Frank Freeman's Diary, April 2005

'US troops in Iraq are holding a top aide to the most wanted rebel there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, US officials say.

'The officials from the US Defence Department declined to identify the man, who they said held joint US and Jordanian citizenship.

'Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Matthew Waxman said the man was held in a raid late in 2004, [and that] explosives and arms had been found in his Iraqi house.

'Mr Waxman added that Zarqawi's captured aide was an emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq. ...'

'The man was born in Jordan and moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen, according to a U.S. official who discussed the case only on condition of anonymity. ...'

I saw the film "All The President's Men" (about Watergate) again, repeated recently on British TV. What it underlined for me (this time round) was how the American right used dedicated foreigners, in this case Cuban exiles, for its own underhand ends.

There was, presumably, originally an alliance of anti-Castro exiles and the CIA, etc, which was first used (calamitously) in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. (Cf. the proposed-but-rejected Operation Northwoods for the murky depths of plotting.)

The Watergate burglars included a rank-and-file of Florida Cuban-Americans, perhaps "paying their debts" for right-wing support against Castro. Leaders of the operation included a recently-resigned CIA man — which presumably he did especially for this purpose.

(An early instance of this oft-repeated, indeed now standardized, technique for conducting covert operations outside of constitutional oversight. This shadow CIA of "former ones" [or "XCIA"] with its front of "private companies", and its melding with special forces via SOCOM, is the main means of conducting the unofficial actions of the official CIA.)

President Clinton's security adviser, Samuel (Sandy) Berger, removed documents relating to planned terrorist attacks from the US National Archive. He admitted to destroying three copies of a document about a plot against the Millenium celebrations. The offence carries a maximum prison sentence of three years or a $100,000 fine.

'A legal principle which prevents people being tried for the same crime twice is being scrapped in England and Wales.

'The ban on "double jeopardy", which has existed for around 800 years [my emphasis], will be consigned to history from Monday [4 April 05].

'The Court of Appeal can now quash an acquittal and order a retrial when "new and compelling" evidence is produced.

'Police plan to re-examine the case of 22-year-old Julie Hogg, who was murdered in a sex attack at her home in Billingham, Teesside, in November 1989.'

A programme on BBC 1 tonight, Sunday, at 10:30, called the search for bin Laden or something. Like Hereward the Wake, disappearing into the mists of legend ... The programme ended with the menacing suggestion that "his" next attack might be on London. Specifically, I got "Vote for Blair or I'll blow up London" ...

'A judge investigating vote-rigging Election Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC upheld allegations of postal fraud relating to six seats won by Labour in the ballot of 10 June last year.

'"The system is wide open to fraud and any would-be political fraudster knows that," Judge Mawrey said.

'Judge Mawrey said evidence of "massive, systematic and organised fraud" in the campaign had made a mockery of the election and ruled that not less than 1,500 votes had been cast fraudulently in the city.

'The deputy high court judge said the system was "hopelessly insecure" and expressed regret that recent warnings about the failings had been dismissed by the government as "scaremongering".

'He criticised the government's insistence that the current postal system was working, adding: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising."

'Mr Mawrey had heard petitions against six Labour councillors, who all strenuously deny that they abused the postal ballot system. ...'

Postal [Vote-]Rigging/Election
Carl Dinnen, British Channel 4 News, 4 April 05 (presumably a transcript of their leading report of the day)

'A Midlands court rules verdicts in postal voting fraud case, but how vulnerable is the general election? ...

'An electoral fraud "that would disgrace a banana republic". That was how a judge described the manipulation of postal votes by six Birmingham Labour councillors today. Richard Mawrey ordered that the elections be re-run, with the councillors disqualified from standing. ...

'... At the forthcoming election, 12% of our votes are supposed to be postal ones, but in Aston and Bordesley Green, last year's local elections were quite simply stolen by men exploiting a postal vote system which was, and is, wide open to fraud. The judge was particularly scathing about councillor Muhammed Afzal who he said had "lied like a trooper" on the witness stand. ...

'The biggest anti-terrorism exercise ever held in the US [that's debatable, 9/11 was a big one too] is under way to test its response to attacks involving biological and chemical weapons.

