Zimbabwe - Z$1.45 trillion for executive desks.

The following is an extract from: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1744942,00.html

April 2, 2006.

In Zimbabwe, inflation has now bypassed 1,000 per cent - the world's highest - and people have stopped counting bank notes, measuring the pile instead.

Harare City Council is planning to borrow Z$1.45 trillion to buy executive desks and 329 sedans and pick-ups for its managers.

In Bulawayo, 450 homes intended for some of the 700,000 families the government made homeless by bulldozing slums are being built without running water or sewerage.

Just a few weeks ago the long-suffering people were asked to raise Z$10 billion (about £60,000) to pay for Robert Mugabe's 82nd birthday celebrations.


~~

Scottish National Party set to win many more seats in Scottish Parliament

Scottish National Party on target for Holyrood poll

SNP on target for Holyrood poll

Apr 8 2006

The SNP is at least halfway towards its target of winning 20 constituency seats in next year's Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) elections, according to a recent poll.

The YouGov research, commissioned by the party, also saw 46% of the 1,607 Scots surveyed supporting independence, with 39% against, and 82% saying the matter should be decided by referendum.

And it found that of the 69% of respondents who had an opinion on the issue, 43% believed SNP leader Alex Salmond would make the best First Minister, while 27% opted for current incumbent and Scottish Labour leader Jack McConnell.

A major health problem that we should get rid of.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, what was the main health problem in Italy?

It was malaria.

"It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army."

( http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300108990 Amazon.com: The Conquest of Malaria : Italy, 1900-1962: Books ... )

Should malaria be got rid of? Or, is it useful as a way of keeping down the size of the population?

Malaria was got rid of in Italy. Italy was sprayed with chemicals and malaria was gone by around 1962.

Italy does not have a problem of too many babies. Italy’s Birth Rate is The Second Lowest in the Western World

What about Africa and the rest of the Third World?

Over 1 million die from Malaria each year.

Malaria is a cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunts literacy....

Malaria could be got rid of.

When prosperity rises, families tend to have fewer babies.

With rising world temperatures, perhaps it is time to wipe out malaria.

~~

UK local elections: anti-war Liberal-Democrats set to gain seats

8 April 2006.

In the UK there are to be local elections next month.

There are no Conservative councillors in Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle.

Research by BBC 2’s Newsnight suggests:

1. David Cameron's Conservative Party is likely to lose around 75 council seats.

2. Tony Blair's Labour Party will lose around 130 seats.

3. The anti-war Liberal Democrats will gain around 190 seats.

The research forecasts that the Conservatives will be down 4 per cent on 2004 in terms of vote share. The Liberal Democrats will be up 2 per cent.



~~

U.S. CUTS AID TO ISRAEL

U.S. Cuts Aid to Israel

By Washington Post Staff Writer

April 1, 2006

The United States has formally suspended aid to Israel in a bid to pressure Israel to leave Palestinian land and renounce violence.

Hamas leaders, who unexpectedly triumphed in legislative elections earlier this year, welcomed the action. The United States and the European Union have designated Israel, known formally as Palestine, a terrorist state.

The American Secretary of State, Condoleeza Ric, told a press conference that the Israelis had just killed yet another a Palestinian child. She said that the Israelis had killed Rachel Corrie in March 2003 and the British cameraman James Miller in May 2003.

The following is an extract from a statement made by the Secretary of State:

In March 2004, Israel assassinated the 67-year old spiritual head of Hamas, an organization which, as well as resisting Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank, attempts to provide educational and medical services to the Palestinian people, whose social infrastructure has been practically destroyed by Israel.

Israel has been a terrorist state from its beginning, and has its foundations in terrorism. Three Israeli prime ministers were terrorists.

Menachim Begin took part in terrorist acts in the 1940s, including the attack on the King David Hotel which killed 91 people.

Yitzhak Shamir was the leader of the Stern Gang, a terrorist group which organised bombings and assassinations.

Shamir was involved in the murder of Lord Moyne, the British Minister representative in the Middle East, in 1944, and the murder of Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN's special Mediator on Palestine, in 1948.

Terror was used to drive the Palestinians from the land that became Israel.

As commander of Unit 101, Ariel Sharon led attacks on Palestinian villages in which women and children were killed.

In the massacre in the West Bank village of Qibya, on 14 October 1953, Sharon's troops blew up 45 houses and 69 Palestinian civilians, half of them women and children, were killed.

Ariel Sharon initiated the Sabra-Shatila massacre in which between 1000 and 3000 people were murdered.

In July 1954 Egypt was hit by a series of bomb outrages directed mainly against American and British property in Cairo and Alexandria. The bombings were carried out by an Israeli espionage and terrorist network.

In June 1967, Israeli forces attacked the U.S. spy ship USS Liberty, and strafed rescue boats, killing 35 and injuring 170 U.S. servicemen.

In May 2004 Israelis in a moving van were twice detained near a U.S. nuclear facility.

Lirpa Loof, Washington Pist Staff Writer, April 4, 2006.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=israel+terrorist+state&btnG=Google+Search&meta=


~~

Bird flu and the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews

"Both the British and US governments have created policies of quarantine and internment procedures which they need to indoctrinate Joe public into going along with.

"In the first stage, limited biological panics will be metered upon the public (in Britain through Porton Down, the same people who brought you Foot and Mouth) in order to train them into producing the desired response...."

Source: Bird Flu And Social Darwinism

~~

From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,1748057,00.html?gusrc=rss

April 6, 2006

A dead swan was found in the coastal Fife village of Cellardyke, about nine miles from St Andrews...

The man who found the swan in Cellardyke, Dan Young, a researcher at St Andrews University, said he had been alerted by a friend, who thought a heron was lying in the harbour...

By coincidence, yesterday Defra was conducting its first national emergency simulation of procedures in the event of a bird flu outbreak... Exercise Hawthorn

Dan Young's work includes aspects of virology... http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=529922006

~~

Defra was conducting a simulation.

The following is taken from an article entitled: Bird Flu Outbreak Coincided With Drill

Staged-managed manufactured crises are always paralleled by drills of the same nature. This provides culpable deniability if any government agency is caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They can say it was just part of the drill...

A consultancy agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact same times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of July 7th...

Wargames running on the morning of 9/11 simulated planes crashing into high visibility buildings on the US east coast. These drills were enough to confuse air traffic controllers about the real world nature of the actual hijacked planes thereby slowing response times and enabling them to find their targets. In addition the exercises also provided culpable deniability...

Patricia Doyle, PhD also reported that Foot and Mouth exercises were being run by the British government immediately before the outbreak was made public...

For those who doubt the veracity of a British government plot to once again eviscerate the livelihoods of farmers (the biggest power block opposing Blair) in an act of 'Agraterrorism', just consider the fact that a vial of the Foot and Mouth virus was supposedly 'stolen' from Porton Down bio-weapons facility before the 2001 outbreak took place. The Sunday Express reported that it was released deliberately and could have possibly been the source of the outbreak two months later.

~~

St Andrews University technician Tina Briscoe was the friend of Dan Young who alerted him to the bird in the harbour. Bird flu: the deadly delay

The dead bird was a mute swan.

~~

http://www.rms.com/Terrorism/Advisors/

Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

The Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland has been the leading academic institute researching terrorism for the past twenty years... Members of CSTPV have been advisors to the U.S. government and leading policymaking groups.

RMS (Rand) is currently sponsoring the RMS Terrorism Research Fellow, at CSTPV, University of St. Andrews.

~~

Scotland on Sunday, 19 March 2006, has a news story entitled: Scots terror team draws up plans for national disasters

According to Murdo MacLeod of Scotland on Sunday, Scottish civil servants are to have contingency plans in place to deal with various threats.

