Blazing car driven into Glasgow Airport

Glasgow Aiport has been
closed until further notice after a blazing car crashed into the main terminal
building around 3.15pm today. The incident occurred just a day after
a car bomb attack on central London was foiled. A police spokeswoman said it
was too early to say whether the latest incident was terrorist related. However,
Sky News later reported that the incident was being treated as a terrorist
attack. Witnesses said a blazing Cherokee jeep containing two men crashed into
the doors of the terminal building. A man with his clothes on fire got out of
the vehicle and was restrained by passengers. One eyewitness said : “Some
holidaymaker tried to restrain him, then the police came over and wrestled him
to the ground – the fire was burning through his clothes – and finally put him
out with a fire extinguisher.”

Another eyewitness said one
of the men had tried to open the boot of the vehicle but was not successful. “Police
tried to restrain him but the guy was quite strong and he started fighting off
the police,” he said. Eyewitness Fiona Tracey, who had been picking up her
daughter from the airport, said she believed people were injured in the
incident. “There were people injured, because I’ve seen them lying on the
road,” she said. “I was standing next to departures, I heard a great
big massive bang, and then all the folk from departures were running through
arrivals.” A spokesman for the airport’s operators, the British Airports
Authority, said emergency services were at the scene. “A car is on fire at
the entrance to the terminal and there is considerable smoke damage to the
terminal. The terminal has been evacuated as a result of this and all flights
have now been suspended,” the spokesman said. Glasgow Airport is the
busiest of Scotland’s international airports with approximately 8.8 million
passengers a year travelling through it. “This is the start of the busy
summer holiday period, although Saturdays are less busy than week days. But
this will cause disruption and our advice to passengers is to check with their
airline to establish if their flight will be operating.” Two people have
allegedly been arrested by police. Downing Street said that Prime Minister
Gordon Brown was “being kept aware” of the situation in Glasgow and
the Home Office said it was monitoring events, which were being handled by
Strathclyde Police. Brown is to chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra
emergency contingencies committee this evening to discuss the incident. A Home
Office spokesman said that the official security alert level remains at
“severe”, as it has been for some time. Labour’s shadow justice
minister in Scotland, Margaret Curran, said: “This is obviously a very
serious incident that alerts us all to the threat to our safety and security. “We
are relieved that as yet there seem to be no serious injuries. But our thoughts
are with those who have witnessed this terrible event. We obviously condemn
those who risk the safety of others.” The Queen is in Scotland today for
the inauguration of Scotland’s third Parliament, the first to be under
Nationalist minority control.

Source: The Times (UK).

Comment:

The question now is: is it
a terrorist attack or not? Airports are large symbols of western technology,
and very vulnerable to attacks…

I hope for the British
people it’s not again something that gives a signal of an upcoming wave
of attacks…most people fear attacks in public transportation, airports,…

And dying in an airplane is
certainly not my idea of having a quiet death…

 

technorati tags:Glasgow, airport, Scotland, UK, Great, Britain, Great-Britain, terrorists, attack, car, accident, incident

2 U.S. Soldiers Charged in Murders of 3 Iraqis

 

 

Image: if the occupation in Iraq lasts some (maybe seven or more, so it would be a real, second Vietnam) years, it is possible the stealthy, new F-35C Lightning II fighter will be deployed onboard US Navy carriers in Iraqi waters. Image courtesy of Lockheed-Martin.

BAGHDAD (AP) — American soldiers rolled into Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City slum on Saturday in search of Iranian-linked militants and as many as 26 Iraqis were killed in what a U.S. officer described as ”an intense firefight.”

 

But residents, police andhospital officials said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused U.S. forces of firing blindly on the innocent. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the raids and demanded an explanation for the assault into a district where he has barred U.S. operations in the past.

 

Separately, two American soldiers were charged with the premeditated murder of three Iraqis, the U.S. military said Saturday. And in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of the capital,
police said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a crowd of police recruits,
killing at least 23 people and wounding 17.

 

A U.S. soldier was killed Friday and three wounded when a sophisticated, armor-piercing bomb hit their combat patrol in southern Baghdad, the military announced a day later.

 

The U.S. military said it conducted two pre-dawn raids in Sadr City, killing 26 ”terrorists” who attacked U.S. troops with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and
roadside bombs. But Iraqi officials said all the dead were civilians.

 

An American military spokesman insisted all of those killed were combatants. ”Everyone who got shot was shooting at U.S. troops at the time,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver. ”It
was an intense firefight.”

 

U.S. troops detained 17 men suspected of helping Iranian terror networks fund operations in Iraq, a military statement said. There were no U.S. casualties.

 

Witnesses said U.S. forces rolled into their neighborhood before dawn and opened fire without warning.

 

”At about 4 a.m., a big American convoy with tanks came and began to open fire on houses — bombing them,” said Basheer Ahmed, who lives in Sadr City’s Habibiya district. ”What did we do? We didn’t even retaliate — there was no resistance.”

