1 February 2007
The US again complains of Iranian interference in Iraq, says it has no plans to attack Iran, but
"Advanced Pentagon plans":- four carrier groups "being sent" to "attack" Iran by the end of May. Missile sites and nuclear facilities mentioned; the usual cover-disinformation for conquest of the next oil-target.
(British Channel 4 News at 7pm)
It's clear that the current terror campaigns, like those before the Iraq invasion, are an appetizer for the conquest of the next oil target.
It's do-or-die for petro-imperialism.
Eight hundred British troops are being transferred to southern Afghanistan. This figure includes 300 "specialists" (logistics, etc) coming from Britain, and 500 "redeployed from Kabul".
General David Richards, who is being replaced as head of the international Afghan-occupation force ISAP, says he expects an upsurge in Taliban activity in the spring, and that he already has plans for that time. (BBC Newsnight, 1 Feb. 07)
Moazzem Begg, the British Guantanamo detainee freed without charge, co-founded the Maktabah bookshop that was one of the recent targets of yesterday's MI5/police terror raids in Birmingham. He told British Channel 4 News he had nothing to do with the current owners. ...
A judge in Coventry has given police seven days more to question the nine arrestees (who are "British of Pakistani origin").
UK Home Secretary Evil John Reid is to try again to extend the period terror suspects can be held without charge from 28 days to 90 days.
In Palestine, fighting has resumed between Fatah and Hamas after a 3-day ceasefire broke down. Fatah forces stormed the Islamic University in Gaza, a Hamas stronghold. Fatah said they found seven Iranians there, a claim denied by Hamas.
This is an interesting development. Have Fatah puppets been primed to add to the rising tide of agitprop on "Iranian subversion" in the Middle East — as part of the last-ditch attempt to set the scene for Iran invasion? (The CIA funded and backed the setting up of Palestinian "security forces" in the 1990s, so links are already there. [Ref:- Go to the front page, and follow the link to "The CIA's Connections with the Palestinian Authority".])
2 February 07
"Terror Hitlist Named 25 Muslim Soldiers" is the UK Times's headline. A remarkable claim, since the figure amounts to about one-tenth of Muslims serving in the British army.
3 February 07
Two thousand six hundred turkeys on a farm in Suffolk, UK, have died of the H5 strain of avian flu, government inspectors from Defra "confirmed". A BBC correspondent says it seems likely it is the H5N1 variant, which can be passed (though seldom) to humans. (He's too modest in his estimate. It's more than likely. )
The farmer found 1,500 of the birds dead in a shed on Thursday night [1 Feb. 07], though they had exhibited no symptoms of respiratory disease. Also, the turkeys are kept in isolation ... (The enterprise belongs to Bernard Matthews.)
H5N1 is one of the contingent scares whipped up whenever the invasion of the next oil target, Iran, is under consideration. The disease is seldom caught by humans, but is touted ("should it mutate to human-to-human form") as the potential "next mass killer". Via a state of emergency and ensuing restrictions on movement, etc, H5N1 is a potential tool for suppressing the mass uprisings that would result from such an invasion.
140 people have been killed and 250 injured in a truck-bombing of a market in a predominantly Shia district of Baghdad. This is the worst single such atrocity since the US-led invasion in 2003.
4 February 07
The Archbishop of York has warned against the danger of a police state emerging in the UK.
... Soon we will be living under a fully-fledged Fourth Reich. And a fully-fledged World War III.
Or dying under them.
The World Health Organization warns that the H5N1 bird-flu virus could just as easily mutate into a human-to-human form in Europe as in Asia.
Which confirms the WHO's role in developing this fellow-travelling terror-scare as a pretext for establishing states of emergency in the Anglo-Saxon world to suppress opposition to an invasion of Iran (or/and Saudi Arabia).
There was an outbreak of the same "strain" on a goose farm in Hungary last month.
5 February 07
US and Iraqi forces have today opened a joint Military Command Center in Baghdad "for dealing with the insurgency". For invading Iran, more like.
The truck bombing of 3 Feb. 07 (see above under that date) was the "catalyst" for this. And likely carried out by US(/UK?) black ops for this purpose.
