Frank Freeman's Diary, December 2005

'Positive articles about the war in Iraq written by U.S. troops have been appearing in Iraqi newspapers under the guise of independent journalism, part of a coordinated effort by the U.S. military to win over Iraqi civilians, according to military officials.

'Officers in Iraq say the program is an essential element of an "information war" against an insurgency adept at spreading its message through local and international media, largely with violent acts. The newspaper articles promote the positive aspects of the United States-led coalition's work and encourage Iraqis to take part in the burgeoning democracy. [While all I can think of to do is throw up in a ditch somewhere.] ...

'The program has been run out of the Multinational Corps commanded by Lt. Gen. John R. Vines in Baghdad, with the help of a Washington-based contractor, Lincoln Group. The company translates articles and markets them to Iraqi media outlets without indicating the material came from the U.S. military.

'The effort was disclosed yesterday by the Los Angeles Times, which reported that some of the articles were place in Iraqi newspapers after people presenting themselves as independent writers paid the publications to publish them. ...

'Troops working in "information operations" and other units routinely send out factual, positive articles about the coalition to international news organizations, but soldiers assigned to "psychological operations" [psyops] have been more aggressive in manipulating information for military gain. One example concerned the death of Iraqi Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who was killed during interrogations near the Syrian border.

'After his death, a news release said Mowhoush had cooperated and died of natural causes, and local communities were notified that he had identified key insurgents in the area, when he had not. ...

'Lincoln Group was one of a few contractors tapped earlier this year to bring a more creative approach to psychological operations efforts in Iraq, largely aiming at improving foreign public opinion about the United States. Col. James A. Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element at the U.S. Special Operations Command [SOCOM], said in June that the military would like to use "cutting edge types of media" to get the message out. ...

Ten US marines have been killed by a roadside bomb outside Falluja, in central Iraq.

Anti-war hostage Norman Kember has been threatened with death by his kidnappers in Iraq unless (obviously impossible) demands to empty jails in Iraq are met.

'... to stop the transportation of terror suspects to countries outside US legal authority.

'It is acting for a man allegedly flown to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. ...

'"The lawsuit will charge that CIA officials at the highest level violated US and universal human rights laws when they authorised agents to abduct an innocent man, detain him incommunicado, beat him, drug and transport him to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan," the ACLU said in a news release.

The Western (specifically Anglo-Saxon) "security" and, even more so, the "intelligence" agencies were at the cutting edge of the epic struggle the "Cold War, and ipso facto operated beyond constitutional restraint. They became (like the KGB before them) a leading weapon for promoting their bloc's own interests and, since the defeat of the Soviet bloc, the positive imperial expansion of those interests.

'[US] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will go on the offensive next week to rebut European concerns over reports of a secret CIA prison system in Eastern Europe, making the case during a five-day trip to Europe that intelligence cooperation between the United States and Europe is essential to prevent future attacks, U.S. officials said.

'After weeks of being pummeled in the European media over reports about clandestine prisoner transfers and secret detention centers, administration officials have concluded that they need to put European governments on notice that they should back off and begin to emphasize the benefits of intelligence cooperation to their citizens.

'Administration officials have been careful to neither confirm or deny the existence of the prison system, first disclosed by The Washington Post on Nov. 2, and Rice has no plans to acknowledge it. The Post report spurred a series of probes across Europe, and administration officials are bracing for Rice to be hit with a barrage of questions as she tours Europe. ...

'White House spokesman Scott McLellan said yesterday that the United States does not violate human rights and is viewed as a model around the globe. "When it comes to human rights, there is no greater leader than the United States of America, and we show that by holding people accountable when they break the law or violate human rights," he said. "We show that by supporting the advance of freedom and democracy and supporting those in countries that are having their human rights denied or violated, like North Korea."

'After the Post report [of 2 Nov. 05], Human Rights Watch cited flight records of aircraft allegedly linked to the CIA to suggest sites in Poland and Romania were used. Both nations have denied they housed secret CIA prisons.'

