2 May 2006
Police "could patrol" polling stations in Birmingham during the English local council elections on Thursday, 4 May 06. There was widespread fraud in postal ballots here in previous (post-9/11) elections. Police say they have already found about 200 "suspicious" postal ballot papers.
For the post-9/11 value of the police in "suspicious" cases, consider e.g. London Underground Transport videotapes of the shooting of Jean Paul de Menezes, all of which police returned saying they were blank. One little illustration of many of the catalytic role of 9/11 in the rapid moral deterioration of post-constitutional society.
A meeting of the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany has broken up without agreement on measures vis-a-vis Iran's nuclear programme. Russia and China oppose even sanctions.
None of which will ultimately deter America, with its British barrel-organ monkey, from invading the next oil target, come Hell or high water.
3 May 06
Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker that wasn't", is sentenced to life in prison for his "part" in 9/11.
A still photo of him smiling was released.
Perhaps another reason the US government chose Virginia as the state in which to hold Moussaoui's trial was that it doesn't allow live video at trials?
Moussaoui is evidently as big an idiot as Marinus Van Der Lubbe, the Reichstag-Fire patsy.
The US, UK and France are pushing a "tough" resolution against Iran over its nuclear programme for the UN Security Council. They want to get it adopted by Monday, 8 May 06.
The draft includes unspecified further measures in the event of "non-compliance", and the resolution would be under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows for sanctions and eventual military action for non-compliance. Which will be taken, sooner rather than later, as the green light for the invasion of the next oil target ...
(BBC Newsnight), 3 May 06
... and the grand oil prize of Saudi will follow hard on its heels. When the "15 Saudi 9/11 hijackers" will, no doubt, be played to the hilt. Along with whatever other drivel the petro-junta can dredge up.
'... The Security Council: ...
'Acting under Chapter VII of the charter of the United Nations, ...
'6. Requests in days a report from the director general of the IAEA on the process [sic] of Iranian compliance with the steps required by the IAEA Board and the above decision, ...
'7. Expresses its intention to consider such further measures as may be necessary to ensure compliance with this resolution and decides that further examination will be required should such additional steps be necessary ...'
4 May 06
Today, as part of the "escalating row" about released non-deported non-national criminals in the UK:-
A man, whose name "cannot be revealed for legal reasons", came to Britain at age 11 in 1992, was convicted of street robbery in 1996, released in 1998, got British nationality in 2004, and was charged with terrorism offences in 2005.
Does this rather illustrate how MI5 is picking out criminals of Muslim background as terror patsies?
Today's Independent runs a front-page headline on how the UK government's response to the "release scandal" is a further attack on British liberties.
Petro-imperialism: Pot Cheney has called Russian kettle black.
The new Israeli Prime Minister has confirmed that Israel will unilaterally withdraw from West-Bank areas. This will keep key areas under control, and virtually cut the West Bank in two.
Israel will keep control of the Jordan Valley. And probably retains the plan to extend the barrier along the west side of this area, thus effectively turning the West Bank into a giant walled ghetto.
5 May 06
The partial English local council election results show heavy losses by Labour, almost entirely to the Conservatives, i.e. little real change.
Power cuts in the early hours blacked out "half of Westminster", interfering with the BBC's coverage of the incoming results.
The UN committee on torture is to question the US today.
CIA head Porter Goss has unexpectedly resigned.
Judges Challenge Internet Wiretap Rules
Ted Bridis, Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, 5 May 06
'WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals panel sharply challenged the Bush administration Friday [today] over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls. A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook." ...
'"Your argument makes no sense," U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. ...
'The court's decision was expected within several months. ...
'... Edwards appeared especially skeptical over the FCC's decision to require that providers of Internet phone service and broadband services must ensure their equipment can accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA. ...'
6 May 06
The US and France are to try to get a deal on the draft Iran resolution ahead of the formal meeting of the UN Security Council.
Russia said there should be more emphasis on the cooperative approach. China is worried about the threat of force.
"Criticism of UN Iran draft mounts", BBC News online, 6 May 06
Developing the Iran invasion strategy, courtesy of the Iraqi client regime ...
Iraq warns on Iran border moves
BBC News online, 6 May 06
'Iraq has expressed concern about troop build-ups by both Iranian and Turkish forces along their borders with Iraq.
'Outgoing Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iran had been told of Iraqi concerns but said his country wanted to resolve any problems through dialogue. ...
'Recent weeks have seen a number of cross-border bombardments by Iranian troops along Iraq's north-east border, directed against Iranian Kurdish opposition groups taking refuge in the Iraqi Kurdish area. [See April 2006 diary, under 21 April 06. I haven't seen Iran's side of this story reported.] ...'
