Frank Freeman's Diary, November 2002

'Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has contacted small far-right parties in an attempt to rebuild his government.

'Mr Sharon's ruling National Party coalition collapsed last night after Labour Party ministers resigned.

'The walkout, which followed a row over the budget, left Mr Sharon's Likud Party five seats short of a majority.

'A first reading of the budget was later passed in parliament with the help of the smaller right-wing parties.'

'A former Israeli army chief known for his tough tactics is the new defence secretary in Ariel Sharon's government.

'The Likud Prime Minister [Sharon] offered Shaul Mofaz the post as he reached out to right-wingers for help after a Labour walkout left him short of a majority.

'Palestinian and other Arab leaders have condemned his methods of combating urban guerrilla tactics.'

'Israel is to put the military and civilian offices responsible for dealing with[!] Palestinians under one umbrella, a government official said.' (ITV Teletext, p.318)

'Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has met his right-wing rival Benjamin Netanyahu and offered him the job of foreign minister in his new coalition.

'Ex-premier Mr Netanyahu has accused Mr Sharon of not employing tough enough tactics against Palestinian insurgents. [!!!] ...

'The two men had what was described as "an excellent meeting" at Mr Sharon's ranch in southern Israel.'

These events have moved the US cabal's junior ally, Israel, more securely into the grip of the hard right. (The budget could have been devised so as to procure the withdrawal of the Labour Party from Sharon's coalition.) Israel is now better secured as the western flank of America's Middle-Eastern oil-empire drive. This moves fits in with Sharon's offer of intelligence and military "access" for the USA's prospective Iraq-attack.

Shaul Mofaz, Israel's hard-line ex-army chief, has accepted Ariel Sharon's offer of the post of defence minister.

'If approved by the legislature, he will replace Binyamin Ben Eliezer whose Labour Party resigned last week.

'Under Mr Mofaz's command in the last two years, Israeli troops stepped up assassinations of suspected terrorists and blockades of Palestinian towns.

'Yasser Arafat said his appointment did not bode well for the peace process. [—Pushing back the boundaries of understatement. '

This represents the advance of the Israeli military (hardliners) into overt political power.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney, in a pre congress-election speech, has said (again) that Iraq must give up its weapons of mass destruction or be disarmed by the United States. (BBC Ceefax)

This reminds me of that film where a corrupt cop (William Holden?), coveting another man's wife, shouts "Halt!" three times before shooting the husband in the chest.

The US military is to place a HQ at the Horn of Africa, initially on a coastal ship, but later (they hope) on land. (BBC World Service news at 1am GMT)

Netanyahu has provisionally accepted Sharon's offer of the post of Israeli foreign minister, but says that the government must "head for early elections". (BBC Ceefax, 3 Nov. 02, p.105)

'... The contingent, led by the seven-ship USS Constellation battle group, carries 72 Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.

'It includes a guided-missile destroyer, guided-missile cruisers and a guided-missile frigate. ...'

'... "We do not want war, blood, tears and dead in our region," said Recep Tayyip Erdoman, leader of the ["moderate Islamist"] Justice and Development Party.

'Weekend election results show Justice likely to form a one-party [i.e. non-coalition] government.'

Kuwait too has said that America can use its bases for an Iraq invasion, with the consent of the UN. (Recently Saudi Arabia has said that the US cannot use its bases for such an attack, with or without UN clearance.)

It seems quite likely that the US has given Russia a free hand in Chechnya, in return for the latter's not vetoing a UN resolution "convenient" for an Iraq attack. The US administration has been pacing back and forth beating its chest loudly over such an attack for a year now. But slow-peddling on actually doing it. What if the whole thing is a deception operation for something else, e.g. an invasion of Saudi Arabia?

The US military can be, and maybe already is, strategically better-placed for such an operation. The CIA, having done its bit to "show connections" between Iraq and al-Qaeda last spring, is now (apparently) distancing itself from the Bush family's "unfinished business" with Iraq. It has also recently "warned" of the danger of an Iraq attack "provoking" Saddam Hussein into using "weapons of mass destruction".

Fifteen of the nineteen alleged 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian, what should have provided the ideal excuse to attack this largest oil country. Is this what's really on the cards now?

'Israel's Army is accused of crimes against humanity' by Amnesty International

'The report comes after Scotland Yard [the London Criminal Investigation Department] opened an investigation into General Shaul Mofaz, who was head of the Israeli army until his retirement in July, on allegations of war crimes. General Mofaz accepted a position as Defence Minister in Ariel Sharon's government over the weekend.

'Today's report includes detailed evidence that Israeli soldiers unlawfully killed Palestinian civilians, blocked medical access to the wounded, used Palestinians as human shields, tortured prisoners and unnecessarily destroyed civilians' homes.

'Many of these crimes are not isolated incidents, says Amnesty, but "committed in a widespread and sytematic manner, in pursuit of government policy", which means they can be prosecuted as crimes against humanity under the statute of the newly formed International Criminal Court. ...'