'US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling [UK] Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other European officials to "back off".

'Rice ... arrives in Brussels tomorrow for a meeting with Nato foreign ministers ...

'... Last week Straw wrote to Rice asking for clarification [of] some 80 flights by CIA planes that have passed through the UK. ...

'In Britain, civil rights group Liberty is to table an amendment to the Civil Aviation Bill that would oblige the Home Secretary to force any aircraft travelling through UK airspace suspected of extraordinary rendition to land and be searched by police and customs.

'Straw is also facing calls to allow MPs and human rights groups access to Diego Garcia, the British Island in the Indian Ocean being used as a US military base. It has long been suspected that the Island has been used to hold or transfer terror suspects to secret US jails.'

'Osama Bin Laden is still alive and leading a "holy war" against the West, according to a videotaped statement by his right-hand man.

'Ayman al-Zawahiri was speaking in a message posted on the internet and then broadcast by al-Jazeera.

'It is not clear when the video, which shows the al-Qaeda figure speaking in a white room, was filmed.

'He called for attacks on oil targets [which confirms the imminence of the next oil invasion] and said al-Qaeda was "spreading and expanding and strengthening". ...

'He is believed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. [Move over, KSM. With all due respect to John Fulton and his colleagues, of course.]

'He was number two — behind only Bin Laden — in the 22 Most Wanted Terrorists List announced by the US government in 2001 and has a $25m bounty on his head. [For more about Zawahiri, see "Al-Qaeda: A CIA protege".]'

DON'T MISS NEXT WEEK'S EXCITING EPISODE: 'OSAMA BIN LADEN "JOINS FORCES WITH HEREWARD THE WAKE"'

Abu Qatada has appeared in a video, also filmed in a white room (apparently a British prison cell), appealing for the release of hostage Norman Kember in Iraq.

'The international community is losing patience with Iran over its nuclear programme, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today [in Oslo, where he is to receive the Nobel Peace Prize].

'... Mr ElBaradei added that [he] hoped outstanding nuclear issues with Iran would be clarified by the time he presented his next report on Tehran's nuclear programme in March [the start of the invading season], because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that programme" [i.e. American petro-imperialism is raring to go at its next target].

'[Hypocritically, ] The IAEA chief, however, said turning the matter over to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions on the country [and the US.UK has circulated a draft resolution threatening unspecified measures — which on the last occasion was used a a pretext to "justify" the Iraq invasion], was not an immediate [!] answer. "Let us not jump the gun, and think we can use enforcement."

The UN (Hans Blix, and ElBaradei himself) were at the same stage of play vis-a-vis Iraq, precisely two years ago. ...

'"But this window of opportunity is not forever," he said, adding that "the next couple of months are going to be very crucial."

'By next March, he said he hoped "things will have moved in the right direction and that we're not talking about the Security Council".

'"As long as we are moving forward, as long as we haven't seen an imminent threat, a smoking gun, ["in the shape of a mushroom cloud", to coin a phrase]" it should not be necessary to use "the stick", ElBaradei said, adding however that "I'm not excluding any option in the future." ...'

The US-based Human Rights Watch group says that 25 people were interrogated in a secret CIA prison in Poland, and that Romania has acted as a transit country for prisoners. Poland and Romania have denied that they were involved.

103 people, 74 of them children, have been killed in another airliner accident in Nigeria. The plane overshot the runway "in bad weather".

Three blasts at an oil storage facility in Buncefield, Hemel Hempstead, UK, injured at least 36 people. Front doors were blown in a half mile away.

Police said there was no reason to think the explosions were anything but an accident.

Coming hard-on-the-heels of a "Qaeda" threat against oil facilities (albeit specifically "Western-exploited Muslim" ones [see above, under 7 Dec. 05]), it appears intended to look like a terrorist attack.