Attacking Iran would be disaster, report says
Matthew Tempest and agencies, The Guardian, 5 Feb. 07
'Tony Blair was under pressure today to open direct talks with Tehran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme, as a coalition of UK charities, religious bodies and thinktanks warned that an attack on Iran would be a "disaster".
'... a report [link] warned that an attack on Iran would expose British troops to attack, civilians to terrorism and release radiation in Iran. [No, and they're not going to bomb the oil-fields either.]
'The report by 15 organisations — backed by Britain's former ambassador to Iran — comes as the US appears to be upping the ante in an increasingly hostile war of words with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. ...
'Today's report, entitled "Time to Talk: The Case for Diplomatic Solutions on Iran", comes from the Foreign Policy Centre, backed by trade unions, Muslim and Christian groups and Oxfam.
'It says the UK could prove the vital catalyst between the EU and US on reopening talks with Iran.
'Launching the document, Sir Richard Dalton, the British ambassador to Iran until last year, said that a pre-emptive strike on Iran would be "a disaster for Iran, the region and the quite possibly the world". [The ensuing invasion of Saudi Arabia will be the clincher for World War III.]
'He said patience and diplomacy were key to securing a successful outcome. ...
'The former Labour minister Stephen Twigg, director of the Foreign Policy Centre, said: "The consequences of military action against Iran are not only unpalatable, they are unthinkable.
"Even according to the worst estimates, Iran is still years away from having a nuclear weapon." ...'
Oh, the deja vu with the run-up to the Iraq invasion!
But this time even the CIA is said to be against military action. LMAO! This perhaps puts in perspective a Goldstein pseudo-opposition to the rise of the Fourth Reich.
Republicans have blocked a Senate debate on Bush's "plan" to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq (though I thought he'd already sent them).
The White House submitted a c. $3 trillion budget to Congress, including $300 million for Iraq.
6 February 07
The US Senate has begun an enquiry into $12 billion aid to "the Iraqi administration" which is unaccounted for. The money was disbursed in cash, with little or no documentation, under the Bremer administration after the invasion in 2003. It is feared some of the money may have financed insurgents.
In the UK, two of the nine arrested in connection with a "plot to kidnap and behead a Brit Muslim soldier", have been released without charge. Their lawyers said they weren't questioned about the alleged "plot" during their detention.
7 February 07
The terror-climax season is in full swing once more. This is the new style, evidently, of angling for finance in the run-up to the new financial year.
It's starting to rain helicopters once again ...
In Iraq, the fifth US military helicopter in five weeks has crashed/been shot down. This one was a Chinook transporter, flying near Baghdad, and all seven people on board were killed.
The Iraqi National Security Adviser admits that the "insurgents are far more sophisticated than the Iraqi government". Yet bet! CIA-SOCOM black ops are right on the case.
A story that four French special ops soldiers in Pakistan had Osama Bin Laden in their sights (when?) near the Pakistan border, but failed to get a "capture or kill" order from the US command. The French deny the story. (ITV news)
The new US commander of Western forces in Afghanistan wants 2,000 more troops plus special forces and equipment "for the Pakistani border region".
In the UK, a "letter bomb" (in a Jiffy bag) has exploded at the HQ of the vehicle licensing agency (DVLA) in Swansea. It is the seventh such bomb in a series which has targeted forensic science labs and security companies around London and in Birmingham.
UK Home Secretary Evil John Reid has commented, and "security consultant" Peter Power (him of 7/7 "exercise" fame) has popped up in a BBC interview on the subject.
Meanwhile, the dogs pick up scraps that fall from the masters' table ...
In the US, a colonel and two lieutenant-colonels have been charged with taking bribes, to the value of $1 million, in exchange for giving a contract to an Iraqi company. The Inspector-General for Iraq is investigating 90 more cases, and charges are being brought in 25 so far.
In the UK, one of the released "terror suspects", "Abu Bakr", says the UK is a police state for Muslims.
8 February 07
Five of the nine people arrested re. a "plot to behead a UK Muslim soldier" have been charged under the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006. Another has been released; one is still being questioned [9 Feb. 07: He's now charged with witholding information on the "plot"]. Apparently only one has been charged with the alleged video/murder plot; the others with terrorism-related offences.
