Frank Freeman's Diary, May 2004

Six Westerners and a Saudi national guardsmen were killed in an attack by gunmen on the Western Iraqi port city of Yanbi.

'The attackers burst into offices at the complex co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi oil company SABIC ...

'Two Americans, two Australians, two Britons and a member of the Saudi national guard died. Three attackers were killed and one was captured.'

'SUNDAY EXPRESS[:] The BBC faces a fierce battle to hang on to the licence fee, says new chairman Michael Grade.'

Ariel Sharon's "plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip" has been "scuppered" by a vote of his Likud Party (1% of the Israeli nation) 60% of whom voted against it.

It is now said that an officer, exiled under Saddam, is in charge of native "security forces" in Fallujah — not, as previously reported, a man who served in Saddam's elite Republican Guard.

About 50 US diplomats have signed a document protesting against the Bush administration's foreign policies, such as sucking up to Ariel Sharon's assassinations, his "Berlin-like wall" in the West Bank, and his ripping up of the "road map to peace".

The Sasser worm, which spreads directly through internet connections, has caused some problems for businesses, and temporarily stopped computers at all 19 British coastguard stations.

'TROOPS "TOLD TO ABUSE IRAQIS" [by US intelligence agencies]
'Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers may be widespread and orchestrated by US intelligence agencies including the CIA, it has been claimed.

'A secret probe into the allegations by a US General found "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses of inmates to soften them up for interrogation. [My emphasis.]

'Meanwhile, lawyers for some soldiers who were shown humiliating detainees claimed they had been following orders.'

(ITV Teletext, 4 May 04, p.306/1)

Here's the apparent source of this story, an article written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh ...

Torture at Abu Ghraib
Seymour Hersh, New Yorker, posted on website 30 April 04

'... Last June [2003], Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in charge of military prisons in Iraq. ...

'... [In January 2004] General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army's prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by the New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. ... Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski's brigade headquarters.)

[Details of physical and sexual abuse follow.]

'The 372nd's abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine — a fact of Army life that the soldiers felt no need to hide. ...

'In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick [Sergeant Frederick, one of the accused] repeatedly noted that the military-intelligence teams, which included C.I.A. officers and linguists and interrogation specialists from private defense contractors, were the dominant force inside Abu Ghraib. ...

'Frederick's defense is, of course, highly self-serving. But the complaints in his letters and e-mails home were reinforced by two internal Army reports — Taguba's and one by the Army's chief law-enforcement officer, Provost Marshal Donald Ryder, a major general. ...

'There was evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war, the Ryder report said, that M.P.s [military policemen] had worked with intelligence operatives to "set favorable conditions for subsequent interviews" — a euphemism for breaking the will of prisoners. ...

Taguba, in his report, [found that] "... personnel assigned to the 372nd MP Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures to 'set the conditions' for MI [military intelligence] interrogations." Army intelligence officers, C.I.A. agents, and private contractors "actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses."

[Examples of such "deviant" procedures follow.]

'General Taguba saved his harshest words for the military-intelligence officers and private contractors. [He criticised various high military-intelligence officers.]

'The problems inside the Army prison system in Iraq were not hidden from senior commanders ... Taguba noted ...'

Hersh comments more summarily about these matters in a CNN interview on 3 May 04, which you can find in "this CNN transcript.

U.S. denies widespread abuse at prison in Iraq
CNN.com, 3 May 04

'WASHINGTON (CNN) — Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied reports of widespread and systematic abuse of inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison Sunday [2 May 04].

'But in an article published Sunday, The New Yorker magazine reported that an American general found evidence of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" of Iraqis held at the prison west of Baghdad that was infamous under Saddam Hussein's reign.

'and in an interview with The New York Times, the military police commander there said most of the problems occurred under the control of Army intelligence officers. ...

'Photographs broadcast Wednesday on the CBS program "60 Minutes II" showed Iraqis apparently stripped, hooded and tormented by their U.S. captors at Abu Ghraib. [Link] ...