Ten die in Afghan [US] chopper crash
BBC News online, 6 May 06
'Ten US soldiers have been killed after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan late on Friday [5 May 06] night, officials from the US-led coalition said.
'The CH-47 Chinook came down in Kunar province near a "mountaintop landing zone" 240km (150 miles) east of Kabul. ...'
Breaking news: British chopper "crashes in Iraq"
BBC News online, 6 May 06, 11:23am BST
'A British helicopter has crashed in the southern city of Basra, according to news agency reports. ...
'British soldiers deployed in the city sealed off the area, witnesses told [Reuters].'
... A later report (on Sky TV news) said that the helicopter had been shot down with a missile, and that crowds in Basra had set fire to British military vehicles.
... sounding like a repeat performance of last September, after the British military raided a Basra police station to rescue two SAS (/"SRR") undercover men who had been caught by local police with a carload of arms and explosives (see "The Special Reconnaissance Regiment".)
So this may well be a further British black op to "incriminate" the Iranians again by murdering their own men.
... "Several" UK servicemen are reported killed in the Basra helicopter crash. The helicopter came down on a house in the city. Crowds surrounded the area, attacking British troops who went there. A curfew was imposed on Basra.
Two in court after cartoon demo
BBC News online, 6 May 06
'The former UK head of radical Islamic group al-Mujahiroun has been charged over the Muslim cartoon protests in London in February [see also February 2006 diary, under 4 Feb. 06], said Scotland Yard.
'Anjem Choudary, 39, of Ilford, Essex, was bailed after being charged with organising the protest without notifying the police [though they seem to have been well protected by them].
'Abdul Muhid, 23, of East London, was charged with two counts of soliciting to murder. He was remanded in custody.
'Demonstrations were held at the Danish Embassy on 3 February. {And at other London locations around this time.] ...'
Al-Mujahiroun and its "spinoffs" are probably front-dummies of MI5/6 ...
7 May 06
Iran threat to quit atomic treaty
BBC News online
'Iran's parliament has threatened to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if Western pressure over its programme increases.
'The threat came in a statement made a day before key UN members discuss a tough draft resolution on the issue. ...'
8 May 06
Ahmadinejad sends letter to Bush
BBC News online
'Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to George W Bush proposing "new solutions" to their differences. ...
'Reports say it is the first letter from an Iranian president to a US leader since the Iranian revolution in 1979. ...'
The draft resolution on Iran's nuclear programme (see above, under 3 May 06) has been circulated at the UN.
The US has defended its treatment of Guantanamo prisoners to the UN Committee Against Torture.
A US judge has rejected a request from "20th hijacker" Moussaoui to withdraw his guilty plea and have a retrial.
9 May 06
[USAF] General [Hayden] Formally Named to Lead CIA
Peter Baker and Charles Babington, Washington Post, p.A01
'The White House moved quickly yesterday to defuse concern over the nomination of Gen. Michael V. Hayden for CIA director, promising to balance the leadership of the nation's premier civilian spy agency with a well-known and popular veteran of the organization in the No. 2 position. ...
'Under the plan, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III would be replaced as deputy director by retired CIA official Stephen R. Kappes, who quit in November 2004 in a dispute with then-Director Porter J. Goss. ...
'Other Goss lieutenants at the agency also appear to be on the way out, following Goss, who resigned Friday [5 May 06; see above]. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, brought in by Goss as the CIA's executive director — its No. 3 official — announced to agency staff in an e-mail yesterday [8 May 06] that he plans to resign as well. The FBI said it is investigating whether Foggo steered contracts to a friend, Brent R. Wilkes. The CIA confirmed last week that Foggo attended private poker games with Wilkes at a Washington hotel. [More about this below, under 13 May 06.]
'The moves are part of a concerted effort by the president's team to recover ground after several key Republicans expressed reservations about Hayden's nomination over the weekend [today is Tuesday], citing his military background [he is a current four-star general] and involvement in warrantless domestic surveillance [my emphasis; he was NSA head]. ...'
10 May 06
The UK attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, has called for the US detention camp at Guantanamo to be closed.
The Saudi stock market has lost half its value ... (Financial Times [UK], 10 May 06)
11 May 06
"Three" reports are to be published on the London terror attacks of 7 July 05.
A report by the Security and Intelligence Committee is due today at 9:30am BST, and the Home Secretary will present another to Parliament at 12:15. (A "third" report wasn't detailed.)
The UK government has so far resisted calls for a public enquiry.
(Sky News at 7am)
Key findings: 7 July report
BBC News online, 11 May 06, 10:54am BST
'A detailed report into the 7 July bombs has been published by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. The main findings are detailed below. ...'