'More than 10,000 people are taking part in the five-day exercise, which also involves Canada and the UK [my emphasis].

'A simulated biological attack by terrorists in New Jersey on Monday [yesterday] coincided with a mock chemical attack at a port on the coast of Connecticut.

'On Tuesday, the focus of the exercise will shift to hospitals. [How's that for terrorism ....?]'

As expected, British PM Blair has named 5 May 2005 as the date for the general fraud — sorry, election.

'The Iraqi parliament has chosen Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim [!] president, reaching out to the nation's Kurdish minority and bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected government in 50 years.

'Ousted members of the former government — including toppled leader Saddam Hussein — were allowed to watch the event on Wednesday [today] on television in their prison cells, Iraqi officials said.

'Shia Adil Abd al-Mahdi and current interim President Ghazi al-Yawir, a Sunni Arab, were chosen as Talabani's two vice-presidents.

'After weeks of negotiations, the three were the only candidates and received a total of 227 votes. Thirty ballots were left blank. [Yessir! Don't it make you proud to see Soviet democracy in action. :-)] ...

'The Kurdish-led coalition won 75 of the 275 parliament seats in the 30 January elections, a major victory for a group that spent years fighting Saddam Hussein's government. ...

'The interim National Assembly must write a permanent constitution by 15 August.

'The constitution, along with elections for a permanent government scheduled for December, are all central parts of the US government's eventual pullout. ...'

... and all this stock Yankee-imperial verbiage from a TV station supposedly a mouthpiece of the imperial-war-justifying phantom enemy Qaeda.

'David Blunkett has called for urgent action on electoral fraud following the Birmingham vote-rigging scandal.

'The former [UK] home secretary described the case in which six Labour councillors were found guilty of postal vote fraud as "totally outrageous".

'He called for individual rather than household voter registration — backed up by a national ID card scheme.'

Labour's solution to — its own — tin-pot corruption is to call for the furthering of its police-state ambitions.

Similar techniques are pursued in America, in regard to the imperial "intelligence failures" of the CIA.

'A Liberal Democrat councillor has launched a legal process that could see the general election postponed [oh yeah] unless postal voting procedures are tightened up.

'John Hemming, deputy leader of Birmingham city council, is applying to the high court for a judicial review into electoral procedures in the May 5 poll.

'Mr Hemming was heavily involved in raising an election court which found widespread and systematic abuse of the postal vote system in the city during last year's local government poll. [See above, under 4 April 05 (etc).] ...

'Mr Hemming, who is prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Yardley, said he had the backing of his party and was taking action because of the "very real likelihood" that voting in dozens of inner city constituencies nationwide would be corrupted by vote-rigging. ...'

'The British embassy in Yemen has been closed indefinitely due to fears over the security of its staff.

'The embassy's work would be suspended "in the light of a current credible threat to western interests" [greatest of which is, that the Anglo-Saxon west does not possess all the Mideastern oil fields], the Foreign Office said in a statement.

'It also said there was a "high threat" from terrorism and travellers should be "particularly vigilant". ...'

'The FBI has issued a special alert over a British man who took flying lessons in the United States illegally.

'Zayed Christopher Hajaig caused alarm when he sought to upgrade his pilot training at a flying school in Georgia [where "9/11 hijackers" had allegedly sought lessons] before he had qualified.

'The Atlantic Joint Terrorism Task Force has issued a special alert bulletin to police and aviation authorities.

'It is believed Mr Hajaig, 35, fled to Britain when he became aware of the task force's interest in him.'

And I've just received information of a plot by the East Stretchford ladies' knitting circle, a notorious front for al-Qaeda, to knit a giant coat for the Houses of Parliament. They will wrap the Palace of Westminster in it when rain is expected, which will cause it to shrink and CRUSH ALL THE MPs TO DEATH.

'A former Labour Party councillor has been jailed for three years [and] seven months for rigging postal votes in a local in a local council election in 2002 [my emphasis].

'Muhammed Hussain, 61, won the Bastwell ward of Blackburn after arranging for blank ballot papers to be collected from numerous addresses in the town.

'Passing sentence at Preston Crown Court, Judge Peter Openshaw described the case as a "public scandal".'