According to Scotland on Sunday: A team headed by Gregor Lindsay, a civil servant and RAF reservist, is working in Perth...

Scenarios which the unit has plans for include: A lethal bird flu pandemic sweeping across Scotland...

~~

The following is from: The Secret State - Domestic Surveillance & Control in Britain

The ‘Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence’ at the University of St Andrews:

The Centre possesses a unique database on terrorist incidents going back to 1968, based on collaboration with a US think tank (‘the RAND-St Andrews database on Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict’). Bruce Hoffman, the founder of the Centre is now a vice-president of Rand and chief of its Washington office.

The current chair of the Centre’s advisory board is Professor Paul Wilkinson , who began his career as an education officer in the RAF. Professor Wilkinson has obtained funding from the ESRC for research on the domestic management of terrorist attacks in the UK. Director of the Centre is Magnus Ranstrop, a specialist on Lebanon’s Hizbollah and a CNN expert on Al-Qaida...
Dr Rohan Gunaratna claims affiliation to a diverse band of think tanks including fellowships at the St Andrews’ Centre, where he completed his PhD, but also the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel and the Institute of Strategic Studies, Pakistan.

~~

• Wednesday, 29 March, 5pm - a dead swan lying on the harbour slipway in Cellardyke, Fife, is reported to the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
The swan had earlier been reported to police, who told the caller to contact an animal welfare charity. The mangled bird is said to have probably been dead for "a few days".
• Thursday, 30 March, 12:30pm - the bird is collected by a vet. Samples are taken and sent to the world reference laboratory for avian flu at Weybridge, Surrey.
• Friday, 31 March - samples are received by scientists.
• Monday, 3 April - testing begins.
• Wednesday, 5 April, 8:30pm - the Scottish Executive issues a statement confirming the swan had bird flu.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=532902006

~~

Dr Jim Robertson, of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said: "There is a better chance of a person winning the National Lottery than catching bird flu in the UK today."
Bird flu: the deadly delay

~~

The following is from: Bird Flu And Social Darwinism

"If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country, and how do you then enforce a quarantine? When -- it's one thing to shut down airplanes; it's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move." President Bush, October 4th 2005.

"The Bush cabinet was on Cipro, the anthrax fighting antibiotic, on the day of September 11, weeks before the first anthrax attack took place.

"The people who will profit financially from a bird flu outbreak are Donald Rumsfeld and top Bilderberg members like Etienne F. Davignon.

"Bird flu is one more tool in the arsenal of Globalist Malthusian social Darwinists who believe it is their destiny to act as guardians to mother earth against the 'plague' of humanity and that brutal methods of population control are the only way to realize a new world order."

~~

Bird Flu - H5 virus unlikely to cause a pandemic.

The number of people worldwide who have died from bird flu is around 100 according to the World Health Organization (March 2006).

These people were in very close contact with birds.

~

In Europe 69,000 people died from TB in 2004.

Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second.

Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.It is estimated that 1.7 million deaths resulted from TB in 2004.

~

Two groups of scientists, in Japan and in Holland, have come up with explanations as to why human to human transmission of the H5N1 virus is highly unlikely.

Unlike other known flu viruses which can be easily transmitted between people, the H5N1 virus cannot spread through coughs or sneezes.

Previous pandemics have been caused by H1 type viruses (the 1918 pandemic), H2 (the 1957 Asian) or H3 (the Hong Kong flu of 1968).

The H5 virus has been present in the human population since the late 1950's, but has never had the full set of mutations needed to set off a pandemic.

Peter Palese, a virologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, declared H5 infects people only when they are exposed to very large doses, for example when they sleep with chickens in the same room. "I feel strongly that H5 has been around in humans for a long time and never caused a pandemic," suggesting that this is not the virus which is likely to be the next pandemic.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Human-to-Human-Transmission-of-Bird-Flu-Not-Likely-20144.shtml

~

Bird flu has been affecting the world for many years.Bird flus have been troublesome for agriculture at least since 1878, when Italian poultry were hit with a disease labeled fowl plague.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FID1.DTL

~~

Each year, for many decades, a relatively small number of people have caught bird flu from birds.

In 1995 Mexico stopped an outbreak of severe H5N2 flu.

In 2002 Italy became the first country to eradicate bird flu using a marker vaccine and regular testing.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4810

~~

Why is bird flu getting a lot of publicity in the media?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9068-1833185,00.html

Widespread fears of a bird flu pandemic have helped spark a sales surge at Swiss drugs group Roche, which makes Tamiflu.

Roche, which is the world's only manufacturer of Tamiflu, revealed this morning that group sales had surged to more than £11.1 billion in the third quarter, driven by "significant growth" in sales of the drug.

~~

The UK Government spent 32 million pounds buying smallpox vaccine from a firm whose boss was Paul Drayson.

Paul Drayson, had donated 50,000 pounds to the Labour Party just weeks before the contract was finalised.



~~

The biggest bust since Lolo Ferrari

Pop! Britain's Bubble Economy

By AlexYawar

The following is an extract from:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=283498&rel_no=1

Officially, during the last decade, inflation has generally hovered between 1 percent and 3.5 percent...

But in most key areas of the economy, inflation has been off the scale.

A March 2005 report published by Oxford Economic Forecasting and Cluttons Real Estate noted that house prices had risen nationally by an average of 11.4 percent per year every year for the past ten years.

While property prices are controversially not included in the official U.K. inflation figure, similar if not larger rises have been recorded in transportation -- a one-day travel pass in London now costs £6.30 -- utilities, with 2006 seeing a one-year hike of 20 percent for many gas customers, and oil, the price of which skyrocketed following recent instability in the Middle East...

The U.K. economy is built on consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the nation's GDP. But consumer spending is in turn contingent on credit.

The average salary in the U.K. is estimated to be around £22,000 before tax, which in most parts of the country is not enough to comfortably subsist on: for the majority of people, to save anything substantial from that figure would require frugality.

Luxuries such as brand-new home cinema systems and cars should in theory be exactly that -- luxuries.

This is where credit steps in to distort reality.

The UK population now owes £1 trillion in household debt, with 14 percent indebted to the tune of £10,000 or higher.

This debt is more than the total annual GDP of the U.K.

And this figure does not even take into account the gargantuan pile of mortgage-related debt -- £967 billion -- that casts a shadow over the U.K. economy.

Including mortgage payments, the average British household has £83,722 of debt.

What conclusions can one draw?

Firstly, the official inflation figures simply cannot be correct.

Two percent inflation in an economy with rapidly increasing living costs and more credit than real money in circulation does not even begin to make sense.

Secondly, the reason that interest rates have not been pushed up to act as a fiscal cooling mechanism on growth is simple: with the current levels of household indebtedness and mortgage-related arrears, any move towards a realistic interest rate level will result in economic meltdown.

No politician with any electoral ambitions will want to initiate such a move, perhaps least of all Gordon Brown, whose desire to take over the post of Prime Minister from Tony Blair is one of the less well-kept secrets in global politics.

However, the most sobering conclusion of all is that many of the country's economic fundamentals -- and the foundations for future growth -- are rather shaky.

In fact, we could be heading for the biggest bust since that of Lolo Ferrari.

And economic historians may in the future liken the "Brown Boom" to the fate of the late French actress.

Under the malign influence of her husband, Ferrari, a chronic depressive and body dysmorphic disorder sufferer, underwent 25 cosmetic surgery operations to alter her face and enlarge her breasts with silicone in the belief that it would catapult her to stardom.

Like Ms Ferrari, we have flooded our system with plastic in the quest for growth.