Meanwhile, "Abu Izzadeen", a Muslim convert born Trevor ______ in Jamaica, has been charged with encouraging terrorism in a 2006 speech, where he said Muslims in the UK armed forces should be beheaded.
Cf. September 2006 diary, under 20 Sept. 06. "Izzadeen" was a member of < a href="mujah.html" title="'Al-Mujahiroun and its Spinoffs'">the probable MI5 provocateur-fronts al-Mujahiroun and its spinoff al-Ghuraaba.
Three more sheds infected with bird flu have been discovered amongst the 22 at the Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk. It's a mystery how they got infected ...
UK government Defra scientists say the strain of H5N1 is the same as, or very similar to, that which broke out on a goose-farm in Hungary in January 07. They suggest that the virus may have been imported in meat from that country (where Bernard Matthews has a factory).
11 February 07
To celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution ...
A US official, speaking through Agence France Presse (AFP), says that 170 "coalition" soldiers have been killed by "Iranian-originated" improvised explosive devices (IEDs) since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Wrong. The official should have said MI5-originated "IEDs".
'The United States is moving closer to war with Iran by accusing the "highest levels" of the Iranian government of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed 170 US [later corrected to "coalition"] troops and wounded 620.
'The allegations against Iran are similar in tone and credibility [!] to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003.
'Senior US defence officials in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity [and no doubt wearing hoods and/or shining bright lights in the Press's eyes :-)], said they believed the bombs were manufactured in Iran and smuggled across the border to Shia militants in Iraq. The weapons, identified as "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs) are said to be capable of destroying an Abrams tank. ...
'"We assess that these activities are coming from senior levels of the Iranian government," said an official in Baghdad, charging that the explosive devices came from the al-Quds Brigade and noting that it answers to Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. This is the first time the US has openly accused the Iranian government of being involved in sending weapons that kill Americans to Iraq. ...'
A photograph, widely circulated in the media, shows a mortar round marked
81MM
HE
3—2006
[the supposed date of manufacture]
Nice of the Iranians to print it in English, and use the Christian system of year-dating.
How Much is Iran to Blame for Iraq?
Charles Crain, Time magazine, 12 Feb. 07
'The extraordinary briefing in the Green Zone pointed a finger but it wavered. The sophisticated bomb technology behind some of the deadliest improvised explosive devices (IEDs) came from neighboring Iran, said U.S. military intelligence officials in Baghdad on Sunday [11 Feb. 07]. Those IEDs used a molten ball of copper to punch through the armor of American vehicles to kill or maim the passengers. Such explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs) have killed 170 U.S. [later corrected to "coalition"] troops and wounded 620 more since the spring of 2004. Their use has doubled since 2006, accelerating at the end of that year. ... the weapons, they claimed, are produced in Iran and smuggled into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) elite al-Quds Force. ...
'The intelligence analyst at the briefing said that the EFPs came from the IRGC and that the IRGC reports directly to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But, he added, the Iranian government is notoriously factionalized, and drawing conclusions about Iranian intentions based on Iranian operations in Iran isn't so simple. ...'
12 February 07
Eighty dead in triple car-bombing of central market in Baghdad.
Iran calls Iraq arms charges 'all lies'
CNN.com International, 12 Feb. 07
'Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — Calling them "all lies," an Iranian embassy official Monday [today] denied U.S. allegations that an elite Iranian force under the command of Iran's supreme leader is behind bombings that have killed coalition forces in Iraq.
'"We dismissed all the American allegations. It's all lies, and it's not true at all," the official told CNN. "The American administration has made many mistakes in Iraq, and now they want to use Iran as a scapegoat."
'The response from the Iranian embassy came as a U.S. military spokesman said one of its generals "misspoke" Sunday [11 Feb. 07; see above under that date] when he said the bombings had killed at least 170 U.S. forces in Iraq, changing the figure to include all forces in the coalition.
'The spokesman did not give a precise breakdown on the coalition fatalities or how the military came up with the overall figure.
'CNN's Michael Ware attended a Suday briefing by a senior defense official, a senior defense analyst and an explosives expert, all of whom asked to remain unnamed, in which they said only U.S. forces died in the bombings. ...'
13 February 07
At the six-country talks, North Korea has agreed to shut down its nuclear reactor within 60 days in return for fuel aid.
