2 January 2008

'BRITISH TO AID BHUTTO PROBE

'A Scotland Yard team is to travel to Pakistan to help with the probe into Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

'Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed to send the "technical experts" following a request from Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.

'A Scotland Yard spokesman said a small team of officers from the Counter Terrorism Command will go to Pakistan to provide support and assistance.'

(ITV Teletext, p.305)

The FBI is to launch an investigation into destroyed CIA interrogation tapes.

Oil hit $100 a barrel (in New York) for the first time.

3 January 08

The Pakistani opposition has "dismissed" the move for British police assistance in investigating Bhutto's assassination, and called for a UN investigation.

7 January 08

Iranian ships 'harass' U.S. Navy, [US] officials say
Barbara Starr, CNN online (international edn)

'CNN — The U.S. military reported Monday [today] on a "significant" confrontation involving five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats that "harassed and provoked" three U.S. naval ships in international waters over the weekend.

'U.S. military officials said the incident occurred Saturday [5 Jan. 08] night in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf.

'The five ships made "threatening" moves — in one case coming within 200 yards of a U.S. ship, the U.S. officials said.

'In one radio transmission, the Iranians told the U.S. Navy: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.

'When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they manned their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said.

'No shots were fired and no one was injured in the confrontation.

'One of the Iranian ships had been dropping white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials told CNN.'

I haven't yet seen an Iranian comment on this story.

But with the CIA having abandoned the "nuclear option", staged military incidents are the only method left for petro-imperialism.

... British media have described the Iranian media as saying that the incident was "exaggerated" (ITV News) and "ordinary".

8 January 08

US President George Bush has called the incident "provocative". (ITV Teletext)

The Iranians have "denied" the US claims. But the Pentagon has released video and audio recordings which it says proves the case. We see two or three speedboats approaching and turning. A voice sounding remarkably like a voice synthesizer says, "We are coming at you. You will be blown up." (BBC Newsnight, 8 Jan. 08)

9 January 08

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have said that a US audio recording of radio "threats" was "fabricated". The Pentagon has denied this, but admits that the released video was an "edited" version, and that the audio recording had been added.(UK Channel 5 news at 5:30)

'Iran's state media says the video and audio recordings of Iranian Revolutionary Guards boats confronting US warships in the Strait of Hormuz were fabricated.

'The Pentagon has said that five Iranian speedboats approached its ships on Sunday [6 Jan. 08], radioing the vessels and threatening to blow them up.

'In a video just over four minutes long shot from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, the small boats can be seen racing near the wake of the US ships and crossing close to each other. [Photo — caption: "In the recordings the Iranian boats appear to ignore US warnings to move away (AFP)".]

'"The footage released by the US Navy was compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated," the state-run English-language channel Press TV quoted an official in the Revolutionary Guards saying on Wednesday [today].

'The state-run al-Alam Arabic language channel also ran a similar denial quoting a source from the country's elite military force [viz. the Revolutionary Guards]. ...

'The audio and video recordings were made separately, but were pulled together by the US navy.

'US military officials, including Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the most senior US navy commander in the Gulf, cautioned that they had not been able to definitively connect the radio call with one of the Revolutionary Guards boats.

'Commander Lydia Robertson, a spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet, said "the ships were close enough to shore that the call could have come from a shore station, it could have come from another boat."

'She said: "But the call did happen while the small boats were there."

'Iran's foreign ministry has played down the incident as routine and suggested that the boats had not recognised the US vessels.

'"That is something normal that takes place every now and then for each party," Mohammed Ali Hosseini, a spokesman, told the state news agency Irna.'

11 January 08

There have been two previous incidents between the US Navy and Iranian military boats, said a US official, "speaking on condition of anonymity". In one, on 19 Dec. 07, the US fired warning shots. The official described the last incident, in January (see above, under 7 Jan. 08, et seq.), as the most serious.

12 January 08

The Iranians have stepped up bombings in Iraq, say US officials.

13 January 08

UK government ministers want to implant machine-readable microchips under the skin of offenders, headlines the Independent On Sunday.

The Ugandan security services foiled an al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Queen, headlines the Sunday Express.

This sounds more like a job for Punch's Idi Amin column.

Making the most of petro-machinations ...

'BUSH WARNED OVER NAVY CLASH

'A naval commander has told US President George Bush [who is visiting the Persian Gulf] that he is taking the recent confrontation between Iranian and US navy forces "extremely seriously".

