Just following up on the 25 Million Name Data-set that has been ‘lost’, it seems that my spider sense was tingling last week.
John has covered all the basis with his usual skill in his piece here ,however the gift of ‘second sight’ came to the fore when we first highlighted in our piece on the HMRC and its problems were first shown here although Nick Robinson has the e-mails here .
Just to recap, BBC-B looked at the HMRC who are now around like a blind man as can be shown on this link although the FAQ's isn’t going to settle any nerves.
We examined at length how the Lyons Review and the subsequent restructuring including the regionalisation of offices (moving everything North in other words) has compromised the internal integrity of HMRC in order to shore up votes for the Labour Party, a process started by John Prescott and Gordon Brown.
We looked in detail the relationship between off shore company Mapeley , Capita and Capgemini has almost total to the HMRC,and how the ‘snouts in the trough’,with their panache for cutting courners have damaged National Security.
But the real questions remain as the walls close in on ‘King Brown and his goons, and yet again the BBC have been found wanting.
One has to ask how many false tax credits have been handed out over the years as well?
Why are staff hired on short term contracts? Why are some of them foregin nationals?
Why is the central database in Worthing being shut down and moved to Washington in the North East when staff are already overstreched?
My ‘spider sense’ tells me that the dataset will be ‘found’ in some Government building and there will be no doubt that we will get a statement saying ‘Don’t panic, everything is alright’, however the whole story smells of corruption.
In the meantime the data set probably In the meantime the data set has been copied and sent to ‘unhealthy’ interested parties. This is the biggest failure of security in modern times. This is the probable reason why Gus Macdonald was issuing out Civil Service gagging orders OVER TWO months ago to HMRC employees regarding internal matters.
I spoke to somebody who works in the field of sensitive information in another EU country but has worked in the UK.After the laughter at our incompetence subsided my contact told me “You might as well handed over your nuclear secrets because the structures and ‘culture’ in the UK Government is so oblique looking you are like a bucket full of holes when it comes to information storage’. My contact went further and said ‘The problem you guys have is the civil service is so politicised that they are all looking over their shoulders to cut cost and appease their bosses”
Spin and leak in other words.
This isn't a problem just for the UK but now is an additional problem worldwide.
The implications are very grave, the fact that Al Qaeda’s main source of revenue is now credit card fraud and identity theft makes them likely customers for this information. Likewise Organized Crime (who works hand in glove with terrorism) now has the possibility of applying for mortgages or bank loans using false identities-they only time you become aware of this is when your bank account is being debited for that villa in the Cayman Islands.
This isn’t simply a case of ‘loosing’ the data-the whole integrity of National Security has been thrown away because of a politically motivated piece of gerry-mandering set up by the man with the shaking hand and bunker mentality.
What is worse the same jokers are also involved in PFI projects involving Met Police and the Security Services. I fear more revelations are to come involving the Civil Service.
This is why tonight you are being treated with stories about millionaires kicking a ball around and not the indepth reporting that this sorry tale needs.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
25 Million Names Lost From HMRC
Friday, 16 November 2007
News: Democrats Defeat Wire-Tap Amendment
Source: From Reuters
U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday, defying President George W. Bush,passing a bill tightening legal oversight of the power of intelligence agents to use wiretaps to eavesdrop on terror suspects.
The vote in the Democratic-led House was 227-189, largely along party lines.The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. If it passes both chambers, the White House has threatened to veto the measure, warning it would hamper electronic spying efforts, subjecting the United States to increased risks.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the bill "fails to give our intelligence community the tools it needs, and it fails to protect companies facing massive lawsuits for allegedly stepping up and answering the nation's call for help after the 9/11 terrorist attacks."
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer defended the measure, saying, "This legislation gives our intelligence community the tools it needs to listen in on those who seek to harm us while addressing concerns that (a Bush-backed) bill passed in August could authorize warrantless surveillance of Americans."