'A spokesperson for Amnesty International said Sunday that the human rights organization had uncovered evidence of widespread torture by coalition troops. [Link]

'Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week", Myers said that was not his understanding.

'Myers said the military's theaterwide investigation has suggested the abuse apparently depicted in the photographs was isolated. ...

'The [suspended] military police commander at Abu Ghraib, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, ... in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times, ... said ... "I wasn't aware of any of this. I'm horrified by this."

'But Karpinski said she suspected the troops implicated in the probe were acting at the encouragement of intelligence officers.

'She said U.S. intelligence officers at the prison went "to great lengths" to keep Red Cross officials from visiting the cellblock. ...'

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said the 'disclosures of prisoner abuse at Baghdad's main prison was "totally unacceptable and un-American".'

A BBC correspondent has reported on devastation in the Iraqi city of Falluja, after weeks of fierce fighting between US marines and insurgents.

'US troops left the town at the weekend, and a force under a former Iraqi general in now in charge of security.

'The BBC's Caroline Hawley described wrecked houses, including one in which 36 people reportedly died.'

'She also saw mourners paying their respects to two children at a football pitch turned into a cemetery. [BBC TV footage only showed several dozen graves.]'

'The US military has said it will halve the number of Iraqi prisoners in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail and end humiliating interrogation techniques. ...

'Prisons chief Maj Geoffrey Miller said he would cut the number of inmates at the Baghdad jail to less than 2,000.'

My redoubtable buddy Col. Blitzenburger has just offered to cut the jail's population to zero — by dropping a daisy-cutter on it, of course. (For some of the good Colonel's solid opinions, see his Home Page.)

'The mastermind of a gun rampage that killed two Britons [and, as previously reported (see above under 1 May), two Americans and two Australians] was in a London opposition group, Saudi officials said.

'London Muslims claimed Scotland Yard have been hunting Mustafa Abdel-Qader Abed al-Ansari for a year.

'Saudi officials said he went back to the kingdom to lead his brother and two cousins in the attack at a Yanbu oil refinery which killed five [sic] Westerners.'

'TIMES[:] A US army internal investigation into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American troops exposes "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses".'

Presumably the same report that says US intelligence agencies were behind the "widespread" abuse, in order to extract information from prisoners. See above, under 4 May.

'The US president, George Bush, today told a US-sponsored Arabic television station he considered the abuse of Iraqi prisoners "abhorrent".

'In an interview with al-Hurra television, which broadcasts from Virginia to the Middle East, He said images of naked Iraqi inmates being sexually humiliated by smiling US guards did not represent "the America I know". ...'

... It follows similar remarks by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on al-Jazeera TV. This not only illustrates (once more) the real chain-of-command in the US government, but also highlights another US front TV station. Al-Jazeera, not so much Arabic satellite TV as CIA puppet theatre.

'[Financial Times:] Oil prices reached their highest level since the lead-up to the first Gulf war amid fears over oil supplies from an increasingly violent Mid East.'

'USA[:] A movie by left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore [called "Fahrenheit 9/11"] linking President George Bush to the family of Osama bin Laden is being blocked by Disney.'

Moore has been accused of engineering this to make publicity for the film. It is being shown at the Cannes Film Festival soon.

John Scarlett, the chairman of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), has been appointed the next head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He will replace Sir Richard Dearlove.

Scarlett was instrumental in raking up phony WMD as the pretext to invade Iraq. Commentators also point out that he was mates with Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former propaganda officer. Thus the appointment smacks of cronyism, they claim.

This is putting the cart before the horse. The UK government were the puppets, willing or witless, of MI6 in the Iraq invasion. — and continue to be, of course, in the phony War On Terror — the root pretext to continue the war of conquest.

an audiotape purporting to be the voice of Osama bin Laden has been broadcast, offering 10kg (22lb) of gold — about Ł125,000-worth — for each of the killings of Paul Bremer (US administrator in Iraq), Lakhdar Brahimi (UN representative in Iraq), and Kofi Annan (UN Secretary General).

