"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Cully Stimson - why is this cunt still in a job ?

Charles D. "Cully" Stimson, 43, is a brainless twat, he is also a lawyer, a a former federal attorney, now Deputy assistant secretary of Defense for detainee affairs (i.e Gubment employee) , and appeared on a radio talk show this week - Federal News Radio, a Washington, D.C., radio outlet that runs long interviews targeted at commuting government workers (listen here - Warning poor connection!). He rattled off a list of some of the most prestigious law firms in the nation.

They have been providing pro bono, or no-charge, legal representation to captives at the U.S. Navy base, where the Bush junta is holding some 395 men / children as so-called "enemy combatants."

Stimson cited a string of major US law firms defending clients at Guantanamo pro bono: Pillsbury Winthrop, Jenner & Block, Hunton & Williams, Alston & Bird, Cutler Pickering, Weil Gotshal, Paul Weiss Rifkin, Covington & Burling, Mayer Brown, Pepper Hamilton, Perkins Cole, Fulbright Jaworski, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, and Venable [firm websites].

Stimson predicted that "when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line in 2001 those CEO's are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms." The former Navy lawyer said "It's shocking...The major law firms in this country...are out there representing detainees."

Karen Mathis The President of the American Bar Association issued a statement on Friday condemning Stimson's comments.

"Lawyers represent people in criminal cases to fulfill a core American value: the treatment of all people equally before the law. To impugn those who are doing this critical work -- and doing it on a volunteer basis -- is deeply offensive to members of the legal profession, and we hope to all Americans. The American Bar Association supports lawyers who give of their time and expertise defending those involved in legal actions. In fact it is one of the basic tenets of the Association's Second Season of Service, that lawyers should perform pro bono and volunteer work."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman has since said that Stimson's comments
"Mr. Cully Stimson's comments in a recent media interview about law firms representing Guantanamo detainees do not represent the views of the Defense Department or the thinking of its leadership,"
Neal Sonnett, a Miami defense attorney who's been an observer at Guantanamo for the American Bar Association, called Stimson's remarks "irresponsible" and "shameful."

The New York Times has an article today regarding this man's stupidity....

“This is prejudicial to the administration of justice,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University and an authority on legal ethics. “It’s possible that lawyers willing to undertake what has been long viewed as an admirable chore will decline to do so for fear of antagonizing important clients.

“We have a senior government official suggesting that representing these people somehow compromises American interests, and he even names the firms, giving a target to corporate America.”

The same point appeared ina concerted effort on Friday on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, Robert L. Pollock, a member of the newspaper’s editorial board, cited the list of law firms (obtained by FOIA with over 500 names on it) and quoted an unnamed “senior U.S. official” as saying, “Corporate C.E.O.’s seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists.”

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, (D.Vt) chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wrote to President Bush on Friday asking him to disavow Mr. Stimson’s remarks.

"Lawyers have a long tradition of coming up to the plate and representing unpopular clients, including war criminals in World War II," said Ronald Rotunda, a George Mason University law professor who worked on Guantanamo issues as a legal adviser to the Bush Pentagon.

Mr. Stimson, who was a Navy lawyer, graduated from George Mason University Law School (see above) . In a 2006 interview with the magazine of Kenyon College, his alma mater, Mr. Stimson said that he was learning “to choose my words carefully because I am a public figure on a very, very controversial topic.”

See also
NYT Leader / Opinion

The curse of the Lord (Patel) is on him - jobless by Friday.

UPDATE SUNDAY
The beautiful and talented Nancy Rapoport of the of the University of Houston Law Center .....

Apparently, Mr. Stimson has missed the recent renaissance of Harper Lee, Truman Capote’s friend who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. In that famous book, lawyer Finch represents Tom Robinson, an African-American man falsely accused of raping a white woman, at a time when such accusations typically resulted in public lynchings. Suffice it to say that Atticus Finch represented a very unpopular client.


To US readers; Mockingbird is an iconic book to UK schoolchildren and is used as a study text foir GCSE exams (age 15 ish)... and so is exceptionally well known.

UPDATE - UPDATE

See this from the curious schizoid but excellent Leandrotoro blog - Wall Street Journal: Suggesting that corporate America pressure top law firms to drop their pro-bono work for Guantanamo prisoners seems to have been a rhetorical bridge too far for Charles "Cully" Stimson- plus lots of follow up information and and pictures of a member of the Hilton family looking very relaxed in the company of members of the same sex.

See also very interesting background on Stimson and his job @Govexec.com

This for example ...

In late February 2006, Human Rights First released a damning report documenting the deaths of 98 detainees while in U.S. custody, including 34 officially suspected or confirmed homicides and eight to 12 men who were tortured to death. "One such incident would be an isolated transgression; two would be a serious problem; a dozen of them is policy," retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, the Navy's former top lawyer and currently dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire, wrote in the report's introduction.

"I wish Cully every good wish and hope that he's effective and gets it straightened out," Hutson says, but "I'm not wildly enthusiastic about the job that's being done." The fundamental problem, according to Hutson, is a failure of congressional oversight. In 2004, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said Defense was leaving no stone unturned in its investigations. But, "There are lots of stones, and they're still sunny-side up," Hutson says. "they're afraid of what's going to crawl out if they turn them over."

Don't want any of those smart corporate lawyers in doing that do we ?

Carbon traded and a famous Swede

In his Prime Minister's New Year address Norway's Jens Stoltenberg announced "The government has decided that when state employees travel by plane abroad, we will buy quotas for the emissions caused by the trip." (BBC Online)

He said the scheme was thought to be the most ambitious of its kind in the world and hoped others would follow. Under the scheme the government will buy credits to be invested in projects which reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Norwegian Gubment would not give any figures but according to the Norwegian news agency NTB the estimated cost of the scheme would be around 2.5 million kroner ($400,000, £200,000) per year.

He described the plan as "an example" for Norway's companies and other countries.

Oddly the UK Gubment have also wasted the taxpayers money in the same way, but there has been (remarkably) zero publicity - except when Lord Patel published it on Tuesday, January 9 2007 Carbon Black hole - ETS price drops 23% in one day. - to point out that the price of carbon credits they had purchased had since being bought dropped by 40%. Learn more about this nonsense here.

Count Axel Oxenstiern (1583–1654)took his 13 year old son to watch the Swedish Parliament in session, which he explained to him was to illustrate ..."with how little wisdom the world is governed".

Axel Oxenstierna is not a well known figure but he was influential with Gustavus Adolphus in the 30 years wars, and took over when he was killed at the Battle of Lutzen November 6th 1632. It must be remembered that the Realm of Sweden had reached its greatest territorial extent at this time and was one of the great powers of Europe and included what is today Sweden, Finland along with parts of modern Russia, Poland, Germany, Estonia, and Latvia. Axel wasn't made a Count until 1645 by Queen Kristina but is almost always ennobled too soon in the text books. This was the year in which the Ordinari Post Tijdender newspaper was first published, the first one in Sweden.

