Frank Freeman's Diary, April 2004

And now we see the purpose of MI5's bomb plot, as revealed by their Blair-puppet ...

'The [UK] Government is preparing to draw up further anti-terror laws, including the introduction of ID cards, in the wake of a suspected al Qaeda bombing plot. [Already, it's a "suspected Qaeda plot". Qaeda is a popinjay for a police state.]

'Tony Blair signalled the move as a ninth British man was held by anti-terrorism police. Police were granted three more days to quiz eight others.

'The unnamed suspect, 27, was seized at an address in Crawley, west Sussex [the fourth such arrest in the town], and detained under the Terrorism Act.'

'Identity cards will be introduced "more quickly than even we anticipated", Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted.

"He told his monthly news conference the government had won over those who opposed the controversial measure for civil liberties reasons.

'Practical issues and logistics were the only things stopping the introduction of ID cards, he told reporters. [Gassing the Jews was a similarly-tricky problem ...]

'"The whole issue of identity cards ... is very much on the political agenda here," Mr Blair said.'

'The Independent leads with a claim that proof exists that senior officials knew of al-Qaeda's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before 9/11.

'Ex-FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has given evidence to [the 9/11 commission], the newspaper reports.'

'A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qaeda's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

'She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".

'Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information hat was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. ...

'She added: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about how they would be used and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers." ...

'It is impossible at this stage to verify Mrs Edwards' claims. However, some senior US senators testified to her credibility in 2002 when she went public with separate allegations relating to alleged incompetence and corruption within the FBI's translation department.'

Cf. "Lost in Translation", CBSNEWS.com, 13 July 04, for a story of Mrs Edmond's interview on the CBS "60 Minutes" programme. At this stage there was only a matter of "incompetence and corruption" over slow and missing translations ...

'A by-election is to be held in the Lawrence Hill ward in Bristol on May 20 following the resignation of the area's [Lib-Dem] councillor John Astley.

'Mr Astley, 39, is awaiting trial on charges of making indecent pictures of children and voting irregularities. He denies the charges. ...'

Israeli riot police stormed the compound of al-Aqsa (at Temple Mount) after Palestinians threw stones.

'Britons travelling to the US will be fingerprinted and photographed before entering the country, it has emerged. [This situation will maintain until Britain introduces biometric passports in two years' time].

'The move affects citizens of 27 countries who had been allowed to travel within the United States without a visa for up to 90 days.

'Under changes that will take effect by September 30, visitors will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter through air and seaports.'

A bulletin issued by the US Homeland Department and the FBI says terrorists may try to bomb buses and rail lines this summer, using ammonium nitrate. (Ibid, p.304/1)

Britain's top police officer, London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, has said ID cards are needed urgently in the fight against terrorism. He called for their rapid introduction.

'The appointment of Michael Grade as the new chairman of the BBC is already causing controversy.

'Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell described him as "a chairman the BBC can be truly proud of", adding that he was "the right man at the right time". [Coming from Jowell, this is already a strong recommendation against him.]

'But campaign group Mediawatch-UK said the appointment of the man once dubbed Britain's pornographer-in-chief [by the Mail, over his scheduling of explicit sex programmes on Channel 4] "beggars belief".'

'A self-confessed member of the group behind the Bali and Jakarta bombs has said his leaders received orders from Osama Bin Laden to attack Americans. [did it come via ouija board, electric cable, or what?]

'Mohamed Nasir Abbas told Malaysian TV the edict was distributed by Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir whom he calls the emir of the Jemaah Islamiah group.

'The interview, taped in an Indonesian prison, is billed as the confessions of four Malaysian members of the group.'

(The BBC is already looking more like a cabal mouthpiece — than ITV, for example.

'The Washington Post has published part of a speech on national security Ms Rice was to have given on 11 September 2001 which made no mention of al-Qaeda. [But I'll make an educated guess that she was really au fait with the "group". ]'

'Seven US troops have been killed and 24 wounded in clashes with Shia Muslim militia in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

'They died in a battle for control of public buildings taken over by followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, in the Sadr City area.

[The clashes were triggered by the closing down by US troops of the faction's newspaper office, and the detention of the cleric's deputy. It was said the paper was inciting violence. Sadr has now called on his followers to "terrify the enemy".]

'His supporters were involved in earlier clashes in Najaf which left at least 20 Iraqis and two coalition soldiers dead.'