'The CIA was behind a missile attack on a car in Yemen in which six suspected al-Qaeda member died, reports say.

'Unnamed US officials are quoted as saying Monday's attack was probably carried out by the intelligence agency with an unmanned reconnaissance plane.

'But Ali al-Harithi, wanted for the bomb attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen in 2000, is thought to be among them.

Aerial assassination of the type for which the West has condemned Israel. The CIA is now emerging in its true historical role of phalanx of American world empire-formation. Using its al-Qaeda proteges as the excuse.

The US military is opening an HQ in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. (Cf. above, 3 November.) (British TV news)

Djibouti was originally French Somaliland and, I believe, France still has a military base there. Perhaps we're seeing some Franco-American collaboration.

'Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced he is to call early elections within 90 days. ...' (Ibid, p.115)

(As British Channel 4 News notes,) the elections will coincide with the likely launch date of the US attack on Iraq. The increased perceived threat to Israel will, the Right hopes, work in its favour.

'TIMES[ newspaper:] Israeli PM Ariel Sharon has called on the international community[!] to target Iran as soon as the imminent conflict with Iraq is complete.' (ITV Teletext, 5 Nov. 02, p.326)

Unconfirmed reports say remote-control aircraft have been operating in Yemen for several months. (BBC News 24 at 2am)

'Republicans have reclaimed power in the US Senate and expanded their House of Representatives majority in an historic sweep for President George W Bush.

'Republicans beat incumbent Democrats in Georgia and Missouri to reclaim at least a one-seat margin in the Senate.

'They also picked up at least two seats in the House, building on their six-seat majority.'

The cabal can now expect markedly less resistance to its police-state and imperial projects. Though it won't be plain sailing by any means. The Republican House leader himself is stark opposed to Operation TIPS, for example. (And by reason of ideology — that the plan is anti-liberty and for a police society.)

Is the 9/11 independent investigation also doomed, now that Republicans will have control of Congressional committees?

'INDEPENDENT[ newspaper:] Four nations — Iraq, North Korea, France and Russia — probably possess secret stocks of the smallpox virus, according to US intelligence.' (ITV Teletext, p.326)

Not to mention you, cock. Subtle it ain't. This is a lumping of Iraq-attack resisters France and Russia in the same rogue-state/evil-axis category as Iraq and N Korea. I.e. pressure cookery.

Another function may be to prepare the way for a smallpox attack, staged by the US cabal, and blamed on Iraq and/or N Korea. The cabal's smallpox-vaccination-and-scaremongering campaign is already hyped up to a peak, in readiness.

Microsoft wants to put a controlling microchip ("Palladium": mega-cool!) in our computers. (What! Not yet in our foreheads, "XP" anti-church?) The company disingenuously says that it will give us greater control, too. It was originally (and still is!) designed to prevent copyright-breaking downloading. Critics say will be a spy in our computers, and will reinforce, once more, the virtual Windows monopoly of operating systems. The big-business/cabal alliance is rolling on toward the police society. 'BUSH EXPECTS BACKING ON IRAQ [from the UN Security Council.

'US President George Bush has expressed confidence that a new resolution on Iraq will win widespread support in Friday's [tomorrow's] vote at the United Nations.

'President Bush said the proposal could "bring the civilized world together" to give the Baghdad regime a last chance to disarm or face military action.

[Uncannily echoing Yasser Arafat's similar call to the world about Israel, made some time ago.]

'Saddam Hussein has urged the world to take a "just" position against the US and Britain and stop them achieving their "evil" schemes against Iraq.

'Iraqi TV quoted him as saying the US and UK were pressuring the UN to "contradict" international laws. ...

'Iraq has said the new resolution sets "impossible conditions" on disarming. [—Because they can't give up what they haven't got?]

Unfortunately for Saddam, he is in no position to talk about "evil schemes". Which is why the US cabal has picked on his country as the starting-point for its projected conquest of Middle-East oil. It has an excellent excuse.

'The two Washington-area sniper suspects will stand trial in Virginia, where they face possible death penalties, US Attorney-General John Ashcroft has said. ...' (Ibid, p.106)

'President George Bush and his party are sketching an agenda for a new, Republican-controlled US Congress after their historic mid-term election win.' (ITV Teletext, 7 Nov. 02, p.318)

INDIA[:] Police have been criticised by a human rights group after officers shot dead two Pakistani militants who are reported to have been unarmed.' (Ibid.)

No sooner has Israeli hard-rightist Binyamin Netanyahu (conditionally) accepted a post in Ariel Sharon's cabinet than he begins his powerplay against Sharon:-

'Mr Sharon's leadership had led to "tremendous escalation in Palestinian terror", he told a newspaper.

'The former Prime Minister has announced he will challenge Mr Sharon for control of the Likud party.'

And, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, will he replace Sharon's whips with his scorpions?

