campaign, and monitoring HMG's paedophile "honey pot" sex sites.

Let's just hope for my Lord's sake they don't get their hard drives mixed up.

Hot ? Thirsty ? Need a drink of Water ? - Take care if you do

2006-07-20T12:00:00.001-07:00

University of North Carolina researchers found that ;

1. 20% of daily calories consumed are from beverages.
2. Half the excess calories consumed are from beverages, often with added sugar.
3. Sugared beverages have increased as portion of the daily US diet from 50 cals. in 1977 and trebled to 150 calories in 2001. - that's 15lbs body weight per year.

Many people have therefore turned to the healthy (?) alternative and swagger down and round the gym clutching their fancy bottled water.

So, in 2005, US consumers spent $10.1 billion to drink nearly 8 billion gallons of bottled water -- that's 26 gallons per person -- and paid more per gallon than for gasoline. If you buy and drink bottled water in the US - read on, you might change your mind.

A four-year study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group, found 60 to 70 percent of the bottled water sold in the United States is exempt from FDA bottled water standards,(because bizarrely FDA says its rules do not apply to water packaged and sold within the same state), including carbonated water, seltzer, Club soda, tonic water as well as flavored and fortified waters. "Even when bottled waters are covered by FDA's specific bottled water standards, those rules are weaker in many ways than EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) rules that apply to big city tap water," the NRDC found.

For example most cities using surface water have had to test for Cryptosporidium or Giardia, two common water pathogens that can cause diarrhea and other intestinal problems (or more serious problems in vulnerable people), yet bottled water companies don't have to do this. City water tests have to be undertaken by certified labs but most bottlers test in house.

Tap water can't contain fecal coliform bacteria and is tested 100 times or more a month for these pathogens. Amazingly bottled water doesn't face these rules and is only tested once a week. Public water systems report their test results, "none of the bottled water test results have to be made public.

The FDA examined the feasibility of asking bottled water companies to provide test results to the public and concluded "that it wasn't feasible," says the Bottled Water Association (It is in the EU). But because bottled water is an FDA-regulated product, they say that if a product was "out of compliance it would not be available in the marketplace." Consumers who want to see test results "can contact the company directly."

In the UK Drinking Water Quality is regulated by The Drinking Water Inspectorate which was formed in 1990 and acts as the independent regulator of the quality and safety of drinking water supplied by the water companies in England and Wales. The powers and duties of the Inspectorate come from the Water Industry Act 1991, as amended by the Water Act 2003.

They produced their 16th Annual report on 28th June 2006 for the year 2005.99.96% of tests met the required standards compared with 99.94% the previous year. Whatever it costs , it can be relied upon to be clean and healthy.

UK bottled drinking water must conform (as do all EU countries) with European Union's (EU's) bottled natural mineral water standards which regulate total bacteria count, and explicitly ban all parasites and pathogenic microorganisms, E. coli or other coliform bacteria, fecal streptococci (e.g., Streptococcus faecalis, recently renamed Enterococcus faecalis), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and sporulated sulphite-reducing anaerobic bacteria.

Unlike the weak FDA regulations, the EU rules require natural mineral bottled water's labels to state the composition of the water and the specific water source, and mandate that only one water label may be used per source of water. Similarly, recent EU standards applicable to all bottled water also are far stricter than FDA standards.

FDA's standards for certain chemicals (such as arsenic) also are weaker than certain World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

International Bottled Water Association (US)website has some useful information.

UK Coal. Buy now whilst there is some still left.

2006-07-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Those who acted on the note "UK Coal on the move" last week will not be disappointed with either by the 7p rise since or the news of a move into profitability or the arrival of John Whittaker's Peel Land and Property Investments Limited who have taken a 5.07% stake of 7,560,150 shares, to join Channel Hotels and Properties Ltd who have extended their holdings to 3.11 % by 200,000 shares in the company.

Preliminary results

UK Coal anticipates reporting a first half year profit before
taxation of £7m (H1 2005: £31m loss), including a revaluation gain on investment
properties of £5m (H1 2005: £5m). Sales for the six-month period were £193m (H1
2005: £164m).

The group will announce its first-half results on Sept 6.

"UK COAL welcomes the DTI's Energy Review report, which underscores the important long-term contribution of coal-fired generation and aims to optimise the use of economical domestic coal reserves. In particular, we are pleased with the
Government's decision to convene a Coal Forum, which will bring together electricity generators and coal producers to help find solutions to secure the long-term future of domestic coal production."

The Coal Forum was welcomed by the TUC, having abandoned the Miners years ago. They reasonably and necessarily call for ..

"The TUC and mining unions have argued that clean coal should make a long-term contribution to the UK's energy needs - and greenhouse gas targets.

They will now be pressing the Government to support the recommendations of the Clean Coal Task Group, the joint industry/union/Government body that has already published a framework for clean coal in the UK, allied to developing the UK's indigenous coal reserves.
http://www.a2mediagroup.com/?c=134&a=8168
The Clean Coal Task Group has already produced a programme for clean coal including:

*
High level Energy Review endorsement for Clean Coal in Britain and indigenous coal production as part of a diverse generation portfolio.
*
Actions by generators and coal suppliers towards securing long-term supplies of indigenous coal at prices competitive with imported coal. (i.e Government subsidies in some form or other)
*
A change in the planning regime to remove the 'presumption against'.
*
Urgent adjustment to the European Emissions Trading Scheme, to remove perverse disincentives for Clean Coal-fired power stations."

A letter from Mitsui Babcock, Renfrew in the Financial Times today (Not online) boosts the claim of the open cast mining industry - evidently the "to remove perverse disincentives for Clean Coal-fired power stations. " are going to be much argued over as the absurd EU ETS scheme founders and eventually collapses as the UK becomes increasingly desperate to generate electricity.

Cash in now after global capitalism helped destroy the UK indigenous energy resource - get into UK Coal and AB Ports who are building the huge new docks at HUll to handle coal and petcoke (for Drax - which owners have seen their shares rise from £5 in December 2005 to £8.80(ish) today).

If you want to read what Mitsui Babcock have to say about the Energy Review and where they see their commercial opportunities see here ( Alert 21 page PDF).

This is essential reading for anyone interested in the problems facing the UK due to years of neglect , havering and time wasting - resulting in a looming energy deficit - long forecast by teh Forthcoming UK Energy Deficit (FCUKED).

These are the pithy, short sharp and barbed criticism Mitsui Babcock raise ;

Since the Government’s 2003 Energy White Paper

1. Emissions of carbon dioxide have risen in the UK
2. Investment in renewables has stalled despite financial encouragement through the Renewables Obligation
3. The UK has experienced record prices for gas and seen a halt to
investment in gas from generating companies (not quite with Centricas plant at Devon due in 3 years)
4.The Emissions Trading Scheme has failed to significantly affect the mix of energy
generation or trigger investment in carbon emissions reduction. (And is sue to collapse)

5.Security of supply, environmental and cost issues are now impacting on the confidence of the UK plc - concerns over the current situation were raised by the Confederation of British Industry in December 2005.

6. Britain escaped the effects of the gas row between Ukraine and Russia in January 2006, but the dispute demonstrated the real possibility that overseas gas supplies could be cut.

According to the International Energy Agency, proven coal reserves worldwide are equivalent to lmost 200 years of production at current rates and exceed those of oil (36-44 years) and gas (66 Years) by a wide margin. Coal can be stockpiled safely in the open air and its supply increased quickly whenever it is needed. (they don't mention the fact that UK PLc has to pay for it, and boast have to move it round - we haven't shipped coal by air since the Berlin airlift in the 5o's)

Here is their prescription for action ...

• Clean Coal Technology is the only short term solution to environmental, economic and security of supply challenges with a vital role as a long term solution within a diverse energy portfolio.
• Government must invest in Clean Coal to stabilise energy prices. Clean Coal solves the short term environmental and supply challenges while delivering cheaper electricity than gas or renewables.
• Government must proactively ensure security of supply through a diverse energy portfolio. The Emissions Trading Scheme has failed to affect the energy mix or reduce carbon emissions.
• Government must invest in Clean Coal if the UK is to close the UK's energy gap; gas prices are rising, nuclear is for the long term and renewables are clean but only supply energy intermittently.
• Government must lead industry investment in today’s Clean Coal Technology, ensuring National Allocation Plan CO2 Allowances trigger investment in this technology during the 2008 - 2012 period, mirroring Germany’s recent success in this area and subsequent rush for
Clean Coal.
• Government must fund demonstrations of CO2 capture and storage during the period 2008 to 2015, proving this second stage Clean Coal Technology, removing almost all emissions. It should also ensure all future coal plants are ‘capture ready’ and compatible with the emerging technology.
• Government must also invest in nuclear power to replace existing plants. Nuclear energy is climate friendly, a complement to Clean Coal and essential to securing a diverse energy portfolio.
• Government policy should be determined by the suitability of technologies for global application, tapping into the export potential (?) for UK plc and maximising the environmental impact worldwide.
• Government policy should prescribe the levels for each energy source (max and min) within the diverse portfolio, recognising the relative prices for each and the timescales to build up capacity.

What goes around comes around.

In 1945, Nye Bevan said "The UK is island is mainly made of coal, and surrounded by a sea full of fish. Only an organising genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time". Organising genius? Step forward the EU. As a result of gaping holes in European state aid rules, that allow Germany to pay massive subsidies to its miners, Britain's remaining mines are uncompetitive, and we are now a major coal importer - up 29% last year. Least said about the impact of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and that twat Bradshaw at DEFR the better - as they have allowed Spanish fishermen to hoover up all the fish in the North Sea, creating an ecological disaster area in what were once the world's richest fisheries (following the dumb Newfies earlier) -- and a prime British national asset.

Lebanon - War criminals at work as genocide accelerates and a nation is raped in full view of the world's media

2006-07-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Go here - WARNING - pictures of the indescribable horrors caused by the Israeli genocide as the West finds better things to do ....

Just as an example this is the list of "News" articles available on the Daily Mail (UK) website ..NOW

All news articles 20 July

* Longer sentences for dangerous criminals
* Thousands living in fear of honour killings
* Passenger died after falling from speeding cab, court told
* Parrot thief trapped by a trail of blood
* Star's 4m mph explosion captured by British astronomers
* Dog hired to sniff out bumblebees
* Woman gives birth as she hears how son died in crash
* Parents 'could be forced to pay for criminal damage'
* Sir Alan boosts premium bond sales
* New rules unveiled on growing of GM crops
* Damilola witness tells of sauna meeting with juror
* Plans for £3bn toll motorway scrapped
* 'Blair to quit in a year and a bit'
* The police chief who likes to trap illegal motorists in his spare time
* Ministers move to speed claims on Mesothelioma
* DNA hope in Suzy Lamplugh case 20 years on
* Police appeal over massage parlour murders
* Food transport emissions reach record high
* Scientists' plea to save dwindling tiger habitat
* Record number of women appointed to Queen's counsel
* Lunch is the new elevenses
* Prince Harry's secret love nest
* One in three students quitting university
* Man quizzed in arson deaths probe etc.,

Rice - Drive by Diplomat and AIPAC call girl

2006-07-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

There is a great deal of hoopla in the Press / TV / meejah about an imminent trip by Condileezza Rice to Jerusalem to apply some "pressure" on the Israeli Gubment - preceded maybe by the exciting spectacle of Tony Blair, taking up the task of warm up comedy man for her.

To evaluate the utility of such another "drive by diplomacy" mission by the lady in her jet propelled Ferragamo pumps one might look at the official record of the recent trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she traveled at breakneck speed to Pakistan, Afghanistan and then onward to Moscow for the Group of 8 G-8 ministerial meeting. June 26th to June 30th (White House record)

For example to see what a deep and profound understanding she had then, and her ability to anticpate events in Gaza / Israel / Lebanon consider this section of an ...
Interview With Charlie Wolfson of CBS

Q. ...." Most pressing today is Gaza, it seems. I know you've been in meetings here, but have you had any reports at all about any progress in getting the Israeli soldier freed? And also, have you given any thought at all to going to the region to see if you can do any good?"

SECRETARY RICE: " Well, we do need to concentrate at this point diplomatically on trying to get the release of this Israeli soldier and also doing everything that all of us can to help set the calm in the region,(? calm !) which we hope will re-emerge. I think that the time is right for simply trying to mobilize the international community.(*) I have made phone calls, talked to President Abbas. I talked to Foreign Minister Livni. I know that my colleagues have talked to the Egyptians and to others (Which others ?). We're going to continue to try to mobilize the international community so that we can get past this incident to get this soldier released and then get back on a course (?) that would lead to, eventually, a negotiated solution between the parties? "

(*) Evidently those approaches have yielded zero, apart from Tony Blairs sotto voce offer to act as doormat.

When the lady visited the North West of England she was despised and derided - and the UK is the US's major ally!

This is of course to overlook the primary purpose of any such trip to Jerusalem / Beirut which would be simply to represent the interests of her sponsors, AIPAC, ADL and the Neo-con circus on the Beltway, etc., and to call by to promote and protect the interests of Israel ... and no doubt ensure further supplies of weapons , ammunitions , missiles, technology, training , and intelligence.... as well as continuing support by the US Zionist lobbies in the forthcoming elections.

No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare

2006-07-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Where are the Christians? by Pat Buchanan World Net News today.

"Already, Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers. But where is the proof?

Who is whispering in his ear? The same people who told him Iraq was maybe months away from an atom bomb, that an invasion would be a "cakewalk," that he would be Churchill, that U.S. troops would be greeted with candy and flowers, that democracy would break out across the region, that Palestinians and Israelis would then sit down and make peace?

How much must America pay for the education of this man?"

Pat Buchanan in his "Where the Right Went Wrong" Sept 2004 Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN 0 312 34115-6 Page 7/8.

"The Republican Party, which had presided over America's rise to manufacturing pre-eminence, has acquiesced in the de-undustrialisation of the nation to gratift transnational corporations whose oligarchs are party financiers. U.S. coporations are shutting factories here, opening them in China, "outsourcibg" back-office work to India, importaing Asians to take white-collar jobs from Americans, and hiring illegal aliens for service jobs. The Republican Party has signed off on economic treason"

At the end of the book he reminds the reader of Madison's warning...

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts and taxes are the known instrument for bringing the many under the domination of the few ... No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."