One thing the Swedes are to this day grateful for was the decision arrived at by the Count and the Queen in 1649 on Sweden's first true School Law, establishing a distinction between grammar schools and elementary schools - that survives today.

It is said that the the Count was responsible for sending the two Swedish/Dutch ships, the Kalmar Nyckel and the Fogel Grip,which arrived on March 29th 1638 at the Delaware river (although it was known for many years as Swenskes Revier) in North America who soon bought land from the Indians, and Nova Svecia (New Sweden - now Wilmington ) was established. (see pic of tapestry of first Swedes stealing land from the native Indians) This was a commercial attempt to expand the Swedish empire and not the flight of people from religious persecution.

Oxenstierna died in February 1654 and the son whom he had so early in life exposed to the dunces of the Swedish Parliament became the new Chancellor.

(More here and here on the early Swedish development of North America)

Mona Sahlin, Swedish Minister of sustainable development announced in February 2006 the inention that Sweden (pop 6Mn ish) would by 2020 be free of using oil. (Guradian) Only 32% of Swedish energy came from oil - down from 77% in 1970.

The Swedish government works with vehicle builders Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other biofuels. Swedish energy agency plan to get the public sector to move out of using oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.

They don't play at swapping carbon credits in a finamciers casino - they fucking do something about stopping the use of fossil fuels.


Friday, January 12, 2007

Tony Blair - Comfort "The Joy of Sex" and hard and soft centres at RUSI in Albion

In the early sixties Alex Comfort, (now of course famous for his liberally illustrated guide to moneymaking "The Joy of Sex") was an academic biologist studying senescence , with his then, trendy lengthy locks and his dishevelled stump of a right hand, which he waved as a stumpy philosophers wand, presented an exotic and anarchic figure to undergraduates.

He had published a collection of essays "Darwin and the Naked Lady" and spoke fluently, and with then, uncharacteristic good humour about sex and the sexual act in describing the Koka Shastra, circumcision, which was to feature in a later (and now forgotten book about "The Anxiety Makers" - Some curious preoccupations of the medical profession, London, Nelson, 1967

He introduced what was then (and still is) the concept of hard and soft centred thinking... which probably is now more evident in so called "evidence based" medecine, the attempt to produce scientific rigour into social debate and social issues. Remember this was the time of the creepy C.P.Snow and his preposterous ideas about "The 2 Cultures", which was so effectivelty dismissed by F.R.Leavis who was the epitome of the "hard centred" mind. It was the time when Lancelot Hogben another academic maverick in his essays "Science and Society" made the claim that "no society is safe in the hands of so few clever people" - wise ( and ignored) words of warning when economists like Stern can write drivel about the economic costs of climate change, and actuaries without understanding what the Reverend Bayes was talking about have destroyed the pension of millions.

Those chosen few the illuminati of the St. James' based Royal United Services Institute, the haunt of the shady and secretive backers, both military and financial of the quasi private standing armies of Aegis and Erinys who field more troops in Iraq than the UK Army - certainly better paid and probably much better equipped , moved their showcase to the carefully theatrical setting of HMS Albion to reveal their Commander in Chief against a backdrop of camouflage military trucks and cannon today. (Did they get the idea from St. Albion's in Private Eye?)

Those chosen few, the illuminati of RUSI, the retired military and their associated and like minded coves who wield power and influence through Hakluyt, Bilderberg, Chatham House, London City instutitions and Finance houses were allowed to peer into the mind of their delusional dumkopf, and demented, and shortly to be (?) ex-Prime Minister.

They were treated to a wide sweeping view of global conflicts of truly juvenile range which he identified as"hard" and "soft" .... and showed what Alex Comfort described as soft centred thinking. The complete text - which he offers as the basis of a debate is here

Some points amongst the mass of verbiage are worthy of attention.

After 10 years in office he tells us the Cabinet are "conducting a review into every major aspect of policy to set a unified platform and policy direction for the future."

Which some may think a little late to embark upon such an ambitiuos project when he is shortly to exit the scene - however ..

Firstly we are concerned by values and interests , which are in some magical and unexplained way antithetic, but "by furthering our values we further our interests in the modern era of globalisation and interdependence."

Secondly we have two sets of Allies, America on the one hand and Europe on the other again it appears, antithetic and opposed - no mention of the Commonwealth, Australia and the ties that bind, the rising stars of the east, Japan, China The forbidding Russian Bear , the sunlit cresecnt of the Middle East whose energy we so urgently need are also exempt from this remarkably short list.

Thirdly, this review combines, almost uniquely, “hard” and “soft” power. (we will skip over for speed the concept of an "almost unique" concept and certainly dismiss the concept that such a dichotomy is in any way novel or unique - see Alex Comfort )

"But it is fair to say that the “hard” power has been considerably more controversial than the “soft”.

(Overlooking the commencement of a sentence and a paragraph , even, with a conjuction - a solecism which would knock a few marks off the Bairian "O" level Eng.Lang. exam) this basically means either kicking the shit out of wogs or stroking them gently and winning their hearts and minds by building bridges, supplying clean water, sanitation, etc., ... which regrettably (and evidently unseen by the great seer) in the preparatory, warm up or "softening up" initial phase is destroyed by the "hard" bastards dropping laser guided bombs from 20,000 feet, Tomahawk guided missiles etc., etc.,

He then advances to his key vision of the UK's place in this disordered farctured world which we can re-order ..

"There are two types of nations similar to ours today. Those who do war fighting and peacekeeping and those who have, effectively, except in the most exceptional circumstances, retreated to the peacekeeping alone."

i.e Us and Them, (sounds familiar) Them being the (let us say) the Swiss with the Red Cross, the French with Medecin sans Frontiere, the ever present and helpful, Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Danes, the myriad nations that make up the UN peacekeepers and nation builders who, given the chance won't support armed intervention.

"As a direct consequence of Suez, deterrence, rather than direct deployment, became the pivot of policy."

A policy which one has to say in separating the aggressors of the Cold War seems to have worked exceptionally well, but hard thought doesn't come easily to this latter day Clausewitz...

"So much of what is written distorts the truth or greatly embellishes it. "

WTF ? This one is worthy of Dubya

As he reaches his preoration he discloses a wonderful Truth , at least to the hard thinkers, but not to the soft thinkers like him....

"September 11 wasn’t the incredible action of an isolated group, a one-off strike masterminded by Osama Bin Laden. It was the product rather of a world-wide movement, with an ideology based on a misreading of Islam, whose roots were deep, which had been growing for years and with the ability to mount a radically different type of warfare requiring a radically different type of response. What we face is not a criminal conspiracy or even a fanatical but fringe terrorist organisation. We face something more akin to revolutionary Communism in its early and most militant phase. It is global. It has a narrative about the world and Islam’s place within it that has a reach into most Muslim societies and countries. "


He thinks this describes the rag, tag and bobtail of the mujahedeen with their Kalashnikovs and leather sandals ... READ IT CAREFULLY .. see the morror image ...he has carefully delineated the Zionist , neo-con cabals that have hi-jacked, not aeroplanes, but Governments and their Armies. The role of AIPAC, NDL, AEI, the red blooded Zionist in powerful position in America, Perle, Kissinger, Wurmser (Mr & Mrs) the deputy leader of the Democcrats etc etc., Lord Levy his personal Middle East envoy and school chum of Halevy the ex (?) head of Mossad and his fnanciers who have put Blair into power abd kept him there and others out. Sat round that cabinet table when these issues post 9/11 was discussed he had a Minister , Michael Meacher who publicly supports that malign view of these bloodthirsty Zionists and their long fought vision of an apartheid non Muslim state holding sway and with Midel eastern hegemony.