A couple from Santa Fe, New Mexico, have been diagnosed with bubonic plague while they were visiting New York City, where they are now confined to hospital. They may have caught the disease from fleas, in New Mexico [bubonic plague is endemic in feral rodents in the s.w. USA]. But it's the first such case in New York for a century.

(ABC Evening News, 7 Nov. 02; BBC News 24, 8 Nov. 02 at 2am GMT; BBC World Service news at 3am)

The Black Death! How's this for a psyweapon? And a fitting name for the totalitarian plague now spreading across the world.

The plague case is apparently an isolated one occurring by accident, but this is how the anthrax attacks started too, an individual person, at a news office in Boca Raton(!), Florida.

Bubonic plague would seem a perilous weapon for the US cabal to use on its own people. It is contagious, unlike anthrax. It could be a fake case, of course. But the more ruthless political manipulators seem to be prepared to kill billions, if necessary, in pursuit of their Projects; witness the apparent attempt to provoke world war in May 1999, by the (CIA-instigated) "accidental" bombing of China's Belgrade embassy.

But the fact remains that it is the first in New York City for a century, and it has happened at a time when the US administration has pressured, and will need to continue to pressure, the UN Security Council, to bend it to its aims. As the anthrax attacks were used to induce Congress to pass the "Patriot Act" a year ago.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the British Home Office issued a warning of an al-Qaeda poison-gas attack — and withdrew it half-an-hour later. Cabalistic puppet-strings getting tangled, or was it on the contrary done to ensure publicity?

'A documentary claims to have proof US troops watched as Afghan Northern Alliance forces allegedly slaughtered thousands of captured Taliban fighters.

'The makers of the programme say they have proof soldiers saw, but did nothing to stop, the alleged atrocities in which 3,000 people died.

HR> The documentary is British Channel 5 TV's Afghan Massacre. It doesn't appear to have been shown yet. The troops were US Special Forces, and effectively collaborated with the massacres. Witnesses' lives are now in danger. US Central Command denies that Americans were ever present.
See 'US troops saw Afghan slaughter, claims TV documentary', Ananova, 8 Nov. 02.

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously for the new resolution on Iraq. Even Syria.

I wonder if the "biological threat" (now apparently being publicly backed-up with bubonic plague) was used privately by the USA to impress the worthy members?

Meanwhile, the head of Interpol, Richard Noble, says he believes Osama bin Laden is still alive, and that al-Qaeda is plotting simultaneous attacks in several countries, including the USA. 'The battlefield now spreads across every country', he said.

No prizes for guessing where this Anglo-Saxon's priorities lie. And the cabal he represents appear to have put their psyterror plans into action with a 'case of bubonic plague' in New York.

'Britains in the Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were also warned to be vigilant. ...'

'Catholic Church is FBI Veteran's New Boss: Office Charged With Protecting Children', Washington Post, 8 Nov. 02, p.A02.

'Fears of terrorist attacks hit peak
—Blair to warn of rising threat to UK
—MI5 intercepts talk of al-Qaeda plots
Michael Evans, Rosemary Bennet, Roger Boyes
The Times, 9 Nov. 02, pp.1, 2

'Intelligence intercepts of al-Qaeda suspects have uncovered a level of terrorist plotting on the same scale as in the weeks leading up to the September 11 attacks, The Times can disclose. [Will you buy this one?]

'The intense level of al-Qaeda "chatter" picked up by American and British intelligence signals interceptions led to [British Home Secretary] David Blunkett's sombre warning of a terrorist attack. [See above, 8 Nov.]

'The intelligence gleaned in recent weeks pointed directly to a terrorist threat against Western interests, and the United Kingdom is believed to be on the list of targets.

'In the more alarmist version of Mr Blunkett's assessment of the threat which was put out by the Home Office in error — and then rapidly retrieved — the Home Secretary warned of the possibility of Britain being attacked by terrorists armed with a "dirty" radiological bomb or poison gas.

'Yesterday Mr Blunkett said that a "clerical error" had been made and the wrong assessment had been published. The version subsequently published made no reference to "dirty" bombs. Mr Blunkett said that he did not want to risk creating "unjustified panic and disruption".

'The evidence, however, which has emerged from the latest intelligence makes it clear that the threat to Britain is high and Government officials saw the need to let the public know. Tony Blair was involved in the decision to publish the terrorism document.

'Both drafts of the statement, the one warning of a potential dirty bomb or poison gas attack and the other using more bland language, had been formally approved by the security and intelligence services, indicating that the first was as legitimate as the second.

'However, the "dirty bomb" scenario has become more of an obsession with the United States. This was made clear by Governor [sic] Tom Ridge, President Bush's homeland security chief, when he met the heads of all the British agencies in London this week [my emphasis]. ...'

Here it is. Our political leaders and "security"/"intelligence" services are satraps being directed by personnel of the US cabal.

'... Syria, the council's only Arab member, says nothing in the resolution "allows countries to take unilateral action". [This feeble bleating will not save them from the consequences of their craven submission.]