There has been a second night of rioting by thousands of young white men in Sydney, Australia, who are attacking people of Mideastern/Mediterranean appearance. ("No Lebanese.") (Other reports say they were "reprisal riots" by the latter.)

Under the umbrella of the hypocrite-leadership of Anglo-Saxon neo-totalitarianism, a more overt form of fascism is rising.

'Syria is coming under increased international pressure over its role in Lebanon, following the murder in Beirut of a prominent anti-Syrian MP.

'The Lebanese Prime Minister says he will ask the UN Security Council to investigate the death of Gibran Tueni and other recent political murders. [Syria has denied involvement. Unless the Syrian regime has the desire to commit mass suicide, would it be involved in further assassinations?]

'On Tuesday [tomorrow], the Security Council is due to discuss the latest report [from a committee headed by the Jewish-named Mehlis] into the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

'It confirms that Syrian officials are key suspects in the February killings. [and who needs proof?]'

'British officials have found no evidence that America is using UK airports to move CIA terror suspects, [UK] foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said.

'Mr Straw said no records of requests, nor any other files on the issue, had been found in detailed searches. ...

'Lib Dem Sir Menzies Campbell said the fact [assuming it is a fact] that there were no records did not mean the flights were not happening. [He said more, but the BBC's Ceefax doesn't ... er ... record it.]'

'Allegations that the CIA abducted suspects across European borders are credible, an investigator has said.

'Swiss senator Dick Marty has submitted a report on the claims, in the media, to a meeting of the human rights committee of the Council of Europe. ...'

'[UK Foreign Secretary] Jack Straw's statement that there are no records of the CIA flying terror suspects through the UK to face torture may be "worthless", a group of MPs say.

'The MPs are not reassured by the foreign secretary and say they have legal advice suggesting the government must actively investigate the claims.

'And he said that unless people believed he and his US counterpart [Rice] were lying, there was no truth in the allegation. [?! Did he really phrase it this way?]'

There will be no public inquiry into the July 7 terrorist atrocities in London, the Home Office has confirmed.

'The confirmation follows a BBC report that a detailed "narrative of events" report, written by a senior civil servant, would be published instead. [Ooh lovely! A fairy tale just in time for my Christmas stocking.]

'Home Secretary Charles Clarke is examining what evidence could be made available to the parliamentary probes looking into the suicide.'

'... The [to-be-published] account would include material gathered from intelligence agencies and evidence compiled by police. ...'

The UK government has dropped plans to permit applications for court orders for the closure of mosques (and, disingenuously, "other places of worship") deemed associated with extremism. Police had advised against it. (See November 2005 diary, under 30 November 05.)

The White House has accepted a ban on torture and degrading treatment, put forward by the Senate and House of Representatives (as an appendix to the current military spending bill).

Parliamentary elections in Iraq, a "high turnout" in Sunni areas for the first time ("80%" in Tikrit, for example).

'Pentagon officials said yesterday they had ordered a review of a program aimed at countering terrorist attacks that had compiled information about U.S. citizens, after reports that the database included information on peace protesters and others whose activities posed no threat and should not have been kept on file.

'The move followed an NBC News report Tuesday [13 Dec. 05] disclosing that a sample of about 1,500 "suspicious incidents" listed in the database included four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, some aimed at military training.

'Although officials defended the Pentagon's interest in gathering information about possible threats to military bases and troops, one senior official acknowledged that a preliminary review of the database indicated that it had not been properly maintained. ...

'The program, known as Talon, compiles unconfirmed reports of suspected threats to defense facilities. It is part of a broader effort by the Pentagon to gather counterterrorism intelligence within the United States [cf. below, 'Pentagon's Intelligence Authority Widens' (WP, 19 Dec. 05], which has prompted concern from civil liberties activists and members of Congress in recent weeks. ...

'The Talon reports are fed into a database managed by the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, a three-year-old Pentagon agency whose budget and size are classified. [See ibid.] ...'