'But his lawyer, Philip Andrews, said in mitigation [!] that the fraudulent votes would not have affected the final result. Hussein would still have won. [St Peter wanted to go to law to settle a boundary dispute between Heaven and Hell, but he couldn't find a lawyer.]'

'Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through Baghdad denouncing the US occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

'Demonstrators loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada [al-]Sadr rallied in the square where the ousted Iraqi leader's statue was toppled in 2003.

'Earlier insurgents killed 15 Iraqi soldiers travelling in a convoy south of the capital, police said.'

'Ministers are to press ahead with the madatory fingerprinting of new passport applicants using royal prerogative powers to sidestep the loss of their identity card legislation last week.

'The police are expected to be given the authority to carry out checks against this newly created national fingerprint database.

'The home secretary Charles Clarke has authorised the passport service to acquire 70 new passport service offices across the country so that all adult applications for new documetns can be interviewed in person from next year. The sevice currently has seven offices.

'The Home office admits that the new network could also be used in future as identity card enrolment centres and the introduction of mandatory fingerprinting of passport applicants will form an important "building block" for the future ID card scheme.

'Ministers have already made clear that police will be allowed to conduct routine chekcs of figerprints found at the scene of a crime against this new fingerprint database.

'Civil liberty campaigners fear that, with 80% of British citizens holding a passport, the new fingerprint database will open up the potential of routine idetity checks using fingerprint scanners, whether or not the individual is carrying a passport at the time. ...'

'The US government has told more than 3,700 laboratories in 18 countries to destroy potentially lethal influenza samples sent out in testing kits.

'The samples are of "Asian flu", which killed between one and four million people in 1957 but disappeared by 1968.

'If the virus is not handled properly, "it can easily cause an influenza epidemic", Klaus Stohr of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.

'An al-Qaeda suspect who killed a police officer in an anti-terror raid has been jailed for plotting to spread ricin.

Kamel Bourgass, a 31-year-old failed Algerian asylum seeker, received a life term at the Old Bailey for stabbing to death [Detective Constable] Stephen Oake [of the Special Branch] in Manchester.

'Bourgass was convicted of murder and over a plot to spread the deadly poison ricin after two trials.

'Reporting restrictions have now been lifted. [Just in time for ... the election.]

Eight others were acquitted on terror charges. It was claimed (from Algerian interrogation "intelligence") that he/they were making ricin, nicotine poisoning etc. No ricin was found. The "equipment" shown on TV consisted of domestic bottles, etc.

The ricin ring that never was
Yesterday's trial collapse has exposed the deception behind attempts to link al-Qaida to a 'poison attack' on London
Duncan Campbell, The Guardian

'... Duncan Campbell is an investigative writer and a scientific expert witness on computers and telecommunications. He is author of War Plan UK and is not the Guardian journalist of the same name.'

Applications for postal votes have increased by as much as five-fold in [UK] marginal constituencies compared with the 2001 general election, a survey found.

'Britain's most senior police chief has called for new laws to combat terrorist conspiracies, saying the UK is being targeted by al-Qaeda.

'Sir Ian Blair, [London] Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said ID cards should be given more consideration, as should iris recognition technology.

'He told BBC One's Breakfast With Frost: "There's real clarity now that al-Qaeda affiliates are targeting Britain".

'A deadly poison said to be at the heart of a terrorist conspiracy against Britain led to a dire warning of another al-Qa'ida attack in the West. The Government was swift to act on the fear that such a find generated. But ... the real danger only existed in the mind of a misguided individual living in a dingy north London bedsit. [No, not the head of MI5 ...]

'There was no ricin — a fact suppressed for more than two years. There was no terrorist cell, just one deluded and dangerous man who killed a police officer during a bungled immigration raid. Kamel Bourgass (probably not his real name; he used several aliases) [my emphasis; how does this compare with the 9/11 hijackers? is serving life for the murder of Special Branch detective Stephen Oake, but despite more than 100 arrests and months of investigation which took detectives to 16 countries, no al-Qa'ida plot ever materialised.

'Last week at the Old Bailey, the Algerian was convicted and sentenced to 17 years for "conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury". four other alleged co-conspirators were acquitted, and charges against four lesser figures, whose trial was due to start tomorrow, were dropped.

