No Oscar for Osama Bin Laden's home videos

You've been badly framed!

The White House has taken great delight in releasing some boring videos that they found in the Bin Laden compound. There aren't many laughs in them, so the comedy element is lacking. The wardrobe department is also rather lacklustre. All we see is Osama rambling on about the ills of the world as he sees it. His compound looks an untidy mess. I doubt he got his electrical wiring checked. It looked highly dangerous on the pictures. He could have set the house on fire just with his VCR collection.

No doubt all this plays well in America. President Obama's poll ratings have rocketed, all because of this feel good factor. But Bin Laden's death isn't going to help the deficit one iota. Americans are still fighting a war in Afghanistan on the ludicrous basis that he was thought to be there but he isn't there now because he's dead. He never was there, or at least not since 9/11. Pakistan was always going to be his best bet for a man as corrupt as he was knows a thing or two about corruption in a country like Pakistan. Also, he could have been bombed with impunity in Afghanistan if found out. Not so easy in Pakistan. He just didn't reckon with the navy seals. Neither did Pakistan for that matter.

al Qaeda is like some spore carrying fungus, popping up here and there where the ground is reasonably fertile. But it is also fast becoming a footnote in history. None of the franchised cells are having any influence in the Arab Spring. The vast majority of Muslims find the organisation objectionable. al Qaeda remains a threat but no more than it did last week when Osama Bin Laden was still checking over his video collection.

With the arch-terrorist dead, what now for the war in Afghanistan. The training seems to be taking for ever. Surely the Afghan police know how to make arrests by now? The Afghan army can shoot straight and obey commands, surely? The Taliban were never our enemy. They might have been the enemy of freedom for Afghans, but history tells us the Afghans are better off fighting amongst themselves. The only problem left is the wretched poppy crop and President Obama has done as much as his predecessor on this one. Diddly squat!

Afghanistan's poppy harvest by CNN_International

George Bush waterboards his conscience!

British lives were saved by the use of information obtained from terrorist suspects by "waterboarding", according to former US President George W Bush. I heard him on the Today Programme, or rather a tape of his interview on NBC. He sounded his usual self. All nervous and jittery when pushed on the subject. He consulted lawyers and the lawyers said OK! But George has a conscience that's in overdrive when he gets these questions. He has tried to sound all macho and tough. Appeal to the bible belt, the Tea Party toughies, rednecks and bubbas, corporate machismos.

When George married he took up with his wife's nonconformist beliefs. But you can't take the Episcopalian out of the man. Maybe George should attend bible classes. "Now what would Jesus think of waterboarding, George?".

Tough one, that!

Gordon Brown's Afghan egg displeases curate's congregation

The curate's egg was good in parts. He was implying that something which is partly good can be ruined by the bad bit.

Right Reverend Host. "I’m afraid you’ve got a bad Egg, Mr. Jones!"
The Curate. "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellect!"

We could say the same about Gordon Brown's speech this morning. He is still trying to persuade us that his nemesis, Alky Ada, is about to strike out in London on a savage rampage all due to the problems starting in Kabul. Cut off the Afghan terrorists and Britain is a safer place. It's all poppycock. He ruins a basically good premise by including untruths and speculation. Al Queda are in Pakistan giving grief to that benighted country. If they ever were in Afghanistan they have long since fled. Terrorists are not insurgents. Fine point, maybe, but the aims are different. It is the Taliban, a group of warlords and displaced poppy farmers, that are the anti-social scourge of the Afghans. We don't wish to seize the moment in Pakistan to go after Al Queda. Probably because we would get an uprising in Britain as well as in Pakistan.

So the Afghan war is about telling us we are fighting terrorism to make Britain a safer place. The Taliban are enemies of the democratising process of Afghan society. We are telling Karzai about corruption. Gordon Brown lectures him on good governance, suggesting that a government must not stand back and let corruption take place. Excuse me! What has Brown beeen doing in Westminster? Trying to hide MPs expenses, his own cleaning bills and Sky Sports subscriptions, by invoking parliamentary privilege, stifling freedom of information and redacting documents. Nice one.