Democrats rejected Bush's demand for retroactive immunity for any telecommunications company that may have taken part in the warrantless domestic spying program begun after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
The White House said it was prepared to work with Congress on a possible compromise bill that "would strengthen the nation's intelligence capabilities while respecting the constitutional rights of Americans."
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requires that the government receive the approval of a secret FISA court to conduct surveillance in the United States of suspected foreign enemy targets.Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Bush secretly authorized warrantless surveillance of communications between people in the United States and others overseas if one had suspected ties to terrorists.
The legislation would replace a previous law passed in August under fierce pressure from the administration that expanded the powers of the US intelligence services to use wiretaps in global terror probes.A warrant would be needed only if the American was a target.Nearly 40 lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel Corp of violating Americans' privacy rights in helping the government's warrantless domestic spying program.
News: US Courts Pour Cold Water On Wire-Tap Case
Source: AP
A federal appeals court dealt a near-fatal blow Friday to an Islamic charity's lawsuit alleging it was illegally wiretapped by federal investigators, saying that a key piece of evidence the charity planned to use is a protected state secret.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that a top secret call log accidentally turned over to the now-defunct U.S. arm of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation's lawyers by the U.S. Treasury Department can't be used as evidence.
Al-Haramain, which was labeled by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, alleged it had been illegally wiretapped by the Bush administration without a warrant.
The charity's lawyers voluntarily turned over the document to FBI agents after it was given to them.The appeals court said that ruling was "a commendable effort to thread the needle," but still ran counter to the state secrets law, which precludes the disclosure of sensitive information in court that could jeopardize national security.
"Such an approach countenances a back door around the privilege and would eviscerate the state secret itself," Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.
News:Lieutenant General Bill Rollo Gives His View On Progress In Iraq
Source: MOD News
Lieutenant General Bill Rollo is the Senior British Military Representative to Iraq and Second in Command of the Coalition forces gave his views to MOD News.
When asked about the troop reductions in Iraq, the Lieutenant General said:
"The force numbers are a result of careful analysis of the troops required to carry out tasks that we anticipate doing next summer. But everything is subject to events, and if they are different to what we currently anticipate, we will do something else."
He also added regarding any 'differences' within the coalition and with General Petraeus command in particular:
"Our plans are fully coordinated with the US. I've found that General Petraeus is always very conscious of his allies. He is prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that our respective interests are taken on board. From a personal and professional level, it works very well."
"I think the surge, together with the change in attitude of the Sunni population, has had a very substantial effect on security across Iraq. It's designed to enable political and economic progress, and the challenge for the Iraqis and us is to make use of the opportunity. Dynamics are different in the south. There is no Sunni insurgency and the provinces face low level intra-Shia violence and criminality. The best people to deal with both are the Iraqis."
With the situation in Basra uncertain and the rise of the power of the milita's, and the the cleric's the he stated:
"There are fundamentalists in Basra, but the Iraqi security forces are gradually exerting their own control. Traditionally Basra was a relatively open society. It may return to that tradition.There are a lot of pressures on the secular society and Iraq is in a period of acute social trauma and instability. But I see no reason why elements of that secular society won't re-establish themselves."
With regard to the future,and the calls to withdraw troops from Iraq he was measured but seemed to put cold water on the idea:
"You can't live here, as I do, and travel around without being conscious of the severity of the challenges facing Iraq. Nevertheless, when I go out, I come back encouraged, as I see, slowly and unevenly, the country coming back to life."
"I think the surge, together with the change in attitude of the Sunni population, has had a very substantial effect on security across Iraq. It's designed to enable political and economic progress, and the challenge for the Iraqis and us is to make use of the opportunity. Dynamics are different in the south. There is no Sunni insurgency and the provinces face low level intra-Shia violence and criminality. The best people to deal with both are the Iraqis."
"It can be intensely frustrating for soldiers, who are working hard to make a difference – and doing so. But we're not the first British soldiers to be in this position and I doubt we'll be the last."
Troops levels are expected to drop to 4,400 in April with a review to drawdown to 2,500 later in the year.