There was also a clash between Sadr's followers and British troops in the southern town of Amara.

[The warrant is variously said to have been issued by the US, coalition authorities, or ...]

An Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant for radical Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr for the murder of a rival Shia leader in Najaf a year ago [another report said a few months ago]. [This was announced by a "coalition" spokesman to a news conference in Baghdad. (BBC Ceefax, p.104)]

'The move comes after an upsurge in anti-American violence invoking Sadr's supporters left at least 50 Iraqis and eight US soldiers dead.

'The 30-year-old is believed to be holed up in a mosque in the city of Kufa, surrounded by armed followers.'

'Hundreds of US and Iraqi troops in tanks and armoured vehicles have surrounded the city of Fallujah in a crackdown on local insurgents.

'Explosions and gunfire were heard from the city centre and troops exchanged fire with gunmen on the outskirts.'

'US commanders have vowed a massive response to "pacify" the volatile city after the brutal mob killing of four American security guards.'

Incidentally this event (a few days ago) was filmed (in a professional-quality recording) and shown (with suitable "pixel"-censorship of the bodies) on US TV (ABC?).

The US is considering sending more troops to Iraq "because of the unrest there".

America already has at least a dozen times as many troops in its third of Iraq than does Britain in its third. Probably not enough for invading Iran and/or Saudi Arabia as well as holding down the Iraqi population. But it now has a pretext for building up its forces.

British BBC TV news and Channel 5 news have repeated a story on American ABC News about a "foiled plot against the British public" to make a bomb seeded with the poisonous chemical osmium tetroxide. (Perhaps intended for the London underground.)

Perhaps they have not yet received instructions from their "security" and "intelligence" puppet-masters.

'The foiling of an alleged chemical bomb plot in Britain vindicates the decision to bring in tough anti-terror laws, [UK] Home Secretary David Blunkett insists. ...'

'"All of us, for two-and-a-half years have been indicating that is precisely what the network called al-Qaeda, in its loose form, are actually about," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. [My emphases.]

'The public should be "praising and being very grateful that we have the security and counter-terrorism services we do because they are doing a first-class job", he said. ...'

Violence in Iraq has become more widespread, with fighting and seizures of public buildings by "followers" of Shia cleric Sadr in many cities.

US forces have killed twenty-six people in Fallujah, some of them women and children, while twelve US soldiers have been killed in nearby Ramadi by armed attackers.

'INDEPENDENT[:] The US has secretly flown Saddam Hussein out of Iraq and imprisoned him under high security at a vast American air base in Qatar.'

'[Thousands] of British troops are due to arrive in Iraq to relieve peacekeeping forces beset by bloody rebellion.

'Almost 5,000 British soldiers are flying out to the Gulf to take over the running of southern Iraq from brigades which will now return home to Britain.

'The [Ministry of Defence] has insisted the latest British contingent are not additional troops, amid calls from Iraq's foreign minister that 25,000 more soldiers are needed.'

'A "massively botched" procurement has left the RAF with eight helicopters worth Ł259m which it cannot use.

'Concerns about cockpit software on the Chinook means the craft cannot be flown in cloudy weather, and putting the problems right will cost another Ł129m.

'They will now sit on the ground until at least 2007, leaving the forces with under two-thirds of the battlefield capability they need, a report added. [This was reported in the Daily Telegraph, the Kissinger-Perle mouthpiece.]'

2007 being well after the projected date(s) of the invasion(s) of Iran and/or Saudi Arabia?

'TIMES[:] American forces dropped two 500lb bombs and fired rockets at the wall of a mosque, in the city of Fallujah, killing many Iraqis.'

'INDEPENDENT[:] An airborne assault on a mosque killed at least 40 worshippers attending prayers in Fallujah as US-led forces lost control of parts of Iraq.'

Dozens of coalition troops, and hundreds of Iraqis, have been killed as cleric Sadr's followers seized control of Najaf and other cities.

Kidnappers in Iraq have seized three Japanese reporters, terrorised them with machetes on a video, and threatened to burn them alive unless Japan withdraw its forces from Iraq within three days.

'Several Paris rail stations had to be evacuated after the CIA warned of a possible bomb attacks

'Police said the CIA had told French officials of an anonymous message they had received about a possible attack between 6.30 and 7.30 local time. [Good of them not to waste people's time ...]]