 

According to Iraqi officials, the dead included three members of one family — a father, mother and son. Several women and children, along with two policemen, were among the
wounded, they said.

 

The assault brought quick criticism from al-Maliki. ”The Iraqi government totally rejects U.S. military operations … conducted without a pre-approval from the Iraqi military
command,” al-Maliki said in a statement released by his office. ”Anyone who
breaches the military command orders will face investigation.”

 

Sadr City is the Iraqi capital’s largest Shiite neighborhood — home to some 2.5 million people. It is also the base of operations for the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to
anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The fighters are blamed for much of the
sectarian killing in Baghdad.

 

Last year, al-Maliki banned military operations in Sadr City without his approval after complaints from his Shiite political allies. But he later agreed that no area of the capital was off-limits, after President Bush ordered reinforcements to Iraq as part of the
Baghdad security operation.

 

Houses, a bakery and some other shops were damaged by U.S. tank fire during the assault, Iraqi officials said. In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Sheik Salah al-Obaidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr condemned Saturday’s raids: ”The bombing hurt only innocent
civilians.”

 

A policeman wounded in the raid, Montadhar Kareem, said he was on night duty when U.S. troops moved in and ”began bombing houses in the area.”

 

”The bombing became more intense, and I was injured by shrapnel in both my legs and in my left shoulder,” Kareem said from a gurney at Al Sadr General Hospital.

 

Hours afterward, a funeral procession snaked through Sadr City. Three coffins were hoisted atop cars.

 

One resident who goes by the nickname of Um Ahmed, or ”mother of Ahmed,” stood outside her home as mourners passed by.

 

”We are being hit while we are peacefully sleeping in our houses. Is that fair?” she cried. The woman gave only her nickname, fearing reprisal.

 

The U.S. military statement said American troops opened fire on four civilian cars during the assault — one that failed to stop at a checkpoint, and three that insurgents were using
for cover as they shot at U.S. soldiers.

 

”Every structure and vehicle that the troops on the ground engaged were being used for hostile intent,” Garver said. Some of the 26 dead were in civilian cars, some had been
hiding behind cars and others had fired on U.S. troops from nearby buildings,
he said.

 

 

In the murder case, the two American soldiers are accused of killing three Iraqis in separate incidents, then planting weapons on the victims’ remains, the military said in a
statement. Fellow soldiers reported the alleged crimes, which took place between April and this month near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, it said.

The U.S. military on Saturday identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley from Candler, N.C., and Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval from Laredo, Texas.

 

Hensley is charged with three counts each of premeditated murder, obstructing justice and ”wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of deceased Iraqis,” the military said. He was placed in military confinement in Kuwait on Thursday.

 

Sandoval faces one count each of premeditated murder and placing a weapon with the remains of a dead Iraqi, a statement said. He was taken into custody Tuesday while at home in Texas, and was transferred to military confinement in Kuwait three days later,
it said.

 

Saturday’s blast in Muqdadiyah ripped through a crowded market area where Iraqi police recruits were having coffee, police said.

 

One witness, 30-year-old Abu Omar, said he rushed to the area where his brother has a shop, and saw police loading mutilated bodies into the back of a pickup truck. Fire engines sprayed water onto burning storefronts, and ambulances evacuated the wounded, he said.

 

At least seven shops were destroyed by the explosion, and the market street soaked with blood, Omar said.

 

Source: The New York Times

 

Comment: Another scandal in the occupation of Iraq by allied forces. I hope for POTUS Bush they don’t appear anymore in the media, or he has a big problem after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal…the problems stay showing up, one after one…

 

 

 

technorati tags:Iraq, US, Army, USA, Middle-East

 

"Want to feel fruity? Try oranges for orgasms”…

“Want to feel fruity? Try oranges for orgasms” is the title of an article that appeared recently (read: today) in the renowned British newspaper “The Times”. It shows the controversy that exists around the use of alternative medical solutions, no matter the purpose, being for sexual purposes like vitamin C, or for useful purposes like blackcurrants.

“The news this week that scientific studies show that the herb echinacea really
does fight colds came as no surprise to Jayney Goddard, the editor of Complementary
and Alternative Health. This remedy bible examines the scientific evidence
behind every alternative treatment. But what sets it apart is that it draws
only on double-blind placebo-controlled trials, one of the most rigorous
types of study, though some, admittedly, are small.

Goddard discovered many other treatments supported by scientific evidence,
which she shares with us below. If you’re tempted to give them a whirl,
remember always to read the label and to check with your GP if you’re
already on medication.

1 VITAMIN C FOR INCREASED LIBIDO

In a trial of 42 women, those who were given daily doses of 3,000mg of vitamin
C had better libido and orgasms compared with the placebo group.

However, this dose is the equivalent of consuming about 10 litres of orange
juice or 100 oranges. Plus the Food Standards Agency doesn’t recommend
anything higher than 1,000mg, as excess vitamin C can cause loose stools.
Other less robust studies have suggested that vitamin C improves mood and
energy levels.