The country is not behind this war because the premise is false. We are behind our soldiers and each and every one of them has put themselves where virtually none of us would go. But the government needs to do far better than come up with this travesty of the truth.

There are four countries in the world that the "West" has difficulty with. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Not one is a fully functioning democracy. All have despots waiting to take over. All have simmering grievances. The peoples of each country want peace and prosperity. They don't care if it is with democracy or with a benign overlord. They just want peace. In that, Gordon Brown is right to say that the first duty of a government is the security of the nation. But he negates his good reasons by including fancifully bad ones.

Until the truth is out, this war will go nowhere. Until our objectives are crystal clear, we have only the curate's opinion to guide us.

Blair, the bloody-handed one!

When a young Tony Blair knocked on his housemaster's study door and enquired - "Anything I can do for you, sir?" - it's a crying shame that the teacher couldn't show him the future. But maybe if he had been able to it would have made no difference. Blair has a stubborn streak of arrogant self-certainty about him. He was certain that Gordon Brown was not the face of New Labour for the general election of 1997.

He was also certain he had to twist and spin in order to come up with a reason for the Iraq War. Yesterday he got a verbal smacking in the face from an angry father of a deceased soldier. The father told Blair he had blood on his hands. 59 year-old Peter Brierly said, "As far as I am concerned that man is a war criminal. I can’t bear to be in the same room as him. I cannot believe he’s been allowed to come to this reception. I sat through that service listening to people preaching to me about tolerance but I don’t think anyone should be forced to tolerate being in the same room as him. He has made £14million on the back of taking us to war and they are now talking about making him president of the EU. But I believe I believe he’s got the blood of my son – and all of the other men and women who died in that war – on his hands."

That's three diabolical things in one remark. Blair fiddled the war, he's making dosh by the bucketload now, and he's cheesily knocking on the EU door asking "Anything I can do for you?" I know the answer to that one, but I don't run a rude-worded blog!

Blair is some character. Any vestige of socialism went with the pixies. Now it's hard to fathom out how much he's absorbed of catholicism. He's basically keen to milk the system which is a red flag to me that the man is driven by a desire not to be a failure and to be liked. The problem is that he has driven himself into exactly the opposite camp - distrusted and despised, dare I say.

However, the cheesiest thing Blair did was signing autographs on the programmes of yesterday's event. What a man!

Sub-continental circumcision row!

This is a crazy world indeed. We are fighting a war in Afghanistan, euphemistically called a campaign by the government, and we are told categorically that the enemy is a terrorist organisation hell bent on exporting its beastliness to the streets of London and other western capitals.

Unfortunately, the people we are trying to help by extending democracy and civilisation as we know it do not know who the enemy is. Much debate is currently taking place on Pakistani internet forums about who is exactly who in terrorist circles. It has been "documented" that some Taliban fighters were not Muslims but Indians or other such. Uncircumcised males have been spotted in the numbers of corpses. So that concludes the Indians are up to their tricks. But hold on a minute, some people, like the Times of India are keen to point out this is not proof at all. "Pak blame fails Waziristan circumcision test!" trumpets this article. I like the term "Pak". Try using that in the Times of London! Many Waziris are so poor they can't afford to travel to a hospital or get a barber (ouch!) to do the operation for their boys.

So we don't really know who is who unless we get these Taliban types to drop their trousers! Maybe this is what General Stanley McChrystal should be doing if he wants to succeed in turning away from a "likely result in failure"?

http://www.pakdef.info/forum/showthread.php?t=9570&page=77

http://forum.pakistanidefence.com/index.php?showtopic=83146

Bin Laden been dead for seven years?

