World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #6 Disinformation, Inc.

Global Politician/Ocnus.Net ^ | Dec 17, 2006 | Professor Daniel M. Zucker

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.

From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.

One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.

MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.

Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.

Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.

Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.

He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.

http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml

[nw_arizona_granny]

Terror on the Tracks

By Carl Prine
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Sunday, January 14, 2007

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/specialreports/s_487117.html

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Railroad status in your community
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/train/

Railroads Map
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2007-01-14_trains/railroads_map.pdf

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Let's say the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter really was a
terrorist.

What if those were bombs he was placing on the chemical placard of a
rail car inside the Thatcher Chemical Co. plant in suburban Las Vegas,
and not his business cards?

Instead of a camera recording lax security over some of the deadliest
chemicals ever produced, he held a detonator? And the string of chlorine
gas cars trundling down Union Pacific Railroad tracks in the heart of
Vegas was his prey?

If he was a terrorist, and his goal was to release a potentially
catastrophic cloud of deadly gases, explosives and caustic acids -- in
unguarded cars, left abandoned -- then a U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's planning scenario might apply: 17,500 people dead, another 10,000
suffering injuries and 100,000 more flooding trauma wards, convinced
they've been poisoned. The environmental damage would take weeks to clean
up, forcing the evacuation of as many as 70,000 residents from a city
built on sin, military might and heavy industry.

Less detailed and unlikely "Worst Case Scenario" plans filed with the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggest the gases that could be
released by the reporter perched atop millions of pounds of zinc chloride,
phosphoric and sulfuric acids, and chlorine gas could drift 18 miles
and threaten 1.1 million people with death, displacement or injury.

But, luckily, he was only a reporter.

Five years after terrorists murdered 2,996 people in the Sept. 11
attacks, the Trib embarked on a probe to see how well railroads and their
customers secure lethal hazardous materials -- termed "hazmat" by first
responders. The road map: Reports compiled since 2003 by the Federal
Railroad Administration detailing defects in the way railroads and
chemical plants conducted counter-terrorism security planning and worker
training.

Armed with that data, the Trib penetrated 48 plants and the freight
lines that service them to reach potentially catastrophic chemicals in
populated parts of Seattle, Tacoma, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, San
Francisco's Bay Area and the New Jersey suburbs, as well as two port
facilities in Oregon and Washington.

"What you uncovered is a criminal tragedy, and it's a criminal tragedy
that's just waiting to happen. It's also criminal what we haven't done
about this," said U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, who has sponsored
legislation designed to revamp rail hazmat security nationwide and
pledges to hold hearings on the issue.

Biden has taken at least 7,000 round trips by rail from his home in
Wilmington to Washington, D.C., since entering the Senate in 1972. He
routinely talks to railworkers, and when he pulls into a depot, he scans
for hazmat tankers, guards and gates.

He loves railroads so much that he wants to protect them by slashing
tax cuts and take the extra cash to fund every recommendation of the 9/11
Commission that investigated the 2001 attacks. He demands more federal
cops in the rail yards, more cameras and gates, less dangerous
chemicals on the tracks and rerouting of particularly lethal shipments around
big cities.

"All you have to do is look," Biden said. "I can walk into a freight
yard right now, and I can put plastique explosive on a railcar and
detonate it. This is a distant concern to many people in Washington, D.C.,
but I see and I hear about it every day and we have to do something about
it."

The Association of American Railroads, with a membership hauling almost
90 percent of the nation's hazmat tank cars, said freight security has
improved since 2001 but conceded more has to be done to protect 240,000
miles of mostly unguarded line.

"You've got to remember the open architecture of railroads," said Nancy
Wilson, AAR vice president and director of security. "We're not static
facilities. We cannot protect every railcar, every rail yard or every
customer's facility all the time."

In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, intelligence tips have warned
about U.S. chemical plant targets and terrorists have hit freight
trains abroad. Still, Homeland Security and the AAR insist there's no
indication that terrorists are plotting hazmat rail attacks in the U.S. now.

Good thing, because the Trib found:

* Little visible differences in security between the largest and
smallest train lines. The Trib easily reached hazmat shipments or
locomotives controlled by 12 railroads, ranging from giant Union Pacific to
the tiny, city-owned Tacoma Municipal Beltline. Workers never challenged
the reporter as he climbed trains, photographed derailing levers or
peeked into signaling boxes controlling rail traffic.
* No police presence. Despite long trips down tracks nationwide, no
rail cops detained the reporter. At a Clifton, N.J., station where
explosive railcars hug teeming commuter lines, a Transit Police cruiser
idled unconcerned while the reporter spent an hour around hazmat cars.
According to the railroads, fewer than 2,300 cops patrol the tracks, about
one for every 100 miles.
* Shoddy security even at 11 refineries, railroads and chemical
plants bound by "stringent" voluntary guidelines created by the AAR and
other industries. The Trib penetrated security at four railways adhering
to AAR's guidelines. Seven plants that had voluntarily upgraded
security to meet standards of their trade groups also had tracks open to
terrorists.

No executive at a large railroad would talk to the Trib about the
newspaper's findings. Local and state security officials in California,
Washington and Georgia also were silent when the Trib tried to discuss
hazmat security.

The Nevada Homeland Security Commission, however, is investigating
shortfalls uncovered by the Trib's Vegas vacation.

"Closing gates, making sure workers and guards and police are aware of
our chemicals, that's important," said Commission Supervisor Larry
Casey. "Unfortunately, the farther we get from 9/11, the more people forget
about staying vigilant.

"Then there's the funding issue. The federal pot gets smaller and
smaller. The farther we get from the major event in our lives, the threat
goes up while the money to stop it goes down."

In 2001, five of the 19 al-Qaida terrorists visited Las Vegas before
hijacking airliners for suicide missions to Manhattan and Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas annually hosts more than 37 million visitors. The city
received about $28 million in federal counter-terrorism funding last year,
but officials have been told that's being scaled back, leaving almost
nothing for safeguarding the tracks latticing the city.

According to Homeland Security's Inspector General, 90 percent of
taxpayer anti-terrorism funding has gone to protecting aviation. In 2006,
$4.6 billion flowed to securing U.S. airports, leaving $32 million for
safeguarding surface transportation, including railroads.

The Burning of Atlanta

Following FRA's deficiency reports to 12 facilities near Atlanta, the
Trib found numerous security snafus in one of Dixie's largest cities.

Along CSX lines in Dekalb County, a Trib reporter climbed unguarded
stores of deadly insecticides, flammable petroleum distillates and
acetone, a chemical that can trigger a vapor cloud explosion if leaked.

Since 2003, FRA has noted 53 defects with CSX counter-terrorism
planning and training in five states, including Georgia.

A year ago, FRA reported that Bulkmatic's plant in the Atlanta suburbs
failed to properly address potential intruders. A fence "locked" with
almost 2 feet of slack meant a Trib reporter could stroll by employees
there who made no effort to challenge him. Federal inspectors had
previously written up Bulkmatic chemical operations there and in Buffalo and
Chicago for security problems.

After visiting Alchem's Atlanta's caustic soda operation in 2005, an
inspector wrote, "Is there a fence? Is facility manned 24 hours a day?"

Woodbridge Corp.'s deadly toluene diisocyanate railcars in the bustling
Atlanta suburbs stand open to sabotage. The Trib easily accessed highly
toxic or explosive rail shipments in a dozen rail and chemical
facilities in one of Dixie's largest cities.

In September, the Trib found the answer was, "No."

In Marietta, Ga., the Trib reached hundreds of thousands of pounds of
acrylic acid, a highly explosive chemical with choking fumes, stowed on
the tracks near several factories. Woodbridge Corp.'s toluene
diisocyanate railcars in Lithonia also were unguarded. If ruptured, the chemical
can cause severe burns or death as gases seek out moist human flesh.

Bombs also easily could have been placed on propane, caustic soda and
fuming sulfuric acid tankers and vats in nearby Carroll, Fulton and
Gwinnett counties, causing massive explosions and corrosive gas releases.

Atlanta and Georgia homeland security officials declined to comment on
the Trib's findings. Neither would Alchem, Bulkmatic, Woodbridge and
CSX.

