1 January 2007
A series of bomb-blasts in the Thai capital Bangkok caused the cancellation of New-Year festivities there.
2 January 07
The "accidental" release of phone video footage of "Shiite militia" taunts of Saddam Hussein as he went to his execution seems likely a calculated provocation forming a key part of the US petro-cabal's divide-and-rule strategy.
Official video of the execution was supposed to dispel potential "conspiracy theories" that Saddam had not been killed, but was cut off before the actual hanging. The unofficial phone footage neatly and provocatively fills the gap. The Iraqi "government", so anxious to show the execution, now claim they have no idea of how video phones were smuggled into the execution chamber.
Hussein, officially a prisoner of the Iraqis, was in practice kept in American custody, only being "released" for his execution. It seems likely that the Machiavellians of petro-imperialism are still practising their tricks.
3 January 07
The Iraqi "government" now say they had no control over officials in Saddam Hussein's execution chamber.
Britain's Daily Telegraph makes claims of child abuse against United Nations personnel in Sudan since March 2005. It bases its allegations on a UN memorandum and on 29 interviews.
This old rightist warhorse makes use of the paedophile weapon against opponents of American-led petro-imperialism and police-statism. Such allegations have cropped up before (see "paedophile campaign newsfile).
4 January 07
US President Bush says he is troubled by the manner of Saddam Hussein's execution, and that he expects a full investigation. By the sovereign Iraqi government, of course.
Bush is replacing the head of the US military's Central Command as part of the "new Iraq strategy".
CENTCOM is responsible for the deployment of US forces in the horn of Africa, much of the Middle East (from Iraq to Pakistan), and the ex-Soviet central Asian republics (including Kazakhstan). Its zone covers most of the Middle-eastern oil reserves.
... But the Democrats, who have just gained control Congress, say no more troops for Iraq.
And the agitprop treadmill is up and running ...
Iranians 'up to no good' in Iraq
BBC News online, 4 January 07, 22:50 GMT
'Five Iranians arrested by US troops in Baghdad last month were on a covert mission to influence Iraq's government, British officials have told the BBC.
'The five men were senior intelligence officers "up to no good", an unnamed official told the Newsnight programme.
'The arrests caused a diplomatic row when it became clear that the Iranians, who have since been released, had been invited by the Iraqi government.
'Tehran has protested to the US, saying that some of the men were diplomats.
'The White House has suggested the arrests validated US claims of Iranian "meddling" in Iraq.
'A number of Iranians were arrested in the Iraqi capital on 21 December, when US forces raided a compound belonging to Abdul Aziz Hakim, leader of a powerful pro-Iranian Shia party.
'Inside were Iranian officials and documents that, Newsnight's diplomatic editor Mark Urban says, caused consternation among coalition military commanders.
'"There were five senior officers in various Iranian intelligence organisations ... it was a very significant meeting ... these people have been collared, relatively speaking, up to no good [i.e. relative to Anglo-Saxon black ops? :-)]," an unnamed British official told the programme.
'Officials told Newsnight the arrests produced highly important intelligence, but no "smoking gun" about weapons supplies or attacks on coalition forces.
'They said that the arrested men were in Iraq to hold high level meeting [sic] with representatives of several Iraqi Shia factions. ...
'A US military spokesman in Baghdad told the New York Times newspaper that the raid had produced "specific intelligence from highly credible sources [that time-honoured phraseology of petro-imperialist agitprop] that linked individuals and locations with criminal activities [funny how they're now all becoming "criminals" — cf. December 2006 diary, under 25 Dec. 06 ("gang-like activity ..."."
'The spokesman added that "some of that specific intelligence dealt explicitly with force protection issues including attacks on Multinational Forces". ...'
So this is a continuation of the black-forces' long-running attempts to incriminate Iran.
The Catholic diocese in Washington State, USA, is to pay $48 million in settlement of claims of child abuse against it. (See The Great Paedophile Campaign.)
5 January 07
Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in a video posted on a "militant website". He calls for suicide attacks, etc, against Ethiopian troops driving back the Islamic-Courts-Union fighters in Somalia.
Petro-imperialism is clearly dusting off its black ops in a New-Year resolution.
9 January 07
A US special-forces AC-130 "flying gunship" has attacked Islamist refugees in the southern tip of Somalia, possibly killing hundreds. The flight, from a US base in Djibouti, was said to be targeting militants behind the bombing of America's embassies in eastern Africa in 1998.