A singular imbalance here "in favour of" the United Nations. No prizes for guessing the origins of this garbage, as of many or most of the other pretended "Qaeda" messages we have been entertained by over the last couple of years.

'Heavy fighting has broken out between US forces and Shia Muslim militiamen in the holy city of Najaf.

'US troops backed by armoured vehicles and helicopter gunships are said to have killed 41 fighters and retaken the governor's office.

'Earlier on Thursday [today], the US-led coalition in Iraq named a new governor in the city.

'Radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army last month took over government buildings in several southern cities. ...'

All the ten people arrested in Manchester, UK, last month (see April 2004 diary, under 19 and 20 April) have now been released. There was a "suspected plot to bomb Manchester United" at its Old Trafford ground; but No charges have been brought.

Police (400 of whom were used in the arrest operations) said they couldn't take the risk. But all they seem to have proved is that the young Kurds they seized (some of whom were refugees from Halabja) were football fans.

Perhaps of the same origin as that of the load-of-fertilizer "plot" in March. Relatives of two brothers arrested for this one claim they had previously been visited by an MI5 agent. See March 2004 diary, under 30 and 31 March.

And what this little performance proved the appertiser for, we saw, appropriately, on April 1. New proposed Terror Laws ... (See April 2004 diary under that date.)

'The mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in US custody is not limited to isolated cases but forms part of a systematic pattern, the Red Cross has said.

'A spokesman said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had been warning the US about such cases for more than a year.

'The fingerprints of a US lawyer held over the Madrid terror bombings were found on a bag containing detonators, the Spanish government has said.

'Muslim convert Brandon Mayfield, 37, from Oregon, was taken into custody by the FBI in the US yesterday.

'The shopping bad was found inside a station van left near the suburban Madrid station from which three of the four bombed trains departed.'

'In an extraordinary sealed case, the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the FBI's unchecked authority to issue "National Security Letters" (NSLs), which demand sensitive customer records from Internet Service Providers and other businesses without judicial oversight. Before the Patriot Act, the FBI could use the NSL authority only against suspected terrorists and spies. Thanks to Section 505 [!] of the Patriot Act, the FBI can now use NSLs to obtain information about anyone at all. ...'

'A waiter in a Manchester curry house was recruited by al-Qaeda and trained as a hijacker for the 11 September attacks, according to the Sunday Times.

'The paper says the 29-year-old man had doubts and gave himself up to the FBI — but they did not believe his claim that planes were to be flown into buildings.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says the Mirror pictures "look increasingly like a hoax", but editor Piers Morgan is stubbornly sticking to his story.

Meanwhile, the Queen's Lancashire Regiment has demanded an front-page apology from the Mirror.

Since 9/11 the Mirror has abandoned its traditional "tabloid-rag" persona and taken a consistently anti-war and pro-libertarian stance. It looks increasingly as if the paper has been set up by the War Camp, to deal its credibility a blow — the next target after the BBC.

Blair says he didn't know of a Red Cross report on prisoner abuse in Iraq which reached his government in February this year.

'The BBC has said there will be no new blood-letting within the corporation in the wake of the Hutton inquiry. ...'

The resignation of its chairman, director and journalist Andrew Gilligan are already a capitulation all along the line.

British Channel 4 News has highlighted the US military's "Gulag" of injustice around the globe. As well as Iraq, there is Guantanamo, and other places including (speculatively) facilities at the British Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia.

'A "lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision" led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, a US general probing the scandal has said.

'Major General Antonio Taguba told a Senate hearing that some intelligence officers encouraged soldiers to "soften up" inmates for interrogation.

'But he said there was no evidence such treatment of prisoners was a policy of the United States military.'

The previous leaking of Taguba's report (to the New Yorker; see above, under 4 May) could have been a move by the Pentagon High Command to exculpate themselves in advance from this business.

BBC TV news reports that the UK government is considering measures to seize the homes which remain unoccupied for six months and give them to homeless families.

Alongside its supine support of American neo-Nazism, one occasionally hears a sub-theme of neo-Bolshevism — the other strand of 20th-century totalitarianism.