14 February 07
EU Parliament to vote on report on CIA activities in Europe
Associated Press, International Herald Tribune
'Strasbourg, France: EU lawmakers clashed Wednesday [today] over a report accusing Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries of turning a blind eye to alleged CIA flights transporting terror suspects to clandestine detention centers.
'Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said the report's criticisms should have been more reserved. ...
'The report — concluding a yearlong investigation into CIA activities that may have violated EU human rights laws — was to be put to a vote in the 785-seat European Parliament later on Wednesday. [See January 2006 diary, under 24 Jan. 06, for Swiss senator Dick Marty's initial report.]
'The report gives no direct proof that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe — an allegation that prompted the inquiry in November 2005 — but accuses some EU governments and officials, including EU foreign policy chief Janvier Solana, of not cooperating with the inquiry.
'Many lawmakers said, however, that some criticism would have to be toned down in the final version to win cross-party support, and the Parliament was considering some 270 tabled amendments to the draft before the vote. [Next: A crusade fought by a committee.]
'While Socialist and Liberal lawmakers argued the report has exposed a string of abductions imcompatible with EU human rights standards, other parties warned it accuses governments of complicity without sufficient proof. ...
'The report calls for investigation of 14 EU countries mentioned as either colluding with the U.S. secret detention program or allowing secret CIA flights to land on their soil. ...
'The draft [report] is based on information on confidential sources — including records of meetings between EU, NATO and senior U.S. State Department officials — and testimony by individuals who said they were kidnapped by U.S. agents in Europe soil [sic] and transferred to secret prisons.
'It also includes information from Eurocontrol, the EU's air safety agency, which has recorded more than 1,200 undeclared CIA flights through European airspace since Sept. 11, 2001 — flights the committee said were against international air-traffic rules.
'The report offers circumstantial evidence indicating terror suspects were on some of these flights.
'No EU governments have admitted that the alleged anti-terror operations were carried out on their soil. Human Rights Watch identified Poland and Romania as possible locations of secret prisons, but both countries denied involvement and the report says the claims could not be proven.'
Revolutionary Guards killed in bomb blast
Matthew Moore and agencies, Telegraph online, 14 February 07, 10:13am GMT
'At least 11 people were killed in an unprecedented bomb attack on a bus carrying Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
'The blast happened in the southeast of the country, near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, where government troops often clash with drug smuggling gangs.
'A bomb hidden in a car was detonated as the bus[,] taking soldiers from their housing compound in the city of Zahedan to a military base[,] drew near. According to some reports armed motorcyclists shot at the bus to force it to stop, then fled after the explosion.
'It is not clear how many of the dead were from the Revolutionary Guards, a highly-trained and loyal force run separately from the Iranian army.
'Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings blamed on a Sunni group called Jundallah (Allah's Brigade). ...
'A spokesman in the Zahedan governor's offices said that two people had been arrested in relation to the attack.'
... Or US/UK black ops spreading the action from (oil-rich) southwest Iran ...
On the above page, under the headline, is a link "Radical Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr 'flees to Iran" (a claim later denied by his supporters).
President Bush took up the refrain against the Iranian Revolutionary-Guards Qods/Quds unit.
The Qods (Jerusalem) force is a "special forces" unit which has carried out/supported "terrorist operations as far afield as South America. (Shades of Armitage and Lebanese Hezbollah!) The unit is answerable directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
(ABC News Tonight, 14 February 07)
Mirrors are more credible.
BR>
Seven thousand Iraqi translators working for the Americans in Iraq are to be admitted to the United States for their own protection.
Could be a sign of withdrawal ....
To the Moon, perhaps!
15 February 07
British troops have sealed off Basra/sealed the border with Iran (I thought they couldn't)) in a "security operation".
16 February 07
A UK soldier, Corporal Budd, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for saving his comrades under Taliban fire in Afghanistan, was apparently killed by "friendly fire". His decoration may be taken away or degraded if British bullets are found in his body.
The UK government agency Defra has said that the H5N1 bird-flu outbreak in Suffolk probably came from Hungary. In spite of this, Hungary broke no EU rules, and poultry imports from Hungary can resume/continue.