Ethiopia, who backed the action, said the targets included London-based Somalis. A British passport-holder is said to be among those captured by the Ethiopians. Ethiopia has recently invaded Somalia and driven out the Islamic Courts Union and reinstalled the old Somali government, who also backed the US action.
Three US warships and an aircraft carrier, are stationed off southern Somalia to block the escape of fighters by boat.
(British Channel 4 News at 12 midday)
Bush is sending 22,000 more troops to Iraq.
10 January 07
More US airstrikes on the southern tip of Somalia, apparently launched from the aircraft carrier mentioned above.
US (re-)installing a Somalian regime now beholden to them and Ethiopia (which also doubtless acted in coordination with the US).
Petro-imperialists strengthening their grip around the Persian-Gulf oil zone. Here particularly around Saudi Arabia.
11 January 07
Bush seems to have said something vaguely menacing about Iran and Syria.
US troops raided the Iranian consulate in Arbil, Iraq.
(British Channel 4 News at 7pm)
'A passage in the Bush speech that caused a stir among US and foreign observers threatened possible action against alleged infiltration routes across the Syrian and Iranian borders, seen by some a presaging a wider conflict. "Succeeding in Iraq," Mr Bush said, "also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilising the region in the face of extremist challenges." Syria and Iran, he went on, "are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq. [My emphasis.]
'Some analysts viewed the remarks as a thinly veiled threat to conduct "hot pursuit" operations across Iraq's borders with Iran and Syria. "There is an ominous element here," said William Arkin of the Washington Post. "When the president pledged to 'seek out and destroy the networks [etc]', to me that means the threat of strikes on targets in those two countries." ...
'Intelligence has shown that weapons have been smuggled across borders with Iraq. Special forces, including more than 300 SAS troops, are operating throughout Iraq, frequently engaged in joint operations with American special forces. [My emphasis.] Such troops could be used to mount more discreet cross-border operations than helicopter gunship or Hercules [AC-130] aircraft ...'
(Ewen MacAskill, Julian Borger, "Isolated Bush faces rebellion over Iraq", The Guardian [UK], 12 January 07, pp.1, 18)
12 January 07
Tony Blair made a speech aboard a UK Navy battleship supportive of Bush's mutterings (see above, under 11 Jan. 07), and attacking the media for endangering the empire drive with realism.
The Black Empire is in the last-chance saloon. Tehran Riyadh or bust. (Did they say similar about the Nazis in 1938?)
Somalia air strike failed to kill to al-Qaida [Qaeda] targets, says US
The Guardian [UK], 12 January 07, p.24
[And I'll bet it did. Leaving the petro-imperialists free to pursue "" all over the Middle East, accidentally blundering into an oil empire in the process.]
'... A senior US official said yesterday ... that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Abu Taha al-Sudan and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabham, all linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 Mombasa hotel attack, were still on the run. ...
'The Pentagon denies claims that there are American troops on the ground.
'Four warships remain off the coast of Somalia, and the official said that US operation were not over [you can bet your life, they're just starting!. ...
'The Pentagon and state department have been highly secretive about the [first reported AC-130] attack, leading to speculation in Somalia about the nature of US operations in recent days.
'The official said there had been a single strike, and that reports of further aerial attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday [9 and 10 Jan. 07], causing significant civilian casualties, were wrong.'
... But British Channel 4 News reports further strikes on the south, and that the Washington Post reports a US unit on the ground (searching for "the Qaeda three", natch.
Outgoing US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has told a Senate committee that the al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, are holed up in Pakistan, who rescued them after 9/11.
(British Channel 4 News, 12 January 07 at 7pm)
14 January 07
Iran has demanded the release of five of its diplomats seized by the Americans when they raided the Iranian consulate in Arbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, on 11 January 07. US Vice-President Dick Cheney "justified" the action.
(British Channel 4 News at 7:40pm)
The petro-imperialists are doing their best to provoke the Iranians into making the first military move ...
But, like the Nazis in late summer 1939, they may well resort to faking it.
15 January 07
In the UK, six men of African/Subcontinent descent — the so-called 21 July 05 plotters — have gone on trial on charges of plotting to bomb London buses and trains.