A British report says that a "pandemic" of avian flu would lead to severe food shortages, etc

It is in the interest of the petro-imperialists to create a general background of fear amongst their subject populations, to get us in the mood for further invasions of oil targets.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams says that Denis Donaldson, the party's chief administrator, has been expelled after discovery that he was a collaborator with British special forces for twenty years.

Donaldson has just been acquitted of charges of spying on the Northern Ireland government for the IRA. (All charges were dropped "in the public interest".) A news reporter on British TV suggested he might have acted as an agent provocateur in regard to the Castlereagh break-in in 2002.

This is what it looked like at the time; and it came within a year of 9/11, the Mother Of All Conspiracies.

British Channel 4 News says it has found evidence that CIA "torture" flights were routed through RAF Northholt, the high-security airfield near London.

'BUSH SPYING CLAIM CAUSES US STORM

'Allegations that President George Bush authorised security agents to eavesdrop on people inside the US [in the immediate aftermath of 9/11] have caused a storm of protest.

'The New York Times says the National Security Agency was allowed to spy on hundreds of people without warrants [i.e, illegally, notwithstanding efforts to date to find a legal loophole].

'The NSA[, responsible for electronic eavesdropping,] is normally barred from eavesdropping within the US.

'Republican Senator John McCain called for an explanation, while Senator Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said he would investigate. [How far did Specter's Able Danger" get, BTW?]'

(BBC Ceefax, 16 December 05, p.109, + BBC Newsnight, same date)

Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say
James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times, 15 December 05

'WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 — Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

'Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials say. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

'The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval represents a major shift in American intelligence-gathering [anyone remember the supposedly-scotched TIPS neighbour-on-neighbour spying programme, by-the-way?] particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. as a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.

'"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches."

'Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight.

'According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters. Some of the questions about the agency's new powers led the administration to temporarily suspend the operation last year and impose more restrictions, the officials said.

'The Bush administration views the operation as necessary so that the agency can move quickly to monitor communications that may disclose threats to this country, the officials said. Defenders of the program say it has been a critical toll in helping disrupt terrorist plots and prevent attacks inside the United States. ...

'The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. after meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

'While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it said the N.S.A. eavesdropped without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country [the USA] may have reached into the thousands over the past three years, several officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to these officials.

'Several officials said the eavesdropping program had helped uncover a plot by Iyman Ferris, an Ohio trucker and naturalized citizen who pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting Al Qaeda by planning to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches. [Undoubtedly he was allied with those Trotskyite counter-revolutionaries who planned to blow up Soviet railway lines with sulphuric acid.] ...

'The National Security Agency, which is based at Fort Meade, [Maryland], is the nation's largest and most secretive intelligence agency, so intent on remaining out of public view that it has long been nicknamed "No Such Agency." It breaks codes and maintains listening posts around the world to eavesdrop on foreign governments, diplomats and trade negotiators as well as drug lords and terrorists. But the agency ordinarily operates under tight restrictions on any spying on Americans, even if they are overseas, or disseminating information about them.

'What the agency calls a "special collection program" began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, as it looked for new tools to attack terrorism. The program accelerated in early 2002 after the Central Intelligence Agency started capturing top Qaeda operatives overseas ...

'Since 2002, the [NSA] has been conducting some warrantless eavesdropping on people in the United States who are linked, even if indirectly, to suspected terrorists through eh chain of phone numbers and e-mail addresses, according to several officials who know of the operation. ...

'Warrants are still required for eavesdropping on entirely domestic-to-domestic communications, those officials say. meaning that [such calls] could not be monitored without first going to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court. ...'

My emphasis throughout.