CIA nominee hints he is open to shifts in surveillance law
Katherine Shrader, Associated Press, Boston Globe, 11 May 06
'WASHINGTON — The CIA nominee, General Michael V. Hayden, has told a Democratic senator that he may be open to changes in an eavesdropping law to allow the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance. ...
'Hayden, an Air Force four-star general and former National Security Agency director, and other government officials have said that they did not ask congress to change the surveillance law because the debate would reveal US intelligence techniques. ...
'Outgoing CIA director Porter J. Goss announced his resignation Friday [5 May 05; see above, under that date]. He was nudged aside in part over conflicts with national deputy intelligence director John Negroponte and his top deputy, Hayden [my emphasis].'
12 May 06
US in secret gun deal
Ian Traynor, The Guardian (UK)
'The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.
'According to the report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching the recipient.
'Senior western officials in the Balkans fear that some of the guns may have fallen into the wrong hands. [And this, it seems likely, is how America is arming opposition fighters, the better to "justify" their stay in Iraq — and to expand their presence to neighbouring oil targets.]
'A Nato official described the trade as the largest arms shipments from Bosnia since the second world war [sic]. ...'
Data on Phone Calls Monitored
Extent of [US] Administration's Domestic Surveillance Decried in Both Parties
Barton Gellman and Arshad Mohammed, Washington Post, 12 May 06, p.A01
'The Bush administration has secretly been collecting the domestic telephone records of millions of U.S. households and businesses, assembling gargantuan databases and attempting to sift through them for clues about terrorist threats, according to sources with knowledge of the program.
'The "call detail records" enable U.S. intelligence agencies to track who calls whom, and when, but do not include the contents of conversations [oh yeh], the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program. The companies cooperating with the National Security Agency [NSA] dominate the U.S. telecommunications market and connect hundreds of billions of telephone calls each year. Intelligence analysts are seeking to mine their records to expose hidden connections and details of social networks, hoping to find signs of terrorist plots in the vast sea of innocent contacts.
'Fresh disclosures in USA Today about the scale of domestic surveillance — the most extensive yet [!] known involving ordinary citizens and residents — touched off a bipartisan uproar against a politically weakened President Bush. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) [already known, or rather not known, for investigating an earlier notorious example of data mining, Able Danger] vowed to haul telephone companies before his committee under oath to ferret out details the Bush administration refuses to supply, and ,ore than 50 House Democrats signed a letter demanding a criminal investigation by a special counsel. ...
'Critics reacted angrily yesterday, contrasting the new disclosures with the Bush administration's previous claims that domestic c is narrowly targeted and restricted to international communications. ...'
Like an earlier effort, Total Information Awareness — or is it the same one? — this is the construction of a totalitarian all-seeing eye for the subject population.
The UK government is considering "derogating" from part of the Human Rights Act of 1998, and possibly from the European Convention on Human Rights, according to British Channel 4 News. This follows a High Court ruling against the deportation of Afghans who hijacked an airliner from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2000, and a man who killed following early release from a rape sentence.
The anthrax alert at a farm outside Cardiff, UK (see April 2006 diary, under 24 April 06), has been lifted after no further cases were found.
13 May 06
If the core had a core, it'd be rotten ...
Feds Search Home, Office of CIA [resigned-no-3] official
Mark Sherman, Associated Press writer, Houston Chronicle
'WASHINGTON — A growing contracting scandal took a dramatic turn at the CIA with raids on the office and home of the agency's departing No. 3 official.
'The investigation of Kyle "Dusty" Foggo arose from the bribery case against Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who is serving a prison term of more than eight years after taking $2.4 million from government contractors.
'Investigators from five federal agencies acted under search warrants at Foggo's home in Vienna, V[irgini]a., and his office at the CIA's Langley, Va., campus. ...
'Among the contracts under scrutiny is one that dates from Foggo's previous job of running the logistics at a secret facility in Europe that supplies CIA personnel in war zones [my emphasis], [an anonymous federal] law enforcement official said. Foggo gave the multimillion-dollar contract to supply bottled water to a Wilkes-related company, the official said.
'Among the agencies taking part in Friday's [12 May 06] searches were: the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego and the CIA's inspector general, FBI spokesperson Debra Weierman said. ...
'Foggo's associates have said he received the Intelligence Commendation Medal for supporting the war on terror in 2002. Before becoming the agency's No. 3 leader in 2004, he was the chief of base at a secret facility that supports the war on terror [my emphasis !!!]. ...'
Relativity petty stock-market gains of millions of dollars were already attempted from 9/11 itself, based on apparent CIA foreknowledge. See The 2001 Lead-Up to 9/11". ...