An Italian judge has indicted 26 Americans, 25 of them CIA and one USAF, for the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Italy. In addition five or six Italians were charged, one of them the former head of the Italian secret service.
This is presumably the case of "Osama Mustafa Hassan, or Abu Omar, [who] says he was abducted from the streets of Milan in 2003 and then tortured in Egypt". (See January 2007 diary, under 31 Jan. 07.)
Driven by the carrot of oil on the one hand, and the stick of being brought to justice on the other, it's approaching do-or-die time for the petro-imperialists. Tehran, Riyadh, police-state ..... or bust.
17 February 07
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is paying a visit, surprise, of course, to Iraq.
This article contains much speculation, but ...
Iran — Ready to attack
American preparations for invading Iran are complete ...
Dan Plesch, New Statesman online (UK), [17] Feb. 07 (for paper edition of 19 Feb. 07)
'American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic [surely excluding oil!] infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons.
'British military sources told the New Statesman, on condition of anonymity, that "the US military switched its whole focus to Iran" as soon as Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Baghdad. [He who hesitates is lost.] It continued this strategy, even though it had American infantry bogged down in fighting the insurgency in Iraq.
'The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for "Operation Iranian Freedom". Admiral Fallon, the new head of US Central Command, has inherited computerised plans under the name TIRANNT (Theatre Iran Near Term).
'The Bush administration has made much of sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf. But it is a tiny part of the preparations. Post 9/11, the US navy can put six carriers into battle at a month's notice. Two carriers in the region, the USS John C Stennis and the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, could quickly be joined by three more [which are] now at sea. USS Ronald Reagan, USS Harry S Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt, as well as by USS Nimitz. Each carrier force includes hundreds of cruise missiles.
'Then there are the marines, who are not tied down fighting in Iraq. Several marine forces are assembling, each with its own aircraft carrier. These carrier forces can each conduct a version of the D-Day landings. [This sounds like the disinformation employed before the start of the 1991 Gulf War: Stories of sea-landings in occupied Kuwait were supposed to distract the Iraqis from the — obvious — fact that the US-led force could strike Iraq at a wide range of points on the Saudi border (the Saudi-Kuwait border itself had been strongly fortified by Iraq).] ... They come with landing craft, tanks, jump-jets, thousands of troops and, yes, hundreds more cruise missiles. Their task is to destroy Iranian forces ablew to attack oil tankers and to secure oilfields and installations. [Alongside forces crossing by land from Iraq, naturally.] They have trained for this mission since the Iranian revolution of 1979. ...
'Most of the Iranian army is positioned along the border with Iraq. ...
'The regime in Tehran has alreay complained of US- and UK-inspired terror attacks in several Iranian regions ...
'Dan Plesch is a research associate at the [London] School of Oriental and African Studies.'
And if their Iran-invasion plans are complete, so must be their plans for a crackdown on civil liberties. States of emergency on one or more pretexts; in the UK, the jolly old H5N1 has been trotted out once again, and armed police groups are "patrolling south London" after a spate of shootings ...
ITV News "exposes the US marines" involved in the killing of ITN reporter Terry Lloyd and two of his companions. Lloyd was killed by fire from a US tank in southern Iraq in 2003. A UK coroner has since ruled it an "unlawful killing".
Lt Hogan was in charge of the group from where the fire came.
A "suicide bomber" has killed a judge in a courtroom in Quetta, the capital of Pakistani Baluchistan. (Cf. the recent bombing of a busful of Revolutionary Guards just across the border in Iran a few days ago (see above, under 14 Feb. 07).
18 February 07
Sixty killed in a double car-bombing of a market in a Shiite district of Baghdad, "despite" the US-led effort "to suppress the insurgency". The explosions happened just after a US military patrol passed through.
They can stop the violence at the drop of a hat, by means of a total lockdown. They have done so before at elections and referenda — and will no doubt do it once more to secure their rear when they invade Iran.
A US military helicopter has crashed in Zabul province, southeastern Afghanistan, killing all eight people on board. The military said it had engine trouble, and denied a Taliban claim they shot it down.
Tonight BBC 2 showed a programme on 9/11 "conspiracy theories", as part of its Conspiracy Files series. This mainstream media outlet has at last been forced to confront, in however a derisory and scurrilous way, views contradictory to the Authorized Version. To sneeringly dismiss them in a sort of superior British way, of course ...
