Frank Freeman's Diary, November 2005

UK Home Secretary David Blunkett has resigned over having three jobs outside Parliament. It is the second time he's resigned this year. PM Tony Blair says he's left without a stain on his character.

These war criminals and police-state lusters must not be allowed to disappear from the scene over trivia. They must not be allowed to flee the country.

Following Australian "information" of a "terror threat", London Met police chief Blair has chipped in, also saying he has thwarted terror threats in the last few weeks.

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke called all-party discussions after a measure or aspect of the Terrorism Bill scraped through by just one vote. The "Labour" government's nominal majority is 66.

The bill contains a provision for extending pre-charge police detention time for terrorist suspects from two weeks to 90 days; and a new offence of "encouraging terrorism" (modified from "glorifying terrorism").

Iran is recalling around 40 (moderate) ambassadors, including the US and British, (and apparently replacing them with hardliners), in "the biggest shake-up since the revolution".

The CIA has been running secret "Qaeda" detention camps in eastern Europe, according to British Channel 4 News, referring to the Washington Post.

'The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

'The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies [no, one master for another] in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

'The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions. [So what's new, except the larger scale? The "ex-CIA", front companies, and SOCOM have been the means of doing this for some years.]

'The existence and locations of the facilities — referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents — are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and few top intelligence officers in each host country.

'About 30 are considered major terrorism suspects and have been held under the highest level of secrecy at black sites financed by the CIA and managed by agency personnel, including those in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, according to current and former intelligence officers and two other U.S. officials. ...

'A second tier — which these sources believe includes more than 70 detainees — is a group considered less important, with less direct involvement in terrorism and having limited intelligence value. These prisoners, some of whom were originally taken to black sites, are delivered to intelligence services in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan [that's independent?!] and other countries, a process sometimes known as "rendition". While the first-tier black sites are run by CIA officers, the jails in these countries are operated by the host nations, with CIA financial assistance and, sometimes, direction. ...

'... the CIA began sending suspects it captured in the first month or so after Sept. 11 to its longtime partners, the intelligence services of Egypt and Jordan [my emphasis]. [Egypt was where many of the ancestors of al-Qaeda, i.e. Egyptian Islamic Jihad, hailed from. "Double agent" Ali Mohamed "al-Amriki", who was from "the regiment that assassinated Sadat", took Jihad leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on a fund-raising tour in California in the 1990s. See "Ali Mohammed: A Key Link?".]

'The top 30 al Qaeda prisoners exist in complete isolation from the outside world. Kept in dark, sometimes underground cells, they have no recognized legal rights, and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or even see them or to otherwise verify their well-being, said current and former and [sic] U.S. and foreign government and intelligence officials. [Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Zarqawi are possibly in this category; though bin Laden himself is more likely dead. This may be the source of videos and tapes of Zawahiri at least ("bin Laden tapes" are not even designed to look authentic). Naturally these men, if alive under detention, would be killed if the CIA were ordered to deliver them up.] ...

'The CIA program's original scope was to hide and interrogate the two dozen or so al Qaeda leaders believed to be directly responsible for the Sept 11 attacks [my emphasis], or who posed an imminent threat, or had knowledge of the large al Qaeda network. ...

Despite its title, this article almost entirely covers American reactions to the previous article.

Review of Dana Priest's book The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military (Norton; 430 pages; hardback 2003; paperback 2004)

'... Four-star generals who lead the military during wartime reign like proconsuls abroad in peacetime. Secretive Green Berets trained to hunt down terrorists are assigned to seduce ruthless authoritarian regimes. Pimply young soliders taught to seize airstrips instead play mayor, detective, and social worker in a gung-ho but ill-fated attempt to rebuild a nation after the fighting stops.

'The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing a clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officiers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, Dana Priest traveled to eighteen countries — including Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan [before, evidently, Iraq was occupied] — talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. ...

'Dana Priest reports on military and intelligence issues for the Washington Post and is the recipient of the 2001 Gerald R. Ford award for Distinguished Defense Reporting. ...'

A "Qaeda" figure who was to have testified about bad treatment in the US military's detention camp at Bagram, Afghanistan, has "escaped from the camp" ..... so he can't.

In Bolshevik Russia they used to throw prisoners out of high windows and say they'd jumped ....

'United Nations nuclear inspectors have been allowed to visit Iran's sensitive Parchin military complex.

'The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is trying to check US claims that tests linked to nuclear weapons' development have taken place there. ...'

Henry Kissinger has warned that forces should not be withdrawn prematurely from Iraq.

'Swiss daily Le Temps says Poland has reportedly hosted the "phantom Al-Qaeda detainees US authorities are seeking to conceal from international law".

'Romania and other East European countries, it says, are also suspected of involvement in what it quotes Amnesty as calling "this new gulag" [albeit one of 30 detainees.].'

Thirty headstones in the Muslim section of Handsworth Cemetery, Birmingham, UK, have been overturned, two weeks after black-on-Muslim riots in the city.

Notes left at the site said "Moslems rot in Hell" and attributed themselves to the "Black Nation". Black leaders in Birmingham said they had never heard of this group, and "anti-fascist" publication Searchlight attributed the attacks to the extreme right.

The British army command in southern Iraq claims to have found more evidence of sophisticated explosive devices from Iran.