'The young American who was decapitated on a video posted [on] an al-Qaeda-linked website was never under US custody, a coalition spokesman said in Baghdad.

'Dan Senor denied claims by Nick Berg's family that he had been held for 13 days by US officials. He said he had been detained by Iraqi police.

'The Iraqis informed the Americans and the FBI met with Berg three times to determine what he was doing in Iraq. [My emphasis throughout.]'

... The CIA is currently investigating claims that "Qaeda top man" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was involved in the killing. (BBC Ceefax)

No prizes for guessing what their "likely" or "probable" verdict will be. (These are the adjectives they always resort to in "confirming" the "voice of Osama" on each audiotape that's spewed out of Gulf satellite TV).

This video has — as was doubtless intended — counteracted to some extent the impact on US public opinion of the Abu Ghraib torture photos — said to be often at the behest of intelligence officers.

In the following article, it's not clear if the writer has singled out the names of Perle and Kissinger just because they are (im)famous names ...

[Investigator of] Hollinger Int[ernational] may sue Perle and Kissinger
Abigail Rayner, The Times (Britain), 12 May 04, p.21

'Richard Breeden, head of the committee investigating Hollinger International, is considering launching civil lawsuits against directors of the media group, charging them with neglecting their duties, The Times has learnt.

'Sources close to the investigation are expecting Mr Breeden to sue Hollinger directors including Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle and Marie-Josee Kravis, a former director, for damages, charging them with failing shareholders by neglecting their duty to identify and prevent corporate wrongdoing at the media group.

'Shareholders of Hollinger International, which owns The Daily Telegraph, expressed anger on Monday that Hollinger directors were not named as defendants in a $1.25 billion amended lawsuit filed by the company.

'The lawsuit focused on Lord Black, controlling shareholder of the company, and some of his business associates ...

'The directors of the company are alleged to have signed off all the payments and deals that the defendants in the lawsuit are being sued for. ...

'Dr Kissinger was one such director. The [former] US Secretary of State has charted an impressive career path since he fled Nazi Germany in 1938. He is now chairman of Kissinger Associates, a global consultancy firm, and has written several books.

'... It is expected that James Thompson, the former Governor of Illinois, who has been chairman of the audit committee for ten years, should be included in a new civil lawsuit ...

'Mr Thompson is chairman of the law firm Winton & Strawn. He also sits on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US ...

'Sources close to Mr Breeden's investigation also expect Mr Perle, a director of Hollinger International, to be included in an optional claim for damages. He is thought to be facing a barrage of other claims related to his own dealings at a Hollinger subsidiary.

'Mr Perle, who stepped down as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board last March, has refused to deny that he received $3 million in payments from a Hollinger-related incentive scheme. Mr Perle never disclosed his takings from Hollinger Digital, a unit of Hollinger International set up in 1996, despite a requirement by US regulators that any director of a public company should disclose earnings above $60,000. The other executives that benefited from the scheme are being asked to repay sums that they received. Mr Perle was co-chairman of Hollinger Digital and he received the biggest bonus. ...'

'US officials have said the CIA's methods of interrogating suspected al-Qaeda leaders are too brutal, the New York Times reports.

'Unnamed counter-terrorism officials told the paper the CIA methods were so severe, the FBI had directed its agents to stay out of many of the interviews.

'The techniques are said to have been authorised by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks on the US.

'The paper cites one case of a detainee [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] who was subjected to water boarding, in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe that he might drown.

'Some have been hooded, soaked with water, roughed up and deprived of food, light and medication.

'At least one CIA employee was disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during an interrogation.

'The paper says FBI officials have advised their director, Robert Mueller, that the techniques would be prohibited in criminal cases ["and could compromise [FBI] agents in future criminal cases"].

'Defenders of the secret interrogation rules say the methods stop short of torture and serious injury.

'Current CIA officers are said to be worried that public outrage at the treatment of detainees in Iraq might lead to a closer examination of their treatment of al-Qaeda prisoners.

'"Some people involved in this have been concerned for quite a while that eventually there would be a new president, or the mood in the country would change, and they would be held accountable," one was quoted as saying.