In court they were accused of making explosives from chapati flour and hair bleach (yes, they really said it). The bombs didn't work because they used the wrong proportion of hydrogen peroxide or something.
... It's a bit difficult to satirize something that is already at an extreme of self-parody. ...
Even more disturbing is the fact that early-evening news bulletins (BBC 1 6 O'Clock News, ITV 6:30 news, Channel 4 News
One of the accused was described as having been an advocate of suicide bombing. One was said to have weapons training in Sudan and Pakistan, and some were said to have been followers of Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric in the UK.
Fourteen months before the "attempted bombings", i.e. in May 2004, five of the men were under police surveillance when they were on holiday in Cumberland. — Was this at the same time(s) that Mohammed Sidique Khan, the alleged leader of the 7 July 05 London "suicide bombers", was visiting Parliament and was under surveillance by MI5 regarding "a London nightclub truck-bomb plot"? (See "The London 'Suicide Bombers' and MI5".)
16 January 07
Over 34,000 people died in violence in Iraq last year, the United Nations says.
Today, 90 were killed, including over 60 (most of them female students) in a double car-bombing outside the gates of Baghdad University.
It seems increasingly that the "revelations of shortcomings" from Evil John Reid's Home Office (immigrants, Britons convicted of serious crimes abroad, etc) are designed to foster at atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Today's offering is that someone (a British citizen) on a control order has "gone on the run". ...
17 January 07
And here's the proposed legislation for which the above has been an appetiser: The Serious Crime bill , a Law On Suspects, it seems, which proposes that some civil rights of the accused should be removed. This includes the option of restrictions on their email, internet and mobile-phone usage, as well as on their cars and other possessions.
The legal authorization for such measures will come from the civil courts, which have a lower standard of proof than the criminal courts.
Five of the "Chapati Six" were under surveillance in May 2004, policemen testified in Woolwich Crown Court today. The policemen, one of whom was in the special unit formerly known as SO13, photographed the men on their camping holiday in Cumberland. Another policeman, from Special Branch, interrogated one of the Six at Heathrow Airport, delaying his departure to Pakistan. One of the police, at least, "declined to be identified".
(BBC 1 News, 17 Jan. 07 at 1pm)
Appearing to confirm that internal Brit "special forces" had the men targeted at at least roughly the same time as they did the 7/7 "suicide bombers". Though it's not ruled out that they're lying to cover up an incidental and unfortunate "pick-up".
The US government has again made threatening noises towards Iran.
The US has two aircraft carriers and 150 warplanes on the Persian Gulf. (Six hundred would be "needed" for "military action" against Iran.)
(BBC Newsnight, 17 Jan.07)
22 January 07
Special Branch agents in Northern Ireland colluded with a loyalist (UVF) gang who killed 15 and tried to kill 10 more, as well as drug-peddling and robbery, 1991-2003, the NI police ombudsman (or rather ombudswoman) concluded. Over 40 Special-Branch officers had refused to testify to the inquiry.
Ronnie Flannigan (sp.?), who was Chief Constable over the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) during this period, is now chief inspector of constabularies for England and Wales.
Over 100 people, mainly Shias, have been killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad. The attacks coincide with the arrival of the first "extra" US troops in the city. (ITV news, 22 Jan. 07 at 10:30)
23 January 07
Various witnesses testified at Woolwich Crown Court re. Ramzi Mohammed's "attempt" to set off a rucksack "bomb" in a London tube-train carriage on 21 July 05.
24 January 07
Most of the "explosives" used by the Chapati Six were destroyed the day after their "bombing attempt".
Just as well :-), because
The "explosives" were "as powerful as TNT" or "gelignite", according to an "expert" who tested remaining "samples". The prosecution is presumably working on the principle that, the more brazen the drivel, the more believable it will be.
Accordingly, the story of why they didn't explode has changed. Last week, we heard the "bombers" had got the concentrations wrong. Now it's "the detonators" weren't powerful enough.
Powerful enough, apparently, on explosion to elevate one of the bombers at least a foot off the ground — but not to set off the disgusting egg-puke that we are told to believe was the explosives.
(The "explosives", to recap, were a mixture of chapati flour, hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach), and acetone and/or "acid". LSD, presumably.)
US President Bush warned that if Congress doesn't back his current effort in Iraq, the conflict could spread to other countries in the region.
The petro-imperialists hope in their wet dreams!
