Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for January, 2010

ju$tify

Jan 26

Posted by A. Peasant in Corruption & Crime, Iraq, Military, Psychopaths, Terrorism | No Comments

What if this was your beautiful little daughter?

General Ray Odierno blames a changing al qaeda:

Following Monday’s suicide bombings of three major hotels in Baghdad, the attacks were widely seen as an escalating attempt to destablize the country ahead of key parliamentary elections in March. The top US general in Iraq said that while there was no definitive proof, he believed Monday’s attacks were conducted by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) – an organization whose leaders appear to be increasingly well-educated and increasingly Iraqi, he said.

…At security checkpoints – including those surrounding Baghdad – the Iraqi government has relied heavily on an explosive detection device manufactured by a British private company that is being investigated for fraud. Last week, the British government stopped the export of the hand-held devices, which the US military has determined to be “totally ineffective,” but they are still widely in use in Baghdad.

…Odierno said the explosives detonated on Monday were much less powerful than those seen in previous high-profile bombings, but at least one of the audacious attacks marked a change in tactics. Gunmen outside the Hamra Hotel, popular with Western journalists, opened fire on the compound’s security guards before the suicide truck bomb drove through the barrier and detonated. “It’s the first time we’ve seen it executed this way,” Odierno told journalists. “As time goes on, their ability to impact becomes less and less, so they are trying to get the biggest outcome.”While the US and Iraq had made great progress, they should not underestimate the difficulty of dealing with a sophisticated and constantly shifting organization, he said.

But exactly how clever does “al qaeda” have to be to outwit a totally useless, fraudulent bomb-detecting device?

Iraqi officials said they would begin an investigation into why their Government paid at least $85 million to the British company, ATSC, for at least 800 of the bomb detectors, called ADE 651s.

Official doubts about the device were first reported in November, citing US military officials and technical experts who said the ADE 651 was useless.

”We are conducting a criminal investigation, and as part of that a 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation,” a spokesman for the Avon and Somerset Constabulary in England said. The suspect’s identity was widely reported as Jim McCormick, the managing director of ATSC.

Another company, Global Technical, also makes these useless devices. They have been sold to many countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, for tens of thousands of dollars A PIECE, God only knows how many innocent people have died as a result.

Bomb sniffing devices are not a new scam. ATSC, Ltd. has been operating over in the UK for a decade, and Global Technical had been falsely claiming since 1999 that the bomb detectors were given the approval of the British Military. Early last year, the UK government told Global Technical to stop claiming the GT200 had been given the Ministry of Defense’s approval– but other than requesting that their name not be used to endorse the product, they took no action.

Unfortunately, not only is the UK’s “prohibition” on exports of the ADE-651 device not particularly timely, it is not particularly comprehensive either:

“We will be making an order, under the Export Control Act 2002, banning the export of this type of device to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The reason the ban is limited to these two countries is that our legal power to control these goods is based on the risk that they could cause harm to UK and other friendly forces.”

So essentially they are only banning the ADE-651 in places where it might kill NATO forces. But as for the citizens of Thailand, civilian and police alike, that have been killed as a result of reliance on the GT200? Well, they can just go on continuing to be killed by the fake bomb detectors, that’s just too bad for them.

Click here to watch a 10 minute BBC on this fraud. The BBC wanted to ask Mr. McCormick how he could JUSTIFY selling these so-called bomb detectors when independent experts say they can’t possibly work.

Presumably, if he dared to answer the question, it would be simply because he made lots and lots of money. Presumably, the innocent deaths are of no concern to him.

Found: blogger devoted to exposing such frauds.

passenger of interest

Jan 26

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Angola, Drug Trafficking, Lebanon, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

According to reports*, one of the people killed in the Ethiopian plane crash off the coast of Lebanon was Hassan Tajideen, the administrator of Angolan-based food import company Arosfran.

A short report in PropertyWeek.com, (UK) 12/17/07:

Trocadero boss in $20m fraud suit
http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?storycode=3102458#ixzz0dll7KIat

In documents filed at the High Court, Golfrate’s new owners, Hassan Tajideen, his brother Kassim and Nasser Eid, allege that Aziz – whose company Criterion Capital is worth £620m – doctored accounts, invented false expenses claims and used company money to pay for luxury trips.

In 2003 Kassim Tajideen was arrested in Belgium in connection with fraud, money laundering and diamond smuggling, although he was never charged.

Aziz declined to comment, other than to say that he was fighting the case and would file a counter-claim.

Asif Aziz is the Chief Executive of Criterion Capital. From Criterion’s website:

Asif’s career began in 1992 at Morgan Grenfell Laurie, where he advised international clients on their real estate strategies. In 1995, he founded an FMCG distribution company and negotiated exclusive territory distribution agreements with Nestle, Unilever and Kraft. {See this post at aangirfan for recent activity regarding Kraft Foods. Kraft Foods is very pro-Israel.} This business was sold in 2005, allowing Asif to focus full time on his role as investment advisor.

A list of the ten wealthiest Muslims in the UK, dated 6/25/06, in the Islamic Times, included Asif Aziz and family:

7- Asif Aziz and Family - Born in Malawi - 39 year old Asif and his Golftrate Group bought the Trocadero in Piccadilly for 200 million pounds. The Golftrate group owns assets worth at least 620 million pounds, and with interests in Africa, the family is said to be worth many millions more. Asif himself, is said to be worth around 100 million pounds.

A Telegraph.co.uk story expanded on the allegations against Aziz, 12/16/07:

Asif Aziz, the property magnate who owns the Trocadero, is being sued for $20m over claims that he defrauded a Lebanese businessman once alleged to be involved with the trade in African “blood diamonds”. [ 4 years earlier -- he was not charged ]

Aziz is accused of illegally ramping the price of Golfrate Africa and Ovlas Trading, two Angolan food manufacturing businesses he sold in 2005, just before he bought the Trocadero, a vast building on London’s Piccadilly Circus that houses shops, restaurants, a cinema and Funland, an indoor fairground.

In documents filed at the High Court and obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, Golfrate’s new owners, Hassan Tajideen, his brother Kassim and Nasser Eid, allege that Aziz - whose company Criterion Capital is worth £620m - doctored accounts, invented false expenses claims and used company money to pay for luxury trips. In 2003 Kassim Tajideen was arrested in Belgium in connection with fraud, money laundering and diamond smuggling, although he was never charged.

Aziz declined to comment, other than to say that he was fighting the case and would file a counter-claim.

The Lebanese claim that Aziz, who is personally worth more than £100m, asked his company accountants to exaggerate the value of the companies, which package and distribute food in Angola.

The High Court claim form refers to a series of e-mails sent by Aziz to his chief accountant, Clifford Gundry.

In one e-mail Aziz allegedly asks: “Will they check each figure - can we not bullshit the numbers another way? Food for thought.”

In a further e-mail littered with spelling mistakes to another executive, Aziz allegedly says: “This morning I had a discussion with Clifford on BULSHITTING [sic] issue. There are following thing [sic] which could be maneuvered [sic] but possibilities are little. STOCK: Easiest thing to manipulate.”

The new owners also claim that Aziz falsified a series of expenses claims or spent money on expensive luxury clothes and trips just before selling the company on.

…The claim also details $51,200 spent on car hire, according to a voucher in the companies’ accounts.”Attached to the said voucher was a copy of a purported ‘agreement’ dated 1 May 2005 between Mr Aziz (purportedly signing in his capacity as “Honorary Consul of Malawi”), and Mr Rehman [another company executive], who signed on behalf of Golfrate. Under the terms of the ‘agreement’ Golfrate purportedly rented four vehicles at a rate of US$6,400 per month from the Malawi Consulate.”