14 May 06
Two British soldiers (from the Royal Anglian regiment) have been killed by a roadside bomb outside Basra, in southern Iraq.
Handily not far from the Iranian border.
15 May 06
Negroponte Had Denied Domestic Call Monitoring
Administration Won't Comment on NSA Logs
Dan Eggen, Washington Post, p.A03
'When he was asked about the National Security Agency's controversial domestic surveillance program last Monday [8 May 06], U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte objected to the question and said the government was "absolutely not" monitoring domestic calls without warrants.
'"I wouldn't call it domestic spying," he told reporters. "This is about international terrorism and telephone calls between people thought to be working for international terrorism and people here in the United States."
'Three days later, USA Today divulged details of the NSA's effort to log a majority of the telephone calls made within the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ...'
16 May 06
The US Department of Defense has released "the other" pictures of "Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon on 9/11". They were security-camera images taken at half-second intervals.
Two picture sequences are now available, from security-cameras ten yards apart. In one the "nose" appears on the right-hand side of one frame, just before the "hit". In the other (the new one, presumably), a slim white horizontal thing is visible on the right-hand side of one frame, again just before the "hit". You can pretty well please yourself what it is — though it's probably not the Loch Ness Monster.
The new film was made available as a result of a suit brought against the Department of Defense by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act. (It had been previously argued that the video was "evidence" in the trial of "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui.) Judicial Watch, a "conservative institution", "is dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to the ethics and morality in our [US] nation's public life". Viva all such noble lost causes!
Judicial Watch have the video from both cameras at the bottom of this page:-
Defense Department Releases September 11 Pentagon Video to Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch (no date, I saw it on 17 May 06)
'(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch ... announced today [no date given, presumably 16 May 06] that Department of Defense released a videotape to Judicial Watch at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon that shows American Airlines Flight 77 [a piece of optimistic thinking] striking the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The Department of Defense released the videotape in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request and related lawsuit.
'... William Kramer, chief of Department of Defense, Office of Freedom of Information [said] "Now that the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is over, we are able to complete your request and provide the video." ...
'[Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said] "... we hope that this video will lay to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77. ..." ...'
24 May 06: In fact, all the critical images seem to have been in the public domain since 2002, having been "leaked" at that time. Here are two sucessive images from one security camera, reproduced on the Minneapolis Star Tribune website in 2005:-
Did you spot it?
The image of the "object" from the other camera is even worse ...
The BBC commentator on The Ten O'Clock News called the "conspiracy theorists" very few in number. A goodthinking lie as blatant and transparent as the rest of the 9/11 fairy tale.
Flight 77 was supposed to have executed a rapid and complex 270-degree "spiral-dive", which USAF pilots wondered could have been done even by a skilled fighter pilot, and in any case could have been executed by a Boeing 757 airliner.
And next, a "landing" — skid, whatever — another skilled feat even at normal landing speed, let alone at a minimum speed of 400 mph.
And all this by a purported pilot, Hani Hanjour, who was incompetent even to fly a Cessna light aircraft.
These feats were evidently performed in order to align the plane (and we are assuming there was a plane) with the west face of the Pentagon, a wing known to be under renovation and consequently under-staffed (800 instead of 4,000). David Ray Griffin says also that a roof attack would have caused more casualties than the one on the recently-reinforced side wall — and that the top brass were all in the opposite wing. All-in-all, it was evidently an attack designed to minimise casualties. (See "The Pentagon Attack" for some of this ...)
This story doesn't even purport to be credible ...
17 May 06
Jeremy Paxman, on BBC Newsnight, remarks that, though the "new" video of the Pentagon strike was obtained in the hope of laying to rest conspiracy theories, it seems on the contrary to have fuelled them.
A blow-up of the "object" on BBC Newsnight showed a horizontal-ish array of whitish, square pixels.
The evidence may have done little to decide things one way or the other. But it has had one good result: it has forced the supine mainstream media to talk about the issue (no matter how pejoratively).
Here's an eyewitness report of the Pentagon strike, in an early Washington Post report (Barbara Vobejda, "'Extensive Casualties' in Wake of Pentagon Attack", Washington Post online, 11 Sept. 2001, 4:59pm (EDT]) ...
Steve Patterson, who lives in Pentagon City, said it appeared to him that a commuter jet swooped over Arlington National Cemetary and headed for the Pentagon "at a frightening rate .,., just slicing into that building." ...This is by far the longest of the three eyewitness statements given in the Washington Post report. Here's another of them ...Steve Patterson, 43, said he was watching televsion reports of the World Trade Centerbeing hit when he saw a silver commuter jet fly past the window of his 14-floor apartment in Pentagon City. The plane was about 150 yards away, approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground, Patterson said.