"To me, this is a no-brainer for terrorists in Atlanta or anywhere
else," said Sal DePasquale, a Georgia State University expert on
counter-terrorism and retired security director for chemical titan Georgia
Pacific. "It's toxic material. It's unprotected. If you're a railroad or a
chemical plant and you won't have someone ready to kill the adversary
ready to attack your plant, then what can you do?

"What's happened here is simple. Railroads were constructed and
industry grew up along them. Then people came to live near the industry.
Railroads by their nature are open to access and now we have to figure out
how to protect them. Do we reach the point where we say, 'In the
interest of public health and safety, we're going to close down your ability
to ship toxic material?' What happens then? It's a tough question to
answer."

West Coast swing

For almost three weeks, a Trib reporter followed the rails from Seattle
to San Francisco to Las Vegas. Of 23 railroads, chemical facilities and
seaports hit with FRA security defects, the Trib penetrated 18 of them
in Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.

Two years after FRA found security plan defects at Cascade Columbia
Distribution's Seattle warehouse, a Trib reporter found himself underneath
stacks of explosive hydrogen peroxide, toxic ferrous chloride, blinding
fluorosilicic acid and deadly muriatic acid.

With cameras, roving patrols and high fences, Pioneer America's Tacoma
bleach plant seeks to bar terrorists from chlorine railcars. But a Trib
reporter walked past rail switching levers and safety chocks to 90 tons
of deadly gas abandoned by the Tacoma Municipal Beltline Railroad
outside the gates. In 2004, FRA reported the railway failed to create a
security plan and the Trib certainly didn't find one that kept chlorine gas
safe from intruders two years later.

According to EPA "Worst Case Scenario" filings, a catastrophic chlorine
tank rupture there could push gas to as many as 14 miles, threatening
900,000 people.

"We can't switch out the chlorine on our own," said Pioneer's plant
manager, George Karscig. "The railroad brings in the cars. There are some
days when they come and they don't make the switch and that's what you
found when you came here."

Karscig immediately ensured that his guards policed railroad tracks
Pioneer doesn't own.

Union Pacific's bustling yard bisects Martinez, Calif., and the
sprawling Shell refinery that brews large quantities of Liquid Petroleum Gas
there. The Trib found Shell's safeguarding of 10 million pounds of
highly explosive isopentane to be rigorous. That's important, because vapors
released by a terrorists could trigger a flash explosion across much of
the seaside town, according to EPA files.

But Shell officials concede there is little they can do to babysit
dozens of tankers holding what first responders call "LPG" outside refinery
property. During the Trib's odyssey across a pipeline and through
Shell's rail channel, the Trib encountered three workers on Union Pacific
tracks. They didn't stop the reporter or ask what he was doing.

Detonating one LPG railcar can cause second-degree burns more than a
mile away. A terrorist who explodes 18 LPG tank cars would unleash as
much energy as the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945,
according to federal reports.

In Benicia, San Jose, Salinas, Richmond and Fairfield, Calif., the Trib
found that a terrorist easily could have placed bombs on more than 100
other tank cars containing asphyxiating anhydrous ammonia, flammable
petroleum distillates, highly explosive propane, and LPG, often on Union
Pacific tracks.

It wasn't the first encounter by either the Trib or FRA with lax Union
Pacific security. In 2005, an inspector noted that anyone could enter
the Brenntag Great Lakes warehouse in Milwaukee's suburbs because a
Union Pacific employee "does not lock gate after switching facility." FRA
also detailed problems with the railroad's security plans, training and
intrusion protections in Oakland, New Orleans and Seattle.

After FRA visited the Seattle yard in 2005, an inspector reported
"concern with the lack of railroad crews requesting his ID or credentials
during inspections." A Trib visit a year later found three bums sleeping
under a bridge and a flurry of locomotives moving freight, but no sign
of rail police.

In Nevada, a Trib reporter would simply wait for a Pioneer factory to
disgorge its deadly chlorine and caustic soda tankers to an unguarded
rail spur owned by Union Pacific. Although the Trib decorated Union
Pacific hazmat tankers with more than 100 business cards from Vegas to
Seattle, the company won't discuss it.

"Our only statement is that we believe what you did is dangerous and we
strongly encourage people to stay away from railroad tracks," said
railroad spokesman Jim Barnes.


A Jersey state mind

In the crowded New Jersey suburbs rimming New York City, the Trib found
tougher chemical plant security than any other place. But track
protection was no better than other states, and of 48 facilities and railroads
found to have security defects by FRA, the Trib entered 12 of them in
July.

At the Black Prince Distillery in Clifton, N.J., explosive tankers
share space with passenger trains on New Jersey Transit's bustling Mainline
from Manhattan. A Trib reporter eased past video cameras and a
patrolling police cruiser three times during trips in and out of the plant and
along the tracks, even while commuter cars zipped by.

That concerned Richard Canas, director of the New Jersey Office of
Homeland Security and Preparedness.

"The storage of hazardous material on commuter rail lines is something
to be considered and that scenario goes to my biggest fear -- mass
transit," he said. "In our state, you've got a high population density. You
have rail out the kazoo that moves at a lightning pace. There are
things we do, like ramping up vigilance, conducting searches, doing shows of
force. But this is expensive and must be sustained for it to be
effective."

A Trib reporter followed bums under a bridge and through the woods to a
large depot run by Conrail to service refineries stretching from
Sewaren to Perth Amboy along "The Chemical Coast" line. On tracks stacked
almost a mile deep with highly explosive chemicals, the reporter climbed
tankers and waved at nearby trucks.

Adding another two chemical plants in Parlin and Carteret, a pair of
propane warehouses, an Edison distiller and the railroads connecting
Morristown, Whippany, Dayton, Tennent, Ringoes and Newark, a coordinated
attack on Garden State hazmat reached by the Trib would have released
enough deadly ethylene oxide, toxic methylamine, explosive LPG, lethal
hydrogen chloride and flammable denatured alcohol to threaten 527,000
people, according to EPA documents filed by the companies themselves.

Once informed of the Trib's breaches and delivered photos of unguarded
chemicals, New Jersey's Homeland Security experts sped to sensitive
sites to probe what went wrong. That wasn't unexpected. Like Michigan,
Trenton has fully merged state police and emergency management agencies so
that a threat potentially impacting the environment or public health
draws rapid law enforcement scrutiny, too.

The state is creating an intelligence hub linked to other high-target
regional cities and states to better track vulnerabilities. Although New Jersey law already requires stiffer security at chemical plants than
what's found in other states, Canas said voluntary efforts at high-risk
factories often work, too.

Trib stakeouts at Dupont, Air Products, Shell and ExxonMobil plants
found outstanding perimeter and rail yard protection -- despite earlier
FRA defects -- forcing the reporter to seek softer targets along the
rails, something terrorists might do, too.

"New Jersey has done a lot," said Canas. "But we're still extremely
vulnerable in some areas. You exposed some of that -- there's no denying
that -- but I think overall there's a spirit of cooperation here that
you won't find in other states."

Why?

"They still feel 9/11," said Canas. "They feel it every day. They
haven't forgotten."

[nw_arizona_granny]

COS Halutz's letter of resignation to PM Olmert
Ynet presents Dan Halutz's full letter of resignation as it was presented to
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Ynet Published: 01.17.07, 02:51
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3353301,00.html

Dear Sir,

I have recently fulfilled 40 years of service in the IDF. During this long
period, I have had the privilege of serving this country, my country, my
homeland. In my eyes, this is the loftiest mission - to defend the peace and
security of the State of Israel.

I fought with my brothers in arms in the ranks of the IDF in all the arenas.
Every time I was called up for an assignment, I fulfilled it with a sense of
mission. I acted out of considerations in accordance with morality, loyalty,
integrity, authenticity, and affection.

During my long stay with the IDF, I had the privilege to command excellent
people, and I saw the IDF advance and develop, because of these same people,
capabilities and achievements that have placed it among the leading armies
of the world.

For me, the word 'responsibility' has a weighty meaning: It is the essence
of everything, from A to B. From confidence to investigation. My conception
of responsibility is what led me to remain in my post until now, and to lay
this letter on the desk today.

The day I won the confidence of the government headed by Mr. Ariel Sharon
upon receiving the post of chief of staff on June 1, 2005, I took upon
myself a great responsibility.

