Peter Power has revealed more detail on 7/7 bombing drills – including names of companies he was working with

Peter Power Reveals More Details of 7/7 Terrorist Bombing Drills

Names the company he was working with on the morning of London Bombings

4.6.09 / Steve Watson / Infowars.net

Peter Power, the former Scotland Yard official Anti-Terrorist Branch official, who oversaw drills of the very events of the London bombings on the morning of 7/7 as they were happening, has revealed more details behind the events for the first time in three and a half years.

A statement, apparently from Mr Power, has appeared in the comments section of a recent blog posting regarding comments Power made on the BBC last week.

As we highlighted, the “crisis management expert” revealed that some companies used the shut down of the city of London on Wednesday, during the G20 protests, as a dress rehearsal for an influenza pandemic.

In response to an explanation of who Peter Power is, which was added by the Uncensored Magazine blog, Mr Power himself posted a lengthy statement in which he reveals that the company he was working with on 7/7 was London based information giant Reed Elsevier.

The company is most notable for its ownership of the Lexis/Nexis legal database, as well as many other information sources. As Elsevier, it runs a vast number of science journals, including some of the biggest and most reputable ones. Reed is also known as a host of large exhibitions. The company part owns the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands area, where the G20 summit was held this past weekend.

Here is Peter Power’s statement in full:

There has been much nonsense written about why my company ran an exercise on 7 July 2005 that had very close parallels to the real thing that day. Since then I have made several attempts to add my own comments to numerous sites that seem to get increasingly excited about their own conspiracy theories and in the process exclude any rational debate. It seems those who occupy the world of finding conspiracy theories to replace just about any coincidence, do not want to have any dialogue with those offering a different view, but I have not yet given up hope. I am therefore hoping, perhaps naively, that someone might like to read an honest and factual account about a particular exercise my company ran in London three years ago.

Unfortunately, the BBC had postponed in 2008 a programme in their ‘conspiracy files’ series that would have done this. Our client three years ago agreed to be named in the BBC programme since the attitude of the producer and his team was very balanced (several conspiracy theorists were also invited to take part). We even allowed our complete exercise material to be made available to the BBC. Regrettably broadcasting in 2008 might have jeopardised an ongoing court case, so they had little choice about postponing it to 2009.

Early in 2005 Reed Elsevier, an organisation specialising in information and publishing that employs 1,000 people in and around London, asked us to help them prepare an effective crisis management plan and rehearse it before sign-off. Several draft scenarios were drawn up and the crisis team themselves set the exercise date and time: 9.00am on 7 July.

The test was planned as a table-top walk through for about six people (the CM team) in a lecture room with all injects simulated. Everything was on MS PowerPoint. The location of their Central London office near to Chancery Lane was chosen as one test site. With many staff travelling to work via the London underground system, the chosen exercise simulated incendiary devices on three trains, very similar to a real IRA attack in 1992, as well as other events.

As there had been eighteen terrorist bomb attacks on tube trains prior to 2005, choosing the London Underground was logical rather than just prescient. With this in mind it was hardly surprising that Deutsche Bank had run a similar exercise a few days before and, prior to that, a multi-agency (and much publicised) exercise code-named Osiris II had simulated a terrorist attack at Bank tube station. Moreover, I had also taken part in a BBC Panorama programme in 2004 as a panellist alongside Michael Portillo MP et al, in an unscripted debate (we had no idea at all what the scenario was to be?) on how London might once again, deal with terrorist attacks, only this time it was fictional (created entirely by the BBC).

In short, some of the research for our exercise had already been done. The scenario developed for our client even started by using fictitious news items from the Panorama programme then, as with any walk through exercise, events unfolded solely on a screen as dictated by the facilitator without any external injects or actions beyond the exercise room. Also factored into the scenario was to be an above ground fictitious bomb exploding not far from the head office of the protected Jewish Chronicle magazine where for exercise purposes, our imagined terrorists would have been aware that commuters would now be walking to work (past a building already considered a target) as some tube stations would have been closed.

Of just eight nearby tube stations that fell within possible exercise scope, three were chosen that, by coincidence, were involved in the awful drama that actually took place on 7 July 2005. A level of scenario validation that on this occasion, we could have done without.

An exercise that turns into the real thing is not that unusual. For example, in January 2003, thirty people were injured when a tube train derailed and hit a wall at speed. At the same time, the City of London Police were running an exercise for their central casualty bureau where the team quickly abandoned their plans and swung into action to cope with the real thing.

For a surprising number of people such coincidents cannot be accepted as such. There just has to be a conspiracy behind them, despite the obvious point that painstaking research will always identify probable above possible scenarios. By the way, the only reason I was asked to speak on TV news that day, when there was still much confusion about the real tragedies, was to encourage more organisations to thoroughly plan their own exercises knowing the threat of terrorism is and remains, very real. One tragic consequence being Islam, a great Abrahamic, monotheistic faith (along with Judaism and Christianity), has undeservedly become vilified by some people.

Peter Power
Visor Consultants

To re-cap the situation, on the afternoon of July 7th, 2005, Power told a BBC radio interviewer that his company was running an exercise for an unnamed group that revolved around three bombs going off at precisely the same tube stations and precisely the same time as those that were hit that morning.

The transcript is as follows.

PETER POWER: At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.

HOST: To get this quite straight, you were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and it happened while you were running the exercise?

POWER: Precisely, and it was about half past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for obvious reasons I don’t want to reveal their name but they’re listening and they’ll know it. And we had a room full of crisis managers for the first time they’d met and so within five minutes we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so on.