And we know how MI5 put the IRA in IRAN. See October 2005 diary, under 16 October 05, Independent On Sunday entry.

'POST[:] A manpower crisis is looming in Britain's elite special forces as troops defect to the lucrative private market in the Middle East.'

Privatized praetorians of empire. Cf. CIA front-companies (staffed by "ex" CIA personnel), and US special forces (coordinated by SOCOM).

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he was ready to compromise on the government's 90-day-detention-without-charge proposal for the Terrorism Bill. Then, in the evening, he came back announcing that, after a meeting with "300" Labour MPs, the government would after all be sticking with the 90-day proposal. [Later this was said to be due to his being over-ridden by Blair.] The Commons vote is on Wednesday, 9 November 05.

'Australian police say they have foiled a major terror attack after arresting 16 suspects in a string of raids.

'Four hundred officers were involved in an operation in which seven men were arrested in raids in Sydney, while nine more suspects were held in Melbourne.

'One suspect was shot in the neck by police officers. Chemical agents which could have been used to make [nerve gas? no ...] bombs were said to have been found in the raids.'

The network of Anglo-Saxon intelligence agencies, led by the CIA, constitutes a terror network in a class of its own, the Sorcerers of Reich's Construction, of whom the countries' governments are the more-or-less willing frontmen.

This network (which includes the domestic "security" agencies too) will always stage terror-scares, or when necessary terror attacks, to push through its strategic political and imperial objectives.

' ... Nine people appeared in court in Melbourne, including Abu Bakr, an outspoken Algerian-Australian cleric who has praised Osama Bin Laden.

'The police operation came nearly a week after Australia's anti-terror laws were amended to widen police powers. [Cf. above, under 2 November 05.] ...

'A lawyer for some of the men, Rob Stary, said that none of his clients had been charged with planning any attack.

'Another lawyer, Adam Houda, who was representing at least one of the suspects arrested in Sydney, told reporters that the charges were a "scandalous political prosecution".

'"There is no evidence in this case that terrorism was contemplated or being planned by any particular person, at a particular time, or in a particular place," he said. ...

'The raids involved about 500 police officers and followed a 16-month investigation, officials said. Chemicals, weapons, and computers were seized, police said.

'"I'm satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack, or the launch of a terrorist attack," Mr Moroney told Australia's ABC radio.

'Police declined to give details of the likely target of the attack, but victoria state police chief Christine Nixon specifically ruled out next year's Commonwealth games, to be held in Melbourne.

'But the authorities have said in recent months that suspects had carried out surveillance on the Sydney Opera House and Harbour bridge, railway stations and the Melbourne stock exchange.

'Prime Minister John Howard said the arrests vindicated the government's decision to rush through amendments to the anti-terror laws. [Indeed, this is what may have made the arrests legal .....] ...'

'... "The members of the Sydney group have been gathering chemcials of a kind that were used in the London Underground bombings," [prosecutor] Maidment said. ...' (Mike Corder, Associated Press, "17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Australia", ABC News (USA)

'Academic freedom could be undermined by the government;s counter-terrorism plans, say university chiefs.

'The Terrorism Bill could obstruct the teaching of science and the sharing of information by librarians, the president of Universities UK has said.

'Professor Drummond Bone said, for example, chemists may be banned from producing certain substances.

'Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell rejected the comments, saying: "I do not think those fears are justified.'

The UK government has been defeated in the House of Commons, by a majority of 31 (322-291),over its attempt to extend detention-without-charge of "terrorist suspects" to 90 days (currently it is 14 days). A motion to extend detention to 28 days was passed by a similar majority. (This is still a fourfold increase in two years.)

The "Labour" government's nominal majority is 66. Forty-nine of its own party voted against it.

"Terrorist plots" in Australia and Britain have already been publicised in an evident attempt to sway voting. (See above, under 7 November 05, for Australia.) The danger now is that Anglo-Saxon "security" and "intelligence" services will stage actual attacks to try to whip the recalcitrant back into line. And this is the bottom line: that the official "opposition" chooses to believe in the integrity of these Sorcerers of Reich's Construction.

Explosions at hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman have killed (at the latest report) at least 57 people and injured over 300.

And Blair is right. The world is facing an unprecedented kind of globalized terrorism. ...

'Three senior figures in the Palestinian administration were among at least 56 people killed in suicide bomb attacks on three luxury hotels in Jordan, it was confirmed today.

'Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the terror group led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, posted a[n "unauthenticated"] statement on a website claiming responsibility for the three synchronised blasts which ripped through the Grand Hyatt, Radison SAS [I knew we'd find the SAS in there somewhere :-)] and Days Inn in Amman, the capital of Jordan. ...

'Jack Straw, the [UK] Foreign Secretary, stopped off briefly in Amman to survey the carnage ... [He was visiting Iraq; I believe UK finance secretary Gordan Brown was visiting Israel; my emphasis] ...

'"Jordan's sorrow is our sorrow ...", Mr Straw said during a brief press conference on the steps on the Hyatt. ...

'Most of those killed in the blasts ... were guests at [a; in fact two] wedding banquet[s]. ...

'Bashir Nafeh, director of military intelligence chief [sic] in the [Palestinian] West Bank, was named as being among the dead. ...'

'Tehran officials are claiming to have proof of Britain's "ties" to the people suspected of carrying out bombings in southern Iran over the past few months.