'But Britain's ambassador to the UN says the UK reserved the right to take action in the event of "funk or fudge".

'The Iraq regime has until Friday [15 Nov.] to accept the terms of the resolution.'

'The authorities estimate that 450,000 demonstrators tool part; organisers put the total at nearer 1m.

'It was the climax of the European Social Forum, a five-day gathering of anti-globalisation protesters. ...'

'Tony Blair has launched a stinging attack on decades of failure in Britain's criminal justice system.

'The Prime Minister has accused past governments of allowing crime and anti-social behaviour [!] to soar.

'Wednesday's [13 Nov.] Queen's Speech will herald "radical reform" of police and court procedures in which beating crime will be the top Government priority, he said. [In today's Observer newspaper.]'

'The Pentagon is looking at where troops could be stationed in Iraq following a military attack, a senior defence official has told the BBC.

'The New York Times claims President Bush has also approved a war plan for Iraq that could involve 250,000 troops. [What's new? How many times we've seen stories like this in the last year.]

'But an official said the Pentagon was looking at where troops may be placed to ensure stability after any conflict.'

'Britain's tough line against those responsible for the September 11 atrocities [that'll be the day!] has made it a "front-line" terror target, says the Home Secretary.

'David Blunkett was speaking ahead of a high-profile address by PM Tony Blair tomorrow, when he [Blair] will spell out in stark terms the need for vigilance[ a favourite cabal terror-word].

Leading British politicians have now adopted the US cabal's terror techniques. — after US Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge met British administrative leaders.

And the UN Security Council unanimously adopted the US/UK resolution on Iraq, in spite of the obvious fact that the resolution is a pretext to invade that country.

The rest of the world is "spontaneously" falling into a client-patron or slave-master relationship vis-a-vis America. This is evidence that matters are beyond a specific, conscious, political conspiracy, and that they reflect a fundamental socio-historic phase change — viz. Spengler's "victory of force-politics over money", the crystalization of proto-Caesarism; and world imperialism. (The world takes part in it because it already culturally Westernised.)

And its starting to rain aircraft again (the latest in the Philipines). Does the US military intend to monopolize the airways?

'President Bush is said to have given a number of people the authority to launch attacks similar to the one in Yemen which killed six al-Qaeda suspects. [Such a thing was in fact announced about a year ago.]

'US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said the mandate covered terrorists hostile to the US.

'Human rights groups say the attack in Yemen, involving an unmanned CIA "drone", broke international law.

Thousands of riot police stormed the southern Jordanian town of Maan in search of five militant Islamist leaders (including "Abu Sayyaf"). (Ibid, p.115; BBC World Service news)

'Prime Minister Tony Blair is to issue a stark warning that Islamist militants can be expected to bring their terror campaign to the UK.

'... he is due to spell out in stark terms the continued need for public vigilance against terror attacks at home.

'The security services are warning on an almost daily basis of terrorist threats to a wide range of UK targets, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

'He said if he had acted on every piece of new intelligence, roads, railways, airports, factories and shops would have been shut down "on many occasions". [Which shows the spurious nature of these reports.]

'The Lord Mayor's Banquet [on Remembrance Day] heard calls for the public to remain vigilant.

'Hundreds of suspected paedophiles have been arrested during a six-month crackdown on internet child abuse.

'Many are professionals [including many policemen] with no previous contact with the authorities. One in five is alleged to have been involved in physical abuse, the BBC has learned. [My emphasis]

'An international computer trail showed where pornographic images of children had been downloaded from the internet.

And no doubt, besides Operation Candyman/Ore, Ashcroft & Co. have at least a dozen more such "operations" up their sleeves. They are using such methods to attack the social backbone of their target societies.

'Proposed mental health laws could lead to compulsory treatment for diabetics and epileptics, a report has warned.

'The Draft Mental Health Bill defines "mental disorder" as any condition impairing or disturbing mental function.

'This may include diabetes, epilepsy, addiction and learning disorders, the Joint Committee on Human Rights warned.

'and the draft does not forbid detaining people on grounds of sexual deviancy, promiscuity or drug dependency, it said.'

On the contrary, the bill is wholly inadequate if it doesn't include those who disagree with Tony Blair.

The Soviets and Chinese Communists blazed the trail of incarcerating the "politically insane" in special asylums.

'The growing threat of a missile attack on Britain by a rogue state heightens the need for a missile defence system, [British] Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said. ...' (BBC Ceefax, p.112)

'USA[:] The FBI has cracked the case of a British computer hacker who broke into about 100 military networks over the past year, officials said.' (ITV Teletext, 12 Nov. 02, p.118)

'USA[:] Catholic activists have compiled a database listing 600 American priests accused of child sex abuse since 1996.' (Ibid.)

'Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles ... entered the Palestinian-ruled town from four directions as helicopter gunships hovered overhead.

'The incursion came 24 hours after a [similar raid on] the nearby town of Tulkarem.