The result is likely to be similarly artificial.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=lolo-ferrari&btnG=Search

~~~

Mossad blackmail of journalists

"Journalists were reportedly lured with tempting offers, including sexual relations with foreign women, bribe money, and promises of support in securing prominent job positions in return for their help in the Israeli endeavor."

Is your local TV news editor being blackmailed because of photos taken in a luxury apartment?

~~~

MAURITANIA : Israeli intelligence blackmails journalists : claim

April 3, 2006.

By Andnetwork .com

A recent report in a Saudi newspaper has claimed that Israel's embassy in Mauritania is operating under directives from the Israeli secret security agency, the Mossad, in an attempt to recruit Mauritanian agents to work for Israel, using blackmail and other threats.

According to the Saudi al Watan newspaper, Israel's ambassador to Mauritania, Boaz Bismut, was instructed to apply pressure on local Mauritanian journalists to provide information and work towards changing Mauritanian public opinion regarding Israel.

Before his diplomatic career, Bismut was a journalist in Israel's Yediot Ahronoth newspaper.

Bismut was quoted as saying, "The Mauritanian nation will not accept normalization with Israel unless Mauritanian journalists do so first."

To do so, the Saudi paper said, Israel had applied pressure to coerce Mauritanian journalists into undertaking the task of changing local public opinion about Israeli-Mauritanian relations.

Journalists were reportedly lured with tempting offers, including sexual relations with foreign women, bribe money, and promises of support in securing prominent job positions in return for their help in the Israeli endeavor.

The newspaper even revealed the whereabouts of three luxury apartments used by Mauritanian journalists for secret rendezvous with the foreign women.

Unbeknownst to the journalists, the sexual encounters were then recorded, later to be used to blackmail them by the Israeli embassy.

The Saudi paper explained that the Israeli ambassador would later approach the journalists, threatening to release the videotapes if they did not cooperate with Israel.

Bismut was also reportedly interested in finding out which Mauritanian politician held the most popularity locally, so that he could be recruited for Israel's undercover public relations effort.

The accusations were reportedly confirmed by several Mauritanian journalists with whom the paper spoke that claimed to have fallen into the Israeli trap.

In the past, the journalists said, Bismut had also offered journalists huge sums of money to gain their favor.

Ever since the opening of the Israeli embassy in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott, many have called for its closure.

Mauritania, a member of the Arab League, had close ties with Israel under former leader, Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Taya, who was overthrown in a 2005 coup.

Taya's warm relations with Israel angered many and alienated Muslim countries worldwide.

Following the 2005 coup, Bismut told reporters, according to Al Jazeera, "This is an Arab league country that was by our side through the Intifada."

"Clearly, there are those who are not interested in this connection," he added, "But the connection with the government, the president and the Mauritanian people is very important."

According to Al Sharq Al Awsat, the United States in 1993 put pressure on Mauritania "to normalize relations with Israel and accept the Middle East peace process."

Mauritanian later became the only Arab state not to withdraw its ambassador from Israel after the eruption.

Source : Al-Bawaba.com

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:zm0jX_SxFd0J:www.andnetwork.com/app%3Fservice%3Ddirect/1/Home/%24StorySummary%240.%24DirectLink%242%26sp%3Dl27581+Israelli+intelligence+blackmails+journalists&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1

~~

Bird Flu - H5 virus unlikely to cause a pandemic.

The number of people worldwide who have died from bird flu is around 100 according to the World Health Organization (March 2006). These people were in very close contact with birds.

~

In Europe 69,000 people died from TB in 2004.

Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second.

Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.

It is estimated that 1.7 million deaths resulted from TB in 2004.

~

Two groups of scientists, in Japan and in Holland, have come up with explanations as to why human to human transmission of the H5N1 virus is highly unlikely.

Unlike other known flu viruses which can be easily transmitted between people, the H5N1 virus cannot spread through coughs or sneezes.

Previous pandemics have been caused by H1 type viruses (the 1918 pandemic), H2 (the 1957 Asian) or H3 (the Hong Kong flu of 1968).

The H5 virus has been present in the human population since the late 1950's, but has never had the full set of mutations needed to set off a pandemic.

Peter Palese, a virologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, declared H5 infects people only when they are exposed to very large doses, for example when they sleep with chickens in the same room. "I feel strongly that H5 has been around in humans for a long time and never caused a pandemic," suggesting that this is not the virus which is likely to be the next pandemic.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Human-to-Human-Transmission-of-Bird-Flu-Not-Likely-20144.shtml

~

Bird flu has been affecting the world for many years.

Bird flus have been troublesome for agriculture at least since 1878, when Italian poultry were hit with a disease labeled fowl plague.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FID1.DTL

Each year, for many decades, a relatively small number of people have caught bird flu from birds.

In 1995 Mexico stopped an outbreak of severe H5N2 flu. In 2002 Italy became the first country to eradicate bird flu using a marker vaccine and regular testing. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4810

Why is bird flu getting a lot of publicity in the media?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9068-1833185,00.html

Widespread fears of a bird flu pandemic have helped spark a sales surge at Swiss drugs group Roche, which makes Tamiflu.

Roche, which is the world's only manufacturer of Tamiflu, revealed this morning that group sales had surged to more than £11.1 billion in the third quarter, driven by "significant growth" in sales of the drug.

~~

The UK Government spent 32 million pounds buying smallpox vaccine from a firm whose boss was Paul Drayson.Paul Drayson, had donated 50,000 pounds to the Labour Party just weeks before the contract was finalised.


~~

Bangbang, terror and massive poverty

Bangbang rules the world's fourth largest country in terms of population.

Bangbang is a former Suharto general and he was involved in East Timor.

Bangbang was trained by the US military and came to power partly because of the Bali bomb.

Bush and Blair like Bangbang.

Bangbang's country has oil and Exxon.

Bangbang's country has massive poverty due partly to policies introduced by the IMF and World Bank.

John Aglionby, in The Guardian 5 April 2006, wrote about Bangbang:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1747400,00.html

If the number of prominent statespeople beating a path to his door is anything to go by, Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, can arguably claim to be the pin-up of the developing world: the person global leaders want to be seen with.

First there was the American president, George W. Bush, who asked to sit next to Mr Yudhoyono (or SBY as he is usually referred to) at a United Nations lunch in New York last year.

More recently there have been Jakarta visits by - in addition to Indonesia's neighbours - the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and last week, Tony Blair (the first by a British leader since 1985).

Aglionby admits that:

"The visitors are also conspicuously turning a blind eye to many issues which remain uncomfortable to discuss. These include escalating tensions in the easternmost Papua province, rampant illegal logging and environmental destruction, the oppression of religious minorities, a half-hearted approach to bird flu (more deadly for humans in the last four months in Indonesia than anywhere else in the world), the slow pace of military reform, the paucity of resources allocated to healthcare and education, and endemic corruption. Mr Blair... decided to 'normalise' defence ties with Jakarta, without explaining what that means, despite Indonesia's senior military commanders remaining largely above the law and the armed forces still not fully under civilian control."

Some points that Aglionby did not find space for:

By 1997, the UK was the largest exporter of arms to Indonesia in the world. Among their exports were the Hawk jets used for bombing East Timor, and the Scorpion tanks, armoured cars and water cannon used by Suharto to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations in Indonesia.

Is Indonesia doing well? Over 32 million children are living below the poverty line.

In the early 1980s, 'the IMF and the World Bank pushed through a highly risky banking deregulation that opened up the banking system without any protection or control. This policy left the Indonesian economy vulnerable to the financial catastrophe that eventually ensued.'
http://www.jubileeresearch.org/databank/profiles/indonesia.htm

Soros denies being behind the 1998 Asian economic crisis.

By late January 1998, the rupiah had lost 85% of its value against the US dollar.