2 BLACKCURRANTS FOR NIGHT VISION

Blackcurrants contain vision-boosting antioxidants called anthocyanosides, and
a small study has indicated that the berries may boost night vision.
Scientists stumbled on the fruit’s vision-boosting powers when investigating
stories that Second World War pilots had a good helping of bilberry jam to
improve their eyesight before their night missions. Subsequent trials failed
to produce concrete evidence for bilberries, but they found that
blackcurrants may help to improve night vision.

3 ARTICHOKE FOR HIGH CHOLESTEROL

There is evidence that this vegetable lowers cholesterol levels. In a study of
143 people with high cholesterol levels, taking a daily artichoke extract
(450mg) was found to lower their readings significantly. Total cholesterol
fell by 18.5 per cent. The researchers were unclear why, but they thought
that it may have something to do with an artichoke compound called luteolin.
Unfortunately for all artichoke fans, the amount needed for any therapeutic
benefit can be obtained only from supplements.

4 NETTLE ROOT FOR ENLARGED PROSTATE

Ditch the prickly bits; nettle root may be good for enlarged prostate, also
called benign prostatic hyperplasmia. This condition is not cancerous and
isn’t associated with prostate cancer. It mostly affects the over40s, and
one of the symptoms is the frequent need to go to the loo. A six-month study
of 558 Iranian men found that the root was more effective than a placebo.
However, it’s always best to have prostate complaints checked by your GP
before embarking on any treatment.

5 DEVIL’S CLAW FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

The rather scary-sounding southern African herb devil’s claw (so called
because of its appearance) seems to have antiinflammatory properties that
work on rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease in which the joints
become swollen and painful. One study followed 89 patients for two months;
the treatment group showed an increase in mobility and a decrease in pain
compared with the placebo group. Another alternative treatment for the
condition, backed by scientific evidence, is Boswellia, a herb used in
Ayurvedic medicine for about 6,000 years. Two recent studies have reported a
reduction in pain and swelling over three months, which is thought to be due
to Boswellia’s antiinflammatory activity. Both of these herbs are taken as
capsules.

6 CHILLI PEPPER FOR INDIGESTION

Wolf down a chilli if you’ve got indigestion, as chilli pepper, also called
cayenne pepper, has been found to combat it. A small study found that
compared with a placebo, people who were taking 2.5g of pepper powder had
significant reductions in pain and discomfort. It is thought that the pepper
works on our neurological pain pathways, not on the acid produced in the
stomach. Look for supplements that contain cayenne pepper.

7 PROBIOTICS FOR ECZEMA

Increasing your “friendly bacteria” has been linked to reducing allergies and
most, but not all, double-blind trials have found that infants and children
with eczema may benefit from probiotics. The effect may even start in the
womb. A trial involving 159 pregnant women found that the children whose
mums took probiotic capsules during pregnancy (2-4 weeks before delivery)
and while breast-feeding had a 50 per cent reduced risk of developing
eczema.

8 HAWTHORN FOR HEARTS

The extract of hawthorn tree has been found to be an effective treatment for
congestive heart failure, when the heart can’t pump enough blood around the
body. Medication and lifestyle changes help, although sufferers have a
higher risk of heart attack. In a 16-week study of 209 people with a
relatively advanced condition, a 900mg daily dose of hawthorn extract was
more effective than placebo. However, it’s vital that you see your GP before
taking supplements.

9 CHRYSANTHEMUM FOR ROSACEA

Rosacea makes the skin look red or flushed. Used for centuries in Chinese
medicine, chrysanthemum cream is increasingly prescribed for rosacea in the
US. In a 12-week study of 246 people, a 1 per cent Chrysanthellum indicum
cream was found to significantly improve rosacea compared with a placebo.
The cream is also called golden chamomile.

10 MAGNESIUM FOR PMS

Magnesium could beat period pains. A six-month, double-blind
placebo-controlled study of 50 women found that daily magnesium tablets
significantly reduced the symptoms. Plus a study this year found that a
250mg daily dose reduced PMS symptoms, but the study was not double-blind
and so was not as thorough. Magnesium is also available in foods such as
spinach and nuts, and the daily recommended intake is 270mg.”

Source: The Times

Comment: Again The Times has done a great work in creating a comprehensive list of the most useful alternatives to modern pharmaceutical medicines. I hope most people who’ve red this article, use the given information…

I wonder what the next article will be: “Want a hard one? Try Viagra?” or so?

technorati tags:The, Times, medicines, UK, medical, research, development, alternative

London Finds Linked Bombs, Al-Qaeda Tactic

The British Police in the West End (London) yesterday. Photo: Shaun Curry/Agence France-Presse–Getty Images.

LONDON, June 29 — London was gripped by a terrorist threat on Friday when the police found two Mercedes sedans packed with gasoline, nails and gas canisters that had been parked near Piccadilly Circus in the bustling West End entertainment district.

The police defused both bombs, but had they exploded “there could have been significant injury or loss of life,” Peter Clarke, Britain’s senior counterterrorism police official, told reporters.