'Israeli sources say both towns are linked to an attack on a nearby kibbutz on Sunday [11 Nov.], in which five Israelis were shot dead.'

Meanwhile Netanyahu has pledged, if elected Prime Minister, to expel Arafat. (Ibid, p.113)

A US State Dept. official said Iraq had tried to order 1.5 million doses of the drug atraphine from Turkey. The drug can be used to counter the effect of nerve gas. Turkey reported this order to the United Nations. (BBC World Service news, 13 Nov. 02 at 3am)

Independent Commission To Investigate "Intelligence Failures" Looks Doomed The US Congressional Bill for a Homeland Security Department looks set to pas into law, with three "centrist" Senators agreed to a slightly revised version (about workers' rights within the Department). '"This was the best we could get, knowing it would pass" anyway,' said one of the Senators.

'But it does not include a Senate-approved provision calling for an independent blue-ribbon commission to look into the nation's preparedness for the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A move to include the commission in separate intelligence legislation has also stalled. [My emphasis.]'

'A tape attributed to Osama bin Laden [broadcast on al-Jazeera TV] threatening more terror against the US and its allies has raised fears that the al-Qaeda chief has re-emerged. [The recording referred to the attacks in Yemen, Bali and Moscow.]

'With US defence chiefs saying the tape sounds like bin Laden, it may prove that the terror chief survived ...'

'US prosecutors are seeking to extradite a British man accused of hacking into 92 computer systems operated by the American military, Nasa and US firms.

'Unemployed programmer Gary McKinnon, 36, of Hornsey, north London, is alleged to have shut down a network for the military district of Washington.

'The alleged offences are said to have occurred between March 2001 [just after the Bush administration took office] [and] March 2002.'

'... Whoever put this tape out has put the world on notice yet again that we're at war and that we need to take these messages very seriously," Mr Bush said. ...'

'60 ARRESTED IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE
[in Northumbria, UK, over the last 6 weeks]

'Around 7,000 people were quizzed by police. [In just Northumbria?!] The accused have been bailed to appear in court early in 2003.'

'Around 200 [police] officers were involved in the operation which included searching more than 50 homes and seizing hard drives from around 100 computers.' (ITV Teletext, 14 Nov. 02, p.313)

Seizure — and destruction — of computer records seems to play a part in this operation.

'UN weapons inspectors plan to search up to 1,000 sites suspected of producing chemical, biological and nuclear arms when they return to Iraq next week.' (BBC Ceefax, 14 Nov. 02, p.112)

'The FBI has warned that al-Qaeda is likely to attempt a "spectacular" attack intended to inflict large-scale casualties and damage the US economy[ so this is how they'll excuse the recession!].

'The warning was circulated despite a lack of specific and credible evidence. [We have fallen on hard times, if the FBI can't even come up with its evergreen "specific and credible evidence".]

'It has not led the Bush administration to raise the terrorist threat level above code yellow — the middle of a scale developed after September 11.'

'A senior al-Qaeda leader has recently been taken into US custody overseas, US officials have said.

'They declined to identify the person, but said that the leader is not among the three most-wanted group, including Osama bin Laden.

'US Security heads also said that bin Laden's son, Saad, another al-Qaeda leader, was also still at large.'

'At least 12 Israelis have been killed by suspected Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Israeli emergency services. ...'

'The [US] Senate yesterday gave final approval to legislation creating an independent commission to investigate the September 2001 terrorist attacks'. This contradicts the gloomy-sounding assessment in the Washington Post on 13 November (see above).

However, 'Senators plans to vote early next week, probably Tuesday [19 Nov.], on ... two proposals, which would create a 170,000 employee Department of Homeland Security ...'

The White House is considering a "domestic spy agency" (allegedly MI5-style), which would take over responsibility for domestic surveillance from the FBI.

An interesting aside on who's the real master in America is found in a new book by Bob Woodward, assistant editor at the Washington Post (and reviewed by the same paper) —

'... Rumsfeld is portrayed as irascible and visibly unhappy that, during the early days of [Afghan] war planning, the dominant figure was CIA Director George J. Tenet, a holdover from the Clinton administration. "This is the CIA's strategy,' Rumsfeld railed at an NSC [National Security Council] meeting nine days after the invasion of Afghanistan [in 2001]. "They developed the strategy. We're just executing the strategy."

Indeed, the CIA showed a marvellous, almost clairvoyant, knowledge of the "al-Qaeda 9/11 conspiracy", very quickly after the event, an understanding in which they were entirely lacking before the event. They were at the core of the policy-making associated with this event and its empire-making, police-state making, aftermath.

'North Korea has admitted for the first time [see comment below] that it has nuclear weapons.

'In an attack on US policy, state radio said Washington has pushed North Korea into developing military counter-measures, including nuclear arms.

'A BBC correspondent said tension has been rising in the region since US officials said last month that N Korea had admitted developing nuclear arms.'

