Five-minute gap fuels conspiracy theory over Lahore terror attack

Times OnLine :- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5850290.ece

An unexplained five-minute delay in the Pakistani cricket team schedule has fuelled speculation that the gunmen who launched a terror attack against the Sri Lankan Test team this week were acting on inside information.

After a furious tirade by the English match referee, Chris Broad, yesterday, both an Australian umpire and Sri Lanka's star spin bowler fed the conspiracy theory today, questioning the level of security and the timing of events.

"You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own?" Simon Taufel, the umpire, angrily told reporters as he arrived at Sydney airport. "I don't have any answers to these questions ... We were left on our own in our time of need."

Mr Taufel told The Times that while the two teams had travelled to the stadium together on the first two days of the match, on Tuesday they made the journey separately.

Geopolitics: For those interested in the bigger picture, after an apparent deal with the Russians involving two billion dollars worth of ‘aid’, the government of a Central Asia republic has insisted that a vital US airbase is to close, possibly placing the ability of the US and her allies to continue effective military operations in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, in serious doubt - JW

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Inside US air base in Manas

By Daniel Fisher
BBC News, Manas air base
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7875769.stm

On Friday, BBC journalists were the first to get inside Manas - the last remaining US air base in Central Asia, after Kyrgyzstan announced earlier this week it was closing the base.

Manas is vital to US operations: it is both the gateway to Afghanistan for troops in the US and coalition forces, and where all the in-flight re-fuelling aircraft are based for supporting fighters in the air.

Thousands of troops including the British pass through the base every day to and from the war zone.

UK judges accuse Obama Administration of suppressing torture claim
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article5661291.ece

The US has threatened to withhold intelligence from the UK if evidence of the alleged torture of a British resident held at Guantánamo Bay is made public.

Details of how the “terrorist” detainee was allegedly tortured — and what UK intelligence services knew about it — must remain secret because of the American threats, the High Court ruled yesterday.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said lawyers for the Foreign Secretary had told them that the threat by the US still applied under President Obama. Oppostion MPs accused the Government of giving in to blackmail.

The disclosure that the US has threatened to re-evaluate sharing intelligence with Britain came only 24 hours after Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, lavished praise on the special relationship between the two countries.
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Noting that it is contrary to the rule of law not to release the evidence, the judges said that it must remain secret otherwise “the public of the United Kingdom would be put at risk”.

In an "Inexplicable" decision, the BBC has refused to broadcast an aid appeal for the victims of the Gaza conflict, this raises serious questions regarding impartiality, and whether the BBC itself is a misguided victim of an Israeli media control and censorship campaign-JW

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Pressure mounts for BBC to broadcast Gaza appeal

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5579368.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

The BBC has been accused of "being complicit in denying humanitarian aid" to the people of Gaza after refusing to broadcast an appeal for emergency funds.

Director general Mark Thompson is coming under increasing pressure to allow the screening of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) film.

He yesterday turned down an appeal from the International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander to reverse his decision not to show the appeal, fearing it could compromise the broadcaster's impartiality.

Is Israel Losing the Media War in Gaza?
URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090114/wl_time/08599187148700

The arrival of Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, at the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday caused a minor sensation among the members of the foreign press who were camped out there. Wurzelbacher, who got his first 15 minutes of fame as a prop for John McCain during last year's U.S. election campaign, has swapped his plunger for a reporter's notebook on a mission to cover the Gaza war for the conservative website Pajamas TV. Unable to see much of the fighting himself, Wurzelbacher - who during the election campaign warned that a vote for Barack Obama was a vote for the destruction of Israel - picked a fight of his own. Turning on his new colleagues in the foreign press corps, he groused, "You should be ashamed of yourself. You should be patriotic, protect your family and children, not report like you have been doing for the past two weeks since this war has started." His complaint, it seemed, was that he was seeing too many reports of civilian casualties inside Gaza.

UN headquarters in Gaza hit by Israeli 'white phosphorus' shells

URL: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5521925.ece

The main UN compound in Gaza was in flames today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire, and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by shells containing the incendiary agent white phosphorus.

The attack on the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) came as Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, arrived in Israel on a peace mission and plunged Israel's relations with the world body to a new low.

The Middle East's Rogue Regime
By Patrick Seale
Middle East Online- http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29563

(Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire.)

A striking feature of the War in Gaza is the extraordinary immunity Israel has enjoyed to strike and kill at will. Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, leading members of the Israeli government, have not hesitated to resort to mass murder. Yet, no one has been able to stop them. To all appearances, Israel is a rogue regime, spinning out of control.

Unrestrained by the rules of international legality, and indifferent to the most elementary considerations of morality, Israel is bombing into the stone age a besieged, battered and largely defenseless Arab society of 1.5 million people. At the time of writing, it had killed at least 437 people, wounded more than 2,300, and flattened every building in sight. The final casualties will undoubtedly be higher.

Dick Cheney's fantasy world
By Scott Ritter
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/dec/16/dick-cheney-iraq-war-wmd

Despite the facts, the vice-president still insists that Saddam Hussein could have produced weapons of mass destruction

In yet another attempt at revisionist history by the outgoing Bush administration, vice-president Dick Cheney, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, took exception to former presidential adviser Karl Rove's contention that the US would not have gone to war if available intelligence before the invasion had shown Iraq not to possess weapons of mass destruction. Cheney noted that the only thing the US got wrong on Iraq was that there were no stockpiles of WMD at the time of the 2003 invasion. "What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock."

"The disclosure that a Whitehall counter-terrorism propaganda operation is promoting material to the BBC and other media will raise fresh concerns about official news management in a highly sensitive area."