The odds of such a coincidence are absolutely staggering, which led some to charge that Power’s drill was set up ahead of time, or used by people with insider foreknowledge of 7/7.

Just as happened on 9/11, when exercises involving hijacked aircraft overlapped with the real attacks, some charge that the drill was a cover for the real attack in case any of its perpetrators were caught.

Power alluded to the nature of the simulations in the days after 7/7, in an effort to downplay the significance of the mock-versus-real events.

Less than one week after the bombings, as Power and his company Visor consultants received correspondence and questions, mostly stemming from our articles on the drills, a short statement was issued, concluding with the following comments:

“Beyond this no further comment will be made and based on the extraordinary number of messages from ill informed people, no replies will henceforth be given to anyone unable to demonstrate a bona fide reason for asking (e.g. accredited journalist / academic).”

Power’s culpability is seemingly minimal – after all why would he announce the drill on national radio hours after the attack? – but his reaction to questions regarding the drills highlighted that he was not comfortable discussing the subject further.

Indeed, in December 2007, when Power was approached politiely by members of the We Are Change group, who explained who they were and what they were doing, he refused to answer any of their questions on camera, saying he would not tolerate the approach.

Watch the video:

Other journalists and writers have been met with the same response from Mr Power.

In addition we at Infowars and prisonplanet have sought to contact Mr Power over the years to engage in discussion and to invite Mr Power to be interviewed on Alex Jones’ nationally syndicated radio show. This invitation remains open, but as yet unanswered.

It must therefore be asserted that Mr Power’s latest contention that we “do not want to have any dialogue” is not an accurate statement. In fact, it is Mr Power who has declared that he does not want to engage in dialogue on the matter.

While Israel’s gov’t skates away scot-free, International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Sudan’s president

International Court issues arrest warrant for Sudan president

3.4.09 / Peter O’Neil / Canwest News Service

PARIS — Brushing aside warnings of a possible dramatic spike in violence in Sudan, the International Criminal Court announced Wednesday it is issuing an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.

The ICC’s first-ever indictment of a sitting government leader came amid increased tension in Sudan, with the country warning of repercussions for those who co-operate with the court.

“The armed forces will firmly deal with whoever co-operates with the so-called International Criminal Court, and uses it as a platform for political blackmail and for destabilizing the security and stability of the country,” spokesman Osman al-Aghbash said on state-owned Radio Omdurman, according to Agence France-Presse.

Last month, Sudan’s intelligence chief Salah Gosh also threatened ICC supporters.

“We will sever the limbs of those who attempt to stick their hands in to execute the (ICC) plans,” he said.

Rebels have vowed to respond with force to any military reaction by Khartoum.

The Canadian government, which is expected to endorse the ICC’s decision, is bracing for possible violence against Canadians including embassy staff, aid workers and other Canadians in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan.

It is also warning Canadians to stay away from the country.

“Demonstrations and civil disturbances may occur throughout Sudan including in Khartoum” as a result of the ICC decision, the Canadian government has warned on its website.

“Heightened care and vigilance should be taken while this situation prevails. Canadians should restrict their movements, avoid all large crowds and demonstrations, monitor the situation on a regular basis, and comply with direction provided by local authorities.”

The Islamic government has tried to rally the public to its side, accusing the ICC of being part of a U.S.-backed effort to destabilize an oil-rich country that is opposed to western interests in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Andrew Natsios, the former American envoy to Sudan, has warned that the ICC’s decision could, rather than pressure al-Bashir to change his ways or leave office, spark a harsh response by the regime and result in civil war.

“We could end up with another Rwanda or Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo in which hundreds of thousands of people could be killed,” Natsios told the Los Angeles Times in a report from Khartoum published Sunday.

“We could end up with something much worse.”

Al-Bashir is accused of funding the brutal work of private militias attempting to crush rebellions in the Darfur region by ethnic minority rebel groups. The United Nations has estimated that 300,000 people have died, countless raped and 2.7 million displaced since 2003, with most of the refugees living in UN-run camps in neighbouring Chad.

Obama administration executive orders still allow for sick CIA rendition practice

Obama lets CIA keep controversial renditions tool

1.31.09 / Greg Miller / Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON — The CIA’s secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these discredited programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counterterrorism tool intact.

Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role because it is the main remaining mechanism—aside from Predator missile strikes—for taking suspected terrorists off the street.

The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.

The European Parliament condemned renditions as an “illegal instrument used by the United States.” Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of Boeing Corp., which is accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.

The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the U.S. is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.

“Obviously you need to preserve some tools, you still have to go after the bad guys,” said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing legal reasoning behind the decision. “The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice.”

One provision in one of Obama’s orders appears to preserve the CIA’s ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA’s secret prison sites “do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis.”

Obama’s decision to preserve the program did not draw major protests, even among human-rights groups. Leaders of such organizations said that reflects a sense, even among advocates, that the United States and other nations need certain tools to combat terrorism.

“Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place” for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “What I heard loud and clear from the president’s order was that they want to design a system that doesn’t result in people being sent to foreign dungeons to be tortured.”

In his executive order on lawful interrogations, Obama created a task force to re-examine renditions to make sure that they “do not result in the transfer of individuals to other nations to face torture” or otherwise circumvent human-rights laws and treaties.

Recent torture case shows the Obama Justice Department is just a Bush & Co. clone

Under Obama, same stance on rendition suit

2.10.09 / Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle

(02-09) 17:30 PST SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama’s Justice Department signaled in a San Francisco courtroom Monday that the change in administrations has not changed the government’s position on secrecy and the rights of foreign prisoners – and that lawsuits by alleged victims of CIA kidnappings and torture must be dismissed on national security grounds.