"The battle will be long. "


"The frontiers of our security no longer stop at the Channel. What happens in the Middle East affects us. What happens in Pakistan; or Indonesia; or in the attenuated struggles for territory and supremacy in Africa for example, in Sudan or Somalia. The new frontiers for our security are global. "


"So my choice is for Armed forces that are prepared to engage in this difficult, tough, challenging campaign, to be warfighters as well as peacekeepers; for a British foreign policy keeps our American alliance strong and is prepared to project hard as well as soft power; and for us as a nation to be as willing to fight terrorism and pay the cost of that fight wherever it may be, as we are to be proud champions of the causes of peace in the Middle East, action against poverty, or the struggle to halt the degradation of our environment."

Finally he challenges for a debate ...

"The world has changed again. We must change with it. I have set out the choice I believe we should make. I look forward to the debate."


The man is insane. Deluded. Irrational - he calls for defence expenditure which he has starved for a decade. He calls for a war on Islam ...

"What we face is not a criminal conspiracy or even a fanatical but fringe terrorist organisation. We face something more akin to revolutionary Communism in its early and most militant phase. It is global. It has a narrative about the world and Islam’s place within it that has a reach into most Muslim societies and countries."

He and his supporters, must be resisted at every step.

Lord Patel will now go and rest in a darkened, quiet room and will return to this again, and again. This nonsense must be exposed and resisted. NO stone must be left unturned to expose the daylight on the grubby people with grubby minds who support this nonsense.

Tony Blair is a homosexual - fantasist - sorceror - kaleidescope shaken


"Tony Blair is delusional" sobbed a breathy Claire Short on BBC4 World At One just now, fresh from crying about dead Liverpool football fans on Question Time ... Lembit Opek who had previously told Tony that he helped launch National Condom Week at PMQ on Wednesday deeply probed his homo-erotic fantasies...

"Not wishing to be cheeky, I thank the House for being so happy that I am so lucky. I should point out that the other sister is still single."

..... to which the the tense and deeply troubled PM replied mysteriously , I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) on his extraordinary work for the Motor Neurone Disease Association " and then mysteriously added, " ....and I hope that he continues with it."

Portsmouth. Morning, Military drums. A scene. Lords and Generals assembled. Officers, Soldiers and Others, St Albion.

Scenes of military might, camouflage netting "...we must continue to fight wars to maintain Britain's influence in the world" ... This Albion , this other England ... this sceptic isle.... shore up the breach with our English dead" , " "new and different challenges ....war fighters as well as peacekeepers ....a generation of terror ...... pay the cost of that fight wherever it may be ... take war to the enemy .... gung ho .....ill-advised adventures without a thought .... atavistic, misguided attempt to recapture past glories"

Scene shifters, shift scenes, lights flash, lights follow .....

Robin Cook arrives stage right clad as Banquo's Ghost " Cry havoc ...... and let slip the Dogs of War" Alan Johnson sacrifices child in foreground , Peter Hain drinks the blood ..." Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter" ; John Reid appears , chains rattle, "Heads will roll ...Unburden'd crawl toward death ....you, our no less loving son of Albany ....

Albany speaks .. at last ...last

"The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest has borne most: we that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long"

"Why are you shining that light in my eyes ?"

" Doctor ........................ the light .....

Exuent omnes

Is there a Global Strike Alert ?

Not Just A Last Resort? A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option

By William Arkin
Washington Post Sunday, May 15, 2005; B01

Early last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a top secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" directing the military to assume and maintain readiness to attack hostile countries that are developing weapons of mass destruction, specifically Iran and North Korea.

Two months later, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, told a reporter that his fleet of B-2 and B-52 bombers had changed its way of operating so that it could be ready to carry out such missions. "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert," Carlson said in an interview with the Shreveport (La.) Times. "We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes." Carlson said his forces were the U.S. Strategic Command's "focal point for global strike" and could execute an attack "in half a day or less."

In March last year at Fairford the European base for such a strike force there were 2 B-2 Stealth Bombers and two B-1B multi-role bombers spotted and photographed. The base, in rural Gloucestershire, last saw action in 2003 when B-52 bombers flew from there to bomb Iraq. It is the largest USAF bomber base in Europe and the only one with maintenance facilities for the B-2. Interesting site here that watches. KC-10 tanker pic from them.

This is what Sy Hersh - who let's face it, isn't always right, but has some very high level connections said earlier this year ...

"The chairman of the Defense Science Board is William Schneider, Jr., an Under-Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration. In January, 2001, as President Bush prepared to take office, Schneider served on an ad-hoc panel on nuclear forces sponsored by the National Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. The panel’s report recommended treating tactical nuclear weapons as an essential part of the U.S. arsenal and noted their suitability “for those occasions when the certain and prompt destruction of high priority targets is essential and beyond the promise of conventional weapons.” Several signers of the report are now prominent members of the Bush Administration, including Stephen Hadley, the national-security adviser; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; and Robert Joseph, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security."

Now that the surge is official policy it would be exciting to watch any air displays over rural Gloucestershire.

Probably all balls says 'er indoors pointin at this link.

Stem Cell research gets State funds, NCR and Wood Group workers lose their jobs - and future ?

Ohio based National Cash Register (NCR) will end a 60 year link with Dundee soon and move manufacturing of their Hole in the Wall ATM machines to Budapest and 650 jobs will go at their Wester Gourdie plant. Wood GroupPLC the oil field services company have announced 50 job losses at its Dundee turbine services operation this week as the North Sea oil fields shrink and production declines. Q3 2006 DTI Energy Statistics show Total indigenous UK oil production down by 10.2 % to 17.3 million tonnes compared with Q3 2005. 2 new fields started up in September - insufficient to make up for production declines in older fields.

Again the UK was a net importer of oil and oil products in Q3 2006 by 2.5 Mn tonnes. (Q3 2005 = 2.3 Mn tonnes)


NCR who have 1/3rd of the market in Europe are chasing lower labour costs and more central distribution in Europe as well as being located nearer fast growing emergent Eastern European markets.

In Edinburgh the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine a centre for stem cell research, and funded by the Scottish Executive (£24Mn), Edinburgh University(£19Mn) and Scottish Enterprise (16Mn) will rise soon in Little France, next to the Centre for Biomedical Research by the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary , to congest the city centre further when it opens in 2010.