'Traffic on the suburban RER line was halted and a number of stations were cleared in response to the tip-off.

'The alert was lifted after searches on the affected line found nothing suspicious.'

Ho hum. Too busy terrorising Japanese reporters and threatening to burn them alive, I suppose.

'Five men held in anti-terror raids in the south-east of England have been charged over an alleged bomb plot. ... [The load of old fertilizer, if you haven't forgotten it already ... (see March 04 diary, under 30 and 31 March)]'

And here's what these stinking shoals of red herrings are designed to distract attention from ...

'The commission looking at the September 11 attacks has asked the White House to declassify a memo sent to President Bush a month before the terror attacks. [This is apparently the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) of 6 August 2001.]

'The memo, titled "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States", was revealed in testimony by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

'She said the memo was an historical document, not an imminent warning. [It certainly is! To reverse her little wordplay.]

'Ms Rice admitted intelligence weaknesses, but said there was no way to have prevented the attacks.'

'RICE: ...All that I can tell you is that it was not in the August 6th memo, using planes as a weapon. And I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons. In fact, there were some [such] reports done in '98 and '99. I was certainly not aware of them. ...

'[RICE:] I remember, later on, in a conversation with Prime Minister Blair, President Bush also said that he wondered could it [the 9/11 attacks] have been Iran, because the attack was so sophisticated, was this really just a [terrorist] network that had done this. ...

'RICE: ... We've made good changes since then. I think that having a Homeland Security Department that can bring together the FAA and the INS and Customs and all of the various agencies is a very important step.

'I think that the creation of the terrorism threat information center [it used to be "Terrorist Threat Integration Center"!], which brings together all of the intelligence from various aspects, is a very important step forward.

'Clearly, the Patriot Act, which allowed the kind of sharing, indeed demands the kind of sharing between intelligence agencies [your caring, sharing Patriot Act, or I'll break your fingers], including the FBI and the CIA, is a very big step forward. ...

'BEN-VENISTE[, a 9/11 commissioner:] I want to ask you some questions about the August 6, 2001, PDB [Presidential Daily Briefing]. We had been advised in writing by [the] CIA on March 19, 2004, that the August 6th PDB was prepared and self-generated[!] by a CIA employee. Following Director Tenet's testimony on March 26th before us, the CIA clarified its version of events, saying that questions by the president prompted them to prepare the August 6th PDB.

'Now, you [Rice] have said to us in our meeting together in February, that the president directed the CIA to prepare the August 6th PDB. ...

'The extraordinary high terrorist attack threat level in the summer of 2001 is well-documented. And Richard Clarke's testimony about the possibility of an attack against the United States homeland was repeatedly discussed from May to August within the intelligence community, and that is well-documented. ...

'RICE: ... First of all, yes, the August 6th PDB was in response to questions asked by the President ...

'BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

'RICE: I believe [!] the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States. [My emphasis.] ...

'RICE: ... [The PDB] did not warn of attacks inside the United States. [Yep, and the WAR On Terror IS a PIECE of the Oil Action.] It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States. ...

'BEN-VENISTE: ... you have indicated here that this was some historical document. And I am asking you, whether it is not the case that you learned in the PDB memo of August 6th that the FBI was saying that it had information suggesting that preparations — not historically, but ongoing, along with these numerous full field investigations against al-Qaida cells, that preparations were being made consistent with hijackings within the United States?

'BEN-VENISTE: We would be happy to have it declassified in full at this time, including its title.

'RICE: I believe, Mr. Ben-Veniste, that you've had access to this PDB — exceptional access. ...

'BEN-VENISTE: ... Let me ask you a general matter, beyond the fact that this memorandum information, not speculation, but based on intelligence information, that bin Laden had threatened to attack the United State and specifically Washington, D.C. ...

'RICE: ... I can ... tell you that there was nothing in this memo that suggested that an attack was coming on New York or Washington, D.C. [!] ...'

'The US and globalisation pose a bigger threat to the world than terrorism and war, according to a worldwide poll.

'Television channel BBC World asked 1,500 of its viewers what were the most important problem[s] facing the world.

'More than half (52.3%) named the power of the US and large corporations as the biggest worry, with corruption second.

'Wars and terrorism ranked third (50%) followed by hunger (49%) climate change (44%) and illiteracy (38%). BBC World described the results as a "surprise".'