The US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee has voted 12-9 to back a Senate resolution against the sending of more troops to Iraq. But this will not be binding.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "confident" that US troop manoeuvres around Iran are not a sign that America will "attack" the country. They were designed to put psychological pressure on the country, he said, but that was "incorrect". ...
(British Channel 4 News, 24 Jan. 07, at 7pm)
US special forces have again attacked Somalia, the US military said.
26 January 07
"Would-be London Tube bomber" Hussein Osman's detonator was made of TATP, we heard from the Chapati Six trial today. But it "wasn't powerful enough" to set off the main "explosives" in his rucksack.
A day or so ago a UK newscast described one of the accused as the bombmaker. But all six deny conspiracy to cause explosions.
Still, I don't suppose we'll see the company chairman resign as a result. Unlike the BBC's Greg Dyke over a technicality related to the reporting of the David Kelly affair a couple of years ago.
The former royal editor of the UK's News of the World, Clive Goodman, has been sentenced to four months imprisonment for hacking into the mobile-phone "mailboxes" of royals. The overall editor of this Sunday rag resigned following the conviction.
Two other men were apparently connected to the same offences. Glenn Mulcaire, 35, the 'director of a "crisis management company" [elsewhere described as a "private investigator"]', was charged with the offences too, in August 06. 'A 50-year-old man arrested at the same time was released on bail.' (Leigh Holmwood, "Royal editor suspended over phone tap case", The Guardian, 12 Aug. 06)
The three had been arrested on 8 Aug. 06. The day after, a big terror scare — the "Qaeda plot to blow up 10 UK airliners in midair" surfaced in the news.
See August 2006 diary, 8-12 Aug.06
How big was that unnamed 50-year-old? What might the real occupation have been of Glenn Mulcaire, that "crisis management company director"/"private investigator"?
... Mulcaire was sentenced to six months. Mulcaire, a "security consultant", did the actual phone interceptions, and had a £100,000 per-annum contract for such purposes with News International, which owns the News of the World. Mulcaire also worked for "others" (the news report speculated newspapers).
(BBC News 24)
US President Bush says he will ignore a (non-binding) Senate resolution against sending more troops to Iraq.
Fighting continued in Lebanon (Beirut) between pro-government Sunni Muslims and pro-Hezbollah Shias.
In Palestine, fighting erupted between Hamas and Fatah, after two Hamas men were killed by a bomb.
28 January 07
US and "Iraqi" forces killed 250 "insurgents" outside Najaf. A US helicopter was reported shot down with the loss of two crew.
Accounts varied on the identity of the fighters, with the US calling them Shias, but Iraqi puppet government sources claiming they were a Mahdi-ist, "millenial" cult composed of Iraqi Sunnis and Shias, and foreign fighters.
One hundred fighters were also said to have been captured. Other sources dispute the figures for those killed.
Britain is awash with missing paedophiles and other sex offenders (322), in what seems a Reid/police strategy to promote the police state.
29 January 07
British Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, "The Iraqi Death Squads". ____ Badr, the former Iraqi Interior Minister, appointed 2005. Under the Ministry, the Shia sectarian police-commando death squads.
The National Security Adviser, Jerry ____, and another US adviser, tried to get Badr (of the "sovereign Iraqi government") sacked, but were themselves removed.
30 January 07
Damaging testimony in leak trial[:]
Former press secretary [Fleischer] says he and Libby discussed identity of CIA agent at lunch
Neil A Lewis, New York Times, in San Francisco Chronicle
'Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary, recounted to a jury on Monday [29 Jan. 07] his experience at an unusual lunch on July 7, 2003, during which he said that Lewis "Scooter" Libby [the former chief of staff to Vice-President dick Cheney] passed on detailed information about the identity of a CIA operative.
'The lunch in the White House mess for senior staff took place three days before the date that Libby had sworn he first learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, from reporters. ...
'The day before the lunch, Joseph Wilson , a former ambassador [and Plame's husband], had written a commentary in the New York Times that said he had taken a trip to Niger in Africa at the behest of [Cheney's office and determined that there was no truth to the assertion in [Bush's Jan. 03] State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein had recently tried to buy uranium ore in Africa.
'"Ambassador Wilson was sent by his wife," Fleischer testified that Libby told him, disputing the notion that he had been sent by Cheney. "His wife works for the CIA."