“Judges shouldn’t play with fire,” Justice Department lawyer Douglas Letter told the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which is considering a suit accusing a San Jose company, Jeppesen Dataplan, of arranging so-called extraordinary rendition flights for the CIA.

Once the judges privately examine the government’s classified evidence, Letter said, “you will see that this case cannot be litigated.”

Letter said the Justice Department’s position, previously argued by the administration of former President George W. Bush, has been “thoroughly vetted with appropriate officials of the new administration.”

Mixed signals

He did not mention extraordinary rendition, the practice of abducting suspected criminals and terrorists and taking them to foreign countries or CIA prisons for interrogation. Although Obama has issued orders banning torture and closing secret CIA prisons, his administration has sent mixed signals on extraordinary rendition and the legitimacy of court challenges.

Obama’s nominee for CIA director, Leon Panetta, said last week that he approved of rendition for foreign prosecution or brief CIA detention, but not for extended confinement. Like his Bush administration predecessors, he also said he would require a foreign government to promise not to torture a prisoner.

On Monday, Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a review to make sure government secrecy is invoked only to protect national security and not “to hide from the American people information that they have a right to know.”

But the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents five men suing Jeppesen for allegedly flying them to foreign torture chambers, said this case is the new administration’s chance to live up to its promises.

“Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on this important civil liberties issue,” the ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero, said after the hearing.

Widely known secret

ACLU attorney Ben Wizner told the court that the supposedly ultra-secret rendition program is widely known. He noted that Sweden recently awarded $450,000 in damages to one of the plaintiffs, Ahmed Agiza, for helping the CIA transport him to Egypt, where he is still being held and allegedly has been tortured.

“The notion that you have to close your eyes and ears to what the whole world knows is absurd,” Wizner said.

Agiza and the other plaintiffs – one now imprisoned in Morocco, one held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and two who have been released without charges – accuse Jeppesen of colluding in their abduction and torture.

A Council of Europe report in 2007 identified the company, a Boeing Corp. subsidiary, as the CIA’s aviation services provider.

The Bush administration persuaded U.S. District Judge James Ware to dismiss the suit last year on the grounds that it would expose state secrets – the CIA’s alleged relationship with a private contractor, the agency’s methods of interrogating terror suspects and the alleged cooperation of foreign governments.

Protecting secrets

Wizner asked the appeals court Monday to reinstate the suit and said Ware should be able to protect any legitimate state secrets.

Letter countered that the core of the case – “their allegation that Jeppesen is complicit in a clandestine foreign intelligence matter” – could not be examined in court without endangering national security.

One member of the three-judge panel seemed skeptical.

“You can say something is secret even when a newspaper reporter has it?” Judge William Canby asked Letter. Even if the men had been snatched from the streets in Missouri, he said, “it would still be a big black hole. The plaintiffs, the judiciary, the Constitution all have to step aside.”

Not so, Letter replied – Congress can still scrutinize the program, and judges can review the classified documents that explain the need for secrecy.

How British military intelligence created, funded and trained terrorist murder gangs in Ireland

How Britain created Ulster’s murder gangs

1.27.07 / Neil Mackay / Sunday Herald

ON Monday, the world was stunned by the release of a report by Nuala O’Loan, the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, which stated that Special Branch officers in Belfast had “colluded” with loyalist terrorists working for the British state as informers. According to O’Loan, police failed to stop these paramilitary gangs, part of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) from killing an estimated 15 people in the 1990s. While this was seized upon by republicans as proof that security forces had aided a loyalist campaign of sectarian assassination, in reality O’Loan’s findings barely scratched the surface of a 30-year history of criminality and murder orchestrated by the British army and the Ulster police.

HE INSISTS on being named only as “JB”, a sick, ageing man, who fears that ill-health or a bullet from an assassin wishing to silence him will claim his life before he has the chance to tell the true story of his life and crimes. On Wednesday, JB passed a bundle of papers to the Sunday Herald, making up the bulk of his unpublished memoirs, which paint British military intelligence as a callous, murderous, criminal cabal. JB claims that he – and dozens of other members of the terrorist organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) – were trained and armed by military intelligence.

He also claims select UVF officers were ordered by military intelligence to carry out assassinations against both IRA figures and ordinary Catholics. Such soft targets as innocent men and women were pinpointed by military intelligence in order to psychologically undermine the nationalist population of Northern Ireland and cut the support base from beneath the Provisional IRA.

Martin Ingram, the false cover name for a former member of the covert British military intelligence outfit the Force Research Unit (FRU), has supported the claims made by JB. Ingram eventually turned whistleblower, disgusted at the deaths the FRU had caused by colluding with terrorists in Ulster. He later went on to write a book about the double agent Stakeknife – IRA operative Freddie Scappaticci – who had been “handled” by Ingram’s FRU team and exposed by Sunday Herald investigators. Ingram says he is aware of JB’s history, and believes his claims are “completely credible”. Loyalist sources have also confirmed JB’s credibility.

JB, who was convicted twice of terrorist offences, once in the 1970s and again in the early 1990s, says he carried out some 50 UVF operations sanctioned by his handlers in the Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF), the army team which gathered intelligence and ran agents in Ulster. He says he became a “killer, bomber, arsonist and robber”. Of the 50 state-sanctioned operations he took part in, “not all were successful”.Some, he says, “were aborted”. So far he has refused to go into details of the actual murders he took part in on behalf of British military intelligence. Beyond admitting that killings took place, he will only talk about how the British army trained him as a terrorist proxy.