URL Here:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/26/alqaida.uksecurity

Revealed: Britain's secret propaganda war against al-Qaida
BBC and website forums targeted by Home Office unit

A Whitehall counter-terrorism unit is targeting the BBC and other media organisations as part of a new global propaganda push designed to "taint the al-Qaida brand", according to a secret Home Office paper seen by the Guardian.

The document also shows that Whitehall counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit new media websites and outlets with a proposal to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums" as part of their campaign.

The strategy is being conducted by the research, information and communication unit, [RICU] which was set up last year by the then home secretary, John Reid, to counter al-Qaida propaganda at home and overseas. It is staffed by officials from several government departments.

Jury dismissed in 7/7 plot trial

URL Here:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7537552.stm

The jury in the trial of three men accused of helping the 7 July London bombers has failed to reach a verdict.

The Kingston Crown Court jury had spent two weeks considering a charge of conspiracy to cause an explosion.

Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Leeds, admit having known the 7/7 bombers but denied having helped them find targets.

The prosecution is expected to seek a retrial and the men were remanded in custody until a hearing in September.

On Friday, the jurors told Mr Justice Gross they had not reached a verdict on any of the three defendants and he said the time had come to discharge them.

'Smiled broadly'

The BBC's Liz Shaw, who was in court, said Mr Ali smiled broadly from the dock as the position became clear.

However, the trio were remanded in custody and will return to court for a hearing in late September.

Prosecutor Paul Taylor said the Crown Prosecution Service would take "a little time" to consider if it would seek a retrial of the men.

Four Madrid bomb convicts cleared

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7511457.stm

Spain's Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of four people found guilty of involvement in the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

The four were among 21 people convicted last year over the attacks, which killed 191 people.

The court also upheld the acquittal of an Egyptian suspected of masterminding the attacks, because he had already been convicted of the offence in Italy.

However it convicted and jailed one of those originally found not guilty.

The Spanish man, who was sentenced to four years in prison, had earlier been cleared of helping to supply the explosives used in the Madrid attacks.

Mastermind boast?

The Egyptian man, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, had been cleared of involvement in the bombings in October.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed had already been convicted in Italy

As he had already been sentenced to eight years in prison in Italy for belonging to a terrorist organisation, the court ruled he could not be convicted again for the same crime.

Prosecutors had argued that Sayed was appealing against the Italian judgement and technically had not been convicted.

I haven't had a chance to study this in detail yet, I thought i would get it posted ASAP.

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URL HERE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7488159.stm

The evolution of a conspiracy theory

Twin Towers
A large number of Americans question what happened that day
It wasn't only the Twin Towers that collapsed on September 11. A third World Trade Center tower that wasn't hit by the planes also fell. As a report into Tower 7 prepares to publish its findings, Mike Rudin considers how this conspiracy theory got to be so big.

9/11 is the conspiracy theory of the internet age.

Put "9/11 conspiracy" into Google and you get 7.9 million hits. Put in "9/11 truth" and you get more than 22 million.

Opinion polls in the US have picked up widespread doubts among the American people.

A New York Times/CBS News poll in 2006 found that 53% of those questioned thought the Bush administration was hiding something. Another US poll found a third of those questioned thought government officials either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or allowed them to happen.

The UK Independent covers Morgan Spurlock's new movie, a satirical look at the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

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URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/desperately-seeking-osama-morgan-spurlock-on-his-hunt-for-the-worlds-m...

Desperately seeking Osama: Morgan Spurlock on his hunt for the world's most wanted man

He risked his health to expose the evils of fast food in 'Super Size Me'. But the subject of Morgan Spurlock's new documentary could have killed him far more efficiently. So what on earth possessed the film-maker to go in search of the world's most wanted man?

Sunday, 4 May 2008

For the past seven years, the world has been trying to catch Osama bin Laden. Trying and failing. So I'm not quite sure what made me think one lonely guy like me could manage it. Perhaps it was watching too many big-budget action movies where the one lonely guy always does get his man.

The shooting down of a so called 'broken' satellite by the US Navy yesterday is just the latest development in what is fast becoming the global arms race of the 21st century. In January 2007 alarm bells were set ringing in Washington after China announced to the world it had successfully shot down a 'disabled weather satellite'. Modern weapons systems employ satellite guided technology to find their targets, any future major global conflict will be fought by attempting to neutralize enemy weapons systems, by the elimination of the network of satellites that control them.

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URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248995.stm

US spy satellite plan 'a cover'

Russia has accused the US of using a plan to shoot down a broken spy satellite as a cover for testing an anti-satellite weapon.

The US said last week that it would use a missile to destroy the satellite, to stop it from crash landing.

Officials say the satellite contains hazardous fuel which could kill humans.

URL:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/13/uksecurity

Five freed after terror convictions quashed

Rosalind Ryan and and agencies
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday February 13 2008

Five young Muslim men jailed by a judge who said they were "intoxicated" by extremist propaganda were today freed by the court of appeal in what their defence lawyers described as a landmark judgment.

The men had their convictions quashed by the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, who was sitting with two other judges.

Phillips, who ordered their release, said there was no evidence they intended to use extremist Islamist material found on their computers for terrorism.

Four Bradford University students and a London schoolboy, Mohammed Irfan Raja, were arrested after the boy's parents contacted police.

He had run away from home, leaving them a note that said he was going to fight jihad abroad and would see them in heaven.

Last year, the five were sentenced to between two and three years at the Old Bailey for having extremist Islamist material on their computers.

The prosecution said all were planning to go to Pakistan for training before fighting jihad in Afghanistan.