He said the plane, which sounded like the high-pitched squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he thought it was going to land on I-395 [Interstate 395]. He said it was flying so fast that he couldn't read any writing on the side.
The plane, which appeared to hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon but was flying as if coming in for a landing on a nonexistent runway, Patterson said.
"At first I thought 'Oh my God, ther's a plane truly misrouted from Nationa," Patterson said. "Then this thing just became part of the Pentagon .,.,. I was watching the World Trade Center go and then this. It was like Oh my God, what's next?"
He said the plane, which approached the Pentagon below treetop level, seemed to be flying normally for a plane coming in for a landing other than going very fast for so low. Then, he said, he saw the Pentagon "envelope' the plane and bright orange flames shoot out the back of the building.
'"It looked like anormal landing, as if someone knew exactly what they were doing," said Patterson, a graphics artist who works from home. "This looked intentional."
'"I was right underneath the plane," said Kirk Milburn, a construction supervisor for Atlantis Co., who was on the Arlington National Cemetary exit of Interstate 395 when he saw the plane heading for the Pentagon. "I heard a plane. I saw it. I saw debris flying. I guess it was hitting light poles," said Milburn. "It was like a WHOOOSH whooosh, then there was fire and smoke, then I heard a second explosion."The Washington Post report stated at the beginning, without cited evidence, that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. Thus making it appear that Kirk Milburn was referring to Flight 77. But we don't know this. He may have meant, the plane that he saw — whatever that was.
It "was a Boeing 757 that eyewitnesses said flew low and fast in a direct hit on the west side of the five-sided building", the Washington Post report continues. This is outright false in respect to Steve Patterson's statement — by far the most extensive witness statement appearing in the report. It also appears questionable in respect to Kirk Milburn's statement.
Ervin Brown, who works at the Pentagon, said he saw pieces of what appeared to be small aircraft on the ground, and the part of the building by the heliport had collapsed.But someone else did identify American Airlines ..."We heard what sounded like a missile, then we heard a loud boom," said Tom Seibert, 33, of Woodbridge, Va., a netwrk engineer at the Pentagon. "We just hit the dirt. We dived instinctively ..."
Asework Hagos, 26, of Arlington, was driving on Columbia Pike on his way to work as a consultant for Nextel. He saw a plane flying very low and close to nearby buildings. "I thought something was coming down on me. I know this plane is going to crash. I've never seen a plane like this so low." He said he looked at it and saw American Airline insignia and when it made impact with the Pentagon initially he saw smoke, then flames.
British soldiers are arriving in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. The Pakistani military intelligence Inter-Services Intelligence, the ISI, is helping Taleban and Qaeda fighters across the border, says a BBC TV report.
18 May 06
British soldiers are arriving in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
(British Channel 4 News at 7pm BST)
American marines, "reacting under pressure", killed 24 Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" in Haditha, Iraq, last November, said Democrat congressman John Murtha.
The US military had claimed that 15 (the total known death toll then) had been killed by an explosion. But military sources "privately admit" that they have photographs contradicting this claim.
(British Channel 4 News, 18 May 06 at 7pm BST)
19 May 06
The United Nations Committee Against Torture says that the US detention centre at Guantanamo is illegal and should be closed down.
(British Channel 4 News at 7pm BST)
Iraqi leaders have agreed on a new government, according to Reuters, Channel 4 News reports.
20 May 06
Two British soldiers have been injured by a roadside bomb in Basra.
Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 30 civilians have been killed, including 19 day-labourers by a suicide bomber in western Baghdad.
22 May 06
Rice says all options on table with Iran
Report: Banks curbing dealings
David Willman, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe (US)
'... For now, she said [my emphasis], the United States will continue to work within the Security Council [in other words, it is prepared to abandon the United Nations if it doesn't get its way with them] to confine Iran's nuclear ambitions to the development of electricity [sic] for civilian use. ...
'The New York Times reported today that four large European banks have started curbing their activities in Iran after US threats of fines and lost business. According to the Times report, the four banks are UBS and Credit Suisse of Switzerland, ABN Amro of the Netherlands, and HSBC, which is based in London. ...
'In another development, the Times said in a separate report today that the Bush administration is pressing a proposal to build a new antimissile site by 2011 in Europe designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its allies on the continent. [See Rachel Williams, US planning missile shield in Europe 'to counter Iran', The Scotsman, 23 May 06, for more details.]'
And their Israeli sidekicks are chipping in with their bit for the invade-Iran bandwagon ...