In JB’s words, “military intelligence trained, armed and moulded squads of loyalists to put pressure on the IRA to abandon their campaign of bloodshed and carnage”. JB was a young UVF member in the early 1970s when first approached by an MRF handler. JB says the military intelligence officer, whom he will name only as “Mike”, told him that the then prime minister Edward Heath had sanctioned the “training of loyalists”.Mike later added that “nobody, except at the very highest level of the British government and senior officers of the military” knew about the covert counter-insurgency operations.

Mike told JB that “London has ordered the war be taken to the IRA obviously this can’t be done openly and must be done covertly. That’s why we are looking for people like you … We are enlisting men from all over the province to co-ordinate attacks, to convince the Catholic people that support for the Provos will only bring death and destruction to their own community.”

As well as being trained in firearms at army barracks and firing ranges around Northern Ireland – primarily at Palace Barracks near Holywood in County Down – men like JB were also provided with intelligence on potential targets and given details about which targets to hit. JB knows of at least 30 loyalists who received similar training to him, but believes more than 120 could have been trained as proxy assassins. At times, he was given a British army uniform to provide him with cover while with his handlers. He even drank, on occasions, with his handlers in the Naafi – armed forces bars on military bases.

When proxies like JB were dispatched on a murder operation, military intelligence would impose an Out Of Bounds (OOB) order on the area in which the attack was to take place. In military terms, an OOB means an intelligence operation is under way and army and police are forbidden from entering the area. This gave loyalist murder gangs freedom to operate with impunity during such state-sanctioned attacks. At one stage, claims JB, Mike told him: “Mr Heath and the top brass have given the green light for this.”

JB was trained by military intelligence, he says, in how to use a variety of hand-guns, machine guns and rifles, as well as bomb-making techniques. The UVF men working for military intelligence were also given consignments of guns and ammunition by handlers, sent on gruelling fitness courses and schooled in the arts of surveillance, counter-surveillance and intelligence gathering. Other classes included lectures on forensic science, how to avoid leaving incriminating evidence at the scene of crimes and how to steal cars for use in assassination operations.

JB also claims military intelligence instructed loyalists to plant explosives in a Catholic bar to make it look as if the IRA had accidentally set off the bomb. It was hoped such acts would drain Catholic support for republicans.

The bomb was planted in McGurk’s Bar in Belfast on December 4, 1971. It killed 15 men, women and children. The immediate blame was indeed placed on the IRA. However, seven years after the bomb, a UVF man received 15 life sentences for the atrocity. JB says he was told about the planned bombing two weeks before the attack and was with his handler at the time it happened. He also claims he saw his handler take pot-shots at republican youths on the streets of Belfast around this time.

A captain in military intelligence spelt out the reasons for the army creating these secret counter-insurgency cells during one discussion with JB. He said: “This type of war can’t be won by conventional means. The only solution is to implement a counter-operation, to counteract the violence of the enemy by heaping more violence on them That’s why we’ve chosen men like you to instil trepidation and pandemonium among the Provos and their support base, the Catholic community We will match whatever they do, and outdo them.”

In the weeks leading up to the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry, on January 30, 1972, in which the Paratroop Regiment killed 13 people taking part in a civil rights demonstration, JB was informed by his handlers that the British army had been ordered by the Cabinet “to use whatever force and tactics necessary to put these troublemakers down”. JB “concludes there were plans for mass murder to be committed that day The Bloody Sunday massacre was sanctioned by the government and top military chiefs.” JB is sure that there was a preconceived plan to open fire on the civil rights demonstrators, with the full knowledge this would cause civilian deaths. He believes military intelligence thought this would shake the IRA. Instead, the massacre was a huge boost to IRA support and recruitment.

The day before Bloody Sunday, JB was taken for a training session at Palace Barracks, where he was given a pep-talk by a major who praised him for “having the courage and loyalty to participate in covert actions against the common enemy”. The major told JB: “We are hoping to provoke a confrontation with the IRA in Derry, and give them an example of what to expect in future attacks.” JB was then offered the chance, he claims, to accompany his military handler, Mike, to Derry to watch the operation to contain the demonstration. Military intelligence sources today say events such as this would help forge a bond, or esprit de corps, between agent and handler.

JB was provided with a British army uniform, a gas mask, camouflage face-paint and a rifle as cover for the time he would spend in Derry with his handler. During the events, JB watched from a military intelligence observation post as soldiers opened fire on civilians. He also claims to have seen members of military intelligence shooting at, and hitting, unarmed civilians from the gun nest in the observation post.

Another killing carried out by loyalists and facilitated by military intelligence by the imposition of an OOB order took place in February 1972 when a bomb exploded in a pub killing, one Catholic man and injuring five others.

Trained proxies such as JB were often taken on “dummy run” assassination operations by handlers to ensure the OOB system wasworking. An OOB order would be given on a specific area of Belfast and JB and his team would enter the area, locate the home of a target, recce it and then leave. If they met with no security force patrols, they knew the OOB system was effective.

Mike at one time told JB: “We don’t expect every time an ASU active service unit of the UVF goes out, they will kill somebody. The mere fact an attempt has been made and shots fired, even if they wound or miss altogether, is all part of the terror tactics.” The policy was meant to “scare the shit” out of Catholics. Mike also instructed JB on how to “extract information” from Catholics or republicans they kidnapped. The techniques were “gruesome”, JB said. Mike made clear that torture should be used, and referred to the victims as “Taigs”, a derogatory term for Catholics. Mike also advised on the best shot to use to dispatch a victim of a backstreet execution.