Malawi-born Aziz was forced to abandon plans for a 503-bedroom hotel in the Trocadero last month when Westminster councillors criticised his redesign for the building. They branded as “hideous” a planned new glass façade that was to be lit up with different colours.

It was the second time Westminster Council had turned down Aziz’s redevelopment plans, which he can resubmit early next year.

^^^^^^^

On January 25, 2010, the BBC very helpfully reported on the history of the Lebanese in West Africa, so you would know these following important things:

The crash…has highlighted the strong ties between Lebanon and Africa.

Many passengers are believed to have been on their way to West Africa, where Lebanese are the biggest non-African migrant community.

…Nevertheless, the Lebanese community across West Africa, thought to be between 80,000 and 250,000 strong, has not only continued to do business but has thrived.

…The Lebanese in West Africa have always been merchants, using their connections abroad to source goods for import, and - like other migrant groups - they use their family networks to keep their costs down. As a result they have built a strong economic presence across the region.

Nowadays, the Lebanese community has interests in many areas and are the backbone of most markets - car importing, mining, oil services, defence contracts - and the more shadowy worlds of gun-running, diamond-smuggling and crude-oil theft.

…Many Africans say openly how much they hate the Lebanese in their respective countries. But the Lebanese tenacity, aptitude for business and drive to succeed mean they have been sown into the fabric of West African economics, politics and culture.

You may also recall that DEA director Jay Bergman recently said the following, as reported on 1/4/10 by Reuters:

“As suggested by the recent arrest of three alleged al Qaeda operatives, the expansion of cocaine trafficking through West Africa has provided the venue for an unholy alliance between South American narco-terrorists and Islamic extremists,” Bergman said in an interview over the weekend.

Several prominent people were asserting various connections between Venezuela, Iran, FARC, Hamas, Hezbollah, al qaeda, Europe, drugs, airports, etc. a few weeks back. Around the same time — a flurry of visitors to Lebanon, including David Johnson, assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs.

So we see the narrative setting up. First we heard that the drugs were coming from West Africa, and now we learn that the Lebanese are in West Africa, playing a long-standing dominant role.

And now someone has died in the plane crash, who, you will see, fits into this narrative.

^^^^^^^

On 5/27/09, the US Treasury issued a press release about Kassim Tajideen:
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/tg149.htm

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated Kassim Tajideen and Abd Al Menhem Qubaysi, two Africa-based supporters of the Hizballah terrorist organization, under E.O. 13224. E.O. 13224 targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism by freezing any assets the designees have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them.

“We will continue to take steps to protect the financial system from the threat posed by Hizballah and those who support it,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. “Not only is Hizballah itself a terrorist organization with global reach, it also recently acknowledged publicly that it provides support to Hamas.”

Kassim Tajideen is an important financial contributor to Hizballah who operates a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa. He has contributed tens of millions of dollars to Hizballah and has sent funds to Hizballah through his brother, a Hizballah commander in Lebanon. In addition, Kassim Tajideen and his brothers run cover companies for Hizballah in Africa. In 2003, Tajideen was arrested in Belgium in connection with fraud, money laundering, and diamond smuggling. [Though he was never charged. !! They FORGOT to mention that. And they don't name his brother either.]

Abd Al Menhem Qubaysi is a Cote d’Ivoire-based Hizballah supporter and is the personal representative of Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Qubaysi communicates with Hizballah leaders and has hosted senior Hizballah officials traveling to Cote d’Ivoire and other parts of Africa to raise money for Hizballah. Qubaysi plays a visible role in Hizballah activities in Cote d’Ivoire, including speaking at Hizballah fundraising events and sponsoring meetings with high-ranking members of the terrorist organization.

Qubaysi also helped establish an official Hizballah foundation in Cote d’Ivoire which has been used to recruit new members for Hizballah’s military ranks in Lebanon.

This information was then gleefully and promptly echoed through the echo chamber by chaps like Matthew Levitt at WINEP, etc.

Although it appears that nobody tracks down Kassim’s brother’s name. They just refer to him as “his brother, a Hizbollah commander in Lebanon.” What, no name?

So is Hassan Tajideen, who died in the plane crash, the brother of Kassim Tajideen, who the US Treasury has designated an “important financial contributor to Hizbullah?” It would seem so from the lawsuit against Asif Aziz.

But whether he was also a Hizbollah commander in Lebanon… ???

He must have had excellent time management skills.

Ovlas Trading SA

We are an import and export company with several branches, wholesales and supermarkets all over West and South Africa. Our operations are mainly in Angola “Grupo Arosfran” & “Golfrate Holdings”, D.R. Congo “Congo Futur” & “ATCOM”, Sierra Leone “Tajco” & “Tradex”, Ghana “Taj Investment” & “SRG Factories”, Gambia “Kairaba Supermarkets” & “HT Stores”, Mozambique and last but not least South Africa. With offices in Lebanon, China, Brazil and Belgium.

* attempts to confirm lead to dead ends

it doesn’t add up to “accident”

Jan 26

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

1. the pilot acted strangely, nobody knows why he didn’t respond

Defense Minister Elias Murr and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi, meanwhile, pointed a finger on the Ethiopian pilot, blaming him for failing to follow instructions from a flight control tower for unknown reasons.

“A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction,” Murr said in an interview with LBC television late Monday. “We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot’s control,” he added, stressing that the reason as to why the pilot did not respond remains unknown.

…Aridi, in turn, said the control tower sent the pilot a second warning when he failed to heed the first one.

“The pilot, however, continued to fly the same route, then he made a sudden, strange turn before disappearing from the radar,” Aridi said, stressing that control tower officials did their job.

It was not clear why the pilot ignored the control tower or perhaps it was beyond his control. Being 737, like most other airliners, also is equipped with its own onboard weather radar which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into cumulonimbus, which is a rounded mass of cumulus cloud often appearing before a thunderstorm.

“We’d better wait until the black boxes are recovered to determine what really went wrong,” Aridi added.

Navigation sources told the daily As-Safir in remarks published Tuesday that air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane only four minutes after takeoff. While they declined to confirm whether or not the jetliner exploded into a huge fireball or burst into flames before plunging into the sea or bad weather was cause of the crash, they ruled out any terrorist attack. Until the two black boxes are recovered, many scenarios and assumptions were put forward which included that the plane was struck by lightning, caught fire or encountered engine failure immediately after takeoff.

more @ naharnet

reminiscent of Egypt Air 990

who was on the plane?

2. birds?

Aviation safety analyst Chris Yates said reports of fire on the Ethiopian Airliner that crashed in the Mediterranean sea Monday could suggest “some cataclysmic failure of one of the engines” or that a bird or debris had been sucked into the engine.

He noted that modern aircraft are built to withstand all but the foulest weather conditions.

“One wouldn’t have thought that a nasty squall in and of itself would be the prime cause of an accident like this,” said Yates, an analyst based in Manchester, England.(AP-Naharnet)

naharnet

3. bad weather?

A fierce storm appears to have caused the crash of an Ethiopian Airline jet that plunged in a ball of fire into the sea with 90 people on board, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Monday.

“Bad weather was apparently the cause of the crash,” Murr told reporters.

“We have ruled out foul play so far,” he added.

The fact that soldiers combing the Lebanese shoreline had recovered pieces of the plane supported the belief that the crash was caused by the storm rather than an explosion, Murr said.

“When there is an explosion (on board an airplane) nothing is usually left.” [?????? really ??????]

“We will continue search operations in the hope of finding survivors,” Murr said, adding that no deadline had been set.