The Daily Mail asks the question as to whether the rich boy turned cave-dwelling terrorist is actually dead. They think he might have gone to his Maker seven years ago. A book called Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive? is out now. Written by political analyst and philosopher Professor David Ray Griffin, former emeritus professor at California's Claremont School of Theology, it is provoking shock waves - for it goes into far more detail about his supposed death and suggests there has been a cover-up by the West. Another Senate hearing for the truth?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212851/Has-Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-seven-years--U-S-Britain-covering-continue-war-terror.html#ixzz0QuG1p3RA

Joe Biden's not really sure, is he?

Joe Biden's been chatting to the BBC. His take on the war in Afghanistan is that it is in the interests of the US and the UK. "It is worth the effort we are making," he said, warning that the terror groups on the border with Pakistan could "wreak havoc" on Europe and the US. He reiterated the Obama administration's rationale for the conflict. "This is the place from which the attacks of 9/11 and all those attacks in Europe that came from al-Qaeda have flowed from that place - between Afghanistan and Pakistan." So we should be in Pakistan too, then, clearing out the caves and cosy hiding places there? I doubt it.

This is a war without a clear purpose. On Mondays it's about democracy in Kabul. Tuesdays it's about fighting the Taliban. Wednesday it's back to the terrorist agenda of al-Qaeda. Biden says the terror groups who shelter along the Afghan-Pakistan border combine with the country's role in the international drug trade - supplying 90% of the world's heroin - means the war in Afghanistan needs to succeed. So are we trying to suppress and eradicate the drugs trade, fight terrorism or put democracy in place? Or do all three at once?

I would think such incoherent thinking is just fuel to the average Afghan cave-dweller. These guys have been living rough since they started to walk upright. Their only respect for modernity is mobile phones and designer specs. Taking pot shots at the beggars isn't going to change the mindset much.

If it was down to me, I'd hire a fleet of planes to spray the poppy crops, I'd give ten minutes warning that exocet missiles were coming at those caves, I'd put extreme pressure on the Pakistani, Somali and other governments to shape up, and I'd chuck out the bearded wonders wandering the streets of London and other cities as undesirable aliens.

But it isn't down to me!

Brown is no leader!

Gordon Brown is the last man to defend the interests of the fighting soldier. He tells the House of Commons - "The British armed forces are better equipped today than they have been at any time in 40 years but we are not complacent". Are they better equipped? Perhaps they are compared with the squaddies of 1969.

However are they properly equipped? The answer is NO!

Gordon Brown also implies that the war in Afghanistan is to prevent terrorism on the streets of London. This is nonsense and a cheap smokescreen. The Taliban, however ghastly they may be in our eyes, have no desire whatsoever to be strutting the streets of London. What the Taliban are is a group of malcontents quite capable of using the drug trade to further their fantasies.

Our war is one against Al-Qaeda (or Alkie Ada as Gordon Brown calls them). These are the terrorists, the murderers and the psycopaths. They wander freely around the Arabian penisular and drift in and out of Pakistani villages at will.

If we are going to war, let's really understand who the enemy is first. And if the Taliban is so well equipped themselves, they must be exchanging something for weapons. That something is opium. When is the spraying of the poppy fields going to start?

If we hadn't bombed German munition factories during Word War II we'd have had all manner of stuff land on us. Get rid of the poppy fields and you cut the Taliban off at the pass!

Obama ticks off "My Cousin Cheney"!

Who'd have thought it? Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are kin! At least that's what Lynne Cheney thinks. She delved into the ancestral past of hubby Dick only to find that he and Barack share the same French Huguenot forebear. According to Lynne, Obama is a descendent of Mareen Duvall. This French Huguenot’s son married the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland in the late 1650s from England. However she hasn't given references so it isn't gospel proof.

My Cousin Cheney! I think there should be a film about it all. Including the up to date stuff. Dick Cheney has been sounding off about letting "terrorists" out of Quantanamo. In Dick's world it matters not whether one is innocent or guilty, beaten, framed or tortured, so long as the "War on Terror" makes America safe.