It is claimed that 650 jobs will be created initially with 220 researchers and eventually up to 6,000 jobs as associated suppliers , firms cluster in the area and generate £18 million per year for the Scottish economy.

Jack McConnell claims, "This could result in thousands of jobs and a huge economic benefit for Scotland."

NHS Managers control costs before controlling diseases = MRSA


Leaked memo reveals that targets to beat MRSA will not be met shrieks the Times Online 11/1/07 headline.....

"The NHS will miss its target of halving superbug infections by 2008 and may never be able to control the problem effectively, the Government has admitted secretly....blah ..blah"

13/07/04 Good News on Adverse Events? Investigating Imperialism had the story a long time ago - and provided the evidence on the next "hospital adverse events" scandal.

Margaret Beckett is a heartless, lying, cowardly ,calculating bitch

Geoffrey Bindman is a solicitor, he received a knighthood in the 2007 New Year's honours list for services to human rights. He represents Sandy Mitchell, (pic BBC) Bill Sampson and Leslie Walker who were arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and signed false confessions for bombings and murder of a UK citizen Christopher Rodway, at whose inquest held at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 2005 the coroner accepted their innocence.

The "confessions", were videoed and shown on Saudi State TV, they ludicrously claimed that they had been acting on the instructions of named officials of the British embassy. A sham trial resulted in Sandy and Bill to be sentenced to execution by crucifixion.

After much intergovernmental and secret wrangling and 3 years in jail they were released in August 2003. British ministers had applied some pressure for their release, but the key was a US Government agreement to exchange them for 4 Saudis held at Guantanamo Bay released in May 14th 2003. (See Wapo story 6/7/2004)

The men are broken, jobless, unemployable. They seek compensation. No one, no UK minister doubts the men's innocence

In November 2006, Bindman met Margaret Beckett - then finding her feet as the new Foreign Secretary. In preparatory remarks she explained her naive and simplistic approach: never pursue a course of action that you know is bound to fail.

Simply , the Saudis were not going to budge, her time was too precious to waste convincing them. The king she was told still believed the men were guilty. If an opportunity arose she would pass on our concern to the Saudis. It was evident that she felt no obligation to persuade him that he had been misinformed.

Geoffrey Bindman says " ....... far from helping their citizens to get justice, the UK government has hindered them in a number of ways. Most remarkably in our particular case, it intervened on the side of the Saudis."


Saudis expect Eurofighters 'soon' Sunday 7th Jan 2007 BBC Online

There were fears the Eurofighter deal could be lost.
Saudi Arabia has said it will start taking deliveries of 72 Eurofighter jets (US$16.6Bn) from UK defence company BAE Systems "very soon".

Read more at New Statesman Saudi torture: a Whitehall cover-up by Geoffrey Bindman

Floating crippled tanker threatens North Sea Gas Platform

Maritime & Coastguard Agency Press release in full

Press Notice No: Duty 2
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Posted 23:03 GMT CARGO VESSEL NOW DRIFTING TOWARDS SECOND GAS PLATFORMThe cargo vessel which has been drifting towards a gas platform in the North Sea has cleared the rig. The vessel, Vindo, managed to start its engines temporarily and slipped its anchor so that there was no damage to gas pipelines. However, the vessel is now drifting towards another Conoco Philips unmanned platform, Caister. Capacity of 80 billion standard cubic feet of gas, Located 75 miles (120 kilometres) northeast of Theddlethorpe St. Helen, Lincolnshire.(Specification)

Humber Coastguard scrambled an RAF helicopter to the scene a short while ago, and it is now standing by in case of need.

Although the ship has now drifted clear of the original platform, the problem still remains since it is now drifting towards a second platform with the ships nine crew on board. The crew of the vessel are still working hard to reinstate engine power.

Earlier this evening, all thirty of the Murdoch Platforms crew were evacuated by helicopter. There is no intention to begin re-manning the platform until morning.

Weather conditions are challenging with 50 knot winds from the west and a seven metre swell.

UK energy supplies are not only threatened by Russian Governments, Muslim jihadist extremist IslamoFascists and Greenpeace.


Thursday, January 11, 2007

German terrorist may be released soon

In President Bush's War on Terror, many are ignorant of, or have forgotten that terrorism is not new in Europe, from Basque ETA activists , in Ireland, the IRA and and UVF and their continuing splinter groups and in germany the Baader - Meinhof Gang and the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) who killed over 30 people.

One of their most determined German activists may soon be released.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt (pic) was first arrested on 9th June 1972 in Berlin in connection with the Red Army Faction and sentenced to prison for involvement with a criminal organisation. She was released from prison on 8 February 1977, and immediately went back underground and continued her work with the RAF.

On the 15th September 1981 Mohnhaupt took part in an assassination attempt on US General Frederick Kroesen using an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket. Kroesen survived but was badly injured.

On 11 November 1982 she was arrested along with Adelheid Schulz, attempting to enter an RAF arms cache in woods near Frankfurt which had been staked out by GSG9 operatives who had infiltrated their cell. She was subsequently charged with involvement in the murder on 30 July 1977 of banker Jürgen Ponto, chairman of the Dresdner Bank board of directors in Oberursel, Taunus ,and also involvement in the kidnappijng and subsequent murder of ex Nazi and German employers representative Hanns Martin Schleyer. She was found guilty and sentenced to 5 life sentences and has since spent most of her time in Aichach prison in Bavaria.

On 21st February last year she applied for early release in the regional court in Stuttgart and was rejected and it was determined that the minimum sentence required was 24 years which the Federal prosecutor Klaus Pflieger demanded / requested - meaning the earliest possible release date would be 26 March,2007.

She is now 57 and has re-applied for release and the Bavarian Ministry of Justice are expected to report by the end of February on her case. Press coment this week in Stren, Der Zeit suggets that her release is expected.

Andrea Martina Klump (50) was the last RAF member to be imprisoned. She was the girlfriend of Horst Ludwig Meyer and with him attempted to bomb a Spanish disco in Rota in 1984 which was often frequented by US servicemen however the attempt fell through. She was also cnsidered to be involved with the murder of banker Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 but nothing was ever proved.

With Meyer on December 23, 1991 an attempt was made with a 25KG bomb of military explosives to bomb a bus on the way to Budapest airport with 33 people on board including 29 Soviet Jewish emigrants with a car bomb.

The bomb exploded prematurely and nobody was killed but several were injured. They evaded Police until September 15, 1999 when they were approached by the police in Vienna , Meyer was shot and Klump who survived, was extradited to Germany .

She confessed to the attempted Spanish Disco bombing (German law allows trial for offences outside German territory) and was sentenced in May 2001 to 9 years but charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation, were dropped.

Klump partially confessed to the 1991 Hungary bombing, accepting prior knowledge but not direct involvement - DNA evidence of Klump's stay in Budapest around the time of the bombing linked her to it and on September 28th 2004 Klump was sentenced by a High Court in Stuttgart to a further 12 years in prison.