WHILE refusing to give a statement about the actual operations in which he took part, JB said he knew about a number of high-profile loyalist atrocities, sponsored by the MRF. These included the shooting of three members of the Miami Showband, a popular Irish group, in July 1975. The band’s bus was flagged down by members of the UVF dressed in army uniforms at a fake military checkpoint. Another MRF-sponsored atrocity, says JB, was the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 17, 1974, which killed 33 people and injured 250.

JB lists a series of killings by loyalists which were facilitated by military intelligence putting out OOB orders on the location where the target lived, including the murder of a taxi driver, an eight-year-old girl, various men walking alone in Catholic areas and a Catholic woman in a bomb blast at public toilets in Lurgan. Referring to the last killing, JB says: “As long as it was a Catholic killed, fear would be creeping into Catholic minds – who would be next?’”

When UVF proxies were targeting republicans or IRA men, nearly all the intelligence used in planning hits came from the British army’s intelligence wing.

Perhaps the most horrible of all hits facilitated by military intelligence, says JB, was one that involved the infamous Shankill Butchers murder gang. An OOB was put in place, allowing the UVF to put up an illegal roadblock at which they abducted a Catholic man and took him to the head of the Shankill Butchers – a UVF psychopath called Lenny Murphy. The gang tortured their victims for hours with knives before finally executing them. Sometimes the torture sessions took place in front of baying crowds in loyalist drinking dens. At least 19 people died at the hands of the gang. JB states: “I verify and confirm what I have written is a true and very accurate account of events.”

The Israeli government’s little known co-conspirator in the Gaza massacre – Hosni Mubarak

Gaza and the Crimes of Hosni Mubarak

2.2.09 / Rannie Amiri / Global Research

As staggering as the statistics detailing Gaza’s destruction may be, they still do not present a complete picture of the unique travesties and tragedies suffered by individuals, families, neighborhoods and villages during Israel’s savage 22-day assault on the tiny territory. Yet, they bear repeating. From the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (www.pcbs.gov.ps) and various NGOs:

* 1,334 killed, one-third of them children (more children than ‘militants’ were killed)
* 5,450 injured, one-third of them children
* 100,000 displaced, 50,000 made homeless
* 4,100 residential homes and buildings destroyed, 17,000 damaged (together accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza)
* 29 destroyed educational institutions, including the American International School
* 92 destroyed or damaged mosques

* 1,500 destroyed shops, factories and other commercial facilities

* 20 destroyed ambulances
* 35-60% of agricultural land ruined
* $1.9 billion in total estimated damages

In the face of such massive devastation and hardship-and this after the crippling 18-month siege had already reduced Gaza to a state of bare subsistence-the behavior and actions of the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak remain as contemptible after the war as they were before.

On Dec. 25, just two days prior to the onset of the vicious aerial bombardment of Gaza, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Mubarak in Cairo. It is understood that Egypt gave the green light for the attack in the hope that the ruling (and democratically-elected) Islamist group Hamas would be toppled and the more pliant Fatah faction, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, would supplant it.

Rafah crossing sealed

The reasons for Mubarak’s animus toward Hamas, and by extension, for his reprehensible decision to keep the vital Rafah border crossing with Gaza closed to humanitarian supplies was explained earlier.

Apologists for the dictator will say the 2005 agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the European Union (EU) that regulates movement across the border prohibits it from being opened in the absence of PA and EU observers.

It makes no mention, however, of barring critical humanitarian goods from reaching the territory, where conditions were becoming ever more desperate. Additionally, Egypt was a non-signatory to the treaty, which had already expired after one year and was never renewed.

If keeping the Rafah crossing-the only gateway to non-Israeli territory from Gaza-closed before and during the war was not a criminal act, doing so in its aftermath must surely be.

Preventing Gaza’s children from obtaining medical care

Reporting for The National, Jonathan Cook details four cases of children in Gaza who required urgent, life-saving surgery in France, but were denied entry into Egypt via Rafah. As the aunt of the one of the war’s child casualties remarked, “Each morning we arrived at the crossing and the Egyptian soldiers cursed us and told us to go away.”

Doctors accompanying the children were allowed to pass into Egypt, but the ambulances carrying them were not. Their exclusion was attributed to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah who did not authorize their exit, stating there was “no more reason to refer any more children for treatment abroad.” Egyptian authorities abided by their ruling, not wanting to create diplomatic trouble.

But that is no excuse.

First, Hamas, democratically elected to power in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, is the legitimate governing authority. Second, the term of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the PA expired on Jan. 9. Finally, emergency medical situations always take precedent over (alleged) bureaucratic considerations. Those in control of the Rafah crossing must be held directly responsible.

Feeding Israeli soldiers, not Gaza’s people

In light of catastrophic circumstances due to lack of basic foodstuffs (75 percent of Gaza’s children are thought to be malnourished and 30 percent are stunted in growth), a recent report by the popular Egyptian weekly Al-Osboa was all the more shocking. It revealed that an Egyptian company was allowed to provide Israel Defense Force soldiers with food during the war while Gazans were starving.

Iranian Red Crescent ship kept offshore

An Iranian ship sent by the country’s Red Crescent Society carrying 2,000 tons of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid for Gaza continues to be anchored 15 miles off Gaza’s shore. It had already been intercepted and prevented by the Israeli navy from reaching Gaza. Now, it awaits permission to dock in the Egyptian port of Al-Areesh to unload its cargo. To date, permission has not been grated.

In light of the above, blistering criticism of the Egyptian regime’s behavior has come from Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah:

“[Egypt] told the Arab and Islamic world that the Rafah border was opened and it was not … The opening of the Rafah crossing is crucial to the Palestinian people, the Resistance and the living conditions there … its closure is one of the biggest crimes in history.”