'WASHINGTON (CNN) — Without confirming a report that he OK'd eavesdropping on U.S. citizens in 2002, President Bush defended his actions since September 11, 2001, saying he has done everything "within the law" to protect the American people. ...' (Kelli Arena, Bush won't confirm report NSA spied on Americans, CNN, 16 December 05)

'Two of the four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in the July 7 attacks were scrutinised by MI5 last year [my emphasis] but were not considered to be a threat, The Independent has learnt.

'Shahzad Tanweer, 22, who detonated a rucksack bomb on the Tube train at Aldgate, is believed to bave been indirectly linked to an alleged plot to build a bomb in 2004. It has already been established that the suspected mastermind, Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, had been known to security services. ...

'In the immediate aftermath of the July 7 suicide bombings it was thought that the terrorists ... were "clean skins" with no known links to terrorism.

'But it later emerged that Khan a teaching assistant from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, ... was the subject of a routine threat assessment by MI5 officers after his name cropped up during an investigation in 2004. [He was also shown round Parliament! See *] ...

'Why was the terror alert downgraded before the beginning of July? The July 7 attacks, and the failed bombings a fortnight later, took MI5 and the security agencies completely by surprise. ...

'WASHINGTON — In a strong rebuke of President George W. Bush, Senate Democrats and a small band of renegade Republicans blocked a vote Friday [yesterday] to extend the Patriot Act, the antiterrorism law that broadened law enforcement powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

'With the current law set to expire Dec. 31, the Senate move sets up a game of brinkmanship with the White House, which refused to accept Democratic entreaties to extend the deadline by three months to allow time to make further changes to the law.

'The 52-47 vote was one in a series of recent defeats for Bush on what had been one of his strongest issues — security against terrorism.

'On Thursday [15 Dec. 05], Bush reluctantly accepted a provision pushed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would ban the use of inhumane, degrading and cruel treatment against foreign prisoners under U.S. control.

'On Friday, the House of Representatives also called on the administration to inform congress about any secret prisons the CIA may be operating in foreign countries. ...'

UN investigator Detlev Mehlis now says he is confident that Syria is the right target for questioning vis-a-vis the assassination of Lebanese ex-president Rafik Hariri last February.

US Vice President Dick Cheney has paid a surprise visit to Iraq — his first since the American conquest of spring 2003.

The visit was so secret that not even the Iraqi prime minister knew about it beforehand ..... .

'SCOTSMAN[:] More than 500 Scottish troops have been told that they will be heading to Iraq in an unexpected push to try to bring order to the country [Iraq or Iran?].'

'... The Royal Scots ... were told that they might be flying to Iraq in the first few days of January.

'Yesterday, an armed forces spokesman said no official announcement had been made and that the Royal Scots could be deployed anywhere in the world. But sources revealed that 530 members of the regiment ... were told this week they would be flying out to Iraq as early as 4 January. ...

'Security analysts say the troops were not part of a regular deployment [my emphasis] and may be going to train Iraqi police and security forces. [Or follow the SAS Pied Piper?] ...

'There are currently about 8,500 British troops deployed in Iraq, the majority of them ... in and around Basra. ...

'The Royal Scots are believed to be going to replace members of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, who were sent out in November on an unscheduled tour to Basra and are believed to be returning soon to their base in Cyprus. [ ... Which appears to contradict the Royal Scots' suggested training role.]

'The Pentagon's newest counterterrorism agency, charged with protecting military facilities and personnel wherever they are, is carrying out intelligence collection, analysis and operations within the United States and abroad, according to a Pentagon fact sheet on the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, provided to The Washington Post.

'CIFA is a three-year-old agency whose size and budget remain secret. It has grown from an agency that coordinated policy and oversaw the counterintelligence activities of units within the military services and Pentagon agencies to an analytic and operational organization with nine directorates and ever-widening authority.

'Its Directorate of Field Activities (DX) "assists in preserving the most critical defense assets, disrupting adversaries and helping control the intelligence domain," the fact sheet said. Those roles can range from running roving patrols around military bases and facilities to surveillance of potentially threatening people or organizations inside the United States. The DX also provides "on-site, real time ... support in hostile areas worldwide to protect both U.S. and host nation personnel from a variety of threats," the fact sheet said. ...