'Britain and the US have warned tourists to stay away from south Thailand amid fears over a possible terrorism attack ...'

Al-Qaeda's top operative in Europe, Amer Azizi, gave the Madrid bombings the blessing of the network according to Spanish paper El Mundo, quoting unidentified police officials.

'That is the view of the man who helped kick-start the concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, Cambridge [England] professor Ross Anderson.

'He believes people around the world will use P2P services to post stories in the same way they now swap songs.

'To enable this, Prof Anderson proposes an improved version of Usenet, the web's news service. "Censorship would be difficult or impossible," he said.'

'A memo sent to George Bush weeks before Sept. 11 cited recent intelligence of a possible plot to strike inside the US.

'The memo, which the White House has now released under public pressure, said various reports indicated Osama bin Laden wanted to attack "since 1997".

["After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington".]

'Efforts to launch an attack from Canada in January 2000 "may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terror strike", it added.

'The FBI gathered evidence "consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks" prior to Sept. 11, [the] memo reveals.'

'The pattern of "suspicious activity" recorded since 1998 included evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists, it added.

'The memo was declassified by the White House after public pressure, but it previously dismissed its content as historic.'

'INDEPENDENT[ ON SUNDAY:] A US air force remote-controlled spy plane with the wing span of a Boeing 737 entered UK airspace without permission last year.'

Such a craft was tested in a trans-Pacific flight in (April?) 2001. It flew automatically in a pre-programmed path (including take-off and landing), but with remote human supervision. See "Robot plane flies Pacific unmanned", ITN (Independent Television News, Britain.

The US has said that coalition forces have suffered 70 dead in Iraq, and insurgents 700.

General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, has called for two additional combat brigades in Iraq, because of the insurgency and spate of kidnappings.

Three Russians and five Ukrainians, working for a Russian energy company, who were kidnapped in western Iraq yesterday, have been released. This follows the kidnapping and release of five Chinese.

'In Denmark, Copenhagen's Information defends a former major in the Defence Intelligence Service who faces up to two years' jail for leaking two reports on the threat posed by Iraq.

'The paper said he leaked them because "he could not quietly accept his work being cited in support of a lie" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

'"He doesn't deserve a prison sentence for that. He deserves praise," it says — and urges the Danish police to drop their prosecution.'

Memo: Pre-9/11 drill was nixed
Dave Wedge, Boston Herald, 14 April 04

'Five months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, military officials wanted to train for the possibility that hijacked planes would be slammed into the Pentagon but were told the scenario was "too unrealistic".

'North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials unsuccessfully pitched a training exercise in April 2001 for "an event having a terrorist group hijack a commercial airliner and fly it into the Pentagon", according to an e-mail obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

'The document, verified as authentic last night by NORAD officials, says military higher-ups "didn't want it because it would take attention away from their exercise objectives". ...'

Perhaps the exercise was kept in reserve until the morning of Sept. 11. Cf. '"On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building"'.

Joint Chiefs Rejected "Aiplanes as Missiles" Scenario Five Months prior to 9/11
Project on Government Oversight, 13 April 04

'... "We believe the 9/11 Commission should ask the Joint Chiefs why they prevented NORAD from training to respond to the possibility that terrorists might hijack commercial airliners and use them as missiles" said POGO's Senior Investigator Peter Stockton.

'POGO has learned that this scenario was being suggested by Special Operations personnel who are trained to think like terrorists[!!!!!!] [My emphasis.] These highly-trained military units have repeatedly warned that U.S. nuclear facilities are also inadequately protected against terrorist attacks. [So that's where it's coming from.]

'Maybe the 9/11 Commission should talk to these special operations experts," Stockton said.'

—This article has a link to a facsimile (in PDF format) of the email that is the root of the story.

Pentagon crash scenario rejected before Sept. 2001
Charles Aldinger, Reuters, 14 April 04

'... Defense officials said several scenarios under which military command had to be moved from the Pentagon were rejected and that the suggestion involving a possible foreign commercial airliner strike not only appeared unrealistic but could have taken over the whole exercise. ...

'The brief [e]mail was addressed to several friends of the author, a retired Army officer who was not identified, and said the hijacking scenario was suggested by a NORAD planner and rejected by Joint Staff action officers as too unrealistic.