'The whereabouts of high-level al-Qaeda detainees is a closely guarded secret, and human rights groups have been denied access to the prisoners.

'"There was a debate after 9/11 about how to make people disappear," a former intelligence official told the paper.

'The government was advised that if the CIA was considering procedures which violated the Geneva Convention or US laws prohibiting torture and degrading treatment, it would not be held responsible if it could be argued that the detainees were in the custody of another country.'

As we have come to expect, the CIA has "confirmed" (unofficially) that — probably!! —

'Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musaf al-Zarqawi probably carried out the beheading of US contractor Nicholas Berg in Iraq, CIA officials say.

'US intelligence agencies have been analysing the video of the execution shown on a Malaysian-based website, which has since been closed.

'It was highly probably that it was Zarqawi who wielded the knife, an unnamed CIA official said.

'The images of the 26-year-old's death prompted worldwide shock and outrage [and served to neatly deflect attention (to some extent) from US intelligences own outrages which, we are learning, have been perpetrated not only in Iraq but throughout the incipient Gulag Amerika-international..'

People who have seen the full video say there was no flow of blood following the "beheading". Also, how easy is it to behead someone with just a knife? The videoed "execution" appears, as in Daniel Pearl's case, to be a fake. The quality of the pictures (on the internet) is poor, which can be used to cover up a lot. The men standing behind "Berg" were all masked — they could be anybody. The details of the CIA's "technical analysis" of the video are — a secret.

But, it seems, for one-half of the American population, anything will do. All that matters is that they want to believe. ...

The Congress Party (headed by Sonia Gandhi) has won the Indian general election, though it will need the support of smaller parties to rule.

It's now crystal-clear that the British Mirror newspaper and its editor Piers Morgan have been set up, tricked into publishing fake photos, seemingly by the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, dealing a blow to this anti-war paper. (Yet Morgan still stubbornly holds onto hope-against-hope.)

'At least 11 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli helicopter strikes on a refugee camp in southern Gaza. ...'

'... Senators shown the pictures by Pentagon officials in a closed-door session described them as "disgusting" and "significantly worse" than anticipated. ...'

'The [UK] Government has issued orders to London's councils on how to [not instructions, but orders] evacuate thousands of people in the event of a Doomsday strike by terrorists.

'Ministers stressed there is no "specific threat" and the plan is a "last resort in the event of a nuclear, chemical or biological attack.

'Councils will use trains and buses to get people away from threatened areas and to designated shelters.'

'... The effort involves the Metropolitan Police [headed by trusty Sir John Stevens], emergency services and transport operators. ...'

The British High Court has ruled that a Soho sex shop/brothel may be taken over by the local council to house homeless families, in what is regarded as a landmark ruling on councils' powers to dispose of "improperly used" property.

US tanks and helicopter gunships are fighting "Moqtadr Sadr militants" in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq.

The Mirror editor, Piers Morgan (see above), has been sacked over the "fake" abuse photos.

This also reminds us that editorial staff are ultimately at the disposal of newspapers' proprietors (any alleged "principle of editorial/press freedom notwithstanding).

Colonel Black of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment has welcomed the sacking, saying that British troops' lives have been endangered by Morgan's "egotistical" behaviour.

This could be called a piece of "top brass". The regiment itself appears to have been the source of this "hoax", quite evidently with the intention of cracking the Mirror. And somebody must have calculated that Morgan would fall for it, putting valour before discretion. ...

The Guardian's editor (on BBC Newsnight) has added to the chorus on Morgan's lack of discretion. He, of course, would have been more careful ...

Divided we fall. One way or another, they'll pick off the anti-war, anti-police-state media, one by one ...

The Mirror has unreservedly apologised to the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, and says the paper was the victim of a malicious hoax.

Absurdly contradictory, since the regiment was the source of this hoax. A hoax which was likely not perpetrated by a couple of low-level individuals on their own bat, but probably a well-thought-out provocation to bring down anti-war Piers Morgan. Such a manoeuvre would require .......... intelligence.