'This is just one illustration of the growth of Pentagon activities in the United States and abroad as part of the terrorism fight. Last week, news accounts revealed that President Bush authorized secret [and warrantless] eavesdropping on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists abroad. [See above, under 16 Dec. 05, (NYT report of 15 Dec. 05).] ...'

Bush has brassed it out about warrantless spying on Americans, and says those who leaked the information should be hunted down.

Following the recent withdrawal of another party from the ruling coalition, PM Ariel Sharon left the Likud party to found a "left-of-center" party. New parliamentary elections are due in three months.

Netanyahu has long been to the right of Sharon. He recently resigned his position as finance minister in Sharon's government, in protest at the imminent Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

'FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

'The documents, disclosed as part of a lawsuit that challenges FBI treatment of groups that planned demonstrations at last year's political conventions, show the bureau has opened a preliminary terrorism investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the well-known animal rights group based in Norfolk.

'The papers offer no proof of PETA's involvement in illegal activity. But more than 100 pages of heavily censored FBI files show the agency used secret informants and tracked the group's events for years, including an animal rights conference in Washington in July 2000 [over a year before 9/11], a community meeting in an Indiana college in spring 2003 and a planned August 2004 protest of a celebrity fur endorser.

'The documents show the FBI cultivated sources such as a "well insulated" PETA insider, who attended the 2000 meeting to gain credibility "within the animal rights/Ruckus movements." The FBI also kept information on Greenpeace and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the papers show. ...

'The disclosure comes amid recent revelations about the extent of domestic spying by the government after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Those disclosures include the expansion within the United States of military intelligence and databases covering, among others, peace activists [See above, under 15 Dec. 05, WP report]; increased use of "national security letters" by the FBI to examine personal records of tens of thousands of citizens [my emphasis]; and, most recently, warrantless eavesdropping of overseas telephone calls and e-mails by U.S. citizens suspected of ties to terrorists [see above, yesterday, WP report]. ...'

'Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

'Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate [and how soon before they can do it for faces?], the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services [my emphasis] can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

'The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts. ...

'Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank. ...

'The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have sanctioned the spending of £24m this year on equipment.

'More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read number automatically. The data will be transmitted to Hendon via a secure police communications network. ...

'"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV somewhere. The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates will be read as well," said Frank Whitely, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and chairman of the Acpo steering committee on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). ...

'Mr Whitely said MI5 will also use the database. [My emphasis.] "Clearly there are values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.

'"The security services will use it for purposes that frankly I don't have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent." [My emphasis.]'

'Terrorist groups are "currently planning atrocities in the United Kingdom", [London] Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair has warned.

'He told BBC Radio 4's Today he knew this because [wait for it!] "we are listening to some of them, and we are watching some of them".

'Sir Ian said three plots had been disrupted since July, adding: "The threat is real. It's present with us." ...'

'Sunni Arab and secular parties in Iraq have united to reject the results of last week's parliamentary elections, saying there was widespread fraud. ...'

Following US Vice-President Cheney's recent visit to Iraq, British PM Tony Blair has paid a surprise 5-hour visit to British troops in Basra, in the south of the country.

'US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit.

'Mr Rumsfeld, who was met by the US commander in Iraq, Gen George Casey, is to visit US troops in the country.

'He arrived from Afghanistan, where he ruled out any rapid pullout of US forces in the country. ...'

It must be something to do with Christmas. The petro-imperialists are planning to make a present to themselves of Iran's oil.

The US Congress has only agreed to extend the "Patriot Act" by one month. It is due to expire on 31 December 05.

Demonstrations have been held in Iraq against "electoral fraud" and the dominance of the religious Shia parties in the elections.

Authorities in the US have admitted to testing mosques and other Muslim premises for radioactivity. They say they didn't need warrants (from judges) because the tests (with air-sniffing devices) were done in public places.

Italian legal authorities have issued Europe (EU)-wide warrants for the arrest of 22 CIA agents in connection with the abduction of a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003, and his transport to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. (Warrants valid for Italy had been previously issued.)

Israel has declared a no-go zone in the Gaza Strip — coinciding with its old colonial area in the north — after rocket attacks. It will use artillery on "trespassers".

'Tony Blair is beginning a family holiday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Downing Street has said.

'No 10 give no further details of the visit, other than to say that the Blairs are paying all their own transport and accommodation costs.

'The Blairs have been regular visitors to the Red Sea resort which was hit by a series of bombs in July which left over 60 dead, including 11 Britons.'

One time Blair was there, a French airliner fell into the Red Sea. "By accident", of course.

'The Government has gagged the media to stop them revealing the identity of a British spy reported to have helped torture terror suspects held in Greece.

'A Greek paper named a man it claims is the MI6 station chief in Athens. He is alleged to have helped in the arrest of 28 Pakistanis over the London bombings.

'The Foreign Office would not confirm or deny the claims. A Government D-notice bans the media from naming the man.'

'Police powers of arrest in England and Wales will be dramatically boosted from this Sunday [1 Jan. 06], the Government has said.

'At present, officers can generally arrest someone if they suspect them of committing an offence which carries at least [a maximum of] five years' imprisonment.

'But under new rules making all offences arrestable, officers will have to apply a "necessary test" setting out criteria for whether an arrest is justified.'

"International observers" are to investigate claims of fraud in the Iraqi elections. Sunni and secular parties complained (see above), though the United Nations said they were basically free and fair.

'Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has defied the Foreign Office by publishing on the internet documents providing evidence that the British Government knowingly [my emphasis] received information by torture in the "war on terror".

'Mr Murray, who publicly raised the issue of usefulness of information obtained under torture before he was forced to leave his job last year, submitted his forthcoming book, Murder in Samarkand, to the Foreign Office for clearance. But the Foreign Office demanded that he remove references to two sensitive government documents, which undermine official denials, to show that britian had been aware it was receiving information obtained by the uzbek authorities through torture. Rather than submit to the gagging order Mr Murray decided to publish the material on the internet.

'The first document published by Mr Murray contains the text of several telegrams that he sent to London from 2002 to 2004, warning that the information being passed on by the Uzbek security services was torture tainted, and challenging MI6 claims that the inforamtion was nonetheless "useful". The second document is the text of a Foreign Office legal opinion which argues that the use by intelligence services of information eextracted through torture is not a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture.'

'The White House and National Security Agency have been caught tracking visitors to their websites in ways that may violate official US guidelines.

'The organisations have been using different techniques to spot return visitors and monitor what they are looking at.

'Although widely used on commercial websites, US federal guidelines prohibit official use of such tools.

'The intelligence service at the centre of the row over eavesdropping [the NSA] tracked visitors to its website, despite US government regulations. Monitoring files, known as "cookies", were discovered by a privacy activist ...

'Although the cookies were dismantled this week and the NSA issued an apology on Wednesday [28 Dec. 05], the episode will add to pressure on the White House to engage in a national debate about its use of the agency, and its interpretation of the constitutional limits on George Bush's presidential powers.

'The chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Arlen Specter, confirmed this week that he intends to conduct herrings into President Bush's secret order in 2002 authorising the NSA to conduct email and telephone surveillance of US citizens without a court warrant. The hearings are expected to get under way next month. [and let's hope they get further than his Able Danger investigation.] ...

'In a posting on his googlewatch.org website a privacy activist, Daniel Brandt, says he discovered that the NSA was using tracking devices when he logged on to the agency website on Christmas Day [25 Dec. 05]. He found the site was using two persistent cookies that would not expire until 2035, well beyond the life of most computers. ...