Obama is right to confront such nonsense. As he asks, "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by vice president Cheney?" None at all! "It hasn't made us safer," Obama says. "What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment." And what is the point of that?

Dick Cheney had a fairly simple view of the world's problems when he was Vice-President. That simplicity led to disaster abroad. His boss, the verbally challenged Dubya presided over a complete spiral into financial decay for the American people.

"No more foreclosures!" are the hand-written signs going up all over. The people know reality. Dick Cheney is still in his own land of make-believe!

Guantanamo detainee arrives in UK

Binyam Mohamed, a detainee from the Guantanamo camp and a British resident of Ethiopian background is back on British soil. His tale of woe desperately needs examining, because what was done to him was done in our name. He says -

"It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways - all orchestrated by the United States government."

George Bush and Dick Cheney receiving truthful reports or adulterated stories? We need to know, because if the truth does not come out, anyone can be lifted from the streets and carted off to a hellhole.

He goes on to say -

"For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence.

I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.

I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."

David Miliband needs to come clean and not hide behind weasel words. His worst nightmare will be somebody exposing his knowledge at a time when he is least prepared for it.

Miliband in fake Commons denial!

David Miliband went to the House of Commons to assert that there was no truth in the United States intelligence services putting pressure on the UK authorities over intelligence sharing. This is in connection with the case of Binyam Mohamed, a 31 year old, originally from Ethiopia, once resident in the UK - and now into his fifth year of detention at Guantanamo Bay.

His lawyers are attempting to get him released but the Americans will go to any lengths to stop public knowledge of torture or cruel treatment being disclosed. Miliband's denial rings hollow. Channel 4 News has received a copy of a letter from John B Bellinger at the Department of State to Daniel Bethlehem, QC, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It indeed shows pressure is being put on the British.

If President Obama wants to cleanse the world of this travesty of natural justice that is Guantanomo Bay, he will put an end to this ridiculous game of cover-up and camouflage. Otherwise his whole presidency will be marred by the leaks, innuendo and murmerings that are fed by the continuation of this place as a detention centre. These prisoners should be tried or freed, but not incarcerated without any due process.

It is a stain on us all, perpetuated by men prepared to lie and pervert justice in order to satisfy a crazed notion that this place promotes security. I feel far less secure because it is a cancer festering and feeding off the hearts and minds of those we claim we are helping in the "War on Terror".

Ron Paul and a few home truths

As this is a Ron Paul supporting website (shouldn't every blog be that?) I'm showing this good expose of the "War in Afghanistan". As Dr. Paul says, the more Muslims we kill, accidently or deliberately, the more ammunition there is for Al Queda. This is a hopeless battle, made even more so by the fact that nothing is being done to get rid of the poppy harvest. Instead of bombs and bullets, how about deploying an army of cropsprayers to devastate the drugs trade? Surely that's the real enemy. Let the Afghan farmers grow natural tomatoes or something, so we can have decent fresh food in the supermarkets. I bet an Afghan farmer wouldn't flog us green tomatoes just for them to be gassed in a warehouse so they go an odd orange colour!

Anyway, I digress. Here's Ron Paul -

A tale of two cities - Bombay and Bangkok

I was struck by the happenings in two cities of Asia and how different they the appear. The first was the taking of the airport in Bangkok by demonstrators fed up with the shenanigans of the Thai government. These people wore yellow headbands and clothing to show that they were peaceful people. They were just stating that they wanted real democracy in their country. Apparently all flight passengers were treated well and got on with their "captors" who gave them food and sustinence. As one Brit said "It's the airlines who are telling us nothing!".

Contrast this with Bombay, now renamed Mumbai and described by the BBC as "The Indian city of Mumbai" as if we don't know where it is! "Mumbai? It's Bombay, mate! Ah!" is a typical snippet of conversation you might hear down the pub. I'm still waiting for the BBC to speak of The Italian city of Firenze, but I'm not hopeful. Anyway back to Bombay. Here we have automoton terrorists trying to destabilise a democracy by attempting to round up American and British citizens whilst scaring the living daylights out the city as a whole.