The essence of this responsibility was expressed in the fighting in Lebanon
in the summer of 2006 and after it. When the battle was over, I decided to
exercise my responsibilities to the fullest according to the best of the
traditions from home and my army service. Accordingly, I ordered a full
investigation of the fighting in a manner that is unmatched in the history
of the IDF: a profound, deep, and detailed investigation, that didn't pass
over me.

Today, after the investigative process has been completed in the IDF, and
after a draft has been set for applying the lessons of the investigation in
the framework of the IDF's 2007 working plan, I feel a sense of pride for
having completed what I set as a goal for myself at the end of the war in
Lebanon, and I exhausted my responsibility. After these deep processes, I
trust that the IDF will be prepared for the challenges that lay ahead.

The investigations made me see what needed to be done in order to correct
what needed correcting and to maintain and improve the areas in which we
succeeded. One of the central things were learned from the investigations is
that the IDF system is deeply affected by long-term processes. Often, this
influence is not detected, and we are not aware of the extent of its
consequences. These processes have implications for the Israeli society, in
general, and overall military capabilities, in particular.

The State of Israel has, unfortunately, been sentenced to continue fighting
for its existence. The capability to ensure our success in this continuing
battle starts and ends with our power. This power, at its foundation, is
built on values, on quality education, on a strong economy, and, above all,
a strong IDF.

The IDF's power is built first and foremost on the quality of its members,
and only afterwards on the resources allotted it to fulfill its missions. We
must remember that the IDF's achievements in the war in Lebanon, and in
other arenas, was achieved by a large group of fighters and commanders in
compulsory service and reserve service who are prepared to be called to the
flag at any moment. The IDF's resilience stems from the public support it
enjoys. Unfortunately, this last area of support has eroded in recent years.

I believe, Mr. Prime Minister, that we must protect at any cost the respect
and heritage of the IDF, and to leave it outside the political battles.

It is human nature not to want to serve in a system that isn't valued and
which isn't protected by its dispatchers. We must ensure that we don't
arrive at a situation in which quality people hesitate to tie their fate and
future to the IDF. Nothing will help us then, not the good education, and
not the strong economy. There is danger that the threats on the State of
Israel will become more tangible.

The IDF is a very moral army, such as there is none other like it. Its
heritage is replete with pages of bravery stained with the blood of the sons
and daughters of the country who have fallen along the way. Their memories
will accompany us always.

I hope that we will be able to return the kidnapped, captive, and missing
soldiers quickly to the country for which we are fighting. The meetings with
the bereaved families will be in my heart forever. Even during these
difficult and complex times for them, they continue to support and encourage
the IDF and its commanders.

I am forever ingratiated to the defense minister under whom I served, and
thank the IDF General Staff who were full partners in thought and in
practice. I give special thanks to the commanders and soldiers of the IDF
compulsory and reserve service, and to all the employees of the IDF who
carry the daily burdens.

You, sir, I wish to thank for your support and backup, and to wish you
success in handling the complex challenges facing the nation, and you as
prime minister.

In order to guide and to lead, we must take responsibility. As such, after I
have finished my task for this era, here I announce to you that I intend to
immediate terminate my post as chief of staff.

I salute the IDF and its fighters.

And stand at your service always,

In blessing,

Danny Halutz, Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff

[nw_arizona_granny]

17 January 2007
Trouble in forgotten Assam

Another wave of violence in Assam is unlikely to unleash an appropriate response from New Delhi, which has shown little vigor in efforts to end the conflict in one of its poorest states.

Commentary by Animesh Roul for ISN Security Watch (17/01/07)

The gruesome killing of over 60 Hindi-speaking migrant workers in the first week of the new year by theUnited Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) militants in India’s northeastern state of Assam has spread fear and panic among laborers and shopkeepers. It is also triggering a large-scale exodus from the state as the army vows to end the 27-year campaign once and for all.

But some wonder whether New Delhi has the will to end the insurgency. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh only arrived at the scene some 10 days after the violence erupted. After all, the victims this time were not Assamese but Hindus.

Local media quoted army sources as saying that “around 30 militants were specifically chosen by the outfit’s top brass to carry out the targeted attacks on Hindi-speaking workers.”

The Delhi-based Asian Center for Human Rights called the ULFA attack “barbaric” and urged the authorities to take appropriate measures “to ensure communal harmony" and provide "security to the target groups.”

The attacks caught state intelligence and security officials napping, even though the ULFA had warned of the attacks on so-called "outsiders" through its official mouthpiece, the Swadhinata (Freedom), well in advance.

January's attacks are viewed as the ULFA's attempt to maneuver for a better bargaining position in negotiations with federal authorities in New Delhi. Among other things, the group has threatened to block India’s biggest sporting event, the National Games, scheduled to be held in Assam in February and has demanded the release of some of its high-ranking leaders detained by the authorities. They want to pressure the government into another round of talks, perhaps to see another fragile truce to give them some downtime to rearm and regroup - as they have in the past.

In the meantime, thousands of Hindi-speaking migrant workers, primarily from neighboring Bihar, have fled Assam since the 5-7 January violence, especially from the Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sibsagar and Dhemaji districts. Many others have opted to seek shelter in government-run camps at Sepon Chokolia in Dibrugarh district and elsewhere.

The ULFA is clearly not put out by the ongoing "Operation Clear" army offensive in the state, which is intended to corner a resurgent group in its hideouts in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. And the threats have continued, with the group going as far as to warn that ruling Congress party leaders may be the next targets.

A ULFA commander, Prabal Neog, warned that “no Congress worker would be spared if the army killed any Assamese youth during its operation.”

The authorities have expressed half-hearted optimism for another round of parleys with the ULFA, clearly not convinced that a military solution would meet with any success. But the authorities have continued to flounder, simultaneously vowing that they would not compromise with theULFA and calling for new talks.

Indeed, the ruling Congress governments have been criticized for their "lethargic" approach toward the ULFA in the past.

Even India’s national security advisor, M K Narayanan, has said more peace talks with the ULFA would not happen, acknowledging the most recent six-week ceasefire last year that was nothing more than a "blunder" that gave the group time to rearm and plan its next move. The ULFA had reciprocated the government's 13 August 2006 unilateral ceasefire and vowed to halt violence for an indefinite period. However, the group refused to sit down at the negotiating table and was clearly carrying out underground activities during the period.

Meanwhile, many ULFA cadres, including women, have been rounded up in neighboring Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh while attempting to cross into Myanmar (Burma), a safe haven along with Bangladesh for northeastern militants.

The January attacks on Hindi-speaking Biharis is being considered the worst perpetrated by the ULFA in Assam. In 2000, the group's attempt to rid the state of all "outsiders" (non-Assamese) unleashed a reign of terror that saw over 150 Hindi-speaking migrant workers slain. In November 2003, the ULFA targeted "outsiders" in a wave of violence that saw some 55 people killed and prompted thousands to flee. Only Biharis alone are not specifically targeted by the ULFA.

Formed in 1979, the group once boasted strong popular support for its goal of establishing a sovereign socialist Assam through armed struggle. Some 27 years and 10,000 deaths later, it has been diluted and its goal tarnished by what many see as mindless acts of violence conducted by organized criminals more intent on holding on to wealth earned through extortion than "freedom" for Assam.

But the federal government has also balked at its own responsibilities, giving too little priority to the ongoing conflict in Assam - one of India's poorest states - and paying too little attention to the deplorable social conditions there that have fed the ULFA's cause.


Animesh Roul is a New Delhi-based correspondent and analyst for ISN Security Watch.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).

Related articles from the ISN Publishing House:

Population Movements and Interstate Conflicts in South Asia

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17127
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

[nw_arizona_granny]

17 January 2007
US Congress pushes Bush to engage Iran

The new Democratic-controlled Congress is exploring ways to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while at the same time exerting pressure on the Bush administration to open a diplomatic dialogue with Tehran.

By Joshua Kucera for Eurasianet (17/01/07)

In its first meeting since Democrats took control of the US House of Representatives, the International Relations Committee held a hearing 11 January called "Next Steps in the Iran Crisis." The new chairman of the committee, Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, characterized the Iran nuclear issue as "among the most weighty foreign-policy problems we face." He went on to assert that the Bush administration’s unwillingness to engage directly with Iran has only allowed Tehran more time to develop weapons of mass destruction.