Next week: How to sneer at David Kelly.
19 February 07
An incendiary bombing on the India-Pakistan train has killed at least 72 people. Thought it was done to try to disrupt India-Pakistan "peace talks" due to begin tomorrow.
The BBC has now caught up with the New Statesman report (see above, under 17 Feb. 07) with an "exclusive" on American "contingency" plans to attack Iran, should the nuclear "threat" become "impending" or, more crucially now, if there is a major Iranian(-backed) attack on US forces in Iraq.
(BBC 1 News at 10pm)
The nuclear issue will probably take too long to bring to the boil. The Black Empire is now advancing to the front burner 9/11-style dirty tricks to promote its cause.
'At the same time, the BBC has learned that the United States has drawn up plans for an attack on Iran to cover two contingencies — the confirmed development of nuclear weapons by Iran, or backing by Iran for a major attack on US troops in Iraq [my emphasis].
'The first contingency is full of uncertainties. Iran says its is simply exercising its right to provide fuel to make nuclear energy and that it has no intention of building a bomb. ...
'The head of [the International Atomic Energy Agency,] the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, ... told the Financial Times this week that Iran might be five or 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb. He warned against "hype" over Iran's nuclear activities.
'Meanwhile, the US continues to apply pressure on Iran and is expected to move a second aircraft carrier battle group into the Gulf region soon.
'US Vice-President Dick Cheney said in Newsweek magazine that American allies in the region [got some?] "want us to have a major presence there" and that the carriers would send "a strong signal" that the US would "work with friends and allies [and puppets] to oppose the Iranian threat". [There'd be a "threat" from Liechtenstein if it had major oil.]
'A new element emerging over the last couple of weeks is the linkage the US is making between Iran and events inside Iraq. It has publicised its contention that Iran is behind sophisticated technology that is being used by some Shia groups against US and British forces in Iraq. [This is tricky, since they must make the "Shia threat" do for Iran and the "Sunni" for Saudi Arabia.]
'The timing of the claim, rejected by Iran, is significant, because it ties in with the expiry of the Security Council demand on 21 February [07]. It adds a new component to the equation. ...
'... The BBC information is that the US has chosen targets in Iran and has considered two scenarios for an attack. The targets include not only Iranian nuclear sites but Iranian missile sites and other major military infrastructure. [The petro-imperialists don't have the advantage of having bombed the country on-and-off for ten years before the invasion, in this case.] This would be in line with US doctrine that, in a conflict, an attack has to cover a range of military targets. [Though the Israelis seem to have managed OK when they bombed Iraq's nuclear facilities in 1987.]. ...'
American intelligence "reveals" that al-Qaeda is increasing its activity in Pakistani Waziristan.
20 February 07
The British have won another famous victory against the ever-invisible Taliban, in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan. No casualties on the British side — and no existence, perhaps, on the Taliban.
Yassin Omar, one of the "failed 21 July 05 Tube suicide bombers", said in court that he didn't know what was in his backpack — "he thought it was a wedding present". After the event Omar, who is 6ft 2in tall, fled to the North dressed in a burka and carrying a handbag. (How do we know the figure in the CCTV pictures was Omar? His defence team "admitted" it.)
British Channel 4 News, 20 Feb. 07 at 7pm)
Just as you were wondering if this comedy show had been taken off the air.
The UK government is conducting a "largely paper" exercise, "Winter Willow", of a flu pandemic hitting Britain. Scenarios vary; one has 400,000 deaths.
(Ibid)
21 February 07
In the UK, a paedophile ring of 300 people has been busted.
Britain is to withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq within the next few months. This will leave about 5,500 still there. And in any case will be a dead letter if the US puppet-master invades Iran.
In Italy, Romano Prodi's centre-left government has resigned after they lost a Senate vote on foreign policy.
22 February 07
An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report says Iran has stepped up its nuclear programme.
The UK's Prince Harry is said to be "over the Moon" about being posted to Iraq later this year. "Cornet Wales", of the Blues & Royals regiment, will be in charge of an armoured unit.
And it has doubtless crossed the minds of US/UK black forces to blow the twerp over the Moon as one excuse to seize Iran's oilfields.