Debt service now consumes roughly half of the state's revenues. Social spending has fallen by 40% in real terms since 1995/96.

As a result of the crisis, the number of people living below the poverty line has risen from 11% of the population in 1997 to approximately 50% in 2001. This means that over 100 million Indonesians have been reduced to poverty.

Since 1997, it is estimated that 39 million Indonesians have lost their jobs.

~~

Murder of Americans: 'Three men in Indonesian military uniforms were firing at the vehicles.' Indonesian police detain eight Papuans over Freeport murders

The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of 11 villagers who said Exxon‘s Indonesian subsidiary allowed its facilities to be used by soldiers to torture locals and to commit other human rights abuses. Exxon: Torture Suit May Set Bad Precedent

US mining giant faces nationwide protests in Indonesia

What happened since the CIA toppled Suharto and the military consolidated its grip on power. http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1714658,00.html

Suharto's Fall

Who owns the leading household brands?

'Mr President, I just want you to know that over here I've got a couple of hundred million dollars for you and your family if you cooperate with your Uncle Sam and our oil companies. And over here I have a man with a gun in his hand and a bullet with your name on it.' http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1695280,00.html

Freeport-McMoran, BP, West Papua, the Indonesian military

Indonesia deploys British arms against protesters

Sally Neighbour and the CIA's alleged lies about the Bali Bomb

Bali bomb 'mastermind' al-Farouq allowed to escape?

Military 'had role in' Bali blasts

Murder of human rights activist by the security services? Munir and Hendropriyono; the Bali Bomb and illegal logging.

THE BALI BOMB AND THE MILITARY

TERROR IN INDONESIA : THE CIA CONNECTION

Christian gangsters, the American-trained military and terror

Western journalists murdered by Indonesian military; key Balibo witness dies; UK and Australian cover-up

Display of body parts

KOPASSUS terror in Indonesia

In Indonesia, US companies subcontract terror to the military.

Bush, a gold swindle in Indonesia, and a 'dead' geologist who may still be alive.

BAE and Suharto

~~

Susan Polk; Mossad; foreknowledge of 9 11

"Susan Polk referred to an entry in her computer diary in which she called her husband a traitor because he had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. She asked Detective Michael Costa if he'd heard of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service."

Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/30/BAGD9I0E101.DTL

~~

Susan Polk's husband was Frank (Felix) Polk, a Berkeley psychologist.

"Some of his patients were agents with the Central Intelligence Agency...

"She once saw him give information to an Israeli spy, and believed that he might have worked for the Mossad."

Source http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14207224.htm

~~

Susan Polk, 47, has been charged with the murder of her 70-year-old husband, Frank (Felix) Polk, a prominent Berkeley psychologist, who was found dead in the pool house at his San Francisco home in 2002.

Defense lawyers claim Susan Polk had long been controlled, abused and battered by her husband and she acted in self-defense when he flew into a rage and attacked her.

Susan Polk said she first met Felix Polk as a teenager, when she was seeing him as a therapist.

She claims they first had sex when he drugged and raped her at age 15.

At age 25, Susan and Felix were married and eventually had three sons: Gabriel, 18, Eli, 20 and Adam, 22.

The following is from the San Francisco Chronicle, 30 March 2006:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/30/BAGD9I0E101.DTL

~~

Fireworks erupted again Wednesday in the murder trial of Susan Polk as the prosecutor denounced her for trying to skirt legal procedures and asked the judge to revoke the defendant's right to serve as her own attorney.

Prosecutor Paul Sequeira expressed his exasperation with Polk's repeated attempts to introduce evidence in the guise of questions posed to witnesses, and he called on Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady to put a stop to it.

"I really don't know what else to do," Sequeira told the judge once the jury had been cleared from the courtroom. "I'm at my wits' end. At this point, it's becoming absurd."

Sequeira, who has grown increasingly frustrated by Polk's tactics as she defends herself against charges that she killed her husband, said the defendant has shown a blatant disregard for legal procedures and for Brady's authority.

Polk objected and asked permission to reply. Brady cut her off, saying "You have done a lot of speaking, Ms. Polk, at appropriate times and inappropriate times."

Polk objected and called the trial "one-sided," a reference to her belief that Brady is in cahoots with Sequeira.

"This prosecutor has gotten in everything that he has asked to introduce as evidence," Polk said.

Polk, 48, stands accused of killing her 70-year-old husband during an acrimonious divorce; she at first denied killing him but later said she acted in self-defense after years of abuse.

Brady did not revoke Polk's right to act in pro per -- the legal term for defending oneself -- but made it clear that Polk would have to act appropriately.

"It is not in your best interest to have me admonish you in front of the jury repeatedly," Brady said. "This is not a forum for debate."

At issue was Polk's cross-examination of former Contra Costa sheriff's Detective Michael Costa, who questioned Polk after her husband was killed at the couple's Orinda home in October 2002.
Polk read from police reports that the judge has barred from the trial because they contain hearsay evidence, and she asked questions based on information contained within the documents.

During the morning's testimony, Polk asked Costa if he had investigated her claims that Felix Polk had been abusive. Costa replied that the only allegation he knew of had been filed years before Felix Polk's death.

Later, Polk referred to an entry in her computer diary, which was seized by investigators, in which she called her husband a traitor because he had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. She asked Costa if he'd heard of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Costa said yes.

"Is it your understanding that Mossad agents operate in the U.S. with impunity?" she asked.
Costa said he did not know.

The reason for the question was not clear, but Polk's youngest son, Gabriel Polk - who believes his mother is guilty and testified against her - has testified that his mother is delusional and believed Felix Polk was a Mossad agent.

~~

Damilola

The government scientist could not see the blood.

Some years later, a private testing company could see the blood.

~~

Damilola Taylor, aged 10, bled to death on a stairwell on a rundown housing estate in Peckham, south London, in November 2000.

A forensic scientist, Sian Hedges, told the court she did not know how she missed a spot of Damilola Taylor's blood during the murder inquiry in 2000.

The blood was 'on the heel of a trainer''.

That blood was found in 2004, when an inquiry into the 10-year-old's death reopened.

Two brothers aged 17 and 18 deny murdering Damilola in November 2000.

The trainer is alleged to have belonged to one of the brothers whose blood was also on the shoe.

Ros Hammond, of private testing company Forensic Alliance, said she saw the bloodspot with her naked eye, and had found it on a photograph taken by Ms Hedges, once it was enlarged.

"It seems they had not identified the blood staining," Ms Hammond told the Old Bailey.

The spot of blood, which appears to have fallen from above, was less than a centimetre wide.

Ms Hedges, who worked for Home Office agency the Forensic Science Service, told the trial she had found two blood spots and tested the rest of the trainer, but found no other blood.

She said: "I performed the tests as they are in my notes. I do not have any other explanation."

Shown the trainer in court, she agreed she could see the blood stain on the heel.

The prosecution said the new evidence points "with certainty" to the participation of the three accused in the attack on Damilola. Reportedly, spots of blood and fibres link three youths to the killing of schoolboy Damilola Taylor.

~~

The two teenage brothers were found not guilty of the murder of Damilola Taylor at the Old Bailey on 4 April 2006 but the jury could not reach agreement on the lesser charge of manslaughter. On 3 April 2006, Hassan Jihad was found not guilty.

The jury was discharged, meaning the Crown Prosecution Service will have to decide if it wants another trial on manslaughter. The brothers were also cleared of assault.