UK Interest Rates rise ...no shock there then

Shock as UK rates rise to 5.25% BBC

SHOCK AS INTEREST RATES RISE DailyMirror

The Bank of England surprised markets on Thursday by raising interest rates Reuters

But no shock to Lord Patel's readers who were warned on Wednesday, January 3 in the post The Mysterious case of the disappearing M3

"If you live in the US ... the only thing you will buy cheaper in a year's time is your house.

If you live in the UK ...expect interest rates 1/4% to rise when the Monetary Committee meet 2nd Thursday in Janaury... highest ever under Gordie as he battles soaring inflation w
hich new energy bills which have been capped for many will flutter through the letter box."

Pi phone

Ï€ - phone

It's a winner ! Offers for the name accepted in brown envelopes stuffed full of legal large denomination used currency.

Bush's Urge to Surge - There is no Zionist Lobby. Ho.Ho.Ho

Bush's Urge to Surge 3 point Plan
1. Go into Baghdad and kick the living shit out of everyone. Period. C-130's the Whole Deal.
2. Anbar ... Ditto ....
3. ...er...er..that's it.
4. Get that fucking oil legislation through with PSA's

“We will expand intelligence sharing – and deploy Patriot air defence systems to reassure our friends and allies.”

PS . Lord Patel has Copyrighted pi-phone as in π - phone π - Phone
Each one numbered with a unique 10 digit number randomly selected from 1st 1 MN digits of π

Cool.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Putin wins Byelorussian / European oil war

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has had a friendly telephone chat with President Putin and appear to have resolved the 3 day freeze on the 1.5 Mn barrels a day of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline. (Reuters) It appears that some understanding has been reached about a disputed 80,000 barrels of oil which the Russians claim was stolen from their onward European customers and Belarus said was taken as payment for the "transit tax" they had imposed unilaterally.(see map of Russian/European oil pipelines)

Reuters reported comments from Yaroslav Lissovolik from Deutsche UFG (part of Deutsche Bank) who said "The disruption in oil supplies has yet again undermined Russia's efforts to establish itself as a reliable source of supplies to Europe." (See map of German oil sources)

"The cut in oil supplies from Russia is unacceptable...This raises a problem, a real problem of credibility. We would like to guarantee that this does not happen in the future," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.(more comments from Chancellor Angela Merkel and Barroso here)

Claude Mandil, chief of the International Energy Agency (IEA) hat advises industrialised nations, said the disruption had shaken confidence in Russia as affected countries in Europe had to tap their strategic reserves and added that "Oil is not scarce, it can be imported from many places on the international market."

André Ballin has an interesting insight into Semyon Vainshtok, the clever and self-confident head of the pipeline group Transneft who he describes as "Russia's Pipeline Czar is Putin's 'Soldier' in Spiegel online.

"I'm a soldier, the president is commander-in-chief," said Vainshtok, who apparently is always anxious to stress his loyalty to Putin. "Orders aren't questioned."

In the conflict with Minsk, too, the commander-in-chief has spoken. Again he has won when using Russian energy as a weapon.

Paris Hilton - questions 9/11 - Hustler - Amazing pictures with dog!

Thanks to Stef and the Agonist for pointing m'Lord to the absolutely must read Hustler piece about Alex Jones, 9/11 - Loose Change etc., - at the 9/11 website(adult Alert)

Well done to Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt "The Name you Trust - The Sexual Erotica you desire" ...who got 6 months for wearing a US Flag as a diaper in court whilst wearing a Purple Heart pinned to a bullet proof vest - but won when Gerry Falwell sued for being portrayed in Hustler as having his first sexual encounter with his mother in and ..er.. an outhouse.

More revealing pictures of Paris Hilton who possibly is as confused as George Bush is about 9/11 here and with her "girl friend" Britney here

Don't miss June 2005 Hustler interview with Ray Griffin "WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT 9/11 WAS WRONG?" and also Author of The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 which Paris keeps by her bedside .... THAT video here.

At least he's our SOB - well one of them

Mengistu Haile Mariam, was the Communist leader of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 when on May 21st 1991 he fled in a small airplane to Kenya, organised by the US Embassy in Addis, to Zimbabe. Where he still lives in splendour assisting another evil dictator destroy his country.

Many millions of Ethiopians fell victim to his Mengusatu's regime of murderous excesses, corrupt militarism, and economic devastation. The indelible image of his misrule is the picture of an entire land wracked by genocide.

US connections with Ethiopia since then have been fractured but not discontinued, the current leader Meles Zenawi became the "Interim President "of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995. Meles Zenawi wa - beinf awarded a First Class M.A. (Masters of Arts) in Business Administration from the UK Open University at the same time. He had fought Mengistu as a member of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front and since the declaration of the War on Terror the US he has enjoyed a close and growing military and political relationship. He now leads the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.

In July 2003, the Pentagon held a three-month training exercise in tandem with Ethiopian military at the Hurso Training Camp.northwest of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Ongoing “anti-terrorism” training exercises continue in coordination with the U.S. base at Djibouti and the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), provided infantry skills training on small unit tactics.

All this was as part of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Ethiopia effort to establish the first of three new Anti-terrorism Battalions.

In January of 2004, a new joint U.S.-Ethiopian military base was established at Hurso, in Ethiopia, alongside “Camp United,” where U.S. troops train Ethiopian troops in anti-insurgency strategy and tactics. The record of U.S. military aid to Ethiopia shows a marked increase since 2001. Keith Snow has documented the increasing levels of finacial support ;

“The US International Military and Education Training (IMET) delivered US$1,835,000 which involved train about 120 officers under the IMET program from 1991-2001. …

“ Financial support increased to US$2.9Mn in 2002/03 through the IMET and Foreign Military Sales and Deliveries programs. The US also equipped, trained and supported Ethiopian troops under the Africa Regional Peacekeeping Program. In August 2003, the U.S. committed $28 million for international trade enhancements with Ethiopia.”

In his second election in May 2005 parliamentary elections , the first all party election in Ethiopia, Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front took control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. in events surrounding the elections some 200 people were killed. A report by a 10 man enquiry published (leaked) in Nairobi in June 2006 and stated that ;

1. 193 people were fatally shot, beat or strangled by Ethiopian security forces
2. More than 750 people were injured
3. Police records showing that 20,000 people were rounded up during the protests. More than 100 opposition leaders, journalists and aid workers were put on trial for treason and attempted genocide.

Vice chairman of the enquiry Judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, told AP "This was a massacre," "These demonstrators were unarmed yet the majority died from shots to the head."

"There is no doubt that excessive force was used," added the judge, who left Ethiopia prior to the report's publication after receiving anonymous death threats, leaving his wife and five daughters behind. He claimed asylum in Europe and would not disclose his exact whereabouts out of fear for his safety.

Ana Gomes, the European Union's chief observer during the elections, said the report which she says "exposes the lie" that the Ethiopian government is moving toward democracy.