'"It was made available to us by those who felt it should be, by those who wanted to examine timelines for scrambling fighter jets and other protective aircraft," POGO investigator Peter Stockton told Reuters. [That's what NORAD's semi-annual exercise on the week of 9/11 was supposed to be about: attack by foreign aircraft. See "On the morning of 9/11 ...".]

Hijackers fly into the Pentagon? ...
Julian BorgerThe Guardian (Britain), 15 April 04

'... The email leaked to the Project on Government Oversight (Pogo) was written by Terry Ropes, identified as a special operations officer who had been temporarily assigned to Norad in the spring of 2001. ...'

'Beijing (AP) — [US] Vice President Dick Cheney presented new evidence to Chinese leaders Wednesday [today] on North Korea's nuclear program, suggesting it increased the urgency to restart six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, a senior administration official said.

'Cheney also told the Chinese he understands their opposition to U.S. armed sales to Taiwan, said the U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. ...

'The ... official said Cheney passed on to Chinese leaders new information passed on from a top Pakistani nuclear scientist suggesting that North Korea had at least three nuclear devices ...'

The aspiration of the US cabal is, I believe, to entangle China in this issue so as to pick a fight with it and overthrow the "communist" regime there.

'[British] Police say they have saved [102] children from further sexual abuse as a result of a two-year investigation [Operation Ore] into internet paedophiles. ...'

In this operation, first priority was given to those suspects with responsibility for children, and second priority to police and other public officials; the rest have been lowest priority. (Ibid.)

This may explain, at least partly, why for example the proportion of police pursued was roughly ten times higher than the proportion of the general public. (See "Ashcroft's Paedophile Terror" for this ratio.)

CIA chief George Tenet, in his second testimony to the 9/11 Commission, has said that the US was "in effect, unprotected" when it was attacked on 11 Sept. 2001. He attributed the problem to institutional problems in the intelligence community. His remarks follow similar comments to the Commission by Attorney-General John Ashcroft.

President Bush has praised as "historic and courageous" Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's plan for a unilateral partial withdrawal from Palestinian territories. (Sharon is visiting Washington.)

But Palestinian leaders, and others, have said this destroys the rights of Palestinians and tears up the "road map to peace".

The "road map" was always an insincere facade. One that the Bush-puppet couldn't keep up for years on end. Behind it has long been the reality of the progressive crushing of the Palestinians, supported and promoted by the powerful American ultra-Zionist lobby. We can safely assume that the unilateral "partial withdrawal scheme" itself is the latest in a long line of fraudulent proclamations.

Eighty-four members of the English public are to participate in a scheme to track paedophiles and other serious sexual and violent offenders after they are released from jail, the Home Office is due to announce.

The scheme was first mooted by Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2000, after the murder of Sarah Payne, and was tried out in eight areas in 2003.

'Two Arab TV channels have broadcast an audiotape said to be from Osama Bin Laden, in which he offers Europe a truce if it "stops attacking Muslims". [Perhaps "he" got this idea from Iraqi cleric Sadr — if that's what Sadr really proposed. ]

'In the tape aired by al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera satellite channels, the voice said the invitation would not be extended to the US, Reuters reported.

'The person on the tape also vowed to avenge Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

'North Korea would spread its nuclear technology to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, US Vice-President Dick Cheney has warned. ...'

'US officials knew al-Qaeda was aiming to hijack planes, but never thoroughly analysed the threat to work out ways to protect it, the 9/11 probe says. ...'

'The United States yesterday ordered the evacuation of most U.S. diplomats and all U.S. family dependents from Saudi Arabia, and "strongly urged" all American citizens to leave because of "credible and specific" intelligence about terrorist attacks planned against U.S. and other Western targets, the State Department announced.

One day, when the repeated cries of "wolf" have lulled us to sleep, we will awake to find American troops streaming across the Saudi and Iranian borders ... to liberate the terrorized oil reserves ...

Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame), in his newly-published book Plan of Attack, has said Vice-President Cheney always wanted to invade Iraq. No great surprise there ...

Israel has assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi by an airstrike on his car. His son and bodyguard were also killed.

Israel now says it will kill the "supreme Hamas leader" in Syria as the opportunity arises.

'British security bosses let thousands [aaaarrgh!!] of al-Qaeda members into the UK during the 1990s, claims ex-spy David Shayler.