News: British Soilders Foil Suicide Bomb Attack
Source MOD News
British soldiers serving in southern Afghanistan have foiled a suicide car bomber who attempted to attack their patrol as they were returning to base.
The incident, which lasted a matter of seconds, happened as the soldiers, from 473 Special Observation Post Battery, 5 Regiment Royal Artillery, were heading back to the camp in Gereshk.A white Toyota Corolla, which contained a suicide car bomber, suddenly pulled out and attempted to drive into their convoy of Pinzgauer vehicles.
The first Pinzgauer swerved to avoid the car and the top cover sentry, Corporal Lee Wilbor, fired a single shot through its window, causing the driver to collapse at the wheel. But the Toyota carried on, swerving erratically into the path of the rear vehicle, whose soldiers opened fire causing the car to veer out of the way before it dramatically exploded.
This incident was announced during the week when Captain John McDermid of The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, killed by a roadside bomb in Sangin.
News:British Troops Push North Into Musa Qaleh
Source: MOD News
British troops launched an offensive on the 14th and have pushed forward into the area around the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qaleh.
The town of Musa Qaleh, located in the north of Helmand Province, was taken by ISAF forces in the autumn of 2006 and handed over to the control of local Afghan's.
Local Afghan's held the town for 143 days before the Taliban launched an offensive, retook the town.
Marines from 40 Commando and soldiers from Right Flank Scots Guards using Warrior and Mastiff Armoured Vehicles are back on patrol in the area outside the town, and are conducting aggresive patrols.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton explained the latest planned offensive:
"This is part of a longer term strategy to keep the Taliban unsettled and confused. We have frustrated them in what they consider to be their heartland by manoeuvring into the area, and by disrupting their resupply and other operations."
He added
"It is also crucial to be able to tell local Afghans, ‘ISAF is here at the invitation of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to support you and that we are going to help remove the Taliban from your homes and your lives'."
He summed up the operation:
"The Taliban are not wanted in Musa Qaleh, something the local Afghans have made clear before and we will continue to maintain a presence in the area to show them that they have the support of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and ISAF."
This latest operation began two weeks ago with Bravo Company from 40 Commando Royal Marines pushing north in Viking armoured vehicles, driving across the Helmand river north of Sangin, creating a bridgehead for the Scots Guards convoy.
According to reports there have been on and off contact with the Taliban who have attacked British forces with rockets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
British troops have been carrying out reconnaissance patrols in an effort to carry out "hearts and minds" operations as well as conducting aggresive patrols.
The patrol is supported by soldiers from B Squadron Kings Royal Hussars in Mastiff armoured vehicles and by 105 mm guns served by men from 4 Regiment Royal Artillery. The patrol is supported by an Immediate Replenishment Group and additional supplies are flown in by air as and when required. The operation is at Battlegroup level and is being commanded by 40 Commando.
News:Coalition Forces Establish Presence West of the Euphrates
Source: BlackFive.net
Operation Marne Courageous kicked off in the early morning of Nov. 16 with more than 600 coalition forces and Iraqi army soldiers moving into two villages near the border of Anbar province to drive out al-Qaida in Iraq.
Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), were joined by about 150 Iraqi army soldiers in the air assault on the Sunni villages of Owesat and al Betra, west of the Euphrates River and approximately 15 miles southwest of Baghdad.
Troops were transported in four helicopter lifts across the Euphrates, utilizing two CH-47 Chinook helicopters and eight UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. A Marine reconnaissance platoon, as well as Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, stationed in neighboring Anbar province, secured the landing zone.
Troops were transported in four helicopter lifts across the Euphrates, utilizing two CH-47 Chinook helicopters and eight UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. A Marine reconnaissance platoon, as well as Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, stationed in neighboring Anbar province, secured the landing zone.
Once on the ground, the U.S.-Iraqi force was supported by an air weapons team of Apache and Kiowa helicopters, while approximately 70 Iraqi Concerned Local Citizens assisted in securing the outlying perimeter.