"It is time the EU and U.S. realize that the current regime in Ethiopia is repressing the people because it lacks democratic legitimacy and is actually weak." . "It is driving Ethiopia to more poverty, conflict and war."

In January 2006 , Britain withheld $87 million in aid because of concerns about the government's handling of the unrest,redirecting it to humanitarian agencies or local officials because of concerns about the central government's handling of the unrest. This followed by the UK ofUS $36m (£20m) aid increase to Ethiopia after deaths in election protests after UK Development Minister Hilary Benn met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile US bombing raids on the Somali / Kenyan border said to be in support of getting at 3 leading al Quaeda figures Fazul Abdullah Mohammed (FBI most wanted ) the alleged mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,killing 225 people, and his accomplices Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Talha al-Sudani. Reports today claim Mohammed has been killed.

So far the civilian death toll is at least 27 civilians killed in Afmadow, a town in southern Somalia. "My 4-year-old boy was killed in the strike," said Mohamed Mahmud Burale, who can hardly be expected to be grateful for his "liberation" at the hands of the U.S. and its Ethiopian allies.

The much feared "Spectre" AC-130 U/H gunship reportedly attacked Badmadow island, in a group of six rocky islands known as Ras Kamboni — a suspected terrorist training base.

Hussein Aidid the American educated, ex US marine, son of the late Somali warlord used to operate out in the crumbling white mansion, Villa Somalia, the capital Mogadushu , which was Siad Barre's last refuge before he was toppled from power in January 1991. Effectively without a Government since then he has risen to the top of a pile of warring factions - the Muslims are now being cleared out it seems with the US now showing their hand in attacking their southern redoubts and extending their proxy war on Muslims for the Zionists.

The position however remains confused. The US marines have bad dreams about Mogadishu.

White House pic - President George W. Bush meets President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia in the Oval Office Dec. 5, 2002.

MI5 e-mail alert fuckup - all the gory details of their incompetence


Lord Patel has already alerted readers to the apparent FU about the launch of the MI5 non existent e-mail "Terrist Alert" service.

Well savvier minds were alert and on the case, and have exposed what a botched, fucking rush job the whole thing was - resulting in subscribers to the service having their unprotected personal details / e-mail address whizzed about the electronic universe to a commercial site set up for marketing companies by Mailtrack Limited 4th Floor, King House,5-11 Westbourne Grove, London to US based servers operated by Level 3 Communications, Inc. 1025 Eldorado Blvd. Broomfield Colorado .. just north of Denver - learn more about the wonderful people of Broomfield here.

Mailtrack " ...Mailtrack delivers on the full promise of digital marketing - utilising all aspects of digital communications, the latest software," .... can now add MI5 to their list of users including Tesco, Dixons, First Direct ...

Go to the excellent Spyblog " MI5 e-mail alert signup shambles - all email subscription web forms sent to the USA, without encryption"- for all the gory technical details and some serious questions about the way UK Secret Services handle yourpersonal informatiom in a very unsecret fashion.... and don't try and subscribe as Duke of Edinburgh, he already has.

With Thanks to the industrious, well informed IanP for waking up Lord Patel's sleeping technical department about this. See his re-posting of Google Earth pics of Darfur posting if you see nothing else today. Stunning.

Secret Police ? .... evidently cast as the Keystone Kops.

Bush is not listening

Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me), who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee has recently been to Iraq (pic) with Sen. John McCain (her third visit) where she saw Prime Minister Maliki who told her he was opposed (as she was) to the "surge" "My conclusion is that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Baghdad." - "Prime Minister Maliki did not welcome the prospect of more American troops" is how she tells her constituents on 9th Jan. A B Stottards "The Hill" blog (beautiful, blonde lissom hackette with appearances on Hardball, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Court TV and PBS.) tells us how Susan Collins was one of 30 Senators President Bush met to pump up his emerging Kagan / Keane AEI war plan. (Collins is due for re-election '08)

This time it will be different – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki who was over here the other day (as well as some of his Government opposition representatives) has bought in – so we can expect to find those missing benchmarks of political equilibrium, which means increasing troops actually will ...er .... help to eventually bring them home. Right?

Well according to Newsweek when she raised her personal experience Bush walked her to an advisor’s office and left her there before she could tell her story and experience. (Search in vain on the Senator Collins' "On Line Office" for any news of this meeting)

Other people talk of The President like Hitler in the Berlin bunker, not listening, hastening non-existent armies to defeat the Russians on the outskirts of the city. ( Paul Craig Roberts, Antiwar.com "The Surge: Political Cover or Escalation? ")

This is how he ends his argument ..

"Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz set out the plan for Middle East conquest several years ago in Commentary magazine. It is a plan for Muslim genocide. In place of physical extermination of Muslims, Podhoretz advocates their cultural destruction by deracination. Islam is to be torn out by the roots and reduced to a purely formal shell devoid of any real beliefs.

Podhoretz disguises the neoconservative attack against diversity with contrived arguments, but its real purpose is to use the US military to subdue Arabs and to create space for Israel to expand.

Not enough Americans are aware that this is what the "war on terror" is all about."
Read about Senator Collins recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan here. DO IT

Bomb Baghdad




U.S. airpower joins Baghdad battle that Iraqi officials say killed 50 insurgents

Iraq: U.S. jets screamed low over the capital and helicopter gunships swooped in to pound a central Baghdad battleground, supporting Iraqi and American troops in a daylong fight that officials said killed 50 insurgents in a militant Sunni Arab stronghold.

The battle Tuesday raged on Haifa Street about 1 1/2 miles (2.4 kilometers) north of the heavily fortified Green Zone — home to the U.S. Embassy , diplomats, NGO's — on the eve of U.S. President George W. Bush's expected announcement that he would send 20,000 more soldiers to Iraq.

This was the first two paragraphs of the AP report by the International Herald Tribune, syndicated across North America and round the world.

U.S. jets buzzing the city didn't conduct any airstrikes, but "attack helicopters were used to engage targets in support of the ground forces." said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division Baghdad. The Iraqi Defense Ministry reported 50 deaths among insurgents.

An Antonov cargo plane crashed near Balad, 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) north of the capital. The official said it was unclear whether the aircraft had mechanical problems or was shot down. 34 people, Iraqi and Turkish workers at the US Air Base were killed. This is the home of the US$190 Mn AC-130 H/U "Spectre" Gunships, with massive 40mm cannon and 105mm cannons which operate at night, were used in Fallujah, but haven't seen action over Baghdad .... yet.

In Fallujah Bill Ardolino an embedded journalist reports a US$16Mn M1A-1 Abrams tank is hit by a large IED in a notoriously active downtown street. Immobilized and set on fire by a bomb laden with fuel accelerant, the crew escape from the vehicle and make it safely to other tanks.

The Fire Station is 800 metres away and the US forces want the fire extinguished lest on board ammunition explodes - the Iraqi firemen won't move until two tank cres are despatched to ..er..encourage them. Four hours after the explosion and three hours after the call to the fire department, the blaze was finally extinguished.

