The Young Wife Who Defended Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden's willing wife - willing to talk?

The Osama Bin Laden story is continuing. Someone told me that the Americans should just have done it and kept quiet about it. Trouble with that is it would not have stopped the rumour mill. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't when it comes to these things. It's like finding Hitler's bunker intact when the Berlin wall came down. It was covered up again, literally, pretty quickly. Just to keep tourists out and Hitler shrine makers as well.

Now the young Yemeni woman, betrothed to Bin Laden when she was a teenager, is in the limelight. She knew no better I suppose. I know some Yemenis and they have decided to leave the mind-bending existence that Yemen offers. 29-year-old Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah was only doing what she thought was her duty. I bet Osama was a cool operator and she believed his every word. Either that or she was deluded.

Osama Bin Laden will still be around this time next year, and the next. He's moved into that category that makes him worth more dead than alive. He was never much of a threat but he needed to be built up by some so they could make money from it all. What next? The books, of course!

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!

Airport bomb "there for a year"!

Belfast International Airport is investigating an embarrassing lapse in security. Or more accurately, just a typical example of the lack of attention to detail that seems to pervade British society these days. It beggars belief that nobody thought to ask about the car, which had a pipe bomb in it. The vehicle was in a long-stay car park and airport parking firm Q Park said "it was confident that car had not been there for a year".

The reports of this only suggest that police are investigating the possibility that the car was there for almost a year. I suppose someone just suggested the possibility. But the real problem here is the need to investigate such an error. So many horses bolt from so many stable doors. I think a lot of our problems stem from bored staff, doing tedious jobs and not really bothering. After all, is it such a fantastic job wandering around a vast array of cars, watching planes zooming off to different climes, letting your mind drift off into fantasies. Honestly, if it were me, I'd not be too sure if a car was there for a year or a day. If the system has flaws (the company said this vehicle was not pre-booked so was not on the number plate recognition system) then who knows what car is what?

One only has to thank the chances that came about to render this bomb a virtual dud.

Passports pass the pricey point!

Today David Cameron announced the spending reveiw of defence. It was all about keeping us safe for the best price. How best to defeat the enemy and all that. Sounded OK as far as it went. But I get a sneaking feeling that in this modern age of terrorist warfare, where the odd bearded wonder is the actual problem, not a whole army of well disciplined foes, that it is the "man on the Clapham omnibus" that gets to pay for it all. And in more ways than one.

Only yesterday I was thinking again of renewing my passport. Can't go anywhere foreign without one, not these days. So much for the single market of the great European experiment. I would like to pop over to France but have to fork out £77.50 for the privilege. Now, OK, that boils down to £7.75 each year for a ten-year passport, but it's the reasons behind why the Passport Office is in charge of such inflation-busting price rises that gets me.

I saw this on Wikipedia and immediately thought that both the terrorists and the mandarins have a hand in weedling cash out of the citizen. If there were no terrorists it is perfectly plausible to think that the cost of renewing a passport would be no more that £25. But there is a whacking great premium because of Osama and his gang, fraudsters and official inefficiency. My last passport was issued in the USA by the Washington Embassy. I now see that in similar circumstances today I would be stiffed for £124!

From Wikipedia -

The cost of obtaining a standard passport over the years has increased greatly. While consumer prices in the UK have increased by 24% from early 1998 to 2009, the price of a passport renewal increased by 269%.
£77.50 - 3 September 2009 - an increase which the Government said was necessary due to a falling number of passport applicants, and also to pay for enhanced passport security measures. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said that people were paying for the price of introducing ID cards.
£72 - 4 October 2007 - due to an increase in the consular premium added by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
£66 - 5 October 2006 - for the introduction of the latest generation passport, anti-fraud measures and interviews for first-time applicants.
£51 - 1 December 2005 - to reflect the cost of implementing key anti-fraud measures.
£42 - 2 October 2003 - to pay for new anti-fraud measures.
£33 – 21 November 2002.
£30 – 14 January 2002.
£28 – 16 December 1999 - to fund a major overhaul of the Passport Agency following the summer crisis.
£21 – 26 March 1998.
£18 - November 1992.
The above fees apply for passports issued in the United Kingdom by the Identity and Passport Service. Passports issued outside the UK by the Passport Section of a British Consulate, Embassy, or High Commission currently cost £124.

If the spending on defence could get rid of Bin Laden and the spending on security could get rid of fraudsters, we might get our money's worth on passport production. Otherwise we will not get the value for money that David Cameron talks about. Just more shelling out for a poor return.