'Yet the authorities remained undaunted. Peter Clarke, the Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner in charge of anti-terrorism, said a "real and deadly threat" had been averted, adding that it would be hard to overestimate "the fear and disruption this could have caused across the country". His chief, Sir Ian Blair, said its supported the argument for compulsory identity cards, echoing the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke. Mr Clarke's immediate predecessor, David Blunkett, claimed that the case showed the need for more anti-terrorism laws, while Conservative leader Michael Howard took it up as an election issue, arguing that it demonstrated immigration was out of control. ...'

'After Kamel Bourgass was convicted last week of plotting to make poisons and sentenced to 17 years in prison, ministers sprang to the microphones to claim that the jury's verdict in the ricin trial proved that they had told the truth about the terrorist threat to Britain. But this was far wide of the mark. On the contrary, it was a disaster for those who believe that such a threat exists.

'The acquittal of eight of the nine defendants allowed the opponents of the Government's behaviour in Iraq to claim that Bourgass was merely a lone and ineffectual nutcase, that there was no Qa'eda conspiracy, and that the threat of a ricin plot was simply cooked up by Tony Blair to justify the Iraq war by mendaciously fuelling a climate of fear, as he had done over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

'The prosecuting authorities effectively stand accused of suborning justice to shore up support for an unjustifiable war, Duncan Campbell, the maverick intelligence analysts, has pooh-poohed the claim that Bourgass's ricin recipe came from al-Qa'eda, and insisted instead that he downloaded it from American internet sites.

'Some lawyers involved in the case suggested that the evidence by Bourgass's alleged co-conspirator was obtained under torture. [Cf. ex-Brit ambassador Craig Murray's comments on "outsourcing" of interrogations] And, in the Times, Sir Simon Jenkins wrote that there was no ricin, no al-Qa'eda plot and that anyone who was alarmed about such a thing was insane. Reality's boot, however, may be on the other foot. For it is surely the Government's opponents who filter everything through the distorting prism of their obsession that Britain was taken to war on a lie. ...'

'Iran has suspended operations by the al-Jazeera television network, accusing it of inflaming violent protests by the country's Arab minority.

'Three people have died in ethnic clashes in Iran's south-west Khuzestan province [— where its traditional oil reserves are located —] over the past few days.

'The riots are thought to have been sparked by alleged plans — which the government denies — to change the area's ethnic makeup [!].

Jazeera, the Qatari western spin-off, has been a convenient stage for numerous "Qaeda" audio- and videotapes — one support for the imperial "war on terror". It may well be a CIA tool. Is it now trying to foment unrest in Iran's traditional oil province, to facilitate its seizure (sorry, "liberation") by America at some future time?

'"If it is proved that al-Jazeera committed a crime, it will be prosecuted," Muhammed Khoshvaught, a culture ministry official, said on Iranian television. ...'

In the UK, Birmingham City council's deputy leader, the Lib Dem John Hemming, has initiated legal action in the High Court over postal voting. The recent Election Court found widespread rigging of postal votes in last year's local elections there.

Hemming's legal action could result in the upcoming general and local elections being delayed.

Recently, a dozen "Islamists" of the al-Muhajjiroun group disrupted a mosque meeting, saying those who vote in elections will go to Hell. They seem to be copying "Zarqawi", who made a similar comment some months ago.

Even the Iranian Islamic revolutionaries entertained a dualism of God and Democracy! What else are we to believe but that these more-recent cartoon-strip caricatures are the production of CIAgitprop and its associates? As in Iraq, their targets are mainly — not Americans, but ... And now ...

'"ISLAMISTS" HIT GALLOWAY MEETING

'A group of suspected Islamists have attacked a meeting of George Galloway's Respect Party in Bethnal Green and Bow [in London].

'Police said there were reports 20 to 30 Asian men had disrupted the meeting and there had been a fracas outside.

'Respect said the men had threatened Mr Galloway's life and talked of a fatwa. After the meeting, a man was knocked to the ground and police arrested three.

''The anti-war campaigner is standing against Labour loyalist Oona King in the east London constituency.'