'An investigation's findings represent the first time Iran has indicated firm evidence linking London to the unrest.

'Iran has previously said only that the explosions which struck Ahvaz [Ahwaz] city were guided "from abroad" and those detained had confessed to having "foreign ties".'

Presumably, the campaign is of a piece with that in southern Iraq. The latter is to provide another excuse to invade the next oil target; the Ahwaz bombings — and riots — are specifically to soften up Iran's oil-production zone.

In September, two British SAS ("SRR") soldiers were caught red-handed by Iraqi police in Basra with a carload of explosives, and a detonator. British troops staged a spectacular distraction by launching a raid on the central police station to free them, using the contingency-pretext that militia-infiltrated police had handed them over to a militia group.

The bomb technology was supposedly given to the IRA (that's right, not Iran, the IRA) by MI5 and the "Force Research Unit" (FRU), a "special forces unit". This according to the Independent On Sunday, 16 October 05. See October 2005 diary, under 16 Oct. 05, for this, and ibid, passim for SAS/SRR/FRU/Iraq bombings in general.

'Tehran, Iran, Nov. 10 — Iran has finally proven the role of the United Kingdom in a spate of deadly bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz in October, the country's intelligence chief told reporters in the eastern province of Khorrasan Jonoubi.

'Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei, a radical Shiite cleric who runs Iran's dreaded secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), said that all those responsible for carrying out the bombings had been arrested and had direct links to Britain. ...'

"Al-Qaeda" says the Jordan bombings were carried out by four Iraqi suicide bombers, including a husband-and-wife team (one site).

Jordan says the Amman bombings were carried out by three non-Jordanian men. It believes Qaeda was behind it.

'United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has arrived in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on a surprise visit.

'He is expected to meet Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and other members of the Iraqi government. ...

'His visit to Iraq follows separate [!] trips by UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [my emphasis] in recent days. ...'

'Al-Qaeda has threatened the Queen by naming her as 'one of the severest enemies of Islam' in a video message to justify the July bombings in London.

'The warning has been passed by MI5 [who else?] to the Queen's protection team after it obtained the unexpurgated version of a video issued by Al-Qaeda after the 7/7 attacks. Parts of it were broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel.

'In the video, Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama Bin Laden, targets the Queen as ultimately responsible for Britian's "crusader laws" and denounces her as an enemy of Muslims. [Indeed, she is every bit as much a political leader as Osama.]

'A senior Whitehall official said: "MI5 is aware that there are some pieces of that video that have not been aired. They are aware of the bit of al-Zawahiri talking about the Queen and they have notified the relevant authorities."

'It also contains inflammatory material from Mohammed Sidique Khan, ringleader of the London bombings which killed 52 commuters. He is [sic] urging Muslims to take part in jihad and seek martyrdom. ...'

Also in the UK, a new child porn centre is being set up to deal with online merchants of the stuff.

'Former Humberside Police Authority chairman Colin Inglis has been charged with 14 counts of indecent assault in relation to allegations of child abuse.

'The claims date back to the 1980s when Mr Inglis worked as a care worker at a children's home in Hull. They were made by one [!] of the former residents.

'Mr Inglis, who has strenuously denied the allegations, is due to appear before Hull magistrates on Tuesday [tomorrow].'

Last year the Humberside Police Authority resisted for some time then-Home Secretary David Blunkett's order to dismiss Humberside Chief Constable David Westwood over alleged deficiencies in the Soham child-murder investigation. (See "The (Post-9/11) 'Paedophile" Campaign [2001 - July 2004]", under 22 and 25 June 2004.)

Three terror suspects in Australia connected to Sydney nuclear reactor, one gate lock found cut.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has extended her stay in the Middle East, "re. freedom of movement of Palestinians". Previously she was in Saudi Arabia.

Some more "intelligence" of "Iranian nuclear-missile intentions" in New York, according to BBC Newsnight.

We must always keep an eye open for potential preparations for an Iran invasion ...

'Preparations to send UK peacekeeping troops to southern Afghanistan are being stepped up, Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram has said.

'Units from Joint Helicopter Command and 16 Air Assault Brigade are to begin training for possible operations in Helmand province, he says. [My emphasis.]

'In addition, around 250 troops will head to the area to prepare the ground for a deployment next year.

'GUARDIAN[:] Britain is trying to build a coalition to pursue counter-insurgency combat operations in south Afghanistan.'

'JERUSALEM, Nov. 15 — after marathon all-night negotiations, [US] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday [today] announced a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians designed to open up the Gaza strip to Israel and the outside world.

'The deal set terms for freedom of movemnt on three borders: traffic across the Rafah border into Egypt, Gaza's main link with the outside world; commercial trucks at the Karni crossing into Israel; and bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, the separated parts of the Palestinian Authority.

'Just as important long-term, the deal allows the Palestinians to begin work on Gaza's airport and seaport, Rice said. ...

'For the first time since 1967, the Palestinians will gain access of the borders in the areas where they live, Rice said .... The target date for the opening of Rafah is Nov. 25. [But hold on! Didn't the Palestinians already gain control of the Egyptian border crossings? Paelestinians swarmed through to meet long-lost relatives in Egypt, for two weeks, until Palestinian guards closed it again. Israel is supposed to have abandoned one particular crossing, at least ...]

'Bus convoys to move people between the West Bank and gaza will begin by Dec. 15 and truck traffic by Jan. 15. ...'

"... Although Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, it retains control over all the territory's routes to the outside world ...". This gives Israel an economic stranglehold on the Gaza Strip.

'Iraq's government says it has begun an investigation into more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.

'The prisoners, many malnourished and some showing signs of torture, were found when US troops took control of an interior ministry building on Sunday [13 Nov. 05].

'Iraq's prime minister has promised to find those responsible for any abuse. Most of those held [i.e. as prisoners] were Sunnis.'

'The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja.

'"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants", spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC — though not against civilians, he said. ...

'Col Venable denied that the substance — which can cause burning of the flesh — constituted a banned chemical weapon.'

'Spain is launching an investigation into claims that CIA planes carrying terror suspects made secret stopovers on Spanish soil.

'Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso made the announcement on Spanish television on Tuesday [today].

'He said that if proven, such activities could damage relations between the Spanish and US governments.

'According to Spanish press reports, the CIA is suspected of having used Majorca for such prisoner transfers.'

A UN-sponsored internet conference in Tunisia has left control of the internet address system in US hands.

Control of domain names is in the hands of the "quasi-independent" ICANN (based in California). The conference urged this to be privatized.

So now we have it! Pakistanis are genetically inferior ....

Call to outlaw cousins marrying
BBC News online, 16 November 05

'Marriages between first cousins should be outlawed because of the risk of passing on illnesses, a Labour MP says.

'It follows BBC research into British Pakistanis, at least 55% of whom are thought to be married to first cousins.

'The research found British Pakistani families were 13 times more likely to have children with recessive gene illnesses than the general population.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer said British Asians had to be persuaded to end the tradition of marrying first cousins. [And the chances of this happening in the foreseeable future are ....]

'The investigation, carried out for BBC Newsnight, found that while British Pakistanis accounted for just 3.45 of all births, they had 30% of all British children with recessive disorders. ...'

The risks of cousin marriage
Justin Rowlatt (BBC Newsnight), BBC News online, 16 November 05

'... Mrs Cryer's constituency is in the Bradford area, where the rates of cousin marriage are well above the national average. It is estimated that three out of four marriages within Bradford's Pakistani community are between first cousins.

'The practice remains so popular because the community believes there are real benefits to marrying in the family. Many British Pakistanis celebrate cousin marriage because it is thought to generate more stable relationships. ...

'But the statistics for recessive genetic illness in cousin marriages make sobering reading.

'British Pakistanis ... account for just over 3% of all births but have just under a third of all British children with such illnesses.

'Indeed, Birmingham Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins in the city either dies in infancy or goes on to develop serious disability as a result of a recessive genetic disorder.

'Recessive genetic disorders are caused by variant genes. ... We all have two copies of every gene. If you inherit one variant you will not fall ill.

'If, however, a child inherits a copy of the same variant gene from each of its parents it will develop one of these illnesses.

'The variant genes that cause genetic illness tend to be very rare. In the general population the likelihood of a couple having the same variant gene is a hundred to one.

'In cousin marriages, if one partner has a variant gene the risk that the other has it is far higher — more like one in eight. ...'

And 9/11 and "7/7" have ... emboldened ... us. In Nazi Germany we could have heard of the "vile practices of the Jew". Can Anglo-America do no better than mimic the path of Nazi Germany?

The real persecution of the Jews only started in 1938. For the first five years of the Third Reich, many thought it might all blow over ... sooner or later.

Conrad Black is facing several fraud charges, each of which carries a five-year sentence if convicted.

'WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators neared a final agreement Wednesday [16 Nov. 05] night on legislation that will extend and keep largely intact the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to the federal government after the Sept. 11 attacks under the law known as the USA Patriot Act.

'Negotiators met into the night Wednesday and were expected to reach a final agreement by today. Once negotiators sign the deal, it will require the final approval of the full House and Senate, which is likely to come later this week.

'But civil rights advocates and Democrats were in full attack mode late Wednesday [now that they are in the minority in both Houses; the original Act was passed by the Senate with just one dissenting voice (see "The 'Patriot' Act"], calling the expected deal an "unacceptable" retreat from promised restrictions on the government's sweeping antiterrorism powers.

'The agreement ensures the extension of all 16 provisions of the law that were set to expire in six weeks. Fourteen of those provisions will be extended permanently, and the remaining two — dealing with the government's demands for business and library records and its use of roving wiretaps — will be extended for another seven years. [My emphases. This goes one better than the Nazis' Enabling Acts, which were only made permanent on their second renewal in 1940.] Also in the agreement is a seven-year extension of a sepa=arate provision on investigating so-called "lone wolf" terrorists.

'That represents a compromise between the versions of the bill passed earlier this year by the House and Senate. The deal includes some new restrictions on the government's powers, including greater public reporting and oversight of how often the government is demanding records and using various investigative tools.

'But critics at the American Civil Liberties Union and elsewhere called the changes "window dressing" and said the legislation left out what they considered more meaningful reform in preventing civil rights abuses in terror investigations.'

'WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators have struck a tentative deal on the expiring Patriot Act that would curb FBI investigative power and require the Justice Department to more fully report its secret requests for information about ordinary people. ...