Iran Only Months From Nuclear Weapons Technology
Julie Stahl, Jerusalem Bureau chief, CNS.com, 22 May 06
'Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Iran is only months away from obtaining the technology it needs to build an atomic bomb and is "seriously producing enriched uranium, a key ingredient in producing nuclear weapons.
'"This technological threshold is nearer than we anticipated before. This is because they are already engaged very seriously in enrichment," Olmert said in an interview with CNN that was recorded before he left for a round of meetings in Washington.
'"The technological threshold is very close. It can be measured in months rather than years."
'This is Olmert's first trip to Washington since he was elected prime minister. He plans to hold three days of talks with senior U.S. officials. He is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday [today] and with President Bush on Tuesday.
'The issue of Iranian nuclear development is expected to be top of the agenda. ...'
US raid kills scores in Afghanistan
ABC News Online (Australia), 22 May 06
'US-led aircraft have killed up to 80 militants in attacks on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, the coalition says.
'The governor of Kandahar province says at least 16 civilians have been killed and 15 wounded.
'The attack was launched in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, where heavy fighting erupted between Taliban and Afghans and foreign troops last week. ...
'Violence has surged in Afghanistan since last Wednesday [17 May 06], most of it in the south and east. ...
'The surge comes as NATO expands its peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000, in preparation for taking over security responsibilities in the south from US-led forces.
'With 23,000 troops in the country, Afghanistan will soon have nearly 40,000 foreign troops [my emphasis], the most since 2001. ...'
[Aussie] Army vehicle bombed in Afghanistan
ABC News Online (Australia), 22 May 06
'An Australian army patrol vehicle has been badly damaged by a handmade explosive device on a roadside in southern Afghanistan.
'The Special Forces Task Group vehicle ran over the explosive. [Did they stage this themselves?]
'A member of the group who was aboard suffered minor shrapnel scratches. ...'
Afghanistan thus joins Iraq as a staging ground for roadside bombs — which only ever kill ordinary soldiers — to be blamed, mayhap, on Iran ...
The infra-red technology used in Iraqi roadside bombs, blamed on Iran and Lebanese Hizbollah, were originally supplied to ... the IRA ... in the early 1990s by MI5 and the "Forces Research Unit", since merged into the "SRR". And last September in Basra, two SAS/SRR soldiers were caught by Iraqi police, disguised as Arabs, with a carload of arms and explosives ... See "The Special Reconnaissance Regiment".
In an interview with BBC Newsnight (22 May 06), former US Navy intelligence chief Alberto Morra talked about the Bush administration's responsibility for torture. He said that Bush (et al) are/could be answerable for war crimes. (He had supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.)
23 May 06
Another "Osama" audiotape surfaces on the Internet. In it, "bin Laden" (we can take for granted by now the CIA "confirmation" of his identity) says that Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the 9/11 plot. "Osama" knows, since "he himself" personally selected the 19 9/11 hijackers. Flatly contradicting testimony from just after 9/11, wherein he denied being connected with the plot.
'... I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission," the voice said, in a reference to the 19 hijackers of 11 September 2001.
'Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning how to fly, he wasn't No 20 in the group, as your government claimed," he said. ...'
This is a bit rich, since another "brother" — Hani Hanjour — was incompetent even to fly a Cessna. But on 9/11 he supposedly performed multiple virtuoso feats with American Airlines Flight 77. See "The Pentagon Strike".
My usenet posting "Osama's 9/11 Recruiting Office", 25 May 06, mentioning Able Danger.
24 May 06
Five people in Manchester, and three others elsewhere in the UK, have been violently arrested on terrorism charges. The men, all Libyans, ran the Sanaa (sp?) aid agency, and are said to be opposed to the Gadaffi regime in Libya (which we're now friends with).
Five hundred police and intelligence officers were involved in the arrest operation. MI5 has recently opened a headquarters in Manchester. Soon it'll be like your friendly local KGB office. Just pop in and denounce the counter-revolutionaries.
A major fire in the Ataturk air terminal in Istanbul, Turkey. No-one hurt. Said to be accident.
A British C-130 Hercules transport aircraft — one of four in Afghanistan — has "crashed" and been destroyed (burned) in Helmand province. The British ambassador and 27 others were on board, but none was hurt. Yep, that's how the news was reported on the BBC 1 6 O'Clock News.
According to reports, a tyre caught fire (on landing) and set the engine on fire. (British Channel 4 News, 24 May 06 at 7pm BST) Jon Snow, Channel 4 News's anchorman, questioned whether enemy fire was responsible.
But what is the British ambassador doing in "war-torn" Helmand province?