US Vice-President Dick Cheney (never let it be said he has no sense of humour) has expressed concern over China's rapid military build-up. He also muttered about Iran.
Cheney was speaking in Australia, as the guest of his faithful flunkey the Aussie PM John Howard.
23 February 07
[1000] more UK soldiers for Afghanistan
BBC News online
'... the BBC has learned.
'Defence Secretary Des Browne will give details of the new deployment to the House of Commons on Monday [26 Feb. 07]. ...
'The move comes [after] the government announced that about 1,600 troops would be withdrawn from Iraq. [And what's the betting that, unlike the new deployment, this withdrawal won't go ahead — due to a staged situation to be blamed on Iran?]
'It is thought that some of the soldiers will come from the Household Cavalry. On Thursday [22 Feb. 07, see above] it was announced that the regiment Blues and Royals unit, in which Prince Harry serves, is being deployed to Iraq.
'British forces are in Afghanistan as part of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). [US forces there are separate from this.] ...'
— A map of current "UK FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN" shows 4,300 in the southern Helmand province and 1,300 in Kabul.
These forces, presumably, are additional to the 800 announced for southern Afghanistan on 1 Feb. 07 (see above under that date.)
The Brit base in Helmand, under cover of the ghost war with the ever-invisible "Taliban", is being developed as a base for the upcoming Iran invasion.
... Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah (no, really!), interviewd for British Channel 4 News in the "Afghan-Pakistan border region within the last two weeks", says the Taliban have 10,000 fighters and hundreds of suicide bombers ready for the spring offensive in southern Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Britain's fleet of Nimrod intelligence aircraft have been "grounded" because "a dent was found on a fuel pipe in one of them". (Ibid.
24 February 07
Cheney, still in Australia, again makes threatening noises about Iran.
Also says Senate Democrat majority leader Nancy Pelosi's stance is helping al-Qaeda.
I watched The Three Days of the Condor again on UK Channel 5 this afternoon. This was one of the rash of conspiracy movies produced in the aftermath of Watergate (and the revelations that brought).
A CIA analysis cell is massacred because one of its members, Robert Redford, has discovered a CIA plot to "invade the Middle East". (Redford escapes, of course). "Maybe there's a CIA within the CIA", considers Redford as hired hitmen pursue him to complete the job. (The top hitman, Max Von Sydow, eventually kills the deputy director of operations for the Middle East instead, as his paymasters decide he is becoming an "embarrassment".)
The aim of the CIA plan, Redford comes to realize, is US acquisition of (the Persian-Gulf) oilfields. "Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?" he asks his CIA handler at the end of the film (adding that's he's given his story to the New York Times).
The film has the CIA's public New York offices at the World Trade Center. After 9/11, the CIA in fact said its "New York station" was located in World Trade Center 7, the building across the street from the twin towers, that collapsed hours after them. ...
25 February 07
US generals 'will quit' if Bush orders Iran attack
Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter, Sunday Times (UK)
'Some of America's most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources.
'Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.
'"There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran," a source with close ties to British intelligence said. "There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible."
'A British defence source confirmed that thee were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. "All the generals are perfectly clear that they don't have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them.
'"There are enough people who feel this would be an error of judgement too far for there to be resignations [sic]." ...'
A psychological slip revealing that they are prepared to do it?
The BBC Conspiracy Files episode on David Kelly.
Quite a contrast to the one on 9/11 last Sunday; more doubtful-sounding over "investigative" procedures; more inconclusive. Clearly it's a different matter when the BBC itself was one of the victims associated with the Kelly affair.
26 February 07
1,400 extra British troops are to be sent to Afghanistan, mainly Helmand province, UK Defence Secretary Des Browne confirmed.
Work is to begin on a new UN Security Council resolution against Iran. Representatives of Britain, Europe, Russia, China and the US, meeting in London, said they were committed to a negotiated solution.
Islamist preacher Abu Qatada (alias Omar Othman) can deported from the UK to his native Jordan, a "special immigration court" ruled. This follows a "memorandum of understanding" between the Britain and Jordan that he will not be tortured.
Qatada, currently in British detention, is called Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe. He has denied being a member of al-Qaeda. (Perhaps he's one of Hogan's Heros.)