'Fleischer also said that Libby used the woman's maiden name, Valerie Plame, and that she worked at the agency's bureau that dealt with efforts to curtail the proliferation of weapons [presumably, the Counterproliferation Center]. ...
'Valerie Wilson's name was first disclosed publicly on July 14, 2003, in a column by Robert Novak. ... Judith Miller, a former reporter for the New York Times, and Matthew Cooper, a former reporter [oh! Les Ci-devants!] for Time magazine, told the grand jury that Libby had indeed disclosed her identity to them. ...
'Fleischer said he again here about Valerie Wilson four days later from the White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, aboard Air Force One as it was heading to Uganda. He said that Bartlett was reading documents and began "venting" that reporters kept repeating Joseph Wilson's claim that it was Cheney who had sent him on his fact-finding trip.
'"His wife sent him," Fleischer recalled Bartlett saying. "She works at the CIA." [For some reason the word "CIA" has been greatly emphasized in the original article, being printed in large bold, and having a paragraph of its own.] ...'
The Counterproliferation Center was supposed to be responsible for the "accidental" bombing of China's Belgrade embassy during the Kosovo war of 1999.
Ansar al-Sunnah has made a video purportedly showing evidence of Iranian subversion in Iraq. The video showed an alleged Iranian agent and munitions supplied by Iran.
Sunnah's video was backed up by US intelligence chief John Negroponte who was unable, however, to supply documentary evidence of Iranian subversion in Iraq. It will be shown "at a later date".
(ABC News Tonight, 30 Jan. 07)
Further evidence, if more were needed, that al-Qaeda and its affiliates (such as Sunnah) are US intelligence fronts.
(Hoda Osman, "Civil War on Video", "On The Web", ABC News online, 29 Jan. 07)
Iran's foreign minister, speaking in Africa, reiterates President Ahmadinejad's comments that a US attack on Iran is unlikely, and that the US is in no position to launch such an attack. He also condemned US attacks on Somalia.
Ready to roll, do-or-die for petro-imperialism?
31 January 07
7:30am: Breaking news that another dastardly terror plot has been foiled, and eight suspects arrested in Birmingham, UK (no details yet), in the continuing MI5 Muppet Show.
Later:
The "plot said to be for the kidnapping of "a Muslim member of the British armed forces" (no further personal details), and to post a video of his/her "execution" on the internet.
A BBC 1 News commentator said (10pm) that such an action would be of limited impact, since there are only 246 Muslims in the 100,000-strong armed forces/army. [1 Feb. 07, BBC 1 10pm news: 330 Muslims in the UK "armed forces".]
The arrests followed a six-month MI5/police surveillance operation. The new joint MI5/police unit for the West Midlands was responsible.
BBC Newsnight talked to "Abu Abdullah", a member of the "now-defunct" , who happened to be outside one of the premises targeted in the raids.
Germany issues CIA arrest order
BBC News online, 31 Jan. 07, 10:42am GMT
'Germany has issued arrest warrants for 13 people over the alleged CIA-backed kidnappings of one of its citizens.
'Munich prosecutors said the arrests warrants were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri [photo], a German national of Lebanese descent.
Mr Masri says he was seized [on 23 Dec.] 2003 in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there.
'He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans [realised] they had the wrong man.
'Mr Masri says his case is an example of the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" — a process whereby the US government flies foreign terror suspects to third countries without judicial process for interrogation or detention.
'Munich Prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld told the Associated Press news agency that the warrants had been issued in the last few days and that a statement would be made later in the day [my emphasis; here's a reason for the exact timing of today's MI5 Muppet Show].
'German arrest warrants are not valid in the US but if the suspects were to travel to the European Union they could be arrested [Henry Kissinger has a similar problem].
'Mr Masri says he was abducted by US agents in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, on 31 December 2003. <
'He is seeking to sue the US government over his detention, but in May [06] a judge dismissed a lawsuit he filed against the CIA, citing national security considerations [my emphasis; this is a method by which the bandits hide.
'Meanwhile in the Italian city of Milan, court hearings to decide whether to indict 25 alleged CIA agents and several Italians accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in 2003 are under way.
'Osama Mustafa Hassan, or Abu Omar, says he was abducted from the streets of Milan and then tortured in Egypt. [My emphasis.]'
ITV Teletext news online BBC News online