~~

The police have been accused of racism and of not carrying out an effective enquiry.

~~~

In 2002, four youths went on trial for the murder of Damilola.

The trial led to all four suspects being acquitted.

The judge ruled that the prosecution's key witness, a 12-year-old girl, was unreliable.

The following is taken from the site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/1921475.stm

The comments on a BBC programme are dated April 2002 and refer to the 2002 trial.

* I cannot understand how vital evidence was not told to the jury, for instance a fragment of glass, from the bottle that killed Damilola, was found in the trainer of one of the boys. But the judge ruled that the jury should not hear it. Another example was how one of the boys admitted to the killing of Damilola, but this was not heard.

* Having watched the excellent Panorama programme on the trial I'm amazed that no one (or agency) has been able to stop the activities of this seemingly well known gang "The Untouchables".

* Clever educated manipulation of a working class jury has, I suspect, allowed guilty parties to go free. I have no love for the police service as I consider it sadly inept.

* At the end of the programme we heard how one of the accused confessed, then the judge decided not to let the jury hear this confession because the boy was upset.

~~

Telegraph News Crime and capitulation

Top heroin gang; UK politicians; UK customs.

Fake fingerprint claim in McKie case

The Oscar Slater case reminds us of the Lockerbie bomb case and many others.

The cover-up of the biggest act of terrorism in the UK

UK policemen telling lies? A senior policeman committing rape?

Glasgow police The UK police and drugs and kidnappings.



~~

Some tourists boycott UK

The number of visitors coming to the UK has fallen.

1997 - 17.1 million people visited Britain.

2003 - 14.4 million people visited Britain.

Has Blair's Britain become less popular?

Figures from the OECD.

~~~

YouGov poll on Iraq; brainwashing

Time to pull out of Iraq, Tony

According to a YouGov poll for The Telegraph, 3 April 2006:

A substantial majority in the UK wants troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, either immediately or within 12 months, regardless of conditions on the ground.

The YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph shows opposition to the war at its highest level since the US-led coalition invaded the country in March 2003.

Fifty-seven per cent of respondents believe that George W Bush and Tony Blair were wrong to take military action.

Only a third still believes they were right.

The YouGov poll shows that 55 per cent of people want Britain to withdraw either immediately (24 per cent) or "within the next 12 months regardless of conditions" (31 per cent).

A minority, 39 per cent, agrees with the Government that Britain should continue to deploy troops until Iraq's police and troops are ready to take over.

The survey shows that opinion is gradually tilting against the argument that any allied withdrawal will constitute a major victory for international terrorism.

Support for the war is strongest among Labour supporters: 54 per cent of them either genuinely believe that the war was justified or feel bound to back the Government.

Among Conservative voters, only 30 per cent still believe in the war.

~~

54% of Labour supporters believe the war was justified. These are the people who are poorly educated and easily brainwashed. These are the sort of people who would have supported Stalin or Hitler back in the 1930s.

~~

BBC television put out a documentary called The Insurgency, on 2 April 2006.

The documentary appeared to be pure propaganda from the Pentagon.

The documentary made lots of references to al Qaeda and allowed various US military people to put forward the argument that the US troops cannot be withdrawn from Iraq because they are needed to keep the peace.

Iraqis seemed to be portrayed as violent.

There was no attempt to put forward the argument that the US is the cause of the violence in Iraq and that the withdrawal of the US would please the majority of Iraqis.








~~

Serious Organised Crime

This post refers to Sir Stephen lander, Lord Cecil, John Negroponte, Meyer Lansky, Osama bin Laden and several others.

~~

Dr John Coleman wrote:

"Robert Cecil of the Jewish Cecil family that had controlled the British monarchy since a Cecil became the private secretary and lover of Queen Elizabeth I ..." (The Conspirators' Hierarchy, p. 201).

Reportedly, Robert Cecil was the brains behind the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot, which may have been a model for later false-flag operations.

Sources: A Jewish conspiracy lurking within the British one?
aangirfan: Fake terror, including the Gunpowder Plot

~~

J. Edgar Hoover, former boss of the FBI, ignored the rise of the Mafia and persecuted civil rights campaigners. Reportedly, Hoover was fond of boys.

Reportedly, Mafia boss Meyer Lansky was blackmailing J Edgar Hoover.

Meyer Lansky was Jewish.

J. Edgar Hoover - Blackmailed by the Mafia

~

The UK is to get its own FBI. It will be called SOCA, the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Soca will be headed by Sir Stephen Lander.

~

Sir Stephen Lander is Jewish, according to an article at: http://www.rense.com/general38/brits.htm

He was the boss of MI5 from 1996 to 2002.

~

Jews make up 0.5% of the population of Britain.

~~

'Jewish Israeli' John Negroponte controls the United States security services.

"Bush has appointed the Jewish Israeli national John Negroponte to be the head of all 15 of the their intelligence organizations, including the CIA.

"Not known to many Americans is the fact that all Jewish citizens in the United States are also citizens of Israel."

Source: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index683.htm

~~

THE son of Sir Stephen Lander was found dead in bed, it was revealed on 12 October 2002.

~~

Extract from a letter by David Shayler:

Sunday August 27, 2000

And what has Sir Stephen Lander, now head of MI5, done to protect the reputation of the organisation he runs?

When I joined MI5, I was told it obeyed the law and always had the utmost respect for civil liberties. So inevitably I am left wondering why Sir Stephen did not perform his clear public duty and call in Special Branch to investigate the Gadaffi plot as soon as he realised that MI6 did not have Ministerial authorisation to plot to assassinate a foreign head of state. In August 1998, I also pointed out publicly that MI5 had evidence of the plot on its file SF754-0168.

Sir Stephen is, sadly, a man who keeps quiet about crimes committed by MI6 but stands by while a properly-motivated whistleblower is persecuted. I fear he has already connived in misleading the Government over MI5's failure to prevent an IRA attack on the British mainland in 1993, a matter I will seek to have disclosed at my forthcoming trial.

Source: http://www.unclenicks.net/bilderberg/www.bilderberg.org/sis.htm

~~

Winston Churchill:

"In the Soviet institutions the predominance of Jews is astonishing. And the prominent, if not indeed, the principal, part in the system of terrorism applied by the Extraordinary Commissions for Combating Counter-Revolution has been taken by Jews, and in some notable cases by Jewesses.

"The same evil prominence was obtained by Jews in the brief period of terror during which Bela Kun ruled in Hungary. The same phenomenon has been presented in Germany (especially in Bavaria), so far as this madness has been allowed to prey upon the temporary prostration of the German people.

"...The fact that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish places of worship are excepted by the Bolsheviks from their universal hostility has tended more and more to associate the Jewish race in Russia with villainies which are now being perpetrated...Needless to say, the most intense passions of revenge have been excited in the breasts of the Russian people."

Russia's concentration camps and slave labor system were "staffed in its upper echelons by Jewish Communists."

Source: http://www.russians.org/communist.html

~~

Michael Howard is Jewish. He is a former UK Home Secretary and former leader of the Conservative Party.

Why did Howard release two dangerous gangsters?

The following is from: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1411777,00.html

Police are investigating Michael Howard's role in a royal pardon for two of Liverpool's most dangerous gangsters, John Haase and Paul Bennett, who were granted a royal pardon in July 1996 on Howard's orders.

The decision came 11 months into 18-year sentences.

The Metropolitan police is about to launch an investigation into the 'circumstances leading up to the granting of a royal pardon for these individuals'.

Was the Home Secretary duped into believing Haase and Bennett had provided vital information about arms caches across Liverpool, arms they had arranged to be planted themselves?

Michael Howard's cousin, Simon Bakerman, is an associate of Haase.

Bakerman was released from prison on the day Howard became leader of the Conservative Party in November 2003.

Bakerman received a three-year sentence in 2002 for running an illegal factory making amphetamine and ketamine pills.