Seymour Hersh has said in New Yorker magazine that responsibility for prisoner abuse goes all the way to the top. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he claims, authorized prisoner humiliation (as a means of extracting information). The programme was copied from Afghanistan to Iraq.

The Pentagon denied the report, calling it "outlandish, conspiratorial, anonymous conjecture".

'The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of elite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in the war on terror.

'According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A. ...

'... A special-access program, or SAP — subject to the Defense Department's most stringent level of security — was set up, with an office in a secure area of the Pentagon. ...

'The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly-trained commandos and operatives from America's elite forces — Navy SEALs, the Army's Delta Force, and the C.I.A.'s paramilitary experts. ... "... No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress."

This kind of thing has been said before. What is significant is that it is now appearing in an apparently-established, mainstream publication.

Having presented the Pentagon's strike against intelligence in an earlier article, Hersh now gives the CIA's counter-strike against the Pentagon and neocon front-clique.

But as we already know, the assignment of covert operations to "private companies" — to which SOCOM was the top link — as a means of escaping official (Congressional) oversight — was already being developed in the 1980s and 1990s. (It may even have been said to have started in the mid-1970s, with the post-Watergate resignations of many "disgruntled" CIA operatives.)

The Israeli Supreme Court has given the go-ahead for the Israeli army to demolish hundreds more homes by the Egyptian border in Rafah (Gaza Strip). It accepts the argument that this is a defensive move; the army "believes" the homes conceal trans-border tunnels for smuggling in arms from Egypt.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking in Jordan, has spoken against the demolitions, calling them "unproductive".

'The head of the Iraqi Governing Council has been killed in a car bombing near a US checkpoint in central Baghdad. [The chairmanship of the Council is "recycled' from month to month.]

'Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was the second and highest-ranking member of the US-backed council to be assassinated.

'At least nine Iraqis were killed in the suicide blast — claimed by a hitherto unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement — outside the coalition HQ.'

'An artillery round containing a small amount of the nerve gas sarin has exploded in Iraq, the US military said.

'Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said the blast caused a small release of the substance, and two people were treated for exposure to the agent.

'The substance was found in an artillery shell inside a bag discovered by a US convoy a few days ago, he said.

'It appears to be the first evidence of nerve gas existing in Iraq since the start of the US-led war last year.'

Sarin is a military harassing agent. In the Tokyo subway attacks, only eight people were killed, among them those attackers who (presumably) absorbed massive overdoses, whereas 20,000 were merely affected.

'... A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve gas has exploded in Iraq near a US military convoy.

'US military spokesman Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said: "The Iraqi Survey Group [searching for WMD in Iraq] confirmed an artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found."

He added: "A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This produced a very small dispersal of agent."'

Israeli troops have killed 19 Palestinians, gunmen and civilians, in military operation in Rafah, Gaza. They are widening the strip between Rafah and the Egyptian border.

Amnesty International has condemned the demolition of thousands of Palestinian houses by the Israelis over the past three and a half years, saying this violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Hans Blix says the sarin gas shell in Iraq was probably a stray from the old Iraqi stockpile. But Labour politicians have been eager to seize on it as evidence of an illegal WMD stockpile.

Sonia Gandhi has rejected the premiership. She says this is to avert disharmony — she was born an Italian. British TV commentators remark that another reason may be fear of assassination. Her husband Rajiv and her mother-in-law Indira were murdered when they were Prime Ministers.

The Israelis have fired missiles and tank shells at a protesting Palestinian crowd in the Gaza Strip, killing ten of them. The Israelis claim they were only trying to fire warning shots to disperse the crowd.

"Fathers for justice" protesters threw condoms filled with purple flour in the UK House of Commons, hitting PM Blair on the back. The Commons was evacuated.

Well, it could have been a bio/chem attack. Blair was heard saying to Opposition leader Howard, "I didn't set this up"; to which Howard was said to have replied, "for once I believe you, Prime Minister". The event may well set the stage for a further tightening of Parliamentary security, and a further isolation of the assemblies from the public.