Democracy is worth fighting for. Not with weapons or warfare but with words and wisdom. The Bangkok demonstrators have left their mark by being firm but fair with their cause. Al Queda is neither firm or fair. They have a self-righteous narrow view of life based on hatred and the desire to hurt in order to control. In this they should be resisted absolutely.

The Indian government is handling the situation well it seems. However the US and British governments should not be tempted to intervene. The Indian authorities are quite capable of flushing out these terrorists and bringing matters to a satisfactory conclusion.


PS. This film is nicely titled - Bombay to Bangkok! One up to the Bollywood producers.

Terrorist Watch in Warwickshire

Our local paper, the Solihull Times, reports that the police have visited people in Hampton-in Arden to explain how members of the public could help the authorities prevent terrorist-related incidents. If there's anyone willing, they register with the Community Engagement Register, detailing all their personal information. Then they go out looking for, with their "eyes and ears", "cars parked up, people hanging about, disturbed earth in fields, things put as possible markers".

The two police officers who came to the village were from the Manpads Neighbour Policing Team at Birmingham Airport. They seem to think that somebody may want to take a potshot at planes from a field with a rocket launcher. I see their reasoning, but it's all a bit far-fetched. This just tells me that I need to question their thinking.

I cannot imagine for one minute any Al Queda operative "hanging about" Hampton let alone plodding around a wet field. It is so bizarre. A suicide attack on the airport -YES. This sort of caper -NO!

All that will happen is that visitors to the village will get to know that snoopers exist. I doubt very much if anyone from an ethnic minority will go within a mile of the place. It's 1984 stuff and not very much to do with security or sanity!

Sarah Palin takes the Scottish Nationalist line!

So living in Alaska gives you some form of political independence? Sarah Palin is sounding ever so much like Alex Salmond used to do. He's now First Minister in a devolved Scottish Parliament making sure he's not far from Scotland's oil. Palin thinks the oil under the ground and the seas around Alaska is for her to control. "It's Alaskan oil!", she purrs. She would like to "sell" Alaskan oil to the US. She claims that Alaska struck a deal 50 years ago (on entry into the Union) with the Federal Government to exploit the resources of Alaska. If Alaska can't do that, will she think it best to go it alone?

She now has a stark choice. It's either going to be Alaskan oil or American oil. It can't be both. As VP will she have to eat her words? This little offering is on the Glenn Beck show (before she got the VP ticket place) and she seems to be on good form (she comes in at 4.18 on the clock!). On Iraq, she says "We're fighting, in some sense, over energy supplies". Well, she said it!

Watch this space, I say!

9/11 Seven Years On!

Time really does fly. I remember so vividly being glued to the television, watching those pictures of the World Trade Center disaster. It was a grievous attack on innocent people. In the intervening years, I have often thought about that building. Not only had I been it it, having been lucky enough to have been in the restaurant at the top, but I can see an image of it every day. We have an "arty" photo of it at home, taken from below, looking up to the skies above.

Today the commemorations take place. People have remembered. I would like to think we have moved on and all become better people. The "War on Terror" continues and on this day, General Petraeus tells the BBC that recent security gains are "not irreversible" and that the US still faces a "long struggle". Whilst Petraeus should be applauded for his efforts, I still think the Bush administration has been partly to blame for the length of this struggle. If Dubya had bothered to think a bit about how Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary renditions, the use of the secret services against the citizen, and general rabble-rousing rhetoric have had a detrimental effect on the stability of the whole Middle East, he might be leaving office next January with a bit more to his credit.

Those that died in the 9/11 tragedies were the target of hateful men. If such emotions, feelings and sentiments are to be turned around, we need an approach that will engender respect rather than revenge from both sides. It is going to be slow progress, I fear!