(British Channel 4 News, 26 Feb. 07 at 7pm)
Jose Padilla, a US citizen who has been detained for several years, has at last been charged with terrorism offences.
The US military in Iraq has put on display another load of munitions which it says came from Iran.
Once again, the Iranians have generously printed some of the items in English for ease of identification. A shell was shown with "20" and "T.N.T." on it.
(BBC 1 news, 26 Feb. 07, 10pm)
Name the crap cartoon that this was a rejected script for.
27 February 07
Cheney Unhurt After Bombing in Afghanistan
Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times online
'Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 27 — A suicide bomber blew himself up this morning outside the main gate of the United states military base at Bagram, just north of Kabul, where [US] vice President Dick Cheney had stayed the night. The attack killed and wounded American soldiers and Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers and laborers waiting for access at the gate. The explosion happened at the first [i.e. outer] security gate of the base, far away from where Mr. Cheney was staying, and he was not injured. [Though he heard it.] ...
'The Associated Press reported [see next item] that the Taliban claimed responsibility and said Mr. Cheney was the target of the attack. ...
'Mr. Cheney made an unscheduled overnight stay at Bagram airbase Monday [26 Feb. 07] night after his helicopter was grounded by heavy snow and he was unable to make a meeting with president Hamid Karzai in Kabul Monday. The meeting went ahead instead this morning. Mr. Cheney flew from Pakistan to Bagram and would normally have flown on to Kabul by helicopter.''
Cheney 'was target' of Afghanistan blast
Associated Press, Guardian online (UK), 27 Feb. 07
'A Taliban suicide bomber killed two soldiers at a US military base in Afghanistan during a visit by Dick Cheney today.
'The Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion at the base, in Bagram, which it said had been targeting the US vice-president.
'US Major William Mitchell said Mr Cheney ... was at a safe distance from the attacker as he a*waited to leave the base for talks in Kabul. ...'
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Iraq security talks will be held next month in Baghdad with Iran, Syria and the UN Security Council. (Later bulletins "corrected" this to a joint US-Iraqi initiative, or some such.)
The Iraqi cabinet has approved a draft law for distribution of the country's oil revenues amongst the parts of Iraq. It "allows" contracting with foreign companies.
The draft was drawn up by a US consultancy firm which also does business with President Bush. The World Bank — currently headed by Paul Wolfowitz, the "architect" of the Iraq invasion — was also involved.
(BBC News 24, 27 Feb. 07)
Things have come to a pretty pass if even the BBC is commenting on these connections.
The new UK intelligence chief, _____ McConnell, dutifully says al-Qaeda and Hezbollah pose the greatest threat to the US. (BBC News 24 ticker)
28 February 07
In a further interview for British Channel 4 News (cf. above under 23 Feb. 07), "chief Taliban commander" Mullah Dadullah said that Osama bin Laden is still alive, although he hasn't met him since 2001 (another part of the translation/commentary seemed to contradict this). He said the Taliban's leaders "stood shoulder-to-shoulder" with al-Qaeda's leaders.
He didn't actually add that he had "absolutely no doubt at all" that the Taliban would win.
'A senior Taliban commander says Osama bin Laden is alive and in contact with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, according to an interview aired on British television.
'Mullah Dadullah said he had not met bin Laden since the all of the Taliban regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but said "we know he's still alive".
''"He's not yet martyred. Such information would be easy to get — his comrades stand shoulder to shoulder with us. They keep us informed," Dadullah said in an interview broadcast Wednesday [28 Feb. 07] by Channel 4 News.
'The authenticity of the information could not be confirmed. Channel 4 did not say how it had obtained the footage, and it was not known when or where Dadullah made the comments, which were translated into English. [The previous interview (See above, under 23 Feb. 07) was said to have been made within the previous two weeks.]
'Dadullah, commander of Taliban operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan and a trusted associate of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, said bin Laden met outsiders rarely. Dadullah did not comment on bin Laden's whereabouts.
'"Only his comrades see him; we exchange messages with each other to share plans," Dadullah said. "We also go to the battlefield together. We actually meet very rarely, just for important consultations. [Can't be much going on, then ...] It's hard for anyone to meet Bin Laden himself now, but we know he's still alive". ...'
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