< 'The agreement, which would make most provisions of the existing law permanent, was reached just before dawn yesterday. ...

'Officials negotiating the deal described it on condition of anonymity because the draft is not official and has not been signed by any of the 34 conferees. ...'

Here we get some insight into the extension of the international front built by the CIA after 9/11 ...

'The CIA has established joint operation centers in more than two dozen countries where U.S. and foreign intelligence officers work side by side to track and capture suspected terrorists and to destroy or penetrate their networks, according to current and former American and foreign intelligence officials.

'The secret Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers are financed mostly by the agency and employ some of the best espionage technology the CIA has to offer ...

'the Americans and their counterparts at the centers, known as CTICs, make daily decisions on when and how to apprehend suspects, whether to whisk them off to other countries for interrogation and detention, and how to disrupt al Qaeda's logistical and financial support.

'The network of centers reflects what has become the CIA's central and most successful strategy in combating terrorism abroad: persuading and empowering foreign security services to help. Virtually every capture or killing of a suspected terrorist outside Iraq since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — more than 3,000 in all — was a result of foreign intelligence services' work alongside the agency, the CIA deputy director of operations told a congressional committee in a closed-door session earlier this year.

'The initial tip about where an al Qaeda figure is hiding may come from the CIA, but the actual operation to pick him up is usually organized by one of the joint centers and conducted by a local security service, with the CIA nowhere in sight. ...

'The centers are also part of a fundamental, continuing shift in the CIA's mission that began shortly after the 2001 attacks. No longer is the agency's primary goal to recruit military attaches, diplomats and intelligence operatives to steal secrets from their own countries. Today's CIA is desperately seeking ways to join forces with other governments it once reproached or ignored to undo a common enemy.

'George J. Tenet orchestrated the shift during his tenure as CIA director, working with the agency's stations chiefs abroad and officers in the Counterterrorist Center at headquarters to bring about an exponential deepening if intelligence ties worldwide after Sept. 11. ...

'... In Paris, as the U.S.-French acrimony peaked over the Iraq invasion in 2003, the CIA and French intelligence services were creating the agency's only multinational operations center and executing worldwide sting operations.

'The CIA has operated the joint intelligence centers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to current and former intelligence officials. In addition, the multinational center in Paris, codenamed alliance Base, includes representatives from Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Australia. ...

'The CIA declined to be interviewed for this article. The Washington Post interviewed more than two dozen current and former intelligence officials and more than a dozen senior foreign intelligence officials as well as diplomatic and congressional sources. Most of them spoke on the condition that they not be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly or because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

'The CTICs are entirely separate from the covert prisons, known in classified documents as "black sites", that the CIA has run at various times in eight countries. Legal experts and intelligence officials have said that the prisons — whose existence was disclosed in a Washington Post report earlier this month [see above, under 2 Nov. 05] — would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries. The CTICs, by contrast, are an expansion of the hidden intelligence cooperation that has been a staple of foreign policy for decades.

'The intelligence centers were modeled on the CIA's counternarcotics centers in Latin America and Asia. Faced with corrupt local police and intelligence services, in the 1980s the CIA persuaded the leaders of these countries to let it select individuals for the assignment, pay them and keep them physically separate from their own institutions.

'Officers from the host nations serving in the newer CTICs are vetted through background checks and polygraphs. They are usually supervised by the CIA's chief of station and augmented by officers sent from the Counterterrorist Center at Langley. ...

'The first two CTICs were established in the late 1990s to watch and capture Islamic militants traveling from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Chechnya to join the fighting in Bosnia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia, two former intelligence officers said.

'Days after the Sept 11 attacks, Tenet outlined a global campaign against terrorism to President Bush. It included invading Afghanistan to wipe out al Qaeda's main base of operations as well as a "Worldwide Attack Matrix" detailing operations against terrorists in 80 countries. The matrix also listed priority countries where al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan were likely to flee during a U.S. invasion. ... A former CIA official [said] [t]he most likely countries were Yemen, Saudi Arabia, urban areas of Pakistan, and Indonesia.

'On Sept. 17, 2001, Bush signed a classified Presidential Finding that authorized an unprecedented range of covert operations. The overall counterterrorism program included authorization of lethal measures against terrorists and the expenditure of vast funds [you've gotta spend it to make it!] to coax foreign intelligence officials into a new era of cooperation with the CIA, current and former intelligence officials said.

'To beef up operations in the priority countries and elsewhere, the agency dispatched officers from its proliferation, counternarcotics, Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East divisions, said several current and former intelligence officials. It sent paramilitary teams from its tiny [!] Special Activities Division and enlisted the military's Special Operations Forces to augment the teams. ...'

Tonight (a Friday night) Bradford city centre is sealed off after two women police constables were shot, one fatally, apparently during the course of a robbery.

Perhaps they will take the opportunity to round up the genetically-defective "Pakkies" and send them to concentration camps or laboratories. :->

In Iraq, 74 people have been killed in during Friday prayers in attacks by "suicide bombers" at two Shia mosques in the town of Khanaqin. Khanaqin is 87 miles north-east of Baghdad, and on the Iranian border.

On BBC Newsnight, Colin Powell's old chief-of-staff has referred to the "errors" of "the Cheney-Rumsfeld" cabal in Iraq — thought he evaded condemning the invasion itself. He "feared" the possibility of another massive terrorist attack on America.