BBC Ceefax originally reported as fact what turned out to be a US State Department claim made by anonymous officials (and at dead of night). See October diary, under 17 Oct.

South Korean officials cast doubt on a statement on North Korean radio that North Korea has nuclear weapons. They suggest that the announcer's North Korean accent caused the "misunderstanding", and that the phrase "kajige tui-o-itta" (is entitled to have) was misheard as "kajige tui-otta" (has come to have). "But BBC Monitoring, the BBC's own monitoring service, said it was confident the statement had not been misunderstood or misheard."

The Bush administration is nearly ready with military tribunals to try al-Qaeda suspects.

'The Archbishop of Westminster failed to act appropriately when dealing with paedophile priests in a former post, a BBC News investigation has revealed.

'Police are already examining whether Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor covered up the activities of one jailed priest.

'At least three other accused priests in Arundel and Brighton [in Sussex] were allowed to continue working, the BBC has found.

The Israelis have re-occupied Hebron in the West Bank after the recent killing of 12 Jewish settlers near there, and have twice attacked Gaza City. The Israelis are enlarging their area of administration in Hebron, and are seeking to make a "corridor" linking two settlements.

Each attack is made the reason for the further aggrandisement of the Israelis at the expense of the Palestinians.

'A man who jumped to his apparent death from a plane flying 9,000 feet over Texas was the target of a FBI probe into a stolen NASA computer.' (ITV Teletext, 19 Nov. 02, p.318)

'The biggest reorganisation of the US government in 50 years is to go ahead after the Senate approved President Bush's plans to increase security.

'The decision will lead to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which is designed to prevent another September 11-style attack. [On the contrary, 9/11 was designed for the purpose of measures such as "Homeland Security".]

'The new department will incorporate all or part of 22 federal agencies[ with a combined budget of about £25bn and 170,000 workers].

'Sen[ator] Robert C. Byrd (D[emocrat, ]W[est] V[irgini]a), led a largely lonely fight against the overall bill, describing it as a White House "power grab" and a "bureaucratic behemoth" that will create more problems than it solves. Among the nine who voted against the bill on final passage were Byrd and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D.-Md.). ...'

'Police have arrested 118 workers at New York's two main airports for allegedly using fake identification to get jobs.

' 'The detained JFK and La Guardia staff had access to restricted areas and included a security guard, baggage handler and an aircraft mechanic.

'The arrests are part of a nationwide probe into airport security ordered by the US government after September 11.'

Last April there were similar events, when arrest warrants were issued for 140 workers at three Washington-area airports (there had also been smaller-scale arrests at other US airports). See April 2002 diary, under 24 April. Those arrests seem to have been "one-off". Now that the way to a US police state has apparently been cleared, can we expect a constant stream of mass arrests for this, that and the other?

Twelve Israelis have been killed in Jerusalem by a suicide bomber. This time the killer is "from Bethlehem", and — hey presto! — Israeli forces are poised on the edge of another Palestinian city. And Sharon says there is no point in peace talks ... There is evidently an "under-policy" for a systematic attack on Palestinians city-by-city. As ever.

'... Imam Samudra, an Afghan-trained militant with alleged links to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, was arrested in the [Indonesian] port town of Marak.

'... Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiria is suspected of masterminding the devastating suicide attack on US destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

'He was captured in an undisclosed country earlier this month [cf. above, 15 Nov.] and is in US custody, [US] officials said.'

The Israeli army has expelled at least 25 families from a village near Bethlehem (from where the latest suicide bomber was supposed to have come). (BBC News 24 at 2am)

News commentators worry that Israel's campaign will compromise America's Iraq-attack plans. On the contrary, the two are running in tandem.

'Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in the city of Riobamba after explosions at an arms dump killed seven people and injured hundreds of others. ... The accidental detonation of grenade is thought to have caused the blasts.' (BBC Ceefax, 22 Nov. 02)

'A senior British UN official has been shot and killed in a West Bank refugee camp during a gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

'Doctors said the bullets removed from 50-year-old Iain Hook's body were the same as used by the Israeli military.

'Mr Hook headed a project to rebuild homes in the battle-scared Jenin camp and was in the UN compound at the time.'

— A "pro-Palestinian" Irish woman was shot in the leg at close range by an Israeli tank too.

Restraint has almost entirely disappeared in the actions of the Israeli rightist confluence. No doubt the last shreds will vanish when the US attack on Iraq begins.

'The US is allowing its non-essential diplomatic staff to leave Jordan following the murder of an American foreign aid worker.

'Laurence Foley, 62, was shot outside his home in Amman last month. [So this is a belated reaction!]

'The State Department has also advised American citizens living in Jordan to review their personal security and consider leaving the country.

Sharon recently said he would allow US troops access to Iraq through Israel (see October 2002 diary, under 19 October). Since Israel doesn't (yet) have a common border with Iraq, the forces would have to go through a third country, most likely Jordan. The State Department's 'advice' could indicate that such a move is imminent.