'More than a quarter of people would take to the streets to protest against Government plans *for a new compulsory identity card, a survey [by YouGov] has found.

'The report by pressure group Privacy International showed 28% of the population, or 4.9 million people, are prepared to join an anti-ID card march. [It also found that 16% would join a civil disobedience campaign.]

'But support for ID cards remains widespread, with about 61% approval at a general level for compulsory cards.'

'... Reuters news agency says three of its local staff [in Iraq] were subjected to sexually degrading treatment after being detained in January. ...'

'Ahmad Chalabi — once seen by the Americans as a possible Iraqi president after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein — has had his home [and office] raided by US forces.

'Mr Chalabi — a member of the Iraqi Governing Council — said US soldiers and Iraqi police seized documents and computers from his Baghdad home.

'An Iraqi judge issued warrants "for up to 15 people" on allegations of fraud, kidnapping and "associated matters".'

'The [UK] government has called in MI5 to help tighten security at Westminster after two men were charged in connection with a flour bomb attack. ...'

'The US military has insisted it targeted foreign fighters not an Iraqi wedding party in a helicopter attack that killed more than 40 people.

'The aerial attack was on a suspected safe house for foreign fighters in the desert near the Syrian border, said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.

'Iraqis say a wedding party was attacked. Video footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies piled high.'

Five people have been killed in a car bombing in Baghdad. It injured one of the three deputy interior ministers, outside whose house it exploded.

'It revealed a 10-day incursion which included raiding the Rafah refugee camp say 1,650 Palestinians made homeless as troops damaged or destroyed buildings.

'Visiting the scene, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Peter Hansen said the destruction of homes was "completely unacceptable".'

The Coalition in Iraq wants its troops to remain immune from prosecution by Iraqis after the handover of power, it is reported.

'But BBC Correspondent Jonathan Deale says UK and US forces want to remain under their own jurisdiction.

'The Foreign Office said negotiations on gaining a new UN security council resolution on the handover are at an "extremely important stage".'

'A US army [officer] is prepared to testify that the top general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at Abu Ghraib jail, according to reports.

'The Washington Post says a military lawyer told a hearing Capt Donald Reese insists Gen Ricardo Sanchez also witnessed the abuse of some prisoners.

'The lawyer is defending a US soldier accused of abusing Iraqi inmates. Mr Sanchez is yet to respond to the claim.'

'... The [Israeli] army said its raid into the Rafah area was vital to tackle [arms] smuggling, but reports say only one tunnel was found in swoops which left 41 people dead.'

'The Guardian leads with news that the US has launched an inquiry into whether Iran manipulated it into war with Iraq [!!!!] by passing on bogus intelligence [!!!!].

'It claims US intelligence officials are looking at whether former Washington favourite Ahmad Chalabi played a role.

'"It's pretty clear that the Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," it quotes an intelligence source as saying.'

L'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace, et petro-imperialisme est sauvee ... Can the CIA pull victory (and over Iran and Saudi Arabia) out of the jaws of the Bushmess?

But it's sad to see the Guardian is still letting itself be used for CIAgitprop (see-eye-AYE-jit-prop), from time to time.

'... Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: "When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy". ...'

'[Under the prospective "return of sovereignty to Iraq", UK] PM Tony Blair said an Iraqi interim government could veto coalition operations.

'But US Secretary of State Colin Powell [asked to comment on this] indicated he did not expect US troops to be constrained by Iraqi authorities.'

The London-based Institute for Strategic Studies (the imperial propaganda unit) says that the Iraq war (surprise surprise) has made the terrorist situation worse. Al-Qaeda has 18,000 supporters (whatever happened to that army of 100,000?), including 1,000 in Iraq. And an army of 500,000 would be needed to stabilize Iraq.

'US authorities have obtained highly credible new intelligence indicating that al-Qaeda or other terrorists are preparing a major attack, reports said.

'The intelligence does not include a time, place or method of attack but is among the most disturbing [Oh no! Not again!] received by the government since the September 11 [attacks].

;Of most concern is that terrorists may use a biological, radiological or chemical weapon, an official has said.'