Possibly these frontmen are being lined up to take the fall — for the front-conspiracy of Iraqi WMD and all that crap.

Iraq never was the central goal of the real power-mongers (though its strategic central position is useful ex-post-facto). The CIA always targeted Iran and Saudi Arabia as connected to (the CIA's own dear prodigy) al-Qaeda.

Iran has resumed processing of uranium. It also handed over a part-formula "for making nukes" which it says the Pakistani nuclear expert gave it without asking.

'A leading member of a controversial new Islamic group yesterday branded the Queen "an enemy of Islam".

'Muslim convert Simon Sulayman Keeler was speaking at the launch of Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma, which is the new vehicle for the ex-leadership of al-Mujahiroun.

'In August this year, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister announced plans to ban Al-Mujahiroun, whose spiritual leader, the radical Omar Bakri Mohammed, is currently in Lebanon and barred from Britain.

'Mr Keeler was joined at the launch by Anjem Choudary, the former UK head of Al-Mujahiroun, which means "the eyes and ears of the Muslims".

'Asked about al-Qaeda's designation of the Queen as an enemy of Islam [A phrase which MI5 has already kindly informed us was used by "al-Qaeda" in a recent video. (See above, under 12 Nov. 05.) So he was actually prompted to say it.] ...' Mr Keeler said: "My comments are in no way a call for arms or assassination. I do no call for assassination of the Queen." But he said that she was sovereign of a country that attacks Muslims.

Al-Mujahiroun associates attacked .... anti-war MP George Galloway at a meeting in London, ....

In summer 2004 former US prosecutor and "terrorism expert" John Loftus claimed that British intelligence had used "al-Mujahiroun" to recruit Islamist militants with British passports for the war against the Serbs in Kosovo; and that MI6 has since protected leading Mujahiroun member Haroon Rashid Aswat against arrest. But Loftus also claims that Aswat was the mastermind behind the July 7 bombings in London, which I have seen nowhere else. (See , under 9 Sept. 05, Guardian article by Michael Meacher and the source URL given there.)

'Efforts to extend a modified version of the USA Patriot Act reached an impasse yesterday when House and Senate negotiators could not agree on whether to renew its key provisions for four years or for seven. [This flatly contradicts a New-York-Times report of two days ago, which said that the House and Senate had agreed a draft which made 14 of the 16/17 provisions of the Act permanent. See above, under 17 Nov. 05] ...

'... "The key sticking point, as I see it, is the sunset provision," [Senator Arlen] Specter said. "The House wanted 10 years; the Senate bill provided for four." A seven-year extension would split the difference, he said ...'

'... "I didn't come to Washington, D.C., to expand the police powers of the federal government," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, republican of California. "To make these temporary expansions of police power permanent as our way of life, changing our way of life in America, altering the balance of liberty and police powers, is outrageous." ...

'Senator Russell D. Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who was the only senator to vote against the patriot Act in 2001 [and thereby boosted himself, almost by default, to Superhero-Of-Liberty status], said he will review the new bill to see whether it adequately protects personal privacy. "We should not allow even four more years of the violation of people's rights with regards to their business and library records when they've done absolutely nothing wrong by any real standard," Feingold said.'

The Sunday Express continues to spew its MI5/6-originated agitprop, this time for Queen and country ....

'The Sunday Express tells of an apparent terrorist threat to the Queen, with MI5 agents hunting an al-Qaeda gunman.

'There are fears the terrorist is planning what the paper calls a Day of the Jackal-style assassination attempt.'

... part-and-parcel of the reduction of public life to a strip-cartoon. "Day of the Jackal" was originally Winston Churchill's phrase for fascist Italy's seizure of a portion of south-east France in the wake of the Nazi invasion. Mutatis mutandis, this now applies to Britain vis-a-vis America.

Following the Labour Party's withdawal from the ruling Israeli coalition, PM Ariel Sharon is resigning from the Likud Party, and will found a new "centrist" party. New parliamentary elections will be held.

IRAQ[:] Al-Qaeda boss ["in Iraq"] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed to have been killed in a military operation in Mosul, foreign minister Hoshyar Sebari has said.'

Newsnight by Paul Mason says that American/British oil companies are securing "production sharing agreements" with Iraq (in advance of the December election there). These will secure a great share of oil profits for the companies, a total value of between two and six times Iraq's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The story is covered by tomorrow's Independent, in a front-page spread headlined "The Spoils Of War" (Newsnight papers review).

'Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn (£116bn) of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year. A report produced by American and British pressure groups warns Iraq will be caught in an "old colonial trap" if it allows foreign companies to take a share of its vast energy reserves. The report is certain to reawaken fears that the real purpose of the 2003 war on Iraq was to ensure its oil came under Western control.

'The Iraqi government has announced plans to seek foreign investment to exploit its oil reserves after the general election, which will be held next month. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, the third largest in the world.

'According to the report, from groups including War on Want and the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the new Iraqi constitution opened the way for greater foreign investment. Negotiations with oil companies are already under way ahead of next month's election and before legislation is passed, it said.