Somewhere in the city 47 year old Army Maj. Michael Lewis Mundell from Kentucky, husband and father of 4 is blown to bits by a roadside bomb.

In the nearby city of Karmah, which also was home to many former Iraqi intelligence officers and high-ranking Baathists, many of the insurgents cleared from Fallujah have set up base and 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment (Airborne) from Fort Richardson, Alaska, has been brought in under the command of Marine Regimental Combat Team 5 (RCT-5).

Afghan born, US educated Zalmay Khalilzad, (riend of Paul Wolfowitz at Chicago University, student of neo con Straussist acolyte, Wholstetter ,) the U.S. ambassador to Iraq whom President Mailiki ignored to organise the hasty lynching of Saddam Hussein,is off to take over from John Bolton as US Ambasador to United Nations.

President Bush will explain today how 5 Army Brigades are needed to "hold" Baghdad and effectively another is needed for Anbar province...in all another 20,000 (ish) troops. Not to mention the helicopter gunships, Hornets, A-10's Apachees, Black Hawks ..... the Pentagon has decided to prepare for a fight with a restless, oppressed population of slum-dwellers, who have literally nothing to lose. As the Army Urban Ops Manual, a child of DARPA has it ..

"Army forces will likely conduct operations in, around, and over urban areas -- not as a matter of fate, but as a deliberate choice linked to national security objectives and strategy, and at a time, place, and method of the commander's choosing."
Congress, as ever, will vote the money after making a few noises and screwing up their noses.

Another fucking day in Paradise.

How Tony Blair throws away taxpayers money on carbon "offsets" on his air miles

If you are wondering what Tony Blair means when he says he will "offset" his long distance travel (as he did today) - this is what it means - when he travels , or anyone else does on Gubment business.

The UK Gubment are committed to offset Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from air travel by government staff from April 2006. (The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have their own emissions reduction commitments - don't ask why, that's how Gubments work - it's called joined up Gubment)
.
The UK Gubment does this by buying credits from UK-based emissions trading fund Trading Emissions PLC (Y/E 30/6/2006 Turnover £7.21 Mn Profit £3.49 Mn - yes folks that's GROSS PROFIT of 50%) In this instance some other City based Hooray Henries called EEA Fund Management Ltd got a share of the action as well - (follow link for details)

On 28th December 2006 (last week - PAnews/20060029/32377087 and more details here) Trading Emissions sold 225,000t of certified emissions reduction (CER) credits to the UK government carbon offsetting fund at £9.76/t = Euro 7.40 (US$19/t), or 90pc of the price of 2008 EU emissions allowances(tender bid total £2.5 Mn 1/3rd of Annual T/O). The government has the option to buy a further 50,000t of CERs = £0.5Mn. (Today's price is somewhat less at £5.20 = Euro 3.55 - see graph) - smart buying eh ?

The government is increasingly aware of the environmental impact of air travel and this is a way to mitigate unavoidable emissions,” a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The credits will be generated from small-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency clean development mechanism projects, one of the flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto protocol - such as Sri Lankan villagers using Photo voltaics to generate daytime electricity to run domestic low voltage lights in the evening , TV's etc instead of using paraffin fuelled lighting (which helps prevent the development of nationwide electricity supply systems that are more efficient) ...or Brazilian farmers preventing methane escaping from pig ..er...shit.

One CER will offset the emissions from around 10,000km of air travel — nearly enough for one London-New York return trip, according to the CarbonNeutral company.

All this hasn't stopped a single kilo of jetfuel being burnt - but it gives some folks in Whitehall and Westminster with a nice warm feeling , and of course a Carbon Trader with a fancy commission and if he/she anticipated the market dropping (ie they read Lord Patel on a regular basis) they could have dealt themselves a nice fat trading profit on top - which no doubt they did.

That is what Lord Patel means when he talks about the casino that carbon trading is..a casino that is fed very often with taxpayers money.

This my child is called climate change economics.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Carbon Black hole - ETS price drops 23% in one day.


The price of carbon on the European Trading System dropped yesterday (Monday 6th January 2007 ) to €3.88 .... 0.87 cents down - a drop of 23%, yet again the lowest ever - remember it was over €30 in May.

The market closed down a further 10% (38 cents) today Tuesday 9 January 2007 @ €3.50.

How long is it going to be before the market collapse and the fraudulent trading in this smoke and mirrors show can be kept out of the MSM ?

UPDATE MIDNIGHT GMT TUESDAY 9th Jan.

On BBC2 Newsnight Sir Nicholas Stern the mild mannered, distinguished development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, with a reputation as a skilful and highly rated academic, a person of intellectual discipline and rigour spoke to Jeremy Paxman the house trained polecat of the Beeb.

Without a trace of a smile, nor sign of his sizeable tongue in his cheek he explained how the high price of carbon that the ETS scheme would result in, will change economic behaviour making people use less electricty, fuel etc., use more fuel efficient cars etc.,

This whilst carbon trades at it's lowest price ever, havinf lost 1/3rd of it's (very much reduced) value in the last 2 days ,which both Stern and Paxman(if they were aware - which is unlikely) failed to mention.

This impeccably qualified academic chatters on about creating a global market for carbon pricing by extending the existing European Emissions Trading Scheme ( the one that's fast disappearing down the toilet) to include countries such as the United States, India, and China. Meanhwile Mr Putin plays with his oily spigots ....

Sleepwalking to economic disaster.

================================

If you are wondering what this means - take a concrete example of how carbon trading works.

The UK Gubment are committed to offset GHG emissions from air travel by government staff from April 2006. (The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have their own emissions reduction commitments - don't ask why that's how Gubments work - it's called joined up Gubment)
.
The UK Gubment does this by buying credits from UK-based emissions trading fund Trading Emissions PLC (Y/E 30/6/2006 Turnover £7.21 Mn Profit £3.49 Mn)In this instance some other hooray Henries called EEA Fund Management Ltd got a share of the action as well - follow link for details)

On 28th December 2006 (last week - PAnews/20060029/32377087 and more details here) Trading Emissions sold 225,000t of certified emissions reduction (CER) credits to the UK government carbon offsetting fund at £9.76/t = Euro 7.40 (US$19/t), or 90pc of the price of 2008 EU emissions allowances(tender bid total £2.5 Mn 1/3rd of Annual T/O). The government has the option to buy a further 50,000t of CERs = £0.5Mn. (Today's price is somewhat less at £5.20 = Euro 3.55 - see graph) - smart buying eh ?

“The government is increasingly aware of the environmental impact of air travel and this is a way to mitigate unavoidable emissions,” a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The credits will be generated from small-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency clean development mechanism projects, one of the flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto protocol such as Sri Lankan villagers using Photo voltaics to generate daytime electricity to run domestic low voltage lights in the evening , TV's etc instead of using paraffin fuelled lighting...or Brazilian farmers preventing methane escaping from pig ..er...shit.

One CER will offset the emissions from around 10,000km of air travel — nearly enough for one London-New York return trip, according to the CarbonNeutral company.