The reply from the Egyptian government was all too predictable:

“Hassan Nasrallah’s criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran.”

Irrespective of whether Nasrallah takes orders from Tehran or Tokyo, there were no substantive answers to his accusations. Instead, Egypt reverted to parroting tired anti-Iranian rhetoric which increasingly is falling on deaf ears.

Abetting the siege of Gaza, giving sanction to the Israeli onslaught and its crimes against humanity, and afterward, preventing aid from getting into the territory and the injured from getting out, are all egregious offenses.

Just as many call for Olmert, Barak, Livni and the generals and soldiers who participated in this war to be prosecuted for violating international law and committing war crimes, Mubarak’s own complicity makes him equally liable in facing similar charges.

Cynthia McKinney: 5000 executed by bullet to the head during aftermath of Katrina

Cynthia McKinney: 5000 Prisoners executed by gunshot during Katrina!

10.21.08 / Dem Bruce Lee Styles / 911 Blogger

*The Unaccounted Deaths of Hurricane Katrina and its Aftermath*

While serving in her sixth term in the House of Representatives, Cynthia McKinney was one of only a handful of the Democrats who participated in the proceedings of the U.S. House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia. Democratic Party leadership claimed that the investigation would be partisan and biased, and therefore instructed Members not to join the Committee. Rep. McKinney chose to defy Speaker Pelosi’s decision because she felt that the issues that would arise out of any investigation were too serious to ignore.

During the period of her participation, she attempted to bring forward a wide range of issues, facts and testimony regarding the flawed preparations and response to Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it caused.

She and her staff worked tirelessly with other legislators to craft an environmental bill that would address the damage, toxicity, homelessness, and safety for first responders and those involved in clean up and Katrina survivors trying to put their lives back together at home. McKinney and her staff worked long hours helping to write and promote the Congressional Black Caucus omnibus bill, a broad package designed to address the plight of the survivors, address the issues of housing and homelessness, provide funds for reconstruction, improve future federal responses to natural disasters, and that also included McKinney’s initiative for a comprehensive clean-up program of the toxic materials left over from the storm surges of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. McKinney pushed for a Congressional delegation to New Orleans to witness the situation first hand.

McKinney also invited survivors and experts to testify before the committee at a hearing titled “Hurricane Katrina: Voices from Inside the Storm.” This two-part hearing took place on Tuesday, December 6, 2005, at the Rayburn House Office Building, To see some of the written statements which outline the abuses of the National Guard and police, see: http://katrina.house.gov/hearings/12_06_05/witness_list_120605.htm.
Following the flood, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco issued a state of emergency and issued “shoot to kill” orders to curb unrest and reported looting. Subsequently, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, backed by Blanco, declared martial law, even though there is no provision for that in Louisiana Law. The report also cited numerous national news media stories of civilians being shot by police. During the second panel of this hearing, Attorney Ishmael Mohammed questioned whether the “shoot to kill” order and the declaration of martial law were in accord with common sense in a situation where some of the law enforcement officers were “raring to go” and in a situation where everyone was a potential looter.

“Then you have statements being made by law enforcement officials and government officials . . . that all deaths are going to be identified as happening August 29th as the date and no identification is going to be made of what actually killed anyone.” In fact, Frank Minyard, the Orleans Parish Coroner, told the Chicago Tribune that “If you murdered somebody in those days, you are probably going to get away with it.”

(Chicago Tribune, 11/8/05). Muhammed stated before the committee: “then you have reports that over 10,000 people may be dead, and all of a sudden we have a body count of a little over 1,000.”

These quotes were repeated in McKinney’s 70-page report which her staff prepared, and which was included in its final report, titled “A Failure of Initiative.” This report covers many of her findings and issues that remain unaddressed to this day. See: (http://archives.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/mckinney.house.gov/katrina….).
McKinney’s Congressional office became a focal point nationally for complaints, reports, and local and national efforts to restore the community and homes that were lost to the storm. She was outspoken on behalf of the victims and their right of return. Upon hearing of the survivors who were shot at and dispersed by Gretna Police on the Crescent City Connection Bridge to Gretna, after being refused passage out of New Orleans, McKinney introduced legislation to deny funding to the Gretna Police for one year. She then led a march across the bridge with survivors and civil rights activists that highlighted the incident.

She continues to work closely with community organizers who have been demanding restoration of homes for victims and their families through formation of the Reconstruction Party.

During the course of Congresswoman McKinney’s focus on the victims and their mistreatment, she and her staff received reports of illegal use of force and shootings against innocent citizens from multiple, unrelated sources, including reports of attempts to by law enforcement authorities to conceal the evidence of their crimes. Although a few of these informants were willing to testify in public or go to the press, most refused to go on record for fear of retaliation. Transcripts of the testimony of the survivors at the December 6, 2005 hearing reveal a common theme about military and police abuses of ordinary citizens in a crisis, including threats to kill. After that hearing, more reports were received that warrant further Congressional investigation.

Because these stories came from multiple, unrelated sources Congresswoman McKinney did not dismiss them out of hand. She attempted to verify them with limited resources, to speak out about them, and to get Congressional attention through the Katrina Committee hearings. Many aspects of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, despite numerous House and Senate committee hearings, remain unanswered and unresolved, including any final or reliable body counts.

The largest single wrongful death toll was reported by a woman who claimed that her son had been employed as a computer specialist to enter information about corpses into a database system for DMORT in Louisiana following the hurricane. The purpose was to collect as much information as possible on discovered bodies and remains for the purpose of later identification. This could include identification papers, address or location of discovery, gender, age, height and weight, clothing, identifying marks, hair and eye color, and other distinguishable features, as well as the probable or visible cause of death if these could be determined. Presumably, such a database could be used later, by families or authorities, to identify specific victims. She told the Congresswoman that her son claimed that 4 or 5 thousand bodies entered into the database showed bullet wounds in the head. Her son told her that the bodies were disposed of in swampland outside New Orleans. Her staff attempted to verify the account, but the young man would not speak to them or testify.