The Gaza concentration camp

Of all the people in the world one would think that the Jews would know a bit about suffering. That's what might be expected. But the reality of the modern world seems to suggest otherwise. Especially the present Israeli government, which has a hunkered down mentality. I've never accepted the Jewish proposal that the holocaust of World War II was the worst atrocity. Because to accept that allows other atrocities to be measured as being only half-way there in the heinous crimes stakes. Benjamin Netanyahu is quite happy to starve innocent Arab children to death if needs be, because in his eyes the Jews have experienced much worse. So it lends credibility to his policy of sealing off the Gaza strip and turning it into a hell hole. Of course, all that gives the Hamas leadership a political manna they never dreamed of. The Israelis must be barmy at best and just plain wicked at worst to think such a policy will succeed.

It is very distressing to know that the Israelis will lie, cheat, steal, and generally ride roughshod over international law in order to pursue what they consider a moral crusade. They will forge passports, steal identities and murder opponents in hotel hallways. Anybody who gainsays these tactics is deemed anti-Israeli or, heaven forfend, anti-semitic.

The blockade of Gaza has no sensible backing with regard to thoughtfulness. Tinned fruit is banned but tinned meat is allowed in. Everything is arbitrarily decided. But these are minor inconveniences. The really distasteful thing is that it's all deemed perfectly OK by the Jewish people. And now we hear that the flotilla of boats boarded by heavy-handed commandos had no weapons. A bit like the WMD nonsense. It was all an excuse to beat the wotsits out of these well-meaning blockade busters.

I'm pleased that there are many Jews in the world who find the actions of the Israeli government unpleasant. The state of Israel came about by terrorist activity. Many of the present Israeli government appear rooted in the same culture as the King David Hotel bombers. The ends justify the means they think.

One day Israel will live in peace with Arab neighbours. Not today, though.

British boy found in Pakistan

Yesterday the BBC was leading with the story that Sahil Saeed had been found in Pakistan. This little boy was abducted by people seemingly bent on making money. He is just an innocent pawn in the machinations of adults.

Firstly, I thought the BBC overdid their political correctness by emphasising that Sahil was a "British boy", as if to ram home to any half-witted incorrect persons they must repeat the mantra. I googled British Boy and the BBC's lead in all this has come up trumps. Sahil is top of the list! I would have thought just describing him as a little boy from Oldham would have sufficed, but then I'm not as mind-bent as the BBC is currently. The Today Programme repeated "British Boy" in rather the same manner as the "Winslow Boy". We all had to know who he was and what he was.

Then there was the David Miliband contribution. The Foreign Office is, as Enoch Powell once described it, a nest of vipers. The media is in a spin about ransom money. Talk of £100,000 being paid for Sahil's release. If I was betting on this, I'd say it is more likely than not that some cash was paid. Pakistan is presently a state populated by bandits and rogues. Decent people live in fear of the crooks and crazies. Miliband pompously states that Britain doesn't pay ransom money. Yes and no is the answer here, I think.

Sahil went to visit his grandmother and got caught up in intrigue and plots. Thankfully, he has come to no harm. Interestingly the yacht couple in Somalia are having no such luck. Of course, Miliband is involved in their case. But I am letting my fevered brow think that doing deals in Pakistan may get some brownie points later on, whereas giving a gun-toting Somali pirate even a measly penny is too much. No oil, no gas, no mileage in Somalia worth contemplating. Pakistan is different.

The capture and release of Sahil Saeed tells us far more about the politics of the world. And the plot thickens by moving to Spain. When Sahil grows up, I hope he is able to be a fantastic influence on the world because we certainly need to sort out a few things adults are getting wrong.

Airport body scanners 'may be unlawful'

There's been an awful lot of talk about body scanners recently, mainly from those who think it unseemly that their private parts and other bits may be seen by ogling airport operatives. Personally I'm not bothered by that aspect. I'm more concerned by the burgeoning industry that is making a fast buck out of terrorism. How much are these body scanners? Apparently they cost $150,000 to $200,000 a pop. Then there are all the other ways to make people part with their cash in the name of fighting terrorism, such as dawdling in front of airside stores for a couple of hours.

I remember during Ted Heath's three-day week arrangements of the 1970's how people made money out of us, such as selling candles or flogging portable gas heaters. Now everyone is entitled to earn a living, but I think this modern day saintliness proffered by government agencies in the name of fighting terrorism is a lot more sinful than they would like us to appreciate. After all, if they eventually got round to spraying that poppy crop in Afghanisatan it would bring tears to the eyes of the arms traders. Am I being too cynical today?

Immigrants get it from right and left!