'The groups said they had amassed details of high-level pressure from the US and UK governments on Iraq to look to foreign companies to rebuild its oil industry. It said a [UK] Foreign Office code of practice issued in summer last year [2004] said at least $4bn would be needed to restore production to the levels before the 1990-91 Gulf War. "Given Iraq's needs it is not realistic to cut government spending in other areas and Iraq would need to engage with the international oil companies to provide appropriate levels of foreign direct investment to do this," it said.

'Yesterday's report said the use of production sharing agreements (PSAs) was proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The current government is fast-tracking the process. It is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law," the report, Crude Designs [my emphasis], said.

'Earlier this year a BBC Newsnight report claimed to have uncovered documents showing the Bush administration made plans to secure Iraqi oil even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US [my emphasis]. Based on its analysis of PSAs in seven countries, it said multinationals would seek rates of return on their investment from 42 to 162 per cent, far in excess of typical 12 per cent rates [my emphasis].

'Taking an assumption of $40 a barrel, below the current price of almost $60, and a likely contract term of 25 to 40 years, it said that Iraq stood to lose between £74bn and £194bn. Andrew Simms, the NEF's policy director, said ...

'Louise Richards, chief executive of War on Want, said: "People have increasingly come to realize the Iraq war was about oil, profits and plunder. Despite claims from politicians that this is a conspiracy theory, our report gives detailed evidence to show Iraq's oil profits are well within the sights of the oil multinationals."

'The current Iraqi government has indicated that it wants to treble production from two million barrels a day this year to six million. ...

'A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the country's [i.e. Iraq's] oil industry was in desperate need of investment after years of under-investment, UN sanctions and vandalism by Saddam Hussein and more recent sabotage by insurgents and general looting [!!] ... He said it was not surprising that Iraq should look to outside experts [this is a job for Halliburton!] to help rebuild an industry that was the key source of revenue to help rebuild the country. ...

'Gregg Mutitt, of Platform, a campaign group that co-authored the report, said that Iraq had an existing — albeit damaged — network of oil expertise and could use current revenues or new borrowings to fund investment. The report named several companies, including the Anglo-Dutch Shell group, as jockeying for position before a new government is elected. ...

'No multinationals are operating in Iraq now because of the poor security situation.'

'The White House has dismissed claims George Bush was talked out of bombing Arab television station al-Jazeera by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [when the latter visited the US in April 2004].

'The allegations were made by an unnamed source in the [British] Daily Mirror newspaper.

'A White House official said: "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response." [US forces have previously "accidentally" bombed al-Jazeera's offices in Kabul and Baghdad.]

'Ex-UK minister Peter Kilfoyle, who opposed the Iraq war, had called for a transcript of the alleged conversation to be published.'

Al-Jazeera, created from "defecting" BBC World Service staff in 1995-6, is one of the War Of Terror's top propaganda units. It is a shop window for the stream of "Qaeda" audio and videotapes which provide a "justification" for the War's oil-conquering continuation. (And Qatar is the Gulf headquarters of the US's Mideastern forces.)

'... A [UK] Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious".

'But another source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men." ...

'Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mid-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr Blair on April 16 last year.

'At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.

'Al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims. ...'

It's also worth remembering that the previous editor of the Mirror was set up with false photographs of British troop abuse (thought there were a fair number of real cases) and subsequently sacked by the paper's owner.

'Newspaper editors were threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act last night if they published details of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush in which the president is alleged to have suggested bombing al-Jazeera, the Arab news network. Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, informed newspapers editors including that of The Times that "publication of a document that has been unlawfully disclosed by a Crown servant could be in breach of Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act."

'The Blair Government has obtained court injunctions against newspapers before but it has never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents. ...

'Under a front-page headline "Bush plot to bomb his ally" in the Daily Mirror yesterday, a secret minute of the conversation in April 2004 records the President allegedly suggesting that he would like to bomb channel's studios in Doha, capital of Qatar. [See above, under 22 November 05.] Richard Wallace, the Editor of the Daily Mirror, said last night: "We made No 10 fully aware of the intention to publish and were given 'no comment' officially or unofficially. Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under Section 5."

'According to the Mirror, the transcript turned up in the office of former Labour MP Tony Clarke, who lost his Northampton South seat in May.

'His former researcher and a Cabinet Office official, accused of breaking the Official Secrets act, will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court.

'Downing Street refused to comment on the matter yesterday, saying that it was sub judice. ...'

'The attorney general mounted a robust defence yesterday [25 Nov. 05] of his advice to newspapers ...

'Lord Goldsmith insisted he was acting on his own initiative and was not attempting to gag newspapers but merely pointing out the legal postion. ...'

Some Oxford, UK, think-tank has said British troops will be in Iraq for decades "because of al-Qaeda".

'Jose Padilla, the alleged "dirty bomber" who has been at the center of fierce legal and political struggles for more than three years, has been indicted on charges that he conspired to murder individuals overseas and provide support for terrorists, according to federal court documents unsealed yesterday.

'The indictment abruptly moves Padilla's case out of the shadows of his confinement in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina, where the Brooklyn-born former gang member has been held since President Bush declared him an enemy combatant in 2002. The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Miami last week, names four other defendants. ...

'Padilla was initially arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002 after the government alleged he was plotting a radiological "dirty bomb" attack, but the 31-page indictment unsealed yesterday makes no mention of such a plot. It also does not include separate allegations, outlined by the Justice Department in 2004, that Padilla had plotted with high-ranking al Qaeda operatives to blow up U.S. apartment buildings using [wait for it] natural gas.