'US government agencies have been barred from using persistent cookies since 2000 because of privacy concerns. The regulations were imposed after disclosures that the White House drug policy office had been using cookies to monitor visitors to its anti-drug advertisements.

'However, Mr Brandt and others have noted repeated violations of the ban. Three years ago, the CIA website was obliged to remove its cookies after Mr Brandt notice that the devices were still in use. ...

'... "This illustrates the principle that unchecked authority goes astray. In this case, it's a relatively trivial infractions," said Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists. "But to me the point is that we need more aggressive and penetrating oversight than we have." ...

'... the New York Times reported last week that the NSA had monitored far larger volumes of telephone and internet communications than initially acknowledged by the White House. Some of the information was obtained after US telecommunications companies allowed backdoor access to streams of telephone and internet traffic. ...

'[In general,] Most useful cookies will be installed when you first log in to a service. However, the type used by the NSA are invisible to the user and are hidden on a web page and installed on any machine that visits it.'

'MOVES TO CURB [UK] MEDIA REQUESTS

'The Government is considering action to narrow the scope of the Freedom of Information Act in order to block frivolous inquiries, it has emerged.

'Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said that in its first year of operation, the Act had brought about real change.

'But he said that a minority of media requests had wasted the time of civil servants in order to feed the "wilder fevers of journalistic wish-lists".'

(ITV Teletext, 30 December 05, p.314)

Openness laws could be tightened
BBC News online, 31 December 05

'... The Freedom of Information Act 2000, which became law on 1 January 2005 [!!], means people have the right to access information held by 100,000 public bodies.

'Police forces, hospitals, schools, local councils and the government are obliged to reply to requests for information.

'But privately run public services are not covered by the laws.

'Lord Falconer said he could see a case for widening the provisions of the act to include such bodies. ...

'[Lord Falconer said] that something like 16,000 pieces of information had been disclosed by central government and other bodies in the nine months [sic] since the Act came into force. ...'

Falconer signals curbs on 'irresponsible' information requests
Patrick Wintour, The Guardian (UK), 31 December 05

'... Writing in the Guardian on the first anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, Lord Falconer, the constitutional affairs secretary, signals his intention to end what ministers regard as abuses of a system that is generally working well. ...

'[PM] Tony Blair is known to be angry at the way in which the act has been used, once muttering, only half in jest, that it was the worst mistake his government had made. ...'

(Link to Lord Falconer's article given.)

'Right to know' fails to open the Government's vaults of secrets
Robert Verkaik, The Independent (UK), 31 December 05

'... judging by the first 12 months of the new order.

'A year after we were first granted the "right to know", new figures show nine out of 17 government departments have failed to provide adequate answers to half of the requests they received.

'Gordon Brown's Treasury was the worst offender by refusing to release information in three-quarters of all "resolvable" requests.

'Further findings reveal that all but one government department has breached the FOI legislation by failing to answer requests within the 20-day time limit.

'The report, published by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, confirms what many suspected — that the Government has blocked access by failing to observe the spirit of the new law in a year in which central government bodies received 36,000 requests.

'While [the] Labour [government] has been happy to release documents embarrassing the previous Tory administration over its handling of "Black Wednesday" — Britain's forced withdrawal from the ERM — ministers have been less willing to let the public use the Act to shed light on Labour's own political controversies.

'For example, ministers are still refusing to release earlier drafts of the Attorney General's advice of the legality of the war with Iraq. [My emphasis.] ...

'The whole truth about the formulation of the legal advice on the war with Iraq has still not come out. The Information Commissioner is still considering requests for the release of earlier drafts of the advice. Publication in the summer of the Attorney General's final draft was forced by a leak to the media. When published it confirmed that Lord Goldsmith had told Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 that a second UN resolution was the safest legal course. Ten days later Lord Goldsmith's final advice was given to the Cabinet — but included no concerns about the legality of the war. Why not? ...'