“We are seeking to recover the black box and the recording between the control tower and the pilot to determine what happened.”

more @ naharnet

4. ‘plane tumbled out of sky’

BEIRUT - THE first sign of trouble was a flash of light on the horizon on Monday - and then witnesses said the Boeing 737 tumbled like ‘fire falling down from the sky’ into the stormy Mediterranean Sea….’We saw fire falling down from the sky into the sea,’ said Khaled Naser, a gas station attendant who saw the plane plunge into waters that had reached 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) by Monday afternoon.The Lebanese army also said the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces. — AP

more @ straits times


5. 20 Lebanese on plane lived and worked in Angola

Luanda - Twenty of the Lebanese nationals on board the Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed into the sea this week lived and worked in Angola, state media in Luanda reported on Tuesday.

The government-owned Jornal de Angola named one of the victims as Hassan Tajideen, who was the administrator of Angolan-based food import company Arosfram. Four other Arosfram staffers also died in the crash, the company’s general administrator Kito dos Santos told the newspaper. Dos Santos was due to travel to Beirut on Tuesday to attend the victims’ funerals, it said.

A large number of Lebanese nationals work in oil and diamond-rich Angola, mostly running food import businesses but with some involvement in the diamond industry.

- AFP source: news 24

6. bodies severely burned

Investigators were Monday night carrying out DNA tests on severely burned bodies recovered from the sea after an Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying 90 people caught fire during a lightning storm and crashed into the Mediterranean minutes after taking off from Beirut.

As darkness fell no survivors had been found in the stormy waters off Lebanon, despite search and rescue efforts by the country’s military, U.N. naval peacekeepers and units from nearby Cyprus who were tonight joined by British and French helicopter teams.

The plane’s 83 passengers included 56 Lebanese - two with dual British nationality - 22 Ethiopians and individuals from Canada, Syria, Iraq and Russia, as well as the American-born wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon. By tonight at least 34 bodies had been recovered.

Lebanon’s National News Agency tonight confirmed that 57-year-old Afif Karshat was one of two Lebanese with dual British nationality among the casualties.

more @ free internet press

7. other passengers:

One of the Britons on board was Afif Krisht, 57, whose ex-wife and family live in Plymouth, Devon. The name of the other Briton has not yet been confirmed.

…The others included 20 Ethiopians and two French citizens, one of them Marla Sanchez Pietton, the wife of Denis Pietton, the French Ambassador to Beirut. Her body was among those recovered.

Mr Krisht’s uncle, Mohammed Tajieddine, said that he was travelling with two others to Angola, where he had a business. The father of six had dual British-Lebanese nationality. His former wife, Tania, said that he was based in Lebanon but visited his family in Britain.

Mr Krisht owned a haulage company and has three sons with Tania Krisht: Mike, 26, Alex, 20, and Adam, 18. He also has three sons with his second wife, Ahlam, in Lebanon.

…The majority of the Lebanese passengers were Shia Muslims from south Lebanon, many of them en route to Angola where they lived and worked.

more @ times online

8. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party or SSNP leader MP Assaad Hardan has announced that one of the crashed Ethiopian plane is party member Faris Rashid Thibyan

9. the other Brit: Kevin Grainger


10. others yet to be identified

“Flight ET-409 carries 82 passenger plus eight Ethiopian crew members. Out of the total passengers 23 are Ethiopian, 51 Lebanese, one Turkish, one French, two British, one Russian, one Canadian, one Syrian and one Iraqi national.”

more @ trend news


bizarre coincidences to ponder

Jan 25

Posted by A. Peasant in Central America, Corruption & Crime, India, Israel, Lebanon, Mumbai | No Comments

When Moshe Saba’s helicopter crashed outside Mexico City, most of the stories cited the foggy weather. One source, an Israeli investment news service, cited eyewitness accounts that the helicopter burst into flames before crashing:

Mexican Jewish billionaire Moises (Moshe) Saba, 46, along with members of his family, have died in a crash of a helicopter outside Mexico City,. Six people were killed altogether, including the pilot. The Saba family is one of Mexico’s wealthiest families. The family’s pharmaceuticals firm, Grupo Casa Saba SA de CV (NYSE; Mexico: SAB) is one of the family’s business interests, which also include real estate, communications, and media. Moshe Saba was one of the investors whom Joseph Maiman approached to participate in the investment in Channel 10 in 2004, but he declined. Eyewitness accounts said that the helicopter burst into flames while still in the air. The helicopter hit a billboard before hitting the ground. Rescue services found no survivors. Although the accident occurred in a built-up area, there were no casualties on the ground.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard went to the site of the crash. He said that Mexico’s civil aviation authorities had opened an investigation. The accident was believed to have been caused by the stormy and foggy weather conditions at the time in the area on Sunday night. Moshe Saba was close to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and was a donor to many haredi (ultra-orthodox) institutions. He also a donor to Zaka - Identification, Extraction and Rescue, which today announced that a delegation would go to Mexico City to identify the dead. Ovadia Yosef’s son, Rabbi David Yosef, will accompany the delegation.

You can find the link here.

It’s just kind of strange because the Ethiopian jet crash also took place in stormy weather, but eyewitness reports also note an explosion and fireball.

“The weather undoubtedly was very bad,” Aridi told reporters at the airport….Witnesses reported seeing flames as the plane plunged into the sea. One employee of a gas station near the site of the crash said he heard an explosion and saw “a huge ball of fire” as the plane crashed. Another witness said: “It was like the whole sea lit up.” The accident took place amid heavy rains and storms in Lebanon in the past two days that have caused heavy flooding and damage in some parts of the country.

So could it have been struck by lightning? Possibly, but unlikely.

Estimates show that each commercial airliner averages one lighting hit per year but the last crash that was attributed to lightning was in 1967 when the fuel tank exploded, causing the plane to crash.

The other weird thing was this story:

Police in Oslo are to investigate suspicions that Norwegian drug gangs may be connected to the grisly find of two burned bodies in the boot of a car in western Sweden last week….Though a full identification is not expected until the end of the week, family members of the supposed victims, with a background in northern Iraq, have already begun grieving their loss, Expressen reports. “The car is mine. I have lost hope that my son and his uncle are still alive. This is the worst catastrophe of my life,” the 25-year-old’s father told Expressen. The 42-year-old, a resident of Arvika in central Sweden, had previously lived in Oslo where he ran a business and had a large number of contacts. He was believed to have been travelling from the Norwegian capital to Malmö on the day of the macabre find. With him in the car was his 25-year-old nephew and three million Norwegian kronor ($535,000), believed to have been the proceeds of a drug deal, Dagbladet reports.

Today The Local reported that these victims were ’shot through the eye.’

At least one of the two victims of a brutal double murder in southern Sweden earlier this month was shot through the eye in a gangland-style execution, reports newspaper Aftonbladet. The older of two victims found in a burning Volvo car on January 6th, 2010, believed to be the 42-year-old uncle of the second victim, was shot through the eye, an anonymous police source told the newspaper.

Both men suffered fractured skulls, caused by an extremely powerful blow. “It would have required strong force and extreme violence,” said the police source.” The attackers – we are sure there were several – were incredibly brutal.”

Police have yet to fully identify the victims and have issued an arrest warrant for a 35-year-old man, believed to have been part of the gang which carried out the executions at a house near Lund, before transporting the bodies along the E4 motorway and setting the car alight.

The murders are believed to be connected to an international drug smuggling ring, involving a Norwegian criminal gang, according to earlier police reports. According to local Swedish Radio in Halland county in western Sweden, a 44 year old Norwegian man is also wanted in connection with the crime.