DMORT is in fact an agency that was involved in the rescue and identification of bodies in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. DMORT: National Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (www.dmort.org ), is part of the Disaster Medical System (NDMS).http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/opeo/ndms/teams/dmort.html – OFFICIAL PAGE http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/opeo/ndms/index.html – UNDER NDMS http://www.dmort.org/ – UNOFFICIAL SITE
For some of DMORT’s history see:

http://www.dmort.org/DNPages/DMORTHistory.htm. This site reads:”In the early 1980’s, a committee was formed within the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) to address disaster situations and specifically, mass fatality incidents. This group found that no standardization then existed and worked toward creating a national protocol for the formation of a proper response. Initially, they were concentrating on just the role of funeral directors, but it was soon discovered that funeral directors and no /_one_/ profession could handle all of the aspects of such an event. A multi-faceted nonprofit organization, open to all forensic practitioners, was formed by the committee to support…a national level response protocol for all related professions. This group formed, and led by Tom Shepardson

http://www.dmort.org/DNPages/Tom_Page.htm purchased the first portable morgue unit in the country and their equipment has supported DMORT missions in Illinois, Indiana, Guam, Michigan and Del Rio.
“Soon after this nonprofit group of volunteers had formed, government interest in this topic came to the forefront. Families who had lost loved ones in airline incidents felt that the treatment that they had received was inadequate and demanded a response from congress. As a result, Congress passed The Family Assistance Act in October of 1996 and required all American based airlines (and later all those operating in the US) to have a plan to assist families in the case of an accident.

DMORT is one federal team, which can be called in to help if needed.

“DMORT has grown from its humble beginnings in the early 1990’s to the current group of over 1200 trained and capable volunteers who respond at a moments notice to assist those in need.”

Additional related independent reports included:

A report from the friend of a Louisiana National Guard officer who was upset over the Guard’s role in the shooting of between two and three hundred persons in the wake of the flood. Allegedly the victims’ bodies were then taken to Mississippi and burned to dispose of them. The officer would not be identified, come forward to testify or send a statement to the staff or the Committee.

Red Cross employees who declined to be identified reported that survivors were being shot.

A reporter from a top television network told McKinney’s staff that New Orleans Police Department officers claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Federal Marshals, among others, were involved in shootings of civilians during the “shoot to kill” period. The NOPD officers themselves bragged to this reporter about shooting dead up to about 150 persons, but would not go on the record.

A reporter at the New Orleans Times Picayune said he was baffled by all the rumors about police and Guard shootings, since the total number of shooting deaths reported by the coroner allegedly totaled only a handful of persons.

Some press reported that private security forces, like Blackwater, Dyncorps and others who were also present in the city after the flood, were using lethal force and indiscriminately shooting civilians.

As long as questions remain for the families and the survivors about how their relatives and friends actually died, and whether unlawful and unjustified use of firearms led to innocent people being threatened, harmed or killed, then justice and public knowledge have not been served. It is critical that the voices of the survivors be heard and that their questions and complaints are fully investigated and addressed. Rep. McKinney has persistently demanded further investigation and action to help the survivors and as mentioned, has consistently raised the issue of civilians being shot by law enforcement officials.

As a public official, it would have been remiss for Congresswoman McKinney to have remained silent.

It is increasingly clear that members of these same military, police and private organizations have been involved in illegal and indiscriminate killings of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, and here at home, and these situations have, at least some of the time, been investigated and charges brought. The people who died during Katrina and its aftermath deserve no less. DMORT, the NOPD, the National Guard and the private agencies like Blackwater should release all their databases and field reports on civilian deaths and the causes of death visible among the remains they discovered. Military and police officers are required to account for any expended ammunition as well. And immunity and whistleblower protection should be afforded anyone willing to come forward at this point with knowledge about any illegal deaths or destruction of bodies to conceal the facts.

See Cynthia’s statement (of Sept 28, 2008, Oakland, Calif):

Pakistani envoy suggests India faked evidence released of Pakistani orchestration of Mumbai attack

Pakistan envoy suggests India faked Mumbai transcripts

1.30.09 / Jeremy Page / Sunday Times Online

Pakistan’s investigation into the Mumbai attacks has found that they were not planned from Pakistani territory, the country’s high commissioner to London said today in an interview that is certain to infuriate India.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner in Britain, also suggested that India had fabricated transcripts of telephone calls between the Mumbai attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.

His comments gave the first indication of the results of Pakistan’s investigation into the attack, which were supposed to be announced on Tuesday, but now appear to have been indefinitely delayed.

“Pakistani territory was not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions,” Mr Hasan told India’s NDTV channel in an interview.

“They categorically informed me that [the] UK was not involved. Pak [Pakistan] was not involved. Its territories were not used for planning this operation,” he said.

“We are not doing any whitewashing business. We believe in going about facts. Our findings will be acceptable to the world.”

His remarks are bound to anger India, which blames the attacks on Pakistani militants who it says must have had support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

India this month presented Pakistan with a dossier of evidence, including details from the interrogation of the sole surviving gunman and information gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers.

Asked about that evidence, Mr Hasan said: “Well, it could be fabricated. You took 45 days to give that sort of evidence although you started blaming Pakistan from day one.”

Pakistan has denied any state involvement in the attacks and promised on January 17 that the Pakistani commission investigating the attacks would publish their findings within 10 days.

That did not happen, however, and Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, said on Wednesday that Pakistan would release details of its investigation into the attack “very soon”.

There was no immediate response from the Indian foreign ministry.

Indian officials say that they are considering suspending all business, transport and tourists ties with Pakistan if it continues to drag its feet on the investigation and its pledge to crack down on Pakistani militant groups.

* Nine Pakistanis accused over a series of attacks that killed dozens of people and damaged the Danish embassy were remanded in custody by an anti-terror court. The suspects were arrested in the garrison city of Rawalpindi this week and confessed to involvement in bombings at the embassy in Islamabad, an Italian restaurant and against Pakistani security forces.

Six years ago Palestinian security forces busted Al Qaeda posing Palestinians collaborating with Israel

Palestinians arrest al-Qaeda ‘poseurs’

12.8.02 / AFP

Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said yesterday.

The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.

“The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as al-Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.

He said the alleged collaborators sought to “discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide reasons to carry out a new (military) aggression in the Gaza Strip.”

The official did not say how many suspects had been arrested, nor where or when they were nabbed.

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Earlier, international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath announced he would hold a press conference here on the alleged presence of al-Qaeda operatives in the Gaza Strip.

Sharon’s announcement marked the first time Israel officially claimed that al-Qaeda, held responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was operating in the Palestinian territories.

It was considered a surprise because the Gaza Strip is virtually sealed off by Israeli troops.

The hardline Israeli leader also charged other members of the terror group were cooperating with Lebanon’s Shi’ite militia Hizbollah.

The Palestinians slammed the allegation as “totally absurd” and accused Sharon of trying to piggyback on the US-led “war against terrorism” to strengthen his military operations against militants in the territories.

Both the Lebanese government and Hizbollah made similar statements.

A US citizen of Syrian descent was arrested last month at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on suspicion of transferring funds to terrorist organisations in general, and those connected to al-Qaeda in particular.

Three Israelis and 10 Kenyans were killed in a suicide attack on a hotel near the Kenyan port of Mombasa last Thursday, shortly after missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight taking off from there with 261 passengers.

The attacks were purportedly claimed by al-Qaeda on an Islamic website.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships swept into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday, sparking a gun battle and killing 10 people, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.

Army officials said the troops had met fierce resistance in the three-hour pre-dawn incursion, which it said was intended to root out militants responsible for attacks on troops in Gaza in a more than two-year Palestinian uprising for independence.

German intelligence agents detained in Kosovo on suspicion of bombing EU office in capital

German intelligence officers detained in Kosovo

11.25.08 / Der Spiegel

A judge in Kosovo has ordered three Germans suspected of throwing explosives at the EU office in Pristina to be held for 30 days. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the men are intelligence officers. Now politicians in Berlin are looking for answers.

Tensions are mounting between Berlin and Pristina following the arrest of three German intelligence agents on terrorism charges in Kosovo.

AFP

Soldiers stand guard in front of the EU office in Pristina after an explosion ripped through the building.

The three men were arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of throwing explosives at the office of the EU Special Representative Peter Feith on Nov. 14. The men who, according to SPIEGEL information, are members Germany’s foreign intelligence agency the Bundesnachtrichtendienst (BND) deny involvement in the blast and claim they were only examining the scene. The explosion shattered windows in the building but no one was hurt.

On Saturday a Pristina district court judge ordered that the men be detained for 30 days on terrorism charges that could carry sentences of up to 20 years. Court documents seen by the Associated Press show that the prosecutor, Feti Tunuzliu, alleges that the suspects had intended to disrupt the EU’s efforts to deploy its new police mission in Kosovo.

The German Foreign Ministry has confirmed that three German citizens have been arrested in Kosovo but declined to make any other comments due to the ongoing investigation. According to SPIEGEL sources, the BND agents had not been officially registered with the Kosovo authorities and, therefore, do not have diplomatic immunity.

The German public broadcaster ARD reports on Monday that the BND is to meet with members of parliament on Thursday to discuss the arrests. Either the BND President Ernst Uhrlau or one of his deputies is to report to the intelligence oversight committee, the Parliamentary Control Panel (PKG).

Thomas Oppermann, chairman of the PKG and a member of the Social Democrats, has said he could not imagine how the German agents could be involved in an attack on EU offices. “That seems to have been plucked out of the air,” he told ARD on Monday. Max Stadler, who represents the opposition FDP on the panel, told the Berliner Zeitung that he wanted the government and the BND to say if the men were indeed intelligence officers.

On Monday Germany’s Bild newspaper reports that sources close to the intelligence community say that the BND has ruled out the involvement of any of its employees in the attack on the EU office. The sources told the paper they believe it is much more likely to have been extremists in Kosovo who oppose the involvement of foreign organizations in their country. The arrest of the Germans is, they conclude, the result of a power struggle within the Kosovo leadership, with the anti-European faction having prevailed over those who wanted to see the three men released.

The diplomatic spat has come amid rising tensions over the EU police mission in Kosovo, where UN peacekeepers have been deployed since the 1999 NATO bombing campaign put an end to a brutal Serbian crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. The UN mission, UNMIK, is now downsizing and the 2,000 strong EU mission, known as EULEX, is to take over law enforcement.

However, Serbia, which has not recognized Kosovo, has won concessions on the EU deployment and the current plan proposes leaving the UN to patrol the ethnic Serb enclaves within Kosovo. This in turn has been rejected by Pristina which suspects the split of the police missions could lead to a de-facto partition of the fledgling state which declared independence in February.