While U.S. and Iraqi forces moved through the villages, other troops set to work constructing a bridge across the Euphrates to allow for the transport of materials and supplies to build a patrol base in the area. The base will allow for a sustained coalition presence in the area of Owesat, part of Baghdad’s southwestern “belts.”
Marne Courageous’ main strategic thrust is to clear AQI extremists from the area of Owesat, establish a coalition presence, and develop a concerned citizens program in the area as a bulwark against further enemy activity.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Why The BBC Does Not Take Defence Coverage Seriously
From BBC Politics
It says something when the BBC sends somebody with the experience of Caroline Wyatt on defence issues to cover something as significant as the formation of the UK National Defence Association then produces a report that makes it sound like another pressure group.
It is telling that they could have sent somebody like Mark Urban who has served in the Armed Forces and is a respected Defence journalist but they didn't, instead they send a relatively junior correspondent who's expertise is selling the BBC propaganda. The point of the matter is that for years the BBC has done its best to smear and downplay the role of the Armed Forces.
The BBC have had a direct hand in the smashing of the military covenant between the British Military and the British People.Remember Gilligan? Remember the Northern Ireland coverage in the 1970's and 1980's?Remember the airplay for the Greenham Common Wimmin?
But the NDA not just another pressure group of ‘snouts in the trough’ vested interest policy wonks.Take a look at some of the names who are behind the National Defence Association membership.
According to Caroline “The establishment of the UKNDA can be seen as a sign of the growing gulf between ministers and some in the military over the course of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
It is of course nothing of the sort but a group that seeks to educate the public on military affairs, to seek to re-establish the covenant between the British Military and the British People and to address the woeful lack of spending on defence.
Of course we can always contrast and compare the National Defence Association expertise with the BBC's favorite think tank on defence matters-The Oxford Research Group.
Even when it comes down to ‘facts’ the BBC is very selective in it figures.It shows here a graph comparing warmongering America and poor little Iran.
The graph shows in ‘real terms’ of defence spending the US which towers above everybody else, however they have seemed to have forgotten that Defence Spending is also measured against the GDP, figures in which I can provide:
The Dollar per GDP expenditure figures is here.
The Dollar per GDP percentage figures is here.
Military Spending per Capita figures is here.
That’s right-Oman spends more on defence spending, with the United States at 4.06 % ranking 27th and the UK coming 69th with 2.4%–being overtaken by mighty world powers like Lesotho, Solomon Islands, Guinea Bissau and the Maldives.Then we wonder why the Brown fiefdom is failing the Armed Forces?
Of course the NDA has no SWP stockpuppets as part of its membership, so don't count on too much coverage any time in the future.
THE BBC-Spinning figures and providing puff pieces for the anti-military left-this is what we do
Comment:Why the Left Wing Chattering Classes Cannot Be Trusted With Democracy.
This is the first in a series of articles exploring the links between some elements of the ‘peace’ movement, the far left and foreign intelligence.
While delving through the archives of the Internet-I came across an interesting article buried deep within the BBC.
Vic Allen is a retired Leeds University professor and a former leading member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), from Keighley, North Yorkshire. He told a BBC Two documentary in 1999 that said he had "no regrets" over providing information to the East German Stazi secret police.
He said he considered that perfectly “legitimate” because he belonged to a pro-Soviet, pro-East German faction of the group.
Dr Robin Pearson (Codename Armin) was another academic at Hull University who was used by the Stazi as a recruiter and an agent of influence. According to his handler Berhart Kartheus he “began spying on his fellow British students - reading their dissertations and looking for clues to their politics, as well as supplying the names of former students who got sensitive jobs at NATO and the Ministry of Defence.”. In autumn 1982, he took a job in London where the Stasi is alleged to have asked him to get to know women at the Ministry of Defence.
The highly respected academic on intelligence matters Anthony Glees said “It is quite clear that he was regarded as a long-term bet, alongside Kim Philby and had the Berlin Wall not fallen, he undoubtedly would have been in a position to have done great harm and to have put many people in harm's way."