And the last time I recall gory details like that was in relation to Mumbai.

clash of civilizations in hyperdrive

Jan 25

Posted by A. Peasant in France, Germany, India, Iraq, Israel, Media, Mind-fucking, NWO, Pakistan, Psychology, Religion, Symbolism, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

the plane crash in Lebanon was noted but ECLIPSED by some other stories…

1. Guardian: Baghdad suicide bombers kill dozens in hotel attacks, three separate attacks on targets used by WESTERNERS in center of Iraqi capital. BUT WHO DIED? DID THE PEOPLE OF THE WEST DIE OR DID THE IRAQIS DIE? one cannot help note the symbolism of the names of the hotels and the method of attack: suicide bomber at the Palestine hotel, explosion at Babylon hotel, and of course the gunman at the Al Hamra hotel, and then the decoy “white van” broke through the security barrier to explode. oh wow do you think they are using symbolism? i think so. just like the new al queda threat will be from women suicide bombers who look Western.

At least 30 people have died in an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen on three hotels used by westerners in central Baghdad. Iraqi police gave the number of dead and said more than 40 were wounded by the blasts, which occurred in the last hour.

The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated his charge in the Palestine hotel. Minutes later a second explosion caused severe damage to the Babylon hotel, which is used by Iraqi travellers and sometimes for government meetings.

Gunmen then opened fire outside the Al Hamra hotel, where many foreign journalists are based. Security guards and Kurdish peshmurga fighters returned fire and the street was cleared, but a white van with a flashing red light – looking like an emergency vehicle – broke through the hotel’s security barriers and exploded inside the perimeter.

One report said the explosions took place in the Abu Nawas street area and that smoke was seen in the parking lot outside the entrance to the Ishtar Sheraton hotel, next to the Palestine, with the shock wave blowing open doors and sending dust into nearby offices.

more @ guardian

2. meanwhile, the Independent reports that Iraq executes Saddam henchman “chemical Ali” — such timing, that he would be hanged now, when he has been sentenced to death four times already since 2007. miraculous that the brutal Arab criminal is finally brought to justice for his crimes against humanity.

Iraq today executed Ali Hassan al-Majeed, the Saddam Hussein henchman widely known as “Chemical Ali”, for crimes against humanity, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. “The death sentence against Ali Hassan al-Majeed has been carried out,” Dabbagh said. Majeed, a cousin of Saddam’s who earned his nickname because of his use of poison gas, was executed by hanging, the government said in a statement.

more @ independent

3. and the Indians — we can’t forget them. they are practically People of The West now that they have officially come over to Team US & Israel. so there was a plot to hijack an Indian plane and that sparked a UK alert

LONDON: Indian authorities are reported to have warned British intelligence agencies about a suspected plot by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Pakistan to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines plane, originating from Delhi or Mumbai, and “crash” it into a British city….

In a front-page report, The Sunday Times claimed that India told MI5 about the alleged plot early last week after the interrogation of Amjad Khwaja, a suspected militant, arrested in India recently. Khwaja was described as a “leader” of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which is alleged to have been behind terror attacks in India.

The newspaper said the warning was contained in a “detailed threat assessment sent to MI5 by the Indian Intelligence Bureau.”

more @ the hindu

4. here is the information on Khwaja, who was plotting attacks on Western tourists in Goa, a place you may recall from reading aangirfan: David Headley and Jews. in addition, see this jpost article ‘israelis in Goa disastrous for tourism’

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260447428661&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Khwaja is believed to have hired a suicide bomber to target Western tourists in Goa

Mohammed Abdul Khwaja (30), a commander of the militant group Huji for South India who was caught by the Hyderabad Special Task Force recently, was in-charge of recruiting youth from the region and training them to be terrorists, say the police.

It is believed he was  responsible for making Raziuddin Nasir, who was planning serial blasts in Goa, a suicide bomber.

more @ mid day

5. but wait. there’s so much more. the veil ban in public buildings courtesy of Sarkozy

PARIS - A FRENCH parliamentary panel will stop short of recommending a ban on face-covering veils in the street and instead will ask for the garb to be banned in public facilities such as hospitals, the panel’s president says. The 32-member panel’s report due Tuesday culminates a six-month inquiry into the wearing of all-encompassing veils that began after President Nicolas Sarkozy said in June that they are ‘not welcome’ on French territory.

more @ straits times

6. Germany: extremist Swede gives anti-Islam party millions, because nobody takes the danger of Islam seriously enough. right.

Swedish far-right businessman Patrik Brinkmann has announced he will pour €5 million into the coffers of Pro NRW, an anti-Islam populist party based in Cologne….In a report to air Sunday night on Germany’s public broadcaster WDR, Brinkmann says he fears Germany is becoming “too foreign” and that Sharia law will be introduced in the country.

“However, there are no, or very few, politicians who take this seriously,” Brinkmann said.

more @ the local

7. UK: Muslim leader says more 7/7 attacks to hit

BRITAIN faces more 7/7-style ­suicide bomb attacks for generations because Muslims have not fully integrated into British society, a senior Muslim adviser to the Government warned yesterday. Iqbal Wahhab, a leading businessman and member of the ­Ethnic Minority Advisory Group, fears that a ­terrorist attack on the UK could be imminent….He blamed the Government for the divisions between some ­Muslims and the wider British community. And he claimed that high unemployment among ­Muslims was also partly to blame.

more @ express

8. in Pakistan, the insidious Indian propaganda — opinion, excerpt:

Stereotyping Muslims justifies all actions to destabilize Pakistan and even to launch a war if necessary.

The hate against Muslims is a combined strategy of US, Israel and India. The so called ‘War on Terror’ has a covert design to suppress the Islamic resurgence and undermine its identity through a well orchestrated plan. Pakistan should not dismiss it as a ‘whimsical idea’. There is a method in madness. They have killed around 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir in alone notwithstanding regular communal riots like the one in Gujrat, where Muslims were cut into pieces like vegetables. Besides Muslims, Sikhs have been killed to the tune of 250,000 in the operation against Golden Temple. A significant number of Christians have been slaughtered only in Orissa. Dalits are being most brutally treated at the hands of Hindus and yet the propaganda is to whitewash the Hindu propensity for violence. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was indeed a man of great foresight. He saw through the game, the Hindus were playing that they were the true inheritors of the British Empire and every one else was to be left high and dry.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world is uncritically accepting the Indian propaganda that it is a vibrant democracy, quite oblivious of the reality that India is notoriously following its apartheid repressive policy against its religious minorities. They are covertly planning to destabilize through subversion in Balochistan, tribal areas and extending it to Punjab and Karachi. George Orwell said very rightly: “In time of universal deceit, telling to truth is a revolutionary act.” The truth must be heeded to and our countrymen must rise against Indian machinations.

read the whole thing

Ethiopian plane crash in Lebanon

Jan 25

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, France, Lebanon, Terrorism, X Wars | 2 Comments

1. Ethiopian plane crashes in Lebanon. Africa + Lebanon. the plane erupts into flames and crashes into the water. no survivors. no black box yet. UNIFIL and various resources are diverted to the area to help recover the dead bodies. the weather was bad, but the plane burst into a fireball. JUST LIKE THE helicopter crash that killed the Mexican-Israeli Moshe Saba. meanwhile, Clash of Civilization narrative goes on full tilt in The West. coverage of this accident definitely not top of the fold. in The West the discussion is on People of The West being endangered by Muslims. meanwhile the Muslims are dying in plane crashes, wars, etc.

“The weather undoubtedly was very bad,” Aridi told reporters at the airport.

…Witnesses reported seeing flames as the plane plunged into the sea.

One employee of a gas station near the site of the crash said he heard an explosion and saw “a huge ball of fire” as the plane crashed.

Another witness said: “It was like the whole sea lit up.”