(BBC Ceefax, p.106)

Galloway was the left-wing MP who was expelled from the Labour Party for his opposition to the Iraq invasion. He called Bush and Blair "wolves", and urged soldiers not to obey orders. He has since founded his own party, Respect, to oppose the war.

Galloway successfully sued the Telegraph over its story that, after the invasion, a document was found in the Iraqi Information Ministry building showing that he had received over £300,000 in payments from Saddam Hussein. The building was ruined and wide open to the public at the time, and anyone could have planted the document (though it was supposed to have been authenticated). The Telegraph's reporter was led to it by his translator. ...

And now he's being targeted by "Islamists" who have issued a fatwa?!!! Pull the other one, it's got MI5/6 on.

Islamists step up campaign to stop Muslims voting
Audrey Gillan and Vikram Dodd, The Guardian (UK), 22 April 05

'The extreme Islamist group accused of threatening George Galloway and hijacking a meeting of moderate Muslims is planning to to step up its direct action camapign to stop fellow believers from participating in the election.

'The Guardian can reveal [oh shit] that the gang of youths who stormed the election meetings this week are members of al-ghuraaba, an offshoot of the now disbanded radical organisation al-Muhajiroun.

'The group's east London campaign is being run by Abdul Mueed, a student, who promised yesterday [21 April 05] that al-Ghuraaba would continue to disrupt events and taret candidates to get across its meassage to Muslims that they will go to hell if they vote on May 5.

'"it is not the lifestyle of a Muslim to vote, and it is not from Islam," Mr Mueed, 22, said last night. "George Galloway and Oona King and the heads of all the political parties are fighting Muslims, they hate the lifestyle of the Taliban and the Muslims living in Iraq, that's why they are willing to carpet bomb them all." ...

'But the group had denied that it threatened to kill Mr Galloway after a group of 30 youths stormed into a tenants' meeting the former Labour MP was holding on Tuesday [19 April 05] night in Bethnal Green and Bow, where he is standing as the Respect candidate.

'Mr Galloway says he was forced to hide in his car after the men denounced him as a false prophet and threatened him with "the gallows".

'In a video of the event men can be heard shouting at Mr Galloway "We are going to follow you" and "We know where you live". They then bellow: "George beware." ...

'Last night Mr Mueed said 30 members did nothing wrong in attending the meeting and alleged that Mr Galloway had exaggerated what had happened. ...

'He [Mueed] added: "The Respect party is coming into mosques and calling us to join democracy and is calling us to join the British army.

'When told that Respect is an anti-war party and is calling for British troops to be removed from Iraq, Mr Mueed changed tack and said it was the Muslim Council of Britain calling for Muslims to join the army.

'Earlier this week, an MCB meeting was disrupted by a group which said they were from the Saviour sect [another name the group goes by, according to this Guardian article]. ...'

'Intelligence reports suggest al-Qaeda terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb and is preparing for attack, a newspaper [the right-wing Washington Times] says.

'The threat has allegedly been included in several US classified intelligence reports since December.

'Analysts are questioning the data because they believe al-Qaeda would use a nuclear weapon immediately, the Washington Times reports.'

Lib Dem Birmingham deputy chief Hemming has been denied permission to apply to the High Court for a judicial review regarding voting procedures in the upcoming general election. (See above, under 7 April 05). (Widespread fraud was found in last year's local elections in Birmingham.)

'The court martial of a soldier accused of faking pictures purporting to show British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners has been discontinued.

'Stuart Mackenzie, 25, had been facing up to two years' imprisonment on a charge of misusing military equipment.

'A Ministry of Defence spokesman said proceedings had been "stayed following the emergence of new evidence".

'The case is now with the Crown Prosecution Service, with a view to establishing the way ahead", he added.'

The pictures were instrumental (in combination with his obstinacy in refusing to admit they were fakes) in getting the anti-war editor of the Mirror sacked. I strongly suspect that they were planted by "members" of the "War Party" for that purpose, and that they had first carried out a character assessment on the editor and calculated that he would likely act in this way.

Is soldier Mackenzie a scapegoat, or a loyal fall guy in the case? What is the new evidence? That the plot goes higher up? Or is it faked cover-up material? ...

In the latest of a series of UK terror trial verdicts helpful for Blair's re-election ...

