Frank Freeman's Diary, January 2005

'The Guardian predicts that money pledged by rich governments [for Indian-Ocean tsunami relief] may not materialize at all.

'The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says money will be swallowed up by the military.'

Which militaries isn't clear from this summary. See December 2004 diary, under 30 December, for a mysterious total absence of animal fatalities in one of the "key casualty zones".

'The Daily Telegraph says the Pentagon is considering building a permanent prison to hold Guantanamo Bay suspects for the rest of their lives.'

'Baghdad Governor Ali al-Haidri was assassinated Tuesday morning [today] in Baghdad, according to an Iraq Interior Ministry spokesman. ...'

'The Roman Catholic Church in California is to pay $100m (Ł53m) to the alleged [!] victims of sexual abuse by clergy members, a US judge has announced.

'The settlement, in Orange County, is the largest made by any Roman Catholic diocese in the United States.

'It exceeds the payment made by Boston's diocese, where claims of abuse within in America first emerged.

'Bishop Tod Brown made an apology at a press conference, which was attended by some of the 87 victims. [$1.15m apiece on average, assuming it's all distributed to the "victims".]

FEARS OF TSUNAMI CORRUPTION

British ITV Teletext, p.321. My emphasis throughout.

'As billions of pounds in aid pledges add up to the biggest relief effort in history, some countries are facing up to the lingering concern of corruption.

'The UN says it has seen little evidence so far of local skimming of funds or reselling relief supplies in areas hit by the huge tsunami.

'But aid officials fear that even a hint of corruption may be a public relations disaster and see donations dwindle.

'Concerns that corrupt officials might pocket cash intended for tsunami aid seem to focus mainly on Indonesia. [This article sounds provisional.]

'The country is ranked among the world's most corrupt states by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International.

'Indonesia's jails are filled with officials charged with corruption and the governor of the devastated Aceh province is on trial for allegedly taking money meant for villages. [Presumably, in regard to pre-tsunami corruption.]

'... Aid officials in Ambon, where Muslims and Christians have been fighting, are on trial for exaggerating refugee figures and pocketing state funds.

'Local anti-corruption activists fear more than 30% of the $1bn meant for Indonesia's recovery could be stolen.

'[They] are particularly concerned over tsunami aid for the devastated Aceh region.

'A decades-old separatist insurgency in Aceh has left much local power in the hands of the Indonesian military, which has often been accused of corruption.

'Indonesia's Corruption Watchdog says it has already received reports of bureaucrats reselling donated rice in Aceh and aid supplies being stolen.

'A sum equivalent to Ł500m disappears each year from the Indonesia national budget, and there is concern that aid donations could go the same way.

'Part of the problem is that emergency relief agencies lack audit mechanisms to prevent theft, and it is hard to track supplies among scenes of chaos.

[And also that poor or non-existent records for some areas mean that it will be difficult to check whether some "villages" existed at all, and if observed damage to infrastructure was not pre-earthquake (caused, e.g., by government attacks on locals).]

'Indonesian President Suslio Bambaz Yudhoyoro is to appoint a ministerial-level official to oversee aid.

'No tsunami-related corruption has yet been reported in Sri Lanka or India [oh yeah!], but activists have warned that it is only a matter of time.

'A volunteer with the British group Action Aid International in India's southern Tamil Nadu state said there could be corruption when aid flows in.

'The UN is concerned that the image of corrupt officials could hold people back from sending donations.'

The search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq has been officially abandoned, White House spokesman Scott McLellan announced.

MI6 has appointed an officer from big business, to be known as R, to vet its intelligence.

Margaret Thatcher's son Mark is to plead guilty to "negligently" part-financing an attempted coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, in an apparent plea-bargain deal in South Africa. He should get off with a Ł300,000 fine and a suspended five-year jail sentence.

'The man first charged with preventing a second 9/11-style attack has called for an international standard for biometrics to combat terrorism.

Retiring US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was speaking at the London School of Economics.

'He called for a global agreement on storing fingerprints, iris scans and other information in travel documents.

'This could "accurately identify and cross-check travellers and potential terrorists", said Mr Ridge.'

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon froze relations with the Palestinian Authority after six Israelis were killed by Martyrs' Brigade gunmen.

Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian leader, recently won election, as replacement for Yasser Arafat, by a wide majority.

The American military have handed over Babylon to the Iraqi puppet government. During their stay, they apparently did more damage to the historical site than Saddam Hussein, according to British Channel 4 News

'Coalition forces in Iraq have caused irreparable damage to the ancient city of Babylon, the British Museum says.

'Sandbags have been filled with precious archaeological fragments and 2,600-year-old paving stones have been crushed by tanks, a museum report says.

'The US Army says the troops based in the city, some 50 miles (80km) south of Baghdad, are well aware of its historical significance. ...'

'US army Specialist Charles Graner has been jailed for 10 years after being convicted of sexually mistreating Iraqis at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

'Graner, the reputed leader of a band of rogue guards at the jail in late 2003, was also demoted to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits.

'His trial was the first resulting from graphic images of abuse, and he will be dishonourably discharged upon release.'

'... The military jury passed sentence a day after Graner was convicted at a court martial in Fort Hood, Texas.

Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, says that US special forces are already inside Iran. (Reported on British Channel 4 News)

'Iran has dismissed a report in the US media that US commandos are conducting missions on Iranian territory to identify targets for possible strikes.

'Supreme National Security Council spokesman Ali Aghamohammadi said it would be naive to believe the report, which he called psychological warfare.