Yesterday's terror-warning came from US Attorney General John Ashcroft, rather than the CIA. However, some, especially on the Democratic side, are now expressing some scepticism ...

'Washington — Al-Qaeda terrorists poised for summer attacks on the United States may try to influence the presidential campaign with a deadly strike — possibly targeting the party conventions in Boston and New York — top officials warned yesterday.

'"Credible intelligence, from multiple sources, indicates that al-Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the Untied States in the next few months," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "This disturbing intelligence indicates al-Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard." ...

'But some backers of presidential candidate Sen. John f. Kerry (D[emocrat]-Mass[achusetts]) cried foul, saying the timing of the latest threat was intended to buoy President Bush's slumping popularity and divert attention from the bad news in Iraq.

'Police and firefighter union officials supporting Kerry's presidential campaign expressed suspicion about why such a vague threat was issued now. [Nothing new about these!] International Brotherhood of Police Officers President David Holway accused Bush of playing politics with the latest intelligence.

'"The timing is very suspect," Holway said in a conference call with reporters arranged by Kerry's campaign.

'"The president believes it's very important to share information appropriately," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

'But U.S. [Congressman] Michael Capuano (D[emocrat]-Somerville) ... complained that security measures for the Democratic National Convention seem extreme. He said the Secret Service should explain precisely why they need stringent traffic and transportation security measures in Boston [where the Democrat Convention is to be held] that far surpass what is being done in New York [where the Republican Convention is to be held].

'"As a layman it seems they went beyond what is necessary," Capuano said. "They owe the public an explanation as to what they're doing and why. To draw a 10-mile radius around Boston and shut it down makes people like me wonder." [My emphasis.] ...'

Duh! It seems America is breeding a new generation of Einsteins. ... Well, Mr C, it could be disappointment with not having scared Congress into a military fort as protection against the anthrax attacks, where the Democrats could then have been taken out willy-nilly with a terror attack.

'... "I find it at a minimum very suspicious that we are now going to be listening to a new, heightened awareness ... of terrorists, conveniently timed to when we see the president's approval ratings plummet," Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said during a conference call with reporters arranged by the campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. ...'

Why the sudden scepticism now?! Many Democrats were happy enough to tag along with the continual stream of terror-propaganda as long as it was being directed towards the building of an oil empire.

Clearly, when such techniques are retuned as a tool of internecine struggle, Democratic politicians achieve a whole new clarity of insight.

'London, May 27 (NNN): American President George Walker Bush's so-called war against international terrorism has undermined [the] global justice system and made the world a more dangerous place to live in, Amnesty International has warned in its annual report released here on Wednesday [yesterday].

'"The global security agenda promulgated by the U.S. administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan wrote in a forward to the report's country-by-country assessment.

'Sacrificing human rights in the name of security at home, "turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses have neither increased security nor ensured liberty," [s]he added.

'The stinging language builds on a major theme of last year's report: that protections for human rights have been badly set back by measures taken in the name of global security.

'In fact, it says that violence by armed groups such as al-Qaeda and increasing violations by governments have combined to produce the most sustained attack on human rights in half a century. ...

'The 339-page Amnesty report is mostly a catalogue of abuses across the globe in places that rarely make the top of news agendas ...

'It also notes that the International Criminal Court has appointed a prosecutor and begun its work, notwithstanding Washington's continuing efforts to undermine international justice by ensuring global immunity for its citizens.'

'US soldiers are firing so many bullets in Iraq and elsewhere that the army's main supplier cannot keep up with the huge demand, US military officials say.

'They say the army needs two billion bullets a year, but its government-owned supplier, Alliant Techsystems, can only make 1.2 billion.

'To fill the gap, a US firm and Israel's state-owned bullet-maker were awarded contracts for 70 million rounds each.

Iyad Allawi has been appointed prime minister of the "interim government" in Iraq. He has previously worked with the CIA and MI6.

An attack by gunmen on Western oil workers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, left 22 people dead. The leader of the terrorists is said to be a Qaeda man who was at the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.