Hours later, Mr. Clarke told another news conference at New Scotland Yard that the second car, illegally parked in Cockspur Street a few hundred yards from the first in the Haymarket, had been rigged like the first, adding, “The vehicles are clearly linked.”

Security experts said that neither the bomb materials nor the cellphone triggering device was particularly sophisticated. Nor, said Sajjan M. Gohel, a counterterrorism expert with the Asia-Pacific Foundation, did the attack “seem to be very well planned.”

But the idea of a multiple attack using car bombs — a departure from the backpack suicide attacks of the London bombings of July 2005 — raised concerns among security
experts that jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda may have imported tactics more familiar in Iraq.

Both bombs seem to have been discovered by accident.

In the first case, an ambulance crew alerted the police after seeing what it thought was smoke inside a silver-green Mercedes parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub on the Haymarket. The police defused an explosive device there by hand in the early morning, but did not reveal the episode until hours later.

Then, after a day of growing tensions and reports of a second bomb, the police confirmed Friday night that they had found a blue Mercedes rigged to explode in a car pound on upscale Park Lane, where it was stowed after being ticketed and towed away. Traffic agents said they had smelled gasoline fumes coming from the vehicle.

The car was towed around 3:30 a.m.,roughly two and a half hours after the discovery of the first vehicle, the police said. If the cars were supposed to explode in spectacular
fashion, the plot had clearly gone awry.

ABC News reported that British security officials said they had seen a “crystal clear” image on a security tape of the driver jumping from the green Mercedes, and that he bore “a close resemblance” to a man arrested in an earlier bomb plot but released for lack of evidence.

A British security official confirmed in an interview on Friday that the authorities were
concerned that the supposed attacker might have been a person already known to the authorities who had slipped out of sight after “crossing the radar” in a separate conspiracy.

In recent weeks, several terrorism suspects who were supposed to be restricted in their
movements by so-called control orders have disappeared, but they most likely fled abroad, the official said.

The attempted bombings, as well as the potential for further violence, posed an immediate challenge to the newly installed prime minister, Gordon Brown, who convened a meeting of Britain’s top security committee — called Cobra, for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A — to assess the severity of the situation.

“As the police and security services have said on so many occasions, we face a serious and continuous threat to our country,” Mr. Brown said. “But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents.”

In Washington, counterterrorism officials said that they were following the investigation in London closely, but that they had received no credible reports of possible threats inside
the United States, although they urged heightened vigilance with the approach of the Fourth of July holiday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a bulletin on Friday urging local authorities to step up their watchfulness even though there had been no credible threat reports.

In the course of a jittery day in London, the police barred people andvehicles from Park Lane and urged others to leave adjoining Hyde Park because officers had suspicions, later confirmed, about the car in the underground parking lot.

Fleet Street, leading from central London to the traditional financial district to the east, was also cordoned off, but later reopened. The closings left tracts of central London in gridlock on a busy Friday afternoon when streets are normally packed.

Some Londoners seemed unfazed by the news of the botchedattacks.“It’s something you get used to, living in London,” said Andrew Fowler, a 39-year-old lawyer sipping coffee at an outdoor cafe near Piccadilly. “And given the stance our government made on the war
in Iraq and elsewhere, I think we are just getting used to being a target.”

The alert, which closed off streets around the Haymarket, brought some people out of nearby offices to find out what was going on.

“It’s only when I got to work that I realized what was happening,” said Renee Anderson, 32, a New Zealander from her country’s nearby diplomatic mission. “I feel surprisingly all right about it. We all kind of thought, ‘Well, you could be hit by a bus anyway.’ ”

News of the developments broke over Britain’s breakfast tables when a police spokesman said explosives experts had discovered a “potentially viable explosive device” in a vehicle. British news organizations quoted witnesses as saying police officers had been seen
removing what appeared to be propane gas cylinders and a large number of nails from the car.

Sky News quoted a witness who said the car had been driven erratically before it collided with garbage bins, and that the driver had run off. Mr. Clarke, the counterterrorism official, could not confirm that version of events.

The Tiger Tiger nightclub was packed with hundreds of people at the time the first bomb
was discovered. One woman at the club, Rajeshree Patel, told the BBC that the Mercedes had all its doors open and its headlights on. “I think there would have been a lot of fatalities” if the car had exploded, she said. “There were approximately 500 people inside Tiger Tiger at the time.”

The presence of gas cylinders recalled a 2004 terrorist plot called the “Gas Limos Project,” in which Dhiren Barot, a British Muslim accused of being a leading Al Qaeda figure, had planned to use limousines packed with gas cylinders to blow up buildings. In a
39-page planning document, Mr. Barot, who was sentenced in November to a minimum of 40 years in prison, recommended the use of gas cylinders because they were highly destructive and easy to obtain.

In another plot, terrorists were said to have planned to attack the Ministry of Sound, one of London’s biggest nightclubs, using a fertilizer bomb.

Haymarket is in an area of bars, shops and theaters that draws tens of thousands of visitors and revelers. Two theaters on the Haymarket canceled Friday night performances.