"I am frankly baffled by the debate over whether or not we should engage in dialogue with Iran. Dialogue does not mean defeat. I am passionately committed to dialogue with those with whom we disagree," Lantos said.

Lantos’ position was supported by one of the witnesses who testified at the hearing, Thomas Pickering, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Clinton administration. Pickering told the committee that the US should provide a comprehensive package of incentives and disincentives for Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program, rather than the piecemeal approach the Bush administration has so far attempted.

The incentives, Pickering said, should include help with, and strong oversight of Iran’s civilian nuclear power program, regional security guarantees, and the possibility of removing sanctions. Potential punishment for non-cooperation would involve a series of escalating international sanctions, culminating in a ban on trade in oil and gas with Iran. Pickering admitted his approach might not work, but insisted it was likely the best available option. "The alternative, the use of force, is so deficient in promise, that it would seem best to try diplomacy first, and while there is still time," he told the committee.

A Democratic member of the committee, Brad Sherman of California, said the US should consider making geopolitical concessions to Russia in return for stronger Russian support on the Iranian nuclear issue.

"We can beg or lecture, but that hasn’t worked. Bargaining probably would, because Russia cares enormously about issues in its own region - Chechnya, Abkhazia, the route of Caspian oil pipelines, the pipeline situation with Belarus and Ukraine, and the treatment of Russian-speaking people in Moldova, Latvia and Estonia," Sherman said. "The national security of the United States depends on our ability to gain Russian support on the Iran issue, in return for reasonable accommodations on issues in Russia’s region."

Sherman, who is also the chair of the subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation, cited several obstacles hampering closer US-Russian cooperation on Iran. "The State Department is strongly prejudiced against linking Russian policy on Iran with our policy on issues in Russia’s region. They have a bureau on Moldova, they have a bureau on Abkhazia, and those bureaucrats will scream loudly if their pet issue is sacrificed for a greater national security concern," Sherman said.

"Secondly, there are those in the administration with such a high estimate of our national power that they believe we can achieve all objectives simultaneously and not prioritize. And finally, many foreign policy experts grew up in the Soviet era, strategizing how to encircle and weaken Russia, and, unfortunately, old habits die hard," he added.

The top Republican on the committee, Ileana Ros Lehtinen of Florida, opposed any effort to engage Iran, saying that it would legitimize the "extremist regime" in Tehran, "embolden our enemies" and allow Iran more time to develop nuclear weapons. She said she favored a stronger international sanctions regime.

She was backed up by James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who instead proposed a more aggressive effort to non-violently overthrow the government in Tehran. In addition, the programming of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Iranian services should be significantly enhanced, Woolsey said.

"Our current broadcasting does not inform Iranians about what is happening in Iran, as RFE and RL did about matters in the [Soviet] bloc. Privately-financed Farsi broadcasts from the United States follow the RFE/RL model to some extent, but exist on a shoestring," he said. Negotiations would not work with Iran because of the "theocratic-totalitarian nature of the current regime," Woolsey added.

Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee voiced support for sanctioning the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) because of its dealings with Iran. CNOOC and Iran in December announced a $16-billion deal to develop Iran’s Northern Pars gas field. The deal appears to violate a US law that imposes sanctions against companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran’s oil and gas industry.

Both Lantos and Ros Lehtinen said they intended to force the Bush administration to enforce the Iran Freedom Support Act, which they said has so far not been a high priority for the administration. "The first test case [of the Act] will come when and if China’s state oil company begins to implement the outrageous $16-billion Memorandum of Understanding it recently signed," Lantos said. "I can assure you that this committee will hold the administration’s feet to the fire, demanding biting sanctions."

Ros Lehtinen echoed Lantos’ threat. "If the Chinese company is found to be in violation of the Iran Freedom Support Act, my colleagues in Congress and I will seek to ensure that this Chinese entity is penalized to the fullest extent of the law," she said.

Lehtinen said she was also concerned about the recent announcement that SKS Ventures of Malaysia had also signed a deal worth $16 billion to develop gas fields in the south of Iran, near the Persian Gulf.


EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental, and social developments in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia. The website presents a variety of perspectives on contemporary developments, utilizing a network of correspondents based both in the West and in the region. The aim of EurasiaNet is to promote informed decision making among policy makers, as well as broadening interest in the region among the general public. EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17128
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

[Ciexyz]

Most interesting article.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Zakayev in Politkovskaya's Book



Politkovskaya's Vtoraia chechenskaia reproduced at
http://tapirr.com/polit/politkovskaya.htm
cannot be from the original Russian edition by Zakharov Publishers
(2002). Both the online version mentioned above and the Zakharov original
differ from the University of Chicago Press edition (2003) English
translation. The chapter in question is Zheltoe na Chernom (Yellow on
Black). As one can see by examining this chapter on the internet version, it
begins with these lines:

'Vse men'she very v privychnoe letoischislenie. Vse kazhetsia, chto u
kazhdogo iz nas svoi sobstvennyi,....
I believe less than ever in the usual way of measuring time. More and
more, it seems to me that each of us has....'

The Chicago edition begins the chapter with approximately six other
paragraphs that preceed the paragraph above. The paragraph immediately
preceeding the paragraph above reads:

'Zakayev cannot leave the car. It is highly inadvisable for him to be
in a London cafe, as the British authorities are afraid that the FSS
will steal him. It's just like in Soviet spy films. That's how bad things
have become again. What have we turned into? What has happened to the
country that Putin pushed into war, that was then so jolted by the
Nord-Ost October tragedy and left with so little chance for normal life?'

The original Zakharov Russian edition does not contain this chapter
at all. Thus, both the online version and the original Russian version
differ from the Chicago edition.



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

[nw_arizona_granny]

January 17, 2007 Anti-Terrorism News

(Iraq) Truck bomber hits police in Iraq's Kirkuk - 10 killed, 42
wounded
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/wl_nm/iraq_dc_42

Saudis consider sending troops to Iraq - Government "deeply skeptical"
al-Maliki can make Bush surge plan work
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16656642/

(Iraq) Iranian arrested wanted for killing Kurd in Austria (my title)
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.377268905&par=0

Philippines says most important Abu Sayyaf leader slain - Abu Solaiman
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070117/wl_asia_afp/philippinesattacksunrest_070117085637

Pakistan: Hundreds protest strike on al-Qaida camp - 1,000 supporters
of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) protest
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467754685&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Nigerian man accused of funding terror - al-Qaida funds to train young
men in West Africa
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_re_af/nigeria_terror_charges_1

Nigerian accused of taking $300000 from al Qaeda
http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-01-17T095121Z_01_BAN735471_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-NIGERIA-QAEDA-20070117.XML

(Algeria) Al-Qaeda Linked Algerian Group Resurgent Says Intelligence
Expert
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.377271988&par=0

Update: (Afghanistan) Afghan civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base
- on Tuesday
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/16/afghanistan.terrorist/index.html

Gates to consider more troops for Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/pl_nm/afghan_usa_dc_4

(India) One shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1902502,000900010002.htm

India police arrest 39 in terror sweep
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/asiapacific/2007117/100236.htm

India: Pakistani forces shoot at guards
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_re_as/india_pakistan_2

U.S. official says judges unfit to rule on anti-terror policy
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070117.wusjudges0117/BNStory/International/home

(US) Terror on the Tracks - investigation of national vulnerability of
trains to terrorism
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/specialreports/s_487117.html

(Oregon) Al Qaeda Associate with Child Rape Conviction to Be Deported
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/22081.html

(US) Jet with anti-missile system leaves LAX
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/16/D8MMMQBO0.html

(UK) Terrorist suspect flees police in mosque - thought to have escaped
UK and now in Pakistan
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2551251,00.html

(UK 7/21 Trial) 'Dream of martyrdom revealed by suicide note'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2551228,00.html

(UK) Undercover Mosque Documentary Addresses Jihadism (my title)
http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=1066
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/youtube-has-uks-undercover-mosque

(UK) Passport control crisis could see thousands of illegal immigrants
enter
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=429311&in_page_id=1770

(Australia) Sydney Sheikh Feiz Mohammed urging children to die for
Allah (my title)
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21077370-1702,00.html

(Palestinian Territories) U.S.-backed militia to include terrorists -
'We'll attack Israel,' says member of American armed, trained 'unified
force'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53800

Hizbullah: Halutz's resignation due to war failures
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3353495,00.html

Russian forces on high terror alert
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/russia_terror_threat

Update: (Russia) Passengers in Moscow subway and on suburban trains
warned about possible terrorist attacks
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11162796&PageNum=0

[nw_arizona_granny]

Sheik calls Alice Outback `Mecca'


http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,21065918%5E13569,00.html

Sheik calls Alice Outback `Mecca'
By NIGEL ADLAM
16jan07

THE Muslim leader who last week sneered at modern Australia for being
founded by convicts once claimed Alice Springs was built by Afghan
cameleers.

Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali said the Outback town was designed to look
like Mecca.

``I visited and found there a map under the name Mecca,'' he said.

``Alice Springs is surrounded by high black mountains, similar to the
mountains of Mecca.''

He said palm and date trees were planted in Central Australia by Muslim
Afghans.

Sheik al-Hilali said the Afghans and Aborigines had produced a mixed
race of people in Alice.

He said when a muezzin called the faithful to prayer in the town, ``old
people came out''.

``They looked different than the black Aborigines,'' he said.

``They were a mixture of Afghan and Aborigine, as a result of marriages
of Afghan men and Aboriginal women.''

He said when the muezzin called ``Allahu akbar'' _ which means ``God is
great'' in Arabic _ the mixed-race Centralians said: ``We have heard
this song from our ancestors.''

``When they asked us, `What is this song you are singing?', we told
them
this was an announcement of prayer time,'' the mufti said during a tour
of the Middle East in 2004.

``When we asked them their names, they answered John or Steve, but
their
names ended with Saraj al-Din, Abdallah or Muhammad.''

Sheik al-Hilali said Australia was discovered by Muslims long before
Captain James Cook in 1770.

He said Islamic culture could be seen among Aboriginal people.

``They have customs such as circumcision, marriage ceremonies, respect
for tribal elders and burial of the dead _ all customs that show they
were connected to ancient Islamic culture before the Europeans set foot
in Australia.

``Australia is an old-new continent. The Europeans issued a false birth
certificate for it when Cook reached it. Islam had roots deep in the
Australian soil _ people read the Koran and were called to prayer
before
the bells of the churches rang.

``The best evidence of this is the hundreds of mosques in the centre of
Australia built by the Afghans. Some of them were destroyed and others
were turned into Australian archeological museums.

``Still others remained unharmed. They bear a history that proves that
Islam has roots and ancient connections to Australia.''

Sheik al-Hilali said Central Australia's Muslim community ``dissolved''
because of the lack of schools and connection to the rest of the
Islamic
world.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Russia sees Muslim population boom


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F8C5F608-FA29-4BB3-A7CA-A6F05B98BE23.htm

Russia sees Muslim population boom
By Jonah Hull

Low domestic birth rates and rising immigration from the former Soviet
republics have produced an explosive growth in Russia's Muslim
community.

At the same time Russia's overall population is in crisis. Short life
spans and low birth rates among ethnic Russians mean the population is
declining by 700,000 people a year.

The return of long-denied religious freedoms in Russia has seen Islam
flourish. As a result, many ethnic Russians fear their country is
losing
its national identity.

There are around 25 million Muslims in Russia today, a rise of 40 per
cent since 1989.

By 2020, with the continued growth rate, Muslims will account for
one-fifth of the entire population.

Immigration

Their numbers continue to grow, fed by immigration from largely Muslim,
former Soviet republics in the North Caucasus and Central Asia.

Islamic leaders have said that Russia is a haven for Muslim immigrants,
keen to work and build on their growing community, and they discount
the
rise of hostile nationalist sentiment.

Damir Gizatullin, from the Council of Muftis, said: "Some irresponsible
politicians want to achieve electoral success by creating nationalist
waves.

"When they say Russia is for Russians, it's a mistaken path that could
lead to the break-up of the Russian Federation."

Many ethnic Russians are terrified at the prospect of becoming a
minority in their own country.

Alexander Belov, from the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, said:
"History is a fight between races and religions.

"It's the law of nature ... people are used to being with people like
themselves, speaking the language their mothers taught them."

The Orthodox Church, restored since the Soviet collapse, remains
dominant in Russia.

But with the rise of Islam, coupled with the negative growth in
Russia's
ethnic Slav population, dramatic change is under way.

If the trend continues, the Muslim population could outnumber ethnic
Russians within 30 years.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Muslims may become majority in Germany by 2046: study


http://www.upi.com/Arabia2000/view.php?StoryID=20070115-845713-9011-r

Muslims may become majority in Germany by 2046: study

Berlin, Jan 15, IRNA Germany-Muslims-Population Muslims could become a
majority in Germany as early as 2046, the Berlin-based B.Z quoted
Monday
an interior ministry-financed study as saying.

Sparked by the steady influx of Muslim migrants into Germany, Muslims
could form the largest share of the German population by 2046, said the
study conducted by the Islam-Archive Central Institute, located in the
western town of Soest.

The Islamic think-tank reported over the weekend that there has been a
sharp rise in the number of Germans converting to Islam.

Around 4,000 Germans converted to Islam between July 2004 and June 2005
which is four times as many as in the prior space of time, according to
the study which will soon be released in full details.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Remembering the valour and sacrifice of Raoul Wallenberg



http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=f1f953d1-2be3-4292-931f-c7ed2c469fd3

Wednesday January 17 2007

Remembering the valour and sacrifice of Raoul Wallenberg Ottawa has
proclaimed
Jan. 17 as his day, but few Canadians know of his exploits

Isa Milman
Freelance

http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/
Wednesday, January 17, 2007


The United States dedicates every third Monday in January to Martin
Luther King,
Jr. Canada declares today, Jan. 17, to be Wallenberg Day. That sounds
impressive
- but does anybody know who Raoul Wallenberg is, or why we recognize
his legacy?

He is one of only two honourary Canadian citizens (along with Nelson
Mandela),
yet few know of him. One of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th
century, yet
virtually unknown in the country that chose to make him one of us.
There's
something wrong here.

Why should we still care about Raoul Wallenberg? After all, it has been
62 years
since he was arrested by the Russians, on Jan. 17, 1945, and vanished
into
another totalitarian killing machine, never to reappear.

Here's why.

In the face of the darkest evil during the Second World War, Wallenberg
left his
quiet neutral country, Sweden, and went to Budapest, one of the
bloodiest places
of the war, to save people of a different religion, ethnicity and
tradition.

Defying the Nazis, he rushed to death-camp deportation sites, using his
consular
status to hand out coveted papers with the seal of the government of
Sweden.

He rescued those bound for death and delivered them to safe houses
where they
were protected from the Nazi death machine. He saved thousands -
100,000 people
would certainly have been murdered if not for his intervention. Acting
alone in
Budapest, on his own initiative, he saved more lives during the
Holocaust than
any government in the world. Sounds impossible, but it is true.

I am constantly amazed at his staggering achievement, and the terrible
irony of
his life story - the hero rescuer who is himself imprisoned and
silenced.

Even his death was left unexplained, lied about, denied, forever
unfinished.
What greater degradation is there, than denying the victims their own
deaths, so
their life stories are never completed? Even a butcher like Saddam
Hussein has
had his death noted and sealed in history.

It's so hard not to be cynical in our terrifying world today. We've
debased and
fictionalized the concept of heroism. We're brought up to believe that
our
governments, our courts, our civilized institutions are all that are
needed to
solve our world's problems. The lesson of Wallenberg is that one
person, a
single brave person, can defy the monsters and accomplish the seemingly
impossible.

Wallenberg could have had an easy time - he came from comfort and
privilege -
but he chose to act. We need to remember Wallenberg, and we need to
teach his
story to our children. Canada has done more than most countries in the
world to
recognize and honour his contributions to humanity, but there's more
that can be
done.

How many schoolchildren have heard of Wallenberg? How many ordinary
people know
of him? I did a little experiment in my neighbourhood in Victoria,
stopping
people and asking them. Out of 20 people of all ages, I was shocked to
discover
that not a single one knew who Wallenberg was and what he'd
accomplished. I fear
that this is the case everywhere.

The Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for
Humanity, under
the vision of Vera Parnes, has lobbied hard to get Wallenberg the
recognition he
deserves. It has also developed curriculum for elementary and
high-school
students, but the will to teach these lessons is still not there in our
schools.
Our media are also uninterested. We need to wake them up.

It has been five years since the federal government declared Jan. 17
Wallenberg
Day in Canada. What do we accomplish on this day, other than speeches?
Let's put
some muscle behind this day. Make it meaningful.

Let us consider how Wallenberg can enter our lives, how he can be our
teacher in
our own neighbourhoods and beyond. I propose approaching the Swedish
consulate
and corporations such as Volvo or Ikea, which could fund essay and
poetry
contests. Scholarships could be awarded to students based on
humanitarian
projects. Small but achievable projects that can be accomplished by one
individual; that might save a person's life, or rescue a village.

Projects could be conceived in the spirit of a man willing to confront
something
terrible and say: No, this must be stopped.

Isa Milman is a poet, artist and occupational therapist in Victoria.
She has
been a member of the Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for
Humanity since
1994.

C The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

Copyright C 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks
Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

[nw_arizona_granny]

17 January 2007
The roles of agencies in counterterrorism

The principle of subsidiarity holds that each level of government properly does those tasks for which it is best suited. In order to ensure the most efficient and successful employment of resources and win public confidence in the competency and appropriateness of government actions, each level of government has to have a firm understanding of and transparent accountability for functions that our laws and public common sense expectations require.

By Edward A Turzanski for FPRI (17/01/07)

This principle is critical when discussing federal, state and local agency roles in protecting the American homeland as we move further in time from the 9-11 attacks and closer to the next one. Although we hope it does not come for a very long time, another attack is highly probable.

Constitutionally, the federal government is responsible for those elements of diplomatic, military and intelligence policy, and the attending departments, that identify and combat terrorist entities and state sponsors. It is, and by practical and legal definitions must be, responsible for developing a strategic vision that identifies and disseminates the menu of existing and evolving threats, known weaknesses, and likely domestic targets of terrorist intentions. Only it can decide, as it has done, that our national policy will be to play offense rather than defense: to fight terrorists before they reach our shores rather than adopt a defensive posture. Similarly, only Washington can craft the national policies and standards to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks, and only it can generate the adequate resources for the same purposes.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5, the National Security Strategy, and the National Response Plan (updated 25 May 2006) speak to the legal authority and practical issues imbedded within the federal government's homeland security responsibilities. As importantly, these documents speak to an overall framework by which all levels of government will interact to identify, preclude, or minimize and, failing that, respond to terrorist attack. The Department of Defense's “Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support,” made public 30 June 2005, charges the Department of Defense (DOD) with:

1. achieving maximum awareness of potential threats
2. deterring, intercepting, and defeating threats at a safe distance
3. achieving mission assurance through force protection, securing defense critical infrastructure, and ensuring continuity of operations)
4. supporting civil authorities in minimizing the damage and recovering from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) mass casualty attacks
5. improve national and international capabilities for homeland defense and homeland security (principally through active, layered defense)

To achieve these objectives, the DOD report speaks to the need for developing certain core capabilities, including intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, information sharing, joint operational capabilities for homeland defense, and interagency and intergovernmental coordination.

Within these core capabilities one finds both good news about what has been achieved since 9-11 and reminders of the challenges that must be met if we are to continue succeeding in preventing another fateful day. But first it must be noted that our adversaries tend not to behave in a random fashion. Before 9-11 no gift of clairvoyance was needed to know that al-Qaida was going to use planes as flying bombs. Project “Bojinka,” the 1995 plot to explode trans-Pacific airliners and to fly hijacked planes into CIA and NSA headquarters, had been identified and disrupted; enough chatter was being picked up by both the CIA and the FBI for it to be clear that something was percolating within the continental US; and the 1993 attempt to bring down the World Trade Center should have informed counterterrorism planning and measures to a much greater degree than it did.

An old saying holds that “If you do not know your destination, any route will do.” We need to recognize that “any route” will not do. If we want to stop our adversary, we need to know his destination. Again, the DOD Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support is instructive in this regard. In riveting, clear, terms, the document states the assumption that “Terrorists and/or rogue states will attempt multiple, simultaneous, mass-casualty CBRNE attacks against the United States homeland.” The use of the word “will” should provide sufficient intellectual and moral resolve for our investigation of what has gone well and what must be done better.

First, the good news. Using the Delaware Valley as a case study, the degree of information-sharing and interagency and intergovernmental coordination has never been as great as it is today. Whereas before 9-11 cooperation within and between levels of government was episodic, at best, today information is being shared and support is being provided on a real-time, actionable basis. Patrick Meehan, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has done a masterful job in leading the Joint Terror Task Force (JTTF), which has become a key vehicle for sharing information within and between levels of government. On a state level, the PA State Police Criminal Intelligence Center (PACIC) provides usable information and, as importantly, instills confidence in those who rely on and generate accurate, actionable intelligence. It is critical at this time to build on that model of cooperation by creating a clear stream of real-time, value-added, actionable intelligence from the people in a position to recognize the movement and synergies between terrorists and like-minded individuals and criminal enterprises operating within the continental U.S. Federal entities must aid in the formation, training, and funding of local and state law-enforcement officers as counterterror analysts and investigators in those 45 or so areas across the United States where local terror Intelligence Fusion Centers (IFCs) operate.

Our FPRI Center for Terrorism and Counterterrorism co-chair, Stephen Gale, would hasten to point out that critical infrastructure elements such as our transportation and electrical generation and distribution nodes have not been adequately hardened and that plans for how to cope with their disruption are insufficient; that emergency evacuation and shelter-in-place protocols have not been developed for major metropolitan centers; that interoperability of communications is still more of a promise than a reality; and that an undetected and unchecked bomb placed in the cargo hold of a plane (Pan Am 101 Lockerbie style) or a Bojinka-like hijacking culminating in a suicide attack on an oil refinery are still much too real a possibility. Certainly, every one of those deficiencies in planning needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. With this said, a case can be made that enhancing state and local-level intelligence investigation and analysis is the most critical and cost-effective way of addressing the dire circumstances presented in the DOD observation about the inevitability of CBRNE attack. That enhancement can be best achieved through the training and funding of local and state law enforcement officers working in counterterror bureaus in those areas where IFCs exist.

We are seeing increases in the confluence of interests between terrorists, drug and human traffickers, gambling, prostitution and other organized crime elements and in the influence of Wahhabi-funded imams in American prisons, whose converts are likely terrorist recruitment targets. At the same time, municipal regions provide too large a menu of targets to harden and otherwise secure in a way that is economically feasible and as accommodating of free human existence as is required by our laws and public expectations. No one from inside the Beltway can be street-smart or responsive to all these locale-specific interactions where terrorist intent can meet opportunity and need. Therefore, local and state police must be given the financial and practical means to create IFCs that will inform and support the activities of federal counterterror efforts.

Analysts and investigators should be trained as category-specific teams or divisions, so that they have a firm grasp of needs and realities on the ground, and how their specific target interacts with terrorists or terror-related activities. In Philadelphia, for example, one would create divisions focusing on Palestinian/Hamas/Middle East entities, the Russian Mafia, Albanian/Balkan groups, Central Asian gangs, Asian gangs, Hispanic/Latin American gangs, Black gangs, domestic terror groups (ie Animal Liberation Front, white supremacists); and local Cosa Nostra organized crime.

Two investigators and one analyst would train and work together in each division. Their analysis would be fused within Philadelphia's IFC and then, along with a similarly designed center in Pittsburgh, information would be sent to the commonwealth's IFC in Harrisburg. The model should be replicated for those high-value areas which federal sources believe to be of specific interest to terrorists (likely the same 45 that currently operate IFCs).

Because the local and state IFCs would provide information on matters of critical national significance, standards for training and funding should come from Washington. In addition to money and expertise to create and sustain local and state IFCs, greater interoperability and communications, evacuation and shelter-in-place regional planning, and hardening of likely terror targets; there is one other critical need which federal, state, and local agencies will need to meet on a more consistently effective level than at present.

It is not just armies and intelligence services but entire nations that go to war. The CBRNE threat we face is a war-fighting matter that requires the support of the American people. Elected and appointed leaders need to provide the public with a moral and intellectual rationale that provides clarity and confidence in the actions taken. People will pay for value, they will support the creation of structures and the adoption of prudential measures, and they will accept added complexity and inconvenience in their lives, as long as the nature of the threat has been adequately explained and as long as they perceive competence of authority and strength of leadership.

Terrorists are only constrained by their capabilities, not by any moral ambiguity or misgiving. They ruthlessly and efficiently exploit the weaknesses of their victims and targets, they easily make accommodations with entities and people with whom they share similar rather than identical interests, they generally demonstrate a patience and determination that is unusual by the standards of American culture, and they are supremely confident of the superiority of their cause. Not only do government entities need to hardwire this understanding within a majority of the American voting populace, they need to inspire a willingness to sacrifice, to invest, to forego conveniences and to labor towards a common goal.

This, of course, becomes much more difficult - though no less important - the further away time takes us from 9-11 without another terror attack on American soil. Federal, state, and local authorities must guard against a relapse of 11 September-style laxity. To prevent this, they will need to work smarter, harder, and in a way that intellectually, morally and practically engages all Americans. IFCs are a sound tactical step, but only when guided by a strategic vision that reminds Americans of why we fight and why we must win.


Reprinted with permission from Foreign Policy Research Institute. Copyright (c) 2006 Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17130
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

[nw_arizona_granny]

Tropical Body Polish
Posted by: "Lady Sayuri"

Date: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:04 am ((PST))

Tropical Body Polish

Makes 8 oz. (one treatment)



Mangos are a popular food because they are sweet and succulent, but
they also are an effective skin softener and conditioner. Combined with
ground avocado pit and orange zest, they make the perfect treat for tired
skin. After polishing your body with this recipe, you'll have glowing
skin.



1 whole mango, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon ground avocado pit (saved from a fresh avocado, ground in
food processor or coffee grinder)

1 tablespoon dried orange zest.



In a small bowl, mash mango with a fork, Add ground avocado pit and
orange zest; stir well. To use, massage over body before showering. Rinse
with warm water, then again with cool water.


_________________

2. Balinese Boreh Body Mask
Posted by: "Lady Sayuri"

Date: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:09 am ((PST))

Balinese Boreh Body Mask

Makes 4 oz.



Indonesia is the birthplace of many tropical health and beauty secrets.
Boreh is a Balinese spice body mask that is a popular treatment for
fever, headaches, muscle aches and arthritis. This aromataic mask
increases circulation, exfoliates and softens skin.



1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 teaspoons rice powder (finely ground rice)

1 to 2 teaspoons water



Combine ground spices and rice powder. Add water and mix well until
mixture forms a smooth paste (add more water if mixture is too dry.)

To use, rub paste over entire body and wrap yourself in a warm bath
towel or sheet. After 5 to 10 minutes, remove cloth and rub off paste
with a cotton washcloth. Rinse body well with warm water. Moisturize
using a rich body creams or coconut oil.



~source The Herb Companion~

[nw_arizona_granny]

The anti-mullah site, has filled in the gaps on the Embassy in Greece attack, and also on Iran's nuclear work.

I had forgotten that Iran said the explosion last year was a spaceship........why not, Russia has them.

The arms used in Greek, russian of course.

A good page, check it out....

http://noiri.blogspot.com/

[nw_arizona_granny]

Comment: Litvinenko saga will run and run


Times Online January 16, 2007

Comment: Litvinenko saga will run and run
Tony Halpin of The Times in Moscow

The end of the long New Year holiday in Russia has been marked by a
flurry of activity in the investigation into the murder of the former
spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Scotland Yard's application to send detectives back to Moscow suggests
that they are narrowing the range of suspects after reviewing
information gathered during the first visit last month.

Russia's Prosecutor-General, Yuri Chaika, is determined to go in the
opposite direction. He has just sent a 110-page file to London, asking
the Metropolitan Police to organise interviews with more than 100
potential witnesses and searches at dozens of locations.

Mr Chaika made it clear today that the Yard's return visit would have
to wait until after a team of Russian investigators had been to
London. He also confirmed that Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire
critic of President Putin, and

Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen separatist envoy, are top of the Kremlin's
list of interviewees in London.

Both men were friends of Mr Litvinenko and deny any involvement in
poisoning him. They have accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his
murder.

Mr Chaika also tied President Putin's long campaign against the fallen
Yukos oil giant to the outcome of the Litvinenko inquiry. Yukos was
broken up after being hit with claims for billions of dollars in taxes
in what was seen as a Kremlin campaign against its founder Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, who was jailed in 2003.

The Prosecutor-General has asked the Yard to re-examine the death in
London last week of Yuri Golubev, a founder of Yukos, arguing that
there was evidence that he died a violent death. British police
believe the 65-year-old died of natural causes.

At least a dozen former Yukos personnel have been given asylum in
Britain. Three attempts by the authorities in Moscow to have them sent
back to Russia were blocked by the English courts.

Mr Chaika broadened his reach still further today by announcing that
Moscow had "evidence of attempts to poison several witnesses in the
Yukos case with mercury". The worry in London will be that the
Russians will seek to mix this evidence with the poisoning of Mr
Litvinenko by radioactive polonium-210.

Mr Chaika is pressing the authorities in Israel to revoke the
citizenship of Leonid Nevzlin, Khodorkovsky's former deputy, so that
he can be extradited back to Moscow. The Prosecutor-General has
already accused Mr Nevzlin of involvement in the Litvinenko killing, a
charge dismissed as absurd by the businessman.

The scramble to buy the film rights to books on the Litvinenko saga
shows that even Hollywood studios realise that this is a story that
could not be made up.

The controversy continues to deepen with each new twist of conspiracy.
It is a story that will run and run.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

[nw_arizona_granny]

(Svoboda):"Camera at Heathrow has taken a photo of Litvinenko's killer"


http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2007/01/17/20070117193019423.html
My quick translation

"Camera at Heathrow has taken a photo of Litvinenko's killer"
Natalia Golitsina
17.01.07

[passage omitted]


Questions to Oleg Gordievsky

Why the British investigators did decide again to visit Moscow and
again to question there the persons in the "Litvinenko case"?

- This is caused by the fact that the Russian side [earlier]
collaborated badly, extremely hostilely. It wasn't helping in
anything. It did not give any possibility to talk with those people,
with whom the Englishmen wanted to talk to. They communicated
everything to themselves. They brought from the prisons of those, who
sit in the prison, whom the Englishmen wanted to see. All this looked
like some huge fake, which has been arranged by the Russian juridical
authorities in order simply to put sand into eyes of the Englishmen.
Therefore, as the minister of justice, the prime minister [of Great Britain ] said - go, and again make an attempt, perhaps the Russians
will change their mind.

- How does go the investigation of murder of Litvinenko?

- The investigation is being conducted already for the third month.
Everything which was important was found in the first two or three
days. They found an "illegal", a killer who was trained, who flew
from Hamburg on the first, (on 1 November - RS) early in the morning.
He flew to [the airport] Heathrow on a false passport of the European
Union in order to slip through unnoticed (while that time all the
Russians passed passport control as usual). He passed through and
disappeared. He was not in any hotel, he could be found nowhere. They
searched for him everywhere in London.
- This means that he replaced his passport for another passport of a
country of the European Union. In the same evening after the poisoning
of Litvinenko he left (perhaps early in the morning the following day
- this thus is far still unknown, but it could be that the Englishmen
have already know that) already on the third passport. He stored these
passports in his wallet. He took them out one after another, the same
as the chekists did in the 20-30's. He disappeared. Only his
photograph is known when he arrived at Heathrow. He was photographed
be the cameras, which are set up there. A photograph of his first
passport has been made. It's unknown where his second and the third of
passport is.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

[nw_arizona_granny]

BBC NEWS
Russian murder suspect charged
Russian prosecutors have charged the head of a private bank with ordering the murder of the deputy head of the Russian Central Bank, Andrei Kozlov.

Alexei Frenkel, 35, is accused of hiring the gunmen who shot him dead last September. He denies the claims.

It was one of the most high-profile contract killings of recent years.

Mr Kozlov had headed a campaign to clean up the banking sector, during which Mr Frenkel's VIP Bank was forced to close down last June.

The Central Bank revoked the licences of dozens of private banks, accusing them of many forms of criminal activity including money-laundering.