'The renegade former MI5 agent, jailed for selling secrets to a newspaper, also claimed some of the terrorists were granted British citizenship.

'"In the early 1990s, MI5 was very slow to get to grips with al-Qaeda," Shayler said on the ITV1 Tyne Tees programme The Sunday Interview.'

"Renegade" Shayler seems loyal enough to the current services' scaremonger-agitprop imperial campaign. ...

' ... "in the early 1990s, MI5 was very slow to get to grips with al Qaida," Shayler said in a TV interview.

'"Despite repeated warnings they let in thousands of al Qaida members who are [aaaaarrgh!!!] all still here. ..." ...

'Shayler told the programme: "At one point the French intelligence service mentioned that tens of thousands of al Qaida members came into Britain from France. ..." ...'

Perhaps, indeed, the whole army of George Bush's 100,000 Qaeda terrorists was decamped in the island at some point. Theough how they found room, jostling elbows with the Napoleon's reanimated Grande Armee (all five million) I don't know. Perhaps there are refugee camps we don't know about ...

'Ten US troops have died in clashes with insurgents or other combat in Iraq this weekend, the US military has said. ...'

Some background about the "rejected" airliner-into-Pentagon exercise of April 2001 (for this, see above under 14 April) ...

NORAD had drill of jets as weapons
Steven Komarow and Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY, 18 April 04, updated 19 April 04

'WASHINGTON — In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties.

'One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center. In another exercise, jets performed a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of a jet supposedly laden with chemical poisons headed toward a target in the United States. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon — but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic, NORAD and Defense officials say.

'NORAD, in a written statement, confirmed that such hijacking exercises occurred. It said the scenarios outlined were regional drills, not regularly scheduled continent-wide exercises. ...

'The exercises differed from the Sept. 11 attacks in one important respect. The planes in the simulation were coming from a foreign country.

'Until Sept. 11, NORAD was expected to defend the United States and Canada from aircraft based elsewhere. After the attacks, that responsibility broadened to include flights that originated in the two countries.

'But there were exceptions in the early drills, including one operation, planned in July 2001 and conducted later, that involved planes from airports in Utah and Washington state that were "hijacked". Those planes were escorted by U.S. and Canadian aircraft to airfields in British Columbia and Alaska.

'NORAD officials have acknowledged that "scriptwriters" for the drills included the idea of hijacked aircraft being used as weapons. ...

'... No exercise matched the specific events of Sept. 11, NORAD said. ...

'Until Sept. 11, 2001, NORAD conducted four major exercises a year. Most included a hijack scenario, but not all[!] of those involved planes as weapons. ...'

Ten people have been arrested in Manchester (UK) under the Terrorism Act 2000. Four hundred police were said to have been involved in the operation.

The above have been connected in news reports with a "plot to bomb" Manchester United's Old Trafford ground. But the football club deny this, saying they have had no notification from police.

'A mortar attack on an Iraqi detention centre near Baghdad has left 22 inmates dead, the US military says.

'All the casualties in the attack on the Baghdad Confinement Facility in Abu Ghraib were prisoners of the US-led coalition, officials said.

'a further 92 prisoners were wounded in the attack when 12 mortar rounds hit the jail, they added.

'The inmates were described as "security detainees" — people suspected of attacks on coalition forces.

'The sprawling prison complex of Abu Ghraib, which covers more than one square kilometre, was one of Iraq's biggest prisons under Saddam Hussein's regime and had a fearsome reputation.

'It lies on the road to Falluja on the edge of the area known as the Sunni triangle, which has seen some of the fiercest resistance to the US-led occupation. ...'

'Occupied Iraq is rife with corruption, instability and could even be heading towards outright civil war, according to leaked coalition memo.

'The secret document written last month by a US government official, warns that ordinary Iraqis are arming themselves due to fear of imminent civil conflict.

'The Coalition Provisional Authority is condemned in the memo for mismanagement and failing to create clear strategies.'

'A series of bomb attacks in the Basra area of southern Iraq has killed at least 68 people and injured many more.

'The first bombings occurred outside three police stations in Basra city centre during Wednesday's [today's] morning rush hour.

'Many of the dead and injured were children travelling in passing buses on their way to school.

'A fourth attack south of Basra is said to have killed three Iraqis and wounded four UK soldiers. ...

'Most of the victims in Basra died in what the mayor of the city described as suicide car bombings.

Two police stations in the Ashar district and one in the Old City were hit in near-simultaneous attacks. ...

'At least 100 people are thought to have been wounded in the attacks targeting the British-controlled city.

'A UK spokesman said soldiers who tried to help assist casualties were stoned by crowds. ...

'an hour after the Basra bombings, two car bombs hit a police academy in the town of Zubair, about 25km (16 miles) to the south.

'That attack killed three Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers — two of them seriously — a UK official said. ...'

Up to ten people have been killed in a car bombing of a security building in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Lawyers are challenging the legality of the detentions of inmates in Guantanamo. The US Supreme Court will rule on the matter in June 2004.

On the advice of the director-general of MI5, MPs have voted, by a narrow majority, to install a permanent bullet-proof glass screen to seal off the House of Commons chamber from the public gallery. MI5 had warned of a "specific" threat of terrorists throwing anthrax or ricin, etc, into the chamber. 23 April 04

'INDEPENDENT[:] Britain's military planners are drawing up contingency plans to send up to 1,700 extra troops to Iraq.'

The massive explosion in Ryongchon, North Korea, is now reported to have been due to a train loaded with explosives detonating. The prevailing story is that it was an accident, but N Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was reported have passed through the town (by train), which is close to the Chinese border, nine hours before the blast, returning from a visit to China.

The Red Cross reports that nearly two thousand homes were destroyed, and thousands more damaged, by the blast. Human casualties probably run into the thousands.

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon has said he will no longer stand by a promise, made three years ago to the US, not to harm Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

'A senior Crown Court judge has been arrested over child pornography allegations.

'David Selwood was arrested on Wednesday [21 April 04] as part of a national paedophile investigation [Operation Ore, offspring of Candyman/Avalanche], the Department of constitutional Affairs said.

'He was interviewed by detectives over allegations of possessing indecent images of children and released on police bail pending further inquiries. [And who needs a conviction? Mud sticks.]

'Judge Selwood, of Winchester, Hants, became a circuit judge in 1992 after a successful army career. [Selwood was apparently a major-general in the army and a judge in military courts.] ...'

Selwood is the biggest UK establishment target yet in The Great Paedophile Campaign. But it would still be gauche, at this stage in the game, to "discover" child-porn on Lord Chief Justice Woolf's hard drive, for example. Maybe in a couple of years ...

'The pilot will involve 10,000 volunteers [50,000, according to ITV Teletext] and be run from the Passport Office in London and other centres around Britain.

'The government hopes the pilot scheme will pave the way for compulsory identity cards for everyone within the next decade.

'Ministers are due to set out details of plans for a nationwide identity database on Monday [26 April 04]. ...

'News of the pilot scheme follows an opinion poll [by Mori] suggesting [!] 80% of people backed a national ID card scheme. [And, no doubt, within a decade, polls will show that 99.99% of people approve of having "666" tattooed on their foreheads or right hands.] ...'

British Home Secretary David Blunkett has published draft legislation for ID cards. (See above, under 24 April, for details.)

'More than 50 former British diplomats have signed a letter to Tony Blair criticising his Middle east policy.

'The 52 ambassadors said it was time for the prime minister to start influencing America's "doomed" policy in the Middle East or stop backing it. [They also described certain policies as "illegal".]

'They said they had "watched with deepening concern" as Britain followed the US lead in Iraq and Israel, and they called for a debate in Parliament.

In Iraq, sixty-four "militants" have been killed in a strike by US helicopter gunships on an anti-aircraft position in or near Najaf. Moqtadr Sadr is based there.

'Spain has completed the withdrawal of its [active combat] troops from Iraq, prime minister Jose Zapatero has confirmed. ...'

'A series of blasts and heavy gunfire racked the diplomatic district of the Syrian capital [Damascus] as security forces clashed with a "terrorist band". ... [A building formerly used by the UN was gutted.]'

'Severely ill patients will face stringent checks before receiving [treatment] if ID cards become compulsory. ...' (Ibid, p.310)

Will they drag them off the table in the middle of operations? (This happened in Stalin's Russia, according to Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag Archipelago.)

'IRAQ[:] a team from the International Red Cross has visited ousted and imprisoned Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to see his condition in US custody.'

He was recently reported to have been moved to Qatar because of the uprising in Iraq. Is he back??

'JORDAN[:] Al-Qaeda plotted bomb and poison gas attacks against the US embassy and other targets in Jordan, suspects confessed in a televised videotape.' (Ibid.)

Colin Powell warned that the new Iraqi "government" would have to delegate some of its powers to the coalition after 30 June 04. Coalition troops should remain under US command, he said.

An Italian court has acquitted nine Moroccans who were arrested in February 2002 for a "plot" against the US embassy in Rome. They had been accused of planning to poison water supplies, etc.

'US helicopter gunships have attacked insurgents in the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja.

'TV pictures showed them firing missiles at targets and plumes of black smoke rising over the city's north-west.

'They were called in to assist US marines besieging the city who say they were fired on as they attempted to occupy a railway station.

'The latest US action followed an intense overnight artillery barrage and the deployment of an AC-130 gunship.

'US commanders say they want to avoid an all-out assault [!!] on Falluja, and that their forces are responding to breaches of a ceasefire. ...'

The deeper question is, what are the murdrous histrionics at Fallujah and Najaf trying to distract attention from?

... Of course, Bush and Cheney are testifying to the 9/11 Commission tomorrow.

'US President George Bush has insisted his troops will take "whatever action is necessary" to secure Fallujah. ...'

'US helicopter gunships have been called in to pound rebels on the ground in Fallujah after fresh fighting erupted in the besieged Iraqi city. ...'

US units in Fallujah are being replaced by Iraqi "security forces" heeded by a former general from Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard.

Will he be as murderously efficient for his new masters as may have been was for his old?

'Washington — President George W. Bush has trampled on the most fundamental rights of U.S. citizens by jailing indefinitely those considered "enemy combatants" and denying them basic legal protections, the U.S. Supreme Court was told yesterday.

'Two American citizens — one captured on an Afghan battlefield and the other arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport — are being held as enemy combatants in solitary confinement in U.S. naval brigs. The Bush administration contends that the President's special powers as a wartime leader allows the men to be held without charge, or even a court hearing.

'"Never in history has this court granted the President a blank check ---------- Jennifer Martinez told the court, arguing on behalf of Jose Padilla, who was arrested two years ago in Chicago on suspicion of plotting to explode a radioactive bomb.

'Arguing for the government, Justice Department lawyer Paul Clement said, "It has been well established, and long established, that the government has the authority to hold unlawful enemy combatants ... to prevent them from returning to the field of battle."

'But in a war without a definable end, that could mean indefinite detention for those considered enemies. The Bush administration insists that U.S. citizens still have their full constitutional protections and civil liberties, except those who fight for the still undefined, and stateless, enemy of international terrorism.

'In their questioning, several judges seemed concerned about the lack of limits to detention. Could the detention "last 25 or 50 years?" Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked.

'"I was taken aback by how deferential the court was to the needs of the President to act (with extraordinary powers)," said Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, who has closely followed several cases before the top court that test presidential war powers.

'Other judges grilled the lawyers for Mr. Padilla, who was born and raised in Chicago, and Yaser Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana but grew up in Saudi Arabia.

'Mr Hamdi was capture in Afghanistan in 2001 and, like hundreds of other suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, was held first in that country and then at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba. When it was discovered he is an American citizen, Mr. Hamdi was taken to the Untied States.

'The court is expected to rule by the end of June on these two cases and another one concerning the rights of foreigners held at Guantanamo. It has opted not to consolidate [sic] the Padilla and Hamdi cases, which some observers believe indicates the judges may fell there are differences between the inherent rights of a U.S. citizen arrested in the Untied States and one captured on the battlefield. ...'

Pictures from a military enquiry have been publicised by CBS's 60 Minutes II, showing physical and sexual abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib jail, by Baghdad. Six soldiers are being brought before courts martial. Relatives of the soldiers say that they are being made scapegoats for practices actively encouraged by senior officers.

'Italy's parliament has approved a controversial media law which critics say strengthens Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's hold over the media.

'Correspondents say President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is not constitutionally allowed to use his veto a second time.

'Opponents of the law say it cements Mr Berlusconi's control over 90% of television and allows him to acquire more newspapers and radio stations.'

Worldwide, there were fewer terrorist attacks in 2003 than in any year since 1969, a US State Department report says. Most Iraqi attacks were excluded from the statistics as they were on combatants, and therefore not classed as terrorism.