The discovery was made one day after the new prime minister, Mr. Brown,
formed his first government and close to the second anniversary of the bombings of July 7, 2005, in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London subway system.

The counterterrorism command, headed by Mr. Clarke, has led several major investigations into suspected jihadist conspiracies that have proliferated in Britain
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In those investigations, suspected terrorists have been accused by the police of planning to use a variety of weapons, including the poison ricin, fertilizer bombs and liquid explosives to attack an array of targets like a shopping mall, a nightclub and airplanes on trans-Atlantic routes.

Jack Straw, who was appointed justice minister by Mr. Brown, said government members had been told about the discovery several hours before the police statement, which was made public as the morning rush hour got under way.

There was no immediate change in the threat level declared by the British authorities. According to the Web site of MI5, the British domestic security service, the current level stands at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely,” as it has been since
August 2006.

Some Londoners said Friday’s alert heightened the sense of suspicion surrounding people of different backgrounds.

With the latest scare, said Sanjay Karsan, 22, a Briton of Indian descent,
“I’m worrying that if I walk up that road, they’re going to suspect me.”

Source: The New York Times

Comment: I personally don’t hope that a new wave of terroristic attacks will commence. God save the Queen…

Closer to home (at least for me):

Already a few minutes the Belgian quality newspaper De Standaard joined other newspapers around the world in spreading the news through it’s website, in an article titled “Two car bombs defused in London”. It seems that the extremely-well manned editioral office of the newspaper kept an eye on the most important newspapers in the English-speaking world, otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible to write an article this fast.

Britain: united you are strong! Watch out for these suspicious cars, people who act weird,…keep an eye on eachother, and you might have a chance to get away from the terrorism. Everybody, keep your eyes open!

technorati tags:London, United, Kingdom, UK, Great, Britain, West, End, terrorism, attacks, car, bombs

Boeing Invites the World to View the 787 Premiere

Image:

Boeing is looking forward to a new member of the 787 family, being the 787-10, a second stretch of the 787 that will debut in 2013. It is joining the baseline 787-8 – which will enter revenue service in 2008 -, a version for shorter ranges (the 787-3), and the first stretch, designated the 787-9. Both of these family members (the -3 and -9) will enter service in 2010.

SEATTLE, June 28, 2007 — Boeing [NYSE: BA] will broadcast the Premiere of its newest technologically advanced passenger jet – the 787 Dreamliner – to viewers around the world.

The 787 Premiere will be carried live and in nine different languages on Sunday, July 8, at 3:30 p.m. PDT or 10:30 p.m. GMT via satellite and Webcast. To view the Webcast, viewers may log on to www.boeing.com or www.newairplane.com.

Boeing will broadcast the Premiere to more than 45 countries using 35 satellite TV networks. Satellite television subscribers may tune in the following channels, depending on their satellite service provider: Specific channel or frequency information can be found on the Premiere Web site.
U.S. and Canada

DirecTV satellite 4S/8, Channel 576
Dish Network satellite EchoStar #8, Channel 9601
IntelSat Galaxy 11 K15 Analog
IntelSat Galaxy 11 K20 Digital
Mexico and South America

Satmex 5 K19, Digital 9Mhz
IntelSat Galaxy 11, K20 Digital
Europe and the Middle East

Eutelsat, W2 Digital
Eutelsat Atlantic Bird, AB1F5BE Digital
Asia

AsiaSat Direct-to-Home (DTH) Service
AsiaSat 2 XP 2B, Channel 3 and 4, Digital
South Pacific

Optus, B3 Digital (Eastern Australia and New Zealand)
Intelsat 12 (Western Australia)

The 787 Premiere will be broadcast in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

Leading up to the 787 Premiere, Boeing will debut a special series of videos to celebrate its 7-Series family of airplanes – the Boeing 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787. The videos, along with fact sheets on each airplane, are historical perspectives of the 7-Series of commercial airplanes, showcasing the wonder and glamour of flight since the 707’s debut in 1958.

Matching airplane model numbers to the dates, Boeing will launch one video per day leading up to the 787 rollout – beginning June 30 with the 707 and continuing through July 8 with the 787. The videos will be available on the 787 Premiere Web site, which can be accessed via Boeing’s Internet home page at www.boeing.com.

Source: BoeingMedia (Image) and The Boeing Company.

Comment:

It seems like they’re going to make a spectacular media-event of it. I trust Boeing it will do it with some style, as we’re used of them (yes, I admit, I personally prefer Boeing rather than Airbus, though I’m a European citizen). Congratulations to The Boeing Company with your new airplane!

technorati tags:Boeing, 787, Dreamliner, airliner, roll-out, Company, The

British Police finds explosive device in London (UK)

LONDON, June 29 — British police said they discovered an explosive device in a car abandoned outside a nightclub in the West End theater and entertainment district of central London early today and began a terrorism investigation.

The police said they had found significant quantities of gasoline, propane cylinders and nails in the car, a silver-green Mercedes, which had now been made safe.

Parts of central London were cordoned off after the incident, near the landmark Piccadilly Circus area, the police said.

In a press briefing, Peter Clarke, head of Britain’s counterterrorism command, said the explosive materials had had the potential to cause “significant injury or loss of life.”

Many other questions were met with his refusal to speculate during the early stages of an investigation. Evidence so far was said to include closed circuit television footage, along with witness accounts, which are emerging in news coverage. Mr. Clarke urged those people and any other witnesses to call a hotline.

Mr. Clarke said the British authorities had had no intelligence that an attack was coming. The police were alerted after people working for the ambulance service were called to a separate incident in the area and noticed what they thought was smoke coming from the car, Mr. Clarke said. “The threat from terrorism is here, it’s real, it’s enduring,” Mr. Clarke said. “Life goes on.”

Britain’s newly-installed prime minister, Gordon Brown, urged citizens to be vigilant, particularly “over the next few days”. He also ordered a meeting of so-called Cobra group of high-level officials — the Cobra name means Cabinet Office Briefing Room A — to assess the severity of the incident.

“As the police and security services have said on so many occasions, we face a serious and continuous threat to our country,” Mr. Brown said. “But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents.”

“I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days,” he said.

Sky News quoted an eyewitness as saying the car had been driven erratically before it collided with garbage bins and the driver ran off, although the police could not confirm this report.

The car was abandoned close to a night-spot called Tiger Tiger, television news footage showed, and police used a remote-controlled robot to approach it. The car was later loaded onto a removal truck.

The apparent use of gas cylinders recalled a terror plot allegedly thwarted in 2004 when Dhiren Barot, a British Muslim, was said to have been planning to use limousines packed with gas cylinders to blow up buildings.

The discovery was made one day after Mr. Brown formed his first government and it comes close to the second anniversary of the July 7 bombings of 2005 when four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London Underground, the London subway system.

The incident therefore represented a first challenge to Mr. Brown in the handling of apparent terrorism cases after a decade in government overseeing the nation’s finances as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took over from the former prime minister, Tony Blair, two days ago.

“Police were called to reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in the Haymarket, shortly before 2 a.m. this morning,” a police statement said. Haymarket is part of the area of bars, shops and theaters that draws in tens of thousands of visitors and revelers.

“As a precautionary measure the immediate area was cordoned off while the vehicle was examined by explosives officers,” the police statement said.

“They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe. The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command has launched an investigation.”

The counterterrorism command, headed by Mr. Clarke, is the police unit that has dealt with several major investigations into alleged jihadist conspiracies that have proliferated in this country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

In those investigations, suspected terrorists have been accused by the police of planning to use a variety of weapons including the poison ricin, fertilizer bombs, and liquid explosives to attack an array of targets like a shopping mall, a nightclub and trans-Atlantic airplanes.

Jack Straw, who was appointed justice minister in Mr. Brown’s new government, said government members had been told about the incident several hours before the police statement, which was made public as the morning rush hour got under way.

There was no immediate change in the level of threat perceived by the British authorities. According to the Web site of MI5, the British domestic security service, the current level stands at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely”, unchanged since August 2006.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, a former head of MI5, said last year that the British authorities were monitoring 1,600 people in 200 suspected terror cells.

Source: The New York Times

Comment: I truly hope that the British don’t need to experience a new gulf of terrorism, not like the attacks in the British “Tube” (well-known, not-officially synonym for London’s Underground). For God’s sake, Mr. Bush, this time we need you. Kick those terrorists back to Afghanistan and Iraq (and Iran? I don’t hope so…)…do your duty in the global war on terrorism.

technorati tags:London, explosives, device, United, Kingdom, UK, England, Great, Britain

Maine retreat launches U.S.-Russian dialogue

WASHINGTON — The up-and-down relationship between the United States and Russia takes center stage this weekend as President Bush and counterpart Vladimir Putin try to iron out their differences.Putin visits the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday and Monday, and it’s unclear what his attitude will be. Will he be the same leader who threatened to aim Russian missiles at Western Europe, as he did last month? Or more like the one who told Bush on June 7 that he was “satisfied with the spirit of openness” between the countries?

Whatever their mood, Bush and Putin have a lot to discuss. The agenda includes missile defense, new sanctions to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, possible independence for Kosovo and the fate of democracy in Russia.”This may be the last opportunity to improve U.S.-Russian relations before the two leaders leave office in 2008 and 2009,” said Ariel Cohen, a Russian specialist at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank.

The White House played down expectations Wednesday and disputed the idea that this gathering is a “summit.”"I would caution against expecting grand, new announcements,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. “This is, in fact, an opportunity for two leaders to talk honestly and candidly with one another.”The host of the meeting is Bush’s father, who touted the laid-back atmosphere and rustic pleasures at his coastal compound on Walker’s Point. “Fishing is good for the soul,” the senior Bush told WGME-TV in Portland, Maine. “Fishing is good for one person to get to know another.”Bush and Putin meet as a new survey shows neither inspires confidence around the globe. Less than 40% of respondents in Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Canada, and Italy have confidence in either Bush or Putin to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” according to the Pew Research Center.The exception is that Putin is popular back home, where 84% of Russians expressed confidence in their president. Bush scored a 45% confidence rating in the United States, according to the Pew poll.The meeting was prompted partly by a dispute on missile defense. Bush wants to put parts of a new system in the Czech Republic and Poland, which Putin viewed as a threat to Russia. Putin vowed to retarget Russian missiles at Europe.After weeks of escalating tensions, Putin surprised Bush in the midst of the Group of Eight summit this month when he proposed a joint U.S.-Russian missile-defense system at an existing radar facility in Azerbaijan. Experts from Russia and the United States are reviewing the plan.While both Bush and Putin say they have a good personal relationship, Putin has taken his shots at Bush’s government. Among them, Putin said in February that “we are constantly being taught about democracy, but for some reason those who teach us do not want to learn themselves.”Bush brushed aside the disputes after the last meeting with Putin, citing instead “the desire to work together.”James Lindsay, director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, said it will be hard for Putin to dial back on his past comments. “Tough talk sells very well in Russia,” he said. Still, Lindsay believes the setting will have a calming effect.”Generally, it’s considered poor form to go to somebody’s house and throw a tantrum,” he said.

Source: USAToday.com.

Personal comment:

I hope Putin realises he’s not the president of the former Soviet Union, and that he can’t pose a threat neither versus the United States of America, neither to Europe. He needs to learn he can’t use his KGB, GRU, or another intelligence service to threat people like the Bulgarian government threated Georgi Markov in the 1970’s. I also hope Bush also learns to act like a president (of course, he has already begun two wars during his administrations) of the U.S.A., not like the old American tradition (fortunelaty it’s a minority of US citizens that act this way ) “I’m from the U.S.A. and you’re going to listen to me. If the next POTUS (President of the United States, some people may remember this from the TV series “The West Wing” from NBC) – Barrack, Clinton or Dean – acts like good old Ronald Reagan – God have his soul – did, they may have a chance to stay in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

technorati tags:Reagan, Bush, George, W., Vladimir, Putin, Russia, U.S.A., USA, Unites, States, of, America

CIA releases hundreds of heavily censored documents

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA released hundreds of heavily censored documents Tuesday about its spying on Americans, foreign assassination plots and other misdeeds that triggered a scandal in the mid-1970s.Known inside the CIA as the ”family jewels,” the documents were released with vast sections blocked out by agency censors. As a result, they were far less revealing than the reports issued in the mid-1970s by the three investigations which obtained unedited versions of these internal CIA documents a generation ago.

The ensuing scandal sullied the reputation of the intelligence community and led to new rules for the CIA, FBI and other spy agencies and new permanent committees in Congress to oversee them.

The 693 pages, mostly drawn from the memories of active CIA officers in 1973, were turned over at that time to three different investigative panels — President Ford’s Rockefeller Commission, the Senate’s Church committee and the House’s Pike committee.

The panels spent years investigating and amplifying on these documents. And their public reports in the mid-1970s filled tens of thousands of pages.

In early 1975, CIA Director William Colby told the Justice Department that these documents detailed assassination plots against foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro, the testing of behavior-altering drugs on unwitting citizens, wiretapping of U.S. journalists, spying on civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protesters, opening of mail between the United States and the Soviet Union and China and break-ins at the homes of ex-CIA employees and others.

But as censored by the CIA, many of the most sensational events were mentioned in little more than one, sketchy paragraph apiece.

The new documents devoted two paragraphs to the programs that opened mail between U.S. citizens and the Soviet Union and China.

One paragraph said ”Project WESTPOINTER,” from the fall of 1969 through October 1971, was based in the San Francisco area and the ”target was mail to the United States from Mainland China.”

The other paragraph said a program, begun in 1953 but dormant by 1973, intercepted incoming and outgoing Russian mail, and occasionally other types of mail, at New York’s Kennedy Airport.

By contrast, the Senate committee headed by Frank Church, D-Idaho, which spent two years investigating these documents, produced a book-length study of 12 CIA and FBI mail opening programs from 1940 to 1973. It found that the CIA alone had opened and photographed almost 250,000 first class letters in the United States and produced a computerized CIA index of nearly 1.5 million names.

The agency’s new documents contained an unsigned three-page memo that described CIA’s program code named Operation CHAOS as a worldwide effort to collect information ”on foreign efforts to manipulate U.S. extremism.” It said some American extremists had been recruited by the CIA and sent abroad as contract agents, but asserts that CHAOS ”has not and is not conducting efforts domestically for internal domestic collection purposes.”

Another 1973 memo to Colby from the CIA inspector general expressed concern over CHAOS ”because of the high degree of resentment we found among many agency employees at their being expected to participate in it.”

But the Church committee reported in 1976 that CHAOS compiled a computerized index of 300,000 individuals, including 7,200 Americans and more than 100 domestic groups between 1967-1973 as it examined civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protesters.