Prosecutors clearly wanted to move quickly on this case, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow.


RUSSIAN CONTRACT KILLINGS
Oct 2006 - Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya journalist and fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, shot near apartment
Oct 2005 - former bank head Alexander Slesarev gunned down near Moscow
July 2004 - US editor of Forbes' Russian edition, Paul Klebnikov, shot dead in Moscow
Oct 2002 - Magadan governor Valentin Tsvetkov killed in Moscow
Nov 1998 - liberal MP Galina Starovoitova killed in St Petersburg
March 1995 - leading journalist Vladislav Listyev shot dead in Moscow

They had 10 days to press charges against Mr Frenkel after he was arrested on Monday, but did so within 48 hours.

Mr Frenkel's lawyer Igor Trunov has already appealed against his arrest on health grounds, saying Mr Frenkel needs to see a heart specialist and to have proper medical tests.

Mr Kozlov, who was killed on 13 September while leaving a football match between bank employees in Moscow, was arguably the most high profile figure to be killed under President Vladimir Putin's regime.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6270921.stm

Published: 2007/01/17 13:24:42 GMT

© BBC MMVII

http://www.google.com/search?q=Alexei+Frenkel&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Igor+Trunov&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US


http://www.google.com/search?q=Andrei+Kozlov&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Anna+Politkovskaya&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Alexander+Slesarev+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Paul+Klebnikov&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Valentin+Tsvetkov&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Galina+Starovoitova+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=Vladislav+Listyev+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

[nw_arizona_granny]

Refinery-blast report savages BP
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A US report has found "material deficiencies" in BP's safety procedures at its American oil refineries.

Led by former US Secretary of State James A Baker, the panel probed a 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery, that killed 15 people and injured 180.

BP said it would implement the report's recommendations, adding it had taken significant steps to improve safety.

BBC business editor Robert Peston called the report very meticulous and extremely savage.

He went on to add that the panel's criticism against BP was very serious and went right to the top of the company.

BP's shares closed 8 pence, or 1.5%, lower at 541p in London.

'Mistakes'

The report found that prior to the Texas City tragedy, BP emphasised personal safety but not process safety, and that the problem existed at all five of the firm's US refineries.

"BP mistakenly interpreted improving personal injury rates as an indication of acceptable process safety performance at its US refineries," said the report.

"The panel found instances of a lack of operating discipline, toleration of serious deviations from safe operating practices, and apparent complacency toward serious safety risks at each refinery."

Yet speaking after the publication of the report, Mr Baker said that the panel "did not find any deliberate or conscious efforts on BP's part to short-circuit safety".

Safety audits

BP said it had already taken steps to improve its safety performance, including forming a senior executive team to oversee all aspects of operational safety.

The oil giant also said it had increased spending on its refineries, and had earmarked $200m (£102m) to pay for safety audits and redesigns of its refinery operations.

BP added that it had also appointed retired federal judge Stanley Sporkin to deal with and investigate concerns raised by staff or contract workers.

BP's outgoing chief executive, Lord Browne, said he thanked the panel members for "their insights and their recommendations".

'Candid assessment'

"We asked for a candid assessment from this diverse group of experts and they delivered one," he added.

Mr Baker's panel made 10 recommendations in total, which BP has said it will implement.

These include more effective leadership on process safety, and the transformation of the company "into an industry leader in safety performance".

BP announced on Friday last week that Lord Browne would now be standing down in July this year, 18 months earlier than initially announced.

The move came just four days before the publication of the US report.

Lord Browne is being replaced by BP's current head of exploration and production, Tony Hayward.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6265535.stm

Published: 2007/01/16 17:03:16 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[nw_arizona_granny]

Lethal secrets of 1918 flu virus
Scientists who recreated "Spanish flu" - the 1918 virus which killed up to 50m people - have witnessed its remarkable killing power first hand.

The lungs of infected monkeys were destroyed in just days as their immune systems went into overdrive after a Canadian laboratory rebuilt the virus.

The reason for the lethal nature of the 1918 flu was never fully understood.

But the experts behind this test say they have found a human gene which may help explain its unusual virulence.

This research provides an important piece in the puzzle of the 1918 virus
Darwyn Kobasa
Public Health Agency of Canada

They are hoping to help control any future pandemic and believe that the strain may hold clues that will help them.

Despite the large number of casualties at the time, doctors had no way to preserve tissue samples taken from infected patients, so researchers used an ingenious method to overcome this.

Frozen body

The preserved body of a flu victim buried in Alaskan permafrost was exhumed, and they painstakingly extracted the genetic material needed to work out the structure of the H1N1 virus.

Then, in a maximum "biosafety" facility at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory they reconstructed a fully functioning virus, and infected macaque monkeys to see what would happen.

Writing in the journal Nature, they reported that the results were startling. Symptoms appeared within 24 hours of exposure to the virus, and the subsequent destruction of lung tissue was so widespread that, had the monkeys not been put to sleep a few days later, they would literally have drowned in their own blood.

The results match those seen when mice were infected in an earlier study and are very similar to those described in human patients at the time the virus was at its height.

Dangerous virus

Darwyn Kobasa, a research scientist with the Public Health Agency of Canada, and lead author of the research, defended the decision to recreate one of the most dangerous viruses in history.

He said: "This research provides an important piece in the puzzle of the 1918 virus, helping us to better understand influenza viruses and their potential to cause pandemics."

However, it is not the virus that is directly causing the damage to the lungs - it is the body's own response to infection.

Immune system proteins that can damage infected tissue were found at much higher levels following H1N1 infection compared with other viral infections.

Analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW) revealed that a key component of the immune system, a gene called RIG-1 appeared to be involved.

Levels of the protein produced by the gene were lower in tissue infected with the 1918 virus, suggesting it had a method of switching it off, causing immune defences to run wild.

Many influenza virologists remain nervous about creating and experimenting with a reconstructed 1918 Spanish flu virus
Dr Jim Robertson
National Institute of Biological Standards and Control

This ability to alter the body's immune response is shared with the most recent candidate for mutation into a pandemic strain, the H5N1 avian flu.

Experts are worried that if the virus changes so that it can infect humans easily, it could again be far more lethal than normal seasonal flu.

"What we see with the 1918 virus in infected monkeys is also what we see with H5N1 viruses," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, who led the analysis at UW.

"Things may be happening at an early time point (in infection), but we may be able to step in and stop that reaction."

Preparing for pandemic

Dr Ronald Cutler, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of East London, said: "Knowing how that over stimulation takes place could lead to the development of new methods to treat these diseases so we are better prepared for any future pandemic."

Dr Jim Robertson from the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said the decision to recreate the virus was justified.

"Many influenza virologists remain nervous about creating and experimenting with a reconstructed 1918 Spanish flu virus, an extremely dangerous virus which disappeared from the world long ago.

"However, it cannot be denied that the information that has been derived from this experiment is exciting and represents an important milestone in understanding the severity of these highly pathogenic types of influenza viruses."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/6271833.stm

Published: 2007/01/18 01:30:46 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[nw_arizona_granny]

Australian town in refugee U-turn
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Councillors in Australia's most famous musical city have reversed a controversial decision to reject refugees from Sudan.

Officials in Tamworth, which hosts an annual country music festival, had earlier said they could carry disease.

They said they could not to cope with potentially traumatised people who had fled civil unrest.

Following an emergency meeting, the five Sudanese families have been allowed to settle in the town.

Tamworth is already home to about 25 Sudanese.

They arrived a year ago and most work in local abattoirs doing jobs that many locals are not willing to do.

The Australian government is resettling more refugees from Sudan than from any other country, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mean-spirited

When the mayor of Tamworth insisted that the refugees could cause trouble and possibly bring disease into the town, the councillors rejected a request from Australia's immigration department to resettle five Sudanese families as part of a pilot scheme.

The decision caused dismay and anger. It prompted an emergency council debate in Tamworth and public pressure has helped to bring about this U-turn.

Many residents were horrified that their prosperous city should be portrayed as so mean-spirited.

Tamworth is the capital of Australian country music.

Its annual festival starts this week and there were fears that the refugee debate would overshadow this famous event.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6270341.stm

Published: 2007/01/17 13:03:19 GMT

© BBC MMVII