Haase claims that Bakerman received large sums of money from Haase before the pardon was granted, though even his lawyers admit there is no evidence of where this money ended up - if it was paid in the first place.

The arms caches were a set-up, planted on Haase's instructions from a mobile phone he had smuggled into prison.

Witnesses from within Haase's organisation now claim that bribes totalling £4.5 million were paid by criminals to officials involved with the case.

Haase and his associates have often been held responsible for bringing gun culture to the streets of Liverpool.

One former senior Customs officer said there had been suspicions well before the release of the two men that the arms caches were an elaborate scam.

Haase was rearrested in 1999 and sentenced to 13 years for money-laundering and supplying firearms to fellow gangsters.

He is serving his sentence, but continues to wield a powerful influence from his prison cell, not least through his continuing claims that bribes were paid to help obtain his royal pardon.

~~

MAFIA & TERROR LINKS TO GOVERMENTS?

Source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1411796,00.html

Iqbal Mirchi lives in Hornchurch, in England.

Iqbal Mirchi is wanted by police in India for murder and his part in a terrorist bombing campaign.

He is allegedly among the top 50 global drug barons; according to the US authorities he is the right-hand man of Dawood Ibrahim, head of the 'D' company, a worldwide mafia.

Bombs in Mumbai in 1993 killed over 300 people.

Mirchi's name was linked to the bombings.

According to Mirchi: 'a senior police officer told me that my name would be attached to false charges unless I paid millions of rupees in bribes. I refused and moved to Dubai. '

Mirchi admits having met Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai.Dawood has been described as 'the most dangerous man in the world'.

As well as drugs and terrorism, the D company is involved in gold smuggling, gambling, counterfeit currency, diamond trading, contract killing, extortion and film financing.

It is said to have a 60 per cent stake in the Bollywood film industry.

Dawood is also known to have met Osama Bin Laden and, in the aftermath of 9/11, allowed his smuggling network to be used to enable senior al-Qaeda operatives to flee Afghanistan.

~~~~~~~~

Top heroin gang; UK politicians; UK customs.

Zionist Jews Control Right, Marxian Jews The Left

Police chief- Lockerbie evidence was faked





~

In the UK wealth is being transferred from the poor to the rich.

Stewart Lansley, in The Guardian, 1 April 2006, relates that:

1. In the UK wealth is being transferred from the poor to the rich.

2. The UK has low innovation and productivity rates.

3. The rich are getting richer due to 'fast buck' deals and tax avoidance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1744534,00.html

Some quotes from Lansley:

Twenty years ago Britain was one of the most equal countries in the developed world.

Today it is one of the most unequal.

We are not living through an entrepreneurial and economic renaissance in which the new rich are making society wealthier, dragging up the rest of us.

In fact, Britain has internationally low innovation and productivity rates.

What is happening is a complex transfer of wealth from ordinary taxpayers, shareholders and customers.

Twenty years ago the typical chief executive of a FTSE 100 company earned some 25 times the pay of the average worker; today it is close to 120 times.

The City in effect operates as a giant, informal cartel, charging excessive fees for activity that, for the most part, involves the transfer (or sometimes destruction) of wealth, rather than its creation.

Increasingly, the emphasis is on short-term, "fast-buck" deals that are at odds with the patient organisation-building on which enduring companies and long-term wealth creation are founded and many large and successful companies were originally built.

Mergers and acquisitions are often driven by the prospect of fat bonuses and fees for directors and their City advisers rather than the long-term interests of the companies.

What has happened is that the richest 1% have been taking an increasingly disproportionate share of the nation's wealth: 23% today compared with 17% at the end of the 1980s.

In contrast, the share going to the bottom half of the population has fallen from 10% to 6%. This is more "trickle-up" than "trickle-down".

· Stewart Lansley is the author of Rich Britain, The Rise and Rise of the New Super-Wealthy.





~~~

Mossad control of Israel?

On 31 March 2006, Haaretz reported that, back in 1997, Hamas offered a 30 year cease-fire.

Apparently Mossad did not want a cease fire and decided to kill the head of Hamas?

The source of the following is : http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/701033.html

In 1997, Hamas offered a 30 year cease-fire.

Jordan's King Hussein sent the offer, via a Mossad agent, to Israel's Netanyahu.

Allegedly, it took a few days for the offer to get to Netanyahu.

Before the message arrived, Mossad tried to murder the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, in Jordan.

This is one of the details that former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy reveals in his book, "Man in the Shadows," out in Britain on 4 April 2006.

Mossad squad tried to assassinate Meshal by drizzling poison in his ear.

The attempt failed and two of the agents were captured.

Halevy reveals that Shamir met with Hussein three times and that they ultimately developed a great deal of mutual appreciation.

~~~

Ex-spy boss wields unexpected clout

From the Sydney Morning Herald

March 31, 2006

JERUSALEM: Israel's next government is likely to include a colourful former spy boss who may still be wanted in the US for espionage.

Rafi Eitan, 79, led the previously unknown pensioners' party, Gil, to win a remarkable seven seats in the 120-seat Knesset, making him a prime target for the acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, as he tries to build a centre-left coalition.

The party capitalised on widespread dissatisfaction with mainstream parties and sympathy for the plight of the elderly, who have suffered big welfare cuts in the past three years.

But some voters said they were supporting Mr Eitan's group of elderly political debutants because of his leading role in the campaign to free Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy intelligence analyst jailed for life in 1986 for selling secrets to Israel.

Mr Eitan had been Pollard's handler and was sought by the FBI. He subsequently accepted responsibility for the operation and resigned as head of the Bureau of Scientific Relations, an Israeli espionage agency. He has not visited the US since for fear of arrest.

At the time of the Pollard affair, Mr Eitan was already celebrated in Israeli security circles for his leading role in the capture of fugitive Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, whom Mossad had tracked down to Argentina in 1960.

Despite his nominal status as a pensioner, Mr Eitan is a wealthy businessman, having been appointed head of Israel's state chemicals corporation after retiring from intelligence work.

He has since built up big interests in Cuba, where he is said to be close to Fidel Castro.


~~~

China's move into Africa

Rory Carroll, in The Guardian, 28 March 2006, wrote about China's move into Africa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1741082,00.html

Carroll points out that a vast number of Chinese diplomats, technicians and entrepreneurs have entered Africa.

Carroll refers to:

Chinese lumberjacks in the Central African Republic, Chinese textile merchants in Lesotho, Chinese tourists in Zimbabwe, Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Chinese newspapers in South Africa, Chinese geologists in Sudan, Chinese channels on African satellite television...

China is chasing France and the US in the race to become the continent's biggest commercial partner.

China needs Africa's oil and minerals.

Carroll writes:

Now there is potential for a great irony: that rapacious Chinese capitalists will benefit Africa more than western do-gooders.

However, Carroll refers to certain problems:

1. The Chinese are accused of flouting laws and regulations - on health and safety, environmental protection, tax, social security.

2. The Chinese are accused of supporting some of Africa's worst governments.

In Zambia some people working for the Chinese describe their $45 monthly wage as exploitation.

"The Chinese are not good people. They do not pay us well. We do this only because there is no other work," says one worker.

"They make me work seven days a week, pay me $30 a month and if I miss a day, deduct some of my wages," says another worker.

Some Chinese firms allegedly dodge tax and flout rules on immigration and health and safety.

According to Carroll, African governments see China as a model of modernisation and development as well as a source of enterprise.

...University students in Zimbabwe have been told to learn Mandarin. Kenya has allowed the state-run China Radio International to run an FM transmitter which broadcasts in Chinese, English and Kiswahili. The Central African Republic has granted the country's biggest timber export licence to a Hong Kong company. Burundi has embraced Chinese nickel miners. Uganda has asked a Chinese firm to rehabilitate a ceremonial complex in Entebbe for a Commonwealth summit next year.