One of the most detailed descriptions in the newly released documents concerned one of the plots to kill the Cuban dictator Castro.

A memo by CIA security chief Howard Osborn said in August 1960 the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, who was a top aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach mobster Johnny Roselli and pass himself off as the representative of international corporations who wanted Castro killed.

Roselli introduced Maheu to ”Sam Gold” and ”Joe,” who were actually 10-most wanted mobsters Sam ”Momo” Giancana, Al Capone’s successor in Chicago, and Santos Trafficante. The mobsters worked for free, turning down a $150,000 offer. The CIA gave them six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in the Cuban leader’s food.

This particular plot was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Other plots continued against Castro though they are not detailed in the newly released documents. Details of this plot first appeared in Jack Anderson’s newspaper column in 1971.

The new releases devote one bare-bones paragraph to CIA involvement in a plot that resulted in Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba’s assassination in 1961.

The Church committee produced a 364-page report on assassination plots that described at least eight plots involving the CIA to assassinate Castro between 1960 and 1965 and detailed how the CIA encouraged Congolese dissidents to kill Lumumba.

In a message to CIA employees Tuesday, Director Michael Hayden said: ”It’s important to remember that the CIA itself launched this process of recollection and self-examination. And it was the Agency itself that shared the resulting documents in full with Congress.

”The collection as a whole was exhaustively reviewed in the 1970s by three outside investigative panels,” Hayden said. The documents provide ”reminders of some things the CIA should not have done” and ”a glimpse of a very different era and a very different agency,” he said.

The documents were one of the products of the Watergate scandal. Then-CIA Director James Schlesinger was angered to read in the newspapers that the CIA had provided support to ex-CIA agents E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, who were convicted in the Watergate break-in. Hunt had worked for a secret ”plumbers unit” in Richard Nixon’s White House. The unit originally was tasked to investigate and end leaks of classified information but ultimately engaged in a wide range of misconduct.

In May 1973, Schlesinger ordered ”all senior operating officials of this agency to report to me immediately on any activities now going on, or that have gone on the past, which might be construed to be outside the legislative charter of this agency.” The law establishing the CIA barred it from conducting spying inside the United States.

The result was 693 pages of memos whose contents Schlesinger’s successor, Colby, reported to the Justice Department.

”These are the top CIA officers all going into the confessional and saying, ‘Forgive me father, for I have sinned,”’ said Thomas Blanton, director of the private National Security Archive, which had requested release of the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

Some contents of these documents first spilled into public view Dec. 22, 1974, with a story by Seymour Hersh in The New York Times on the CIA’s spying against anti-war and other dissidents inside this country.

Source: The New York Times.

Comment: this is going to become interesting…

go to this page to download the documents:

http://www.foia.cia.gov

technorati tags:CIA

CIA Plot to Kill Castro Detailed

Filed at 7:50 a.m. ETHAVANA (AP) — The CIA recruited a former FBI agent to approach two of America’s most-wanted mobsters and gave them poison pills meant for Fidel Castro during his first year in power, according to newly declassified papers released Tuesday.Contained amid hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports collectively known as ”the family jewels,” the official confirmation of the 1960 plot against Castro was certain to be welcomed by communist authorities as more proof of their longstanding claims that the United States wants Castro dead.Communist officials say there have been more than 600 documented attempts to kill Castro over the decades. Now 80, Castro has not been seen in public since handing power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from intestinal surgery last July. But in a letter published on Monday, the elder Castro claimed without providing details that President Bush had ”authorized and ordered” his killing.And while Cuban government press officials didn’t return a call seeking reaction Tuesday, the release of the newly declassified CIA documents had already been noted in state media.”Upon the orders of the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to assassinate President Fidel Castro and other former personalities and leaders,” the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Saturday. ”What was already presumed and denounced will be corroborated.”Other aborted U.S. attempts to kill Castro, who rose to power in January 1959 in a revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista, have been noted in other declassified documents.The papers released Tuesday were part of a report prepared at the request of CIA Director James Schlesinger in 1973, who ordered senior agency officials to tell him of any current or past actions that could potentially violate the agency’s charter.Some details of the 1960 plot first surfaced in investigative reporter Jack Anderson’s newspaper column in 1971.The documents show that in August 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, then a top aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach mobster Johnny Roselli and pass himself off as the representative of international corporations that wanted Castro killed because of their lost gambling operations.At the time, the bearded rebels had just outlawed gambling and destroyed the world-famous casinos American mobsters had operated in Havana.Roselli introduced Maheu to ”Sam Gold” and ”Joe.” Both were mobsters on the U.S. government’s 10-most wanted list: Momo Giancana, Al Capone’s successor in Chicago; and Santos Trafficante, one of the most powerful mobsters in Batista’s Cuba. The agency gave the reputed mobsters six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in Castro’s food.This particular assassination attempt was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. The CIA was able to retrieve all the poison pills, records show.

Source: The New York Times.

technorati tags:CIA, Central, Intelligence, Agency, Homeland, Security, Fidel, Castro, Cuba

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