'Shoebomb plotter Saajid Badat has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for planning to blow up a passenger plane.

'The 25-year-old, a religious teacher from [St James Street,] Gloucester [where, in a raid, police ordered the evacuation of 119 homes], was sentenced after conspiring with fellow Briton Richard Reid [and a Tunisian man, Nizar Trabelsi].

'He pleaded guilty in February to the plot to blow up the transatlantic flight on its way to the US in 2001. [Badat was supposed previously to have received training in Afghanistan.]

'The judge at the Old Bailey said Badat could have been jailed for 50 years if he had not withdrawn from the plot.

'The case is the first successful major terrorism prosecution in the UK since the 11 September attacks on the US.

'... [But an] e-mail from Badat to his family on 14 December 2001 indicated he intended to withdraw from the plot.

'Instead of finding paradise as a martyr, Badat enrolled at the College of Islamic Knowledge and guidance in Blackburn, Lancashire. Bizarrely, he kept the bomb and fuses because he did not know how to dispose of them. ...'

In Spain, 24 people have gone on trial on charges of assisting the 9/11 attacks. All have pleaded not guilty.

'Zacarias Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to six charges of conspiracy in connection with the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.

'The US government says it will seek the death penalty for Moussaoui, the only person in the US charged over 9/11.

"However, he said he was not part of the 9/11 plot itself, but a wider conspiracy to attack the White House [later on].

'His lawyers had atempted to prevent him pleading guilty, saying he was mentally unfit to do so.

'But the judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, ruled that he was mentally fit to enter a plea. ...

'Moussaoui said he had been personally chosen by Osama Bin Laden in a plot to crash planes into US buildings.

'I was being trained on a 747 to eventually use the plane to strike the White House," said the man, who wore a prison jump suit in court.

'In 2002, Moussaoui, a Moroccan-born French citizen, tied to plead guilty but changed his mind after the judge gave him a week to reconsider.

'He was arrested a month before the attacks in which 3,000 people died — on immigration charges, after a flying school in Minnisota reported that he had been acting suspiciously.

'Previously he had lived in London on and off for nine years, where he attended the finsbury Park mosque, at a time when it was linked to extremist activities.

All tying in nicely (no pun intended). Just in time for the British general election. Obviously, the sorcerers of Reich's construction consider the British puppet government a valuable one.

Moussaoui admits his target was White House
He pleads guilty to plotting terror, but says he was to fly later — not 9/11
Neil A Lewis, New York Times, Houston Chronicle, 23 April 05

'... Moussaoui's assertion that he was part of a separate plan to fly a plane into the White House matches some elements of one the the [US] government's versions of his role. Initially, government officials labeled him the "20th hijacker," someone intended to have flown aboard the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and had only four hijackers, unlike the other three planes, each of which had five.

'In documents disclosed recently in the case, government officials appeared to suggest that Moussaoui was to be the pilot of a fifth plane on Sept. 11. ...'

Ah yes. The White House. That'll scotch those chuckle-headed conspiracy freaks who say the administration was involved in 9/11! As my redoubtable buddy Col. Blitzenburger has just joyously ejaculated.

'Veteran diplomat John Negroponte has been sworn in as the US's first director of national intelligence.

'His work will oversee the work of 15 separate agencies, including the CIA. ...'

Which should technically make him a rival to Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss.

'Former commander of US troops in Iraq Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez has been cleared over abuses at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

'A new inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by Gen Sanchez and three of his top aides, US officials say.

'The US Army inspector general's report says only Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, commander at the jail, has been found guilty and [wow!] reprimanded over the abuse. ...

'... Brig Gen Karpinski has been sen[t] a written reprimand and relieved of her command. ...

'WASHINGTON — Federal agencies under the Bush administration are sweeping vast amounts of public information behind a curtain of secrecy in the name of fighting terroirsm, using 50 to 60 loosely defined security designations that can be imposed by officials as low-ranking as government clerks.

'No one is tracking the amount of unclassified information that is no longer available.

'For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon offical could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped "For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.

'In these case and others, the information that the Bush administration is removing from public access is not risky enough to national security to be officially classified as "Confidential," "Secret," or "Top Secret," under rules in place for decades. [And/But how much more information has disappeared under these categories since 2001?]]

'The public instead is losing access to large amounts of less-risky information through terms such as "for Offical Use Only," "Sensitive But Unclassified," "Not For Public Dissemination," and what congess has estimated as 50 to 60 other designations developed by federal agencies to keep the public from seeing unclassifed information.

'Although some of these secrecy terms predate the Bush administration, advocates of open government say their use has grown sharply over the past four years. Precise numbers of documents being shielded are unknown because the government keeps no records. And there are only vague standards governing the types of documents that can be made secret. [Which may mean that the new "system" is a better bet for hiding the Bush-fronted junta's real skeletons.]

'Under the offical system for classified secrets, [by contrast,] each level of secrecy comes with clearly defined criteria. There are strict limitations on who is authorized to decide whether a piece of information should be classified. Precisely 4,007 officials have this power. There are time limits after which most classified secrets can be made public. There is a process for appealing a classification. And the government tracks how many classified secrets it creates each year.

'By contrast, terms such as "For Offical Use Only" have vague criteria that vary from agency to agency. In some departments, any employee, even a clerk, may stamp a document as off-limits. All 180,000 employees of the Homeland Security Department may decide a document is "For Official Use Only." [My emphasis.]

'There is no system for tracking who stamped it, for what reason, and how long it should stay secret. There is no process for appealing a secrecy decision. ...

'[And/But] the administration's use of the classified secrets systems is [also] soaring. It classifed 16 million documents in 2004, the highest number recorded since the government began keeping track of them in 1980. That number is up from 14 million in 2003, 11 million in 2003, and 8 million in 2001. [My emphases.]

'And the number of old documents being declassifed dropped from an average of 150 milliion a year during Bill Clinton's second term to an average 54 million in Bush's first term. Last year, there were only 25 million declassifications. ...

'With a few exceptions, the terms such as "For Official Use Only" lack the force of law, so if a member of the public finds out that the document exists, he or she may still try to obtain it under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the Bush administration is also fighting to avoid releasing information under the Act.

'Under a Clinton administration policy, FOIA officers were supposed to operate with a "presumption of disclosure" unless it was "reasonable that disclosure would be harmful."

'But in October 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed course, instructing agencies to withhold information unless there was no "sound legal basis" for doing so.

'This policy discourages the release of information because few people are willing to go to the trouble of filing a lawsuit. The administration has also stretched the legal definitions of what is exempt ...'

'GUARDIAN[:] Senior judges fear that a succession of recent laws could fetter their ability to administer justice and to act as a check on the executive."

'... In a rare series of interviews, five judges in the high court and court of appeal have told the Guardian of their concerns about laws on sentencing, control ordrs for terror suspects, and public inquiries, which they see as attempts to limit their role.

'Their worries ... are echoed by other senior legal figures, including the former master of the rolls, Lord Donaldson.

'Several, including Lord donaldson, say the country came close to a constitutional crisis, with some senior judges tempted to defy the will of parliament, when the government proposed an "ouster clause" barring the courts from ruling on the legality of asylum and immigration decisions.

'The plan was abandoned in March 2004 after an outcry from lawyers and a threat by the former Labour lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, to break the silence he has maintained since he lost his job in June 2003 to speak against it.

'Lord Donaldson told the Guardian: ... "Had they successfully pursued the ouster clause ... we would simply have to [have said] 'We (the judges) are an independent estate of the realm and it's not open to the legislature to put us out of business. And so we shall simply ignore your ouster clause.'"

'One appeal court judge said: "The ouster clause I thought was an outrage — the idea that they should actually spell oout that the court would have no power to decide on questions of legality. I'm not aware of that ever happening before."

'He acknowledged that the abuse of the appeals system in immigration was "a scandal" which needed tackling, but described the ouster clause as "a complete overreaction".

'*the recently implemented Criminal Justice Act 2003, which imposes mandatory and minimum sentences, reducing the judges' discretion to fit the punishment to the individual case;

'*the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, which allows the home secretary to restrict individuals' [including British citizens'] liberty on suspicion of [my emphasis] involvement in terrorist activities, with minimal oversight by the judges;

'*the Inquiries Act 2005, which restricts the independence of judges appointed to chair inquiries, allowing ministers to decide what evidnece is given in public and to block the disclosure of evidence. ...'

British Channel 4 News has revealed a document which it claims is the full legal advice given by Attorney General Goldsmith to Tony Blair before the Iraq invasion. The advice has caveats and doubts about the war's legality which were entirely left out of the published "summary" ten days later. The latter was used to obtain parliamentary authorization for the invasion.

UK PM Tony Blair's plane was "struck by lightning". According to a passenger, Blair, who was talking to a journalist, remained unperturbale, but others were "far from unpeturbed".

I'm getting a flash from my ever-vigilant buddy Col. Blitzenburger. His CIA buddies have informed him the plane was struck by a Qaeda lightning weapon. "Don't let that Al Kayeeda faggot intimidate you", the good Colonel says. "You Limeys shouldn't be scared out of voting for that — Prime Minister Blare."

The Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jafari, has appointed a cabinet. But many posts remain unfilled, including those of the oil and defence ministries. Ahmad Chalabi has been appointed as "temporary" oil minister.

Chalabi was the exile and MI6 and CIA collaborator who, when he returned to Iraq, "let the side down" ...

'In what was a blatant tip of the hat to 9/11 conspiracy pop culture, BBC's new doctor Who series featured a plot which mirrored every aspect brought forth by those who contend that the September 11 attack was an inside job.

'In the recent episode "Aliens of London", a spaceship crashes into Big Ben in a sequence eerily similar to the events of 9/11. [Link to trailer given.]

'While London is put under martial law, it turns out that the perpetrators of the attack is the government itself, having been infiltrated by aliens. [Well, we know that aspect isn't true, anyway. The perpetrators are those of the native US power establishment who seek to get rid of the nuisance of constitutional government, an obstacle in their course to empire.]

'They then use the staged attack to launch a war on another planet under the pretext that they can attack Earth with weapons of mass destruction in under 45 seconds (mirroring Blair's infamous 45 minutes Iraq lie). It turns out that the hidden agenda is to grab the planet's fuel.

'The Prime Minister even goes AWOL and is criticised for his lack of action (as with Bush in the [Florida] elementary school on 9/11).

'The episode even enlisted the services of real BBC news readers to create mock news reports for the show. [Links given.] There is also a mock US report. [Link given.] ...

'Many of our readers will remember the Lone Gunmen pilot episode, which carried the plot where a secret group within the government attempt to hijack a commercial airliner and fly it into the World Trade Center. [I mention it in my "The September 11 Atrocities".] This was made in late 2000 and broadcast in early 2001.

'Alex Jones interviewed Dean Haglund, one of the stars of the show back in December. Haglund said that by the time the X-files was coming to an end, the producer Chris Carter (who also produced 'Gunmen') was being approached by government agencies and NASA with script ideas.

'Was this a forewarning from the inside that 9/11 was about to happen? [And if so, why? ...'

'[UK] IRAQ WAR FORCES CHIEF ATTACKS BLAIR

'The head of British forces in the Iraq conflict has been reported as saying the PM will join him in the dock if a legal challenge is mounted on the war.

'In a Sunday paper [cf. next item] Sir Michael Boyce was quoted as saying he had insisted on confirmation from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that the mission was legal.

'He added: "That may not stop us from being charged, but it would make sure others were brought in as well".'

(ITV Teletext, p.303)

Boyce's reported comments may be a specific response to the next item:-

Tommorrow's Sunday Times says a secret government document shows Tony Blair agreed Iraqi regime change with George Bush eight months before the invasion. The WMD were just a legal figleaf.

The UK government has responded that this is nothing new, and was fully covered by the late Butler enquiry.

(ITV late evening news, 30 April 05)

The explicit exposure of these long-obvious facts may mean the real 9/11 empire-criminals are pitching to make their front-puppets take the fall for the puppets' own facile front-conspiracy.

'PM REFUTES WAR CLAIMS

'... A legal memo quoting Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dated July 2002 indicated the US had "made up its mind to go to war, even though the case was thin".

'But Mr Blair said that no decision had been made at that point [Sounds like Condy on Iran now] and the cabinet had decided to go back to the UN.'

(ITV Teletext, 1 May 05, p.304)