'A Special Forces [my emphasis] RAF Hercules carrying the new British ambassador in Afghanistan crashed yesterday [24 May 06] while landing at a "primitive, wild west" airstrip, defence sources said.
'The number one engine of the Hercules C130K caught fire as it came in to land. The pilot touched down safely and ordered the 28 civilians and nine RAF crew on board to evacuate the aircraft.
'The cause of the fire was being investigated but early indications were that it was not due to shots from the ground.
Yesterday's crash was a reminder to Stephen Evans, after only being in the post for only a month, of the dangers faced by troops in Helmand.
'The ambassador, who was the High Commissioner in Sri Lanka during the Boxing Day Tsunami [poor man!], was visiting some of the 3,000 British personnel in Helmand province to receive an update on reconstruction efforts [or to help organize the backup for an Iran invasion?]. ...
'Quick reactions by the Hercules crew, from No 47 Squadron, based at RAF Lyneham, which specialises in putting SAS troopers into dangerous terrain [my emphasis], meant the aircraft was rapidly evacuated as it came to a halt while ablaze.
'... the plane [is] one of only four RAF Hercules in Afghanistan. While enemy fire has been ruled out by the MoD a full investigation will be carried out.
'The RAF ... [has lost] two highly specialised [Hercules] aircraft used to deliver SAS troops in the past 18 months. [My emphasis.] There have been complaints from pilots that a new defensive system to suppress fires has not been installed quickly enough for the dangerous operations in Afghanistan. ...'
Six members of a family in Sumatra, Indonesia, have died of bird flu, raising hopes — sorry, fears — of a human pandemic.
'... The World Health Organisation (WHO) described the outbreak in a village in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, as the most important development in the spread of the virus for three years. [I'll bet they did.]
'Six out of seven family members who have caught the disease have died — the most recent on Monday [22 May 06] — in one of the largest human clusters of the H5N1 virus reported.
'However, the WHO decided against raising the level of pandemic alert [because the petro-cabal is not quite ready to invade Iran yet?] after genetic tests appeared to show that the virus, which has so far killed 124 out of 218 people infected worldwide, had not undergone the mutations necessary to make it highly infectious among humans.
'There was speculation that some people may be more prone to catching the existing form of H5N1 because of their genetic make-up, which may account for the limited number of cases where human-to-human transmission is thought to have occurred.
'[But] A WHO spokesman said it would be "premature" to sound the all-clear and 33 people who were in contact with the last person to die were being monitored to see if they developed the disease. If this happened, it would strongly suggest the disease was acquiring the ability to pass between humans, which could potentially kill millions worldwide.
'Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO's western Pacific region, said: "We have a team down there, they are examining what is going on and they can't find an animal source of this infection. This is the first time that we've been completely stumped. What we are looking for is any sign of this virus going outside of this family cluster into the community, that would be very worrying."
'Professor Hugh Pennington, an Aberdeen University microbiologist, said the outbreak sounded like an extreme case of previously suspected human-to-human transmission, which is thought to have taken place in Thailand and Vietnam.'
Of course, they wouldn't want a high-kill-rate disease really spreading. Just the show of it. (For comparison, anthrax's poor ability to spread human-to-human makes it a practical weapon.)
25 May 06
Congress stews, but FBI raid could pass muster
Was the Constitution violated? Probably not, experts say
Charles Lane, Washington Post, TwinCities.com, 25 May 06
'WASHINGTON — The FBI raid on the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., broke long-standing political custom and may violate the spirit of the Constitution [my emphasis], but it still may lie within the letter of the law and Supreme court rulings, legal analysts say.
'The issue could turn on whether a court agrees the evidence taken from Jefferson's office was related to protected legislative activities, such as writing and voting. Other items may be fair game for the prosecution, analysts said.
'"An official legislative act is immune, but interference with anything beyond that" is not covered by the provision that shields Congress from executive and judicial branch interference, said Michael Glennon, a former legal counsel to the Senate foreign Relations Committee who teaches at Tufts University.
'House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a rare bipartisan action Wednesday [yesterday], demanded the Justice Department return the seized documents.
'Noting "no person is above the law — neither the one being investigated nor those conducting the investigation," Hastert, R-Ill., and Pelosi, D-Calif., asserted the Justice Department must cease its review of the documents and ensure the contents are not divulged. ...'
Tony Blair is in Washington with President Bush. (A few days ago, Blair was in Baghdad.)
Bin Laden's former security chief was reported as saying that he is still in touch with Osama from time to time.
He said (in English) that bin Laden is where nobody can touch him.
26 May 06
Bush has apologized for .... um .... er .... his dumb utterances "Saddam Hussein, wanted dead or alive", and "Bring it on" (in fact he said, "Bring 'em on") re. resistance fighters in Iraq.
29 May 06
Two more British solders, from the Queen's Dragoon Guards, killed in Basra by a roadside bomb. The attack came hours after raids on homes there recovered arms and explosives.
Hours later in Baghdad, two British journalists were killed, and another critically injured, after an explosive device was "propelled' from a car at their armoured Humvee. The journalists were working for CBS, and were travelling with US troops. A US soldier and an Iraqi civilian were also killed.
In Kabul, Afghanistan, there were serious disturbances after a US military convoy collided with traffic during the rush hour. Civilians threw stones, and machine-gun fire was heard. An Afghan official said US troops fired on them.
Later, Afghan police fired into crowds who had burned cars and had marched on the US Embassy.
A curfew was declared in Kabul after a total of 14 were killed.
This may indicate increased military activity preliminary to an invasion of Iran.
30 May 06
1,500 US troops are being transferred from Kuwait to Iraq to "cope with the violence there".
'At least 1,500 men will bolster hard-pressed comrades in Anbar, a province west of Baghdad and the epicentre of Iraqi insurgency .... Some reports suggested that number would reach 3,500. ...'
(The Daily Telegraph (UK), 31 May 06, p.8)
The US military's investigation into the massacre of civilians in Haditha, Iraq (see above, under 18 May 06), is nearly complete. Charges of murder, etc, against individual marines are likely to follow.
But there is also concern about the suspected subsequent cover-up by senior officers.
31 May 06
Never forgetting that Saudi Arabia is the top petro-target ...
"Saudi fighters 'are leading the surge in attacks on British troops'"
Thomas Harding and Max Benitz, The Daily Telegraph (UK), 31 May 06, p.8
'Foreign terrorists, led by fighters from Saudi Arabia, are behind an upsurge in attacks against British troops in Basra, military sources said yesterday.
'As the Army suffered the highest number of fatal attacks in a month since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, commanders on the ground are concerned at the level of sophistication and ferocity of the attacks. ...
'The Saudi influence on terrorism in Shia-dominated Basra has not been previously reported but has caused concern among military commanders because of their [sic] training, technology and finance.
'Although the majority of Arabians are Sunni, the minority Shia have taken part in terrorist attacks.
'Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, admitted that a recent surge in violence was a cause of "major concern". Dozens of soldiers have been targeted by advanced "improvised explosive devices" (IED) that the Army has been unable to disable or jam. ...
'There is also a strong belief, particularly among the Americans, that Iran is continuing to ferry bombs to Baghdad via Basra.'
The Shia Saudis tend to live on the oil side (Persian-Gulf side) of Saudi Arabia, in al-Hasa province. The Shi'ites comprise at least one-third, and possibly the majority, of the population of this province.
The neocons have discussed partitioning Saudi into a Western Wahabi rump-state (where the Muslim shrines of Mecca and Medina are), and an eastern puppet-state. (E.g. Richard Perle and David Frum in their book An End To Evil: As referred to briefly in Michael Barone, "An end to evil", US News & World Report, 8 Jan. 04; and at length in Ashraf Fahim, "'Liberating' Saudi's Shi'ites (and their oil)", Asia Times Online, 18 March 04.)
Now that Iraq is occupied, "all" that is needed to perfect the Gulf oil empire is to occupy the Gulf side of Saudi — where allegations of "Shi'ite terrorism" may be helpful — and the (Arab-populated) south-western and southern areas of Iran (here, however, the Iranian military machine needs to be defeated first).
As for the sophisticated varieties of roadside bombs, presumably more effective for blowing up ordinary US and UK soldiers), to be used as one pretext to attack Iran — and Saudi? — ...
Infrared technology used in the "Iranian" bombs was first given by MI6 and the "FRU" to — the IRA — in the early 1990s. The "FRU" was more recently absorbed by the "SRR", two of whose agents were caught by Basra police last September, disguised as Arabs and with a carload of explosives — possibly on their way to plant a bomb. (The UK military's dramatic "rescue" of the two, from what were claimed to be terrorist police, making a spectacular diversion from the question of what they were up to.) (See "The Special Reconnaissance Regiment".)
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the US is willing to hold talks with Iran in Vienna, provided that Iran "fully and verifiably" suspends its nuclear programme first. The Iranians indicate they are unwilling to accept this precondition, and this is what Rice et al are presumably banking on.
Rice also said that the military option remains on the table.
The Iraqi prime minister has declared a month-long state of emergency in Basra.
The World Health Organization says that China, Indonesia and Africa are under-reporting bird-flu cases.
President Bush has sworn in General Hayden as head of the CIA.
ITV Teletext news online BBC News online