You'd be wondering why so many would-be immigrants try so desperately to get into Britain. On the one hand (the right) they've got Nick Griffin sizing them up as potential "racial foreigners" and on the other hand (the left) they've got the hapless Jacqui Smith viewing them as potential terrorists and anti-social foreigners. Not much of a warm welcome there!

Most sane and rational people want a firm and fair immigration system. One that is palpably open to simple understanding and not bound up with so much red tape and regulations that "experts" have to decipher it all. The BNP has come up with some frightful tome called the "Language and Concepts Discipline Manual". This is apparently to keep the BNP faithful from straying into illegal talk but encouraging them to use words that convey the "message". Which is that if you have a skin colouring that is on the darker side of Robert Kilroy-Silk's you get to be put in the "racial foreigners" camp. A camp that may one day have barbed wire all around it.

This is a policy (well, not even a policy, really!) that is high on hatred and low on logic! Griffin has taken Humpty Dumpty at his word and made "racial foreigner" mean what he wants it to mean. All very distasteful.

Then we have the case of the twelve Pakistani students rounded up on terrorist charges, the very same ones that got Bob Quick to resign, only to find that the police can't charge them with anything. The whole thing appears to be a storm in a teacup. Or a cockup. Or worse.

Now that the police have done their bit, these students are still deemed unsavoury characters so have been turned over to the UK Border Agency. Jacqui Smith has become judge and jury and they are going to be deported. Nice one! If I were a Pakistani contemplating coming to study in England I'd have serious doubts running through my head. Because the way the expenses-cheating Home Secretary thinks, they are guilty just because they are Pakistani. This is utterly monstrous. She should have the guts to tell the Pakistan government that ALL their citizens are seen by the UK government as potential terrorists.

Some of them are protesting their innocence in court. It's the very idea that, because no charges were made, some other method needs to be used to "get them". This government is always spinning that they are fighting terrorism but mostly they are not. New Labour's bungling of security issues only feeds the very thing they are claiming to be against. Now Asians living in the UK are disturbed and upset by the thought that they are perceived as a trojan horse.

They must feel like they are in the Charge of the Light Brigade. "Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them...."

And he went quickly!

The look on Jacqui Smith's face said it all. My prediction last night was not rocket science. One woman who's career seems to hang on threads was in no position to pontificate on one man's "extremely unfortunate" mistake.

We all make mistakes. What matters is how we deal with them. Bob Quick has done the honourable thing. However, he must have considerable strengths that overcome his weaknesses and perhaps he could be put to better use detecting fraud and arrant misbehaviour in the hierachy of the financial world. That needs a good broom taken to it!

Bob Quick to go quickly!

I don't think I'm that gaffe free myself, but I do reckon that if I was going to a meeting with top secret stuff for the Prime Minister, I wouldn't stick it loosely on the front of a folder for any snapping photographer to see. My goodness, sensitive information casually placed on the front of a folder! How many other people saw this before the cameras did? His driver? The cleaning lady?

Before Jacqui Smith got her beady eyes on the papers, Bob Quick's gaffe was all over the place and the Merseyside police were "bringing forward" their operations.

It's not in the league of a poacher turning gamekeeper, it's more like the gamekeeper tripping up over the poacher's traps. Bob Quick needs to think of something else to do. By the time tomorrow comes he will have gone, quickly!

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.

German commandos storm KLM flight

In a daring assault on a KLM flight, German commandos have arrested two men on an aeroplane preparing to take off from Cologne airport. A Somali, 23, and a Somali-born German, 24, were suspected of planning attacks and were detained after several months of surveillance, police said.

This is a good result, all the better for catching them in the act. All the more evidence means all the more likelihood of a conviction.

Plus, with German efficiency, the plane was cleared for departure just over an hour later and has since landed in Amsterdam.

As they say in parts of London, "That's what I call a result!"

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!

Guilt by association - Guantanamo style!

I see that a US military jury at Guantanamo Bay has convicted Osama Bin Laden's former driver of supporting terrorism. Salim Hamdan was found guilty of five of eight charges of supporting terrorism but acquitted him of two separate, more serious, charges of conspiracy. So he just drove Bin Laden around knowing he was an arch-terrorist but did not join in with any conspiratorial talk. It's all a bad joke in this kangaroo court land, isn't it?

Do the prosecuting soldiers in this Cuban camp think that by just driving you support the activities of the driven? In that case, the recently jailed crook Lord Black's chauffeur could be pinned against a wall and accused of fraud. Max Mosley's driver could be said to support kinky sex, and Amy Winehouse's driver may be accused of supporting her various antics.

All chauffeurs and personal drivers better watch out. Uncle Sam may have you if your boss gets into trouble. By the way, is anybody questioning George Bush over his past friendliness with the Bin Laden family? Oil and water don't mix, I know, but what of oil and truthful politics? We're still waiting on that one!

Armed police held down innocent man on train and put a gun to his head!

In another story of the "If you have done nothing wrong you've nothing to fear" department, here comes one describing a disturbing day out for one young man.

As the Daily Mail reports "Guns pointing at his head, a train passenger is forced to lie face-down on the platform in a dramatic police swoop. Officers then dragged him to his feet and frogmarched him away to be searched and interrogated. Minutes later, however, he was released without charge after it became clear that they had seized entirely the wrong man."

Luckily they didn't shoot him. Dorset Police have shrugged off the incident. They don't appear that concerned. Pity. I like the stoical remark "'Inquiries into the circumstances of the arrest are continuing. No shots were fired and no one was injured." So that's OK then.

I still think all this gives us an impression of policing on the cheap, lack of proper intelligence, and a police service driven by crazy results charts. Let's remember its a service, not a bonus-led, profit-making plc!

In the comments from the Mail's report, Andy from Essex helpfully says "It's the way it has to be. Well done to the Police." If you ever find yourself face down on the sweet-smelling floor of Liverpool Street station, Andy, be sure to compliment the officers, won't you?

Murdoch's Man versus Freedom & Liberty?

Whatever else Rupert Murdoch is he certainly isn't a man who likes to take his hand off the control button. He is the control freak's control freak. Kelvin Mackenzie, "former editor of the Sun", is one of his bagmen and apologist-in-chief. Mackenzie says he will stand against David Davis in the forthcoming by-election in Haltemprice and Howden if Labour bottle out. Let him! He's a mouthy type, who doesn't care much for others' liberties. Mackenzie, who backs Labour on 42 days, says he is "90%" likely to stand on behalf of the Sun. "I have been associated with The Sun for 30 years. The Sun is very, very hostile to David Davis because of his 28 day stance and The Sun has always been very up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days." 420 days! Really? The man is an utter gutter-type attracter. I doubt he got bothered in the slightest over the Forest Gate cock-up. He probably thinks Guantanamo Bay is a great place for "terrorists". And let him not imply that those of us campaigning against this anti-freedom policy are soft on terrorism. No way. This attack on freedom only plays into the hands of terrorists and it also weakens us. If we are not free, who is the winner? Us or Alky Ada (the Prime Minister's new replacement for Prudence)?

On the radio this morning Mackenzie was leading the "if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to worry about" brigade with gusto. These types are just so intellectually challenged. How many times over the last 10 years, under the Blair regime and now under this Brown sauce collective, have we seen a total mismanagement of freedoms and liberty? Has Mackenzie ever heard of identity theft? Of the police knocking on the wrong door? With so many computer discs going astray from government offices, the day he gets woken up at 6am, to be told he knocked over somebody in Tesco, is fast approaching!!!

Gordon Brown is running a government that has only 20% support from the total electorate. That means a whopping 80% either voted for other parties or stayed away from the polls last time.Yes, 80% did not give their support to New Labour. Yet the obnoxious McNulty, that Home Office minister, seems to think his anti-libertarian stance has the backing of the public. McNulty says Davis is off-beam. I'd give David Davis high marks for integrity. With McNulty, I'd show him the door of the Spinners' and Deceivers' room!

Yes this will be an extraordinary by-election. It will be all those in favour of freedom and civil liberty pitted against the control freaks. History doesn't change much, but as David Davis says, I too don't want to live in a country where anyone can be just pulled of the street and flung into jail without blinking an eyelid!

Uncle Sam saw you drive from Bognor to Brighton!

For those who keep bleating about the anti-terror laws and how effective they are should think again. Saying, "well, if you haven't done anything you shouldn't be worried", and sounding all prim and proper about it is no good. Jacqui Smith is living up to her status as a typical prying New Labour Home Secretary. All apparatchik and no common sense.

She has discreetly (or by stealth!) introduced new measures which will allow images of cars captured on road-side cameras, and "personal data" derived from them, including number plates, to be sent overseas to such august organisations as the CIA. The Daily Telegraph has uncovered her weasley ways. When she announced last year that British anti-terrorism police could access "real time" images from cameras used in the running of London's congestion charge, she did not imply that it could be used by "others". A statement by Miss Smith to Parliament on July 17, 2007, detailing the exemptions for police from the 1998 Data Protection Act, did not mention other changes that would permit material to be sent outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to the authorities in the US and elsewhere. Typical New Labour. All spin and deception.

So when you are out for a drive this weekend with the family, give a wave to the cameras as you pass by. After all, Uncle Sam wants you to know he appreciates your co-operation.