A former colleague of mine in Amsterdam who was living in East Germany at the time , who’s own family suffered at the hands of the Ministry of Interior, told me after she read her own Stazi file that her family was monitored because of information given to them by ‘informers’ in the West . Her own father was ‘questioned’ by the secret police for three weeks not only because he listened to Voice of America and the BBC World Service but most of all because he had links to ‘peace activists’ in the West. This story is repeated time and again by many who lived under the shadow of the hammer and sickle.
One has to imagine with horror how Dr Pearson and Dr Allen helped the oppressive Eastern Bloc countries in maintaining their regimes of terror. Yet they have never been charged with their crimes.
When one looks at the list of people who would either overthrow the political system in the West or would be traitors to their fellow countrymen, one cannot help but notice a connection.
Let me list some names and you will get the picture: Philby (Codename: Stanley); Blunt (Codename Johnson) ;Burgess (Codename: Hicks); MacLean (Codename: Homer) ; Cairncross, Harry Houghton, Ethel Gee, Gordon Lonsdale; Melita Norwood (Codename: Hola), Tom Driberg MP (Codename: Lepage), Raymond Fletcher MP -all ‘cleaver people’ and ‘artistic people’ willing to sell there souls to the men with the rubber batons in East Germany, Poland or the Soviet Union, all of whom were privileged people who’s arrogance literally killed people.
The in ‘arts’ there have been many voices that have seek to accommodate themselves with despotism and dictatorships-look at the Bloomsbury Group. (and the perennial favorite of the feminist left Virginia Woolf,) and there attitudes towards the Second World War, in particular while the Nazi-Soviet Pact was in effect, and their attitude towards “the proles” in general. John Maynard Keynes himself was friends with many of the “Cambridge Five” and a member of the Apostles; he was close most notably with Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. Other members of this social circle included several other “idealists” including Lytton Strachey, G.E. Moore and Rupert Brooke.
It was none other than George Orwell said what he thought of the left wing ‘peace movement’:
"Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, he that is not with me is against me.”
It has been suggested by many historians of the Cold War that CND’ s change of policy in the late 1960’s from ‘multilateralism’ to ‘unilateralism’ was ‘helped’ in no small part by the Stazi and KGB after it recognised the success of the Committee of 100. It is rumored that Bruce Kent was possibly an unwitting ‘agent of influence’ by the Stazi, a claim which he is ‘untrue’. Leading members of the Labour Party are thought to mentioned in the Stazi archives but remain hidden by the German Government due to their political nature and possible embarrassment to the Government.
Beyond this there has been the work of the Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK) under the leadership of Gerry Healy from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. When he conducted his ‘purge’ of the ‘less educated’ members of ‘his’ party in the late 1970’s the leading Inquisitor was none other than Vanessa Redgrave who it is alleged ‘questioned’ one poor woman (against her will) for being a ‘closet capitalist’. She herself has paid £50,000 in December 2002 to bail Akhmed Zakayev the Chechen separatist leader to come and live in the UK. This act and the subsequent Alexander Litvinenko poisoning has encouraged the Russian Government to step up its espionage and military activities towards the UK in particular, to the extent that MI5 now has to channel resources to cover this activity rather than concentrate on Islamic fundamentalism.
But it does not stop there. The WRP and fellow travellers positively identified themselves with both the Saddam and Gaddafi Governments in an expressed policy of supporting ‘Arab Nationalism’ without any conditions. That Baathism is based on fascism is over looked by the Trotsky left of the WRP.
In the early 1980’s the BBC’s Money Programme accused the WRP of receiving money from Jamahiriya el-Mukhabarat (Libyan Intelligence) including a possible £1,000,000 that had been received by the group from Libya and several Middle Eastern governments, between 1977 and 1983.The left wing publication Solidarity claimed also that the WRP was also involved in monitoring anti Saddam protestors and taking pictures back to the Iraqi Embassy in London to be examined by IIS in the 1980’s. The WRP also had sympathies with the IRA and INLA as well as other ‘anti-capitalist’ groups such as the Rote Armee Faktion, Japanese Red Army, ETA, the Red Brigades in Italy and our very own Angry Brigade.