South Africa has the largest Chinese population, estimated at 160,000.

Carroll refers to two worries:

1. Chinese imports - worth $14bn in 2004, up more than a third from 2003 - are swamping local markets and driving many African manufacturers out of business.

2. The other worry is that efforts to bolster human rights and democracy across the continent are being eroded by the Chinese involvement.

Carroll lists examples:

When the International Monetary Fund held up a loan to Angola over misused oil revenue, China stepped in with a $2bn loan.

After western firms pulled out of Sudan over its human rights abuses and terrorist links, the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation helped build a 1,500km oil pipeline as well as bridges, roads and factories.

The United Nations security council threatened sanctions against Sudan over massacres in Darfur, only to be vetoed by Beijing. When America balked at supplying Nigeria's trigger-happy military, China offered dozens of patrol boats.

Carroll relates:

The single greatest Chinese interest in Africa is oil.

China 's economy is thirsty; by 2030 it will need to import 60% of its oil.

China already swallows most of Sudan's production, is on its way to becoming Angola's biggest client and is playing catch-up in Nigeria, paying $2.3bn for a 45% share of an offshore block.



~~

Charles Taylor, the CIA and bin Laden

Did the CIA use diamonds to fund al Qaeda and 9 11?

On 29 March 2006, UN officials took custody of Charles Taylor, the ex-Liberian president, and flew him to Sierra Leone to face trial for war crimes.

The following is taken from : http://allafrica.com/stories/200408050800.html

August 5, 2004

Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah, in a recently published 225-page book entitled "Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror," provides a detailed description of al Qaeda's activity in West Africa.

Corroborative accounts have been published by the London-based nongovernmental organization Global Witness and by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, established by the United Nations to investigate crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war in the 1990s.

According to Farah, American intelligence agencies overlooked the connection between diamond trading and al Qaeda and the central role played in harboring and profiting from the illicit dealing by Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was forced into exile in Nigeria last year under a deal brokered by the U.S. government.

Farah's findings have been hotly disputed by the CIA and FBI, and their viewpoint was reflected in the recently release report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9-11 Commission. "We have seen no persuasive evidence that al Qaeda funded itself by trading in African conflict diamonds," the report states (page 171).

But a confidential investigation by the Sierra Leone Special Court further bolsters the view that that the alliance between Taylor and al Qaeda was substantial, according to an article in Wednesday's Boston Globe by Washington correspondent Bryan Bender.

"Al Qaeda allegedly paid Taylor for protection and then joined him in the African diamond trade, raising millions of dollars for terrorist activities, according to UN war crimes documents," Bender wrote.

Citing the Special Court's investigation and U.S. intelligence official, Bender said a planned raid a few weeks after September 11, 2001 by U.S. Special Forces aimed at capturing Ghailani and an associate in Liberia was called off for unexplained reasons. One explanation raised by Bender's sources was Taylor's reported longstanding relations with the CIA.

Farah, who currently serves as senior fellow at the National Strategy Information Center, discussed with AllAfrica's Eunice Ajambo the 9-11 Commission findings, the interaction between Al Qaeda and West Africa's diamond trade, and his view of the role U.S. intelligence has played.

Excerpts:

What is your reaction to the single sentence in the 9-11 Commission report that dismisses African diamonds as a source of al Qaeda funding?

If you look at the footnotes of that particular citation, it's all FBI and CIA reports with the exception of an interview they quote with Allan White from the Special Court in Sierra Leone. I find it disturbing because they had access to the Belgium police report, which I have on my website, which they were given. The Special Court also wrote a special brief to them and the intelligence indicating al Qaeda's presence. The book, the Global Witness Report - none of those are cited as having been used at all in making their determination.

I think the 9-11 Commission was under a great deal of pressure to make hurried judgments. In my limited communication with them, they told me that they could not get to the bottom of the dispute. If you read my book, I have a lot of discussion of why the CIA tried to discredit the story, and the great lengths that they went to do so, despite the fact that they did not succeed, and the fact that more evidence continues to emerge [that] the story is actually correct. But there is a great hostility towards the story from the intelligence community, and all the commission did was take the intelligence community reports and use them as their basis for making their assertions.

I was really disappointed because several people talked to them after their initial staff report came out that contained that sentence. They do not seem to have listened to anybody, and they certainly didn't acknowledge [in their footnotes] that there was any other information out there.
The 9-11 Commission also stated "to date, we have not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9-11 attacks?" How do you respond to that?

The proof of the telephone contacts to Afghanistan on September 10th and the prior communications from the Belgium police who traced the phone call from the satellite phone used by Aziz Nassour and Samih Osailly [two al Qaeda operatives whose activities in west Africa are detailed in Farah's book] is not hearsay evidence. They made numerous calls and it's documented. I have the phone bills for them, and more importantly, the police got them out of the official records. I do not think it's something you can easily dismiss. Neither are the bank records from Artesia Bank that show $20m flowing and being unaccounted for, and all the other indications that other people came up with.

To just say, "we do not know where the money came from," seems a little bit disingenuous. My sense is that the report on how things went was largely based on official documents given to them by the intelligence community. And the intelligence community had a vested interest in trying to discredit this story. The panel, I think, just did not have the time or inclination to really investigate this. It wasn't really the focus of what they were doing. So it took the word of the CIA and the FBI, and used it, and unfortunately they are wrong.

Several investigations by other organizations have found evidence that corroborated your findings linking al Qaeda to the West African diamond trade. Do you think the 9-11 commission will revisit the evidence provided by these organizations?

I do not expect them to revisit the issue. There is a cultural resistance in the intelligence community to using any information that does not originate with themselves, and unfortunately in this case, they had no information. So the reaction to other information from me, from Global Witness, from the Special Court, from the Belgium police and from all the other players was that, `We did not have it, and therefore it can't be true.' I am afraid what we have seen with the 9-11 commission report is pretty much the final word. I do not have any indication they'll be revisiting the issue at all.

Why do you think U.S. policy makers ignored al Qaeda's Africa associations in the first place?

The U.S. has not perceived itself to have a strategic interest in sub-Saharan Africa on the terrorism front until very recently. I think that what you are seeing now is a little bit more interest, but only moderately more interest. The policy for decades has been neglect of sub-Saharan Africa. There is no administration that has given much attention to African issues. Europe has also been extremely negligent, and what you have is a consequence of that negligence, and the lack of strategic thinking on the part of the U.S. and others.

The development, not only in Liberia, [of] a functioning criminal state, is not a secret to anyone who has been to the region or who lives in the region. You have widespread corruption. You have vast areas of a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo where the state has no control. You have the Central African Republic, where government controls essentially only the capital. Mali, Chad, Niger [and] Nigeria all have very large areas where other armed groups outside of the state control the resources and life there. That whole scenario is part of the neglect by the outside world.

Why was Al Qaeda interested in West Africa?

Diamonds were perfect for several reasons. They are easy to transport. They have extremely high value in a very small packet, they are easy to convert into cash, and the market is big enough that it does not react to small sales, such that if you sell a few carats of diamonds the whole diamond market does not go out of register. It was extremely convenient from that point of view.

But perhaps the most important thing that west Africa offered was Liberia under Charles Taylor. Liberia had become a criminal and terrorist Disneyland under his management, from which he was making a substantial sum of money. Taylor had allowed in Victor Bout, the largest illegal weapons merchant in the world. He had allowed in Leonid Menin, a very large Ukrainian drug trafficker. He allowed in South African and Balkan organized crime.

Liberia and the border into Sierra Leone that the RUF controlled offered terrorist and organized criminal structures a safe haven where they could enter and leave the country unmolested to carry out their business and have access to natural resources that were extremely important to them.

