1 December 2006
Two Moscow-UK airliners were tested for radioactivity re. Litvinenko polonium-poisoning case. One, on which UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell had travelled, was cleared.
4 December 06
John Bolton, the hardline US ambassador to the UN, has stepped down. His appointment, not approved by Democrats, was a provisional one and, with Congress now under Democratic control, it is "very unlikely" that it would have been confirmed.
(BBC TV news)
6 December 06
The US Iraq Study Group, chaired by James Baker and ____ Hamilton, has reported that the current US strategy in Iraq is not working, and that US troops should be withdrawn from the country by 2008.
7 December 06
The Litvinenko spy opera continues, with traces of radiation said to be found in the British embassy in Moscow.
8 December 06
A British marine killed in fighting in southern Helmand, Afghanistan, may have been killed by "friendly fire".
A thousand British soldiers, armour and "jets" have taken part in a raid in Basra on "gangsters". Five houses were targeted.
In the American zone, troops attacked "al-Qaeda" militants in the town of Thar Thar. Iraqis said 17 civilians were killed.
10 December 06
UK Home Secretary Evil John Reid has spread a message of goodwill, warning of the "likelihood" of a terror attempt over Christmas.
This mini-Heydrich has decided which side his bread's buttered.
13 December 06
Five Law Lords have ruled that police acted unlawfully in 2003 when they prevented anti-war protesters from disembarking from their coaches at RAF Fairford, and forcibly escorted them back to London.
Though I somehow doubt any serious action will be taken against these petty war criminals.
14 December 06
The UK government has abrogated an enquiry into bribes-for-arms-deals "for security reasons" after Saudi Arabia threatened to pull out of the contract and go to the Americans or French. Attorney General Goldsmith acted after consulting the Prime Minister, Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
15 December 06
The Palestinian territories "are approaching civil war" between Hamas and al-Fatah. The Israelis prevented the Hamas prime minister from re-entering, "although they have no troops" there, when it was found he had a suitcase containing £35 million, which the Israelis said might be used to finance terrorism. After he re-entered, his convoy was attacked and one of his bodyguards killed. Hamas blamed Palestinian President Abbas. 19 December 06
UK Home Secretary Evil John Reid is not going ahead with a special-purpose identity register because of costs. Instead it will be spread across three existing databases.
21 December 06
A British soldier, Corporal Daniel James, has been charged with supplying intelligence to Iran. James, who was born in Iran and speaks fluent Farsi, was intelligence assistant to General _____ in Afghanistan. He will be tried in camera in a military court.
... Further individual invasions of oil targets seem not to be an option any more. The only possibility left for the petro-imperialists (apart from their own destruction) would seem to be to, Nazi-style, launch their bid for empire under the banner of general war.
23 December 06
The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a "watered down" resolution for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
25 December 06
British forces have stormed a police station in Basra. They later destroyed the building with explosives. The station was the same one where two UK special-forces SAS/SRR soldiers "were held" in September 2005, after being arrested by Basra police. (Therefore it was the Basra central police station. See ""The Special Reconnaissance Regiment".)
The British have given a similar story to the first time, this time that they were rescuing prisoners (some of them policemen) from renegade police forces. The Basra Provincial Council has suspended cooperation in protest, but the British claim they were acting on the orders of the Iraqi prime minister.
'Many of the prisoners at the Jamiat police station showed signs of torture .... said Capt. Tane Dunlop, a spokesman for British forces in Iraq. The station, a base for a squad known as the serious crimes unit, was later blown up by British forces.
'The targeted unit "was in fact living up to its name," Dunlop said. "It was conducting serious crimes rather than preventing it [sic]".
'Iraqi police are widely believed to be infiltrated by Shiite militias, but British military spokesmen said the rogue elements in this particular unit were involved in gang-like activity rather than sectarian killings.
'Maj. Charles Burbridge, another British military spokesman, said the serious crimes unit had been suspected of illegal activity, including kidnappings, murders and attacks on British and other multinational forces [what's the rate of pay for this last, I wonder?]. ...
'Brig. Mohamad Humadi, Basra's police commander, condemned the operation, saying the British military did not give him and other police in the city enough notice. ...
'But an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, Muhammad al-Aaskari, said the raid was a coordinated effort among coalition and Iraqi forces and the country's Interior Ministry. ...'
(Nancy Trejos, Sudarsan Raghavan, "British and Iraqi troops raid Basra police station ...", Washington Post, on San Francisco Chronicle online, 26 Dec. 06)
30 December 06
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein reported executed. (BBC News 24, 3:10 GMT [6:10 Iraqi time]).
Already there is talk of sending 25,000 more US troops to Iraq. US embassies worldwide have been put on alert.
US black oil forces may take the opportunity to stage a second 9/11 in Iraq, to be blamed on Iran/Saudi (a Shia-Sunni ragbag that is "putting their invention on the rack").
31 December 06
The number of US military dead in Iraq has reached 3,000.
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