The accident took place amid heavy rains and storms in Lebanon in the past two days that have caused heavy flooding and damage in some parts of the country. The Lebanese army, navy as well as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were assisting in the rescue, Aridi added. “We have contacted everyone, inside and outside the country, that can assist us and the Lebanese navy, the army and UNIFIL have joined in the rescue,” the minister added. He said the French organization responsible for technical investigation of civil aviation accidents was taking part in the probe. A government official said Cyprus was assisting in the search and rescue efforts. He said a U.N. helicopter from Cyprus was dispatched to the site. A German naval UNIFIL boat was also at the site.
more @ naharnet

2. UNIFIL and many other resources diverted to plane crash site. what might be the opportunity cost of diverting all these resources, at a time when Lebanon needs to watch many things very closely? UK, Cyprus, US, Germany, France, UNIFIL……. — all now paying attention to the crash site.
A massive international task force comprising planes, helicopters and ships was on Monday scouring the Lebanese coast for survivors after an Ethiopian jet plunged flaming into the sea, officials said. Lebanon, the United Nations, the United States, Britain, France and Cyprus hastily scrambled search and rescue teams after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, carrying 90 passengers and crew, crashed shortly after takeoff at around 2:30 am (0030 GMT) on Monday.

more @ naharnet


3. Hariri sends divers to find the black box


4. overview of crash — France sent BEA, an organization that handles technical investigations of civil aircraft accidents. that should help (wink).

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said he did not think the plane had been brought down deliberately. As of now, a sabotage act is unlikely. The investigation will uncover the cause, Suleiman told a news conference.

…According to one source, residents on the coast saw a ball of fire crashing off Na’ameh.

…Wake said the plane, built in 2002, last underwent a maintenance check on Dec. 25 and no technical problems were found. It had been leased by Ethiopian Airlines in September 2009 from CIT Aerospace.

more @ express india

the narrative progresses

Jan 24

Posted by A. Peasant in Pakistan, Terrorism, The West, UK, Yemen | No Comments

Aha, the Defne Bayrak “Western” photo, which appears to my eyes a bad photoshop experiment, followed by her high profile interview on teevee… PLUS Sarkozy’s obsession with 2000 veiled Muslim women in France, who should remove their veils in public places because it’s dangerous, makes a lot more sense now.

Now that we know al qaeda is training women to attack The West.

LONDON: Al-Qaida in Yemen has trained a group of woman suicide bombers with ‘non-Arab’ appearance to attack Western targets, including airliners and power stations, US officials have warned.

Details of the bombers emerged just hours after Britain raised the UK threat state to “severe” [naturally! timing is everything - ed.] amid fears that al-Qaida was planning a wave of attacks against western targets, ‘The Sunday Telegraph’ reported.

The woman suicide bombers, who may be travelling on Western passports, have been prepared for their missions by al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen responsible for the botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a US airliner, it said.

US officials quoted by the paper as saying that airliners and all forms of transport could be targeted as well as sports stadia, ports and power stations.

The report came as Foreign Ministers from across the world, including external affairs minister S M Krishna, are preparing to meet in London this week for two conferences to discuss the threat of terrorism in both Yemen and Afghanistan.

But official sources insisted that there was no specific intelligence which suggested that either conference was a potential target.

I covered the sports stadia idea here.

You may also notice that since these suspected women terrorists will be traveling on Western passports, that now further justifies the increased vigilance and scrutiny of: women with Western passports. Not a few people. Happy trails.

Though the terrorism could come from Yemen or Africa or Southeast Asia, it will surely be linked back to Pakistan, which our officials and experts assure us remains the heart of al qaeda.

by Sharon Weinberger, a national security reporter based in Washington

(Jan. 20) – The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S.-bound flight may have increased the visibility of the Yemen-based wing of Al Qaida, but Pakistan’s tribal area remains the terrorist organization’s strongest base of support, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said today.

“I would still say the [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] FATA is the beating heart of al-Qaida,” Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, told a group of journalists this morning.

Al-Qaida still has closer ties to the tribal areas of Pakistan than with any other affiliate group, said Benjamin, who previously served on President Clinton’s National Security Council and has co-written two books that trace the rise of al-Qaida.

…On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report saying that three dozen Americans traveled to Yemen to train with al-Qaida. And in congressional testimony today, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center said that analysts had been looking at threats from al-Qaida in Yemen for several months, but failed to make the connection to Abdulmutallab.

Damn, not that Human Error again…

And see? Now we know that some of those three dozen American terrorists-in-training may have been women.

And notice how the narrative develops in an orderly fashion, like a well-oiled machine.

[For additional context see: foreshadowing, pakistan is being totally screwed, and india so important. also: the flames burning all around]

update on Hadjicostis murder

Jan 24

Posted by A. Peasant in Cyprus, Limited Hangouts, Turkey | No Comments

image from: Cyprus Weekly

An update on the Hadjicostis murder, covered here and by aangirfan here,

…which you can readily see has intelligence services fingerprints all over it.

But never mind all that crazy talk about the embassy and the security cameras and the shell casings and Mossad and Cyprus blah blah blah. This is the very simple, very easy to understand white bread explanation, suitable for public consumption:

NICOSIA - A Cyprus court remanded a blonde TV presenter and her brother in police custody on Friday on suspicion of ordering the contract killing of media tycoon Andis Hadjicostis.

Elena Skordelli, a 42-year-old mother of two and TV show host, and her brother Tassos Krasopoulis, 37, appeared before a Nicosia district court and were remanded for eight days. They have not been charged.

The pair denies any involvement in the killing and their defence lawyers said the suspects wanted to help police with their inquiries.

They were arrested on Thursday night in connection with the gangland-style hit on the media mogul after a suspect already in custody admitted to his part in the crime.

He then fingered the brother and sister as the people behind the killing, police said.

According to the suspect’s police statement, he met the TV journalist and her brother on two occasions during which they ordered the hit on Hadjicostis for a fee, the court heard.

Police believe the motive was financial and personal revenge as they are both shareholders in private channel Sigma TV.

Hadjicostis, a father of two, was chief executive of the Dias media group, one of the island’s largest, which owns Sigma TV, Radio Proto, daily newspaper Simerini and other publications.

It is alleged that the woman wanted her revenge after she was sacked from Sigma and held Hadjicostis responsible.

In return for carrying out the hit, the other suspects were also to receive jobs at the station, the court heard.

Five suspects are in police custody on suspicion of involvement in the killing.

The 42-year-old media mogul was gunned down outside his home close to the US embassy on January 11.

Earlier in the week, Skordelli had issued a statement threatening to sue anyone who implicated her in the killing of her “beloved Andis”.

She also claimed that her life was being endangered by a scurrilous whispering campaign against her and requested police protection saying someone had tampered with her car.

The seasoned journalist reportedly has a 20-% share in private TV station Sigma, which belongs to the Dias group owned by Hadjicostis’s father Costis.

Three other suspects arrested last week are expected to appear again before a Nicosia court on Saturday.

Police have asked Interpol to circulate a warrant for the arrest of a sixth suspect, Gregoris Xenofontos, 29, who is thought to be in Moldova.

Additional details:

The arrests came after the outcome of the testimony of one of three suspects already in custody, who is said to have ‘broken under police questioning’ and confessed his involvement in the crime. Authorities withheld comment on the nature of the confession….The minister was flanked by Kypros Michaelides, police superintendent for the Nicosia district, who also refused to answer any questions by newsmen, such as whether the two new suspects were being considered as the masterminds of the crime, or whether the arrests would take investigations in a new direction.

…Earlier this week Skordelli’s lawyer sent letters to the police chief, Attorney-general and the Justice and Interior Ministers requesting protection after an alleged attempt to cause her injury. In the letter, lawyer Michalakis Kyprianou claimed his client was potentially in danger and asked for police protection. He further claimed that unknown persons removed three nuts from the front tyre of Skordelli’s car last Friday, “evidently, to cause an accident or even her death”.The letter came just 24 hours after the TV presenter ordered her lawyer to sue everyone “responsible for all the slanderous and malicious publicity, which has been carried out at my expense, as much in the Greek domain as in the Cypriot, via televisual or electronic formats, in printed, televised and electronic forms of media.”

Almost from day one of the murder, Skordelli’s name came up on a number of Greek websites and blogs offering theories about the murder.

Their remand for the other three suspects ends tomorrow, at which time police are expected to request a renewal. The so-called fourth suspect, 29-year-old Gregoris Xenofontos is wanted by police, who have issued European and international warrants for his capture. Xenofontos is believed to have departed for Moldova with his wife a few days after the murder.

Nigeria corruption tentacles

Jan 24

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Banks, Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, France, Nigeria, Oil | 1 Comment

1. Obasanjo breaks silence on Nigeria’s sick president — denies that he picked someone known to be an invalid

LAGOS, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) — Former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo has said ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua showed a medical report that certified him fit to contest the 2007 Presidential election. Responding to questions at a media forum in Abuja, Obasanji said Yar’Adua had all the qualities of a good leader, at the time he was chosen as his party’s candidate for the election….“So, for people to say that I, Olusegun Obasanjo deliberately brought somebody who is an invalid to rule this country is the height of insult,” he stressed. “That I have put so much into this country in peace and in war and given this country to somebody who will run it down,” he asked. “No body picked Yar’Adua so that he will not perform, If I did that, God will punish me because I love this country so much and there is no reason why I should do that,” Obasanjo told his audience.

more @ chinaview

2.14 days to decide Yar’Adua’s fate

A Judge in the country, Justice Dan Abutu, has ordered the cabinet to pass a resolution on Yar’Adua’s fitness within two weeks after a former lawmaker brought a legal case against the government, saying his failure to transfer power was in breach of the constitution.

…The Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, said “If you take up a job, elected, appointed or whatever, and then your health starts to fail you and you will not be able to deliver, to satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and path of morality. If you don’t know that, you don’t know anything. I will stop on that note,” he told a briefing in Abuja on Thursday. The ex-President is still an influential figure within the ruling party and his closeness to the Vice President means his influence over government could grow should he (the VP) take over.

more @ newstime africa

3. $350 M seized from Abacha’s son by Swiss authorities. unnamed Monaco intermediary penalized for abetting money laundering

Authorities in Switzerland have ordered the seizure of assets worth around $350m from Abba Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, ex-President of Nigeria. The order came as a result of a suspended custodial sentence emanating from a conviction of being a member of a criminal organisation. Abba, one of the sons of the late military dictator, has also been convicted for graft.

The investigation which started in 1999 was as a result of a request by the Nigerian government to the swiss authorities to recover an estimated $3 billion misappropriated by Sani Abacha during his four-year rule as Nigeria’s Head of State. The government of Nigeria has since recovered $700m form the Swiss. In a statement, the Geneva Canton’s justice office said “The first order of the sentence issued yesterday by the examining magistrate found that Abba Abacha, born November 9, 1968, son of the late General Sani Abacha, was guilty of participation in a criminal organisation,”

The Swiss authorities also confirmed that they had convicted an intermediary who is currently living in Monaco, for having been part of the criminal organisation run by the Abacha family. In a statement the authorities said “The person has also been ordered to pay the Canton of Geneva 10million Swiss Francs — which corresponds to illegal gains obtained from these culpable activities,” It seems the Abacha family used members of their family, close aides and business associates to transfer the money into different Swiss bank accounts.

source: newstime africa

4. World Bank president and uber-zionist NWO creep Zoellick to visit Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia for the African Union Summit, starting Tuesday.

5. it appears that some of the money in question, in the Swiss bank accounts, needed to be laundered because it came from Halliburton and KBR, to bribe Nigerian officials in the course of building a liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria — NEXT Magazine, March 2009

At least three of our former presidents, Sani Abacha, Abdusalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Obasanjo, received millions of dollars in bribes from American and European contractors retained to build Africa’s first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers State, according to US law enforcement officials. Also enmeshed in the vast and formalized bribery scheme is a long line of ministers, bureaucrats, top politicians,state and local officials and former oil minister Dan Etete, according to American investigators.

This cast of characters, charged with running the affairs of 150 million people in the heart of Africa,received stacks of US dollar bills in briefcases and sometimes in bullion vans. In other cases they received their payoffs via electronic bank transfers involving such financial institutions as Citibank. In all, these eminent Nigerians accepted at least N27 billion in bribes from the oil services companies in exchange for billions of dollars in contracts to build our liquefied natural gas plant, US investigators say.

very comprehensive article at NEXT

6. timeline of Halliburton and Nigeria bribery scandal

1988: Dresser Industries acquires M.W. Kellogg, ten years before Dresser merges with Halliburton.

September 1994: M.W. Kellogg and three other companies form a partnership known as TSKJ, incorporated in Medeira, Portugal. Each partner owns a 25 percent equal share. Kellogg’s three other partners are Technip of France, Italy’s Snamprogetti, and Japan Gasoline Corp. The partnership submits a bid to Nigeria LNG to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria. Nigeria LNG is owned by the Nigerian government and Royal Dutch/Shell Group. TSKJ’s $2 billion bid is not immediately accepted even though it was 5 percent lower than a bid submitted by competitor, Bechtel Group, Inc.

November 1994: As TSKJ awaits Nigeria’s decision on the bid, Wojciech Chodan, an executive at Kellogg and later a consultant for Kellogg Brown & Root, meets with London lawyer Jefferey Tesler, who is known for his contacts and friendly relations with the Nigerian government, including its dictator Gen. Sani Abacha. During the meeting, they discussed channeling $40 million to Gen. Abacha through Mr. Tesler’s firm Tri-Star, based in Gibralter, Spain.

March 1995: TSKJ formally hires Mr. Tesler as agent; TSKJ’s bid has still not been accepted by Nigeria LNG. Mr. Tesler’s employment contract is signed by an M.W. Kellogg executive on behalf of the TSKJ partnership. Mr. Tesler had been working on behalf of TSKJ prior to March 1995 and the employment contract was given to Mr. Tesler as a reward for his prodding of Nigerian officials. The employment contract provided that Mr. Tesler would be paid $60 million if Nigeria awarded the construction contract to TSKJ. Mr. Tesler’s Tri-Star was contracted to receive at least $160 million in five agreements signed between 1995 and 2002, and the funds were directed to bank accounts in Switzerland and Monaco.

etc. more @ halliburton watch

7. December 2003: will the French indict Cheney? guess not….

One of France’s best-known investigating magistrates, Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke–who came to fame by unearthing major French campaign finance scandals in the 1990s that led to a raft of indictments–has been conducting a probe of the Nigeria deal since October. And, three days before Christmas, the Paris daily Le Figaro front-paged the news that Judge van Ruymbeke had notified the Justice Ministry that Cheney might be among those eventually indicted as a result of his investigation. …The suspected bribe money was mostly ladled out between 1995 and 2000, when Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO. The Journal du Dimanche reported on December 21 that “it is probable that some of the ‘retrocommissions’ found their way back to the United States” and asked, did this money go “to Halliburton’s officials? To officials of the Republican Party?” These questions have so far gone unasked by America’s media, which have completely ignored the explosive Le Figaro headline revealing the targeting of Cheney. It will be interesting to see if the US press looks seriously into this ticking time-bomb of a scandal before the November elections.

more @ dissident voice

8. June 2009: interview with Moshood Fayemiwo, Part 1 and Part 2

9. interview with Obasanjo — date unknown but probably March 2009

the flames burning all around

Jan 23

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, CIA, Central America, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, France, Identities, India, Iran, Israel, Nigeria, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Southeast Asia, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

Current interlinked narratives — apologies for the length:

1. UK raises the terror alert to “severe.” AS A RESULT of underpants bomber, the security services have tightened their vigilance.