'US Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff said he is concerned about the incident which saw high speed Iranian boats charge at and threaten [no prizes for guessing which side this writer considers his bread buttered] a three-ship US convoy.

'He added that US navy captains are treating the incident near Iranian waters earlier this month seriously.'

(ITV Teletext, 13 Jan. 08, p.311)

Bush is visiting the US navy at Bahrain. (Sky News ticker)

# Just one more before midnight ...

'BUSH IN STARK IRAN WARNING

'Iran is threatening the security of the world, and America and its allies must unite to confront the danger "before it is too late", George Bush has insisted.

'Speaking in the United Arab Emirates, the US president said, Iran funds terror extremists, undermines peace in Lebanon and sends weapons to the Taliban.

'He also warned that Iran is destabilising the entire Middle East by refusing to discuss its nuclear aims.'

(ITV Teletext, 13 January 08, later, p.311/1)

Iran will answer all questions about its nuclear programme within four weeks, says IAEA boss Mohamed ElBaradei.

America's client copies Russia's trick on Ukraine, this time apparently to harass Iran ...

'TURKMENISTAN WARNS IRAN OVER GAS

'Turkmenistan has insisted it cut gas to Iran 12 says ago [not only] because of a technical fault with the export pipeline [but also ] because of Iran's failure to pay for supplies.

'The Turkmen foreign ministry said Tehran's failure to make the payments had been holding back the completion of repair and maintenance work.

'Iranian media reports earlier said Turkmenistan has wanted to double the price for the gas it exports to Iran.

'The cut has been blamed for serious gas shortages in northern and western Iran.'

(BBC Ceefax, 13 January 08, p.112)

15 January 08

Britain will give the FBI personal data for serious crimes and terrorism, headlines the UK's Guardian.

The US is to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia to supply it with a laser-guided bombing system. President Bush is visiting Saudi.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cherthoff says a main terrorist threat to his country is from Europe. He was interviewed for BBC World News America.

18 January 08

Israel has again sealed the borders of the Gaza Strip.

A Canadian diplomatic manual has included the United States in a list of countries that torture.

19 January 08

Hundreds of thousands of people's data have gone missing on a UK Ministry of Defence laptop. 20 January 08

'Pakistani authorities are continuing to question a 15-year-old boy who has confessed to being part of the team that killed Benazir Bhutto. ...' (ITV Teletext, p.311)

And no doubt will shortly discover the mastermind, a foetus in the womb of one of Bin Laden's wives.

22 January 08

'Permanent [veto] members of the UN Security Council — and Germany — have agreed on the contents of a new draft resolution of fresh sanctions against Iran. ...' (No details given.) (BBC Ceefax)

23 January 08

'Thousands of Palestinians poured out of [the] Gaza [Strip] and into Egypt after masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the border wall.' (ITV Teletext, p.320)

Which shows that (1)Gazans (not to mention West Bankers) continue to live in "wraparound" prison conditions; (2) This would be a good way to ethnically cleanse them.

... Egypt itself strengthened its border with the Gaza Strip after Hamas took power.

24 January 08

Tens of thousands of Gazans continue to move across the border, buying supplies.

25 January 08

After Egyptian border forces block the punctured walls and use water cannon on incoming Palestinians, a bulldozer makes a fresh breach. The figures for crossing Palestinians now put at "hundreds of thousands".

29 January 08

Britain is in danger of becoming a "surveillance society", with over 1,000 people a day being bugged. (Daily Telegraph lead, ITV Teletext reviews of British papers, p.321)

Last year's flooding in Gloucestershire caused problems for GCHQ, the UL's communications-eavesdropping facility, a Commons report says. There were also worries for the Aldermaston nuclear weapons research centre. It wasn't revealed whether this was due to the imminent threat of flooding of Walham Power Station, difficulties for the staff in reaching GCHQ, or something else. British Channel 4 News says it encountered a government D-notice preventing more exact reporting.

30 January 08

The internet in the Middle East and India was severely disrupted when a ship's anchor cut two undersea cables near Egypt.

31 January 08

"Abu Laith al-Libi, a leader of al-Qaeda", has been killed by a Predator-drone strike in the North Waziristan area of Pakistan. "... Western counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC" (BBC Ceefax, p.112); and/or "according to website used by militant groups", Ekhlass.org.

Al-Libi "was responsible for" in 2007 the bombing of a US military base in Afghanistan when US Vice-President Dick Cheney was present.