All this hasn't stopped a single kilo of jetfuel being burnt - but it gives some folks in Whitehall and Westminster with a nice warm feeling , and of course a Carbon Trader with a fancy commission and if he/she anticipated the market dropping (ie they read Lord Patel on a regular basis) they could have dealt themselves a nice fat trading profit on top - which no doubt they did.

That is what Lord Patel means when he talks about the casino that carbon trading is..a casino that is fed very often with taxpayers money.

MI5 - email alert system announced and will be up and running - er.... real soon now

MI5 chief Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller the soon to be ex-head of spy chasers MI5 has paused from "tracking at least 30 terror plots against the UK" (BBC)to announce a dramatic step change in the handling of spreading fear and alarm alerts.

The Home Office has a long-planned programme of reaching out to the public and keeping it better informed about the terrorist threats as they keep unravelling and so you can get fear fed straight to your e-mail in box direct from the Fear Factory... and look out for Text Messages of fear ...coming shortly.

Simply log on to the MI5 website and ask for either the level of the terror threat to the UK as assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre...or subscribe to That's New, a digest of the latest information from MI5, including speeches made by the director general and links to relevant websites.... There is however a slight glitch as no one has told anybody running the MI5 website of this brave bold new initiative - there is no information about this astounding new service (as advertised) and a search on e-mail alert yields no answer.

Regular readers of Lord Patel's already will be familiar with the, simple, proven, in house and far superior MI5 Critical alarm feature - set at permanently CRITICAL ... although an in house top technical team of terrists apply a unique modifying factor ... Possibly , Maybe, Almost Certain.etc., which we feel is ..er... well more user friendly. WE don't want to frighten anyone...do we ?

Meanwhile wait for those crack technicians to put something on the website that matches what the public announcements say.... so much for the long term planning at the Home Office.

Dontcha just love it...the website where you can find the current state of alert is www.intelligence.gov.uk

NB If you are one of the gangs of terrists planning one of these 30 plots to bring on Armagedson can you just slow things down until we get this system working ? Thanks.

Do you get the feeling that the "SURGE" is...




....... like the final scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ?

Ruth Kelly is a fucking Hypocrite

Ruth Kelly MP for West Bolton and the absurdly titled Communities and Local Government Secretary, and her husband , archaeologist Derek Gadd (married 1996) bought a nice four-bedroom detached house, which had been built on a greenfield site in Horwich. In January 2001 they paid £109,000 after obtaining a mortgage for £101,148 - probable market value today approaching £180,000.

As any MP can, under the tax-free Additional Costs Allowance scheme, (on top of her Cabinet Ministers salary of £135,000) she claimed for ;

Mortgage payments
Council Tax
Energy costs
Furniture, security, repairs, decoration

Her claims have totalled £72,000 over 4 years and at this rate will exceed the £109.000 purchase price some time this year - the ZERO COST HOUSE. Which some people - journalists on the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Times (£42,000 'lost in black hole of Kelly allowances') for example consider rather excessive. Greg Hands, Tory MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, said: “There should be a full investigation into this apparent black hole - which he estimated at £44,000"

The Kelly menage which includes a nanny for the 4 children - Eamonn who arrived 11 days after the 1997 General Election, Sinead in 1998, Roisin in 2000 and Niamh in 2003 live in the Borough of Tower Hamlets.... although this didn't prevent her successfully objecting to the building of 1,700 new homes near her own infrequently used pad in Horwich - after which she urged local residents to "savour this sweet victory over the developers" . Not forgetting how this devout Christian and member of Opus Dei supported opposition in March 2005 to plans to build a new Islamic College with accommodation for 200 boarding studentson a greenfield site in Westhoughton.

The residents of Bolton however were incensed when she took up her current position from the remnants of John Prescott's office when she told Today listeners on Radio 4 in May this year that the drive to build more social and low-cost housing would be one of her priorities.

"We need to put a greater emphasis on increasing housing supply in future,"

"That may mean, for example, changing the planning regulations to make sure that more housing comes forward.

"It also means changing the social culture in this country where too often the case has been that people have been protective of their own space and not wanted to see more affordable housing being built. That is something we really have to root out."
Bolton residents could point out what a hypocritical bitch this freebooter and carpetbagger was and her history of opposing local housing developments ...which Bolton Conservative councillor John Walsh listed for the Bolton Evening News on Friday 12th May 2006.

She started in March, 1998, objecting to plans to sell off land earmarked for car parking at Lostock railway station.

June, 1999, Ms Kelly labelled the abandonment of a 1,100-home estate in Westhoughton "a victory for people power".

April, 2000, she praised campaigners after developers planning a 600-home estate at Bowlands Hey, Westhoughton, pulled out of a public inquiry.

February, 2003, Ms Kelly helped to fight a plan to build homes on a hospital site in Horwich.

November, 2004, Ms Kelly backed constituents opposing new homes at a former aerospace plant at Leigh Road, Westhoughton.

April, 2000, she praised campaigners after developers planning a 600-home estate at Bowlands Hey, Westhoughton, pulled out of a public inquiry.

February, 2003, Ms Kelly helped to fight a plan to build homes on a hospital site in Horwich.

July, 2003, residents applauded her help in the "Battle of Markland Hill", which ended when planning inspectors rejected proposals for a five-storey block of flats and two houses in a conservation area.

April, 2004, she supported residents opposing plans for 30 new flats at the same site. The scheme was rejected on grounds that it would have been over-development.

When criticised earlier this year by Caroline Spelman the shadow local government secretary, of " breathtaking hypocrisy" , a spokesman for the beautiful, pouting, deeply sincere Christian, Ms Kelly said ...
" that it was perfectly reasonable for the minister to criticise Nimbies while objecting to developments in her own constituency."

Educationally challenged and so sent away to boarding school at Westminster (£25,000 out of taxed income and breakfast in the 15 Century Abbot's Dining Room) The nascent Treasury camp follower, sometime Minister for Education / Communities must have somehow packed in overtime on lessons with the Jesuits in sophistry or a passing rabbi for lessons in Talmudic scholarship.

As Miister she went to look at Zero Emission Houses (pic from Torygraph) - she beats us all with her ZERO COST HOUSE

We won't even talk about Education ...... or perhaps we should remember when as New Labour Minister for Education , she introduced the School Meals Trust and said New Labour would provide more funding (£220 Mn was mentioned)for dinner ladies, school kitchens, introduce national minimum nutritional standards for school food. Who said after 8 years of New Labour ....
" We will ensure extra resources are available to build new school kitchens and renew existing ones so that healthy, fresh, food can be prepared rather than cooked and chilled and then re-heated"

Where does that quote come from... why theLabourParty Website Monday 21 March 2005 Ruth Kelly Minister for Education "Labour on the side of parents - Kelly" ... er and Jamie Oliver it seems.

Don't bother Googling or Yahooing "School Meals Trust" .. er... it doesn't have a website ...er .. it doesn't exist.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish