UK forces 'destabilising Basra'

BBC

The governor of Basra province has accused British forces of destabilising security following the arrest of 12 people over attacks against UK troops.

Governor Mohammed al-Waili said the British should have co-ordinated with him and with Iraqi security forces.

But the BBC's Caroline Hawley said the police force was thought to have been infiltrated by militiamen involved in attacks on troops.

Seven British soldiers have been killed in a spate of attacks involving roadside bombs since May.

A military spokesman told the BBC co-ordination would have been very difficult because the local council had issued orders to all policemen not to have any dealings with UK forces.

Co-operation between British forces and the Iraqi police broke down last month after two British soldiers who were believed to be working undercover, were arrested by Iraqi police.

British troops later used armoured vehicles in an attempt to free the pair, causing anger among locals in Basra.

The ensuing clashes saw armoured cars being surrounded by mobs and set on fire by petrol bombs.

The 12 detainees, some of whom are accused of supporting radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, are thought to include the director of Basra's state-run electricity company Odai Awad.

Employees of the company are threatening a strike unless he is released within 24 hours.

Mr al-Waili told the Associated Press news agency: "The British troops are responsible for destabilising security in the province.

"Recent random raids and arrests conducted by British forces...should have been co-ordinated with the Iraqi security forces and the governor."

The governor's comments came as Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring British troops home, saying they were no longer part of the solution in Iraq, but part of the problem.

Mr Kennedy was applauded by delegates at the party's Scottish conference in Glenrothes, Fife, when he told them: "It's high time our troops began to come home, as simple as that."

But a Ministry of Defence spokesman: "The Iraqi government has asked us to be there and we have always said we will stay as long as the government judge we are required."

Revealed: police's new supergun will blast rioters off their feet

New generation of microwave and laser weapons set to transform crowd control techniques

By Severin Carrell Independent.

British defence scientists are working on a new generation of weapons which includes microwaves, lasers and chemical guns that could be used to quell riots, The Independent on Sunday has found.

One highly classified project is to develop a "vortex gun", for use in riots, which fires a powerful, doughnut-shaped pulse of air at supersonic speed. Experts say the weapon could fire riot-control gas or other chemicals to disperse mobs or disable enemy troops.

Scientific Applications & Research Associates, a US firm that has made such a gun, said it could fire shock waves that hit people "with enough force to knock them off balance. [It] feels like having a bucket of cold water thrown on to your chest". The research involves putting high-powered lasers and micro- wave weapons on cruise missiles and planes to "kill" an enemy's own weapons, although these new arms could be banned under international treaties.

A major British defence firm, Qinetiq, formed when the Government privatised its military testing agency, is understood to be investigating weapons that use lasers to "dazzle" the enemy, a technique the US military is now said to be using in Iraq.

British defence laboratories are also understood to have tested crowd-control foams including a much thicker version of the foam used to fight aircraft fires and another "sticky" foam that immobilises people caught in it.

These weapons are part of a taxpayer-funded, fast-expanding, secret programme of research by military laboratories and private defence firms into so-called non-lethal weapons.

The drive to find such weaponry sprang from attempts to replace the baton rounds, known as plastic bullets, which were heavily criticised in Chris Patten's report into policing in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s. Police now have a far wider range of "non-lethal weapons", including safer baton rounds, CS gas, Taser stun guns, pepper spray and, in Northern Ireland, water cannon.

Modern technologies have also made it much easier to create new arms, and Britain has a joint programme to develop military non-lethal weapons with the US, which is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research.

The high-powered microwave weapon is part of a British programme code-named Virus, run by a little-known department of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) called the Deep Target Attack directorate. The weapon fires a powerful pulse of microwaves to completely or temporarily knock out equipment such as computers, radar or guidance systems.

The lasers, which could be fitted on aircraft or unmanned aircraft called drones, would be aimed at an enemy's electronic sensors and disable radar-guided anti-aircraft batteries.

A report by Canada's defence research agency, released by the Sunshine Project, a US-based group that investigates military research, says the UK is "one of the main players" in the world in investigating weapons using high-powered micro-waves, along with the US, France and Russia.

This revelation surprised Neil Davison, head of a research programme into non-lethal weapons at Bradford University. He said the MoD had a track record of secrecy over its research programme.

"We know the British armed forces have an active programme to find new non-lethal weapons and the UK is working closely with the United States, but the details of that collaborative arrangement are not openly available," he said.

Many of these techniques could be highly controversial, particularly the use of lasers to temporarily blind an opponent. Britain was forced to abandon high-powered lasers to dazzle jet pilots, a technique allegedly used during the Falklands War, because it contravened new global rules outlawing devices designed to permanently disable combatants or cause someone to crash a plane.

Mark Fulop, head of the bio-medical sciences department at the MoD's main defence research agency, confirmed that there is an extensive programme to find new non-lethal weapons. That included the vortex gun, which tests showed could be effective fired up to 48m from a target. "But it is a long way from being practical," he said. "We're watching to see what others are doing."

Terrorism Law used on 82 yr-old

An 82yr old man was manhandled and ejected from the Labour party conference.....For heckling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw with ''That's a lie" while he was talking about Iraq, The Terrorism Act was also used on him so he could not re-enter the conference.

note: The elderly man has been a party member for more than 50 yrs after fleeing Nazi-Germany to the UK. Videoclip here.

The Terrorism Act was used on him so he could not re-enter the conference? But isn't the Terrorism Act for Al Qaida or some other terrorist network?

I digress, the whole point is government knows best and you have to shut up, dissent is not allowed. I mean....It's not like our society has anything like the Starsi, Gestapo or very slowly becoming a human rights violating country, is it?

See also: Police forcibly tackling elderly, confiscating firearms and dragging them out of their homes

The Danger of Standing Armies

By C.T. Rossi/lewrockwell.com

Comment: It's in plain view, not even hidden anymore.

How happy that our army had been recently disbanded [before the Presidential crisis of 1801]! What might have happened otherwise seems rather a subject of reflection than explanation.

~ Thomas Jefferson writing to Nathaniel Miles, March 1801

Posse Comitatus: the power or force of the county. The entire population of a county above the age of fifteen, which a sheriff may summon to his assistance in certain cases as to aid him in keeping the peace, in pursuing and arresting felons, etc.

~ Black’s Law Dictionary

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

~ The Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S. Code, Section 1385

The average American is likely to think that "posse comitatus" is the entourage of a top rapper or NBA star. Little do they know (or likely care to know) that The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 has done more to preserve their liberty than any piece of legislation since the Bill of Rights.

Born of the abuses of the Reconstruction era and the stolen election of 1876, the PCA prohibits the use of federal troops (or national guardsmen under federal control) unless specifically authorized by an act of Congress. In short, it is the main obstacle in the path of creating an American police state. Therefore it is not surprising that there has been an increase in "chatter" about scrapping the law.

A trial balloon was floated over three years ago when both Senator Joseph Biden, who called the PCA into question as early as the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, and then Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge bandied about the idea of repealing the PCA on the Sunday morning news programs. Apparently, the pretext of keeping Americans safe from terrorists wasn’t deemed sturdy enough to accomplish the coup d’état. But where the stick of "national security" was found wanting, now the carrot of "disaster relief" may provide the cover needed to expose Americans to the full power of centralized federal tyranny.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Senator John Warner has asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to review the usefulness of the PCA given that it hinders "humanitarian assistance" which could be provided by the feds. (Look next for foxes to be asked their opinions on the benefits of chicken coop doors.) Not coincidentally, President Bush has called for "a robust discussion about the best way for the federal government, in certain extreme circumstances, to be able to rally assets for the good of the people."

What this "robust discussion" will most certainly entail is a media show trial. Congressional leaders will set up the false dialectic between those who want to abolish the PCA and those who think that such an abolition would be "rash and uncalled for" when the PCA merely needs to be amended. Needless to say, this "tweaking" will allow enough ambiguity in the reading for the federal judiciary to eviscerate the PCA and free the leviathan.

While there is no appreciable amount of case law on the PCA yet formed, the methods and tactics that a statist court will employ are already clear. Technically, the PCA applies only to the Army and Air Force, not the Navy and Marine Corps. The latter two armed services are restricted only by Defense Department regulations. (Likewise, the Coast Guard – formerly of the Department of transportation, now with Homeland Security – is exempt.) So, under the guise of strict textualism, a court could easily find the policing of Americans by scores of Marines constitutional. Add to this a 1981 amendment to the PCA which freed up the use of the military in the war on drugs and the loopholes which can be created are multifarious.

The direction of the existing case law on the PCA does not bode well for its future either. Originally, the standard used for violation of the Act was an active versus passive test wherein the military could not actively police U.S. citizens but it could provide equipment and supplies to law enforcement. (See United States v. Red Feather, 392 F. Supp. 916, D.S.D. 1975). However, a new test emerged which looks to whether "military personnel subjected . . . citizens to the exercise of military power which was regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory in nature." (See United States v. McArthur, 541 F.2d 1275, 1278, 8th Cir. 1976). Mind you, defining who is a "citizen" and what is "regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory in nature" will most likely fall under the direction of a man who has no problem with ceding immense, unprecedented, and dangerous powers to the president.

Given that any public discourse about the siccing of military forces on American civilians involves the use of two Latin words, the smart money should not be on the side of liberty. A majority of Americans have grown apathetic and stupid as a result of big government handouts and (mis)education. While some may have been leery to repeal the funny sounding law in the name of terror prevention, there will likely little resistance to "amending" the law so that the government can "help people." Little do they think of past "helps" from "40 acres and a mule" up through the entire bungled Katrina relief effort.

But just as Jefferson was prescient that the use of troops by a sitting president could effectively rig an election (as happened in 1876), so he also noted that "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

Katrina/Rita Fallout Part Two Martial Law: The Pretext Is Now Set

Katrina/Rita Fallout Part One Martial Law: Police State America - We're So Close Now

'Judge Dredd' powers for police urged

Comment: I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried, the police to be your judge, jury and executionor? sounds like fun, can't wait to be a 21st century slave. I'll leave you with a quote...."Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton, 1887


By Philip Johnston/Telegraph.

Britain's top police officer was accused last night of paving the way for "Judge Dredd law" by proposing that officers should be allowed to by-pass the courts and confiscate driving licences, seize vehicles and issue anti-social behaviour orders on the spot.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said "modernisation" of the force should be carried forward by introducing "an escalator of powers" for the dispensing of instant justice.

"One idea is to have some police officers - paid more and with more powers - to impose an interim anti-social behaviour order, for instance, or suspend a driving licence," he said. This would have an immediate effect rather than waiting for intervention by the courts, Sir Ian suggested.

He acknowledged that giving police powers currently exercised only by the courts would be controversial but could be seen as legitimate if they were used by properly trained constables.

"There is something here about making justice more immediately apparent, not only to the offender but also to the society that the offender is irritating," Sir Ian said.

However, Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights group Liberty, said Sir Ian was behaving like Judge Dredd, the post-apocalyptic comic book law enforcer whose catchphrase is "I am the law". She added: "This is more like summary justice which has no place in a democracy. He's supposed to be the Met Commissioner, not Judge Dredd. Sir Ian should concentrate on the difficult job of running the Metropolitan Police rather than working on political speeches arguing for ever more draconian laws."

But Sir Ian, addressing the annual conference of the Police Superintendents' Association, said it was unsatisfactory that a disqualified driver could be arrested and released, and immediately get back in a car. In such cases, officers should be able to seize the offender's vehicles.

"In the same way that we've developed officers with lesser powers, maybe we should develop officers with more powers so they can instantly do things," Sir Ian added. "Instead of saying to a driver, 'We will report you for proceedings to be considered by a court' we say, 'Sorry, your driving licence is now gone and in 14 days it will come up before the court' ."

He conceded that such powers should be dispensed with care "and without turning the place into a police state, which would be unfortunate".

He added: "I don't want to see this as a massive widening of powers. It is to deal with some very specific issues."

However, colleagues were not convinced. Rick Naylor, the president of the association, said: "We police with consent and part of that is because the public see us as being approachable. If the public fear us more because of increased powers that approachability will be damaged."

Sir Ian also suggested that former soldiers could be trained and deployed as firearms specialists as part of a radical restructuring of police responsibilities and duties.

After being criticised over the shooting of a man mistaken for a suicide bomber in July, he said he was not suggesting bringing in the Army to take over firearms duties but rather hiring ex-servicemen on short-term contracts. Asked if he would resign if he were condemned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over the shooting, he said: "It depends on the level of condemnation."

Picture Update: Two British undercover soldiers dressed as Arabs held in Iraq for firing at Iraqi police

Recap: Two British undercover soldiers dressed as Arabs held in Iraq for firing at Iraqi police.

It has now come to light that the 2 British SAS soldiers were caught driving a car shooting at Iraqi police.... inside the car had explosives.

So i'm going to make it very simple....

2 Undercover Soldiers (beards included)


Dressed as Arabs (wigs,etc)


Were caught by Iraqi police in a car with explosives inside.


Clear evidence provocateur actions are being used in Iraq, Not In My Name.

Evidence Cheney was calling shots in Katrina crisis

By TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS.

Have you been wondering who was really running things while the seemingly near-retarded FEMA Director Michael Brown was giving nonstop interviews and press conferences those days after Katrina hit?

From Hattiesburg American September 11, 2005:

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.

That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.[...]

"I considered it a presidential directive to get those pipelines operating," said Jim Compton, general manager of the South Mississippi Electric Power Association - which distributes power that rural electric cooperatives sell to consumers and businesses.

[...]

Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.

Comment: Oil is more important than lives, this can't be true can it? The Admistration thinks it is, witness it. Or will you wait until it happens to you?

Two British undercover soldiers dressed as Arabs held in Iraq for firing at Iraqi police

Comment: Two soldiers dressed as Arabs caught shooting and killing police, had they got away it would be another case of Iraqi police killed by insurgents. Click here for a video stream from BBC. Faced with this embarrassing situation what do the British do? UK soldiers 'storm' Basra prison....Can't have people thinking that some insurgent attacks are fake and done by the UK & US can we? But will people wake up and see? Or go back to sleep? This is contrived, caught red handed, "the emperor has no clothes" call it as you see it, don't explain it away. Attacks are being faked and blamed on Iraqis.....simple.

By Alaa Habib/Reuters.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks in Basra on Monday after Iraqi authorities detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police.

Reuters photographs showed a British soldier engulfed by flames as he scrambled out of a burning tank.

Two Iraqis were killed in the violence, an Interior Ministry official said.

"We can confirm that a shooting incident involving U.K. military personnel has taken place which is currently being investigated," a British military spokesman said in a statement.
----->


"Two U.K. military personnel have been detained and we are liaising with the Iraqi authorities on this matter."

An Iraqi official in Basra said the British military had informed him the detained men were undercover soldiers.

"They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols," the official told Reuters.

"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them."

UNDERCOVER

Reuters photographs showed one of the two detained men with a bandage on his head. Police and Interior Ministry officials said the men were wearing traditional Arab headdresses for their undercover mission.

Mohammed al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate, said the two men looked suspicious to police.

"A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him. Then the police managed to capture them," Abadi told reporters.

"They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and (suggested) to ask their commander about their mission," he added.

Reuters Television footage showed the tank trying to reverse away from trouble after it came under attack, apparently from petrol bombs as a crowd gathered around it.

Within moments flames emerged from the top of the tank, after a furious crowd hurled petrol bombs, burning furniture and tyres at it.

One soldier climbed out of the vehicle's hatch and jumped clear of it, as the crowd pelted him with stones.

A witness said people drove through the streets of Basra with loudhailers demanding that the undercover Britons remain in detention and be sent to jail.

Basra, capital of the Shi'ite south, has been relatively stable compared with central Iraq, where Sunni Arab insurgents have killed thousands of Iraqi and U.S. troops, officials and civilians with suicide attacks, roadside bombs and shootings.

The main ally of the United States, Britain said on Sunday it would if necessary increase the number of troops in Iraq, where it has about 8,500 soldiers.