The British government recently gave similar advice to their citizens in Yemen (16 November). US forces are closing all around Saudi Arabia, the greatest petroleum country.

'Saudi Arabia has dismissed claims that its government helped finance two of the September 11 hijackers.

'An aide to Crown Prince Abdullah said reports that the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the US had sent money to the men were "untrue and irresponsible".

'The FBI has been accused of not examining claims of a link between the Saudis and the hijackers closely enough.[!]

A "shameful" accusation against the Muellerised FBI who, in a twinkling after Sept. 11, "discovered" that 15 out of 19 hijackers "were Saudi Arabian".

I've finished reading Richard Labévière's Dollars For Terror (translation of Les Dolleurs de la Terreur). You get the impression that Labeviere is either waffling through his hat, or else grasping at something embryonic, only half-formed. The CIA's "rash" flirtation with the "Arab Afghans" (a term Labévière uses for the "proto al-Qaeda", formed in Afghanistan with the CIA's help during the Soviet occupation, as well as the later "fully formed" version) is difficult to understand, something nebulous, as it appears in the book. At a meeting in Green's Hotel, Peshawar, Pakistan, in late 1991, at a meeting chaired by Prince Turki al-Faisal (al-Fayçal), head of the Saudi secret services, and attended by local CIA officials and representatives of the "Arab Afghans", it was decided that Osama bin Laden's "Afghans" were too useful an asset to demobilize (after the Soviets left Afghanistan). But what use they were to the CIA remains pretty intangible in the book.

It is only after Sept. 11, 2001, that al-Qaeda's role has become all too clear (except to those who will not see it). An excuse for the American hard right to create an oil empire abroad, and a domestic police state. Even after the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in 1998, the FBI was said to have found traces of an American military explosive in the ruins, of the type of which the CIA had given to al-Qaeda just three years before. This according to an article in Le Figaro published 31 Oct. 01 — see 'Links:Le Figaro Reports CIA, bin Laden Contacts', Scoop, 2 Nov. 01. The same article reported that the CIA's local representative, Larry Mitchell, met bin Laden in Dubai just three months before Sept. 11.

In the last chapter, Labévière gets to grips with the CIA's expansion into "diplomacy", its establishment of relations with the Palestinians — a recent development, just before his book was published. Also mentioned here is Ali Mohammed, the Green Beret, CIA agent, and New York trainer of Islamic militants (with the assistance of the CIA). (See also 'Egyptian agent worked with Green Berets, Bin Laden', Jerusalem Post online, 31 Dec. 2001 [now removed, this is my own copy]) The book ends with the prophetic remark that "new forms of totalitarianism are waiting for the right moment" (p.392). Now they've seized it!

'A volunteer naturalist bitten by a bat has died after contracting Britain's first case of rabies for 100 years.

'David McRae, from Angus, Scotland, died from the disease at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, confirmed a statement by the NHS Tayside Health Board.

'Tests on 55-year-old Mr McRae earlier confirmed he had contracted European Bat Lyssavirus, a type of rabies.'

Two people with the first bubonic plague cases in New York for 100 years; one man dead of the first case of rabies in Britain for 100 years. It could be coincidence. ...

'President Bush has formally signed the Homeland Security Act, creating a huge new department to protect [sic] US interests. ...

'PORTUGAL[:] Police are probing claims that leading public figures were involved in abuse at a Lisbon children's home.' (ITV Teletext, 25 Nov. 02, p.318)

'The chief arms inspector [Hans Blix] has said Iraq will have to provide "convincing" evidence for the world to believe it no longer has weapons of mass destruction. ...' (BBC Ceefax, 25 Nov. 02, p.108)

I'm still waiting to hear how it will be possible to prove that someone doesn't have something.

'IRAQ[:] Air defences have fired at US and UK warplanes which carried out dozens of sorties in the north and south of the country[ my emphasis], reports have said.' (ITV Teletext, p.318)

The CIA is circulating a "secret" list of twelve prominent businessmen in Saudi Arabia who are "financing terrorism". (BBC TV news at 10pm)

Yet more evidence that the no. 1 target of the gas-guzzling US cabal is Saudi Arabia, that the CIA is at the core of real policy-making, and that a US attack (with its UK puppet) on Saudi Arabia may be imminent.

27 November 02

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer did not deny a Washington Post report that advisers had advised the President to issue a 90-day ultimatum to Saudi Arabia to deal with its "al-Qaeda financiers" or the US would do the job. The spokesman described the advisers as "relatively junior".

(BBC World Service news at 1am)

On the above two items, see:-

'Saudis Face U.S. Demand On Terrorism', Washington Post, 26 Nov. 02, p.A01;

and

'U.S. Stepping Up Pressure on Saudis', Washington Post online, 27 Nov. 02

The first Washington Post article says it was a National Security Council "task force" that listed nine (unnamed) "terrorist financiers" (seven Saudi, one Pakistani, one Egyptian), and recommended President Bush to issue a 90-day ultimatum to the Saudis to deal with them or the US would. (The CIA comes under the umbrella of the National Security Council.)

I believe the White House has denied the report in the first Washington Post article.

'USA[:] Henry Kissinger will lead a probe into why the government failed to foil the September 11 terrorist attacks. (ITV Teletext, p.318)

—because the oil-coveting Dr K was the mastermind behind them, possibly? (Cf. 'The Prospective Oil Empire'). We do have fun!

Is this THE independent commission that Kissinger will be leading? So what's the old fox's game now? To draw a red herring? Or will he turn the plot's intermediaries in the US body politic into fall guys, and have some others step into their shoes?

Ariel Sharon has been re-elected Likud leader. Eight Israelis were killed in shootings during the election.

'Fifteen people, three of them Israelis, have been killed and 80 hurt in a suicide bombing at a Kenyan hotel.

'The bombers died when a car crashed into the Paradise Hotel foyer, near Mombasa. Two people have been arrested.

'The blast came after 60 Israelis had checked into the Israeli-owned hotel, hotel officials said.

'Moments earlier, two missiles were fired at, but did not hit, an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa.'

The Boeing 757, carrying 261 passengers, landed safely in Tel Aviv. (Ibid, p.113)

'... The Pentagon recently established a forward base in the former French colony of Djibouti for 800 troops [marines, plus special forces] and CIA officers to take on suspected al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen and Somalia. ...' And they've started earning their keep already!

'... Al-Qaeda is known to have a stock of Sam-7s, as well as about 300 aging and unreliable American Stinger missiles, acquired indirectly from the CIA when the Afghan Mujahidin were fighting the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1970s. ...'

('West was expecting attack on Mombasa', and 'Weapon of choice among terrorists', The Times, 29 Nov. 02, p.6)

When, oh when, will the world learn to spell "bin Laden's" group properly? It's "al-CIAda", for goodness sake! Roll on, the oil empire.

'Swiss researchers have cast doubt on the authenticity of an audio tape attributed to Osama Bin Laden.

'A team from the Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence in Lausanne compared the tape with 20 earlier recordings.

'They said they were 95% sure the tape, broadcast on the al-Jazeera TV network, was not of the al-Qaeda leader.

'US voice recognition experts had said the tape was probably genuine.' [Presumably the oil-empire lobby pays their wages.]

'... Within hours of the [Mombasa] attack, it emerged that the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs had issued a specific warning two weeks ago to its nationals to avoid "hotels, clubs, restaurants, bars" in Kenya and in particular not to visit Mombasa ...'

The CIA is "co-operating" with Mossad in "hunting down the terrorists" (British Channel 4 news)

A further move in the construction of the joint security/force apparatus required for the Middle East empire.

'Kofi Annan has called for the Israeli government to punish the soldiers who shot British relief worker Iain Hook, a United Nations spokesman has said.

'The UN general secretary has written to Israeli PM Ariel Sharon to convey his "sense of outrage" at the killing.

'An initial report by the Israeli army said the 54-year-old was mistaken for a Palestinian gunman in a UN compound. [Before, it was "stray bullets".]

'President Bush finds himself in a rare disagreement with conservatives over his efforts to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that is not responsible for anti-American terrorism. ...

'... a large number of foreign policy hawks -- some of them with advisory roles in the Bush administration -- have joined religious conservatives in taking issue with Bush's characterizations. ...

'Calling Islam a peaceful religion "is an increasingly hard argument to make," said Kenneth Adelman, a former Reagan official who serves on the Bush Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. "The more you examine the religion, the more militaristic it seems. [!!!] ...

'Another member of the Pentagon advisory board, Eliot Cohen of the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, wrote an article on the Wall Street Journal editorial page arguing that the enemy of the United States is not terrorism "but militant Islam". ...

'... Islam is at war against us," Paul Weyrich, an activist who is influential in the White House, wrote last week. ...'

Had they been muggers, they would have had no problem arguing that the grandmother assaulted their fists with her jaw. And they would have first bashed their fists into the wall to prove the point ...

('Saudi Arabia has reclaimed its position as the number one foreign supplier of crude oil to the United states in recent months ... the Energy Department reported.')

'Kenyan police are still holding 10 of 12 people arrested after the attacks in Mombasa on Thursday [28 Nov.] but have found no links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

'A US woman and her Spanish husband [from Florida] have been freed; six men from Pakistan and four from Somalia are still being held.

'US experts [!] believe a Somali-based Islamic group, Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya, may have staged the attacks.

'The US State Department has warned Americans of the increased terrorist risk in East Africa, following the attacks in Kenya on Thursday [28 Nov.]

'Officials said they had information — as yet unconfirmed — that similar attacks could occur in Djibouti. [And I'll bet they could!]

'The State Department has strengthened a warning to US citizens not to travel to Yemen, due to heightened risk there.'