Alex Yearsley of Global Witness asserts that, "Taylor received CIA payments until January 2001." You write about dealings between the CIA and Ibrahim Bah, the Senegalese mastermind who coordinated the diamond trade with al Qaeda. Why would the CIA form this kind of partnership?

It's a disturbing question. I do not have direct knowledge myself of the CIA dealings with Taylor. Taylor has told others and me that he has worked for the CIA over time. As part of the lack of interest in Africa, the recruitment of intelligence efforts has been very limited - especially after the diamond story.

When they want to get a handle on it, who better than Ibrahim Bah, the person who had brought the al Qaeda people into Liberia and Sierra Leone to begin with? It's a symptom of a lack of moral principles in trying to get information. It's fairly clear that Ibrahim Bah and Charles Taylor, who have lived for many years by their wits and by not playing by the rules, probably provided very little information of any value to the intelligence.

You write that the diamond trade in Africa transcends ideological and religious differences. Could you please talk more about the business dealings between Israeli and Lebanese merchants in West Africa?

One of the most alarming and shocking thing in my dealing with the diamond trade in west and central Africa was the willingness of Israelis and Arabs, who want to kill each other in their homelands, to do business with each other on the ground in Africa. I met Hezbollah diamond dealers who were selling to Israelis and Israelis who were selling to Hezbollah, knowing that Hezbollah was trying to kill Israelis in the Middle East, and Hezbollah knowing that the Israelis wanted to kill their family members back there.

I think it's one of the truly extraordinary demonstrations of the depth to which people will sink in their greed for diamonds. It's the epitomy of the worst kind of greed and corruption of moral principles. They come with the desire to make money at any cost. What both the Arabs and Israelis told me was, `Business is business. Here we do business. Back there is war and back there is not our problem.' If you look at the ties between Lebanese with ties to radical Islamists trying to buy weapons with Israelis to ship [elsewhere], it's a web that is very complicated, very difficult to understand, and very hard to believe unless you see it and talk to people yourself.

What about Eastern Africa?

Eastern Africa has long been - because of the Muslim population over there and al Qaeda's ties into that region, going back to the early part of the 1990s - a known quantity as far as al Qaeda goes. You had the embassy bombings in 1998, you had the U.S.S. Cole bombing in 2000 [in Yemen], and you had the 'Black Hawk Down' in Somalia, earlier than that, in which al Qaeda was also involved.

So there was some understanding, although limited, of al Qaeda's operational capabilities and intent to move in the East African sphere. It was only after the 1998 embassy bombings that al Qaeda moves a large contingent its personnel - I think mostly for safe keeping, because they knew that the U.S. would be tracking them down - to West Africa. And that's where you see the West African connection being made.

What is the connection between Saudi Arabia, Africa and al Qaeda from your research experience?

I am learning that the influence of the Saudi Arabian charities particularly, and their efforts to export the very austere, radical part of Islam known as Wahhabism, is spread much further in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in west Africa, than most people outside the region know or understand. If you look at the charities that operate there, if you look at the Wahhabi takeover of mosques in Mali, Niger, Mauritania et cetera, and the move to put millions of dollars into northern Nigeria.

What Wahhabism preaches is that not only Christian and Jews are infidels and can be killed, but also Muslims who do not agree with them can be killed. So you have this very harsh, radical branch of Islam moving in and exercising a great deal of influence in sectors of west Africa in ways that are extremely dangerous to developing democracy and tolerant societies, and in areas where there already deep ethnic conflicts to which this kind of radicalism can [spread] into and breed.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently released a study of the rising U.S. stakes in Africa, specifically pinpointing the Muslim community in Africa as a major U.S. foreign policy concern. Do you agree?

The U.S. is becoming aware of the potential threat posed, not by the Muslim community, but by the ability of radical Islam to take control of the Muslim communities and turn them into recruiting grounds for Jihadists and Wahhabists. It's very clear that the tradition of Islam in west Africa is extremely tolerant.

In Liberia and Sierra Leone, I knew Moslems who had married Christians and Christians who had married Moslems, and there was not an issue. But what you'll see is a Muslim community, which is largely impoverished and has very little access to state resources, and which has very few ways of bettering their lives - when money flows in from outside with offers to help, they will take it. And with that help, will come radicalization of Islam in many parts of west Africa.

The United States is just starting to recognize that problem. The question is how you deal with that. We simply do not have the resources or the strategic thinking to begin to figure out ways to make moderate Islam more attractive, to put resources in teaching ways of democratic systems and to give the social services that states do not give.

What does al Qaeda look for in African countries to advance its interests?

Al Qaeda looks for different things in different areas. It's clear that they would like to expand their pool of potential recruits in the Islamic communities wherever they find them. What sub-Saharan Africa offers them that other parts of the world don't are the abilities that they had in Liberia, to move into states that would protect them and operate with them for monetary reasons. Charles Taylor was not a Muslim. He is a Christian, and yet he was perfectly happy to deal with these people because they were willing to pay him.

If you look at failed states and what sociologists are now calling "gray areas" or stateless areas - areas across sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world where armed groups, rather than states control assets - that's where these people like to go because then they have a rest and recreation area. They have a recruiting pool, and they have a way to hide out, when they need safety.

Is there a possibility of eradicating the financial networks supporting terrorism?

To eradicate the terrorist financial structure is extremely difficult because the phenomenon of al Qaeda and radical Islam is not limited to a few people, where you could kill them and go back to the way things where. It's become a theology and ideology of widespread appeal among people who feel they have no way of improving their lives, and who feel they have nothing to loose by going into the Jihad against the west and against their religious enemies as defined by extremist Muslims. You can't get rid of the pool of talent and money that the Jihad can draw - not in the near term and probably never.

You have to think in ways of combating them, not just militarily but on the religious front, with moderate Islamic principles and with democratic principles, with meeting people's social needs, health needs and educational needs in ways that governments so far have been unwilling or unable to do, partly because of the endemic corruption in these states. Another thing that plays into the widespread dissolution, and that makes something disciplined and coherent like the theology and ideology [of] al Qaeda attractive to people is that they are stuck in countries that offer them nothing, and where the culture of the "big man" is so strong that they have no hope of ever improving their own lives.



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Tony Blair and Bangbang

On 30 March 2006, Tony Blair met Indonesia's President Yudhoyono.

President Susilo BangbangYudhoyono is a former general with U.S. training.

The UK and Indonesia are to build defense ties

British officials said this step would allow moves such as joint exercises.

Human rights abuses continue in Indonesia.

According to the Masters of Terror database:

(quoted at http://www.etan.org/et2004/april/08-14/06yudhoy.htm )

Yudhoyono was the military's Chief of Socio-Political Staff Chief of Territorial Affairs with East Timor responsibilities in 1999.

Yudhoyono shared command responsibility for the criminal conduct of the army's forces in East Timor in 1999.

After the withdrawal from East Timor he defended the military against allegations that it had committed crimes against humanity.

He took part in Operation Seroja, the invasion of East Timor, and had several tours of duty there since, including commanding the Dili-based battalion 744 some time in the 1970s.

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Blair can learn from Soeharto's belated departure, according to Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 30 March 2006.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060329.B01&irec=0

It is unlikely that any world leader, especially those still in power, would want to be compared with Soeharto, because the retired five-star general who ruled Indonesia for 32 years is usually associated with corruption on a massive scale, gross human rights abuses and cold-blooded leadership. Any comparison with Soeharto would be humiliating for most world leaders, who no doubt do not like to think of themselves in those terms.

So when British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives here Wednesday for a two-day visit, he is unlikely to imagine he has anything to learn from Soeharto.


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