Then there is”Respect - The Unity Coalition”. George Galloway needs no introduction, being a firm friend of Saddam Hussein and a possible benefactor of the Oil for Food programme but it is interesting to note that fellow travellers within Respect are Ken Loach , Harold Pinter, George Monbiot and Salma Yaqoob who are also high brow members of the intelligentsia and the cultural elite. Ironically the extremist group al Ghurabaa a takfiri group now banned in the UK has threatened Respect members and it believed in security circles that these prominent left wingers may themselves be a target of the extremists that they have so far sought to provide political cover.
That they seem so blind and so willing to get into bed with fascists (although the brown skinned ones to give a sheen to their politically correct dogma) shows the utter stupidity of their claims to be ‘progressive’ and ‘radical’ while at the same time their panache for infighting over the finer points of left wing ideology is breathtaking. Time and again these people glamorise the violence that they supposedly oppose, for example Ken Loach and his admiration for the leftist wing of the IRA in the 1920-21 Irish Civil War (see the film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’).That they are all wealthy people who should know better seems to escape the likes of the BBC, who regularly promotes them.
All of the above have been involved in the Stop the War Coalition and CND , the two organisations that have a ‘patchy’ track record regarding their democratic credentials. Although there are some members of these organisations who are genuine anti-war advocates, I suspect that Mr Pinter, Ms Redgrave or Mr Galloway is not seeing the violent language that they regularly use with policies they don’t agree with, especially their poisonous Anti Americanism . That they keep ‘unhealthy’ company is the subject of these essays.
Not only should the Government be subject of public scrutiny but so should the opposition. Sadly for too long the ‘peace movement’ has been largely exempt from this scrutiny because many independent journalists, artists and academia are afraid of being ostracised from their peers in the left wing. That recruitment for extremist ideologies takes place in schools and colleges, and that the chattering classes seem to turn a blind eye is not acceptable in any democracy. It is now time to address this issue.
This is the first in a series of investigative pieces looking into the peace movement and possible links with foreign intelligence services and anti-democratic movements. The Wikipedia entries are for general reading but for further links and references see:
Hallas, Duncan. Cult comes a cropper
Healy, Gerry. Some Reflections on the Socialist Labor League
Higgins, Jim. Suppose He Had Been Enthusiastic: Review of Harry Ratner, Reluctant Revolutionary
Pitt, Bob. The Rise and Fall of Gerry Healy
North, David. Behind the split in the Workers Revolutionary Party
W.P.Snyder, The Politics of British Defense Policy, 1945-1962,
Christopher Driver, The Disarmers: A Study in Protest
Monday, 5 November 2007
News:President Musharraf Promises To Hold Elections
Source: Reuters
The Pakistani government said on Monday it would hold a national election by mid-January, as it came under pressure from the United States for imposing emergency rule and detaining lawyers and opposition politicians.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who values Musharraf as an ally in his battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban, called for a quick return to civilian rule and the release of hundreds of detainees rounded up since Saturday.President Pervez Musharraf's decision to suspend the constitution and purge the Supreme Court has unleashed a torrent of international criticism.
Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum told Reuters "It has been decided there would be no delay in the election and by November 15, these assemblies (national and provincial) will be dissolved and elections will be held within the next 60 days."
Some Pakistanis believe Musharraf's main motive in declaring emergency rule was to pre-empt the Supreme Court's ruling on his re-election.But security has deteriorated since July, when commandos stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque to crush an armed Islamist movement. Since then nearly 800 people have been killed in militant-linked violence, half of them by suicide attacks,including the attack on Benazir Bhutto.
Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of the main Islamist opposition party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was taken into custody on Monday. Authorities had already rounded up 600-700 JI supporters in southern and central provinces overnight.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Musharraf should quit the army and become a civilian leader, and hold the elections as scheduled.The United States put future aid to Pakistan under review, having provided $10 billion in the past five years, and postponed defence talks with Pakistan due this week.Britain also warned Pakistan on future funding.
News: Sen Edwards A 'Preventative War Doctrine' Is 'Ridiculous And Dangerous'
However he failed to expand on his alternative policies in the debate.
News:Director General Speaks of a Need For Continued Perseverance
Source: MI5 Website
Jonathan Evans, the Director General of the Security Service, gave a speech at the Society of Editors' conference in Manchester on 5 November 2007 in which he provided an update on the terrorist threat and spoke about the need for perseverance and strategic thinking in the continuing fight against international terrorism.
Mr. Evans highlighted the need to protect young people from radicalisation and indoctrination by violent extremists.
Mr Evans said "The violence directed against us is the product of a much wider extremist ideology, whose basic tenets are inimical to the tolerance and liberty which form the basis of our democracy. So although the most visible manifestations of this problem are the attacks and attempted attacks we have suffered in recent years, the root of the problem is ideological."
He expanded further his view by saying "Because the ideology underlying Al Qaida and other violent groups is extreme. It does not accept the legitimacy of other viewpoints. It is intolerant, and it believes in a form of government which is explicitly anti-democratic. And the more that this ideology spreads in our communities, the harder it will be to maintain the kind of society that the vast majority of us wish to live in."
Following his predecessor, Eliza Manningham-Buller comments regarding about the increased threats by Al Qaida inspired terrorists in which she identified around 1,600 individuals who MI5 believed posed a direct threat to national security and public safety, Mr Evans now said that figure today would be at least 2,000.
He focused his speech on the growth of the 'Al Qaida franchise' including Somalia and a new grouping called 'Al Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb' based in North Africa.
He also remarked on the unfortunate diversion of key resources away from vital counter-terrorist work by ongoing Russian espionage activity in the UK.
For further information on his key note speech you can read more on Address to the Society of Editors by the Director General of the Security Service, Jonathan Evans
Saturday, 3 November 2007
News:US said to give 'green light' to wide-scale IDF operation in Gaza
Take this one with a pinch of salt, as the original source is a Lebanese newspaper. I find the idea of the Israelis going cowering to their American masters for a "green light" to do anything, to be preposterious and right out of the Arab paranoid fantasy mindset. Israel, remember, doesn't even have a Gitmo - they send out an Apache helicopters instead for pre-emptive targetted assassinations, irrespective of what the U.S. thinks about it.
But still, there could be a grain of truth in it, in terms of Israel sharing intelligence and gearing up in order to stop Qassam rocket attacks.
From the Jerusalem Post:
The United States has given a "green light" to an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar reported Saturday morning. The report cites "credible diplomatic sources" as saying that American approval came after Israeli intelligence impressed on US officials the importance of a wide-scale operation as an answer to the unprecedented arms smuggling within Gaza.
According to the newspaper report, the intelligence was shared during Defense Minister Ehud Barak's last visit to Washington. Sources told Al-Akhbar that the intelligence depicted a worrying picture of an "arms race" between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. In addition, Israel presented details of money transfers between the Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa's Martyrs Brigades.
Read the rest of it here
Friday, 2 November 2007
Comment: The trouble with facing and reporting facts
I am forced to pay my licence fee for this crap? I want information: facts and detail. Instead I get another poorly written article that seemingly the BBC struggled to type, as it pains them that the US are in fact succeeding with aspects of the campaign in Iraq, "The Struggle for Iraq" as the BBC have disingenuously called it, but that's another article altogether!
To start with, why the quotes in the title? "Deaths in Iraq 'continue to fall'" - it's not an attributable quote and it isn't conjecture; it's fact. I'm 'getting fed up' with the BBC's overuse of sodding quotes for emphasis, it automatically introduces a slant of suspicion to their reporting. If I want opinion I will read blogs or the comment sections within the media. When I go to read the news, I want the news. Impartial, balanced and detailed news. Instead I get this rubbish.
There is no single reliable source for statistics but a number agree on a marked improvement, correspondents say.
Really? Well CNN provide a reliable source, the Iraqi Government no less:
The number of Iraqi civilians killed in September was 844, down from 1,990 in January, according to Iraqi governmental figures provided to CNN.
Source: CNN
And they're hardly known for their Iraq support, yet they can muster up the courage to name their source. Indeed the LA Times is quoting the source directly as the Iraqi Health Ministry, not that difficult is it?
But what's this a few paragraphs below?
AFP news agency quoted interior, defence and health ministry data as saying at least 554 Iraqis were killed and the bodies of another 333 people who may have been killed in previous months were found.
Oh look! There it is - the source after all! So either the BBC is inept in it's writing or deliberately misleading. Most probably both. Furthermore, the figures look pretty exact; would 554 or 333 be used if they were just unreliable estimates? I think not. So the lack of reliable sources for the statistics is essentially bollocks.
The BBC's Jim Muir Baghdad says different sources do have different casualty figures for October but they all agree that the number of Iraqis killed by violence was again at a much lower level, as it had been in September.
What a coincidence having the town of his posting as his surname! The BBC editorial team seem to have been too busy working out how to put a negative slant on this article than to worry about the basics of grammar. The small yet important point of this is that standards need to be upheld.
I digress, back to the article itself:
Our correspondent says one question is whether the improvement is a predictable temporary result of the surge that might be reversed when the US military starts drawing down troops.
"Predictable temporary result"? Sounds as if they almost want it to end! Notwithstanding the fact that this is the objective of the surge is it not? And yes it may well be reversed when they finish the surge, but it would be hoped by that point that the Iraqi army will be able to fill the gap and continue to reduce troubles. I don't believe the correspondent realises that in trying to attack the strategy he is in fact advocating it's continuation.
Now I don't know how much they pay their correspondent, but I sure as hell hope it isn't a great deal...
However, our correspondent says despite the improved figures, bombings and shootings happen somewhere in Iraq every day.
Well whaddya know?! Did I just read that right? I cannot believe they have the nerve to state the aboslute bloody obvious. I'm glad they did 'cos 'til tonight I thought things were all peachy over there...
News: The Litvinenko Case Points the Way For Dealing With Radiological Weapons
Source: AFP
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) in a new report has reported how the authorities should handle the threat of radiological attacks in the light of the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by polonium 210.
Following established procedure the Journal said by being swift, clear and factual in telling the public about what had happened and about the risks from the highly radioactive element used in the killing, the British authorities were able to stem any panic or stigma
The article is due out next Saturday shows research from James Rubin of the Institute of Psychiatry who sampled ,000 phone interviews with Londoners and 86 interviews with Londoners who had been potentially exposed to the polonium. Of those interviewed, only 11.7 percent believed that their health had been at risk. Sixty-two percent said they believed they had been well informed.
In a commentary also carried by the BMJ, University of Alabama public health professor Steven Becker noted the results would have been different if people had perceived the incident as a terrorist attack rather than a targeted murder.
"In a large-scale terrorist attack involving radioactive materials -- a 'dirty bomb', for example-- levels of public concern could be dramatically higher," said Becker. "Indeed, in a terrorist incident involving radioactive materials, effective risk communication may be the most important way to reduce morbidity and mortality, tackle people's concerns, avoid the impact on behaviour, and maintain public trust and confidence,"
Litvinenko, a Russian exile with British citizenship, was killed after his tea was poisoned at a central London hotel on November 1 last year. He died three weeks later in hospital. The subsequent investigation has lead to theory of a Moscow backed killing, with the prime suspect being named as former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi.
There is now a distinct cooling of relations between Britain and Russia, with a tip for tat diplomatic exchanges and an increase of flights by the Russian Airforce to test UK defences.