Thus we shall be grateful for the crisis narrowly averted, hmm? It has borne the fruits of hyper-vigilance, a symptom, by the way, of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But who’s counting…

“We still face a real and serious threat to the U.K. from international terrorism, so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity,” he said, adding that U.K. residents and travelers need to be “more aware.” — Home Secretary Alan Johnson, as reported in USA Today

This brings UK policies in line with US DHS policies. We are all on the same page now, hallelujah. A terrorist attack is “highly likely,” but there’s no “intelligence to suggest that an attack is imminent.”

What is the “intelligence” “suggesting?”

1. The increased concern followed intelligence analysis. Communications and activities of terror suspects were being monitored. The new “severe” threat is the second highest possible.

2. ‘We have a very adept and very focused counter-terrorism facility, people should be reassured by that.’ He said that moving to the different threat level meant people had to be more alert.

3. The danger assessment was made by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which constantly reviews the situation. It looks at the intent and capabilities of terror groups. Although it means an attack is now believed to be almost certain, Mr Johnson stressed it was not expected in the very near future.

So the attack is “almost certain,” but not in the “very near future.” The “intelligence” “suggests” people need to be more “alert,” and more “concerned,” and to “carry on reporting suspicious events” to the “appropriate authorities” and “to support the police and security services” in their efforts to “discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity.” Roger that.

Note that all such vigilant efforts can be tied back to patsy underpants, who, by almost taking down that commercial airliner over Detroit, alerted us once again to the ever-present menace of international terrorism. SO he did us a favor in a way. See? He justified the increased vigilance, which now pays off. We Hope. Because, of course, we know the terrorists are so very wily, and they seem magically able to outwit even our best, most vigilant efforts. Let’s hope we don’t have any more of that unfortunate bugaboo: Human Error.

2. The tie to Africa and the Caribbean.

The UK terror alert measures followed a Tuesday meeting between Brown and President Obama. Brown said Britain and other countries face a “sharply growing threat” from al qaeda linked terrorists in Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan and Ethiopia.

On Thursday Newtime Africa reported that the Jamaican cleric Abdullah al-Faisal had finally been deported, on the second attempt, from Kenya back to Jamaica. He was due in court. He left Kenya on a private chartered Gulfstream jet, last week.

Nairobi - Kenya has sent controversial Jamaican-born Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal back to his homeland, a state prosecutor said Thursday, days after protests demanding his release turned deadly. Edward Okello told a Nairobi court where al-Faisal was due to appear that the cleric had been put on a private jet to Jamaica. Al-Faisal, who has served time in the UK for inciting racial hatred and is on international terrorist watch list, arrived in Kenya from Tanzania in late December, and was arrested around a week later. Kenya tried to deport him to The Gambia earlier this month, but he was sent back. Police on Friday broke up a demonstration in support of al-Faisal, firing bullets and tear gas into the crowd. Five protesters died from bullet wounds. The 45-year-old cleric was sentenced to four years imprisonment in Britain in 2003 after he called on his followers to kill Jews and Hindus. He was deported upon his release in 2007. Born Trevor William Forrest in St James, Jamaica, he went to Saudi Arabia aged 16 and converted to Islam.

Yes, he seems to get around, that notorious terrorist hater. He must have connections. But now, and I tell you this with a straight face, his whereabouts are not exactly known. Because, evidently, of the many righteous people in positions of authority, who have declined to issue him a transit visa, lest he pollute their pristine airspace with his terrorist fumes…or something….I guess it’s not exactly Human Error, or maybe it is but it is Well Intentioned. In any event it seems EXCEEDINGLY OBTUSE AND LEGALISTIC CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES for people who claim to be serious about fighting terrorism twenty four seven.

Their first effort stalled after several countries denied him an intransit visa and airlines that fly to friendly countries refused to transport him….Al Faisal’s exact location was not immediately clear. Officials say he had already left Kenya on a privately-chartered Gulfstream jet. But leader of the Kenya Muslim Rights Forum Al-Amin Kimathi, told the media the preacher was still at Nairobi airport. However sources at the airport later confirmed the plane had left, but not until several hours after he had been due in court.

Another source: First Tanzania refused him entry, and then on his way to the Gambia, an airline refused to take him beyond Nigeria because he is on several international terror watchlists.…“We wanted to be furnished with documents to show which anti-terrorism police unit officers followed him, who is the pilot, which plane, and such other documents,’ Harun Ndubi said.

Another source: In Nairobi, Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang’ appealed to Britain and the United States governments to allow a-Faisal to transit through their countries. He said the government was stuck with the preacher because all routes to Jamaica must connect through either Britain or America.

The minister said if al-Faisal was to be flown out of the country by the national carrier, Kenya Airways, the connection would be at Gatwick in Britain then to Kingston, Jamaica. However Britain has been adamantly opposed to allow al-Faisal to transit through London. The preacher once served a four-year jail term in that country for hate speech.

The other option available to Kenya, according to Mr Kajwang’ said, was an offer by the Qatar government allowing al-Faisal to transit through its capital Doha. However, the flight must connect through Miami in Florida, USA.

South Africa had also accepted to allow the preacher to pass through its airport en route to Brazil who have no problem either. But the flight has to go through Havana, Cuba, where authorities have declined the arrangement.

As such, Mr Kajwang’ said, Kenya was left “with the last option of hiring a plane but it must connect through somewhere to fuel and again we do not have the money.” Al-Faisal was expected in Kingston on Wednesday, the Jamaican newspaper reported.

Another source: Radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah El-Faisal is expected to arrive in Jamaica today. A Senior Officer in the Jamaica Constabulary Force told the Gleaner that El Faisal is to arrive at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston sometime this morning. The source also said the controversial cleric is to be placed under extra scrutiny by the police. However, the source declined to elaborate on the matter.

Despite international reports of the deportation, the Police High Command and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have both claimed ignorance of the exact date of arrival of El Faisal. They have also said that no extra security measures are to be implemented against the cleric despite the fact that he is on an international watch list of terrorists.

What a pain in the ass. Finally, it appears that he did indeed arrive safely in Jamaica! Phew! Traveling in style like a Rock Star.

JAMAICAN-BORN Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, was quizzed by Special Branch investigators for nearly an hour [hoo boy that sounds like a brutal interrogation! - ed.] when he returned to the island last night.

One investigator made it clear that al-Faisal had not broken any laws here, but said the police wanted to make sure they knew where and how to find him “because of the international attention he has received”.

“He is a very smart man. He can tell us he is going to be here or there, but we want to make sure,” said one investigator, who recorded the licence plate of the minibus that whisked al-Faisal from the Norman Manley International Airport. [GOOD IDEA! - ed.]

Confronted by reporters as he exited the airport, the controversial Muslim cleric said he was too tired to answer any questions after two days of flying.

He would not disclose the route his plane took, but said the flight had been paid for by a South African company.

Informed sources told The Gleaner that after leaving Kenya, al-Faisal’s plane made fuel stops in the West African country of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cape Verde and Antigua.

One source said al-Faisal told investigators the trip cost US$500,000.

The controversial cleric was ordered deported by Kenyan officials who labelled him a security threat. However, since the deportation order, several countries, including the United States, have refused to allow planes carrying al-Faisal to fly over their air space or provide him with an in-transit visa.

(I can’t believe they made him carry his own bags!)

This is as good a time as any to point out that some people in Nigeria and some people in Jamaica find it grossly unfair to be associated in the public mind with patsy underpants and notorious criminal al-Faisal, seeing as both men were raised and educated elsewhere.

“This is just one instance of a Nigerian who, it is clearly established, has no link with any fundamentalist group or any interest group within Nigeria, not even with his parents….America should look inward and search their souls, there is something wrong with their system and they should not punish Nigerians who are very law-abiding and good international citizens for the failure and irresponsibility of American operatives, Nigeria will not take that.” - Nigerian Senate President David Mark

“Indeed, he is a citizen of Jamaica by birth and no one can deny him access. However, he was taught and trained in a foreign territory and not in Jamaica. For example, he was converted to Islam and completed eight years of studies at a university in Saudi Arabia. He resided in the United Kingdom for 26 years and was deported from that country on May 25, 2007 after spending time in prison for criminal offences…His only connection to Jamaica is by birth, and he did not relinquish his citizenship or ties with Jamaica. Therefore, Jamaica has to accommodate such an individual in a country that already has a tarnished image. Abdullah al-Faisal has created a bad image for himself and has cast a bad shadow on everybody living in Jamaica, especially the Muslim group whose members are law-abiding citizens. Upon his arrival, authorities will have their work cut out for them in order to monitor his whereabouts.” — letter to the editor, Jamaica Observer

Except that the authorities appear to be treating al-Faisal like a ROCK STAR after his half mil private chartered Gulfstream flight paid for by some South African company after the US and UK were prevented — by a fit of moral compunction — to facilitate the criminal’s extradition to a court of law.

Weird, huh? After all that talk about vigilance.

3. Meanwhile, Gates had barely left India for Pakistan when the terrorist threats began in earnest there.

http://cbs2.com/national/Britian.terror.threat.2.1443420.html

This move by British officials comes as Indian authorities issued a terrorism alert over chatter that al Qaeda operatives planned to hijack a plane. India has largely been free of terror attacks since 10 heavily armed militants affiliated with a Pakistan-based militant group rampaged through the commercial capital Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people.

India issued a terror alert at all its airports Thursday after the government received warnings about a possible attack, aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said.

A report in The Indian Express newspaper, which Chakravarty confirmed, said intelligence officials had uncovered a plot by militants linked to al Qaeda and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight destined for an unspecified South Asian country. There were no indications that the United Kingdom was in any way related to the uncovered hijack plot.

I collected about twenty or so stories this week here and here to flesh this out. The overall arc is the US will give cover to India while Pakistan-linked terrorists attack India or another Southeast Asian country, involving India. The key point being, evidently, to justify a response from India.

Just like the patsy underpants attack justified a response from the US and the UK.

This post deals with the connections between India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and terrorism.

4. Meanwhile, the Clash of Civilization fires burn brightly, and Nicholas Sarkozy has the gasoline ready just in case.

But the UK is in Europe. In order for terrorism to be an international menace, problems must be seeded all over the world. *YOU* may experience difficulty traveling, but unlike you, terrorists use their mysterious international connections to travel, so that they show up halfway around the world, dammit, to commit mayhem in The West, and nobody can understand anything except that they came from a Muslim country.

Nicholas Sarkozy seems to have a special skill for mind-fucking. Notice that he parrots, almost religiously, whatever position Tel Aviv favors. Notice at the same time, he plays kiss kiss hug hug with Lebanon. Israel wants to bomb Lebanon again, just as they did in 2006. Make no mistake about it. Whether it’s Ghajar, or the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, or an attack on UNIFIL — something will take place to justify attacking Lebanon. And Lebanon is connected to Hizbollah, and Hizbollah is connected to Iran, and so whatever happens it will progress like a lit fuse with Wile E. Coyote until it reaches Iran.

To that end, Sarkozy makes various inflammatory statements. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838323,00.html

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that he is “convinced that Iran is pursuing a nuclear program and the Israel will not abide that,” the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported.

According to the report, Sarkozy, who met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Paris, said France has proof that Tehran is developing a nuclear bomb and that Israel may choose to take action to neutralize the threat.

Oh, well, PLEASE DO SHARE THE “PROOF!”

The paper also quoted Sarkozy as saying that if given a choice between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he would choose the latter.

The French president also spoke of the recent international sanctioned proposed against the Islamic Republic by the UN Security Council, saying such sanctions may soon become a reality.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy also announced that Paris was willing to supply Beirut with whatever military equipment it needed.

Talk about running both sides of the conflict. Even though France worries, they just worry half to death, that the weapons will end up in Hizbullah’s hands.But, at the same time, they don’t want to leave the Lebanese unprotected.

Sources close to the French president told al-Hayat that Sarkozy said his country “cannot support and protect Lebanon’s independence without giving its military the necessary means of defense.” France, he reportedly added, needs neither the US nor Israel’s permission to support Lebanon’s independence. Should Israel views the issue as problematic, he added, “We will reach an understanding with it on the matter.”

In any case, there’s nothing to worry about because France and Israel are friends, and the only danger to Lebanon comes from Hizbullah and Iran. !!

Kouchner said Lebanese’ mounting concerns amid Israeli threats of another war were “not justified.” “Israel is our friend, and if there was a threat to Lebanon, it will only come from a military adventure carried out by Hizbullah in the best interest of Iran,” Kouchner warned.

Un-flipping-believable. So while all that is going on, Sarkozy — big world leader — keeps Muslim women in his cross-hairs in France, making sure that the French people have an annoying distraction caused by Muslims, while spinning it all as a morality play, and being a big tease about the whole thing just to keep the tension simmering.

Mr Sarkozy last week reiterated his view that the full veil was not welcome in France “because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman’s dignity”. But he stopped short of calling for a legal ban in all public places, as proposed by some members of his party.

Another source: In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation’s secular foundation.

And of course he faithfully channels whatever Bibi would say regarding Iran.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday called for “strong measures” by the United Nations Security Council against Iran, to exert pressure on Tehran to return to negotiations on its nuclear program. Speaking in Paris, Sarkozy said that the European Union should also “assume its responsibilities” in putting pressure on Iran to enter into talks.
Sarkozy warned that hesitation by the international community on the issue would carry “a great weight of responsibility”, reports Reuters. “Despite all our efforts, and a new engagement by the United States, and despite our ambitious proposals for cooperation, the Iranian authorities are blocked in a one-way street of proliferation and radicalism,” he said in an address to diplomats based in France.
“Today, they have added to that the brutal repression of their own people,” he added.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed that world powers would “not back down” in the face of Iran’s continued refusal to prove its nuclear intentions are peaceful. Iran has shunned a United Nations-brokered nuclear fuel deal, aimed at easing the standoff over its nuclear program. Tehran, which insists that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, has vowed to press forward with its uranium enrichment program, despite UN demands to halt such work.

They demand Iran prove a negative, and they offer NO PROOF of Iran’s supposed nuclear program. They have none. If France has some proof, show it to the world. There’s probably nothing there but another forged document.

Why does this next war need to happen? The nuclear program narrative justifies what they want to do — which is bomb various targets in Iran. Iran’s alleged nuclear program, for which no evidence has ever been provided, makes a good excuse to bomb Iran’s oil fields — to control Iran’s resources. Which must happen because the failing fiat currency, the US dollar, needs to be replaced, and they don’t want any Islamic non-usurious banking system luring their wage slaves away. Who controls the currency? The Rothschilds and the Rockefellers and the other banking families.

All the rest is psyops and profiteering and human sacrifice.