'Instead, Padilla is charged with being part of a violent terrorism conspiracy rooted in North America but directed at sending money and recruits overseas in order to "murder, kidnap and maim" individuals, according to the indictment. ...

'Padilla's lawyers argue that his military confinement is unconstitutional under a 2004 ruling by the Supreme court, which found that another U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant, Yaser Hamdi, had a right to contest his incarceration. Unlike Hamdi, who was detained in Afghanistan, Padilla was arrested on U.S. soil. ...

'The indictment portrays Padilla as being recruited into a terrorist support network run by the other defendants, who, starting as early as 1993, raised money and identified operatives for deployment in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Egypt, Somalia and elsewhere. ...

'The indictment links the group to two major figures in terrorist circles: Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheik" who is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up landmarks in New York, and Mohamed Zaky, a founder Islamic charities who was killed in Chechnya in 1995. ...'

'Detectives hunting the killers of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky have named the three prime suspects they want to question.

'The 38-year-old officer was shot dead [the first female police officer since 1984] during an armed raid by a gang at a travel agent in Bradford [which has a large "immigrant" population] a week ago.

'The suspects are Mustaf Jama, 25, from the north Kensington area of London, and his brother Yusuf, 19, from the same area. Both are of Somali origin.

'They also want to trace Muzzaker Shah, 24, who was born in Burnley [near Bradford] but has lived in London since 2001. ...'

'A confidential Foreign Office document accuses Israel of rushing to annex the Arab area of Jerusalem, using illegal Jewish settlement construction and the vast West Bank barrier, in a move to prevent it becoming a Palestinian capital. ...

'But the [EU] council [of ministers] put the issue on hold until next month under pressure from Italy, according to sources, which Israel considers its most reliable EU ally. ...'

'The first Palestinians have moved through the only crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt — as it re-opened under Palestinian control.

'The Rafah crossing is a gateway to the outside world that is vital for the Gaza Strip's economy.

'Israel held the border station for nearly 40 years, but ceded control to Palestinian forces. The crossing is supervised by European monitors. ...

'Gaza has no sea port and Israel has not agreed to allow its international airport to re-open, so the Rafah border is Gaza's main gateway. ...

'Israel closed the Rafah crossing on 7 September shortly after withdrawing from Gaza, citing concerns that it would be used to smuggle weapons and militants from Iraq.

'The Israelis opposed the re-opening until US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured a deal during a visit to the region earlier this month. [See above, under 15 Nov. 05.]

'Israel agreed to hand over the terminal, but insisted on the right to monitor it on television screens from a base a few kilometres away.'

'Washington — President George W. Bush has asked [the] US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to reach out to Iran for assistance in subduing the unrest in Iraq [in much the same fashion as it reaches out for China through multi-nation talks on North Korea] — the first high-level US contact with Tehran in decades, Newsweek magazine reported yesterday.

'"I've been authorised by the president to engage the Iranians," Khalilzad told Newsweek in its edition set to hit newsstands today. "There will be meetings, and that's also a departure and an adjustment," he said in an interview with the magazine.

'ABC television confirmed the proposed US approach to Iran on its This Week programme yesterday, reporting Khalilzad was to make direct contact with the Iranian government about the ongoing insurgency in Iraq.

'The contact would be the first high-level communication at the senior level between Washington and Tehran since relations ruptured in 1979. ...'

Needless to say, the real purpose is to "further incriminate" the Iranians with the terrorism that is probably being at least part-directed by US and UK special forces. When Iran proves "unwilling" to "halt its provocations", this will be an additional pretext to attack it.

The US will investigate reports of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Germany's Foreign Minister.

British group Liberty has called on police to investigate within 14 days claims that British airports were involved in the transport of detainees to secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.

'Top police officers have criticised plans to allow [!] the shutting down of places of worship such as [!] mosques [my emphasis] suspected [!] of inciting extremism.

'In the response to proposals to give courts the power to close such premises, police warned there were better ways to deal with the problem.

'Assistant Chief Constable Rob Beckley of the Association of Chief Police Officers said it was a "blunt tool".

Before Kristallnacht (1938), synagogues were sporadically demolished on pretexts such as traffic obstruction and spoiling the character of a medieval neighbourhood. Some Jewish Germans kidded themselves that it would all blow over.

'Muslim and civil rights groups say a proposal to close places of worship suspected of inciting extremism is unnecessary and could be decisive.

'The civil rights group Liberty warned the proposal was the "worst type of response to terrorism". ...

'[And] Inayat Bungawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said police already had the powers to deal with such a scenario.

'"In the only known case where premises were abused — in Finsbury Park mosque — the police were able to use existing powers to ensure that normality returned and there is now a new management there," Mr Bungawala said.

'Mosques were not specifically named in the proposal but most people would see the proposal as referring to mosques and trustees of mosques, he added. ...'

The proposal came from the UK government, and is apparently connected with the new Terrorism Bill. See "Police warn against proposed anti-terror powers", The Guardian online, 1 December 05.

'INDEPENDENT[:] President George Bush said America is on course for "complete victory" [in Iraq] and he ruled out any firm timetable for the withdrawal of troops.'

Affirming, from the clodhopper himself, the puppet nature of the "sovereign" Iraqi government.